Our Decision to Move to Pennsylvania, Stomach Flu Hits Our Family, Owen's 18 Month Check-up, and Samantha Getting Her Ears Pierced

Samantha: 94 Months, Week 1
Aedan: 59 Months, Week 3
Owen: 18 Months, Week 1

After the craziness of last week, the job offer, and our whirlwind trip to Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, on Sunday afternoon Ben officially accepted the position at Wilkes University. We talked through many things and the decision made sense and was very clear to us. This past year hasn't been the easiest for Ben in his career, so there are many ways that a change was definitely needed. I won't go into all the details here, but we are excited to be in a growing university where Ben has a more defined job description and expectations. Also, we will be living in a bigger city than Sault Ste. Marie, which is appealing to us because we will have more opportunities for the kids, more family activities to participate in, and more of the things we like to do together for fun. Plus, we will be 2 hours from Philadelphia, 2 hours from New York, and 4 hours from Washington D.C., which will be so fun to explore with our kids. As Sunday went on, I was still trying to process the decision. I in no way was second guessing our decision, but then my mind started to go to the logistics of everything from selling our house, to packing, to finding a place there, to moving and getting settled into a new place all over again. Anyways, here are some pictures of Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania (that I found on the internet), the place that will be our new home come summertime.

And here are some pictures of Wilkes University, which lies right along the river that you see in these pictures.

In the middle of the night on Sunday, Samantha came into our room saying she had gotten sick in the bathroom. She wasn't showing any signs of feeling sick when she went to bed, but I figured it was probably only a matter of time before others caught the germs I had the week before. I was just glad that none of the kids got sick while we were out of town and that Ema and Papa didn't have to deal with that as well. I came upstairs to help Samantha, and I was so glad that she was old enough to tell that she wasn't feeling well and needed to get to the bathroom. She got a small amount on the floor, but she made it to the toilet. I sat in the bathroom with her as she got sick a few more times. Then, once she finally felt like her stomach was calming down, we went back into her room. I brought the trash can to put next to her bed, and I tried to look for an extra monitor that we could put in her room, but none of them worked. She said she would feel more comfortable if I stayed in the room with her, so I went downstairs to wake Ben up so he could help me move a twin mattress into her room to sleep on. I felt so bad for the little girl because she was sick quite a few more times before she finally settled down and fell asleep about 2:00 a.m. I was able to sleep some, but I was concerned about Samantha, and there's only so well you can sleep while in someone else's room when they are sick.

With Samantha getting sick and not going to school, I just slept until she woke up around 7:30. I tried to keep her quarantined to her room for most of the morning so as to hopefully prevent the spread of any germs to the boys, encouraging her to take sips of water, and to rest. She felt a lot like I did, feeling very tired and cold, so she spent most of the morning cuddled up in her bed, reading if she felt like it, and even taking a couple short naps. I was glad that she was letting herself rest and that she hadn't gotten sick since the middle of the night. I hoped that hers would be a quick 24 hour bug like mine was.

After lunch as I was getting Aedan ready for preschool, he was just laying on the floor in the mudroom, saying his tummy hurt (although he says this fairly frequently). After Samantha got sick, I didn't want to push him at all, so I told him he could stay home from school and take a nap. I took him to his room and started getting him ready for bed. I got a pot from the kitchen to keep in his room, just in case he was coming down with the stomach flu, and as I was closing his curtains, I turned around and he had a terrible expression on his face, so I rushed over to help him as he got sick. I was so glad that he was able to make it into the pot, but it was not fun having the stomach flu make its rounds through our house. I tried to keep Owen out of Aedan's room while I waited to see if he was going to get sick again. Samantha had already fallen asleep in her room. I didn't think Aedan had enough wherewithal to make sure he grabbed the pot in time, but I also had to get Owen down for his nap. Luckily, Ben was able to come work from home that afternoon so that he could help listen for Aedan while I took care of Owen. Aedan only ended up getting sick that one time, and all three kids took good naps that afternoon. At that point I was just praying that Owen would be spared because I don't know what we would do if he got sick. He hadn't been eating very well the last couple days, not having much of an appetite at all, so I was hoping that was his body's way of reacting, by limiting his food intake so that his stomach could recover.

Samantha's stomach was feeling better by Monday evening, but she was still extremely tired and lethargic, so we decided to keep her home from school again on Tuesday.

Tuesday morning was Samantha's eye appointment with the ophthalmologist. Ken and Linda came over to be with the boys so that Ben and I could both go with Samantha. She was a little confused as to why both of us were going with her, but we both wanted to hear whatever the results were going to be that day. Ben was definitely more worried about it than I was, and we tried our best to not be anxious leading up to this day. We had a lot of people praying, and I did my best to pray about it anytime I felt those feelings welling up. We had to wait for quite awhile to be seen, but after doing a couple of tests and looking in Samantha's eyes, the doctor told us there was nothing to worry about. Basically, Samantha's cornea is thicker than normal, which skewed the results from the instruments at the eye doctor that are pre-set at a "normal" level of thickness, and made it look like the pressure was higher in her eye than really was. He saw no problems or concerns, and Ben and I looked at each other with a smile and a huge sigh of relief. It is something that could always be like that, or it could be something that she will grow out of as she gets older. All we know is that our little girl was okay and there was nothing to be concerned about. Praise the Lord!

By the end of Tuesday, Samantha and Aedan were largely back to normal. However, Ben came home from work on Tuesday not feeling well and laid on the couch the rest of the night. He ended up getting sick later that night into Wednesday, so he had to cancel classes on Wednesday so he could stay home and rest. This stomach flu is harsh and wicked, so not only are you getting sick to your stomach, but it wipes you clean of any energy. All you feel like doing is laying around and sleeping.

