Catching Up--A Break and a Goodbye

We're all holed up, waiting for the great "Snowzilla" blizzard to strike, and I'm so glad it is happening this weekend, rather than last!  A week ago Thursday we picked up Jonathan from his math class and headed down to Great Wolf Lodge with Rivendell.  The trip began with a bad omen:  Verity had broken out in a terrible rash from head to toe that made it seem like we were bringing measles to GWL.

This was quite a coincidence.  Both Drew and Grace have also broken out in hives that look the same as Verity's 7-8 days into a course of amoxicillin.  Both my dad and I are allergic to penicillin.  In fact, at Verity's appointment, I asked about this very possibility, but the doctor assured me that it was actually "very rare" for people to be allergic to amoxicillin.  If she did break out in hives, it would just be from "the virus"--which would be odd, since she was on antibiotics for an ear infection, not a virus.  You should not *get* antibiotics for viruses.  Weird.

Anyhow, we made our way down to GWL, eating a Costco pizza I had cooked beforehand and some chocolate chip cookies in the van for lunch.  When we pulled into the parking place, we got our second bad omen--Faith hopped out of the van and promptly threw up on the curb.  Well!  We all figured she had just eaten too much in the van, so we weren't too concerned.  We got settled in, everyone changed, and we headed to the waterpark.  It took me longer to get down there with Verity, but when I got down there, I saw Kelly leading Faith down the steps of the big tower.  She had slipped, and thrown up a little more when she fell.  So . . . this must be something bigger.  Sigh.  She sat in a chair  while Verity splashed around in the wave pool a little bit more.  Verity LOVED the wave pool.  She would get all excited when she heard the howling that signifies the start of the wave period.  I just hoped people would focus on her smiling face, and not on all her dots all over, LOL.

Eventually I took both Verity and Faith upstairs for a nap.  They fell right asleep and slept for a good long while.  I sat quietly and read, so that was probably the highlight of the trip for me--3 hours to myself of peace and quiet!

We left Faith and Luke back at the hotel (Luke hadn't been feeling great either, so he also took a nap all afternoon in the other room), and the rest of us went out to eat at Golden Corral, as is our tradition--a party of over 40!  It was really fun, and everyone ate a ton . . . as is our tradition, LOL.  But as we drove back to GWL, Anna and Grace both said they ate too much.  Back in the room, Grace threw up, and eventually so did Anna.  And they both did again.  And again.  I decided to have them sleep on the pull-out sofa so they wouldn't bother Faith, Micah, and Drew.  That turned out to be a good decision, as the girls just basically threw up all night, even though there was just nothing left in there.  Worst night in a hotel ever, sigh.  They stopped throwing up around 5:00.  Around 6:00 I heard a commotion in the other room--and Micah threw up all over his bed, which fortunately he wasn't sharing with anyone.  Ahhh . . . I was so hoping for a nice break!  Alas.  Jonathan and Caleb went down to the waterpark while the rest of us packed up.  Eventually Bob took Drew and Verity down too, but as soon as we had everything in the van, we beat a hasty retreat.  Kelly very kindly volunteered to drive Caleb and Jonathan back with her family, and we took her up on that, since they were having such a great time--even Caleb, who normally doesn't even really like waterparks!  He went down a ton of water slides, which was a first for him!

We were so incredibly thankful that this tummy bug didn't spread like wildfire through Rivendell.  One more kid from another family got sick, but that was pretty much it.  Whew!  I was especially thankful Nathan didn't get sick, since he had to go back to school.  Sunday night one of his old roommates flew in, and on Monday, I drove them as well as 2 other cadets back down to school.  It was a quiet drive down--freezing cold, but nice and sunny, so a beautiful day for driving.  After getting everyone's stuff unloaded and up to their rooms, Nathan and I ate lunch at Subway and hit Kroger for some groceries before saying goodbye.  He was ready to go back--well, maybe not to go back to classes, but to not be surrounded by so many loud, needy little people all the time!  It was a really nice break, though.  We all thoroughly enjoyed our time with him, and it was lovely that it was so long, too!

