Ekirabo: The Gift

Gingerbread house!

2009-12-14T14:53:00.005-05:00

This morning I got to hang out in Jackson's class while he made a gingerbread house. It turned out spectacularly, an his favorite part is that he got to eat more icing than ended up on the house :)

Cast your vote for a great cause!

2009-12-11T14:44:00.003-05:00

My little sister, Anna, teaches at a school called Jubilee Academy in Columbia, SC, which is a division of Heartworks Ministry. It is a really effective program that provides education and support to kids who might need just a little bit of extra attention.

They are entered to win a giveaway through Chase Community Giving which would provide them with extra funds to improve their program. Today is the last day to cast a vote for them to win the money. Would you mind checking it out and voting for them? And after you vote, would you mind tweeting, posting on facebook, or placing the banner on your blog to encourage others to vote?

Thanks!!!

sophie pics

2009-12-05T10:45:00.002-05:00

Yay Jackson!

2009-12-01T20:59:00.003-05:00

After a fairly long loose tooth saga, we read this book at bedtime tonight.

Upon reading this gem of circa-1984 literature, Jackson was able to get up the courage for me to yank out his tooth -- just like Arthur! The tooth is now safely under his pillow, and I'm sure he's sleeping with one eye open waiting for the Tooth Fairy to show up!

it creeps me out when...

2009-11-27T22:50:00.002-05:00

... i title a post about Jackson loving on Sophie (see below) "adoration" and somehow between my blog and the RSS feed that pops up on my google reader, the title is changed to "worship," which has a pretty different connotation.

Does anyone know what's wrong with my blog and why it is thesaurus-izing my posts???

adoration.

2009-11-27T19:15:00.001-05:00

thankful.

2009-11-26T09:00:00.003-05:00

you know when you go to the Dollar Tree to get ONE thing -- off-brand windex or a gift bag or something...

...and before you hit the second aisle, you've picked up so many other awesome bargains -- things you actually needed at the amazing price of $1 -- that you wish you had remembered to pick up a basket at the front door, or brought a sherpa with you....

...and you're holding three-dozen things and devising a complex wedging system for carrying it all, and enlisting the use of your chin to hold the precarious pile together...

you know THAT kind of contented arm-fullness?

that's how my heart feels today: full of simple, unexpected treasures.

so. thankful.

Sophie meets MC and Jackson

2009-11-24T14:06:00.003-05:00

oh Sophie Cate, how we love you :)

2009-11-20T12:45:00.001-05:00

surprise!

2009-11-19T04:48:00.002-05:00

we had a baby last night!

her name is sophie cate.

she has her daddy's eyes, nose, and mouth, and her mama's feisty temperament and curly brown hair.

pictures to follow after MC and Jackson get a peek at her :)

Sseko sandals!

2009-11-17T16:02:00.002-05:00

Leigh sent me the link for these shoes (Kampala-made,) and I. WANT. A. PAIR.

Please, Santa???

quick update....

2009-11-13T22:27:00.003-05:00

yes! Jackson's home from the hospital!

and no... he was never diagnosed with anything...

but he's feeling much better! Thanks for praying!

you'll never guess how today turned out...

2009-11-12T19:58:00.005-05:00

2:30am Jackson wakes up complaining that his "bones hurt" and pointing to a spot underneath his left armpit. he's clearly in severe pain

2:32am take his temp -- 101.something

2:35am give him motrin and a spot in a "nest" on our bedroom floor

3:00am he crawls in bed with us

3:30am wakes up hysterically complaining about the same spot on his left side.... writhing in pain, tremoring, not making much sense

3:40am pain randomly goes away... he is fine and dozes off. so do we!

5:00am coughing fit -- give him albuterol puffer, which hypes him up so that he will never go back to sleep.

5:15am has another hysterical side-pain fit. we think maybe it's gas, and let him play in the tub, which he does happily for a half hour

5:45am dozes back off in our bed

6:40am my alarm rings for MC to get ready for school. J has a temp of 104.6

7:00am Jackson wanders down the stairs and lays on the couch... and is immediately hysterically in pain with his side again

7:30am I get Jackson dressed and we head for the 8am clinic at the doctor's office

8:30am we see the doctor. she isn't sure what's up, and orders lots of tests.

9:30am after seeing oxygen saturations as low as the 70%'s, a really cruddy chest, and a white count that's more than double what it should be, the doctor heads straight out to call an ambulance to drive us to the hospital

10:00am arrive at pediatric ER. J gets poked at for 3 hrs and takes a nap.

1:00pm they admit him, thinking it might be pneumonia but not knowing for sure based on the chest xray.

the whole rest of the day J plays Nintendo and watches Nickelodeon and drinks juice and very much enjoys peeing in the plastic jug the nurse so kindly provided

now we're just waiting for morning to see the attending doctor so we can finally hopefully discern what was causing the fever, coughing, chest pain, and so we can hopefully go HOME!!!

