Christmas at home

Before leaving for Ohio on Sunday, we celebrated Christmas with the kids on Saturday. First, we opened the box of 'gifts for Jesus' below the manger that held various good deeds from the last couple of weeks. For example, 'Alyssa didn't complain', or 'Caden asked for help instead of falling apart'. Below, are a few pics from our gift opening.... alyssa with a colorable puzzle.

Of course, we had to get 2 of these...not sure who was more excited.
We bought a couple goats through World Vision, and these tiny counterparts will remind us to pray for the families who recieved them.



racetrack...


Merry Christmas all!

Knock, knock, please help

Caden and Alyssa are trying to get the hang of knock knock jokes. Usually the jokester is still trying to make up the punch line during the telling, so it can get rather tedious. I've told them countless times that one must be very clever to make up a funny joke, and that its much easier to learn a joke and retell it. However, they persist.
The other night, after many knock knocks that made little sense, Caden said, "Ok mom, here is a classic!" I thought perhaps I'd get one that Shann had taught him. It went like this.
Knock knock.
Who's there?
Present.
Present who?
I have a pleasant inside me.

Really? Thats a classic, huh?
So having become quite weary of hearing these mind-numbing 'jokes', I'm asking for some input on some easy to learn knock knock jokes. Thank you for considering my plea.

A brush with fear

I realized I never followed up on the post that Caden needed an MRI because of the double vision he'd been experiencing. Thanksgiving week, Shann and I took Caden to Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. Before the test, he enjoyed himself greatly. They had many cool toys in each new room we went to. They had a 'life therapist' use a doll to show Caden what they would do to him, then gave him a shot of stuff that was supposed to relax him and make him a bit loopy. This did nothing that we could see.
Then we moved to a patient room, changed him into little hospital pajamas, and the nurse started administering more drugs. (They put kids to sleep for an MRI as they can't be still for an hour). Apparently, the boy doesn't go down easily. They gave him 4 different medicines in increasing doses to get him 'under'. The in between moments while he was half conscious were both sort of funny and scary. He was mumbling crazy things, pointing at nothing...would've been funny had he not been mine. Finally they upped a dose and he was out. They had him hooked up to monitor blood oxygen levels and heart rate, and had to administer oxygen at one point. Weird to see the blips on the screen that mean someone is alive. Seems so very fragile. When they wheeled him out of the room, I lost it. Though he looked to be sleeping, my boy with a drug-induced coma made me need to cry a bit. The MRI took about an hour, and soon they wheeled him back into the room.
After some initial crying out in his sleep, he stayed asleep for over an hour before he showed any signs of coming out of it. Once he seemed to be waking, the nurse unhooked him, and Shann picked him up. He was like a 45 pound infant. He couldn't support his head, he was drooling, and crying. We were there for probably another hour trying to get him to drink and wake up a bit.
We finally left, after having been told he wouldn't be fully awake until the next day. He threw a couple times that night, a bit more awake, but not really himself. The next day, he was pretty much back to normal after eating.
We'd been told by the doctor that we'd get some news within the hour of the test, but even after leaving a couple messages, it was 4 days later before we got THE CALL. Doesn't seem long, but it sure was. Caden's test came back normal, praise God! Now I feel kind of bad we put him through that, but obviously we're quite glad they didn't find anything wrong. So I guess we're thinking his double vision had something to do with a virus.
Hopefully this is the end of the story. If not, God is still in control...but I'd really like God to decide my test of faith is over. :)

Emotions and snow

Caden out in our first 3/10ths of an inch of snow this year. He really wanted Alyssa to come out with him, and she couldn't for various reasons. When I told him this, he said, "I'm downhearted". I'm not sure where he came up with that, but below is his 'downhearted' look.

Then he sat miserably on the step for awhile, occasionally throwing me this pathetic glance over his shoulder.

Lest I leave you feeling sorry for him, here is a minute later after I made a blowfish on the window.Though he tends toward the dramatic, I'm hoping one day, he'll be very good at talking about feelings with his wife. But I do hope he loses the sagging shoulders and the pitious face. Can't you just picture it? "Alice, I'm downhearted."

Poppy was here

here is an unusual sight in our house... and there is only one reason it happened.

Loaned Creche from Aunt Lynne

This cute creche was too heavy and chunky to take to China with my sister, Lynne. So its ours for a couple of years.
This is how it looks 10% of the time: creche 90% of the time

Hmm...perhaps I should just put it away!

Uncle Mark

Beautiful Blake

These sweet pictures were taken by Sharra's talented photographer friend at the hospital.

I don't know, does it?

Yesterday, Shann and I told the kids we are going to be working on being more consistant. Alyssa said, "does that mean angry?"

