Sick as a dog...

and NOT having the time of my life. My back has been a mess ever since Wednesday night...when I woke up at 1:30 in the morning with the worst back spasm I have ever had in my whole life. I was completely freaking out, pacing back and forth, hyperventilating, because I had NEVER ever experienced such excruciating pain. Jorge, of course, got up with me and was attempting to calm me down, which I eventually did, and my muscles were able to relax a little bit. We were very close to going into the emergency here in Yumbel, because the pain seemed out of control, but in the end Jorge gave me half of a muscle relaxant that he had and I layed down with a hot waterbottle on my back, and then eventually, cried myself to sleep...what a mess.

The next day we got up and drove into Concepcion, where we dropped Josiah off with Jorge's Mother, and then went to a doctor. He gave me some pills, one to take at night and one during the day, and said they are okay for me to take and are nursing safe. Basically he just said that my problem is my upper back muscles, carrying the baby too much and not having good posture...and I will need to strengthen my back muscles over the next few months so as to not have more of these same issues.

Well, I started taking these pills, but I am really starting to regret it and wonder if I should continue. I took one Thursday during the day and then Thursday at night before bed...and then Friday morning the fun began. I spent basically ALL of Friday in the bathroom...I was throwing up everything that I would try to eat..couldn't even keep water down, and then to make things even better I had the runs and man...and with the strength that I was having to use to vomit, my back muscles were tightening up more and more...to the point that it hurt, literally all day, to breath! I thought maybe I just got a bug or something while we were in Conce the day before, but then last night Jorge looked at the small print on the pills where it says "side affects"..."could produce vomiting..." Riiiigggghhhhht. I decided I would try to keep taking them for another day or two to see if things got better...but they havent improved that much. Today I havent thrown up and felt ok in the morning...but in the afternoon the pain came back strong, bringing me to tears once again...and I have been nauseous all evening. That AND my insides are all aching terribly!! I had this same pain yesterday, but I thought it was due to so much vomiting...but today has been no exception.

Anyways, I do ask for your prayers. I feel bad that this post has been just me complaining...but I really can't speak about anything positive, feeling the way I do. ok, one positive thing is Josiah...he has been such a sweetie, he knows that I am in a lot of pain and keeps coming up and hugging me saying "oohhh Mummy, a owie in the back?" lol. He is my little treasure, oh how I love him. This morning he walked into the kitchen all hunched over and says "Mummy, I a owie in my back", haha. Any time I am laying in bed or sitting with pillows behind my back he comes and sits beside me and pretends that he is experiencing the same pain that I have...in some ways, it makes me feel a bit better because it takes my mind off of the pain. Anyways, I ask for your prayers...this pain is really awful and am worried that it may never go away...but I know my Healer can do miracles, and I am praying for one right now.

Will write again soon.

Attempt #3

Well we will give this another shot and see how it goes. I have both boys sleeping right now, but Josiah has been sleeping for almost an hour already and Levi is not settling very well today and seems to be waking up every couple of minutes..but he appears to be in a deep sleep now, so I will do my best to write a little bit about how things have been going.

Honestly, these past few weeks have been so busy for us that it is hard for me to point out the certain things that we did do and didn't do. I had a great birthday...as most of you saw on facebook. The ladies from the church prepared a nice supper for us here in my house and then on Sunday (my actual birthday) Jorge and I and the boys went out to a little restaurant in Yumbel for lunch. We had a really nice time and Josiah was excellent! This was a big surprise for both Jorge and I because for the last few months we have avoided taking him out to a restaurant because he would behave so badly and never eat the food we bought him. But this time he did the complete opposite, he was a little angel and ate almost a whole plate of food that we bought him, french fries and hot dogs...a meal fit for a king, haha. Anyways, then when we went to church they called me up to the front and brought a cake up to me and sang happy birthday, it was really sweet :)

On Monday we all went into Concepcion for the day and stopped in Cabrero to pick up our new Canadian friend, Esther for a day of shopping. Esther is going to get married to a Chilean who lives in Cabrero, his name is Alvaro, and his Mother is the teacher of a girl in our church, Katy...so we kind of got hooked up through her. Esther and Alvaro met in October of last year, when she came down here with a group of missionaries for a few weeks and they spent one weekend in Alvaro's parents church (his parents are the pastors of the Assembly of God church in Cabrero). After only seeing each other a few times she had to leave with her team and they exchanged emails and said they would keep in touch...and then they fell in love through skype and got engaged:) haha. He ended up going to Canada in February for three weeks to meet her family and now she came here to Chile for the month of July and stayed with his family and got to know them a little more also, and they will be getting married in Canada in January of next year. So it was cool for us to hook up...we actually became very good friends and I am excited for when she comes back to live here! We have a lot of things in common, both Christians from Christian, homeschooling families, both married to chileans, both enjoy scrapbooking haha. Esther LOVES scrapbooking and says in their new home that they have purchased in Concepcion, they have an extra room and she will make that her scrapbooking room and bring materials from Canada, YAY! I miss doing stuff like that with my Mum...even though I am not always good at focusing and actually DOING it, haha, but it is the relaxing time of just sitting and listening to a sermon or to music while cutting things out etc. So I am looking forward to her return. ANYWAYS, as I was saying, we went shopping for the day and she helped me pick out some new shoes and a couple of sweaters. This whole time here I had been still using my summer slim Merrel shoes and my feet were freezing .... so for my birthday gifts from Jorge's Dad and Jorge I got some shoes and a couple of sweaters. Esther and I had such a great time just walking around and window shopping...she was looking for things that they have here so she can know the things that you can and can't get here, so as to know what to bring from Canada when she comes. She is a great person to talk to and we had a lot of good conversations..I think she realized that I have really been longing to have someone to converse with in English, so I really took this time as a gift from God.

