Updates

Well, we discovered last night that Micah had a fever of about 103.5, which is a really bad sign... we waited until this morning to call, at which time it was down to 101.7. They are just having us monitor that form home and be sure it doesnt get any higher. I dont know how much more I can take of the ER!! He is not showing any signs of infection, so they are thinking it is from blood loss and the body's way of showing the stress/trauma of what he has been thru... poor baby! But he is feeling so much better and his spirits are just great... It was an absolutely beautiful day so we spent some time out doors and shared Micah's popsicles with everyone! Even Bryson!

Needless to say, he loved it!!

And here we are discovering the sorrow of the melted, disappearing popsicle. It is rough being one!

This is just a sweet picture of my little Red-head! I know I am bias, but seriously... how sweet is he?

Micah feels good enough to show some love to his favorite baby!

And a quick game of peek-a-boo never gets old to a one-year old!

The other 2 munchkins enjoying their popsicles!
Cason is all smiles!

So is Coby!


He wanted to show off his boo-boo from his bike accident! This actually looks better than it did... it has been quite a week here at our house!


I have some other pics of the first hospital stay and some original pictures of Coby's bike accident, but they are on the memory card that will not download onto my computer for some reason?! Anyhoo, I will figure that out and post them someday! I just felt like I needed to give an update after my scary last post, and a few fun pictures always help bring everyone a little cheer!!

Complications

So I take back what I said in the previous post.... I have now experienced the longest night of my life. Everyone was all snug in their beds last night when I heard Micah cry out at about midnight. I went in to check on him and give him a drink, etc. He had blood all over his face, jammies, pillow, etc. It was a scary sight. So we called the dr and he advised us to meet him in the ER. So, 1:00am micah and I headed into austin to the ER while clint stayed here with the other 3 boys. He vomited twice in the hospital, and when they saw the amount, things started moving quickly. I was scared, but thankful that they werent dragging their feet becasue he was in a lot of pain, and I was ready to do what it took to ease it! By 2:00, they had him in emergency surgery to repair the left tonsil and stop the bleeding. The surgery took about twice as long as they told me it would, so at 3:30 I was sitting in a huge dark, cold waiting room, all alone... wondering what is wrong. There was nothing for me to do but pray (and cry). I had never heard of anyone dying from a tonsillectomy, but my head was spinning with ideas. Finally the dr rounded the dark corner to talk to me and tell me that he was fine. He said after they got him to sleep, when they put the breathing tube down his throat, he lost one more "clot" (as they called them) and it was on a artery. (They say these clots are the throat's way of healing itself, and usually about 1 in 100 cases have trouble with them falling off. Some folks are 1 in a million, we are 1 in a hundred!) His description of the bleeding during surgery made me just sick, but I was thankful to know that my baby was ok. The dr was incredible. He was focused, yet his bedside manner was great. He was serious, yet sensitive. He was honest with me and gave it to me straight, but he assured me that he was going to be fine. He offered to let me into the dr's lounge for some much needed Starbucks. So I got to go sit by him until he woke up ( grouchy), we gave him some ice chips and some pain meds, and he went back to sleep. The sweet nurses brought me a recliner so I could rest beside him, so I napped from about 4:00 to 5:00 when he woke back up and they moved us. He was jolly as can be at about 6:00am... it is amazing how kids bounce back! They did a blood count and his had gone from a 12 to a 9, which was not good. He is supposed to take it easy and let his blood replenish itself. The recovery basically starts over here... So back to Blockbuster it is, but I am incredibly thankful that Micah was released at about 7:30, and he is back home and doing ok. He was so incredibly brave! I am so proud of him! Please continue to pray for a speedy recovery this second time around.

Tonsillectomy/Adnoidectomy.... check!

