Hey you guys! I hope this post finds you well and loving life.
I am jumping right in.
Okay, as I previously mentioned, I wanted to talk about a lot of things in this post and I will get to them. We have had a lot going on within our family and some of it is just a little difficult to talk about. Most is great AND of course, we have A LOT of changes.
By the way... Thank you all so much for checking in on us. Seriously, this weekend alone we had no less than four messages checking to see how we are and catching up with friends. It was so sweet and really made us feel special. 💓
The first of the difficult things I wanted to talk about is our dog Missy and her health. Now, at the time I am writing this post, she seems fine and is chilling on my bed as I am in my office. So, a couple of months ago Missy was running out to the barn with me and fainted. At first I thought she stopped to roll in something stinky but after closer evaluation, I realized she was not able to get up for a minute. She was very confused and clingy after and I immediately panicked internally. There were several reasons for my panic and a couple of them are: she chases the horses and they try with ALL OF THEIR MIGHT to stomp her. If she faints while chasing the horses, that's it for Missy. The second reason for my panic was Otis' passing from complications from heartworm and all I could think was "how on earth could we let this happen again?!" It's NOT heartworm, however. So, I found some meds from Otis and started her on the weekly dose, just in case before we could get her to the vet. Fast forward a couple of weeks and we were on the front porch early in the morning. Missy saw some deer on the lower part of the property and went to chase them. She made it about 1/2 way before she started to get wobbly and almost went down. The issue is definitely worse when she is running and barking simultaneously. Anyway, she turned and walked back up the hill very slowly and weakly. Her eyes were black and it truly scared me that she was just going to drop right there. We called the vet and she came out and took all of the dogs blood to test for heartworm. The test came back that day and was negative. We then scheduled an appointment to take all the dogs in to get the yearly heartworm shot so we don't have this panic again. We also had further tests run on Missy. As it turns out, she has something called Sick Sinus Syndrome for Dogs. Here is the basic definition: Sick sinus syndrome is a type of
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| There have been LOTS of snuggles since this whole thing started. Oscar wants in on the love. |
The second difficult thing I wanted to talk about is Nico and his heart. I am not sure why but we are surrounded by heart issues right now. Nico was due for an EKG to keep up with his meds. I took him in and it was an easy experience, no issues. We got the results the following day and he had an extra heartbeat on his EKG. We then had to go to Children's Hospital to get an ECHO to rule out anything serious. Long story short, everything is fine. Nico can continue life as usual and be his true self. His ECHO was completely normal. They think the connectors were messed up or in a bad spot. So, as it turns out, it wasn't difficult in the end but felt difficult over the week or so we were speculating about it. He was swimming for the swim team at the time so we really needed to get it figured out STAT. Thankfully, it happened very quickly and it's all done now.
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| Nico tries very hard to perfect his "bored" face. This is at Children's Hospital. |
The third "difficult" thing that I just want to mention is something I had mentioned in a previous post. This is something we have dealt with over the years and will continue to deal with throughout the years, I am afraid. I mentioned last time how disregulated my kids got while we had long-term house guests and it's something I won't spend a lot of time on because, well, we kind of feel that it is what it is. Some of the time was very difficult and we had to navigate some new terrain. Most of the time was just fine and we had a lot of fun with the Casner Family. Nico seems to react the most to any new or different situation. He disregulates very easily. Some of the behaviors were just appalling and he ended up getting his whole room cleaned out and just yesterday got all of his things back. Even his sleep was disrupted. Eric even took apart his bed and took it out of his room. I am sure that was difficult for them both because Eric built that bed for Nico. But, he was stashing stuff in there and he was also using the top bunk to push the ceiling tiles up and it was driving me nuts (minor, I know but still irritating). He snuck drinks, he stole food, he was found playing in the playroom at 3am (multiple times), he woke up at 4am (multiple times) and tried to wake up the whole house, Tristan found him standing over his bed at 5am (multiple times), he lied and blamed and did all of the things. It was very frustrating and trying and some of us nearly didn't make it through but Eric and I are stubborn and we persevered and here we are now! Lol. We put a baby monitor in his room and a door alarm and those have remained for the time being. Lily was a minor version of those things. Perhaps just not as obvious since Nico is soooooo obvious. She tried to not do chores, stole food, ate candy that she's allergic to, hid stuff in her room and challenged me on our rules. She even approached me about "why do you care if I do what I am supposed to and why does everything have to be done how you want?"... And more.... Anyway, she survived the day and again, here we are now. Tristan was a very minor version of those things as well. He stole food and developed a major attitude regarding certain conversation topics- unrelated to him- and kind of became judgmental. Now, he also is 13 years old so I think part is hormonal. And, bringing those things to his attentions seems to at least temporarily resolve the issue. The twins got to where they refused to eat supper unless Eric and I were gone and they wanted to watch A TON of TV on their kindles before bed. They also were seeking our attention and would yell & scream loudly to us to get our attention, played screaming games while running around the table and stuff like that. It was lovely. Again, they're toddlers so I know they're always challenging and trying new things so we are working on nipping those undesirable behaviors.