The drive back was really nice for me.  I've always enjoyed driving (especially in the Sienna, and not the big van!), and this time I brought CDs of one of my absolute favorite books:  All Creatures Great and Small. Listening to that, read by someone who could actually do all the Yorkshire accents, made the miles fly by!  I cancelled Latin class so I would be free that day, and it was a good decision.  It was a very nice break for me, and now I'm glad I wasn't driving in a ton of snow!

Verity's 15 Month Well-Baby Appointment

I tried to get a picture of her, but clearly she had some building to take care of, and she did not have time to play around with looking at the camera.  She's pretty serious about her Duplo projects.  

Verity had her well-baby appointment yesterday.  I took her in the end of August, when she was 11 months, and I told the doctor we wouldn't be back until after Christmas because of my schedule, as well as Luke's (who needed the minivan for his classes, and there is *no way* I am driving the big van to the Bethesda parking garage unless there is potential death involved . . . but I digress . . .).  They still wouldn't consider it a "12 month well-baby" appointment, so I continued to get calls about scheduling that darn 12 month appointment.  Ah well.  I ignored them.

I was actually glad she had an appointment scheduled yesterday.  Verity has been snotty for pretty much month now.  It turns out that a lot of that time, she was working on her 1 year molars, all 4 of which are through now, and she did have a bonafide cold while we were in Ohio, complete with raspy cough and thick yucky snot.  But even after the cold went away, her nose was still a faucet, and she has been fussier than usual.  But she's such a happy baby, so she really hasn't been that fussy.  She's been sleeping fine, playing happily, etc., so I wasn't concerned enough to make an appointment just for that.

She did turn out to have an ear infection in one ear though.  The intern (?  whoever I saw first, who has to check in with the higher doctor for everything) didn't think it was, but the actual doc decided it was red as well as dull, so she should have some antibiotics.  Verity hasn't had any antibiotics yet, so I'm not worried about her having too much of them or whatever.  I'm sure the infection would have gone away on its own, but a course of antibiotics will make it go away faster.  

The big news is that she has plumped up to 23 pounds, which is the 49th percentile!  This is an increase from 11 months, where she was at the 20th percentile.  She likes that table food, I'm telling you!  So I guess we can safely say she does NOT have a metabolic disorder.  Ha!  Not that I'm bitter or anything.  

She doesn't say many words (although all day today Anna has been pointing ones out to me, so I guess she does say more than I was thinking she did).  She babbles a lot, and clearly SHE thinks she is saying whole paragraphs.  I'm not concerned because all of my kids have not said much until around 2, at which point they just start talking in sentences.  We're not an early verbal family, although we are very physically coordinated and advanced.  But the doctor said I should make sure to come in at 18 months so they can keep up with that.  Well, we'll see how that fits in my schedule, LOL.  In the meantime, I'll just keep on like I usually do. 

Verity's other big news is that she has finally made the switch out of the pack-n-play in Bob and my walk-in closet, and into the crib in Micah and Drew's room!  We figured after we got home from Ohio was as good a time as any, since she had been sleeping in  different place for a week. She cried for awhile the first night, but she's been okay since then.  She enjoys waking up and seeing the boys.  Micah wakes up when she starts talking, but Drew sleeps like a rock, LOL.  

After the appointment, Verity had to go get her shots.  She was not a fan, but I think she has forgiven me now.  The immunization clinic was super slow, so the whole appointment took several hours.  I scheduled the actual appointment at 1:45, which is a crazy time for a 15 month old, who would normally be napping!  I wanted to get school done with the younger kids, though, and that was all I was thinking about when I made the appointment.  Fortunately the kids peeled all the potatoes so they were ready to go when I got home to make sausage and potato soup.  I love having older kids!

Merry Christmas! Happy New Year!

