Post vacation rest syndrome

7 hour drive each way for 3 days at the beach followed by a less than 24 hr stop at home before another 10 hr car trip to Nashville and back within 24 hours makes for a tired crew.

Spring break beach vacation

It really has been a very difficult past couple of months...no...make that 6 months ... or 8 months...well when do I even stop? But the last couple of months have been excruciating at times so we decided to throw caution to the wind and  rent a condo by the beach in Destin, Florida for 3 days, 4 nights during spring break! We've all been looking forward to it and made zero plans for it besides relaxing and swimming as much as we can. 

On Friday after lunch we picked up Alec from school and drove the 7 hours (with stops) to the beach. The condo was beautiful and sooo nice, too nice really but Chris took care of that real quick by putting up above the kitchen cupboards all the pretty, breakable decorations within the kids' reach.  There was 1 bedroom with a king sized bed (perfect for Chris, Frederick and I) and a little hallway alcove with a set of bunk beds for the boys and Gwen slept in our closet. 

Saturday morning Chris made the meal Alec requested (German pancakes) while I slept in a bit. Before 10:00 we were all dressed, lunch packed, and enjoying the sun at the beach.  Sand castles, burying everyone, jumping over waves, playing catch with gloves and baseballs, and snuggling Freddy about sums it up. 

By 3:00 we (mostly Frederick and Gwen) we're ready for some indoor time and we left the beach and walked the 5 min walk across and down the street back to our condo to put clothes on to grab a few things at Walmart and go out to eat at a yummy mom and pops pizza place. 

Then we came home, put on swimsuits again and swam in the awesome pool at the condo...in the dark, under the stars, when it was way past bedtime. The kids loved that.  They also loved that we let then eat ice cream and peanut m&ms and watch dirt bike racing until 1 by 1 they fell asleep on the couch. 

A pretty awesome vacation day. 

The rest of the days of our vacation were less awesome between bad sunburns, kid tantrums, and uncontrolled emotions from everyone. But here are the highlights: 

Sunday we slept in and attended an 11:00 church 30 min away and stayed for the first 2 blocks. Then we found a shady (remember the sunburns?) park and had a picnic lunch and little family testimony meeting. 

We ate Charlie's pick for dinner: macaroni and cheese and hung around the condo playing uno and speed and battleship. 

Monday we had sunshine pancakes for breakfast and swam at the pool most of the day. Then Chris took the 3 older kids miniature golfing while I hung out with Frederick at the condo. At 6:30 we walked down the street to a local burger place for dinner followed by a starlight walk on the beach.  Sounds romantic but with 4 tired kids 7 and under it was more adventurous than romantic. It was fun to use Chris's star-constilation finding app. 

Tuesday we had to be checked out of our place by 10:00 and then spent the rest of the morning at the beach. It was a bit cold and overcast so we left around 1:00 to drive back home to Mississippi. We were quite lucky in the weather since all of our full days were warm and beautiful.  It was kind of interesting to watch all the college spring breakers party it up. Between them and the retired couple population I felt like we stood out a lot with our big young crew but most everyone was very kind and smiled at the kids...especially Frederick. 

We really enjoyed the break from life and hope to be able to do things like this more often in the future. For the rest of our spring break Chris has a day full of tests and appointments on Thursday up in Nashville with the Vanderbilt doctors as a follow up from his stem cell transplant...so it's off to Nashville tomorrow. 

Frederick's blessing

We had a lovely morning on the special Sunday that Frederick was blessed. Chris had to leave early for meetings like usual and I got out of bed earlier too so I could have a better chance at making it to church on time. All the kids needed baths, breakfast and to get dressed so I had my work cut out for me. I was very careful to not get mad or frustrated at the kids because I wanted to be able to have a sweet spirit about us for Frederick's blessing. I tried not to think about the fact that we don't have any family nearby to help make this day feel special or any get together with delicious food. I started singing made up songs to little Freddy about what a special day it was and pretty soon all the kids caught on and everyone pitched in to get ready mostly happily.  Alec set the table and gave everyone their favorite color of bowl and cup...Charlie helped me get Frederick dressed in a new white footsie outfit and held him whenever I couldn't. I even had time to throw a frozen crockpot dinner bag into the crockpot and Gwen peeled some extra potatoes and carrots to enhance it. 

I had the thought (inspiration, I'm sure) to put a few little notebooks and new pens in our church bag. While we weren't exactly early we were very very close to on time to church.  When Chris got up to bless Frederick, I passed out the notebooks and pens to Alec, Charlie and Gwen so they could help me take notes during the blessing (read: so they would stay quiet and occupied so I could listen and focus!) It worked! Chris gave a very nice blessing. These things stood out to me: 

That Frederick was born into a family full of love and God's love and that he can internalize, reflect and magnify that love.  He was blessed with the ability to feel the Spirit and to quiet his own mind. Also that he would be a true friend and brother, bring others closer to Christ and find his place in time and in God's eternal family. 

Frederick looked so cute in his soft white footsie onesie. I wish we could've gotten more pictures of him. 

I made carrot cake as a celebratory treat and brought some to our first branch choir practice.  We're getting ready for a Good Friday musical fireside. 

Turns out all my pictures of his blessing day are on our home computer so here are a bunch of The Cutie Pie I took of him the morning I was supposed to be packing for our spring break beach trip...his cuteness distracted me. 

And here are finally the pictures from his blessing day

 

First race!

