Only in a Doctor's House...

Jax is a simple little guy. Save your money at Christmas, because his favorite toys cannot be bought at Toys R Us. Right now, all he wants is a rubber band (for a bow and arrow), a straw (for a sword), and a pap smear stick.
Yes, you read that correctly.
He doesn't exactly call it that. (There may be a more professional name for it that I'm unaware of.) It looks like a popsicle stick with a bone shape at the end of it, so Jax calls it a bone stick. It makes a handy sword as well.
Am I raising him to sell weapons on the black market, or what? I have no idea. There is something very strange packed into the DNA of a boy.
Anyway, I knew that he was bringing them home from the office when we went to visit Daddy, but I didn't know what they were for!?
I asked Rusty to bring him home a bone stick, since that's all he was talking about. He said "You mean the ones for pap smears?" I was a little sicked out, but how would I know what they look like! I'm not down there when it is used to torture me! We don't know what those tools are being used. But I tell you what, they don't look like what you imagine. By the time you can gather your paper gown around you and get vertical, the tools have disappeared. It's really one of the strangest things that happen to us as women.
Of course Rusty wondered if he was going to be an OB someday.
That's also a weird thought. My little boy! I'm much more comfortable with my sweet and totally politically incorrect Indian.

Funny tidbits on the other munchkins:
Jodi, the sweet college girl who is now living with us, came to me the other night and asked me if we were keeping Disney's food in her bathtub. Of course not, I answered. Disney's food and water dish go in that bathroom, but we don't expect Disney to crawl into the bathtub for food, although that would be a cool trick.
She said that the last two nights she found dog food poured into her bathtub. This sweet, childless young woman didn't know what Justus is capable of. She cleaned it up the first night, thinking it a little odd. I'm glad she asked the second night. You never know what Justus is going to do in a split second.
His favorite thing right now is a simple spray bottle. He has literally spent hours entertained on the back porch spraying water on every surface, window, and of course, himself.
I'm serious people. Save your money at Christmas!

Emma, who is learning her vowels, has put a new spin on our "I learned my vowels today" song. When singing it with me, she will yell out "Sing it baby!" or "I'm doing it baby!" It's hysterical, and then we go into our vowel song dance, clapping and going crazy.
Homeschool is a trip.
On a more serious note, Emma took her first Lord's Supper last night at an amazing serving at our church. Emma cannot get enough of the Bible at home. I had already done our Bible Story for the day, and she has been begging me to sit and read more and more stories. I think her main motivation for learning to read right now is to read the Word. It's awesome!

Rusty: He is going to love that I published this story! Last night he was on call. He got hit hard last night, with atleast two admits, and dozens of calls. He uses a flashlight so he can write things down without turning on the light (since the calls don't even wake me up anymore. The life of a doctor's wife.) So he went to grab his huge, mega flashlight in the dark, and instead, grabbed a cup of water, and poured it all over the bed and his crotch region. (Am I allowed to say crotch on my blog?) He slept a lot closer to me last night to avoid the spill.
Just so you know, when you call your doctor in the middle of the night, he could be delirious. Somehow he still makes life or death calls in this state, and hasn't killed anyone yet! He's amazing!

