Glad that's over with

I just wanted to thank all of you who prayed for Karis today. Several of you texted me on the way to Yoakum, and I really appreciated that. I can't imagine how much worse it would have been had you not prayed.

Karis wanted to know why she was the only one going to "run errands" with Mommy, so I told her, and then I barely got her to the car.

At the doctor's office, the nurse and I decided that we better do a needle in the arm this time to get a good amount of blood so she wouldn't have to do this again.

Wrong child to do this with.

I laid across her, so she could hold me, I could hold her right arm down, and I could look in her eyes. She was crying, and so I prayed out loud for her. I heard the nurse say after one minute, "Hold on Karis, we are almost through." I said, "You've already got the needle in?" She said, "No, not yet."

Anyway, I knew when the needle went in.

So did the whole city block.

I prayed louder.

Her feet were kicking and she was thrashing her other arm around. I knew the nurses were saying something, but I couldn't hear over Karis. After a full minute of some mighty lungs working overtime, I looked back and saw the vial was empty. No blood.

Turns out, Karis is a little double-jointed in her elbow, and her thrashing and twisting didn't allow them to get any blood. I can imagine the needle rolling around during all that did cause quite a bit of pain, hence the screaming.

So...we went back to the finger-sticking. Which Karis used to be completely fine with, but after all of that, she didn't want to relinquish her finger to anyone.

We got one. Nurse did her thing. It was over.

Karis, through tears, said, "Come on, Mom. Let's get out of here," and she grabbed my hand and headed for the door.

I told her we had to wait for the blood. So we waited in the hall. Not that room.

Yep. I got to deliver the blood again. Karis and I drove it to the hospital across town and handed it to the lab so it wouldn't have time to clot.

Good times.

Glad that's over with.

The invitation still stands, but...

About twelve hours after getting cleared medically, we received another e-mail saying Karis needed to have some more blood work done. They found some irregularities in her blood, and they want to be sure she's okay. It's minor stuff that she would have gotten genetically from me, so don't worry.

This doesn't frustrate me because I want to make sure we are all healthy, but I surely do feel for my little four year old.



The first time she gave blood for her CBC (Complete Blood Count), they took blood from her finger so they wouldn't have to use a needle in her arm (thank you, Dr. Drost's office). Unfortunately, the blood clotted before they could get labs run at the hospital, so we returned a week later to repeat the action.

Part of the problem the first time was that Karis didn't cry. Praise God! But it caused her blood to run too slowly. The second time, she wasn't crying either, so I said, "Well, Karis, if we can't get the blood out any quicker, we are going to have to take it from your arm like we did Kylie." Well, that did it. The tears came and so did the blood. It sounds bad, but it was a blessing. Not only that, the doctor's office let me take the blood vial, turning it continuously up and down to keep it moving, to the hospital lab across town. Yoakum is a small town and the doctor's office trusts me.

The doctor's office even put a note on her blood vial to run the labs "Stat." I really appreciated that so that the blood didn't have time to clot.

Anyway, this will be trip number three for her. I scheduled an appointment for this next Monday, when hopefully I will be out of bed with stronger back to hold my precious princess. The kids are all in Yoakum this weekend with my parents to see the re-enactment of the battle at Goliad and to attend the play "Alice in Wonderland" at the Shiner Gaslight Theater. I was going to meet them half-way on Monday to do the kid-exchange, but now I will just drive all the way and take Karis back to Dr. Drost's office.



I only write this so you can pray for her. Don't you hate to see your children get poked and prodded? I have to be thankful though, because I know there are parents who see this everyday with their children who have cancer or some other heart-breaking illness. Lord, comfort all those parents who hurt even worse than their children because they have to watch the pain being inflicted on their angels.

Did I shave my legs for this?

Tuesday, I got up earlier than normal because I needed to get things packed and ready to go to the Houston Children's Museum. We were meeting a friend and her two girls at their house, so that she could drive and get us there by opening time (Spring Break tends to make places like that get a little crowded).

Anyway, Caleb woke up early as well because he had wet his bed. So I changed his sheets, knowing it would be late when we got in. Not from the museum, mind you, but because I was crazy enough to accept Rodeo tickets for us that night, as well. So after driving 45 minutes back from the museum, we would turn around, and drive 45 minutes back to that similar area for the rodeo after Doug got off work. Brilliant planning on my part, I must say. As a side note, the kids loved the rodeo, but two songs into Keith Urban's concert, they were ready to leave. We put pajamas on in the car, and got home around 11pm. Long day...


