Oh Dear...

It's been awhile and I must say that it's not complete laziness or lack of desire and it's definitely not my fault. Our Internet (that we "share" with our neighbors) has been finicky lately.
I did get to try out for "Our Town" and I'll probably get called to call-backs for the reason that there was no one else there at the same time to read with me.
In other news...Clayton pulled his feeding tube out a few days ago and we thought we'd just leave it out and see how he did. He's been eating all his food and on a few days a little more than the required 38 ounces. Yeah. As long as he keeps this up we can leave the feeding tube out.
Hannah turned 4. She proudly told Grandma on the phone that "I'm not 3 and 11/12 anymore, it's my birthday, I'm 4!" It is very strange to have a four year old; it makes me feel old and I'm not that old. When she was 3 it wasn't so bad, but 4...
I made strawberry jam and 2 strawberry pies yesterday and the kiddos were awful. Hannah and Ivan wanted to touch everything and didn't listen to me at all and Clayton screamed every time I put him down. But I still got the jam done and they shaped up later in the day.
We are headed to MOB here in a few minutes and I can't tell you how much I look forward to Wednesdays each week!

Negotiations

Erik and I have entered negotiations for a new play. I want to try out for "Our Town" and he prefers to have a wife around in the evenings. I'll let you know if I get to try out or not!

DCH

Where do I even start to blog about the last week? We went into Portland on Thursday for Clayton's pediatric dermatologist visit and then by very strong urging of the doctor had him admitted to Doernbecher Children's Hospital, where we were until late Monday afternoon. Clayton was admitted for malnutrition and eczema. At first I was feeling really condemned by Dr. Krol (the ped. derm.) even though it was a relief to finally have someone else as concerned about Clayton but I got to thinking...Dr. Krol didn't know us from anyone and we came in with a little baby boy that had lost 5 pounds in the last month-month and a half and was very edemic and showed signs of protein loss...I bet in his business sometimes it's hard to give parents the benefit of the doubt.
The plan right now is to get nutrition into Clayton and take care of any flare-up of rash with the steroid ointments, then once he's a healthy weight again we can try and determine what is causing his rash, but we are just sticking to formula right now to get the calories he needs and when his feeding tube comes out we'll start introducing food again. I think we were so afraid of causing his rash to flare-up that we were afraid to feed him some foods and he wasn't getting enough protein from the formula we were making because we had to take so many ingredients out.
We met with so many people I don't even remember all their names, seems everyone has a specialty and you have to meet them all. But we made it through, Erik did not go stir crazy at the hospital because World Cup Soccer was on most of the time and we also got the history channel and watched a lot on WW2.
Clayton is doing better, he has a feeding tube down his nose but he is doing better.
The feeding tube will stay in until we can get him to drink all that he needs through his bottle. It really does my heart good to see Clayton laughing and smiling again, the last few weeks he has been really listless and grumpy.
It is so nice to be home.

Amy Grant, Part Two

In sixth grade my friend Sheilah Rodgers and I lip-synced to "Every Heartbeat". As you can faintly see, I crossed the photo out in my yearbook...humiliating memories are perfect for blogging.

Amy Grant - Every Heartbeat (1991)

I am a huge Amy Grant fan. Okay, so maybe my ardor has waned a little in the last few years but I grew up listening to her and I love her early music; I don't think I've listened to enough of her newer stuff to form an opinion of it but I love her voice. All this to say I've spent an enjoyable time watching Amy Grant music videos online and for all my single friends (and sisters) I found some great advice...
"Don't you know - true love only comes to those that don't own a washing machine."
The music video to "Every Heartbeat" explains it all.

Bread

I just have to say that it is so very nice to make bread (and eat it too!).

Psalm 104:14-15(emphasis mine)
He makes the grass grow for the cattle,
and plants for man to cultivate-
bringing forth food from the earth:
wine that gladdens the heart of man,
oil to make his face shine,
and bread that sustains his heart.

Fence 'em In

If Ivan knew he was helping dig the holes for the fence to keep him and Hannah in the backyard I don't think he'd be quite so thrilled to help. Any time I put the shovel down he picks it up and starts to dig. (It took a little convincing to get him to take dirt out of the holes instead of put it back in.)