Jesse's latest quotes

This was my conversation with Jesse today on the way to and from the allergist:

Jesse: Mom, when I grow up I want to do everything!
Me: Like what?
Jesse: drive a car, cut down trees, work with Daddy

continued on the ride home . . .

Jesse: When I grow up I want to cut down trees.
Me: Oh, you want to be a lumberjack?
Jesse: Yeah. I'm glad I'm not a doctor. They have a boring job.
Me: Why do you think it's boring?
Jesse: Well, they just do boring stuff and don't get to eat.
Me: Well, they get breaks for lunch. And sometimes they do really interesting things and help people stay healthy!
Jesse: I want to be a doctor when I grow up.
Me: AND a lumberjack?
Jesse: Yeah! That's why I said I want to be everything!
Me: Oh! How will you have time to be everything? You'll be really busy!
Jesse: Well, I won't be a tree or a flower or the sky. If I was the sky I'd float away. Mom, does sky-pie rhyme? What about tree-flea? frog-log? (singing) Twinkle, twinkle little star. Twinkle-tickle....does that rhyme? . . . .

Allergy . . . RELIEF!

Today I took Jesse to a new allergist. (My mom-in-law kept Ethan and Tabitha, which was a HUGE help because three kids in a doctor's office is just not fun! And if it's not Tabitha's appointment it's even worse because she needs constant attention. So thanks, Mom!)

Anyway, a few posts back I wrote about my struggle with figuring out whether or not Jesse has asthma and what to do with all the medications we were supposed to give him. Well, I am SO happy that my friend recommended this doctor! When I left the other doctor I felt very overwhelmed and confused and worried about all the medicines and what would happen if I didn't give them to him. Today I left feeling like I was listened to, and that we'll only be giving Jesse medicine when he really needs it! (So I highly recommend Dr. Siddiqi to anyone who needs an allergist!)

They did the skin prick test on Jesse's back. He was a bit upset by the pricks and wanted to know what was on his back, so I took a picture to show him during the 15 minutes he was waiting. He thought it was funny. (What did we ever do before digital cameras?!) Then we just read a book while waiting for the dots to swell. The worst allergy that showed up was blue grass, along with maple and oak pollens. So during March-June (grass and tree pollen seasons) we're supposed to give him a daily Claritin, and only use Nasonex if he's still having trouble. We only need to use the albuterol if he has an asthma attack, but his asthma problems are so infrequent that he doesn't need a daily controller medication. This is what I instinctually "knew" and what my research seemed to say, which is why I'm so happy this doctor agrees!!

I was worried going in that I'd be made to feel like an idiot again, but that did not happen at all. I felt great relief leaving there, knowing that Jesse's problems are very minor, and getting the expert's approval not to over-medicate him. I'm very thankful too that the Lord has blessed us all with good health, and that even in this problem it's nothing severe. I do have a new appreciation for moms of kids with serious allergies though; that is not something I will underestimate anymore!

Cactus Juice Junction

Don't they make cute little cowboys? This week was our church's Day Camp(VBS) (known as "Cactus Juice Junction" this year), and it was a very busy week! We started last Saturday with Heath setting up tables and a stage, and me getting the nursery area ready. Then we spent Monday through Friday mornings there. Tabitha and I were in the air conditioned nursery, but the boys were outside in the heat all week. It was exhausting for all of us, but such a great experience for the kids. Today at church they got to go up on stage and sing the songs they learned there, and several of them recited verses and told about what they learned. It was really neat.

It's amazing though what a difference it makes to lose all my mornings! I am so far behind on everything, especially cleaning. (Good thing we don't have any house showings any more!)

Yesterday we had a get-together with some friends from church, which was really fun. Today I took a 3-hour nap. =) I'm hoping this next week will be very relaxing, without much activity. We're all ready for some down time!

