Rachel and the Red Chair

Time to share with you something I did with my girls to mark their growth as an infant. First a little background and today, I share with you Rachel's pictures.

Since I was a young girl, I always loved the red chair. I have many memories playing in it as a small child. It belonged to my grandparents, Jacob and Aleene King, who always called it, "The King's Chair."

As they became older, it became necessary for them to give up some of their larger possessions. Knowing how much I loved the red chair, my grandparents decided to pass it down to me.

After Rachel was born, I decided the red chair would be the perfect backdrop to capture her month to month development during her first year. And with the addition of Rebekah, the tradition continued. Check back tomorrow for Rebekah's pictures!

And, sometimes the photo shoot didn't always turn out perfect. Here's some to make you chuckle!

New Addition To The House!

Our new Play-A-Round Frontier Fort! The girls have been so patient to get their new playground. We promised them a playground from the day we started building our new home. Rachel wanted one with an upstairs, a tire swing and monkey bars. We found this one online through the Sam's Club website. No monkey bars, but it had two houses, both upstairs! It is made from 100% white cedar and is sturdy as a rock! The girls love it and couldn't wait for it to get done so they could play on it. In the photo, the "rocks" hadn't been put on the wall beside the slide. Jon Paul added those today, along with the steering wheel and telescope. Next weekend we will add a sealant to help keep it this nice, clean, white look. I'll post some more photos of the girls playing soon. Thanks to Daddy, Grandpa and a good friend, Robert, for putting this together yesterday!

All I Want For Christmas...

Is my two front teeth,
my two front teeth!
Rachel's second top front
tooth came out tonight.
After many screams,
lots of tears,
and some blood,
Daddy got it out.
Isn't she the
cutest little thing?!?!?

Rebekah's Reflux

When Rebekah was five months old, I was feeding her one morning. I noticed she felt hot. Sure enough, she was running a fever. I called the doctor and miraculously they had an immediate opening. We were called back quickly and were there for about two hours. At the end of the two hours, Bekah was lethargic and ashen gray looking. The doctor (not our pediatrician), did not like to looks of her. She went to get Dr. Miers, our pediatrician, and Dr. Miers took one look at Rebekah and said she was septic. We were told to immediately go to the hospital. I was scared to death! Long story short, we had one sick little baby. She was in the hospital for three days and on some strong IV antibiotics and fluid. She had gotten a urinary track infection that had turned into a bladder infection that had done into her kidneys and her system was in shock. Dr. Miers was 99% sure that Rebekah had urinary reflux.

What is urinary reflux? Well, Rebekah peed, some of her urine flowed back up into the kidneys instead of it all draining out her urethra. Urine normally only goes one way. And when urine flows back up, germs can get into the kidneys. If it isn't noticed soon enough, infections can lead to scarring and kidney disease. We were referred to AR Children's Hospital for a voiding cystourethrogram (VCUG) and a kidney ultrasound to confirm our doctor's suspicions. Her pediatric urologist, Dr. Redman, said she had grade 4 reflux (5 being the most severe) and a duplicated renal collecting system on her right side. The course of treatment is to take a low dose antibiotic everyday. She was put on Bactrim and all was well for a few months. She had a breakthrough infection so a second antibiotic was added, amoxicillin. She has been taking these two antibiotics everyday since she was eight months old! I hated giving her these, but I must say, she has been extremely healthy! She has only had two ear infections and that is about it (until this past week!).

We went back last year for a check up. They repeated the VCUG and ultrasound and said she was getting better, but it wasn't gone. Most kids will outgrow the reflux over time. She was at a grade 2 and we were told to continue the medications and come back in a year. Well, we went this past Tuesday to get checked again. She did great through the tests. The VCUG is uncomfortable (they have to use a catheter and fill up your bladder!) and she was hesitant to go potty in the bed. But she did and they got great pictures. And the best news yet...SHE IS NO LONGER REFLUXING! She has outgrown it. Praise God!