We made it... it was maybe the longest night of my entire life, 4 childbirths excluded, but we survived! Micah is now home and doing good. He had some trouble with vomiting from the anesthesia... and the thoughts of vomiting with fresh stitches in his throat just makes me cringe. He had a rough day yesterday and a horrible night with the pain, but we have now got it all under control here at home (that is... Mommy has him all drugged up!! Thank you Lord for codeine!), and he even went outside to play for just a bit this afternoon after we got home. He is just loving the ice cream at every meal... and he picked out some powdered donuts as a "soft food" too...
One of the sweetest things during all this crazy time was my sweet Coby. Most of you know him as the crazy one with all the funny stories, but he has a heart the size of Texas, and he was just so worried about Micah. He had tons of questions about tonsils and what they were, if we would see them, if they would fix them and put them back, how they got them out ('do they use scissors?'), if Micah would cry, bleed, etc..... He overheard me telling someone on the phone that he was throwing up blood and he started crying! I looked back and saw he was sad and I asked him what was wrong. "Is Micah gonna die?" He said with those huge blue eyes and crocodile tears... Break a momma's heart!!!! So I decided to take them all up to see him and see that he was ok... even thought he was not really up for visitors, it lifted his spirits a bit to have them all come get on his bed, see his fun stuff, and push the buttons on his bed... that was Cason's favorite part! Mimi and Paw Paw took them back to their house for a while and Clint picked them up there while I stayed the night with Micah.
Thanks to everyone for the prayers that have been answered! I am so glad the surgery is all over, and I am SO glad to be home, back in my water bed (as opposed to the 6 inches of bed that Micah shared with me last night!) Now lets pray that the recovery continues to go well!
Once again, I have some pics to post, but my stinkin camera wont download them.... I cant figure out what the deal is!!

Nothin' routine about it.....

When your "baby" is having surgery!!! My sweet Micah (who is actually 6 years old, so not a baby by any means, but he will always be my 'baby') is having a tonsillectomy and adnoidectomy (sp?) tomorrow morning at 11:00. They say it is a routine surgery, and I know they say that so moms like me will not worry, but there is just nothing routine about putting him under, inserting a breathing tube, and using a knife to cut these things outof his throat! Yes, I know kids have it done every day... and they are all fine... but PLEASE pray for Micah... and for me.... and for the pit in my tummy because I just cannot stop worring about it.... and for me to keep it together so he wont be scared! I will keep you all posted... but for now, I am going to go pack our bags and then clean my house from top to bottom as therapy for my anxiety! :o) And so I will be able to come home from the hospital to a clean house.... a clean house always makes me happy!

ps-- a special thanks to my sister-in-law and my momma for helping us out with our other munchkins!

JoggyFun

Actually it is called Jog-A-Fun, but all day long Coby begged me to take him back to Micah's joggyfun! It was cute! BCS does a huge fund raiser where the kids run for 30 minutes and get sponsors for their laps... I did it when I went to school here (back in the good ol' days), but it is a huge ordeal now! Micah ran 22 laps in 30 minutes! That is the equivalent to almost 3 miles! Not bad for my little 6-year old, huh?! I was so proud of him! He jogged the entire time, and I must admit that he did more that I would have done had it been me out there for the entire 30 minutes! :o) Kindergarten was the first group to run at 8:10, so they had to be there at 7:45... which meant leaving the house around 7:00 to fight traffic into town, which meant getting the entire family up with the chickens to go watch him run and then hang out until school started at 10:00. Clint and I traded off taking turns running laps with Micah and encouraging him to go, go, go! Coby and Cason even took a turn there at the end when most of the kiddos were slowing down! It was a super long day, but they all had a fun time. Cason was asleep before we had left the parking lot this afternoon! I had a few cute pics, but my camera wont download them for some reason? Maybe I will post them tomorrow!

Just for fun.....

I am copying my friend and old college roomie, ElisaJJ on this one because I thought it was funny how accurate these things were as well! I dont know how to link her by clicking on her name, but she is linked over to the side of my blog....

Pepperoni Pizza

Robust and dominant. When you go for something, you go full force. You tend to take control of situations easily. And in return, you get a ton of respect.

What's Your Pizza Personality?

Robust and dominant?? Nice! But I do have to admit that I am a bit of a control freak!

You Are Chocolate Chip Ice Cream

You are kind, popular, and generous. You tend to be successful at anything you try. A social butterfly, you are great at entertaining a crowd. You are most compatible with strawberry ice cream.

What Flavor Ice Cream Are You?

I guess this is why we made good roomies, elisa! :o)

You Are a Smiley Face Cookie

You're happy go lucky. So happy, in fact, it's a little past the point of normal sanity. You usually make those around you smile ... when you're not creeping them out!

What Kind of Cookie Are You?

Really?? My happiness creeps people out?? If I could not laugh about the insanity of my life, I would be checking myself into the looney bin! :o)

Now, I am curious to know about all of you!!

