Lu-lu-lu!

The boys made it through the first 3 days of school without any major trauma for any of us. I am so thankful for their wonderful teachers. I was reminded of how little my guys are when they were getting ready one morning. Zane was supposed to be brushing his teeth, but was skipping in circles around in the dim living room with a light-up toothbrush singing "lu-lu-lu-lu..." Some day I would like a window into his world.

My sister and her family have come to Waco this weekend to celebrate 3 of our birthdays. We made Mom and Dad come, too. Our family is getting a little big to squeeze into our current house--it is do-able, but crazy-- so Tricia's crew is staying at a hotel. Van and I took the first night as a date night. It was great. We Olive-Gardened it and went to go see Van's step-brother at a highschool football game. Madisonville vs. Lorena. It had been a long time since I had been to a football game, and it was neat to see Van's old team. We really enjoyed getting to visit his brother. God has big plans for that boy, and that may include medical school. Van and I went from there to the hotel and watched PBS and caught up on the news. Charlie Rose. Cool cat. We are such the wild partiers! Tricia and crew arrived the next day, and we all enjoyed the hotel pool together. We had the easiest party ever. I decorated pre-made HEB cupcakes like Angry Birds (in honor of my nephew's 13th) with whatever was in the cubbard. They weren't very angry, though because I couldn't find any eyebrows that could be considered edible. The kids opened goodie bags with Angry Birds fruit snacks. The boys got a little Lego package, and the girls got nail polish. Then, the next 30 minutes they used the aforementioned Legos and nail polish. That was easy.


I got the best present ever. Both of my grandmothers were artists. My Nanny, although very talented, didn't take herself very seriously. She had a few paintings, but most of her stuff was here and there, this and that. Afgans and birthday cakes in various shapes and beautifully hand-sewn costumes filled my childhood. She had a drawer of scrap fabric that I was allowed to dig in and "sew" together Barbie clothes, and she let me use her good black trash bags to design dresses... sweaty dresses. Nanny didn't have much, but she was so generous. This talented, kind hearted woman was also a bit dis-organized. After Nanny died, my sister had run across some neat doodles stuck between magazine pages and various papers, Anywho, Tricia took these neat drawings, photocopied them and mounted them on a "useful box to put things in" because I have a container addiction. My favorite picture is two little twitter birds, a boy and a girl, chatting to one another. So sweet. There is so much character in the little drawing. My parents also gave me a thoughtful and beautiful present. It is jewelry made from agate from the "Ol' Bishop Ranch" in west Texas. Cool.

The rest of the Wehmeyers and my sister's crew are at Hawaian Falls, our oh-so-cool new water park with our church. Too fun. I can't wait to hear their reports.

My breathing seems a little better. My energy is much better. Tomorrow I go down another notch on the steriod dose, so I'm a little nervous that it will throw me for another loop. So many blasted side effects on the comings and goings of that drug. I pray that my focus will be Jesus and not fussiness, fatigue, muscle or joint pain, headaches, blah, blah, all the stuff that distracts.

We sang this at church this morning. Beautiful. It is stuck in my head and I like it.

Oh! to be like Thee, blessed Redeemer,
This is my constant longing and prayer;
Gladly I’ll forfeit all of earth’s treasures,
Jesus, Thy perfect likeness to wear.

Refrain:
Oh! to be like Thee, oh! to be like Thee,
Blessed Redeemer, pure as Thou art;
Come in Thy sweetness, come in Thy fullness;
Stamp Thine own image deep on my heart.

Oh! to be like Thee, full of compassion,
Loving, forgiving, tender and kind,
Helping the helpless, cheering the fainting,
Seeking the wand’ring sinner to find.

Oh! to be like Thee, Lord, I am coming,
Now to receive th’ anointing divine;
All that I am and have I am bringing,
Lord, from this moment all shall be Thine.