Back to Caleb waking up early. Because I was meeting a friend, a rather new friend I might add, I decided that I should probably shave my legs before going to her house that morning. That's big stuff for me! Anyway, I started shaving my legs in the sink, and Caleb started crying. It got louder and louder, and I said, "What is wrong?"

He screamed, "Put it back on! Put it back on!"

"Put what back on?"

"The hair! Don't let it go down the sink!"

I tried to explain that this is exactly what Daddy does when he shaves his face, but he would not be calmed. Doug, who had been awakened by the screaming, said, "Caleb, don't argue with your mother." And that was it. He marched off pouting, and we didn't finish our "talk."

If only I could have explained to him, it will all be back by tomorrow...

Happy Birthday, Caleb

I'm a little slow at getting pictures on. I don't know how people can post pictures every day! Anyway, Caleb turned three on January 27th, and as you can tell, we were still a little unorganized from the move. Instead of a cookie cake (which we always order for the kids), I improvised with three Oreos at the last minute. Caleb didn't seem to mind since he had candles to blow out, and Karis was thrilled because he let her eat the Oreos. He informed me that he does not like Oreos. I could have sworn I have seen him eat them, but oh well.

Fun Times

We had a blast with Stefanie and Kaitlin when they came to Yoakum. I hope they had as much fun as we did. Ste"funny" driving the 4-wheeler made us all laugh; watching them all run on the hay bales was awesome; and Kaitlin had quite an arm when it came to feeding the catfish.

My children have really spent a lot of time in my mother's closet since living here (even Caleb). I don't know why they get such a kick out of trying on her clothes and shoes (yes, even Caleb). Here they are in the kitchen showing me their "Mashion Show," as Caleb calls it. I have no idea where they learned these model poses, but they are pretty good at it. Caleb is even a little "Zoolander"ish. Scary.



The weirder part came when we visited some dear friends in College Station. When I took Caleb to the doctor's office, my girls proceeded to ask the lady of the house if they could wear HER clothes. The second model picture is them at her house.




The last picture is the only good picture I have of Caleb from Christmas with a normal smile. He is constantly giving me this weird "Pirate" smile thing where he winks one eye and kind of growls (see hay bale picture). So this is the most recent I have of the three, and the man with them is my Mom's brother.

Road Hog

The night Doug was driving home for his Thanksgiving holidays, he saw fifteen wild hogs run across the road. Unfortunately, there were a couple of stragglers, and they found themselves underneath Doug's VW Beetle. One was a "mommy hog," and one was a "baby hog," as told by Caleb. He knows, because the incident busted up the Beetle's radiator, and Doug made it 200 yards to an abandoned restaurant's parking lot in the middle of nowhere. Literally. Look up, Altair, TX, on a map. If only you could see it in person.

Anyway, he called me to come get him while he waited for a tow truck from Houston to come get the vehicle, an hour away. My parents were on a cruise and obviously couldn't watch the kids, so all four of us (in pajamas) drove to Altair to rescue our Daddy. We took a short jaunt 200 yards away to view the pigs. The kids were so excited to get out and see the hogs. I have no idea why. The mom was a pile of mush, blood, and fur. The baby was missing his back right leg, but otherwise looked normal (except for the dead part).

Doug took pictures with his phone, but God had arranged it that I didn't have my camera with me. Thank you!

More of the same with a little change

On October 22nd, Kylie learned to ride a bike and three days later lost her first tooth. How is this happening? She's just 6! :)



Doug and I are back from our vacation. We had a lot of fun together, met fun people, and really enjoyed are two scuba diving trips. After peace in Christ, the next best peace to experience is the quiet under the ocean. We never get tired of it (except for the water that is still lingering on my left ear).

I wanted to add a picture of the catfish tank where we go in the evenings, and a sample of the tracks we see each day. You can see raccoon, deer, and heron crane in these two pictures.







Tonight was pretty fun for the kids. My mom made a cherry cobbler following a new recipe yesterday for Doug's birthday. Doug and I got in too late to celebrate with the kids, so we were supposed to have the dessert for breakfast. Without saying anything bad about my mom's cooking, just let say the recipe left a lot to be desired. So we all looked forward to tonight - we put the whole cobbler out in front of mom's kitchen window and waited for some action.

Without fail, a raccoon appeared, as if on cue. He started to nibble and nibble and nibble. He actually liked the stuff. All three of the kids were on the counter watching. Karis said, "Doe (that's what she calls my mom), your window is like a movie theater screen, and this is like watching a movie out your window." Then it got better.

