This morning, I put bacon in the oven (so easy that way!!) and then started preparing Pioneer Woman's bacon appetizers as a snack for the boys later on.  They bake for two hours.  Lamb, our 13-year old, made eggs to go with the bacon.  He has really succeeded in getting the eggs just right--they are not over- or under-done--they are soft and buttery and delicious!  He makes scrambled eggs for his little brothers and over-easy eggs for himself and me.  We had a nice brunch and then cleaned up the kitchen.  The PWbacon will probably be ready by the time my little ones start wandering into the kitchen for a snack!  I'll let y'all know if I like them~from the reviews, it sounds like the "guys" enjoy them more than the "gals"! 

We had gluten-free toast with our meal, from the bread I made last night, and it was very good.  I really need to find a homemade recipe that is just as good--the mix costs about $5.49 for one loaf of bread, which is kind of pricey...if anyone has a tried/true gluten-free bread *machine* recipe, please let me know!  (The bread machine makes it so easy--I don't think I would have time to make homemade bread from scratch every day!).

Christmas Candy--I have all of the ingredients to make chocolate-covered cherries and I am hoping to make those, plus some fudge and other candies, on Friday.  My family is having their Christmas party on Saturday and I am not sure if we are going to make it, but I would like to bring candy for everyone if we go...

Well, I am going to hit another area in my living room for an hour~hopefully I can get this one corner full of Christmas boxes cleared out! 

I just read that Jamie Lynn Spears is pregnant~I feel empathy for her. 

Well, I finished a marathon session of cleaning in the kitchen a couple of hours ago, LOL!  Do y'all ever have one of those?  I have been trying to cook more, but I kind of let the dishes go--and then it is also amazing how four boys can litter a nice, clean tile floor so quickly!  I have my oven on "self-clean"; it is almost finished with the cycle.  And, I threw a bread mix in the bread machine.  It is a Gluten-free Pantry Sandwich Bread Mix.  We will see if everyone likes it tomorrow!  I have been making a homemade bread recipe~oatmeal honey~that we all loave (that was totally a Freudian typo!! so, I'm leaving it!), but I want to go gluten-free for a week or two to see if there is an effect on my oldest's eczema.

So...what else is going on??  Our dog seems to be healing~he is acting more like himself (if you know Springer Spaniels, they are just happy, happy dogs!) and he is walking and running (he ran off today and I had to drive around the neighborhood to find him!). 

Lion, we think, has passed all of the impacted parts of his little intestine~I guess we will find out at our follow-up doctor visit next month.  He still has to take Miralax every day, to give his intestine time to shrink (huh?  wha...?? I don't know--surely someone out there has been wondering about the impacted child!). 

I still have a little Christmas shopping to finish, but I probably will not get out of my house until this weekend.  I did send my stocking and ornament swaps today--and I arrived at the post office at just the right time--hardly any line at all!  I am going to try to get Christmas cards out to the xanga ladies that I agreed to swap with, but they might be the only ones sent this year...  Maybe I will send New Year's cards with a pic of my boys instead...or maybe Easter cards?!  LOL  It has been a little chaotic! 

Well, I feel like I am Debbie Downer with my posts these days...once I figure out why my camera is bi-polar, I will have some upbeat, warm-fuzzy posts for y'all!! 

Last night, around midnight, we discovered that our dog had been attacked!  We think it was by another dog--the vet thinks so, too.  Lamb, our 13-year old, went outside to walk the dog one more time (we do not have a fenced yard out here--so he is on a line, attached to a stake in the ground).  Tag, our Springer Spaniel, was shaking and would not come to Lamb.  He would not make any sounds, either.  (That is something that we also find so strange--we did not hear any of this going on!  He did not moan or howl or anything--we did not hear fighting or growling.).  When Lamb unlatched the line, Tag hopped on three legs towards the deck.  Lamb saw the blood once he got him on the porch~and chaos ensued.

Lamb, 13, had quite a day yesterday, going with me to my Godson's funeral.  It was only the second funeral he's ever attended (the first was my dh's grandmother, who passed away right before her 101st birthday), and it was probably the saddest one I have ever been to.  There were over 200 kids at the funeral--I have no idea of how many people total, probably 500-600--the church is huge and it was completely full.  It was a beautiful service and I truly appreciated the way that the preacher turned Kade's life into an example for his friends.  Kade was a sweet, God-loving boy!  He was not afraid to talk about his love of God to others.  Everyone liked him--on the Monday after his death, the school had to call in eleven counselors from other schools to help all of the crying children.  When Ingrid would pick Kade up from school every day, he would always beg for her to roll the window down so that he could say good-bye to someone.  He loved everyone and everyone loved him.  His grandma, Ingrid's mom, would tell Ingrid, "That boy shines bright!".  Kade always told Ingrid that he would take care of her when she got old.  They do not know how they are going to go on with life without him.  It is going to be so difficult.  Please, pray for my friend Ingrid.  Her three-year old was with the neighbor all week because she felt like she "couldn't be a mom right now".  I know that her little guy is going to be key in helping her heal.  She knows the Lord, she is a practicing Christian, but she also needs so much prayer.

