Christmas Blessings

Wednesday morning, Matthew, Ruth Ann (my mother-in-law), the kids and I drove to Greenville for my colonoscopy.  Honestly, I was very nervous.  What if the doctor found cancer?  What would that mean for my family?  The Lord is good and filled the office with very sweet, friendly nurses.  The doctor himself was a great man, and he and I had actually lived in the same neighborhood when I was in middle school yet we had never met.  One of the nurses helping with my procedure had gone to the same high school as Matthew, just one grade behind him.  Things went just as I hoped.  The anesthesia was administered, I closed my eyes and opened them about 40 minutes later.  My first thoughts were to tell the nurse, whom I assumed was one of my children, that she should go downstairs and find her own breakfast.  I was sleeping GOOD!!  Matthew assured me that the doctor said everything was great, nothing found in my colon!  Funny how discussing your large intestine can bring such happiness.

The anesthesia used wears off pretty quickly so by the time I was in our car, I just felt that normal sleepiness after a good afternoon nap.  We drove to Waffle House as I was looking forward to some grits and a plain waffle... solid food!!!   These days we don't go many places without glances from strangers, hopefully smiles and not grimaces, and it proved true again as our party of three adults and five children took up two booths in WH.  The food was yummy and we drove on into downtown Greenville.  We were hunting festively decorated Christmas trees!

Upon not finding a parking spot for our Transit van near the Hyatt Regency, we continued on toward the Hampton Inn near the river.  We found trees!

And here's a photo of Rylan to insure that he was along for the trip! 

The next day was Christmas Eve.  It brought tears and joy.  The Christmas Eve service at our church is my favorite of all year.  The carols, reading of the birth of Jesus in the Bible, and concluding with everyone holding candles.  Jesus came to earth to bring light into this dark world!  My mom had driven to GA to be with her mom and sisters for Christmas.  My mother-in-law had driven to NC to spend Christmas with her other son, his family and newest granddaughter.  My heart was missing my Dad very much.  I wrote him a letter.  I will write him a letter each Christmas and around his birthday in June each year.  Writing to him helps me feel that he is still close.

After coming home for the service which was beautiful (Philip was asked to read Luke 2:1-20 and did a wonderful job!), we had our newest tradition... mystery gift swap.  The last two years, I've wrapped up new pajamas in matching paper.  This year, I had ordered "My Adventure Books", the kids' names are written into the stories of some of their favorite TV characters.  So they each picked which wrapping paper they liked best.... 

And Philip got Barbie, Rylan got Disney Princesses, Braewyn got The Lion King, and Juliet got Star Wars.  You can see that only one child was really upset!  They swapped to receive the correct books and were excited to see themselves written in as characters in each story.

Sully's first Christmas!

I don't mind finishing the sugar cookie Santa left behind.

A neighbor gave us this nice 20-pound turkey which he was given free from work.  I decided it was time, I am now 40 years old, that I cook my first turkey!  Matthew always deep-fries them at Thanksgiving, but I prepared this bird and into the oven she went.

Four hours later, and with a much yummier smelling house, we had this beautiful turkey to eat!!  It was fabulous and from the amount of leftovers, will be for a few more days.

Christmas Colonoscopy!

Of all the fun and enjoyable things to add to a person's Christmas week, I don't think a colonoscopy would make anyone's Top 10 list.  However, when you turn 40 with family history of colon cancer and have met your deductible for the year and your husband says you can schedule one within this calendar year, you make an appointment even if the only day available is December 23.  I have had two colonoscopies before (the first, 12 years ago due to bleeding after lifting something too heavy and the second, 7 years ago just to appease my worries after seeing Mom go through colon cancer surgery and recovery). Thankfully I can say both proved that I had a nice, clean, healthy colon!

For the normal heathy person, age 50 is the target time to get your first colonoscopy, but since my Mom was diagnosed with stage 3 colorectal cancer at age 50, her doctors recommended my brother and I begin the screening at age 40.  It's really not that bad a deal at all, but I will still ask that you please pray for me on Wednesday at 8:00 am.  Today is prep day... Operation: Clean Pipes!  

However I did want to enjoy a "last supper" so around 10:30 pm last night, this is what I had on my plate.  Lasagna, baked beans, Oreo ice cream and cool whip with pomegranate seeds (oops, my paperwork said no seeds, popcorn or nuts three days prior to the procedure). 

