Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to all! We are done visiting both families (thankfully both sets of parents are local) and have decided it is time to relax.

:)

Paul is coming home tomorrow! :)

facebook

the baby isn't feeling well and won't go to sleep. so here i am up with her in the quiet house, unable to be productive.

i apologize for the grammar/punctuation. i am typing one handed.

anyway i decided to get a facebook account.

Have you had your break today?

Today, Nana came over and helped me disinfect more things while Papa took the children to gymnastics. Then he picked up McDs for us. We got a lot done.

Then Nana and Papa watched the kids, and Anne took me out for an early Birthday celebration. My Birthday gift was a 30 minute massage. It was very nice. I feel much more relaxed now. We also did a little bit of shopping so now I have a few decent things to wear this winter.

I am back at home and back to work now. I just have the baby and she is asleep, so I should be able to conquer more.

I think Paul will be pleased with how the house looks when he gets home.

I am very much eager to hear about how the dedication of the Calvary Agape Church went. If I recall correctly Paul is on his way to Vishakapatnam and Aruku today for three more dedication services.

I have heard no updates on Paul's foot. I hope it's getting along okay.

Still battling pinworms!

nuf said

Ian Aegis Luebke

Loree and Derek have a new little one!

Born Saturday, October 30 @ 4:38 am
Weight: 8 lbs 9 oz

Congratulations to Loree, Derek and to the big sisters Rachel and Alexis!

laundry

Thanks to Miss Nancy (a lady from church). We are no longer swimming in laundry. More like wading.

this is impossible

"There is far too much to take in here, more to do than can ever be done"

Do you have the song in your head now? I am so overwhelmed! I guess I better go to bed.

Paul posted on the family homepage about his first couple days in India. It sounds like he's not been feeling very good (I sure hope he doesn't have pinworms).

If you'd like to read it and don't remember how to access the homepage, please email me.

springtails

I was cleaning the bathroom in an attempt to obliterate pinworm eggs, and I noticed some tiny bugs crawling around. I pried up some of the molding around the vanity and discovered what I am pretty sure are springtails are living behind our vanity. They look a lot like fleas. I guess I will have to call terminix tomorrow. I'm not sure how I am going to fit that in between taking Naomi (for the pinworms) and Sarah (for a respiratory infection) to the doctors. Plus tomorrow is election day.

Thankfully, Nana and Papa were able to come help me out a little tonight.

On a brighter note, Sarah has started walking alongside furniture holding on with only one hand.

I miss Paul.

pinworms

ugh!

naomi has them, i'm guessing she's not the only one.

I promised Paul I'd post everyday while he's gone. Right now I don't have a whole lot to say. Sarah and Omi were up most of the night screaming inconsolably. And Isaac has been up to all manner of mischief.

I miss Paul.

Paul has safely arrived

After a long and relatively uneventful trip, Paul has arrived in Hyderabad. He did leave a couple of things on a bus in Qatar, though.

Our Halloween party at church was a lot of fun. The children now have a boatload of candy.

Our adventure tonight

This afternoon I took Paul to the Indy airport to catch his flight to Hyderabad, India. Most of you blog readers should know a little about his trip plans, though I am beginning to think some of the letters we sent were lost in the mail.

After dropping Paul off, I hopped back onto I70 and was passing through town. I saw several cars with marching band decorations and I decided to take the children to the state marching band finals at Lucas Oil Stadium. (I had the three younger children with me).

We found a nice parking place very close to the stadium and walked over, only to discover that the tickets we needed to purchase were on the other side of the stadium (opposite corner). On the way there we were headed right into a marching band, but they allowed us to pass.

We sat in the handicapped section, it was recommended by the ushers. It worked out very well, we had an excellent view and the kids could wiggle around without disturbing others.

My personal opinion is that Avon had the best performance, but we did not stick around for the judging.

The trip home was non-eventful. I was amazed with the ease of getting into and out of the stadium. I did stop part way home because the van was making a sound like "clunka, clunka, whirrrr". When I stopped I saw that one tire was a little low. So I put air in it. I think that helped.

Hopefully Paul will be able to call me or post on here Monday morning.

quote of the day

Sam: "Mommy, are Manda and Tony still alive?"

I guess it's been a long time...

Whoever guesses correctly wins!

A fireman, a farmer, a gymnast and two giraffes

A Baker's Dozen and then some...