The fat raccoon that I scared the other night, sauntered up like he was going to enjoy some too, and a fight ensued very quickly. The fat one lost. He eventually wondered off. I couldn't believe it. Next, a big opossum tried to sneak up and get some cobbler, but the raccoon wouldn't leave the dessert. He had found gold, and he wasn't leaving. A smaller opossum walked around, but was way too scared to approach the dessert. I think there were many animals scattered away in the bushes waiting for the cobbler to be abandoned. Can I tell you, I put the kids to bed, cleaned the kitchen, and got ready for bed myself, and that raccoon only left that pan twice for water and went right back at it.

One last trip through the kitchen revealed the true gluttony of the raccoon. He climbed the tree in front of my mother's window and got on the roof. I got out my dad's maglite, and went outside a few minutes later and saw the raccoon "hunkered down" on the roof for the night. I told my dad about the raccoon, and he said, "He's too full to make it home." I said, "Do you really think that's what happened?" And he said, "It's like a drunk that can't make it out of the parking lot of the bar he endulged in." I think that says it all for tonight.

Karis's New Haircut

Nature's Water Cooler

Yesterday we went for our first outing to feed the catfish and put corn out for the deer and turkey. We saw 1 raccoon, 3 armadillos, 1 buck, 1 fawn, and 11 does. Actually "we" didn't see all of those. I was the only one who saw the raccoon. I hope he's okay. Here's the scoop.

Two nights ago, Mom and I were visiting in the kitchen and a opossum climbed up a tree in front of her window. It went up on the roof, and then came back down. He then went up again, so I ran to get the kids because I figured he was sticking around awhile. When the kids came back, there was no performance. Mom and the kids went outside and could hear "crunching," like claws on the tile (Too bad I don't have the video of Caleb telling me he heard the crunching. It was too funny). Still, no opossum coming down. So I went out a little further than they did to look up on the roof, but I saw two eyes staring at me from somewhere else.

Doug and I put our refrigerator outside on the carport because with five extra people here, we needed another place to hold food. Right beside the refrigerator is a tall stand my dad built for the cats to keep their food up high so night critters couldn't get it (It doesn't work - it is the "water cooler" for the nocturnals around here). It has three shelves and the middle two are very close together. Sitting so still between those two shelves was a opossum, staring at me.

Well, forget the one on the roof, I told the kids to come out and see this one. The "crunching" could have been "Bonnie's" partner, "Clyde" eating the cat food. Anyway, "Bonnie" eventually scampered down the tree 20 minutes later after the scene had been cleared, but when I went out after an hour to put some food up in the fridge, "Clyde" was still stuck in his position, pretty scared.

That leads me to the raccoon. I went out last night around 8:30 to put some "Foza bread" (a bread my wonderful Baton Rouge neighbor, Foza, made and sent with me) in the refrigerator (which is white). When I opened the white door towards the cat tower, the raccoon must have thought it was the "ghost light" from "Cars" (check out that extra video if you haven't seen it). I never saw him on the tower, but I saw him hit the carport. That joker is huge. He's been eating cat food for quite sometime.

He landed hard on his right shoulder and then ran in place like they do in the cartoons because his claws were slipping on the cement. He finally scuttled away, but he might not be back to the "water cooler" for a while. I hope he's okay.

Today, we leave for Waco for Paw Paw's 90th birthday. It will give the animals some time to get comfortable coming around again, and maybe they will visit again when we return. More adventures.

God's Acts of Kindness

our new home
God so graciously gave us cool, cloudy days to load and unload the truck. He also blessed us with so many people who came to visit Saturday and Sunday as we loaded the truck and packed the final stuff. How thoughtful of Him to put my family on the thoughts of others.

Doug, my mom, and I unloaded the truck today into two storage sheds in Yoakum. My mom left eventually, but the student pastor from First Baptist Church Yoakum came out to help. Was I ever happy!!! Doug and I would still be out there struggling to lift pieces if Eric had not come to the rescue. We were unloaded in four hours!

We came back to my mom's house and went through over 20 boxes pulling out items we needed to "make a home" in our room and the kids' rooms. Then, tonight, after the kids went to bed, Doug and I went back to storage to put back all the stuff we didn't need out of those boxes. God (and Doug's awesome packing skills) allowed us to have room left over in one of the sheds.