Today's menu included the above items plus a few extras.  Breakfast was Cranberry Sprite.  Lunch was Ginger Ale to drink, beef bouillon as the main course, and peach jello for dessert.  Dinner came the best part... Gatorade spiked with Miralax and an appetizer of Dulcolax pills.  It really brought the Christmas spirit alive for me!  Honestly, the prep would not be so bad if I had not had to feed five children meals and snacks all day.  I would have paid big money to eat a graham cracker with strawberry icing today, but alas, I iced them and passed them on to one of the "starving" children in my house.

The paperwork from this gastroenterology office specified for a "split prep" procedure.  That just means I drank 4 glasses of my spiked Gatorade, one every 30 minutes starting at 6:00 pm.  And in 10 minutes (at 11:00 pm), I begin my first of 4 more glasses, one every 30 minutes, to finish off all 64 oz. of that massive bottle.  Not sure why the separation in drinking sessions because for my other two colonoscopies, I was told to drink 8 oz. of prepared mixture every 30 minutes until it was all gone.  I suppose they've become sympathetic to patients who said they didn't enjoy drinking a whole bottle of Gatorade in 4 hours!

The process is really not that bad, although every 5 years is probably often enough for my liking.  One day of being uncomfortable and a few hours of laying your pride to the side (but you really don't even know what has gone on as the sedation is great!) are definitely worth having the peace of mind that you are good and healthy.  I pray the worse case scenario is that the doctor finds some polyps which are removed at the same time.  The really, really worse case scenario would be finding cancer.  If that were to be the outcome, I pray to have the strength to praise God in the good times and the bad.  The road to recovery my Mom traveled was horrible, but time passes quicker than we realize and I'm so thankful to still have her here 10 years later!!  To be alive and watch my children grow is 100% worth starving myself and using the bathroom a lot in one day.  I'll let you know what happens tomorrow sometime soon.  Cheers!

Christmas in the park

To beat these last few weeks of pregnancy restlessness, a holiday outing was in order.  This past Monday evening, we traveled to Greenville to enjoy a moderate winter day outside, followed by a scrumptious meal at Kanpai of Tokyo, and finished with seeing the Holiday Lights at Roper Mountain one night before they closed for the season.  These days I feel I'm playing Russian Roulette, never knowing when the contractions will start or my water will break.  Kind of hoping to push my luck and cause this baby to come, but alas we had a great time of uneventful, family fun that night.

Sweet moment on the way as Rylan kept trying to hold Philip's hand.  He LOVES his big brother!

My little guy is getting so big.

Pilot Rylan!

We are glad to have Grandma with us on outings!  And she's a great swing pusher.

Juliet enjoyed the baby swings more than Rylan.

Philip scaled the climbing tower but Braewyn was a bit hesistant without her wrist guard.

No problem on the rocking truck!

This is how big kids handle the toddler rides.

Is she a super hero?

Next stop Kanpai.  Weren't sure how this little guy would handle being so close to the fire.

He liked seeing the food pour out onto the hibachi grill top, but did break out into sobs for a few moments when the oil went up in flames.

Finally we made it to Roper Moutain.  After several nights of driving through neighborhoods, the kids weren't sure if they wanted to see "more lights". But these are moving and visiting the Winter Wonderland (marshmellows for roasting, cotton candy, photo opps, etc.) makes it worth it too.

All loaded into Santa's sleigh.  Rylan is thinking, "Let me go."

I think he wanted to drive.

Santa Philip

Santa Juliet

Santa Rylan

Santa Braewyn

Santa Lily (Braewyn's new baby)

Rylan enjoyed riding on my lap in the front passenger seat for the drive-thru light show.

We'll be back next year, Holiday Lights!

Not My Timing

It's 4:51 am, perfect time for a post on my blog.  All the kids and Matthew are sleeping peacefully, but me and the baby woke up starving!  I've eaten a bowl of cereal, read an online devotional, and caught up on my friend's blog.  Time for a catch up to my own blog.

