Frontier Logs

 We've always enjoyed Lincoln Logs. I don't even remember when we Owen got his first set that he shared, naturally. Up in Minnesota, we had a huge tub full of the newer Lincoln Logs... they, however, didn't make the cut for moving.

 Daddy and Momma have mentioned that there used to be Lincoln Logs sets that were all wood. I never saw any till we moved to Georgia. One of our neighbors, Grandma Dean, has some old Lincoln Logs that her sons used to play with. James really likes going over to Grandma Dean's and playing with the Lincoln Logs.

I looked for all wood Lincoln Logs sets, but didn't see any till I looked on CSN Stores. They have a whole bunch of Lincoln Log or Frontier Log sets. For Christmas, we got a set. It was a 160 piece set for $21 plus shipping. Total was $25. Which wasn't a bad price considering some other sets I had, by then, come across.

Owen, Becca, Carrie and James have really tested it out. James in particular. It has stood up very well to being catapulted, tossed, dropped, stepped on (ouch!) and so on. That is, except for the cardboard sign "Cavalry-US". It looks like James has bent it! 

Most mornings, James will pull out the tub of Frontier Logs, dump them out on the floor and ask for help in building a house. "Nahhhhnieeee, haowshhh.  Meessss" translated to "Hannah, house. Please". So we build a house and he knocks it down and asks for another one.

I really like these Frontier Logs and hope to slowly build up our Frontier Logs to build the mansions Katie, Owen and I used too. From the use love these Frontier Logs have received, I think they will last a good long time. When we buy more sets, we'll get them from CSN Stores because the shipping is quick and the price is reasonable.

We might even get this set. It's only $36.24 plus shipping. I don't know that I like that it also has 20 plastic figures (More to keep track of, IMO). But I'd bet James would. Because they're 'western', Becca would too.

Did you play with Lincoln Logs/Frontier Logs when you were growing up?

***sponsored by CSN Stores. This is my honest opinion of CSN Stores and Frontier Logs... all words are 100% my own. Pictures taken by Becca or Carrie or from CSN Stores website.

What a little girl wants...

 

When I was a little girl, one of my biggest desires was to have a dollhouse. And then, one year I did get one! It was a large dollhouse and it came with lots of little wood parts to make it. Daddy and I set up one of the bedrooms to be able to work on it, without little ones touching it. We were only able to glue the first and second floorboards together, before James was born and we needed that bedroom. 

Momma and I looked online on that day to see if we could find some dollhouse furniture that would go with it. I distinctly remember seeing a nursery set, with a cradle, crib, rocking chair and a rocking horse. I loved seeing the different sets, but didn't ever get any and finally lost track of the site with the sets. Recently, I came across another site and they carried the same sets I remember seeing a long time ago. I didn't see any on the site, but it would be great to see drop leaf tables for a dollhouse. I could think of many different uses for a mini drop leaf table, but the primary one would be that it wouldn't take up a lot of room. :)

Katie, Owen and I have been talking about seeing if we can put together my dollhouse and that means I will look into getting some furniture and finishing up some dolls Katie and I started when we were about 7 and 5 years old. I really hope we do, because I still like dollhouses. And decorating them too! 

CSN Stores sells drop leaf tables, dollhouse furniture and an amazing selection of dollhouses, if you don't have one yet. ~Sponsored

Been there

My children already know this. But my future grandchildren don't.

And with the current news of the day, it seems like a great time to write about it.

Vern and I met in Alaska, courtesy of the Exxon Valdez oil spill. Some may remember that about 21 years ago, the Exxon tanker Valdez ran aground in the Prince William Sound and dumped most of her load of oil. Exxon began clean up efforts, severely hampered by environmentalist oversight and the U.S. military was called in, just in case we needed to federalize the clean up. I was sent up to Alaska as a logistics planner and Vern was our Navy liaison officer. His ship was one of two Navy vessels providing berthing (sleeping space) to oil spill clean up workers. He was the only one who knew about Navy ships. To my knowledge, Exxon leased the ships.

There was a lot to be learned during the effort and while I was only actually on site for about 5 weeks.. and Vern was there for 6 or 7 weeks, we both learned to be pretty doubtful about the ability of the mainstream media's ability to accurately report a story.