So, it was a long day for me, Lamb, and Pilot.  We left around 11 a.m. and did not return until about 9:30 p.m.  The drive was two hours, then we were at the funeral for about six hours, then we went to my parent's house for about an hour, and finally the two hour drive home.  It was a long, emotional day.

So, back to the dog--Lamb completely panics when he sees the blood on Tag.  He's on the back porch, crying and sobbing and my dh (who is holding a sleeping Lion) is trying to tell him to just put the dog in his kennel and we will take him to the vet tomorrow.  Lamb wanted us to take Tag to the vet immediately, but we just couldn't.  We have one emergency vet clinic in our town, but the prices are outrageous and between this job change and Christmas, we just couldn't do it.  This morning, I got up and called our vet~they are open on Saturdays from 8-12.  Dh, Lamb, and Sailor took Tag in.  He got a rabies shot, antibiotics, and pain medicine.  He has a pretty bad gash under one arm that we have to keep clean, a gash on his stomach, and some bite punctures.  We are so upset that this happened--he basically was mauled by another dog.  There are two dogs that I suspect...  Our neighborhood is outside the city limits and the dogs can just run free.  Poor Tag was stuck on his line and had no way to get away from the other dog.  I still do not understand how we did not hear any of that going on... He has been inside most of today.  He hopped out on three legs to be "watered" (LOL), then hopped back over to his kennel.  Once he has healed some, when we let him spend more time outside, we will be keeping an eye on him throughout the day.  He will come inside to his kennel as soon as darkness falls, then Lamb can take him out once before we go to sleep.

Oh, and I still need to call the Sheriff and make a report...

I turned 36 today~I sure don't feel it, LOL!!

My boys woke me up with breakfast~the oldest made eggs and biscuits~and a homemade card.  I feel so blessed. 

I have been thinking about my friend, Ingrid, since Tuesday.  I cannot get her, Kade, and her family off of my mind. 

Tonight, my dh took me out to eat for supper, then we brought an ice cream cake home to eat with the boys.  (Just one of the reasons I am eager to be finished with this house--so that I can start making/decorating homemade cakes again!).  He gave me a Van Morrison CD and a box of candy.  A beautiful opal ring is also part of my birthday gift~he bought it for me a couple of weeks ago~as soon as I figure out what's up with my digital camera, I will post a pic.  This is one of the rare years where I (let him?) combine my birthday and Christmas presents (dh loves that, LOL!). 

Well, they are all outside making a fire in the chiminea and I am going to make hot chocolate and join them!

I have a headache.  I have cried off and on for most of the day.  I found out that my 12-year old Godson was killed in an ATV accident on Sunday.  His parents are just devastated--and I am sick at heart and in mind and body.  Please keep Ingrid and David and their other two sons in your prayers tonight.  Thank you 

Thank you, sincerely, to everyone who is praying for us about our miscarriage and have written such sweet comments, messages, and e-mails. 

I am having the strangest mixed feelings about having more babies...I love children--I was discouraged for years, thinking that my oldest would be an only child--and I feel so blessed with our boys.  I love everything about pregnancy, *most* of the delivery, infancy, toddlerhood, early childhood, (I could go on, but I honestly have to stop before "preteen", LOL!!!).  But, I don't think I could go through another miscarriage like this, ever again.  I truly feel traumatized by it.  I had miscarried previously (at 4-5 weeks)--and two weeks later, got pregnant with Pilot.  It was somewhat easy to not dwell on the miscarriage, because I was pregnant again and ecstatic!  Also, my body did what it needed to do and it was so much like a period (sorry if TMI), that it was almost an abstract experience.  Not this time...  So part of me wants to get pregnant again right away, but another part is afraid, because what if I miscarry and have to go through all of that again?  I must admit, it could have been so much worse--I only sampled what some of the women in my family have experienced...

These are some of my recent thoughts~I am trying not to dwell on it, but thoughts come up now and then.

The other day, I was thinking about how much I enjoy reading the blogs of the friends I've made on xanga...  And, I was imagining how entertaining it would be if I could invite some of these women over to my house for a "Mom's Night Out"!!  LOL  Like, if homeschoolingthem, bethro78, and rondadebi wanted to hang out at my house one night~I suspect that it would be an evening of merriment and laughter--the kind that makes your stomach hurt and then sore later!  Of course, this is all in my imagination, so there are no awkward moments of small talk and the need for ice breakers, LOL!  (Oh, and we don't live hundreds/thousands of miles apart in my imagination, either!).

