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!

Bye-bye Grandpa

Greg's dad left for Indiana tonight. He will make the trip in two days, break it up a little so it's not so long. He spent three whole weeks here with us working on the house and he got a LOT done! All the trim is up in the bathroom and office, there is a new wider doorway between then living room and dining room, we have a coat closet under the stairs, all of the awful bead board is covered up, the ceiling is repainted and the ceiling trim is back up in the living room. There is still plenty for us to do... finish the drywall and paint it, strip and re-stain all the floor trim and put it back up in the living room, get the electric hooked up for the bathroom and office, and so many small little projects. Eventually we want to get different carpet in the living room and refinish the wood floor in the dining room. Greg borrowed a "dustless" sander from our friend Jordan, it is motorized and has a shop vac attached to it so it goes supper fast and you have to be really careful but it makes things go a lot faster. Greg had a lot of fun trying it out on our living room walls... There is still a lot of dust, but not nearly as much as there would have been otherwise! Thanks Jordan!









We are really going to miss having Grandpa around. Luke had gotten used to having him around all the time and even learned how to roar finally in the last few days! He really wants to be big like Daddy and Grandpa and Mommy. He wants to walk around in my shoes, play with the pots and pans, wash things and fold laundry like Mommy. He wants to pound with a hammer and roar like Grandpa, and he wants to sand drywall and vacuum like Daddy. Another game we have really enjoyed lately is chase! We have had the entertainment center pulled away from the walks pretty much since Grandpa came and he likes to run around it with me crawling after him. Then after he goes around the corner I change directions and surprise him on the other side. He LOVES being scared like that!



Here is a short video of the shoes!!!

and here he is trying to sand the drywall like Daddy...

Here is Grandpa next to the two doorways he put in...

And here is a picture of us that Grandpa took for us!

Bye-bye Grandpa, give lots of hugs and kisses to everyone back in Indiana for us. Thanks so much for taking care of us. We love you and we'll miss you!

Construction

The construction continues... Greg's Dad will be here for about one more week, he has to be back in Indiana the first of May, so there is a lot to do in this last week.







These pics are from our front living room. The wainscoting or bead board was covering all the walls and changing directions at each corner! Now the only places you can still see it are on the chimney, in the closet and on the wall going up the stairs. Eventually only the inside of the closet will still have it showing.

Luke and I try to get out of the house fairly frequently to get away from the dust and all the dangerous things lying around everywhere for his tiny hands to find. He needs a break now and then from constantly hearing me tell him, "NO LUKEY!!!" in a very panicked voice! (-:

Yesterday morning he woke up super early, not quite 8am even and his normal is closer to 10. When he still wasn't going back to sleep an hour later we got up, dressed, ate breakfast and headed out to my Mom's. I was scheduled to work that afternoon so he would have to go out eventually anyways, and this way he could play, I could sleep, and Dennis could work without worrying about the noise or dust or anything. I ended up getting called off until 7pm so after my nap and talking to my sister for a while we decided that it was such a beautiful day, we should show Luke puddles! My sister was a notorious puddle lover. When she was a toddler my mom couldn't let her out of the house on Sunday mornings if it had rained the night before because whenever she saw a puddle she would run and sit down in the middle of it before Mom had a chance to stop her. Even when she was four or five it wasn't uncommon to find her playing in the full ditches around our house, her pants off so they wouldn't get wet, whatever friend happened to be visiting joining in the fun!

It was so warm and we had a big rain the night before so there were lots of glorious puddles all over the place. We stripped Luke down and took him out to the yard where there was a nice grassy puddle to wade in. I set him down at the edge and started wading in myself, with pant legs rolled hi. He followed me a little and splashed a few times, and then he decided he did not like this! He liked the water and he liked the splashing, but he didn't like the feel of the grass on his feet! How could I have raised a son who doesn't like to be barefoot outside?!? After a few more unsuccessful attempts we took him back to the house. We sat on the steps to let him play, still naked, and he didn't like the feel of dirt on his feet there either. The steps were pretty smooth, but when he walked onto the sidewalk he got a little grit on his feet and started complaining and walked back to me on his tip toes! It was funny to watch, but I really am a little sad that he doesn't love to be barefoot like I do. I hope he will grow out of this eventually. Mom suggested water shoes for my sons sensitive toesies, but I think that's probably not going to happen.

Easter

A week ago we had Easter on good Friday with my dad's family. Here are a few pics from that day. Grandpa and Eli were big hits with the babe, especially since Eli had electronics on him.

We also managed to find Luke's Easter basket, and he was really excited to get started on all that pretty chocolate!

This week on the 18th we celebrated Easter with my Mom's side of the family and had an Easter egg hunt. The idea was that each kid was allowed 7 eggs, but somehow the message wasn't communicated and some kids ended up with one while another kid had 16 or so. I think Luke was the only one to get 7 on the nose! He had a little help from his parents but he retrieved all his own eggs and really had a lot of fun! Afterwards it didn't take him long to figure out that if he threw the plastic eggs they would break open and spill out pretty chocolate eggs everywhere! My aunt Annette was more than happy to help him unwrap those pretty chocolate eggs so he could eat them, and since she was so happy to get him hyped up on sugar we also let her donate her bandanna to the cause of keeping his clothes relatively clean! It was a lot of fun to watch him enjoy everything.