We also realized that, in general, people don't learn well from history. The Coast Guard folks we worked with had lots of experience in oil spill cleanups. And they knew their history. Historically, oil spills have been one of those things that clean up themselves over time. During the two world wars, there were lots of spills and within a decade, there was usually no evidence of the spill remaining. This proved to be true of the Exxon Valdez spill as well.

Hopefully, it will be true of the explosion in the Gulf as well. Once the oil stops flowing.

'Tis the Season: Be flexible and let the Lord speak to you!

Some years ago, our now-older children looked forward to Christmas. Every time they saw an evergreen tree, especially one with lights or decorations, they would exclaim with great glee, "Look Momma! Look Daddy! It's a Christmas!"

Of course the best Christmas of all was the one we had in the living room at our house.
Try as we might to explain with words and other family traditions that the trees were not Christmas and that Christmas was Jesus' birthday, we could not seem to get the message through.

Vern and I talked about what might finally help the children, so we had a smaller tree and gave the creche a more central place in our already limited decor. That didn't work either.

Somewhere in there, we must have finally asked the Lord for wisdom. He sent us a dog. She was a black lab and would be about six months old at Christmas. I was also seven and a half months pregnant with our fourth child.

We talked about simplifying Christmas, since we had a very active puppy and a very pregnant mommy, and had the bright idea that maybe this would be a good year to skip on the Christmas tree. Some of our friends and family thought we had really gone off the deep end, but after Christmas, Vern and I agreed that not having a Christmas tree significantly decreased our Christmas stress. We would certainly keep open the option of skipping the tree the next year.

We skipped out on Christmas trees for eight years, and somewhere in there, our children stopped calling them Christmas. What a huge relief that was.

Two years ago, for our first Christmas in this house, Owen, who was then 11, found a tree that would need to be cut down anyway and asked if we could have a tree. He volunteered to cut the tree, set it up, decorate it with the help of his sisters and take it out after Christmas. We all agreed, since we couldn't keep the tree watered, that it would only be in the house for three days--it came in on Christmas Eve and it went out the day after Christmas.

Since Christmas trees no longer seem to be a stumbling block to anyone, we are free to enjoy having one. It no longer causes additionally stress and it doesn't detract from our celebration of our Lord's birth.

And that helps us keep Christ in Christmas!

Merry CHRISTmas!

This post is part of 'Tis the Season Carnival--Keeping CHRIST in CHRISTmas--hosted by Hannah and Mckenzie. You can find more Carnival posts here.

That little red hairbrush

Daddy has a little red hairbrush that he's had  for as long as I remember. When Owen was a little boy, about 4 years old, he loved Daddy's hairbrush and would borrow it whenever he could. Finally Daddy and Momma got him a little red hairbrush of his own, so that Daddy could find his.The other day, James found Daddy's hairbrush and immediately attached himself to it. And then it disappeared. James hasn't been able to find it yet. I guess he hid it to keep us from finding it and taking it away and hid it too well. It seems that James might be getting old enough to get a little red hairbrush of his own. Maybe for his 5th birthday in December. My, how time does fly!

Hannah

969 days later

Edited: James' off treatment pictures weren't showing up for some reason. Hopefully it's fixed and y'all can see Mr. Handsome. If not please leave a comment and we'll try to figure out what's going on. Thanks, Hannah

On February 25th, 2007, Momma posted that for some reason, she had this feeling that we had several more big weeks ahead of us. And she was right. Though, none of us would have thought it would have turned out this way. Those several big weeks turned into 2 years and 8 months!
But yesterday, James took his very last chemotherapy pill at 7:10pm and is now officially OFF TREATMENT! In a way, I am so thrilled, for James, and me and our family. But it brings more unknowns... and unknowns are.... well, unknown. But not for God and that is full of comfort. Before we close the chapter on leukemia, I would like to share some pictures of James before, during and after treatment. GO JAMES!!!

