A Valentine's Day to Remember

Once again more time has passed then I would like between blog entries, but I guess that is what happens when you work part time and take care of two little boys (and a husband :).  I also want to go back and add pictures to some of my blog posts sometime.  And I want to learn more about blogging and I want to.... I could go on and on, but I won't because as I said in a previous post I am trying to be better about just living in the moment.  When I think back over what we have done in the past couple weeks one of the things that stands out the most in my memory is Valentine's Day.  Now traditionally Terry and I don't do a lot for Valentine's Day.  We usually get each a card and some candy, but it is not a big deal for either of us.  We see it more as a commercial holiday.   However, this year a couple who are mentors in our Bible class invited couples to their home for Valentine's Day and let us know that they wanted to serve us dinner.  Cynthia and Geoff's children are grown, but they remember how hectic life can be with little ones.  Knowing how thoughtful and giving they are I knew that it would be a nice evening, but it was much more than that.    As we all arrived (5 couples) they took our coats and brought us a drink.  We immediately felt relaxed and pampered.  Although we were there with our friends whom we enjoyed spending time with they asked each couple to pick their own table.  They had 5 tables set up around their home decorated beautifully.  Terry and I chose the table in the family room by the fireplace.  They brought us shrimp cocktail and bread followed by salad and then steak and asparagus.  Then we had cake, chocolate covered strawberries, and coffee.  The food was wonderful!  It was so nice to sit back and relax, have a nice meal, and more importantly quiet time with Terry.  We actually got to have an uninterrupted conversation!  It felt a little uncomfortable to have our friends whom we look up to wait on us, but I knew that it was something they really wanted to do.  I kept thinking, this is one of the nicest things anyone has ever done for us!  I told Geoff and Cynthia this and Cynthia told us that when their kids were very young and they were waiting for their house to be built they stayed with another couple for awhile.  Geoff and Cynthia were both working and taking care of their kids not to mention under the stress of having a house built.  One evening they came home to find that their friends had put the kids to bed and had prepared a nice meal for Geoff and Cynthia out on their back deck.  They expressed how much that meant to them and how they wanted to do the same for other couples.  I pray that Terry and I will do the same.  I pray that we will remember how special this night was to us and do the same for other couples someday.

Allergies, Painting, and Spiderman

I haven't written in a couple weeks so I want to get caught up on what we have been up to.   Two weeks ago an allergy doctor confirmed that Hayden is allergic to nuts and almonds.  When we were visiting Angela and her family after Christmas I let Hayden try a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.  He didn't eat very much of it, just mainly played with it.  A few minutes after he got down from his booster seat Terry noticed that he was rubbing his eyes.  I first assumed that he was just tired, but then Terry said he was fussy and then noticed hives on his face and that his eyes were swollen.  We knew that we hadn't given him anything out of the ordinary other than the peanut butter so we knew that that must be what he was reacting to.  We immediately called the Cliffords' pediatrician who asked us some questions and told us to give him some benadryl.  Thankfully that did the trick and his face slowly cleared up.  So, a couple weeks ago we took him to an allergy doctor who did a skin test which confirmed his allergy to nuts and they also did a nut panel and he mildly reacted to the almond.  We knew after the incident at Angela's that he was likely allergic, but it was nice to get a definite answer and talk to an expert about what we need to do.  Fortunately, his allergy isn't so severe that he can't be in the same room as peanuts.  She said that he can sit next to Isaac while he has a PB&J.  We were given a prescription for an EpiPen, but I pray that we never have to use it.  I don't think it will be too big of a deal when we are at home because we can read labels, but I am a little worried about when he is out of our sight especially as he gets older.  Dr. Sheerin (the allergy doctor) also recommended that we get some blood work done that will give her some information that she will track every year to see if he outgrows this allergy.  I was dreading getting the blood work done because I assumed he would scream the whole time and I didn't want to watch him go through the nurse trying to find a vein, him squirming and screaming, etc.  Even though I was dreading it I just wanted to get it over with so I scheduled the appointment for last Wednesday.  To my amazement, he didn't scream.  He didn't even cry!  He obviously wasn't happy about it and squirmed just a little, but he was great and I was thankful to have a good nurse.  The blood work showed that his allergy is moderate to severe.  He is too young to be able to tell whether he will outgrow it, but we will have him tested again next year.

Last weekend I painted the living room.  Last Spring we turned our dining room into a playroom since it was rarely used as a dining room and I painted it green.  I started thinking about what color I wanted to paint the living room then.  I put a couple colors on the wall to try out, but after painting the playroom I wasn't ready to tackle another room for a while.  I finally got tired of looking at my paint swatches in the living room and decide to tackle painting another room.  We have hired people to paint a few rooms in our house, but I have painted most of the rooms.  Terry doesn't like to paint and I don't mind doing it.  I like trying to decide on a color and I love seeing a nice, bright, clean, fresh paint of coat on the walls.  I got my taping done Friday which is always a pain, but a big help to get that out of the way before hand.  I started painting Saturday morning.  Terry took the boys to Walmart and hung out with them until I stopped at 3:00 to get ready for a birthday party that Isaac was invited to.  That night I finished my 2nd coat and did touchups and clean up on Sunday.  I don't like the color as much as the one I chose for the playroom, but I am happy with it and glad that it is done!

I mentioned that Isaac was invited to a birthday party Saturday night and the theme of the party was perfect for him, Superheroes!  Isaac is all about superheroes right now and one in particular, Spiderman.  The invitation said that you could come dressed as your favorite superhero so of course Isaac wanted to be Spiderman.  We didn't have a costume and I really didn't want to go and buy one just for this party so I put my superpower to work (also known as Facebook) and found him a costume.  Some friends at church gave us one that their son had outgrown.  He had a great time at the party and has put his Spiderman costume on I think at least once a day every day since then.  It is fun to see him so into something, but we have decided to limit how much he watches the Spiderman show because it is a little violent and gory and we much prefer him to watch educational shows.