Resolved

My project a few days ago was to paint the shutters. Repairing and replacing the shutters was one of the terms of the buyers of our house. I have wanted to repair and replace them ever since I moved into this house. It was nice to finally get the project done.

There are so many projects I have wanted to get done and this move is actually making me do some of them. Josh & I have tackled our entire attic storage in the past two days. We have cleaned out closets, drawers, and hidden cubbies that had become dumping grounds. We have repaired crown molding, fixed leaks, and returned items lent to us. We have had a yard sale, donated items to Goodwill, and given a lot of things away. We still have more things to go through, but we are getting there.

We have only lived in this house for 18 months but you would think we had been here for 18 years. It was bad. I am resolving now that we are not going to live this way anymore. I want to have a system. To be organized. Is it really possible? Or will I get to my new place and put off projects again?

Ratified & Satisfied

The Lord has answered our prayers. Right when I was about to burst from being wound so tight, He parted the Housing Market and gave us an offer so we could walk on dry land to St. Louis. Not that we are really going to be walking. But you get what I mean.

We received an offer on our house Sunday when we got home from church. It was on the low end of a fair offer, and we countered back at the very tip top of the high end of a fair offer. We bought this house when the market was much better, even though that was just 18 months ago. We pretty much needed God to move the Rocky Mountains in order for us to walk away without maxing out every credit card we own. We knew we were asking a lot. And when they countered we countered right back.

They finally agreed to give us what we asked for... if we give them our couches. And our shower curtains. Oh and the two framed pictures I have on the wall in my bathroom. Weird. But whatever. We said if that is really what is going to make this house sell, we will give you our couches. (I just had to look up sale vs. sell. I have been messing that up a lot lately, and maybe I still chose the wrong one???) I am sure they have couches in St. Louis.

So now it is on to inspections and appraisals and loan approval letters. We feel a huge sense of relief-- God has provided what we need. My mother-in-law told Josh & me a few weeks ago that God is usually the God of the last minute. That has certainly proven true in this case. We are leaving town in 12 days. This offer came right in time for me to be able to use my real estate license and get all the business settled before leaving town.

All praise must go to God. He is the only One that could have gotten us an offer this fast, this high, with these terms in this market. He is good. I wish I would have stressed less and trusted that God would make it all happen in His timing. I wasted a lot of hours these past few weeks worrying.

Now we can say Hoorrraayyy!!! We are moving to St. Louis with no home in Virginia Beach!!!

20 weeks of Hunter

So I am feeling a little sentimental. My baby is 20 weeks old. I enjoy (most) every minute I get with my darling boy and cannot wait to hear what thoughts go through his mind. Tonight as I was putting him down to sleep he was laughing and smiling and soooooo happy. It was adorable. He has had a rough couple of days with his teeth. So seeing him happy was quite the treat.
(Side note: we think his insides are feeling better. He hasn't had a high fever in the past few days and his cries seem to all be focused on his mouth. Thanks for all your prayers and concern. We are still diligently giving him his meds and will find a new doc when we get to St. Louis to continue the testing on our baby. We are confident that things are good now!)
In honor of Hunter's 20th week, I have decided to post a picture from every week of his life. Overkill? Maybe. But I have some gooooood photos. I'm excited to share them. Here they are in order from 2 days old to 20 weeks. (except for week 10, when I had no camera. You can see the vast improvement in the photos when we got our new DSLR!)

pumpkins!

Hunter and I both experienced something new: a pumpkin patch! We went to a pumpkin farm near Gloucester, VA with our good friends John and Bethany. What a delightful day! We took a hay ride to the corn maze and then to the pumpkin patch. We drank scurvy bustin' lemonade, ate pumpkin bread, and purchased pumpkin butter. And we picked a pumpkin. The best part was the photos. Hunter did great with the traveling and everything all day. Here are some photos from our Fall Day.

