lacee's check up

lacee had a check up yesterday with her ped gastro.
she is doing really well!
when the celiac was at its worst for her, she had dropped down to 62 lbs.
yesterday she was up to 67.8 lbs.
her highest weight was 69 lbs, so we are almost there!!

a hard day

yesterday was a long hard day.
marks mom spent night with us tuesday night. for the past several months, she has been experiencing hallucinations--seeing people that no one else sees. these people are not nice to her at all. it has progressively gotten worse. tuesday she was so scared, she couldnt even be alone. we decided it would be good for her to spend the night at our house. i had hoped that she would feel safe here and get a good nights rest, as she has not been sleeping well at all. unfortunately, that was not the case.
wednesday morning, she had a doc appt at 8am. we ended up taking her to the hospital in linden tn. she will most likely be there 10-14 days, to try to get her leveled out and get the people to leave her alone. there are no tv's or phones in the patient rooms, as they want to keep the patients involved in all the activities they have to offer there. we can call her or she can call us after 5pm. there are set visiting hours. i am not sure if the kids are allowed to visit or not. we can hang things on her wall, so i will be making her a poster board filled with pics to hang up. we plan to go up sunday night, if the staff thinks she is ready for us.
at the end of her stay, the staff will discuss with us suggestion options for what to do next.
mark is an only child. he lived at home for 32 years. he and his mom are very close. i can only imagine how hard this ahs been for him. i am so proud of him for being totally honest with himself and the doctors. i am sure it was not easy at all. but he is doing what has to be done, for the health and safety of his mom.
i pray that the treatment is exactly what she needs and is successful.

hide under the church pew

so mark anthony is potty trained.
i was warned, to an extent, that once potty training had happened, little boys have easy access and complete fascination with certain body parts.
i just had no idea how bad it was gonna be!!!
the past week it has become horrible, in my opinion anyway.
always one hand, most times both, are glued down in the front of his pants. i have tried ignoring it, telling him to leave it alone, telling him not to worry...it isnt going anywhere, telling him if he didnt leave it alone it would fall off and he would be a girl, and my latest attempt..saying "where are your hands?" so that he will pull them out and wave them over his head. its alot nicer to say no matter the crowd we happen to be around. it works for about 2 seconds....5 if i'm lucky.
just this morning, i hear him singing "my wee wee, my wee wee". i look over, and there he sits, reclined back in his giggling elmo chair, with his package pulled out. the whole shebang. leave nothing to the imagination...its all out!
and of course, lacee has a friend over. they are sitting right here too!!! the friend just happens to be the preachers daughter no less!
if sundays sermon is about modesty of little boys, you'll find me UNDER THE PEW!

sick kids

summer time.
fun time.
sick time?
around this house, yes.
i recently went to the doctor for a shot and meds to clear me up from an 8 week suffering of sinus and bronchittus and upper respiratory infection.
a few weeks later, mark started in with it.
now, lacee is barking and has an ear ache. tommy and mark anthony are pouring green snot like something from a polterguiest movie, and tommy is also barking.
i have them a doctor appt for thursday afternoon.
why so long?
today and tomorrow i am providing back up care for another child care provider. wednesday lacee has an appt - update on her celiac diagnosis with the doc.
in the mean time, i am giving them meds i have around the house, including breathing treatments.

best camper award

when i got out of the van at the service, lacee's counselor happened to be walking by. she came up to me and said, "your daughter is amazing!" i smiled and said, "awww, thank you". "no, really, she said. she is awesome. she has been the best helper. she has helped everyone, is always smiling, comforted other girls when they got homesick. she is getting the best camper award. all the counselors agreed on her, they all loved her. dont tell her, but you have to stay for awards." "oh ok" i said, nearly crying.
so they had the service and gave out all the swimming awards, sports awards, etc. then the director of the camp came up and said that they enjoyed giving out the fun awards, but now it was time for what he thought of as the biblical awards. they have out awards for best bible student, and the students who had memorized the most bible verses. then he said it was time for the best camper awards.
lacee's counselor, madison, stood up first. she said, "i have had the best cabin this week i have had all summer. if you had a girl in cabin 3 then you should be proud. these girls have been great. (at this point i had to tell lacee to stop talking to mark anthony as i wanted her to listen) i nominated several of my girls, but all of the counselors agreed that it should definately be this girl. she always had a smile on her face, she was willing to help anyone at any time, she was nice to everyone, making tons of new friends. last night she even stayed in the mess hall, missing the bon-fire, to help clean up. she wasnt even asked to do that. (at this point lacee's eyes got big and she looked at me and mouthed --that was me!) so our young girls best camper for week 8 2008 is -- Lacee Wilson!"
everyone clapped and cheered.
as she walked up there, i began to cry. of course, lol.
when lacee got up there, she hugged her counselor and began to cry. madison sat down with her, lacee curled up in her lap, as madison hugged her. this had me and our friend cindy wiping tears away. i asked madison later what lacee was saying up there and she said lacee was just like "thank you so much, i'm gonna miss you so much."
it was such an honor for lacee. our friend amanda, whose blog is linked below, called us later to find out what all nice things had been said about lacee. all of amanda's kids go to msyc, and several of her older ones work there as counselors. she said that the counselors have a meeting and they all talk about the kids nominated for best camper, that they all have to agree that the one chosen should get it, that it isnt taken lightly. i put lacee on the phone so that amanda could congratulate lacee. amanda is such a sweet person, so gifted with words. i am not sure exactly what she said to lacee, but whatever it was was wonderful and brought lacee to tears again and she thanked her.
as moms we all think our kids are wonderful, but it is such a reassuring experience when someone else thinks so too. the fact that lacee was able to make an impact on so many people on such a short amount of time is amazing to me. and she is so humble, so amazed that she got the award. she actually thought she got it just b/c she cleaned the mess hall last night. i said, no baby, it takes alot more than 1 act to get such an honor.
i thank God every day for my children. he has certainly blessed me with 3 wonderful children. he has blessed me with an exceptional daughter. if we could all have the heart that lacee has, this world would be so full of love and caring.

she's home!

this morning the boys and i went to pick lacee up from camp.
when we arrived they were having the goodbye service. as soon as we got there kara, ali, carli, they came to get the boys. lacee was sitting in the far corner from us, course her friends took her brothers to her, she was so excited to see them, and mark anthony would not leave her side. they sang camp songs, and then the counselors took turn giving out awards for such things as best dive, smallest splash, biggest splash, tug of war, etc. they recognized all the counselors and junior counselors.
at the end of the service, the parents got to sit down (it was hot!) in the shade inside the pavillion and all the campers formed a circle around the pavillion and sung and the service was closed in prayer.
all lacee's friends were hot and tired and exhausted, but all said they had a great time. lacee made lots of new friends, and swapped address and phone numbers with alot of people.
she talked most of the way home about her week.
i am so glad she got to go to camp.
she is already looking forward to going next year!!

church at freed

tonight george ann, carole, tommy and i went to freed to have church with our campers. they were happy to see us, and even happier to see tommy.
tommy was fussy all evening, so i missed part of the service as i took him out to keep him from disrupting everyone.
lacee said she was having a blast. swimming, hiking, arts and crafts. by no means wanting to come home.
i cant wait to hear all the details friday.
it was great to see her and get a big hug and kiss.
i am so greatful that she was able to go to camp.
mark anthony was excited to go stay with his friend cruz. i chose not to take him with me, b/c he misses lacee like crazy, wants to go to church camp, and i knew i would have a fight on my hands to get him out of there. this was his first time to cruz's house. they also went to church. thanks to cruz's mom, beth, for letting mark anthony hang out with them!