Happy Birthday Leon

Joshua wanted to make his dad a birthday cake from scratch all by himself. So he got a recipe. Disregarded the instructions. Dumped the ingredients in the bowl. Whipped it till it was light and fluffy. And VOILA! Bon Appetit!

The cake was fantastic. Moist. Chocolatey. Delicious.

Happy Birthday Joshua

Joshua is quite an extraordinary fellow. His interests are broad. It's sometimes hard to narrow down just exactly what he's into these days.

His favorite hobbies include fishing, camping, biking, skateboarding, and reading. His music of choice is rock. Particularly anything from Bon Jovi.

He has a very considerate nature. He's always thinking of others and trying to make them happy. Though, he has a bossy streak.

In school he's good at everything. Math is his favorite subject. He's a straight A student.

He's getting tall and has big man feet. According to his growth chart, he is expected to reach at least 6 feet.

I can't believe he's 11 already.

Fish Story

Leon had Memorial Day off, so he ran a bunch of errands and took the boys fishing. Kelsea was at Emerald Point with her BFF. I stayed home and slept after a very long 12 hour shift.

Joshua came home, plopped on the couch beside me, and told me very gravely, "Mom, let me tell you the story of how Daddy stole my catfish."

"I threw out Dad's line. I left to get my chair, cause Jeremiah didn't want me sitting in his anymore. When I got back, Dad reeled in my catfish. He stole my fish!"

Haha, apparently there is some feud about just who's catfish it was. Not that it matters. They didn't keep the fish.

But as I was listening to the two of them carry on (good-naturedly) about this fish...it occurred to me that this is only just the beginning of all the fish stories to come. I think, with 4 fishermen in the house, I'm in a bit over my head here.

Please send help...or chocolate...preferably chocolate.

Joshua

I don't have very many digital pictures of my kids from when they were little. This is one my mom took at Christmas one year.



Joshua was 18 months and such a cute little stinker!

Daydreaming

Joshua has taken to daydreaming. We were driving down the highway to take Kelsea to ballet. We had just crossed the bridge over the lake and I was preparing to take the next exit. I rode over the side of the road across those bumps (the ones that make the tires sound like a drill). Joshua snapped out of a trance and yelled, "Mom, you'll scare the fish!". Methinks he was daydreaming of fishing.

Then when reading our history lesson the other day, I paused midway to ask a question about the previous passage. Joshua answered, "My fingers are shaking, because they want to go fishing." Say wha??? What will I do with this boy...

Joshua's Beach Party Jam

Food was served in sand buckets. I didn't get a picture before people started digging in, but you still get the idea.



They played a variation of dodge ball, only with sponges and water.



Beach Ball Pinata.






His "Under the Sea" cake from Dewey's Bakery.





When all of his guests left he said, "This was the BEST BIRTHDAY EVER! Thanks, Mom!" and then gave me a giant hug and kiss on the cheek. Truly the best reward a kid can give their mom.

Express Yourself

I should have taken pictures when the haircuts were fresh.

The boys get their hair cut pretty regularly. Sometimes they go to the barber and sometimes Daddy does it. In this case they went to the barber and picked out their own cuts.





I love that the kids are comfortable expressing themselves.

Joshua's Snowman

I completely forgot to post Joshua's snowman. This snowman was just too cute not to post. Joshua took this picture as part if his Photography Beltloop requirements. I love this picture! I think the snowman looks almost sad. Like he's saying, "Help me. Please?"



I'm dating the post for Monday...the day he made it. It just makes me breathe a little easier.

Dermatographia

A few years ago we were dealing with major allergy symptoms with Joshua. He had a long history of asthma at that point, only he started breaking out in hives. Sometimes they would be massive and huge. Sometimes they drove him crazy with the itching and discomfort.

We did the round of testing and were not getting any answers. One day we made an appt with a doctor in our clinic that we had not seen before. He knew exactly what it was.

Dermatographia

Basically anytime Joshua (even lightly) rubs up against something or gets a scratch his skin puffs up and swells. Sometimes it covers a large area of skin at once. Little is known about this skin condition. There are some treatments but the long term use of antihistamines and steroids would be more damaging than his level of discomfort.

There are people who use it for art. Joshua uses it to impress his friends.





***he did this himself with a toothpick. He assures me it doesn't hurt or else I would put a stop to it***

The swelling and puffiness goes away in about 20-40 min.

"United with Him"

When he was 6 years old Ishmael made a profession of faith that Jesus Christ died for his salvation. He did this at home during prayer time. He's pretty quiet about his faith, but takes it very seriously.

Joshua went forward to pray during the alter call at Christian Assembly's VBS when he was 7 and professed a belief in Jesus. He was so excited he told me all about what it meant on the car ride home and again later with Leon.