The final difficult thing we have been dealing with and are currently dealing with is that Gramps was in the hospital after developing a major infection in his arm and as it turns out in his blood too. He was VERY sick and it was super scary. He was sick for over a month, if we really look back and realize it was all related. We didn't realize AND he refused to go to the doctor or hospital until I finally made him. He was sick with the illness that shall not be named (we are pretty sure), got kicked by one of the horses and had what he thought was a bad arthritis flare-up going on all within the past six weeks or more. Anyway, the doctor thinks the infection started from a teeny little cut on his elbow because that seems to be the bulls-eye. Gramps doesn't have the best hygiene so I'm surprised this hasn't happened sooner. Actually, he has had an issue in the past that was similar but it was so long ago and I think was while he lived in Idaho so I wasn't very familiar with it. Anyway, he was very ill and wasn't eating and started sleeping a bunch and was starting to get fevers. He also had possibly started symptoms of this several weeks prior but talked Eric into shooting him with horse penicillin for three days so I think it kind of kept it at bay for a bit. Finally, at supper one evening I talked him onto going to the ER. Eric took him because it was late and I don't function well at night. They admitted him pretty quickly after bloodwork. He was in the hospital from Sunday the 17th-Thursday the 21st after being on major fluids and several strong antibiotics. There was concern that the infection may have gone into the bone and/or joint but it's looking like maybe that's not the case, thank God. He developed cellulitis in his arm and thankfully hadn't gotten sepsis by the time he went in. We still have follow-ups to go to and he's still on some pretty strong antibiotics but he's showing signs of major improvement. Ivann hooked us up with a house cleaner who came out yesterday and deep cleaned Gramps' place since it sat for the past several weeks. He moved back in there yesterday afternoon and is happy to sleep in his own bed again instead of our hide-a-bed. So, I am thankful to report that we got to celebrate yet another birthday with Gramps on the 24th and he's still going strong. We owe him a lake trip and will do that as soon as he's getting around just a bit better. He sent me to the store to buy antibacterial EVERYTHING and I bought them out of supplies. He is determined to never get that sick again.
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| There were times it looked worse than this... |
Homeschool: I just placed a pretty big order with Christianbook.com to add to Tristan's school reading library for this coming school year AND get him a new math curriculum. He needs some algebra at this point and we decided to switch to Saxon Math based on a friends raving and honest review. We are anxious to get back to a normal school schedule for our family. Even though I said we wouldn't take a summer break, we kind of did for the month of July. It happened by "accident" because our schedule got so packed. The plan is to complete the current lesson books then immediately begin the next ones. Math as well. Eric will focus strongly on math until September when we begin our new homeschool "year". We did get Lily & Tristan's TNReady (state testing) scores back and Lily bombed nearly all of it. Tristan bombed Social Studies and nearly bombed Math. We know our new focus for the upcoming School year and the big thing for all of the kids is Math. We have decided to switch over to Good and Beautiful Math instead of Life Lessons for a Living Education. We love our old Math curriculum but we have G&B in it's entirety and would like to give it a shot. We will see how it goes.
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As you saw above, we bought the kids a Holy Bible. They were invited by a friend to go to Bible School for a week over the summer and really loved it. They also have started going to church on a pretty regular basis with the same friends. Now, their church schedule is a little strict for both Eric and myself but the kids love it and we see nothing but positives with regard to church and the family who takes them. Anyway, Tristan started reading the King James Version of the Bible several years ago and found it difficult to understand. So we figured it would be best to start with a kid version and this one had good reviews and we can't find our old one. The kids also went to a three day church camp in the middle of July and loved that. It was at a different church closer to home. They got to do crafts and play on bounce houses and make new friends. I also pulled out my bible thinking I would let Tristan read it but found the dedication page from my late grandmother and didn't have it in me to lend it to Tristan. I'm sure some people who don't know Tristan think that's mean but those who do know Tristan will totally understand.
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| Lily & Emery are bottom left. Tristan is nearly dead center. |
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| Nolan and Harlan are front and center. They did not attend bible school but got to go up on the last day for the presentation. Lol. Nolan was a ham. |
Sunsets, etc... We have had the most spectacular sunsets. I love photographing them. Most are from our front porch, a few from the garden and some are from a local park where the kids were playing until after dark one evening (Eric and I were there too)...
