Ear Infections and ACU

The lack of blogging has been due to Phoebe's first ear infection. It's also my first ear infection as a mom. Eli has never had one so this is all new. Ear infections are no fun. I am sure that all the hundreds of moms out there reading this are wondering why I felt the need to state the oh-so-obvious. I'm not sure, either, but I have now joined the ranks! She was diagnosed last Tuesday after I took her home from KU with a fever of 103.5. That scared me a little so I called our doctor who diagnosed the ear infection. She had fever on and off for a few more days and she HATES the antibiotic she's taking. Most of last week she just wanted to be held. Here is my mommy confession: I kinda secretly enjoy when my children are sick. I hate that they feel bad, but all they want to do is be held and rocked by their mommy. It's just such a sweet time because they aren't wiggling or squirming or fussing...they are just being held. When the fever finally went down it wasn't quite as sweet anymore because then she wanted me to hold her standing up and walking around. She still has a few more days on her antibiotics, but she is definitely feeling better.

Friday after lunch we headed down to Abilene for Homecoming. As usual, I didn't take near the pictures I should have, but it was great. Brad and I LOVE ACU. We both have so many good memories that I could spend an entire blog writing how wonderful that school is. It's just so unique! We made it for the carnival this year and were really surprised at how good it was. They had bounce houses, a petting zoo, face painting, big slides, and fair food...need I say more? It was nice because you got to see all of your long lost friends and their children without having to wrestle your children or keep them distracted. Such a great idea. Eli even got his picture taken with the "big rat" otherwise known as Willy the Wildcat. Of course, it was not on my camera so I cannot post it on this blog. You'll just have to imagine. Eli loved the parade. No pictures though. He spent the entire time standing in front of a bunch of people we don't know because the sun was in his eyes and he kept moving farther down to get it out of his eyes. I still think the Christian Village float is my favorite. They give away lots of free stuff. I think I wound up with seven highlighters that read "Retirement is the 'highlight' of my life." You might think they were a little hokey, but it saved us during lunch, dinner, and church the next morning when Eli was getting a little bored. They were triangular and had a different color marker on each point. He was fascinated. We got to catch up with a lot of people we hadn't seen in months. I was absolutely amazed at the number of people who went out of their way to tell me that they were praying for me and my family. I was so dumbfounded that most of the time I sounded like a nitwit at best or insincere at worst. People that I was convinced that I remember them from ACU, but that they didn't remember me told me that they read my blog and prayed for me daily. When Eli went to the Children's Worship at Highland on Sunday, the girl in charge told my mom that she recognized Eli from my blog (and that he was cuter in person) and I don't even know her at all! I am truly humbled. So here is what I would like to say to all of you who read this blog: Thank you for blessing me with your time. Thank you for remembering me and my struggle and my precious family in your prayers daily. I feel the burden of all this lift a little when I know that others share in my misery. If nothing else, this weekend opened my eyes to the number of prayer warriors I have on their knees for me. As for that, we have not heard anything yet from my doctors in Dallas or Boston. We sent the films to them Friday a week ago so it's not unrealistic that we haven't heard anything. Thank you for asking and praying. Hopefully we’ll know something in the next day or so.

There is one picture that I got from this weekend. This is a picture of my grandparents, Grady and Margaret Jolly, with my children. If it looks like Grandfather is trying to restrain Eli it’s probably because he was.