Terri and Nick's Wedding: The Return of the (Cutest) Ring Bearer (Ever)

Eli got his cast off Tuesday before the wedding and by
Thursday afternoon he was running a fever and throwing up. I thought, "Oh, no. He'll never make it down the isle." On Friday he semed to be a little better, but he threw up on the way to Albany for the rehersal dinner. After that he felt fine and he walked down the isle during practice and he ate quite a bit at dinner afterwards. So, I thought maybe we had dodged a bullet and he was over whatever bug he had. When he woke up Saturday morning he still had the fever, but he wasn't throwing up, so we just gave him some Motrin and kept our fingers crossed that all would be ok.

Eli did fairly well taking pictures before the wedding, but he would only stand up there for the pictures that I was in; never by himself. But, that was ok. I was just glad the photographer got something. When it was time for the wedding, Terri's sister, Donna, was the one keeping Eli in the back of the church until it was his turn. He was suspossed to follow right after me. I glanced back once and saw he was following me, so I thought all was ok. Well, I heard everyone laughing and when I got to the front I didn't see Eli. He had seen where Alyssa and Michael were sitting and he darted in that pew and was sitting on Alyssa's lap. What a smart boy.

It's hard to believe that Terri is married. I won't know what to do when I come to Albany and she will not be at her parent's house. I told Terri's Dad that when I come to Albany I will have to call Terri and tell her to go "home" so I can visit her. I've also been dialing the same phone number, 3003, and sending mail to the same address, 402 E Cameron, for 26 years, so that will be another hard one to change. As the saying goes, "The only thing certain in life is change."

Jeannia and Seth's Wedding Pictures

They're Hitched--Seth and Jeannia Law

Beautiful day; Gorgeous bride; Handsome groom; Adorable kids; Packed church; Delicious cake; Wonderful memories. See above slideshow. I am so happy for my sister and new brother-in-law and I pray that they will see God's will as they start their new life together. I miss Jeannia already and she is only 20 minutes away.

Boys Will Be Boys

Just when I thought I had this kid rearing figured out, along comes Eli. Being 2 1/2 and seeing the inside of an ER twice gives him the trophy in this house. His first trip to the ER was just 3 months ago to retrieve a sunflower seed he decided to stuff up his nose at 9 o'clock at night, but that's a story in itself. Last night was a little scarier for all of us. Alyssa, Eli, and I were the only ones inside and Eli was playing with his cars on the endtable in the living room. Then all of a sudden I heard him trip and fall (which is not that abnormal), but this time he cried like something was really wrong and he told me his arm hurt. After about 45 minutes of watching him keep his left arm straight down to his side like a soldier, and of him refusing to bend it no matter how much I coaxed him, I decided we needed to pack up and head to the ER. (Why do kids always get sick or hurt after the doctors offices are closed?) So, I called Jeannia and she came over to stay with Alyssa, Michael, and Emily while Matt, Eli, and I drove to St. Joe.

Of course the ER was packed and we had to wait quite awhile. The x-ray techs didn't see anything that looked obviously broken, but we had to wait for a doctor to come see us. He didn't see a break either, but said Eli's elbow was dislocated, which is a common injury in children under 4 years old. So, he twisted Eli's arm out and up and he felt it pop back into place. Eli cried the biggest tears while he was doing it, but as soon as the doctor finished, Eli quite crying. He was such a brave boy. The doctor said most kids begin using the arm as soon as it is popped back into place, but for some it takes awhile longer because they are still afraid if they move it that it will hurt. So he sent us home and said to follow up with our pediatrician in 3 days. We got home around midnight and Eli slept good until 4:30am when the Motrin wore off then he was crying and saying his arm hurt again. After more medicine he finally fell back asleep.

Well, this morning Eli wasn't crying anymore about the pain, but he still didn't want to use his arm and he was complaining that his hand and thumb hurt. He was also holding the wrist of his bad arm with his good hand. I just felt like something wasn't quite right, so I called Dr. Sparks, an orthopedic surgeon I work with, and she said to bring him to her and she would check him out. After having him move his fingers, wrist, and arm in several directions, she discovered that he only hurt when she twisted his arm outward. She said that was why he was holding his arm by the wrist, to keep his arm from turning that direction. She said that although a fracture couldn't be seen on the x-ray, she belived he had one at his radial head (a.k.a. elbow). Because of being so young, Eli still has cartlige where adults have bones and fractures don't show up there in cartlige. So he has a long arm cast for hopefully just a week. Dr. Sparks thinks that will be a long enough rest for it to heal. Eli wanted a purple cast, but I convinced him that red would be cool because he would look like Spider-Man. It's just a coinsidence that both Jeannia's and Terri's wedding colors are red and black. :) I haven't tried his tux jacket on him yet, to see if his arm will fit through it or not. Eli's already telling us that his arm is better and that he wants the cast off. This might be a long week.

VBS: Outrigger Island

"Living God's Unshakable Truth"

That was the theme for this year's Vacation Bible School at our church. It was for kids pre-Kindergarten thru 6th grade and was held in the evenings last week begining on Tuesday and ending last night with a closing program for family and friends. Our church was throughly decorated "hawaiian style" including all the classrooms, craft cabana, missions room, canteen, and even the teachers. The kids learned the ABC's (admit-believe-confess) of becoming a Chrisitan and they learned five Bible verses. Along with each verse, they learned a coresponding "life truth" that they could apply to their lives. They were: "I know God is real. I can believe there is no other God."; "I know Jesus is God's Son. I can celebrate who He is."; "I know my actions show what I believe. I can stand for truth."; "I know the Bible is God's Word. I can explore it's truth."; and "I know that Jesus is the only way. I can confess Him as my Savior."

When Alyssa goes on her mission trip later this summer, the group will be doing this same Bible school for kids in Madison, Wisconsin. Alyssa has been assigned to the 1st and 2nd grade level, so she volunteered at our church to get a jump start on what she would be doing. Emily really liked this since that meant Alyssa was in her group all week. Several times I heard Emily telling her friends, "my sister is going to be teaching this to other kids, so she's learning what to do." She always likes it when Alyssa is around. The really neat part about this is that it was an answered prayer. On Tuesday night when Alyssa got home from her meeting in St. Joe with the Baptist Association she told me she was assigned to the 1st and 2nd grade, so I called Diana (our church's VBS teacher for that grade level) and asked her if Alyssa could be with her for the rest of the week. Well, Diana had just asked Kyle, our VBS director, for a teenager to help her and they hadn't found one yet! God is always at work around us, we just have to take the time to notice.