Happy Birthday, Granmama!

New Cavalier King Charles Spaniel Puppies!

We are the proud new owners (for now, anyway) of six brand new Cavalier King Charles Spaniel puppies! They were born this afternoon and they are so tiny and cute. We have 3 tri-color and 1 blenheim female and one of each male. I can’t tell yet if any are smaller than the others, but that will show as they eat and grow, I suppose. We have 6-10 weeks before they leave us to go home with their new owners =(. It’s pretty easy right now while they only nurse for sustenance because Tori cleans up after them. When they start eating puppy food, six cute little puppies will quickly become a pain in the you-know-what and we will actually be happy to get them sold. But for now, they are cute and tiny and sweet!

At the Beach!

DSC03751
Originally uploaded by gregnes99

We just got back from a vacation with Greg's entire family in Charleston, SC. We had a wonderful time with his family. The boys really enjoyed playing with their older cousins and I think Ben's vocabulary doubled because he learned everybody's names.

I also really enjoyed the ocean like I haven't been able to for a while. We were able to float on the waves past the spot where they were breaking. Not only was it very relaxing, but it also reminded me of Mombasa with my Mom. She loved to go out beyond the breaking waves during high tide and just float, and I loved doing that with her and talking. It also reminds me of my friend Rinnie, though too, doing the same thing with her. I also have this vague memory of singing "Lady in Red" out in the Indian Ocean with Rin -- did that really happen?

Our life

We're getting stuff done in our house! But, we had to move out of our
bedroom. Our guest bed feels mighty small, and I've slept some on the top
bunk in Luke's room. I've been feeling like I was missing Greg, so last
night I moved back to the double bed. I was feeling that lack of adult
companionship. I'm actually kind of looking forward to getting back to work
and away from my kids a little! I feel awful saying it, but I know others
feel the same way at times.

Back to our house renovations. We're getting a tub and shower, plus wall, in
our bathroom. The other room with the biggest change is our living room. I
wanted it to be PERFECTLY clean before I took pictures, but unless I wait
until nighttime (bad pictures) it doesn't stay clean long enough for that,
so I just took them anyway.

Next Saturday we are leaving for vacation with Greg's family going close to
Charleston! The day after we get back, I have to start back to work, and my
cousin Clara gets married -- wish we could be there!

Summer is also birthday central in our world. For Greg's birthday we had a
little party, where I tried to invite people Greg would want, which included
Xavier and Kara. We need to do more with them. Timmy's birthday was last
week. Then, my birthday comes soon (although, it can stop if it wants) and
then Peter and Luke in September -- I can't believe Luke'll be three soon!
Heather and Matt have July and August birthdays too.

I just wanted to have future record of this. . .

I copied this off of Lydia's old blog:

Monday, January 08, 2007
Pray For My New Nephew- Benjamin
I am mainly writing now to ask for your prayers for my little nephew. He was born today by cesarean section. He is my sister's second boy. He is premature so he is having a hard time breathing and has been put in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). Please pray that he will be able to breath enough on his own so that they do not have to put him on a breathing machine. Also pray that he stays healthy and does not get any infection, because when babies are that little its very easy for them to get sick. My sister has been in the hospital on bed rest since Dec. 20th so its been a stressful time for the whole family. And because Benjamin is in the NICU Esther does not get to see him or hold him.

Friday, January 12, 2007
Update on Benjamin
Here are a few pictures of Ben. This first one is of him on the breathing machine they have him on right now.

This one is of him just on oxygen, when he looked the best. This is what we want him to be on :) He looks so much more comfortable.

Ben is still doing about the same. They ended up having to put him on a respirator for 24hrs but then they were able to take it off. He did fine without any machines for about 6hrs but now they have him back on a partially assisted breathing machine. The doctors are still being positive about the situation and saying he may be able to come home next week. So please keep praying. Esther came home today so that has been good, but its also hard for her to leave Ben in the hospital.

Jan. 24, 2007
I can thankfully say that little Benjamin is home and healthy. He has been home for about a week, after a ten day stay in the NICU. I left before he came home, but I did get to hold him a couple times in the hospital. He is so small...was 5lbs 2oz and now he is 5lbs 6oz. I will post a picture from the hospital. He is still having a harder time controlling his body temperature so you can keep praying that will be stable. Esther has to check it about 4 times a day to make sure he is staying warm, but that's nothing compared to the problems he was having two weeks ago:)

Puppy Needs a Home

Puppy at 10 weeks old.

