Who Loves You?

Jeff and I were taking a walk with Jack holding our hands between us today. I asked him affectionately,

"Who loves you?"

His reply:

"You two guys!" (At our house, majority rules apparently, I am always just one of "the guys":)

"And the brudders!"

"And everyone in town!"

"And JESUS!"

At this point he broke into a stirring rendition of "Jesus Loves Me" for every neighbor and all of God's creatures in the woods to hear!

Inspired

The boys have had a lot of inspiration this weekend. Nick and Matt had their Confirmation Retreat and really had a great experience (Thank you, Bruce and Nate and Church Family!). My dad has been here this weekend and he always has wonderful insight to give all of them. Their dad rented the movie "Hoosiers" for them to watch tonight and they loved it! Tucker was even helping me load the washing machine by "alley ooping" the clothes in after I threw them to him!:)

The younger boys will inspire us tomorrow as we begin Holy Week with waving the palms and singing at our Palm Sunday services.

Wishing you inspiration and joy in your life too!

You know you are a mother of boys.......

When your foyer becomes a basketball court for the Nerf goal hanging on the front door!

Can't resist.....

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

The great is that Matthew has tolerated his first week of medicine really well, I noticed a little fatigue, but he never complained. And it helped his blood pressure!

The good is that Nick has cool new glasses and a haircut, and is looking AND seeing awesome. The garage doors work again. The air conditioner has been taken care of and is ready for the really warm temps I am sure (hoping) are around the corner.

The bad is Tucker's cracked right wrist, he is missing his activities, but hopefully this time next week, it will be off.

The ugly is a toss up between Jack's forehead booboo and Mommy's appearance in the morning during this very long week. Jack will heal up great, Mommy, well, we'll see. And I will spare you all pictures!:)

Followup appointment

I know I have not posted in a while, my patients and my family have been keeping me busy! Matthew had his followup appointment with his cardiologist today. Matthew's cath results had been reviewed in Pediatric Cardiology conference and while they did not feel the pressure in his aorta was high enough to warrant the risk of a stent at this point, the pressure in his left ventricle is too high (18, should be 10 or lower) so they want to put him on medicine to reduce the pressure on his heart. Apparently, the blood vessels in the heart muscle of children with his condition are much "stiffer" that normal and put pressure on the walls of the heart. It also raises the blood pressure. The medicine is to relax the heart muscle and diminish the pressure.

He was encouraged to do aerobic exercise to keep the heart muscle strong so his basketball that he loves will be great for him! He can't do any weight lifting or isometrics since that will increase the pressure. The main side effect of the medication is fatigue so if you are around him and notice something, that is probably what you are seeing. I will be home with him his first three days on it to observe him closely this weekend, and I would appreciate any feedback or observations from those of you who are around him to help me monitor him. He won't complain about anything, so we will just have to go by our instincts.

He is as usual very positive, just smiles and agrees to do whatever the doc says. Thank you all so much for lifting him up!

Amazing figures!

Tucker got two medals today, one 1st and one 2nd!

I see patients two days a week and had almost two hundred office visits this month!

Nick fasted for thirty hours, from noon yesterday to six tonight, as part of his youth group's project to raise money and awareness of world hunger!

Our blessings, too numerous to count!