Pray Always

The lesson today at church was to always be in prayer or have a prayer in your heart. But, after what I had recently witnessed I don't think that should always be the case....
The bedtime routine in our home is to have the kids gather around as we read the scriptures as a family. Then we have a family prayer. That is simple enough. Right?
Afterwards, we have the kids march upstairs and do their final "bedtime" routine. That is they go to the bathroom, brush teeth, set out clothes for tomorrow, etc. 
Well, as they were all doing that I shouted to them all, "Say your personal prayers before I get up there!"
A few minutes later, I walked up stairs and saw Justice standing in the bathroom at the top of the stairs. He was saying his bedtime prayer. ".....And thank you for my mom and dad. Please help me to be a good boy. In the name of Jesus Christ.....", as he had his underpants down to his ankles and had a firm hold on his little tail with pee streaming out of it. I quickly said, "Justice! Not now! That is not reverent. Wait until you are done peeing. Then you say your prayers kneeling at your bed." He just looked up at me with a huge smile and those big brown eyes of his. 

I love that boy.

FYI - "Tail" is what we call "Penis" in our home. It has been that way for a couple of years now; ever since Hope told us she wanted a tail like Courage and Daddy. It makes sense. It is in the right area and it hangs like a tail.

I'm famous

I just discovered that my blog is listed on Alphainventions.com. The blog post I first found on there was "Waking from the Land of Nod." I must admit that that is one of my favorite posts also. I think David likes it too, even though he acts like he doesn't.
After the initial grumble from him about it.... "Tera, that's not even funny! Why would you do that?!.. et cetera..., I caught him secretly looking at it while in mass hysteria of laughter.
But, I wonder how my post got on the alpgainvention site...? It is a mystery that may never be explained. But, I am just glad someone appreciated what I had to say enough to share it with such a huge audience.

Related post:
http://amsbury.blogspot.com/2009/11/waking-from-land-of-nod.html

My Big Secret

Ok, against my better judgment I am going to share some totally exciting news with you, because I just HAVE TO talk about it....

I AM PREGNANT!

The last pregnancy ended horribly and that is the hesitation for sharing the news this time. But, I just have to talk about it. Plus, our kids know already and are begging to tell their friends.  And, everything so far is looking fantastic! Hormone levels are really strong. I am sicker than a dog, exhausted, and I have some crazy cravings. I have an ultrasound to make sure everything "looks" good on the December 14th. I am a little nervous for that one. My last ultrasound was a disaster.


Anyway, David and I have decided to only share with people who read my blog. We want to be happy about it and not telling anyone almost feels like a defeatist attitude. However, I am still a little scared. So, I ask that you also keep your discussions about it limited to this blog. Please don't talk about it at church. Don't mention it on facebook. Let this just be our secret for a little while longer.  Then when I say, feel free to discuss amongst yourselves. I just don't want to tell everyone I see the bad news that I lost another one... Should it happen - and then to get all the sympathy looks and gifts... (But, I think this one will take. :) Pray for the baby anyway... Thanks....

OK... So be happy for me. And expect some crazy future blogging from me because I have some crazy happenings going on already involving this pregnancy.

BTW - I am 6 1/2 weeks today. The baby is due July 29th, 2010. His name will be Honour. Yes. I can feel it is a boy!

Dr. Mom to the Rescue

I the midst of illness and writhing pain, I would tell my dad at times when growing up, "Dad, my stomach hurts." "Does your face hurt?” he'd reply. "No", I'd answer. "We'll it's killing me!” He would always end with.
I learned to go to my mom whenever I was sick.... She would run me a steamy hot bath, make me some "suicide tea", give me a glass of juice to wash it down with, and pump me full of white willow bark, Echinacea, and golden seal root. And, then she would lather me up with Sunbreeze, which in the natural equivalent to Vapor Rub. But because it was natural, I even had to put it ON my tongue.

