Water for Christmas

I have a blog friend named Jody, well, I like to call her friend but she knows much less about me than I know about her thanks to her great blog. Anyway, She and a group of ladies from her area are in the amazing habit of getting involved in ministries and inviting anyone and everyone along.

The current project is WATER FOR CHRISTMAS. Go here to read her blog explaining the need and here to read ideas how to participate in this project and get it going in your area. You can also click on the Button on the side of my blog to go directly to the web site to find out more information and to give to this great cause! What better Christmas gift could you give to anyone?? (quick note: at water4christmas.com when you go to donate, a couple people have said that it is a little confusing. And it is. To donate to Water For Christmas, you need to scroll down to the near bottom of the page and use that donate button. NOT the tab at the top of the page. We can’t track it that way and it won’t go to Water For Christmas..but to a general fund. So scroll down. Use the donate button towards the bottom. Thanks.)

Also you can go to this etsy shop and buy this super cute bracelet made with glass beads from Ghana and the bracelets–which come with an “I Gave…Water For Christmas” card are simple reminders of clean water and the people living without. They are $5 and all proceeds go to Water For Christmas.

I can make a little difference, but together we can all make a BIG difference!

Tid Bits

I always think of little things I want to remember...and need to put them somewhere.

Callie calls her bib her "bit". She eats double fisted with her mouth too full at all times. But will finish anything for desert. Oh, and she is healthy again. : )

William, when asked many questions, instead of saying "nothing" which would be the normal response, he says, "anything". For example. "What is in your mouth?", "anything". "What were you doing in your room?", "anything". He also ocassionally will sing, "What do you do with a curvey pirate" because his friend Jack sings, "What do you do with a scurvey pirate"...not sure where that song came from originally but that's the version we get.

William's driving games

When we drive William likes to hear stories or play games. He likes for us to tell him "Chipmunk Stories". These are any story about chipmunks. Mine usually pertain to what we are doing that day or have done recently. They also often have a Dora-esk feel as we spot land marks on our way to our destination. If I'm particularly at a loss, I will alter a Bible story. Recently the chipmunk was being stubborn and refusing to go to town to set up for a celebration for a particular chipmunk he did not like. He found himself in a dark damp cave for three days until he crawled out and finally obeyed his boss and followed the instructions. Any guesses? There was also one based on the Good Samaritan a while back. Jon's are usually much more environmentally educational, and often include identifying trees to gather the correct nuts, and hiking.

Today on the way to Bible study we played "I spy". I am still trying to get him to understand that you actually have to choose an object that you can actually see before you choose a color. He will just say a color and when I guess an object that seems fun to him he agrees that that was what he spied. Even if the object was not in view when he began. I can also get him to agree by acting very excited about my guess as if I know I'm right, and he'll agree that I'm right.

On the way home we played a new game. He kept telling me to be the "guy who asks the questions". It took me a while to figure out that on this drive we would be playing Cash Cab!! We had points and strikes and he even pretended he was kicked out for having three strikes and then pretended he was new people getting into the cab. It was awesome. He's so much fun.

Sick little girl

Callie is sick. She woke up Friday night saying her mouth hurt. Sure enough, she was getting a molar. I gave her motrin and some oragel. The oragel did not go over well! She didn't like that at all. Since then Jon has given it to her and she's done fine with it. Sunday she was acting fine, a little runny nose. But at church she developed a fever. She felt really warm. We took her into service with us and she slept through the sermon. Since then she has continued to have a fever off and on, though I think it's gone today, hopefully not to return. She also started complaining about her ear Sunday evening and Monday it started draining. So, she must have an ear infection, but since it's been draining it hasn't been hurting her so much. But the drainage is yucky. She keeps touching it too. Yuck.

But through all of her sickness, William has had a runny nose off and on....but no breathing problems!!! A very exciting accomplishment.

