at Abraham's cabin!

Our Sunday School class had an afternoon/evening excursion to a cabin owned by the grandparents of one of our members yesterday. It is a really neat place, a pond for fishing,

(or taking pictures while fishing... Joey, did you catch any fish that way?)

swimming if it's warm enough, and boating,

a four wheeler,

swings, a nice walking path, a fire ring, etc. When I was in high school the youth group used it several times for overnight camp outs! We had a lot of fun! I think it was Luke's ideal kind of day, being outside all day with lots of fun people to entertain and play with. Here are a few more pics.

(What do you see, Lukey?)

One thing I don't have pics of are people trying their hand at shooting clay pigeons. I think all the guys tried their hand at it and at least one of the girls did too. We roasted hot dogs and everyone brought side dishes so there was more than enough food when we got hungry. Luke enjoyed feeding my brother Ben chips while he fished, which was good for Ben too since his hands were all covered with worm goo.

Two people brought their dogs out, this one is Mark and Amanda's brand new baby.

She is supper cute and spent most of the day cuddled up with just about everyone in turn. I don't have a picture of Whinny but she behaved herself really well and I think managed to use up a little of her boundless energy tearing all over the place the whole evening. When it started to get dark and chilly we started a camp fire and made s'mores.

Finally after 9pm Greg and I realized how late it was getting and that we still had a good drive home to get through before we could get Luke to bed. I don't know how long everyone else stayed after that, but it was a really good day. Thanks to Mark and Amanda for hosting and getting a social event off the ground! You did a great job!

ER

I took Luke to the ER this morning. Greg has a daily prescription medication that he has to take and this morning he must have stepped on it by accident or something and broke the bottle. Later when I got up and was getting dressed in the bathroom Luke was playing on the floor. I was watching him most of the time and didn't see him put anything in his mouth, but when I bent over to pick him up I saw all these little pills on the floor and the broken bottle on the counter. I know Luke had been trying to get my necklace off the counter and he must have pulled some of the lose pills off with it. I checked his mouth and sure enough there was white stuff in his mouth, no pills for me to retrieve, just white stuff. I called Poison Control and they said that if he had taken more than one pill it would be toxic to him and that I should take him to the ER. I drove as fast as I could and broke my no cell phone while driving rule to call my mom and ask her to call Greg at work. When I walked into the ER I just burst into tears! I was a mess. Luke was sitting there acting perfectly fine and I was balling my eyes out. They were acting urgent and took us back right away and I saw a tech that I know and then one of our house supervisors came and was our nurse which made me feel a lot better! I know him well and he is a great RN. I didn't know the Dr who took care of us and I think he did a fine job, but it did seem like Andrew was coaching him a little bit so that made me extra glad to have him as our nurse.

We drew a blood level and Greg got there really quickly. They told us he would probably stay overnight for observation, maybe go home late evening today at the earliest. Then they put a tube down his nose into his stomach, took x-rays to make sure it was in the right place, and gave him a bunch of charcoal to bind with any remaining medicine. They didn't get quite all of the charcoal that they were wanting to down before the tube got clogged, but his blood levels were low enough and they had gotten most of it in him so they went ahead and took out the NG tube. Then they let me nurse him for a bit to calm him down because he wouldn't stop crying at that point.

While he was nursing I noticed that he had little red bumps popping up everywhere. I called Andrew back and told him about it and the Dr came back and looked Luke over again. They thought he was either allergic to Greg's med he had taken or to something they had mixed with the charcoal. They gave him some benadryl but when we were almost done giving it too him he coughed and then gagged and threw up a whole bunch, mostly milk and benadryl. So we gave him another dose, he tried to spit that one out but I think he got most of it. They told us that his blood work showed what would be a therapeutic amount of Greg's medication for a baby his age and weight so he should be ok and we could take him home if we wanted to, just monitor him closely and make sure to check him every 15 minutes and count his respiration's for the next 16 hours. We had already called my work to let them know that I would be late, possibly not coming in at all, so we called them back to let them know that I would just be a little late.

We went home and he nursed and snuggled with me. I am still really shaken. I wish I could be home with him right now, but Greg is there and I have called a couple of times to make sure he is still ok. The rash got pretty irritated but I don't think it's getting any worse anymore.

So, another potentially big crisis avoided. I'm ready for a break!

Oliver!

Tonight Greg brought home a big box and made Luke a house! He loved it, it was a lot of fun watching him walk in and out and stick his head through the windows.

Oliver, my second cousin, and his dad Wes are here from Paraguay for a few days. Oliver has been a good friend since before I went to Paraguay and his family often hosted me when I lived there. I'm sad we only got to see each other for a few hours, but I'm always glad to see him or any of my Paraguay cousins. With them it is always easy to pick right back up where we loft off, no matter how long it has been. Someday I hope to take Greg to Paraguay. I don't know when or for how long, but it's definitely something that is important to me.

This is Oliver's dad, Wes, and my great aunt Elsie sitting next to him.

Luke was playing patty cake with my Mom and doing almost all the motions!

Hope we see you again soon, Oliver!