More Playing Than Laying

Today I may be so bold as to actually declare that "normal" is just about here! Only a very few symptoms of Ella's bacterial battle linger-- pretty much just cramping after she eats anything and quick fatigue. All the *bad* stuff seems over, Praise the LORD!

Ella packed away the air mattress she's been living on, got dressed by herself and has been playing all morning. Yesterday she tried playing for about 10 minutes and it led to an almost 4 hour nap. She's making it through the night, eating 3 meals and showing all her sweet personality and bit of feistiness too. We still kept her home from school today and will give her through tomorrow to continue taking it easy, a full 7 days. Things really turned around when she got that IV on Tuesday and when so many of you started praying.

We're sad thinking about the week of life Ella lost and all the fun things she missed in the past days, including a night with a babysitter, Daddy's big softball game and the end of the year Awanas program and party. While trying to distract her during the IV, I asked what she wanted to do when she was all better. She whimpered, "Go to the park." We're trying to make up for the miserable week by planning some fun for her in the future weeks-- the zoo with friends, an overnight in a hotel and a Saturday at a unique park.

I'm thinking this will be my last update on Ella's health (yay!) and now return you to your regularly programed posting... :)

No Miracle Grow Necessary

My rose bushes are rockin' pretty hard this spring! Would you believe I had them all pruned to my shoulder-height this winter? Delia climbed underneath them and exclaimed, "It's like a tunnel!"

Power of Prayer

So many of you heard or read that Ella was so sick and were quick to call and check on us. Thank you for your concern and also for your prayers. Every time I'd talk to someone new over the past few days, I'd tell Ella, "Now Auntie Karen and Calvin are praying for you. Now Miss Amy and Jonathan are praying for you. Now Anika and her family are praying for you. Your teachers just prayed for you with me on the phone..." This is so encouraging and today we've definitely felt uplifted.

At her doctor appointment this morning, we did not get a lot of answers. Not all the lab tests are back yet. We do know this is not a parasite and that her white blood cell count is really high (sign of infection). The doctor also wanted to be safe and give Ella an IV, to "tank her up" and prevent dehydration (which is something Dave and I have been very concerned about). Ella was terrified of the IV needle and did a good amount of screaming, but ended up being very brave and is excited about telling her "I got a drink through my arm!!' story. In the hour that the fluids were being administered, we even saw some color come back to her face.

There's been other glimpses of light today too. For the first time in a while, she actually ate a little bit. She got mad at me when I told her "no" to something. She has been walking around on her own a bit. We've seen her smile and laugh briefly. These things sound small, but we've been living with a totally sleepy, lethargic and unresponsive Ella the past few days. They are signs that she WILL get better. Fever, vomiting, diarrhea and cramping seem better than yesterday too, so we're also happy about the first day of things getting better, not worse.

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God answers prayers! We're seeing this today and thank you all for asking God to heal Ella's sick little body. Her recovery will be a long one, the doctor said it could be a good 7 days until the yucky stomach stuff is done, but I have every reason to believe that the next update will have more good news. :)

Life as of Late

Earlier this week, I was literally reflecting on the lives of those in our closest circle of family members and friends. We've had a lot to pray for: first time pregnancies, parents with cancer, surgeries, poor health, new babies, the adoption journey, the difficult balance of full time parenting with full time working, etc. I was feeling like our life was sailing along pretty smoothly in comparison to many of our loved ones. Then the sickness hit.

For Delia, it was just a minor stomach virus and fever at the beginning of last week. It seemed natural when Ella picked it up on Friday. It started with the typical symptoms accompanied by the typical feelings about stomach bugs: annoyance, disgust, sadness to see your little one not feeling well. But then, with each new day, we watched as Ella seemed to get worse, not better. Late last night, things progressed to a point of scary and we even called the advice doctor at 3 am to see if we should go to the ER. Dave and Ella are just returning from a doctor visit where the initial diagnosis is something bacterial, like salmonella or E. coli. The last meal Ella ate was in a restaurant Thursday night.

Some lab work and a follow-up visit will confirm more tomorrow morning. I just wanted to update those of you who know what's going on and inform those of you who do not.

On a different note, Delia and I went on a date while Dave and Ella went to the doctor today. In three years, I'm still figuring out exactly what makes Delia tick. I'm seeing more and more that she's a "quality time" gal. The attention we've been giving Ella has been hard on Delia. Today she spent 2 straight hours smiling and laughing as we played at the park and went out for lunch. When it's just her and me, I'm so quick to use that time to get something done, like errands. I need to work harder on giving her the one-on-one, engaging activity time she so craves.

Hardwood!