So, when she finishes the current antibiotic she is on now (zythromax), she won't have to take any more daily medications!! On another note, she scared us early Monday morning. She woke up at 3am and was on fire. I took her temperature with a temporal thermometer and it first read 106.6 - HOT! I immediately took it again and it read 105.8 - STILL HOT! I went and found our oral thermometer and tried to take it that way. She wouldn't cooperate and I just got it in her mouth, but not under her tongue. It read 104.5. I really believe it was at least 105. We took her to the emergency room and she had a bad throat infection, the doctor thought it was the front end of something and put her on the zythromax. She completely lost her voice and ran a fever for two days, but she is MUCH better now. We only have one more day of the medicine.

So, we're thrilled that she is better. We're thrilled her urinary system is working properly now. We're thrilled she no longer has to take two medicines everyday. We just hope now that she is off the medicines, she doesn't catch every little bug that is going around!!

Hurricane Ike???

Although Ike did make his way through, sparring a few tornadoes nearby, the above damage was not from Ike. I like to call it Hurricane Bruce. In preparation for Ike, Bruce (our builder), came over to try to see if we could locate the source of the leak in hopes to fix it before the rains came. In the process, he tore apart some of the EIFS around the window.

Thankfully, we did not receive as much rain as they were predicting. The water coming in was minimal. But now we have larger holes and missing EIFS. Tomorrow Bruce is supposed to bring the window manufacturer and the window installer over to see it. We think the window itself is what is leaking. So, we'll wait and see what they have to say. We should be having a great week weather wise. Highs of around 78-79 and no rain! Hopefully this week we can get it fixed and start the repair work.

My sister is coming next Sunday. She hasn't seen the house yet. I was so excited to show it off to her, I hate having her come and see it like this. Also, she is coming to help me decorate. It won't be the same since everything in two rooms is not where it is supposed to be. Oh well...guess that means she will have to come back!!

After she comes, I'll start taking some pictures and start giving you all the Grand Tour! Until then...here are a few more inside photos of the window. Ain't it pretty?

Hurricane Gustav Damage

An actual picture of some of the rains we received from Hurricane Gustav after it made camp over Arkansas for two straight days. We received lots of wind and tons of rain. As if the rains OUTSIDE weren't enough, Gustav decided to invite himself INSIDE.

Yes, our beautiful, brand new house has sprung a leak. Water was coming in around the play room window. We had two main places that the water was coming in through. After getting the blinds off the window, we placed some trash cans on the windowsill and waited for the rains to stop.

Our builder thinks the water may be coming in around the EIFS that is around the window. He put some caulk around the EIFS and today we tested to see if it worked. It did not. Water is still finding its way inside. We need to find out where the breach is and get it fixed soon...Hurricane Ike is predicted to make his way through here this coming weekend!

The entire wall around the window will probably have to be replaced. We found many areas in the sheet rock where there was water behind it. The windowsill has cracked down the middle and started to tear itself away from the wall. The base board has also come away from the wall in one section. And we found two pieces of our wood floor that got wet from underneath and the wood is damaged. I am not looking forward to the repair, it's going to be a mess. But just as long as it gets fixed (SOON!).

To Make You Laugh

In light of my last post, I ran across this while stumbling. I got a good laugh out of it, thought you might too!

WHAT IS A CAT?

1. Cats do what they want.
2. They rarely listen to you.
3. They are totally unpredictable.
4. They whine when they are not happy.
5. When you want to play, they want to be alone.
6. When you want to be alone, they want to play.
7. They expect you to cater to their every whim.
8. They are moody.
9. They leave hair everywhere.
10. They drive you nuts and cost an arm and a leg.

Conclusion: They are tiny women in little fur coats.

Stumble Upon is really cool! It's a great feature to play around with and discover all kinds of websites. Check it out!

Our Family Cat

I don't believe you have met the sixth member of the House of Jones. Her name is Kathy and she is our cat.

Jon Paul got Kathy before we met. Kathy loved me from the first time I met her. I didn't see her true colors until after Jon Paul and I were married.

You see, Kathy is evil. She is evil because she will rub up against you, look at you longingly, begging you to pet her. And when you give in to her invitation and pet her, she will snap at you and take your arm off if you're not fast enough.

