Missing My Boy!

Saturday, given Hurricane Isaac doesn't put a severe hurting on New Orleans where we fly from to return to Idaho, the girls and I will go home. We are here in Louisiana for 18 days or so to harvest soybeans for farmers down here. So far it has been raining, raining a lot. It has rained so much that we have not gotten to cut many acres, and that's not so great for business! Plus we have beans we are farming with some other farmers, and those are getting to that touchy point of nearing "going bad." And here comes a tropical storm that is destined to become a hurricane and head right at us. Once again, clear signs of what God DOESN'T want us doing with our lives, but no clear strategy for changing course....yet!!!

This morning we worshipped at one of the two churches we attended while we lived in Louisiana for nine years. It was in a new place, and that is a blog post in itself. Let's just say it is a GORGEOUS mansion that was once the "entertainment home" for some not-so-ethical or G-rated activities. But now it is a house of worship.....AMEN!!!! It is so moving to me to see people singing together, praying together, tapping a toe, swaying to the beat or clapping or raising their hands in corporate worship. God created us to worship, and to see people freely worshipping without fear of ridicule or judgment of how each person chooses to worship.....Heaven must be like that!

So Garrett. My parents are caring for him so well, and Mom has sent lots of pictures via text, and I so appreciate those shots of him. But I miss him. I have missed him before, but something deep in my innermost soul deeply misses my little guy! I won't lie and say that a break from "normal" life hasn't been great! My in-laws have a lovely home, and my mother-in-law is an amazing cook, a very kind soul, and one of my favorite people! I have few big responsibilities, and Grouchy's mom takes perfect care of the girls, shuttling them to and fro to see cousins and some friends. But I am getting the feeling I am suppose to be home with my Garrett, too. I wish I could be in my bed tonight and go body-snatch him so he can sleep next to me. He had just started sleeping with me some when Grouchy is out of town, and it was wonderful. Until recently, he wouldn't sleep with me or at least had a dreadful time actually going to sleep in my room! He wanted to be in his room! I guess I also feel anxious about the future, and as he gets older, I feel I am missing time I need to enjoy with Garrett. What if I look back and realize I didn't maximize our time together. But I cannot go down that road.

I am adding a few photos from harvest time and activities while we are in Louisiana. And please pray for those about to be affected by Isaac. Evacuations are starting, school closings have been happening, and the shelves at stores are looking bare in the water and non-perishable food areas! We finally cut some beans today and into the night until my header lost a belt and moisture crept above 15 percent. We hope we can lots of acres cut tomorrow so we can move to another farm and cut before the outer bands of rain come with the storm. Never a dull moment!!!!

Godspeed,

Clara-Leigh

 Soybeans ready to be harvested.

 Grouchy checks beans and waits for the sky to fall!

 One of the many progress-squelching storms moving in.

Addie and Ainslee with two of their "Besties" from our time in Louisiana. These two amazing young ladies moved to Texas when we moved to Idaho. It was dreamy to get the kiddos (and adults!) back together for a night and a couple days of fun poolside at a casino/resort.

Feelin' A Little Squirrely!

I call my SUV the "Land Yacht," and now here is my combine, the "Mothership"

We are in our second harvest year for our custom harvest business in Louisiana. Yes, we live in Idaho and have business in Louisiana. Maybe that will change someday, but for now we do our best to make ends meet and enjoy it all!

My amazing parents are in our bunkhouse for the second summer in a row to spend time with us and help with the kiddos, mainly Garrett. So Mom and Dad (Nina and Pop as they are called) are back in Idaho with Garrett.

