Horrible ,awful, terrible, no good...yet wonderful day

My sister called me last night and told me that my nephew might have cancer.  Let me give you the back story.
Barrick is the first born to my baby brother.  He is a joy to be around. He's an amazing big brother, he's very smart, sweet, caring, so affecionate, and funny!
This little boy has been through a lot in his short life.  My brother and Barrick's mom married young, and didn't quite grow together.  The end of their relationship was rough, and Barrick was caught in the middle, he was also subjected to a lot of tough stuff at the hands of caretakers, and then a bitter custody battle, finally to be completey signed over to my brother.  Last week he was visiting his mother and got to spend time with Nana (my mom) when his mom was at work.
Nana noticed that his face was a bit swollen and figured he was cutting his five year molars. As time went on, the swelling wasn't going away. The insurance card was in TX with my brother so they took him to the ER.  The ER doctors felt it was a bacterial/viral infection that was possibly clogging a salivary gland and prescribed a strong dose of antibiotics.
  Fast forward to last night.
The round of antibiotics is done and the swelling is still evident. He has a fever that spikes and won't come down with medicine so back to ER they go.
That's when my sister called me. They admitted last night for blood tests and whatnot, and then this morning decided that he needed to see a pediatric oncologist.
Once the oncologist saw him, he was life flighted to Ft. Worth.
Its definitely cancer. We just don't know what kind. Its either Sarcoma, or Lymphoma.
Tomorrow they're doing a biopsy, and a bone marrow test in order to determine the type, stage, and treatment. I don't really have anything else to say about this right now. I'm just so heartbroken.  I'm not sure where to go from here, or what to say to my brother in order to ease his mind. It just is. And it just sucks.
In other news, Emery stucka rock in his ear again yesterday. I took him to the pediatricina this morning and they tried to flush it out with water. Three bottles of water to be exact.
He hated it, and the rock didn't come out. So, we were referred to an ENT.
 Right after leaving the pediatric office we had to rush across town because I was late for the appointment with April Bullock of Birthwise. She and I seemed to click, and she has midwifed a few couples that I know.  I originally stumbled upon her in my attempt to find a midwife to apprentice with, then when I found out we were having #2, it just seemed like she would be someone that I would be comfortable with, and I was. As an added bonus, my insurance will pay her and I can have a homebirth, or if I chose to, at her Birthing Center.  My next appointment is next week and we'll start the whole prenatal process with the health history, and the stats, and measuring and all that.

After April's appointment, Emery and I grabbed a bite to eat at a fast food place (ugh, disgusting I know, but its literally all we had time to do--and I was starving!), and then drove across town again for the ENT appointment. The ENT and I joked about things kids put in their ears, and how boys are boys all the while he was "looking" in Emery's ear with his tweezer type tool and a bright light. Literally 2 minutes later he pulled out a giant rock. Seriously, it was bigger than the pink one removed last time (shown in this picture). Emery didn't even make a peep, and it cost us a lot less than the last one.

So, with all of that, this has been a day full of emotions. I'm exhausted, and now, I'm watching "The Voice" with a nice glass of ginger ale to soothe my tummy. I love you all. thanks for your prayers and encouragement.
  

Valentine's Day the G(diaper)reen way

So next weekend, Valentine's Day to be exact, Emery and I have a date.

We will two of the newest gDiaper unofficial spokespeople. The Everything Green Oregon Expo will be hosting a gDiaper booth. Emery and I will volunteering at this booth.

I'm now a gMum.

I figured that since we've used gDiapers from Day 1, (seriously, that was the first type of diaper that Emery wore, see the picture?) it's about time I started giving back a bit. Admittedly we aren't exclusive gDiaper users, but that's all the more reason to shout to the world the greatness of them!




Since we EC we use mostly an EC belt and a prefold. When we go out however, the majority of the time we are using a newborn prefold stuffed inside a gDiaper 'little g' pants. This works really well for us.

On our recent trip we used gDiapers the way they were intended to be used about 90% of the time (and a combo of cloth and a cornbased disposable the rest). I loved it! There was no guilt about throwing away the used ones. Thanks to the fact thatat they are a Cradle to Cradle certified company, I knew that they wouldn't be hanging around in a landfill for the next 500 years.


Enough about diapers, just come see us on Valentine's Day okay?! It's free!


It's the stuff like this that I'll miss when we move to Spring. I guess I'll just have to plug in there huh?

(This one is cloth filled......)

So, I've been terrible about updating lately.....

So this update will be a long one.....sorry.

Our trip was lovely, but not long enough.

