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Jack got back from camp this afternoon.  We pulled into the church parking lot right behind the busses, and wandered through the crowd for just a few minutes before finding Jackie.  He was in a daze – exhausted, sweaty from no a.c. on the bus, hoarse, and ready to be home.  He had a great time bunking with all of his favorite church buddies.  He even said the food was good.  His favorite part seemed to be canoeing and archery.  Cool!  Right now he is passed out in his bed, snoring up a storm.

We surprised & blessed to have Brad’s grandma with us all day today.  She and Will made fast friends over the pudding spatula while we were making dinner tonight!  What could be better than getting to work the mixer all by yourself, then have your great grandma spoon feed you chocolate? 

Will’s doing a little better sleeping in his own room finally.  After 3 nights in a row, up until 11 – we finally have an early night.  Actually, he laid in his bed for 2 hours today, playing with his stuffed animal friends instead of sleeping.  Stinker!  But still, it’s nice to have all 3 kids in bed before 9 for once.

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We had a great day – definitely trying to keep everyone busy so we don’t think too much about this guy – cute picture he took of himself last weekend! 

Last night we moved Will back into is own room for the first time since December.  He was NOT happy about sleeping in his big boy bed.  So, once again, Daddy saved the day by showing up in the doorway with Will’s toddler bed in tow.  Will was still not happy, but at least he was able to give it a try in his more familiar bed.  Margaret and I made it into a slumber party to make him a little more comfortable.  Big sis slept on the top bunk, Mommy was on the bottom bunk, and Will in his toddler bed.  He finally passed out around 10:30, but was up bright and early right at 7 this morning.  It’s not going much better tonight.  Right now it’s 10:50, and he’s still wide awake in there, scratching away.  Poor guy – but he wouldn’t dream of wandering out of his bed to complain.  He’s too conditioned to lay in bed & persevere, and it breaks my heart. 

Anyway, we kept pretty busy today.  We got up & headed to Ikea for a few goodies to use around the house.  We got a some cool chopsticks, new plastic cups & plates for the kids, and a few things to spruce up the playhouse, which is quickly becoming Jack’s awesome X-box 360 hangout.  Margaret and Will decided they needed to sit in every chair & lay in every bed in the enormous showroom.  We had fun, and got a little something for everyone to enjoy.  Then we were off to Gattitown for “Moms eat free Monday”.  We played games, rode rides, ate lots of pizza (in Will’s case, shredded cheese & spaghetti with ranch dressing), and watched The Lion King on the giant screen.  Margaret was so happy.  She said she thought I was teasing when I said I would take her there.  Am I that bad, that she didn’t believe me?  Really?

Will loved playing the driving games.  Well, he thought he was playing.  I never did pay for him to play a game – he just steered along with the demo.  (Now I see why Margaret thought I was tricking her!)

This was so cute.  Right before I took these pictures, Will was messing around in his seat & tipped his chair over backwards.  After kissing his boo-boos, I insisted that he sit in a high chair for the rest of lunch.  That’s why he’s looking so bummed. 

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Our Jackie boy is growing up too fast – it’s official.  Going on roller coasters, playing tackle football, getting ready for 3rd grade, and now going away to camp.  He was such a brave little man as he rolled his suitcase up to church (totally embarrassed about me taking his picture) for 3 days/4 nights of camp, sans mom & dad.  We’re not sure who was more nervous, me or Jack.  I spent the past few days meticulously packing his suitcase, hiding little notes in every outfit and pair of pajamas, tucking cards in his notebook & family photos in his Bible.  By Wednesday, he’ll probably groan every time he pulls on a clean pair of shorts & a smiley face note falls out on the floor. Brad and I laughed at how many times tonight we wondered out loud, “ It’s 7:46, wonder what Jack is doing?” . . . “It’s 7:48, wonder what Jack is doing?”  We were the same when we were in China, and Jack and Margaret were home with my mom.  But this time Jack’s off by himself (well, with his children’s pastor, several adult volunteers, and 108 other kids from our church), 2 hours away from home, growing up, having fun, and opening his heart and his mind to our big God, making decisions for himself now.   So please pray for my baby – um, I mean big boy – to have a fun, safe, life-changing experience at camp this week.  