Kathleen

Do you see a resemblance here? You should, because this is Justus and his birthmom, Kathleen. I do think he looks like her, and she is beautiful, so that's great!
We spent this past weekend with Kathleen, and I treasured every moment! We flew Kathleen here, since she lives so far away, and we haven't seen her since Justus was 7 months old. She came for Justus' 2nd birthday, and it happenned to be her birthday, just 2 days before his. It was an amazing weekend!
At least once a week, someone says to me "I want to talk to you about adoption." I always say "I love to talk about adoption!" Because it has been a beautiful, growing experience, as having children always seems to be. I am in awe of our God, who uses everything to draw us closer to Him. So much of what I have to say about adoption centers around this lovely woman pictured above. We are a perfect picture of open adoption, if you ask me, and how good it can be when you allow God to remove fear and pride. (Only He can do that!) I cannot separate Justus from Kathleen. I cannot say to a woman, who loved this little boy so much, she put aside her own feelings and chose something better for him, "thanks for your baby, now go away. We don't want to see or hear from you again." She gave me my baby!!!! There is no selfishness is that decision! I always tell her, it's a pure picture of a mother's love. As mothers, we put them first, and us last. Kathleen has no other children, and I know still longs for a child. But she knew, for reasons that I won't get into out of respect for her and for Justus, that she couldn't give him everything he deserved. Mainly, a Dad. (I think he hit the jackpot on that one, by the way! Kathleen agrees, Justus couldn't have a better Daddy!) Kathleen will always have a place in our lives. She will definitely always be important to Justus. He will grow up knowing, 'that's Kathleen. She's my birthmom. She loves me.' Doesn't that take the mystery and agony out of it for the adopted child?
For those of you who feel totally freaked out by this- and there's people in our own family who still are- let me just assure you of some things. With semi-open adoption, like New Life does, we don't exchange last names or addresses. She still doesn't know what town we live in. Communication and visits go through the agency, and they are there to assure that a proper boundary is set in place. They are amazing at their jobs! But I do not fear her. And she does not fear me. We are two moms who are constantly reassuring one another. I tell her over and over that we always want contact with her, and Justus will always know her and know that she loves him. That's all she wants!!! For me, she constantly tells me how happy she is with her decision, and the immense peace it gives her to receive our pictures in the mail of him playing with his siblings, Daddy, or his dog Disney. She told me several times this weekend, being with us and seeing him brings her no sorrow or regret! Only joy and peace. She is so happy for him! This is a self-less woman, who doesn't even know the Lord.
That's another aspect of this relationship that I want to share. Kathleen is Muslim, and we had the opportunity to take her to my parents' church with us. I knew that I needed to seize the opportunity in the car on the way to the airport to talk about our Lord Jesus with her. It was just me, her, and a sleeping Justus. It was an easy, open, honest conversation, and I told her what Jesus means to us (which she has heard many times before in letters and cards), and asked her if she would just pray and ask God if Jesus is the Way? Please, if you know what it means to have Jesus in your life, pray for her to come to know Him too. I know, beyond any doubt, that bringing me my sweet little brown bear was not God's only purpose in this adoption. I believe that God is drawing Kathleen to Himself, and I don't want her to miss Him!
Make no mistake about it, I am Justus' Mom. If you ask me about Justus' "real Mom" I will tell you "you're lookin' at her." (That's me!) There is no confusion for any of us in that. But there is still a lot of room in his life for her, and for her family, who love him. I wouldn't dream of shutting them out. Why? To nurse my Super-Mom ego? Or out of fear? My faith in Christ dispells that fear. He holds our family in His hands. If you have any questions at all about open adoption, or about New Life, a pregnancy crisis center and adoption agency in Houston, please let me know. Like I said, I love to talk about adoption! Look at the end result.

Article for Lily 7

This is an article that I wrote for a college women's ministry in the Midwest called Lily 7. Thought I'd share it.