Don't Blink

It is only 9:43 a.m. and I am already exhausted.

My life is turning into a blur. Have you heard that country song by Kenny Chesney, "Don't Blink"? That song keeps playing in my head. Here is the video. Ever since I had Hunter the minutes just flash by without much of a trace.

This has inspired me to think about what is really important in life. How can we slow down and take it all in? What will matter in 5 years? What about 50 years?

As a housewife and mom, I have found it really easy to become wrapped up in dishes, diapers, laundry, cleaning, feeding the baby, organizing, cooking... With all Josh & I have going on, I have found myself more concerned with my "to do" list than the people around me. Stress has taken over! I really don't want to be grouchy and going a hundred miles an hour.

I tend to think if I could just complete ____ (cleaning, planning, organizing--fill in the blank) then I will fell better and I'll be able to relax and enjoy my family. The ugly truth is that even when _____ is finished, I find 72 other things I need to do. I think I need to start filling in my blank with love. Or with reading my Bible.

I don't want to blink and find my life has passed me by. How can I focus on the things that will last?

explosion

If you hear something pop as you are reading this post, it is probably my head. I feel like it is going to explode any moment.

The chaos that I reported on last Friday is still in full-force. Hunter has been back to the doc twice since then. Yesterday, his fever spiked to 100.3 and we went in and got him on a different prescription. This one tastes like bubblegum. Hunter doesn't seem to hate it. But I have to give him 3ml twice a day-- that's a lot! He will take about 1/4 ml at a time without spitting it out. So it sorta takes forever.

Today we met with his doctor again. I am overwhelmed. Again, it could be nothing serious. For sure he has (had?) a UTI. The doc has reason to believe it was a kidney infection, too. So, we are going to get an ultrasound on Friday morning at the local Children's Hospital. Man, I never imagined I would have to take my child to a Children's Hospital. How frightening! It is only an ultrasound... After that we are to meet with a urologist and then take another test at the Children's Hospital that will require a catheter and possible sedation. I DO NOT want to sedate my baby!

Also, Hunter's urine grew Group B strep. It could be the Group B that caused the UTI. We are in the process of trying to get another urine sample from Hunter. We had one-- but then he pooped and it got contaminated. We were supposed to have the sample back to the office by 4 p.m. which is in 4 minutes. I hope he has to pee again soon.

Okay so on top of this our house was shown yesterday--yay!-- and we had an appointment for right now but it got canceled. It is so hard to keep the house clean when my mind is swimming in details of Hunter's health, moving dates, advertising our property, scheduling goodbyes, and finishing up my job. I just really want our house to sell. We NEED it to sell. Every time someone comes to look at it I try really hard not go get my hopes up. But I can't help it. My hopes go up.

I feel like I'm on a roller coaster of emotions. I am elated to be going to seminary, overwhelmed with fear for my son's health, sad to be leaving our friends and home here in VA Beach, tired of trying to sell my house, and ecstatic to visit friends and family during the holidays.

In other Hunter news:
He found his feet. And it is adorable.

Oh! The doc said he has 2 teeth about to break through-- his upper k9s. Not the typical first teeth. The doc said we should see them within the next week or so.

chaos

This was a horrible, awful day. Okay, so that is a bit dramatic. But it was pretty bad.

This story really starts yesterday. Hunter had his 4 month old shots yesterday. Since his birth, his daddy and I have struggled with the idea of vaccinations. For his 2 month shots, we chose the "divide and conquer" method. He had half of the shots at 2 months and the other half at 3 months. Seemed to work quite nicely. For his 4 month shots, we decided we needed to get them all at once since we are going to be leaving on our road trip and moving very soon. So, Hunter had one oral med and 3 shots yesterday.

Last night he was the fussiest he has ever been in his short life. He had his break down right as we got to a friend's house. None of my sure-fire methods worked to calm him: walking, rocking, singing, feeding, talking... nothing. He was angry, angry Hunter. I, of course, blamed the entire thing on his shots. I knew we shouldn't have had them all at once! The on-call nurse said we should give him Tylenol. So my baby had his first dose of grape flavored Tylenol, which really seemed to help.

