Sick Child

Well, my day did not go as planned.  I figured today would be like any other Thursday morning...open Y, rush home and get ready for spin class at Y, get Blake ready, rush out door to Y, spin class for an hour and then back home.  Well, when I got home from opening the Y Aaron yelled downstairs that I didn't need to rush around getting stuff ready downstairs because Connor was sick.  What a surprise.  When he went to bed last night he was perfect, no signs of sickness at all.  According to Connor he had been awake since I left for the Y (at 4:25).  His throat was hurting, head hurting off and on and sometimes felt like he was going to get sick.  Aaron had given him tylenol by the time I got home, so his fever was starting to go down.  He was showing signs of feeling better so I kept going back and forth as to whether or not get an appointment at the doctor's office.  By 10:00, he was looking pretty rough again, so I decided I better to ahead and get him an appointment.  They were completely booked with lots of sick kids.  But, THANKFULLY, they said they would work me in whenever I thought I could be there. 

Aaron had taken the car to a job site about an hour and a half from here with the carseats, so I had to wait until 1:00 to take him.  Aaron left he iPad here so that Connor could play it while we waited at the doctor's office.  When we got there, we went in and registered, got a pager and headed back out to the car to wait.  Connor felt so bad that he didn't even want to play on the iPad!!  He actually fell asleep in the car.  I could not believe it.  Well, once we finally got called back we found out he indeed has strep throat.  I opted for him to get the shot instead of 10 days of medicine.  He wasn't too thrilled but considering he'd be fever-free by morning and feel great too, I thought it would be worth it.  He did great.  He didn't cry but he did let out a pitiful little yell for about 3 seconds.

It is now 6:15 and he's been in bed since 3:30.  I think I'll just let him sleep until he wakes up.  If he isn't awake by 7:15 I might go wake him up to eat.   I figure he needs his rest since he's been awake since around 4:00 am except for the short nap in the car.  I just hate it when my kids are sick.

God's Money

Aaron and I are trying really hard to stress the importance of giving back to God to the kids.  So, every Sunday, the boys each get some money to turn in and give back to God.  Last Wednesday night we were sitting with our Minister of Administration (Mike) at church for supper.  After everyone had gone through the line, he took the box of money and sat it at the table with us while he finished eating.  I really don't remember the conversation that Connor and I had about this except to say that Mr. Mike took the money and kept it in a safe place.

Well, fast forward to the following Monday night.  Connor is in the shower and then out of nowhere asks me "Mom, does Mr. Mike have all of God's money?"  I just about lost it!  I laughed so hard!!  So, then I had to explain that no, Mr. Mike does not have all of God's money but he does make sure that all of the money that is given at our church is taken care of and given to the right people to make sure that others know about Jesus.

My heart just smiled.

Reality Check Time

So, it has been forever since I have blogged.  I kept thinking I need to sit down and write a post, but I just kept thinking "Nothing has happened, there is nothing to say."  Then as I kept thinking that I kept being reminded that every single day is special and a day to be treasured and enjoyed.  If you look at anything more than my postings, you will see on the side-bar a picture of an adorable little girl named Lucy.  No, I don't know this girl personally but found out about her through another blog that I read.  Her story has completely touched me, and I find myself praying for her off and on through the day.  Again, her story has brought me back to reality.  I need to treasure every single moment...the hard times and the easy times.  My hard times at this point don't even compare to what this precious little girl and her family are going through right now.  My hard times would amount to Connor not being a good listener and getting a card pulled at school.  We aren't dealing with cancer like Lucy.  So, I've done a reality check and absoutely enjoying every single moment I have.

So, what is considered a "typical" day around here?  Well, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday pretty much go like this:

Starting around 6:50
-- get up and ready for the Y
-- get Connor up
-- head downstairs and fix breakfast for the little guys
-- read devotion with Connor
-- send Aaron and Connor out the door for school/work
(Get Blake up and ready somewhere in there depending on when he wakes up)
-- leave for Y
-- home from Y, shower and ready for the day
-- spend 3 1/2 hours doing housework and playing with Blakey, reading to him, making lunch
-- pick up Connor from school
-- put both kids down for a nap
-- a little "down time" for a little bit
-- church (on Wednesday)
-- cook/eat/clean up supper (except for Wednesday--eat at church)
-- hangout with Aaron and kids playing
-- any additional housework
-- bathe kids
-- bed stories to both kids
-- kids to bed
-- hang out with Aaron
-- Jennifer to bed!!!

