Another update on John

God was indeed watching out for John this morning. Gina received a call from the hospital that he had gram positive blood cultures. Had he had the transplant, he would have been on immune suppressing drugs which would have allowed the infection to grow like crazy.

Feel free to check back in on her blog.

Prayer Update

John did not have his surgery this morning. The organs were not in good enough shape for successful transplant. He and his family will return to their home and wait for God's perfect time.

Please continue to pray for the family who lost a child.

Praying

My friend Gina's son, John will undergo a multiple organ transplant in the morning. I can only imagine the emotions Gina is feeling - relief that a donor has been found, fear of the surgery and the unknown, sadness for the family who lost a loved one. May God be with all and grant His peace.

Her blog can be found here.

Piano

Panda went to the piano and was trying to figure out how to play a song on her own.

Ladybug said, "Mom, Panda is trying to sound out the song."

Pumpkin Carving

My friend invited us to come over and carve pumpkins with them. Her boys were so helpful with my girls! Butterfly was the first to dig into her pumpkin. I figured she would be the one who would not touch the pumpkin. But that was Ladybug!Panda dug into her pumpkin and did a great job with the assistance of the boys.
The finished products: (We finally convinced Ladybug to work on hers)

Butterfly's pumpkin is an owl on a tree limb - kind of hard to see in this photo.B

Bike Riding

Butterfly decided that she wanted to learn to ride her bike without training wheels a couple of weeks ago. We went across the street to the church parking lot and I gave her a little push and she went a few feet. We tried again and she went a little further. One more time and then she was riding all the way across the parking lot. (these pictures are actually taken later at the school nearby)Ladybug came out about that time. She had taken the training wheels off her bike a couple years ago, but then wiped out and wouldn't ride again. Her jaw dropped as she saw Butterfly racing across the parking lot. She grabbed her bike and off she went. She told me that she wasn't about to let Butterfly get ahead of her! Yes, she does have a bigger bike, but wanted to ride this smaller bike that a friend gave to her.Panda wanted to join in the fun, of course, so she pulled out her tricycle and away she went.

Pumpkin Patch Field Trip Report

We arrived at the pumpkin patch pretty close to our arrival time goal. We paid our fees and with the help of the map made our plan of attack. We decided to tackle the corn maze first this year. As we walked toward the corn maze, we (the moms) about panicked when we noticed that the jumping pillow was not inflated! Hoping that it would be inflated later, we continued walking to the corn maze, after a stop at a tree swing and a teeter totter.The girls tested their navigation skills by leading us through the maze. I'm not sure they knew where they were going, but they enjoyed being the leaders. We (the moms) enjoyed listening to their cute conversations. After finding our way out of the maze, we headed over the swinging bridge to another tree swing, tricycles, horse swings, and a hay bale maze. Once the girls wore the moms out by making them run the horse in circles, we continued our exercise routine on the pedal cars. Yes, they apparently make pedal cars for two people, just so young children can further poop out the moms. It really was fun, until the hill... My legs are going to tell me about that hill again tomorrow.
We (the moms) we delighted to see that the jumping pillow had been inflated. So, we encouraged the girls (as if that took great arm twisting) to go have fun jumping. They invited us to join them and, of course, we couldn't refuse. We jumped until our post-baby bladders could take no more bouncing... some things just aren't the way they used to be.On our way to lunch, the girls had to make a trip down the tube slide. We enjoyed our lunch in the picnic area and marveled at the beautiful weather! We couldn't have had a better day.
After lunch, it was off to the playground area. The girls wanted to review their fire pole sliding, swinging, log swinging, and climbing skills. After brushing up on those skills, we took a ride on the paddle boats. Mine wouldn't steer. I thought we were going to be stuck on the little pond all afternoon. Thankfully, paddling backwards worked.
We were getting to the end of the afternoon, so we let the girls pick what they would like to do before we left. The older girls chose the tube slide again and the younger girls chose the jumping pillow. A good time was had by all. Once we were sufficiently worn out and VERY thirsty, we headed to the car. Snacks and drinks were passed out and we headed for home.

Exchange with the 4 year old

4 year old: "Mommy, they aren't letting me play."
Mom: "That's not nice. Why not?"
4 year old: "They said I'm being mean."
Mom: "Oh. Well, are you being mean?"
4 year old: "No, I think they heard an imagination."

Back for Homecoming and Misc.

We went back again this weekend to see my parents and do a few homecoming activities. The girls just HAD to get their candy harvest in for the year (the parade...).

I was so glad to get there and back safely. As we were headed out Friday, we came upon two different accidents. That always makes me more edgy while driving.

Sunday, we drove straight to church and enjoyed the youth dinner after church. The youth are raising money to go to Higher Things again. I hope someday that I will get to go with my girls. :)

After the dinner, we took Ladybug to her clarinet lesson. Since her teacher is 45 minutes away from us, this was only her second lesson. She did wonderful. Her teacher is awesome!

Off Track

Ever feel like your day is derailed before it even begins? That's how mine is today. The pipe going to my shower head broke last night, so I couldn't take a shower in my shower this morning. The plumber can not be reached until possibly tomorrow. Anything I have tried to accomplish today has taken double the amount of time to get done. Can I just start over?

The good news is that we do have water. It wasn't a break that is a drastic emergency. We do have another shower in the house.

I just hope my day gets back on track!

Aging

Here's Proverbs 23:22 as heard from Butterfly as she was working on her memory work: "Listen to your father, who gave you life, and do not despise your mother because she is old."

Monday

Glad it's over! It was a busy one. We got our school work done, had an appointment, made two trips to get the 17 enormous mums that Ladybug sold for choir, delivered 12 of them, took her to choir early for a group photo, picked her up after choir. Guess I shouldn't wonder why I'm tired!

Too bad Tuesdays are too busy for a nap...

Family Photo - My side of the family

Mom and Dad celebrated their 40th Anniversary on June 6th. We told them that for their anniversary, we would do a family photo. We hadn't done a whole family photo since Ladybug was a baby! We were able to get together today and get the photos done. We were pleased with how they turned out.

Yesterday's picture

In case you were wondering about that picture....

No, we did not get a new or different rabbit. That was a rabbit that we saw at the state fair. We thought it was so cute. It sat there with its nose poking out, waiting for someone to come along and pet it.

We went to the fair Monday and I've spent all week trying to catch up with life. We had a good time, though. We went to the birthing barn and saw baby calves, sheep, goats, pigs and chicks. I didn't think the girls would be interested in the rabbits since we have one of our own now, but they were even more interested this year in all the varieties of rabbits. From there we went to the Wild About Monkeys show. One of the boys from our church ended up being one of the volunteers chosen from the audience.

We spent some time at the midway and let the girls ride several rides. They love that!

After lunch, we went to a presentation on rocket science. It was very well done. The girls enjoyed it more than they thought they would.

We spent some time in the agriculture area learning about soil and grains. Panda's favorite part is sitting in the combine.

As we left, we made a pass through the petting zoo. We were tired and ready to go by the time we headed to the car!

Wordless Wednesday