Lazy, Hazy day

I blame the steroids. Glad to be weaning off of them, but I'm feeling the effects. Avi suggested candy this afternoon, and I was more than willing to get into our stash of M&Ms! My lungs are still struggling, especially up inclines. I hope and pray that by Oct 1 I'll be back to "normal" activity and can show off to the doctor. In the meantime, I'm fakin' it til I make it, by God's grace. I'm asking the Lord to help me see beauty in the midst of chaos. Today, it was easy because it was quiet and Avi was content with her little toys, blankets and watercolors. It gets much harder when someone is screaming in the backseat when trying to order at the drive-thru. Cade and Zane are at their 2nd day of school. Our school is a really good fit for our family. Such patient and kind teachers! I am amazed how much the children learn in just a short amount of time. Today has been a low-energy day for me, so I re-learned from Sid the Science Kid (PBS)that granite is an igneous rock and came from volcanoes, so it is okay that the laundry is still in the baskets. I am SO THANKFUL for my friend and her team of four that scrub our house down every other week.

Ol' Henri

West Waco Library has graciously loaned me a book with selected writings from Henri Nouwen. Van is the deep reader of the family, but I figured I could catch some snippets along the way. I have nearly returned it a hundred times, and Avi keeps pulling out the post-it note page markers (because SHE IS the librarian and NEEDS them), but I am determined to glean from the book.

Here is a great quote: The art of living is to enjoy what we can see and not complain about what remains in the dark. When we are able to take the next step with the trust that we will have enough light for the step that follows, we can walk through life with joy and be surprised at how far we can go. Let's rejoice in the little light we carry and not ask for the great beam that would take all shadows away. --Bread for the Journey, January 8

I'll take some of that good with a swig of the bad

In a nutshell: The steroids may be doing more hard than good at this point, weakening the muscles around the lungs which inhibits my breathing further. So...I get to start tapering again! In a few weeks, I'll just be on a maintenance dose! Woo-hoo! Mom is in town for the next couple of days helping us hold it all together (fitting soccer shoes on two wiggly boys at Academy, etc.) while I can catch my breath and get a plan in place for pulmonary rehab. She the coolest.

I've lost a lot of weight, but it is impossible to tell because I'm sooooo poofery. Frustrating. I'm watching sodium intake---the trickiest diet I've ever been on. Naked foods straight from the grocery store and smoothies straight from the drive-thru seem to work. Sad thing is that it is muscle weight, and I'm weak and slow. Literally, the my sweet old lady friends at church are cruising past me. I say, good for them. Watch out ladies; in a few weeks you'll have to pick up the pace again.

Eyes are still crazy dry, but they have gone to the back burner for now.

As a church and as a family, we're attempting to focus on prayer right now for those who don't know Jesus and for those around us who are hurting.

The kids are loving having Grandmother here to have their favorite foods and look up important things like blue indigo snakes and tsunamis vs. hurricanes on the internet. Van seems more realaxed, too.

Screech!!!!

It's funny how life is cruising along, and then then a wee little virus crashes into it and how it comes to a screeching halt. Van was on call last week, so the kids and I gotoutta Dodge and went to Houston to see my sister and her family. We visited the zoo (baby giraffe!, baby elephant!), the health museum (completely facinating)and found Takara-So, my first apartment. It is Japanese-style and in a very diverse neighborhood ethnically and culturally. Van moved in after we got married and he graduated from A&M. We had so many fun memories there, but for some reason, the only one I could think of to tell the kids is when I got flashed by a jogger. I'm not sure why I told them that story.

The kiddos really enjoyed each other's company. Cousins are the best, you know. We just could not let the party end, so the six children and I headed for Utopia to meet my parents. They had been in Ft. Davis outfitting their cabin with cabinets and plumbing. Carly (9) had her first drive on the riding lawn mower. It is a right of passage in our family. I don't think that Zane wore shoes the whole time. He had a pink pair that he could have borrowed from his cousin, but I think that if I duct-taped some to his feet, he would still find a way to lose them. Daniel (12) fixed my telephone photo problems. Rootbeer floats were a big hit. Avi charmed Papa, and she got to take a stuffed animal with her on the lawn mower ride. I attended the senior citizens' rummage sale and got teased by my mutual garage-sale-loving friend that I made the trip every year for it. Scored two giant paintings (if not for the paintings for the frames) that I promptly hid in my parent's closet as to not put my husband in shock. Huffed and puffed and loaded the car, put my emotional children in it, and headed towards Waco. We whirlwinded into HEB, and met our babysitter at our house where she helped unload groceries. I met Van a few houses down the way where we escaped for a date night. We ended up on the porch of our new property, admiring the rock work. We ended up choosing white flagstone. I teased Van that we spent two years looking at the menu at Baskin Robins, and he picked vanilla, and he agreed. It sure is pretty, though, and we are thankful.

