Merry Christmas! 2010

Merry Christmas!
Love, Joseph, Mary, and Baby Jesus ;o)

Celebrating Jesus' Birthday with Him this year...

My Grandmother passed away this morning at 4am. Please keep my family, especially my Mom, in your prayers. Thank you!

Grandma

My Grandma is passing away... and my Mom doesn't think it will be long now. It has been a long couple of  months and my Mom is so tired and sad. Please keep her, my Dad, and Grandma in your prayers.

I found it!!! :)

(Thanks St.Anthony! You are so on top of things...)

Merry (early) Christmas everyone!

Walk Family 5- December 5th, 2010

The Lost Camera

If you want to see a cute family Christmas picture of all 5 of us taken by Nana the first weekend in December (pre-surgery chaos) .... join me in prayer that I find my camera!!! It's makin' me crazy. I need to take pictures of these cute kids and can't find it! (Pssst! St. Anthony, help please!)

Change of Plans- Part 2

Yeah... so after resting in that beautiful room for a day, the pain was worse and then I was up all night vomiting so.. .back to the ER I went, the Thursday after that Tuesday that I came home. But before I confuse you all... let's just say it was a long three days. I went in to the ER Thursday night, became the subject of many tests and was finally let out of jail--I mean the hospital-- on this past Sunday again. Praise the Lord! I'm happy to be home and am finally feeling that I'm on the mend. I am actually doing much better and today is the first day I've had the kids to myself without help. My Dad was here in the morning, I took some pain medicine and got a shower, and he left mid-morning. So far... things have been ok. Other than a certain baby climbing all over me, and a certain 2 year old refusing her nap. But hey, what else is new? :)

We are getting back into the swing of our every day life- which boy did I miss- and enjoying our Advent to the fullest. I think once the kids wake up from naps ... (or from... resting) we'll bake cookies!

I'm sure I'll be exhausted tonight, but I'm doing much much better. Thank you all for your prayers! They mean so much to me, I cannot thank you enough. Hope you and yours are doing great!

p.s. I'll post some recent pictures soon... when I can FIND my camera! ah! it's making me crazy. can't find that thing anywhere...

Change of Plans

Well... my surgery was supposed to be outpatient and on Friday. However, I was in so much pain that I ended up on the phone all Sunday evening with my surgeon and scheduling surgery for the following morning. I went into the ER first thing in the morning and (eventually) got medicine for the pain. Surgeon came in my room at 1:30ish and said, "It's your lucky day, I have an opening at 2pm, someone cancelled... " SO, my surgery was performed shortly after. After surgery I was in post-op/recovery room and luckily I kept harrassing my nurse asking her over and over again to let me see my husband. She said they usually wait to get my pain under control so he's not scared, and that I could see him when I get back to my room. Yeah... I wanted to see him then. She finally let me see him, and I'm so thankful. Once I saw his smile I knew everything would be ok. I asked him today, "was I loopy when you saw me in post op?" and he said, "Yeah... but you were so cute." hahaha.

Michael had to go home and care for the kids but my Mom visited later that night. She was there while the nurses tried to get my pain under control, and I was so happy to have her. Today she came again in the morning and my Dad picked me up and drove me home around 1:30pm. I'm home now and resting in the "room of rest and healing" that my sweet husband set up for me! yummy smelling candle, soft music, lots of movies and my laptop on the table. He's an angel. I will be off my feet and not able to take care of the kids for atleast a week,... but hopefully if I take it easy now I'll recovery quicker and be able to get back to life as normal!
I'm still having a LOT of pain, but this too shall pass. Your prayers for a speedy recovery are greatly appreciated!!

I'm sorry this all happened so fast that we didn't have time to notify everyone of what was happening. If you're just hearing about this now, Please don't take it personally! Between caring for me and the kids, Michael's been busy, and I can't talk much without pain. Anyway we're ok now, God is good, all the time. As I said, I'm home now, and the gallbladder-from-Satan has been removed! haha.

Thanks to all of your your love, prayers and support!
God bless!
- Lisa

p.s. It is hard for me to talk much right now due to a lot of chest pain. But I can respond to text messages anytime, so feel free to text me on my cell phone- or email me- and touch base! :)

Updates on us sicky-poo's

SickyPoo #1 (Benjamin) is doing ok, but still sick.
I took Baby Boo in to see the doctor today for his "never-ending cold" since he had developed a cough and was wheezing again. The doctor listened to his lungs and said, "yeah... I don't like the sound of that... I think he has RSV." Poor little angel. Long story short he's on a nebulizer treatment with albuterol, which (Praise God!) has been working and his lungs sound wonderful once he's had that. He is seeing the doctor again on Monday morning to check his lungs, and if he's not better she plans to put him on antibiotics. However, she said she expects he'll be MUCH better, since he responded so well to it (nebulizer) today in the office.

