And She's Mobile...

Last fall when Eleanor rolled over for the first time I lamented the loss in knowing where she would be fifteen minutes after setting her down. Luckily for me, after she rolled over a few times she thought that was enough. She didn't like being on the ground, she wanted to sit up so she could look around at all the action! It took a bit of practice, but she was soon sitting up all by herself and playing with anything she could reach. Now, she's started scooting across the floor. She's been trying for a few weeks, but was mostly spinning. The last several days have brought quite the improvement in her scooting abilities. The other kids are amazed when she comes up and topples their towers or grabs their cards. She can even reach things that are sitting on top of the coffee table! Just now, I pulled one of Veronica's barretts out of her mouth. Where do all these little things come from, and why is the baby always the one to find them? (I'm trying to get a video posted of her scooting. It's taking some time, though. Check back later!)

Unauthorized

So, apparently our week hasn't been stressful enough. On Tuesday night I logged into our online banking account to balance the checkbook and pay some bills. What's this? A $2000 overdraft! It turns out that someone hacked into our paypal account, added a new address to my profile, bought some computer equipment, and tried to stick us with the bill!
We're currently working through a dispute with paypal. Our bank is being very kind and is waiving the overdraft fee. Apparently even with a a dispute on file, paypal still tries the account a couple of times, so our kind teller is keeping an eye on our account for us, ready and waiting to waive more fees.
A few years ago Greg decided to open a second checking account. We use it soley to for paypal and other online purchases. We only transfer money to it as we use the account. It's sort of a Dave Ramsey version of a credit card. :) I'm so thankful that we had it set up like this and it's not our main bank account that's being afected. If you make online purchases, I really reccommend getting a separate account just for those! It's a time like this when it really comes handy!

My week in Prayer Requests

Sent 2-20:
Some of you know a little bit about what has been happening in our family this week. A quick recap and then our prayer request for the weekend.

On Wednesday I noticed that one side of Eleanor's neck was slightly swollen and sensitive to touch. Thinking it was her lymph nodes and she probably had an ear infection I took her in and we saw the PA. It turns out that she and the boys had strep throat. All the kids were put on antibiotics, and she was also put on ibuprofin to help with the inflammation.

Her swelling has actually gotten worse over the last two days and I took her back today. We saw our doctor and he is thinking that she has an abcessed lymph node. She's on the right meds and we also get to apply heat. That could cause the abcess to rupture and drain, which would probably be good for it. I have to call back on Monday with a progress report. If it hasn't gotten any better, we'll be referred to a specialist with the thought that it could be a cyst.

Please be praying that we can see some improvement this weekend and that she will start feeling better. Having it drain would confirm that it is only an abcess and move things along more quickly. If it does drain, that we would take care of it properly. That come Monday the doctor will know exactly what direction to head with this. Also, I have not been handling things well with little sleep and an irritible baby. We need God's peace to descend upon our house!

Thanks, everyone
Love,
Lynnette

Sent 2-23:
We've appreciated all of the prayers, care, and concern over the last several days. Prayers are powerful and effective. Even with the continued lack of sleep, my attitude today has been quite a bit better than it was on Friday. I know it's because of the Lord.

Well, the abcess on Eleanor's neck looked really close to popping yesterday, but it never happened. Today it looked kind of scabby instead of ready to pop. We've been referred to an ENT and have an appointment for Tuesday morning at 10:30.

Please pray for Eleanor to get some good sleep tonight (so we can all get some good sleep tonight). Please pray for the appointment tomorrow- that this is something that can be taken care of right there. And mostly that Eleanor will be healed soon so she can go back to being the happy baby she's trying so hard to be right now.

Love,
Lynnette (and fam)

Sent 2-24:
I've heard it said that God doesn't give you more than He knows you can handle. I think the past 24 are a case to prove that point!

Eleanor's abcess spontaneously ruptured overnight! Quite a bit of stuff came out and it's a lot smaller today than it has been all week. Our doctor still wanted us to keep the appointment with the ENT. If it hadn't reuptured, we'd be in the operating room right now getting it removed. As things stand right now, we're to keep her on antibiotics while it's healing and continue monitoring it. If there are any other pockets in there it should be evident within a couple of days and we'll go in and have them removed at that point.

Thank you all so much for the prayer support you have been giving us. Please pray for continued sleep, rest, and peace (for her and me!) Pray that everything has come out and for proper healing. Since it ruptured on it's own, there's a chance for scarring, please pray that it will be minimal (or at least coverable when she gets hair!).

Love,
Lynnette (and the rest)

Our week in photos:

Eleanor's Abcess

lost connectivity

I had a wonderful update typed up and ready to post. Of course, I lost my internet connection as soon as I was ready to share it all with you. Now I'm too tired to retype the whole thing. So here's the shortened version.

