Bluebonnet pictures

 photo by Laura Endsley 













photo by Laura Endsley
















My friend Laura Endsley is such a talented photographer! A few weeks ago, we attempted bluebonnet pictures. I had low expectations, as most of the time, my kids can't be still and smiling at the same time. I was so happy with the results, though, and find it a small miracle that no photoshopping different heads on bodies was needed! Thanks, Laura!

This and That

A few things going on here:

My aunt came in from New York to visit my mother while my Dad is in China. Aunt Barbara, along with their other sister, Aunt Carolyn, are the closest of friends and talk almost daily. Since they lead busy lives they only get to see each other once every one to two years. It was such a treat having her here! I love seeing my very responsible, organized, motherly mother revert back into someone's baby sister. Aunt Barbara is such a gift to our family. I love hearing her and my mother talk about growing up.

Sunday, Mom treated us all to see Wicked in Dallas. It was great! It is the back story of the Wicked Witch from the Wizard of Oz. It was so much fun hanging out with my sister, mother, and aunt!

Yesterday, our school celebrated Earth Day. Lauren watched my little two and I got to go help plant a butterfly garden at Matthew's school.

Last night, Matthew got his first sports injury. He was catching a baseball and it hit him square in the eye. His glasses were hit and they scratched up beneath his eye. I was called onto the field and Matthew was crying. When I asked him if he was OK, he said he was crying because he was afraid I would take him out of the game! Man, I love that kid! He is oh, so proud of his first shiner, and thinks he looks like Rocky Balboa!

The biggest news around here though, is that our playset is finally complete! We bought the set 4 weeks ago and took one look at the directions, which stated that 16 hours of skilled labor were involved, that we set out to find skilled laborers! It took three weeks to find a crew who could do it, and they completed it last night. We missed our playset from our other house dearly, and are thrilled to have one again.

Matthew and Thomas are enjoying their 15 minutes of fame as the coolest kids in the neighborhood. Of course, it rained today, so they whole area was muddy. You can see from the picture that several boys thought it would be fun to paint our back fence with mud! I have 6 shoes in desperate need of de-muddifying, but it was worth it to hear the squealing of delighted children!

I think that is about it for now!


 

Baseball and a car accident

I haven't had much time to blog this week. First of all, Tuesday night, Bryon got into a car accident on the major interstate running through our city....while I was on the phone with him! We were talking and then I hear, "NO! NO! NO!" and then the phone went dead. Very scary.

It turns out that he hydroplaned during a torrential downpour and wound up hitting the median between the northbound and southbound lanes. I dropped ME off at my parents and asked Lauren to keep Thomas, who was at her house, and raced to the scene. I was concerned about Bryon sitting out in the rain and dark during a very lively lightening storm while 18 wheelers were zooming by him.

We feel very blessed that Bryon wasn't hurt. Just a little sore. We spent most of our night on the interstate waiting for cops (lots of accidents that night) and a tow truck.

In other news....

I remember being a kid and feeling like once baseball season started, it was time for school to be out. I still feel that way! We had three games this week alone. Matthew has moved up to a more competitive league. This is great for my super intense, very competitive child. What is about to drive me crazy is the super intense, very competitive parents! I actually witnessed a mother on the opposing team a few nights ago screaming that our team was cheating! Can you tell me how 6 and 7 year old boys could possibly be cheating? Utterly ridiculous and I am afraid just the beginning of crazy parents who are living out their childhoods (and maybe their frustrations?) vicariously though their children.

I love watching Matthew play! I, like every parent, am in awe of how his body is growing and how he has picked up the game. My heart bursts with pride!

The good and bad of our world

I have felt a few strong emotions this week about the planet we live on. Here is a sample of my disgust:

1. While watching Oprah this week, I saw 4 siblings get up and announce that they are gay, after which, the audience breaks out in applause. If I got on Oprah and announced that I was straight, would I get the same reception? How twisted is that?

2. Don Imus....I have had mixed emotions on this one. It is obvious that he said deplorable statements and should be sanctioned. When Rosie said last year that Christians were no better than Muslim terrorists, was there the same backlash? I chose to retaliate by turning off her show.

On the other hand...

I have been obsessed with Planet Earth over the last month! Watching the beauty of our world in high definition is breathtaking. Every creature has adapted to its surroundings with remarkable precision. It is one of those experiences where you wonder how anyone could dare assume that these miraculous sights could be formed by anyone other than God. We watch every Sunday night with the boys and marvel at God's creation.

In other news...

*We are finally getting our new carpet in today. We have been living in a bit of upheavel these past few weeks. Everyone has limitations. Mine is upheavel! I am ready to have beds and carpets back where they belong.