Because the boys were so young we decided to wait and talk to them about baptism when they were older. We wanted it to be their own individual choice. One that they make all on their own with no prompting from us.

Pastor Mac preached on baptism recently and it got the boys talking about it. They asked questions at home and they both decided that it was what they wanted to do. So we invited Pastor Mac and Mr. Dale over to talk with the boys about it.

Both boys shared their statement of faith so clearly and so directly, it brought tears to my eyes.

Joshua said, "I know that Jesus died on the cross for my sins, that he died, was buried, and rose again."

Ishmael said, "People sometimes put other things as more important than God, but I
believe that Jesus was the ultimate sacrifice and paid the price for my sins."

Romans 6:3-5
"Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? 4Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, in order that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. 5For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection,"

Joshua:


Being buried with Christ.


Rising in newness of Life.


Ishmael:



Being buried with Christ.


Rising in newness of Life.

The Math Tutor

Interview with a 4th Grader

PETA Please don't read this.

"Daddy, did you know that cow is my favorite food group?"

Joshua's 9th Birthday

He spent his birthday shopping at the mall. The LEGO Store is so very cool!





(I think he spent most of his money at GameStop though.)



He's 9 and such a cute kid! He's got a great smile. I love that he's always so eager to lend a hand. He excells in all his school subjects. We are very proud of all his hard work.

Bear Scouts

The Bear Scouts visit the Creedmoor/Butner News office.



Going in:


Coming out:


There really wasn't much to see ;). But Joshua learned so much and wants to be a journalist now.





They met back at the church (headquarters) for a pizza party. The rest of the scouts were off for MLK Jr Day *slackers*

Joshua's Hospital Visit

Joshua was admitted to the hospital with pneumopericardium Sunday night.

The short explanation is that he was having a severe asthma attack (triggered from a cold or flu). His coughing and harsh breathing caused air to collect between his heart and his pericardium (sac around the heart).

Sunday afternoon, Joshua was wheezing and coughing out of control. I gave him the inhaler every 4 hours. By around 4:15 I gave him another dose and by 4:35 he was just a mess. So I gave him yet another dose on our way out the door. I debated going to the ER or just to Urgent Care. Urgent Care was closer by 20 min at least so we went there.

In Urgent Care the doctor gave him an injection of Solu-Medrol (steroid) at around 5:00. She sent up home with a script for Prednisone (steroid) and Xithromycin (antibiotic) "because sometimes steroids can open us up to infection."

The steroid should have relieved his breathing within 2 hours. He was breathing a little better at first. By around 11:00 he was just gasping for air. It was bad. We went to the ER.

I really like Duke for a couple of reasons. I like that they have a pediatric ER. We were taken back immediately and a pediatric respiratory therapist met us before we even got to an exam room. He gave Joshua 3 back to back nebs of albuterol. This sent his heart rate up pretty high (around 170-180). So they needed to monitor him to be sure his heart rate went down.

The doctor decided to send him for x-rays to rule out pneumonia. What they revealed was Pneumopericardium- air between his heart and the pericardium. It wasn't alot of air, but enough to need to be admitted for observation.

In the night Joshua bounced all over the respiratory globe. His oxygen saturation got as low as 88 (normal people breathe at 99-100) and they talked about putting him on oxygen. Then they gave him another neb of albuterol and his heart rate skyrocketed to 178.

We decided to put him on Xopenex (albuterol replacement that does not effect the heart). This worked fine until the next repiratory therapist came on shift and decided it had been long enough since his triple dose he innitially had and Albuterol should be fine. His heart rate jumped up again and the genious realized, yeah the other docs were right lets keep him on Xopenex.

So anyway, he had more x-rays on Monday evening. These revealed that the Pneumopericardium had not changed. This is good because it is not getting bigger and it will probably resolve itself over time.

They gave us a choice about going home or staying the rest of the night. We decided to go home. Joshua was really missing his brothers and sister. The doctors were very confident with sending him home.

I really like Duke for it's pediatric ER and it's children's hospital. They really go a long way to make kids more comfortable. Joshua had all the apple juice he wanted plus a Playstation in his room. I brought a few comforts from home and he was all set!







It didn't take long for him to decide he didn't like hospital food.


I had the help of some wonderful friends. Thankyou Rosie for watching the other kids for me. Thankyou Donna for filling in for Rosie so she could go to her dentist appt. Thankyou Daniel for sitting with Joshua so I could run home and make sure everyone had what they needed. Thankyou Mr. Dale for visiting with Joshua for so long. Thankyou all for praying for him. It was pretty scary for a while.

Joshua is home now. He is much improved and enjoying being pampered by everyone.

The Long Wait

Joshua had been looking forward to our good friends coming over for a long while. He couldn't take it anymore. He started off pacing the driveway.

Then he just waited at the road.



And he waited...



And waited...



I think it was the longest 5 minutes of his life.