The Dark Cloud

This past week has been filled with just about the worst luck ever! It seems as if it could go wrong, it has.

Last weekend, Joe decided that he wanted me to ride to Maryland with him to drop off a load of light poles. He said that we would leave out Sunday after church, go up to MD, drop off our load Monday morning, stop and have lunch on the Chesapeake Bay for my birthday, and be back home in time to tuck the kids into bed Monday night. I rushed around getting everything ready and arrangements made for the kids. They were to spend Sunday with my Dad and Linnie, Sunday night with my Mom and Pa, and Monday with a combination of my Mom, Grandmother, and a sitter.

We left out on Sunday and had a blast up until it got dark. The truck started running hot because something in the something else had sprung a leak and was doing something that was not supposed to happen. Anyway, to make a long story short, the (very expensive) part to fix the truck was only available in Atlanta and at this point we were in DE. We got the load off Monday morning as scheduled, but only made it back to the south side of DC before the truck got so bad that it was impossible to continue. Joe called one of our other truck drivers (Ronnie) and arranged for him to drive up and get us. Unfortunately our truck that he needed to drive was with another of our drivers (Dianne) in Savannah, GA waiting for a load to be unloaded. It took until 8:00 Monday night before Dianne was able to get the truck to Ronnie so he could head out on the nearly five hundred mile trek to get us. He drove through the night and finally got to us Tuesday morning. We loaded the broken truck onto the empty trailer that we had been pulling and hooked it behind the other truck. Then the fun part came. I got to spend the rest of my birthday trip riding home in a two seater truck, perched on a lunch box cooler, sandwiched between two truck drivers. NOT. FUN. AT. ALL!!!

We finally got home sometime Tuesday evening and I was never before so happy to be there! Thanks to great parents and grandparents who took care of my kids while I was away for a full 24 hours longer than planned!

We ordered the part that we needed and it was to come in on Thursday morning. Wednesday, the truck the Dianne was driving broke down and had to be towed home. Luckily it was not too far from home and was a relatively easy fix. Maybe Joe fixed it too well, because her first day back in it she got a speeding ticket.

We had the opportunity to get a great load going back up north with a back haul, (lots of money) but we HAD to load Thursday evening or we would miss our deadline. Since our part was supposed to be in Thursday morning, we figured it would be no problem. Who would have guessed that in an entire truckload of parts being delivered Thursday morning, our part would have been the only one mistakenly left on the loading dock and not put on the truck? Ugh. We had to forfeit the great load and have a truck drive from Atlanta to bring us the part Friday morning.

I went to town Friday morning to do my usual banking and errands. I have to pick up our paychecks from the different suppliers that we haul from. When I went to the Pole Yard to get our check, it was not in the box where it usually is. The office was locked up, but I peeked in the window and saw our check sitting on the desk. Of course, the one check that the secretary had forgotten to put in the box was ours.

The boys and I finished all of the errands that we could complete and went to see how Joe was coming along getting the part on the truck. He got the truck running and things were starting to look up when Noah told me he was not feeling well. He had a temperature over 102 and said his throat was hurting. When I looked in I saw white puss oozing from both side of his throat. YUCK!!! It freaked me out, so I paged the Dr. who called in a prescription. Micah is going for his 15 month checkup on Monday, so I will take Noah in then as well. I started him on the antibiotic last night, and I am hoping he will feel better soon.

The trucks are all running and are getting loaded this morning. Hopefully the dark cloud is departing. We sure are ready for some bright cheerful days around here.

A Chicken Update

I am sure you remember my chicken story. There has been a twist. Something ATE all thirteen babies. I am thinking we have another snake. Ugh. As much as I dislike chickens, I think that I dislike snakes even more.
Stay tuned for more info...