I think I really miss having, in person (as Anne of Green Gables puts it), a "bosom" friend.  My best friend (we met in the 6th grade!) lives in Tulsa, Oklahoma~and while we engage in lengthy talks at least once a month, it's just not the same as living in the same town (or even the same state, LOL!).  I truly miss spending time with her.  Realistically, I am not ever going to know someone again who knows me as well as she does--that kind of intense friendship just doesn't develop when the husband and children are the priorities...  I say "intense", because when we were pre-teens/teenagers, we spent every free moment at each other's houses, spending the night and baby-sitting together.  We were together so often, we talked in unison and could finish each other's sentences!  People called us "twinkies" and said that we talked "in stereo", LOL.  We were totally Romy and Michele (including the one "L"!)--I actually made her watch that movie with me!  I would love it if she were a part of my every day life again...

And, here is something else I've been pondering...throughout my life, I have always had these mother-figure-friends who I have connected with~throughout high school it was an aunt, a friend's mom, a lady I baby-sat for; in college, there was my sister-in-law, roommates and sorority sisters.  Then, I started teaching--wow, a plethora of mother-figures, LOL!  [I taught in elementary schools--it seems that teaching is the career that nurturing women lean towards (including me *tongue-in-cheek*)].  I wonder how many kitchens I've been in, observing every detail and routine?!  I think that I have been seeking Titus 2 role models for most of my life--but I never knew that that was what I was doing.   (I had never heard of Titus 2 or Proverbs 31 before I started reading on-line!). 

I don't have either one of those friendships right now--and I think I am trying to fulfill that void by reading blogs and trying to find inspiration.  If you have any that really inspire you in homekeeping, organizing, or decorating, pass them on to me! 

Tragic.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071203/ap_on_re_us/internet_suicide

The week of Thanksgiving, we were in the ER three times!  It was insane.  The first trip was for me, on Saturday--then we were back on Wednesday and again the following Saturday.  My little Lion (he turned three in October!) cried all night Tuesday night.  I could not figure out what was wrong with him--I was able to get him into our pediatrician's office on Wednesday.  She checked him out and had me get a urine specimen from him.  Throughout that day, he seemed to be okay--I wondered if the previous night was some kind of fluke.  But, around 6:30 Wednesday evening, he started crying and screaming again and would not stop. 

The "holiday weekend" had already begun for our doctor's office--I called the nurse, but by the time she returned my call, we were in the ER parking lot.  Lion was not letting up--he cried continuously for at least an hour.  After an examination and x-ray (and two long hours!), Lion was released with a diagnosis of constipation.  Nice.  We were given instructions (although, the dr. did not show us the x-ray, which I realized later, was something we should have had access to!) and sent home. 

Lion still cried all night--and Pilot joined him that night!  The next day, we joined our friends for Thanksgiving.  Pilot seemed fine, but Lion was lethargic and whiny.  And my dh and I had another sleepless night that night--and the doctor's office was closed Friday.  They both cried throughout Friday night...  We were hoping to let Lion's body work itself out, but by Saturday, we were back at the ER.  This trip--8 long, long, stressful hours.  We had both little boys this time, because we felt like Pilot's symptoms were mimicking Lion's.  They both had to have IV's (that was THE worst) and Lion had a CT scan.  Diagnosis?  Constipated to the point of impaction.  A different doctor was on duty this day--and he explained it all so clearly--he drew a picture and everything.  It is going to take about two months to get Lion straightened out!  He has to have a stool softener every day for anywhere from 6 weeks to 2 months...poor little guy.  Our three little ones pretty much eat the same diet--and they were all in varying degrees of constipation, but Lion was the worst.  We think we know where we went wrong in their diets--they eat a healthy, well-rounded diet (especially Lion--he is not picky at all!), but we were buying string cheese for them to snack on.  We have bought these for a long time--but, in the past 6 weeks or so, I had decided that I did not want them to drink chocolate milk any more (I was worried about their teeth. etc.).  I guess the chocolate milk was helping to push the cheese through (sorry, LOL!)...we messed up the "balance"...

Anyways, it's not over.  Lion woke  me up again, early Thursday, with a stomachache.  We were back at the doctor's office that afternoon and she had us get another x-ray.  We basically have to keep up with the stool softener and give him time (at least a month).  He pretty much has ups and downs throughout the day.  My sister suggested that I take him to a specialist--I plan to make some phone calls tomorrow.  Hopefully, this post will be the end of the downer-catch-up-posts, LOL!