Tuesdays and Thursdays are pretty much the same except that I open the Y those mornings and my morning starts MUCH, MUCH earlier and Blake goes to Mother's Day Out on Tuesday.  Saturdays and Sundays are usually family days at home and church.  It is busy, but I enjoy every single minute.  Blake and I have so much fun during the day together while Connor is at school.  He is such a little sponge right now.  He is learning so much, and I enjoy helping him to "sponge up" all of this information.  We laugh all morning long.  Connor has really taken off with his reading ability, so I get to enjoy being read to now.  I'm just so proud.

So, beginning April 1st, I'm going to attempt to take pictuers EVERY SINGLE DAY and post something about that picture...because every day is special!!!  Time is going so fast and our boys are getting so big, so fast.  I want to remember every single moment (which I know is obviously not going to happen) or at least capture those every day, special moments in a picture.  There will be a few extra-special posts because Connor will be starting up his swimmng lessons again the first week in April, running the final mile of a half-marathon for kids, a school zoo trip and taking part in a county-wide P.E. festival at the local university (which only 3 people in his class got chosen to take part in -- again... PROUD!!!).

There are so many heart-smiling moments around here, and I hope to be able to share more of them with you over the next month!!

Vegetable Visitor

On Friday, Connor came home with a note from school stating that he had a project to do called the Vegetable Visitor.  The kindergarteners were going to work on the letter "V" for the week.  So, each student was suppose to take a vegetable and make a creature out of it.  I'm not creative at all!  Aaron has the creative genes in this family.  So glad one of us has those genes!  So, I put Aaron to the job of figuring out what we were going to do.  I looked online for some ideas, but nothing was really getting my attention.  So, Monday we started looking again and decided we'd work on making a frog out of a green pepper!

Aaron doing some carving

One frog down...2 more to go

The final 3 frogs

Connor trying to decide which frog was his favorite

Connor with his frogs....



Nap Time Story Time

Over the past week, Connor has really been making leaps and bounds when it comes to his ability to read.  He received a book at Christmas that contains 6 (I think) different Biscuit stories in it.  Connor got it out yesterday and found that he could read the first 3.  They get progressively harder through the book.  So, he had left it in the car yesterday and on our way home from picking him up from school, he read Blake the first story.  After he finished that one, he asked me if he could read Blake his nap time story.  I told him that would be fine.  He then informed me that I didn't need to be in the room.  I could just come in when it was time to put Blake to bed.  So, I agreed to this, but did sneak in for a picture or two.

Connor is just so proud of himself.  And, I have to say I am super, super proud of him!

Camp-Out

As I was washing my sheets from my bed the other day, I had left all of my decorative pillows on the floor next to the wall.  When I came back in the room, I found this...

Blake apparently thought he was going to have a camp-out in my bedroom floor.  Of course, I was asked to fetch his rabbits and blanket.  Oh, my heart just smiles!!

Final Upward Game

This past Saturday was our final Upward Basketball game.  We have really enjoyed this season.  Connor has loved it.  Following the game, everyone was invited into the Fellowship hall to watch a video of some of the highlights from the season, hear a devotion that included the Plan of Salvation from Bro. Randy, enjoy some yummy Chick-fil-a biscuits (compliments of the wonderful people at Chick-fil-a-- which we proudly call our personal friends) and awards.

The players received their stars, as usual, and then they were awarded their awards which included the best Upward Basketball bag that Connor is super excited about.  When he opened it he said "I can take this to Nana's house, to school or to the beach!!"  It was so cute.  Here are some pictures from the day.

Connor's team on the bench just before the game started

Connor guarding his guy.

 Blake cheering for Connor

Enjoying a chicken biscuit!!

Coach Neal and Melissa passing out stars.

Connor's cool new Upward bag (still in the plastic bag!)



I am really going to miss Upward -- minus getting up super early for the 8:00 games.  I am so thankful to have such a dedicated bunch of people at church that work so hard to make the Upward league the wonderful Christ-centered league that it is!!