Tori (dame; blenheim) and Kaiser (sire; tri-color)

We still have one puppy left. I think he’s 14 weeks old now. At this point, we just need to find a home for him, so we’re offering to give him to anybody we know that wants him. (If we don’t know you, we’ll have to charge $100 to make sure you’re serious about wanting him and will take care of him.) That’s a really good deal – he’s a $1000 dog! E-mail us if you need more info, or leave a comment.

He’s mostly black with tan and white on him too. He’s a purebred Cavalier King Charles Spaniel that is ready to be registered CKC. He has been to the vet three times and got all his puppy shots/deworming. He’ll weigh about 20 pounds full grown (Dad weighs 22, Mom weighs 18). He doesn’t bark. His breed and his parents are great with kids, aren’t yippy dogs even though they are small, and just love to cuddle on the couch with us whenever they can. As far as I’m concerned, their only downfall is that they shed.

Ben's Surgery

Last Wednesday Ben had his first surgery under general anesthesia -- WOOHOO!!

He got tubes in his ears and they took out his adenoids. The ENT also did another bronchoscopy - the last one was done by a pulmonologist. Dr. St. Charles showed me pictures and explained each one. He decided not to fix Ben's subglottal stenosis because they said his airway was only 30% smaller than it was supposed to be and he would grow out of it. Next, Dr. St. Charles said Ben has mucus in the spot where his bronchial tubes branch off into his lungs. The pulmonologist consulted with him on this and they decided to prescribe high dose amoxicillin for 3 weeks. Finally, he showed me the picture of his esophagus, which looked sort of bumpy. He said it was inflamed, likely from reflux. He prescribed continued Prevacid (we had already been doing the Prevacid) and said we need to see a GI doctor, but we would talk about that again at his follow-up visit in 3 weeks. He seems to be feeling fine and has acted pretty much the same since the surgery. Hopefully, once everything is healed up, he will feel even better than he did before.

Ben did really well. He slept on my lap afterwards, which was so sweet, because he never does that anymore. He was really cute too, because he was hanging on to his favorite stuffed lion. I wish I'd taken a picture now, but didn't even think about it then, of course!

Movie You Have to See

If you guys haven't seen August Rush, you need to. It was a feel good movie without raunchiness (PG) and a very touching story. Not really a "chick flick" in the true sense of the word, meaning not a romance (although it did have a strong element of romance), but definitely not a "guy" movie.

http://augustrushmovie.warnerbros.com/

According to http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0426931/plotsummary: A drama with fairy tale elements, where an orphaned musical prodigy uses his gift as a clue to finding his birth parents.

The story of a charismatic young Irish guitarist and a sheltered young cellist who have a chance encounter one magical night above New York's Washington Square, but are soon torn apart, leaving in their wake an infant, August Rush, orphaned by circumstance. Now performing on the streets of New York and cared for by a mysterious stranger, August uses his remarkable musical talent to seek the parents from whom he was separated at birth.

Happy Easter!

My kids are growing up!

Ben now says five words: bye, uh-oh, ball, fan, hi, all done, mmmm (as in yummy). And he does signs for bye-bye (of course), all done, and more (when he feels like it). His personality is really showing up. He seems to be a boy of extremes -- when he's good, he's very, very good and when he's bad he's horrid. He's stubborn and strong-willed, yet gets very upset when you just barely tap his hand to discipline him. He loves balls and food. And he's very mad at me right now because I won't let him touch the computer =).

Luke surprises us pretty much every day with a new word or concept. We just got bunk beds for the boys (though Ben is still in a crib) and Luke is very excited about his big boy bed. Of course, he's very into his independence: "Lukie do it by hisself!", and being a "big boy." We're working a little on potty training, but not hardcore.

Re: Hello!

