1st Grade

Porter started 1st Grade on August 9th. He was soooo excited to be back in school that he couldn't sleep. He came into our room at 3am, fully dressed and asking if it was time for the bus to come. We were not too pleased and even less happy when his little brother woke up minutes later! Matt was a good sport and got up with both boys. I was much too grumpy for a pre-dawn breakfast and cartoons.

He needs to be outside waiting for the bus around 6:45 am....he was more than ready for the day at this point.

at last....the bus came and he was off!

This is what happened when Dixon crashed. He slept until lunchtime!

Porter's Surgery

Porter suffered with multiple strep throat infections last school year. Our Doctor recommended that he have his tonsils and adnoids removed. We opted to have the surgery performed last month. We are glad we waited until after swim team was over because it turns out there is a 3 week no activity for his recovery process.


Here is Porter after he had his first medicine that makes him sleepy.

He kept asking Matt and I, "what if I don't go to sleep?" As you can see here, he could hardly keep his eyes open and this was how he looked when they took him to the operating room.

Porter was resting peacefully when we were able to go to his recovery room. I wish I had a magic spell for this at home.

We soon had to start trying to get him to wake up and start drinking. Keeping his throat moist is the most critical part of the recovery process. This also turns out to be a major challenge. I never imagined that I would struggle to get a 6 year old to eat a diet that consisted solely of Popsicles, juice, pudding, jello or slushies.

Porter had a 6 hour recovery room stay. We passed some of the time watching Scooby-Doo! He loves those cartoons. By the end of our stay, he was eating Popsicles okay. He was ready to get home to see Nanny and Papa. They had spent the day with Dixon.

Our care instructions were for us to keep him hydrated and he was supposed to take antibiotics 3 times a day and pain medicine every 4-6 hours. We were cautioned to stay ahead of the pain. His prescription was for Lortab. I get sick when I take Lortab. At one point in the recovery room, Porter was a little queasy. I asked specifically if the Lortab could be making him sick, since it does to me. I was told that it would have happened sooner, if the medicine was to blame. We left the hospital and faithfully gave him his medicine around the clock. After a day of this, he started complaining that he didn't want the medicine and his stomach hurt. I kept forcing the medicine and told him he was hurting because he wasn't drinking as much as he should. By 2 am on Wednesday night (surgery was Monday am), he starting vomiting and didn't stop. He could not keep anything down, even 1 tsp of water. This poor little guy. Matt had to go into work for a summer project he was doing. I had brought some friends over to play and keep him company. Then I called the doctor to find out what they considered continued vomiting to be....they said come in NOW. I got the other kids ready and in the van and told Porter he had to get off the sofa and go to the van. He stood up and promptly collapsed! Talk about a scary moment!! I cried out for Jose! (Did I mention that our AC broke and a friend was installing a new unit at the time?) Jose carried Porter to the van, I called Matt in a panic and we went to the Doctor who admitted him to the hospital. My friend met up with us and took her kids and Dixon so that Matt and I both could be with Porter. Turns out the Lortab I keep making him take, was upsetting his stomach with caused the vomiting which quickly led to dehydration.

I felt like the world's worst mom! I just cried myself as he cried as they kept having to restart his IV since his veins were 'blowing' due to the dehydration. It was so sad. Poor little guy of mine! My heart just hurt so bad.

Fortunately, after IV fluids and some shots of steroids to help with the swelling in his throat, he perked up and we came home the next night. Once home, he started giving me grief about not wanting to eat his Popsicles (we only had like 5 different varieties too), I gave him 15 minutes to eat it or I was heading him back to the hospital. He got up and ate it and from that point on, we did not have any more problems with him eating/drinking.

I guess the other downer part of surgery is that he can't get hot or do any activity that would raise his heart beat for 3 weeks. This has been as much of a torture as was the physical pain. It is the last 3 weeks of summer and he couldn't go out to play or swim! We have survived however and are looking forward to a strep throat free school year!!!

HOT, HOT, HOT Summer Fun

Now that summer is almost over, I think I need to post some of our fun times. Truth be told, my little brother, Jared, reminded me it was July and not April. Before the official start to summer, we spent some family fun days picking strawberries, playing in some local parks and we ventured north to visit some gold mines. We have been blessed with the time to take these day outings.

Ummm, our summer has not be too eventful. We have mostly stayed around home. We do join a pool for the summer and the boys really enjoy swimming. The pool has a slide and diving board and both boys take full advantage of both. We also found some great ear plugs for Dixon. They are could Docs Pro Plugs. Our ENT has always recommended Max's wax plugs but these pro plugs are great. They are fitted to his ear which makes it easy to put them in, none of that squishing and shoving of the wax stuff. The big bonus is that they float, so you can find them when they fall out. (which does happen on occasion)

Porter was on the swim team this year. He competed in the 25m Freestyle, the 4 person Freestyle relay and 25 m backstroke. He loved getting ribbons, whether they were for participation or winning, as long as it was a ribbon. I learned that swim meets are a whole lot of sit around and wait! We would be there for about 4-5 hours. It is unbelievable the amount of stuff you need to pack and bring along. It was as much fun as it was work. We do hope that next year will be more fun for Dixon. This year he was too big to keep contained to the stroller but too little to be entertained in a camp chair with activities. He only wanted to run around and I just wanted him still. He loved cheering on his big brother. He couldn't understand why Porter got to be in the pool and he couldn't.