We just got back from a wonderful visit in Ohio!  The kids and I left 2 Saturdays ago, and we got in early enough to go to Amy's son Zach's basketball game.  Except for the one ref making bad calls from half court about plays happening under the basket, we had a really fun time!

We had great seats too.  The little boys were enthralled until halftime, and after that, they ran around and played with some other kids behind our bleachers.  It was a perfect set-up!  Amy and I got to visit a little bit, which was fun.

The next day we went to Amy's church, and then the boys and I worked on a 1000 piece puzzle while we waited for Uncle Dan, Aunt Melinda, and the girls to come in from TX.  It was a tough puzzle, with lots of different shades of blue, so we were busy.  We actually almost finished it that night, and we did finish it the next day!  We were so happy to see Dan and Melinda around 11:30--that's a long day's drive, and they did it all in one day!

The next few days I was busy running various people around at separate times to buy presents for each other.  Usually Bob does all the running around, but we just had no extra time before we left this year.  I am more appreciative of what he does now, though, because that was exhausting!  It's fun to see what the kids pick out for each other.  There were several dollar stores and regular stores with dollar bins that were different from what we have around us here in VA, so that was different and fun too.

The girls were able to go to a children's museum in Columbus, which was tons of fun (no one was brave enough to ride the highwire unicycle, though), and I was able to go out to lunch with Amy, as well as spend an afternoon over at her house with the older boys.  And we all went to Youngs one night for dinner and ice cream, of course!  Then Wednesday night Bob flew in to join the fun.  In August, he had driven out with us for a weekend so he could visit with Aunt Claire and Uncle Jim, and then he flew back to go to work.  But because Bob was thinking ahead, he bought a round-trip ticket, with the second leg being to come back to Ohio Dec. 23.  Pretty smart!

Christmas Eve we went to the candlelight service, where at the end the chaplain slowed down Silent Night to an absolute dirge-like pace, and we all worried that one of the younger kids was going to set someone's hair on fire with their candle.  Fortunately, the only casualty was Faith getting some wax dripped on her hand.  Whew!  We got a nice picture of all of us at the end, though.

Christmas was a beautiful day, weather-wise. We couldn't believe Ohio could be so downright pleasant in December!  I really wished I had packed short-sleeved shirts for the visit.  After cinnamon rolls and egg casseroles, we opened presents (took forever!), and then we left Grandma and Grandpa at home for a little peace and quiet while we took everyone else to the park.  Poor Drew was dealing with a cold that others had as well, and he had a rougher time at the park.  As soon as we got there, he ran to a swing, climbed up on his knees--and promptly face-planted down in the mud on the other side.  After we got him cleaned up, he played for a bit--until he slipped on one of the yellow climbing things in the picture below, cutting his lip, which bled for a while.  

On our way home, he tripped, and after that, Nathan came to the rescue and carried him.  Poor guy!  He actually ran a fever that night, so I had to run to Walgreens, the only store open on Christmas, to get him some children's motrin, since someone I didn't have any in my bag.  Fortunately, he was better the next day, although the cold did travel through a lot of the other kids.  Verity, especially, was a big snot bucket pretty much the entire time.  It turns out that was not just because of her cold--she also had been busy teething in all 4 of her one year molars.  The 4th one just cut through, so she is now being a less crabby than she was in Ohio.

We certainly filled up the table all week long!  Grandma and Grandpa had to put this auxilliary table in their entry way, plus a little folding kids table over to the left of the main table.  It was so fun to all be together!

After Christmas, Bob, Dan, and the older boys played a lot of Axis and Allies, which was Nathan' gift to his brothers.  The girls got to go to another children's museum as well with Dan and Melinda, and I got to meet another friend, Marie, at Chick-Fil-A one afternoon, where we talked and Micah and Drew got to play with her little boy in the play area.  Bob, Grandpa, and Dan took the kids bowling too!