Faux-pas

I was reading an interesting post by my friend Nikki on the blog about a sorority that required it’s girls to wear thongs in order to safely avoid the fashion faux pa of visible panty lines. I have not been able to shake this from my mind all day. This bugged me for a few different reasons, but I’m trying to sort through them, to the root of it. I would like to make a public announcement that I wear underwear, and if you see my panty lines, I’m ever so sorry. But my secret is out. I will wear a thong when absolutely necessary, but a few hours into it, I’m down-right unpleasant to be around. They make me grumpy. That little tid-bit about myself was free…totally unrelated.
This is what it comes down to for me. Phil. 2:3 in the New Living Translation. First, let me tell you I’m part-near fanatical about the NLT. I love it. Also, I always say that none of us can be a Proverbs 31 woman until we’ve become a Phil. 2 woman. I have studied, re-read, re-memorized Phil. 2, again and again, and it convicts me every time. Phil. 2 reminds us that none of life is about us. What we all need is a huge dose of Christ-like humility. I have found that almost every stubborn sin that plagues me has pride deep down at the root. Okay, now to the verse. Within verse 3 it says “don’t live to make a good impression on others.” This is found within the context of throwing off selfishness and putting on humility. But this phrase has stuck with me. In fact, I’m trying to make it my new mantra.
I would not have normally described myself as someone who lives to make a good impression on others. I would like to say I embrace ME for me, and would rather lead than follow. This may or may not be true, but other’s opinions of me hold a much higher regard than I once ought, or admitted to myself. They do for all of us. We are concerned with fashion faux pas, social faux pas, and maybe even political faux pas. (I’ve never written the word faux pa so many times in my entire life.) Some of these “rules” may seem to be motivated out of courtesy. Sending a prompt thank-you note. Being careful not to offend others, and being polite. I’m from the south, so we are brought up as experts in this. However, most of these things, if we’re honest, are meant to make us look good. We are always conscious of what others are thinking, or how they see us. Do they see our panty lines? Do we look attractive in what we are wearing? Are others impressed with our creative abilities? Do they take notice of our gifts? How do we look to others? To others of the opposite sex? To our Moms? To our mothers-in-law? To our girlfriends? We are playing the comparison game all of the time. We compare our weight, our clothes, our gifts, our abilities, our grades, and anything else we can find to compare. We have an invisible shifting standard that we as women are trying to live up to, and here’s the kicker. We never will. This is a sad description, and maybe a little pessimistic, but it hits home for many of us. I could take this directly to the issue of contentment, because that is our command from scripture. Do you know when Paul said in Phil. 4:13 “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” he was talking about contentment? Read that passage and the context of that verse. This must be the most highly quoted and abused verse of all time. It’s actually not a Nike commercial slogan. It’s talking about our contentment with whatever circumstances we are given! (And look closely at some of those circumstances for Paul!) But contentment will have to be another article.
My issue with this obsession of ours about what others think of us is this; we spend a lifetime of thought and worry over what man thinks of us, and very little thought and worry over what the Lord our God thinks. We are nonchalant in our persistence in sin. (Hello, have we read the Old Testament!?) We have a long list of excuses as to why we are not in His Word. We allow things that have no eternal value to pack our schedules and consume our thoughts and energies. What is our problem? When will we care about what God cares about?
I have had to ask myself so many times when struggling with something, “is this eternal?” Most often, it’s something that I am doing in an effort to “make a good impression on others.” I become a crazy lady when my mother-in-law comes to visit, trying to keep my house clean, with my three kids smack-dab in my way. The Lord has to grab hold of me and remind me of my new mantra. I am not living to make a good impression on others anymore. My life, and everything in it, is to please the Lord, the Creator of me and everything else. My purpose is to bring him glory! So under that assertion, everything else can go to pot. Okay, I’m not quite there yet. I go to the gym and run on the treadmill like an insane person because I don’t want to gain weight. (I’d like to say it’s only because my body is the Temple of God, but there’s a little more to it than that.) I search high and low for cute jeans because I don’t want to become one of those Moms. You know the ones, with jeans pulled up just under their saggy boobs, and a fanny pack around their waist. No thank you. And my house still does sparkle quite a bit more than normal when my mother-in-law comes to visit. I wish I could say that I had discarded all of that, but I haven’t. But I do have to keep myself in check. What is eternal, and what is temporary? The scripture says several times that God does not look on our outward appearance, but looks at the heart. That rules out our obsession with physical appearance. When I’m using my gifts, are they for the Lord, or for myself? Is everything, I mean everything in my life about glorifying God, or do I save a little for my own glory? What am I holding back from him? There’s so much freedom in letting some of those things go, and focusing on being a God-pleaser and not a people-pleaser. (Galatians 1:10) When we are free to focus on what pleases God, our hearts are broken for the lost, our priorities radically change, and the temporary is traded in for the eternal. Paul wrote in Phil. 3 “I once thought all these things were so very important, but now I consider them worthless because of what Christ has done. Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the priceless gain of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage…” I think a lot of what entangles us in this life is in fact just that. Garbage.
How did all that come from thongs? I do not know. My mind is a scary place. But in my opinion, if you must sport a pant line, do it proudly. From one sorority girl to the next, I would turn in my pin and save my money if there is an actual rule about your underwear. That is ridiculous. We as women need to start encouraging each other to focus on pleasing the Lord, and care less about impressing everyone else.
Jenn Bacak