Caleb and Kylie rode a tractor this morning with our neighbor who leases our land and helped him pack down his grass jigs (that is basically running heavy equipment over an area of land where a farmer has put down some blades of grass (jigs) to pack them down so that they will eventually root). Karis just stayed on the four-wheeler with my mom to watch. The kids stayed outside a majority of the day climbing trees, jumping on the trampoline, decorating the driveway with chalk, and riding bikes. Two opossums entertained us tonight on the carport as we watched through the window, and all-in-all, it was a good day. As sad as it was leaving Baton Rouge yesterday, I'm glad I have some place so peaceful to come.

Whirlwind from October 3rd to today

On October 3rd, a nice couple and their soon-to-be-three year old daughter, Paisley, set an appointment to come see our house. THEN, they came again the next day. THEN two days later made an offer on the house.

This was only the second time someone had come to the house since we put it on the market September 11th. God has amazing plans! How grateful I am that He allowed our house to be sold with the economy and market the way it is. I am wonderfully amazed by Him.

Anyway, long story, very short, is they wanted to close on November 2nd, but we couldn't. The date we were available for was October 20th. From the time we agreed on a price to closing, was 12 days! Wow! What a whirlwind. I can't believe it's over. It was so fast I didn't have time to be depressed - which is good! Actually, God is the good one!

Entertaining Angels

Last Friday night Doug prayed, "God, I'm not trying to test you, but I know that you could bring someone tomorrow to put on offer on our house, if you wanted to." In my lack of faith, I was thinking to myself, "He's awfully bold. No one has even looked at or called about our house."

Saturday, after lunch, a man in his eighties rang the doorbell repeatedly. A tree landed on his house during Gustav and he's looking for a new residence. He said he could pay us cash as soon as he cashed in his CDs, and he offered us a little less than we were asking, which was completely fine. He kept asking the same questions over and over, so Doug wasn't sure he was "getting" everything. But I figure, even if he forgets where we live and never comes back, we had the chance of entertaining an angel. God brought him right to our door as a response to Doug's prayer. I need to learn to be more specific in my prayer life and have more faith that God will do exceedingly above what I think or ask. It was an incredible lesson in faith for me.

Gustav and Ike

The Friday before Gustav hit, my family was eating lunch and planning and after-nap departure for Mississippi. God shined down on me with a phone call from Robin Cook who asked what I was going to do about the storm. I said that after living through Katrina without power for 5 days, as soon as I lost power from Gustav, I was heading to Texas this time.
She said, “Are you kidding me?”
I said, “No, I’m not sticking around with three small children with no air conditioner.”
She said, “No, I mean are you kidding me that you are going to wait until you lose power? You have to leave now. You can’t wait.”

I talked with Doug, and five hours later, I was headed to my mom’s house. Doug decided to stay here and still visit our friends in Mississippi and ride out the storm either there or in Baton Rouge. The next day, when he saw the storm headed straight for Baton Rouge, he packed up most of our freezer in an ice chest, battened down the hatches, and he headed to Texas, as well. It just took him FIVE more hours on the road than it took me the day before.

It was weird to be somewhere where everyone was going about their lives as if things were normal. I was screaming inside, “Don’t you care that Baton Rouge is getting pummeled and all my friends and my house are under greats about of stress?!”

Several incredible people, (Mike, Tommy, Rick, and Stefanie) drove by our house to report on our damage…None. We returned a week after the storm to clean out our fridges and deep freeze and check everything out. Thankfully, we went without kids, because power still had not been restored. The wind only created some minor problems around the house that Doug was able to fix in a few hours. My heart was so heavy as I drove around seeing trees in houses, but it was lightened to see the thousands of workers around the city helping where they could.

After cleaning up our house in Baton Rouge and having our power come on while we were there, we returned toTexas to get the kids. The next day when we were thinking about returning to Baton Rouge again, Dad wanted help boarding up the house and getting the outside ready for Ike. Doug was doing things my dad shouldn't be doing - which is good. By the next day, the traffic from evacuation was so bad, we couldn't return, so we rode it out in
Yoakum. We finally got back home yesterday (Thursday after Ike) after I-10 was cleared.

Friday night, Doug was praying and he said, “God, I don’t want to test you, but I know if it is your will, you could have someone knock on our door tomorrow and make us on offer on our house.” In my mind, I’m thinking, “Doug surely is bold. No one has even looked at or called about our house.”

Wouldn’t you know, Saturday after lunch, the doorbell rang, and it was an 82 year old man who was looking for a house because a tree was inside his. He loved the house, and told Doug he could offer us a little less than we were asking, but he could pay cash.

I don’t know if we will ever see him again (he may find another abode), but I do know I’m going to try to be more specific in my prayer requests. Isn’t God amazing!!!