While Ben rested, I made dinner, fed the kids, gave them baths, and put them to bed. Owen really loves taking baths and loves splashing in the water. He gets super excited every time we tell him it's bath time. I haven't taken nearly as many pictures or videos of the kids just doing average daily life type stuff, so I decided to take a video of Owen playing in the bath tub that night. He loves sitting right up by the faucet so that he can feel the water pouring out and splash around in it. This little boy definitely loves water.

With it begin March Madness time, Ben has had basketball games on every once in awhile. Owen really seems to enjoy watching them. He will stand there, just entranced, and after watching them play he would bop his arm up and down like he was dribbling a basketball. I tried to get it on this video, but he didn't want to do it for me. I will have to try and capture it sometime because it's really cute. Maybe Owen will be our child that is the most interested in sports. :)

Monday and Tuesday were strange days since I was largely just home with two sick kids. However, other than Ben staying home from work on Wednesday, the kids were back to their normal routine on Wednesday. Our week of doctor's appointments continued with Owen's 18 month check-up on Wednesday morning. Since Ben was home, I left Aedan at home so that he didn't have to come along to the doctor with me. He was able to just sit on the couch and watch a show next to Ben.

Owen's 18 month check-up went well. He has been doing really well with sleeping and eating, and he hasn't had any ear infections since the one he had after Christmas. We moved his room upstairs at the beginning of January, and he has been sleeping through the night just fine. It's been such a nice break from all those months of dealing with him waking up multiple times a night crying, and taking up so much of our time getting him to fall asleep and stay asleep. I really didn't have any concerns about him, and he was up to date on his immunizations, so it was an easy appointment. His weight was 27.34 pounds which put him in just under the 70th percentile, and his length was 33 inches, which put him in almost the 72nd percentile.

Besides for all the doctor's appointments that happened this week, I was also working on getting things moving with trying to sell our house, the first step in moving from Sault Ste. Marie to our new home in Pennsylvania, wherever that will end up being. In fact, I asked for advice on a good realtor to use and contacted the one that had the most positive recommendations from other moms in my MOPS group. She planned on coming over to our house for a walk through at 5:15 on Wednesday night so that we could see what things she would recommend us do to the house to get it ready for selling, as well as get her opinion on what a good list price would be for it. It was good to get her opinion and to know that there wasn't much she would do to it other than remove some of the kids' artwork, declutter the refrigerator, and clear out some toys from the basement. She said a good list price for our house would be $155,000, and she was pretty confident that we would be able to get it sold quickly after putting it on the market. However, on Tuesday at Bible study when I was talking to the other ladies about moving, another MOPS mom expressed great interest in our house. In fact, I sent her pictures to share with her husband and they planned to come over on Thursday after school to see the house and decide if it looked like something that would work for their family. Ben and I got really excited that we had someone already interested in our house, and if they were indeed serious, we could do "For Sale by Owner" so that way we could save ourselves a significant chunk of money in realtor fees and hassle from having to list it and do showings any day of the week. Things were moving along quickly considering we just decided we were officially moving on Sunday.

On Thursday morning, Owen had another appointment at the ENT. Aedan had to come with me to this one, which he wasn't too excited about, but it was a pretty quick appointment. The doctor looked in Owen's ears and said he saw fluid, but none of it was infected yet. He said the fluid could have been there still from his last ear infection three months ago, or it could be recent. It's hard to tell, so he wanted me to make another follow-up appointment in 6 weeks to check if the fluid would still be there then. He also wanted me to make an appointment for a hearing test a few days before that 6 week follow-up to see if his hearing has been impacted at all by all the ear infections he has had in his short little life. Based on how the hearing test goes and whether or not he finds fluid in Owen's ears again at the next appointment, will determine whether or not we will move forward with getting tubes placed in his ears.

After having a pretty busy week of running around to the appointments, Friday was spent just hanging out at home. Aedan and Owen were playing very nicely in the basement together. Owen really prefers to play downstairs because there are more toys that are for him, whereas Aedan likes to play with his Legos upstairs. However, they were actually playing and interacting well with each other, so I got a picture and video of them playing together. It was kind of fun to watch them because you can see Aedan knocking the animals off the top of the farm, but then Owen watches where they fall and has to go pick them up right away. He is very particular about things and where they belong sometimes. It's kind of funny. I enjoy watching their personalities unfold and seeing the boys interact and play together more and more.

On days when we have extra time at home, Aedan will often ask for me to make mac and cheese for him. So on Friday we were enjoying our mac and cheese together, and I was trying to take a video of Owen talking, but he just gets too enamored with watching himself on the video that he won't perform for me. The thing I love about this video is how Owen pushes Aedan out of the way when he tries to get in the video as well. Owen wanted all the attention on him, and he has gotten pretty good at letting what he wants be known. I'm not sure if that is a good thing or bad things sometimes. :)

Friday was another one of those days where I could not keep Owen awake in the car on the way home from dropping Aedan off at preschool, so here he is fast asleep on my shoulder as I carried him in the car. Oh my sweet little baby boy, let me not forget these days I had with you, where laying your head on my shoulder was your favorite place to be.

On Friday night we decided to go out to dinner at Buffalo Wild Wings because we had a gift card we could use. The kids did a pretty good job eating, and we decided that we all needed some time to just relax that evening, so we stopped at the video store on the way home to rent some movies to watch, like Mary Poppins Returns and Star Wars. We let them start watching Mary Poppins on Friday night down in the basement, and they thought that was pretty special.

Saturday was a big day for Samantha, but she didn't know it. We told her she had an appointment that day at 11:30, but I'm sure she just assumed it was a doctor's appointment or something. However, Ben and I decided to surprise Samantha by taking her to get her ears pierced early. It was still going to be part of her birthday present, but she wanted to be able to change her earrings and wear different ones before school was over, so this way she would be beyond the 8 week waiting period. She has been wanting her ears pierced for a long time, but we were waiting for a good time to make it special, when she would appreciate it and be able to take care of them correctly. Here is the video when I told her about what her appointment was that morning.

