In a Manner Worthy - Homeschool Blogger

Catching up

Wed, 13 Dec 2006 15:44:00 -0600

Everything is chugging along here. After a week of packing the wound, the ob decided it was healed enough to leave it alone and let it finish on it's on. Whew. I was THRILLED! So last week was much better, and now I'm just dealing with the normal pregnancy woes and counting down these last few weeks. I bought a few things for the baby last week, and I'm planning a shopping trip with our neighbor Amy tomorrow to pick up the final few things I need... baby sleepers, blankets, toiletries, newborn caps, and a baby bath. It is always fun to pick out the new cute little baby things.

We are planning a trip to San Antonio tomorrow for a couple of days. We've been planning on taking a little trip up there since we moved here, and since the weather is nice and I'm still able to get around a bit this looks like as good a time as any. The girls hate traveling and complain when we talk about going anywhere, but I'm really looking forward to it and think they'll really enjoy it once we get there.

We've got our Christmas tree up and have been making some decorations for the past couple of weeks. They made salt dough ornaments on their own and decorated them with colored glitter glue. We also cut out some awesome snowflakes and made a beautiful frame around our outside window. I've had the stuff to make crystal Borax snowflakes for a while now but we haven't done it yet, so I guess we could start those tonight and have them ready when we get home from our trip. The girls are all really excited about their sisters coming down for the holidays. It will be a very nice diversion since the campus will be pretty empty over Christmas break. We've got plans to go to Mexico and maybe even the beach if the nice weather holds out. It will be a fun way to pass another week or so of this eternal pregnancy. Only about 5 weeks left to go!

What do you say...

Tue, 28 Nov 2006 16:48:00 -0600

...when you are in your 8th month of pregnancy and someone digs a big hole in your big ole belly and then fills and refills it with gauze daily with no anestesia. Ahhhh!!!!! Eeekkkk!!!!! Ooowwwww!!!!! Please pray that this abcess heals QUICKLY!

Home for the holidays!

Mon, 27 Nov 2006 17:28:00 -0600

Well, we are finally home from our trip to GA for Thanksgiving! We had a fantastic time visiting with family and friends. Although I never did get to play my much desired game of Scrabble, I did get grape juice, chocolate milk, chocolate covered cherries, the Thanksgiving Day parade and lighting of the Rich's Christmas Tree. We lazed around and cooked and laughed and just had a wonderful time.

One down side was that a cyst I had had on my belly for years became suddenly infected and abcessed the day before Thanksgiving. It was very red and painful on my very pregnant belly, and I debated going to the emergency room several times, but decided to try to hold out until I could see my normal ob back in TX today. I went in first thing this morning and he took one look and walked me over to the ER to have it taken care of. I called Ralph to come and we waited forever before finally getting seen. They cut it open and cleaned it out and I squeezed Ralph's hand off before it was all over. Ugh. They did numb it somewhat before working on it, but it was still pretty painful. Then they packed it full of gauze, which was probably the worst part. Ralph swears they must have stuffed a foot of gauze inside the wound. I have to go back to the ob tomorrow to get it checked again and have the gauze changed, since Ralph was adamently insistent that he was NOT going to do it at home. As painful as it was when I was numbed, I don't even want to think about how it will feel without the pain med. Ewwww... They said it will probably take about a week for it to heal enough from the inside, so it will be a long week of having the gauze changed out every day. On the upside, they did a CBC in the OR and my blood looked fine, so they don't think the infection spread beyond that one spot, which was a concern with me being pregnant and it being right on my belly. I'll be on an antibiotic for a week and hopefully that will be the end of that.

It was wonderful to get back home last night. The girls were sad to leave our family in GA, but after three days on the road getting back to TX they were SOOOO happy to be back to their friends and home today. We were supposed to dig right back in to school this week, but after spending half the day in the ER and being so uncomfortable all day I just let them play. Ralph has even gone to do some grocery shopping and fill my prescription and he's going to cook dinner tonight, so that's a real blessing. I hobbled over to the campus library and grabbed some books to read tonight, and I plan on just taking it easy. Too bad I can't take a bath. I have to keep the wound dry until it heals. Good thing I got my shower before leaving this morning!

Fun field trips

Mon, 6 Nov 2006 18:09:00 -0600

I haven't updated recently because the girls have been having me type up their blogs, and they pretty much cover all the exciting events!