"Cason said a bad word...."

that is what Coby told me as he came running into my room this morning...
I gave the typical response, "What bad word did he say?"
"He called me rubbish!"
Rubbish?? I had a hard time keeping a straight face, but there were tears in his eyes, and it was obvious that his feelings were really hurt. I felt pretty silly discussing it with the 2 of them because I can't remember the last time I used the word 'rubbish'... but we did establish that we should not call each other ugly words... where do they get this stuff?

Where have I been???

Okay, so I know I have kept all 3 of my readers in suspense wondering why it has been so long since I had posted.... I have been completely overwhelmed in so many areas of my life that I am not really sure where to begin... so I will give a quick update and the some pictures....

1. Blessing in disguise: I recently applied for a position as the director of the preschool/mothers day out where I work... It was a position that I had thought about for some time now, but I really wanted it to come available in about 3 years when I only had one little one at home and more time during the day... but our director's hubby has taken an incredible opportunity at the Richland Hills c of c, so she is leaving us with HUGE shoes to fill. When the spot came open, Clint and I just prayed about it... do I go for it now, with the 2 boys at home next year and Bry being so young? It seemed like an answer to the prayers we had been praying for financial freedom for our family... but the timing seemed off. But I decided to interview and let God take it from there... I got up into the top of the closet and dusted off my portfolio which had not been updated since 2001... a lot has happened since then! :o) I have spent so much time revamping my resume, writing a new philosophy of education, working on my application, references, etc. It was actually really neat to think about how much things have changed for me since 2001! I interviewed with 2 of the most Godly, incredible women I know... they were the principals of BCS when I went here years ago... and I balled several times during my interview... I was so emotional about working full-time, leaving my kids with someone else.... but we are so desperate for the money.... I love working with these children and I really felt called there..... They called me into the office today to tell me that they have hired someone else whose children are both already in school and who is equally qualified... it makes since, and I am actually relieved. I kept picturing little Bry and thinking about him growing up... knowing he is my last baby... and it made me so sad to think that I was growing him up so quickly! So here I am... back where I started.... just an ol' preschool teacher, but most importantly a mommy to 4 precious boys!!! And I feel so incredible blessed to be here!



2. The curse of Peter Pan: Little Bry has had an awful stomach thing going on for almost 2 weeks now... Basically I was doing a load of laundry with each diaper change... it was awful! We thought it might be from all the Peter Pan peanut butter he eats bc all 7 of the jars in my pantry had the 2111 number on them... (and he eats a TON daily), but we finally did some blood work that told us that he had an awful virus... he is now on the mend, and I am glad to have my well baby back!


3. I am just not June Cleaver: I had bunko at my house this week, and so I was doing all those "extra" things to clean.... baseboards, window sills, etc.... I never clean those things until I am having some big event at my house... and I know I should... but Hi HO Cherry-O and UNO are so much more fun! I have been using most of my spare moments during this last week getting my house ready to host 12 of my best friends in the world for bunko... and I got to thinking.... why do we put on this "june cleaver" impression for others? Do they really think that my house looks like this everyday? Do I admit that my children have been either watching movies or banned to the back yard for the entire day so I could get ready for all this? I did take them to the park for a picnic to make it more fun. I really had already swept, mopped, vacumed, etc, so I did not want their eating mess all over the place! And my wonderful hubby got off work a little early and took them out for the evening... I love bunko..... but I love it more when it is not at my house! :o)

4. A PINK nursery: But NOT for me! My sweet friend, Kaylee is expecting a girl any day now, and she decided last minute to paint her nursery.... actually I convinced her last minute to paint, so I have been painting while she hung out with me.... it is pink and chocolate colors... and her bedding uis pink, chocolate, and green... it is so pretty!!! So I have spent some late nights over there with her... it has been a fun time for the 2 of us to spend before her new little bundle arrives!

5. T is for "Texas:" Lastly, we had our "Texas Rodeo" at school today. The kids come dressed up in cowboy attire and we have all this fun stuff for them to do... it is a lot of work, but they love it. That is where the pictures tie in! How cute are these cowboys???

THE PICTURE BELOW IS FROM LAST YEAR! I know it is confusing bc the outfits are the same, but the kids are different... I just thought it was cute to see how much Coby has grown up!