At first I was just going to take Samantha myself, but especially since Samantha is our only girl, Ben wanted to be there to see her get her ears pierced as well, so we made a family trip out of it. I made an appointment for Samantha at a hair salon downtown that other moms have used to get their daughter's ears pierced. They have two people do the piercings at the same time so that way they are done and out of the way, and kids don't have a chance to chicken out after the first ear is done. Samantha was excited but very nervous as they were getting everything ready. She even started freaking out a little bit, but we told her that if she really wanted to do it, that this was it, and she needed to be brave. She picked out multi-colored sparkly earrings, and they were a good choice for her.

Here is the video of her getting her ears pierced. You can tell that she was really nervous as she closed her eyes at the beginning, but I think it was mostly nerves about the anticipation and what to expect more than anything else. You can tell at the end of the video that she is almost going to cry and she's trying to be brave and hold it all in. Her face even turned a little white, as she was probably holding her breath the whole time.

However, a few seconds later, this is what she looked like. All smiles, and so happy that she finally had her ears pierced.

And here she is once we got home. Aren't they cute little earrings? I think they look beautiful on her, and I'm so glad she liked them. It was so fun to surprise her with this today. Happy early 8th birthday my darling girl!

That afternoon Samantha worked at a cookie booth at the bowling alley for Girl Scouts and had a fun time going around the tables asking to see if anyone wanted to buy the last of their cookies for their troop. Then, once Owen woke up from his nap, the weather was actually pretty warm, finally in the mid to upper 30s, so we had the kids get their snow clothes on to play outside for awhile. I tried taking Owen into the back yard, but there is still a good two feet or more of snow built up around the yard, and it's hard to walk in. Owen did not like it and just kept wanting me to pick him up, so eventually we moved to the driveway. Ben and I worked on chipping away at some of the ice that still remained in the driveway so it could start melting away. Owen really had fun playing in the driveway and started dragging out every outside toy we have from the garage. Samantha and Aedan even wanted to get their bikes out, but there wasn't enough space for bike riding with all the huge ice chunks still left in the driveway. I was even able to take down all the Christmas lights, finally! I was actually breaking a sweat outside and had to take my coat off. Oh Spring, please come to the U.P.! We are ready for all this snow to go away and to enjoy more time outdoors.

Owen enjoys mealtime, and he often is the last one eating because we will think he is done and he will keep taking more bites. I took this video of him as I was cleaning up dinner on Saturday night because there are a few things to notice about the video. One, do you see how messy his hair is? That's because he is constantly touching his hair while he eats, meaning he gets food in his hair all the time. Also, he loves to make noise, and loves to use "big person" silverware, none of that plastic baby stuff. He wants to be just like the rest of us. I love how he is intently watching Aedan as well, studying his every move, almost like he's cataloging it to be used at a later date. One of my favorite parts is the totally adorable smile he gives me when I call him and he finally looks over at me. That smile, those dimples! This boy melts my heart, and he is such a happy boy. It's the simple things of daily life like this that make my heart feel full to overflowing. I am blessed with a wonderful family. :)

(Blog about March 17-23, 2019)

Owen's Animal Noises, AWANA Grand Prix, and Our Trip to Wilkes-Barre

Samantha: 93 Months, Week 4

Aedan: 59 Months, Week 2

Owen: 17 Months, Week 4

As I ended the last blog post, this weekend was a little crazy with the news of Ben's job offer at Wilkes University in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. Ben's parents lovingly agreed to come back up to Sault Ste. Marie after his mom was done with classes on Wednesday afternoon, so that way Ben and I could head out on Thursday morning. Even though it's a 12 hour drive from Sault Ste. Marie to Wilkes-Barre, the flights were just too expensive to justify, and it would have been a similar amount of travel time with driving to an airport and connecting flights. Our plan was to spend all day Friday there looking around and then leave to drive back home on Saturday, getting home on Saturday evening so that Ben's parents could leave on Sunday to drive back home. We felt bad asking them to change their plans so they could come help us again, especially after they had just been up, but they agreed that it was important for us to make the trip. We had until the following Monday to make a decision, so we didn't have too much time to think things over. There are definitely many benefits to the job offer, and the location would be much better in many ways. The weather would be more what we like, still having four seasons, but not having winter for 6 months of the year like we do up here, and only 30 inches of snow a year on average instead of 120 inches of snow a year. Wilkes-Barre is in the northeastern part of Pennsylvania, making it about 2 hours away from Philadelphia, 2 1/2 hours from New York, and 4 hours from D.C. Being in that location would give us a lot of options for things to do as day trips or weekend trips. Plus, the cities of Wilkes-Barre and Scranton are bigger cities and have more to do just in themselves. There are more stores, restaurants, cultural activities, and all the activities the kids are involved in right now can be found in Wilkes-Barre, plus more. The biggest negative in my mind, when looking at it at that point, was that it is farther away from family. We always wanted to try to get closer to family if/when we ever moved again. It would be 3 hours longer to see my family in the Chicago area, and about 2 1/2 hours longer to Upland. I am afraid that we won't see people as much because we already have had family visiting us a lot less since we've moved up to the U.P. I wish it were closer, so I was interested to see what I would think once I got there and saw what the city was like.

Owen has really been enjoying having books read to him before bed lately. His favorite ones are usually about animals, and even though he doesn't say too many actual words, he knows a lot of animal sounds. I figured I'd try to take a video of him saying animal sounds that night as I put him to bed. I turned the camera around so he could see himself, and he got a little bashful looking at himself on the video. You can hear his rooster noise, his sheep noise, his cow noise, his snake noise, along with the snorting sound he makes in the back of his throat when he is being silly and shy. Then, at the end of the second video, he got too distracted by trying to turn off the video on my phone. I just think he's the cutest little boy. He makes me smile and warms my heart every day. I love these moments I get to spend with him as I put him to bed at night.