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| This is our wet season. I am thankful for the rain and storms because we were a tad dry there for a while. It reminds me of the droughts in CA and I do not want that here. I love what the moisture does for the land here. |
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| I haven't photographed many bouquets nor have I cut many flowers this season but I do still have some coming in. |
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| Our apple has grown! "Someone" has since knocked it off of the tree. 😧 |
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| Our first Carolina Reaper. We will see just how much we can tolerate with these bad boys. |
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| There's a thunderstorm coming! |
Swim Team! Tristan, Lily and Nico all did the rec. league swim team in Kingston this summer. Their team is the Kingston Clippers and we LOVED it so much! We made a bunch of friends, we swam, we competed, we explored and we grew a little too. It was so awesome and just what we ALL needed. I am so proud of the kids. Lily has never been on a competitive swim team before but both Tristan and Nico have. They all did so well. Each of them learned a lot, made some great friends and just got out there and tried hard with a lot of new things. I met several moms of kids on the team and three of them I could definitely see myself spending time with and already do with one. I didn't know how badly I needed a local friend. It's been medicine for my soul. We actually like the whole family and they are a great "match" for us. I'll talk moire about them in a minute...
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| Shockingly, Lily is actually the oldest girl (aside from Coach Ashley) in this photo. |
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| Tristan came in 2nd in his freestyle race by .002 seconds. He improved so much this season. |
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| Lily wanted her nails painted for the first swim meet so I did the team colors and gave her some flowers. |
This is Tristans freestyle race. I only got one video of him and maybe two of Lily because I had to volunteer during their meet. I was able to watch all of Nico's events the day prior.
Critters.... Ok, so I may have inadvertently killed Nico's last goldfish. Honestly, I can't keep these things alive. Anyway, I had to flea bomb the house because it's July and humid and July is the worst flea month in the history of the world in East Tennessee. Anyway, I flea bombed and extra treated the animals and it's all good now but I think some of the chemical may have gotten into the fish tank. I covered it with a thick towel and turned off the filter and did all of the steps but the fish died like two days after I bombed... Who knows. I took Nico about a week ago and let him buy several new fish as our last effort to preserve this tank. He did still have a catfish alive and the thing is growing! We bought six Neon Tetras (they were on sale and easy according to the tag), three Zebra Danios, three Ghost Shrimp, one Snail, and one Plecostomus. Grand total of $32. Not bad considering those dang goldfish were like $50. They are all doing great and loving life in their new tank. Say a prayer that the little buggers stay alive. If they don't, the tank is filled with air and I'll hang some goldfish crackers from a string tied to the lid. Also, as I was leaving early one morning to take the kids to swim practice, I looked over and ALL of our cows were cozy on the neighbors property. They came back on their own and wandered the property for the day but it was quite a shock. Unfortunately, we had to switch farriers for the horses because our previous one wasn't doing a very good job. He was such a nice guy and knowledgable but did not do a thorough job on the horses hooves and kept talking for waaaaaaaaaayyyyy too long. Sometimes hours. Anyway, when our vet was here, she gave us a referral to a lady who is in a nearby town and we set up an appointment and she's been here once so far and we LOVE her. She's young and strong and incredible with the horses. She even did a mini training session with Reese. Next month she meets with the vet who will sedate Reese and Patch to get them trimmed because they are just too wild about their feet still. BUT, in the interim, I talked Eric into "helping me" trim the hooves (he did 99% of the work). I tried to do more but I wasn't aware of how difficult maneuvering those tools actually is. I nearly cracked Eric's pinky finger at one point. If I could just climb under the horses and get at them from that angle, that would solve a lot of the issue but it's a tad too dangerous. Anyway, we did the two trained, "good", well mannered horses; Aurora and Harrison. They were so patient with us and the hooves looked only slightly better than when we started.
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| The neighbor bailed the 97 acres next to us so we bought hay from him for the cows. Gramps, Nico and I moved it while Eric was gone one morning. |
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| Millie is curled up in one of my plants. |
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| Here is our sweet Bear! He weighs a slight 126 lbs. He's our lap dog. |
4th of July! Independence Day is one of my favorite holidays. All of ours, actually. I love celebrating, I love American Flags, I love shooting off explosives! Most all fireworks are legal here so we always do a pretty rad show. It's funny because you can always tell a transplant, especially one from out West because we all go crazy with fireworks! We had company this year and loved it so much. Eric's sister Nancy, her husband, Ben and their two kiddos came from Iowa. It was such a fun time. We were able to explore so much this time and spend a lot of quality time together. It was a great visit all around. The kids all did great, too. Kaden is such a love and McKenna is so sweet and loves Lily. They're good kids and we love having them come visit. In addition to the rad fireworks show, we took them to the Cherohala Skyway, to Bald River Falls and to Bald River where we had a picnic, played in the river and then drove to North Carolina. We wanted them to see some of our favorites this time.