We've had a fun weekend. Yesterday we went with the Kintsell's to Nuevo Progresso in Mexico. It was pretty much a shopping strip and much easier to navigate and less threatening than Reynosa. The prices were really good so we did some Christmas shopping and got Faith a HUGE Hello Kitty pinata for her birthday this week. It was twice as big as the ones at Walmart and only half the price. Now we just have to get a wagonload of candy to fill it... We had also promised the girls before moving here that we would buy them authentic Mexican dresses, so we shopped a bit for those. There were basically two styles everywhere, large baggy housedress types and beautiful but revealing halter top dresses. We finally found a couple that were really pretty and hand embroidered and modest. Katie's was $15 and Faith's was $10. Katie's dress especially was so ornate and just beautiful that I'm really pleased with the price.

As we were walking down the sidewalk everyone was calling to us to buy their different items, either in the open stores or on tables along the walk. I was pretty used to this after my mission trip and trip to Cancoun, but it was really different for the girls. One very poor lady was sitting on the ground with her two little children selling small packs of Chickletts gum. Katie reached for her money and I asked if she wanted to buy gum. She said she just wanted to give her money to the lady. It really tore her up, especially when the woman sent her little toddler over to Katie offering her gum. Katie has been saving her money from doing laundry and working so hard, yet this is the second time she's given it away when she saw someone in need. I'm so thankful that she's not only a hard worker but is a giver with a sensitive heart.

After shopping a bit more we walked to a panaderia, or bakery, to buy some treats. The girls got cookies or doughnuts and we sat outside under a tree and ate. Actually, Gracyn just scrapped the sprinkles off her cookie and then handed it to me. The baked goods in Mexico aren't as sweet as we are used to, so it's basically all just various forms of bread with sugar sprinkled on it, and maybe filled with a fruit jelly.

The kids were pretty worn out by the time we left and it took a little while waiting in line to get back across the boarder, but from the bridge it's actually a pretty quick trip home, about 25 minutes. Since this is the place to shop, we'll be heading over there more often.

Today we ran some errands and wanted to visit either the Arts and Science Museum here in McAllen, which we've heard is great, or the birding center. Both were closed on Monday's unfortunately. We went over to Mission and found a butterfly garden nature center that was really cool. Since we're studying flying creatures in science this year this still made for a great field trip. Because the butterflies migrate to south Texas during the winter there are just tons of them, but we've never seen so many as there were in these gardens. They were just covering the bushes, many many varieties, and there were also caterpillars and cocoons everywhere. I don't think the kids had quite the appreciation for the moment that we did, but it was still a neat experience. Since it's free to walk through we're going to pick up a butterfly field guide and go back some more to try to learn to identify them. I'd also like the girls to start nature journaling (a la Charlotte Mason) and these would be beautiful to work on sketching.

At my last ob appointment last week my dr. had a fit that I was planning on going home for Christmas since I would be traveling only 3 weeks from my due date. After discussing it Ralph and I decided to go for Thanksgiving instead and then fly Miriam into Texas for Christmas. I feel much better about this compromise and now we get to visit our family and friends in just a couple of weeks instead of waiting until next month! Yippee! This week will be busy getting ready for Faith's birthday party on Thursday, and then we'll be leaving on Thursday of the following week. It will be a combination Thanksgiving/Christmas celebration, so fun for all!!!!!

Birthday shopping spree! Wheee!!!!

Mon, 23 Oct 2006 18:15:00 -0500

Actually, it's just amazing that when you have money to spend you can find nothing you like. I wanted to get another Beth Moore bible study workbook since our Palm Valley study is over in a few weeks. I went to a big local Christian bookstore and they didn't have any of the workbooks, only her devotionals. I seriously considered the huge journal study she has on David, but I couldn't tell whether it was a serious in-depth study or just fluffy little devotional so I decided to keep looking. I was also looking for a new bible cover but couldn't find one I liked. I acutally LOVE my bible cover that I have now (it's lavender and green and perfectly matches my Women of Faith bible) but it's getting a bit dirty and worn so I decided to see if I could find another. Nope. It's just against my personality to put my pretty purple leather bible with purple print in an ugly black cover, or worse yet totally clashing color like maroon or blue. Yuck. So I'm sticking with what I've got.

I went down the road to Barnes and Noble and found the Beth Moore workbook for A Woman's Heart, God's Dwelling Place- a study of the Tabernacle. It was the only one they had, but I'm excited about it and feel like it will be a perfect continuation of the Patriarch's study that I'm currently doing. After picking that out I looked for a couple of bookmarks for my bible, of course with matching lavender and green coloring. I also looked for a journal, but they were pretty expensive there, and then you have to get into finding new matching pens....

