When it rains it pours.

When it rains it pours.
Yet, God remains faithful.

This past week has been a trying on in the Keethler home as it feels like we are hemorrhaging money.
I needed a new dishwasher. The other mostly worked, but our dishes were not getting clean and the tines on the racks were rusted out and broken. So naturally after 4 years we finally bit the bullet and picked out a new one.
She is pretty.

However, after a long ordeal just to get her installed last Saturday our good friend BW and Chad got her up and running. We leave for church {yes on Saturday} at 1ish to get my kids to my parents so Chad and I could serve all  5 services. I sing, he does tech. We didn't get home until 830p-ish that evening and as soon as I walked in I commented how hot it was in our house.

If momma is hot, it is hot. I looked at our thermostat it is reading 81*, well no wonder--I started to walk away and then I realized wait! That isn't right, it should have NEVER gone about 78*. Period. I mean it is the end of September, not July when it is 100*+ and leaving a door open for 2 seconds would cause that sort of jump.

Yup. The AC was broken.

I do what I do best google search and watch youtube videos on what could be wrong and Chad does what he does best and watches Top Gear and says he will call the repair people on Monday.

Thankfully, it is September/October and temps aren't too bad. Matter of fact the last few days this week have been downright perfect. I even woke up freezing. HA! So we had some wiggle room. PRAISE.

One company came out and thought it was a bad fuse. Nope.
The next said we need a whole new unit. That is stressful because AC units aren't cheap. But God worked in some details that are making it less expensive. Still expensive, but slightly less. PRAISE.

We still don't have AC yet, but at this point I don't care. We may not turn it on once we do if the weather keeps up like this. Hello Fall!!

Oh, and did I mention in all of this mess Tucker our first fur baby had to have eyelid surgery for some janky growth on his eyelid. I have been putting that off for 2 months to see if it would get bigger {like the assured me it would}. It did and it was time to get that taken care of.

Poor baby--Post op {bandage was from the IV}

So good times, but again that bill ended up being nearly a $100 less than we were told and well I am going to Praise God for that too.

In full disclosure I have had several meltdown moments over all of this hitting at once. However, one evening my son told me his Bible verse he learned this past month in church. Phil 4:19. "MY GOD will meet ALL YOUR NEEDS." In his cute little boy voice. It just struck me that we have never gone without. God has always provided. And in the most unexpected ways, which He likes to do to make sure you know it was Him.

So while it is hard right now, these present sufferings are nothing in the grand scheme of life. {Rom 8:18} God has always been faithful and that is all we can rest in right now.

I do pray we are on to sunnier times, but if we aren't we will just dance in the rain.

{Via}

Scrapbook

Today is my day off, so I am finally catching up on some scrapbooking. Now I didn't get all of these done today just 3 and tweaked 2, but I am happy to finally have something to post, maybe looking at these will motivate me to finish out 2013 {this is pretty hit and miss} and get through this summer fun. It's good to have goals. :)

{August 2013}






{September 2013}


{October 2013--1 page for each kid}




{November 2013}


{Christmas 2013}






{January 2014}


{February 2014}

Thanksgiving Week

Thanksgiving week.
Started with packing up our operation Christmas Child boxes.

 

Followed by an adenoid surgery on Tuesday for Sass. She snores. Bad. She sleeps horrible. This is something I have been meaning to bring up at her well baby for years. I never remembered and didn't think it was dire. However we are undergoing insurance changes and wanted to take full advantage of our deductible. :) So I took her in to an ENT, he said her adenoids were very large in her tiny face. He thought this was affecting a lot of things--even bed wetting at night. Say what?! I didn't even mention it, he just said it at random. 

Anyway, she is a worrier. She gets it from her dad's side. The worry and obsessing they do over things makes me look like a cool cumber. She asked question after question. Obsessed over every detail. Each night I would pray over her Zephaniah 3:17.

The Lord your God is with you

He is mighty to save.

He will take great delight in you; 

and will quiet you with His love

and rejoice over you with singing.

Tuesday arrived and we were off. She was composed and "excited" once we got there. I think the anticipation was the hardest part. Here she is dressed and ready. 

 

They took her to get a little lovie, a rainbow whale she named Minnie Mouse. HA! And then led us to a playroom area where she could watch Disney channel and roam around. It was so nice. When MW had surgery it was horrible trying to keep him content and entertain. This was so much better.

Then they came for her. She walked off so big and brave. Hardly said good-bye. 1 hour later she was back in my arms in recovery. {It was just she and I, so no pics.} She was pretty alert, but complained about her throat a LOT. :( Then she came home to see daddy and we took her to a special lunch at Chick-fil-A. Followed by a rest on the couch.

With Daddy. Be Still My Heart.

Thanksgiving Day. 3 Things you should know.

1. We always spend it with my Father in law's side.

2. We always get the perfect family picture on a timer. Every time.

3. Micah and I hate the food and daddy and Lo love it.

Some practice runs with the timer.

After we got our perfect picture in 1 take. We move on to silly pics.

And this is what I am MOST thankful for. Our crazy, awesome family.