He slept just fine last night and when he woke this morning he seemed like a happy baby again. I thought all was fine.

Until.

Josh changed his diaper and there was blood. The blood appeared to be coming from the urine. I called Deb the triage nurse and she said we needed to bring Hunter in ASAP. They put a bag on him to catch any urine so that it could be examined. We were to come back in 3 hours.

In the mean time, we had Josh's going away lunch. (Not that I could eat--I was trying to enjoy the special lunch but my stomach was in knots and my shoulders were so tight--food was the last thing on my mind. I did order a meal and decided I could box it and eat it later.) A lot of his co-workers came to say goodbye. It was a lot of fun for me to see Josh with all the people he has been working with the past 3 and 1/2 years. They gave Josh a nice presentation and several NATO gifts. It was officially our first round of goodbyes. It hit me and Josh that this was all happening--NOW.

So as soon as that is over we take our hot and flushed baby boy right back to the doc. After an hour wait (because, oh-by-the-way it is FLU season), we finally see the doctor. He informs us that both of Hunter's urine samples look clear. But his temperature is now 102. So the nurse gives him a dose of Tylenol--cherry flavor. For whatever reason, Hunter does not like the cherry flavor and literally gags the entire thing down amidst many screams. The doc then goes over a long list of possibilities with us and sends us to get blood work done so we can have a more conclusive answer for treatment.

Josh & I then take our 4 month old baby to get blood drawn. Not a small finger prick or an ankle prick. Full out blood being drawn from a vain in his arm. Elastic tie and all. And they miss his vain the first time. Seriously? An intern on a 4 month old? Yes. So screaming Hunter gets to be pricked TWICE. Grr.

We then head back to our doc who takes us immediately back to the office and says he wants to do a throat culture on Hunter to rule out strep. Poor Hunter had just fallen asleep, only to be awoken by a giant cotton swab being shoved down his throat. The doc then says we have 30 min. to wait before the blood results will be to his office.

By this time I am starving. It is about 4:45 and this nursing mom hasn't eaten since breakfast. We decided to go grab Chick-Fil-A.

Did I mention it has been raining ALL DAY? Because of the rain we had taken our spoiled little girl dog with us in the car so she wouldn't be rained on all day. She was the absolute last thing on my mind through all of the chaos with Hunter. She had now been in the car for approximately 5 hours. We are the world's worst dog owners. When we opened the car door, we realized our error: we put our left-overs from lunch in a bag on the floorboard. Baylee had exotic Pad Thai for her lunch today.

After a quick clean up of the mess and the dog and a little grub for us and we were back at the doctors office.

Good news. The immediate results of the blood showed nothing to be concerned about. The blood and the urine both have to be sent to the lab for 2-5 days to make sure there is no bacteria growing. We are told to watch Hunter's temp and if it goes over 100.4 we are to bring him back in ASAP. The doc also suspects a urinary tract infection, so he gave Hunter a med to help that. He says that on Monday he needs to see Hunter again to check his urine and sometime late next week we need to have an ultrasound to check Hunter's organs.

So the blood could be absolutely nothing or it could be a UTI or it could be pointing to problems with his kidneys. Let's pray for the first.

Last stop of the day: pharmacy. I got the prescription for my baby and this one is strawberry flavored. Hunter does not like it but likes it better than the cherry.

Needless to say, I have been a ball of worry & stress today. Watching your child be sick is soooo much harder than being sick yourself. I tried to be strong-- I didn't ever cry-- but now as I sit here my neck & shoulders literally throb from being strained all day.

Hunter is asleep. I hope he sleeps okay. During the last 24 hours we have determined one thing for sure: Hunter prefers grape to cherry or strawberry.