Eventful weekend round here. Friday, I don't remember.

Must have been eventful though. Saturday, the MOG ran sound for a wedding and I took the littles with assistance from Han. That was a stupid idea. Weddings are quiet, and long. Man, that was a stupid idea. We went to the reception, but it was moving at a pretty leisurely pace and I was bout to die of hunger and a mystery illness so we left after an hour or so and went to Sonic and then home, where everybody got a fever and an attitude and collapsed screaming and such.

This continued on into Sunday, where we skipped church so everybody could stand on my feet and scream "Stop LOOKING at me, Brynn!" "I NOT NO LOOK NO YOU! Errrrrrrr!" and so on. R2 mainly made frustrated guttural noises and frantically signed "toilet" which is his new repetitive sign that he does not mean. It's kind of like making conversation, with increasing franticness depending on the situation. Then Richy (sr) had a 6 hour meeting so I continued NOT chilling with all the sick children of the world.

Today, I took R2 to the doc and confirmed what I already knew - strep throat. Dadgummit. We then we to Target and if I could keep typing I would give a ringing endorsement for Target pharmacies, but we have a home group tonight and I alone in all of the earth am responsible for cleaning up this place. (oh, and I escaped today for 2 hours and spent 6 bucks at the thrift, so I'm pretty content)

Technically, I should be updating my fictional story today, but I am too overcome with goodness . Here's the backstory, facebook style. (click to enlarge)

8:30 am, the doorbell rings. FedEx, with a box of joy, aka, 4 jars of salsa. I was so happy I sat right down and had a bowl with some chips. Brynn was quick to join me. I then made myself wait a few hours and had another bowl. Seriously. best. salsa. ever.

If any of you see Julie Davis, I would say give her a big kiss, but she's not so much into the kissing. Just tell her she's awesome and then hire her husband to fix your computers.

Glory.

It's been a busy couple of days here at the ol radiant house... the MOG came back from his trip on Monday afternoon, and then we ran around like the proverbial chicken (my apologies, Beth and Eva) doing errands and such that we always have to do when the Man is back... then Tuesday night R2 had a sleep study. This has been scheduled for months and months, and so I was looking forward to it, even though hospital sleep is no sleep at all.

Why a sleep study? Well, you can read the link up there for other reasons, but our main concern is sleep apnea. R2 tends to stop breathing for several seconds on a regular basis while he is sleeping. Not breathing is not acceptable around here, unless you are just saving up your breath for a good solid screaming fit, or trying to make it through a particularly bad diaper change.

We left the house at 6:30 with R2 in very high spirits due to pancakes for dinner, and the joy of getting to get in the van while Toby didn't. You know that scene in Hope Floats (tissue alert!) where the little girl runs by her daddy's car screaming for him to take her with him? Toby kinda did that, which thrilled R2, because the vengeance and triumph section of his brain is quite functional.

He remained cheery and upbeat while we waited and waited and waited to get in, and then he sat on a chair and chuckled through Sesame Street episodes while they attached... man... like 20 something wires to him.
It took over an hour and then they wrapped him all up in stretchy bandage stuff and made a big wire ponytail. Still, he was a pretty happy guy. She started getting on his nerves when she put in the nasal cannula, but whatever, lady. The nurse was great, really gentle and trying to give R2 lots of warning before she did anything, but he was mainly disgruntled that she was talking during his show.

So finally, it was time for him to go to sleep. I had to go and wait in a lounge, because they try to set up his normal sleep routine, i.e. alone in the dark. I sat in the lounge and read a book and ate a candy bar and waited, and then in an hour or so I went in the control room to see if he was asleep yet. He was, kinda. Except that there were wires taped to him everywhere and he was not in his bed and there was something sticking in his nose and every time he took it out the lady had to come back and put it back in.

Oh, so they have a camera over his bed, and they can close up on his wires and his chest or mouth or whatever to keep an eye on him. The camera doesn't reach over in the corner, where I "sleep" but the audio feed does. What? Yes, they have a mic on the room, which is kinda awkward when you are talking to your kid, or flushing the toilet or whatever.

