Spring Break

Our family had another opportunity to go to Florida this year for Spring Break. We stayed at one of Scott's sister's house and we had a fantastic time. We left Thur. after school and arrived 24 hours later at Aunt Kathy's house. We were soooo excited to get back to Florida! The kids have all decided they want to move there as soon as we can and they just couldn't get there fast enough. Scott and I drove straight thru and took turns sleeping on a twin sized air mattress in the back of the van. This year we even brought Lady Bug with us and she turned out to be a great traveler. She slept in her bed in between the front two seats and was really well behaved. We had never traveled with a puppy before but she made it easy.

Here we are...15 minutes into the trip...notice the one on the far right...that is Noah's crazy hair after he woke up at 5 am...We were quite a sight by the time we got there on Friday...but all of the family was on the way over for dinner so we perked up right away. We had 15-18 aunts, uncles and cousins over for dinner every night with Grandma & Grandpa too and it was awesome! Scott hasn't had an opportunity to spend much time with his family since he moved here back in the 90's (I can't rem the year! bad wife!) and this year we spent more of our time talking and catching up than last year. We really had a great Spring Break and no one wanted to come back to Kansas. Our only concern was getting Grandma packed up and brought to Florida to be with us too. :) One of the last things Lucas told his cousin Kinsey was that he was going to try to move to FL by the time he was 8...in 6 months...

This series of photos are by Lucas. He took the camera as soon as we got in the van...with a plan to take photos of "everything that is interesting"...so I thought I should show you his little brain. I love the angles of his shots...Scott said the one of me is when I was cleaning the windows...nice hubby...

Because I have so many photos to share....I might take a few posts to share our whole week. We had an extra day of vacation this year which really made a difference in the quality of our time with family. It was a great gift! Thank you. Stay tuned...the next post will be our first full day...a heart walk and 25 sharks....

Rock Chalk Geo Hawk : Treasure Hunting

Our family was introduced to a new, exciting, worldwide, free activity while we visited Grandma in Florida....we are now proud participators in GeoCaching....Have you heard of it? There are over a million "caches" hidden all over the world....it's like a high tech treasure hunt using your GPS. I heard about it a while back but I didn't really understand what it was but when Grandma talked about taking us out we were intrigued. We made several treks in Florida and found a couple of the treasures but the bug didn't really get us until we got back home. Scott and I started by ourselves and found the first "treasure" at Latte Land across the street from our house...and then we were hooked! We take our GPS, look up the coordinates for a cache, jump in the car and treasure hunt. Some cache's have toys to take as long as you leave something in return and all of them have a log for you to sign.

As soon as everyone was home on Friday, we jumped in the car to do our first family run. Noah found the first one and we had a lot of fun running all over the park following the GPS...Eli turned out to be the best "hunter" because he found the next one that night and then 4 on Saturday! It is really turning out to be a lot of fun and with our new hobby we have logged an hour or more of exercise for each day out. We went Friday, Saturday and Sunday!! I have already had 2 dreams about geocaching so I think maybe we will take the day off today and rest....If you want to know more about Geocaching you can learn all about it at www.geocaching.com. It is a great, free family past time! Rock Chalk Geo Hawk!!

It's Amazing...

...how I can't seem to find time to blog now that I don't have two jobs, don't have a husband in IV treatments 6 hours a day and don't have a mother at home who needs care...I think I understand why busy people get more done...

Since I shared my migraine-puking story I have had 2 or 3 more...although not quite as exciting as the first one. I guess you always remember your first one...but for the life of me I can't figure out what my problem is. My mother started getting migraines when she was 19...and had just met my father....so at least I have put mine off a little longer....and they didn't start when I first met Scott. :) I am hoping that this isn't permanent and once I am back on a regular work & life schedule my body will readjust and behave.

I have lots to share about mom (who is back in the hospital) and about our great little trip to Florida to stay with Scott's family, but it will have to wait till I feel better. We had a fantastic time with all of the family and I loved getting to know my sis-n-laws better. They are great girls and I can't wait till we live closer! Speaking of, Lucas told his cousin that he wants to live in Florida by the time he is 8...in 6 months...so we will have to see what we can do about that...

I took almost 850 photos during our 8 day adventure...I haven't even looked at all of them yet...but here is one to show you that we did make it to the beach...

Truth or Consequences...