***************************************************************************************

Before leukemia and with hair....
(January 2006)

During Treatment

(March 2007)


(May 2007)

(December 2007)

(May 2008)



(August 2008)


(September 2008)

(February 2009)




(September 2009)

And now.... Officially OFF TREATMENT

Off treatment pictures by Daniel R. Simpson Photography

As I put this 'in review' post together I saw so many other pictures I would love to have shared with you. If you want to see more pictures and to read James' journey through treatment, the best place to start is in February of 2007 and then finish up here.

We are eternally grateful to everyone who supported us in this journey and continues to support us through everything coming up.

With gratefulness and happiness,

Hannah

Shin splits

I haven't been doing any real running recently. A couple of days ago, Owen was going to run up to where the chickens are and move the pens and I asked to go along, because I wanted to get out and stretch a bit. So Owen and I ran pretty much all the way down and back. The next day, my shins started hurting and I thought it was just sore from where James had sat on me. The next day, my shins felt like there was a bruise and someone was pushing down on it all the time, except there wasn't a bruise and I couldn't think of anything I had done that would make my shins hurt this long. So I told Momma what was hurting and what it felt like and Momma said "That kind of sounds like shin splits." so I asked how would one get it and you'll never guess what she said... running or walking after not exercising much. I checked on Wikipedia and now I have shin splits and they hurt! Next time, I think I'll walk, in my sneakers, not my boots!

Hannah

I'll bet you didn't know

What the difference is between bird flu and the swine flu.
For bird flu, you need tweetmint and for swine flu? oinkment.

Hannah

P.S. Thanks Aunt Donna for this great laugh!

Camping tonight

Tonight in the south (where we haven't felt 'global warming' in nearly a year), Katie, Owen, Becca, Carrie and I are going camping in the yard. It seems that all us children set up our 8 person tent and sleep in it about once a year. Usually, we set it up in the livingroom/diningroom. But this time we are actually going to sleep outside. Some of us (including me!) are wimps when it comes to camping and we wimps decided to take our mattresses out and sleep on those, smothered in our sleeping bags and piles of blankets. Hopefully we'll stay warm, it's supposed to get down to 39* tonight.

Owen has built a fire and beds and bedding is set up. We even decorated with pine boughs inside and outside the tent and we have boards at the entrance, so that we don't track in sand. Carrie is all dressed up in her flannel pantelettes, red turtleneck, blue couch-pouch and two pairs of socks. Becca has her horse sweatshirt, a denim shirt, flannel pantelettes, sweatpants and two pairs of socks on. They both look too cute for words and are eagerly looking forward to sleeping in the tent tonight. Maybe I should go take pictures, so we can share our experience.

Hannah

Teatime with James

On the menu: Pretzel sticks, Bread & Butter pickles, Roast Beef squares.

On the first day of school, what is sweeter than tea for two?

Don't you like James' flowers? He went and picked them out himself.

One of James' favorite activities is to have tea and when we make some for him, he loves to help by setting the table (which is actually his toybox) with assorted china tea sets.

Amputate or Agitate: What's the Difference

We're listening to 'The Enemy Below'. Momma and I were by the computer and I overheard 'we had to amputate his fingers', so I asked 'who's fingers?'. After a minute, Carrie said 'A guy's hand was shot and the doctor had to agitate his fingers.' Oh, Carrie, you are so funny!

Love, Hannah

A funny thing

Today we took two pounds of jalapeno peppers we harvested from our garden and made nearly 100 Jalapeno Poppers. We had read several stories about the importance of wearing gloves while seeding jalapeno peppers and so we heeded that advice.

After seeding the peppers, we saved them in a small bowl to rinse them off in the sink before proceeding with the next recipe step. When I rinsed the peppers, I was looking intently to be sure I rinsed away ALL the seeds. Then I felt a vapor come over my face and inside my nose and the back of my throat began to burn.

The really weird thing is that I then got laryngitis. Now my voice is pretty much gone.

Never heard of that one before!

The popper recipe turned out pretty well... We found that one recipe of filling actually stuffs two pounds of jalapenos. It's worth the extra effort for triple dipping, but we thought the peppers were a little too crunchy. To test: 1)will freezing and warming the poppers in the oven sufficiently soften the peppers?; or 2) should we blanch the peppers before filling?

Stay tuned.