And now back to this year....

The boys with mommy (or 'Ms Summer' as Coby calls me at school.. hilarious!)

Here Cason is panning for gold... the tongue cracked me up!!









And just so I dont leave them out... here are a few pics of the rest of the family:

Sweet boys!

just a quick story

I know, 2 posts in one day.... but I had to share this one!
Coby and Cason have their Valentine Parties tomorrow, so we were wrapping teacher gifts together. Cason had 2 gifts... one for each of his teachers, and Coby only had one. (one teacher is me). Coby and I were talking back and forth and it went something like this:
C: "Why does Cason have two presents and I only have one?"
Me: "Because he has one for Ms Mary and one for Ms Terry. And your is for Ms Debbie."
C: "Oh, I get it... I don't need one from you because I already got one for you when I went with Daddy to that place that has the stairs that go up and down and we got you that necklace with that shiny thing on it."

Whoops!

Note to self: do not share a secret with Coby if you would like for it to remain a secret!

Three cheers for a well weekend....

Hip, Hip, Hooray!

Hip, Hip, Hooray!!

Hip, Hip, Hooray!!!

Much to my amazement, Coby did not share his germs with all his brothers, and we all managed to avoid the wrath of the nasty stomach bug!! Especially since the first time he barfed, he did so ON his brother in bed (he and Micah share the bottom bunk). Nevertheless, I am quite thankful that all is well here in the Best family!! YAY!

Now.... to keep the grandmas happy..... an update in pictures:

Last week, we talked about the letter 'P' in school, so we had PJ day. The kids loved it. We also talked about Jackson Pollack (sp?) and how he painted without his brush ever touching the canvas, so each child got to have a turn doing a "pollack painting" They looked so cute in their painting gear. Here are pics of Coby from 'P' week:

Here he is in his favorite jammies with his favorite matching slippers and he borrowed Bryson's pillow to complete the outfit!

He got a little carried away with the splatter painting, but he had a blast!

Coby and Mommy... and in case you are wondering... I, too, had matching slippers and a leopard print blanket!

I love it when I catch Little Bryson "reading" He loves books, and he will sit and carefully turn the pages. It is so sweet~

Every now and then, he gets a little hungry, so he just makes do with what he's got.

Wait, did I see mommy with her camera? I had better ham it up, or she may move on to someone else!


I love moments like these... it had been so long since the 3 of them had played all together, so it was so sweet to look out my back window and find a reenactment of "CARS" the movie. They played for almost 2 hours and they came inside smelling like wet little puppy dogs, covered with sand, thirsty and hungry. I just know that someday I am gonna miss that wet puppy dog smell.

Just for fun... Coby begged me to put these on my "blob" as he puts it! We were just being silly..... that is one of the things Coby does best!

Hope you all have a fabulous week! I am looking forward to some normalcy around here!

One back up, another down....

So I said last night at about 9:00 pm that Cason was welland that we were good to go to school the next day... well, I spoke too soon. Coby began his first round of barfing around 2:00am. And then at 3, and at 4... you get the picture. He is now doing great, begging to go jump on the trampoline and asked if we could go to ChuckECheese for dinner... I think not! It is amazing how quickly they bounce back... now I wonder now who is next... hmmmm
So much for that blog about a totally normal day where we are all well, huh, Amy?!

Where do you hang your clothes?

The boys were riding bikes in the front yard, enjoying the beautiful weather, Bryson was down for a nap, and so I was kinda in and out watching them. Coby comes running around the corner with enormous eyeballs. "Micah bumped his head, and he is crying!!" Coby tends to be a bit dramatic, but I was headed to go check it out. As we were walking, I asked what he bumped his head on. Coby's response, "You know that thing that you always used to hang your clothes on? He bumped it on that." I am thinking, "a hanger? what is he talking about?" We round the corner, and there sits Micah, rubbing his head, sitting next to our treadmill that we recently moved out of our room into our garage. You guessed it.... he referred to the treadmill not as 'the thing you run on,' but as the 'thing you hang your clothes on.' Gulity. I must admit it. I have got to exercise more!!