Our special trip for the summer was a weekend in Sevierville, TN. We booked a night at Wilderness of the Smokies. It was super expensive but with the room rate, we got 2 days of water park admission and the kids ate for free when we bought a meal. We had never taken the kids to a water park and it was so much fun for all of us. I am not sure who had more fun. Porter loved riding the 'big slides' with Matt and Dixon had his own water slides which he loved. Everyone had fun in the lazy river and wave pool. To help stay within our budget, we booked a 'cheap' hotel for the second night and just went there after the water park closed. It was a wonderful weekend for our family. We had not done anything like this since we have had Dixon and it was time for a mini vacation. Matt played with the boys a lot and gave me time just to chill out and read a book.

On our way home, we detoured through Greenville to visit with Jen Thomas Gaillard (best buddy from high school) and her family. Her boys and mine are the about the same age and it was great to have the day with them. I love to see our kids play together.

July has brought us some challenges. Matt had some medical testing done which turned out to be okay but for a few days, I was terrified. From the testing, we learned that he has a left branch bundle blockage in his heart. All further testing came back normal so we are going to assume this is just part of his makeup and do nothing further. Should he develop more problems or blockage, a pace maker would be the remedy. Once we knew that Matt was okay, Porter had his turn. He has suffered horribly this past school year with strep throat. His Doctor wanted him to have a tonsillectomy and adnoidectomy. He did that on July 19th. We were given pretty clear instructions that he needed to drink a lot and take his pain meds around the clock to stay ahead of the pain. I faithfully gave him his meds and tried with all my might to get him drinking enough. On Wednesday following surgery, our AC broke and we went to spend the night with friends. He started vomiting and we couldn't get it to stop. The next day we knew we were heading back to the doctor. When he went to stand up to go to the van, he collapsed. It was so scary for me. I yelled up to the AC guy who carried him to the car. I called Matt at work in a panic and told him to meet me that we were heading to the hospital. Porter was admitted to peds and put on iv's. It took several attempts because his veins kept 'blowing' due to extreme dehydrati0n. As it turns out, the pain meds I was so adamantly giving him, made him sick. Even though he would complain, I made him take the medicine. Can you imagine how I felt? Talk about worse Mommy of the Year Award!! Send it my way now. My brother, Joseph, was kind enough to take a day off work and come up to stay with Dixon so that Matt and I could tend to Porter and his needs. We discharged from the hospital the next day. Porter perked up over the weekend and is now on his road to a full recovery.

As if our medical things weren't enough for one month, we had some appliances trying to see which would be the first to die and which would be fixable. The ac won the dead competition. We have a brand new unit now installed and are hopeful that it will keep us cool and happy for years to come. Handy Dandy Matt was able to keep trying this and that and was finally able to solve the refrigerator problems with a new evaporator fan motor which turned out to be relatively inexpensive as compared to a new unit or even a service call from the repairman.

We are looking forward to starting back to school in another week.

Soccer Season Has Begun

Porter wanted to play soccer again this spring. We participate through the First United Methodist Church league. It works great for our schedule. They only meet on Saturday mornings. Last year Porter played for the first time and did not do much but run around and learn to not use his hands. He is on a team with 4 boys and 4 girls. He is do 100% better than last year. His team even scored 7 goals today. (His team did not score 1 goal in any game all season last year!) He is doing really good a being a team player and trying hard to stay with the ball and kicking. He even mastered kicking the ball out of bounds when the other team was close to making a goal.

Dixon also loves soccer. He really, really, really wants to be out on the field. I have a feeling that we will have 2 soccer players next spring.

There is Gold in Them There Hills

Matt and Porter are in different school systems and do not have the same school holidays for the most part. This week has been spring break for Matt. On Monday, I did not have any babysitting to do so....we packed a picnic lunch, checked Porter out of school and headed North. We went up to Dahlonega for a family fun day. The boys were very excited for this change of schedule. We toured the Gold History Museum then took off for some panning for gold. We found a great place called Crissom Gold Mines. Although we did not 'catch the fever' we had a great time. Dixon had much more fun splashing the water than panning for gold and gem stones but Porter became a pro....well Matt might have been the family expert if I recall correctly. We finished off our gold mine adventure with a wagon ride (aka tractor) through the area. We got to see some antique mining equipment, animals and some old mines. This particular mine provide 16 of the 54 total ounces of gold that cover the state capitol building.

If you are ever in the area and need an activity, we would highly recommend the gold mining experience.

Time Hasn't Stood Still

I realize that I haven't posted since Halloween and my dear sweet little brother, Jared, is afraid that we are frozen in a time bog of some sort. I just have not had the vast amount of time required to uploading my pictures thanks to a very old computer. Thanks for a little bit of tax money, we bought a new computer! Yay for us!! Now, we only need to find the software so that I can download from my camera! Oh no....Easter is approaching....my goal is to have pictures up by say....4th of July!


We are doing good though....busy as ever!

Dixon is back to suffering with ear infections. It is spring and we are very sad that his antibiotics (that were expensive) did not clear it up. A visit with the ENT is in our very near future.

Porter has suffered with several strep throat infections. We are very close to having to send him to the ENT also. When he is healthy, he enjoys school. He had a sight word test today and he passed on 80 of the 100 words. He is playing soccer of Saturdays and seems to like it better than he did last spring.

Matt is now wearing glasses. He looks quite handsome. He has spring break coming up and will spend some time getting the garden prepped. We have been planning what to plant at Family Home Evening.

I am working really hard to strengthen my bad knee. It is very frustrating. I can have a great day...meaning I can walk 'normal' and then all of a sudden and without any hint/warning, I will take another step and can hardly walk. Please keep my in your prayers.