Good-bye Kylee...

Yesterday, I headed to Gresham with my parents to say farewell to Henry's darling girlfriend, Kylee. She's only been in our family for a short while (2 months), but in that while we have seen a lot of her and have really grown to love her. Frankly (and I can only say this because I'm the pesky older sister), Henry doesn't deserve her. She is absolutely outstanding. And, of course, the kids adore her.

Kylee only just graduated from high school and is off to Hawaii for 3 months for YWAM (Youth With A Mission). She will go to their training program in Kona and then be gone for another 3 months on a mission somewhere in the World. It's a great way to learn about yourself and God while serving others.

The goodbye party was bittersweet. Lots of family and close friends came to share their support. I was glad that we came. We will surely miss her.

Henry and Kylee

They decided her farewell cake needed some candles...all the kids helped out with that.

We gave her a parting gift...Hawaiian scrapbooking supplies... and Synnove colored her a picture. The kids helped her open EVERY gift.

Happy Birthday to ME!

The day (Thursday, the 17th) started off with me sleeping in a bit. The kids played quietly while I got up on my own terms...it was great. I finally rolled out of bed around 9ish and started the day. My MIL and SIL were planning to come sometime in the late morning to take me out to lunch, so I had time to spare. While frosting the cake my husband made the night before (for me), the phone rang and I had the joy of spending the next hour chatting with one out of the four of my dearest Grandmothers. We set a lunch date for next week and said our goodbyes. By now it's about 10:30 and I've got to hurry and get ready before my in-laws arrive to poke fun at tardiness. Halfway through I get a call from another one of my dearest Grandmothers. By now I'm feeling pretty special and the day is only beginning! We chat a while, my in-laws arrive, and I finish getting ready for the day.

The kids were enjoying spending some time with their cousin Alice and ogling over new baby Cash. I received some lovely gifts and another deliciously homemade CAKE! It's not even noon yet and I've got visitors, 3 phone calls (one also from my mom), gifts, and TWO cakes! We all hop in the car and head into town to get some lunch.

I didn't want to eat anything big since I knew that dinner was going to be even bigger and my newest weight loss strategy was/is working fabulously. Ruining my weekly weigh-in on an overindulgent birthday just wasn't part of the day's goal. Since we had 3+ kids with us, we opted to pick up sandwiches at Weesie's shop and go to Tapiola Park. We all stopped in to visit with Mom and Elise, and Mom and I made sandwiches to go. I even had the pleasure of being sung to by one of the Wheelhouse Coffee regulars!

We ate, the kids played...did I mention it was a beautiful day!? Anyway, we headed back to my house to eat some of the cake my MIL made. I allowed myself a sliver...*sigh* it was good. We continued to visit and Adam came home. I had told him the week before NOT to get me a gift since his gift to me would be purchasing the remainder of the flooring that wasn't going to be covered by various birthday gifts of money (will explain in a bit). It was just like him to buy me something anyway. Fortunately, it was something inexpensive that I needed...a shop light for my little work area in the garage. It may not seem like something you would want...but to me, it was a very thoughtful gift.

Cash, Alice, Synnove, Soren

We said goodbye to Patty, Faith, Alice, and Cash and headed into Warrenton for a big birthday dinner. A day or two prior to my birthday my dad smoked his 4-H bacon. So, I decided that breakfast for dinner would be the perfect birthday meal. I was dying to try Dad's newest smoked treat, and eggs, bacon, and hashbrowns are likely my favorite menu items EVER! Why I have never asked for breakfast as my birthday dinner in the past is really quite puzzling to me. It's a new tradition! Dinner was hands-down awesome and I ate way too much. I even had a piece of the cake Adam and the kids made me. It was a very nice time...even Grandma Barb came!

It's after 7:00 and the day still isn't over. In fact, we've gotten to the best part...the part where we take a trip to Costco to buy new laminate flooring for Synnove's room!!! I was, and still am beyond excited about this purchase. If you are a regular "In The Sticks" reader, you know how badly I've been itching to do various projects in the house...but funds have fizzled, and unnecessary projects have been put on hold...indefinitely. It's a depressing prospect that has me searching for ways to, well...*ahem*...get my way. Long story short, after some searching, I decided upon flooring I found at Costco that was going on sale ON my birthday! All of the generous gifts of money I received went towards the purchase (a little over half the total!).

This year my Birthday was made extra special by many of the loving people in my extra-large family. I loved it! There was never a dull moment in my day...even at 10:30 PM when I ate my 3rd "sliver" of cake!

Preschool

It's official, my stay-at-home mom hood will never be the same. My little girl is starting preschool! Her "real" first day on school isn't until Monday, but there was an orientation on Friday for parents and students. Synnove has been beside herself with excitement. She has had her clothes picked out for a couple of weeks, and has had her little bag packed with school supplies for even longer. When her teacher sent her a card in the mail, she carried that around and pulled it out periodically to "read" it...it was precious.

She is attending Immanuel Community Preschool which is actually located in Knappa (the only one in town)...maybe 4 miles down the road from our house. We are very fortunate to go there since we were initially put on a waiting list. There were so many kids on the waiting list that they decided to create an afternoon class. She attends three days a week from 11:30-2.

We were only at the school for an hour on Friday to get all "orientated" and Synnove really, really wanted to stay. For such a po-dunk little town, this school is quite nice. I'm so excited for her to go there!

Her teacher "Miss Kara" (she's actually married) is going to be great!

Synnove was a bit shy...