...today just wasn't quite what I expected..... but we are very blessed that Jackson is feeling like a new man after a couple of doses of heavy-duty antibiotics. we are very blessed to have family who has moved heaven and earth to love on us today and make our lives as stress-free as possible. and we are very blessed that Sophie is still on the inside -- the only think that would make me more tired than i already am is having a kid in the hospital and a few-days-old baby!

More tomorrow!

the things that fill my heart...

2009-11-12T05:51:00.000-05:00

Too often in the crazy busyness of our life, I go into survival mode.

I miss the blessing.

Almost any volunteer at any orphanage in the world can probably tell you that there are one or two "special kids" that just crawl into your heart and stick. And most of those people have to walk away from those kids, maybe getting an update from them every few months.

It's easy to forget that it is a miracle that these two children are mine, that they get to sleep right down the hall from me, that it is remarkable that we didn't have to say goodbye to them forever. It's easy to forget that in many ways, it is a miracle that they are alive.

It makes things like sassiness and messy rooms and picky eating seem a little easier to deal with.

Two years ago today, i got to say hello again.

NOTHING. better.

(There are over 140million orphans in this world.... there are children who need families.... are YOU missing this kind of blessing???)

John Piper's wife on their daughter's adoption...

2009-11-11T16:48:00.002-05:00

John Piper's wife wrote a ten-part blog article chronicling their decision to adopt their daughter Talitha (when John was 50!)

Good read!

odds&ends

2009-11-11T10:26:00.002-05:00

yep. i've been neglecting my blog.

i've been on modified bedrest since Thursday because of some blood pressure stuff, and it seems like the more time i have to blog, the less motivated I feel. I also know of a couple of people who read this blog who are extremely critical of our family, and i am just annoyed enough in general these days for that to bother me... i am definitely feeling the temptation to withhold blogging just to spite those two people :) But I need to start playing nice again.... so here i am.

Laying in bed/not getting out of the house for a week doesn't make for the sharpest brain function, so here are a few topics to fill up the page without me having to put forth too much brain power....

Quote of the Day:

"Size up the situation, consider the ramifications, and ask honestly:
Will this matter in a hundred years?

If the answer is no, let it go.
If it’s yes, do something about it.
Either way, complaining is not an option."

-Steven Furtick

Things I'm Craving:

salad, mexican food, steak, hashbrowns, skim milk. my appetite is very suggestible these days.

What my kids are up to these days:

bringing home rockstar report cards, loving cozy clothes, the train set, transformers, playing dress-up.

Things that have recently made me pumped:

my doctor telling me that i'm "all baby" and shouldn't have that much trouble with baby weight after sophie comes. my freezer getting more and more stocked with yummy food. the setup of our newly rearranged bedroom. Real butter on homemade bread... don't judge. How nice a sprinkle of baking soda in my shampoo once a week makes my hair feel.

Things that are stressing me:

considering the task of Christmas shopping. the things i'm not going to get to clean/tidy/organize before Sophie comes unless bedrest goes away. the dilemma of whether I am still a Charlie's Soap believer.

It's not a great blog post, folks, but it's what's filling my brain...

if you are as pumped about blog giveaways as i am...

2009-11-02T13:20:00.002-05:00

...then check out "The Blessed Event" at Happily Domestic, starting November 21. Lots and lots of reviews of baby/new mommy stuff coming up here! Yay!

kiddies -- all blinged out...

2009-11-02T13:14:00.003-05:00

yes, those are pink yarn extensions. yes, i am a glutton for punishment. yes, we did get Jackson a crappy walmart spiderman costume. and yes, he was thrilled with it :)

smelly shirt update:

2009-10-29T17:21:00.002-04:00

ok, so i just took my smelly thrift store shirt out of the washer and took a big whiff..... and almost threw up.

the vinegar didn't work.

any suggestions? It's a really cute shirt!!! I'd rather not throw it away, although that's the kind advice of my sweet husband :)

thrift store shopping drama...

2009-10-29T14:02:00.005-04:00

this post is dedicated to Alli, my Megathrift Buddy...

I just keep getting bigger. None of my clothes fit, which is fairly normal for someone who is this pregnant, but I love my clothes, and i miss them. And I am not one of those people who wants to, or can afford to, buy an entirely new maternity wardrobe.

Enter thrift store shopping. I found out before I even started showing (you know, 2 weeks ago, ha) that there is a local thrift store that has a great maternity section. I've gotten several great things from Gap, Old Navy, and Motherhood for $2-$5ish, which is not bad!

