A. W. O. L.

I think I have totally abandoned my blog! It is too much updating the other one and keeping house, schooling the kids and having a busy schedule...so, for those of you who only use this as a launching pad to other blogs I will keep it up but don't expect to ever see this page change again! Unless of course I get so much free time on my hands that I am at a loss as to what to do.

YEAH, like that will ever happen!!

Lindsay Groen

Here is a prayer request for those of you who have not received this. Lindsay and her family are in need of prayer. I will not write any more about her I will let you read it on her own blog that her Grandfather writes many times a day. Keep checking it. Write on their wall to encourage them. God is in the business of miracles, let's see one here.

good cookin'

did that title catch ya? OK, so I am not a huge poster anymore! sorry...too much going on I guess. Life is extremely busy. I will get to that in just a minute but right now you are wondering why that title, right?? well I have been in such a slump and not knowing what to cook for dinner anymore I am tired of the same old same old. I think my family is too! I headed to the library and picked up a few new cookbooks to see what I could find out there. Good food, fast food, and stuff that EVERYONE would like (we have a few picky eaters!!) Well, here is what I found
I must say that it is inexpensive as well. We have a big family and finding yummy meals that don't cost an arm and a leg is a good thing!

What is it I like best about these 30 minute meals?? I can hand the cookbook to one of the kids tell them to choose a recipe that appeals to them, we figure out what we need from the grocery store and it is their meal to make for dinner one night. I thin that counts for home schooling right? ;) Megan, Betsy and Abby have all had their hand in the pot and are enjoying cooking as much as I have. Phil is enjoying these new dinners that I would have never tried if I didn't check this book out from the library. Oh and by the way, I was singing the praises of this cookbook to a friend of mine (who has the book and I did not know!) well, she picked one up for me and now I have my very own copy of it!!

Well, that is it about cookbooks! Why did I share this you may be asking well, I will say it is because many people I know are looking for new and exciting recipes. So many of us are in a "rut". Now I think I may have gotten you out of it!! :) enjoy!!

As to what is going on here and why are we so busy. If you don't read our other blog. Wilson's to Guatemala on the sidebar. We are under contract with the house, we will close in the end of May, and we will be out shortly after that. God is so good! I can't wait to see what he has planned for us!

now, go check out this book and try some new meals!! :)

ahhh....New Hampsha

The impression of the Atlanta-born commedian about NH.
Jeff Foxworthy on New Hampshire

If you consider it a sport to gather your food by drilling through 36 inches of ice and sitting there all day hoping that the food will swim by, you might live in New Hampshire .

If you're proud that your region makes the national news 96 nights a year because Mt. Washington is the coldest spot in the nation, and Plymouth gets more snow than any other major city in the US, you might live in New Hampshire.

If your local Dairy Queen is closed from October through May, you might live in New Hampshire .

If you get 131 inches of snow in a week and you comment that 'winter's finally here', you might live near Laconia in New Hampshire .

If you instinctively walk like a penguin for six months out of the year, you might live, bundled up, in New Hampshire .

If someone in a Home Depot store offers you assistance, and they don't work there, you might live in New Hampshire .

If your dad's suntan stops at a line curving around the middle of his forehead, you might live in New Hampshire .

If you have worn shorts and a parka on the same day, you might live in New Hampshire .

If you have had a lengthy phone conversation with someone who dialed a wrong number, you might live in New Hampshire .

YOU KNOW YOU ARE A TRUE NEW HAMPSHIRER WHEN:

"Vacation" means going South past Manchester for the weekend.

You measure distance in hours.

You know several people who have hit a deer more than once.

You often switch from "heat" to "A/C" in the same day and back again.

You can drive 65 mph through 2 feet of snow during a raging blizzard, without flinching.

You install security lights on your house and garage and leave both unlocked.

You carry jumper cables in your car and your girlfriend/wife knows how to use them.

You design your kid's Halloween costume to fit over a snowsuit.

Driving is better in the winter because the potholes are filled with snow.

You know all 4 seasons: almost winter, winter, still winter, and road construction.

You can identify a southern or northern accent.

Down South to you means Concord .

