Carson, Anna Kate, and Ava

I don’t know what these three stooges would do without each other at soccer practice!  They have so much fun together!

Noelle drew us these pictures when we were sick last week.  Sweet girl!

Anna Kate and I have been cleaning and doing laundry all week!  She’s been a great little Mommy’s helper.  Her favorite chore is to change clothes from the washer to the dryer.  She’ll say, “And this one, and this one…” until all the clothes are transferred.  She makes the catch-up days a lot more fun!

*Noelle LOVES to draw!  She is constantly coloring pictures, so I’m going to start sharing some with you.  They are pretty cute!

*Rose had a really bad ear infection.  Her ear drum popped, so that’s why she was inconsolable.  She’s on antibiotics and doing much better now!  I think the PondFam is on the mend! 

*Anna Kate watched Charlotte’s Web today and ran to me screaming, “Charlotte just died!”  It really hit her hard.  I had no idea she would get it.  I thought it would just be a fun animal movie.  She kept saying through her tears, “My heart is hurting!  I am so sad!”  I held her for a long time, and we talked about the circle of life.  Man, bless her heart.  She’s my observant child.  Nothing gets by her.

This is Devon’s little sister, Lindsay (28) with her two little boys, Brody and Cash.  They are Anna Kate’s (to the day) and Rose’s ages.  She passed away unexpectedly on Friday due to pneumonia and ARDS.  Her funeral is today, and all of our prayers go out to her husband, Gabe, Devon, her parents, her beautiful boys, and all of their hurting family and friends.  Please join us in lifting this family up to the Prince of Peace.

The boys know very little about what is going on at this point, and they have never discussed angels with Brody, however, when Gabe was tucking him in one night over the weekend, he said, “Daddy, what’s that angel doing up there?”  He said, “What angel?”  And Brody said, “Over there in the corner.”  That story gave me chills, and I know God is near that precious little family!

When I was crying yesterday, Anna Kate asked me what was wrong.  I simply said, “Devon’s little sister died.”  She said, “We’ll go get her back!”  I said, “We can’t.”  Then she said, “Well, we’ll see that girl soon!”  (so sweet) And then she said, “Mommy, did she ride on a big big airplane?”  I was blown away.  How would she know the concept of heaven being up?  We’ve never talked about that before either.  Kids truly are our windows to heaven. 

This was Noelle when she was sick as a baby… this picture still breaks my heart!

Saturday night our day of fun came to an end.  Rose got sick and literally screamed through the night.  She was in so much pain.  Mike and I were taking turns rocking her on the back porch because that seemed to take the edge off.  She’s had 100-102 ever since, and we are headed to the doctor in just a bit.

Noelle

Rose

Anna Kate always seems to stay healthy when the rest of us get sick.  I don’t remember her ever being sick as a baby!  She’s doing great right now too, thankfully!

Noelle was feeling better on Saturday, so Rara helped me take her to her soccer game and of course, her little cheerleader came along as well!

Anna Kate and Carson.  I love these silly 2 year olds!

See what I mean by silly?  I mean, who takes a piggy to a soccer game!

Getting pepped up for the game!  This was our hardest game yet and our most dramatic, but we pulled through a win 3-2!

Anna Kate and Carson always end up sitting on my lap together at some point, and I love it!  They are the perfect little size for a double dose! (this is also why I didn’t get any pictures of the game this time, lol)

Emma (front and center) saved the game for us this time, and I love this picture of our happy girls!

During the night on Wednesday, I knew Mike wasn’t sleeping well.  At 6AM Thursday morning, when we were both getting restless, I asked the question I dreaded the answer to, “How does your throat feel?”  Then a long pause… great!  I knew it!  My 12 hours of being pampered were over.  It’s been real… back to pushing through and sucking it up!

It took us ALL day long on Thursday to get Mike’s prescription ordered.  The doctor told me he would call something in if my husband got sick since my test came back positive.  However, I don’t think his answering service believed Mike when he called over and over again on Thursday.  I finally called and told them that we have babies to take care of and we need to schedule an appointment to speak to the doctor this afternoon about the level of care his staff is providing.  His nurse called back within 5 minutes saying she had called the prescription in, and it would be ready in 30 minutes.  Really?  Does it have to come to that? 

We were struggling.  Anyway, Mike went to get his prescription, and on his way home stopped to get us Sonic drinks.  He went through the drive-thru and when he pulled up to pay, the cashier said, “The car in front of you bought your drinks!”  Whoever that person is had no clue what we’d been through that day, both hurting and taking care of the girls, but they did a simple act of kindness that I’ll probably never forget all of my life.  $3, and I’ll never forget it.  It’s crazy what an impact something so small can have!  I bet that person was a believer because that’s what the body of Christ is all about to me, and I think that’s how the Spirit works to those who are in tune to being used.  When I feel a tug to do a random act of kindness, I don’t ignore it, that’s for sure.  Who knows?  It was perfect timing though.  Too perfect to be random.  We needed a pick me up, big time!

Noelle came home from school with a fever on Thursday as well but didn’t have any other symptoms except being extremely tired.  We kept her home from school today due to the wise counsel from a friend who said she has a fever for a reason, and her body is fighting something and we need to let her rest.  So that’s what we’re doing.  And then Rara got here, and the world is at peace… lol!  She was coming anyway to get her car fixed and help me consign the girls clothes this weekend, but she swooped in and made everything seem effortless.  I don’t know how she does it.  Mike and I had water and soup by our bedsides and the girls were asleep before I even looked up.  Amazing!  I hope I can swoop in a make everything better for my kids like that someday.  Practice makes perfect, right!?! 

Life doesn’t stop, so our bodies better snap out of it!  Hopefully the next post will be full of lots of fun pictures!   

This is Mike’s “I’m smiling because I love you but this is so dorky” face!  Lol!  He’s wearing “fuzzy wuzzy” (our blue Old Navy fleece) we’ve had since college.  We’ve had many discussions about getting rid of it, but we just can’t part with it!  We pull it out when we’re sick, and it makes everything comfy cozy!  (it’s so ghetto, though… you should see the fit – haha, all baggy mcgee!)  🙂

I’ve been sick on and off for the past month.  Last night I woke up and couldn’t swallow, and I knew I had pushed off a doctor’s visit as long as I could.  With Rose and Anna Kate in tow, off we went.  It was a miracle getting there because I was shaking and could barely walk. 

Anyway, when we pulled into the parking lot, Anna Kate said, “Don’t worry, Mom.  Next time you’ll feel better.  How ‘bout that?”  She always makes my day brighter.  I was having a hard time talking because my throat was hurting so badly, and she said, “Mommy, talk REAL loud!”  That was her way of telling me to talk normally, but I couldn’t.  First thing once we got into the office, they did a strep culture, and it came back positive.

The girls gave me grace while we were there, with the exception of Anna Kate throwing her blanket and snack cup at the nurse because she had to give me a shot.  Bless her heart, after that didn’t work, she started crying.  Her empathy warmed my heart and broke it all at the same time.  If you’ve never had a penicillin shot in the rear, you’re lucky.  It was all I could do to hold it together for Anna Kate and try not to react from the pain.  I’m great with shots, but this was the worst one of my life, hands down. 

I called Mike balling in the parking lot and told him I really needed him to come home.  I’ve never done that before.  Ever.  I was shaking from the chills, so I blasted the heat in the front of the car, had on the seat warmer, and drove around until he could get home to help me get the girls out of the car.

You Moms out there know that when we get sick, we just fight through it to do what we need to do to take care of the family, but every now and then, it gets the best of us… we’ll be back in business soon! 🙂