Overnight from Sunday into Monday, we had another snowstorm, and even though they have already had 9 snow days, school was cancelled again on Monday, March 11th due to bad weather and dangerous driving conditions. Samantha and Aedan were glad to have a free day off school to play together, and it allowed me to get some things done around the house. My first order of the day was to call Dr. Newhouse because her daughter-in-law, who I know through MOPS, mentioned that it may be a good idea to try and get Samantha in for an MRI sooner rather than waiting for the appointment with the ophthalmologist. Dr. Newhouse was very responsive, even though she wasn't coming in to the office until lunchtime due to the weather. She called the eye doctor and spoke with him about what he saw, and then she called me back to tell me that she thought we were okay to wait for the appointment for the ophthalmologist because we would have to take Samantha all the way downstate to get an MRI done. She didn't see it as an emergency situation, and she encouraged me to try not to worry in the meantime. I felt better after talking to Dr. Newhouse and seeing her do her due diligence in making sure we were taking care of Samantha as best as we can. So, now we wait for her appointment the following Tuesday.

Even though it was technically a snow day, I still had to go grocery shopping and the roads weren't that bad, so I took all three kids shopping with me. I didn't feel very good from the bad cold, congestion, sinus pressure, and sore throat I was experiencing. However, our list wasn't too long, so it didn't take very long to get what we needed. It was kind of fun having all the kids with me. I like when I get unexpected days with Samantha home from school. She is such a kind and helpful big sister, and Monday was one of those days. She did everything she could to help me, especially knowing that I wasn't feeling well. She is such a sweetheart.

When we got back home, the plow truck had gone down our street, pushing so much snow at the end of our driveway that I couldn't even pull in, so I had to carry the groceries from the car parked on the street into the house. I am so over the snow and ready for it to go away for good. Later that afternoon I noticed that our neighbor, Joe, came over and cleared the end of our driveway with his snow blower, even though we didn't even ask him to. It was definitely very thoughtful of him, and I was very appreciative.

That afternoon Samantha had an appointment to have her top canine baby teeth removed so that way she will have space for her top lateral incisors to descend. She lost those baby teeth a long time ago, but her teeth are so crowded that there hasn't been any space for them to come in. Both orthodontists that we saw recommended that these baby teeth be removed so that hopefully those teeth will come in where they are supposed to. Samantha was very, very nervous about this appointment. I took her there while Ben stayed home with the boys. They put some happy gas on her to relax her and then the doctor numbed her top gums and let that kick in for a few minutes. Waiting for her mouth to be numb was the part that took the longest. The actual pulling of the teeth went pretty quickly. It seemed like he didn't have to wiggle the instrument back and forth very much before the tooth came out. Samantha was very brave, and I was so proud of how well she did. She had some gauze in her mouth on the way home to make sure the bleeding would stop. When we got home, Calla was home with the boys because Ben had to leave for a meeting. Samantha went back to talk to Aedan and show him her teeth, but as soon as she saw Calla she turned back around toward me and started crying. She just buried her face in my chest for awhile, and I felt so bad for my little girl. It had been a hard, emotional day for her, and she felt embarrassed of her mouth and her puffy, swollen lips and cheeks. This little girl certainly tugs at my heartstrings lately. She is getting so big and independent and brave and confident, but then at other times, I see the little girl who needs me and crumples into my arms, I see the little girl who lets her nerves get the best of her, and I see the little girl who needs the reassurance from Mommy (or Daddy) that everything is going to be okay. Samantha wanted me to take a picture of her mouth that night and send it to Ema and Papa so they could see her new holes in her mouth. You can tell that she is still pretty swollen and numb in this picture.

With how bad I felt, I wondered if I may have strep throat or something. My throat hurt every time I swallowed, and I had no appetite at all. I tried to go to the walk-in clinic on Monday night after getting Owen to bed, but they were too busy and weren't taking any more patients. So, I decided to go to the walk-in clinic on Tuesday morning while Ben stayed home with the boys so I could make sure I didn't have anything going on. Unfortunately, it was nothing, just a cold and drainage, so I just have to continue to treat the symptoms. I always feel dumb when I go to the doctor and have them tell me it's just a cold or virus because I feel like I wasted time and money, but I guess it was good to know for sure. My symptoms started on Saturday, and I had been taking Sudafed, but it didn't seem to be helping much, and I was just ready to start feeling better.

Even though it was a MOPS morning, and I had already missed about an hour of it, since what I had wasn't anything contagious, I decided to head to MOPS because then at least the boys would be taken care of by someone else and I could just sit and relax. I missed most of the substance of the meeting, but it was still good to sit and talk with other moms without kids crawling all over me.

The rest of Tuesday went fairly well. I had lunch with the boys, took Aedan to preschool, and then tried to spend the afternoon sitting down and resting. Ben and I had plans for a fun date night that night, and Ken and Linda were going to come over to our house to watch the kids so that we could go out to dinner and then to the Irish concert from the group Lunasa. They even brought pizza over for the kids, so we didn't have to worry about making dinner for them, which was very thoughtful of them. They have been such a blessing to us and to our kids over this past year or so. Ben and I got a gift card for Fuji through Aedan's raffle at school, so we decided to try that restaurant together. We got one California roll to split and then we both got steak hibachi. It was nice to go out together, even though I felt pretty out of it. I let Ben do the majority of the talking, and we shared our thoughts and feelings about Ben's job offer and our upcoming trip to Pennsylvania. It was fun to sit and talk and eat without having kids to interrupt our conversation and not having to cut up three plates of food before getting to eat our meal.