Your neighbor throws a party to celebrate his new shed.

You go out for a fish fry every Friday.

Your 4th of July picnic was moved indoors due to frost.

You have more miles on your snow blower than your car.

You find 10 degrees "a little chilly." and 55 is shorts weather.

You actually understand these jokes, and you forward them to all your New Hampshire friends and to those who used to live here and left. -- (chickens).

more snow!

I think I have lost count at how many snow days Anna has had. Yesterday when we were driving around after church we were talking about the snow that we have had this year. More that 2 feet when we were all said and done. I think that was all before Christams too. Yesterday was almost bare ground thanks to the rain and 60* weather that we have had as of late! Well...more snow today! It is so beautiful to look at and for the kids to enjoy making snowmen and sledding down the great hill we have! I just need to hav ehtem understand that when they get their snow gear on they need to stay outside for more that 5 minutes!!! any hints on that one? :-) So, as I type this they are eating their pancakes (a snowday special) and then they are going to get outside and PLAY!!! maybe we will call it school. Enjoy the snow and if you are in a warm climate well...enjoy it! :-)

Poor Megan...

She started with a tooth ache on Thursday, Thanksgiving Day!! I great Mom as I am thought that she had a loose tooth…so, I told her to “wiggle it out” She worked on it and didn’t say much of anything else about it until the next day. She woke up and told me again that her tooth hurt I looked in the mouth and saw nothing and it really wasn’t loose (she admitted to me) so I sent her up to floss it again and see if there was something stuck in it. Nope…nothing! We gave her some Motrin and Tylenol and it helped I assumed that she bruised her gum from wiggling it all day. She laid low with a hot pack off and on for the day on Friday, in the evening it was a little puffy…I thought because of the hot pack…do we see the failure of a Mom yet? Phil and I talked about it and looked at her and really were in agreement with where the pain was coming from and she didn’t really seem to be complaining about it. (which by the way she doesn’t complain about things EVER!!) bad mom…we figured we would see how she was in the morning…no problem right! So Saturday morning she woke up and she looked like someone had shoved a tennis ball up in her cheek. We called the dentist and he said abscessed tooth. Called in amoxicillin and told us to call in a few days after the swelling went down. Sounds good to me…he did say that if her eye got swollen or she had a hard time breathing get into the ER. She didn’t do much but sit on the couch all day. Rachel was over and we kept watching her to see if she was getting better trying to convince ourselves that she was looking better (I think) finally Phil came in around 6:00 and we talked about it and ate dinner…and we were getting ready to bring her into the ER when Rachel said “Call Nardos” (ok, so she said it a few times during the day) So, I did and got a call from Jack shortly after I made the call. He told me to come over and he was going to look at it and see what was going on in there. Well…he extracted the nasty tooth! Poor Meg, I think she was levitating on the chair as he pulled it. The tears wouldn’t stop but we watched the swelling come down quite a bit. We watched her for awhile then off to bed we all went…with every intention of calling the dentist on Monday morning. She woke up Sunday and we couldn’t see the eye it was so swollen now this is a very bad thing when it gets up that high. We called Jack and also our dentist. Phil had her there at the office at 9:30 to be looked at…more crying and more pain for Meg. He put her on another type of antibiotic (and no pain med still) bought an ice pack and she was on the couch all day. Not getting much better she went to church with me for choir I think it was more to show off her battle wound than anything else really…we left right after choir and spent some time at my parents house Phil watched her eye get more swollen once again and brought her home to settle her in for the night and hopefully get some of the swelling down again. It continued to get worse…at 10:10ish Sunday night we agreed that the best place for her would be in the ER so…we made a few calls to make sure that the rest of the kids would be taken care of (Thanks for being on call Mom and Dad!!) Got to the ER at 10:35 pm…right as the change of shift was happening…good timing or bad timing I am still not sure of that I think it was good because we were able to have the same nurse taking care of her and not be having to change 20 minutes after we arrived. At 11:10 (right after the Patriots won the game) we were ushered into a room and checked in. The nurse left us for a minute and came right back with all the goods to start an IV. The ER doc saw us walk by and told her to start it right away (he didn’t even see her other than through the glass that is how bad she was!!!) so we took blood and lots of it, hooked her up to the IV chatted with us and then told us the only reason that she was still down in the ER and not up in a room was because there were no nurses in the Pedi until at that point that needed to call one in. I felt sort of bad she lived 45 minutes away…right around the corner from where we lived in Epping (how many years ago was that? ) and speaking of that when we registered her they asked if we moved and we said not recently we have been in our home for almost 8 years. She told us what address she had we laughed…the last time Meg was in the hospital was almost exactly 11 years ago to the day. When she was 8 weeks old! Does anyone remember that week?? UGH!!!! So, we finally got up to the room and she was treated like a princess (I guess they know her!) Royal treatment all the way!! The doctor came in and checked her out, told me she was going to call the ENT and see what he wanted to do…(yes I know that this is getting v-e-r-y long!!) We finally settled in around 3ish. Around 4is Meg woke with a start and she said “am I in Texas?” then mumbled something I could not understand then looked at me and laughed and we chatted for a few minutes then we went back to sleep. We woke up around 7ish to the rounds the Doctor said that she need to have x-rays just to see what was brewing up in there so around 8 off we went. We came back to the room and Meg was pricked again! More blood work! All Monday was just resting and getting pumped up with antibiotics and around noon the ENT prescribed a different one for her (#4) That was the one that seemed to work! After about 2 hours we could almost watch the swelling go down!! HIP HIP HORRAY!! She has been improving every minute since, she looks the best about 2 hours after the IV has been given to her. It is an every 6 hour IV. Well, after our 2nd night in the hospital…and not knowing when we are able to go home she got the word this morning!! She will be heading home sometime after 12:30 I am assuming it will be around 1 or 2 when we actually get out of here. Then we will have a visiting nurse come in and show me how to do her IV and I will administer her last 3 IV antibiotics I always wanted to be a nurse!! ;-) then she is done!! OK, so after all the plans were set the visiting nurse called me to say that we would have to pay out of pocket for them to come because we have not yet met our deductible…OR…???...stay in the hospital for another night and insurance will cover it…I don’t understand that one!! So, we opted for the stay for 1 more night, yeah…good times here in the hospital with a cute little girl who just wants to be home!! So…Lord willing we will be there tomorrow around 1 or 2! (OK...so we walked through the door at 12:05 pm...yes we are home!!!)

