Life

This is gonna be a random post, filled with random facts. Hope you can keep up! :0)

Bethany is feeling fine, although we did have an emergency room visit this week. After her appointment with her oral surgeon they decided her limph nodes were swollen and suspected the thing on the lip may be a problem too. Oy! The doctors at the emergency room seemed kinda clueless, but she did get an IV and fluids for two hours that has cleared up the lip issue and brought the lymph nodes down some. Her oral surgeon continues to keep an eye on things and she's gotta go see them again in a week. So much fun...

All that to say she is back to her normal chipper self, but still has a bit of swelling her her cheek. It's slight, but still there. She also has two new antibiotics to take for the next week. Here's hoping we remember to do them every four hours.

My camera is trippin'! Seriously, it's really starting to freak out on me. As much as I have abused it I am not a bit surprised, but still it makes me sad. It up and decided it couldn't read the SD card it had in it so I put in another one which seemed to fix the problem. That is until I tried to get the pictures off of it and onto the computer. They won't transfer. I put in another card to see if it was the computer's problem, but alas the computer has no issues with the other card whatsoever. My camera is screwing up my SD cards. It also won't let me review pictures without getting stuck and needing to have the battery popped out. It's constantly asking me to reset the date. It turns off randomly just as I get the perfect focus on what I am photographing.

Woe to you dear camera! Taxes will be back soon and you will be replaced.

We celebrated National Pie day this week with a chocolate cream pie, but I can't show you that because I can't get to my pictures.

The sun has been shining lately and it's just warm enough to go without a jacket but not warm enough not to go without long sleeves. The almond trees are getting ready to bloom and I had better have my new camera before then so I can take those killer pictures I love.

Elisha is learning so much this year in basketball. There is still so much of the game he does not understand as he is not the sort of kid to sit and watch a game, but he's still loving it. Yohn and I always see things we need to show him, but then the next game rolls around and we haven't done it. Oh life, how do you pass by so quickly?

Bethany has fallen in love with her keyboard again, and she is getting really good! Her teacher says he believes she will be one of those people who hear a song and will recognize the notes and be able to play them. She plays with both hands now and likes to make up her own songs. Some of those are really enjoyable and some not so much, but it's fun to watch her go at it regardless.

I really like to build with Legos and wish I was a little better at it. But my kids like my creations and so I guess that is all the really matters, eh?

Freecycle has changed and I am undecided on whether or not I am happy about it or not. I guess I'll know in a week or two.

Guess I had better be off. Bethany is complaining that she would like lunch. The pet store needs to be visited as the guinea pigs and dogs are out of food. And I spotted a few curb alerts on Craigslist I may go and check out. Or maybe not, it just depends on how quickly we head out the door.

Have a great day all!

Update

Sometimes life just doesn't work out the way we want it to. I would never choose for my girl to have so many teeth issues. Never imagine what the purpose would be. In some ways, I still can't.

But on the other hand, my girl has an amazingly high tolerance for pain that I believe has developed through some of this. She is also practically perfect in the dentist's chair and has had several people (dental people) tell me she is such a dream and delight to have in their office, they just wish it was in better circumstances for her.

Through this she is learning that she can face the challenges head on, that fear takes a back seat, that Jesus will sustain her. Granted she doesn't like going through the pain and I don't like to see her do it. But she is growing and maturing through it, and for that I am grateful. That even in my eight year old God is showing her (or at least He's showing me, I'm not sure if she realizes it yet) He can use the pain for good.

She used to be a horrible patient, not sitting still, not cooperative, refused to take medicine, refused to take her tempurature. But now she is so cooperative, so easy. I'm not saying I am grateful for her pain, or that she has had to experience it. But I am grateful for the fact that she has learned through it.


Today she is day three of staying home. Technically we could have sent her to school, the oral surgeon gave her the green light. But yesterday she was so crazy off the hook hyper that we were afraid she would overdo it and be in pain all night. Either that or she wouldn't be able to behave in class. Little did I know it was the Tylenol with codine that caused the hyper, I thought it was just because she was bored (since she's natually hyper anyway). Who knew? Okay some of you probably knew the codine could cause hyperactivity in kids but I didn't.

Yesterday, she was very swollen and still in pain, hence the need for pain meds. Today she is swollen but not in pain so no pain meds and a calmer child. She has to keep a warm washcloth on the area to help with the swelling. And she has three days of school work to do, of which she has been able to knock out two.

She's looking forward to Chuck E Cheese tomorrow since she missed the school fundraiser night. I'm pretty sure she'll be up to it, but we're still on the fence about it. Crazy kid doesn't always know her limits.

If you remember will you pray that her healing comes quickly and the swelling goes down. Also she has a sore on her lip that has been there for almost three weeks and is starting to look bad. Please pray it starts to heal too, because Monday is a few days away and I'd hate to have to take her to urgent care over the weekend if it's not urgent.

Here We Go Again...

Well...