These past few weeks have been hard for me as I have really been homesick a lot. I cannot lie and say that everything has been happy and great when on the inside I have been struggling day in and day out. It was one thing being so far away from my family when it was the three of us, with Jorge and Josiah...but now with Levi growing and doing so many new things and Josiah growing also...I find myself just craving to be in the midst of my family, sharing these moments that will only happen once in their lifetimes. I have cried so much....many times during the day I will be doing something with Levi, taking pics of something he is doing and I come to the computer to see if anyone from my family is online...but no luck. That usually brings me to bursting into tears on the spot..and secretly praying, "LORD, please take me back to be closer to my family, please..." I don't know if that is the correct thing to be praying..I have struggled with it in my heart, because I do know that God told us to come here and trust Him, but there is a part of me that is just really struggling with the reality of that right now. But it comes and goes, I am still trying to enjoy every moment that I have with my boys and with Jorge, because I know that God is with us and that His will is exactly where we want to be. So if I must sacrifice being close to my family, I guess I must learn to do so with a thankful heart. But it is hard.

Anyways, back to things going on with us ....The construction in the church is now finished and the brothers that were working on it from Chillan left on Thursday, so we are thankful to have that finished...now we just have to pay for it *cringes*, but we are trusting that the LORD will bring that money in when we need it, so hopefully very soon! lol.

With the construction workers gone things are getting a bit back to normal around here. While they were here they were coming here for both lunch and afternoon tea, so we had Digna coming everyday to help me prepare lunch for them all...well, I say help, but the truth is, most days she just prepared everything, which was soo helpful! I am very thankful to have her working here with us. So now next week she will most likely go back to coming here two or three times per week. It still feels strange to me to have someone in the house, helping me clean, but it has been such a blessing, as I dont have time every day to clean the house thoroughly and prepare lunch and take care of both Josiah and Levi, so having her around allows me to at least focus mostly on the boys and not have to worry much about the housework and laundry etc.

Well Josiah is awake and I have him sitting on my lap, stroking my hair and begining to push it in front of my eyes so that I cannot see to keep typing, so I guess I should take that as a hint that he wants my attention and I should give it to him. Levi is beginning to stir also...so it looks like my moments of peace and solitude have officially come to an end. That's ok, at least I got to blog...mission accomplished.

busy times...

sigh. Well I just got Levi to sleep and planned to sit down and post...but of course, guess who is suddenly stirring, as soon as he hears the typing? That's right...little Lee. Man, these past two weeks have been busy ones and I find myself just exhausted at the end of everyday, but I guess that is what life with two boys is like. Well I will see how far I can get with this post, but if the boy cries I may have to leave it and pick it up again later.

Levi has been...sigh. there he goes. rats, I tried. Looks like I will have to postpone this post once more..bye for now.

a promise to post...

Yes, I know..it sounds funny..but I don't have time to post anything right now, but I WILL post tonight, that, I promise!! I have spent most of the day getting caught up with things that I needed to do on the computer, I FINALLY got out our newsletter and also wrote a long letter to a friend that I have been meaning to write to for the past two weeks! But I MUST blog and I will...just not right now, haha as Josiah just woke up from his nap and I have to make some wipes and do some other things around the house that just can't wait, and as I have Levi sleeping, I need to do them now.

So I will write again later....bye for now :)

Adventures with Owie...