I know I know if you made it through this whole thing I am proud of you! If I told you in person it would be a LOT longer you know that right??
Thanks for praying for her and keep it up please. Most of you know just how much Megan doesn’t like to be away from home, so this has been pretty tough on her. She has been a brave little girl and realized last night when we were chatting that yes indeed this is the best place for her to be! I was glad that she realized that all on her own! But sleep tonight will be wonderful for her tonight in her own little bed! Thanks again for praying!

ELEPHANTS!!!!!!!

That was the theme of Claire's third birthday! We celebrated the important day yesterday. I really can't believe that she is already 3 it seems that just yesterday she was born. How quickly time goes by!

Why an elephant you ask...well, she LOVES them. I am not really sure how or when it happened but she loves them. She picked a stuffed animal off the shelf when she wasn't even 1 and fell in love with it and has been hanging on to them ever since. I have lost count of how many are in the house here! big, little, stuffed, plastic you name it we have it!

I started thinking about a cake and trying to figure out what sort of elephant cake I would make for her and I couldn't find a "pattern" for one so...I just figured it out and viola! we have a purple elephant and glasses to boot!

Well, Claire is 3 I can't believe it, I will quickly tell you of how yesterday started...she often climbs into bed with us in the morning (as most children do) and she was up rather early yesterday so I was trying to pretend that I was asleep so that she would go back to sleep...smothering me with kisses and hugs (which is usually how we wake one another up in the house) she finally realized that it was not waking me up and in a very sweet and quiet voice she said "isn't it my birthday today mommy?" and with that we were all awake! at 6:30 on a Saturday morning. After we had a round of birthday hugs and kisses (again) she jumped out of our bed to go and proclaim HER day!

Go ahead and ask her about her cake, her day! she loves talking about it!!!