We also made and decorated sugar cookies.  It was much less stressful to do it after Christmas was technically over!  This is a really fun tradition, although I am sure Grandma and Grandpa will be vacuuming up stray sprinkles for months to come.

Then on Monday, all the girls, including Grandma, Melinda, and me, went to Mimi's for a special breakfast, and then we headed over to Claire's to get ears pierced!  Anna, Emily, and Grace had been talking about taking the big step since the summer.  Anna volunteered to be first, and she did great, as did Emily who went next.  Grace was very apprehensive, and I was secretly wondering if she wouldn't chicken out, which I told her was perfectly fine to do, since no one cares one whit whether or not you have your ears pierced.  But the girl was really good with her.  She let Grace pick out her sticker first (which said, "I got my ears pierced today at Claire's"), and the Grace put it on, so the girl said, "Well, you have to do it now!"  And then she just did it!  Grace held her face in her hands and cried silent tears for the second ear, and afterward for a few minutes, but she recovered to take this picture.  All 3 girls have been so responsible about cleaning their piercings, and I think it was such a neat thing to do together!  Memories!

All too soon it was time to go.  After cramming all the presents into the van along with all our other junk, we made it back home Wednesday.  Thursday we attempted to get the house back in order, or at least find places for everything new, and then we headed over to the L's house for the annual party.  There was a good turnout, with lots of good food, and we were so happy to see Tim and Amy again, back in town to spend New Year's Eve with family (our Bible study!).

2015 was a good year, and we look forward to what the Lord will do in 2016!  As we watch our country turn farther and farther from Him, it will be more and more challenging to keep our eyes focused on Him.  Hopefully it will be a year where we all grow closer to the Lord, and more like Him.  May we shine the light of Christ in this dark world!  Happy New Year!

It's Beginning to Feel a Lot Like Christmas

Well, at least the tree's been up for awhile!  This may be the last year for the poor thing.  It has several strands that don't light up anymore, leaving vast dark swaths at the top and at the bottom.  Fortunately we have tons of ornaments.  Unfortunately, we have Verity trying to make that number less . . .

First Verity was cracking like eggs on the coffee table the few remaining shiny ball ornaments we had left from before we had kids, so she made short work of those.  Several years ago Caleb made us each ornaments out of model magic--a stocking, a few Christmas trees, a wreath, an angel . . . Verity has managed to bite a chunk out of everyone of them!  She'll chew away, with the washable paint running down her mouth.  Blech!  I really am not going to miss this phase!

It also feels like Christmas because we've been super busy lately.  It's been all parties, and not even shopping or baking!

Firs we had our elementary co-op skating party Friday.  It was weird to have it be warmer outside than inside, but that's how it was.  Bob was able to come too, so I broke my rule of only letting kids old enough to be in TNT skate.  Drew was so cute out there in his Minion hat he got from Nathan!  Christine brought double-runner skates for him to borrow, so that helped, but he needed a tremendous amount of assistance out there.  It was a good thing Bob was there, as well as our older boys and the McC boys to help him and Micah!  Micah was a little more independent, and he had a great time.  Verity was mad that she couldn't be out there on the ice, and she kept trying to dart out there.

Our next big party was Friday night at Bible study.  We had our annual baked potato bar, re-enactment of the Christmas story, and ice cream sundae bar.  It was so much fun!

There's a part for everyone during the re-enactment, and plenty of random costume pieces to assemble however you can figure out!  Faith had a ton of lines, as the Angel Gabriel, and Jonathan got to be Joseph.

There was a gang of enthusiastic large angels as well.  It looks like we need some bigger costumes, LOL.

Here's Joseph and Mary.  Mary was the lovely Stephanie.  As Jonathan has said, they are "more than friends but not married."  Well!  Plenty of distance between those 2 points, LOL.  She's a very sweet girl!

Drew was an unpredictable shepherd with a crook/gun.  I felt like I was refereeing a hockey game the whole time:  "Keep your stick down!"

