The 1st Day of School!!

It is finally here- the first day of school! It was actually yesterday, but I had no time to post it yesterday. Chloe started 2nd grade. It is the same old same old with her. She is not a fan of school. She excells in school, but does not like to go. She liked getting new horse supplies, but I think that she was only excited to finally get to use them. When she got in the van after school, I asked how she liked it. She said it was okay, but she had to do school work and has a spelling test on Friday.

Abigail was suppose to start Kindergarten today, but her teacher was unexpectedly admitted in the hospital. Her blood pressure got too high after having a recent surgery on her foot. Abigail loves school! She is a social bug, and she likes to learn how to do the things that her sister can do. Sooo.. Abbie was very upset that she wasn't getting to go to school. Her good friend Savannah was upset also. Savannah's parents are both teachers at the school, so she was going to have to sit in the office all day. When I got to the school and saw her sitting there, I brought her home with me, so she and Abbie could play. What kid wants to sit in the school office all day? Then they were both happy about not having school. They had a good time playing without any brothers or sisters to bug them. Abbie did start today. Her teacher is still out. She will have a sub for the 1st week. The picture above with all of the kids is from today. The pictures below will explain themselves.

Asher started preschool (only 3 days a week). He was happily the first one out of bed yesterday and today. He is so excited to be a big boy going to school. He had a great time playing. He also said he liked counting. His class has 5 boys and 1 girl. That poor little girl!

Scroll down to see pics of each of them with their school gear and of them at their desks. There are also pics of Abbie and Savannah.

Rosemary Reynolds

Aaron's grandmother, Rosemary Reynolds, went to be with the Lord this morning. She was a loving, gentle woman. She was very thoughtful and caring. She wasn't able to do much, but she was always an encouragement to many. She faithfully sent cards to family, friends, fellow church members, and missionary families on their birthdays or just to send a note of prayer. She was not able to physically get out and be involved, but she had a ministry with her cards. She will be missed. She is now in Heaven with a perfect body, seeing the streets of gold, and the glorious face of her Savior! Wow! Just the thought is awing!

Abbie just asked me "How did GiGi get to Heaven? Did Jesus carry her through the door?" That makes me want to shout "Amen! Hallelujah! Glory! Yes Abbie Jesus carried her through the door!" The mind of a child is amazing. In her mind, she knows that the last few times she saw GiGi she was very sick and not walking around. She is literally picturing Jesus picking GiGi up and carrying her to Heaven. She then asked me if Victoria, her cousin, got to see it. GiGi has been staying at Victoria's house these last few weeks. Of course, Aaron and I then tried to explain things further to her. She is still too young to fully understand.

This picture is of her at our church's mother-daughter banquet a few years ago. She loved to wear hats and gloves and of course with a matching purse and shoes even in her older years. She always went to church this way.

Scroll down to see more pictures.

Justus is Walking!!!

Justus has wanted to be walking for quite some time now, but he just wasn't willing to let go of anyone's hand. Last night at church I stood him up, and he took six steps all by himself. Then he bent his knees and went back to crawling, but at least he didn't fall down. He went down on his own terms. He did it again later on, so it wasn't just a one time fluke. Today should be fun with his new found skill.

The pic is of him stuffing his mouth with baby cheetos. He will be 11 months old next Wednesday.

Justus is Drinking from a Sippy Cup!!!

You may be thinking, "He is almost 11 months, so what? He should be drinking from a cup." I know this, but drinking from a cup at this age is a major victory for me with my kids. The other three were using bottles exclusively up to the age of two. They did not want cups, and yes, I did not deal with the battle and make them. I let them use bottles until their 2nd birthdays, and then that night we threw them all away. Then I dealt with the battles and fits of whining and crying. Justus just kept grabbing Asher's cups with a straw, so I thought I would give him a cup. He took right to it! No battle whatsoever. So, now he only has a bottle before nap and bed. This is HUGE for me!