A Different Store

As I previously posted, we attended the VBS at Carter's Ford last week. Both boys had great teachers and I decided to let Noah and Jonah get each of their teachers a little thank you gift for teaching all week. I took both Noah and Jonah into Wal-Mart and told them to be thinking about what their teacher would like.
I figured I would have to help Jonah the most so I told them to think about what their teacher talked about a lot and that would help them figure out what type of gift they needed to get. Jonah right away said that Miss Jenny talked a lot about coloring and he thought she would like some crayons and a new coloring book...so that is what we got her.
After walking around the store for some time, Noah still had not come up with a gift. I asked him to tell me what he was looking for and he said, "Momma, I think we are going to have to go to a different store." I told him we did not have time to go to another store and that he would just have to come up with something quickly. To this he replied, "But Mrs. Laura always talks about Jesus, so she must love Him and I don't see any Jesus things in this store!" We finally settled on a praise and worship CD, but I thought there was an important lesson behind Noah's statement.
Do my words show others around me that I must love Jesus? Can a child observe my life and see the love of Christ? What a wonderful testimony that is to have impressed upon a six year old that Jesus is the center of your life! I thank God for wonderful Bible teachers who volunteer their time to teach my children more about Christ.

VBS Round 1

The boys finished up with the first VBS of the summer last night. They had a great time as usual but this post is about me. I thoroughly enjoyed myself at this VBS. Since Micah was to young to go into a class, I sat in the nursery with him. I was able to fellowship with two other Christian mothers each night as we watched our little ones play.
One of the ladies was a childhood friend and it was so nice to get to spend time gabbing one on one with her. The other lady and I had never met, but I was amazed at how much we had in common. My hubby said that when I came in Wednesday night I was beaming like a five year old on her first day of Kindergarten because I had made a "new friend"!
This week really made me realize how much I have missed fellowship with other young Christian women. (Yes, I still consider myself young.) I get so busy in my day to day roles of being a wife and mother that it is easy to forget about being me. Seeing other women walking the same path that I am on reaffirms my convictions and makes me stronger. There are others out there doing what I do every day and they are surviving...that means I can too!
Anyway, this was my favorite VBS ever. I made a new friend and got reacquainted with an old one. I can't wait to see what our next VBS has in store!!!

A Sign...

...that my boys have been spending too much time at work with Joe.

I overheard this while Jonah and Micah were playing trucks.

Boy, I givin you a ticket! You are gonna havta fix dis truck before you move it anywhere! No Micah, I said you hafta fix da truck!!!

Can you tell what Joe has gotten a lot of lately?

Sunday Funnies

Jonah, what did you see at the zoo?
Monkeys.
What were they doing?
Swingin' in the trees.
What kind of monkeys were they?
Grease Monkeys!

Noah, did you like riding to Maryland with Daddy?
Yes 'Mam.
Do you think you want to drive a truck when you grow up?
No 'Mam, that is too much sitting for me.
What do you think you want to do when you grow up?
I think I want to be a logger.
Do you really think you want to work in the logging woods?
Oh no 'Mam, I don't want to work...I want to be the BOSS!

Labels

I don't post on here a lot about Jonah's health issues.  Sure I give updates (as I do with all of the children) but the everyday struggles are something that I have purposely not blogged about.  It is not that I am trying to ignore the issues, it is more that I do not want Jonah to be defined by them.  I want people to know Jonah for the loving, adventurous, helping little fellow that he is, not for the problems that he has no control over.

When people see us out and about, I am sure that they think very poorly of me as a mother. 
They see me calmly watching my child who is frantically digging at his skin until he bleeds.  What they do not know is that I have tried everything under the sun (with the exception of the wonder drug my MIL found on the Internet that "even cures cancer" and is made who knows where from who knows what) to try and stop his itch to no avail.  When it gets to that point you have to do what you have to do to get relief and if that means scratching, then by all means...please do!
They see me punish him for whiny behaviour when I know that he is not feeling well and has stomach cramps from the diarrhea.  What they do not know is that I have taken him to more specialists than I can count and subjected him to multitudes of tests that have led us to believe that this is as good as it gets and he is going to have to learn to live with it.  As harsh as it may sound, he has to learn to live with this and I refuse to teach him that it is okay to be rude and disrespectful to others when he feels bad because unfortunately he is going to continue to have bad days and he will have to learn to function through them.
I really could not care less what people think of me. And if I am honest I will have to say that I am not concerned about what people think of Jonah either.  I have learned that I can not control what others think or do.  What I can control is how I view Jonah and the picture of him that I present to the world.

