A Well Household...For Now!

Remember when I wrote in few posts back that I thought we were getting over our illnesses in this house...WRONG! All was well until 4:30 am on Tuesday morning. Logan was sleeping with me that night and I was woken up by him talking. He told me he was sick. I didn't believe him because he acted fine. I was trying to humor him for a while by asking him if his leg hurt and so on. I was trying to get back to sleep when all of a sudden he threw up in the bed!!

For all you who know me, I don't do vomit well, but I did good with it that night. I cleaned him up, the bed and so on. I was quite proud of myself! Thankfully, he didn't get sick again all day Tuesday. He wasn't quite himself, but he was still good.

Well, wouldn't you know that at around 5 am on Wednesday it happened again and a few more times on Wednesday. I had him on the couch all day and kept a small trash can by him. I told him when he got sick to use his bucket. One of the last times he got sick, he grabbed his bucket and got sick in it. What a big boy he is!

The vomit stopped Wednesday night and then the diarrhea started and continued once a day or so until yesterday morning! Oh, and in the mean time, Luke started in with the diarrhea!

So, as you can tell by know, it has been such fun at our house these past few weeks. I pray that we are all done with the sicknesses going around. I don't like it when any of my boys are sick.

Hopefully, this week finds us all safe and healthy!

Enjoy the holiday.

**Sorry for all of the gross descriptions of this post. I just wanted you to get the full effect!**

Please Pray for the Chapman Family

My heart aches for Steven Curtis Chapman and his family. They have been on my mind constantly since I found out about the tragic death of their youngest daughter. Please pray for this family. Steven Curtis Chapman is an amazing Christian musician and has touched my life with his music. Please go here for the complete story. I pray that they will feel God's arms around them today, tomorrow and the days to follow.

What A Week!

This past week has been quite a week. All of my boys have been sick in one way or the other. It started with Luke and went through Logan and on to Dustin. Both Logan and Luke had runny noses and coughs. Luke wasn't that bad but Logan's runny nose and cough turned into broncholitis which resulted with him having to have breathing treatments. Oh, and let me say that we started the breathing treatments the night before his birthday party! I prayed all night that he would be O. K. for his party. I didn't want to have to cancel it and I wanted him to have a good time. The morning of his party, I ended up calling all of those with children and letting them know about Logan and the wheezing and they all came anyway! Logan had a blast with his cousins and friends. You could tell that he didn't feel great but he enjoyed himself. All in all, it was a successful 3rd birthday party!

Then on Monday, Dustin's last day of vacation, he started feeling icky and it went downhill fast from that point on. Tuesday he got up and got ready for work and kept saying that he didn't feel too good. Well, he made it to work for only a little bit and then came home. When Dustin gets sick, he gets sick. He hasn't been this sick since Logan was just a baby. I actually had to call his mom and ask her to take him to the ER on Tuesday night because his temperature got so high, which isn't that uncommon, but still I was concerned. When both Dustin and Logan get fevers, they get fevers! Any way, Luke is very high maintenance and needs his mommy at night and there was no way I could have left him so my sweet mother-in-law took her baby to the ER where it was found that Dustin had strep throat. They gave him an IV and an antibiotic shot along with a perscription and sent him home. He stayed in bed on Wednesday too! He ended up going to work Thursday and Friday and made his way through. In the meantime, both Tuesday and Wednesday during the day and evening I went with the boys to my parents so Dustin could rest in peace and quiet. So, basically I was a single parent for about 3 days last week. Just let me say that it was tough! I can't give enough credit and praise to single parents. It is hard. I realized I blessed I am to have Dustin and have his help with our boys.

So, here we are on Sunday night already. Dustin is feeling better, but believes he has a bit of a chest cold. I am most likely going to force him to go to the doctors tomorrow! So, hopefully this week will be good and we all will get well and stay well. Please pray for this! : )

Happy Birthday Logan!

