7 Years

Seven years ago. . .  .

I became a mom,

Shawn became a dad,

Zachary blessed our lives with his presence.

My mom became a grandma

and my Grandma still blessed my life with her presence.

In seven years,

we have learned a love like no other.

We have learned what putting trust in God means,

and what having faith for Him to provide can be like.

We've learned that kids make messes,

and Zachary used to LOVE making messes.

In the past seven years, Shawn and I have been amazed at how

Zachary has developed into the young man he is today.

Zachary will always be my "baby".

He was definitely God's gift to us at a time we never realized we'd be strong enough to be parents.

We truly are honored to be his parents.

Seven years ago, I never realized my baby boy would grow so fast.

I always assumed if I just rocked him every night, it would be no different than the night before.

But, time passes and children grow and Zachary is now SEVEN years old! He is the greatest 7 year old that I know and is a terrific son. Shawn and I love him soo much and we are excited to get to celebrate 7 years of having him in our lives. Thank you God!

Zachary will have his birthday party tomorrow evening and we're very excited to be celebrating with the people that make our lives so blessed and that support Zachary.

Remodeling and the Such

We are in the process of remodeling. . . in case you haven't checked this for a few days. :) That process unfortunately included a new stove for me. This "club house" has been taking up part of my new living space lately. I think its going to the dump this weekend.

Malachi really enjoys the construction and he will do anything if you tell him he's your helper.

The other day I had a surprise playdate with one of Zachary's best friends. At Zachary's school, many of the kids are from military families so Zach doesn't get to spend years with them before they move away. This was a good friend of his that moved this summer and Zachary was so sad to know he wouldn't be around during the school year this year. I arranged a playdate with the mom (since we both have 3 boys, almost exactly the same ages and the middle ones names are Logan!).

We met at the Milford Nature Center. It was HOT that day, but Malachi was estatic about seeing all the reptiles and yucky things.

Malachi's daycare provider met us there. We had no idea at all that she would be there, but the boys sure have been missing her.

Logan found a bat puppet.

I tried to get a group picture, but it was hot. . ..

and humid. . . .

and VERY sunny!

Today we celebrated Zachary's last official day of being 6 years old! I asked him if there was anything he'd like to do before he turned 7 tomorrow. He really wasn't sure he wanted to do anything but he had a great day. He's been such an angel lately.

On a bit of that note, he had his doctor appointment today for his finish-up of his eval. The news was not very surprising, but a bit saddening. It was hard to really process today, but I'm getting there and we're going to be fine. Its just a new normal for us and we just use God's strength and continue forward.

Logan, well, has had a set-back in the potty-training area. Its more frustrating than I can explain because he's so embarrassed and frustrated, so he won't talk to us about it or let us help him, which in turn makes us mad. He's had 2 episodes in the past week, and we're praying this doesn't keep happening, but thankfully, since I keep a pretty detailed blog, I know that this has happened the past 2 years around this time when school is about to start. I'm just a lot more nervous this year as he'll be starting kindergarten and really needs to understand what his body is doing.

Logan's "set-back" is difficult on my marriage as well because Shawn and I have differing views- both very strongly- about how it needs to be dealt with. Of course, I think my way is the best way, but Shawn gets home in the evening and he thinks he needs to deal with it also. So, its been a bit of a frustration point if you can call it that.

As for me, today was the WORST day of the summer it seemed. I'm not sure if its because of the very early morning and the 3 boys doing everything they possibly could think of to drive me nuts, but I was SOOOO out of it today. I didn't feel good AT ALL and probably was one of the worst days of being a mom that I could have had. I feel bad that my boys had to go through this. I pretty much laid on the couch most of the day, pleaded for my heart rate to slow down so I wouldn't be so lightheaded, but it never helped. I am not sure what tomorrow will bring but am hopeful that it will be better.

I need to get pictures up of our remodeling as of right now. Its going fast and almost done so I should post some "in the process" photos. But, I'm off to bed for now.

