T is for Truck

We have been working a lot with J lately on his letters.  He can name almost every letter of the alphabet, and we have been working on the sounds that each letter makes.  We do this with the help of starfall.com, which I highly recommend, and on our own.  We say things like, “Muh, muh, mouse…..M.”  So this morning when I got him out of his car seat at mom’s house, a pickup drove by, and he started saying “Guck! Guck!”  This is how he says ‘truck.’  I encouraged him, “yes, that’s right.  That’s a truck.”  Then he says to me, “Tuh, tuh, Guck.”  I had to fight so hard not to laugh at him!  He’s so adorable!

 

For those of you who’ve been wondering……things worked out nicely with my vehicle.  The mechanic finally got to it at about 4 o’clock on Friday.  It started right up for him!  I could not believe it when he told me! He said it ran “rough” for a while, but smoothed out and was fine.  He idled it for about 30 minutes and shut if off and started it again and never could find a problem.  I picked it up and asked what I owed him and his response was a wave of the hand and “I’m not going to charge you for that!”  Mind you, it had taken up an hour of the mechanic’s time!  I am so thankful to God and to everyone who prayed about this, and to the mechanic.  I feel that this was a direct answer to a lot of concentrated prayers on my behalf!

 

I also think God was giving me a little lesson in trust.  Because this weekend, R’s truck developed a leak.  We are pretty sure that it is the water pump.  He did not have the tools necessary to fix it, nor the money to buy the tools and parts.  He was off to try to get what he needed to take care of it today.  I hope that it works out as smoothly as our personal vehicle did!  So……..keep praying everyone.  IT WORKS!!!!

 

Thursday the 12th

So, you guys already know about the issues with R’s ex taking us to court for child support for Little R.  I believe that the hearing was yesterday, and R did not go.  So, you know how I’m sure that went.  I don’t know how long it will be before we hear word on that officially. 

 

Yesterday my dad called me at….time to leave AM…..and said that he had slept through his alarm and he would be late, so he wanted to know if I wanted to wait for him or go on in to work by myself. (I live 40 miles from work, but my dad works in the same office and lives in the same town, so I ride with him) I made sure that R didn’t need the vehicle, and I drove myself to work.  Last night after our meeting, I went out to go home and my vehicle would not start.  It’s not something simple like battery.  The battery is good, and the starter is good.  It may be a fuel pump or something.  It was all I could do not to break down in tears in front of my coworkers who had come out to try to help me.  One of them offered to take me home, which was wonderful, since that is about 80 miles round trip.  He is a sweetheart!  But my head was swimming with “we cannot afford this.”  Also, I had to leave my beautiful Maria (my vehicle’s name) in the parking lot here all night.  This is a very bad neighborhood!  I was very worried.  Three guys helped me push it to the area that is covered by our surveillance cameras, in hopes that would prevent anyone from messing with it. (thankfully, it wasn’t touched)

 

The one good thing is that my dad is using his AAA membership to get my vehicle towed so I don’t have to pay for a tow.  But the repair itself is still a concern.

 

Put all this together with the work disaster I had yesterday, and once again my belief held true…….Thursday the 12 is ALWAYS infinitely worse than Friday the 13^th!

 

Please pray for us.

 

Next Time Won't You Sing With Me....

Last night was another big first for the J-man!  We were just finishing up our supper when he began saying, “XY….XY……XY.”  So, I took his cue and sang the alphabet song to him……………and to my tremendous shock, surprise, awe, and sheer joy……. As soon as I was done, he began SINGING!  He sang over and over and over again….

 

“Namma Nomma ABC’s…” (Now I know my ABC’s)  It was totally adorable!!!!  I just wept like a little girl.  I called my momma and she could hear him singing it over and over.  She was shocked into silence.  I tried to call Elizabeth so she could hear it, but she must have been out for the night already, or had her phone off.  E, you missed out, girl! LOL  Then I tried to get it on video on my cell phone to send to Daddy, but of course then J just wanted the phone.  He got so mad that I wouldn’t give him my phone that he forgot all about the song.  I got him to do it a couple more times later on, but that was it, and never in front of a video camera, though I tried really hard!  This morning I could not get him to do it at all.

 

These are the Days of Our Lives....