After the bookstore I headed for Target to get some cute jewlery that I'd seen earlier in the week. Things are much cuter when you don't have money. I ended up giving up on purchasing jewelry and moved over to makeup. I bought a lipstick and debated on a makeup bag but decided it was also too expensive. Thus, at Target I ended up with a package of bandaids, flip flops for Katie, a lipstick and bobby pins (my spur of the moment decision while at checkout). I'm a wild woman. Oh yeah, I also bought a coke.

Off to Walmart. I picked up a 2007 calendar for my purse and also an Amy Knapp organizer figuring I could decide on one or the other as I wandered around the store. I looked at more jewelry and decided on two necklaces and a bracelett. In baby clothes I dumped the Amy Knapp organizer and then headed back to jewelry to toss back the necklaces and bracelett, which I liked but decided might be too small for my wrist. I DID find a makeup bag that I liked. Off to check out where I scanned the makeup bag and then decided not to get the 2007 pink suede calendar. Oh well...

I'm happy with my purchases and still have hopes of someday finding jewelry that I like and I may pick up some yarn in the near future to begin working on a new blanket.

Tomorrow is my official 32nd birthday and to celebrate I told Ralph I just as soon skip finding a babysitter and just take the kids with us to Denny's for dinner... where kids eat free AND I can get a dinner of chicken strips and mozerella cheese sticks. Yum! I'm making myself caramel pie for my birthday desert. Double yum!!

Happy birthday to meeee... Happy birthday to meeeee!!!!! La la la la la...

Feels like FALL!!!

Fri, 20 Oct 2006 16:09:00 -0500

Ahhhh... the weather has been in the 60s since yesterday morning and I am in HEAVEN! I'm actually wearing a sweater today! It's supposed to go back up into the 70s and then 80s in the next few days, but I'll take what I can get at the moment. Just a taste of what winter will feel like here! Yes!

I had an ob appointment this afternoon and all is well. Baby Isabelle is hopping around all over the place and always tries to kick the doppler off when they check the heartbeat. Even the nurses think that's funny.

I stopped by the new Target that just opened up down the road before my appointment and fell in love with a bunch of the jewelry there. I've never been a real jewelry person, but they have some of the cutest braclettes and necklaces! Hmmmm... I'm sensing a birthday request coming on! It's pretty cool to have a Target to hop by just a couple of minutes away. I could seriously get used to living in civilization!

The kids are all doing well. All the sickness is over and they love having all these kids to play with. While I was at the dr. Ralph turned on Over the Hedge for them to watch. He said that including our girls there were about 11 kids in our living room watching the movie! I'm glad they were all back at the park before I got home, but when you're already used to a housefull of kids a few more really just doesn't make that much difference.

Right now the doors are open to let the cool breeze in, chicken and vegetables are in the roaster for dinner making the house smell yummy, and except for the birds outside making a racket all is quiet. Savor the peace. Ahhhh....

Hope everyone is doing well! Love ya'll!!!!!

Yippee! Care packages

Fri, 13 Oct 2006 15:44:00 -0500

We waited on pins and needles all day for our care package to arrive from Mama and Daddy today. We'd finally given up hope when the UPS man pulled onto campus! Happy Joy! The girls loved their candy and presents and I can't wait to go shopping with my birthday money. What shall it be... purse, shoes...??? Actually I want to get some exercise pants to go with my new pregnancy exercise video. My old sweat shorts that I used to wear to work out before the pregnancy just aren't as comfortable anymore. If I can't find any at Walmart that I like I may let that be a present from Ralph from the maternity store at the mall and buy some other stuff this afternoon.

The weather today has been FaBuLoUs!!!! We were supposed to get a cold front in today, dropping the temp to 77. This morning it was as hot and muggy as ever, but then around lunchtime the sky clouded up and an amazing cool breeze blew in. We're all outside just soaking in the cooler weather. Of course the kids are all still in shorts and tank tops and it's probably still in the low 80s, but it's as close to fall as we've been so far! If this is what we can expect for wintertime I'll be in heaven. Melody, you can keep your snow and just send us pictures!

By the way, I took my 3 hour glucose test yesterday and it came back normal, so all is well and the pregnancy is chugging along uneventfully. I'm almost 26 weeks.

Hope everyone is having a great day! Love ya'll!