Micah was a fierce Roman soldier, but I don't think he had a sword, so I didn't have to constantly be watching him to make sure he wasn't about to poke someone's eye out or conk anyone on the head.

This is such a fun tradition, and we all laughed a lot last night!  Plus the food was yummy, and so was the company.  Good times!  I think an ice cream sundae with all sorts of toppings is my absolute favorite dessert.  Strawberries, nuts, crushed up Oreos, M&Ms, chocolate sauce . . . YUM!

Now we have Bob's company Christmas party, which we've heard good things about, as well as our Rivendell Christmas party.  I think we're all looking forward to that one most of all, because having it means we'll be on break, and I think I can speak for all of us when I say we are really ready for a break!

Happy Birthday, Drew!

Drew turned 3 yesterday, but we actually celebrated on Saturday so that Nathan could be here with us.  Drew was perfectly happy to celebrate early, although he kept saying he wasn't *really* 3 yet.  Yesterday he and Micah were bickering about something, and he said that it was his birthday, and Micah said, "No, Drew, we just CELEBRATED early.  You're still not 3 yet."  Micah did not really believe us that it actually was in fact Drew's real birthday, and he was in fact 3.

Drew was happy to get some fun books and a plastic motorcycle with guys to go on it.  He's a big fan of motorcycles, which he calls "noisemakers" for some unknown reason.

I didn't ask Drew what kind of cake he wanted.  I was up last Friday after Thanksgiving, and I realized that if we were going to have a cake the next day, I'd better bake one then so it could cool.  I needed an idea that could be made really quickly, and a "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle" came to mind. So I only used one box of cake mix, and I baked an 8" round plus a ovalish casserole dish.  Then early Saturday morning, before everyone else was up, I cut off the bottom on the round cake to fit on top of the oval cake, and I cut the part from the bottom in half to make the bandana.  It didn't take very long, and Drew was happy with it, even though he's not a super-big fan of TMNT.  He might be, but he's never seen a show or anything really, LOL.  Micah went to a ninja turtle-themed birthday party a few weeks ago, and Theodore L. is a huge fan, so that's pretty much been his only exposure.  Since the girls have preferred cupcakes or some other dessert, I've had a nice break from making cakes!

Verity was a big fan of the cake, obviously.

Drew loves playing with this bulldozer from Grandma and Grandpa G.  Bob suggested leaving the little driver guy tied into the seat, like it came, but so far amazingly the guy hasn't been lost.  Let's give it a few more days . . . Drew actually lost his favorite Batman pajamas about a week ago, and we are all scratching our heads as to where they could possibly have disappeared to.  He has a gift!  

I am happy to report that Drew's potty woes seem to be over.  It's as if August and September never even happened!  Who can fathom the mind of a 2 year old.  Now that he is 3, though, hopefully he has put childish things, like peeing all over the floor, behind him.  Drew really talks a lot now too.  I love to see his little brain work to describe things and to communicate.  He is so much fun!  He definitely doesn't have the temper that Micah did, so that's a blessing.  I no longer take that for granted!  He's sweet little boy who loves all his older siblings, and his one little baby sister.  We thank the Lord for putting Drew in our family!

Random Things I'm Thankful For Right Now

*Nathan is home!  He came home Friday, and it's been wonderful having him around again.  He told my mom he wanted to "sleep in and eat Mom's cooking", as well as play board games.  I think we've met all his goals!  So far games of skip-bo, Scrabble, Pandemic, and Monopoly have been played.  The McC's came over this afternoon to play street hockey too.

Nathan is doing really well in all areas at school.  It's nice to see that he is where he is supposed to be!  He's also going to a good church that a friend recommended.  He had 2 really great roommates for the first few months--their room was one of only 2 in their company that didn't have to have a sign saying no one could enter except for official corps business or academic reasons, since all 3 of them had good GPAs at mid-terms.  Now he's with a new roommate, so hopefully that will go well too.  It's good to see him so settled in and thriving down there!

