Merry Christmas!!!

You will want to pause the player down on the right before you hit play here. This is Merry Christmas from the kids to all of you, especially for our family celebrating Christmas (a little late) at Grandma and Grandpa Truesdales' tonight.

Courtesy of my politically correct cousin, I bring you my holiday greetings:

To all my Democrat friends:

Please accept with no obligation, implied or implicit, my best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low-stress, non-addictive, gender-neutral celebration of the winter solstice holiday, practiced within the most enjoyable traditions of the religious persuasion of your choice, or secular practices of your choice, with respect for the religious/secular persuasion and/or traditions of others, or their choice not to practice religious or secular traditions at all. I also wish you fiscally successful, personally fulfilling and medically uncomplicated recognition of the onset of the generally accepted calendar year 2009, but not without due respect for the calendars of choice of other cultures whose contributions to society have helped make America great. Not to imply that America is necessarily greater than any other country nor the only America in the Western Hemisphere. Also, this wish is made without regard to the race, creed, color, age, physical ability, religious faith or sexual preference of the wisher or wishee.

To all my Republican friends:

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

At least life isn't boring!

Josiah asked for an orange.  So I grabbed a tangerine and began to peel it.  He looked at me in disgust and informed me, "I want a BLUE orange!"

Michaela received a toy laptop for her birthday.  When Noah sat down at the desk to work on his computer, Michaela told him to be careful of her laptop.  It was sitting on top of mine and Noah's laptops.  Evidently the desk is the place of honor if you are a laptop, because she let him know, "It is very proud to be there."

Happy Birthday, Michaela!

Our Princess is 4 today!  It is a little hard to believe.  We celebrated her birthday on Saturday, so Daddy could enjoy the day with us.  But we still went to the zoo today, for something different and fun!

Blowing out the candles!

Michaela and Daddy playing with her new "computer."

Riding her new bike.  Yes, in the house!  We have all old tile floors, so it is easy to ride on it.  And trust me, she can't do much damage!  She does know that once we take it outside, it stays out.

At the zoo

Michaela update

Michaela is doing well.  She is getting adjusted to trying to eat on a regular schedule, plus getting her blood sugar checked and getting shots.  Life is starting to get back into a normal routine.  We met her new endocrinologist yesterday.  Her new Dr. is in Albuquerque.  So we went up Tuesday night and spent the night up there.  Then we came home last night after all of the appointments.  We are very pleased with her new diabetes team!  She also has an adorable new bear, who wears a medic alert bracelet and has patches on his paws, arms, legs, etc. for his blood sugar checks and his insulin shots.

We want to say "Thank You!" to everyone who has been praying for Michaela and our family!  Everything is going much smoother than we had anticipated, and we know that it is due to your prayers and God's help!

I am finally getting around to posting pictures of when she was in the hospital.  Sorry... life has been just a little hectic.

Mom and Dad came out to help us with everything and make sure their oldest little "Princess" was doing okay.  We are very grateful for all of their help and their expertise with diabetes.  Michaela was very excited to wake up from her nap and find Grammy and Papa there!

Papa and Chaela

This was obviously when she was feeling much better.  I think it was taken the afternoon before she was discharged.

And with everything that was going on, we wore Josiah out.  This was the morning Michaela was discharged from the hospital.  I found him on our bed with two pacifiers and our alarm clock.  The clock has a built in sound machine with chimes, nature sounds, etc.  He likes to play with it.  I left him up there and he was sound asleep in a few minutes.  It really was only 9:30 in the morning.  He usually only takes an afternoon nap.  Mom and Dad stayed home with him, and he slept for a couple of hours.

Packing up all of her goodies to go home.

More of her presents.  We now HAVE to have Curious George band aids!

She thought it was her birthday.

Getting spoiled by Papa.

At the playground with Grammy and Papa.

Home!!!