All Wehmeyers left early Saturday morning to help host a life group facilitator retreat in Lampasas. It was really fun, and I got to do the funnest with the kids with a story and craft while the facilitators did the dull, adult stuff. My kids were, of course, the least cooperative, but it still went well. We used river rocks from Utopia that the cousins collected to be honeybees to "bee prayerful" but by the time we had finished the story (Paul and Silas in prison) and done the craft, I forgot to pray with them. Ugh. They swam until they were a nice pink glow, and the owners of the home that we were borrowing were so generous in their grandparentness. We are really excited about life groups at church this year and are hopeful that the retreat was a bit of a re-charge for our dedicated facilitators.

Then, we were pooped on Sunday. Got sick on Monday. Stayed home the last two days. Ugh. I feel pretty good, but my breathing is bad. Avi is about finished up with her junk, but Zane is still gooey. My favorite quote so far is "Hey, guys! We get to make bologna sandwiches!" We had made a trip to Walgreens to "grocery shop" and bought bologna. He assembled the sandwiches for his siblings, and they brought them into the living room to watch Scooby Doo. Motherhood at its best. I have to go to Dallas on Friday, so I'm making myself stay on the couch so no one (my husband) doesn't send me to the doctor before that. Therefore, I've asked him to do even more extras and he smells the most alluring than he ever has--the smell of dishwashing soap. I'm thankful for a good one.

Cade has been healthy and has been a big help in many ways. He's ready for school, though! He's been very encouraging about school to his little brother. "You get to learn to read! You get to watch Magic School Bus!" He keeps telling him that he will have to get immunizations, though, which may actually be true, so that's not very helpful! Avi spends her day as a librarian with a legal pad, 2 pens, markers, and sometimes scissors. She is also seen at the end of the day covered in markers and her hair is sometimes shorter. Its a tough balance because she NEEDS these items to be a librarian. She occasionally asks us to check out a book and has many rules about how to do this, and she typically charges $10 a book. I've also seen her play drive-thru with her baby doll. "I would like a big sandwich and a little sandwich. $10? I only have $3. Okay." and she passes the sandwich to her baby who gets held in the front seat. Hmmmmm.... Zane is into sneaking fresh batteries into his toys. He has to sneak to the locked tool closet, find a screwdriver, pop it open, sheepishly approach me with it all behind his back because I'm in the way of the batteries under the sink and finally fess up that he needs new batteries. I unlock the stash, hand him the goods, and watch him emerge from his room loaded perfectly. Maybe he is ready for kindergarten after all. I can't keep up with that!

....continued

....mother when I'm not correcting a child for leaving fingerprints. One of our sweet babysitters took the kids to ChuckECheese so that our house could be viewed around their bedtime and Van and I had a date night. We landed at a place that was sweltering hot and gave everyone in the building the wrong order (late), but after our shaking with low blood sugar and stares into nothingness, we got a bit of food in our bellies and were able to have a conversation about VERY imporatant things like paint colors and toilet selections for the new home. I dig that. We went through a drive-thru for our required date night dessert. Mine was Blue Bell birthday cake ice cream in a waffle cone. Van picked vanilla. Vanilla. The man likes vanilla. We were both happy, though. The kids were asleep when we got home. Bliss.