After dinner we went over to the Arts Center at LSSU to watch the group Lunasa perform. I found a couple of seats in the front section so that we could see them play their instruments better, and it was a really great concert. Since Ben and I met in Ireland, we enjoy listening to Irish music and thinking back to our time there, although now it's been 16 years since we've been there, so it's all kind of a blur at this point. Ben and I hope to get back to Ireland for a trip during the summer of 2021 for our 15th wedding anniversary, so we will see if we can pull that off. The guys in this this group were very talented. I especially enjoyed the personality of the guy that played the Irish whistles, and also the violinist who could also play the Irish whistle. I really enjoyed listening to their performance, and the concert lasted for about two hours, which was great. Here are some videos from the show.

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When we got back home, Ken and Linda had nothing but good things to say about how the evening went with the kids. It was so nice to be able to get out for a date together and to come back home with all the kids successfully asleep.

Wednesday morning Aedan had a big thing going on, as it was Kindergarten Round-up at JKL Bahweting. He was a little confused as we were going to school because he thought I was going to leave him there, or he thought that he would be starting school the next day. There was even one time where he asked if he would start Kindergarten as soon as he turned 5. I think he's excited to start school, what do you think? He loved seeing the library and all the books they had in there, and he went back with one of the teachers without a care in the world. I sat at a table and filled paperwork out while he went around to various stations where they tested different things like his knowledge of the alphabet, counting, cutting with scissors, writing, stacking blocks, making patterns, and hearing. It seemed like he was having fun, and I was glad that he wasn't nervous at all. It's amazing how much he has grown in the last year, and I'm so glad he has come out of his shell some. New experiences don't scare him as much, and I'm so glad. He will do just fine going to Kindergarten in the fall; I have no concerns. However, as I was sitting there watching him walk around the library, I was just struck with the fact that my little boy is ready for Kindergarten already. He just keeps getting older and taller, and sometimes Ben and I still think of him as a little bitty kid. It makes me sad to think of him going off to Kindergarten sometimes because it means my time with him at home has come to an end. Sometimes I have a hard time not wishing I would have done more or played with him more or took him to do more fun things or not done as much work so I could spend more time one on one with him. It will be so strange having him gone all day, and just like Samantha, I will miss him a lot when he's gone. Being a stay-at-home mom is tough some days because your attention is pulled in so many different directions, but I'm so glad I have been able to do it, that I have had this time with my kids, and even though they won't remember much about it, I certainly won't forget all these years I got to spend with them.

As Wednesday went on, I wasn't feeling much better. I just had such terrible congestion and then a sore throat because of all the drainage. It didn't even seem like taking Sudafed was making much of a difference, so I was just continuing to wait until I would start feeling better.

Aedan comes home from school with a lot of artwork that he makes. On this particular day, they were talking about rectangles, so this is his rectangle pictures. Miss Bonnie, his teacher, said, with a smirk, that he decided to alter a few of his rectangles. I love Aedan's little personality.

March is Reading Month around here, so in addition to the special activities Samantha's class was doing at school, Aedan's preschool was focusing a lot on Dr. Seuss. Here is the Cat in the Hat mask that he painted and designed at preschool.

Wednesday was an exciting night for Samantha as it was the AWANA Grand Prix. Papa brought some tools with him when they came to visit so he could help carve her car into the design she wanted. She painted it to look like a lion, and Mr. Ken helped her put the finishing touches on it on Tuesday night while Ben and I were gone. We borrowed some graphite to put on the axles, and we called it good. Our goal this year was to help the car at least cross the finish line because her car last year did not do that. Samantha was super excited for the race, and they did it a little differently so that things were more streamlined. Each car raced three times in a row and they calculated their speed somehow, and that's how they determined the ultimate winner.

Here is Samantha's first race where she got 3rd place. You can see her smile at the end of the video. She was so glad her car crossed the finish line (and so was I)!

Here is Samantha's second race where she got 2nd place. You can see her fist pump at the end of the video. :)

And here is her last race where she won the race by leaps and bounds! I don't think I've ever seen Samantha smile so big. Her whole face lit up, and she was so happy and so proud. I love it, and I'm so glad that her hard work paid off and that her car did so much better this year.

It was a good Grand Prix, and it went by much faster than last year. Once it was over, we went downstairs for a cookie before heading back home for bedtime. Ben and I still had to pack and get things ready for going out of town the next morning. Ema and Papa were on their way to our house and were going to get to our house pretty late. However, by the time we got the kids to bed and got things done that we needed to do, it wasn't long before they arrived. I was excited about our trip out to Pennsylvania, but I was nervous, too. I was nervous about leaving the kids, especially Owen. I had never left him like that before, not even overnight once, let alone for two nights. Plus, up until that point, I was still nursing him three times a day. Now granted, some days he wouldn't be interested that much, but I hoped that that transition wouldn't be too hard on him.

Thursday morning Ben and I planned to leave shortly after getting Samantha off to school, since we had a 12 hour drive ahead of us. However, I woke up a little before 6:00 feeling hot and my stomach was very unsettled. I hoped it was just nerves or being hungry, and I tried to go back to sleep until it was time to get up and take a shower. I did not feel good once I got out of bed and into the shower, but once again, I was denying/hoping that I wasn't getting sick. But as I took a shower, there was no denying it, and I got sick to my stomach. I felt awful. Every time I moved or sat up, I felt like I was going to get sick again, and I was very cold. After getting out of the shower and getting dressed again, I just went back to bed to rest and wait to see if my feelings of having an upset stomach would pass. Luckily, I no longer got sick that morning, but I still felt absolutely exhausted and miserable. However, Ben and I needed to get on the road, as we had a 12 hour drive ahead of us still. I brought a trash can in the car with me, as well as a pillow and a blanket, and I was super glad that we were doing the trip by ourselves. I was able to just recline the car seat and fade in and out of sleep for most of the day. I felt bad for Ben because I was in no condition to be able to drive with the way I was feeling. I wasn't very good company, but luckily Ben had quite a few podcasts to catch up on as we drove. We arrived at the hotel after 10:00 that night, got ourselves checked in, relaxed for a bit, and then tucked ourselves into bed. I hadn't eaten anything all day and still didn't feel like I was able to eat anything that night. I hoped that by the morning this stomach bug would be gone so I could enjoy our time looking around Wilkes-Barre.

