Robots, Diabetes, and Doctors

Goodness, we've done so much in the last month.  Baby showers, Lego Robotics qualifier, my baby is potty trained, had our first snowfall, and has it been longer than Halloween?  Eek!  I made a couple costumes! ; )

old shoes...get transformed into..

New Shoes!  Super Girl styled with red shoes laces. : )  (We totally just painted them with craft paint!)

He chose to be Greg Hefley from Diary of a Wimpy Kid for his school Book Character Parade.

This puppy is a keeper.

The kids all split up on Halloween.  Peyton and Clay took Carter trick-or-treating, and Mary Claire had some friends over..and they went out alone!  Ches took Ethan out in the neighborhood while I answered the door. : )

Veronica's beautiful shower, and her daughter, Isabella, absolutely adores her mommy..and she's so excited to have a baby sister!!

Just my cutie.

Finding all kinds of pictures to share.  I'll need them one day to remind me what I did all day every day.  Ha!  I'm currently making wreaths for the front doors, just until Thanksgiving.  I want real boxwood wreaths for Christmas..so I'd better get a move-on, or these will be useless.

Deciding between the two sizes of monograms..bigger is almost always better, right?

Painting this was no picnic.

Clay made it into Symphonic band, which is the top band!  I'm always shocked at my kids' ability to play all those fascinating notes.  Really.  I totally loved percussion since I could just work on rhythms instead of notes.  Mary Claire is sounding really beautiful too (she plays flute).  I'm impressed the way the band directors can coax such beautiful music out of first year students.  They are certainly working in their spiritual gifts.  


Ethan went back to the ENT (ear, nose, and throat) doctor last week.  His hearing is way below normal, and he'll have surgery for his t-h-i-r-d set of tubes, this time with
tympanostomy tubes (they have a T-shaped backing that is more sturdy and holds them in longer than pressure equalizing tubes, but essentially do the same thing).  They should last more like 3-4 years.  He is having an awful time hearing.  He turns his head at a sharp angle, and turns his good ear toward you just to hear.  His school work is better since I explained to his teacher.  Now she looks at him, speaks close to him, and gets his attention first.  I know it's hard on everyone else, not just him.  We're praying it goes well, safely, and cures the hearing loss.

Carter is potty trained, and I'm so proud of him.  He's so smart, really.  Do I say this about all my kids?  Ha, probably.  He just speaks so clearly, and reasons well.  And his manners are so good.  Maybe I'm just in love with my last baby.  In that case, just ignore me. ; )

Went number two in the potty chair..a big deal! : )

We've all been sick for the past month, two pneumonias, two cases of bronchitis, and I'm pretty sure we had two cases of flu.  I'm trying super hard to feed everyone well, give them vitamins, and make sure they get rest.  We all need to build our immune systems back up!

Mary Claire's Lego Robotics team just competed in the local qualifier, and they have made it to state!  I've started helping with the team and going to all the meetings, so it's been a big family commitment.  Ches has had to step up and take all the boys during all the meetings (two a week now).  Maybe that's why my wreaths aren't done, ha!  The team has been working so hard on their presentation, robot missions, and a video.  They get kinda tired of it sometimes, but they love to hang out together!  I love their faith.  Mary Claire is just sure they can win at the state competition, but only one team moves on.  I can't dare speak against her faith, who knows what could happen. : )  Sweet girl.

Checking schedule..

Rick's Bakery cookie animals to sugar them up!

Judges are giving them the results/points earned on the last round.

They qualified for state, scored fifth overall, and first in the Nutty Professor tournament! : )

Clay has been saving and working to earn money.  His latest thing is an Xploderz gun.  It shoots these little water bullets.  I don't even know how to describe them better.  They are teensy tiny pellets (like the head of a pin)..and you soak them in water to make them bigger (almost a small marble size).  Then..shoot them.  They don't really break on the target, but apparently they slowly dehydrate?  The water soaks into the ground..or your plants, depending on where they shoot them!  Def. interesting.

Last, but not least, we hosted the girl scouts at our house for a badge on New Cuisines.  We tried a new food (fried plantains), a recipe from the past (fizzy drinks with fruit), a recipe from our region (biscuits with chocolate gravy from Arkansas), and modified a recipe (exchanged oil and eggs for bananas and applesauce in a brownie recipe).  Obviously they girls got to vote on their choices, and so we had a lot of sweets..it was almost a tea party!  But..YUM!!

I am always exhausted at the end of each day.  But somehow, I still wish I could do more.  Sometimes I still feel like I fail in so many areas.  Do you ever feel that way?  Diabetes has been hard lately..and with the kids bigger, they go through the insulin in their pump reservoirs and have to be changed so often.  I did complain a couple nights ago (after 1 am!) that I wished someone else would learn to change sites.  It's hard having to do it all.  I didn't even want to do it, but the fear of the high number by morning pushed me out of bed.

The kids are playing the lets-pretend-I-checked-my-blood game.  They give me a nearly perfect number, and I ask to see the meter.  They disappear, hope I'll forget, then really check their blood.  It's so fun.

Some of the JDRF moms and I went to the NWA Boutique Show last weekend, and it was so fun.  It really helps to be friends with these great women who get it.  Sick days just mean ten times the work, and insurance issues are always fun.  Kids get tired of diabetes just like we do.  And we have to a.) talk it out, b.) tell them to suck it up, or c.) tell them we hate it too.  All depending on a.) our mood, b.) their mood, c.) their number, or d.) the weather.  It's just a crap shoot, and we hope we all make it out alive still loving one another on the other side.

Oh yeah, I had to leave before we all went to dinner since Carter was headed to the ER for a head injury.  We wrapped up our evening seeing doctors!  Totally par for us. ; ) He is fine now.  We had to wake him in the night to make sure he was responsive and that his eyes continued to dilate.  He's (almost) learned not to stand on things.  

We never say our life is boring.  Or dull.  Nope, we keep it exciting.  Hope your life is going equally well.  Don't you love knowing no one has it perfect, ha!  We're all in this game together.  Hugs to you!

..complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.  Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.  Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.  Philippians 2:2-4