Wild fires, waterfalls, caves, and camping

We decided at the last minute to go camping this past weekend since Rich had Good Friday off of work.  We did our meal planning and packing on Wednesday and Thursday and then headed out Thursday night right after Rich got home from work.  We were planning to camp just over the Texas border in Oklahoma about 2 hours north of us.  We tried to make it before dark to choose a sight and set up our tent but arrived about 20 minutes after sunset.  There was an ugly haze over the sky as we drove. 

Through a conversation with a friend on our cell phone, we learned that there were some wild fires out of control in West TX and also Oklahoma.  The children were nervous and a little scared but we assured them that the fires were along ways away and that smoke can travel because of the wind. Did I mention that it was very windy? Rich told them that if the fires were anywhere near us, they would be shutting down the highways and evacuating the towns we were passing along the way.

We arrived at the campground only to discover it was closed due to the wild fires!  Well, it was silent in the car.  A van full of food, camping gear, and disappointed children, 2 hours from home at 8:30 at night is not a fun situation to be in.  We decided to phone some friends who live in Norman, Oklahoma to see how far away they were and to ask if we could crash at their place for the night and regroup in the morning.  Praise the Lord for good friends who aren't afraid to open up their home to 7 people, with an hour's notice!  We didn't feel too badly barging in on them since we did come bearing food for breakfast and bedding already expecting to sleep on the floor anyway. 

 Oh, let me back up and say that when we went back to the freeway to travel the hour it would take to get to their place, the freeway was closed!  They routed us onto a different highway and it was bumper to bumper traffic!  Now the kids were really scared especially when we could see the fire above the trees off in the distance.  Olivia was afraid since we weren't moving in the traffic that the fires would catch up to us.

The smoke had cleared up when we reached Norman and we were sure glad to see our friends, Jay and Amanda.  The winds howled and the temperatures dropped to the 40's but we were snuggled safely in a nice warm house! I'm so glad we were not camping that night.  I know our tent would have blown away!

Who is this cutie? Our friends, Jay and Amanda have a little girl, Anna, and she is only 2 weeks older than Micah.

We parents had fun introducing them to each other.  They have only met once before but we're sure they don't remember. 

Funny, babies at this age do not really play together.  They just take each others toys and . . . 

pull each others hair!  Ouch!

We spent the morning catching up and having breakfast together and then decided to walk around a local nature preserve to get the feel of being outdoors like we had planned.

Micah just loves to reach out and touch faces.  If he is close enough he will pull at your lips, nose or hair. We are trying to teach him the meaning of the word, "gentle".  A very important element if we're going to allow him to do this.

This is my wonderful friend, Amanda and little Anna in the floppy hat.

Amanda comes from a family of 9 and was home schooled.  She is one of the sweetest ladies I know.  Her feathers were not at all ruffled by our family of 7 spontaneous arrival.

Once we got out in the sunshine, we realized the wind had died down and we began dreaming of camping again.  We had all the stuff and had come all that way so why not?  We found out that the campsite was open again and the weather looked good so within a few hours, we headed back to Turner Falls to pick a site.

This is Oklahoma terrain.  Not really my opinion of beauty but it was nice to be out in the open air and camping again after a 2 year break.

Early in the morning when everyone was waking up, Rich decided to check the weather from his Blackberry since we knew rain was in the forecast.  We were trying to figure out if we could stay a second night or not.  By Micah's expression here I think his vote is no.

"let me see that.  What does it say, Daddy?"

This is a goofy picture of Rich being just that, goofy!  He was playing all the options for the different rings on his phone while dancing in bed.

A.J. really got into this and was entertaining us all!

Fun in the Lodi tent!

Memorable times

One happy girl!

A very happy boy!  A.J. was in heaven because he loves to explore.  He could not wait to hit the trails (or cliffs, I should say).

Ever try to light a propane stove with a baby on your back pulling on your ears?

I don't know who took this picture but I posted it to show how many times my heart fell out of my chest at this place.  It was very rocky and steep in many spots.  The kids just went for it but I kept wondering once we went down, how would we get back up?

Another "oh my! I can't look" moment. Rich was crawling in and out of these caves with Micah on his back.  I was just sure he was going to hit his head!  

Like Father like Son. 