Icky "Pets"

It should come as no surprise that my children LOVE the ickiest of pets and animals. I think sometimes they do it just to see the shock factor on my face. Well, here was our newest "pet":

Can you see it??? A skink kept crawling/falling down into Zachary's window well. We rescued it a few times but after that guessed that maybe it meant to be in there since its pretty damp and full of nice little bugs. So, one day while I was cleaning out the leaves from the window well area, the skink decided to make his/her appearance. Of course, I freaked out and got Shawn. Shawn caught it for the boys to look at and then took it away. Well, needless to say, this lizard was back shortly in the window well.



I am thinking the multiple falls have damaged its brain or something because it seriously is NOT the smartest lizard.

And, I think it realized that as well when Malachi got in the window well to "see" it.

The only problem is that Malachi is FAST! He's been known to catch snakes, which aren't exactly slow. So, when he cornered this poor skink, I knew we were in trouble, but what could I do? I had to have pictures! :) haha.

Here he was for the few seconds with the skink in his hand as it squirmed and bit him. I screamed and yelled and shreiked and the tail of the skink fell off! YUCK!!!!

Here is the new look of Mr. Skink:

And, here is the part of the tail that just fell off! Disgusting, as it wriggled around dying. YUCK YUCK YUCK!!!!

And, the next day, Malachi wanted to get the hermit crabs out.




The hermit crabs are pretty social and "nice" and playful, but today, Malachi pressed his luck with them and bugged them just a little too much. We found out how the purple PINCHER crab got named that. :)

Malachi is now content to watch the crabs in their cage rather than play with them. And, I'm still trying to calm my heart rate down! These boys are enjoying grossing me out!

Trip to Mayo Clinic

I apologize for not posting the past few days. I wanted to get an update posted, but just have been SOOOO tired from traveling and all the switch-ups with my boys again. Zach is now having his turn out at Aunt Laurie's house. Logan is taking turns spending evenings with my brothers- rodeos and demo derby fun. And Malachi is being. . . . challenging.

Well, our van made a monumental miletsone. It hit 100K! Shawn and I were dreading this point, but we know its been such a great vehicle. Everyone we know kinda "disses" mini-vans, but our mini-van was the best deal we've ever had. It can really haul SOOO much and although we sometimes miss our surburban, our mini-van is great on gas mileage, especially compared to most of the SUVs that are sorta like the mini-van. So, we do enjoy it and maybe someday down the road when we are completely out of debt we can go for "looks" but right now, its just not our style. :)


The Mayo clinic was much the same as it had been. Shawn and I were reflecting on the last trip we made there- it was a day after one of the most major snow storms that had hit that area and no kidding, we probably saw over 100 cars and trucks in the middle and sides of the ditches, stuck for a LONG time in the heavy snow. We had remarked how beautiful Rochester was and maybe we should go visit again when the weather was much nicer. Well, the weather was BEAUTIFUL compared to this heat wave we've been experiencing in Kansas.

This BEAUTIFUL glass sculpture brought back some bittersweet memories.

3 years ago:

Last time we went to the Mayo clinic, we had a sick little baby, it was at the end of winter (March 2007) and we stayed in the Ronald McDonald house. This time, I was the "sick" one, we went up during a beautiful weather period, and stayed at the Hampton Inn & Suites (thanks to priceline.com).

To sum up my trip: I was seen by the thorasic surgeon and his team of doctors decided that I do in fact have pectus excavatum, but it is fairly mild despite the compression on my heart (and a bit of my liver) and he didn't think such a major surgery would help as much as we were hoping it would. He also so no such surgery could be done until my heart rate was under control, which who knows when that would ever be. He noted that something certainly is going on, but as a thorasic surgeon, he couldn't really say what it was besides the fact that he didn't think I would need surgery. I was sooooo thankful to hear that and grateful for his explanation and listening.