Ben and I both slept pretty well in the hotel, and we slept in a little bit as we didn't have any plans until the realtor picked us up at 9:00 a.m. It's amazing how easy it is to get up and get ready in the morning when it's just Ben and me. I finally felt like I had my appetite back, and I took it easy at breakfast, but it seemed like my stomach was back to normal, for the most part.

It was nice that we were able to arrange to meet a realtor while we were in Wilkes-Barre. We had sent him a list of some of the houses we had looked at online, and he arranged showings of the houses, plus a couple others. We learned that living in Wilkes-Barre itself was not the greatest area, and the school district was not very good. So several different people recommended that we live in one of the surrounding cities like Mountain Top or the Back Mountain area. That's where most of the houses were located that we looked at, and it was good to get a sense of the area. Even though we probably would not live in Wilkes-Barre, most areas only take 15-20 minutes to get from there to the university or the shopping areas. It would be different than what we experience now where Ben can just walk across the street to work, and everything in town is very close by, but it still would be a reasonable commute. It would just mean we also have to look for a second car at some point.

I always find house searching to be disappointing because houses are not as they appear in pictures a lot of the time. Plus, our current house has really spoiled us as far as it's size and the price we paid for it. We have 5 bedrooms and 2 full bathrooms, as well as a full finished basement, and it seemed that it will be very difficult to find a similar house in a price range that works for us. Many of the houses were just very outdated, or they were just much smaller than what we have now, even meaning that Samantha and Aedan, or Aedan and Owen will have to share a room, which wouldn't be the end of the world, just different. This is just the beginning of it all, so if we do indeed move there, I'm sure more houses will come up once the market picks up more as Spring really comes into full swing.

Here are some pictures from the parking lot of our hotel, overlooking Wilkes-Barre. You can see the mountains in the distance, and they surround Wilkes-Barre, as Wilkes-Barre and Scranton are in the valley.

I took a whole bunch of pictures of the houses that we saw, but I am not going to include them here. After our house tour, we got a late lunch at Olive Garden (Just because we could. This city actually has restaurant choices!). Then, we drove into Wilkes-Barre to walk around some and walked through campus as well. Here are a couple pictures of campus.

The campus runs right along the Susquehanna River, so we took a look at that as well. It is definitely a bigger city, but it's pretty. And do you notice one of the greatest things? There's no snow on the ground, the sun was shining, and I did not have to wear a coat. This is what Spring is supposed to be in my mind. There are still cold days, but then you also get days with weather like this, and all the snow is long gone.

I thought this was a beautiful view with the river and the mountains in the background.

We met a faculty member and his family at a pizza restaurant for dinner that evening. They have two young kids, a girl a year older than Samantha and a boy a year older than Aedan. The kids were very quiet and respectful while the adults talked. (They were much more quiet than our kids would have been.) It was good to be able to talk to the faculty member and his wife, who is a high school teacher, about their experience in the area, school districts, and other things that have to do with raising a family there.

After dinner, Ben and I went back to the hotel to talk to the kids on FaceTime, and we had one of the saddest experiences. Owen was doing great for Ema and Papa, but when he saw us in the video on the phone, he was very confused. He was standing right in front of the phone, looking right at us, and his little lip began to quiver, his eyes filled with tears, and he just began to cry. It was like his missed us, and he saw us, but he didn't understand why he couldn't touch us or why we weren't there. Eventually, Ema had to take him away to calm him down because he was just so distraught. I have to admit that seeing him like that made my heart break a little. That was the saddest I had ever seen him, and it made me miss him even more and hope that he would calm down okay for them that night.

After getting off the phone, Ben and I decided to drive around a little more, through some of the neighborhoods in Mountain Top, and by the two main elementary schools.

Our trip out to Pennsylvania was a whirlwind, but I was so glad that we were able to go together, that my stomach flu was just a quick 24 hours, that Ben didn't get sick from me, and that we were able to enjoy our ride back home just talking, processing, and enjoying our road trip together. We were able to get back home about 8:00, so Ema and Papa kept the kids up so we could see them and put them to bed. It was a long three days away from home, but the kids did great for them. Owen went to bed and napped like a champ, sleeping through the night, which I was so relieved to hear. We were so grateful that they came back up to watch the kids for us so Ben and I could see Wilkes-Barre, get some information, and then better make our decision from there.

(Blog about March 10-16, 2019)

Getting Back to Normal Life & A Weekend of Big Things

Samantha: 93 Months, Week 3
Aedan: 59 Months, Week 1
Owen: 17 Months, Week 3

Coming back from vacation is always difficult, especially when you're coming from the sunny warmth of Florida to the snowy cold of the U.P. There was a blizzard while we were gone, so we had a lot more snow on the ground when we got back home. Here are some pictures of our back and front yard. Sometimes I still am amazed at the amount of snow we get up here, and this winter has been relentless.

Since we had to drive home from Upland on Sunday, we didn't do much else that day. The kids were sad to be leaving Ema and Papa, as they always are, and they were sad that vacation was over. However, they did pretty well in the car. We stopped at Chipotle in Lansing on our way back, like we usually do, and then Samantha and Aedan watched a couple shorter Veggie Tales movies while Owen took an afternoon nap. He woke up crying a few times, but we were able to rock his car seat and get him back to sleep, which was good.

One of our jobs on Monday was to dig out our mailbox. It got buried with all the snow from the blizzard and the plow trucks coming down the street. Luckily, our neighbors were keeping our mail for us while we were gone. Ben tried to find it that morning, but his preliminary search didn't come up with anything. Isn't this just crazy!? Look how much snow is piled up! How long is this going to take to melt away?

