A Day Full of Blessings!

I am just about jumping up and down praising the Lord for the wonderful morning we had together! I LOVE when we can all five spend time together just having fun! We took the kids to State Farm Park this morning!! It was pretty overcast, and there was no one else there at the kiddie pool when we arrived! Apparently, everyone thinks it has to be blazing sun in order to go to the pool, but we were lovin' the privacy and the easiness of the weather too!

State Farm just did a HUGE renovation to the pool area of the park. The awesome kiddie pool we love is still there, but now has a sprinkler area by it too! And, there's a medium size pool that's about 3 1/2 feet deep now! It has 2 big water slides, and a Lazy River that goes around it! It is awesome! (They re-did the big, deep pool too, and I guess it has a big water slide and diving boards and is just massive, but I didn't really pay attention to it, because there was so much else to take in for our kids!) They built a big new building with family changing rooms, locker rooms, eating area, concessions, all kinds of stuff. The whole park is just awesome, and we haven't even seen it all after living here for 6 years! Such an awesome benefit of being an SF employee--we get to use it for free, and really should take advantage of it more!

Anyway, we had a GREAT time this morning! The kids just grinned from ear to ear the whole time we were there! They wanted to try out everything and "do it again," "do it again"!!!!! I didn't take many pics, because I just wanted to enjoy the time. I'm just so glad to have had these moments!!!

Jeremy pushing the kids on the tire swing in the kiddie pool. He got them going a little fast one time, and they were almost scared.

A Journey

*sigh*

Well, the Lord certainly has me on some kind of journey. My body is NOT liking me these days. Yes, I'm still struggling with the hives and their accompanying symptoms. Wednesday morning, my throat was swelling shut, my face swollen, huge hives all over, etc. So, I went to the E.R. They joined my allergist (who I saw on Monday) in telling me that I'm on all the right meds and there's nothing more that we can do. They gave me a strong steroid shot and more oral steroids (5th round now) and sent me home.

The hives faded and I had a day of reprieve, plus tons of energy from the steroids making me jittery and unable to sleep. So at least I got some laundry done and the kitchen floor mopped. Last night, the spots started showing up again, and today small ones are here and there. So, I know when my Prednisone prescription runs out in a few days, the whole sha-bang will probably come back.

I am distraught and frustrated. Yes, I've had hives for 4 months. I'm tired of being on drugs and gaining weight. I'm tired of itching. But, that is the least of it. Each time I go off the Prednisone and the reaction resurfaces, it is getting worse. I have had my feet and knees so swollen and painful it was hard to walk. My face has been swollen and disfigured to the point where it frightens the kids. Having a restricted airway was really, really scary.

Possibly the worst piece of it all is that no doctor I've seen seems to even care about what is CAUSING this, or how to make it stop!!! And, I have run us through all of our insurance money, and now the next $3000 is going to have to come out of our pocket. (And, I can tell you, I don't have any money in my pocket!)

I had another blood draw done today for a test through my allergist. He agreed to it mostly to appease me and doesn't expect it to show anything. I now have an appointment with a different allergist for more extensive testing, but it is not for another 2 weeks.

Jeremy talked with a doctor/friend at the gym this morning who recommended some doctors to us, and J is making some calls regarding that advice. Hopefully, it will give us some more avenues...

If you would, please pray that we can find someone to help me find the cause of this all, and that I will be able to maintain a decent level of comfort. I am kind of an emotional mess about it all at this point too, and am trying to pray through it.

Wish Lists

For those who will be looking for birthday and holiday wishlists from us, I am working on adding stuff and have put each of our lists in links in the right side bar. I created each of the lists, so none of them really know about them. I'm just trying to remember/pay attention to things that are mentioned.

Those of you who *think* we might be buying gifts for you, please feel free to send us your wishlists too! ;) The earlier the better!

Pheasant Run Resort Getaway

Jeremy and I are so blessed to have good friends here, especially since we live far from our families. Over the weekend, we were able to get away (just the two of us!) and have each kid stay with a family of friends for two nights! Such wonderful people who would do that for us!!! We are SO grateful. Each of the kids had a really fun time too!!