We've always known that hiding under our old stained carpeting were our 60 year old home's original hardwood floors. And we've always wanted to expose some of them. Since this is the year of new carpet (it was ordered a few days ago and will be here in about 15 days!), this long-wished-for project jumped to the top of the list! This weekend we nervously pulled up the carpet in the study and breathed sighs of relief when we saw that the condition of the floors was GREAT! With just a bit of sanding and buffing to get off some old sticky spots and a thorough cleaning, our study has undergone a makeover yet again. We plan to also expose the floors in the hallway and will keep our fingers crossed that they look okay too.

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Special shout-out to our brother-in-law Chris and his fire and flood restoration company. The college summers Dave spent working there made him an expert in carpet removal!

Adios, Hot Tub

How many men do you think it takes to move an old hot tub that weighs about a ton? Well, IF the man is my super-strong and inventive husband, just one! When we bought our home almost 7 years ago, I think the thing I was most excited about was the hot tub. And for a while it certainly got use. I have great memories in the hot tub: long talks with Dave where we planned the future, soaks with friends after ski trips and before-bed dips with my sister after the nightly round of Trains. But, the hot tub was old and started to get neglected when we had the girls. When it began leaking a year ago and we were told its age and brand made it not worth fixing, we just drained it and started planning its removal. This weekend, with a genius plan using PVC pipes as a conveyor belt, Dave and I rolled it out to the curb to be picked up by the special garbage truck. I'm sad to lose the hot tub, but can be very practical about its disposal too. The space it left has been turned into a great play area, which just makes a lot more sense for where we are in life right now. Sorry, Heather! :)

Natural Smiles

In this phase of awkward fake smiles and stubborn refusals to smile, they are rare gems when I catch them! Gotta post some real smiles from Delia. We do see this happy face many times each day, it just goes into hiding when the camera comes out! :)

What IS a Good Price for Semen?

Years from now, when we're possibly living and serving some place else, I will remember and tell the story of the Livestock Auction when anyone asks what our previous call was like. This yearly event is so indicative of the place we live, I thought it was about time I blogged it for our memories. A group of farmers from our church host this annual Livestock Auction at our town's Livestock Market to raise funds for our local Christian school. The items up for auction made our jaws drop the first year we lived here and attended: actual livestock, tubes of bull semen, walnut hulling, hours of almond shaking and long lists of feed and medicines and farm supplies and services I don't even understand. There are some fun things too: Disneyland and Hawaii vacations, golf outings, tools, flats of strawberries, hanging flower baskets, gift certificates to restaurants, cases of wine and wheels of cheese, to name just a few. Today, we briefly got in the action a few times and, for the second year now, drove the price up on the pink pedal tractor, but had to bow out of the bidding when it went past our limit. Big bucks are made and a fun morning is had by all!

.The girls are starting to get into this tradition too. Though it's hard for them to see all the fun merchandise and come home empty-handed, there are still some treats. Like walking above all the livestock stalls on the catwalk, hearing "the silly guy who talks really really fast" and playing with friends.

We come home from the auction stuffed from the tri-tip lunch and with a clean car, thanks to the high-schoolers washing them in the lot. We also leave thankful for the insanely generous people in our community and full of realization that we may be full-on country folk now (though we didn't buy or even bid on any semen).

Even More Fabulous

If I do say so myself, our larger VM Family is pretty awesome! Each of the people in it was given such unique gifts, each person brings something a little different. But yesterday we got EVEN BETTER when our newest addition, Miles David Jordan, was born! He's a new nephew/cousin, born to Kristen and Eric. Everything with his birth went great, and fast. We couldn't be happier and praise God for the incredible story He's already given this little guy and how he came to the family!

Click here if you want to know more about Miles.

Ella's 5 Year Old Pictures

Whew, I am way on top of things this time! :) My portrait club membership was expiring and I wanted to take advantage of its benefits one last time with Ella, who turns 5 (gasp!) next month.  As always, Ella made it almost impossible for me to decide which pictures to order...

Delia's Dichotomy

How can a girl...

-who happily jumps off of things taller than her (including the top bunk, once)

-who plunges her arm, up the elbow (higher if I didn't grab her), into each fountain we pass in Yerba Buena

-who loves to play with bugs and has to be told, "Please leave that bee alone"

-who strikes up conversations with random strangers

-who takes off to hug each dog she sees (even ran after a coyote, once)

-who heads straight for the tallest slides and climbing ladders at the park

-who doesn't seem to have a good enough grasp of remorse because we can't find a punishment effective enough

-who can't be wrestled hard enough, flung upside-down vigorously enough or swung around enough dizzying times

. Still be scared to tears of:

-the bubbles I blow when chewing gum

-"The Yodeling Veterinarian of the Alps" song from Veggie Tales

-clowns and mascots

-the flush in a public potty

-rides

-a butterfly landing on or near her

-bouncy houses

-the Flubber when it "stretches too much" or "is squeaky"

-the gong-playing gorilla in her ABC Animal Orchestra book?