 

Last week we were trying to figure out how we were going to get him home when a friend of ours in our Friday night Bible study asked if he could fly down there and pick Nathan up.  We were so happy the weather held and everything worked out!  Nathan got to fly home in this cute little plane, avoiding all the traffic on I-81.  It's only a 1 and a half hour by airplane!

*We have orthodontia!  Grace got her expander in on Monday.  She is having a hard time learning how to eat with it in, and it is definitely hurting her, but the results will be worth it.  You can see the 2 teeth that are so much higher in her mouth--just like Luke and Jonathan had.  She has gotten a lot more self-conscious about her smile lately, so I'm glad she has options to open up the traffic wreck that is her mouth!  There are other teeth backed up in the gums that have no place to go.  It's always neat to see teeth shift around, and others come in, once the expander has widened the jaw.  A miracle of modern orthodontics!

*Verity is learning tons of new things!  Most importantly, she finally learned how to turn herself around and slide down the stairs on her tummy.  She actually started doing this the beginning of November, but it's still such a nice relief not to worry about her if she goes upstairs!  She's super fast both at climbing stairs, and at sliding back down them.  Instead of going down on step at a time, she now knows she can lift her feet up and just slide down.  Much faster!  She is also super-fast at scrambling up onto a chair and then onto the table, where she wreaks havoc like Godzilla.  If you turn your back for one second, she's up there!

Her other important new skill is finally(!!) being able to drink out of a regular hard-spout sippy cup.  Yay!  We can now use all the sippy cups we've accumulated over the years!  I'm trying to have her drink more milk and less bottle, so this helps.  She is still her happy, smiley self, so I'm so thankful for that!

*We have a new dresser on the main floor!  This is minor, but wow!  The drawers slide in and out!  It's so nice-looking!  Our old dresser was anciently old--Bob picked it up off the side of the road when he was stationed in Alabama before we even met, which was in 1991.  It had a cushy life in the room with the crib until Elizabeth L started putting Theodore's clothes in a (nice) dresser on their main floor several years ago.  It was so convenient!  Why had I never thought of that before?!  So we moved the old dresser into our family room and put Micah's clothes, and then Drew's clothes too, in it (and eventually the fish tank on it).  It was really nice, except that drawer tracts were all broken, so it was a constant struggle to get the drawers in and out.  But then a few weeks ago Bob and I made a trip to that wonderful store, Ikea, and voila!  A lovely new dresser that will hopefully last at least as many years as our old one!  Did I mention the drawers slide in and out so smoothly?!  I could stand there all day and slide them!

I am of course thankful for many more things, such as my wonderful family, my supportive friends, and most of all salvation through Christ, but these are some of the other lesser-known things I'm thankful for!

Library of Congress Field Trip

We took a Rivendell field trip to the Library of Congress this morning.  This is a place we had never been before, and I wasn't really sure what to expect.  Emily, our field-trip coodinator extraordinaire, set up a tour for us.  We divided into 2 groups:  junior high and high schoolers were one, and everyone under 6th grade were another.  All together, we had 24 kids, 6 kids, and 1 grandma.  The tours each did a part for 45 minutes, and then we switched, so we each got a complete tour.  I went with the younger kids, and I had a fantastic time--mainly because Luke stayed home and watched my 4 youngest, plus Christine's youngest.  So we could have had 6 more kids along!  I was thrilled to not be carrying a diaper bag, pushing a stroller, and trying to keep hungry, tired, crabby toddlers from being loud and running around.

We started out in the great hall, which was amazing, architecturally.  I LOVED all the intricate details and all the light.  I could have stayed for a lot longer, reading the names of all the great thinkers and writers up on the (extremely high) ceiling. The room was just so stunning.

There were just so many details to notice!  All these little carved cherubs (called some other word--possibly Italian?--I should look that up, but who has time?--something like "putti") have little details concerning their occupations carved up there with them.