Getting right back into work and school was definitely a change from our last week out of town, but I think Samantha was ready for school again. The one benefit was that hockey was over, so we had our Monday night open to just hang out. Samantha and Aedan decided to let Kit and Catboy have a sleepover together in Aedan's room. They got a pillow and blanket for them and even hooked a light over the bed for them. It was so cute, so I sneaked a little video of them putting their toys to bed just like we put them to bed: singing to them and praying with them.

Tuesday was going to be a busy day because I had Bible study in the morning, and then Calla planned on coming over to our house to watch Owen for us while Ben and I picked Samantha and Aedan up from school and took them over to gymnastics for their last lesson of session. The last lesson is always when parents are invited to come out onto the floor with the kids to see what they have been learning. Samantha didn't get to go to this class last session because she was sick, and the kids were excited that Ben could come so that way both of us could watch one of them at a time. We switched about halfway through so we were able to see both of them perform their skills. I took a lot of videos there, so here are the kids doing gymnastics. They still love it so much and were sad that it was ending.

After they got their stickers and certificates, the kids got changed back into their regular clothes and we went back home to relieve Calla and get Owen before heading to the Big Bear for Aedan's hockey banquet. They had pizza, salad, breadsticks, and cookies for dinner. Then, they called out each player's name to give them a certificate and a medal for their season playing hockey with the Hockey Initiation Program. Aedan was very proud to go up and get his first medal, and I was proud of him for sticking it out for the whole season, even when it was hard.

The boys and I got back to our normal routine pretty quickly and went to the library for story time on Wednesday, just like we usually do. The boys have fun, and it's good for Aedan to hear stories and do a craft. Owen usually wanders around during story time, playing with toys, but not being loud or distracting. It's one of the few things to do in town in the winter, so we try to make it a point to be there.

Owen has been having a harder time getting back into the swing of things. It's been really difficult for me to keep him awake in the car on our way home from dropping Aedan off at preschool. In fact, on Wednesday there was nothing I could do to keep him awake, so I just let him fall asleep, hoping that he would stay asleep when got home. I was able to pick him up out of his car seat and he fell right back asleep on my shoulder. He was so cute cuddled up into my shoulder that I had to stop by the bathroom and take a picture of my little baby before taking him into his room to put him down for his nap. You can tell he's my last baby because I am just cherishing these moments where he needs me and wants me to hold him because I know they won't last. I know there will be a day he won't fall asleep so easily on my shoulder, so I want to remember these times.

Wednesday night while Samantha and Aedan were at AWANA, Owen and I hung out in the basement together. He really loves going down the slide. I love his huge smile and laugh, and how he immediately gets up and goes around to climb up again. Towards the end of the video you can hear how he talks to us. He will look at you and say, "Mm, mm, mm," like he's trying to tell you something really important. I love it, and even though I can't understand him, it's evidence that he is trying to communicate with us more and more.

Since getting back from Florida, Aedan has been playing with his Toy Story toys a lot more, which is cute. Samantha and Aedan will get their toys together and have a round-up. It's fun to see him playing with those toys again.

It's amazing how quickly life got busy again in getting home. Ben really didn't work much at all while we were gone (which was lovely), which should have been okay since it was his Spring Break, but he felt behind when we got back home and was right back to working almost every single night after the kids were in bed. Then, I was struggling with how to balance all the activities that the kids want to do and still have downtime during the week to just be together as a family and not be running around every night. I was thinking about signing Samantha and Aedan up from soccer that goes from the end of May through the end of July, but they would be in two different groups, and both groups have practice two nights a week, so we would have soccer every night, Monday through Thursday, and that is just too much. Hockey was over and gymnastics ended, so things were slowing down some, which I was looking forward to. It's hard to know what activities to let your kids try so they can figure out what they like and what they are good at. It's such a balancing act, and we want to make sure we prioritize time as a family and time to eat meals together, as well as giving the kids experiences with different activities and sports.

On Thursday night Ema and Papa were going to be arriving at our house to visit for the weekend, so I spent part of Wednesday night and Thursday morning cleaning the house and doing laundry. We had been out every other morning that week, so Thursdays are usually our day to get things done around the house. Even though we were just home playing, Owen was still a pretty tired little boy. I think he was trying to catch up on all the sleep he lost while we were in Florida. He fell asleep in the car again on the way home from dropping Aedan off at preschool. I know I already included pictures of him sleeping from yesterday, but there's just something about a sleeping baby that is just to precious and sweet not to capture.

Ema and Papa got home right around after school time, and the kids were so excited to have them at our house. We had barbecue pork for sandwiches in the crock pot with baked potatoes and fruit for dinner. Then, the kids just had fun monopolizing Ema and Papa's attention. Even Owen warmed up to them quickly, and he had a great time playing this game with Papa after dinner where he would sit on the blue chair, get up and run across the room, fall into Papa's arms, and then Papa would pick him up and turn him upside down. As you can tell by Owen's laugh, he thought this was a great game. He did this over and over again for a long, long time.

That night was all just about hanging out. Even though we had just seen them the last two weekends surrounding our trip to Florida, the kids love having visitors come to our house, and they love the undivided attention they get from Ema and Papa when they come to visit. (Even though I'm sure it wears Ema and Papa out, I know they love how much the kids are excited to play with them.)

Conveniently, on Friday Samantha only had a half day and Aedan didn't have school, so the kids were able to spend even more time with Ema and Papa. In fact, Ben and I were able to go out for little while that morning for a little shopping and an early lunch. We had plans to go to a LSSU hockey game that night since we had never taken Ema and Papa to one before, and Aedan woke up earlier than he should have that day because he was excited, so we decided to have Aedan take a nap to help him get through the rest of his day and be able to stay out for the hockey game. We told him we'd wake him up after about an hour or so, but I had to take a few pictures of Aedan sleeping so peacefully in his bed. Do you see where Happy Bear is? That's Happy Bear's spot. Aedan always puts him on the top corner of his pillow like that, facing that direction, and he gets very upset with you if you touch his pillow and mess up how Happy Bear is laying. I'm so glad that Aedan will still take naps when we ask him to. He would have slept much longer that afternoon, but we didn't want him to nap too long and have it impact his sleep that night. I love that I have been home with Aedan all these years. He won't really remember them, but they have been precious to me.

