So, umm, where have I been? Here and there and everywhere! I can’t believe it’s been since the 17th of November that I last posted anything. So much for keeping up with this thing! I never was good with diary’s.
Anyway, here we are in 2007 and it doesn’t feel any different then 2006. Since I last posted, we “got” a new nephew, Mason David born Nov 23. We celebrated Thanksgiving and I’m very proud to announce that I didn’t gorge myself this year. I had one plate, with a little bit of everything and could still breath upon getting up from the table. My birthday rolled around again. I’m now 27. I’ve never been afraid to get older. In fact, I’ve always looked forward to each year added to my age. So I won’t be joining the other women who are always “29”.
My last post showed the upstairs remodeling project. Well, we are living up there now, with only the trim, stenciling and a border for the girls room left to do. Adam thinks it’s a lot, but compared to what has already been done, it’s just peanuts. My mother was due to come here on Dec 18 thru the 29th for Christmas, so it was a huge push to get it livable again. The new floor upstairs looks gorgeous! Adams’ brothers came over one Saturday to help put it down and it went pretty smoothly (of course I can say that. I didn’t help.). We decided to sand and re-finish the kitchen floor and I’m glad we did. But I wasn’t so happy about it while we were doing it. Our kitchen has 100 year old maple on the floor, which is very hard and had 100 years worth of junk on it and in it. We didn’t get it perfect nor does it match the dining room perfectly (which was done by a professional a few years ago before we bought the house). But it is lighter and it does look better. Are we glad that we’ve “redone” what we have upstairs? Yes. We are very happy with the results. Would we have done it if we knew it would take 4.5 months and $4,000? No!! But I suppose that’s how it goes when one owns a house, esp. an old one.
My mother did come for Christmas, as did my sister and her husband. We had a wonderful time! I was a bit nervous about it because comments have been made (by my sister) about how “perfect” my life is (yeah right!) and how much of a screw-up she is. Let me get it out right now, just in case you don’t know this: I am not perfect! I make as many mistakes as the next person does. And I’m just as embarrassed about how stupid I can be as anyone else. The continuous stupidity of mine is what makes God’s forgiveness so remarkable. I think of the many, many times as a parent you’ll say to your children, “How many times do I need to say this?” or “How many times are you going to do that?”. I think of the endless times, as God looks down on me, He shakes His head at my actions or words. “How many times do I need to say this to you, Jennifer?” and “How many times are you going to do what I have already made very clear to you not to do?”. Oh, the patience of God! The love that He has for us!
Anyway, we had a good time, until Malachi decided he wanted to shake things up a bit. He must have been bored or something. Because on Thursday, Dec 28, he tried on the color blue. Only it was his face that turned blue, which gave this Mama a scare that I do not want to repeat (I may sound a bit flippant now. But rest assured, at the time, it was anything but comical). I had never been in an ambulance before. But ridding in two different ones in less then 48 hours was not what I had in mind for a tour. When he turned blue here at home twice, my mother drove us to the clinic. Once there, they called the ambulance to take us to Rhinelander. They admitted us after 3 hours in the ER, under the diagnosis of pneumonia. Upon observation over night, and his heart rate going all over the place while he was sleeping, it was decided he did not have pneumonia. Out doctor, who is fantastic!, thought he might have SVT and contacted a pediatric cardiologist at the Marshfield Hospital (about 2 hours from Rhinelander). Friday night, it was decided to transport us to Marshfield so the cardiologist could look and observe Malachi herself. Hence, the second ambulance ride.
We got there at around 10:50 pm. Even at that time of night, there were people right away ready to work on him and do what’s needed. At around 2 am, we got the diagnosis that it defiantly is SVT. We were discharged Sunday morning and got home around 8:30 pm. The children, and Adam at night, stayed with some very dear friends of ours. They live about 40 min away from the hospital, so it was such a blessing and a relief to have them there and taken care of. Now Malachi is on a beta-blocker (blood pressure medication) for 3 months. At that time, we will take him off it and see it the high heart rate returns or if it has “taken car of itself”.
The Lord had his hand in all this, I can see that clearly. My sister and mother were planning to travel 2.5 hours south on Thursday and I was supposed to watch my two nephews. But that morning both Isaac and Malachi woke up with high fevers. So my nephews didn’t come over. And they decided not to travel, so when Malachi turned blue and I needed to get him medical help fast, I wasn’t at home by my self with 6 children.
Sorry this post was so long, but I had a lot to catch you up on. And now, just for my husbands’ sake, I’ll stop writing my book. I’ll try to be better at consistently writing…..But don’t hold your breath. I have blogs that I read by women who have many children, run households, ect., and yet they post almost everyday. How? Maybe I should write them and ask them their secrets. It’s worth a try, I suppose….
Good night all!
PS when our camera is up and working again, or when we get a new camera, I’ll post pictures of our upstairs. And my mother~in~law took pictures of Malachi in the hospital with all the wires stuck to him. I’ll ask her for it and post that too. He looks like my little Borg baby.