Family Picture Attempts

I was browsing through our family pictures. They are funny to go back and look at, most of them are bloopers. We can take ten pictures at one sitting and maybe get one. It is difficult to get kids looking and smiling at the sime time. I just posted a few of the many mess ups, because I only posted the ones that have Justus in them. If I posted all of them you would be scrolling down for quite some time. I could go all the way back to just Chloe. Look below to view.

Asher's Hearing

The picture is of Asher riding the horse at my mom and dad's.

We went to the audiologist today for another hearing test on Asher to see if the last surgery improved his hearing at all. Bad news!! It had no noticeable change. His hearing is the same. I was really disappointed. Pray that the doctors will make a decision soon on what to do about his hearing. At this age any long length of time is a big deal on his development. It can especially effect his school progress in the future, if his communication abilities are way behind.

Change of cat's name

Alright we all finally agreed on a name. We decided since he was roaming down the road when he was found, we will name him Romey. Yes, and also b/c Aaron loves to listen to Jim Rome, the sports broadcaster.

New Kitten-Needs Name

As I am typing this new post, I have a cute, tiny new kitten on my lap. Those of you who know me well know that I have a soft spot for cats. The comcast guy came over to service our internet and telephone. He stepped out of his truck with this kitten on his shoulder. I was a little surprised that he had brought his new kitten with him, so I commented on it. He then proceeded to tell me that he found the kitty left or lost on the side of the road in the country. The kitten was more than likely lost, because it has definately been fed and is very clean. Then the guy said, "Will you take him?" Of course, I wanted to say yes right away. I went inside and called Aaron. His is so sweet to me. He said if I really wanted to take it, it was fine. We do already have another kitten, so what is one more? Cats are really easy pets. The only bad thing is having to have a litter box. Two cats is all the litter box can handle though. I don't want to become the "crazy cat lady" of our neighborhood. The kids are thrilled to have another kitten. Silas, our other cat, isn't so sure yet. We do not have a name for this kitty yet. I am not sure if it is a boy or girl. I will have to have help figuring that out. I can't tell. We could name it Paul and have Paul and Silas, or we could name it Barnabas. If it is a girl those won't work. What do you guys think? Send me some suggestions.

Look below for more pics. Yes, that is a black stripe marking by his mouth not a cut.

Aaron's Hospital Stay

I love my husband more now than the day I married him. I thank the Lord for him everyday. He works so hard to provide for us and care for us. The kids and I need him. It is eye opening and nothing less than terrifying when he is only 30 and spending the night in the hospital to have his heart checked out. This weekend Aaron just didn't feel well at all. He was having terrible headaches. Then by Monday morning he was experiencing some chest pains. He went into the emergency room early that afternoon. His blood pressure was high, and he normally has fine blood pressure. They did several blood tests, heart monitoring, x-rays, etc... His dad and grandfather both had early heart problems. I am pretty sure Aaron said his dad's first heart attack was at age 39. Therefore, with the family history the hospital was taken extra precautions. He was admitted for the night. The next morning he had to take a stress test. This was the one that lasts about three hours. He had to run and get his heart rate up to certain levels. He had a dye put through his body to see if there were any blocked arteries. They also took several pictures of his heart and arteries. All of those tests came back good. Praise the Lord he was not having any heart problems. We are relieved and so thankful. He was released Tuesday around 4:00p.m. All said and done, we still are not sure what is going on with him. He has to follow up with the doctor. He has to check out his gall bladder. According to the doc it can sometimes feel like heart and chest pain. The pics are of the kids waiting on Tuesday for Daddy to be released. We waited a long time for the test results so we entertained ourselves with Old Maid, Go Fish, and Crazy Eights. Justus got tired of the few toys in the diaper bag, so I just let him have my purse. He loved that. There are all kinds of goodies in there. There are a couple of more pics below.


Happy Birthday Corey!!

Chloe's 7th Birthday August 6, 2008

Chloe is 7. She thinks she is really a big kid now. We did many things to celebrate.