Early Christmas

This year, Caden has been VERY into figuring out what his Christmas presents are. He has been trying to find my list, cajoling me to tell him secrets, and trying to figure out where things have been hidden. Hoping to head off snooping, I've now told him that if he goes looking, and happens upon his gifts, that he can be sure he won't be receiving them for Christmas.

In the car a few days ago out of the blue, he said to me, "I just think people should have my Christmas gifts ready". I told him, that not only is Christmas many weeks away, but also, we have no idea if they have them ready! And of course, why should they have them ready?
He didn't really have an answer, of course, just reiterated a sense of feeling like 'they just should have them ready'.

I sort of know this feeling. Do you ever feel like asking how people are coming on your gift list? Ah well, it looks like we could use a reorientation to "The Reason".

New cousin...Blake Thomas!

Shann's sister, Sharra, and her husband Ryan have miraculously acquired another child today! He once was in, and now he's out! And happy to be so!

Praise God for healthy baby (9lbs7oz!) and mama. Blake, we can't wait to meet you!
See 'Ryan' link on sidebar for more pictures.

Soccer!

This fall, Caden played soccer. He had a great time, but Shann had a really great time, cheering and teaching from the sidelines :) He is so excited that Caden is old enough to play on a team! Shann knew all the kid's names by the end of the first game... I think he had a rough time not being the coach!
I have a few pictures - I meant to post several times about this, now it has turned into one large post!

a loyal fan!

Notice the tongue...

So close!

the tongue always seemed to be out...I think he got this from his Dad!

Good job, Caden!

10 years...and counting!

Ten years ago today, I married the love of my life. I'm happy to say that he still is, multiplied by 10! These were taken recently...we still look just as young, right?
The street sign is telling him where he should keep his gaze! :)

I'm even more excited about the next ten. I love you, Shann.

a chance to trust

Funny really. Funny, that directly following the recent post on thankfulness for our kid's health, Caden started experiencing double vision. 2 or 3 times a day, he would casually say he was seeing 2 of things. Such as "I see two of you, Daddy."
He had no other weird symptoms, just sporadic double vision. This lasted for 6 days. We saw the pediatrician. We saw a pediatric opthamologist. No one found any problems, and no one had answers.
After talking to several medically savvy friends, and hearing of a couple other people experiencing similar things, we Think this may have been caused by a virus that will clear up on its own. At our follow up appointment with the opthamologist last evening, she again didn't find anything. Caden hasn't had any symptoms in several days. However, to be on the cautious side, she would like Caden to have an MRI. So that is scheduled for Monday, November 23rd. An MRI isn't a huge deal in the medical community, but children have to be sedated...and oh, he's MY child! My baby, I mean, my child has to be sedated and have an MRI.

Interestingly, or most likely providentially, the fruit of the Spirit we're learning about together this week is Peace. Just yesterday, I explained to the kids what peace means:
1)choosing to work things out with each other and separate to play in our own rooms for awhile if necessary,
2)it means a home that is a welcoming sanctuary (and not a compound of wild banshees),
3)And it means to obey God and not be afraid. We talked about how often God Commands us to have peace and not fear.
Isaiah 26:3 Thy will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusts in thee.
So I'm continuing to try to keep my mind on God, and trust Him. He holds our days in his hand. In fact, Isaiah 49:16 says we're engraved on the palms of his hands! What better place to be?
I felt I was doing rather well at this until a few minutes ago, Caden told me he was seeing 2 of things again (for the first time in 5 days)!
Now where did I put that 3x5 card with my Bible verses?

More Fall Fun

How many?

Driving by a lawn covered thickly in leaves, I asked the kids how many leaves they thought there were.
Caden confidently answered 'a dozen'! When I told him that a dozen is only 12, he was quite astonished. He said "that is unbelievable, a dozen sounds like a So Many! Wait until I tell Antonio!"
Caden's buddy Antonio may or may not be quite as astonished. We'll see.

Halloween

My pumpkin - if you can't tell, is a pineapple! Hard to tell, but Caden was Iron Man, and Alyssa was a bride. The kids went around the block with Shann. When they left, it was warm, but sort of damp and drippy. And by the time they got back, their costumes were soaked! The weather decided to monsoon for a few minutes, soaking many tiny ghosts, princesses, bumblebees and ladybugs, and spidermen.

