A little out of the ordinary...

So today's post won't be typical... I want to ask everyone who reads my blog to pray for Tyson Lewis. He is a freshman at YC and he is in Congestive Heart Failure. He is a VERY kind and faithful young man who beat cancer 11 years ago (he lost his leg to it) and unfortunately, they have yet to figure out WHY his heart is SO enlarged and WHY only 20% of it works. Today the doctors on Omaha are taking a biopsy of his heart (a concerning procedure all on it's own) and they hope to get results in a few days. Unfortunately, (as his dad has said) if this doesn't yield results, Tyson's options are limited. Please pray that a cause and solution are found with this procedure. He and his family have already experienced SO much pain already. I can't imagine what this scary time is like for them.

Tonight, I have organized a "Prayer Walk" at a local park for women from the college, church, and community to come and pray. It will likely be a cold night (and maybe even wet), but my understanding is that God listens to prayers no matter what the weather! :) I have encouraged the ladies who attend to bring a flashlight for the obvious reason, but ALSO because I hope that as drivers by see flashlights, they might wonder what is going on. I couldn't help but think of this as an opportunity to be "a light to the world". If you are not in York, PLEASE join us (from afar) and lift this family up at 9pm with us. Psalms 54:2

In Lones family news, we took pictures this weekend at JCPenney's and while we didn't get as many pictures as I would have liked, there are a few good ones. See for yourself (customer's name: CHRISTI LONES). We ended up spending the day in Lincoln running all over town. We got a lot done and found a few bargains.

I realized this morning that in less than a week, Calleigh turns ONE. One week from today, we begin finals at the college. Two weeks from today, we will be arriving in Alabama. CRAZY!!! I just hope we have time for everything.

New tricks...

Coop has 2 new tricks. The first one I haven't caught on tape yet, but I am sure I will eventually. He is VERY much into mimicking what I do or sometimes even what Calleigh does (especially if it is something naughty that she gets away with). Our newest game is where I mimic him by doing whatever he is doing with his arms (he is VERY expressive with his arms now) by crossing them, putting them at my side, crossing again, and then holding them out. He thinks this is the funniest thing and now he has started trying MAKE me "play this game". He will grab my arms and try to put them across my chest to get us started. Today I looked at him a couple of times only to find him looking at me and mimicking ME in hopes of starting the "game". What a cut up!!!

His other new trick is in this video. He can't quite get the concept of moving the finger back and forth to make the noise, but it is still hysterical!

Calleigh is growing and learning things at an amazing rate as well. Yesterday I got her to sign "more" for me several times (at the appropriate times... eating, of course) and today she REALLY started shaking her head at me, especially when I would ask her about going to bed. Here is a video of it...

Happiness is...

Happiness is...

• a household on the mend
• a child absorbing everything and repeating everything :)
• a child who not only had gotten his appetite back, has suddenly become interested in new foods again!
• one child sleeping so I can spend quality time with the other.
• a child who's new favorite toy is "big" legos. (Coop is in his own world when he plays with them and constantly is saying "oh no" or "uh oh")
• a husband who is finally able to sleep again
• a phone call to my parents
• having sunlight lighting up my living room.
• remembering all of these things come from the Lord. (James 1:17)

Gratituesday (part deux)

Friends are something I have never taken for granted, but this week has proven a great time to give thanks for some of the amazing women in York who have been there for me in some way over the past week.

• Thank you to Sarah for always, always treating my children as her own and taking them in several times over the past 2 weeks within MINUTES of a panicked phone call from me.
• Thank you to Candi for offering several times; neigh, really, really wanting to help us with whatever we needed.
• Thank you to Lindsey for taking the kids today for the 3 hours while I covered one of Billy's classes and my own. She had her 2 kids and 3 other kids ALL BY HERSELF and she WANTED to take in my kids. Needless to say, my children loved her and all the kiddos they got to play with (Cooper cried the whole way home begging to go back).
• Thank you to Amber and Marti and their love for Cooper and their weekly playdates with Cooper. To top of that long day, they came BACK 2 hours later and kept both kids while I took Billy to supper for his birthday! They are so good to us!
• Thank you to Barb for taking my kids on Friday for several hours so I can get some work done and so Billy can get some rest.
• Thank you to Gail, Kimberlee, Summer, and Kami for the facebook "stalking" and offers to help. I particularly loved Summer's offer to go get kleenexes for us! Talk about being specific! :)
• Thank you to Becky for the offer to help and even bring us dinner, but most especially for fielding nursing questions on her day off because I am too embarrassed to call the clinic AGAIN!!!
• Thank you to Cathy for the AMAZING (I'm not kidding) supper that she brought us. YUM! YUM! YUM!
• Thank you to the nurses and doctors at the York Medical Clinic who fielded SO many calls (and visits) from me as a concerned wife and mother. Boy... I am so glad they haven't run scared when they saw my number pop up on caller ID.
• Thank you to our bosses for being so understanding and willing to work around Billy's "sick time" schedule.
• And thank you to all the countless friends who have prayed for Billy or my kids and for those who continue to ask how we are doing. I also appreciate the random visit from Rick yesterday to check on us. My son was so excited to see him because he thought Rick was coming by to take him "bye-bye". Ha!