Country living

Tomorrow Vern and Owen are planning to do some burning and work on re-clearing the line, Lord willing. A bulldozer comes in handy for that kind of work. Especially when you can borrow it from a neighbor. In order to save time, Owen and I walked over to the neighbor's to pick up the bulldozer this afternoon. The walk over was reasonable. The walk and ride back took more than twice as long.

When we picked up the 'dozer, we also picked up Owen's tricycle--Carrie has been asking for it. The tricycle rode back in the bulldozer bucket.

On the way home, our neighbor, Quincy, stopped us and said, "That's a mighty expensive piece of equipment to use to carry a tricycle."

God provides

Except for our first baby, we have always used port-a-cribs. They are the perfect size--cozy for the baby and not taking up too much floor space.

Well, James is getting a little too long for his crib now. And I'm not ready to put him in a bed without rails. Last summer we were blessed with a $20, very-lightly-used crib. We have a mattress that we had used for a toddler bed. But there wasn't enough room in the bedroom.

In order to make room, we have been praying for bunk beds and one mattress (we already have one extra mattress on hand). We had hoped to purchase a second set of bunks when we moved in, but that hasn't come to pass.

This week, we got a call from a sweet friend from church. She wondered if we could use some bunk beds, with one mattress.

Now they are all set up in the girls' room and the queen sized mattress set that the little girls have been using are leaning against the wall, waiting to go to their new home tomorrow.

Then we will pull down the crib and mattress and James will have a bed he fits in.

God is so good!

Lost

Last week, James dropped my cell phone into a cup of water. It didn't make it. He bought me a new one, but I have lost all my phone numbers.

One of my new projects is to work on recreating a paper copy of my phone list. I have been surprised how lost I have felt without my phone and programmed phone numbers.

Groanings too deep for words

In the evening, we generally have a time of family fellowship and worship. We sing--usually hymns--we share stories, read a chapter of the Bible and answer questions (right now we are working through _Balancing the Sword_), share more thoughts and stories and then we pray together. Most of the time, Vern prays. Some of the time we 'pray around' and everyone has a turn.

Tonight, we prayed around and James decided he wanted a turn. He was sitting on the couch beside me and he folded himself over, as only James can, into a sort of seated prostrate position. And he prayed. "Mmmmm." "Mm mmm." "Mmm mmm." We all smiled at each other and yet we were respectful of James praying, so it was a quick smile and we kept our heads bowed. When James sat up and looked at Katie, we thought he was done. So, Katie started to pray. Then James signed to stop and he folded himself over again, and prayed.

"Mmmmm." "Mm mmm mmmm." " Mmmmm mm mmmm mmmmm." "Mmmm." [Giggle, giggle] "Mmmm mmm mmmm." [Chortle, snort, giggle] "Mm mmm mmmm mm." [Giggle, chuckle, chortle, snort] "Mmm mmmm mmmm." "Mmm mm mmmm." [Chortle, snort, chortle, giggle, giggle... stern looks from Daddy... deep breaths] "Mmm mmm mmm."

Then James sat up again. He looked at Katie, who was waiting patiently. We each took turns coaching James to sign to Katie that it was her turn. When Katie signed and said, "Your turn", James apparently misunderstood it was what he was supposed to say to her and he folded himself over again and "Mmmm....."

[Bbbwwwaaaah ha ha ha haaaaa.]

The trouble with the church

This evening while we were getting ready for supper and welcoming Vern home, we looked outside to see a couple of the hens poised, like they were either ready for a fight or finishing one up. One of the hens was a White Rock, the other was a golden-colored Buff Orpington. It was a tense moment and they were maintaining the pecking order.

Then one of the children said, "Momma, the chickens are fighting...or they were... they're done now... they were different denominations."

July

It seems already that July is a distant memory. Vern is back to work teaching high school math and Georgia summer heat is in full force.


When we headed to Minnesota back in 2000, the last thing we did before leaving Georgia was to celebrate the Fourth of July with the community here (where we are currently living). It was a good old-time celebration. Whenever we would read aloud the account of a Fourth of July celebration (say in the Little House books, for example), we would remember our Georgia Fourth of July.


In a very very small way, we tried to recreate the memory.... we didn't really come close... we couldn't... but it was our inspiration and at the end of the day after our little private fireworks display we would say, "Next year in Toomsboro!"