My Kids Say the Darndest Things...

Jax: Where do I begin? He has quite a bit of Scooby-doo lingo going on. Like "Let's split up gang!" or "Yikes!" or "Jinkys!" I feel like we could all jump in the Mystery Machine and go!
Jax tends to be the king of one-liners. He has these catch-phrases that crack us up. One of his favorites for a long time was "Shake it Down." Every now and then, he would just randomly say "Shake it down, Mom." His latest is "Tick-Tock." That's how he says goodbye. And sometimes he'll throw "get it?" into a normal sentence, like there's a punch line, when there actually is not. Like "Let's go brush our teeth. Get it? brush our teeth!?" No one gets it. Except him.
He is very captivated with Indians right now. (Sorry, they're just not Native Americans to him!) Today he wanted to go around in his boxers all day because that's what Indians would do. Shirts are for the white man.

Emma: I wish I had a script of so many of our conversations, but today the cutest thing she did was to be Disney's veterinarian. This is her life aspiration. She wants to "heal animals for God." Disney went jogging with us last night and got something in her paw. When we came back, it was bleeding. Ever since then, Emma has been fussing over her non-stop, doing anything to make her feel better. Tonight, she put on her scrub top, got her toy stethescope on, and put band-aids on Disney's paws. The funny thing was that Disney let her. She kept telling Disney she was her best patient! She saw many other "patients" (stuffed animals), but Dis was her best!

Justus: Still word-less, but humorous nonetheless. (Is nonetheless really a word? Because it's really three words in one. What a deal.) Anyway, Justus has a new lease on life with his stool. He carries around his step stool (yes, that is the kind of stool I'm referring to) everywhere he goes to reach things that were formerly out of the question. This has opened up a whole new world, like reaching the water spout on the refrigerator door and flooding the kitchen. He feels very proud of his added height and abilities to achieve greater mischief.

It's always fun in the Bacak house!

School is Fun!

The Homeschooling has begun! Emma had her first day of Kindergarten yesterday, and Jax- Pre-K. We did calendar, (all in sign, because when I teach, I default to sign. I used to be a Deaf Ed. teacher for Pre-K/K for those who are confused.) they "journaled", which they loved, we had a lesson on the sun, which is what they are painting about in the picture, and we also had lessons in sign language, reading, and math. Rusty built me that awesome easel! Impressive, hu? The man can build me anything if it will save us money. He's amazing!
The last two days have been so fun! Teaching them is a blast! They are responding well so far, and I am loving it. I can't imagine missing out on these millions of moments with them, learning and having fun together. Today Justus slept for one hour of our teaching, and then glued macaroni on paper for almost the entire remainder of it. He is learning too!
For those who have not read my previous post, let me again say, I don't think homeschooling is for everyone. Nor do I think it's "God's Way" for education. I NEVER thought it would be my way! But for a former teacher, which I'm finding many homeschool Moms I know are, we're having a good time. So far, so good!

