6 months old

So, it's not the actual day but I thought I'd better get something on here about Josiah reaching
6 months! He:

- loves to laugh and show off his 3 teeth.

- flirts shamelessly with anyone who comes near him; waitresses, people at the store, etc.

- can finally sit up by himself, as long as he doesn't sneeze.

- likes oatmeal but ONLY if it has apple juice in it.

- weighs 18+ pounds and is almost too tall for his bucket car seat.

- sleeps well by himself in his crib in his room . . . FINALLY!!

- wants a blankie to cuddle with when he is sleeping.

- is getting over his fear of crowds . . . Kev says this is good since he can't be a football player and afraid of big groups of people at the same time.
- recognizes his friend Ethan. We sat them face to face the other day and Ethan chewed on Josiah's socks as Josiah grabbed ahold of Ethan's lower lip and pulled. Best Friends!
- is showing signs that he will be left-handed. Even if the item he is reaching for is right at his right hand, he will flip completely around to get at it with his left. South-paw!
- has everyone snowed over by his smile. No one at church believes that he cries so I took this photo to prove it:

And that's Josiah at 6 months!

It's like they read my mind!

So, I found this site today after seeing a link to it from one of the blogs I lurk frequently and I don't know how I missed it in the past! http://www.littlemissmatched.com/ Anyone who has known me for a good long time knows my complete and unchanging love for socks. The back story is that when I worked for the Simpson College admissions office back while I was in college, one of our bosses was constantly trying to jazz up the office environment to break the monotony of calling potential students and convincing them they should skip JC and go directly to a private school. (wow, run-on sentence.) Anyway, he instituted Spicy Tuesday - the one day a week we could veer from our usual business attire . . . for our feet anyway . . . and wear whatever sock design we wanted. I leapt at the chance because I'm not and never have been interested in dressing in business attire for any length of time . . . I have an eternal hatred for all things pantyhose. Thus began the collection of Spicy Socks that has currently reached more than 50 pairs in my drawer. Family and friends jumped at the chance to add to my delinquency as they make a really easy gift to give. I even wore rubber ducky socks and white tennis shoes for my wedding.

All that to say . . . I love this site! Here are a few favs:

Actually, there wasn't a pair . . . well, group . . . that I didn't like on there! Loved them all, except maybe the ones called liners. I want my socks to stand up and be noticed and appreciated, not hiding in my shoes. That's another reason I love the tradition here of taking off your shoes in the winter whenever you enter a house, either yours or when visiting someone. I know it's really to make sure you don't track snow everywhere in their house but secretly I believe it's for me to show off my fabulous socks!

And this -- the greatest container ever! It comes with 9 different single socks to mix and match, all stuffed into this little tupperware. They say there's 36 different combos in every one.

And finally, socks that you don't have to pair up and fold together to put away. Kev will be thrilled! I'm running for the credit card . . . . :P

A better week, hopefully

So, we're shooting for a better week this week. Obviously we will not forget all that happened last week, and in all honesty I'm glad that we were able to be a part of all that went on and see how the Lord worked in every step of the situation. His hand was clearly in each day for our friends and I firmly believe He will continue to be with them as they try to get back to normal, as it were. He has blessed them with His strength and it's amazing to see.

I took Josiah in for his follow-up dr visit yesterday. We were scheduled for an appt just before lunch and it seems our dr was getting into his lunchbox a little early. (The following is what I could decipher thru the cloud of summer sausage . . . Merry Christmas and Happy Hickory Farms!) He said he wants us to continue the breathing treatments for another week then cut him off until he gets sick again, whenever that is. He said he is getting better, tho, and although we get to enjoy the hacking cough for the next 4-6 weeks, he isn't contagious and is actually getting over it. We go in on the 30th for his 6mos appt so he'll check out his chest again and make sure all is well. I had to add this photo because he was just such a miserable little guy I couldn't help taking the picture. 5 months old is too young to be this sick:

Thankfully he doesn't look this bad anymore. I'll have to take more photos of them this week. We'll see.

Now I'm off to do some housework. Would you believe I still haven't completely unpacked from our CA trip?!?! It's kinda like that episode of Everybody Loves Raymond where they have that one suitcase that stays on the staircase for weeks because neither of them wants to unpack it themselves. Yep, that's us. But I think I'd better get on it before Kev puts it out on the lawn . . . it's mostly my stuff left in it.