From the side bar, you can see that I'm 36 weeks pregnant.  I'm excited to have this new baby but feel pretty miserable.  Not as bad as many people going through worse things, but out of sorts in my own body.  Beached whale comes to mind while laying in bed. Waddling penguin when I'm walking around.  I want the baby to be strong before I give birth, but signs point to me having this little one sooner than later.  The Lord knows this kid's exact birthday and I know things will work out according to plan.  I'm mentally flip-flopping between wanting so much to be done with this pregnancy and on the other hand, I'm still kind of scared to see how me caring for FIVE kids is gonna play out.  I have to remind myself, it's not me caring for five random kids.  I know four of them personally very well.  Just the youngest will be new and we'll all get to know that one together.

Last Monday, I was shocked to be told by my doctor that I'm 3 cm dilated.  I had been feeling contractions off and on each day for a few weeks, but really didn't expect to find out they had been doing anything.  Later this morning, I have another appointment (yup, soon I might have to go twice a week!) with an ultrasound included.  I'm excited to see our baby again and both grandmas get to come this time too!  We'll be given a weight estimate and I'm hoping my cervix can be seen on the ultrasound to find out if the contractions from this past week have increased that 3 cm to 4 cm or more!  Kind of creeps me out to think that my body is getting ready for this baby just to fall out.  I know it's not that simple, but walking time bomb is how I see myself these days.  God's timing is perfect always - even when it doesn't look like it to me.  This time I see it as really good as Ruth Ann, my mother-in-law, is on school break for the next two weeks and Matthew had already asked off work from Christmas Eve through New Year's Day.  I kind of hope the baby comes on January 1st so then I'd get Matthew home for two weeks straight but that calls for me to be pregnant for another ten days.  Equally, I hope not to have the baby until after Christmas morning.  This week is so exciting as we count down the days until Christmas with little people in the house eagerly anticipating that morning of reading the Christmas story from the Bible and then opening presents!  I can't wait to see their faces when they see their presents.

All that said, I can wish for this and wish for that, but it's all just a waiting game for me.  When I'm not feeling tired or sore, it makes for a very exciting season of life.  Welcoming a new baby into the family is one of God's greatest miracles a family can experience.  I'm thankful that He chose us to care for this newest little one. I'll be posting pictures probably within the next two weeks!

Goodbye 2011!

So far 2012 is going very well. Matthew, Philip and I welcomed the New Year by watching the ball drop on TV. Braewyn almost made it but fell asleep at 11:45pm! We enjoyed New Year's Day with our church family at church that morning, lunch with our next door neighbors, and then a leisurely family afternoon. The Brooks Academy began our Spring Semester bright and early on Monday, January 2nd. The kids and I are reading through the Bible via summary overviews which I read from My Father's World teacher's manual, Philip reads a similiar passage from his Bible Reader, and then he writes a summary sentence with an illustration in his Bible Notebook. Philip is almost done with the 1st grade level of Math U See and still excels despite saying he dislikes math! Reading / phonics are also in our My Father's World curriculum, and he is also signed up for the Pizza Hut "Book It!" program. If he reads 20 books each month, he earns a free personal pizza!

Science is new this semester as I just changed to a curriculum published by Answers in Genesis. We'll be studying "The World of Animals" as we learn of the many different types of animals which God created: "the livestock, the creatures that move along the ground, and the wild animals, each according to its kind” (Genesis 1:24). Philip and Braewyn continue doing a few pages of their Building Thinking Skills workbooks and we're going to begin basic Spanish (we're talking picture flashcards!). All that with field trips and play dates should make for an educational and fun spring! I thank the Lord that Juliet is a wonderful napper still as she's asleep most days from 10am until noon. How things go once she no longer naps is a question mark. Cross that bridge when we get there!

Anyhow, before I get totally caught up in 2012, wanted to post some wonderful Christmas pics my friend Suzanne took of the kids. I used a few to make my photo books and calendars for family presents. Here are a lot more great ones and funny outtakes too!

Juliet and her friend Pate, who is Suzanne's son. They are buddies from baby Sunday School.

The kids with my friend and neighbor Greta. She came over to watch Pate while Suzanne photographed. She loves these four kids bunches and we love her! And here's where it goes crazy...

The bench photoshoot was unraveling,

Philip's doing his thing,

Juliet began grabbing the scenery at Greta's house,

and Philip says, "Are we done YET??" Yes, thank you sweeties! And a BIG thank you to Suzanne for taking such great photos!