So we were sure to be in Toomsboro for the Fourth of July, and we were not disappointed! It was a beautiful day. There was lots of visiting, some softball and whiffle ball--James got to hit a ball and 'run' to first base. The food was excellent--low country boil, and ice cream for dessert. The grand finale was the fireworks. Every year, the hosts get permission from the sheriff to have a private fireworks display and this one was the best yet. The young men work together with one of the Dad's to run the show and Owen is very much looking forward to being 13 next summer so he can help!

The early parts of July were dedicated to getting ready for our trip--sewing, planning and finishing up little projects around our homestead.

Last November, Vern's mom celebrated her 90th birthday. We had hoped to be there with her, but James ended up with a line infection and we had to cancel our plans at the last minute. We rescheduled, finally, for summer and hoped that gas prices wouldn't get too high. We left July 11th an drove for three days to Minneapolis. On the way, we passed the Gateway Arch in St Louis. The children were impressed and I described to them my spotty memories of riding up into the arch years ago when my family was travelling across country (returning home to California from a visit to see my grandmother in Ithaca, NY). As we drove north, we marvelled at the marks on buildings and trees indicating how high the flood waters had come earlier in the spring. It took us a full three days to get to Grandma's and we enjoyed nearly four days of just be with her and visiting.

We had to make a detour to Fairview to say 'hi' to the folks that had taken good care of us last year in March and April. Without them, we would not have made our way safely to Georgia as soon as we did. We had not, however, planned a visit. So one was 'planned' for us! At the time, it was more disconcerting than humorous, but in the end all was well and we shook our heads at the comedy of errors.

The week of our visit, a local grocery store had a special on grapes and each day, Vern's sister stopped to pick up free grapes and brought them over to Grandma's. The children enjoyed them and on Wednesday I cut some up for James. He enjoyed them before lunch. For dessert at lunchtime James enjoyed red jello (I bet you can see where this is going). After lunch, unbeknownst to me, Vern, Becca and Carrie (at least) also gave James grapes. These grapes were not cut...at least not most of them. About suppertime, James was acting like he had really bad tummy cramps. This is not normal, he usually has a very high pain tolerance and most of his fussing occurs when he isn't getting his way. But this was different, we could tell he was in pain. He passed some grape skins and then it seemed the pain got worse and then he passed what looked like bloody mucous into his ostomy bag. We tried tylenol, but that didn't give him any relief, so we called his oncologist. The on-call doctor suggested giving him hydrocodone. If that worked through the night, we would call and re-evaluate in the morning. If he had breakthrough pain, we would go to the ER. So, we went to the ER.

Everyone there was pretty concerned too. The ER doc decided she wanted to admit James and then did a stool culture. We were grateful and relieved that whatever it was, it wasn't blood. Then we started to feel a little funny when we decided with the RN that it looked remarkably like melted jello. Of course, this still didn't explain James' discomfort or his vomiting, so we were getting ready for a room. James got an IV and fluid in the ER and more fluid when we got up to the floor. We were grateful to have familiar nurses and I was impressed that they still had James' primary care nurse list for continuity. After our early morning nap, James passed a large clump of skins and undigested grapes. We could see the relief on his face and his appetite went through the roof. He ate and drank and ate and drank all day long.

The really neat thing about all this was that the doctors and nurses, who had only seen James at his worst, got to see the incredible improvement and they were so excited. He wasn't eating at all when we were there last year nor was he walking and they got to see him now... with hair and not on steroids!




Since were so close to norther Minnesota we headed up to spend some time with friends and see what we left behind nearly a year and a half ago. We did visit the Farmers' Market, which moved from the old Wal-mart parking lot to downtown. We were able to see James' pediatrician, who was thrilled with how well he is doing. It was good to see her too, with her two children. We spent a good deal of time with Grandpa John and Grandma Nan and had some time with them on the lake. I got up on water skis for the first time in some 23 years or so and it was much harder work than I remember it being back then! We could not have made the trip up to Grand Rapids with the generosity of Grandpa John and Grandma Nan who opened their cabin on the lake to us for free lodging! Thanks John and Nan!