After 5 days of torture and learning how and when to do what, we finally have all of our family at home again. Michaela's sugar continues to be somewhat high and to fluctuate a little but it is more or less under control and she is very happy to be home. Of course, 5 days of being tied to a 7 ft. pole by a plastic line has left her rather spoiled because we had to do everything for her. Now that she is free and at home she still expects to have us do everything for her. I am trying to tell her in no uncertain terms that while she may be the princess of the family, there has yet to be a princess that was a child of the servants and we are not her personal slaves. It is slow going, though. *sigh* None the less, she is happy to be home and we are happy to all be in one place, too.

Michaela

For those of you who don't know, Michaela was taken to the ER early Monday morning because she had been sick and suddenly started to get a lot worse. What we discovered is that she now has type one diabetes and that she was suffering from an extremely high blood sugar level. A standard glucometer will show a count as high as 900 and the normal level is between 70 and 120. Michaela had to have blood drawn to find out where her level was because it was somewhere in the 900+ range. She was moved to a larger, better equipped hospital within hours and put into the intensive care unit.

Since then, they have gotten her blood sugar to a reasonably safe level and are trying to get it stabilized. When I left her last night, it was 90. This morning it was 278 (down from over 300). This evening they did move her out of the ICU but will be keeping her in the hospital for some time as they continue to work to get things under control. Pray for her as the doctors try to get it under control and as she adjusts to this new slightly prickly life. She already knows she doesn't like all of the poking but she takes it like a trooper. She doesn't whimper or whine. She will tell you she doesn't like it but she doesn't shy away from it.

The Army has earned a new level of respect from me as I was out of town at the time and the Army had me home the same day when all of this happened. Thank God for that as otherwise things would have been really difficult so far from family.

Our church family also is helping a lot, watching Josiah when we both have to be at the hospital for instruction on what we need to do and constantly praying for us. Our friends and family back home have also showed us overwhelming support in this trying time and I know that many people are praying for us. We thank you for the prayers, the calls, and for the balloons and stuffed kitty for Michaela. We feel the love and support and are very grateful.

I've already made corrections on this three times now, so if I messed anything else up bear with me. I'm trying. Just ask Heather. She will tell you that I am always trying (or, if she is feeling particularly nice she will only tell you that I can be trying at times).

Merry Christmas!

Yes, I know that I am just a little bit early. But Noah left today for 5+ weeks, so we put our Christmas tree up yesterday. Michaela had a lot of fun helping me, and I left most of the ornaments where she put them. I did rearrange the ones where she had hung three ornaments on the same branch, etc. =) Josiah was quite excited to get up from his nap and find the Christmas tree. He told me, "I smell the candle." as he was sniffing at the tree lights.

You have to love the simplicity of life as a kid. Since Michaela is 3, that is the magic number for everything. Chaela was talking to my Mom on the phone today and told her that Daddy was going to be back in three weeks. (We wish!) Yesterday, she wanted to help me unload the dishwasher. The conversation went as follows:
Heather - "Have you washed your hands?"
Michaela - "Yes."
Heather - "How long ago?"
Michaela - "At 3 o'clock."
Heather - "It is almost ten, go wash them again."

Good evening!

No new pictures. =( I have a new computer and haven't even looked to see if there is a decent photo program on it. ( We were going for basic and cheap!) Hopefully, I will have this thing kind of figured out in the next week or so.
I was lying down yesterday afternoon, so Josiah decided he was going to take a nap also. It wasn't very long before he got down and then came back with a Noah's ark book. He opened it up to a page with the animals on the ark and proceeded to read, "Zebra wanted go to Nin A Va." We obviously need to work on the Bible stories a little more!

It is Election Day!

Please pray for our nation today!  And if you are a registered voter, go vote!!!

Happy Birthday, Josiah!

It's hard to believe that our little guy is two!  But he is a typical two year old.  He talks almost non-stop.  He also gets into a LOT of mischief.  Not to mention that he loves to tease his sister and make her squeal!  Happy Birthday, Si!  We love you!

Yes, it WAS a very large jar of olives!