I have been meaning to post for over a month now. Don and I have now been married for just over 13 months. On the 18th of August, I joked that we had been married for a “baker’s dozen” of months. To back up this description, I baked some brownies. Don was not surprised – he claims that if he leaves me alone in the house for 10 minutes I bake something! I insist that this is something of an exaggeration. As one of the other Mees bakers quipped – it takes at least 15 minutes to bake something.

Anyways, it has been quite a 1st year as we continue each day the lifelong process of learning to love each other and God more every day. Through it all we become more convinced how marriage is a vocation. Right around our anniversary, I finally finished the wedding scrapbook. I still have to work on the scrapbook for our trip to Quebec. It is competing with my crocheting for free time activity of the moment, and for the time being, scrapbooking is losing.

At the beginning of August we went camping in Findley State Park OH with Shae & family. It was fun. We went hiking, canoeing, swimming in the lake, and cooking over the fire.

On the home front, we are a part of a married couples small group with some others we know from our Catholic Young Adult Group. We have just started a dvd/booklet series about having a “heavenly marriage.” It should be interesting for many reasons. So far, Don and I are the only ones who are neither expecting nor already have children. One couple is expecting their 1st in October, and another is expecting their 1st two in December. I've got my crocheting cut out for me.

The summer softball season is almost over. It has been fun to see people, but all in all the games haven’t been going so swell so I’m not going to miss it that much.

Stitches

Yesterday afternoon the children and I were cleaning the room to get ready for a party. A stuffed animal party. We had covered the little trampoline with a blanket and were setting stuff up.

The boys were running around, I don't know exactly what was going on. All the sudden I heard a loud scream. I followed the sound and saw Isaac covered in blood. I cleaned him enough to find the source of the bleeding. Then the Holy Spirit granted me strong guidance and presence of mind.

I calmly told the children to get their shoes (except Isaac who left barefoot). I put some damp paper towels and an icepack on the source of the bleeding (a 2 cm gash on his forehead) I then asked Abby to hold the icepack in place while I loaded baby Sarah into her carseat. Then we loaded into the van. Sam couldn't get his shoes on so he carried them. Abby helped Isaac to keep the icepack on as I drove us to the hospital.

I called my dad, who met us at the hospital. He took the Abby, Sam, and Omi back to his house. Isaac was quickly triaged and we were sent to a little room to wait for the doctor.
The nurse put sterile water on the wound. Then the doctor came and injected some numbing medicine into the wound. A few minutes later she came back and stitched it up. It took three stitches. Then all we had to do was wait for the paper work and check out.

The doctor said that children Isaac's age usually have to be sedated, so she was extremely impressed with Isaac. She also said that if he had required sedation we would have been there all night.

I called Paul from the ER. Then I picked up the other kids, who had just finished eating dinner. Paul, Isaac and I had dinner at McD's and all of the children had ice cream.

Then we came home and had our party.

By the end of the day I felt as though I was ten years older. I'll have to check for more gray hair now.

Thankfully, Isaac is doing well now. He is such a trooper and such a blessing to me.

And I praise God who had all of us in his hands the whole time.

Macaroni

Those of you who know my children well, may think I am going to post about their love for pasta. You would be wrong.

You see, I have been doing some research in preparation for the history lesson tomorrow about the shot heard round the world. (April 19, 1775).

One of the sources included a lesson about Yankee Doodle.

Yankee - An American
Doodle - A fool (from the low German -dodel)

Macaroni - The height of fashion in the 1770's was the Maccaroni wig which was warn by the most sophisticated British noblemen.

So the song is saying basically - That foolish American thinks that he can be sophisticated and fashionable by putting a feather in his hat instead of buying a fancy wig.

Originally the song was sung by the British to mock the Americans. But as the Americans began to win the war, they took the song as their own. In a since they were taking pride in their lack of sophistication. (I'd rather wear a hat with a feather in it than some silly wig).

Over the course of the years the British and Americans made more and more lyrics to the song and taunted each other back and forth with it.

If the British had won, would the song have survived in some other form? Who knows.

I learn so much more by teaching my children than I ever learned in school.

allergies

Allergies run strong in our family, so it's not surprising that Isaac had some things show up on his recent allergy test. However, The number of allergens was somewhat surprising. He is allergic to just about everything in the environment, most significantly to cats.