Home Sweet Home

I opened the door to let Shadow out last night, and I realized . . . it’s gone! For 15 out of the last 24 months, there has been a big, heavy lock box on our front door handle. It would bang against the door every time we opened or closed the door, and whenever I closed the door, I had to stick my hand through to push it out of the way and then attempt to quickly pull it back in without getting my fingers crushed. Otherwise the box got stuck and the door wouldn’t close. SUCH a pain that little thing was. But now….it’s gone!

On Monday we took our house off the market. It’s become apparent that we cannot sell it. I guess that happens when your house drops $200,000 in value. I used to think studying economics was boring, as the economy had no effect on my personal life. Ha! I have learned during the past two years how seriously wrong I was. The economy has affected us hugely in these past couple years, in more ways than one (none of them good).

I have mixed feelings about taking our house off the market. Of course it’s disappointing. I mean we’re basically giving up our dream of building our new house on the land we so excitedly bought in May 2008. For two years I’ve been dreaming about the new house and land . . . from where to put the garden to how to arrange the furniture. For two years I’ve been planning on moving to a new county, and so I’ve been moving us to a more “Frederick-centered” life with doctors, classes, groups, etc. As I go about our daily tasks I’ve been imagining us in the new house and all the little things that will be better there and how “perfect” life will be there. And now all that dreaming, it seems, was for nothing. So I’m disappointed.

And yet, the overwhelming feeling I had as soon as Heath called our realtor on Monday, was RELIEF! I felt like this very large burden I’d been carrying around for two years had been lifted off of me! I feel like I can once again call our current house “home!” I know some of you (Liz, in particular) =) understand what I’m talking about, and some of you won’t. But I’ll do my best to explain. For the past couple years I thought we’d be moving at any time, so everything in life was put on hold. From the time the “stager” attacked and I took down all our family pictures, this hasn’t felt like home. I haven’t wanted to buy anything, decorate anything, plant anything, paint anything, or invest any time, money, or emotional energy in this house. I’ve been detaching from it, as I looked forward to our next home. But that meant that I’ve been emotionally homeless all this time. (Like I said—some of you won’t understand this. You can just smile and nod.) =)

But making this decision has set me free from waiting and let me return to living in the present! There are so many things that have been on hold that I can do now (well, if/when we have money for them). To name just a few . . .
-restart garbage pick up (We cancelled it when they raised their rates, thinking we could handle burning it and/or taking it to the dump for a couple months until we moved. That is anything but fun when it goes on for two years.)
-get a new mailbox (Ours is quite dilapidated and falling over.)
-order address labels
-repaint our bedroom (I’ve hated the color since we first did it, but why change it if we’re moving?)
-accept things from freecycle that would really make life easier but would make moving harder
-tune my piano (didn’t want to do that just before moving)
-arrange things based on function rather than for showings
-plant a garden
-hang up the baby tree swing for Tabitha
-set up the kiddie pool
-clean the house when it fits our schedule rather than because we have a showing
-redecorate and/or remodel according to our needs, rather than for potential buyers
-unpack stuff that’s been in boxes since we first put our house on the market
-arrange stuff conveniently for homeschooling, rather than just living with everything stuffed into various hiding places
-refinance our mortgage
-start projects that require leaving stuff out (not feasible when showings were going on)
-stop worrying about having to update our adoption homestudy if we move
-stop warning my piano students that we might be moving
-follow through with plans for the piano studio that I’ve been holding off on until we move
-GET HIGH-SPEED INTERNET (I’ve been telling myself I can survive just a few more months with dial-up until we move, but some days I’m not even sure that’s true. Since we’re staying here, we will find some way to join the world of high speed in the very near future. Even if I have to launch my own satellite.)
-and, finally, re-hang our family pictures and make this back into our HOME!