A few weeks ago, I had to have a serious talk with Little Man about lieing...and wouldn't you know the little smarty complimented me while working out his consequence?? It is a common occurrence for us to have to "reprogram" the kids when they come home on friday's but after a few hours of gentle reminders, they are back in the swing of being home. The biggest thing we deal with is their tone. We are big on showing respect and that includes the tone of your voice. Sometimes their first response to each other is ugly, frustrated and short...and not appropriate for the question or situation. We have talked about why they do this until we are all blue in the face and they have some great theories (other home, school, being tired and frustrated) and for the most part we have put a stop to the ugliness but every once in a while it takes a few hours of correction....last month Eli and Lucas had a disagreement where Eli was trying to help Lucas and Lucas didn't think Eli knew what he was talking about...so he argued with him and was very rude...Eli tried to fix the situation by telling Lucas that he didn't feel very respected by Lucas' tone but that didn't really get thru to Little Man (so PROUD of Eli for trying that approach!) and by the next situation Lucas was a little more out of control. I just happened to see this argument and when I told Lucas to stop what he was doing he argued with me and lied...telling me he didn't do what it was that I saw him do....

So, I sent him upstairs and followed a few minutes later. He was in his room, laying on his back, with his arms behind his head. I sat down on his bed and just looked at him. I told him that we had a problem and that we needed to work it out together. We discussed the lie, his attitude and what type of consequence would be effective. His lieing seems to happen when he is defending himself in the heat of the moment and scared he will get in trouble. He doesn't stop to think before he speaks and that is when he is not 100% truthful. As rules are different at both homes, so are the punishments. I don't agree with sending the boys to bed without dinner because I do not believe that food should be used as a reward or consequence. I think it develops an unhealthy relationship with food. Food is a basic necessity of life and it will be provided whether they obey or not.

We discussed different punishments and it finally came down to him saying the best punishment might be for him not to get dessert. This particular week, I had made apple crisp and cherry crisp for dessert and Lucas knew I was going to make peach crisp that night. He said that at one house it wouldn't be much of a punishment because they don't usually have dessert but because I was making dessert more often, it would be waaaay more of a punishment at our house because my desserts were soooo good.... Did I just get played by my 7 yr old? Yep, I think I did....but we agreed to this consequence and he was well behaved for the rest of the day...by the time we had dinner, everyone had their dessert and Lucas never complained...not once...and my heart melted at his good attitude and respectfulness...and daddy and I decided that he could have dessert...and like we tell the kids...they will never get in trouble for being honest with us and telling the truth...

A Dinner To Remember...or Forget...

Remember how I said Scott and I were like newlyweds again? The house has been so quiet during the week without mom (and the oxygen machine)...when the kids go back to their mom's house...we are not quite sure what to do with ourselves...we have never really lived alone...kids came along quite quickly after our marriage (haha) and then our German exchange student moved in 3 months later. Once Martin was moving out in May, we moved another dear Japanese student in and she was with us until Dec...and then we lived with mom for a couple years...and then we moved again and it was just the kids and then grandma moved in a year later...and so on and so on...and now we are back to being alone...until Grandma finishes up with rehab again....

So, last Sunday was the official day that we moved mom into her rehab facility. She will probably be there 2-4 weeks and then will move back in with us until she is strong enough to move back to her home. I know she is looking forward to that day because that must mean I am letting her drive again too. :) Mom had us bring her some pottery for the last few days of her stay at OMC and she sold $250 worth of mugs, plates, pitchers and other little things. We packed all of that up and moved it over to the rehab place and had sold our first item within her first 30 minutes...to the dr! Mom turned around and gave us that money to go to dinner with...since we are young and single again...haha

Took me a long time to get to this story....I had been craving Zio's for quite awhile and it is on our way home from Olathe so we rushed over to enjoy our dinner for two...and the ONE time we don't have kids can you guess where they sat us? In the section with all the kids...but instead of getting snarky (that's my new favorite word) about it, we did some people watching and should write a book on all of our bad parenting observations...I had a small headache from the rehab center but figured it was due to not eating in almost 20 hours and not drinking any water or coffee either...I thought once I scarfed down a glass of water and tea that I would be set....so when that didn't work I had a few bites of our appetizer...and drank more water...my head was really becoming foggy and when our entree's came I needed to make room on the table...so I pushed the little plate towards the edge of the table....and it didn't stop...and it disappeared over the edge and....took forever getting to the floor! Once it made its magnificent crash...the entire restaurant made our acquaintance while I tried to hide in the corner...though it did make me laugh...it was such an awesome sound...and it had hang time...and I think it would be good therapy!