Friday is now Family Day

Now that Jon is layed off and needing to have time to do his school work, and I am working random hours, we have chosen that Fridays are Family day. We just do something as a family, I will not work and he will not do school work...unless he has to "catch up". We hope to use these days to do some tourist things around here and make some trips to DC, Philly and possibly further to tour. So, today was the first Family Day. Jon did have to do some reading today so we took a short trip. We went to Jim's Market, a local farmers market/flea market/bakery/ deli/pretzel making/etc, etc,etc shop. It is very eclectic but a must at least once around here. Jon had not been there and I had just been introduced recently. We picked up sandwiches and pretzels and headed to Wilson College for a picnic. After we ate the kids and Jon washed their hands, and faces, in the river and we went hiking. First we stopped by the equestrian center and the kids weren't interested in the horses. They just wanted to climb on the obstacles (not sure if these things are used for horse jumping or not). Then we went on the nature trail. It's along the river and through the "jungle" as William calls it. It's very nice. It's right in Chambersburg but you wouldn't know you were right in town. We also visited the sustainable farm and saw chickens, pigs, sheep, cows and got an apple from the nice lady. : ) William did great hiking. He kept pretending he was a farmer showing us around his fields. He would point out things to us like red leaves. Callie on the other hand pretty much did her own thing the whole time. At first she was 10 yards behind us walking near where we had walked but not the same place. She wanted to stop at every river bank to throw things in the water. She insisted on walking on the edge of the road (not a busy road, more like a drive way) not in the grass where we told her to walk. On the nature trail she was being cute though. Jon was ahead of us showing William the plants and telling him what some of them were so Callie was showing me plants. She would touch one and say, "see?" and I would say, "yes" and she would go to the next stick or leaf and do it again. To make her speed up I told her to run up and show Dad, so she ran up to Jon and started showing him the branches and tall grasses. It was a fun time overall. And now they are sleeping soundly and I am heading that way.

The trouble with "playing" doctor

Callie seemed to be feeling kinda under the weather yesterday. Tiny fever, snuggly. As I took her temperature, William got out the doctor kits. He then began to take her blood pressure. I asked her if it hurt anywhere and she said yes. I asked her where. She said her hand (where he was checking her), then when he stopped I asked again, trying to get a real answer. Her foot, her arm and her mouth were mentioned. I had no idea if she even hurt at all! Last night she woke with a cough that told me that her throat must be sore and when asked she did point to her throat. A straight answer, thank you.

AND it must be mentioned that Callie is now sleeping in her big girl bed! Since Sunday. She has done AMAZING with it!! We weren't sure if we should try before our next trip or rely on the pac-n-play for one more time. She has done so well, I'm glad we tried. She has barely even gotten out, three times at the most!! (per night) Way better than the boy. The crib will be gone ASAP! I will then have NO CRIB in my house!!!!!! (But the pac-n-play will be in relatively easy reach for any baby visitors who might need it.)

Too funny

Jon and our pastor, Earl, are watching the Twins game here this evening (A PA Twins fan, Jon loves it). I've been doing some computer work and have overheard their chatter but not really paid attention. Until the Viagra commercial was on and there was silence! : ) Then half way through one of them spoke up with some other sports related topic. Funny.

Play time today

William was harvesting the fields. Driving his combine around with trailers and dump trucks following it, being filled and heading to the "barn" (cardboard box tipped on it's side) to empty their load and going back to the combine for more.

Callie was feeding her baby. Baby was sitting in an ice cream pail, which was the "car seat". She got a cup filled it in her toy kitchen sink then filled it more in her child care station sink, brought it back to baby and held it her mouth to drink.

Then....Callie went back for more water and William asked her for a drink, so instead of feeding baby, Callie fed William. Then he asked her to watch his tractors work. So, she sat down and watched for a little bit while also sipping her cup of water.

Then, it happened. She stood up, took the "barn" and ran away. He whined, chased her, etc. Finally got his barn back. She was in timeout for "taking other people's things" and he was peacefully harvesting again. When time out ended she went back to her baby.

Purse continued

Callie just got up from her nap. Picked up the purse William had been using, opened it up and said, "hey, don't like that" and proceeded to take out all our tea party supplies, drop them on the floor and then dropped the purse on the floor and walked away to play with something else.

What's in your purse?

Callie ~ Purse is slung over her shoulder or hanging in the crook of her arm with her hand in the air. It contains sunglasses (put on and off and on and off), cell phone (at times she walks around with it stuck between her shoulder and her ear), fake lip stick, fake nail polish (that is only for toes since those are the only nails we paint on her), some flashy jewelery and a toy pacifier (that she likes to use for herself and not for her babies).

William ~ Purse in hand. It contains everything we need for a surprise tea party! Plastic monkeys (used as cookies), a sponge lobster (another food item), a block and two cars (used as cups).

