Little Green Army Men

This has been one wet spring. Our ground is saturated. It seems like all it takes is a slightly gray cloud to pass overhead and puddles appear in the yard.

DO YOU HAVE YOUR ARMY MAN? Vicki, Ben, and I went to see Ethan this afternoon. He went back to the hospital several days ago with severe pain. Part of this was due to how his meds are affecting his digestive system. I think he had several really rough days there, but he’s been feeling better this weekend. Yesterday Ethan and his mom called and invited Ben to come play. Ethan is pretty weak and doesn’t feel like being very active. He does look good, and he did enjoy spending some time with Ben. I think he’s seen so many adults it was just good to see a kid for a change.

Ethan is passing out army men to remind people to pray for him. We also gave out army men for Ethan this morning at church. We’re doing this because he’s our medium (not little!) soldier in his fight against cancer, and he’s very brave. If you’ve got toy soldier dig it out and stick it in your pocket. Every time you feel it say a prayer for him. Heck, buy a bag and pass them around. He starts his treatments very soon.

CHECK THAT OFF THE LIST! Well, I’m going to call the bedroom swapping project officially over. We had promised Jenna to have all the finishing touches to her bedroom done by her birthday and we did. I got the painting done last weekend, and Vicki got all the accessories (bedspread, pictures, etc.) in place this week. Oh, and Pauline did the curtains.

I must say, she keeps a neater room than her brothers. It is far more pleasant to look across the hall and see a clean room. Ironically, now that they are upstairs the boys keep their room cleaner than they did when they were downstairs.

GIRLS, GIRLS, GIRLS. Yesterday was Jenna’s eleventh birthday. She wanted to have a slumber party to celebrate so we did that Friday night. She invited Mackenzie, Maegan, and Savannah. The girls had a great time together. They went to Springfield to see the new Hannah Montana movie and eat supper. When they got back home they stayed up laughing, talking, and playing games. They even outlasted Vicki, our family night owl. They were still giggling when I was starting to wake up at 5:00.

I finally got out of bed at 5:45 after I was sure everyone was asleep. As is my custom I went to the living room to start my day (its a great time to pray, read, etc.). When I came in the room I saw a blanket wadded up in the recliner. Being too lazy to move it I sat on the couch. Imagine my surprise when over 30 minutes later the recliner starts to groan and stretch! There was a girl curled up under that blanket and I hadn’t even known it!

TOO MANY GIRLS. The problem with a slumber party for all the boys involved is that there are simply too many girls. Ben had it easy, his friend Connor had invited him over to spend the night so he missed out on “all the fun.” Nate and I were going to make an evening of it and possibly spend the night over at Pauline’s, but he turned up with an ear infection and wanted to spend the night in his own bed. He and I went out to eat and then came home.

In spite of his ear I think this was still getting to him. He kept telling me, “You know Dad, there’s five girls and only two boys at our house!” I’ll bet Brock Freeland, with three sisters to live with could sympathize with our plight. Of course, the majority of our girls went back home the next day.

Worse than all the girls is the medicine Nate has for his ear infection. Since he had an infection a few weeks ago the doctor put him on stronger amoxicillin than he had last time. This time what he drinks is thick and tastes horrible. I didn’t know he could contort his face quite like he does when its medicine time.

Joe

Spring Is in the Air

Boy, time sure has gotten away from me. We’ve been busy working outside and getting ready for Easter. Let me catch you up with the latest.

ETHAN UPDATE. First of all, Ethan is doing pretty well when you consider what he’s been through. He has been released from the hospital so he could recover from his surgery at home. His parents have begun to tell him how serious his condition is (Stage IV cancer) and about the treatments ahead. Rather than give you second hand information let me just point you to a web site that has been set up for him. The URL is www.caringbridge.org/visit/bibb. Here you can catch up on the latest with Ethan, see pictures, and send a note of encouragement if you wish. Of course, a prayer can be said any time, any place.

WORKING IN THE GREAT OUTDOORS. The time has come to roll out the mower and cut the grass. I’ve only had time to cut our yard and Pauline’s once. But with all the rain we’ve had I got the mower stuck in the mud once too. It looks like I’d learn to steer clear of that, but I keep wanting to cut grass as close to the wet areas as possible.

Last Saturday the boys and I finished moving leaves left over from last fall. We always get a lot of leaves to collect between the chicken house and the red house and once the fall rain starts they are too wet to move easily. I gave each boy a wheelbarrow and I’ll have to say they both worked really hard. I was impressed with how quickly we finished the job.