I tried to eat but I could only manage a few bites and quickly realized that I shouldn't eat any more...I became so nauseated that I told Scott I couldn't take it anymore....and I needed to lie down in the car...I haven't even mentioned the annoying waiter, who was just like an employee of ours, who named everything he put in front of us....here is your appetizer plate, here is your new glass of water, here is your blah, blah, blah...and he talked so fast and low it was hard to decipher his nonsense...sorry...I really wasn't feeling well...so, since Scott had just gotten his yummy steak he asked if he could finish it and then immediately felt bad that he had asked...but I insisted because I had to lie down and not move...and so I left my husband alone in Zio's to eat his dinner...I'm sure it seemed like we were fighting...I threw a plate off the table, I had my head in my hands, I wasn't eating, I left when our meal came and my husband finished his, paid the bill and left....classic!

I laid down in the back seat and waited for the earth to stop spinning...but it only got worse when Scott got in the truck and started to drive...I felt I needed to relieve the pressure in my belly but needed to get home to do it...I hate puking and had never really felt this sick before...Scott raced home...though not too fast because as he said, he just got his license back and didn't want to lose it...and as we were 5 blocks from home I sat up and told him he needed to be going faster...to me it looked like he was sightseeing...and I jumped out of the truck as we pulled in the drive...walked slowly to the door that Scotty was opening...and made my way to our tiny downstairs bathroom...and was violently ill....projectile, alien like, tragic and it ended in me crying...it was horrible...then I made my way upstairs and slept for the next few hours...

At this point, I think it might have been my first real migraine...and I don't ever want to do that again!! I was really bummed that we didn't get to enjoy our gift of dinner but it is sure to be one dinner that we will always remember....

P.S. Once Scott reads this he is going to be horrified that I wrote on the blog about projectile puking...but then again he has a weak stomach...but I'll forgive him because he did get me my fav. raspberry sherbet later that night...and did a great job taking care of me!

Newlyweds...again

Scott and I have enjoyed a laid back, honeymoon type of week. With the surprise of his Groshong falling out last Saturday, we had a whole week of IV free vacation time...at least that is what it feels like! In our 4.5 year marriage, he has only been LD symptom free for 4 months!! It always felt like we didn't get a honeymoon period because he became so sick after his commercial fishing accident and I was so busy running a coffeehouse. I worked 15-18 hour days while he spent many days laying in bed due to the pain. That doesn't leave much time for each other!

When he started IV's in Dec. of 07, I told him that I would be waiting for him on the other side of the illness...and looking back at how hard that was...I can honestly say that I still mean it. When he got sick, it wasn't just happening to him, it was happening to me...and Autumn....and Noah....and Eli...and Lucas. I know that the changes were hard on the kids at times but I worked VERY hard at making their life normal and we found many reasons to laugh together...even while living out of a cheap hotel! During the worst part of this journey, when Scott's organs were failing, I was told that the kids just wanted a healthy dad again and it wasn't fair to them. Of course I understood that the kids would prefer a healthy dad but neither of us could change that overnight. Scott being sick had nothing to do with being fair either. By choosing an aggressive treatment we were choosing to fight this disease so that the kids COULD have a healthy dad again. That comment has stuck with me because it spoke volumes about their approach and helped reinforce my own approach. For our family, this has been a fight that involved all 6 of us. It was never about Scott being sick, dragging us down or needing to fight this on his own because it didn't fit into our life's plan...we always approached it as a family fight....and now that we are beyond the IV's (planned or not) we are ALL rejoicing in this victory!

The first day that Scott was TUBE free he wrestled and played with the kids on the couch. One of the boys said, "This is the dad I remember!" and they spent the next few minutes laughing and playing. This is what we wanted and what we have worked so hard for...for restoration...for a healthier daddy...for unscripted moments that he can enjoy with the kids...and it turns out...for a return to Newlywed status! With the extra time this week, we slept in every day, enjoyed the weather, talked, laughed, relaxed and just enjoyed spending time together. My sweet hubby has returned to his 24/7 lovey, dovey self and I am enjoying the extra hugs, kisses and sweetness. The normalcy of this week is astounding and it is hard for us to comprehend. I am so thankful that we are on the other side of that mountain and that the Lord gave me the strength and wisdom to obey...even when I didn't understand.