While we were glad to see a couple of families and some other friends, our time seemed so short as there were many folks we had hoped to see and didn't. All the more reason to look forward to heaven, in case we don't get to make another trip back.


We left MN in the wee hours of a Monday morning and headed for the Cincinnati, Ohio area. We have followed the construction and preparation of the new Creation Museum in Petersburg, KY from the beginning and we have been itching to get inside and see it since it opened last Memorial Day weekend. We were able to spend part of two days there enjoying the museum, the gardens outside and the wonderful bookstore. No matter where you stand on the issue, we recommend a visit. It can be mind-stretching :*).

From the museum, we drove to my mom's (who was visiting friends in California) and we stayed at her place (thanks Mom!! and Aunt Frannie!!) so we could easily make the drive in to Atlanta for James' visit with Dr. Keller, who was also very pleased with how well James is doing. He said something about James being 'memorable' ;*)... we are glad to be less memorable these days, as long as we don't eat too many grapes.

Love, Stephanie

P.S. I have no photos of our trip, but we have lots of great memories.

Since I last wrote...

.... a lot of things have happened around here! Here is a sample from the last almost-month!

We celebrated Owen's 12th birthday with a work day and all the food (a BIG part of our birthday celebrations) was cooked outside over the fire. For breakfast, we have French Toast, fried eggs, sausage and orange juice to drink. For dinner, we came inside (because of a wind storm), and enjoyed Low Country Boil and Berry Cobbler with Butter Pecan Ice Cream (which was NOT cooked over the fire!).

We burned our HUGE pile of brush, cut and stacked firewood, moved dirt (lost some to a downpour), and done general land improvement.

Our garden has been growing and flourishing and we have eaten lettuce, spinach and a few peas. The broccoli is getting bigger, the cabbage is looking like a small head and the potatoes are growing like weeds! We are looking forward to eating more of 'the fruit of our hands'!

We celebrated the incredible resurrection of the Lord who has walked with us, and at times, carried us through this past year. We are grateful for the abundant life He rose to give us!

We always enjoy making Resurrection Cookies the eve of Resurrection Day. They go into the oven overnight... kind of like Jesus went into the tomb after He was crucified... and they come out as sweet, hollow treats (a reminder of the empty tomb!) in the morning! Making them is a great object lesson devotional and has become a cherished tradition for our family.

After a sweet Resurrection morning service with our church family, we spent the day at home, enjoying a traditional "Easter Sunday" dinner, candy, egg coloring and a Resurrection egg hunt (we have trinkets, representing various events of the Passion Week, that we place in plastic eggs and hide in the yard (weather permitting...and it was a beautiful afternoon for this activity!) I did realize that it is time to find more plastic eggs! They don't last forever!

The flower arrangement on the table is all from things on our little homestead that are BLOOMING!

We went to Camp Sunshine Family Camp, a special camp held for children with cancer and their families, at Camp Twin Lakes in Rutledge, GA. We were thoroughly impressed with the camp facilities. Several organizations that assist families with children with special medical needs, and other limitations, came together to start this camp to meet needs that other facilities could not. The whole camp was first class and totally accessible. We had a cabin with plenty of room for our family (it had twelve beds, 2 toilet stalls, 2 showers (one of which was wheelchair accessible) and two sinks. it also had PLENTY of windows to look out, heat (which we didn't use) and air conditioning (which we did use) and places for all James' medical supplies.)

Courtesy of Camp Sunshine, it's staff and volunteers, we did not have to cook a thing. We only bussed our tables, swept the dining area and our cabins and had a wonderful, refreshing time together. We also met some other families facing similar things with their children. The biggest blessing was that we only paid for gas to get there and a small registration fee ($25)! Thanks to the great folks at Camp Sunshine!

We enjoyed early morning fishing (and catching!)

A family hike.

Pedal-boating--we FILLED two boats!

All the children got to shoot a compound bow. Archery has been a family dream and now we know it is do-able.

We played putt-putt--some at a very relaxed pace!

The children enjoyed a rest time pillow fight, since James was all wound up and wouldn't sleep.

Until we went to the dining hall to play BINGO--because it rained.

Since Carrie's birthday was Sunday, she was given some cupcakes, some of which we enjoyed on the ride home!