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I don't get it.

Light

Last night we had a power outage around 12:30 am. Of course, we were sleeping and knew nothing about this until we heard the screaming. I've previously described how Delia operates at either a 1 or a 10 most days. When she's happy, she's the most joy-filled little gal you ever saw. When she's scared, there is insane panic. This is what happened last night when she rolled over and realized her night light was out. I heard, "I CAN'T SEE!!! (sob and wail) IT'S TOO DAAAARK!!!" I quickly ran to her room using my voice to calm her and then hugged her. And yes, it was pitch-black dark. We couldn't see each other, but I tried assure her of my presence with her other senses. Then Dave came in with the flashlight and beamed light around her room, convincing her that she was still in a familiar place and everything was okay. She was shaking when I got her tucked back in. We don't know for sure, but heard something about a power line down from a car crash. Much of the neighborhood shared our middle of the night blackout.

Dave, being the wonderful pastor that he is, made a great connection when he told Delia's story during his children's message this morning. He showed the kids the flashlight and talked about God's presence in our lives-- how we can always trust God to hold us when we're scared and illuminate our darkness with his love-filled light. It was a simple, but important, reminder for me and my family as we face anxiety and uncertainty over upcoming events.

Though the service was planned long before this lights-out episode occurred and children's message was told, we even sang the song "Shine On Us" this morning.

Lord, let Your light, light of Your face shine on us,
Lord, let Your light, light of Your face shine on us,
that we, may be saved, that we, may have life
to find our way in the darkest night
Let your light, shine on us.

Don't you love those moments when God lines everything up? Don't you love those moments when our kids teach us stuff?

Our Spring Break at Home

As I mentioned, this Spring Break we tried to be intentional about doing one cheap-treat-of-an-activity each day. Besides the trip to San Francisco, this gave us a week filled with fun at the BIG park, a popcorn family movie night, a nice dinner out, a play date with Amy, Jonathan and Grace and a birthday party for 6 year old Lily. Each day Ella would wake up and anxiously ask, "What fun thing are we doing today?" She seemed to take delight in the break from the normal schedule, even though she loves preschool and Awanas.

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One high point was the morning we made Flubber. This gooey substance is confused about if it's a solid or a liquid. You can stretch it, roll it, bounce it, watch it melt into the shape of various containers and giggle about how funny it feels. It's gotten played with every day since we made it.

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A little pink slime, the park, The Princess and the Frog movie, a few party hats, friends, Mexican food, Dave home every night...I'd call this a good Spring Break.

Another Thing Checked off the SF List

This week is Spring Break and efforts to save money plus a schedule that still needed Dave at church kept us from any mini-vacations, though I was certainly drooling over the Travelocity options! Instead we planned one special (and preferably free) thing to do each day. Today was the big day, a trip into San Francisco. This trip into the city was different for two reasons. One, we took the BART train there and, two, we explored another new area-- the Yerba Buena Gardens.

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Yerba Buena is a kind of art and museum district. Its "crown jewel" is the SF Museum of Modern Art (that's the crazy looking black and white building in the background of the picture). All around the MoMA are galleries, gardens and celebrations of art in the form of fountains and sculptures. We found a great spot by this wall of water to eat our picnic lunch.

In February, Ella learned all about Martin Luther King Jr. This fountain memorial was really neat to see. The theme of the fountain is a favorite verse from Amos, one MLK quoted in a speech. We dance to "the Justice Song" almost every day so this was fun to find.

You can actually walk behind and under the water fall to see pictures of civil rights rallies and read other quotes from Dr. King. It was a very cool memorial.

Next we went to the park located on the rooftop of a performing arts center! The playground was super modern and had all sorts of interesting things to play on-- like these looong tube slides (see Ella way up at the top?). The girls didn't hesitate a second to race up all those steps and come screaming down the slides. There was also a giant sand area, water play area, music area and climbing area, but these slides are what they returned to a dozen times!

The best part of my day was hearing Delia coming down the slide. Her "Weeeee!" would echo in the tube and she'd come shooting out like a bullet with her hands raised. Fearless!