Since I KNOW this is never a good idea to individually thank people because I will inevitably forget someone, bear with me as I add posts of those names I forgot. I think it is important enough to thank people by name and more importantly to thank GOD for these people by name. Thank you all for being blessings to my life.

Gratituesday (gotta love my man!)

Yesterday, my beloved husband turned 35. While the day came and left quietly, it marked a momentous day for him. It was at this age that Billy’s father had a heart attack and this has been a point of great concern for Billy for years. He has seen this date as a “looming, dark cloud” and he has been motivated over the last year to get in shape. I am SO proud of him… he has lost 20 pounds!

So here is my Gratituesday subject… Billy. There are so many reasons to love, appreciate, honor, and respect him, so I am going to list a few of those.

• Billy is the most amazing chef
• Billy LOVES to cook (lucky me!!!)
• Billy is a Christian man
• Billy is a wonderful provider that put family above a lucrative career

I respect Billy for…

• His keen mind
• His relationship with his parents
• His adoration for our children
• His hands on approach with our kids

I appreciate Billy for…

• All the times he has gotten up in the middle of the night with a baby
• all the meals that he cooks after a long day at work
• co-parenting with me
• loving and caring about my family like they were his own
• loving me, even when I am unlovable
• all the things I am forgetting and never giving me a hard time for it J

Over all, I am grateful for Billy being in my life and taking care of me. I am one blessed woman!

And she's down for the count... (and more)

This weekend afforded me the unusual, but wonderful ability to have a "date night" with my LITTLE man. Since Billy and Calleigh are sick, I took my (mostly well) boy to Songfest and we had a blast. He got to hear a lot of fun music and dance with some of his friends.

Cooper with Amber... one of his favorite "girlfriends"!

So this weekend has led to an interesting Monday. Calleigh hasn't been acting like herself all weekend, so we have treaded lightly with her and made sure to keep her as comfortable as possible. A somewhat low-grade temp exasperated her other symptoms of runny nose and general crankiness, but it wasn't until today that I really began to wonder if something more was the matter. I took her to the clinic and guess what... she has a NASTY ear infection! Ahhh!!!! She is now on antibiotics and a decongestant to hopefully bring this thing under control.

While she and I were in the clinic, I asked the doctor more questions about Billy's pneumonia (that we forgot to ask last week) and I found out that he would likely be dealing with this another 2 weeks (which was a TOTAL shock to him) and that he could relapse if he were not VERY careful. We are both more committed to making sure he gets well and stays well. He taught 2 of his 3 classes today and slept for the 4 hours between those classes. I am "teaching" his 2 classes tomorrow and a wonderful savior/friend is watching the kids for part of the afternoon so Billy can rest a lot.

The only "fun thing" I have let Billy do today is we went out to eat for his 35th birthday just a few blocks from our house. We were gone a whooping hour and a half, but it was nice to be out with just the 2 of us. It has been almost a YEAR since we have been out without kids! Amber and her mom were kind enough to watch the kids and take them to the park.

I'd be remiss if I didn't mention how blessed we are to have such wonderful and caring friends here. I'd be afraid to start listing the friends who have helped and the friends who have offered to help. There is no way I could properly show my gratitude for everything and everybody. The Lord really has taken care of us thru the "angels" here in York. Thank YOU!

Looking forward to tomorrow... it's GRATITUESDAY!!!!

Stay away...

Oh gosh... I can't begin to say how physically and mentally exhausted I am. But I am well and that is more than I can say for anyone in my household.

Yesterday, Billy was diagnosed with Pneumonia. He hasn't had a fever since around midnight last night and other than a continuing cough, sore throat (when he coughs), and fatigue, he claims to be getting better. Got to love modern medicine!

Cooper is getting better and other than his persistent cough, he is "back to normal". Calleigh, on the other hand, has had a terrible day. She basically whined ALL DAY LONG! She would want to be held and then she would wiggle down and fuss when she got got down. Nothing made her happy except Cooper playing with her (for a little bit and then she would start fussing again). About 3pm, I started getting her ready for her afternoon nap and I changed her diaper, which lead to the need to change her clothes. When I did that, I noticed that she had a little sunburn (at least that is what I think it is) around her neck and the back of her head. It wasn't terrible, in fact it was kind of cute. She now had some color!

It wasn't much longer before I noticed that she seemed to have a raised rash on her back AND she was REALLY scratching at her neck. I laid her down for her nap without her shirt on because I had lotioned her down pretty good. When she woke up an hour later, the rash has spread. It was rapping around her chest and was "crawling" up her face. After a frantic call to the clinic (it was 10 minutes until 5, i.e.- closing time), we were told to try some Benadryl, an oatmeal bath, and aloe lotion. We did all of it before bed and she was still scratching, whining, and running a low-grade temp. We were told to watch her temp and her breathing.

I suppose I am asking for prayers for my family. Seems as if they all could use it!

They are dropping like flies...