Chick-fil-a put on a little race in Starkville. There was a 10k, a 5k and a 1 mile. I've been trying to get back in shape after having Frederick but it's been a long road and I've got sooooo far to go still.  You'd think my overweight body would be enough motivation but I'm finding it hard to get the energy and motivation to exercise and stop eating treats.  Anyway, I've digressed...I'm blogging about Charlie and Alec's first race!  Those two hoodlums and I signed up for the 1 mile. The day before I had a fever and major aches I didn't make it out to pick up our race packets and in the morning I still wasn't sure if I could run it and not knowing how the course would be laid out I wasn't comfortable sending the boys by themselves (Chris still is recovering and couldn't run it in my stead)   

We all get dressed and I decide I can probably make it for just 1 little mile and we head out to the race. It's such a small town/affair we find a parking spot within 50 feet of the starting/finish line. BUT packet pick up had closed already! Thankfully one of the workers thought they could print off some bibs for us but told us they were all out of shirts. Which is pretty sad since they looked really cool and the boys would've loved them...ok I would've loved one! 

The boys and I had "trained" for this and ran a mile the Saturday before so I don't think either of them were nervous as we lined up at the starting line. The boys took off like rockets and competitive Alec ran along with some other kids way up ahead and Charlie trotted in a perfect running gait 20 feet ahead of me the whole time.  Such cute kids, I'm so proud of them. 

No snow, snow days and DONE with radiation!

Last week we had a "winter storm" warning.  I guess people were being really cautious because they didn't want anything like what happened in Atlanta recently to happen here. They cancelled school and even college classes for Tuesday. I got so excited to see some snow (people said we might have 4-6 inches!) Then Tuesday morning dawned and...nothing happened. Well, our cars were iced over in the morning, and I'm sure there was ice on all of the bridges.  Someone told me that there were accidents on every bridge from here to Columbus - which is usually the route that Chris drives every morning to go to his radiation appointment. BUT Chris hadn't been deemed healthy enough to continue treatment and he was given Tuesday and Wednesday off.  Over the weekend his sore throat had gotten pretty painful and wasn't eating or drinking enough so when he showed up on Monday, they realized he had lost weight and that triggered them to perform some other tests and labs. He was dehydrated and they sent him up to the chemo bay to get some fluids for the next couple of hours. His voice is completely gone and the break from early morning radiation and from lecturing his class was really good for him. Mondays is normally the day we go grocery shopping, but because of the storm warning EVERYONE and their mom was at the store stocking up in case things got bad. So we hunkered down at home, watched the Olympics, trashed the house, took naps and played with legos. They ended up cancelling everything again for Wednesday since the weather was still going to be "wintry." At least this time there were some flurries, but nothing stuck...not even ice. 

Chris helped the boys build this awesome race car out of legos without any instructions. This picture doesn't really do it justice, its over a foot long.

Also we got a cute home made package from Chris' cousin and his wife with a doll, marshmallow guns, safety masks, burp cloths, and a cute bag of pick-me-ups for me.  It was well timed because those no snow snow days were a bit tough on my housekeeping skills and that always makes me feel a bit down.  This reminds me of another cute package we got recently from Chris' other cousin with huge squish able stuffed animals and new clothes for the kids. The kids love getting packages and we're very grateful and feel so blessed to have such wonderful family. 

We all stayed in our PJs for too long and enjoyed Frederick's smiles and coo-ing attempts. Daddy seems to be especially good with getting Freddy to have a conversation with him. 

Also, I've had some fun getting caught up on all the quilting packets from the previous couple of months. For some reason, I was too busy to sew. I always think its going to turn out terrible because I'm not good at keeping the seams even but as soon as I iron it, it magically turns out! Kinda fun. 

Milestones

Life goes on, especially for our little Frederick! He is growing and developing so fast. I was at a baby shower last night and saw a tiny 4 week old and I got to see in real time all the changes that can happen in just 3 weeks.

He is awake a lot more during the day and holds his head up really well. He loves to be held up right. Sometimes it is like a magic button.  He could be laying down in your arms, crying and if you just put both your hands under his armpits so he's sitting up his eyelids will start to droop and within seconds he could be fast asleep. 

And the best part is he's smiling! I've noticed him trying to smile more in the past two weeks but it was just three days ago that I knew for sure his smiles were directed at me. So fun!! This is how he looks when we are trying to get him to smile: 

And here is his smile:

I got my first 4 hour chunk of sleep 2 nights ago!! Amazing. It's because I went to bed at 9:30 PM since Chris was already fast asleep due to his sore throat. He's actually had a pretty bad sore throat for the past couple of days and has needed to get lots of sleep. We don't know if it's from the radiation or if it's from a cold that has been going around our house the past week. Blessedly, there are only three more days of radiation so if that was the culprit then at least it is almost finished.

Frederick is the love of Charlie's life.  He is CONSTANTLY asking to hold him or burp him or carry him. It doesn't even matter if Frederick is crying. One time Frederick was due for a feeding, and Charlie asked to hold him. I said "you can hold him after I'm done feeding him." But Charlie said he wanted to hold him BEFORE he was fed because he wanted to put Frederick to sleep (meaning he wanted to calm Frederick down) and then I could feed him. Frederick could be crying and crying in Charlie's arms and Charlie will just say, "it's okay, it's okay" over and over again in a patient voice. 

Gwen and Alec love him too and enjoy holding him and kissing him ( well mostly Gwen gives the kisses).  Alec will drop whatever he's doing and run over to me if  there is a chance that Frederick might have smiled. Gwen loves to dote on Frederick too. She'll stroke his head and lovingly croon 'baby cutie pie' or 'baby cutie' or 'baby Freddy.'