Oh, and for those of you in warmer places than us . . . it was -15 F this morning when Kev went to work and two hours later when I took Gennie to school it was a whopping -11! Yes, those are both negative numbers. Wahoo for big thick blankets!

Lamentations 3:32

So, we've had a pretty terrible week around here. it started with a trip to the ER with Josiah on Monday nite where he was diagnosed with RSV/Bronchiolitis and we were treated and sent home with a nebulizer and enough Albuterol for 6 doses a day for 50 days. Yuck! He's doing better now and although we can't take him outside until after his follow-up visit to his doc on this coming monday, he's been up playing and slowly getting better.

While we were downstairs in the ER, our best friends were upstairs having their baby. All went well with the birth but there were some serious concerns and upon further evaluation, the baby was diagnosed with a fatal condition and passed away on Thursday. I won't go into detail out of respect for their family but wanted to add this to my post so I could ask my extended family and friends for prayers for their family. My dad said the Lord gave him the verse listed above and I took great comfort it its words:

"For if He causes grief, then He will have compassion according to His abundant lovingkindness." Lamentations 3:32

I am so thankful that we have a God who comforts us.

What a homecoming.......

So, we're back. Had a fab time in CA . . . won't recap the whole thing because most of the people who read this were in on it. Anyway, got to see everyone we wanted to and do most everything we planned on and, escaping the horror that was the driving conditions, we're thrilled to be back home. We're going to seriously rethink it the next time we decide to travel in the winter while living here. Between windshield wiper motor going out during the WORST snowstorm either of us had ever been in . . . it actually had snow and sleet and LIGHTNING AND THUNDER!!! . . . and having to stop every 5 minutes to open the hood and bang on the wiper motor with a wrench, and racing the incoming storm back to Green River . . . I stepped out of the shower at our hotel in Wells, NV, and Kev said, "we need to get in the car. It's on its way and we have to outrun it!" . . . I don't know if my poor heart can take the stress of another winter trip. We'll have to see . . .

And of course, while we were gone our pipes in the house froze. Yep, we did everything we were supposed to do and they still froze. Actually it started with the sewer pipes first, then the incoming water lines froze solid. Thankfully my parents were watching the house for us and found the problem immediately so we got the landlord to send out his handyman and got the pipes thawed out and the sewer taken care of. By the time we got home it was all done except the clean-up from the overflowing toilet and tubs and sink. No water damage, tho!

We got home on Fri nite and I was up with Josiah late that nite . . . he got a bad cold while we were away . . . and when I finally had him asleep at last (2:30am) I was walking back to my bed when I heard water running like someone was doing the dishes. I followed it and found it was coming from the freezer . . . we have in-door water and ice in our fridge and the water line goes to the freezer for the ice maker. I noticed my slippers were getting really wet all the sudden and I cracked open the freezer door . . . only to have a deluge of water pour out onto my feet and the kitchen floor. I screamed for Kev and we used every towel we own to sop up the mess. Turns out that the ice maker had gotten an ice chunk in the water line and when it went to fill up the cube trays the chunk blew thru the line and broke the on/off switch so there was nothing to tell it to shut off. It had filled the side-by-side freezer most of the way up to the top . . . which is what I let loose when I opened the door . . . and was already starting to freeze everything together in one huge chunk. We were able to save everything . . . including my scrapbooking paper and stuff which is stored right next to the fridge because my office is what used to be the dining area . . . and again nothing was ruined, Thank God!! I can't be mad at Josiah for getting me up anymore because we would never have heard the water if I wasn't already awake.

You'd think that was the end of it, but no, there's more!! Monday nite Gennie got up to pee at 5:30am and needed help turning on the water . . . she can do it fine by herself except when it's FROZEN SOLID AGAIN!! No showers, no flushing the toilets, no making bottles for Josiah, nothing. I got the landlord to send out someone again and they re-insulated the water heater room . . . where the problem was, right next to my closet . . . thank God the pipes didn't break . . . and got them thawed out again. I tell you what, this has been one crazy year, and it's only week two!!! Krista, at least it should make for some fun fodder for my slide-page scrapbook!

I never thought I'd be sooooo happy to see the sight of running water in my kitchen.