Christmas was Jesus' birthday. My kids got that. Faithwalkers was spent with my kids, but God still spoke to my heart. 2009 has started, but I haven't had a chance to make any resolutions. Or even get around to planning our school work for the semester. I'm looking forward to several things we're praying about for the coming year.

Lesson From Potty Training

"The low points in motherhood are potty training and driver's training."

I think that my friend's mom has it right. At least the potty training part. (Thankfully, Zachary's not old enough to learn how to drive!) There are so many theories and methods for potty training a mom could get lost. I would love to do infant potty training, but for some reason we've never really given it a go. I just read another article about it that made me wonder if Eleanor is still little enough to try it with.

When I was first gathering information about potty training Zachary I asked a friend who has many kids what to do. She wasn't really sure. I thought that was funny considering she had five or six kids who seemed to be pottying by themselves! Now I understand what she meant. I have three kids who are pretty much trained, and I don't feel like anything I did made a difference at all.

Zachary took forever, and then suddenly was trained after being pretty sick soon after he turned three. Quinlan got trained on accident in less than two days two months after he turned two. I was quite hopeful when I had heard that girls are easier. But Veronica has taken Zachary's path of foreverness and is only just now going potty consistently. Of course, with each of these, there's a longer story!

It seems that no matter what I do or try, this is something that is out of my hands. If I needed yet another reminder that I don't have control over anything, I think this would be it. God has taken everything in my life and used it to show me over and over again that He is in control and I'm just along for the ride. No matter how hard I try to make my will happen, God's will is stronger and overrides my own desires.

That doesn't mean that I get to stop trying! I am still responsible for doing my best to train them. He uses me in their lives and the lives of others. But it does mean a thought and attitude shift as I go about my day. I can look around for the opportunities God has placed before me and submit my will to His larger plan each and every day.

I think that the Lord is trying to show me that this is how He works in other areas of my children's lives, as well. I need to pour my time and energy into them. I need to train them and discipline them. I need to love them and hug them. But in the end, how they turn out is all God's doing. I can try to take credit myself, or I can give Him the praise and glory for how He's working in my children's lives. And I can learn this now before those teen years!

Photo Shoot

Today we dressed all my kids up in matching outfits and embarked upon a photo shoot with cousin Lucy. We took over 100 photos, and I think we might have ten good ones :) After three hours, we had our photos taken, had them uploaded, and had a collage made. I spent a little more time playing with the collage maker and we get to pick up our prints later tonight. Technology is awesome!

Lucy is two months and Eleanor is six months. They were never happy at the same time. And when they were happy, they weren't looking in the same direction. My sister-in-law said that if they would even both cry at the same time, that would make a good picture. But that never happened, either!

It was amazing how many times we'd have all the kids set up for a photo, and one of them would turn their heads. And that's not even taking the babies into consideration! I think we need to have more photo shoots like this throughout the year, so that when the time comes, my kids will hold their poses, look at the camera, and smile normally.

For some of the better pictures, check out the album Christmas photo shoot on picassa.

Still Thankful

I've been meaning to post about Thanksgiving. Can you believe it's been a week already? We've so quickly moved from a time of being thankful into a season of being greedy. I'm trying to hold onto the spirit of thankfulness a little bit longer this year. We still don't have our tree, yet, so it's a little easier not to get sucked in!

We had a wonderful time Wednesday night with our homegroup. Even with our guests the kids still outnumbered the adults (18 kids 16 adults). One unique thing about our group this year was the international flavor. Moh Yin (from Malaysia) brought a new friend from China. There were also eight of the nine Egyptian neighbors. When we got home (around ten) we spent some time on the computer showing Zachary a map of the world and where we people were from. We compared everything to how long it took to drive to Aunt Donna's house (Nevada). Did you know that it would take roughly two weeks to drive to Egypt from Nebraska? I wonder if anyone's tried it?

The definite hightlight of the festivities were when our new friends sang traditional songs from their countries. I, of course, drew a mental block and could not think of a single song! Even if I could, I'm not sure my kids would have known any. I mean really, how often do we sing "Johnny Appleseed" or the like?

We spent Thanksgiving in Blair. I was really worried about not being able to eat any dairy (Eleanor has an intolerance). Can you name a Thanksgiving dish without butter or cream cheese? The hardest part by far was passing on Paula's french silk pie. (I attempted to make one with margarine for Greg's birthday- that doesn't work.) We had a wonderful time with friends and family. We watched a slideshow of a honeymoon in New Zealand- it made us want a digital SLR and new passports!

The rest of the weekend was spent lounging around and watching football. We made an advent wreath and are preparing our hearts for the celebration of Christ's birth.