Emma's Baptism

Emma was baptized in our outdoor service on Sunday night (and watermelon fellowship. That's old-school Baptist!) It was so special for us, and we were glad to have grandparents and our wonderful church Body there to share it with us. When Pastor Butch asked her if she believed that Jesus died for her sins, she said "Yes sir!" Then he and Rusty baptized her together.
The Lord gave me this verse for Emma on Friday morning. Isaiah 61:10-11 says

"I am overwhelmed with joy in the Lord my God! For he has dressed me with the clothing of salvation, and draped me in a robe of righteousness. I am like a bride-groom in his wedding suit or a bride with her jewels. The Sovreign Lord will show his justice to the nations of the world. Everyone will praise him! His righteousness will be like a garden in early spring, filled with young plants springing up everywhere."

We are so grateful that the Lord has clothed our Emma in salvation and righteousness! He has written her name in the Book of Life! She is a bride of Christ. She is most definitely a young plant, springing up (rather quickly, it seems to me), and I can't wait to see what the Lord will grow her up to be. We pray she will always love Him with her whole heart and life.

Goodbye to our good friend, Suki

We need to say goodbye to our good friend, Suki.

Not to be confused with "sushi."

This was Emma's beloved fish, and her end was disastrous and traumatic for all in the Bacak household.

There is a culprit in this story, who was behind the murder of our friend Suki, and you may have guessed him already. He's little, brown, and has an irresistable mischevious grin. You guessed it.

So Justus has tried to "off" Suki once before. He climbed up on the bathroom counter (knowingly violating rule #1) and poured Suki out of her fishbowl into the sink to watch her flop around, while giving his evil laugh. Luckily, I caught Suki that time, scooped her back in, replaced her water, and sighed in relief that we were saved from Suki's untimely death.

But this past week, it went down a little differently. Rusty and I were out on the back porch, as I was starting to buzz his head. (For his cool new haircut.) And I had just buzzed one wide strip right down the middle of his head, when we heard Emma screaming, frantically calling for us. I reluctantly put down the clippers, leaving Rusty on the porch wearing a garbage bag with a hole cut in it over him, with his arms tucked in. When I arrived on the scene, I'm sad to say, Suki was already gone. Not only had Justus successfully dumped Suki out into the sink, but was then running scalding water over her. Emma was watching in terror and disbelief. Suki never had a chance.

I called Rusty in, garbage bag on and one stripe cut out of his head, to spank the little booger, while I did my best grief counseling with my sweet, "one with nature", "all animals love me!" Emma. She was weeping, saying over and over "I can't believe this happenned to Suki! She was my best Suki ever!" We sat on the back porch, and gave Suki the best funeral we knew how. What was really sweet was, Emma really wasn't upset with Justus at all. He came out, post-spanking, to kiss Emma. Jax joined us, with his own set of tears, and Daddy came out, again with one strip buzzed out of the top of his head, garbage bag removed, with a shovel to bury our Suki in the backyard. Emma asked Daddy to pray, and sweet Emma forgave Justus quickly.

She wants a new Suki now.

The whole night was a sad one for Em, but she has recovered.

I knew at the moment that this would be a story that would be funny later, but it was too sad at the time.

Goodbye Suki. How we loved you. How you...swam around....and...ate your food. You were a good fish. We're glad you're with Jesus now.

My brother Chris, and a Shark Attack

These are my cutie nieces and nephew, Hanna, Trinity, and Christian. (Solomon is missing from the pic, but he's a cutie too.) I don't even like to mention the phrase Shark Attack in the same post with their picture in the water, but let me explain...

My brother Chris (the oldest of my three bros) has an interesting life. He is a well-known Emergent Church Pastor, Church Planter, Author (if you'd like to know the dirt on my family, you can buy his book "Faith of My Fathers" by Chris Seay- order it on Amazon or wherever) and Speaker. Part of his interesting work is to spend most of the summer in the Bahamas, meeting with other pastors there and writing his books. He works for NavPress, and is doing a Bible Translation project right now. ANYWAY, he and his family are in the Bahamas, and this is the latest story that he related to us...

