Spring Updates

I need a new camera. This is the best picture I got of Matthew at his Awana awards tonight. Yes, he's the one with his back to the camera.

The problem I have is my camera only has a digital zoom, so I can't zoom in on anything without losing sharpness. If the hospital bill for Andrew's surgery is not astronomical, I may do just what our President is asking and spend money to buy a new camera.

Matthew had a great year at Awana. He got an award for finishing his book, and then a patch for reviewing it which means he pretty much did the whole thing again. His leader loved having him, and wants him in her group next year.

Nathan is all done with Cubbies too, and he's very excited about being a Spark next year. I was able to get a better picture of him at his awards ceremony on Sunday. While he struggled with his behavior Wednesday evemings, he really loved coming. His troubles come when the time is unstructured. He just has a hard time understanding how his actions affect other people. He also gets really tired in the evenings, and those are the times when he has a tendency to lose it as well.

They are also both playing baseball. Nathan is in the Rookie league again this year. They don't keep scores, and everyone gets to bat every inning. He's playing on the Red Sox. Matthew's in T-ball again this year. He's getting a lot better at hitting the pitches from his coach. He's also doing better at actually running the bases. Last year, he liked to prance down the bases rather than run. Here are some pictures of them playing.

Nathan getting ready to bat.

Matthew getting a hit.

And no post would be complete without the requisite Easter picture. It's not great, because Matthew likes to squeeze more Andrew more than actually hold him. But, I was able to take one outside in our beautiful weather. (Yes, I'm rubbing it in for those of you up north.)

Making Easter baskets

Happy Easter!!

Busy, Busy, Busy!

I feel like I have been so busy over the last couple of weeks. I'm not really sure why. The last two weeks were both four day weeks, which were nice, because they were, you know, four day weeks. But I feel like I have to get just as much accomplished in a four day week as I do a five day week, so it seems a lot busier. Plus, Matthew's started baseball, so we have one game during the week and one on Saturday. Nathan's playing too, but his games are just on Saturdays. Needless to say, that makes our Saturdays really busy. I have been lucky, though. Jeremy has had the last two weekends off. This weekend, he has Saturday off, and he has to work on Sunday. I think that's why my weeks have seemed busier as well. When he has the weekend off, obviously, he works all five weekdays. So I can't get as much accomplished after school since I have all three with me all of the time.

Awana is over for the year. Nathan's award ceremony is Sunday, and Matthew's is next Wednesday. While I have loved helping out in Awana, it will be nice to have our Wednesday nights back again. Plus, I'll enjoy not eating supper in the car every Wednesday. Since Andrew arrived, there is no time to even make mac & cheese on Wednesdays, so we go through the drive thru at either Wendy's or McDonald's and eat in the car. AND, I won't miss driving on Five Forks at rush hour. For those of you not familiar with the lovely county I live in, Five Forks is one of the major arteries that runs through southern Gwinnett County. Unfortunately, it's only a two lane road. Plus, it's gotten a lot busier in the last month as the state starts a MAJOR widening project to US 78 which has sent a lot of traffic over to Five Forks. It is a major pain, and I avoid it during rush hour (which lasts from 3:30 until 7:30 around here) at all costs.

I'll get pictures posted soon of Matthew's birthday and of Easter. I loaded them up on my laptop at school, but didn't bring my card reader home to put them on the computer here.

Easter Cookies

I got this off of a mom's site I belong to. I can't wait to try it!

EASTER STORY COOKIES: Make the evening before Easter...
1c. Whole Pecans
1 tsp. Vinegar
1c. Sugar
Zipper Baggie
3 Egg Whites
Tape
Wooden Spoon
Pinch Salt
Bible

1. Preheat oven to 300° (This is important-- Do it now!)
2. Place pecans in zipper baggie and let children beat them with the wooden spoon to break into small pieces. Explain that after Jesus was arrested He was beaten by the Roman soldiers. (John 19:1-3.)
3. Let each child smell the vinegar. Put 1 tsp. vinegar into mixing bowl. Explain that when Jesus was thirsty on the cross he was given vinegar to drink. (John 19:28-30.)
4. Add egg whites to vinegar. Eggs represent life. Explain that Jesus gave His life to give us life. (John 10:10-11.)
5. Sprinkle a little salt into each child's hand. Let them taste it and brush the rest into the bowl. Explain that this represents the salty tears shed by Jesus' followers, and the bitterness of our own sin. (Luke 23:27.)
6. So far the ingredients are not appetizing. Add 1c. sugar. Explain that the sweetest part of the story is that Jesus died because He loves us. He wants us to know and belong to Him. (Ps. 34:8 and John 3:16.)
7. Beat with a mixer for 12-15 minutes until stiff peaks are formed. Explain that the white represents the purity in God's eyes of those whose sins have been cleansed by Jesus. (Isa. 1:18 and John 3:1-3.)
8. Fold in broken nuts. Drop by teaspoons onto wax paper covered cookie sheet. Explain that each mound represents the rocky tomb where Jesus' body was laid. (Matt. 27:57-60.)
9. Put the cookie sheet in the oven, close the door and turn the oven OFF. Give each child a piece of tape and seal the oven door. Explain that Jesus' tomb was sealed. (Matt. 27:65-66.)
10. GO TO BED! Explain that they may feel sad to leave the cookies in the oven overnight. Jesus' followers were in despair when the tomb was sealed. (John 16:20 and 22.)
11. On Easter morning, open the oven and give everyone a cookie. Notice the cracked surface and take a bite. The cookies are hollow! On the first Easter Jesus' followers were amazed to find the tomb open and empty. (Matt. 28:1-9.)

