Lake Fort Smith

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I'm trying to catch up on posting photos! We went to Lake Fort Smith state park about a month ago (Micah was in school) for the first time and were really impressed with how pretty it was. It's about a half hour drive from our house. People have told us that they've made it a lot nicer in the last few years. There was a great little play area and some hiking trails. We went on a short hike and that was enough for Gabriel.

Coffee bean partners

Yesterday Micah managed to get the coffee bag out of the pantry without me realizing it. I was in the kitchen cleaning up after their snack and heard some rattling and then sounds of something dropping/spilling. So, I looked in the living room and I guess Gabriel had gotten the bag open and dumped at least a day or more serving of coffee beans and he and Micah were picking them up and chunking them across the room. Of course, I got the broom and starting sweeping and every time I would get a little pile (they were everywhere), Micah would follow me and try to disrupt my pile before I could get it in the dustpan. They were just giggling and having a great time. It was another small moment of them playing together that is encouraging, even if it was a mess for me.

This little piggy

Well, it isn't the most quality video, but it's cute. Wayne had been doing "This little piggy" with Gabriel and was encouraging Micah to help him. So, Micah would barely touch Gabriel's little toe and then laugh hysterically. I thought it was neat and a little encouraging that he was willing to touch Gabriel, even in such a small way. The lighting is horrible, but they had been doing it for a little while when I got the camera to video it, so I had to hurry before the opportunity was gone.

Scary Friday

We had a scary situation happen on Friday. Gabriel was had been taking a nap for a couple of hours, woke up crying and rather quickly he got quiet. I didn't think much about it because sometimes he will cry during nap briefly and then go back to sleep. After about 10 minutes I decided to go check on him. When I went into his room, he was convulsing, eyes rolling back, and just limp. I started panicking, screaming, praying and not knowing what to do. I tried to call 911, couldn't get through so I immediately loaded him in the car without fully fastening him in and tore out of the driveway to take him to the ER. I drove like a mad woman to get there, speeding and passing people I shouldn't have been passing and screaming at Jesus (praying). Gabriel was still convulsing and did so all they way to the ER. Thankfully, we live only a mile from the hospital. He stopped once we got there and started crying. I carried him in and they got him back immediately and starting working on him, taking blood, and asking questions. He had gotten up to a fever of 104 when he had started the morning with a really low grade fever.

They did lots of tests, x-rays, and a CT scan to make sure nothing was going on with his brain. So after 6 hours of being there, he was diagnosed with pneumonia but the CT scan was fine. He is on an antibiotic and it has worked well. He hasn't even been acting like a kid who is sick. We kept him in all weekend per Dr.'s orders and it has been driving him crazy that he couldn't go outside! He's doing well and I'm so thankful. We missed out on our church/city's big Easter egg hunt Saturday and he missed church yesterday, but he's all rested up now.

His pediatrician said that he may or may not have one of those febrile seizures anytime he has a fever. She said if he does that most kids outgrow them around 4 or 5. You would think it wouldn't have freaked me out the way it did. It just shocked me because 1)he isn't the kid in our family who has seizures, and 2)it was very physically disturbing. While Micah's seizures from infancy until 2 were scary and very damaging, they didn't physically look that bad.

Anyway, though it was a semi-minor thing, it made me want to cuddle with Gabriel and hold him a little tighter this weekend.

1st Haircut

Before picture: Serious bedhead going on
Side view

Enjoying a post hair-cut sucker since the one we used to distract him during the haircut fell onto the floor.

I have wanted to get Gabriel's hair cut for at least a month now. He was starting to look shaggy, or like a junior high kid who's being cool and growing out his hair. My mom gave Micah his first cut, so I wanted her to do Gabriel's first. They were here two weeks ago to visit, but after a couple of days of being here, she got sick and remained so until the day they left.

So, Wayne decided to do it with his clippers. I told him that was ok, as long as it wasn't a buzz cut. That's what we always give Micah because he despises getting his hair cut so much, that we cut it that short so we don't have to do it
for another 3 months or so. We actually tried cutting his hair over the weekend twice. It was as if we were giving the Tasmanian devil (the Bugs Bunny cartoon character) a cut. It was just not going to happen. So, we'll try again soon.

Doesn't Gabriel look so cute and little boy like?!