He wiggled around for what seemed like hours, and then we "slept" for 8 hours or so, with a nurse with a flashlight coming in every hour or so to reattach stuff, or adjust.

Around 7 am, they came in and woke us up and kicked us out, after another traumatic blood draw. From the minute he woke up, he was signing "school" so after I took him home and cleaned most of the glue and such from his hair, I gave in and let him go to school. We should get the results from the testing back in 2 weeks... stay tuned.

Blogging here on the go, as I have my opportunity for two hours alone staring me in the face, and I will KISS that opportunity.

The MOG got back yesterday from a 6 day trip, bless the Lamb and just in time, since Toby was pretty much at that stage of punching random strange men just to get some male attention. Almost.

In other news, we saw a very large mouse yesterday. I am still calling it a mouse because I cannot bear to call it the other word... anyways, I think we are getting a cat. Soon.

And that's it. QUality blog tomorrow, but now I must away to Happy Hour Coca-Cola at Sonic and the thrift store. Wahooooo!

The other segments of this story are over in the sidebar, if you haven't read them yet, or need a refresher.

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So me and Jimmy are making a plan to get to Mexico. My job is to find out where the TV studio is, and make enough money to pay for gas and food, and plan the time and Jimmy’s job is to find somebody to stay with when we get down there. He says he knows a lot of people living in Mexico right now. Sometimes it seems like a good idea not to ask Jimmy too many questions.

I got to pick up a bunch of extra shifts this week, due to my friend Beth winning a hundred and fifty bucks in the lotto and then taking the week off. That’s good money, but now I am pretty wore out. I picked up some chicken and fries for me and little Hank, and I thought maybe tonight I’d watch one of Mama’s soaps all the way through and see if maybe it says on there somewhere where they’re making them.

I tell you, I thought things was messed up here in our little Texas town. It don’t even compare to the mess over there in Mexico. I mean, from what I can tell, one guy was in love with the cleaning lady, and she had to be 40 years older than him… and this one lady had a baby, but then while she was sleeping in a big beautiful bed all with silk and lace and stuff, this other lady come in there and was looking inside the crib all evil, and then she had some kinda flashback of her running down the beach after this guy, but he didn’t hear her or something and then she was back, looking at the baby and muttering something. No good, that one. I don’t speak Spanish, but I can tell a rotten apple.

I was just kinda getting into the show when this scary music starts up, and that guy I remember from before- the one who was mad at Mama, comes storming down the hall of the hospital, just mad as all get-out and all the nurses with their cleavage are all scared and talking fast Spanish trying to follow him and then he throws open the door and there is Mama, laying all beautiful and still in a hospital bed, with a oxygen thingy in her nose. For a minute I forgot it was a soap and I was a little worried that Mama was dying or in a coma or something in real life, but then I remembered. So this guy, Rico, he falls down on his knees and he’s holding her hand and telling her to come back or something, and she’s just laying there and then he looks around all crazy and runs out. And then it shows Mama laying there all still and one tear running down her cheek. I didn’t even realize I was crying until the show was over.

And that’s when it hit me. Amnesia. Mama probably has amnesia, and she don’t even remember us. It all makes sense now.

It might seem like Toby gets more than his fair share of time here on the ol' blog. I worry about that sometimes. The thing is, he's the first kid we've had that's done the normal things on the normal schedule. So that makes us those annoying parents that are unable to talk about anything but our amazing wonderful kid.

It's a deep thing in me. I love learning, and I love teaching. All of my life I have devoured information, and I reveled in being smart, from a smart family. And then I had R2, and he was beautiful and weak and strong and broken. I died a little bit when I realized he would never (without a miracle) learn to read.

So, Toby. Toby is really, really smart. Toby is teaching himself to read. He's 3, and he will be reading by the end of the year. It just... it hits me in the heart, something I so desperately wanted and didn't even realize. He pulls information out of me all day long, and not just random talking. He actually wants to understand, and then retains what I tell him.

