spring is on its way!

Melt snow - CHECK 
HUGE puddles formed - CHECK
Puddle boots purchesed & in use - CHECK
Spring... bring it on.
Tallen is ready!
this ginormous puddle is in the mulch covered area where the play set is near the club house. He wanted to put those puddle boots to the ULTIMATE test before the school bus came the other day.  He makes me laugh. Such a fun kid.

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.7

Tallen and the Priesthood

Sariah was assigned to give a talk today at church. Her first one and she’s sick and won’t be giving it.  She feels bad and she feels bad about not giving the talk.  I made the call and explained. Sariah will give a talk another day. All is well…

KINDA.

Sariah feels rotten. I told her she needs a blessing when Daddy gets home from his camp out. That’s when Tallen – age 41/2 - offered to give her a blessing instead.

“I’ll give her a blessing. I can do it!”

I explained that he was not big enough yet.

“I can get the stool.”

I explained that he needed to have the priesthood. That he would get that when he is 12. He gently reminded me that he HAS it. I asked him “where do you keep your priesthood.”

“In the storage unit” was his sweet reply.

This kid cracks me up!!!!

(I did explain more about how it all works. About being 12 and the authority and all the important things like not keeping your priesthood in the storage unit.)

WELCOME Spring!

Winter is the time to huddle close and get to know our families all aver again. To sit and read, knit, or play games by the fire. I understand that God made the seasons so the earth would have a chance to also huddle close and regenerate and rejuvenate. Winter is quite beautiful in it’s white and crystalline splendor.  Clean and bright. Like…well, clean and bright “whites.” There’s nothing like it. The snow and ice on the window panes. The scraping of the windshield. The plowing or snow blowing of the driveway and sidewalk. The COLD and the bundling up to go outside.  Seeing your breath in clouds above your head. Having your nose run and then freeze to your face. Gotta love Michigan winters. ENOUGH winter though!!! It's March. I am still hoping that it will be warm enough on Easter to have an OUTSIDE egg hunt this year.

This is the face of a boy who is VERY happy to play outside without boots to weigh him down and snow pants to slow him down. I am soooo over winter! It took a while to get here and I was ok with that. Overall, we had a mild winter. The girls had 2 snow days and the hill at the park was not even sled worthy until we had the huge storm that caused the snow days.  Steven took the kids out, I think, 6 times and I even took Tallen over for a play date once.  I know – shock- right? I was a mild day.  And my feet didn’t fall asleep in my new boots.  yea!!!!

It appears that spring is here.  I am hoping it's going to stay. Here is the first really warm day we had on the 6th.  It was 50 degrees that day. Only the snow hiding in the corner was still there.


I have waited all winter to do this. The air was crisp and cool. The sheets dried quickly and smell so GREAT!  There are few things about spring I like more than hanging the clothes to dry and then getting to feel the warmth of them and smell the spring air in them as I take them down and fold them.  Ahhhhhh – Spring!!

        BEAUTIFUL!!

The canal in the back is filling with life…in one week, the frozen canal has quickly transformed from this…



…to this! The Canada Geese are returning and filling the air with goose honks and the yard with droppings.

The boy birds were out trying to get the girl birds attention, singing their hearts out.

Only the end of the canal (2 doors down) has ice by afternoon.  Very exciting for all.  Tallen took his little Lightning McQueen fishing pole to practice casting the line and the pair of geese didn’t like it, so they left for a while.  They are nesting in the yard 2 doors down (the other direction.)  I hope we get a nesting pair in our backyard. That would be fun.




Here’s the garden. Waiting for some love. I need to plot it out on paper and put the seeds to start.  I started way too late last year and some were not ready for harvest in time. Or were too hot by the time they were big enough…peas don’t like heat.  I need to put the lettuce and peas in today so they will get ready in time.  Yummy!! Fresh salad.  I can hardly wait!



As warm as the days are lately, the nights are still in need of a cozy fire, so Steven cut some wood for us yesterday before he left for work. 