So, for these reasons and more I feel like I am once again at home in my house, and I am very relieved. I’ll just need to work on keeping my focus here, and not on regrets and lost dreams. We haven’t been able to sell the land either, so in the back of my mind is the thought that several years from now the housing market will have healed, and we’ll be able to sell and build. But . . . I am choosing not to think about that. Instead I will consider that land to be our very own campsite and apple orchard, and I will focus my time, energy, money, and emotions on this beautiful HOME in Mt. Airy.

Another Item Off the Checklist

As I mentioned in the last post, we got our fingerprints done yesterday. What I can't figure out is why we had to be fingerprinted 3 times for the first adoption and 2 of those repeated for this one. I mean--all those prints are done by a computer. Can't they just save them and even share them amongst each other so we only need to be fingerprinted once?

Anyway, we went to the CJIS fingerprinting place in Baltimore. Last time I remember waiting a little while, but this was ridiculous! We ended up being there almost 3 hours. The actual fingerprinting took about 3 minutes. We actually did this on the way home from the hospital. Tabitha was doing great, and we didn't know when we'd have another chance to be in Baltimore during business hours and with only one child with us. So we thought we'd just stop in, get it done, and go home. After paying the fee and handing over our licenses, we started talking to people and finding out they'd been there for hours. But it was too late to quit because I'm pretty sure they would've kept our money! So we waited it out. Turns out we both still have the same 10 fingerprints and no criminal record. (Well, at least I'm assuming we're not criminals. It'll probably take them several weeks to determine that.) But at least it's done now, and that's one more thing we can check off our list. Making progress....slowly but surely.

Tabitha's Surgery

Well, Tabitha can no longer count to 11 on her fingers. (Not that she's ever done that, but the potential is no longer there.) =) Her surgery yesterday went VERY well. The doctor had told us that removing the extra thumb might cause the real thumb to become unstable, and in that case they'd have to put in a wire, and she'd be in a hard cast up past her elbow for a month. BUT . . . none of that happened. Everything was completely stable and easily done. So she has a big, flexible ace bandage wrapped all the way past her elbow until Sunday. After that we can take that off, put a bandaid over the wound, and she can do everything normally again. She hasn't had any pain meds today and seems to be totally fine. Every now and then she pulls on the cotton stuffing under the bandage, but she hasn't been too bad with it. It doesn't even seem to be bothering her! Thank you all who were praying for her! We are very thankful that everything went so easily. (In fact, we also got fingerprinted for our adoption yesterday, and that took longer than the surgery. Go figure. That place is worse than the MVA! But that's another story.)

The boys spent the night at their cousins' house since we had to be at the hospital super early yesterday. They had a great time, but were very tired out when I picked them up. Our kids were quite the sight to see last night. Tabitha with her big wrapped arm, Ethan (who'd gotten stung by a bee the day before) with his big swollen hand, and Jesse (who has allergies and was up late) with his big droopy eyes and itchy nose. But everyone seems to be doing better today, thankfully.

Beach Trip!

We had our one-day summer vacation this week! We drove to Fenwick Island (the beach just north of Ocean City), which is about 3 hours from our house. We spent several hours there and then drove home. We've never done a one-day trip like that before. It was a long day, but very worth it. The kids had a blast! Heath's mom came with us too, which was really nice (and made it easier to keep the kids from floating out to sea). The boys loved the waves and were fearless playing in the water.

Tabitha, on the other hand, was terrified of the sand, the water, the waves, the seagulls, and probably a few other things. But after awhile she did get brave enough to step off the blanket and play with a bucket of water and some sand toys. And I did hold her on my lap and sit down at the edge of the surf and make her at least touch the water. You can't go all the way to the ocean and not touch it! This was her first time at the beach, (if you don't count the 15 minutes we spent on the North Carolina beach last December when it was 40 degrees).

After getting nicely sunburned (Heath missed a big spot in the middle of his back when putting on sunscreen) we went out to dinner, took a short walk on the boardwalk at Bethany Beach, and came home. It was really a lot of fun, and I'm glad we got to go--even if it was only for a day.