MRI #3: The Verdict

I suppose the drama started the night before we were to go to the hospital. My mom and dad came to pick up Synnove and Soren was quite sad. We told him that he had to go to the doctor, but more than anything, he wanted to go with Grandma and Grandpa to be with Synnove. At first I thought that he was being anxious about going to the Dr., but I don't think he fully understood that we were going to the Dr. for him. He shed some serious crocodile tears. After they left we all snuggled on the couch to watch a movie to get our mind off of what was going to happen the next day.

The next day Adam tried our best to wake up earlier than Soren so that we could eat some breakfast without him knowing. He was only allowed clear fluids till 10:30 so he had apple juice for breakfast. He seemed quite happy with that and never complained about being hungry! We arrived at OHSU at 11:00 and the nurse came out to the waiting room to put numbing cream on his hands and feet. The cream has to sit close to an hour before starting an IV so that there is little to no pain. Soren barely said a word to the nurse, got LOTS of stickers, and then went on to play with toys and read books. By 12:30 the sedation nurse came and got us to begin the process of sedation. Soren still hadn't complained about being hungry. The nurse taking care of Soren was the first nurse that took care of Soren during his first visit to the PICU! I didn't expect her to remember us, but I said something to her and she said..."I thought I recognized you!" Out of the many many nurses that took care of Soren during his time in the hospital she and two other nurses are the only three that I can remember their faces. What a coincidence!

Anyway, they had lots of distractions for Soren while they attempted to start an IV. They started on one hand, but couldn't get it to go. He was distracted and the numbing cream worked so well that he didn't even flinch! They switched sides to try on the other hand. This time they got it to work, but Soren felt it, said "ouch," and tried to move his hand to see what they were doing. They covered it in time and he never even saw the needle. Starting pediatric IVs is truly an art form that only a few are good at. Believe me, I know.

By the time he was OK'd to be sedated, we had been waiting at the hospital for 2+ hours. He went to sleep as the anesthesiologist (a wonderfully energetic grandpa-ish fellow) sang to him. He was to be out for around an hour so we went to eat lunch. About 10 minutes after we returned they called us back to tell us that the MRI was done and Soren was waking up. All went smooth. Soren was goofy and lethargic, but eventually ate his grape Popsicle and was cleared to leave.

We headed down to the clinic on the tram to make it to our 3:30 appointment with the neurosurgeon. By this time, Soren was acting like a kid with serious ADHD. After a while of his craziness, I assumed that it was probably a side-effect of the sedation drug (I found out later that it was...thankfully). We were called back and left to wait in the room for a solid HOUR with our ADHD child! To keep him under control and keep him from hurting himself (walked like a drunken sailor) we had to strap him into the stroller.

Long story short, Dr. Selden finally came. We reminisced a bit and looked at all of his previous MRI/CT scans on the computer. He was extremely confident that the likelihood of his mass/tumor to ever come back is virtually nil. A-MEN! We said our goodbyes and Dr. Selden said "have a nice life!" Ha ha...we will.

Synnove and Soren go "Hunting"

Adam is always thinking up fun things for the kids to do outdoors. Even though he has TONS to do around the house, he takes the time to relax with the kids. They really enjoy their little adventures, and I enjoy a few moments of peace. On the day after we got home from camping, Adam took the kids "hunting" for whatever animals they could find. He had gone woodcutting that morning and stopped at the store on the way home to purchase a couple of play cap-rifles and some spice drops. Apparently, spice drops are a necessary hunting treat. As soon as the kids were up from nap, they were off to the woods. They hiked up some nearby mountain to a place where they could see the river. Adam said it was quite a hike for the kids, but they never once asked to be carried. Adam got some great pictures of the kids, below are just a few. By the way, they only saw a chipmunk :)

Shooting their guns

There is more than one pic of Synnove looking like this...ha ha! (See view!)

Stopping for a snack...

Hams

Camping: Rain AND Shine

As usual, camping in Naselle was lovely. I always enjoy spending time with friends and family and doing lots of nothing. The weather wasn't as good as it has been on our other camping trips, but it turned out to be MUCH better than expected. The only time it really rained was on Sunday. We even enjoyed a good share of sunshine! The kids had fun playing with their cousins and being visited nightly by the "Camping Fairy" aka Kylee. I must say, on this particular trip, the kids were spoiled rotten!

We played lots of games, ate lots of food, played paintball, watched a couple of movies out by the fire, and went 4-wheelin'. Six days of pure fun! Below is the slide show of pics. I also downloaded a short video of the insane rain (unfortunately, I wasn't able to capture the thunder and lightning) on Sunday morning.

Camping Trip #5 and MRI #3

Sorry folks for the lack of posts recently. Summer always seems to catch up with me by August and I feel like I have little time to spare. We're going on our 5th camping trip of the summer today, but I decided to take a little 15 minute break from packing to write a quick blog.

Like I said, we're going camping! It's gonna be a 5-nighter, and hopefully a relatively dry one. However, the weather isn't looking too promising. But, God likes to pleasantly surprise us sometimes! Anyway, we don't get back till Monday and I doubt I'll take the time to visit the computer to ask you all to pray for Soren next Wednesday (click HERE for story). He's having his 2-year post-op MRI to see if there has been anything left behind to grow into a new mass/tumor on his brain. I'm hopeful that all is well, however, when he had his first MRI (pre-surgery) nothing abnormal was found. And when the Dr. cut him open and realized there was a semi-large mass on his brain, he was a bit baffled. So, if nothing was found on the first MRI, then how can we rely on this MRI to tell us anything certain??

If you remember, please pray for Soren on Wednesday the 9th. He has to fast all morning and is scheduled to be sedated around noon at OHSU. He's older now, and more aware and I know we're in for some trauma and tears.

"Whatever happens Lord, I give my Soren to You..."