Lazy Days of Summer

We have reached the point in the summer when the vacations are over, our plans are loose, the weather is something like a damp furnace, and fall schedules are just around the corner.  We have been enjoying a hodge-podge of activities...

Julia has been on a breakfast strike lately.  If I left it up to her, she'd have goldfish every morning.  I'm really thinking she might turn into one soon.  We buy the huge carton cube regularly and she is the only one who eats them.  That's a lot of fish.  After several consecutive mornings of debating her options, she said she needed a cup.  She then went out in the backyard, filled it with tomatoes from the garden, and ate those.  I guess that works.  Beats goldfish, right?

Carter was excited to discover we had sweet potatoes.  You can probably tell from the shot over his shoulder that our inaugural year with sweet potatoes was a success.  Our little starter plants quickly took over our little garden.  I had no idea what the outcome would be, but look what we found... 

 Julia and I ate it for lunch and it was really yummy.

We've enjoyed some family rounds of putt-putt.  I think it just makes us feel like we're still at the beach :) Here's Julia giving her Daddy some pointers...

We were invited to a fun backyard barbecue with some friends from church.  The kids loved the pool.

And we even roasted hot dogs and smores over the fire pit.  It's fun to feel like kids again.  A perfect summer night...

We're trying to get to the waterpark as much as we can before the season ends.  It always comes much too fast.

When we're not swimming, we're usually inside escaping the heat.  I'm not sure why the summer weather inspires the kids to break out their snow gear.  Wishful thinking maybe?

We have been getting back to our daily schoolwork routine.  Carter is doing a great job and Julia is coming around.  She still gets emotional at times and has to leave the room to gather herself, but overall she brings a lot of encouragement to the table.  I've learned not to turn my back for too long.  What in the world?!

Last week we had the opportunity for a special field trip.  The Marine Corps League was holding their national conference in town and the first day they had an exhibit open to the public.  I told the kids we would go after lunch if they completed their assignments.  They disappeared while I made lunch and came down dressed and ready to go...

I must say I was impressed.  They both had all their shirts tucked in, belts on, and gear ready.  The exhibit was really impressive.  It included the personal collections of over a dozen Marines.  They had a full display of the past 100 years of service.

The kids were so charming.  They both saluted everyone they met.  In a room full of retirees and their wives , they were a big hit.  I wish I had pictures of some of their greetings, but I was too busy fielding questions and making introductions.  We had the privilege of meeting some amazing people.  The group includes Marines who landed at Guadalcanal.  There were so many stories to take in all at once.

Carter was in awe.  He had me take dozens of pictures and was asking lots of questions.  He couldn't believe he was allowed to touch everything, too.  They were so generous and kind to the kids.  It was a day they will not soon forget.  We are very proud to be a part of the Marine Corps family. 

And on the health side of things we are still plugging along with Julia's GI issues.  We had to stop the Dulcolax suppositories and were told to instead use daily saline enemas.  We started these last week and she handled it all okay, but unfortunately, it did not yield the desired result.  The entire process takes over an hour start to finish and we weren't having success.  So for now we have gone back to using the Phillips oral milk of magnesia.  It is not the most desirable, but at this point it the easiest of some really crummy options.  It is still crazy to me that all of this is just a part of what we have to do everyday.  It definitely impacts everything we do and how Julia feels.  I feel so bad for her having to deal with this and still be in diapers.  I worry about the long term impact this will have on her GI tract and health.  Laxatives were not designed to be used this way, but sadly we have to do this.    

We continue to pray for healing and for the spots on her lungs to disappear.  Her chest x-ray is scheduled for September 2nd.