Logan turned 3 years old today! We were so excited to spend this special day with him. We planned some special things for him today. Dustin is on vacation this week so we were all 4 able to spend the whole day together. Here is what we did:

We woke Logan up this morning and let him open one of his gifts from us. He got a baseball mitt and a ball. He was very excited. The two things he said to us about the mitt were, "this is cool!" and "go Tigers!" How cute is that!

For lunch, we took him to his favorite place...Buffalo Wild Wings. He loves the honey BBQ boneless wings. Then we took him to Dairy Queen and he got a cup of vanilla ice cream with sprinkles. He loved it and ate it all.

We then spent time at home for a while and he was able to play and relax a bit. Dustin worked outside in the "field" as he refers to it. We have lived in our house for 6 years and we have decided it is time to landscape the front of our house. So that is Dustin's project and he has been working hard at it! (Thanks Honey!)

Tonight, we took the boys to the Tiger's game. Their first game ever! Our good friends and their little girl, who Logan loves, went too. We had a very nice time. We only stayed through 6 innings because it was getting colder and everyone was getting tired. I have to admit that I wasn't very excited to go tonight, because I wasn't sure how it would be with the boys, however, it turned out to be very nice. All three kids did great. Logan seemed to enjoy the whole experience. He even brought his new baseball mitt. He carried it all the way from the car to our seats, which happened to be 5 rows from the top of the stadium! Can you imagine my stress when we realized where our seats were? I was nervous having the kids up that high and nervous myself being that high, but it all worked out just fine.

We made it home safely and called it a night shortly after, well all but me because I am crazy enough to stay up this late! Now, we will spend the rest of the week getting ready for the big birthday party this weekend. I will be sure to post pictures of the "birthday week" festivities at the end of the week!

Happy Birthday Logan! We love you!

"Jon & Kate"

One of my favorite shows on T.V. is "Jon & Kate Plus 8." It is a reality show about the Gosselin family. Jon and Kate are the parents of 7 year old twin girls and 3 year old sextuplets (3 boys and 3 girls). Yes, you read that correctly. They have 8 children, thus the name of the show. The show details their everyday lives raising their 8 children. I am truly amazed after watching their show every Monday night on TLC (The Learning Channel). I seriously admire Kate and look up to her as a mother. She has inspired me to be a better mom to Logan and Luke. I can't even imagine having 8 kids. Sometimes, a lot of times actually, I get overwhelmed with my 2. One thing that impresses me so much is that Kate has said that they want to do as much as they can with their 8 children. They have done shows about them going to the zoo and to Disney World and other amazing trips and outings. It truly makes me rethink the fact that I think it is too much at times to take my boys to Target with me!!

Anyways, I noticed on their website that Jon and Kate were going to be in our area this weekend, so, of course, I talked my mom and my friend Jen into going with me to see them. When we got to the venue there was mass chaos trying to park. Over an hour later we found a parking spot and made our way to Jon and Kate's location in the venue. Of course the place was packed and we were only able to see them for brief moments through the crowd and were only able to hear a few words they spoke. All I kept thinking was that at least I got to see them in person and that I heard a few words out of their mouths.

We then walked through the rest of the venue which was supposed to be full of booths that appealed to women's interests. Long story short, we weren't impressed. Then it happened!!! We were walking down one of the aisles and all of a sudden Jon and Kate were right in front of me. Jen, later told me that I said "it's Jon and Kate plus 8!" They were at a local radio station's booth signing autographs. Of course, Jen and I got in line...who wouldn't! It moved pretty quickly and you will understand why in a few moments. I was so nervous waiting in line. I didn't know what I was going to say. I didn't want to be all corny and stupid. So, I practiced what I was going to say. Both Jen and I had it all planned out. I seriously was just about as excited to see them as I was Bon Jovi! I made Jen go first and she said what she was going to say and Kate acknowledged her, but not in a great way because she was so busy with the autographs. She was not rude by any means but you could tell that they did not have any time to talk to those in line. The people in charge had all of us that were in line moving so fast. So, do you want to know what I said? Get ready. I said "thanks" or "thank you" to both of them and on we went! How funny is that. I spent all that time worry about what I was going to say and I end up saying one, two words at the most!