Today, he drew his first real picture. He sat down at the table and decided to draw Daniel. He kept yelling to Daniel in the living room, "Hey Daniel! Do you have snaps on your shirt?" and such. "Hey Daniel! Do you have arms?" A few minutes later he came in with this drawing. I don't know if it's advanced, or delayed, or normal. It's just, to me, amazing. I've been near tears about it all afternoon and I don't even really know why. Just richness.

the MOG is, as we speak, in North Carolina. Well, as far as I know, anyway. Not that I think he lies about where he is... more that those little states are tricky and sometimes when you walk across the street to get a Coke, you find out you're in Kentucky or something. So, he is likely in North Carolina.

The Radiants will join him on Friday, but the host church flew him up early to give him time to pray at the Mystical Rock of Wonders... actually, it's this giant rock where the Moravians prayed for like, a hundred years. He went there 10 years ago and so he is really excited in a monkish-calm sort of way about going back. So anyways, he's there alone till Friday, when the band, sans me, flies in and ministers over the weekend. All the services will be webstreamed and I'll put the links up on here when I get them.

I don't normally advertise his absences, but he already put it all over the interwebs, so what the heck. I'm sure it's going to be awesome ministry.

In other news, after staying up late packing trash (Richy and Han) and then driving early to get more trash tags (Han) and then packing up more trash and dragging it way, way out to the curb (me), the trash guys decided to take it easy and have not yet arrived. Normally, they're here at like 7 am Wednesdays. Ah, cest la vie....

I have to go pick up the Elder Son from school now, as his bus has not kicked in yet... I forgot today was early release and I was having a nice leisurely blog.... ah, well.

If all goes well, the MOG will put the trash out tonight for the first time in 3 weeks. It's tricky, our lives. He works through the weekend most of the time, and then we might have a day off on a Tuesday or something. It makes for a confusing week, and often we have to think deeply to remember what day it is. So the trash... she has piled up a bit.

Plus, Richy often thinks of holy things, and subsequently puts the peanut butter in the freezer and such. Today, he made a pot of coffee, with no coffee, i.e., water. He thinks, when we lie on the ground laughing at his shenanigans, that we think he is not smart. He is very smart, just not so much at the multi-tasking.

So that makes the trash challenging. The goal tonight, pile it all up on the curb, pray off any beast of the trash-eating variety, and then wait for the glorious pickup. Then, bomb the garage with insecticide.

I know this is fascinating material. You can't get stuff like this anywhere else. Stay tuned to see if the trash gets picked up!

The other branch of the Clark family has, as far as I know, landed safely in the vicinity of Montgomery County, TX. We had a very busy and refreshing 5 days or so, and I was so glad to get to spend time with them!! Several months ago, we cracked down on a no-more-debt policy and that has made it difficult to get back and forth to Texas as often. So it was great to have family come to us, and SO AWESOME that we easily housed 8 extra people without it ever feeling too crowded or too nuts. I heart this house SO MUCH.

This morning, R2 started 5th grade. It's pretty surreal because he is the size of a 5 year old, so I never think of him as 10... so 5th grade just sounds silly. He was crazy excited all morning, signing "yes" (which he is convinced means "school") and jumping around. I took him up there and dropped him off, then went to the office and did more paperwork. His classroom has big windows out to the front sidewalk, and when I was walking to the car, I saw him in there with the other little special guys, and they were clapping their hands to music and he was just jumping around everywhere. It does my heart good to see him so happy there, and I LOVE his new teacher.




It rained hard all morning long, and it was just so cozy in the house with all the windows and the rain and most of the lights turned off by Mr. Frugal Frugality and just the two babies puttering around, and Han coming in and out of rooms eating an apple. I love rainy peaceful lazy days. I just get in various comfy places with books. Cats have it good.

went to zoo.
9 kids
14, 13, 10, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, and 8 weeks
4 adults
2 double strollers
1 baby leash
1 Baby Bjorn carrier
14 peanut butter sandwiches, bags of chips, bottled waters
1 ham and cheese for Ruby Allergic
90 degrees outside
420000 square miles to walk pushing strollers
animals
fun
frivolity
enchantment
sweat
screaming
emotional collapse
drove home
failed nap attempt
8 o'clock is gonna ROCK