Cool Cave

The boys really had a great time at this place!  Boys and climbing just go together.

A.J. spent a good part of the day trying to reach this cave.  He never did it because it was so steep.  The girls were having fun playing in the water below, but the boys were spending all their efforts trying to meet the challenge of getting to that cave!

We were so sore after hiking around this place.

This is advertised as the highest waterfall in Oklahoma.  It's a whopping 77 foot drop.

It sure is pretty.  

Micah did so well, missing his naps and being flexible with our plans.  He was happy the whole time and just glad to be outdoors. 

Nothing more precious than a sleeping baby.

Well, I think that covers it.  I've hit all the topics in my title. Wild fires, waterfalls, caves and camping. Thanks for looking at my little scrapbook of our weekend.  

We did pack up that night and made it home just before a heavy thunderstorm hit and dumped tons of rain on us. We were sun burnt, wind chapped and very sore but so grateful for a hot shower and cozy bed.  That really is the best thing about camping!

Blessings, blossoms and baby feet

I decided to put some pictures on this post so it would be more attractive to read.  But I really want to talk about the blessing I'm experiencing.  You see, blossoms are an example of new life.   I'm beginning to experience somewhat of a new life with perfect sight again!  My eyesight has improved so much this week!  Everyday I noticed more improvement that I believe I just might be able to get behind the wheel of a car very soon!

Just like plants go to sleep in the winter and then come to life again and actively grow, the muscle in my eye is now working actively instead of resting.  For reasons unknown, it seemed to need some time off to rejuvenate itself.

For the past 3 months I have had to hibernate in the house with my children.  No errands, no field trips, no play dates.  With the exception of Sunday services and Tuesday night prayer meetings where someone drove me to these events, I have had to slow down significantly.  "You must have gotten so much done around the house," you say.  Well, actually I haven't achieved any more success in house keeping than I had before.  Some days I was quite frazzled with my lack of accomplishments!  It made me wonder how I kept up with everything before this all happened.

 

Some weaknesses have reared their ugly heads during the past 3 months and we have turned over a new leaf, so to speak.  With 4 helpers who are more than capable of contributing significantly to keeping the house in tip-top shape (so that mom doesn't go out of her mind), Rich is implementing a fabulous idea.  Each child has been assigned a room in the house as their responsibility to manage. They need to check this room periodically throughout the day to make sure it is picked up.  If it isn't, when Dad gets home, they answer to him.

  They have each made their own little signs with fun decorations that announce their responsibility for the room.  In about a month we will switch rooms. This takes the pressure off of me always wondering who made what mess and nagging the kids all day to pick up after themselves.

What do baby feet have to do with this subject?  Well, nothing.  I just think they are cute and had to share them with you. :)

There are many other changes that have been made to our home life and maybe I'll share them later. I'm just filled with gratefulness that this chapter of seeing double might be coming to an end soon.  When I tilt my head down and look up, I still see double.  When I tilt my head back and look down, I see normal! This means if I was talking to you face to face, all I would need to do to see you perfectly is tilt my head back a little.  I know, it makes me seem snobby and I probably have my nose in the air most of the time, but who cares! Each day I notice that I don't have to tilt my head as much to see fine. Isn't this incredible!  This also means I can read again without covering one eye.  Anything I do looking down is now not a problem.  Doing dishes, measuring ingredients, and playing with my little guy on the floor is all seen perfectly.

I have a trip planned at the end of the month to go visit my parents in Idaho.  Because of their own health issues, they have never met Micah and he is almost 8 months old.  My prayer was that God would heal me by this trip so that traveling with Micah on the airplane and maneuvering through airports would not be so difficult.  A.J. will be going with me so I won't be traveling totally alone with Micah.  

Looks like God is going to answer my prayer and maybe even a little early!

Filled with thankfulness and a fun perspective on Spring,

Kristin

Art Class and other random pictures

A.J and Olivia are taking art lessons on Saturdays.  We are so grateful to God for this opportunity for them to learn how to draw with some professional guidance!  Their art teacher works at Gospel for Asia with Rich and he just loves art and loves to teach!  So with this combination, we are blessed to know him and be the recipients of his passion.

This is Olivia's drawing of the face.  They aren't learning how to draw each other yet but are first understanding and practicing how to draw the features of the face.  I am amazed at how a little instruction can really improve your skills!