We watched some real figure skaters practicing jumps on the ice rink and then found yet another historical carousel, housed in a glass gazebo on the Rooftop Gardens. For the first time ever, Delia decided she was not too scared to try it out (must have gotten all her fears out on that slide!). She couldn't contain her glee as she not only conquered this fear of rides, but also realized what fun the merry-go-round is.

We were just blocks away from Union Square, so we had to head over there to peek in mega versions of our favorite stores. (Yay for three stories of Old Navy!) A walk up Powell St. let us watch the cable cars rumble by. We observed them turning around on the turn table too, which is always a fun thing to see.

Having lived the country life for 7 years now, it's always nice to rediscover my love for the city as soon as I ascend those subway steps. The buildings, the people, the hustle and bustle, the variety of transportation crawling by, even the street performers and protesters-- there is just an exciting feeling that I'm not overwhelmed or anxious about. I hope to keep teaching the girls that this big city world, so different than the one they know, exists and it's not too far away.

The journey on the train was its own highlight of the day, though the ride home left us with some pretty tuckered out kiddos!

Soggy Sunday (But Still Good)

I thought it was a rule that Easter Sunday had to be warm and sunny, especially here in California! For the first time in 7 years, we were cold and rainy on Easter. Yes, it's a bummer to see pictures of everyone everywhere else in the country wearing their little sundresses and hunting for eggs in the sunshine (as we normally do), but oh well! Clouds and sweaters didn't diminish our Easter joy!

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We started the morning with some Easter basket opening. Pretty typical stuff-- sunglasses, chocolate bunnies, nightgowns, books. What's fun is that this still seems to be a surprise for the girls, even though we do it every year.

Then, it was off to church. We snapped our pictures there because of the rotten weather. The service was beautiful, with all the traditional songs and a message about leaving the darkness of sin for the light that came at Christ's resurrection.

Home for honey ham, potatoes and carrots and naps, then off to the VM's for the afternoon and evening! This arrangement is perfect.

We bundled up for the grand egg hunt and were maybe encouraged to find and stuff them in the baskets a little quicker than usual this year. As you can see from this picture, we parents "hiding" the eggs were a bit lazier than normal too because of downpour-- most were just thrown all over the lawn.

But the rain and cold certainly didn't ruin the fun of the egg hunt! The hours we spent with our church family, chatting and stuffing ourselves with ham buns, salads and treats, were indoors this year. All the kids were given their own room to play games in and we know it was a sugar-high par-tay in there!

So, while this Easter was somewhat different than the norm, it was still filled with most of the same things that make Easter a favorite holiday. Hope your Easter was sunny and celebratory!

Happy Easter!

We serve a risen savior! Christ the Lord is risen today-- Alleluia!

May you be blessed in your celebrations!

Love, Dave, Jen, Ella and Delia

Jelly Bean O-Rama This Easter

I was getting my oven-cleaning clothes on this morning when Dave said, "Hey! Let's go to the Jelly Belly Factory!" Admitting that sounded like a whole lot more fun than the day of house and yard work I had planned, I quickly agreed. We liked the timing of taking their tour and loading up on jelly beans this Easter weekend. The girls had a Willy Wonka moment when we walked into the candy heaven. Jelly bean decorations overwhelm the place and a giant store tempts every sweet tooth that strolls through it. Lots of people had the same idea as we did today, so first up was getting in the line for the free tour.

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The tour has been much improved since the last time we took it (5 years ago, with Dad and Kyle). Now each stop through the factory is enhanced with video explanations of what you're seeing on the factory floor and samples of the jelly beans in each stage of production (jelly center, sugar coated, etc.). The best stop on the tour was the packaging robots doing a synchronized dance to the song "Sugar Sugar". I got to hear my favorite sound in the world: my girls genuinely cracking up over something.

The tour ends with a free bag of jelly beans. After learning all about their production, we were anxious to dive right in!

In the store, we picked up a discounted bag of "Belly Flops" (beans that are funky in shape) to fill our plastic eggs with for tomorrow's epic VM Egg Hunt. Delia, our candy girl, is giving this 2 pound bag some LOVE!
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Another fun part of the Jelly Belly factory is the Sample Bar. Here you can try as many different flavors as you like. We sampled honey (their newest-- Dave's and my favorite!), kiwi, popcorn, cantaloupe, strawberry ice cream and marshmallow to name a few. Ella thought the "Bertie Bott's Every Flavor" line was hilarious (puke, skunk, pencil shavings, dog food...). She begged to try the booger one. Watch her face go from "Look at me, I'm so silly!" to "Get this thing out of my mouth right now!"
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Signs of Spring

Seems appropriate-- some firsts to accompany our first of April.

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First rose to open!

First strawberries from the stand!