Well, Ben has to get tubes in his ears. April 2nd is the day. He will
get tubes and have another bronchoscopy with a different kind of
scope. The ENT doctor said if they could fix the throat with a laser
quickly while they're in there, they will. If he needs some other sort
of surgery, they'll have to do that at a different time. I'm hoping
that the tubes in his ears will help him feel better and even hear
better, so maybe he'll be able to communicate more! He's doing much
better in terms of motor development. He can crawl and get himself all
over the place, though he prefers to cruise. He tries to take a couple
steps without holding on and will play with toys without holding on to
something for balance. My baby boy is turning into a toddler!

Greg's 2nd Award

Proud of my man! Check him out in the article below:

Chattanooga Honors Top Cops for Going Above and Beyond
by WDEF

Several police officers have ended up on the wrong side of the law recently.

Here are some on the right side.

Click here to read more on our site

A drop in the bucket

Compassion International has started a blogging campaign, so I thought I'd take this opportunity . . . I chose to sponsor a child with Compassion International starting when I was in college because I could sponsor a child in Uganda, where I grew up. The cost (~$30 per month) feels like a drop in the bucket to me, especially when I don't feel like I can contribute extra for special projects. However, I know it doesn't feel like a drop in the bucket to the little Ugandan girl that we sponsor or to her family. She gets school fees (education's not free in Uganda), good nutrition, and spiritual mentorship. It literally changes her life forever. I wonder that we don't do more. . . If you don't sponsor a child in the 3rd world, you should. A drop in the bucket for us makes the difference of a lifetime for a child.

Greg's Valentine's Day present

Greg got a white boxer puppy for Valentine's Day. His name is Max and he's so cute!

New puppies

You can check out pictures of Tori's puppies at my friend Alli's Flickr page.

Another dr. visit for Ben

I'm taking Ben to get a CAT scan tomorrow morning, just to make sure his huge head is not related to his developmental delays.

Last week, I took him to the ENT. He gave us Prevacid and Nasonex, saying that his throat problems could be caused by reflux and that Ben had fluid in his ears that needs to clear up in the next six weeks, or he'll need tubes.

Pray for the little guy . . . and us. I believe he'll be fine in the end, but I need to trust God no matter what happens.

Sad news

Poor Greg had to take Ike to the vet this morning to be put to sleep. He was 10-1/2 years old. He had stopped eating and drinking much and couldn't get up anymore or control his bladder. Anna graciously cared for him while we were gone, cleaning up his messes, and dragging him back into the house at the point when he wouldn't get up anymore. It was sad, but obvious to us that Ike was absolutely miserable. He had the saddest eyes I've ever seen. I feel bad for him that we were gone and he had to live like that for a few days, poor boy.

Luke is a little confused. Not really sad, but doesn't understand. I keep telling him Ike's not coming back. I first told him Ike was going to the doctor and he asked if Ike was getting a shot, which I then realized wasn't good because I didn't want Luke to be scared that the same thing would happen to him if he went to the doctor and got a shot. So I said Daddy was taking him to the hospital, which Luke then equated to his trip to the ER, so I had to backtrack on that one too. I finally just told him he went to doggy heaven and isn't coming home. I'm just not quite sure how to explain that one!

New puppies

While we were gone to Orlando, Tori had four puppies, thanks to Anna Meiners. One of them died the next day, sadly, but it didn't look quite normal from the beginning, Anna said. So we have two red/white (blenheim) girls and one black (tricolor)boy. They're cute. I'll have to take some pictures and post them.

Lots of "Goings On"

We've been busy lately. We went to Orlando last week so I could go to a conference. We got to see Rinnie and her kids and had such fun going to Downtown Disney with Johnny, Kaki, and Ella. That was definitely THE highlight of our trip.

A chip of the old block

Luke is turning into a chip of the old block, the block being me (Esther). He's always talking about who he wants to come over to our house or who he wants to go see. He says "Alli come over," "Go Unc'a Petr's house." I love to see him enjoying the people that love him. Sometimes it's sad because he wants to go see Granmama and Granpapa and I wish he could. Today, as soon as he got back into the sanctuary from nursery, he whispered to me very shyly, "Go Matt's house." Matt was at church with us. What a sweetie!

Ben's Birthday

Ben turned one on Tuesday. We are waiting to celebrate until next weekend when Greg's parents will be up here, but my friend Alli surprised us with cupcakes when we got our kids together to play. Ben pretty much just ate icing.