All in all is was a great day because we got to see Jon and Kate up close and now I have a signed picture from them, but the rest of our time at the venue was a bust!

**Thanks Mom and Jen for driving around for over an hour trying to find a parking spot and then battling the crowd with me today! Hopefully my next idea for an outing will be a great one all the way around!**

What God is Teaching Me

I accepted Christ as the Savior of my life at a very young age. I remember sitting in church on a Sunday night (I believe I was in the 3rd grade) and feeling the Holy Spirit work in me in a way that I knew I needed to accept Christ in my life. I was quite a shy little girl and walking the aisle to the pastor at the end of the service was a big deal. Because of my age, and something that I now appreciate more than I can explain, the pastor wanted to meet with me along with my parents after the service to make sure I understood what I was doing. That night in his office along with my parents, I accepted Jesus into my heart. I accepted Him as my Savior and believed that He came into the world in order to die on the cross to save me from my sins being the ultimate sacrifice. I confessed to Him that I am a sinner and that I needed Him. From that moment on I have tried to obey God in every aspect of my life. When I say that I have tried, that doesn't always mean that I have succeeded. I have fallen short A LOT! But the great thing is that God is there to help me back up when I fall and He is there to forgive me when I need it.

Now that I am a mom I am starting to realize the importance of letting God's light shine through me. I want my boys to grow up in a way that they see God through me. We have been teaching Logan to pray. We have been praying with him at meals and then also before he goes to bed. His meal prayer was "Thank you Jesus food Amen," which was great. Now, however, he is learning to pray for others. During meal time prayers and even at night he will pray for Dustin, Luke, me and himself and anyone else he can see and he ends by saying, "in Jesus name, Amen." Now I know that he is only 3 (as of next Tuesday!) but I want to instill in him all of the Christian values that my parents instilled in Scott and I growing up. I want them to grow up knowing that their parents are devout Christians who live their lives the best they can in a way that is pleasing to God. My prayer is that both of my boys come to know and accept Christ into their lives at an early age and that the grow to be strong men of God.

I say all of this (yes, I can talk a lot or type a lot!) because God is showing me areas of my life that need work and need work right away. Logan is so attentive and is like a sponge taking everything in. There are areas of my life that I don't want my boys to take after me. One big area is my issues with fear. I am a worrier. I can look back in my life and see along the way where worry has crept in and it has gotten worse and worse over the years. This is not something I am proud of and am currently working on getting better in this area. I worry about everything and if their is nothing to worry about, I worry about what is coming next. This is not healthy and I am completely aware of it. The Bible specifically tells us that fear and worry is not from God. In fact, we are supposed to give or fears and worries over to God and leave them there. I can give them over, but not taking them back is the issue.

God is teaching me that it is more than just asking for forgiveness for my worries, which are sins. He is teaching me that He wants a personal relationship with me that involves spending time in prayer and bible study with him. While I ask God to take away the fear and worry, it doesn't mean that He will do that immediately. I read in a book just the other day that during the time when we ask God for help and the time that our prayers are answered, is the time when He wants to develop a better relationship with us. He wants us to draw near to Him. He wants us to really trust Him and make Him the center of our lives. I truly believe that when I get to the point in my life where I have that deeper relationship with God, my fears and worries will be a thing of the past. I am happy to say that I am better than I was 6 weeks ago but I still have a long way to go. I may always have to be on guard with my fears and worries. It is so easy to fall back into our "pit" of whatever we are struggling with. They key is to get out and stay out of the "pit."

What kind of "pit" are you dealing with? What is God trying to teach you? If you are serious about dealing with your "pit" then I encourage you to get the book " Get Out of That Pit," by Beth Moore. It will be well worth it.

Thanks for listening to me and let me know if you are struggling too. Maybe we can become accountability partners and work together through our issues. I have found that it is alway comforting to know that other people are dealing with some of the same issues that you are. It isn't so lonely when you have a friend to lean on. Let me be that friend.

Hebrews 4:16 "Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need." NIV