A few fun things…

I know I just blogged, but you take the time when you have it, and you just do it.  So, here’s to a second blog in one week! 

So the not so fun…. We had been together with my brother, Luke, and his family multiple times over break.  Each time, they would call the next day and say, “Luke has the flu really bad” or “Sam is running a fever and coughing today.” or “Lilli has pink eye, I think.”  I thought we had made it out of all those encounters without a scratch.  Turns out, we didn’t.  Last Sunday, Madison woke up with gunky eyes.  The start of pinkeye or just a cold in the eyes?  I was going with a cold in the eye because she gets that.  Until I went to church and Luke said that Lilli was at urgent care to get drops for pinkeye.  Ugh.  Then, Monday, Ellie woke up laid around, went back to bed – in the morning!, and then said her ear hurt.  I made an appointment and took her in.  Yep, one ear infection diagnosed.  Also, I told the doctor about the possibility of pinkeye, so we picked up some drops for that and started Madison on them that night.  We made it through fairly unscathed though, and we are healthy again… and as of today, off of medicine. 

The snow came on Monday (the same day Ellie went to the doctor for an ear infection).  It was our first legitimate snow of the season, and Ellie really wanted to go out.  Why not?  We bundled up and went out.  She attempted snowballs, made snow angels, and cleaned the slide off.  It was a good time.

        

Excitement came last Thursday night when Madison lost her second tooth!  This one was not just knocked out of her mouth.  She had been working on it since she lost her last tooth – her fingers constantly wiggling it in her mouth!  Finally, on Thursday, after two of her classmates had pulled their teeth at lunch, she decided that it was time.  She started pulling and stopped.  It started bleeding; she started freaking out.  We encouraged her to keep going; it wasn’t hurting after all, just bleeding.  And she did!  I am not sure where all the courage came from, but I was really proud of her!  She was excited.  Ellie was in awe of the whole process, too.  The tooth fairy – the same one as last time! – visited again that night. 

    

This past weekend Jeremy and I took the youth group 5 hours northwest to Camp Friedenswald for winter retreat.  It would have been awesome if there was snow to sled, tube, cross country ski, and all the other stuff snow allows you to do.  But it didn’t.  Instead, we had a good time, taking a nature hike through the fen, playing an altered version of winter olympics, and drinking (a lot!) of hot chocolate.  We still had a great time, grew closer in relationships in our group, and enjoyed the beauty of God’s creation.