A Long Day

This has been a long day.

It started last night about 8:30pm. Daniel had a seizure. He didn't take his medication on Tuesday night (which I didn't realize till the next day). In the past when we've forgotten his meds, the next night he wakes up with tingley lips. It lasts a couple minutes and a cool damp cloth seems to sooth his lips.

Well last night, he woke up, managed to walk out to the living room while having his seizure. We immediately laid him on the couch on his side. We didn't want any choking to occur. His seizure only lasted about 2 minutes, but this is the worst it's been since his very first one 4 years ago. After his seizure finished he fell fast asleep & was fine for the rest of the night.

Mentally, we knew he was fine, but it really took an emotional toll on us. This morning I let his teacher know - just in case, but all was fine.

Then...the next part of our day happened! I was visiting with one of the moms after the kids went into class & our kids were playing. Of course, I was babysitting today & had the 4yr old boy with me. Well the kids found a frozen puddle & were having fun with the ice.

Becca had pulled her arms out of her coat sleeves & tucked them inside her zipped up coat (kind of like a mummy). That spells disaster but my brain was still foggy from Daniel's seizure last night, so I didn't think to say anything. Soon enough, she slipped and fell face forward onto the ice...with no hands to break her fall (they were safely tucked inside her coat!).

Her tooth cut right through her top lip. I quickly took her inside to the school office & the principal came & helped. I couldn't think of what to do. It's unusual for me, normally I jump into action. But I think my head was still too full with last night's events. After cleaning Becca up & seeing that the bleeding was stopping, I took her to a walk-in clinic. The doctor there sent us to the Emergency at the hospital because he didn't have the necessary thread for stitching - if it was going to be neccesary.

To make a longer story shorter, the doctor at the hospital decided that Becca did not need stitches. The cut was closed up enough that the doctor said he couldn't do anything better to help it. Becca (& I) were very happy to hear that!

Jeremy was able to get off work early & met me at the hospital. He took my babysitting boy home so I could focus better on Becca.

The kids are in bed right now, both sleeping. Jeremy & I are waiting to see if Daniel will have another seizure or be fine. If he's going to have one, it's about 10-15 minutes after he goes to sleep. At this point, it looks like he's going to be fine. So, we're praying that our long "day" will soon be done!

One last thing, while Jeremy was praying today, the song "God is good, all the time..." kept running through his head. He felt that God was asking him if he really believed that. Yes, we KNOW that God IS good...ALL the time!

Life in Pictures & Ideas Wanted

Last week we had a real heat wave, at least it felt like it! One day when Daniel got home from school (I love carpooling!) this is what he looked like! Talk about wild & crazy hair!

All hot & sweaty after playing on the playground after school!

What goes through your mind when you see a picture like this?

If your answer was "clippings from a hair cut" you would be correct - well, sort of...

Becca ~ the willing participant

Daniel ~ The Culprit
The end result

Did you see it? The hair is cut level to her ear. Daniel cut off about 3"! Needless to say, we weren't too happy. Especially because we had just finished telling Daniel & Becca to put the scissors away after they were trying to cut a stuffed puppy's fur. Sigh! We'll probably take Becca in for a haircut this weekend to see if anything can be done to make it look a little better. And while we're at it, we'll get Daniel's crazy hair taken care of too!

Now on to today's adventure! Daniel lost another tooth! We were at Costco having lunch with my Mom. She was on her way through to the Interior for a "Music for Young Children" conference. Because of the short time that we'd have to visit - and she wanted to fill up at Costco (gotta love cheaper gas) - we met at Costco and had lunch. While eating his pizza, Daniel's tooth popped right out! I thought it was pretty cool that Grandma was there for the special occasion. Here is the happy boy!

Now for wanting ideas.

I am planning Daniel's 7th birthday party. We are trying to save money so I'm thinking of ideas for having his party at home. But then it could rain & who wants 10 kids running around in a small house with no playroom? So we might end up going somewhere.

What I am wanting ideas for are the birthday cake. I only have limited time but making the birthday cake is something I really want to do. Any ideas how I could make / decorate Daniel's cake with little effort & cost? I'm thinking something along the lines of Space, Cowboys & Indians (we're reading the "Little House on the Prairie" series so he's interested in this), airplanes/jets/rockets, pirates (nothing yucky), treasure chest, castle (knights, etc). I saw a wonderful idea of doing a treasure chest with cupcake pirates, with the chest overflowing with candy "treasures" but most of the candies I looked at today contain peanuts (or traces of). One of the boys Daniel is inviting is allergic to peanuts and I want to be sensitive to the allergy - making it so he can eat everything we offer.

Any ideas? Please leave them in the comments...I'd love the input. I'm planning to start on the cake as soon as possible. Thanks in advance!

Touching Base

It's been a week since I last posted. And before that, it had been...who knows how long?!

Life has been busy here. I've shared about some of it (going to the Island for my Grandma's funeral).

But mostly I have found myself busy with my new business venture in Epicure. I am loving it! I have not been nervous yet when giving my short presentation (which is highly surprising to me. Remember, I'm the one who is shy - at least I used to be; it seems there are a few of my personality traits that are changing - for the better I think!).

I have been on a steep learning curve with this venture, but have only felt overwhelmed once. Epicure is such an amazing company to work for, with incredible support. I've experienced huge success and not-so-huge successes at the Tasting Parties I've done so far. But all of it is giving me more experience.

In all of this, my biggest struggle has been to keep consistent with my devotional life - to not put God on the back burner. I haven't been all too successful with keeping God priority over my business, but these past couple weeks, I have been making more of an effort. This past year I have gained such a closeness with God that I don't want to give that up. Nothing is worth that.

In trying to keep my priorities straight, I haven't been blogging as much to allow for more God, family & business time. I am still babysitting full time too, so that also keeps me busy!

I hope to post some pictures from our holidays early next week. In the meantime, I'm happy to share that WE HAVE NEW TENANTS for September 1st!

Our wonderful girls (tenants) told us the end of July that they would be moving the end of August, just 10 months after they moved in. We are sad, but excited for them as they are both off to a discipleship school. After showing our basement suite several times and only getting a few applications, we phoned one of the families tonight and they happily accepted!

A couple weeks ago, Jeremy prayed and asked that God would use our basement suite to bless the new renters. This family that is moving in told Jeremy that they feel so blessed to be moving in. They are Christians and are friends with a family from the church we've been attending this summer. Our new renters are a young couple with an almost 2 year old boy, so that will be different for us - having to share the yard. I've had time to get used to the idea so I'm okay with it now.

Thank you, God, for providing for our needs and blessing us with what we expect will be a good relationship with this young family.