Adventures in Bath Time

What is it about water that is so intriguing to little children? It seems water is always wanted outside and whenever possible the sprinkler is running under the trampoline or the hose is in the sand box. Fun and intriguing right?  Somehow, for a few minutes at least, that same intrigue is far away when it comes time to take a bath.  I am not sure why that is because not five minutes into a bath, faces are all full of smiles and giggles can be heard. (This is true with the exception of having hair washed within the first minutes of entering the tub. From the time of hair washing completion though, smiles and giggles.)

Toys - that might be what helps with the smiles and giggles, and perhaps some bubbles too. But even with the myriad of toys for the bath tub, something new is always wanted. Isn't that how it always is, never satisfied with what you have and always want something more.  That's another topic in itself! :)

Now for our two main characters:

picture by Sabrina Lewis Photography

Brittney - somewhat shy and reserved

picture by Sabrina Lewis Photography

Carissa - well you know what they say, a picture says a thousand words ;) LOL



The other night while the two were having fun in the tub and their mother and I were enjoying a bite to eat without the constant - can you get me ....? - sit down and eat! - I don't like ..... etc.  :) we suddenly noticed the joyful laughter had turned to crying.  It seems that, as I said before, the amount of toys was simply not enough.  Carissa had begun to play with a bar of soap.  Anyone remember what happens when a bar of soap gets wet?? (I know most of us have liquid soap, so do we but the occasional bar of soap is brought out) Well, in the course of play, the soap did get wet and it evidently shot out of Carissa's hands and flew right into Brittney's mouth! (anyone remember the Lifebuoy scene from A Christmas Story? LOL Fortunately there was no "soap poisoning")

Sun Surf and Sand - Life's a beach!!

The beach was just awesome!  We went to Holden Beach, NC http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holden_Beach,_North_Carolina   / http://holdenbeachnc.com/ - The trip was a bit delayed but we made it and enjoyed every bit of the time we had.  We rented a second row beach house with Cherilyn's brother and his family.  They flew in from Utah to enjoy the east coast with us.

While on our trip we were able to take the kids to the Alligator Adventure in Myrtle Beach, which they all loved.  They liked seeing all the creatures and they even got to handle a live alligator.

Haircut 100

The girls just loved the day at the salon!

Emergency 911

One does not always know what is going on, even with evidence of a problem.  Sometimes the evidence at hand can lead to several different conclusions, unfortunately only one can be right.  Such was the case late Friday evening, July 22.  Cherilyn found herself suddenly feeling ill.  The ill feeling led to flu like symptoms throughout the night.  All day Saturday the pain she felt in her mid section was thought to be from the all night flu like symptoms.  By late Sunday we knew things were not getting better and on Monday morning we went to the local emergency room.

After several hours in the local ER, which included a CAT scan and numerous blood tests, we were informed that Cherilyn was having issues with her appendix which would require surgery. Our local hospital is more of a glorified urgent care - the surgeon only works a limited schedule, meaning you only got full treatment there if he was working that day.  We were not that lucky so we had to go to Springfield.  So I drove and Cherilyn was treated to her first ambulance ride.  The new hospital was almost an hour away.

The stay in the new ER was not nearly as long as the previous ER stay.  The surgical consultation  took place within the first hour of being there.  The surgeon seemed very concerned that the surgery was not going to be able to be performed laparoscopically as he felt the CAT scan showed the appendix had burst. Fortunately he was a talented surgeon and he was able to remove the appendix and flush Cherilyn's abdominal cavity all laparoscopically. Cherilyn was in surgery about 2 hours.  She then *enjoyed* a 5 day stay in the hospital.

Many thanks to all the medical staff @ Cox South Hospital! And a VERY BIG thank you to our friends who helped us out with the kids and the dogs and meeting some of Cherilyn's needs while in the hospital.  Feel free to email her for more details. :)

Cherilyn was able to fly in to Myrtle Beach and only miss a few days of our beach vacation.  She has been recovering nicely and feels much better each day, though she is not quite 100% she has been able to enjoy our time on the beach and in Charlotte.

You Can't Just Float Through Life

Last week Cherilyn's BF and family came for a visit and we decided to do some fun things while they were here.  I think we might have done a few more fun things if life hadn't gotten in the way but that's just how it goes sometimes. The dogs and the puppies sometimes demand your attention and since they pay the bills, we give it to them. We had 2 litters born while we had company, one without issue and natural, one c-section.  Along with that, one puppy had to go in for surgery. (everything is OK there, nothing out of the norm.)

One of our adventures was a canoe trip down the James river, which is more of a creek at most points.  You would think with all the rain we had this spring, the river would be flowing and be nice and deep, NOT the case.  Several spots along our trip were quite shallow and required actually getting out of the canoe and pulling it along a bit until a deeper part of the river was reached. Fortunately, I have dropped a few pounds and well, you've seen Cherilyn - so let's just say the front of the canoe never had an issue with being too low. :)

Given the water conditions, we had a little work involved in our trip.  Not complaining, work is good, builds character and muscle! In some areas of the river, the water was almost stagnant, which required almost as much paddling as some areas where you had to paddle vigorously to avoid a tree or rock in the middle of the river.  This got me to thinking about how we go through life. We are here for a purpose but fortunately we are not alone, we have guidance and help to get through life.  God does not hang us out all alone to get through this life. He has provided goals and incentives and tools, all of which make it possible to get through this life.  He has given us a canoe to be in (the gospel) with an oar to help us guide our way though (the scriptures). He even makes the water tolerable for when we need to be in it in order to get our canoe going and out of the sand bar. (In this case the river was nearly 80 degrees. This felt cool because the air temperature was 98)  Think of what it would have been like if the river water were only 50 degrees?  The goal of the canoe trip was to float downstream to the end of the run - spiritually speaking, our goal in this life is to get through it in order to live with Him again.  If we just allowed the current to take us, we might hit a rock or a tree.  In places where the current was almost nonexistent, we would not progress.  So, we have our oars but we have to use them.  We have to work in order to obtain the goals we set and the things we seek.

Here are some pics from the trip :)