This and That

Right now I have been exiled to my room while the boys and Nana prepare for my birthday in the morning.  I love that our kids love and expect our traditions.  It is neat that it has become a part of who we are as the Cook family. 

We are really getting into a good rhythm with homeschool the last 2 weeks.  Honestly, it has been on and off a lot this year.  Last fall had lots of travel and the packing of the house and holidays here and there and then the move.  Jake is really gaining ground on his reading but we are starting to hit some bumps in the road.  This week I have really struggled with the reality of Jake having ocular albinism/nystagmus.  Up until now these have not affected our daily life.   It is very hard for me to know how much to push him.  I have shed a few tears this week.  On one hand, I know that he struggles and we need to help him the best we can but on the other hand I do not want to disable him unnecessarily.  If you think of us will you please pray for God to give me and John wisdom and insight in to how to best help Jake deal with this disability.  He does not really know he has a disability and John thinks it is time for us to talk with him so that he can help us to know how to help him.  It makes me a little sad to have that conversation because I feel like it will take away a little of his innocence about life.  But only he can tell us what and how well he sees, when his eyes feel tired and such.  We think that if we give him words and understanding to some of his frustrations it might help us all. 

I am doing well - other than lifting I feel normal.  B has not slowed down a bit.  Rather than running full force he has mastered the art of scooting.  The itching has started :(.  Nana leaves tomorrow and we are very sad.  Hopefully we will survive the next few weeks.  We shall see :)

Life as We Know It...

Life for us slowly returning to normal minus the addition of the GREEN MONSTER.  That would be B's cast.  But let me tell you that thing has not slowed him down a bit.  He can scoot with the best of them.  John's mom is here for which I am so thankful.  She has been a huge help.  I feel back to normal.  We have gotten a good morning rhythm down that I am enjoying complete with homeschooling and some snuggling on the couch reading My Father's Dragon series which I HIGHLY recommend.  It is quite delightful.  Not a day passes that they don't ask for one more chapter.  

A friend of friends who lives across the water in Seattle loaned us her jogging stroller.  This weekend we had wonderful rain free weather and so we explored our little city of Kirkland.  It has a quaint little downtown area with all kinds of fun stores and a nice coffee shop.  This was refreshing for me.  Mainly because since my surgery and B's broken leg I haven't been liking being here.  It really had nothing to do with here just the fact of being without people - community.  And Saturday reminded me that I do enjoy this city and being here - I just need the people to come.  Soon I pray. 

I am a bit nervous about Nana leaving this weekend.  I feel more confident now that I can handle B after she leaves (at least in the house).  But I just know that we will spend our days in the house because I can't carry him up the flight of stairs required for us to leave said house.  I am a homebody but I like it to be by choice.  And honestly I have just felt overwhelmingly lonely at times the last few weeks.  With my mom and Nana here I have people. 

But this too will pass.  With every day we are re-gaining our footing both physically and emotionally.  I believe God when He promised to never leave me so I am choosing . fighting to trust that He will meet my needs. 

Quick Update

Today both me and B had follow up visits.  Mine went great.  Healing well and moving forward.  B's not so much.  The bones were 16 degrees off what they should be - the set in the ER was not enough.  So they recast him (bright green) and cut a slit in the cast and put a wedge in it.  They told us it would be very painful and well it was.  B has a super high pain tolerance and that baby wailed.  Momma is still distressed over watching him.  They told us if the wedge didn't close the gap to under 6 degrees we would have to do surgery.  It worked!!! - 1 degree off now!!!  Now with the wedge there is a danger for abscess on the skin because the cast is not pushing on his leg.  So pray with us this does not happen. 

My mom is leaving in the morning and John's mom will be joining us late Thurs night.  So John is working from home the next few days. 

Update on Brady

If you have facebook you know that yesterday was Jake's 7th Birthday.  We took the boys to Red Robin and this place .  It looked awesome and we knew the boys would love it.  Less than 30 seconds on the trampoline and Brady broke his tibula and fibula.  It was a freak thing and it sent us back the the ER we visited last week for me.  Same ER room to be exact.  The on-call ortho said he would have to have surgery to have it set and so they transported us via ambulance to Children's.  After 12 hours in ER he ended up only needed sedation to have it set rather than surgery for which we are thankful.   As you can see he is in a thigh high cast and can not bear weight for 3 weeks.
Problem is that I can lift weight for 5 more weeks and John works away from home right now and my mom is leaving this week.  We are hoping Nana will come back out here and help for a while.  Not sure how we are going to survive with 1. Brady having to be still and 2. Me not being able to lift him during the days.
So please pray for our family.  I had a very sad afternoon.  Just feeling isolated and did a lot of asking God what He was doing and why this was necessary.  John is REALLY tired from the last week and while he serves us without complaining I can see it - he is running on E.
Will update more soon
Thanks friends.

So Thankful for the Pain!!