*Thomas is finally coming home today! He was supposed to come home Thursday, but Bryon had a case down near his parents today, so there was no point in making the long trip twice in a several day span. Thomas has never left me for so long, and I find myself just staring at pictures of him. I am counting the hours...

*Today is my nephew James's first birthday. What joy he has brought our family over the past year! We celebrated his birthday yesterday and he was so cute eating his cake and squealing over the fuss made over him. What a doll!

TGIF!

We have had a great end of the week! ME continues to heal and be more like herself with each passing day. Thomas is still in Conroe and I miss him dearly, but he is having the time of his life, so I am happy about that. I have also enjoyed devoting all of my energy to Mary Elizabeth. I am even getting closets organized while she sleeps which always brightens my day. ;)

I have added some pics of my flowers that are blooming. I guess what doesn't kill you makes you stronger and these flowers have endured floods and snowstorms! I would like to add a gardeners journal to the blog and maybe once a month document progress. I was going to do that the beginning of April, but most of the garden was underwater! Have a great weekend!


 
 
 
 

The story

 
 

Well, I got a full 8 hours of sleep last night and feel like I could conquer the world!

Monday was a long day. We woke up at 4:45 for the drive to Ft. Worth. My mother came with me. Bryon had to stay behind to do carpool, work, and take Matthew to his baseball game. Cook Children's hospital was wonderful. They gave ME a nose spray that they call a "pediatric margarita" so she was feeling no pain when the nurse took her from me. I wish they had had an "adult margarita" nose spray for me at that moment!

We went to the waiting room and I started having mental images of what ME was going through. At that moment, a sweet couple sat down next to us and we struck up a conversation. I really think they were put there for a purpose, because the 1 1/2 hours that ME was in surgery went by much quicker because I was occupied with our conversation! Before we knew it, we were up in the room. ME was out of it most of the day, and we all took turns holding her. My dad got to come up for a while because he had the day off of class.

The roughest part of the journey was Monday night. People were coming in at all hours and I ended up sleeping on a plastic lazyboy holding ME. Someone came in at 4 in the morning to draw ME's blood. I am sure you can imagine how that went over! I don't remember a longer night than that one!

Tuesday, ME was feeling much more like herself. I included two pictures to demonstrate the resiliency of children. The second picture was taken 24 hours after surgery! Her doctor took a look at her last night and said that she needed to give up her room for a child who was actually sick. We have never been so excited to be home!

Today has gone well. ME has been having bladder spasms which are painful but expected. She will be walking, stop, cry for a few seconds, then be fine.

Thank you, thank you to all of you for your show of love and support! Thank you, Mom for going through the whole ordeal at my side. Thank you, Michael, Jilinda, Kristen, Kevin, Sam, Seth, and Dad for visiting us! Thank you, Lauren, for taking care of Matthew after school! Thank you Mimi, Big Mack, and Aunt Shari for taking care of Thomas. Thank you, Joy, for coming up to the church building Sunday night to retrieve my purse that I left that morning! I have never done that! I must have been preoccupied. Thank you Bryon for being Super Dad! I love you ALL!

We're home!

Home has never looked so good! We were released a few hours ago and are home again. Mary Elizabeth is doing incredibly well. I am amazed by her recovery. Mom and I, on the other hand, have had 1-2 hours of sleep in the past 40 hours. We are exhausted so I will fill in details tomorrow.

Thank you so much for your prayers and encouragement!

Update on Mary Elizabeth

This is Lauren guest blogging...

Elizabeth called me and said that Mary Beth is out of surgery, and everything went well! She is acting very subdued, but that is to be expected. I talked to her on the phone and asked her how she was feeling and she replied, "Where Jamsey go?". I took that as a good sign that she is getting back to normal. She will go home tomorrow night or Wednesday morning. Thank you for your prayers!

Happy Easter!

 
 
 
 

Happy Easter, everyone! I told the kids to enjoy the snow this morning, because it will probably be the only time in their lives, should they choose to reside in Texas, that it will snow on Easter. There are only three times in recorded history that it has snowed in our town in April!

Bryon took the boys down to his Aunt Bernie's farm to hand off Thomas. I will miss him dearly, but he will have a great time with the grandparents, aunt, uncle, and cousins. I am feeling anxious about tomorrow and am ready for next week to get here. I was fine until the nurse told me about intubating ME. I just didn't need that visual. Our concern at the moment is that she had a fever on Thursday (for a few hours) and has been coughing ever since. She hasn't had a fever for 2 1/2 days, but if she has one tomorrow, they will postpone the surgery. I am praying this doesn't happen!