SickyPoo #2- (Mommy...what else is new?) ;o)
My pain level and discomfort has increased. I met with the surgeon this past Thursday and was very impressed and just ready to get this overwith. I have a pre-op appointment next Tuesday and my surgery to remove my gallbladder is on Friday (the 10th). Please keep that in your prayers, that it would go smoothly and I will heal up quickly... with not too much pain afterwards. I'd greatly appreciate it!


On a more happy note, we've all been preparing for Advent and having a really good time. The kids are SO excited for Christmas... and more excited right now for their PA family to come this weekend and celebrate with them!

I hate gallbladders

...and that's why I'm going to have mine removed.

Okay, that's not why... but, that's what's going on with me. My doctor called and said, "you have multiple gallstones...." (in an Indian accent) and then said, "do you have a surgeon you like?" (Umm... yes, cause I like to have surgery every so often, just for fun.) *sigh*  I told her no, I've never had surgery. So she gave me the name and number of a good surgeon.

That's where it currently stands. I conveniently just didn't have time to call the surgeon today. I'm planning to call and meet with him and ask (a long list of) questions, and then figure out where to go from there.

I'm actually really really scared about this. It's horrifying. I mean, God put it in there, why are we taking it out!? uuughhh ewwww. Ew. Okay, can't think about it anymore.

Anyway, my family all finds this very entertaining. My older brother said, "That's so cool! Can you keep it?" Umm-- EW. He says I should put it in a jar with formaldehyde and give it to my other younger brother as a housewarming present. The aforementioned "younger brother" said he'd "pass on that ... but I'll take it out for ya Sis!"

Yes well, this is why we don't go to our brother's for medical advice.

Seriously though, I'd greatly appreciate your prayers on this matter. Maybe we can just all ask God to heal my gallbladder? why not? He's all powerful, he can do that if He wants to!

But in case He's busier with other more urgent matters... wish me luck. :o(

Busy but Blessed

There's actually a lot going on around here... within our family, but I haven't had the time or energy to post.

Benjamin got over last week's cold, but now Lydia has it (and possibly Josiah... that's to be determined). We're awaiting test results regarding yet another hurdle in my health journey. My health in general has been an issue, but as usual we just press forward. Tis life.

Michael is busy busy busy with work but looking forward to this Thursday and Friday when he has off. We're all looking forward to a restful holiday with family.

Many people I know are struggling right now with something or are in need of prayer. Despite feeling kinda "down and out" lately, I feel closer to God. I think it's even more important during this week, as Thanksgiving is rapidly approaching, to force ourselves to remember all the good and all the precious blessings we have to be thankful for. Sure, life is rocky sometimes, but we have a God who loves us, who always provides. Let us all be thankful and praise Him.

Love and Blessings to you and yours!

First Tooth

Benjamin got his first tooth yesterday! Well, that's when I noticed it up through his gums. He's actually cutting both bottom front teeth right now. Poor little guy.. recovering from a yukky cold and cutting his first teeth all at once. Luckily he's feeling much more like himself and is pretty happy. He's chewing on everything though and drools a lot! I've never had a drooly baby, but he's too cute. This is the earliest one of our children has gotten teeth, but also around the time Josiah did. Josiah got his first at 9 months (Ben will be 9 months next week!) and Lydia was 10 months. WOW time flies. I'm a little nervous about nursing him now that he has teeth... but, so far, so good!

In the meantime...

While we were all busy learning about volcanoes, Benjamin was learning to crawl all over the place and pull up on everything! I came in to get him from his nap the other day and found him like this....

 

He has already taken a few cruising steps along the couch. I occasionally have to stick him in the play yard (inside baby fences!) so I can do things like, go to the bathroom, without worrying his going to swallow a lego or chew up a magazine. You know, the normal stuff :)    *See previous post about baby in jail! haha.

He has also (about 3 times) let go of things and stood by himself for a few seconds before plopping to his bottom. As his godmother said, "He's going to be walking by Christmas!" Ugh. I'm afraid she's right. Oh well, he's so darn cute!

Behind Bars

Well, I'd always hoped none of our children would be behind bars... but it looks like Benjamin has accomplished that already.