The night before we went to Greenfield, which is just outside of Indy, and stayed in a hotel with an indoor pool. We got there early, so we had the pool all to ourselves for a couple of hours. The kids loved it. There are pictures of them in the pool below, so be sure to check them out. Then we went out to eat and came back to the hotel to play games. We all had fun spending time together. The kids got along pretty well the whole time also. That is amazing enough when we are all in one room together for a long period of time.

The next day, Chloe's birthday, the girls and I, Grandmama, Corey and her girls, Tanya and Victoria all went to a tea house and had lunch. It was a beautiful tea house. The kind little girls and women both ooh and ahh over. The little ones all had chicken fingers. It doesn't matter if you take them to McDonald's, a steak house, or a tea house they always want chicken fingers. We adults all had this amazing chicken velvet soup, or "satin chicken" as Emily called it. We told her at least she had a fabric in the name, so then she called it corduroy chicken soup. She always gives us something to laugh at. We also had sandwiches. Only Emily had tea. Most everybody had lemonade or a coke.

After the tea party Chloe went with Grandmama for the day. Corey took all of the other girls to her house to swim. Yes, she is crazy sometimes! Then Hannah came to Grandmama's that night to spend the night with Chloe. Abigail stayed the night at Corey's with Elizabeth. Then last night they all stayed with Corey. I told you she is crazy sometimes. She had 7 little girls.

Overall, Chloe had a wonderful birthday. Thank you for all of the cards and gifts that were given to her. Look down below for more pics.

Holiday World in Santa Claus, IN

The girls and I returned last night from Holiday World. It was in Santa Claus, Indiana. This is the town in America that gets most of the letters written to Santa. The post office gets volunteers each year, and they actually respond to each and every letter. We went with Aaron's mom, his sister and family, plus a few others. We had a wonderful time. Holiday World was an excellent park for the family. The park's sections are each named after a different holiday. It is very clean! They also have unlimited free pepsi products. They have these little buildings with doors that say "in" and some that say "out". You go in and serve yourself a pepsi product of your choice. Mine always being Dr. Pepper of course. I also rode what is voted the #1 wooden roller coaster in the world, The Voyage. I am a roller coaster lover. I will wait forever for the front, and then I will wait forever to ride again in the back. I rode in the middle of this one, b/c that was what was available. It was the absolute scariest roller coaster I have ever been on in my entire life. I was so glad when it was over, and I did not even consider riding in the front or the back of this one. We stayed in a cabin that was on Christmas Lake. The cabins were called Santa's Cottages. They were very nice and relaxing. The back decks were right on the water. Each cabin came with a bucket of fish food to feed the fish. That was great. The kids thought that was the best part. There were also a few turtles who came over to dine. We will definately return to the park and the cabins again as soon as we can. I hope Christmas time. The town has an 11 mile light display, and each neighborhood has its own Christmas theme. I really hope to talk Aaron into it. Look below to see more pics from our trip.

Asher Is Finally In Undies!!!

I almost forgot to add a very important event around here. Yeah!! Asher is finally wearing undies. He has been a pain to potty-train. He is 3 and 1/2, so it is about time. I am not saying we are completely accident free, but at least we are finally out of pull-ups. We have been buying diapers and wipes in this house for 7 straight years. That is a bunch of poopy and pee-pee. Now, we have Justus to train. Of course that won't be for a couple of years though.

House is Finished, Abigail Gets Baptized, Ladies' Conference, Family Reunion

Let's see. The house is finished. It looks great. It is not the green color we were hoping for. It looks more gray, but it is still much better than the paint chipped and dirty white we had before. I added bigger pics of it below.

Abigail was baptized yesterday! I read down the blogs and realized that I never posted when she asked Jesus into her heart. We have been talking to her about salvation for quite some while now, but she never seemed to fully understand. She always told us ,"I am not a sinner." Then the last weekend in June she finally understood, and she brought it up herself. I was cleaning the house, and she came to me and said, "I am a sinner. I do bad things. I want to go to heaven." We talked for a while, and she prayed and asked Jesus into her heart. It is a joy and excitement that is hard to explain when your own little ones ask Jesus into their hearts. So, she was baptized yesterday. I tried to get pics, but my camera stopped working during her baptism. There was another person taking some, so I am going to see if they have any of Abbie.

