Over the Ill-ness

Well we might as well name year 2011 the year that our family got sick and couldn't get better. In January, Micayla had a cold right at the beginning of the year. Then she had her ear tubes surgery and got a another cold right after that. The week after that, she got sick at school and turned out that she had a stomach bug for about 4 days. I escaped the stomach bug, but Hudson wasn't so lucky. He came home last Wednesday evening not feeling well and stayed home Thursday-Friday because he had the terrible stomach bug. He felt well enough for us to go to church last Friday night for the "sweetheart banquet," where the average age was in the '60's. Our table of 30's pulled down the average for a few years, but we had a great time eating and laughing (plus free child care!). We all went to church on Sunday and felt good...I started coughing Sunday evening, Hudson told me I was getting sick and I told him it was just allergies. I was wrong. By Monday afternoon I felt like I had been run over by a semi-truck, Monday evening I went to bed at 8, and by Tuesday morning, I was headed to the doctor to confirm what I thought was the flu. I was correct in my diagnosis, except that I missed that I also had bronchitis. I've been quarantined to our guest room now for 4 days and am so ready to leave this house! Hudson has been wonderful in taking care of me and Micayla, all the while missing work in order to do so (and he was already behind). He's been able to go today while Micayla is at school, and thus far, both of them have escaped the dreadful (and I mean, dreadful) flu. I feel like we've Lysoled and Cloroxed everything in the house and still feel like I'm spreading germs everywhere. I do feel much better now that I have a concoction of medications that are aiding my improvement, and many prayers are being sent up that the rest of my family doesn't get this. All in all, we are surviving, but I am so ready to be over the ill-ness that seems to be consuming our little family. Spring, come clear out the germs!

Micayla's Prayers

We've been encouraging Micayla to pray with us at mealtimes, at bedtime, and then throughout the day as needs arise. She's pretty good about folding her hands and and closing her eyes and bowing her head. A lot of times at lunch/dinner, she'll say "Thank you God for our food, Amen." It's quite endearing for this Mommy to hear her pray, and while she might not understand the full concept of praying, we're still trying to instill in her that we love and serve a God that can and does listen to us all the time.

We're at home again this Sunday morning, so we're watching church online and I've been showing her what regular service is like since she's obviously still in the nursery right now. She loves singing along to the music, and prayed with our pastor this morning. Here is a almost verbatim transcript of her prayer:

"Thank you God for our day. Thank you God for Daddy. And for Frances and Memaw and Papaw. Pray for sister in the right time. Thank you God for my sucker at bank. And my necklaces."

Here's a couple of interesting things about this prayer:

1. Frances is a goat at my in-laws ranch.
2. Memaw and Papaw are Hudson's parents.
3. We pray each night that God would bring Micayla a brother or sister in the right time. She almost always changes it to sister only.
4. She doesn't understand why I won't let her have her sucker from the bank this morning for breakfast.

Y'all, she prays for Frances almost everytime. (Whose name is actually Francesca, but that's another story.) I have to really work at not laughing at the contents of her prayers, but then I ultimately realize that there isn't anything that she holds back in talking about, asking for, etc., when she prays. And yet, I know there are times when I do hold back in my own prayer life because I think it is too small a requset, seems "silly" to mention in my prayers, or feel awkward in mentioning it in a prayer, despite the fact that I know that God knows my heart and my thoughts and there isn't anything that I keep hidden from Him. So, maybe I'll start to pray a little more like my child, who believes that nothing is "off limits" in praying towards a heavenly Father that truly cares about the clothes on our backs, the food that we eat, and ultimately, whether we've accepted Him as our Savior. Maybe praying for Frances isn't so funny after all.

Snow in Houston

Isn't this funny? Y'all, you would think that Houston was going to get multiple feet of snow. Not a single flurry fell on our home, so the little one here is a little disappointed. They say that the roads are bad with the little bit of rain that fell and froze on the roads. Hudson has a snow day today, all the school districts are closed, so we've got the fire going and we're going to enjoy a family day, despite the lack of snow. Seems like Dallas/FW got all of our snow this time.

Waiting for Snow

It's really cold here...I mean, we live 45 minutes from the coast, so one would expect that we would have temperatures that reflect that. And often, we do. But an "Artic Cold Blast" (as the weathermen have deemed it) has come in and "GET YOUR HEAVY COATS OUT PEOPLE, IT'S COLD!" (said in my best weatherwoman voice). This morning it was 22 degrees outside, and it was 59 degrees in our house. (Downstairs that is, upstairs was warmer). I know my northern friends (Kim, Haley, Sara S., and everyone in DFW) is likely thinking, 22 degrees? That's a warm front right now for us. But here, when it gets this cold, it becomes "BREAKING NEWS!" I personally enjoy a good cold snap--reminds me of Memphis and the sometimes ice/snow we got. Anyways, apparently the little man (as Micayla calls anyone who does any type of work on anything (ie. plumber, dishwasher repairmen, mechanic, etc.)) at ERCOT wasn't correctly figuring up how much electricity the state of Texas would consume today with all the "BREAKING NEWS: [SCARY] ARTIC COLD BLAST!" So we've had rolling blackouts all morning, but none for the last couple of hours. We had three blackouts this morning that all lasted about 45 minutes or so. (Side note: I'm listening to our local Christian radio station, and the clip I just heard discussed something about covering Houston with post it notes? The tagline: Because love sticks? I'm not sure what to think about this, though maybe it would help if I listened to the whole clip.) Back to the BREAKING NEWS! [FEROCIOUS] ARTIC COLD BLAST IS HERE! I'm thankful that Hudson lit our gas fireplace this morning before he left for work. It helped keep a little heat in our den. Unfortunately, when you have a house built like ours (note to self: never buy this style house again), we lose a lot of heat so the downstairs can often be cold. So here's a few things about our BREAKING NEWS day that we've had.