Tallen was such a big help!























 Tallen hauled the wood to the porch and they stacked it on the porch.


This is what spring looks like at my house…
What about yours???

Mama’s Biggest Helper

Tallen cracks me up!  Here, I’ll show you.  I think the pictures speak volumes…

We are out of papertowels. Tallen was helping me get more?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It turned into a “How high can I stack the rolls” project.   

He cracks me up!!

The Pink Stuff!!

I just hate it when one – or more – of my children are sick!! It breaks my heart and I just melt inside for them. On the other hand, they DON’T tend to get into as much trouble when they just lay about…hmmmmm. Much to consider.

Tallen woke up at 5:30am yesterday, Saturday, complaining “my throat hurt.” I pulled him in bed with me and lay holding him. He felt rather warm to me but I imagined it was just me in the warm bedroom. (Our room is never the same temperature as the rest of the house.) I felt his chest. His heart was beating VERY quickly! I have to admit that I had never thought to check the girls’ heart rates when they were sick or had a fever…it is only since Tallen was born with WPW Syndrome that I worry about heart rates. I sat up put my lips to his head, very warm…searched franticly for the thermometer to no avail and decided to just take him to the ER.

When Tallen was born and placed in the NICU for something that turned out to be nothing, he was there for 8 days and on monitors when his heart rate sky rocketed one evening. They say it was upwards of 250 beats/min. “Fluttering like a bird’s” they said. He was diagnosed with Wilkes Parkinson White Syndrome (named after the 3 guys who discovered it)

Image via Wikipedia

It means that he has an “extra wire” in his heart that allows the electrical impulse to start at the top, go around and down and then sneak back up to the top every once in awhile. That impulse added to the next “beat” of the heart just keeps going and going and going – thus the pitter pat feeling in his chest. Tallen has only had a few episodes (good) and will have to have surgery at age 9 or so to “zap that extra wire.” Apparently No Big Deal; he just has to be big enough to get through the vein in his leg up to his heart.

Since his birth, my brother Edwin has been diagnosed with WPW and we think my Dad probably had it as well. The doctor tells me that it is not genetically passed down, but whatever! Doctors don’t know everything! I think he told me that so I would not feel bad for giving it to him. But why else would they ask if anyone else in our family had it!?!

Anyway, back to yesterday. It turns out that Tallen’s heart rate was 133 beats/min, he had a 102 degree fever and his throat hurt for a reason. I was told that when you have a fever it is normal for the heart rate to accelerate. His throat is a little red and one of his ears is inflamed, so that means…

‘’ The Pink Medicine ‘’

dun-dun-dun-dun…

I remember LOVING the “pink medicine” – bubble gum flavored I think – right? Tallen HATES it…or maybe he hates that he has to take it. It is a huge battle for each and every dose or it or any other meds for fever and whatnot. THEN, get this, when I loaded him up in the van to go and get the prescription filled after he slept for a bit, he threw up next to Daddy’s favorite shoes in the hall. Poor thing! We took a bucket to Meijer with us (just in case) and he needed it at the pharmacy counter…they filled my prescription QUICKLY, so that’s a plus! (anything to cut in line!)

As of right this minute (2:20pm Sunday) Tallen is under the table playing with his “choo-choo train” and chattering to himself. He seems back to normal except that he hasn’t eaten anything of substance in over 24 hrs. We are trying to hold crackers down now. Updates as they are available.

Update- 7/8/09

The pink stuff never did become a hit with Tallen. I had to hold him down and straddle his legs to even get the syringe in his mouth. Not fun for either of us. THEN, once the meds were in…out they came. He spit it all back out. Two teaspoons worth! Yuck… So, Daddy felt in our best interest to seek professional help. He went to the pharmacy and asked what we could mix with it to make it go down. Guess what! You can mix the pink medicine with almost anything. Steven brought home a cheapy version of sprite and Tallen had “pink pop” for the next 9 days!! Ahhh = success!