The shark attack was the big drama here on our first day - we have not seen any sharks since. But if you have not heard a teenage girl was bit on the forearm while snorkeling. I was the closest to them when they started screaming and lots of blood was in the water. I passed off Christian and swam out to pull her in - they were in major shock and were basically hysterical so it was not easy to get them in. The strangest part of it was clamping down on the wound to slow the bleeding while i drug her in and feeling an empty spot on her arm where the chunk was taken. I thought she could bleed out quickly, but my friend Greg (pastor in st louis) got a towel to wrap with pressure and the condo employees took her to a clinic where they got her stabilized and flown to the US. It was pretty crazy.

I was shocked and appalled that a shark attack occurred at the beach where my sweet little nieces and nephews were frolicking in the water, but not the LEAST BIT surprised that my brother rescued this girl. If any of you know my bro, you know what I'm talking about. Crazy. I've always said, we are living polar opposite lives. I'll call him, while sitting in my house, doing laundry, and he'll say, "Yeah, we're in Seattle speaking at a conference. We've been sitting in these hot tubs where you can see the whales swim up near you...blah,blah,blah" Or wherever he is, something interesting is happenning, probably because of him.
Maybe next time I will write something on the Adventures of Robbie or Brian, but this was too weird not to share.
jenn

8 Years!

Rusty and I celebrated our 8 year anniversary today.
We watched our wedding video tonight, and it was so much fun!
(I want to have parties where we all watch each other's wedding videos, and look at pictures. Obviously for girls.)
I can't tell you how blessed I am to be married to this amazing man! For all of my college girls, please wait for God's very best for you, because when he brings it, HE BRINGS IT!
God is good to us.

150% ???

This is something that has been bothering me.
I don't like it when people say "Give 150%!" Or "It's a 200% garuntee!"
You see, the percentile scale is based on 100 units.
There IS NO 150%!!!
So really, if you give me a 200% garuntee, I don't believe you at all.
I can't give 110% in my aerobics class, because I only have 100.
This is an abuse of the percent.
And it's a slippery slope. I mean, where does it end?
Once you've exceeded the only reasonable percent, when is it enough?
110? 150? 200?!!! How about 2,000,000? It's all the same, because none of it exists.
When someone tells me in Step class to give 150%, at that point I'm going to sit down, because there is no such thing, and I don't think we ought to let this tomfoolery continue.

Got Breast milk?

I seriously pulled into Target the other day and parked next to a mini-van with this sticker on it.

She also had one that read "I make milk. What's your superpower?"

If you know me, you know that I could not possibly be MORE for breastfeeding. I have to be very careful not to push this on others, because I feel strongly about it.

But bumper stickers?

I will pay any of you $20 if you will put this sticker on your car for a month.

Maybe more if Aaron will put it on his truck.

Snakes on a Plane

It's as if a movie writer saw into my nightmares, and decided to make a movie out of it.

The whole movie is about snakes...LOTS of them...on a small, tightly closed-in space.
My skin is seriously crawling as I'm writing this. I already feel like there are snakes on me.
I would not see this movie if you payed me money...
or if you offered to pay my children's way through college...
or if you could cure me of aging, acne, my addiction to sugar, or stretchmarks.

Nothing on God's green earth could convince me to see this horrible movie.

Why would anyone?

Start using OFF instead of perfume

This is Heather posting for the Bacaks...

They just called and wanted to update the West Nile post (see below).

Rusty's patient DOES have West Nile!

They will give details later. Besides being in awe of this whakiness, I think we are supposed to pray for the West Nile Person as well....

And personally, I think we should all start wearing these...


I'm not sure what is cooler...the hat, or the shirt that ties. That's a hard call to make.

