Our Christmas Picture this year (I will be sending out copies to family and friends! That is my goal this next week!) The lighting isn't great and the day after I took this the processor in my camera died...grateful for Christmas presents that come in the form of new cameras!I think this picture pretty much sums up our year. Kris and I are so glad 2008 is over. I have tried several times to sit down and write our family newsletter but I have no desire to write anything about the past year. I guess Kris and I are due a crappy year because we have been blessed with 9 years previous that were wonderful even though there were challenges. If we could make it thorough 2008 in one piece, Kris and I can make it through anything. We have learned that we really need to just settle somewhere and put some roots down. Working for the government overseas is not for us. People who want more government programs to take care of Americans need to experience how they take care of their diplomats first. Yea, it's not fun, that was the running joke among some in the embassy before the election.
Everyone has been sick since the beginning of Christmas break except for Kris. Tuesday the 30th of December was the first day in 2 weeks we had actually been out of the house other than going to church that first Sunday. We went to the Embassy for lunch with Kris, picked up some books at the CLO office and met Louie's family (Kris' boss) who just got here on Saturday. All of us still had coughs but other than that, we were feeling pretty good. I found 3 scorpions in the kids' toy boxes, I have now transferred all of their toys into bins with tight lids and no holes. I love insects and pretty much all manner of creepy crawlies but spiders completely creep me out and now scorpions are beginning to do the same although I know I will never get to the point with the scorpions where I hate them as much as spiders.
New Years Eve:
We went to the home of a friend from church for New Years Eve. The boys had a lot of fun and Kris and I really enjoyed socializing while the kids were entertained. Towards the middle of the evening (after the balloon game) a movie was put on for the kids. When I went downstairs so that Jamison could watch the movie with his brothers I saw Weston trying to get away from a girl who was trying desperately to sit next to him. 
Weston was trying to be nice about it but she was pretty affectionate and blatant that she wanted to sit CLOSE to him. He kept asking her for some room but she really wasn't interested in giving him any space. I think he finally got his point across and she was happy to just sit next to him. I'm not sure I'm ready for girls getting close to my babies yet. You can see her in the second video, she's the one who picks Jamison up after he falls.
About halfway through the movie Weston came back upstairs and said he wanted to go home because his ear was really hurting him. (It wasn't until I saw the second video I posted that I noticed Weston wincing and holding his ear in it.) Since we have all just gotten over our colds I knew an ear infection was starting because any time Weston gets a cold he gets an ear infection.
We loaded up the kids, said our goodbyes and drove home. Weston was really complaining about his ears by the time we got home. We laid him on the couch, filled him up with Tylenol and gave him a heating pad. That was about 10:30pm (we gave the kids the option to stay up of course!) Weston just wanted to go to bed so he did.
At 2 am I shot up out of bed wide awake and went out into the hallway. It took me a bit but I couldn't, for the life of me figure out why I got up. I didn't need to use the bathroom, I didn't hear anything abnormal-the house was dead silent, Jamison wasn't crying. I thought I'd just check on Weston since I couldn't figure out what had woken me up and maybe give him some more Tylenol.
The older boys are clear downstairs on the opposite side of the house from us. When I walked into their room Weston was rocking back and forth in his bed in agony with both hands over his ears. I ran over to him and put my hand on his back which startled him; he didn't know I was there. He said he didn't want to wake me up so he was trying to be quiet!!!! My mommy ears heard him I guess! He then started crying and told me he couldn't take the pain anymore and right then he moaned in agony clutching his ears, he felt a loud pop in both ears and that's when I knew both eardrums had ruptured. I got him some towels to lay his head on for the drainage (this has happened several times already...time for tubes again I think). I also gave him more Tylenol although he said his ears didn't hurt anymore now that his eardrums ruptured, he got it anyway for the fever.
I can't believe how fast it happened from the initial pain to the rupture. He said his ears hadn't even bothered him until the party and he had no fever until he was laying on the couch, not even a fever at the party!...definitely think it's time for tubes again. He was able to fall back to sleep and I went back upstairs to bed but first said a very thankful prayer that I was woken up when my son needed me. I've been very paranoid about not being able to hear my kids at night if they need me and I have no doubt that the spirit woke me because even when Weston was yelling for me later on that night for a new towel for his pillow I could barely hear him. We now have a baby monitor in their room that I turn on at night. It barely works because of all the concrete walls between our room and their room but it's better than nothing.
6 comments:
Sorry, the videos didn't post but I will try to get them on again.
Oh, poor guy! I am glad you woke up too. I couldn't sleep without the monitor, can't sleep with it either, no it definitely helps. When I'm on night duty I sleep in Aidan's room, right next door to Halle's and keep the monitor on her. Mommy empathy here. Hope he feels better soon!
Great family photo (that Jamison cracks me up).
The story of the little girl wanting Weston is cute. Maybe not for him, but just funny how some kids (people) can be so bold and others so shy (my kids would probably fall more in the latter category, having the infatuation and doing absolutely nothing about it, which is not bad thing...).
I had swimmers ear several times when I was a kid, I remember horrible ear aches. But I never had a ruptured drum, that sounds even worse. 2009 isn't sounding like it's starting off all that well already, at least for Weston...
Best wishes that 2009 will be a whole lot better than 2008!
Glad your Mommy Ears were working, poor guy. Nathaniel has had his ear drum burst a couple of times (and I never even knew it until after the fact).
oh, poor weston. what a great story you shared, though, about promptings. hope you all are feeling better. your family pic is adorable the new year's eve party looked like it was a blast! see you sunday!
I missed this one, too!
Ohhh, poor Weston! I well remember rupturing eardrums and tubes....I can sympathize. I am often thankful for those promptings that wake you in the small hours of the night. I have several times woken without knowing why I needed to roam the house, and from sick kids to piles of spent matches, I have seen the reason for the promptings!
It sounds like you guys rang in the New Year with a lot more verve than we did. WOW had a dance for 12+, but we are really mean parents and did not let anyone under 14 go. The rest of the kids and I played board games (which Jonah says are called that because you play them when bored, lol.) and I tried not to kill the t.v.
When I was a kid, we went to big family parties at my grandparent's house, where we partied all night and woke up to fish and chips for breakfast....oh the memories! Thanks for taking me back down memory lane.
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