My plans were to blog about this tonight:

Where we were yesterday, and the fact that my camera has a mind of it's own any more.

But no, today we had to do this:

...and now my bloggy plans have changed.

Yes, that is her arm getting prepped for an IV. No, that is not a real sad face, she is so faking it.

And I won't even mention we were supposed to be at Chuck E Cheese tonight for our school's fundraiser and that both kids were absolutly looking forward to it and that I was supposed to go and take pictures for the yearbook.... Nope, I won't mention those things.

Now where was I?

Oh yeah, the story. Last week or maybe even the Friday before she started complaining about pain in her neck. It was in her neck, as in, the back of her neck, and not near her face. I thought oh she must have slept wrong. She even had knotted muscles in her shoulders to which I massaged out for her. Not one time did she mention her tooth. Okay, one time three weeks back she said it hurt for a second and I said oh I'll have to schedule a dentist appointment to get that checked out. However, I wanted to wait until the first of the year when our insurance kicked back in (we MAXED it out last year with her) and so I stalled. Oh why, oh way do I do that? Maybe because I asked her practically daily and she told me it didn't hurt.

Anyway, fast forward to today when she's complaining to her teacher that her neck hurts and her teacher points out to me that her face is a little swollen. How did I miss that? Oy and it was right under one of her bad teeth that we had dealt with last June but were told it may not be a guaranteed fix.

Sooo... we called the dentist right away and were told to bring her in NOW! They looked at it, took pictures and decided that she had to go see the specialist to have it removed....today.

Off to the oral surgeon we went, who by the way, are awesome. Too bad we have to go and see them in such rotten circumstances because I really like them. We've been there twice before, once with Yohn and his awful wisdom teeth, and the second time with Bethany last October (or maybe it was November) to get a whole lotta stuff done to her little mouth.

They remembered us and a lot of things about Bethany (like the fact she was playing softball and the fact that she hated taking her medicine in apple juice). They also stayed after hours to take care of our girl and we appreciate that so much.

In the above picture she was off the hook crazy-hyper and had us laughing a lot, which is another reason why didn't realize the problem was so bad.

She's at home now watching Ella Enchanted snuggling with Lynx and has a warm, damp washcloth on her face to help the infection go away quicker. She also keeps taking out the gauze every two minutes and is driving me nutso. AND she's hungry and wants to eat RIGHT NOW despite the fact that her mouth is still numb.

*SIGH*

At least it all went well and I even had such a peace when I was tempted to worry about the financial part of things. Turns out I forgot that back when she had her other stuff done we were nearly maxed out with the insurance and we had to pay most of it out of pocket. They were gracious enough to let us make payments, the last of which we just paid last week. This time however, it's a new year and the insurance is paying 80%. Whew. A small fee today (well, small compared to last time anyway) and another next month and we are all done.

Praise God for it all working out so smoothly.

Oh, and a friend of ours took Elisha to Chuck E Cheese for us so we could be with Bethany. Another praise.

Now, if you will, please keep our kiddo in your prayers. Pray this is the last of the worst with her teeth. She's had more stuff wrong with her teeth than most adults have in their lifetime. Okay, maybe alot of adults.

UGH! Yohn just called and told me the price of her antibiotics. Let's just say it was enough to make me take a deep breath and know we gotta do what we gotta do AND it was more than we just paid to the oral surgeon.

Thank God for HIS PROVISION.

And thank God that I just got all of our W-2's today. I'll be filing those before bedtime tonight...

Basketball and Bubbles

Since Monday it's been back to life as usual. Although, it's still a little slower as we currently don't have to worry about getting Bethany to play practice. Elisha still has basketball two nights a week and a game on the weekends. This Saturday outside of the church where he was to play was this monument:

Both Yohn and I thought it was beautiful and therefore deserved a picture. :)

Elisha hurt his ankle at Sky High on New Year's Eve and then hurt it again at practice on Tuesday. That being said he missed Thursday's practice and watched Saturday's game from the bench. It was a nail biter too. The Saints were ahead only at the beginning and at one point ended up down by six points, but then right at the end caught up sending them into overtime. They won in overtime, yay! Their record currently is 5-1. Go Saints!

We had snack duty and Bethany is showing off all her muscles here.

We celebrated Bubble Bath Day today. It's on the January Wacky holiday calendar and I thought it would be fun for the kids.

Yes, I google some strange things sometimes.

In case you didn't know Saturday is Dress Up Your Pets Day, the 23rd is National Pie Day, and the 29th is National Puzzle Day. I plan to celebrate each one. That is, if I remember! :)

Sleepy Heads

Pathetic

The kids stayed the night with a friend last night and all day today Lynx walked around the house crying and looking for someone to pay attention to him. They drive him crazy when they are home and he hides from them a lot. But when they are not here, then he can't stand it. I wonder what he'll be doing tomorrow when we all go back to the school/work routine and no one will really be around much?

2012...

...and so it begins.

Hope your year is filled with grins!

Happy 2012!