Clarification

William has informed us that he drove away on his "cart" like a monster truck, not a motorcycle. I should have known. Also, he told us that he was "pretending to be in a space ship and going into outer space". My guess is this had to do with falling asleep and counting backwards so I asked him if he counted and he said, "No, the guys did". I remember strange tid bits from all my surgeries, I wonder what his memories are now and what they will be later in life. Jon remembers his mom always running her hand/fingers along/around his face to help him fall asleep. We do this with William and that is how I got him to stop trying to wake up from anesthesia and go back to sleep a little longer until it wore off and he could wake up easier. I wonder if he'll remember that.

Surgery yesterday

Surgery went well! I'm so glad it's over! We got to the clinic early and then waited and waited, but once they took him back it was a whirl wind of people and papers and questions and explainations and he was zoomed away "like a motorcycle" on his bed. He was fearless. He told the nurse, "they are going to drain fluid out of my penis", she got a pretty good laugh out of that. He did a great job. Once he woke up he was pain free and ready to eat and got the promised ice cream. In the evening he started to have some discomfort as the medicine they gave him began to wear off. This morning he's mostly pain free, but seems to hurt a little as the tylenol or motrin is starting to wear off but he is walking (and running and hopping and standing on one leg) as normal. Overall the worst part was the anticipation, I didn't have time to get emotional before hand and the time passed pretty quickly while he was in surgery. Recovery was a little hard to watch as he tried to fight the anesthesia to wake up but once he relaxed and slept a little longer and the anesthesia wore off a bit more then he woke up easily. It was so nice to have a friend along to help pass the time and help with little things afterward too. William could not walk because of the medicine they had given him and could barely sit up either. He thought it was funny that the "medicine made him wiggle" but really it just made him tip over. It was funny and now it is all done! : )

Surgery tomorrow

William has his surgery tomorrow on his little boy parts. Thankfully his lungs are healthy so we can get this taken care of. He's pretty excited about it. I'm not so much. It'll be at Hershey Medical Center, which comforts me some, it's a great facility, and comforts him more - He knows there is chocolate in that town and his only question about surgery was if he can have candy. I promised him ice cream. I was going to be going alone but today Carrie volunteered to go with me! I'm so glad to have someone sit with me and help me pass the time, thank you so much! I am trusting that all will go well, being a nurse means I know too much so I have worried about every possible thing even the ridiculous things. Please pray that all goes well, that I can be strong for William and that he will come out of anesthesia well and have minimal pain.

Blessed

I have been blessed SO much lately! God is definately doing a work in me and taking care of my heart along the way. I have been learning some difficult things about myself and having some struggles with a friend lately, but all along God has been showing me that He loves me dearly and is present ALL AROUND me! I have been encouraged and blessed by so many conversations I have had in the last couple weeks with people from many different areas of my life. It has been so exciting to get to know more women around here and to expand my circle of friends as well as nurture casual friendships I already had. First and foremost my husband has been so amazing!! He has been so thoughtful and encouraging and also gently pointing out things I may have missed in situations. But most of all, he has been there for me and has made it clear that we are in this together. He's incredible. I am excited to be joining a new Bible study. I am really excited to get back into learning more in depth about God and His Word. Also was blessed to see and be able to talk to two past friends that I had lost contact with at our first meeting. One of whom has been on my heart and in my thoughts off and on over the past couple weeks (and Jon even mentioned her once) and I decided yesterday that I needed to call her. That was not going to be an easy call and I would have put it off for some time I'm sure. But today, there she was, and though we only talked for a few moments, she was a blessing and an encouragement and said JUST what I needed to hear! I am also excited to lead a Wednesday evening ladies study at our church and am very excited to meet some more women in our church and build friendships with them. Our kickoff meeting last night went well and I thoroughly enjoyed meeting a few new ladies and catching up with a couple others. Thank you God for being so evident in this place and in our church and comforting me in a difficult but growing time! Now, help me to put into practice the humility and grace that you are in the process of teaching me!

Views

In the most recent newsletter from the camp Jon used to work at in ND, the new cook wrote this, "I think I have one of the most beautiful views in the world from my living room windows. Horses graze with the lush, green hills of the Sheyenne River valley in the horizon." She's right. That used to be the view out my living room windows when we lived in the trailer that used to sit where her house does now. I miss Cooperstown sometimes. (I could only find a winter shot, but also imagine green grass and horses.)






























But, my view here isn't bad either. I like the view of the mountains from our swingset.