Surgery Scheduled!

Andrew's surgery is scheduled for April 8th at 8:00 am. I don't have a tremendous number of details right now. Out pre-op appointment is April 7th where they will do the bloodwork and give us instructions to prepare for surgery.

Attack of the Sickies!

It looks like sickness has attacked our house. Both of the boys are in bed right now, and there is a coughing duet going on in my house. Nathan was very mellow over the weekend, which is usually a sign he's getting sick. Matthew was fine this weekend, but now he's coughing too. He had baseball practice tonight, so we spent an hour in the park. I doubt being in the cold air helped either of them. Of course, it is still 53 degrees right now, so it probably wasn't too bad. Matthew really had to go to practice though. He hadn't been able to have one yet. He was supposed to practice a week ago Sunday and that got rained out. Then, he was supposed to practice last Friday evening, and that got rained out too! (Really, we are still having a drought here, really!) So, Saturday his coach got them together for some work in the batting cages. Yes, we have batting cages at our park. They're really just a fenced in area with netting. My $200 for baseball at work, I guess. He's made a lot of improvement over last year. His league is called t-ball, but each at bat starts with the coach pitching to them. After six pitches, then they hit off of the tee. It's helping them get ready for the next level where the coach will only pitch to them. Nathan's league just uses the tee. His league is the one where they don't keep score either. Matthew's league keeps score and has an end of the year tournament as well as all stars. Whew! Anyway, last year Matthew did a lot of hitting off of the tee and very little hitting of pitched balls. This year, it looks like he's doing much better hitting pitches. I realized though that he is really young for this league. Their cut off date is April 30th, so last year he was probably one of the youngest players on the team. This year, you can see the way that he has matured. Nathan's doing a lot better too. He's had two practices so far, and we haven't had any meltdowns yet! He's doing great with listening to his coach and waiting his turn. We also haven't had any fits when someone else gets to the ball before him. Maybe baseball will work out. I tried really hard to convince him that soccer was more his style, but he had none of it. He kept insisting that he wanted to play baseball. I guess he was right.

Latest Doctor's Visit

Well, for all of the worrying I did about the CT scan and how to feed Andrew and when to feed Andrew and how bad the traffic would be, things went relatively easy today! The hospital called yesterday and told us that they would not be sedating him they would do what's called a "feed and bundle" where I would feed him and then we'd let him drift off to sleep. But they didn't even do that. All they did was put a little sugar water on his pacifier and lay him in the machine. The headrest was a U-shape, so he wasn't able to move his head side to side. Plus, once they put the lead apron on the rest of him, it was so heavy, he couldn't have moved if he wanted to! The whole scan took about 3 minutes. Since it was only about 7:30, I waited at the hospital and fed him before I headed over to the doctor's office at 9:00. We waited there for about an hour and then saw the doctor. They were able to show us the scans on the computer right in the room. They were actually very fascinating! They did a scan of his brain to make sure that everything looked good there. The doctor said that everything looks fine. Then they showed us the scan of the sutures. The only one that is fused is the sagittal suture that runs from the center of his head straight back. All of the other sutures look fine.

For the surgery, the doctor will perfom what's called a modified pi procedure. If you're familiar with the math number pi, (which I can't type on the computer) it looks like a T with two stems. They'll cut out two strips of bone along each side of sagittal suture, then one across the front and another along the back. This site shows a really good picture of the cuts they will make. I don't think they'll add any wires, though. The doctor said the number of cuts really depended on how the skull reshaped itself as they were performing the surgery. The surgery will last about two hours, and he'll be in the hospital 2 or 3 days. He'll have an incision across the top of his head, but the doctor said they would use a plastic surgery tecnique to close the incision so there won't be too much scarring. Plus, he will, hopefully :), grow more hair that will cover it all up. We'll see the doctor two weeks after surgery, and if all is going well, we won't have to go back for another four months.

Which takes us to dates. It looks like we'll have the suregery the week of Spring Break (April 7th). The doctor thought waiting until the end of May was too long, and after he explained to us the post-op care, I'm comfortable with Spring Break. The skin incision will be partially healed by the time I go back to school, plus there's really very little post-op care. He probably will not need a helmet. The doctor said he might need a head band that will help push the front and back of his head together, but we won't know that until the two week visit. We'll wait to hear from the surgery scheduler, and when I have an exact date, I'll let everyone know!

By the way, I haven't gotten the poor child in for a picture yet, but here's one I took last Sunday. Knowing the way things go, it may be the only three - month one he gets!

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