Last Friday morning, a wasp stung Garrett on his right forearm. Grouchy's mom, DiDi was visiting us in Idaho then, and she saw him get stung, but his body never reacted to the sting in any way. Next day, Saturday, I took Garrett with me to the county fairgrounds for Ainslee to feed her show animals and clean their pens, and when Garrett asked a friend of mine to read his MedicAlert bracelet for the umteenmillionth time, I noticed his right arm was huge!!!! And I mean so big that it looked like a really stocky, muscular kid's arm, not my little guy's soft, sweet, tiny arm. It was swollen all around the elbow and not quite down to the wrist, but I didn't know about the sting since it was really no big deal since there wasn't any reaction the previous day when it occurred. So I looked at the arm with a friend of mine at fair who is a nurse. There was some sort of abrasion on the arm, so he must have itched in his sleep and then scratched it. The arm was big, red and hot. I called the nurse and she said to bring him to the after hours clinic since it was Saturday. The PA who saw him said it was likely cellulitis and needed an oral antibiotic. Garrett had a forehead temp of 99.0 which sounds like nothing except his temp is normally 97 point something. So he had a little fever of sorts. The PA wrote that off as a reaction to the cellulitis, but then I reminded her that Garrett VERY RARELY EVER runs ANY fever, even with bulging eardrums! She still thought it wasn't a big concern and was getting ready to prescribe an oral antibiotic when my sweet Garrett said, "But doctor, you didn't do all your stuff!" He told her she forgot to do all of the exam! She told him she had looked at his arm and his eyes and his mouth and listened to his heart, but he said, "No! You haven't looked in my EARS!" I winked at her and she remembered how horrified he was of the ear probing and decided to look just for kicks since Garrett was actually RECOMMENDING something of that nature! And guess what.....he had one infected ear!!! STRANGE! SO she prescribed Omnicef to cover the cellulitis and ear, and we left. Then Monday Addie, Ainslee and I flew to Louisiana for harvest. Meanwhile, on Wednesday my mom calls me to say Garrett isn't looking so great. He has a somewhat swollen eye, the side that has more ptosis or drooping than the other. He also looked like his cheeks are red and is just seeming "off." SO she took his temp under his arm and it was 100.9!! So he was on antibiotic that had started Saturday, and here it is Wednesday and he looks worse except the arm looks great! By then the after hours clinic was closed and his nurse wanted him to go to the ER. ER doctor wasn't very worried and sent them home.....at 4 in the morning. Ggggrrrrrrr. Then yesterday he had a followup visit with a pediatrician, but not his usual one. He said he thought it may still be the poison from the wasp bugging him some. He also thought it could be a virus. The doctor did know about Mito and my mom had Garrett's protocol letter from Dr. Saneto, so it was all good. Today he seems fine.

Helpless!! I am here and my little guy is 2000 miles away in the loving, very capable hands of my folks. And my mind wandered and got lost in the horror of the "what ifs and how will it goes." I prayed God would not let things get bad, especially without our being there. I was worried it was some sort of infection so many Mito kiddos get, that lead to rapid cascading effects that are sometimes fatal or close. And then I wandered to the brink of my own last thread of sanity: losing Garrett. And then I backed off and prayed.

This is the most anxious I have felt about Garrett's physical health in a very long time. Perhaps it was because I wasn't there. But my little guy is good now!

Meanwhile, Grouchy and I celebrated 15 years of marriage yesterday by each of us driving a combine into the sunset together last night......romantic! Truly I wouldn't change it!!! We were working together, and we always want to do that, or at least I can speak for myself and say I want to do that!  Addie and Ainslee are chillin' with DiDi most of the time, but tonight are having an evening with some of their best buddies in Louisiana!

Grouchy snores beside me, my parents care for the ranch and the farm (corn and alfalfa crops having to be irrigated...THANK YOU DAD!!!), and my mom is hopefully curled up in my bed with Garrett who is FINALLY wanting to sleep with us some. It is precious time!!

Godspeed to each of you, and I hope to be posting more cool photos and entries after September 1. Maybe I will do it before then!!

Godspeed, and don't take a second for granted!
Clara-Leigh

Garrett's Photo Shoot

Seven Years Old Tomorrow!

Above Garrett is pictures with the four beautiful ladies who love him through the school days! He will return to their class in the fall, and he loves them SO MUCH!

Tonight is one of those nights when I am not sure if sleep is a real deal in the near future. Garrett will turn seven years old tomorrow. Wow, seven years. So many emotions crash over me tonight. I am feeling more and more hopeful about Garrett's future in regards to his mental capacity and potential. And while physically he is seeming to be plateaued with weight but getting taller, he is strong and very, very busy! So I do not sense immediate medical danger.

I think it is just a reflection mode. Above all else, I look at where we are today and cannot help but thank each person who has ever touched our lives in any way since Garrett's medical issues began at about age one. I mentioned it in my last post, but seriously, you all have kept us pepped up and loved through so much!!