I went to a Ladies' Conference at Lighthouse Baptist Church in Indianapolis(the church Aaron grew up in) this past Friday night and Saturday morning. The theme was Cooking School: Ingredients For Life. It was excellent. I learned a lot about how to be a better wife, mother, and pastor's wife to the people of our church. They are also so creative in their decorating. I got bunches of ideas for my own ladies' meetings and banquets. I have been to 5 of their conferences now, I think this was the best one yet. In my own devotions this past weekend also I read a verse in Galatians where Paul was asking do we seek to please men or God. He then goes on to say if we are seeking to please men then we are no longer the servants of Christ, but of men. I needed that. I know that too often I am so worried about pleasing the people around me, and I need to just make sure I am pleasing Christ in what and how I do.

We also had a family reunion on Aaron's side this weekend. It was good to see everyone and meet people that we didn't even know. There was a good turnout. The kids - and boy was there a ton of them- played together like they had always known each other. They had a great time .

The Unfinished Paint Job

Our house still isn't finished being painted due to the rain. Praise the Lord for the rain though. It has really cooled down the temperature. When it is finished I will post a few pics.

Kidney Stones Plague Us Again

The unsuspecting man woke up with an excruciating pain....Aaron passed a few kidney stones this past Saturday and Sunday. He woke up around 3:00 Sunday morning with a dull pain in his left side. He then woke me up and told me that he thought he had kidney stones again. I quickly got up and took him to the emergency room. In October when I had them, I waited to long to go to the hospital, and by the time we got there it was so painful I was curled up in a ball on the waiting room floor. I didn't want Aaron to have to be like that. They took him back fairly quickly and immediately gave him and i.v. with two strong pain meds. This eased the pain, and he was able to sleep. He received a scan that confirmed he was passing kidney stones. He was sent home around 7:00 with meds and a strainer to catch the stones. Before we got home he passed two more. Kidney stones are awful!! They are the worst pain I have ever experience. Yes, even over child birth.

This was Sunday morning, so the pastor of our church didn't make it to church that day. (The pastor being Aaron.) That was a first. What do you do when the pastor can't show up and you find out the morning of services? The deacons had to tag team the day. We assume that it went well. No one has said otherwise. He did make it to church that evening. He even had choir practice before and did a wedding afterwards. He definately took a licking and kept on ticking. I could not have done that.

While we were on vacation we had our house painted on the outside. It is still not finished yet due to the rain. The painter is hoping to be completed by Friday. We also had our wood floors refinished in the foyer and office. They look amazing. I can't believe this beautiful wood was covered by carpet. I am so excited and eager to get the other floors and stairs done now. We hope to save the money and have it done in the late fall, but before we host Thanksgiving. Since the girls are at Nana's and Papa's we are getting lots of things done inside the house too. In the last five days we have painted 3 rooms and rearranged the furniture in 2. We painted the office this great deep reddish-brown color called paprika. Mom is planning on painting her kitchen this color, and I loved it when she showed it to me. So... we bought the paint on the way home and painted after Asher's surgery. Thanks mom for picking a wonderful color. It looks soooo good. Then we painted the foyer a beautiful golden color called bungalow gold. It looks awesome next to the paprika. They are both rich fall colors. Then we painted the girls room purple. They having been asking for it since when moved in. They miss their purple room from the other house. It is a surprise for them to return home to.