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| My friend, Jonnie, in CA, gifted me this wreath maybe about a year or so before we moved. I had it up here the whole first year and now only put it up for the 4th. It was pretty faded as you can see from the photo below. So, I bought dye and some clear coat and re-vamped this beauty. This photo shows it about half-way finished. I'm super excited because I love this wreath. |
Ju Jitsu... Nico and Tristan are still in Ju Jitsu and LOVING it. They are very serious about it, especially Tristan. Nico loves it but he's 9 and he's Nico. 💙. In June, they had belt testing and both were able to advance to a higher belt. Eric took both boys to their testing as I was carting kids to and from Bible School. Nico lost his Gi top at Ju Jitsu last week so hopefully it's returned to us soon, otherwise we have to buy a new one. He also lost his water bottle there and Tristan found it in the lost and found. He leaves stuff everywhere we go.
River Trips and Summer Lovin'.... We have had the pleasure of having Emery a few times this summer to try and show her a good time since both of her parents work full-time. Last week we drove up to Bald River Falls and played in the river for the day. We had a picnic and collected rocks and skipped rocks and floated down the river (about 30 feet). We ended the day at the park watching a friend play soccer and playing on the playground before dropping Emery at home then coming home to crash for the night. It was a great day! The night before, we roasted marshmallows and made s'mores and enjoyed the sugar-high.
Surprise gifts... A little over a month ago, we received a package in the mail from Amazon. We made the kids wait to open it (after we checked it out) and let them open it later that week. It was from Uncle Jeremy, Auntie Kate, Madison, Holland and Nora. It was the coolest sets of toys and the kids have had the MOST fun assembling them and playing with them for hours on end. Thank you guys so much!
Projects... Today, Eric finished casing the doorframe in Lily's room and yesterday he stained the door. It's all back up again and looks phenomenal. I love it so much. He's been working hard to cross things off of his to-do list and is making progress. He's also started mowing weekly again since we've had so much moisture. We can sit and watch the grass grow. Lol. The twins still love riding with him and fall asleep still, each time. Also, we have decided to move our garden and that'll be a project this autumn. I'll update later on that but I am excited because it'll be closer to the house and hopefully less weeds...
I have a recipe to share today too. Sierra introduced us to "Eggroll In A Bowl" and makes it the best, no joke. But the other night while she was at her own home caring for her own family, we had a craving so I made it. It was definitely delicious but not quite as good as hers. Anyway, here is the recipe I followed. I'd highly recommend this as a weeknight meal. It doesn't take long at all. The link to the recipe is below:
https://wholenewmom.com/egg-roll-in-a-bowl/
Friends and Kid Stuff... I mentioned making friends at the pool and one of the families is the McClure Family. Bobby is the dad, Beth is the Mom, Hannah is the oldest daughter (11), Michael is the middle son (9) and Titus is the youngest son (4). They are like ready-made friends for our family and we are REALLY enjoying our time together. Our kids NEVER want to be apart. They've had zillions of sleepovers at both houses, played zillions of hours of sports and games and the kids are loving going to church with them. There's also a budding romance between our two oldest. It's crazy to me how things have changed here because Tristan swore he was not ready for girls and would never have a girlfriend or get married and now it's "Hannah, this and Hannah, that"... It's cute and innocent at this point but now we're watching them more and just being cautious. Lily is still okay with all of it but we've had a few jealous tiffs with regard to them all being friends (and maybe a little more than friends). Anyway, Beth and I are loving chatting and bonding and enjoy how well the kids all match up. They're good people and we trust them with them kids. About a week ago, we took all of the kids to the zoo and that was a fun day. Nolan got new glasses and looks adorable. The twins have been sharing and I felt the need to document it each time I have witnessed it happening, and there are some random other kid pictures in here.
Birthdays... Ivann had his birthday toward the end of June so we invited him and Andrea over to celebrate and they were able to come! It was so much fun. We adore them. They are the best people ever. So generous and kind. Then, last week, we celebrated Gramps' 72nd birthday here. He was tuckered out after his hospital ordeal but the Casner family joined us and we had a lot of fun just sitting and relaxing. Eric made smash burgers on the Blackstone and they were delicious. The twins even helped make the birthday cake.
Also, happiest of birthdays to our dear friend, Mary who celebrated last week! We hope you're all settled in and can't wait for your next blog post! Miss you and love you, friend!
Happy birthday to sweet Penny S. I know we're not in touch regularly but I think of you often and hope you had the best day!
Happy Birthday to all of those we don't have their birthday (for whatever reason) and to those we do and did celebrate!!!
I wanted to make a few song recommendations. Eric and I are very big fans of the group Little Big Town and would eventually LOVE to see them in concert. We stumbled across these covers they did of Fleetwood Mac's "The Chain" and Martina McBride's song "Independence Day". Both are excellent. The first one goes on to another cover which I also love.