Today we went to the circus with one of Van's co-workers and her precious family. I thought it was excellent. I especially enjoyed the animal tricks. I wish I could have captured Avi's face when the three elephants came into the ring. The boys liked the motor cycle stunts, and now they want a dirt bike. And...Van wants a dirt bike. Not happening in my lifetime. Cade wants to learn gymnastics so he can do a front flip. We might can work on that one.

Tomorrow Van will give it a go on a sprint triathalon. I am most worried about him figuring out what equipment to take and where to put his number at what time more than the heat or his physical condition. Seems complicated. I might be able to take the kids to see him jump in the water and visit a closer-by church that several of our friends attend. We'll see how it plays out--I may not be able to get the kids out of the door by 6:30.

I'm still very slow. This GVH and the meds are battling each other for who is the meanest. I'm thankful, though, to be quite functional and able to take care of my sweeties. The summer has been so full of fun experiences with them. I struggle with breathing and with being grumpy during those times. I'm thankful for good friends who I can tag-team with, and beyond words for a wonderful husband who loves his kiddos and is able to do extras around the house to get it ready to show. Very blessed, indeed.

Summer Travels

We had a super great time with my extended family in Utopia. My uncles and cousins are very laid back and were happy with nutin' to do. We made a trip to the creek to hunt for fossils. Kudos to Mom to feeding us all major amounts of yummy beef. We also swung by the Alamo on the way back to Waco and made the little cousins sing Davy Crockett. Now, if Cade or Zane wants to push a button on little sister, they sing "Avi Crockett" and really make her scream. The children enjoyed ice cream from the vending machines at the historic site. It was fun, but HOT! My cousins (the adult ones) got to stay with us in Waco for the night and eat their first authentic kolaches. Fun times. (Sidenote: Cade is still mad at Santa Anna and the New Mexicans because of confusion with a basketball game that he watched with his dad. We'll get 'em next time.)

We headed to the YMCA of the Rockies, oxygen tank on hand a couple of days later. The car ride was smooth with Van and I and the children going through the stages of grief (denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance) at various times along the way. We visited the Big Texan for supper on the way through Amarillo, and stopped at the Pueblo Colorado Zoo. A penguin there adored Avi and followed her along the glass for a long time. It was precious. I packed up our bags one night around 2:00 am near Colorado Springs after smelling smoke and hearing sirens, and sure enough, around 3:45 a knock at our motel door announced that we would need to evacuate. Blessings on that town. They have been through it. We decided that we might as well get on the road, so we drove to El Dorado State Park for a short hike. I realized quickly that my breathing wasn't the best, so I had to lay low (very low) for the week. Continuing Medical Education filled Van's mornings, and the kids had two full days of day camp. The other time was spent with friends or just with mama doing crafts, putt-putt and nature classes--but I was moving SL-OW-LY, a few steps at a time. The facilities there were wonderful, but not air conditioned. We had brought the Texas heat with us, and there was not a lot of relief. We left some of the windows cranked open during the day to let a breeze through the cabin. The kids were at day camp, and Van and I had the afternoon to ourselves to cook a bit of lunch and then maybe go sight-seeing in the park. When we drove up to the cabin, Van noticed two round ears behind a boulder. Sure enough, a bear was just a few yards from us. We snuck into the cabin where there were paw prints on our kitchen floor, an overturned trash can and paw prints on our gatoraid tub. The peanut butter jar was missing. That thief had bent the screen on the window, let himself in, found his favorite snack and was eating it in the yard. I was glad that we had arrived AFTER he found his prize. Yikes. We did not follow the YMCA's instructions, and definitely did corrupt a bear.

On the way back, we visited Capulin Volcano. That was neat. We drove WAY up to the top and Van hiked down to the center with the kiddos who were so excited to be in a real volcano. Then, we stopped at McDonald's and had some stretch time at a great playground, a bathroom accident and a humdinger of a meltdown over a missing piece of a toy. Time to go home!!!!

Since then, we have enjoyed the plethora of library showcases in Waco, the YMCA pool and any sort of air-conditioned kid-friendly place that is NOT in our very-clean-ready-to-show-at-the-push-of-a-button home. I pack a lunch bag in the morning, and off we go. I decided I'm a better