Behind this staircase there was a little display of some actual medieval illuminated, hand-copied books.  So amazing!  The colors were so vivid!  They had some Bibles in another case.  They didn't have the beautiful illustrations, but whoa, was the print small.  It gave me a hand cramp to look at it and imagine copying it by hand!

Then we got to see the actual Guttenburg Bible, one of only 3 that survive which are printed on vellum rather than paper.  We had just listened to a Peace Hill Press book about Johannes Guttenburg on CD on our trip down to visit Nathan, so we were all up on his life, and all his financial difficulties.

Next we peeked into the main reading room.  There is a huge and glorious dome for the ceiling, so the room is flooded with natural light.  What a wonderful place to do research!

They have all these statues of wise men ringing the upper balcony.  Right next to our viewing area were Isaac Newton and Moses himself.  I'm sure it looked just like him!

After a quick walk-through of Thomas Jefferson's library, of which 1/3 are the original books he himself owned, we traded guides with the older kids.  The new guide did a hands-on demonstration of early American printing tools and the process they used.  It was really interesting, and I think it wasn't too terribly much different from what Guttenburg himself used.  Jonathan thought that was the most interesting part of the tour, followed closely by the Jefferson library.

Then we met back up in the great hall to take some group pictures.

Here are the Rivendell teachers, except for Christine (and Siri).  We're under a mosaic of "Minerva", the Roman goddess of wisdom, which we thought was appropriate, lol.

  And here is some of us with some of the McC kids.  After much consternation on my part about how to get downtown, where to park, etc., Bob came up with a genius plan.  He went in to work late after driving us downtown and dropping us off.  Then he drove on to work and worked a few hours.  When we were done, he drove back over and picked us up, and then we dropped him back off, so he can take the bus home tonight.  Yay--no maneuvering the big van around downtown for me, and (most importantly), no need to park!  It worked out really nicely.  The weather was perfect, the tour guides were interesting and nice, and it was a lovely time!

A Visit With Nathan

 A week ago we were visiting with Nathan!  Bob took Friday off from work, so we were able to get there in the afternoon.  It was so great to see him (and his bag of laundry)!  We were all milling around outside his dorm, waiting for him to sign out and come down, when 3 upperclass cadets came out the door.  One saw us and came over to ask us if we were Nathan's family.  Haha--I wonder how on earth he guessed?  It turned out to be Nathan's first sergeant.

We went back to the hotel, and it was so nice just to relax with ALL of us.  Bob took the little kids swimming, and the rest of us just caught up.  Nathan is doing great in all areas, which is wonderful news.  It is especially heartening for me to hear that he is doing really well academically, since, well, that was what I spent the last 18 years preparing him for.  Whew!

We talked about where to go out to eat, but a table for 12 in a college town on a Friday night seemed like a bridge too far, especially when the youngest ones were pretty crabby from the car ride and lots of snacks.  So Bob and I went to Little Caesar's and brought back 6 pizzas.  While we were waiting for them all to be ready, we were reminded again how different it is down there, compared to in Northern VA.  People were so friendly, chatting with us as we waited!  Way different.

 We of course had 2 hotel rooms.  The older 4 boys were in one, and the rest of us were in the other.  That meant the boys could really sleep in, although the little kids were pretty tired and slept fairly late as well.  After breakfast, more swimming, college football, and leftover pizza for lunch, our big outing was to a rugby game.  It was raining at this point, but everyone was still game to watch.  Verity had fallen asleep in the van, so I stayed with her while everyone braved the damp and cold--for awhile anyway.  Kids kept drifting back to the van, and then back out to the sidelines.  Fortunately it stopped raining at halftime, and Verity woke up, so we could all go out to watch.  The was another man there, and he was letting his 2 kids just splash around in these huge big puddles.  They were maybe a little younger than Micah and Drew, who were eyeing them *very* enviously.  The kids were absolutely sopping wet, and I made sure Micah and Drew stayed far away, since we didn't have a ton of extra clothes--plus it was freezing!

