Take My Tonsils

This little guy was a total trooper.  He was not exactly thrilled to know he was having his tonsils (and adenoids) out even though he wasn't exactly sure what they were.  When we went to our pre-op appt, WHS said he wanted to call Grammy.  While on the phone he said, "We going to take my tonsils right now."  We had several false alarms, but the morning of the actual event, he was so brave.

When we arrived with Puppy and in his jammies of choice....

...there was a brand new teddy bear waiting for him on his bed, as well as a super soft space nightgown.

He begrudgingly, but with little resistance took the "happy juice" from the nurse and very quickly started to feel "tickley."  He loved his coloring book while we waited to be whisked back in his 'race car'...ie his bed.

He woke up a little on the irritable side, but settled down as soon as we loaded up to go home.  Our experience with JBS' surgery was far different since he was an asthmatic....For JBS we were there from 7am until 5pm.  For WHS, we were there by 7:30am and loading the car at 10am.  Wowza!  

WHS came home to a soft and comfy couch bed to snuggle with Mommy while the big boys were at school.  And, oh, how we enjoyed the snuggles, albeit bittersweet.

The first 3 days were not so bad...and then it went from OK to bad.  Apparently, one week after the surgery life gets worse when the scabs come off.  He kept telling me there was "somefing in his mowf" and he was very tearful with the referred ear pain.  He tried so hard not to complain, but the ear pain kept him {and me} up at night.  When we got out one day for a ride, he put a bandaid on his mouth.  He had a small crack in the crease of his mouth where he had probably drooled over night.  A Band-Aid ALWAYS makes little WHS feel better.

A very sweet Write Away Rep sent us a darling live Christmas Tree with lights and ornaments and it couldn't have arrived at a more perfect time.  We were going downhill and this little beauty lifted his spirits at the perfect time.

By the 26th, Grammy and Big Daddy were on their way with Garrison and Great Granny to celebrate Christmas.  I had to call the doctor as WHS was not doing well with his pain and I had certainly forgotten what it was like to go night after night without sleep.  Truly, their arrival was the turning point for all of us.

WHS slept well that night and was so excited to have G2 there to play with.  When I asked him how his tonsils felt the next morning, he said, "Da scabs are all gone.  I am all better now."  And since then, he has returned to my perky little squirt that he was before the surgery.  

A trooper he has been.  Tonsils are gone.  Adenoids are gone. No more snoring. No more sleep apnea.  Just a happy little love bug I have again!

What? and Why?

Since we decided to put our house in the market, and we can't have an indoor dog because of JBS' allergies, we told the boys we could get a dog if we moved to "the country".  Our house didn't have much back yard and we were weary of picking up big dog poop when Toley was with us.

We knew we wanted a bigger dog and were actually rolling around the idea of a Standard Poodle since they are hypoallergenic.  I still didn't like the idea of a totally indoor dog.  Babe and I were Christmas shopping at the mall...{that we were shopping together and at the mall is already big!} and there was a rescue tent up for the rescue pups.  I usually pass on by because I would want every single dog.  But there was one that caught my eye.  She was clearly part lab....and upon closer inspection she had Weimaraner, as well....just like our Toley!  We threw around the idea, but hadn't even really looked at our fencing in our back yard, etc.  We left.

Babe and I got home and started working outside and we both kept thinking about that dog.  We checked out our fence, we talked back and forth about the dog.  And finally, we said, "Let's get her!"  We really wanted JBS to be a part of the decision because he would be greatly affected.  She is going to be an outdoor dog, but during this cold, she will sleep inside the house in a kennel.  We all have to be careful about washing our hands and our clothes.  It's going to be a family effort to keep JBS healthy, but JBS was totaly in!

We tried not to get the boys excited, as we knew someone could have already taken her.  But no!  Little Mona was still there.  She was about 3 years old and already had a litter of pups.  In fact, she came to them as a nursing mommy with no puppies.  Within the week nine puppies came with no mommy, so she became the surrogate mom.  She is so sweet and well-mannered.  She is already house-broken and kennel-trained.  We literally missed all the hard parts of puppyhood.

 She is loved beyond belief and she is so happy to be snuggled and in a home.  Now...to work on building JBS' immunity to dogs.  It's a big feat.  But with lots of prayer and careful intentions, we can do this!