OK: THIS IS RUSTY
WEST NILE IS REAL AND REALLY SCARY, BUT REALLY RARE. LIKLEY 1 IN 100 OR LESS MOSQUITOS (MOSQUITOES?) CARRY THIS VIRUS AND THERE IS LIKE A 1 IN 10 CHANCE THAT THE VIRUS WILL PASS WITH EACH BITE OF AN INFECTED MOSQUITO AND ONLY 1 IN 100 OF PEOPLE INFECTED BY THE BITE WILL ACTUALLY GET A SINGLE SYMPTOM. THERE IS A LOT HIGHER CHANCE OF YOU GETTING IN A CAR RECK TOMORROW THAN GETTING INFECTED. TO THIS DATE THERE HAS BEEN ONLY ONE CONFIRMED CASE OF HUMAN WNV IN THE BRAZOS COUNTY - MY PATIENT! SO DON'T PANIC OR LOCK YOURSELVES UP - BUT JUST LIKE YOU WOULD BUCKLE UP IN CASE OF AN ACCIDENT, WEAR MOSQUITO SPRAY AND KEEP INDOORS TOWARDS DUSK.
OK - YOU ARE NOW WONDERING IF THE HEADACHE YOU HAVE COULD BE RELATED TO THE BUG YOU SWATTED OFF YOUR ARM LAST WEEK! HEATHER - YOU JUST DON'T HAVE CANCER OR WNV - I PROMISE. SYMPTOMS OF WNV USUALLY ARE JUST A MILD HEADACHE AND POSSIBLE FEVER (AND REMEMBER THAT IS JUST THE 1 IN 100 OF INFECTED PEOPLE THAT ACTUALLY GET ANY SYMPTOMS), AND IN THE ABSOLUTE WORST CASE SCENARIO - VIRAL MENINGITIS AND SOMETHING HORRIBLE LIKE THIS MAN HAD. BUT EVEN HIS CASE IS A HUGE RARITY EVEN FOR WNV. IF I WAS STUDIOUS, I WOULD WRITE THIS CASE UP, BUT I AM NOT. ALTHOUGH THERE ARE NO ACTUAL CURES FOR WNV, DON'T PANIC - YOU AND YOUR FAMILY WILL BE OK!!!!
RUSTY

Homeschooling- Not just for Weirdos anymore!

We have decided to homeschool this year, after MUCH prayer and consideration.
(Okay, it's possible that we ARE weirdos.)
I know what some of you are thinking.
I used to be the biggest opponent of homeschooling.
I've already noticed, when I told some people we were considering it, I got the glazed over look in their eyes, and the slow nod...saying nothing.
I used to do that, thinking to myself "Your kids are going to be weird, and you are CRA-ZEEEE in the head!" I literally thought you were insane to think you could solely be responsible for your children's education. If my kids ended up educationally messed-up, I wanted to blame someone else!
Plus, I don't like to wear Prairie dresses!
However...I could not find rest in my decision for Emma and Jax's education this year, even though I really liked their school. Emma had a great time in her school last year, but was still not learning the basics, despite being taught them in school. I wondered if she had a learning disability, for real. Then I started doing "school" at home, working on letters and pre-reading skills. She has done beautifully, and is ready and dying to read!
Over the years, people have mentioned the words "ridelin" (sp?) to me when talking about her. She doesn't need medication; she needs one-on-one instruction, and constant stimulation.
Jax just wants to follow Emma.
So this year, we have decided to save almost $4,400 in private school costs, and try this for a year. (This was stretching us too thin financially, and stressing me out.)
We are not locked into one educational method. Our kids could end up in public school someday, or private school (if we win the lottery.) But for this year, we are going to give homeschooling a shot.
When we first started considering this, it gave me instant bouts of IBS. It terrified me. But as some of you know, I used to teach Pre-K and K (Deaf Ed), and I loved it! Kindergarten has always been my absolute favorite age! So I am super excited when looking at my lesson plans at the fun, hands-on things we will be doing.
I haven't got it all figured out yet, but my husband, the only other bigger opponent to homeschooling than I, has decided we should do this. We are excited, and nervous, about what this year will be like. But I know that God equips us for every good work! (2 Tim. 3:17)
I am thankful for the people in my life who are not weird, and neither are their children, who do this very well. I am seeing more and more Moms just like me considering this for various reasons. I don't know what is ahead in the long-term. Thankfully, I don't have to know.
For now, I'm just going to break out the prairie dresses!