 Once again, Saturday evening we knew we'd be in trouble if we had to wait in a crowded place for a table, so we chose the path of least resistance and went to the nearest Chick-Fil-A.

 I'm not sure why Micah is flashing a gang sign here, because he actually loves Chick-Fil-A, lol. It was good for the kids to have the playground to run around in, especially with all the rain.

Sunday we got up and ate breakfast.  Bob took the younger kids swimming again so I could get the room packed up.  We had the best of intentions of getting to Nathan's church early, but . . . yeah.  As so often happens here at home, it was like herding cats (with luggage) to get everyone out the door, so we were late.  I know--shocking surprise!  Sigh.  We talked about how easy it will be when Bob and I go to visit Verity at college . . . of course, she also won't have the cheering crowd greeting her!

 After church we ate at a little Chinese restaurant before heading back to campus.  We got to see Nathan's (incredibly crowded) room, and then we walked around some with him.  Everyone agreed it is a beautiful campus, and Anna is ready to go there herself!

 It was really good for Micah, Drew, and Verity to see Nathan again.  On Thursday before we left, Micah said, "We're going to pick up Nathan and bring him back home to live with us?"  Nooo . . . I think it was good for Micah to actually see Nathan's room, and that he is really *living* there.  Everyone really misses their oldest brother!  I also think maybe it wasn't bad that it worked out for this to be the first weekend we could get down there.  Nathan's settled in now, and so it wasn't anywhere near as hard to say goodbye as it was when we left him in August, and he was not looking forward at all to going back! As he said in a letter to the girls, "Each day is a little better than the one before."  

We were able to get a picture with ALL the kids before we left, which made me really happy!  I can't take those for granted anymore.  And now we look forward to having Nathan home for Thanksgiving in a week!  Hooray!

Happy Birthday, Caleb!

Caleb turned 14 today!  We baked cookies and mini apple pies today, but we didn't bake a cake, so we just celebrated with ice cream!  We've been having the "week of Caleb" as far as meals go--he couldn't figure out one favorite for his birthday dinner, so he picked all the dinners this week.  He got a WSS t-shirt as well as a fleece vest.  We were going to get him a WSS water bottle to replace the one he dropped and shattered on his way to cross-country practice, but sadly they were out, and they said they weren't going to order any more until next summer.  So we just had to get a regular nalgene from amazon to get him through basketball and rugby seasons.  We also gave him a Lego Star Wars set I found at Costco (it's so convenient to shop for a birthday right after everyone rolls out all the new Christmas toys!).

I've discovered that Caleb is my least-photographed child.  I searched back to find another picture, but he has managed to slip out of most other kid ones.  I'm making it my mission to take more pictures of him this year!  He is thrilled to have grown several inches, as well as developed a deeper voice this past year, so I need to document that!

I did find this picture of him at a cross-country meet.  He and Jonathan both ran cross-country for the first time this fall.  We had heard several other people with asthma say that running had helped them not be so reactive.  Caleb's asthma has been pretty well-controlled the past few years, but it does seem to have a bit of an exercise trigger.  He was pretty wheezy at the beginning of the season, so he was using his puffers a lot, but we were sort of stumbling along in the dark as far as how to use them effectively, since they had always just been rescue inhalers that he didn't need too often.  Eventually his flovent one ran out, and I had to make an appointment to get a new prescription.  I'm so glad we went in!  The doctor was very helpful, as far as what he should be doing during seasons with lots of running.  He's supposed to use albuterol 20 minutes before running, since that helps open up the airway.  Then he take flovent daily--2 puffs, twice a day, actually--, which works more long-term to protect the airway so it's not so reactive.  It was good to have a definitive plan laid out for him!  I don't think running is Caleb's absolute favorite thing to do by a long shot, but he had a good season.  He improved a lot, and he had a good time.  Now it's on to basketball!