Walking in the light

Holly, Dennis, and their son Forrest (this picture was taken a few years ago in SF)

I went to a conference in Norman, OK at a church my dear friend Holly is a member of . The title of the conference was "Joy in His Presence." It was such a blessing to see Holly and her husband Dennis. I first met them in China in 1999. The conference was so refreshing; there was lots of worshipping and praying, and being reminded of what it takes to have joy. I went to a seminar on Sat. afternoon to hear one woman's journey out of depression. She talked about a lot of things, but especially how there is no darkness in Christ.

I was reminded of 1 John 1 which talks all about that. Whenever I may be feeling a "darkness of soul" or however I may think of it, I need to run into the light, who is Christ.

1 John 1: 5-7

"This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him, yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin."

I think this passage is talking more about sin, but it's easy to get into a fog of darkness and feel like you can't see the light even though you know that isn't true.

The woman telling her story that I referred to earlier played this song and I have been so blessed by it that I wanted to share it. It's a little over 6 minutes long, but worth it.

More pictures

playing at the park

Bubbles with Aunt Paula

Elvis Aaron...I mean, Gabriel Aaron

"Helping" with laundry

more bubbles

I had a few more pictures to share. When I took the photo of Gabriel with his sleep n play unzipped, he was into unzipping it and saying "Uh-oh", one of his favorite words. So, I called him Elvis, because Elvis used to have his jumpsuits unzipped or opened quite a bit in the 70s.

I'm a little late in posting these pictures, or anything for that matter. I suppose I took an unintentional break from the blog and decided to jump back in. These were all taken over the holidays with Wayne's side of the family. The sad thing is, we didn't take one single picture when we were with my side of the family. We were all spread out a little more, doing shopping, and other various activities and didn't have great amounts of time all together. Anyway, I'll have to work on getting pictures next time we are all together.

Today, we had a second showing of snow in two weeks. I haven't taken any pictures yet, but will try to do that before it melts. Wayne (being the native Nebraskan) said "I love living in the south when it snows. Three inches of snow=a snow day." We were all home today even though the roads (by looking out our window) didn't seem too bad. UA Fort Smith closed and Kids First was closed.

Hanging out in cabinets

All of these photos were taken at the old place. Gabriel loves to climb in and out of any empty space.

All He Wants for Christmas...

... his two front teeth! Yes, Micah recently lost both front teeth on the top. He has already lost the two on the bottom this past summer and the permanent ones have started coming in. One of his favorite thing to do these days is look at himself in the mirror. I'm not sure if it's because of his missing teeth or if he just enjoys looking at himself.

Micah's appt.

We went to Arkansas Children's Hospital last week for Micah's bi-annual appt. with the pediatric neurologist. It was the best appt. we've had there so far. Usually we have to wait for a ridiculous amount of time before we get back to the exam room, then it's another long wait until we see the doctor. This time, we only waited for 5-10 minutes before they called us back and from that point, we waited about 30 minutes. So, it wasn't bad at all. Micah did well with Gabriel roaming around in the small exam room while we waited and he was fine with the doctor. Thank God for a low stress appointment! We saw a different doctor than previous visits and we REALLY liked him. He took his time with us and explored a few options in terms of new medications to try, which is different than the previous Drs. we've seen there. Micah has still been having about 3-4 seizures (maybe more, it's hard to tell) a week, so the Dr. wanted to add another anti-seizure med in addition to the one he's been on for quite some time.

We just started the new med this week and are just starting out with a very small dose and will slowly increase that over the next few weeks. Aggressive behavior and irritablity are a couple of the potential side effects, so we are praying those won't happen. He was awake at 3:15 this morning and did not go back to sleep, so we are hoping it was just one of those rare, strange nights that happen about once a month and that it's not because of the new med. One of the potential side effects is drowsiness, but as we've seen with one previous med, sometimes the opposite can happen.

We've actually had a little breakthrough moment between Micah and Gabriel. One night last week, Micah wanted Gabriel to chase him through the house (they weren't really running, just a fast walk) and it was very obvious because he would look back to see if Gabe was coming and would just giggle while Gabriel giggled too. This went on for about ten minutes as Wayne and I just watched. We were both watching and smiling without saying anything, except to encourage Gabriel to continue chasing. It was a neat thing to watch. Micah still doesn't want him to sit near him and if one of us is sitting with Micah and Gabe comes over, Micah will still get up and walk away. However, it's a tiny improvement!