Photo Fodder

 Thanksgiving at the lake.  The whole family.

 Our family.

Grammy and BD and the kids.

The sisters.

Turkey Trot/ Penguin Paddle

The traditional Turkey Trot before Thanksgiving Break was postponed due to the rain.  They rescheduled for this week and renamed it the Penguin Paddle.  I am not sure how far they run, but I am guessing one mile.  It's a big deal.

So big of deal that I forgot about it.  JLS was on the way to school with Babe and he called and said, "Please come watch me!  Today is da turkey trot!"  So I made sure I was there for JLS.  JBS could care less....he and his buddies walked it.

I knew that JLS had it in his mind that he was going to win.  I didn't say anything, but he had been sick over the weekend and the Trot was on Monday.  I really didn't want him to relapse....but you can't change JLS' mind.

Sure enough.  JLS finished 4th out of the entire first grade.  Not sure how many hundreds of kids...maybe 200?  Instead of being excited, he was disappointed. I could see it in his eyes.  He wanted #1!  Love his competitive spirit.

I thought he did awesome.  Lord knows I don't enjoy running.  He was in the lead a couple times, but there were some really good runners at the front.  He did, of course, relapse and was home sick again the next day.....But, by golly, he ran in the Turkey Trot and placed!

Junior League Holiday Market

I have always thought it might be fun to have a booth at our holiday market.  BUT...its huge deal here!  Big and huge and bustling and busy and OVERWHELMING.  In January, I was fresh and new to Write Away and excited and decided to DIVE right in and applied to be a vendor.  Just applying is a big step as I have heard of vendors who try and try and never get accepted.  After I did it, I was half hoping I wouldn't be :)  Then, I got the very sweet acceptance letter around May and thought, "I can do this.  I have a LOT of time."  Then, I put my house on the market, moved, continued running to growing business and planned this booth only 2 weeks after I moved into my unfinished-still remodeling-disaster of a house.  Somehow I mustered the energy.  It was ONLY God-given.

I could not have done this without the help of some pretty amazing people.  But in the end, my vision came to life and it was a huge success!

And the lovely, HSB donning her Write Away Tee and totally stylin' for our booth!

We had a lot of fun, learned a lot, crashed when it was over.  But the main thing is that whether I choose to do it again, I have this pretty big check mark on my bucket list.

The Braves

The Braves started the season a little rough and finished off the season as the first place team.  They came together after the first couple games and played a stellar season.  Unfortunately, they fell in the World Series, getting second place in a hard fought tournament.  It was so obvious how tired these boys were.  They played hard, but were oh, so tired by the end of the season.

JLS up to bat...

 Getting their trophies...

JLS doesn't really like to lose.  At least this time, there were no tears.  They played a great game!

At this point, they were focused on the snow cones the coach promised.  And we move on....

New Home!

So...our moving day...it poured, dumped, showered, RAINED all day long.  We had so much water that the ditch overflowed, as you can see.  This is the big ole truck trying to back down our driveway.

The boys were so excited for their new rooms and set up.  JBS has his own room and JLS and WHS are sharing.  Here are the signs they posted on their doors the first day.

JLS:

He did think of me, gratefully, and his forever favorite teacher, Mrs. Kurtz.

Mom was arriving in the next couple days and JLS made an addendum "Grammy is allowed, too."

At least these boys know that I am the only "gril"  in their lives!

Take My Tonsils

We determined a month or so ago that little WHS needed to have his tonsils and adenoids out.  They are enormous and affect his breathing, speech, and sleep.  The real issue we discovered is that he has sleep apnea because his tonsils are so big!  I tried not to talk about it to stress him out, but didn't want it to be a surprise for him either.  So, in the last couple weeks the subject has come up once or twice.

We were driving in the car last week and JBS said, "Mom, I am tired.  I am going to take a nap."  To which WHS said, "Me too!  You know, my tonsils get smaller when I sweep!"  He closed his eyes and about 30 seconds later he pretended to wake up and said, "Mom! Mom! My tonsils are smaller.  I can feel them!"  I said, "Really?  Thats amazing!"

To which JBS said, "WHS, your tonsils aren't in your armpits.  WHS sadly removed his hands from his armpits and asked, "Well, where are they then?"

