Refinancing woes.

Well, Bill and I refinanced our house today with the lower interest rates. We were excited to see our mortgage payment go down by as much as $100 a month. Yeah! Imagine our shock as it only went down by $20. Huh? It turns out that our pmi insurance more than doubled. Why? Do you ask? Well because the rates went up since so many are defaulting on their loans. Oh, I see. So some people default and we, who have great credit and have never missed a payment are being punished. It's so infuriating to me. This bailout angers me to begin with as people were stupid and greedy in their spending (REpublicans and Democrats alike) and our children and grandchildren are going to pay for it. When does it end?

My dad reminded me that we at least have our health and can eat. That's so true.

Thank you, though, I shall have no tea! Leave socialism to England!

Feeling slammed!

Well if you haven't heard yet I've been slammed at my house with illness. Taylor and Dylan came home the other day with fevers of 100 and sore throats but seemed to get over them fast. On Monday Liam started running a fever that jumped to over 103 by that afternoon. I started giving him Motrin and he responded well to that. By the next morning though he was throwing up gatorade (all over me and Gavin who were laying down on the bed to nurse) and was running a fever of over 105. After an hour of motrin it was only down to 104.8. I called the doctor who immediately wanted to see him. When I got there his tonsils were so swollen they were touching and they were worried that they would continue to swell and cut off his airway. Since he didn't have strep and they didn't know what we were dealing with they sent me to Children's hospital ER. I left the baby with the kids and told them to hang in there. The hospital had a parking space close so I could go right in. I arrived at 1:30 and checked in but we weren't seen until 3:30. The lobby had some fun safari pictures so we paced the hall for over an hour until they called us in. The doctor told us to test for mono and get a cbc in addition to getting xrays of the soft tissues. They had to stick Liam four times to draw blood. He was so traumatized that anytime a nurse said anything to him after that he would start crying. His big eyes were so watery and sad it just broke my heart. The test for mono came up positive so they sent us home with a prescription for an oral steroid to control swelling of his tonsils. He fell asleep in the car as by this point it was 6:30.

Unfortunately the day took it's toll on the kids so both of them woke up every 1-2 hours (alternately) all night long. Oy! It was good for me to nurse that much since I was so engorged. He's decided that he should bite me though each time...hard so that's not a fun development. He seems more tired too so I'm afraid he's getting it. My good friend Kris gave me a dinner so at least I didin't have to do that and I went all day taking care of crabby babies! It was such a nice day though that when they went down for a nap I went outside with a cup of coffee, my bible and my prayer journal. I thanked the Lord for a moment of rest in a very wearing day. It was so refreshing. I was amazed that when the Lord trys me, He also extends grace. Conversely when He blesses me He also wants me to extend that to others. Just as things in my life had been so peaceful and now were turned upside down, so also His grace is there.

After nap things weren't much better but I had some sustenance to get me through. How wonderful. Now we'll see how tonight goes.

Highlights!

I am loving having an almost teen in the house. Here's a picture of her new highlights. We did it from a box. It was my first attempt at highlighting hair. Apparently I didn't miss a calling being a hairstylist! She's happy with it.

I had a cool experience with Taylor this week. I have been finding that I am nagging the kids a lot with putting things away. The piles everywhere on every surface area of the house are driving me crazy but I also hate that I'm nagging. I never wanted to be that kind of mom. Anyway, when I'm prayed about it I felt the Lord tell me to humble myself before the kids and ask them. So at the table one day I apologized for being so nagging and negative (I use sarcasm a lot) and asked them for a solution to the junk everywhere. Taylor suggested that everyone pick up five things before each meal. Everyone quickly agreed and that's what we've been doing ever since. It was so easy and such a helpful idea. She also kept me from wandering around the parking lot today and pointed me to where the van was. It's great having someone looking out for us! Taylor's growing into a beautiful girl. I'm proud to be her mom.

My little guy!

Entering toddlerhood the second time around is so much more fun! Especially since it's Liam. He really is such a joyous child. He loves to pray and read books about Jesus. He's helpful and cleans up after himself (something his older siblings have a hard time with). He's trying to go potty and counts to ten! He loves t.v. (a personal favorite of his dad's). He runs around and makes goofy faces for us all to laugh at, including Gavin. I love that he's taking the role of big brother seriously and puts Gavin's binky in and turns on toys for him. He's still having problems sharing (don't we all). I truly marvel at the fact that if Bill hadn't had the surgery he and his brother Gavin wouldn't be here. What a loss that would have been to our family. I hope the rest of our relatives will see it that way some day too. In the meantime we have a constant source of bubbly entertainment!

Hats galore!

Most people think my husband's a serious guy but really he's quite the goofball. It was his idea to put hats on everyone and take pictures. It's probably not his idea to post it on my blog but ha ha on him. Look at the ball on GAvin's hat...it's as big as his head! Too funny. These were given to us by my mom who for some reason doesn't want any hats or wool socks anymore. GAvin hates hats but we got these shots in time before the meltdown ensued. I guess he might be like mom after all.