A Fun, Dress-Up Kind of Weekend

We had a busy weekend - filled with costumes, face paints, candy and bouncy houses. On Saturday, we went to the Fall Festival at church. Costumes welcome.The boys played all kinds of games (ring toss, penny toss, cake walk, etc) and jumped in the bouncy houses for about 3 hours straight. Nothing like jumping in the bouncy house dressed as your favorite super hero:

JD is a blue power ranger, and Ryan is Captain America.

Well, I love to dress up as much as the kids do, so I threw a quick outfit together and went as a Band Groupie. It's fitting. . . .my husband is in the band.



 

And as if that wasn't enough, we went to Awana on Sunday evening and it was Noah's Ark Night, so we had to dress up or paint our faces like an animal that went on the ark.

 

Brooks was a tiger (painted by Stacie): 

 

JD was a snake (painted by me -- I did checkerboard rather than diamondback. My bad. Oh well. JD didn't care - he loved it and was in total snake character all night.)

Ryan went as a monkey (painted by Stacie. I think she's got a newly-discovered talent.)

I was a cat.

And Stacie had crabby lips.

 

Awana was fun tonight. Lots of kids came dressed up or with their faces painted.

 

Smarty Pants

Ryan is a little smarty-pants. The good kind. I got this picture texted to me by his daycare provider, Mrs. Brown. She's doing their Pre-K assessments this week and she said that Ryan is the only one that recognizes all of his numbers and can put them in the right order.

I'm so proud of my little smarty-pants!!

"Crazy for God" Night

Sunday was "Crazy for God" night at AWANA. So me and boys got a little crazy with our hair. I was so happy that they were good sports about it and let me do their hair in a silly way. It was so much fun!

Praying Hands

**This is an old post from about February. I completely forgot to post it and just saw it in my drafts folder. However, I wanted to post it because it's something I always want to remember.**

On Thursday of this week Ryan woke up sick with a stomach bug. JD was fine and went to school but the nurse called late morning saying that he had gotten sick too. Bud, who stayed home with Ryan, went and picked up JD from school and went home with both boys - throwing up. JD started feeling better pretty soon after they got home but Ryan felt bad most of the day, getting sick every couple hours.

At one point in the afternoon, Ryan woke up from a short nap complaining that he was going to get sick again. Bud grabbed the bucket and held it for him, and out of the corner of his eye, he saw JD climb off the chair, get on his knees, fold his hands and pray to God that he would help Ryan to feel better.

We couldn't be more proud of JD. We love that his instant reaction was to ask God for help. To add to it, Ryan didn't end up throwing up that time, and didn't get sick for the rest of the night either. JD kept talking about how he prayed and God made Ryan better. :)

The Tonsils Will Stay

About 6 weeks ago, I took Ryan to an Ear Nose Throat (ENT) doctor to have his tonsils checked out. (See Say Ahhhh post) They're always so big and I've been concerned that he got my tonsil problems. I had mine removed when I was 17 because I was a carrier of strep and had it all the time. Ryan has only had strep throat once (about 3 months ago) but his tonsils always look infected. So the ENT doc said we should remove them - mostly because I told him that he snores like a grown man, and thrashes around a lot at night. It never seems that he gets into a deep sleep.

So we set the appointment for October 19th which is this Friday. As the date has approached, Bud and I have gotten more and more nervous. I've started having terrible dreams about Ryan every night. Bud has doubted the need for the surgery. So I scheduled another ENT appointment with a different doctor to get a 2nd opinion. Sooooo glad we did that.

When we got there today and he started asking questions, I began answering them the same way I did last time -- he snores really badly, all night, thrashes around, seems to never get good sleep. Then Bud said that he didn't seem to have the same problems when the boys slept with him last month while I was in Europe. They slept in bed with him for 9 nights (they love it when I'm out of town because they get to do this), and they all slept fine. Ryan didn't keep him awake. I suddenly realized that my point of reference was really outdated. The last time Ryan slept with me all night was on our summer vacation last year -- in Galveston, and he was sick, getting over an allergy and sinus infection. Hello Katie!!! I didn't realize it had been that long ago.

