A Long Road

So until the beginning of this month, Clayton had been doing awesome on his oxygen sprints--he was up to five hours off during the day and probably could have gone more if I hadn't taken it slow. But then sickness hit. He started needing more oxygen around the first week of March and it's steadily gotten worse and worse. We've been doing lots of breathing treatments, and still haven't seen any change for the better. The crazy thing is he hasn't run fever or "acted" sick during all this time. I kept him home last week from therapy to see if that would help, and between staying in all week and the extra steroids, he almost drove me crazy! He had just a tad too much cabin fever! I finally let him go to therapy this week on "light duty" mainly for both of our sanitys, and he was soooo glad to see everyone at the clinic. But that didn't change the fact that he was still needing way too much oxygen. Finally took him to the doctor this morning, and guess what? Clear chest x-ray. Normal blood gas. SOOO, what the heck does that mean? Means he's not deathly ill for one thing, but that this cold he has is affecting him far worse than the rest of us. So we'll keep doing breathing treatments and pray that he slowly gets better. (Or quickly gets better!)

But this has opened my eyes to just what a long road we have to a completely "oxygen-free" life we have. I knew he would have to sleep with it for lots longer than he would need it during the day, but I guess I thought the days of colds (or a virus?) affecting him this much were behind us. As usual, I thought wrong.

Please say a prayer for Clayton's lungs tonight/today. Pray they will be strong enough to oxygenate better and that all the congestion clears up. THANK YOU!

Easter Photo

He Is Risen!

There in the ground His body lay, Light of the world by darkness slain;

Then bursting forth in glorious day, up from the grave He rose again!

And as He stands in victory, sin's curse has lost its grip on me!

For I am His and He is mine—bought with the precious blood of Christ!

No guilt in life, no fear in death—This is the pow'r of Christ in me;

From life's first cry to final breath, Jesus commands my destiny!

No pow'r of hell, no scheme of man, can ever pluck me from His hand.

Till He returns or calls me home—Here in the pow'r of Christ I'll stand!

Good Friday

**Beautiful day outside!

**Ran a couple of errands, now I think we'll ride over to the park and hope that everyone else didn't have that idea!

**Looking forward to Easter Sunday--we have a full day of plans!

Challenge Time

I'm hosting a sketch challenge on Noel's blog.

Come check it out!

Doing Better

I was able to turn Clayton's oxygen flow down a bit this morning, so I hope that means he's on the mend. It just takes so long for his lungs to recover even after he's germ-free. I'm still doing the breathing treatments because I'm determined he'll get over this as fast as possible, even if that means days . . .

In other news, I can't believe Easter is this Sunday. The weather certainly doesn't reflect it, but isn't that how it always is in Arkansas this time of year? No band practice this week again, but I have Bible Study and then Praise Team practice after that on Wednesday night. Plenty of music to keep me busy. I've basically just been holding and entertaining Clayton today. I'm thinking he may get to go to therapy later in the week, so we'll see. Hope everyone else's Monday is going well!

Does He Look Sick to You?

Nope, didn't think so . . . but apparently he is because for the last three days he's been needing more and more oxygen. I slowly started doing C.P.T. (chest physiotherapy) in the beginning of the week and upping his inhalers. That's what they would do if we took him to the hosptial (believe me, we have plenty of experience!) I finally called Dr. Lyle's nurse this morning because even though he hasn't been "acting" sick, he does cough some and has lots of mucus in his nose that I'm constantly suctioning out. He's even asking me to suction him which is something totally new since that machine is so loud it even scares me sometimes! Anyway, the nurse talked it over with Dr. Lyle and he's pretty much sure it's RSV. Oh, JOY! Since he's not running fever and doesn't act like he feels bad, he's almost certain that's what it is. All that mucus is keeping his lungs from properly ventilating. Nothing really to do except let it run it's course and step up the breathing treatments big time. We'll only go to the hospital if it gets to a point where we can't give him the amout of oxygen he needs. Other than that, we'll hang out here and do the breathing treatments ourselves. And it sounds like Clayton won't be participating in the Easter egg hunt tomorrow or even getting to carry his little palm branch on Sunday for Palm Sunday. Bummer. Hopefully he'll be all better by Easter (he has a habit of getting sick around holidays for some reason). I am glad he is still wanting to play and not running fever. That fever throws him for such a loop--so there is a praise in all this rambling!