The Tear Out

So...the house.  We knew when we put our house on the market that IF it sold, there were a few things on our list that we wanted to gain.  Number one was land.  Number two was a more functional garage.  Number three was a smaller school.  Ranking up there, too, which started all this, was a bigger work room for me.  Then, I had my superficial things like...a long and flat driveway so the boys could shoot hoops, a bigger pantry, and a more manageable laundry room.  We also wanted the kids bedrooms to be on the same floor...more of a ranch style house.

Have I mentioned how MUCH we prayed about this decision.  It has been a supernatural event for John and I to watch as our prayers were answered in very OBVIOUS ways.  Let me tell you that EVERY single one of those "requirements"  real and superficial were met in this house.  We absolutely LOVE it.

Loving it also meant it required some work to make it our own.  We pulled up every bit of flooring in the house and replaced the living areas with hard wood floors, the bathrooms, pantry and laundry with nicer tile and the bedrooms with new carpet.  We also painted every bit of the house on the inside.  With the exception of the kitchen, the colors weren't too far off, but it needed some refreshing indeed.  

This is a picture of the kitchen during demolition.

This is the hallway to the boys bedrooms and laundry room...

This is the foyer.  To the left was a solid wall with a bedroom on the other side.  We opened that up to make a living room.  Dining room on the right.  Second door on right is the kitchen and straight ahead is the den.  Hall on left is hall to boys bedrooms and laundry.

Studs still in place that were removed for Living Room.  Both of those doors were sealed.  Studs removed and now we have a big open formal living room.

I am afraid I didn't get a picture of the upstairs.  But it is a huge open finished out attic area.  Because it was so large, we were able to put up a wall and add a closet to replace the bedroom we lost for the living room.  So, our guest room and bath is upstairs, as well as an oversized work room for me.

Apartment Living

The excitement of living in an apartment lasted about 3 days.  We had some initial problems with our corporate apartment arrangement.  JBS had an asthma attack within 15 minutes of moving into our first apartment.  Our pet-free apartment was apparently not pet-free.  SO...on a Friday at 4pm, we were relocated to another apartment complex much farther away than we had hoped, but JBS was safe.  Thats all that mattered.

We were on the 3rd floor and we were in the peak of baseball and tennis.  We were barely "home" with late nights and early mornings as we were driving constantly with our temporary home so far out of the way.

We had a two bedroom and the boys FOUGHT to sleep on the floor and on the cot.  The double-bed was plush and comfy and no one wanted any part of it.

So...this is what we did in our apartment.  Sleep.  It was never enough sleep, but it was sleep.  And we were so grateful to have a place to lay our sleepy heads.

A Bit on the Creepy Side

Grammy sent the boys these zip up hoodies for Halloween.  JLS had been BEGGING for "a skeleton shirt that zipped up his face but you can still see out".  I searched high and low to no avail.  And then these "beauties" arrived in the mail...

 This is taken when we were still apartment living....oh, so happy that time is over!

Something just a little creepy about these!

Breathing

Every time my world starts getting out of control, I try to eliminate stress in my life.  I THOUGHT I was doing so well...and getting really good at saying, "No."  I choose the important things for volunteering for the kids:  school or church and I had added tennis for me in an effort to get my endurance back up to par.  At the beginning of the semester, we reluctantly declined to volunteer on Sunday mornings at church...for the first time in years.  Given the pace of our lives since August, I am grateful we did, as we would have been terrible volunteers!  I am not sure where cutting things out would have helped, but here's the brief synopsis of the last few months.

August:  Put the house on the market "for fun".
September: Sold the house and shocked us both. Bought a house to remodel.
October: Moved to an apartment for 3 weeks while we remodeled, moved in to said house while still remodeling
November: Remodelling continued, I held a booth at the local Junior League Holiday market, Write Away very busy and mommy realizes she is a working mom.
December: How did it get here so fast?

I had so many days in a row where I literally woke up early and hit the ground running with no stops until I fell into bed at midnight.  So...eliminating stress, I did not.  The plan, however, is to do so as we get settled in our new house!  We LOVE it here.  More so than we thought we ever could.

The Samplers are alive and kicking.  The blog is not forgotten.  More updates to come!