Jeremy had won an auction bid for a stay at Pheasant Run Resort in St. Charles, IL, which is a west Chicago suburb. It was nice to get away and just relax. I ended up being [stomach] sick all weekend, and there were some major financial "complications" between the resort and us, so things were kind of frustrating. However, we were thankful for the time together. We went to some outlet malls (Mom, you'd be so proud of me...I bought underwear for myself! Ha ha!), had a very fancy dinner one night (I had Crusted Grouper with Portabello Mushrooms, Artichokes, Asparagus, and Carmelized Onions on some kind of fancy red wine sauce (I forget now), and Jeremy had a big ol' steak. ;) We also had Chicago-style pizza one night, AND enjoyed the Ben & Jerry's Scoop Shop that was right in the resort! We hung out in the room a fair amount and watched some HGTV.
On Saturday morning, we went to Panera and met a sweet friend who is my Circle Journal group!! She works 1/2 mile from the resort and lives not too far from there too, so she and her sweet little daughter met us for coffee and a little breakfast! I've never met an online friend "in real life" before this, and Tracy was a very sweet one to meet! Her little girl is precious, and it was super that she came along! We chatted for about an hour, and enjoyed spending time with them!

Fun Daddy

The kids loved having Daddy around for fun stuff while he was off work this week!

Krispy Kreme!

Jeremy is on vacation this week! So this morning, we decided to take the kids to Krispy Kreme and go inside to see the doughnuts being made!!! How cool!

watching the donuts go by...

Everyone gets a free glazed Krispy Kreme while waiting in line! Of course, we each picked out another kind too...

Sylvie & Annah wanted sprinkles...

and chocolate...

Caeden wanted a filled doughnut, and thoroughly enjoyed all that icing...

What a nice treat!

So sweet.

Vacation #2!

The kids and I had another week's visit in Indiana. This time we did a lot of hanging out and relaxing, and I don't have a lot of photos to share. Part of the time I had no batteries in the camera, and I also didn't grab the photos we took with Mom & Dad's camera, like I usually do. So...just a few here...

The last time we went, when we left, Annah complained that we didn't just stay at Gram & Krampa's house enough...we were always going somewhere. So, this time, we tried to just stay around a lot.

The big excitement of the week was VBS! Uncle Travis & Aunt Erin were teachers at their church's Bible school every evening last week, and they invited Annah & Sylvia to come! The girls had a fantastic time!!!! They loved the songs, crafts, games, snacks, new friends, sports theme, and everything about the whole VBS! They got to be part of the program put on by all the kids on Sunday evening.
Gram & Krampa McEowen and Grandma Lopshire & Great Grandma DeHaven all came to watch the program too!
Caeden has 3 favorite books at Gram & Krampa's house: Pano the Train, Scuffy the Tugboat, and Doctor Dan the Bandage Man. Each adult must have read these three books to Caeden at least 12 times...
On Monday, we picked up Grandma Lopshire and took a Burger King lunch to Baker Park and the Dreamland playground in Columbia City. It was full of cool things for the kids to explore!! Grandma even knew about a tunnel that went under the road from one side of the park to the other. She taught us a cool echo song to sing in the tunnel too! After the park, we went to Kroger, and Grandma let the kids pick out all the snacks they wanted! She got them a whole cartful of goodies, and enjoyed spoiling them!
Other things we got to do on our vacation...

-Caeden and I went to Eric & Marti's new house for Joey's 4th birthday party! There were 17 kids there! We got to meet baby Andrew, and I got to hold him. SO sweet!

-We only went swimming a couple of times because the weather was so mild and NICE! But, Aunt Jean and Cousin Michael arrived on Monday evening and went swimming with Grandpa and the kids. Caeden decided to be brave enough to float and swim around with no one holding on to him (while wearing a life jacket)!!

-Aunt Erin gave the girls new manicures and pedicures again! They loooooove that!!

-Great Grandma Crabill visited for a while Monday afternoon and joined us for dinner too. It was a real treat to spend time with her!

-Gram gave Caeden a haircut! It took about 3 or 4 different stages to get it done, but it looks good. He even let Gram use the clippers after watching Aunt Erin use them on Travis.

-We lit sparklers and tossed "Pop-Its" one night after dark.

-Erin took me shopping at Glenbrook all day Saturday!! I love getting to hang out with her, and she is a good shopping influence for me! (I actually bought some clothes for myself!)
Mom watched the kids all day, and brought them to the mall to ride the awesome double carousel and have lunch at the food court.
I also discovered that there is an Archiver's store at Glenbrook now! Good thing we came by it at the END of our shopping day! ;)

-We went to Aunt Wanda's & Uncle Earl's for cake and ice cream for Wanda's birthday! Gary, Mindy, and Clayton were there too, and the kids are always so excited to play with Clayton!!

I'm sure there are more things I could list. We just had a super special time with our family!!

Skin, Hives, Allergies, Infections, Strep Throat, Medicines, MONTHS!

