my children :: the frog hunters

:: and a trip to the park ::

inbetween my baby dr. appointment, two grocery stores, library, bank, garden store & hardware store... we managed to fit in lunch at the park.

When you live on a farm .in.the.middle.of.nowhere. you don't go to the park very often.
I remember the days of living in the city and walking a few blocks to the local park
...those were the days when I said I'd never live in North Dakota, or homeschool or cloth diaper.
Oh, how times have changed. {grin}

now on with the park pictures...


{Eliza::3}

{Nolia::3}

{Nolia::3}

{Eliza::3}

{Gavin::8}

{Ozzie::5}

{Grayson::11}

{Vance::10::Grayson::11::Gavin::8}

{Ozzie::5}

{Nolia::Mom::Eliza}

the first thing

everyone wants to do

when our new campsite

is all set up

is go for a bike ride

and now that I have a bike
we can all go along!

Vance

sigh. where to start...
what to say...

What I'm going to write doesn't necessarily need to be shared,
but I need to write,
I need to record what's been going on.
...for me, for our family journal.

Some of you who follow me on twitter or facebook
probably know what we were doing all week.
It was the easiest way to keep family and friends updated
...blogging however doesn't seem to come to mind
when you're at the hospital.



2 1/2 weeks ago Vance had a stomach bug
...he wasn't feeling well for 24 hours.
And then he was back to normal.
except he wasn't

A week later he mentioned his stomach was hurting again

...hurting on the lower right side.

sigh.

I rushed him to the dr.

we had xrays, 2nd opinions, 3rd opinions & 4th opinions

...it looked like anything but a ruptured appendix

he passed the jump test, the rebound pain test.

...and then we had a cat-scan.

It was the "worst case scenario"

...as the dr. said

We had a "very sick boy" & "a long road of recovery"

Vance's appendix had ruptured, 10 days ago.

He had a large abscess around his appendix

but his body had completely blocked the infection off.

There was nothing leaking into his body.

Praise God!

Taking his appendix out was not an option,

it was much too risky.

Instead they went in and cleaned out the abscess,

and put a port/drain in.

It was done under CT scan

and took around an hour.

I paced the floor most of the time.

Anyone who has ever left a child for an operation

...hugs to you, it is a hard thing to do.

After the operation Vance really went down.

His fever spiked, he was in horrible pain.

He was having continued muscle cramps around the port,

we were 36 hours into "no food or water"

he had IV trouble.

It was a hard day.

I went through the whole "mom guilt" over and over.

How did I not know? What did I miss?

But you know, I couldn't have done anything different.

I asked him about his stomach, I thought about the appendix or kidneys.

He didn't have pain there, he was just a little sick.

He wasn't doubled over.

He didn't have a high fever.

We went swimming and ice skating.

He ran, he played, he ate, he was fine.

sigh.

He was in God's hands.
His appendix ruptured and his body protected him.
Amazing.

I handle stressful situations really well

...mentally that is.

Physically not as well.

I couldn't sleep and probably only slept 3-4 hours a night.

I made it through the entire hospital stay without a headache

...and then it hit when we got home.

We were so thankful to have a wonderful Dr.

It felt like we were actually on the same team

...it was a blessing for sure!

Vance really enjoyed his Dr. too

...he even stayed and played a lego game with him.

That really lifted his mood!

Paul did amazing with the children at home.

He cooked, cleaned, played and was pretty much super dad.

All of the children handled it really well...

except Grayson.

He was very distraught seeing Vance in so much pain

...the IV, the port and drain.

Thinking about what was going on

...it was hard for him.

The port never drained like we thought it would.

We went back and forth trying to decided if putting a chest port in for food was worth the risk.

We thought the drain port was blocked or possibly put in wrong.

Vance had horrible trouble with IV and drawing blood.

There were spiked fevers and antibiotics that didn't work.

4 days of no food or water.

We planned for Christmas in the hospital

and talk of additional operations.

Oh, God is so good!

We are still hopeful that he will only need the one operation.

The blood they pulled from finger pricks were enough.

He lowered his fever on his own.

The new antibiotic worked.

and we went home on Christmas eve.

With a port and drain

but home.

We go back today.

Praying all looks okay...

and he can have the port and drain taken out.

This was our first

... surgery

... lengthy hospital stay

...IV

... antibiotic

...serious illness

and we made it through, so far.

Thank you so much for all of your prayers and encouraging words.
Thank you for the balloons to cheer Vance up.
Thank you for caring about our family.

holes, laughs, being loud and babies

we spend a lot of time together
and we wear holes in our socks {a lot}

we pile on the couch

and laugh a lot

we hang our art on the wall

and play loud

we pile our coffee table with books and water glasses

and someone is still growing out their cut bangs

We babywear babies that aren't really babies anymore
and love our crazy life


{camera numbers}
24mm 1/100s f/2.8 ISO1250 & 2500
...it was late evening in our dimly lit great room, hence the high iso...

my hardworking

sometimes barefoot

extremely handsome

willing

strong

and capable

farmhands

and paws {grin}