After we were married, I saw her do this to most anyone who came over to our house and were brave enough to try to pet her. Never once had she done that to me. I like to tell Jon Paul that Kathy approved of me from the very beginning!

Kathy has loved both of the girls from the moment they came home from the hospital. She is protective. Rebekah and Kathy share some sort of bond. They have a connection unlike any other I have ever seen. Kathy will let Rebekah do most anything to her and almost never snaps at her.

She can be funny now. I think she is telling us she needs a little friend. She will go into the girls bedroom and find one of their small stuffed animals. Then she will come through the house with it in her mouth, meowing at the top of her lungs. It's really cute...unless it's at 2:00 in the morning!

So, now you know Kathy. And you have been warned should you ever come to our house. Look, but you probably don't want to touch!

New Furniture!

We decided we needed a larger table in our breakfast area. There are five of us and the little four person table was getting a bit too tight. We do have a formal dining room, but we haven't purchased a table and china hutch yet. We're not in any hurry, I want to find exactly what I want for the dining room.

So, we decided to go out and see what kind of deal we could find over the Labor Day weekend. We found something that we all fell in love with. It fits perfectly and matches everything great! We broke it in last night when my parents came over for dinner. We grilled steaks and had mashed potatoes, baked beans and corn on the cob. Here is a photo of it in our breakfast area!

And another great find...only these were purchased a few weeks ago. Betty and I were in Hobby Lobby. We happened across these bar stools in the clearance section. These bar stools were originally priced at $199 each. We got them for $39.98 each!! Both of us were really excited, even more so when we got them home and saw that they matched the cabinets PERFECTLY!!


Most all of the boxes are unpacked! There are only about eight left in the garage. Three are waiting on my sister, Cynthia, to get here. They are full of my decorating stuff and she is my personal decorator. I've been waiting to take photos of us all moved in...waiting on HER! :-) She is going to come to make it look pretty and help me hang pictures, etc. Once we get all that done, I promise all of you, I will post a grand tour of the house. Hopefully she will be here in about two weeks...

The other five boxes are full of Jon Paul's stuff. Since I unpacked the 100+ other ones in there, I figured he could unpack his five! Now the garage looks spacious and is waiting on us to get some organizational items. Oh, it was spacious enough that Jon Paul went and bought him a bike.

Gave all of our moving boxes away after having them posted on Craigslist for less than a day! Also sold some TV trays. Still have about seven other items for sale. Still loving the site!

Rebekah's First Day of School!

Rebekah was so excited that she was finally getting to go to school. She woke up this morning so happy and asked over and over, "We go to my skool now?" She picked out Holly, Nana's bear, to take to school with her.

She is actually in a Mother's Day Out program at our old church. But we have always called it school. She is going two days a week this year, Tuesdays and Thursdays. Since we've moved, it's not as convenient, so we cut back.

She has two wonderful teachers, the one in the top picture is Ms. Barb and the one in the bottom picture is Ms. Cynthia. We know Ms. Cynthia and her family well -- I used to work for Ms. Cynthia's husband! We look forward to getting to know Ms. Barb.



It didn't take her long to find something to play with. She didn't even want a kiss and hug before I left. So big!!

A Labor Day Meme

I found another meme from my blogger friend, Karen. It's a Labor Day meme about...labor!

How long were your labors?

Rachel - 13.5 hours
Rebekah - 0 hours

How did you know you were in labor?

I never went "into" labor. I was induced with Rachel. With Rebekah, it was a scheduled c-section.

Where did you deliver?

Both were at the hospital.

Drugs?

With Rachel I had an epidural. Worked fine, until during the emergency c-section, in which it wore off and I felt EVERYTHING! With Rebekah, I had a combo spinal and epidural and I felt NOTHING!

C-section?

Yes, as talked about before. And if you want to get technical and gross, I have actually had three...but only have two kids. After I had Rachel and when the epidural wore off, my doctor didn't like how everything went back together. So, she knocked me completely out and took everything back out and redid it. And my doctor was so nice to tell me afterwards, "You got two for the price of one!"

Who delivered?

Dr. Kidd delivered Rachel. She was nice. Dr. Chandler delivered Rebekah. She was AWESOME!!