Carrie Rose, our princess, turned FIVE! She enjoyed her day along with brunch, a dress up tea party (with no reading)and a picnic dinner and movie with a wonderful stacked berry trifle cake!

We celebrated a new addition to the family. For those who didn't know...

our friends, Jarod and Anna (whose wedding we came down for in January 2007) welcomed their first child, a son, named Ezekiel, in December.

Anna came to help us when Becca, Carrie and James were born. She has a special place in our hearts (so do Jarod and Zeke, now) and it was a real pleasure and privilege to have them down for dinner and a visit and to take some of our 'traditional' baby pictures. And one of Jarod's traditional family funny pictures (bottom right, below).

Hannah was a little disappointed we couldn't get the photos before April 1st so we could have done a photo with the children, Zeke and Vern and me for an April Fool's joke. Ah, well.

In addition, we had plenty of unphotographed activities. James had counts and chemo twice--his counts remain good, but not TOO good. Which is good. Vern was home for spring break this past week (which has been wonderful!) and we have gotten a lot of things moving around the homestead. We actually finished a few things!

The girls and I did some sewing for our Camp Sunshine trip. We made three jumpers (one for me, one for Katie and one for Carrie), pantalettes for play and sleeping, pajama pants for Owen and a skirt for Hannah. We are looking forward to doing more.

We also made the trip to Atlanta for James' counts and then toured Your Dekalb Farmers' Market. We hadn't been there since 1998, we think. It was quite the education and we picked up some fun-to-eat treats--including sugar cane and a coconut!

Thanks for thinking of us, for stopping by to check on us and for loving us. We treasure your notes and comments still... your prayers even more.

Have a sweet and blessed week!

Love, Stephanie

Never a dull moment

This morning we got up and got ready to take James to Macon for lab work. Owen was going with me to help with James and Becca and Carrie were coming along for the outing. Hannah and Katie had pretty significant lists they were staying home to work on.

When we got into the car, Owen looked like he was in pain and said that his head hurt. He decided he would take some tylenol and come along. When we were about half way to Macon, he said something about having felt like he was going to 'throw up'. I thought he meant when he had the headache, before he took the tylenol. Not long after that, he was not looking well. Then he was looking really anxious. I asked some questions--a little too late--and then we started looking for some of the plastic cups we were sure we had brought for drinking. Again... too late. It all happened so fast, I was impressed with how quickly Owen grabbed for his hat! (It's not waterproof, he told me later). Shortly after that, I was able to pull off the road and decided pretty quickly that, half way there or not, we needed to get Owen home. So we turned around and called home. By the time we got home, Becca was feeling and looking a little green. She never did get sick (no one else did either) and was pretty perky by the time Katie, Carrie, James and I left again, for our second attempt.

Owen fell asleep before we left and took a good long nap. I wonder if the headache was from missing sleep and fluids. He is fine now.

We made it to Macon just fine and had our easiest blood draw yet. We had a new-to-us lab tech and it didn't take much to convince her to do a finger prick instead of drawing blood with a needle and syringe. However, I forgot to give her the fax number to send the lab results too. That didn't really matter, though, because the lab results didn't make it back in time.

Thankfully, we were still in Macon, finishing up errands (one was a fun trip through Michael's--it's been nearly forever since I have been to one and longer for Katie. It was inspiring!...but I digress). We ended up stopping by the pediatrician's office. They have a night clinic that is separate from the day clinic, but they were able to get the lab results for me. I called the oncologist on call--thankfully it was someone we know, who knows us. We verbally reviewed James counts (WBC-4.49; Hgb-11.6; Plt 777; and roughly figure the ANC--~2600). Dr. Quayad said we were cleared for chemo. It was one of those times I was really glad to have a cell phone!

So we came home, at supper, had devotions, cleaned up and now most everyone is off to bed--some are up reading in the quiet. I like these quiet moments--we really do get them on occasion!

As you think of James, would you please join us in praying for this round of chemo--that God would be glorified in James NOT getting mucousitis (the sores on the mucous lining of the mouth, esophagus, stomache, and intestines), NOT having nay fevers, and NOT having any need to stay at the hospital?

Thanks for your prayers for us and James.

Love, Stephanie