A Magical Moment

I was in the kitchen, working on my Shepard's Pie for dinner, when I looked up from the stove. I was so surprised...I dropped my spoon into the skillet.

IT WAS SNOWING!

It rarely snows here in southeast Texas. I've lived here for 12 years now and it's only happened once before.

I RAN to get Christina, and showed her the beautiful white flakes drifting down. She was in awe. Bless her heart, it's the first time she's ever seen snow. I told her to hurry and get her shoes and jacket on, which she did in record time. Then we went outside, and I took a picture of her trying to catch a snowflake on her tongue.

After a couple of tries, she did it! I asked her what it tasted like, and she said, "It tastes like ice Mommy."

I couldn't get a good shot of the snow coming down, and then my camera batteries died! Aah! So I rushed inside, grabbed a new set of batteries, and dashed back out. I decided to get a few shots of the snow on the ground instead.

Okay, I know...the trash can is not very attractive. But you could see the snow very clearly on it because the lid is black.

Another place where some snow accumulated was on the bumper of the van.

And here's a few brave snowflakes clinging to some of the plants in the front yard.
About 20 minutes later, the snow had changed back to mostly rain, with a few flurries mixed in. By now, Joshua and Rebecca had come home from school. I thought they would have complained about walking home from the bus stop in 34 degree weather, (because it's 8/10ths of a miles to our house) but they LOVED walking home in the snow.

Gabriel got up from his nap just in time to see the last bit of snow coming down. I took him outside and let a few snowflakes fall on my sleeve so he could see them. Then we went back inside, because I won't lie, it was COLD.

It didn't last long enough, but it sure was magical.

(Later on, around 7:30, it started to snow again. The kids were just amazed...I even let them go to bed with their blinds open so they could watch the snow falling down. Enough fell this time to really see it on the cars, roofs, etc.)

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Catholic...not Jewish

R-E-B-E-C-C-A

Rebecca is old enough, and smart to know her name can be spelled different ways. She's seen her name spelled "Rebekah, "and "Rebeka" before. She can't understand why people would spell her name that way. I've explained to her that we picked her name because we were Catholic, hence our spelling it "Rebecca," and not Jewish, who often spell it "Rebekah."

Anyway, we were on our way home from getting a tub of cookie dough and a box of soft pretzels at the school (from a fundraiser). Rebecca was looking at the order form, and said,

"Mommy, somebody spelled my name wrong again! My name isn't spelled with a "ck!"

I told her not to worry about that, because people just didn't know; the person who wrote out the order form was probably in a hurry, and had likely filled out hundreds of those forms that day.

"Mommy, it's a good thing I'm not Jewish, otherwise, my name would be spelled R-E-B-E-K-A-H, right?"

She couldn't understand why I was cracking up all the way home :-)

Gem of the Week

In honor of the feast day of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, (which is tomorrow), I felt this was appropriate:

Father, you prepared the Virgin Mary to be the worthy mother of Your Son. You let her share beforehand in the salvation Christ would bring by His death, and kept her sinless from the first moment of her conception. Help us by her prayers to live in Your presence without sin. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
Amen.

All I Want for Christmas...

is my two front teeth!

(It's about time, she lost the other one over a month ago!)

Down for the Count

David was hanging Christmas lights outside on the front of the house Sunday night when he said,

"I don't feel so good."

He came in, lay down on the couch, and then went to bed. He already had a fever, which shot up to 104 in a matter of minutes. I wasn't too worried, because David gets a fever for everything. We piled on the blankets, gave him ibuprofen and tylenol, and waited for daylight.

Monday morning came, he wasn't able to go into work. So he fielded calls and emails from home, and rested. That night, he started to have stomach pain, big time. He said his intestines would cramp up every 15 minutes or so, and there was some moderate background pain. I started to worry because he barely slept that night, and a dose of Maalox didn't help at all.

We called Dr. Thomas, and David drove himself over Tuesday afternoon. They drew some blood, took a few x-rays, and sent him home with a couple of prescriptions. The meds helped with the pain, but David still didn't want to eat anything, and he was exhausted.

Wednesday morning, he decided to go ahead and go into work, even though he wasn't feeling great because he didn't want to get any further behind. The doctor's office called back and told him because of the results of one of the blood tests, they wanted him to go straight to the ER.

David called me while I was helping out with the book fair at Christina's preschool. I immediately went into "hyper drive," and starting thinking...okay, who can take care of the kids for me? One friend who was right there at the book fair, Cathy, scooped up Gabriel from the nursery, promised to get Christina when preschool let out, and I was able to have another friend get Joshua and Rebecca from the bus stop at 3:45. Okay, no sweat right? Everyone said I looked calm, but let me tell you...I did not feel calm at all. I was ready to cry! I prayed a thousand Hail Mary's in 1 minute...

I was on my way to the hospital to meet David, and decided to swing by the house really quick to grab my lists of phone numbers in case I needed them. David called me again on my cell-- Dr. Thomas had decided to see David at his office instead of the ER, and the plan was to run a couple of CT scans, with and without contrast. So the rest of the day was spent in the waiting room while David had those scans done. It took forever because he had to drink a barium solution for an hour, get one scan, drink another solution for an hour, and do the second scan. (I had the camera with me because I'd taken pics of Christina at preschool, and really wanted to take a shot of David in a gown and paper booties, but he wouldn't let me...no fair! He took pictures of me after I had all the kids!)

By the time we were finished, it was nearly 5PM. The CT scans didn't show anything out of the ordinary, except for David's small bowel, which appeared dilated. Dr. Thomas referred us to a surgeon, Dr. Cook, and we got an appointment to see him this morning at 8AM.

David drove home, and I collected Joshua and Rebecca; my friend Cathy brought Christina and Gabriel back to the house for me. (Cathy is truly a saint...I am so grateful to her). David was very tired, and after a couple of cups of chicken broth, went to bed--but couldn't sleep; he got up and worked on his GMAT study book until 10PM, and then went back to bed.

This morning, he got up and said,

"You know, I feel a lot better, I might not need to go see the surgeon after all."

I love my husband dearly, but I looked him straight in the eye, and told him,

"Oh no you don't, YOU ARE GOING." (men!)

I dropped Joshua and Rebecca off at the bus stop, and Christina went with another friend who would take her to preschool at 9AM. Gabriel and I headed off to Dr. Cook's office to meet up with David. Dr. Cook examined David, asked him a dozen or so questions. So now, the million dollar question, what's the diagnosis doc?

Dr. Cook believes David got a nasty virus that settled in his small bowel and attacked it, causing the cramping and other symptoms. He doesn't think any further tests were necessary, and David would surely feel better in a couple more days. The exam was really to palpitate David's abdomen, rule out anything serious (Crohn's disease, appendicitis, kidney stones, etc.), and what to watch for if an episode like this happened again.

David is back at work now, hopefully for good. I am home, looking around and trying to decide what to tackle first...I am kinda behind. But you know what...David will be all right, and that's all that matters. Thank you for all the prayers! We truly felt them.

I Don't Know About This...

Christina turned 4 in August. We started potty training when she was about 2 1/2. So we've been at it for well over a year now. She finally got the hang of #2 in May, but she still has accidents from time to time.

I walked into the study about 30 minutes ago, and knew immediately she'd had an accident. Sure enough, her pants, panties, socks, and David's beloved desk chair were soaked. I was so mad...

You know that old saying, the one your mother or MIL tells you right about now, "Well...she'll probably be potty trained by the time she goes to kindergarten." I am not so sure...Christina will start school next August. Somebody please tell me there's an end in sight!!!

Oh, and here's David's poor chair left out

in the cold on the back porch to dry.

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