Pizza, pain and a party

Monday 13th. We didn't have the greatest start to the week with Asher having a seizure this morning at 7. It was a 2 1/2 minute Tonic seizure. I updated facebook (as I know there are so many people praying for her) and the prayers were heard and she only had the one this week. It was again an 8 day gap (same as the last time) and we are thankful for this. To have only had 3 seizures in the last 2 weeks was great. The previous two weeks she had 9. So this is a great improvement.
It was lovely to have the Spencer's pop in for a visit on Monday afternoon. They had to rush off home though as the snow started to fall at home. They didn't want to get snowed out like last year. (The photo above was taken as they were leaving.)
Tuesday 14th saw us having a visit from one of the social workers from the Champion Centre in town. We got all the paperwork sorted for enrolling Asher from next term. She got a referral to them from her neurologist, mainly because of our concern with her speech. It will be such a blessing to have other people involved with getting to know Asher and giving us help and advice on how best we can help her.
Wednesday 15th saw me trying out something different for a pizza base (gluten and grain free). It was ok - but I will keep working on it and share once I feel I have found the best combination of flours (so far I have used buckwheat and coconut).

On Wednesday evening Brendon and I headed off to play some squash once the little ones were asleep. We only got the one game in last year - so hopefully this time we can get back to it on a regular basis.
Rachel is old enough to watch the others at home now - but Asher has always been the bigger concern. So we waited till she was asleep and I had the peace of mind that we were just a couple of minutes away if Rachel needed us. I even set the timer so that she would regularly check Asher's video monitor. And they were fine.
Unfortunately Brendon's string snapped just as we started our 3rd game. 1 game each and 1 point each. Perhaps that was a good thing as we would have been even more stiff if we had pushed through another game.
Just general holiday fun for the children the rest of the week. With Brendon needing to fetch his glasses and us needing to get him a new squash racket - we headed into town on Saturday morning. We have not been into town as a family for ages. While Brendon got his glasses sorted Rachel treated the others to a ride on a couple of the cars. This one rather overloaded with all 4 of them.
We got the extra few shopping things done and then I bought a box of mini magnums for us to share. It was a nice treat for them all.
Although Brendon's eyes are not too bad, he will be wearing glasses all the time now. We are hoping they will help his eyes relax and that this might help with his headaches.

And our last stop before lunch was the dentist for me. It's been a bit of a long story. I had a filling put in less than 2 years ago on the outside of a molar - I spotted the tiny hole just at the gum. That filling fell out in March and the dentist convinced me to replace it. Well, the replacement lasted for less than a month and again I had the trauma of it falling out when I brushed my teeth, a terribly sore tooth and having to organize an emergency trip to the dentist. I headed in after dropping Rachel for her camp on the 2nd April and again asked that they just take the tooth out. I was again convinced to try another filling and so had filling number 3 put in.

Over the next 2 weeks I was constantly anxious every time I went to brush my teeth though. I worried that it would fall out again (and hated the thought of all that was involved with that). The tooth was still sore after 2 weeks and I was only eating on the other side of my mouth anyway. I was having to take ages brushing my teeth - being so careful in that area. And I was just tired of it all. So with us being in town on Saturday - I decided it was time to finally get it out. It took a lot of convincing to get the dentist to agree - but finally she saw that there was just so much more to the situation than just a filling.

I can't just pop down to have it fixed (Brendon would have to take time off work to watch Asher) and if it came out it would most likely be in the evening and then I would have the trauma of trying to rush to organize something. Our distance from town and Asher's medical situation helped the dentist understand. They have also all said that 2 years is a "good" age for a filling in this position - so I just don't want the financial burden of knowing I will have to have a new filling every year to two years (and all the trauma that will go with it).

Thankfully I had brought some soft food for myself to have while the others enjoyed lunch and then we headed home. I was pretty much out of action for the rest of the day and the whole day on Sunday. The more I moved around the more pain I had. So Brendon was amazing and just gave me all that time to rest.

Hezekiah looks so smart in his
"Church clothes" which he insisted
on wearing to the party.

Unfortunately the pain and time for recovery was a lot more than I imagined it would be. So this has ended up putting a delay on getting into playing squash regularly. I have continued with pain for a full week after having the tooth out.

At 7 Brendon headed off with the older 4 children to a combined birthday party the church was putting on (Rachel being one of the birthdays to celebrate). It was fun to hear all the stories. It sounded like they all had a great time.

It was great to get all these photos from Rey and Manel (as I forgot to send our camera with them).

Sunday 18th: These 4 spent ages playing together outside this afternoon.

Monday 20th. Kerry popped in for a quick visit with the children after school today. It was lovely to get the time to catch up and Katie and Hannah especially loved their time of playing. We had two very excited fairies.
Tuesday 21st saw a very excited Rachel with St John starting up again. She missed ballet today as the group lessons are all 15 minutes later this term. We are hoping to work things out that she can still continue with her ballet and still get to do exams. I will update you once things are finalized. Because she arrived quite early for St John, she was able to help with the Penguins (the younger children who meet before). So she got some good work towards her leadership training.

Wednesday 22nd: I found this photo on my camera from today. Hannah had hurt her hand, so Ruth wrapped it up for her. Hezekiah thought this was a fun game and so pretended that his foot was sore so that he could be a part of the "game" too. So he got his foot all wrapped up.
Thursday 23rd: Ruth and I are so pleased to see Asher willing to build the lego for a change. She has been able to for a while - but just prefers to have someone else build so she can take it apart.
Ruth and I gave her lots of applause for her building.

Ruth had a fun time with Hezekiah this morning. I love all the little games they come up with.
Left: Under his "tent".
Below: the top view.


Thursday also saw Brownies starting up for the term. The lift that Ruth and Hannah normally have does not work during this term as she has her boys with for rugby.
So I had gotten my head around having to take Asher with and just take all the girls. Rachel included as she is able to be a helper and get some more leadership practice in. In the end Brendon took a bit of a shorter lunch and left early enough for me to leave both Asher and Hezekiah at home with him. This was such a treat for me. I got a full 2 hours to just sit and read and pray and have no children to look after at all.