Sledding

I am ready  for fall and some pretty leaves.  We have turned the furnace on for the past two mornings, but then it gets back up in the high 70s during the day.  So when Mom and Dad were here, we went to White Sands National Monument and went sledding.  Hey, you have to take advantage of what you have.  I must say that it is the first time that I have ever went sledding while barefoot!

The kids ended up off of the sled more often than not.  They didn't seem to mind.

OUR LOVE CONTINUES TO BLOSSOM AND GROW!

It was just to pretty to keep to ourselves. I hadn't gotten Heather anything special for a while and the glass worker in the PX makes such nice things.

El Paso Zoo

Just a few more pictures from when my parents were here.

Outside looking in or inside looking out?

Recent happenings

Yes, I am still alive and well.  I have just been a little on the busy side.  We finally have all of our belongings in one place, instead of in three different states.  I am most thankful to have my bed, washer, and dryer back!  (5 months without them was plenty long!)  At this point, we are pretty settled in.  We just need to decorate now that we have power tools here.  We opted not to use hand tools on cement block walls when we knew that Noah's power tools would arrive soon.  Just call us lazy!  Mom and Dad were able to come for 9 days, so we were able to do some fun stuff and get to know the area better while they were here.  I will try to post more pictures, in the next couple of days, of their time here.

Mom and Dad with the kids

Canadian Snowbirds in the air show that was held on base last weekend

Plane that was participating in the air show, over the Franklin Mountains

Franklin Mountains State Park

Yes, we actually still have some greenery left from monsoon season!

Our understanding is that this is as green as it gets around here.

FOD

Pilot to Co-pilot,"What part of 'Clear the runway' don't these people understand?"

New nephew

For those of you who are too  lazy to go to Carl & Jill's blog, here is a picture of our adorable new nephew.  I stole (with Noah's help) the picture from their blog.

Heath Alexander

It's a Boy!!!

Heath Alexander

Born Sept. 16, 2008

10:12 PM

8 lbs, 15 ozs

21 inches

Congratulations, Carl & Jill!!!

Check the link "Carl & Jill" for pictures in the next couple of days.

Carl will update their blog when he recovers some sleep.

On second thought, it might be several months before you see pictures.

Ultrasound!!!

For those of you who have been wondering, 

It's a .........

Baby!!!

Move in pics

Daddy's home!

The kids loved the truck!

And this is only the beginning of the forest that was demolished 

for the protection of our junk.  The pile was about three times as big as what you can 

see in this picture.  Believe  it or not, we actually had it

loaded back in the truck by 10 PM, the same night, to haul it to be recycled.

The kids really wanted to ride in the big truck.  So Daddy loaded up 

carseat and booster seat for the ride to recycle all of the paper and then to turn 

the truck in.

Happy Birthday, Sweetheart!

I realize that I am three days late in wishing Noah a Happy Birthday.  Our house was total chaos on Wednesday, due to the move.  We did go out to eat for his birthday, on our way to church.  But we did not actually celebrate and let him open presents until today.

Sweetheart, we love you!  You are the best husband and Daddy!  Thank you for all of your hard work this week to get us settled into our new house!  Happy Birthday!

Home Again

Well, I am home again after my quick trip to Monterey to get our stuff.  I won't say the trip was uneventful but all in all I would say things ended well.  We now have gone from having a pretty much empty house to hardly having room to move from one room to the next.  Heather would probably throw a fit if I put a picture of how our house looks right now on here but we are making headway on getting things sorted and hung or put into its proper place. I suspect we will be having a yard sale or I will have a lot of stuff on e-bay soon.

We are learning some things about our "new" home.  One is that it is not new.  The one picture shows Michaela mimicking what she saw mommy do.  She is documenting the stains on the floor so that we know we can't be blamed for them.  Another is that the refrigerator works quite well as you may note from the picture of my tea that I opted to put in the fridge to drink later.  The kids have found that there is plenty of dirt to play in (now mud), though thankfully, with all of the recent rain, we actually have some grass.  No doubt Heather will update this again soon with her pictures of the unloading process. I will leave that for her.