Vacation

Last week we went on vacation to Oklahoma City, OK. I know that probably seems like a strange place to spend a week of vacation, but we got to spend the week with family. Yes it was hot and no there was no beach but we had a great time visiting and playing with cousins, aunts and uncles that we only get to see about once a year.

We traveled by different means and times, Jared, my parents, Noah and Seth drove the 10+ hours from Nashville to Oklahoma City, while I flew with my grandmother and Riley on Friday morning. As a funny side note, Mama (my grandmother) was tagged as a special security risk at the Nashville airport. This meant it took longer for us to get through security, while they frisked my 87 year old grandmother. This was even more ridiculous given the fact that she did not have a bag with her, but Riley and I stood right next to her with a carry-on suitcase and a diaper bag and were not given a second look.

The kids spent the week playing with their cousins, Lane and Sloane, while the rest of us spent time catching up and enjoying the week off from our regular schedules. The week included a trip to the children's science museum, the Oklahoma City zoo, a couple of trips to the neighborhood pool, a water park, and lots of playtime at Aunt Kay and Uncle Web's house and Lane and Sloane's house and playroom.

We also got to meet the newest member of the family. My cousin Courtney welcomed her first son, Cannon, on Friday morning before we arrived. He is beautiful and it was great to get to see him while we were there.

Cannon


Cannon, Courtney and Clint

Car

As many of you know back in May we had to sell Jared's 1999 Isuzu Rodeo, for the past several years we have spent thousands of dollars keeping it going and emissions passable for registration. This year when we discovered the computer was going bad and the air compressor had gone out on the air conditioner Jared finally admitted that it was no longer worth fixing.

For the past 2 months we borrowed his parents extra car while he looked for a new car. He really wanted a truck, but with gas prices being almost $4/gallon he decided to go with a smaller car. After much research, we have a new car. A 2008 Toyota Yaris, bright blue, hatchback. I call it the bubble car and I think Jared looks weird driving such a small car, but I'm very happy with the gas mileage and the way it drives.

These cars are in such high demand that we actually had to put money down on a car the the dealership was supposed to get, but had not even been made yet. Jared reserved the car at the beginning of July and we were finally able to pick it up this week.

Growth

Back in May I wrote about planting the garden and posted a very cute picture of Riley helping Jared plant some tomatoes. Here is a reminder;


Here we are a couple of months later and our garden has grown from a patch of dirt and a few small plants to the bounty shown here.



But the picture that shows the most growth is this one....


The garden has exploded and we are starting to reap the rewards of our watering, weeding, and other work, but these three have grown even more. Noah will be 4 on Sept. 10, Seth 3 in Oct., and Riley will be 2 in Nov., we have spent the last 4 years feeding, nurturing, loving, and teaching them everyday. I have spent countless hours in prayer on their behalf and praying for God's wisdom and grace in raising them. And while we do see some rewards for all of this work, I know that it may be years and decades before we see the end results of some of this work. In fact, we might never see the results of some of our work.

It has been an amazing 4 years of motherhood, both harder and more fantastic then I could ever have imagined and there is not one single moment I would trade for anything in this world. Each moment is precious and fleeting. Watching them grow alongside the garden is visible proof of how quickly it all happens and how brief our time to nurture them really is. There are times I wish I could slow everything down and truly appreciate each second before it is gone, of course I would be lying if I didn't admit that there are also times I would love to fast forward through, but there is nothing I would rather be doing. I have been given 3 of the most precious and wonderful of God's creations to love and help grow, what could possibly be better? Now if it was just as easy to keep safe as that garden behind them!!!!

Peaches

Peaches, peaches, peaches. Those were the main things we talked about this weekend. Last year we did not get any peaches off of our two peach trees because of a very late freeze. This year we have 2 trees loaded with White Freestone peaches. On Friday afternoon I picked our first 2 peaches of the season and once Jared got home from work we picked an overflowing 5-gallon bucket of ripe peaches.