Asher's surgery

Thank you to everyone who has been praying for Asher. His surgery went very well this past Friday. The doctor took his adnoids out and drilled the small holes in each ear. He did not put another set of tubes in. He said that there was not a lot of fluid sitting on the ears, so he hopes this will take care of the problems. We did have to stay an extra hour of recovery because Asher would not drink anything. We couldn't leave until he drank 6 ounces. I sat on his bed with a juice box and just kept sticking it in his mouth. Obviously he drank it because we are at home. Asher was funny before the surgery. He was laughing and giggling with us, but everytime he heard the door open he would play like he was asleep. He would not talk to the nurses or doctors. Then when they left he would go back to playing. He feels pretty good now. He hurts more at night. He is waking up quite a bit crying. I don't know if it is how he is sleeping on his pillows or what. He also crys when he has to have his hair washed. The ears are still pretty sensitive. He loves his medicine. He says that it tastes yummy. We go back for another appointment on August 7th. They will check to see that all is healing well and schedule another hearing test to see if the surgery has been successful at improving his hearing.

Okay! I am finally catching a moment to give a little update on what has been going on with us. We took a vacation to Tennessee for the 4th of July. Yeah! Thank you Lord that we were able to go and no one got sick this time and there were no hospital visits ( that seems to be our habit when we go ). We did absolutely nothing the first couple of days which was wonderful. We haven't done that since I don't know when. We had a bar-b-que with Mom, Dad, Bo, Amanda, and all of the kids on the 4th. That evening we sat in the yard and watched all of the fireworks being shot on the mountain tops. It was beautiful. Bo and Aaron also put on a show of fireworks. On Saturday Mom kept all of the kids and Aaron and I were able to go out for a few hours by ourselves. We haven't done that since Justus was born. We went to eat and then shopped at the outlet malls for the girls' school clothes. Sure, that is not too exciting, but it was just the being able to spend some time together that mattered. We also took the kids to a petting zoo and Black Bear Jamboree during the week. Abbie was scared of most of the animals at the petting zoo. They all had a good time at the Black Bear Jamboree. The girls got on the stage and sang with all of the other kids. Abbie and Asher danced all through the show. They were hilarious and enough entertainment themselves. We also rented a boat and went out on Douglas Lake. Abbie was terrified for the first 50 minutes. She would not let me move away from her. She eventually eased up and started having a good time once she realized it was not scary. The mountains from the lake were gorgeous. We will definately go out again next time. The girls stayed there with Nana and Papa for a few extra days. We miss the girls a lot, but it has been a breeze around the house having only the boys. We are rested and ready to get back to church and get going again.

We went to the ENT specialist today for Asher's ears. We had to wait 3 months to get today's appointment. Praise the Lord it is not going to take that long to have his surgery done. It is scheduled for July 11th. They are going to remove his adnoids and put a small hole in his ear. Both of these things are for drainage. It should keep the fluid off of his ears, and his hearing should improve soon. After this surgery Asher will have another hearing test to see if the procedure was successful. If his hearing has not improved to the level they want, we will have to have another set of tubes put into his ears-a larger size tube. Dr. Whiteman also said that there is the possibility of going ahead and putting the tubes in during this surgery rather than having to do a second surgery later. He said that he will look and see how bad the ears are and make a decision during the surgery. Pray that all goes well with this surgery and that his hearing will improve, so that his speech can be improved. I read a survey on children with hearing loss, even mild hearing loss, and it said that when this happens during the preschool years it is very harmful to their speech development. These years are when they are really learning to communicate. It also said that they are 50% more likely to fail a grade in school, and that most of these children are two and a half years behind their reading level by the time they make it to the 6th grade. I do not want Asher to have to struggle through school because of this.

Yeah! We are finally catching up a little with this computer world.

Hello! I had heard a little here and there about blogs, but mostly on the news. I didn't realize how far behind we are with the world of technology. Kevin and Anna Ruwersma from Crown College visited us and our church a few weeks ago. Anna asked me if we had a blog. I said no, and thought to myself, "Who has time for that?". Anna emailed us a few links. Then I got online and realized lots of people do, and that most of my friends do. Thank you Anna for introducing me to this. It was so easy. I do have time! Time is something I am very short of these days. I am always getting someone out of something around this house! I hope and have plans to use this to keep everyone updated and to display photos. I am terrible about writing and sending pictures. I really am always doing something. We have little down time around here. This should help me not to feel so guilty. Now, I just have to figure out how to personalize this. That will be the time consuming part, so don't expect too much too quickly.