So, just to keep everyone up to date…..I’ll do a little whining about all that is going on in our lives.  There is a hearing this week regarding a child support request that R’s ex has made for their youngest son R.  Please pray for a reasonable result there, as we are very scared and nervous about it.  The amount that has been proposed would likely cause us to loose our house.  In addition, we got a lovely little notice this weekend that our house payment is going up by $115 a month starting in May.  NOT cool!  This is because the amount of the escrow is going up because of our property taxes going up.  In addition, next month R’s student loan comes out of forbearance, which increases that payment by about $50 a month.  So, there is a lot of financial stuff landing on us right now, all at once, and it has me very apprehensive about the future, and struggling to trust God.

 

On the upside, J is back to 100% himself now, and my neck/back is all healed up.  And my mom made it safely back home from her trip down south after a big scare that ended up being only a minor repair to her vehicle.  R has been busy this week playing cupid….hauling flowers to the local grocery store floral departments to stock up for Valentine’s Day.  He says he feels like he should be wearing a diaper and carrying a bow and arrow……I strongly discouraged the idea. LOL

 

I’ve been insanely busy at work lately.  Old jobs to service, new jobs to quote, and discovering a slew of mistakes that have me chasing my tail trying to fix things.  And that is the only excuse I have for not updating more often.  I promise that I will try to get you some new pictures very soon.  I know, I’ve been saying that for a while….

 

J is learning new things all the time!  His little brain is growing and growing!  He can now tell you that a duck says “Gack, Gack” and the names of Grams’ dogs.  He can only name one of our own dogs, though.  Spike is called “Buck” and Jack he just calles “dah dah,” which means doggie.  He can say his own little versions of water and snack and bread and bites and barn and binky and rock.  It seems he picks up something new almost daily.  My very favorite, though, is when he comes to me with a book and takes me by the hand to which ever chair he wants to sit in, then looks up at me with that adorable sweet face, and pats the seat where he wants me to sit.  We do love our reading time!  More than once, though, I’ve caught myself in the adult world expressing my discontent by saying, “Do I like this?  Oh no, I do not!” so I am considering hiding the Cat in the Hat book for a while.

 

The other new trick J has developed is to talk to us “through” his stuffed animals and toys.  His conversation skills are a bit lacking, but we are working on that.  For the most part, he will hold up a thing…..for instance, this morning it was a Big Bird doll, and point it at your face and say, “Allo.”  Then we say, “Hello, Big Bird,” as ask a question, or make a comment about the day…..to which J, as Big Bird, responds, “Bye,” only to come back mere seconds later and start over with “Allo.”  LOL  It is adorable.  Once in a while, he will make the object say something other than hello and bye.  Yesterday he had me carrying on a conversation with a semi truck.  Do you have any idea what an odd feeling it is to find yourself saying the words, “Hello Semi Truck, how was your day today?”

 

Yowza!

Happy Monday to everyone.  Another bright shiny new week.  (barf)  Ok, I’m done being Miss Sunshine.  Ha Ha.  It was not the best weekend I’ve ever had.  I pulled a muscle in my neck on Saturday morning while changing J’s diaper.  Ugh!  So so so so dumb!  Don’t you just hate dumb injuries?  I reached over to get his cup of milk for him and BAM!  There goes my neck.  So, all weekend I’ve been dealing with ice packs, heating pads, icy hot, and ibuprofen, and still walking like a zombie.  It’s better, but not great.  I’m hoping I’ll be able to hold my own head up all day long at work.  Seriously, this weekend I had to take a break from it ever so often. 

 

Also on Saturday morning our furnace quit working!  Ack!  Thank the Lord for two things: 1) It was a record-breaking warm day Saturday, and 2) My brother in law does HVAC!  So, with his help we got the furnace rigged up to limp along till I can get the new part at my lunch hour today.  Hopefully it won’t cost me a fortune.  At least we didn’t have to pay a repairman.  That would suck.  Have I mentioned lately that I L-O-V-E my brother in law?  Seriously R, you are the best!

 

This week I am on my own getting back and forth to work.  My dad always takes the first week of February off work at his regular job and works full time at his second job as a tax preparer for H&R Block.  It is a long and tiring week, but he enjoys the work.  And we always get to hear some good stories out of it.  The IRS is one giant mess, let me tell ya!