After eating at least a peach each, we cut up and froze a couple of gallon bags worth and are going to venture into canning a few quarts this week. I also made a fresh peach cobbler for dessert Saturday night. We still have a lot of peaches on the tree and one tree is still a couple of weeks away from being ripe and ready to pick. So, if you want some fresh peaches, come on over we've got plenty.


The kids and the 5-gallons worth of peaches piled up on the picnic table.



A picture of our homemade cobbler on Saturday night.

Summertime Fun

In a brief reprieve this week from our house of sickness, the kids and I were able to enjoy a morning of fun with our good friends Annalayne and Leeanne Lackey at the pool on Tuesday. While some of the bugs still remain, Jared is sick now and Noah has a new sore throat (we are awaiting his 24 hour strep test results) we did have a couple of days to enjoy our slightly cooler weather this week. Here are a couple of pictures of the kids enjoying rest/snack time at the pool.

In a comic twist on my strep throat, I started my penicillin on Monday with no problems as usual. By Monday night I had a very itchy rash on my back after taking some Benadryl it stopped itching and started to go away. Tuesday morning within 10 minutes of taking my third dose of penicillin the rash had spread over my whole body, needless to say, I am now allergic to penicillin and had to call the doctor and get a new prescription. It seems as though I am finally on the road to recovery, if I could just get everyone else well and life back to "normal".

Don't you wish you were us?

The weekend at our house was a washout. We started the weekend with Seth having a fever on Thursday and Friday, this was after Riley having a fever on Tuesday and Wednesday, and Noah getting a fever on Friday night. Sometime during the night I, Camille, started with a fever, stomachache, and headache on Friday. This was followed by a weekend of Jared taking care of everyone while I slept the better part of the weekend.

While everyone else got better, I did not. Finally after not sleeping last night and barely being able to swallow or sleep Sunday night, I went to the doctor this morning where they confirmed what I already knew (I know what you're thinking and you are wrong) I have strep throat. This lead to Jared spending a couple of hours at the pediatrician's office getting all of the kids tested for strep throat, thankfully they were all negative.

I think Jared is ready to go back to work. He made the comment on Sunday, " I can't wait for you to feel better, I'm exhausted". I replied, "Why are you exhausted, this is my everyday", except he didn't clean the house or do laundry. Oh well, at least I got to sleep through most of my fever, aches and pains, and the kids got feed and played with.

Doctors, Dentist, and more

Our 2nd son, Seth, is adorable, charming, active, engaging, and accident prone. In the past 6 months we have seen the doctor for a limp, which thankfully went away on its own, but which required us to wait for a cancer screening test. A dentist for when he fell getting out of his car seat and slammed his mouth into the middle seat of the minivan. Thankfully, he only has his baby teeth, but his beautiful smile now has a gray front tooth. We have to wait and see what will happen, but hopefully it will not get infected and he will just have a few more years with a gray tooth.

Then last week he caught his right thumb in the back of the sliding door on the minivan. I think they need to have pressure sensors on the back of those doors also. He had pushed the button to close the door and then walked toward the back of the van. He put his hand on the van just close enough to the door that when it shut it closed on his thumb. One trip to the ER, 3 x-rays, and a swollen thumb later we were happy to learn that it was not broken, (we thought it wasn't broken, but wanted to make sure). Unfortunately, his thumb is still locked at the top knuckle in a bent position. We have made an appointment to see a pediatric orthopedic specialist on July 9th to see what the problem might be. A friend of ours is a resident in pediatric orthopedics, and after seeing Seth's thumb at church yesterday said he thought it might be "trigger thumb". A problem that he already had but was exacerbated by the trauma to his thumb in the car door episode. This will require a procedure to fix, but should be relatively routine and an easy fix. I pray that he is right and wrong. I don't want Seth to have to have a surgery, no matter how routine, but if it will fix his thumb and take care of a problem, I hope Alfred is right.

Routine is never routine when it involves your child, and no procedure is small when it is your baby having it done. I would greatly appreciate any prayers; prayers for his healing, prayers for the wisdom and knowledge of the doctors, and prayers of peace of mind for me. It is hard to be his mother and not be able to take care of whatever he needs. That being said, I know that God loves him more than I do and that He is control of whatever happens.