The other day, my fellow-preggo friend Allison and I made an impromptu trip to MegaThrift to check out the maternity section. We both left with a few finds and had a great time imagining what kind of people would wear those kind of maternity clothes (you know, the ones we didn't buy...)

Fast forward to this morning.

I pull the shirt out of the dryer (because the first rule of thrifting is to immediately wash all thrifted clothes...) and put it on.

heyyy, i look pretty cute in this shirt! It looks like normal-people clothes, not pregnant elf clothes!

I spend some time giving MC and Jackson directions about getting ready, then hang up my towel from showering.

ughhhh, i need to wash that towel. I thought it was brand-clean; why does it smell like a boda-man?!!? (for you non-ugandans, a boda-man is a bicycle-taxi driver in Uganda. imagine what a man smells like when he spends all day riding a bike with 1-3 passengers on the back up and down the hilly land of the Equator... sans deodorant...)

Throw the towel in the laundry bin and finish getting ready to go to lunch with the kids and my dad. Drive to lunch and mill around the parking lot while we wait for my dad. Decide to use the empty walmart bag and the spare couple of minutes to clean out my floorboard with the help of my kids. Bend over and wonder...

what in my car smells kind of mildewy and funky, like a thrift store??

Keep cleaning out the car. Eventually look over my right shoulder to talk to one or the other of the kids. Nose approaches armpit.

EWWWWW!!! something smells like old meat and onions! The Boda-man smell again! What IS that??? Nooooo!!!! It's me!!!!!

Needless to say, the shirt went back into the laundry pile as soon as we got home. I just keep wondering what kind of person with such a cute fashion sense would have that horrible a smell! (Which, come to think of it, was probably what the people at Waffle House were thinking about me during lunch! Ew!)

I have hopefully find a solution at the bottom of this article... vinegar in the rinse cycle. I am hopeful that my cute cute shirt won't have to go back to the thrift store! In the mean time, I'm headed upstairs for my second shower of the day... wish me luck!

best jackson quote ever...

2009-10-27T21:55:00.003-04:00

"Mom! Look! That sign says 'no burritos allowed in the Post Office!'"

punkin carving

2009-10-27T11:15:00.003-04:00

this made me giggle this morning :)

2009-10-26T10:11:00.001-04:00

Found this today at happilydomestic.blogspot.com :)

PREGNANCY Q & A

Q: Should I have a baby after 35?
A: No, 35 children is enough.

Q: I'm two months pregnant now. When will my baby move?
A: With any luck, right after he finishes college.

Q: What is the most reliable method to determine a baby's sex?
A: Childbirth.

Q: My wife is five months pregnant and so moody that sometimes she's borderline irrational.
A: So what's your question?

Q: My childbirth instructor says it's not pain I'll feel during labor, but pressure. Is she right?
A: Yes, in the same way that a tornado might be called an air current.

Q: When is the best time to get an epidural ?
A: Right after you find out you're pregnant.

Q: Is there any reason I have to be in the delivery room while my wife is in labor?
A: Not unless the word 'alimony' means anything to you..

Q: Is there anything I should avoid while recovering from childbirth?
A: Yes, pregnancy.

Q: Do I have to have a baby shower?
A: Not if you change the baby's diaper very quickly.

Q: Our baby was born last week. When will my wife begin to feel and act normal again?
A: When the kids are in college.

need dinner plans tonight?

2009-10-22T16:33:00.003-04:00

If you don't have dinner plans tonight, come join us at ChickFilA on Peace Haven for the Deans' adoption fundraiser. 10% of tonight's proceeds go directly towards their adoption and helping to bring their kiddies home from Ethiopia!!!

Monday photo recap

2009-10-19T20:07:00.006-04:00

Part 1: "I Never Thought I'd Be This Mom..."

Part 2: "This Was A Magical Mailbox Day!"

Phone charger came, meaning that I get to use my new-to-me phone instead of one from 1994...

Also, I got fluffy mail that I bought with the Earth Angels Diaper Co gift certificate I won at Granola Mom 4 God's blog. I was TREMENDOUSLY impressed with the customer service I got from this company. There was a slight (and I mean very slight) delay with my order, and because of it, there were FREEBIES (4 cloth wipes and an insert) in the order! If you are considering cloth diapering, CHECK THIS PLACE OUT.

Thirsties Diaper Cover

GAD Diaper -- this is hands down my favorite diaper i own. hope it's as good at holding poo as it is at being pretty!

Freebies!

I also got the first part of one of the giveaways I won at Bringing Our Baby Home One Day at a Time -- this adorable wipe case from Pitter Patter Lane. Yum!

Part 3: "The Punkin Patch!"

We went to Confluence and let the kids pick out pumpkins, and also took the opportunity to get some festive pics.

We ended up with a pumpkin for each kid :)