Moms are the doctors in the home. Even in my own home, David may have the medical diploma out for everyone to see, but I do the doctoring.
When Hope gets one of her many UTIs, David just says "that girl!", and continues whatever he is doing. I on the other hand give David his script pad and tell him to not come home until he has an antibiotic in hand.
Tonight Faith came in our room crying that her stomach hurt and she felt like she was going to throw up because her throat hurt, too. David gave her blank stares. I on the other hand administered Pepto and gave her a sore throat lozenge. She is currently sleeping peacefully.
The other day when Justice got into whatever "yellow water" that poisoned him for 6 hours David went to work. But, I cleaned up after Justice, kept him full of fluids, called poison control, and ultimately took him to the ER.
When Courage was younger and almost died from his infection, who wanted to wait out the fever until morning? And, who rushed Courage to the ER? You guessed it. David waits. I rush. The doctors said he would have been dead by the morning. And, waiting even a couple more hours would have required amputation of his leg.
Yet, somehow David feels justified in making fun of me to his doctor friends and peers, because I take charge when the kids are in sickly peril. Why? Because after all HE is the doctor.... And, I am the lowly stay at home mom.
But, answer me this... Are we dealing with vaginas? Who needs their uterus taken out? Yeah. That's what I thought. And, who is the one who takes initiative when the kids are sick? Right-O! It's me.
So next time you feel inclined to joke about "Dr. Mom"..... SHUT IT! Dr. Mom ALWAYS comes to the rescue. And, Dr. Mom is always right. It's called "Motherly Intuition." Don't mess with Momma.
As a side note... David is a FABULOUS ObGyn! If you are prego, have a rank or "cheesy" wahoo, need your uterus yanked, or even need your fallopian tubes roto-rootered go to him. He's your man.

Oh My!!! What Now????

Well, if CPS didn't call you yesterday. They might today.
I was woken up this morning at 5:30 am by Justice. With my eyes closed and as I was still trying to sleep, I heard Justice gagging by the side of my bed. He sputtered out, "Mommy, the yellow water hurts my tongue. Mommy I keep throwing up." Upon hearing that, my eyes shot open to see that he was covered in throw-up and had foam around his mouth and hanging like a beard down his chin to his chest.

I FREAKED!

I jumped out of bed and ran to the bathroom to get David who was showering. I told him to get out and repeated to David what Justice said to me. David hit panic mode, also. I rushed to see what Justice could have swallowed. And only found a sippy cup with water. David tasted the water and said that it had a soap aftertaste. But, we couldn't imagine that a soapy residue could have this effect of a 3 yr old.

Just to be sure, I gave him some milk to coat his stomach.

So, I watched Justice for a while to make sure he was doing OK.... He fell asleep and then woke up vomiting again. It was the milk that came up, very thick and in huge curds. He started begging me to take him to the hospital. His belly hurt severely and he had back pain, and vomiting.

I called poison control. They thought that it sounded like soap residue. And they told me to give him fluids. I did.

But an hour later they called back and I could only tell them that he wouldn't stop vomiting and crying to go to the hospital. They told me that that is not normal for dish soap residue and that I needed to take him to the hospital at that point.

I decided to give Justice a bath because he was covered in vomit. Then he decided he was better, and appeared to be looking better. I wanted to test that so I took Justice across the street to his friends to see if he in fact felt better. The last thing I wanted to do was walk into the ER with this same child - AGAIN.

But after about 5 minutes of being with friends, Justice said he wanted to go home. I knew at that point that we really should go to the ER. Plus, when we got back home from visiting friends Justice threw up all the water that he had just drank. He was keeping nothing down.

I got us ready, grabbed Justice, a blanket, and a throw-up bucket, and drove to the hospital. We met David at the ER. And, the nurses took us right back. Everyone just laughed (thankfully) at his crazy antics and misfortunes this last month. I am now getting pretty uneasy when I walk in to the ER carrying Justice... again, and again, and again.

We were in the ER for about an hour and a half so Justice could be observed. Since we really didn't know what he drank there was nothing we could do but wait and see what happened... No work up....

As time went on, he did improve in his demeanor and appearance. Of course at that point we were 6 hours into the whole ordeal.

The nurses gave him about 15 stickers and 2 popsicles, which he loved! I am glad he ate the popsicles and kept them down. But, notice the bed pan that came with the popsicles? I almost needed one too because I was going to start puking! He was EATING over it. I know it was sterile, but still. So, SOOOOO GROSS!

The doctor said 6 hours is the worry period. After that, if nothing happens, all is well.

We were then signed out of the hospital, but told that if Justice throws up again he needed to go back in.

Well, driving home Justice became sick again. His belly and back started hurting again. And, he demanded that I give him the bucket to throw up in and also that I turn the car around to go back to the hospital.

Sadly, I knew there was nothing they could do, so I went home knowing Justice had to make it through this.

When we got home Justice immediately fell asleep and collapsed on the stairs. To avoid any further accidents, I grabbed him and took him up stairs to his own bed. But, he still felt like throwing up and wanted the bucket, so I gave it to him. He put it on his face and fell asleep with it there.

Happily, I can say that when he woke up from his nap, it was like it was all a dream. He looked, felt and acted perfectly fine! Whatever was in his little system, left in 7 hours.