We told the doctor that I was on the waiting list for POTS and that I'd been told it would be months if not a year before I would get an appointment because of how busy they were. He personally called that department as well as a few of the other doctors that saw me and we waited for about an hour hoping that we could get seen that day. Finally, we got the news that they did get me in for an autonomic nervous system test as well as a consult with a neurologist or the team of doctors that deal with POTS! WE'RE ON THE SCHEDULE!!!!!! August 4th will be the test and August 5th will be the consult. I will also have an appointment later in August with my EP cardio dr to discuss another ablation to get my heart rate under control, depending on what the Mayo clinic finds or suggests.

I want to thank you all so very much for the many prayers and thoughts of encouragement. This has been a long and challenging battle and one that I'm continuing to try to stay hopeful that I will find healing and once again return to being as energetic or "youthful" as I was before. I am excited to go back to teaching. I've done so much research about reading this summer that I'm truly excited to work with my students again. Please continue to pray that I can find the strength daily to manage POTS. Also, it would be amazing if the autonomic test showed no destruction and possibly a better diagnosis than I'd previously been given with my other doctors.

On other, lighter notes, my Mr. Malachi is determined to catch up with Logan and look like his ornery twin. He must be going through a growth spurt because he eats SOOO much lately. I compared feet size between him and Logan and it is a mere centimeter difference! I bet their weight is close to the same if not having Malachi being heavier. He's such a good eater.

Right now, Malachi is in the garden learning colors- Red ones, Red ones, Red ones!!!! No. . . don't pick the GREEN ones!

He also bid our neighbors farewell yesterday as they go on a bike trip. Malachi LOVES their bikes and he also is quite spoiled by having nightly chats with Steve as he "helps" him work on bikes. I hate to think that it won't be too long before he's on one of these.


I started freezing bananas for a cool afternoon treat. Sometimes we don't get our bananas eaten fast enough before they start browning (ok, that really is like a day after you bring them home, right?). So, I've been freezing them and the boys call it banana ice cream. They are pretty good.

My baby brother took Logan to the rodeo last night. Logan was in heaven. He LOVES any excuse to put on boots and a cowboy hat!



This weekend is a weekend FULL of house remodeling and putting back together for Zach's birthday party next weekend. Ah. . . I have NO energy.

Speghetti Sauce

We've had quite the garden this year, with some healthy onions, carrots, potatoes, cucumbers, and tomatoes. We even have a giant pumpkin growing again. With the veggies, we decided last year to try a speghetti sauce recipe that I found online. It was a little different with all the veggies in it, and smelled a little "odd" while we cooked it but it turned out delicious and from now on, we'll continue to use our produce to make the sauce, both to save money and eat healthier.

The original recipe was found last year here.

So, not really step by step, but sorta:

Ingredients (for ours):

4 lb. ground Italian sausage

mushrooms- couple small cans

3 fresh garlic cloves

1/3 c. salt (helps to preserve it)

1-2 lb. carrots finely diced or blended

2-3 white onions diced or blended

(other veggies if you choose)

1 T. olive oil

5 T. basil (more to get to the flavor you want)

2 T sugar

40-50 stewed tomatoes (freshly or canned- we try to use freshly stewed so we don't waste jars by canning them first)

4 (or more) cans of tomato paste for thickening

Here is the first round of veggies being sauted in our large skillet:

Then we added fresh sausage and ground it up together:

Mushrooms too (still not looking like tomato sauce):

Finally, all ingredients and simmering for a few hours. It usually simmers long enough that it halves itself. We cool it off and bag it up in freezer ziploc bags for use in speghetti, lasguna, or other meat pasta dishes. It does turn out yummy and we've gotten a LOT of compliments on the sauce.

But, as I mentioned, its NOT my recipe. I would have in no way thought to use so many veggies in marinara sauce, but really you can't even tell you're eating all the veggies. It really is DELICIOUS and practically FREE if you grow most of the veggies yourself. The link to the original recipe and some more pictures is: here.