I am also trying my hand at strawberries. A few weeks ago I broke a little ground (about 30’ by 60’), and I have been setting out plants as time and weather permits. I finally set out about 300 plants.

Since I have mentioned the weather a couple of times I should say ours has given us quite a roller coaster ride the last few weeks. I’m sure farmers trying to plant corn have been frustrated. We’ll get a couple of pretty days where it’s warm then a cold front moves through (complete with tornado watches) and the temperature plummets. I think it was one day last week I was working in the garden in shorts and we had brief snow flurries the next day. I haven’t checked out my peach and apple trees, but so far our pear trees are still loaded.

MEMORY GIRL. Jenna calls herself the Memory Girl, and her memory is good. She recalls details the rest of us have long forgotten. But the other day our dinner table conversation somehow got on to the subject of how many babies are born in the world every day. Jenna and I had looked this up before but her memory failed her this time. She laughed at herself when she gave this confident answer, “I’ve looked that up...and I can’t remember what it was!”

By the way, I looked this up, and most web sites seem to agree that on average there are four babies born somewhere in the world every second. That just blows my mind!

WAR STORIES. Tuesday afternoon my friend, Mr. James Krantz, came to East Robertson High School to speak on his experiences in World War II. Mrs. Krantz was sick and did not come, but his daughter Lynda rode along. We (including Vicki, Mom, Pauline, and Jenna) ate lunch together at Tesha’s in Cross Plains, and then Mr. Krantz spoke to several history classes in the theater.

Like my dad, Mr. Krantz was a gunner on a B-29 and was stationed on Saipan. On one mission to Nagoya one of their engines was hit. They couldn’t get the prop feathered so it windmilled until the shaft finally melted in two and the prop came off (fortunately, not hitting the plane). On the next mission to Nagoya the top gunner’s blister was hit. Had this window been much larger the man would have been sucked out of the plane. Mr. Krantz studied on this as they flew home and decided to build a better harness for himself. This was put to the test the very next mission (again, to Nagoya) when his blister was hit and he was sucked out of the plane. He dangled outside at 30,000 feet for 15 minutes until his crew could get him back in. The tail gunner shot down one enemy plane while this was happening. Mr. Krantz suffered frostbite and his hands would have been amputated, if it had not been for a last minute operation with a new procedure to treat burns. The students looked like they enjoyed hearing his story.

EASTER ACTIVITIES. Last weekend we had our church Easter Egg Hunts at Kilgore Park. The flashlight hunt for the older kids was Saturday night and the daylight hunt for the younger kids was last Sunday afternoon. We had lots of kids for both of these.

Thursday night we had a community wide Maundy Thursday service at our church. Like last year, we did a drama of da Vinci’s The Last Supper. Yesterday we went to a Good Friday service at Friendship Baptist. Of course, we have our Easter services at church tomorrow. After that we will take lunch to Aunt Mar’s and let the kids hunt Easter eggs.

While the price was high, isn’t it wonderful we have a reason to celebrate this holiday? Hope you have a great Easter as we remember our risen Savior.

Joe

Pray for Ethan

The last couple of weeks have been fairly routine for us. I had planned to write earlier this week, but we got a phone call Sunday that has made everyone in our community sort of hold their collective breath.

Ethan is one of Ben’s very best friends. He is three months younger than Ben, and they’ve known each other as long as they can remember. Their family started coming to our church shortly after both boys were born. The boys also went to Mother’s Day Out together and are in the same grade at school. They’ve always invited each other to their birthday parties, played together, etc.

Ben and Ethan haven’t seen as much of each other since Christmas because Ethan’s family moved to Cookeville so his father could work toward a degree at Tennessee Tech, but Ethan’s family still comes home some weekends to visit family and friends. The boys have also talked on the phone a time or two.

Sunday we got a phone call telling us Ethan had been taken to Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital. He had been sick and developed severe headaches. The hospital found a brain tumor. Ethan spent most of Tuesday having surgery. A surgical team from St. Jude’s traveled to Vanderbilt to operate on Ethan. The tumor was successfully removed, but they discovered numerous other smaller masses in his brain that are inoperable. The tumor is malignant, and further testing shows the cancer has spread to his spinal cord.

So far, Ethan is doing well considering what he’s been through. When he woke up from surgery he asked for his mom and than told the doctor he might need a note to be excused from gym class. They are giving Ethan a little time to recover, but he will begin aggressive chemotherapy and radiation very soon.

Please pray for Ethan and his family.

Joe