He is also allergic to a lot of foods, some of these are a bit unusual. Here is the list:

Acacia Gum
Karaya Gum
Cottonseed
Sesame Seed
Mustard
Lamb
Egg
Rye
Cinnamon
Sweet Potato
Orange
Apple
Pear
Cherry
Codfish
Salmon
Clam
Oyster
Shellfish Mix
Cabbage
Cauliflower

He had the strongest reactions to shellfish and sweet potatoes.

It is no wonder the poor little guy hasn't been feeling well.

Isaac has been adjusting well to his new diet. Of all of these things, cottonseed is the most difficult to avoid. It happens to be present in a large number of foods ranging from McDonald's Fries, to saltines, to Laffy Taffy.

On the bright side, he is feeling much better already.

This would be a post

but someone wanted my seat

so here are some eggs

Happy Pi Day

I took this apple pi pie to Don's folks when we went there for dinner this evening. Nobody noticed the pi. Given Don thought me a little silly for doing that, it is just as well.

We had the pie with ice cream, which always reminds me of a T-Shirt a girl I knew in high school had. It showed a picture of pi with a scoop of ice cream on it and had the words "Pi a la mode, it's irrationally good" written on it.

autotune the news

turtle fence

Adjusting to life with 5

Sarah has had a cold the past week. She is finally seeming to get better. But she seems to want to be held all the time. I am suffering from severe lack of sleep. But otherwise we are doing well.

Sarah seems to be sensitive to wheat and milk. These are easy enough to give up.

Isaac has been having lots of allergy issues lately so we had to take him off of wheat as well. He seems to be getting better. But it doesn't help that he refuses to take his asthma medicine unless he's REALLY sick.

Abby participated in the science fair on Saturday. Paul posted about it on his blog. I was sad that I couldn't go because of Sarah being sick.

Now we are working on getting ready for the geography fair.

Well I better go and get a load of diapers in the wash before Sarah wakes up.

Sarah Katherine

Sarah Katherine was born on February 3, 2010 at 4:01 PM. She weighed 7 lbs 3 oz and was 19 in long. She has settled into the family well. For those of you who have not seen pictures yet, there are many posted on our family website. You can email us for the username and password.

She eats well and sleeps well. I have realized that my perspective has changed over the years, as now I think I have gotten a good night sleep if I get at least 6 hours total and am not wakened more than 4 times.

The other children all adore Sarah. They get mad if they don't get to hold her enough. Naomi is fascinated by the fact that Sarah drinks milk from me.

We are somewhat concerned because a couple of days ago the pediatrician's office called to let us know that Sarah had a genetic marker for cystic fibrosis on her newborn screen. Since there was only one marker, it most likely means that she is a carrier and does not have the disease. But she will have to undergo testing. The test is scheduled for March 4. As far as I know there has not been anyone on either side of the family with CF.

We will probably have Sarah's first real outing sometime this week. My favorite restaurant, Casa D'Angelo, is closing next Saturday, and we would like to go there one last time. We used to go there when I was little and get the family order of spaghetti and meatballs. And then I would drink cherry coke, which they made by putting cherry syrup in the coke. Then they put a cherry in the coke and put a little pink plastic sword through the cherry. The drink was served in a little goblet. It made me feel all grown up and special.

I guess we are also planning on going to church tomorrow. I will wear Sarah in the sling, and fend off everyone who wants to hold her.

Happy St. Valentine's day to all of you. In your celebrations may you make sure to remember the brave man who defied the emperor by performing secret marriage ceremonies. We will be celebrating by staying home and eating candy hearts.

water broke

expecting the baby will come today.

will post in a few days.

February 8th, if not before

If baby doesn't come on her own, I will be induced on February 8th.

Now that I'm past my due date, I'm starting to feel ready for the baby. But mostly I just feel tired.

No baby yet!

But my nest is looking pretty nice.

Pre-Labor is no fun!

Anyone who has ever had a baby probably knows what I'm talking about. The contractions that come long enough and hard enough to make you think the baby is on the way, and then stop all together or slow down. The low back pain that is tolerable, and not strong enough to do anything about, but leaves you uncomfortable all the time. The digestive system that just doesn't seem to work right.

Anyway, I've been to this point enough times before that I know what it's like. But I also know it could be days before anything actually happens.

Sammy really wants the baby tomorrow so they'll have the same Birthday.

It could happen! But I'm not getting my hopes up.

By the way, the doctor isn't inducing at this point because everything has looked so good at the last couple appointments. Praise God!

Anyway, please pray for me, and for my family.

Maybe my next post will be about the new baby!