Today was Clarence Rempel's last day as our pastor. It was a really good service and we had a time of sharing and a meal together afterwards. He has been our pastor since I was a freshman in high school, fifteen years ago. His first year there he baptized me, four years later he commissioned me for short term service to Paraguay, four years after than he married my husband and I, and last year he dedicated us and the church to raising my firstborn son in the Christian faith and gave him a life verse to help guide him. Through all those years he has also been involved in the more everyday aspects of our lives, coming out to the farm during harvest to play in the wheat with the kids and ride the combines with the men and share in a harvest meal. He has become a part of our families, well loved and obviously carrying us in his heart. Even his sermons spoke to us with love flowing through them. He didn't shy away from hard topics but spoke the truth to us and encouraged us "to continue to work out (our) salvation" as Paul would have said. He loved us enough to not let us sit back and stagnate, to keep us moving forward, to keep stretching us and helping us make ourselves better and stronger Christians through God's love and help.

In the sharing time as I was thinking about all of this and how much we would miss him I remember something my mom said to me when I left for Paraguay about missing people. She said it hurts, but that the hurting is good, because it means that you loved well and were loved well. She said that when the loneliness came to take out the book of notes that people had written me and go ahead and feel the hurt for a little bit, but not to stay there long. To instead go out and live vibrantly, to love well and be love well where I was. To do it even though I knew it would mean hurting again when I had to leave, because loving well is what makes the journey worth while, makes everything you do meaningful. Clarence and Amanda and their family loved us well, and we loved them well in return, and we will really, really, REALLY miss them. But I'm not sorry. I hope we will have another pastor who is willing to love us as well as Clarence did and I hope we can love him as well too.

This afternoon it was such a beautiful day and Greg and his dad wanted to work on the house...

They have really gotten a lot done. The trim and base boards are all up in the bathroom and office and Greg worked on staining some today.

They also have the Sheetrock up by the stairs and the new closet going well...

And this doorway used to be a lot smaller, look at the carpet on the floor to see how much it grew!

So Luke and I were feeling kind of in the way and needed a good place to go run around where Luke wouldn't constantly be in danger from the construction zone that we live in.

We decided to walk a few blocks away to an old school playground where there is a lot of grassy space to play in, it was just the ticket. We had SOOOOO much fun!

Later after supper we saw Ben and Andrea walking down the sidewalk so we chased them down and walked to the church together. Luke was supper intense, maybe a little too much ice cream??? Anyway, he wanted to RUN on the sidewalk, not walk, and he fell down at least five times pretty hard! He got a few small scrapes on his hands and one good sized one on his forehead and still was running around like a maniac so finally I said enough and made him let me carry him the rest of the way home. He actually was fine with me carrying him, I was all prepared for a fit but it never came. When we got home I noticed that his forehead was getting a goose egg so I got a wet towel and an ice cube and he and I read stories and snuggled while I held it on his forehead. He didn't like it much but as long as I was reading stories he would focus on that and was fine.

few new things...

We are enjoying having Greg's dad here with us, though I have to admit I am seeing much less of him than I thought I would. I work four days this week and next week I work three and am on call for a fourth. Also with Easter last weekend and the MCC relief sale coming up not to mention a wedding shower for a cousin of mine our time is really scheduled pretty full. Still, (or maybe because of the fact that I and Luke are gone so much) Dennis is getting quite a bit done. I think Greg really wishes he could be off more so that he could work with his dad more of the time, but he has to work and his work is pretty strenuous so he comes home pretty exhausted and then puts in an hour or two with his dad before falling into bed. I think Dennis has figured out why Greg doesn't get much done when he's not here! (-;

Luke continues to amaze me. I think I can almost see him getting taller these days, and his teeth are definitely still bothering him quite a bit. The other day he was playing and found a can of pop that still had a few drops in it so he decided to dump them out onto the floor (the wood floor, thank goodness)! When I caught him he was rubbing it around with his hand looking very determined. I just thought he was playing with it, seeing how it felt on his hand and how it made the wood look darker, etc. Then that night when we were taking a bath he needed something to occupy him for a minute so I asked him to wash my knee, something I have never done before but I thought, I have washed him every night for a long time, maybe he will figure it out... And he got right to work, just like when he was "playing" on the floor, washing my knee with his hand! I totally hadn't expected him to really do anything and here he knew exactly what I had asked him to do and was doing it!

Later after we got out he was sitting on the floor playing while I got dressed for bed and when I was done I looked down to see what he was getting into. He had found one of his socks in the laundry and was very diligently trying to put it on his foot! I just sat down next to him and watched. At first he would grab any part of the sock and try to put it on his foot as hard as he could, usually just wrapping it around his toes. After a while though he found the opening in the top of the sock and worked very hard to get it open and then onto his big toe before he started pulling as hard as he could! He never did get that sock all the way onto his foot, just over his big toe! I tried to offer him one of my socks thinking that since it is so much bigger he would have an easier time getting it on his foot, but he knew it wasn't his sock and set it down on top of my foot and then went back to work with his own sock! I think he was working at it for a good twenty minutes before he got interested in something else.

It is so much fun to watch him learn new things...