While Aedan napped that afternoon, Ben and Samantha went to the eye doctor for a general check-up. Ben hadn't been to the eye doctor since Texas, when they had prescribed him glasses for his slight astigmatism. Samantha sometimes tilts her head up when she's watching something or reading, so I wanted to make sure she could see okay. They were gone for a lot longer than I expected, and Ben texted me when they were almost done saying that the doctor said he had pilot vision and maybe had a slight astigmatism, but nothing he needed to do anything about. Samantha had 20/20 vision, but he noticed that she had a raised/swollen optic disc. Since he noticed this, he was going to refer her to an ophthalmologist who could use more specialized instruments to look into her eye. The doctor told Ben not to google it because it could make us more worried than we needed to be at this point. He said in most cases this is just a physiological thing, but there was a 5% chance that it could be a sign of a brain tumor, which is why this kind of thing requires an automatic referral to get checked out further. When they got home from the eye doctor, Ben explained this all to me, and it was almost too overwhelming for me to comprehend. She displayed no signs like headaches, dizziness, unexplained nausea, or anything like that which would have meant we were taking Samantha straight to the ER for an MRI. However, anytime you heard the phrase "brain tumor" in relation to your child, your heart drops into your stomach. For the next few days, Ben's mind and my mind were sent reeling, trying not to think of the worse case scenarios, trying to think positively as we had to wait for a week and a half for Samantha to get into the ophthalmologist, and trying to not to imagine what could happen if she was part of the 5%. Samantha is so precious to us, and just like anyone with their child, we couldn't imagine not having her a part of our life, or having to watch her go through a terrible time of possible surgery or treatment or who knows what else. I tried my hardest to just stop and pray every time those thoughts would come into my mind. I know there have been people where their child was part of the 5%, so I wasn't going to be naive and pretend it couldn't happen to us, but I felt reassured by the Lord that no matter what happened and what the outcome was, that he would carry us through it and sustain us. I just continually put my trust in the Lord every time a wave of worry or fear would overcome me. That was definitely not the news we were expecting to hear from a routine eye exam, but I'm glad we took her so that we were made aware of this potential concern.

Once Owen got up from his nap, he noticed that Papa was trying to help us fix a floor board that came loose. Owen loves trying to use screwdrivers and other tools. Papa was kind enough to let him try out the pliers, and it was so cute how he was reaching under the counter just like Papa to help him out. I love this new phase he is in where he is mimicking everything around him. You can tell that he is learning and picking up on so many things.

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After eating dinner that night, we get ready to go to the Lakers hockey game. We let each kid bring a stuffed animal to play with, and that actually helped entertain them a lot more. Watching the game is not always that interesting to them. They are more about the atmosphere, eating a snack, and staying out past their bedtime. Owen did pretty well just wandering back and forth between all the people. Here we are watching the hockey game. I love how Samantha loves on her brothers and is always eager to hold Owen on her lap.

Isn't this a great picture of the two of them smiling? We think that Owen looks a lot like Samantha with his facial features and expressions. In this picture you can definitely see the similarities. Owen just has the blue eyes and dimples that Samantha doesn't have. :)

Here's the difference in reaction among the kids when the Lakers score a goal. A loud buzzer goes off, and there's lots of cheering and clapping. Aedan does not like loud noises, so he sits there and covers his ears. Samantha jumps up and dances, even picking up Owen and including him in the celebration.

Staying out late is always difficult, but the kids did a pretty good job. We walked across the street and back home and got the kids to bed as quickly as we could. Then, it was pretty much bedtime for ourselves, so we watched a little TV before all the adults went to sleep, too.

On Saturday we didn't have too many plans. There was a snowstorm coming that was not in the forecast, so Ema and Papa decided they would leave that afternoon rather than the next morning. We hung out around the house and played that morning before going out to eat at Pure Country for lunch. Then, we went back home so I could put Owen down for his nap, and the rest of them got snow clothes on so they could go tubing at Minneapolis Hill. It has become Ema and Papa's Spring Break tradition to come up here to visit over Spring Break and go tubing with us. I wasn't feeling that great and was coming down with a pretty bad head cold, so I was okay with staying back at the house while Owen napped. They had a great time tubing together. It's always a fun activity to do in the wintertime up here. You could tell the late night was catching up to the kids, as they were having a hard time making good choices and Aedan was getting too tired to walk from the bottom of the hill to the tow line that took you back up.

Once getting back home, Ema and Papa finished packing up their stuff and headed out on their way back to Upland. The kids are always really sad to see them leave, especially Aedan, who probably moped around the house for the rest of the day. We were sad they had to leave early, but we were glad that they came a day earlier than usual and that they wouldn't have to drive in any bad weather.

That afternoon, not long after they left out house, Ben got a phone call from Wilkes University offering him a job for next fall. (I didn't mention it in my previous post, but this is where Ben was when he went out of town right before our Florida trip. He was invited on a campus visit to Wilkes University, which is in Wilkes-Barre, PA.) The job offer came as kind of a shocker to us, and now we were confronted with a decision to make in the next week of whether or not we would accept this offer for a new job in a new state. After Ben and I talked that afternoon, we decided that it would be hard for me to make much of a decision without ever having been to that area of the country, so we started making plans of how we could get ourselves out to Pennsylvania, and what we would do with the kids. Our heads were now reeling with this big decision we had to make. It was a crazy weekend with all these things happening at once. (More about our decision and our trip to Pennsylvania in the next post.)

(Blog about March 3-9, 2019)