I guess I'll live

Tue, 10 Oct 2006 16:13:00 -0500

After being horribly sick all week with the wretched cold I'm finally on the upswing again. I feel like I've done nothing but sleep and blow my nose for the past week, but I had an ob appointment yesterday and he prescribed a decongestant and antibiotic. It's good to be feeling more like myself again. On a more sour note, I also had my glucose test yesterday and failed it horribly, so they're bringing me back in on Thursday to do the three hour test. I'm hoping my results were skewed because of the sickness since I have no symptoms of gestational diabetes and have always had fantastic numbers in the past. We'll see...

The weather is cooling down a bit, down from the upper 90s to low 90s or high 80s depending on cloudiness and rain. This morning I was ready to get out of the house, so after breakfast the girls and I gathered up our camera and some school stuff and headed outside. I promised mama and daddy ( ) that we'd send them some pictures of the kids and the campus. Our digital camera has disappered, so we were back to a trusty ole disposable... which is probably better since I've never figured out the digital anyway. So we got a camera full of pictures of the girls posing in front of the house and campus, in the house and with their friends, and even a preggy photo of my increasing belly. Katie informed me that my smile was fake... I think the way she phrased it was that it was a "Pop Pop" smile. Hmmm...

After taking pictures we did our devotionals at the picnic area at the playground and then headed back for lunch. Emily told me this afternoon that she wanted me to print a picture of a "punkin" for her to color for Grammy and Pop Pop, so we ended up printing a bunch of fall coloring pictures from the computer and they've been coloring all afternoon. In response to the very thoughful care package that was sent out for us today, we are reciprocating.

Opps... our song just came on- back in a minute.

Ok, here's the thing. Every time the song Shackles by Mary Mary comes on we have an unofficial rule that everyone has to drop what they are doing and get up and dance. Only Miriam may appreciate our tradition since I had to listen to that song blare from her alarm clock for YEARS when she lived at home.

I don't suppose much else is going on. I'm in a real fall mood and I've just sprayed my apple cinnamon air freshener. Ahhh... Little 2 year old Averick from next door just came over to play with Gracyn. It's so funny that she has her own little friend. He just kind of pops his head in the door and Gracyn is the immediate host, asking him to play with blocks or go upstairs and get the baby dolls. She knows that he is HER friend. Since Katie and Faith have Angel, and Madison and Emily have Abigail, it's so cute that she has her own little personal playmate. Shoot, too bad I used up all the pictures already... that would have been a cute one. Oh well, next time....

Hope everyone is having a great day! Melody can enjoy the snow on our behalf, and my family can collect some fall leaves for us, and Miriam can avoid the nuclear fallout from North Korea for us . Love ya'll!

Colds abound

Thu, 5 Oct 2006 11:43:00 -0500

We've all been plagued with rotten colds around here for the past couple of weeks. Yuck. The weather has cooled down to about 90-94 degrees during the day depending on whether it's cloudy or not. Actually we've had rain and thunderstorms for the past few days, so that's been nice. It's about as close to fall as I can get to at least have a nice overcast day. I long for some chilly weather so that I can bake all my wonderful breads and muffins and soups and desserts... well, I'm making the effort by at least keeping the desserts coming. Ohhh... speaking of which, wouldn't a caramel pie be a lovely addition to our meal tonight???? Mmmmm...

The girls have all blogged about our weekend, so I won't repeat the info about going to the beach and seeing the sea turtles. It was nice and made a great science field trip. The rest of the week has just been trying to keep our heads above water with schoolwork when we haven't really felt like doing much but laying around and sniffling. I dragged myself off the couch last night to take the kids to church, even though I wasn't motivated. I'm so glad I did. That Beth Moore study is SO wonderful. Last night was Abraham's sacrifice of Issac, and she took such a familiar story and brought out amazing points and background that made it new and fresh again. I've probably gotten more out of being in this on Wednesday nights than anything I've been a part of in years. In fact, I can't even remember sitting under such wonderful teaching except for listening to Mark Rutland on the radio.

Let's see... what else to report. I had a hormonal meltdown this week and had to do something to get me out of the house for a mental health break. I wanted to watch the movie Lake House that had just come out on video, but none of the Blockbuster's had a copy in. I was NOT happy about that. Ralph told me I could go buy it if I was that desperate, but even with my tumultuous emotions I'm still cheap at heart. Instead I decided to go to Walmart and get a much needed haircut. The lady spoke no english, but I showed her a picture of me (the one from my blog) where I liked my hair and also a picture in a book, so we managed. It's not as good as my first cut was, but it is much better than it was before. I also bought a new leather fall purse, which everyone in my family knows will cure all troubles and bring stability and organization back to life.