Looks like we've got a rebel on our hands! ;o)

Volcano Week

This past week was volcano week at our house. We took a break from our regular kindergarten curriculum to learn about Josiah's current interest- volcanoes! We celebrated All Saints day on Monday and began "Volcano Week" on Tuesday. Daddy had the day off to vote (woohoo!) so after voting we went to the library as a family, and Daddy taught Josiah how to look up a book on the catalog. They selected a supply of books as well as a National Geographic DVD about volcanoes. We came home, and Daddy read a couple books and explained what volcanoes are and how they work. Then we all went into the kitchen and created our own volcano!

First we put a small cup with baking soda under a funnel and taped it steady to a large platter. Then Josiah and Daddy used clay to form a volcano...

Josiah and his volcano! Very exciting.

We dyed vinegar red with food coloring and let him pour it in the volcano (with Mommy's help the first time around) to watch it erupt.

This was the 3rd or 4th time making it erupt. He loved it and kept saying, "I wanna do it again!"

We explained to Josiah that the vinegar and baking soda react to make a gas and that's what bubbled up over his volcano as "lava". He certainly doens't understand the chemistry of it all yet, but hey, it's a lot of fun!

When they stopped reacting, Daddy said, "I bet if we give it a little shake, it'll make them react again... let's try it!"

...Sure enough, he was right.

 Daddy was just as tickled as Josiah. The smiles on those silly boys faces are just the best! The volcano is "erupting" in this picture too.

We spent the next few days reading more about volcanoes, learning about the earth's tectonic plates and the other things they impact (the making of mountains, volcanoes, earthquakes, etc) as well as making a volcano mini-book...

drawing and labeling our own volcano,

                   (check out that writing!! I am so proud of him!)
...and completing volcano themed handwriting and math pages. I (sneakily) starting teaching him about addition as well, in order to "decode" a hidden message...

I know, you didn't see that one coming, did you? ;o)
We used counting blocks as math manipulatives to make beginning addition easy-peasy. Like his Daddy he seems totally unfazed and rather enjoys mathematics. Yeahhhh definitely doesn't get that from his Mother!

All in all we had a fun and rather relaxing week of school.
Hope you enjoyed our memories from Volcano week!

Leaf Jumpin'

The best part about Fall? Happy giggly kids in jackets, ruining our nicely raked piles of leaves with big jumps! :)

                                  Happy Fall!

All Saints Day

All last week we were learning about the Saints in preparation for All Saints Day (this past Monday). Josiah can tell you all about St. Anne (Mary's mother, Jesus' grandmother) and St.Francis of Assisi, St. Nicholas, St.Therese, St.Bernadette and St.John Bosco. He recently learned about St.Martin de Porres as well (since today- Wednesday is his feast day!)

Basically what we and his curriculum have been teaching him is that Catholic Saints were human just like us. They lived extraordinary lives and now live in heaven with God. We look up to them and aspire to serve God wholeheartedly as they did. Each of us are called to serve God in different ways, but we're all called to be holy and to be Saints. All humans are made in the image of God.

We celebrated the Saints all day on Monday,... me and my three little Saints!

 The kids wore their Saints crowns that we made for most of the day.

                                                                     St. Josiah

                                                     St. Benjamin! :)

                                                                 St. Lydia

We played "canonize the Saint" (AKA- Ring Toss!) and used Halloween candy as prizes. We duck taped a small statue of St.Gerarde to the foyer floor (a gift from my friend back when I was pregnant with Lydia, he is the patron saint of expectant mothers!) and the kids used one of my headbands as the ring. (Last minute, didn't know what else to use!) But it worked well and they had lots of fun with it.

After that, Josiah got a hold of my camera, and I while I was returning a phone call, he went a little crazy taking pictures. He had a very willing subject....

Pretty impressive pictures actually! very cute.

Then Benjamin tried to attack St. Gerarde. All things on the floor = teethers.

      Then Josiah and Lydia colored a picture of St.Francis and we read his very famous peace prayer. (You may have also heard it sung before, it is also a hymn.) We said the prayer together before we had lunch.

       The peace prayer of St.Francis

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace,


Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy;

O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

Lydia's coloring page

                                                             Josiah's coloring page
                                                      (He wrote "I love Francis" haha)

For lunch we ate "Halo" peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and had bowls of yogurt with oreo crosses. Kids loved it!

Sometime after that, Benjamin discovered he could crawl into the play house. cute! little trouble maker. ;o)

During the late afternoon we made a cake to celebrate (but decided to wait until after dinner when Daddy was home to eat it!) We used funfetti cake and chocolate icing. I told Josiah the funfetti pieces in the cake were like all the Saints up in heaven, all different but all serving and loving God. (Totally made that one up on the spot, love it!) Unfortunately I forgot to take a picture until we had already dug in...

  

 

As you can see, it was delicious!

Happy All Saints Day!