So it all began this morning around 11 o'clock while I was preparing lunch. I reached up on the window ledge to grab the dish soap and I saw these little webbed feet and the end of a tale sitting right in front of my eyes...*gasp*. I got a little closer to check it out and sure enough, there it was, a tiny little lizard sitting on our window. "crap" I thought, and made some type of grossed out sound, and without thinking said, "oh please don't move or jump!" Well I no sooner said that and Josiah came around the corner to see who I was talking to, lol. I asked him if he wanted to see the gross lizard and his answer was an excited "YEAH!" When I lifted him up to see it he got soo grossed out and we both started to scream and squeal as it started moving, little by little! Josiah was hilarious...he kept saying "oh GROSS!" and "Yucky!" and was making the most hilarious faces. So I grabbed the camera and decided to make a memory of the moment. When I asked Josiah if he wanted to name it he said "YEAH!" so I said "okay, what shall we name him?" And the answer that came back was "Owie". I should probably explain that lately his favorite word has been "owie". He has learned that people can get owies and even his "te-te's" have gotten owies as he breaks them and then they have to go in the garbage. So, Owie is the lizard's name. I was totally freaked out about having this little creature in my kitchen, especially as I knew that Jorge wouldn't be home for another hour or so, so Siah helped me keep an eye on him and make sure we didn't "lose" him, as that would really creep me out! At one point I had to run into the livingroom to check on Levi, and when I got back...gasp, Owie was gone! NOOOOOOOOO! I was afraid that he might spring off the wall at me somewhere or be hiding in my dish water or something *shudders*. I told Josiah that Owie was gone, and I didn't know where he was..as he came in looking for him a few minutes later. Well after maybe minutes or so Josiah suddenly started shouting "there's Owie Mummy!! There's Owie!" GASP, in the livingroom?! So I ran and Josiah was looking at the ground...I couldn't see him anywhere and kept asking Siah where he had spotted Owie, he then crouched down on the ground and pointed out a tiny little ant, LMBO "oh, there he go!" He says, all proud of himself, haha. Sigh. I don't think he gets it. "No, Josiah, that isn't Owie, that is an ant." "An egg?!" says Josiah...hahaha "Noooooo, an ant!" "ooohhhh", he says. Soo funny.

Anyways, after about half an hour Owie showed up again, still up by the window, just on the other side. By the time Jorge arrived home for lunch he had disappeared again and as soon as Jorge walked in the door Josiah yelled "Honey, OWIE!!" and pointed to the window. We then filled Jorge in on our story about our new little "friend" Owie and he moved some things around and sure enough, he found him! He then caught him in his hand...Josiah was in my arms..clutching to me and squealing..haha, which made Jorge mutter something that sounded a lot like "be a man." hahahahahaha! When Jorge took Owie outside to set him free that brought instant tears to Josiah's eyes and his little "No Owie, no go!" got to both of us, so we ended up grabbing a glass jar, and needless to say, we have little "owie" sitting on our diningroom table, in a jar with dirt and grass so that he feels a little more "at home". LOL. Josiah was getting ready to go for a nap and went to give Jorge and Levi a kiss and even threw a little kiss in Owie's direction and says "Bye a Owie!" Such a cutie that boy! Owie, welcome to the family.
Here are some pictures of our first meeting with Owie.

That's My King Dr. S.M. Lockridge - [OFFICIAL]

A good day...and some more photos!

Yeah, the title pretty much sums it up....today has just been one of those good days. I must admit I haven't been too many of those lately, especially as the last couple of days I have had really bad back pain. I slept ok last night, accept I did have some back pain, but nothing compared to how it was on Saturday and Sunday. And then I was rudely awakened by the house shaking back and forth from a pretty strong tremor, but thankfully it was a short one and although it did get my heart racing, I was able to fall back asleep a few minutes later.

Honestly we didn't do much today, just kind of hung around the house and did some cleaning etc. But I feel like I at least was able to accomplish a few things that I have wanted to do and I thoroughly enjoyed them.
We woke up around 8:30 and I got out of bed and took a shower, then had breakfast with Siah (Jorge had to go to the church with Nelson to do some work). After breakfast Levi decided to bless me with a lovely poopy diaper and he was given a quick bath (yes, it was one of those, lol). Then by the time I got them both dressed and the room cleaned up, it was time to get lunch ready. After lunch I got Levi down for a nap and attempted to do the same with Josiah, but it seems like lately he has been showing signs of giving up his afternoon nap (sniff, yes, that makes me sad!). So he refused to sleep but did lay in his bed for a while to watch a veggie tales, which gave me a little bit of "me" time, while the boys both rested. I sat down and read a bit of my Bible. Of course I didnt get to read too long before Levi woke up..but even the few minutes were nice to have. Once Levi woke up I changed him and decided to take him upstairs and "attempt" a photoshoot with him. I have been looking at photoshoots of babies and trying to figure out how to use the natural light and different props to get a good picture...so I thought I would post a few of those on here...some of them came out pretty cute, I think :) Of course, I am SOOO unbelievably far from being able to take "good" photos...but I want to begin to learn now and maybe one day I could take beautiful pictures of my kids, that is my goal :) Anyways, after the photoshoot I was able to hang out with both Levi and Josiah...Siah took out his crayons and we coloured and played for a while, while Levi sat in his chair and watched his toys light up on his chair. As long as he is close to us and can see us he is getting pretty happy sitting there and being entertained. Here are a few of the pictures that came out good. Enjoy!!