I have an ob appointment tomorrow afternoon. They'll be doing my glucose check this time. They've always been fine, so I'm not concerned. I do have to stay in the office for an hour, so I might run over to the hospital and check out the labor and delivery department and get my registration paperwork filled out. I start my final trimester in a week, so time is just flying by. I've got a big belly, but I'm not really uncomfortable yet. Little Isabelle is just over a pound and moving all over the place.

Nothing else going on here. Love to all!

Really short term missions

Mon, 25 Sep 2006 19:02:00 -0500

We had a great weekend fellowshiping with a couple here on campus. Yesterday we went to lunch together while their teenage daughter watched our girls. Lunch was nice and it was great getting to know them better. Ken is a teacher here and Glennis works in the office. They have both been missionaries in various capacities for years in latin America and lead the home church we have been attending on Saturday nights. It was late afternoon by the time we got back home yesterday, but they stayed at our apartment for another hour and we just shared our ministry war stories and vision. They lived and worked at an orphanage in Reynosa for a while when their children were younger and still go back there periodically so we asked them to take us over sometime. They said that today would be good since we don't have class on Monday's, so we left with them around 10:30 this morning.

After running some errands in town we crossed the boarder into Reynosa and decided to shop and eat first since we'd skipped breakfast. They took us to a WalMart type store called Soriana and we had a lot of fun there. The girls enjoyed seeing many of the same types of items they were used to buying. We went back to the bakery and bought a bag of huge rolls that were made fresh daily, probably about 9 of them, for about $.85 and then hit the desserts. We bought a wedge of carrot cake, a large cupcake type thing, rectangular chocolate cake slice with chocolate icing, and two things that looked like large haystacks of chocolate cake covered in chocolate icing and then rolled in sprinkles... all for about $2.50. We also had fun checking out the fruit and vegetables and bought some freshly cut papaya that none of us really liked, but at least we can say we tried! After picking up some chips and drinks we checked out and went across the store to an area where they had some restaurants. Ralph, Ken, Glenis, and their son and daughter got some Mexican tostadas. I was afraid the girls wouldn't eat something different, and since they missed breakfast I wanted to make sure they ate, so we went to Dominos instead which was in the same food court area and ordered a pizza.

After eating we drove around Reynosa for a half hour. Ken and Glenis showed us some of the really nicer areas of the town. The houses were huge and beautiful, but the town itself is so rough and poor that it doesn't really make much difference if you own a mansion when the next street over is so rough and full of tiny shanty houses. Here's a link to some photos of Reynosa that are posted on the web. They are very typical of our boarder crossing and street scenes.

http://members.virtualtourist.com/vt/s/?m=6&l.q=e3bc0

After running around town we went to the Casa Hogar, Josiah and Bethany Children's Home. http://www.josiahandbethany.org/index.html It was named for Keith Green's children who died in the plane crash with him. Even though it was literally in the middle of the city, they had created a nice haven with a pretty courtyard full of murals and a basketball court and play yard. They showed us the renovations that are underway in the four story building. They are switching over from a dormatory style housing for the children where they are piled in big rooms in bunk beds, to apartment style. Each little "apartment" has 3 bedrooms, a living room, bathroom, laundry room, and small kitchen. They want to have some couples come in who would be like house parents, but for now they simply have an older girl in charge of the little ones in each apartment. They hope this will create more of a sense of family. After touring the facilities we spent some time visiting with the pastor and his wife who are directors of the orphanage. They were very nice. One of the needs that we discovered was involving the older girls. They are attending school all day and then come home to be little mothers to the children, complete with chores and childcare. We asked how they are able to disciple and train the children in the Word and they said that there just isn't time to do all that they'd like. The older girls do devotions with the little ones in the mornings and they go to church, but there is a real need for more people to come in and help minister to the children there, over 50 in all. Glenis and I discussed taking the older girls out to eat every now and then, 9 of them, to just get them out and maybe do some bible study with them. It is a need that we see and have the ability to do something about while we are here, so we look forward to plugging in to the orphanage more while we are here.

By the time we were finished at Casa Hogar it was 6:30. We were back across the boarder in no time, which was wonderful considering that sometimes you get stuck in traffic for an hour waiting to get through. So basically we're finding it really cool to be able to plug in to a literal "foreign mission field" and be back home within about 15 minutes. Tomorrow we have to get back to our normal school work, but I think today was a real educational experience for the girls. They had a great time and will be blogging with the details from their point of view tomorrow.