Thanks so much for everyone's thoughts and prayers for sweet Cason. He is doing much better. He is playing away, but he still gets pretty tired easily. He goes to bed around 7:45, and he is usually asleep by 7:47. He is spoiling me with his sleeping in! And he is taking a 2 or 3 hour nap, too.... but he seems to feel good. He walks around telling perfect strangers, "I am not very sick anymore. I am just a little bit sick now." I was going to post pictures, but I am too tired... maybe I will have a chance to do it tomorrow. Hope you all have a great weekend!

ps - fyi, Micah was fine... a quick kiss and a rub and he was good to go!

Good News and Bad News

I will start with the bad news... Cason officially has mono. Big bummer! He kinda took a turn for the worse today and so we took him on into the hospital to have his blood work done, and the blood counts all looked ok, but the mono test was positive. So we are going back in tomorrow to have his spleen checked and to get more details. It was a really long day with him! He was so brave getting his blood work done... they all just ewed and awed over him and how cute he was... and he had to hamm it up since he is not used to being the center of attention! So the good news? The good news to me is that it is not one of those other scary diseases that we were testing for in the blood count... there were a lot of other much more serious illnesses that were a possibility, and it still makes me cry to even think about all of that... so in that perspective, I am thankful for mono and the "perscription to rest!" My hope and prayer now is that all the others (myself included) do not get this stuff! And I am just curious... I know how the college students get this "kissing disease" but how in the world does a 3 year old catch mono??

On a MUCH lighter note, my mom and dad kept out other 3 kids while we took Cason in today and MiMi pulled Micah's 2nd tooth. He would kill me if I didnt put that in the blog! So here is his little note and his picture...

Sometimes it's ok to jump on the bed....

Tonite, Clint and I were talking in the living room, we were interrupted the sound of squeaky springs from the boys bedroom... followed by an outbreak of loud giggles. This is always a hard rule to enforce, but a rule nonetheless, so I headed off to their room to get onto Coby and Micah for jumping on the bed. As I rounded the corner, I saw Coby and Micah playing at their new pool table and Cason bounding up and down, and up and down on the bed..... YEAH!!!!! I had never been so happy to see a child jumping on the bed... it was a glimpse of joy from my sweet 3 year old who has been way too sick to even think about jumping anywhere! He was just giggling away! So we all got up there on the bed and jumped for just a minute to celebrate his feeling better! I must admit, it was actually pretty fun!
I would not say that Cason is well, but he has made a huge improvement. We started him on Zithromax yesterday, and I am not sure if that is to blame for the improvement, but whatever it is, I will take it. He is still running fever and he tires pretty easily, but it was so good to see him playing and giggling today. He ate really well at all 3 meals as well, so I am hopeful that we are on the mend. Thanks so much for your thoughts and prayers! Keep em coming! I do hope he continues to get better, and that we can avoid any further tests next week!!

I snuck in a few pictures at bedtime....

I just love how they are so into the Bible stories... and notice Micah wiggling his loose tooth... that is what he does all the time these days!

Thanks, everyone, for the thoughts and prayers! I hope I feel better really soon so I can go back to school and church and see all my friends!

Love, Cason

Poor Cason

Yes, my sweet Cason is STILL sick. We are going on day 7 with high fever... I am not talking about a little fever virus where they run this random low grade fever and play a little less.... he is running fever between 102 and 104 degrees... and he is just so sick, laid up on the couch or in bed all day. He has not really eaten hardly anything in a week. Every now and then he eats a cracker. I have been letting him have fruit snacks (which are like candy to my kids) just to get something in his body. Maybe it is in my head, but I feel like I am beginning to see his weight loss in his face... I am really worried about him. We went back to the doc today, and they said maybe it is mono... maybe it is a viral infection and a sinus infection on top of eachother, maybe it is something more serious.... maybe??? So they have decided to put off the blood work until next week to wait to see how he feels.... if it is still going on, they will run some tests to see if there is something more serious wrong with him.... They have started him on an antibiotic just to see if there is something bacterial that could be fought off with that.... I just hate the unknowns! I would almost just prefer our usual positive strep test, a good dose or 2 of Amoxicilan (sp?) and we are usually good to go.... Not to mention that the rest of us are stir crazy! We have not been anywhere together as a family in almost 2 weeks... it feels really weird! Clint and I pass eachother at the door for one to take over on Cason duty and the other to go to work or run errands or go to church with the well kids...... this is just the pitts!!
Please join me in prayer for my sweet little guy!