ME's surgery is scheduled for 9 a.m. I am told that there are computers at the hospital and I will try to update or have Lauren do it.

These are some pictures from yesterday and this morning. ME is wearing a spring coat and hat that my grandmother made for me. It was nice having that coat when I was 2 and living in ILLINOIS! Never thought we would need it here! Her pink dress is the one that my mother made for my sister for Easter 24 years ago. I had a matching one that ME will wear in 5 years!

"I'm dreamin' of a white Easter?"

Sample of crazy Texas weather:
Last Friday, floods and tornados
Last Wednesday, beautiful day in the high 80s.
Today, snowing like crazy!

Huge, beautiful snowflakes are blanketing our bluebonnets. Who would have ever guessed? What an unexpected gift! As for my poor, beautiful plants who have bravely made it through the last few weeks, but will probably succomb to this latest assault, I am channelling my best Scarlett O'Hara and will think about that tomorrow.

 
 
 
 

Friday night pics

 

Wrestling before the game! My boys love to wrestle. I often find them giggling and jumping on each other. No doubt these two are all boy!
 
 











Matthew changes into a coordinating shirt while keeping his baseball pants on. Pictures in the bluebonnets before the game. Matthew has "hat hair" but what else is new? ;)
 















Matthew playing third base. He had three great hits tonight. I love baseball games!

Cool picture!

 
This is a picture taken yesterday at Ft. Erwin. The soldier standing at the right of the picture is my cousin, Matt. Yesterday was his 24th birthday. Matt (my father's brother's son) is from New Mexico, and graduated from West Point two years ago. He was in the first class to graduate who enrolled after 9/11. Matt will go to Iraq probably in July. He is our reminder to pray for our troops!

Wild, whacky, week!

You have heard the expression, "When it rains, it pours." This has been very true this week both literally and figuratively!

This weekend, a washer on one of our toilet pipes came loose and water seeped into our wood floor, den carpet, and the boys' carpet on the other side of the house (but sharing a wall with the bathroom). This was completely unrelated to the flood. I couldn't believe it as we have never had an inch of flooding in our entire history of home ownership! We had to cut out the carpet pads and have fans drying the foundation and carpet. I think our den carpet is salvageable, but the boys carpet has got to go. Matthew is extremely allergic to mold so we are going with a fresh start. I am thinking black shag to hide all the future staining, or perhaps keeping it just the foundation and putting in a drain so I can hose down the room daily! ;)

Then yesterday, Thomas had his first case of hives which covered 3/4 of his body. This child, who absolutely never complains of aches or pains (other than those his brother inflicts) was miserable with itches last night. His eyes were swollen and his limbs were red and warm to the touch. He had welts all over his little body. Poor baby! I took him in today and the doctor said to keep him on Benedryl and we will do some testing if it happens again. He didn't eat anything unusual and didn't have a but bite that we could see. Very curious!

All this as we start the giant task of distributing children for our ordeal next week. My in laws are keeping Thomas and he is very excited to go to Conroe "all by myself!" Lauren is helping with Matthew after school, and Bryon will be helping with Matthew and possibly coming to the hospital in the evening. My parents are coming up and helping as well. Experiences like this are always so humbling as loved ones step up to the plate and offer their time, service, love, and prayers!

Approved

 


Well, we just heard back from our insurance agency today offically approving ME's surgery next week. We will be in the metroplex for a few days and then returning home for a week long recovery. Please say a pray for our little girl on Monday!

Friday

 
 
 
 

What a day yesterday! We have had a week of crazy weather with the grande finale occurring last night. All week, we have had tons of rain. Two of our baseball games were cancelled because of it.

Yesterday afternoon, it started to pour and the local weather cut into Oprah. A tornado was heading our way and the sirens sounded. Matthew knows just enough about tornados to be dangerous and was yelling, "We are going to die!! I just know it!!" Over and over. He tried to convince me to drive away from the storm, but of course, due to the torrential rain and hail, this wasn't going to happen!

The tornado cloud just passed us, but the flash flood did not. In a matter of minutes, I watched my backyard fill up like a bathtub. Schlitterbahn could have opened a new waterpark back there!

After the storm passed, I took one walk around the back yard to survey the damage. At some points, the water was up almost to my knees. I knew there was nothing I could do about it, so I told the kids to put their bathing suits on and have at it.

At this point, Matthew exclaimed that this was the best day of his life! There are 10 young kids who live in my house, my next door neighbors house, and across the street from us. They all got geared up for major water fun, and I have to admit that seeing their joyful faces took the sting out of watching my perennials float down the street.

We ended up letting them play for hours and we all ordered pizza together for a fun and spontaneous evening. One of the neighbor boys who is good friends with Matthew even spent the night.