When I look at Jonah, I see determination, joy, and excitement.  I see energy just bursting at the seams.  I see spunkiness and a "can do" attitude.  I see eagerness and fearlessness.  I see a helping spirit.  Most of all, when I look at Jonah, I see the little thief who has stolen my heart.
I pray that as he matures, he sees those same things in himself and that he is never defined by anything except for who he truly is.

Riverbanks

This week my Mom and I took the kids to Riverbanks Zoo.  I love the Zoo and wish it were closer so that we could go more often.  My Mom loves to take pictures (108 that day actually) so be prepared for lots of photos in this post. 

We began our adventure with a picnic in the park.

Jonah was too busy climbing tree roots to have any lunch.

This was one of my favorite exhibits.  We got up close and personal with a gorilla!  I'm not sure if we were watching him or if he was watching us.  Either way, it was amazing.

The elephants were out playing in the water and sand.

The kids even got to ride on one...

Well, sort of!

Actually, Jonah was much closer to riding this turtle than anything else.  I turned my back for about 30 seconds and when I caught up with him, he was INSIDE the turtle pen! 

Micah spent most of his time relaxing in the floor of the stroller.

Noah learned how to milk a plastic cow.

Micah relaxed a little more in his second outfit of the day.

Noah and Jonah fed the goats.

Jonah wanted to make his last, so he fed them one piece at a time.

This picture of Noah next to the giant crab cracks me up,

And this picture makes me smile.

We were all exhausted, dirty, and hot at the end of the day, but boy was it worth it all!  I love the zoo and I loved seeing my kids love the zoo.

A Chicken Story (With a Lot of Links)

Back in February, Joe bought five chickens.  Anna, Beulah, Canaan, Delilah, and Esther.  I can't say that I was happy with that decision, but so far it has worked out okay.  They stay in their pen and I stay out of it.  Joe and the boys take care of the egg gathering, watering, and feeding.  My only job is to name them.
The first week of April, Anna began setting.  She had six eggs that she sat on day and night in hopes of raising some little chicks.  The boys were thrilled at the prospect of baby chicks, but a snake got in and ate the eggs out from under her when they were just about ready to hatch.  Of course I was sad for the boys, but I was more upset that we even had a snake!!!
In the meantime, the next door neighbor lady (privacy fence neighbor, not loose dog neighbor or 911 neighbor) had a hen setting on eggs and heard about the snake eating Anna's eggs.  She felt sorry for the boys and last week when her hen hatched out 13 chicks, she called to see if we wanted them to raise.  My initial reaction was NNOOOOO WAY ON EARTH ARE WE RAISING 13 MORE CHICKENS!!! a little bit hesitant but I allowed myself to be talked into it and we went over this past Friday night and gathered the baby chicks along with the momma hen.  The neighbor lady wants her hen back after the chicks are old enough to be on their own.  Baby chicks have to stay with the momma hen until they get enough feathers to keep themselves warm.  (Or so I am told)  Anyway, our four hens and a rooster have now turned into NINETEEN birds.
When we went to go get the chicks and I asked what the hen's name was, the neighbor lady looked at me like I was crazy and said, "Chicken."  I guess maybe I am the only one who names chickens around here. I really am excited to start working on names for the thirteen babies.  I just wish I knew if they were girls or boys hens or roosters.  I'm assuming I have to wait until they get feathers or those nasty looking red things on their heads before I can tell.  I'm surely not getting close enough to tell any other way!
So that is our chicken story.  The kids are loving taking care of and playing with the baby chicks. When Noah learns how to work the camera I will let him take a picture of them, since I don't go in the pen...EVER!