We are enjoying the house and still getting settled. We have unpacked most boxes with still a few to go, and we still need to hang things on the wall.

Our New House

Garden spot with storage shed

back of the house
nice tree and lots of leaves to go with it


zinnias, some still standing, some limp

Micah's room

herb garden

front bathroom, and yes, that's Micah by the toilet...he's obsessed with flushing the toilet these days. I have to get in my basketball defensive mode and block him.

our room

Gabriel's room

front door

front of the house

kitchen

living room

entry way and someone who wants to open the door


Well, the pictures aren't in quite the order I had intended and some of the captions are above the picture and some below, but I'm sure you can figure it out! Three years of blogging and it is still such a process sometimes for me! It should be simpler, maybe if I did it a little more often it would be!

Yes, for those of you who didn't know, we bought our first house and moved in on the 14th. I have been unpacking and cleaning the old place. It's amazing what a process moving out of one place and into another involves and oh, the dirt! I finally finished cleaning the old place yesterday. Wayne's parents were here the whole week before we moved and we cleaned the new place; it wasn't left in the greatest shape. We painted our bedroom and bathroom (didn't post a photo of that one), and Micah's room. Gabriel's room was already that pretty color. We love the red kitchen as well. We moved in on Sat. and Grandma and Grandpa took Gabriel home with them which was so helpful! I unpacked many boxes last week though there are still many to go (mostly books). Gabriel came back on Thursday and has had a blast exploring since.

Micah seems to be adjusting well. He had a hard week last week going to school every day. He would cry and cling to me every time I took him, but they would tell me he always cheered up after a little while. The teachers reminded me that change, whether good or bad is still change and that for many kids with special needs, it's hard. He also cried at night for the first few nights when it was bed time, but has done much better with that. We kept the arrangement of their rooms the same, meaning Gabriel's is the first on the right, followed by Micah's at the end of the hallway.

They absolutely love the backyard and Micah has found numerous flowers to pull out and carry around. I'm not sure they'll last or will come back if they last! As you can tell, it's a very big backyard. So, we'll need to buy a rake for starters, and a lawnmower, hedge trimmers, and...we have no lawn tools.

It's a big place compared to what we've lived in and we have lots of space, especially in the den. We only have a bookshelf in there for now! We have been welcomed into the world of home ownership, having had to make three repair calls last week, two for plumbing issues and the thermostat went out. It was all working fine when we moved in, just one of those things. However, we are thankful and are enjoying it so far.

October Happenings

Wow, what happened to October? It has been a very busy few weeks. I had gallbladder surgery at the end of September and my parents were here to help during my few days of recovery. Wayne's parents came to help after my parents left. The second weekend of October I went to Memphis with my dear friend Marianne to see Beth Moore and have a "girls" weekend. Then, the weekend after that was my 20 year high school class reunion. This past weekend Gabriel and I went to east Texas to visit my sister and her family. So, we've been keeping the road hot!

While it was a minor procedure, the surgery experience and particularly the anesthesia was interesting. I had never had any type of sedation before so it was bizarre to see the surgeon one moment and then the very next thing I recall was a nurse trying to wake me after surgery. I'm so thankful that it went well and that the recovery time was very quick. I'm also thankful that the pre-surgery pain is gone!

The exciting news is that the closing date on our potential house is next Monday. We only made the offer in late September. It has all happened so fast! I don't have any pictures yet, but will post some next week if nothing falls through. It's in the north end of town (right now we live in the south end), so it will be about a 5 minute drive to work for Wayne and not much more than that to church. It's also a lot closer to Micah's school. Oh, the money we will save on gas!

Elvis shirt revisited

Wow, he's changed a lot in two years!

My dear friend Marianne made this shirt for Micah two years ago and I thought it would be fun to compare the pictures. He can still wear it! She knew how much I love Elvis and wanted to make this shirt for Micah. I loved it so much that I begged her (ok, I didn't have to beg) to make me some pajama bottoms. The shirt was a little big, and now it fits still, but probably won't for much longer. Wayne usually dresses Micah in the mornings, but I did one day this week and wanted him to wear the Elvis shirt. Lots of people at his school LOVED it and wanted to know where I got it. They were so surprised and a bit sad (since they couldn't get their hands on one) to know that my friend made it. Thanks again, Marianne!