This is their teacher, Mr. Buscemi.  Every week, art lessons are hosted at one of the student's houses.  Last week it was at our home.  Mr. Buscemi brings all his supplies and sets up to teach for a few hours.  He teaches an older class that Olivia is in first and then as the younger students show up, he re-teaches the same lesson to them.  The whole thing takes about 3 hours! 

A.J. takes both classes just because we don't want to be running kids back and forth all morning on Saturdays.  He loves it and is getting better all the time.

There are 6 students in Olivia's class and 4 students in A.J.'s. 

Micah has learned how to get up from the living room into the dining room.  He seems to  like the tile floor.  This is him figuring out how to get back into the living room.  He has to go down a step.

Well, Hello there!

Amazing how resilient babies are!  He did it!

We bought this Johnny Jumper (that's what they used to call them) recently at a consignment store.  I was so excited to find it!  We don't have a big house and so it doesn't lend itself to lots of fun contraptions for Micah to play in.  Hanging this in the doorway was our way of being able to confine him and let him jump away.  

This was his first time in it.  He is still figuring out how to really jump.

I love this face!

Having fun with his big sissy!  Olivia really enjoys Micah.

She follows me around in the morning wanting to play with him.  

He really  likes her too.

Olivia has gotten contact lenses since these pictures were taken.  I'll have to post some pictures soon with her new look.  She has beautiful eyes and is almost 14 years old!  She is getting good at taking her contacts out and putting them in.  It's tricky, you know.  So far, she really likes them.  She gets to try them for a month.

As Rich would say, "Hasta la pasta"!

Kristin

Spontaneous Combustion of Laughter

For some reason, Micah got the giggle bug tonight.
The video speaks for itself . . . enjoy!

Double vision status

I figured I'd better update you all on how I'm doing these days.  It's been quite awhile since I wrote about my condition and everyone I run into wants to know if I'm still seeing double.  One reason why I'm not speaking up about my progress is because it's so hard to explain.  But I will do my best.

It's been 2 months today since I first began experiencing double vision.  I am encouraged because I've seen tremendous progress since then.  I'm still seeing two of everything so that has not changed but many other things have.  I focus on that instead of my impaired vision.

The two largest improvements that I've experienced in the past month have involved the use of the patch.  I was told in the beginning to switch the patch back and forth giving equal time to exercise both eyes. The example she gave was to patch one for about 4 hours and then switch and do 4 hours on the other.  Well, for weeks I was unable to use my bad eye (my left eye has the effected muscle) for no more than 10 min. at a time. And I only patched my good eye when sitting down because I could not navigate while moving with my bad eye.  I felt like I was on a ship and everything was off kilter.  

So, the first improvement is that I'm able to patch my good eye and use the effected one solely while working and moving around the house!  I realized this about a week after I started some homeopathic drops that my Naturopathy doctor recommended.  This was such an encouragement to me and I was so glad to be able to share with my friends that I was indeed experiencing some progress!  I began wearing my patch mostly on my good eye to build back up the muscle on my left.  

The second improvement has occurred within the past 48 hours.  I haven't had to use my patch at all except while riding in the car!  With the exception of playing Nerts with my girls last night.  This is not a game that lends itself to seeing double while trying to win!  How can I operate while seeing double?  Well, I don't know, I just am.  I'm able to focus on one image and sort of block out the other one.  If I really need to be careful (like while cooking, or walking down the hallway) I just close one eye for a minute to get my bearings.  So if you see me winking at you, I don't really mean to be flirting but am just trying to see. 

Many have asked about the prism glasses that I mentioned before also.  I think we have decided it would not be worth it to get them at this point in the game.  They were an optional aid to help me get by without the patch, but were not going to help me progress any faster. Because my eyes are correcting themselves, I would need to update the prism every so often as needed.  I also wonder if they wouldn't slow down my progress because the glasses would be doing the work that my eyes need to relearn to do.  The neuro-ophthalmologist told me that the estimated time for recovery is 4-6 months.  Why would I spend the money to have glasses for the next 2 months especially if they might only hinder my progress?  

So there it is.  Your prayers are being felt and I hope the next time I post an update on this, it will be titled "I'm all better!"

Until next time,

Kristin