So after a few more questions and consultation, the ENT suggested that we wait and see if he improves even more. He said if he snores all night long, or seems to stop breathing in his sleep, he should have them out. Otherwise, there's no need as his tonsils are about the size of many average 4 year olds. I'm so glad we had the 2nd opinion because now we don't have to get the surgery done. Oh, and the doc said that we really have until he's about 11 to do it before it becomes a really bad surgery (like it was for me). He said that kids under 11 still act like kids and recover quickly, but after 11, they act more like adults and the recovery is harder. So we have 7 years to monitor this. Whew!

I was fully convinced that we were going to pay this doctor today to tell us the same thing the other ENT told us. But here we are --- no surgery, healing child, relieved parents, and 7 years to monitor him and change our minds if needed. We'll just keep praying that God heals his little throat and that we'll never need the surgery. I've had lots of people praying for Ryan and this is proof that God heals.

Bud's Newest Toy

So Bud finally sold his white truck - the 1997 Ford F250 - about 2 weeks ago. Since then, he's been on a continuous Craigslist search for another hunting truck within his price range (the amount from the sale of his white truck). This time, he wanted something that had a little lift to it. After hours spent on Craigslist, he finally found it and went and bought it yesterday.

He called as he was driving up the street and told me and the boys to go outside and wait for him. As he drove up, and the boys realized it was him in his new truck, they were very pleased with what they saw. JD's response was a very calm and confident "Now that's what I'm talkin' about!"  And like a parrot, Ryan had the same reaction.

 

As soon as he parked it in the driveway, they ran over to the "monster truck" and jumped in. And when they woke up this morning, they asked me if dad took the monster truck to work. When I said "no," they shreiked with excitement and asked if they could go out and see it -- so that's what they did; they ran outside and admired their new monster truck again. They even came up with a name for it --- "Rocket Blaster" --- and asked if they could paint it on the outside of the truck.

JD was so excited and grateful that he even wrote Bud a thank you letter this morning before he headed off to school.

Goodbye Amo...For Now

After almost 90 years on Earth, we said "goodbye" to Amo (Gloria Basse Blair) today. She passed away on Saturday, Oct 6 of natural causes. What a wonderful, long life she had.

We had the boys make her cards and draw pictures to give her at the funeral, so that's what they did. Ryan wrote her name at the top of his page and his name at the bottom and scribbled on the rest of the page. On the back, I asked him what he wanted his letter to say. He told me and I wrote it down. It said "Dear Amo, I love you. I will pray for you. Love, Ryan." As soon as we were done writing the letter, he folded his little hands and did what he said he'd do, he prayed for her.

JD drew a picture of him and Amo holding hands in the cemetery. There were three tombstones and he put Amo's name on one of them, Apoo's name on one (Amo's husband who passed away in 1998) and Boompaw on the other (Jane's dad who died when Bud was like 12 or so). Then above each one, he wrote how old he thinks they are - 95, 99 and 105. Then he showed the wind blowing with God and Jesus up in the sky. On the back, he wrote this letter:

Love from JD.

We love you Amo.

Have a grat time in heven.

It was the sweetest letter I've ever seen and makes me cry every time I think about it (and I'm kicking myself for not taking pictures of their letters). It's so awesome that he thinks of her death as a time for her to have some great fun up in heaven.

Sometimes I really wonder if we're doing a good enough job at parenting, and then he does something like that, and it makes my heart dance with joy. I'm just so proud of him and his beautiful heart, and his love for God. He says that God is his best friend of everyone. How awesome is that?!

In addition to the card, he also drew her a green garden. He colored flowers on a separate sheet of paper, cut them out, then taped them on the garden so they stood up straight on the page. It was beautiful and creative, and just the perfect piece of art to send Amo off to heaven.

The funeral was very nice and she had lots of people there to celebrate. I'm glad she's out of her discomfort now. The nurse said that she heard Amo in the bathroom at 6am praying to God that he would take her, she was ready to go. Then the nurse went back to check on her two hours later and she had passed away. I consider her pretty lucky to have been able to call her timing -- ready to be done, ask God for that, then have it given to her. 90 years is a long time to live and she was a very blessed woman.

Dance with the angels Amo!

Oct 31, 1922 - Oct 6, 2012