We Have Arrived!

We survived the trip. Saw the Painted Desert. Saw the Grand Canyon. We've eaten Del Taco, Nico's, Carl's Jr. (not that Hardee's stuff), Boston Market... Ahh. I think the waistband of my jeans are going to start feeling a little snug. Just wait 'til I get to In N Out and Panda Express and... well, you all get the picture.

The kids are loving being around their cousins. It was so awesome to watch Lach and his cousin J. immediately click and be inseparable until the "A" set of cousins left. Laren is loving being in a house with a bunch of little girls. I am just loving getting to see my nieces and nephews. My sisters are as awesome as ever.

The kids are also tired and worn out. Liam got sick when we hit Lancaster. He's been having breathing treatments about every 2 hours.

Combine tired grumpy 3 year old with albuterol and you are having fun!

I'll keep in touch as homeschooling, family, etc. allows.

The Joy of Christmas

By all normal perception this really should have been The. Worst. Christmas. Ever. Things are tight. When I say tight - I mean tighten your belt, hoard your diapers and be thankful for family and friends who have helped you get by. While we have been living in limbo Jon has been serving at Old Chicago. It has been a blessing in that it has put food on the table but not really a whole lot more than that. *A post is in the works fully explaining what is going on with us on that front.*

What money we had put aside for Christmas found it's way into being the means to the end of Lucas' pain. Last Thursday Luc came to me and told me his tooth hurt. Can you see where this is going? I checked it out and sure enough there was a puss pocket below the tooth. At this point I was panicking - we have absolutely no insurance right now. We do qualify for state care for the kids but that has been one giant mess trying to get all the paperwork done. Somehow paperwork can't get done if it keeps getting lost - strange, huh? I got in touch with Jon at work and he started working the phone trying to find a dentist that was both open the weekend before Christmas and taking new patients.

Let me just take a moment to share with you that God is amazing. Jon made a call to a family that we had gone to church with in hopes that the husband (an oral surgeon on post here) could at least write a script for some kind of antibiotic and pain med. so that we could make it through Christmas. Andy told Jon he would see what he could do and call him back. Next thing we knew Luc had an appointment for the next day with the best peds dentist in town. So one x-ray, a tooth extraction, and a spacer later our boy is back to normal.

So back to my original point. From the outside looking in we should all be pretty miserable. Believe it or not I think this is the best Christmas we have ever had. We actually enjoyed each other. *Our 4 kids are awesome - but I'm sorry - they can also be annoying and loud and messy and... well you get the idea.* There weren't a ton of "things" but there was a lot of togetherness and love and joy.

I hope this post finds you feeling joyous and blessed.

What to write?

I guess I'm just not inspired. I think of things to talk about, but don't seem to have enough energy to do justice by it. I could be talking about our family getting to be a part of Operation Serve, our nephews wedding or getting to see our friends and their 2 kids for the first time in over 3 years.

Our focus at this point is on our middle son. He is sad. He has been sad for months. He has the most amazing, mischievous smile and I haven't seen it in what seems like forever. That is not right for a 5 year old little boy.

We are trying to decide what would be best for him. Little boys should be bundles of energy, playing and having fun. Not crying about school, feeling like a failure, and saying that reading isn't fun. Luc is smart little boy with a huge heart. He deserves better than that.

Parenting is not for the faint of heart.

White Bread

What is what this blog is going to be?

This isn't my first foray into the the wide wonderful world of blogging. I have other blogs elsewhere that I share the odd things that float around in mind. This one will be mostly devoted to "the fam".

"The fam" consists of myself, my husband Jon, and our 4 kiddos - Lachlan (9), Laren (7), Lucas (5), & Liam (2). At the moment we are living in the great state of Tennessee. We've been around here for about 3 years. I think that might be a record for us. So that of course means it's time to start looking for a new state to call home.