Well, not really, but I know that all of my family is now sick except me. Coop has been sick for more than a week and it got progressively worse, so we took him yesterday to find out that he has a "child's version of bronchitis". He was prescribed a plethora of drugs and hopefully we will see a significant improvement in the next day or so.

Calleigh has been a little bit under the weather for a few days, but not as bad as Cooper. Well, she woke up very early this morning due to a coughing fit and was a pitiful little girl until she finally fell back to sleep. Thankfully she has napped very well all day today and was fine until about 6pm tonight when she started running a fever. We are praying for a restful night for both children.

And now to the last... the "big boy" of the house, Billy. He has been sick since yesterday and he is pretty sure it is just his allergies. Let's hope after tonight's "comfort food" supper and another good night's rest will do the trick for him.

Now for a quick funny story. We put C & C in the tub tonight just to help them get comfortable and to hopefully bring down Calleigh's fever. Well, we have learned that we should always put Cooper on his potty BEFORE we put him in the tub. It seems that he has figured out that there is "more than one way to skin a cat" and is interested in learning how to pee standing up. Anyway, as he stood over the potty he began to make the "hissing" noise similar to well, to someone "peeing". :) Billy and I had a very hard time not laughing our heads off! Ha! Ha!

Pictures from yesterday and today

One of Calleigh's new outfits from Lulu. I LOVE the leggings! She is so hip!

Cooper discovered that he liked leaves... jumping in them and racking them!

Silly and amazing coincidences...

Tonight Billy decided to bathe both of the kids as a deterrent... They are both under the weather and were really wanting to go to bed around 6. (We needed them to wait so they would actually sleep thru the night.) As I gathered "post-bath" things, Billy got the kids ready to climb in the tub and in the meantime, he put Calleigh on Coop's potty. I walked in and hurriedly ran for the camera as I thought it was just too cute to not document (her belly poking out so far, not to mention the fact that she was actually sitting on a potty). I snapped my pictures and Billy pulled her off the potty to put her in the tub only to discover that she actually peed! I am sure it was a coincidence, but I am going to start putting her on the potty more often. Who knows... maybe she is a peeing protege! :) Ha!

Day is done... gone the sun...

Well, the sun has set on another magnificent Sunday, I was greatly blessed by it. We enjoyed a morning of singing and reading scripture at church and then an excellent meal at Kerry's. (Don't be surprised, but we ate too much!)
We made it home in time to QUICKLY take some pictures of the kids and then whisk them off to bed. Neither made a peep for a couple of hours and so Billy and I enjoyed naps too. When we all woke up we headed outdoors for the most beautiful afternoon.

It was somewhere between cool and warm and just perfect for the kids to play outside and for us to take a walk. We had such a nice time that we completely lost track of time and didn't start home until after 6:30. Once we got home, the kids got a snack and a bath and then they were off to bed.

Yesterday was an exciting day for the kids as well. We took them to an Easter Egg hunt at a friend's house.

They both had a fun time and I think Cooper really enjoyed the candy. Had it not been so windy, we probably would have stayed as long as possible because Cooper found their slide! Happy little boy! I am hopeful that this week will be nice enough for us to go to the park and let him slide to his heart is content.

Fridays are the greatest!

Today is Friday and while nothing major is happening, I am just so happy to see the sun and to have gotten out of the house for a little bit this afternoon. I am looking forward to tomorrow when we take the kids to an Easter Egg hunt. I will take tons of pictures and hopefully some video.

Part of our time out of the house today included a trip to Walmart and a stop by the College. I thought we would just pop our head in on a couple of our friends and ended up spending more time there than we expected... but that was ok! Miss Gayle (and President Eckman) spoiled them with Animal Crackers and Calleigh didn't want to leave her. We then went down the hall to see Miss Jackie and Taylor. I wanted to see Miss Gail (M) too, but we missed her. Coop tried on Taylor's motorcycle helmet (I hope that is the CLOSEST he gets to a motorcycle for a LONG

time) and loved it! I thought he looked like the "Vader" character in the movie "Space Balls".

Too funny. After that visit, we went to Hulitt to pick up a book for me and the kids got to see the McNeeses. Calleigh LOVED Miss Bev and was heartbroken when I took her. It took a few times to leave because she kept lunging for Miss Bev and well, Miss Bev seemed so happy to hold her that she kept taking her! It was so cute!

After naps and a quick supper, we went out to the YC softball game. We only stayed for a little bit since it was rather windy but before we left, we took the kids to the small playground next to the field and both kids loved the slides. Loved them so much that Cooper cried the whole way home!

Calleigh didn't mind going home...

...but Coop wasn't as happy!

I know we all feel amazingly refreshed from the little bit of time in the fresh air and sunshine.

Praise the Lord for springtime!

In "other news"... last night the kids got to open a big box sent for them from their Aunt, Uncle, and Cousins in Alabama. They were birthday gifts for the kids and let me tell you... they were a HIT! They are Leap Frog animals and they play music and are customizable so they will say the kids' names, etc. I had to take them away last night just so they would get ready for bed. Aunt Jennifer also got them "Future President" shirts on one of her recent adventures. I will have them try those on soon for pictures.

Here are a few of the kids last night enjoying an extended Cooper birthday and an early Calleigh birthday...