Blogging...

One of the hard things about blogging is that if you happen to get behind (as I know I am), it can be almost overwhelming to "get back on the horse" (so to speak). So, here is my attempt to catch you up on the major things.

After recovering from pneumonia, I have since had really bad mouth/tooth pain. I have had one root canal, but since I am still having some pretty bad pain, I am thinking that means that more than one tooth was involved. Also, the root canal revealed that my tooth had four roots instead of three, and it was infected so I am on antibiotics again. I was getting nervous about taking Tylenol so regularly, but the pain was such that I was having a lot of trouble being a kind person. I was able to find a homeopathic remedy, which is working fine for me, although I did take one Tylenol last night to get me some sleep. The root canal (procedure + crown) ends up being about $1400... and you wonder why I don't really want to go there??? =) God has faithfully provided for us, although I must say I am terrified to go back in and have them say I have to go through it (including the money) again!!

Emma had her first eye exam. She and Caleb observed my exam first. She is doing well, but will need some little glasses for reading and schoolwork. I was pretty sure that this would be the case, although I did think her eyes were a little worse off than what I had originally thought. Not too bad, though, and she may even outgrow it.

Caleb got a buzz again. His hair was just getting too long, and he kept asking. I was determined to grow his hair out, but after seeing how miserable he was with it (even after trying hair gel), I acquiesced and gave him "Daddy's hair cut." Hopefully pictures will follow soon.

Noah is talking so much! We did not go ahead with speech therapy testing, we decided to wait. He knows all of his letters, and their sounds (he does have a hard time saying "R" and "kwa for Q"). He can put together a 35 piece puzzle all by himself. We might possibly be starting to potty train, but the jury is still out on that. I am not in a hurry on that one, but every night when the kids go potty, he asks to go potty, and I figure... well, we can sort of test the waters and see if mamma is up for what it will require of me!

Ezra is getting big and mobile. He finds a way to get where he needs to go, in order to get what he wants to get. No crawling, or anything like that. Just some pretty tricky rolling and stuff. He hasn't been sleeping well lately, so we are wondering if perhaps a tooth might be on it's way. Time will tell. He is a wonderful baby though, so happy and easy-going.

Ben is finally scheduled for a consult on his knee, that has needed surgery for about two years. This will be his fourth knee surgery. But, it has only recently been giving him some trouble, so it will be good to get that taken care of.

Our PC crashed, (we have a MacBook, which is great), but some of the kids' schoolwork software isn't Mac compatible, and the Mac Book wasn't really intended to be our "main" computer. So, I went to find a replacement, and alas, I have another laptop, this one a Gateway PC. It is working out quite nicely. I grew up on PC, so I am comfortable here, but I must say that the Mac Book has certainly done its work in convincing me how awesome Macs are. =)

We finished The Horse and His Boy (the third in the Narnia series), and are on to Prince Caspian. Shortly thereafter, or perhaps during the day, we will be reading The Princess and the Goblin. I am reading it now just to make sure it is all okay for the kiddos. Emma has discovered the Little House chapter books, so she has been enjoying those for quiet time (they are shorter books, about 65 pages (ish) in the same style as the Little House series). I am not quite sure how I feel about the "Magic Treehouse" books as of yet, but I LOVE the non-fiction research guides that go along with the series. Caleb loved reading the research guide on Knights and Castles, and was talking about things that look like a "mace" for weeks. He did read the fiction Magic Treehouse book called The Knight at Dawn (in a couple of hours) and seemed to enjoy it well enough.

So, I think that pretty much catches you up on life in the Hester house. It's been crazy, but oh so wonderful and good.