THIS WEEK'S CRAZY MEDICAL STORIES!!

OK -
Although I will probably be sued for breeches of patient-doctor confidentiality (the names of the people have been changed to protect the not so innocent), I though it would be fun to post the crazy and funny and interesting cases of the week in my practice. This includes the worst "I decided to call the doctor on call at 3:30 in the morning for my month long rash" calls. Now for medical enigmas, the Hendrick family usually takes the cake, but none this week!

Case 1: SLOSHED: I had a "city call" hit (we take turns admitting ER patients who have no docs) with a blood alcohol level of 427. That probably does not mean much to you, but realize that Mel Gibson's level was 120 and I think the legal limit is 75! 427!! The amazing thing - that is not even why he was at the hospital - he came for chest pain. How do you feel ANY pain at 427? The good news for me was that his heart was so pickled by years of booze that his heart was OK. He left the hospital with a level of 286 not even slurring.

Case2: This is the "House" case (although so far I have hated that show - the guy is an absolute jerk!) of the week: A gentlemen came with fever up to 105 and suddenly could not move his legs. He could feel them though. Different possibilities included abscess in the spinal cord or even POLIO! To make a long story short - it looks like West Nile Virus! Unfortunatley, he might not improve! Pray for this guy and buy DEET repellent!

Case 3: 2 year old with fever and seizures on her birthday. Likely viral meningitis and no big deal, although could also be coming back as West Nile Virus!!! Freaking me out!! She's OK though.

10-15 minutes?

I had to "RUN" into Wal-Mart this morning... a necessary evil in my life...and I always laugh to myself when I see these signs for Mom with kids parking that say 10-15 min. limit.
Now I want to make clear, I LOVE THE MOM WITH KIDS PARKING! If we see you pulling into this spot at HEB without children visible in your car, Rusty WILL stop, and say something to you. I'm not kidding.
But the fact that Wal-Mart thinks that a mother with small children could possibly get in and out of it's giant time-sucking store in that short amount of time is laughable to me! It's going to take me 7.5 min. to get in, and at least that to get out. That's not taking into account the joyous 30-45 min. I spend juggling three kids with their teeny-tiny baskets! Could someone from Target call Sam and let him know about the baskets? Sometimes I would rather just spend the extra money at Target (and because it's a happy place; it has Starbucks) than to deal with the lack of basket space.
I have decided not to take this time limit literally, but more as a suggestion.

It's a Bacak thing

Yes, if you know our family, you know my husband loves soccer.
He has played it all of his life, up to the present day.
I admire that he has loved the same sport, and continued to play it for so long.
Whether or not our kids will play, who knows?
But they will always wear the jerseys Rusty buys them in Mexico. (while on Medical Mission trip each year) You may have noticed them.
This year...bright yellow. This really freaked out the newly named Hendrick dog, Homey. He was not sure about the yellow...but it helps so that we never lose them in the mall, or at the park, we can just glance up, look for yellow within a 3 mile radius, and we're good.
I wanted Rusty to bring me back a cool, matching, Mom jersey; but these were the only ones he could find, and they say "Bimbo" on the front, and the sponsor on the back is Corona. This would make me not necessarily the cool Mom, but another kind of Mom...not good.
How cute are my bright yellow soccer players?

THE ADVENTURES OF FEARLESS EMMA- IN COLOR (but no longer sideways because Heather is a rock star)

(see previous post- "The Adventures of Fearless Emma" for explanation.
Our 5 year old truly amazes us!)