{Spring}

I *think* we might be done with the snow for this winter! Spring is JUST AROUND THE CORNER and I couldn’t be more ready!!


We had a BEAUTIFUL weekend last weekend, it was early Spring weather and even though the kids were getting over ear and sinus infections, we took full advantage. We played outside most of the day Saturday and Sunday.

Both Jordan and Hayden LOVE to go outside. I remember when J was H’s age (about a year and a half) how she would CRY to go outside!! She didn’t understand if it was too cold, or raining, she just wanted OUT!! H is the exact same way. He goes to the doors several times a day grabbing at the door knob, indicating he wants out!! He says something that resembles “outside” sometimes. He’s going to be really dangerous when he figures out how to get the doors open. He’s escaped out the front screen door more than once and he makes a BEELINE outside…we’ve had to run out after him more than once.

So they were both really happy to be playing outside last weekend. They had a lot of fun and played together really well. I loved sitting on the back porch watching them play together on their own.

Jordan will be 3 ½ next month and is moving up a class in gymnastics! We’re very excited to be able to go an hour later on Saturday mornings, ha! She’s done so well with gymnastics. She can do a cartwheel and several other things really well. It’s really fun to watch her! She loves the bars and I think I can see her being a bar girl if she sticks with it.

Jordan is really into movies right now, she loves to watch a few favorites: Bolt, Because of Winn Dixie, Good Boy (see the theme here, they’re all about dogs). She’s pretty good about sitting through a whole movie too, and frequently asks for popcorn to go along with it!

She knows all of her letters by sight and the sounds most of them make. She knows her numbers by sight most of the way to 10. She’s learning sight words and letter formation and is very interested in learning. I got an iPod touch for Valentines Day and she LOVES it—there are SOOO many education apps that REALLY teach her and it’s been a really good tool for her to use. She uses it almost more than I do! At the school that BJ teaches at, they have 40 for education use—they are a really neat tool!

She’s started to care more about what she wears. I’ve always tried to give her choices when it came to what she was going to be wearing for the day, but lately she has gotten much more opinionated on what she wants to wear, which I’m fine with—I want her to be independent and be able to make her own choices, within reason. She also pretty much dresses herself all the way down to shoes and socks, which is a big help!

She LOVES books! Grandma takes them to the library several times a week and she checks books out, she loves the library and the book store! When BJ brings a book order home the girl goes crazy circling books she wants! I love it!!

Hayden is almost 1 ½ years old. He’s making more of an effort to talk lately. We had his hearing checked and that all was fine. He’s just taking his time. He makes more sounds lately and says the beginning of several words. He will now identify a few body parts, mostly on the face, and mostly on other people! Ha!

Hayden loves books too!! He has several favorites that we read over and over! I’m really glad that both my kids have such an interest in reading! H is a very loving child—he loves to give hugs, kisses and cuddles. He can be VERY defiant, but is also very affectionate! He sleeps really good most of the time..occasionally he has a random streak of nights where he wakes up, but for the most part, he’s a great sleeper.

We are blessed over in the Foshe Family! This next story is really so that I can remember it in the future. Earlier this week BJ went to the doctor because he had a considerable amount of blood in his urine. He was not in pain, at all, but knew this was not normal, so he went straight in to see our family doctor. BJ has a history of kidney stones, but he always has considerable pain with them. So we were sort of stumped as to what was going on.

Upon seeing our doctor, he ran blood, did a urinalysis, and could not find any infection (BJ had been on antibiotics since the Friday prior to this day (Tuesday) for a respiratory type infection). The doctor found his white blood count to be low and the fact that he was not having pain was perplexing. Our doctor said it could be a range of things, but that he was very concerned. He said it could be a busted blood vessel, a stone that was hiding somewhere or bladder cancer. He stated he was concerned about a possibility of bladder cancer due to the symptoms and the blood count he saw. He wanted BJ to watch the color of the blood/urine and come back the following day to leave another sample and get another blood test. Our doctor was then going to decide if BJ needed to have a CT scan.

The next day, before BJ could come in for the tests that day, the doctor called him and told him he was more worried and wanted to go ahead with the CT. At this point, we were pretty scared. We have a great doctor, who has been BJ’s doctor for most of his life, so he has the advantage of knowing BJ’s full medical history, personally. BJ has had several major health issues, so it’s good that he has the same doctor. So, the diagnostic clinic was supposed to call and tell us when the appt was for the CT. The following day (day 3 now), the blood in his urine went from a dark color to a really bright red/pink color—when he called the doctor to tell him, the doctor told us to go straight to the Emergency Room. So we did.

For the past few days we had tried hard to be positive and tell ourselves it was probably just a kidney stone, but we had prepared ourselves for the worst. On the day we went to the emergency room, it was BJ’s 29th birthday. What a way to spend your birthday, uh!

Well, we were at the ER for five hours. The ER doc had the same response, initially, that it was probably just a stone. He wasn’t even going to give BJ a CT while we were there—but the more he thought about it, the more he thought he needed to, because of the NO PAIN issue. So, we got a CT and it was a kidney stone!!

Praise JESUS! It’s a VERY large stone that is in a place that doesn’t cause pain and a place it really shouldn’t be. It caused a MAJOR infection that 2 types of antibiotics didn’t touch. The ER doc gave BJ a shot with a very strong antibiotic and sent us home with the prescription for it as well.

He has an appointment with the urologist in a couple of weeks to talk about how to remove the stone, it’s not passable…

SO—it was a long, scary 3 days, but end the end, it was better news than we thought it might be!

Ya know-- a couple of years ago, the same situation probably would not have caused as much concern in me as it did at this point in my life. So many people I know have had cancer, died of cancer or lost someone close to them due to cancer. It is just more real to me now than ever. We are still young, yes, but not invincible. This much I know.

We received so many calls, emails and texts with prayers and encouraging words…thank you all who prayed and sent notes or messages! They meant a lot!!

One friend sent me this scripture and it gave me such peace!! Be strong and bold; have no fear or dread of them, bc it is the Lord your God who goes before you. He will be with you; he will not fail you or forsake you. Do no fear or be dismayed. Deuteronomy 31:6,8.

I hope that each of you reading this know the Lord…I honestly don’t know how people deal with “life” without His promises!!