It was also challenging. It was difficult to keep up with EC while on the go so much. We resorted to using eco friendly disposables for most of the trip. G-diapers were so useful! Then, while in Houston we found some diapers made out of corn! We still have some of those ledt over and are using them at night time. AP style parenting was the same, maybe even more convenient.

I bet you're just dying to know how the second leg of the journey went huh?
We flew into Tulsa and were met by Nana. Emery slept all the way to West Siloam/Watts/Flint Ridge. We stopped and he met aunt Amy while she was working. We arrived at Nana's just in time for the extended family to start arriving. There was a houseful! We had food and paseed babies around. Barrick (one of the nephews) showed up (from Texas) and had his own little belated Christmas. Finally everyone filtered out and we settled in for the night. The next morning we rushed around trying to get breakfast and have all the little ones ready for pictures. Mass confusion followed with musical carseats (not as fun as musical chairs), and shuffling around of who is riding with who. We all met up at Wal-Mart and orceeded to cram all 10 (yes ten!) of the grandkids into a portrait. (Poor camera man) The rest of the day was a bit more relaxing. Tasha and I tried for hours to get the photo printer to work, only to realize that ...hmmmm. the USB wasn't connected. Sheesh. What a genius am I?!

Sunday night Owen, Emery and I headed over to Fayetteville to spend some time with the Lingelbach's. Owen and I were there when Zoe was born, and then we moved away.....now she's a walking, talking, little sweetie!
It was great to get to spend some time with my best friend! We opted to stay the night which was awesome! :) The next day we went out to breakfast at the Rolling Pin cafe. I had hoped to get some chocolate gravy.....but I was out of luck. After breakfast we headed over to Ozark Natural Foods and made our rounds saying hello to old co-workers and showing off our handsome little dude.
Then, it started to rain, and then it started to freeze. We headed back to Dawn's in hopes of seeing a few more old friends. The weather had other plans so we went back over to my mom's house earlier than expected and started checking on our flight's back home.
The next day we left my mom's hours before we should have just in order to make it in time to catch our flight which was still scheduled to leave.
We arrived safely at the airport, and then the waiting began.
First the flight before ours was cancelled, then our flight was delayed, then, finally we were sitting on the TARMAC waiting for a break in the weather to get us airborn. We waited, and we waited, and we waited.
Then we were taxiig down the runway. Then we were airborn.
We arrived in Houston with 15 minutes before our connecting flight was leaving.
We ran. With Emery strapped to me in the Ergo. I ran.
We made it, and Emery stayed awake for the entire 5 hour flight!!!!! We touched down in Portland. Grabbed our bags, and were in our car headed home by 12:30 am our time.

It was so nice to be sleeping in our own bed.
It's so nice to be back in Gresham, but I still wish we had had more time.

Owen really liked the Culinary school.
We're beginning the transition process right now.
We're looking for an affordable storage unit. Most of our earthly possessions will be placed there. Everything else is coming with us to Spring, TX. Once Owen finishes school and we are confident enough to make the move across country again, we'll be coming back to the Great Northwest. Next time around we'll more than likely be closer to Portland, and closer to Birthingway. Maybe we'll even buy a house. Maybe. :)

I would post some pictures, but I can't seem to find the camera cord. Grrrr.

It's almost my birthday. Usually I have so many ideas of what I want, but his year, I'm void. I can't really think of anything I want, well within reason. I mean who wouldn't want a new Electra Amsterdam bicycle (that's way too expensive and just something else for us to move), or a cabinet table just perfect for sewing on. My needs are met as well, so what do I ask for?

More time with my family? Who can give that to me?

Here are some pants that I made for Mr. E out of an thrift store wool sweater. It was a men's XL. I felted it, then cut off the sleeves, and voila. Of course there is more too it than that, but I digress.

Wanna know how I did it? Go here.













In some circles they are known as wool longies. Wool is one of those magical fibers that draws moisture away from the skin and absorbs odor, so it makes wonderful diaper covers for cloth diapers. These pants are amazing! Since we EC, they are perfect for those "misses" that inevitably happen (and they have definitely been happening more lately!).

I would love to make about 7 more pairs so he has one for every day of the week. So, in short....all I really want for christmas is some thrift store wool sweaters (at least 30% wool please!).

Not only is wool great for diaper covers and longies, but you can make really awesome felted toys and other nifty things out of it! :) For example, I am in the process of making Emery some shoes like this out of felted wool. (which I think may have broken my machine :( nuts!)

I also made a pair of split crotch pants but I don't have a picture of those yet. I didn't use wool for these, but I'm considering it once my machine is in working order again. Hmmph.