Tomorrow promises to be crazy, but most of our days are! We have Build A Bear, Chuck E Cheese and a movie on the agenda. And of course there will be some playing and munching at McDonalds and maybe a milkshake thrown in there! We plan to buy a cake while we are out tomorrow and have cake and "party" consisting of Garrett, Addie, Ainslee and my parents tomorrow night. While most kiddos have several friends over, Garrett's best friend is out of town and I am not completely sure that a big party would be as much fun as a few fun events. Shoot, tonight he told my mom that he wants to just stay home....WHAT!?!?!? I guess I shouldn't complain. While we have no nice grass yet in the pretty big yard, he does have tons of freedom and loves to be home. Blessing!!

I cannot imagine life without Garrett. As many hours as I have spent here venting or whining, I have to say that I am the thankful, less-judgmental, more loving and certainly MUCH MORE PATIENT person I am because of my son. He has taught our household the value of enjoying the moment and taking much less for granted. He has taught me that normal isn't nearly as attractive as it is perceived and that all we have to do to pass this test is truly love one another right where we are at this very moment.

I pray he will understand that tomorrow is all about him. I pray it is a safe day. Most of all, I pray we get to enjoy many more birthdays with our big guy!!!

Godspeed,
Clara-Leigh

Summer So Busy I Cannot Blog!!!!

Just a quick note to let you know we are all alive and well!! From VBS to a church camp to hanging out at a friend's cabin to MDA camp for Garrett (and that's a HUGE post with WONDERFUL young ladies who made his first camp INCREDIBLE) to 4-H horse camp......whew!!

My mother's sister passed away last week, and I would love some special prayers for my mom and her family. It is hard to lose a sibling. Mom had some long conversations with her sister two days before her death, and it was such a blessing they shared that time. Most importantly, we know Aunt Linda is with our Lord and Savior, and that in itself brings the ultimate comfort. Please pray for my two cousins, her daughters, as well as her husband.

Wow, so I would love to share all sorts of ramblings, but honestly, my eyes are crossing and I haven't showered or read my daily Bible reading yet. So I will just post a photo of my precious boy and leave it at that! That's really what you wanted to see anyway......right???

Good night!
CL

Words Cannot Describe

This weekend I was able to slip away with my Ainslee for two nights camping near Murphy, Idaho, to a ranch where the Working Ranch Horse group we belong to had its annual Longhorn cattle drive. We herded cattle all over the ranch and then through the small town of Murphy to reinact the 1890s cattle drives that occurred there then. Ainslee rode Ernie, and I rode my grey gelding. Words cannot describe what beauty, healing, and peace I found in these two nights and three days with amazing friends and horses, desert sunrises and sunsets and lightening storms, and God's majesty and wonder at work in our days!!! It was unreal!! My parents are here for the summer, so they cared for Garrett and all our ranch critters. Here is a photo that sums it up, and more will follow.....

Ainslee Enjoying Sunset on Ernie, June 1, 2012

Godspeed,
Clara-Leigh

My Brave Man

No, not about a medical procedure or appointment or blood draw!
It's about the ladies!
Yesterday Garrett and I had most of the day alone together, and it was really dreamy! We went park hopping, grocery cart pushing and then ended the date at the local ice cream shop. I got rocky road on a sugar cone and my date got the usual, a vanilla milkshake. We walked outside to the patio of the ice cream shop where there is a colorful canopy and some chairs. Out under the canopy sat one of the pretty high school girls who works there some and knows Garrett. She sat in a chair, and on either side of her sat young high school dudes who were very obviously enjoying her company or were her close friends or brothers or something like that. Garrett walks over to the three of them and without any hesitation points to the young lady and says,"I want to sit by HER!" And just like that, the dude to the girl's left hops right up and tells Garrett to have his chair. SERIOUSLY??????
So eat your heart out high school heart throbs, college dudes and fighter pilots. My boy has his game on!!!!

Godspeed,
Clara-Leigh

P.S. MY PARENTS ARRIVE TOMORROW!!!! AND THEY SPEND THE NEXT FOUR MONTHS HERE IN THE BUNKHOUSE!!!!! CAN I TELL YOU HOW EXCITING THAT IS?!?!?!?!?!?