I didn't sleep well hearing the rain all last night, but was pleased to see that we only had minimal damage this morning. I just need to shove my dirt back where it belongs and replant some flowers. It could have been much worse! Last year's tornado in May was definitely worse.

Today, I finally got my hair hightlighted after ME exclaimed, "I have yellow hair and Mommy has black hair!" We took professional pictures in the blue bonnets tonight as well and I am excited to see how they turn out.

The good news is that with our record breaking, 9 inches of rain this month, even if we don't get another ounce of rain this year, we won't have to water ration this summer. Yippee!

Before and After

 
 
 
 




The first two pictures were taken this morning. The ground is completely saturated with all of the rain from earlier this week.







The second two were taken after a flash flood and tornado warning roared through this afternoon. Gotta love Texas weather. Lots of stories. Please say a little prayer for this area as we are expecting two more waves of this tonight! Will update later...

Thomas and Mary Elizabeth

 
 
 
 

When I found out I was going to have 2 boys and a girl, I was expecting the boys to be extremely close (or at least hoping!). What I didn't think about was the close relationship that my younger two would form. Thomas and ME are the best of friends when Matthew is in school. They are my two VERY affectionate children and they love hugging all over each other and holding hands when we are out in public. Lauren says that they get so excited when they see each other in the halls at Mother's Day Out! I can count on my hand the number of tiffs these two have had over their past 2 years together, and I love that ME calls Thomas, "Honey" or "Sweetie" because that is what I call him!

I am really trying to relish these next 8 weeks with Thomas and ME being home together. While I pray that their relationship continues to grow, this will be the only time until they are teenagers that they will spend so much concentrated time alone together in the house. I think I will always feel a little sadness that ME will never have a sister, but at least she will have an awesome older brother to dote on her! Matthew dotes on her as well and ME adores him, but there usually isn't any time where it is just ME and Matthew. What a lucky girl having two older brothers!

What have I been up to?

I can't believe it has been more than a week since I last posted!

Here is what I've been up to:

Last Monday, I watched James for Lauren while she was in Italy. I was amazed at how busy he was and how unused to babyhood I have become! I was very sore the next day from holding my big hunka James! He was adorable and my kids fought over who was the best babysitter!

Also last Monday, I had another flower bed dug. To save on cost, and because I am a contol freak, I ended up buying my own plants and putting them in the bed myself. The bed is huge and it took me several days to get it just right, but now I have another completed flower bed! Now, I just have to wait until blooming season!

Bryon left for Las Vegas on Wednesday and didn't come home until late Saturday night for business. This is always difficult, but my parents helped out a lot taking Matthew to and/or from his activities. I don't rest well when Bryon is gone and spend too much time cleaning when I should be relaxing. We were thrilled to see him Sunday morning and feel so blessed that he made it home safely.

Today, we had a deluge and most of my new flower bed is underwater. It should be this way for the rest of the week, so we are going to try to stay dry and enjoy a small respite from baseball!

End of Spring Break

I can't believe it is already Sunday night! Our 9 days of togetherness is over. What a blessing to be ready for the kids to be home all week and ready for school to start again tomorrow!

We had a good week. Bryon is buried in work right now, so it was lots of time with me playing with the kids. At times this was hard, but I reminded myself of how nice it was to not have anywhere in particular to be. We spent tons of time outside, making picnics, going on nature walks, and reading books. One of our nature walks occured after a heavy rain, and I got to pull the boys out of the mud. The mud was so thick that their shoes came off firmly entrenched in the soggy earth! That was a gross walk back home!

Today was a huge gardeners gathering in the small town that we live in. We all had a great time doing kids activities, listening to bagpipes (my boys' favorite), picking up free plants, and talking to people who enjoy gardening as much as I do.

This week, the bluebonnets came out in full force. This is always a happy time and a stressful time. Time to get the perfect bluebonnet picture. Unfortunately, this has become more and more difficult the more kids we have had. Wish us luck this year!


Looking forward to a good week!

Spring is in the Air!

What a joyful feeling! I am completely enjoying hanging out in the backyard, grilling on the patio, taking in the beauty of redbuds and pear trees, and playing with all three kids this week! Michael and Jilinda came this weekend and took the boys back home on Sunday with them. Michael took the day off of work and played with the boys the entire time. They enjoyed going to a professional soccer game, swimming, playing tennis, go-carts, putt putt golf, batting cages, and NASCAR driving! Poor kids had to come home to boring old me! I love Spring Break and have enjoyed every second of relaxing time. What a gift!


We love getting the Hummer our of hibernation!
 












We love hanging out outside!
 












Watching the redbud bloom!
 










Time to take shirts off!