Here is Shann's pumpkin, that once again, won first place at our annual pumpkin carving party. I must at least comment that he had a pattern, and I freehanded it! :)

Marooned

I'm at the end of a rather long week. Mon and Tues I didn't have a vehicle. By Wednesday I had the use of my car back, but Caden was sick. Alyssa licked a couple of medicine bottles, and (Caden tells me, she licked him too) by Thursday, she was sick. Both of them had fevers, coughing, and Caden's nose has been a faucet (he declared that no one had probably ever had coughing AND their nose running a lot at the same time). Of course, I haven't been sleeping all that well as I've gotten up several times each night to get tissues, get a drink, or administer medicine. Oh, also Caden tends to gag when he gets coughing deeply, so we've been getting to clean up vomit as well. So fun.
Although both of them are still coughing, we're definitely on the mend. I have some hope that I'll be able to go places this coming week.
Shann and I often say to each other how deeply thankful we are to have healthy children. Some parents deal with this and much more difficult illnesses all the time! After having a tiring, germ-ridden, boring, snotty week, to all you parents who deal with often or always ill children, I salute you.

The beginning of the end

As most of you know, I'm homeschooling Caden this year. It has its ups and downs, but the really fun part is that reading is just starting to click! I thought this was a good thing.

Shann and I frequently spell things to each other. For awhile, the kids have enjoyed trying to guess what we're saying, but last night, Shann spelled b-u-t-t to me, and Caden sounded it out!
He was extremely jubilant over this fact, and his joy was compounded since we don't allow the kids to use this term!

I'm not sure what we'll do now, as I'm pretty sure Shann and I are not up to spelling backwards!

Yikes! A Crazy Day at the Zoo!

The pics from our day can be seen here!
http://gardocki.blogspot.com/
Thanks for doing this post, Jay!

Irritable Bill Syndrome

How can a person who I see at a maximum of 4 minutes per week make my blood boil so? Bill works at our library. And Bill always seems to be irritated. Irritated at my very existence, yes, it seems so. But he is really miffed at the fact that I ask questions, reserve books, and sometimes have fines. The other librarians do not seem to take it as a personal affront when I return a book late, but Bill treats me like a tattooed video-game playing teenager, instead of the adult book-reader that I am.

I was in the library yesterday, picking up a book I'd reserved. I had already received a call that my book "The Giraffe that walked to Paris" was in. I gave Bill my name, and asked him to see if my book was in (knowing that it was). One only needs to pivot 90 degrees to view the reserved bookshelf. But Bill insisted that he have my library card to "open my account" first. I suppose he wanted to see my 'standing' with the library so that he knew how to treat me. He told me with disdainful relish (or so I imagined) that I had a fine of $1.60. Now, I KNOW that I paid said fine last week to Bill himself. I remember it clearly. I told this to Irritable Bill, but he said, after looking over his spectacles at me, that he would 'just leave the fine on my account'. I don't know why Bill would do this, except for the fact that he does not believe me. After all, I do look rather like the book-burning, 'liar about library fines' type.

I haven't decided what to do about this small fine which I refuse to pay twice. I'd really LIKE to call one of the kind librarians and tell on Irritable Bill, but perhaps that would be uncharitable, and I'm not sure what it would profit me. Suggestions?

A Wolf and a Mermaid...oh my!

Reward Plate

Our craft at the last MOPS meeting was a 'reward plate'. The idea being that if a child has been especially obedient or kind, they could get to eat dinner off of this special plate! A fun idea. I told Caden and Alyssa about this on our way home, and both of them were excited!

But then awhile later, this sound drifted down the stairs: "Alyssa, if you don't give that to me right now, you will not get the reward plate!"

So the idea had to explained again. A lot more clearly.

New hair cut "like Gwenny's"

You know how when you're ready to get a hair cut, you want it NOW? Thats how I've been feeling about Alyssa's for the past couple of days. So this afternoon, we cut about 4 inches off! She was Very excited to have hair like her cousin Gwen!

Isaiah 42:10 Sing a new song to the Lord...

Alyssa has told me she likes to sing songs (that she makes up) and dance with God in her room time. Today in the car, she favored us with one of her new songs.

"God, I love you so much.
God, I love you so much.
God, I love you very very much.
God, I love you so much.
(Mama, God likes it when you talk to Him, sing to Him, and dance with Him.)
God, I love you so much."
(Etc, etc, etc. Starting to not be such a new song).
Then after many minutes of this, she ended with:
"Satan, I don't like you. You're ugly and weird."

Myrtle Beach Pool

I don't know why I've been inspired to finally complete the pictures of our Myrtle Beach vacation on this cold and rainy day...maybe fond memories of warmth. Here are a few pool shots. We seemed to have this pool to ourselves for the most part. So much so that we were a bit miffed if we had to share it!Uncle Ryan and Reid
Kind Alyssa
Poppy's 'MO'
Ahh - the infinity pool overlooking the ocean. One of our favorite hangouts.
Shann's 'MO'
Note Reid taking a drink.
From foreground (for those unfamiliar with the family): Shann; Poppy, Shann's Dad; Sharra, Shann's pregnant sister; and Grammy, Shann's mom.
We miss you, sweet warm sun and lazy days by the pool!