Margaret is miles better this weekend.  When she woke up this morning, she mentioned that for the first time in a long time, she was feeling normal.  What a relief!  She really isn’t quite herself yet, but she is close.  Tonight we went on a short bike ride, & she was wheezing by the time she got home.  We’re keeping up with those breathing treatments, and staying inside as much as possible for now.   It is blazing hot here, with a high of 105 today, and not a single day under 100 in the 5-day forecast, so it looks like we’ll be doing more of the same for at least the rest of this week.  Here she is, baking a cake to celebrate the Hannah Montana 3-D concert that was on Disney Channel on Saturday night.  It was pretty good, and even turned out cute! (The cake, not the concert.)

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We started the week with a follow updoctor’s appointment for Margaret and Will.  Will is doing fine.  He is getting his energy back & eating like a champ.  He’s been carrying the box of Teddy Grahams around the house for two days, and was so sad to find it empty this afternoon.  He ate the whole box by himself!  Normally I wouldn’t let my kids carry around a box of crackers & graze all day, but it is good for Will to have unlimited access to food to reinforce his bonding & feeling of security.  Now we have to run out tonight for a new box of Teddy Grahams.  That’s ok, because we need to pick up our 3-D glasses for the Hannah Montana concert on Disney Channel Saturday night

So Will checked out ok, but the dr. was very concerned about Margaret.  Her blood oxygen level was much lower than it should be, she still had the coarse, barky, croup cough that she’s had since last Wednesday, and there was also a troubling rattle in her chest.  We walked out an hour later with prescriptions for 2 different breathing treatments & antibiotics – just treating this infection more aggressively so that it does not develop into pneumonia.  Margaret does seem much better today(Wednesday).  The cough is different & far less persistent – thank goodness, because that means she is now able to sleep better at night.  She is still exhausted by lunchtime, though, which leads me to believe she isn’t getting enough oxygen yet.  We’ll continue the breathing treatments through the weekend, and hopefully Mar will be much better by next week.

We’re pretty much stuck home until everyone gets healthy.  Which is fine, considering it’s been 98-102 out this past week.  It’s not like we want to go outside any more than we have to.  But still, it’s getting boring.  We are trying to keep busy with Legos and Barbies, painting, playdoh, and short dips in the pool, but unfortunately, we’ve also watched way more than our fair share of movies and played far too many computer games. 

Please keep our Jack in your prayers.  First of all, for him to remain healthy.  Also, he is leaving for camp on Sunday afternoon.  He’s never been away from home without us.  I think he will be fine, but we’re still praying for him to be brave, stay safe, and make good choices.  He’ll be gone from Sunday – Wednesday.

Here we are keeping busy playing computer games,

baking cookies,

finger painting with pudding,

and playing in the Elmo sprinkler.

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It’s been hard to focus on a post the past few days.  Fortunately, Will is getting back to his old self.  He’s still in tantrum overdrive, but we know that these setbacks in his attachment are inevitable & are easily triggered when he’s not feeling well.  Margaret continues to get worse instead of better.  She still has a fever and is coughing constantly.  The cough is waking her up at night, so she can’t even get a good night’s sleep.  I took them both to the pediatrician Wednesday, and they were officially diagnosed with croup.  Our dr. went ahead and put Will on antibiotics, since his lungs were getting rattley.  We both were concerned this could develop into pneumonia.  Thankfully that was not the case, and he’s doing considerably better.  Now we just need to get Margaret better, too.  She is supposed to start cheerleading camp tomorrow, but I need to look into rescheduling that for next month.  She is not happy about it, but there’s no way she can go jump and dance around for 90 minutes & not feel horrible.  Right now she loses her breath just playing Barbies, and she can’t even think about going outside in this heat. 

Sorry it’s taken so long, but I finally have all of the photos of our week with Noah moved from my camera to the computer.  The kids had so much fun!

Here’s the whole gang fishing off the dam.  Will just liked watching the worms! 

Random pictures from the park & the little ones on the carousel at the mall:

Rock climbing at Canyons.  The boys were climbing racing & timing themselves.  Noah could reach the top in 3 seconds & Jack could get it in 5.  Margaret was certainly holding her own, too.

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