We are Blessed Beyond Measure.

{2013}

A Flash back

{2009}

{2010}

{2011}

{2012}

{2013}

Over the weekend we celebrated with my MIL. She and Lo put out baby Jesus. Just look how motherly my little Sass is. She is going to be a great mom someday. I just love her.

At some point my MIL broke out her accordian and the kids played. It was a hoot.

And the of course an impromptu leaf jump before we went home.

We have so much to be thankful for. I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!

The result of our Tree of Thanksgiving 2013

                         

Do You See a Difference?

This is the question I have been asked by everyone since about 2 minutes after Micah came out of surgery. It is pretty crazy that it has nearly been a week since that day. In some ways it feels like we just got home yesterday and in other ways if feels as if it was months ago.

Back to the question. I am not sure I see a difference yet.

I haven't seen any spit-up in a week. I walk around the house and find burp cloths and just stare at them, thinking do I need these any more? This isn't the first time Micah has been spit-up free for a week, so I am still sort of hesitant; I think after it has been 3-4 weeks of no spit-up it might finally sink in that all this was for something.

Micah still struggles a bit with his feeds. I think he gets so hungry he over-eats his oatmeal and then you can see he is struggling like his body wants to puke but can't. Makes me sad for him.

The biggest difference I see is that we are going through 2x the amount of diapers than pre-surgery. We use to go through 4ish diapers per day. He just hardly ever peed and #2 was a rarity. Sort of makes me feel bad that I didn't realize that he wasn't hydrated enough because he was always puking up all his feeds. I thought he was just peeing out all his IV fluids still, but obviously that can't still be the case, it is he is actually keeping his feeds down. We even are getting more regular too.

He is also very happy. I can't tell if he is happier than pre-surgery, but he is happy and that is all that matters when you see that cute little boy smile.

Finally, while we still aren't sleeping through the night he is napping better and longer, most likely due to staying full.

Stats: 14# 10z. He has yet to gain. He is actually down 2z from his 9 month well baby check, but the same wt as his pre-surgery wt. So no improvement yet?!? So there will be a few more weekly weight checks in our future.

I am so glad all of this is behind us and it can just fade into a distance memory. Again I can't say thank you enough to everyone who prayed and encouraged us along this long road.

Home Sweet Home

We are home and it feels so good and weird. I am really having a hard time just processing all my thoughts and emotions about all that has occurred. I know to some it was no big deal, but whenever it is your baby at stake, I think it is always a big deal. I spent a lot of time wondering the halls with Micah and would read all these poems kids in the past wrote about why they were there. They were so sad. I just would pray for all the families that had kids in hospitals with serious diseases and ailments. I KNEW we would be going home and all would be well, but for so many that is not the case.

It is also weird being home because while we were only there for 2.5 days it felt like an eternity. Friday felt like a week all in itself. We were expected to stay through Monday, but Micah was a rock star and earned the right to come home today {Sunday}. He did really well only requiring one more dose of morphine to get through Saturday night and by Sunday morning he was doing well on just tylenol. Saturday night went better than I thought. I can't stress how awesome our night nurse was. She was so flexible and left us alone most of the night!
Micah was doing so well by Sunday morning we tried some solids, but those came back up :(. However, the Dr. M said that he was probably still swollen in the tummy and we should go easy on those, she then gave her discharge orders and we could hit the road. I packed up the room in record time. HA! And by 440p we were out the doors.

We have been through a lot with Micah and I am hoping that maybe we will be on the upswing finally. His pregnancy was less than stellar. Matter of fact nearly year-to-date we found out in our sono that Micah had those cysts and calcium deposits on his heart, causing me stress and pre-term labor.

Micah is loving being at home. He got so fussy at around 2p, nothing we did made him happy. You could tell he was tired and frustrated and maybe in pain? But as soon as we got home he was just so happy to be here. He crawled all over, giggled and played with sissy. Home really was the best medicine.

{Pics from the hospital}

Getting ready for surgery. My mom got him this onesie that said "This shirt was clean this morning" HA!

All gowned up and waiting for us to be called to surgery. We were slated for 10a. When we got to the room at 9a the RN said they were already calling for him. We were pretty excited we were going sooner, only because of the no eating and about to get fussy thing. However, they never did call us until 1130a! Let's just say there were 3 unhappy campers.

In the recovery room. I couldn't wait to get my hands on that sweet boy. He was so out of it, I just about lost it. But I stayed strong for Micah.

Bless his heart, he was so out of it for the rest of the afternoon and night. He barely even moved.

This was Micah by Saturday...just being his goofy self.

The procedure was laparoscopic. He had 5 tiny incisions.
We told him chicks dig scars...so we are working on a good story. HA!

Micah was doing so good Saturday that the nurse said we could take him out to get some fresh air. He really liked the buggy ride.
GOING HOME!
Micah loved the wheel chair ride. He was so happy. It was as if he knew we were going home.

I can't even imagine a life without massive amounts of spit-up and weekly weight checks. If we don't see the inside of a hospital or doctor's office for another year it will be too soon.

Thank you all again for your prayers and support. It was felt.