Holy moly! I'm sure I've mentioned at least a couple times the horrible hives I've been dealing with since the end of March. Well, they've been getting worse again over the past couple weeks, and were pretty unbearable this weekend. Jeremy and I thought maybe they got worse because I'd taken antibiotics for strep throat a couple weeks ago, and I always seem to be allergic to antibiotics.

Sooooo, I saw my new allergist doctor friend again this morning. He told me that strep throat can actually cause hives too! So, they did a swab, and sure enough, I'm still positive for strep! Now, I'm wondering...Have I had strep throat for the past several months and that's where all the hives and feeling cruddy-ness have come from? Or was it the antibiotics? Or is it something completely different causing all this misery?

Sheesh! I don't know what to think. It's been quite annoying, very frustrating, and, I'll even admit--discouraging at times. I am really ready to feel and look and function like normal already! I'm ready to get off all the different medicines, and stop gaining weight from it all.

But, for now I am up to five different kinds of meds. Allegra, Zyrtec, Zantac, Prednisone, and Avelox--some "different" kind of antibiotic. Hopefully ONE of those will help kill off whatever has been invading my body!!!

Random Goings On In List Format

-This is supposed to be the hottest weekend of the summer so far...into the 100's today. Can't wait.
-My allergic reaction is back and worse than ever. I am covered from head to toe in huge hives. They not only itch, they are to the point of burning because there's so much swelling. I'm so uncomfortable I decided to take another round of Prednisone even though I haven't lost the weight I gained from the last round. I am miserable.
-Jeremy is mowing the lawn for the 3rd time in the past week! We did get part of the bare spot in the yard seeded last weekend and grass is starting to peek through! Yay!
-I drove to Watseka, IL with the kids yesterday to meet Mom & Dad. They took Annah back home with them for a few days! She is SOOOOOOO excited, and having fun I'm sure!
-Jeremy took Sylvia on a date last night. He took her to Meijer and bought her a new swimsuit and beach towel then took her to the sprinkler park. Then they had dinner at Applebee's and frozen custard at Culver's. He loves to spoil his sweet little girl, and she just adores her daddy. I'm so glad they had that special time together.
-We were going to check out the new pools and lazy river at State Farm Park today, but I am such a mess we aren't going anywhere anytime soon.
-Jeremy is incredibly frustrated with Menard's. They have messed up every single order of materials for our house. Right now he is unable to do anything more on the house until he gets siding corner posts in. Interestingly enough, they notified us twice that they were in, but couldn't find them when he went to pick them up. Too many crazy details to share more of that story...ugh!
-Praying for teens and adults from church on an important Experience Jesus trip this week!!

4th of July

Our 4th of July celebration was nice! We spent the day with some great friends. Have a few pics to share, of course...

Caeden jumping on the trampoline by himself. He was hilarious.

Since it's quite stressful to have Caeden in the big pool, Andrea borrowed the neighbors tot pool to fill for Caeden. He thought it was GREAT!
Brian (elec. guitar) and Duane (drums) had a great jam session in the basement, and Caeden played along on Ali's princess guitar. He was so straight-faced and serious the whole time, being a rock star is important stuff!

Jeremy & Sylvie danced along to the music.

Waiting for the Bloomington fireworks ... They were beautiful!!
The girls were super exhausted [before] the end of the night. (Caeden had gotten a nap , so he was charged.) They crashed on the way home.

Andrew Thomas

We have a new nephew! Jeremy's brother Eric and his wife Marti welcomed a [fifth!] baby boy yesterday, and named him Andrew Thomas. We're so looking forward to meeting him soon!

Caeden was just thrilled with Eric & Marti's choice of names for Andrew Thomas. I don't think Caeden knows that Andrew is Jeremy's middle name, but he likes to play with our neighbor boy whose name is Andrew. And, we all know Caeden loves Thomas the Tank Engine. So, he was incredibly excited when he heard baby Andrew Thomas' name!

This morning we were talking about Andrew Thomas at the breakfast table, and Caeden asked, "Does he have wheels?" We had a good laugh about that one, while explaining that baby Andrew Thomas is a person, a baby, a little boy--not a train.

Spickle You

Caeden came to me this morning with his toy stethoscope around his neck...

Caeden: Mommy, come here; I need to spickle you!
Me: What?
Caeden: I need to spickle your heart.
Me: Oh okay.
Caeden: Wow your heart working pretty good!
Me: Is it? Whew! That's good. I'm so glad! Thank you for spickling my heart!
Caeden: You're so welcome Mommy!