1. I was still alseep this morning at 6:45 am. Micayla was not awake yet. Hudson was up and getting ready for work. I jumped out of the bed this morning right after 6:45 am because our alarm system started going off. You know how when you are in a deep sleep and then a loud noise like a persistent, loud alarm is going off and you can't really place where you are, where your glasses are, what time it is, what day it is, etc? Okay, that happened this morning. Our alarm system went off the other night while we were out doing an errand, but apparently it just had a glitch in the system, so the police weren't called (on our okay). So, we haven't been setting the alarm at night because it needed to be fixed. So, Hudson runs upstairs (the actual horn is in the attic) and tells me that the power went off but I can barely hear him over the loud alarm. We try punching in our code to no avail. I turn on my cell phone because the alarm company is likely going to call and with the power out, they won't reach us at our home number. Hudson is getting more frustrated because nothing is turning it off. He tries unplugging the horn in the attic. (Mind you, he's already dressed for work and the power is out.) Frantic searches for flashlights are carried out. I, still somewhat unaware of why the alarm is now going off when the power is not on at all, am trying to clear my fogginess to figure out a way to get this thing to turn off. Hudson tries to unplug the battery from the wall in the alarm system unit. The alarm is still.going. Finally, someone who shall remain nameless begins to pull every wire out of the box of the alarm system for it to go off. When remnants of our alarm system are now all over my closet, it becomes apparent that we are not going to be able to shut this thing off. The wireless part of our system is now removed from the wall and seemingly destroyed. Let's just say that one of us was able to get a lot of frustration out this morning. The ladder is brought upstairs as a last resort. Hudson removes the smoke detector from our room and off.the.alarm.goes. Micayla? Still asleep. (Her room is right across from ours so I don't have a clue how she slept through all of that.) Alarm system? Destroyed. Going to be an expensive mistake to fix. I have no idea what the spiritual lesson is to be learned from this, but I'm sure there is one there.

2. I made the mistake of telling Micayla that we have a chance for snow on Friday. "LIKE 1-3 INCHES! THIS ARTIC COLD BLAST WILL BE COLD! WATCH FOR OUR BREAKING NEWS ON THE LATEST SNOWFALL WHEN AND WHERE IT HITS!" When you live in a metro city like ours, and an hour north of our home is still considered Houston, they could get 1/2 inch of snow Friday morning while we get nothing. But she has been looking out the window all morning asking when the snow is going to come. I've had to tell her that it might not come, but if it does, we'll go out in it. She tells me she wants to build "frosty." I tell her that we'll do it if we can. If we don't get snow, I might have the most disappointed 2 year old around.

3. With the rolling blackouts this morning, and the ARTIC COLD BLAST: SNOW IS COMING alarm on the tv this morning, I decided we should join everyone else in their latest quest for acquiring milk and bread, because apparently, if it snows, this is what you need. And, if timing isn't everything, I'm scheduled to host our Ladies Night Out for our SS class tomorrow evening. So, not knowing what the weather will hold, I decided to get my other few things for the gathering tomorrow evening. Hudson had an orthodontist appointment around noon, so I suggested that we meet for lunch because we don't get to do that often. I got our minivan filled with gas (why is there the need for having a full tank of gas if you know you are going to be snowed in?), went to the bank and had a long conversation in the drive thru with the bank lady about where my latest debit card is (apparently, in the mail, despite the fact that my current one is now expired), and about that time Hudson called to tell me he was done. So, I had noticed that we just had a Five Guys open here in P-town, so we met there, only to be disappointed in the fact that they were closed due to the rolling blackouts. So, Panera isn't too far and we went there and had a nice bowl of soup together. Micayla, of course, refused to eat her grilled cheese (who doesn't like grilled cheese?) but happily drank her apple juice and ate most of a baguette. We headed to Target afterwards and got the necessities: milk, creamer for Hudson's coffee, diapers (sure glad I didn't forget those), and artichoke hearts. An exciting list to be sure. Micayla fell asleep on the way home and she's still asleep in her bed upstairs, hence the reason I can actually write a post today.

4. I just heard Francesca Battistelli's "This is the Stuff You Use" song and I had to laugh (and agree).

I also love Mandisa's new song "Stronger"--Micayla and I can really dance to this one!


5. We've had lots of good meals this week: Italian chicken and rice, homemade chicken tortilla soup, homemade chicken pot pie, and I made my mom's homemade chocolate pie as well. Hudson said that it was some of the best chocolate pie he's ever had (and I've made it before, so that must be saying something.)

6. I'm making chocolate cake balls, russian tea, hot artichoke dip, and coffee for tomorrow night's LNO. I also have a few things planned for those that come, and I can't wait. Unfortunately, I just read that Micayla's playschool tomorrow might be cancelled due to the impending BREAKING NEWS: WE HAVE ONE SNOW FLURRY IN THE HOUSTON AREA!, which means my hopes of deep cleaning my house tomorrow while she is at school is not looking very promising. However, I did clean all the outside of my kitchen cabinets before I started posting on the computer, so at least I got one thing done.

7. I just decided I should stop posting and instead, get busy cleaning my house while she is asleep, plus it will keep me warm since it is 62 degrees inside my house right now.

8. I'm procrastinating now, because the couch is awfully comfortable.

9. I'm hoping Hudson comes home soon because that fireplace needs to be lit again.

10. Fine, I'll get up. (Self-motivation can work sometimes!)