Face With the Name

I talk about Noel and her store all the time, so I thought I'd share our picture from the California trip. It was great to finally meet her in person because I think we've probably had at least a thousand emails pass between the two of us over the past year!! And besides being taller than I imagined, she was exactly as I thought she would be (all in a good way!).

And with that being said, I wanted to mention she is having a spring cleaning sale, so be sure and check it out!!

Snow Much Fun

{WHILE IT LASTED}

Snowstorm?

NOT QUITE!! But we'll take what we can get I suppose! It's still snowing, but it's not near cold enough to actually call it a winter storm in my opinion. I think Clayton liked it but I was worn out (and so was Sherman, our neighbor) after holding him for just a few minutes. If it had been super deep and fluffy snow, I would have just laid him down in it and let him play . . . but instead it's wet and dirty Arkansas snow, so I avoided sitting him down in it. We got a few good snapshots--love that the snow is actually falling in them. Maybe we'll get some more later when Brian gets home.

Hmmmm . . .

This past weekend--short sleeve weather, sunny on Saturday

Monday--pouring rain ALL DAY LONG

Tuesday morning--at least an inch of snow on the ground

Tuesday afternoon--no snow, lots of sunshine

Wednesday--beautiful day, no need for a jacket, riding with the windows down

Thursday--forecast: storms

Friday--forecast: six inches of snow

Just when I had given up on an actual winter and started looking forward to warm weather, we get crazy weather like this! Definitely the life in Arkansas!

Long Week

It's been a long week. I haven't felt good at all and I'm still not up to par. I'm not running fever, just mainly coughing my head off! That can wear a person out real fast . . . I got a few things done around the house yesterday. Even made time to scrapbook a bit. And wouldn't you know it, I actually got to do some girly pages! Noel's new kit is all about pink, green, and blues--lots of girly and Easter looking product, so I decided to use some of Nicole's pics of the girls for my layouts:

The top one was hard to photograph because of the contrast in colors and the second one was hard to photograph because of the shape of the paper, but I'm sure you get the idea . . . Taylor is growing up so fast, I can't believe how the time flies!!

I am so ready for warm weather! I'm ready for the ground to dry up and the blooms to start budding. Maybe we'll have some sort of spring around here instead of skipping straight into summer. Which reminds me, I still haven't trimmed my crepe myrtles! Better get on that!

I'm Back!!!!!!!

I'm home safe and sound after a trip to "sunny" and "warm" California (those terms are used very loosely considering it was raining and freezing the entire weekend!). I had an awesome time with these ladies. Patti is the ultimate hostess--she spoiled us Friday night with a ton of great food and Saturday with even more. She has a great store that I spent *way* too much money in!! I scrapped a little--mainly just moved my pictures and stuff around while talking and laughing! I actually got to work on my very first acrylic album and I'm probably going to use pics from the crop in it. I'll post it when it's all done. We stayed at Cheri's house (yes, almost ALL of us were in one house!). It was the ultimate sleepover party! Loved every minute of the bonding I got to do with everyone. And two nights was the perfect amount of time to be gone. I didn't get homesick and Brian didn't get overwhelmed here at home. I didn't get sick at all on the planes, so that made it even one step better . . .I think I've finally found the right combination of drugs that keep me from getting sick!

I've got to get back into the swing of things quickly. Band practice tonight, Bible Study tomorrow, DT work to get done ASAP, and a pile of laundry that keeps growing. Off to get started!

So Little Time . . .