 

Nothing much is new for us around here.  We just keep on keeping on.  I hope to have some new pictures up for you soon.  It’s a simple matter of remembering and having the energy to download them from my camera in the evenings.  Till then, have a great week!

X is for X-ray

Last night was very long and very rough for J and me.  He’s had a cough and runny nose for a few days, and began a low fever yesterday afternoon.  Last night the cough got really bad, and the fever kept spiking.  Poor baby was just so miserable he wouldn’t stay in his bed more than 10 minutes or so till he was back up with the most pitiful cry I’ve ever heard!  He was barely able to get any sleep and I could tell that he was very achy all over.  We ended up spending the night between the big chair and the couch, sitting propped up and watching baby Einstein.  We both dozed in and out some, but neither of us got any restful sleep to speak of.  By 3:30am his fever was up to 103.4.  I was ready to call the on call doc, but decided to give another dose of Tylenol and check again in an hour.  Well, that was a loooong hour!  But the temp did go down some, so we waited till normal hours to call the doc.  Took J-man in at 9:00 this morning.  They ended up doing an influenza test, which came back negative, and J got his first ever x-rays.  Two views of his chest.  They were clear.  So, Dr. I says that he doesn’t have any infection going on, but just a nasty virus.  All we can really do is what we have been doing, which is to push fluids and give him Tylenol.  He said we should expect the fever to be up, especially in the evening and overnight, for the next few days.  (can I just say, YIPPEE!)  I am very happy that the doc did not dismiss my concerns, but was thorough.  I really like Dr. I.

Pray, Pray, PRAY!!!!!

Most everyone who reads this blog with any regularity already knows about my little friend Bella.  If you are stopping by and you don’t know who I’m talking about, please take a few minutes to check out the links on the right side of my blog.  Read her mom’s blog about their journey through the valley of Hurler’s Disease.  Her picture is over there too.  She is the most beautiful little girl, inside and out!

 

Now, once you are familiar with her and with her situation, I want you to join me in praying for her.  Bella needs our concentrated prayers for healing and strength, and for her donor cells (boy cells her mom calls them, as the donor was a boy) to grow, grow, GROW!  Bella has been given a chance at a nearly normal life, as her body has sustained relatively little damage from this disease prior to her transplant.  Now, we just need for her transplant to be successful and for her donor cells to grow and to stay put and produce that life-saving enzyme she needs!  Please pray that God will use the skills of the doctors and the procedures and the medicines to heal his precious child Isabella!  Pray that in doing so, he will bring Glory and Praise and Honor to himself.

 

I also ask you to help me to pray for Charles and Elizabeth.  I cannot begin to imagine all that they must be going through in their hearts and minds.  Elizabeth is there in the hospital trying to care for Bella, mostly on her own, and trying to keep all the medical information straight in her head and translate it to the rest of us, and keep us informed as best she can.  This is a huge emotional strain on her, and she is holding up remarkably.  Please pray for her continued strength, as she does have her bad days just like we all do, and always the fears and doubts are lurking at the edges seeking a way in to her conscious thoughts and feelings.  Charles, as you know, has had to stay at home in Florida working and taking care of their home while his wife and child are hundreds of miles away.  I’m not a man, so I don’t pretend to have insight as to how this is affecting him, but I know that we cannot overlook the burden of his part in all this. Charles is a good man, a good husband and a good father.  And I know that he would give anything in his power to protect his girls from any pain or harm or unpleasantness.  I cannot imagine what it must be like to be so far away from his family right now.

 

We need to be especially storming the gates at this time because Bella’s engraftment numbers have declined. (the percentage of her blood cells that are donor cells)  This is of especial concern to her doctors, since her first result wasn’t as good as they’d hoped.  Now that they’ve seen decline, they have removed some of the meds that help fight against GVHD (Graft vs. Host Disease).  So, Bella is dealing with a  bit of GVHD now, including fevers, and a rash.  Please pray for Bella’s body to accept and multiply those precious donor cells, and for her doctors and nurses to have the knowledge and wisdom to do what needs done for her best care.  We need to get this little princess healthy so that she can go home and work on preparing to be a big sister!