Life in Holland: The Skinny On Our Summer

I must update on the Great Wolf Lodge. After sending them that message via their website I received a phone cal from them wanting to make things right on our return trip. They did. We had a much better time without any problems. They gave Anna a tube with a bottom in it to use which made quite a difference for a bit but then she refused to use it. They allowed her to use the slides she wanted to use and because there were more adults in our party this time we were able to take her to do other things too that we could not do before. We had a blast and will definitely be going back.

Prior to going back we sent Carly off to her very first camp- it was a 5 day church camp and the longest she had ever been away from home. She was very nervous but excited to spend a week with friends and without parents and siblings.

I knew we would miss her but I missed her far more then I expected. Her time there at camp was priceless though as she made the decision to accept Christ while she was there. I had seen an update on the church's Facebook site saying a child had made a decision but I had no idea that child was mine. I was so humbled by all those who prayed for her while she was at camp. I know she doesn't know it fully yet but this was a defining moment in her life, the defining moment in her life. She can't wait to go back next year and I can't wait to send her. I'm even considering going with our church. Yep, I'm pretty sure I've lost my mind. As usual, God knew what he was doing and I am so thankful all things worked out where she cold go. The first night she was gone I was bathing the 2 little kids and heard Kenneth calling for me from our bathroom. I assumed he had forgotten to get a new bar of soap or blade for his razor or something. I waltzed in there to find him laying naked in the floor and saying "honey, I'm hurt bad." As much as I hated to I had to tell him to lay there and hold on while I ran and got the 2 littles out of the bathtub. I hurried them out and went back to him. He was pale as a ghost and unable to really move. Apparently he was getting out of the shower and tripped over the cat and then slipped on the tile and tried to break his fall and ended up dislocating his shoulder. I considered calling 911 to come get him because he looked so bad but then I thought about his coworkers showing up and him being naked in the floor and I decided against it. Somehow together we got him up and dried off and semi dressed. My friend Julie came to watch the littles as we headed off to the ER. As much as I HATED to use the little local ER I knew he would never make the ride to Denton. So we went local and they tried multiple times and could not get the shoulder back in place. He ended up transported by ambulance to Denton where he got more meds and they were able to put it back in place. He is in this horrendous looking contraption for 6 weeks and hopefully it will heal. If not he will be looking at surgery but we are believing it will heal perfectly. He goes back to work Monday on light duty and I hope all goes well. It has been about 3 weeks since it happened and he has already made great progress.

This summer also brought Carly's 9th birthday. How is she 9 already? We spent the day at American Girl in Dallas and the girls had a great time. She had wanted to go there for years and I felt like she was finally old enough to really enjoy it. She did. She is growing up so fast. Part of me wants her to stay where she is and part of me can't wait to see the lady she grows up to be. She tries my patience on a daily basis but she is an amazing kid and I am so lucky to have her. Homeschooling went well last year but my job change has dictated that she needs to be back in public school. She is excited. I am still not sure what we are going to do with Anna. She could go another year to The Little Lighthouse where she goes 2 1/2 days a week and gets very individualized lessons and therapy or she could go with Carly to public school. I won't lie- having them in the same place on the same schedule would be so nice. I get so tired of always being on the road. But that is selfish. I just keep praying and hoping the right answer will slap me in the face. We go Tuesday to start working on a plan with the public school for her. Knowing what they want to do may help make up my mind. She will either end up with a paraprofessional who stays with her in a regular room, in a life skills class at another campus which they would provide transportation to, or at a PPCD class at yet another campus where transportation would also be provided. I don't know what I want for her. It's almost like I need to decide whether I want her to flourish more academically or socially. The thought of loading her up on the short bus makes my heart want to break. Reality is so mean sometimes and although most days I'm ok somedays it just breaks my heart. So I will keep praying and trusting the right answer will appear.

This little kid will be staying home a few more years and I'm thankful I don't have stressful decisions to make about him right now. He's a mess but he keeps us laughing. He has moved to his big boy bed this last week and I am so proud of how well he has done.

Somedays he seems so big and then I look at I'm in this bed and realize he's still such a tiny guy. Medically Anna is doing about the same. I don't even know if I had posted about it before but she had been having episodes of falling down all the time. Her seizure meds were reduced hoping it was a side effect. For whatever reason the reduction seemed to work for a a week or so but then we were right back where we started. All summer it has been a big fall fest. Our house is tile so you can imagine how that has gone. You constantly hear splat then crying. I had talked to our neurologist about it and he said he felt she was not overmedicated and that she just needed more physical therapy. Then she had a pretty bad fall outside and lost 3 teeth.

The bottom one fell out on impact and the top 2 front ones were pushed back. It nauseates me to look at it. The dentist checked X-rays and luckily the roots were ok so they just pulled the top ones. She may be toothless for awhile because they were not quite ready to come out. But they will come back no I am thankful she is ok and that they were at least baby teeth.

Up inside her mouth was so bruised up. Poor baby. And her speech. OMG her speech. It was hard enough to understand her before. Remove the front teeth and it is next to impossible. I say " What did you say?" and she yells louder as if volume is the issue. She is no less frustrated than the rest of us. About 2-3 weeks ago we had her levels checked and her Tegretol level was low. I already knew before the labs were done because her behavior was so different. They raised her level and now the falling has stopped again. Sigh. I hate seizures. I suppose we will have further talks about this with neurology. Anna is also throwing fits about her nighttime feeds so we are switching to boluses hoping to avoid the nights. She doesn't like being tied down to the pole and I don't blame her. Her eating has picked up but so has her upward growth so we still aren't really making any progress.

I started a new job a few weeks ago. I am now a hospice nurse. I am loving it so far. My home health job was just too busy and they kept demanding more and more of my time, time I did not have to give. God placed this hospice opportunity before me and it was clearly exactly what I needed and had been looking for.

My sister and her kids came to visit this summer. They have lived in Georgia for years and are about as southern as you get...until now. They have had to make a move to Long Island for my brother in law to complete a plastic surgery fellowship. It is a huge opportunity but one that has been hard for them as they are readjusting to life as they know it. I was so glad to see them be ease I'm not sure we will ever be able to visit them there. Financially it just probably isn't feasible. These are all of our kids with our parents.

The kids got to play a day at Great Wolf and then another day just playing in the water at our house. As long as they were together they didn't care where. I hate that life has placed these cousins so far away from each other but I know miles cannot separate love.

As the summer comes to a close we will spend as much time as we can being lazy and hanging out in our swimsuits.