And still so much to do! Tonight is Bible Study and tomorrow I'll spend all day getting ready for my trip to CALI! (For those who don't know, I'm heading to Sacramento for a ScrapJazz get together!) I'm so excited, but I get so overwhelmed getting everything together. I'm also getting pretty anxious about the plane ride. I get SO SICK on planes and I just dread the flights everytime--I just spend the whole time praying that I will get through without throwing up (and yes, I've done it on more than one occassion--YUCK!!). I used to take a bottled water as a sort of security item but I don't even think you can take anything like that on planes anymore. It's so frustrating because it's the middle of the flight by the time you get a refreshment and I'm already dying by then!

My flight leaves at 7:35 am Friday morning--don't you know it'll be fun getting there extra early with Clayton in tow?! Not exactly looking forward to that stress either! I have to get an instruction sheet made out for Brian as well. I'm just hoping he'll actually remember to look at it . . .

Once I get there, it will all be worth it, it's the preparation and the flying that I have to suffer through. I'll be back Sunday night late and then Clayton has two doctors' appointments on Monday at ACH. Still contemplating on cancelling those. I know I'll be dead tired Monday morning and a day at ACH won't make it any better!

I NEED THIS MOMMY TIME SO BAD! It's amazing how just a night away from Clayton makes me feel so refreshed, so a whole weekend ought to carry me for a long time!

Took Me Four Hours

to finish this layout Saturday. I'm sooo slow and there's always at least a dozen distractions when I'm trying to scrap! I have no idea how some people get twenty layouts in one day completed!

The horn was a Christmas gift from my uncle and Clayton loves to announce his coming and going these days!

Better Late . . .

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!!!!

(created this card with Noel's Devoted kit)

It's the Little Things

Ms. Cara let Clayton wear her watch during pool therapy today--you would have thought it was a gold coin for how excited he was! The amazing thing is, he was willing to use his left hand the rest of the session--no begging or prying it open. He was hapy to use it just so he could see the watch! She let him use it in P.T. with Hannah as well and he told everyone about it, even telling people what time it was! (According to him it was five o'clock!) So I guess I need to get myself to the store and buy him a little watch to wear so he'll use that left hand even more! Whatever works, right?

Playing Catch Up

I got some scrapbooking done over the weekend. I basically played catch up on the Scripture Challenge and on the pages from my Bible Study. I wanted to do more, but I went through my latest photos and none of them were "speaking" to me--I just didn't have any fresh ideas for any of them. Guess I'll have to wait until some creativity strikes! But for now I'll share these:

(6x6)

"Wait" was easy--I have this verse framed on my dresser. I read it almost everyday and it was my reminder of God's faithfulness during the days after the boys were born.

(6x6)

"Change" was a little harder for me--I had to do some searching in the Bible for just the right verse. I know a lot of people were choosing to just focus on the unchanging nature of God. I ended up choosing this passage from Ecclesiastes because I like how it contrasts the everchanging nature of the world versus the steady being of our Lord.

(9x9)

For last week, we did an overview of the Holy Spirit, so this page is pretty simple in nature.

(9x9) Double page layout
This week was our first study of a fruit of the Spirit: love. Definitely a page for photos of my three guys!! Journaling: "Agape" love. The love of the Father. The ultimate proof of the Spirit living within me. And while I do not have the capacity to love as the Father, I can certainly change my actions and reactions so that I can move towards a more pure, "agape" love for others. I only hope I can become better at showing my family, friends, and even my not-so-friends this supernatural love. I could never do it on my own--only through the Father's Holy Spirit is it possible! And so may I always remember: Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil, but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perserveres. Love never fails. (1 Corinthians 13: 4-8)

(When I read that passage, I realize I've got A LOT of work to do!!!)

Video Time!

Well, Amy tagged me on her blog the other day, but I'm thinking a video of Clayton would be much more fun! (Sorry, Amy!)

I think he's finally starting to get over his stagefright, although he still has a long way to go. This is video is a step up from most that I get of him--at least he isn't just looking at me saying "my picture Momma!"

YEAH!

We actually got to go outside today! The weather was beautiful--a little chilly--but still beautiful! It was nice to get out of the house, even for just a bit. Hope everyone is having a great weekend!