Most of you know that over the last year I have had a few ER visits with chest pain.  I have had an endoscopy and some homeopathic tests and all have come back saying my body was great and that it must be anxiety. 

On Wednesday, I woke up and my chest once again starting tightening up.  I called John to give him a heads up but I was scheduled to meet with a trainer at the gym that morning so I wanted to push through - I mean it was suppose to be anxiety.  So I took the boys to the child care area and went to sit down for a minute - the pain was getting worse.  And then a wash of awful awful pain came over me and I began throwing up.  So after a few minutes I called John to leave work and come get us.  He brought me straight to the ER and as usual they began a cardiac workup - and nothing.  But this time the ER doc said he want to poke around and see where the pain was worst.  I had told him we had been through this several times the last year to no avail.  So when he poked around my gallbladder I begin to cry hard - awful pain.  So he sent me for an ultrasound and xrays and confirmed I had gallstones and in his words "a very very sick gallbladder, and it needed to come out today."  So they prepped me for surgery and that night I had it removed.

The Surgeon came in to talk about the risk and one worse case scenario was that one of the stones had escaped my gall bladder and was causing blockage in my common bile duct.  He said this could be lethal if not caught quickly.  He said if that were so he would have to get a GI doc to come in a remove it because he couldn't.  So the worst case scenario did happen but they could not get a GI doc in the first surgery so they had to keep me in the hospital and put me back under the next day - Thursday to take care of the blockage. 

I had hoped that I would go home last night but we had a hard time getting my pain managed off of the pain pump so it is looking like this morning.  My mom flew out here as soon as she heard and she will be here to help me through the recovery.  John has to fly to Atlanta Sunday through Tuesday as long as I am doing well he NEEDS to make this trip.  So please pray for easy recovery and for us to all be ok while John is away.  Thanks again for your prayers.

I can not tell you how relieved I am that after a year of these pains I finally know it was not just anxiety or in my head.  This pain and un-comfort I feel now is so worth it knowing I won't have to have another episode of worse than labor pain :)

Food For the Weary Soul

I want to post about us - it will come soon.  But right now I am in the trenches of arranging, organizing, settling in, creating routines for the flow of our day, getting library cards, gym memberships, finding a community group and women to be my friend.  I am busy in a very good kind of way.

Yesterday I was sad for many trivial reasons.  If you have ever moved I am sure you have felt those feelings.  The moments when you wish you could see a friend face to face or your kids could run across the street when there very best friend gets home from school.  I went to bed last night with a heavy heart and this morning I was reminded gently by a sweet woman (whom God has used of late to feed my weary soul) that I have a very dear friend with me ALWAYS.  He wants to commune with me often and “It’s my own inflated sense of self-importance, the elevation of my work, of my agenda, that keeps me from prayer-communion.  


This post is written so humbly and beautful and it makes me long to be with my father and to put my agenda aside and share my heavy heart with my friend.  I hope it encourages you in your day as well.

The Best Day of My Life...

 Those were Jake's words as he walked home from the park this afternoon. It amazes me how the simple things really delight a child's heart.

We decided to head out to Pike Place Market.  When we got out of the car we all smelled amazing bread.  So we followed our nose to Le Panier.  We ordered several pastries and tried them all.  It was so fun to watch the boys savor food and to use words like AMAZING, delightful and scrumptious.  But all of these words wonderfully described these pastries. 

Next we made our way through the market and it was delightful.  All of the beautiful flowers, homemade foods, pastas, fresh fish and all the produce a girl could ever need.  We went into Sosio's Fruit and Produce and meet our new produce man - Mr. Mike.  The kids fell in love with Mr. Mike (John and I kinda did as well).  He took the time - and man they were busy - to chat with us.  He gave us samples of some of his dried fruits and he introduced us to this:

Broccoli Romanesco 

He gave us some ideas on how to cook it.  Chef John will be handling that tomorrow night.  I will keep you posted.  Oh and he gave us one of their cloth bags as a welcome to Seattle gift.   

 

Next we stopped in Beecher's Handmade Cheese.  The boys got to watch them making cheese.  It was here that they decided their new careers of choice....Cheese makers.  Brady wants to be the man with shovel and Jake wants to be the grinder.  Homemade cheese at my beckon call - I could live with that :)

Then they got to sample some of the cheeses.  I recall the word AMAZING being thrown around a bit.  We even brought some home with us.  But first they had to give us a sample of their mac and cheese.  OH MY!!!!  Jake requested this to be his birthday meal this year.  It was SOOO good!!!

We we got in the car to leave Jake said Mama this was the best family day we have ever had.  Can we do this every Saturday?  Why yes son we can :)

After we got home I needed to go to the store to fill our empty pantry so John walked the boys down the street to play here:

What a beautiful place to play!!!  And then they walked back and stopped at Starbucks for hot chocolate and to enjoy this sunset (just across the street from our new home):
















At which point Jake told his daddy that THIS was the best day of his life.