My New Trick

Sleeping beauty and other randomness

Israel is so cute when she sleeps. Here are a couple of pictures...one from when she fell asleep with her thumb in her mouth the other night and one from last night in her car seat.


In other news...JP sliced his hand open with a sawzall on Monday. He had to go to the ER and get five stitches in his finger. It's really gross and puffy looking, but he is able to work on it which is good. God has blessed us with a lot of work right now, and it's no time to be out of commission. He has been working very long hours and comes home at night completely exhausted. Last night we were trying to stay up to watch Lost (we had to Tivo it because of church) and he could not keep his eyes open. It was actually very funny because he fell asleep while typing an email and ended up with a half a page full of jjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjjkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk...etc. :) I tried to get a picture of him dozing off in front of the computer but wasn't quick enough. Then he was trying to eat a yogurt/fruit/granola thingy to stay awake, and he ended up dropping his bowl FOUR TIMES! Finally we just turned Lost off and went to bed.
Finally, Great Granny and Great Grampy (Margie's parents) are coming home from Arizona today! They haven't met Israel yet, so we are very excited to greet them at the airport tonight.
That's it - you're up to date!

Come and Listen

Come and listen, all you who fear God; let me tell you what He has done for me.
I cried out to Him with my mouth; His praise was on my tongue.
If I had cherished sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened;
But God has surely listened and heard my voice in prayer.
Praise be to God, who has not rejected my prayer or withheld His love from me!

Psalm 66:16-20

Pictures of Zach

Here are the first pictures of Zachary Aaron. Notice how chubby his legs already are! He's a big boy!

Zachary is here!!!!

After pushing for just under 13 minutes (ARE YOU KIDDING ME??!!??), my sister-in-law Missy delivered a beautiful, healthy baby boy today! Zachary Aaron Harpel is 8 lbs, 7 oz (ARE YOU KIDDING ME??!!??) and apparently very cute and chubby...though I have yet to meet him. Israel and I are heading to the hospital as soon as she's done with her nap. I'll have pictures later!
Welcome Zach!!!

I'm not a boy

Victory for the unborn millions!

Today, the Supreme Court upheld a ruling that bans partial-birth abortions in the United States. All I can say is HALLELUJAH, and THANK YOU JESUS for the lives that will be saved by this ruling.
For those of you who are not familiar with the procedure, basically the baby is born breech (feet first) until all but the head comes out. Then the doctor jams scissors into the baby's head at the nape of the neck and inserts a suction catheter. Then the abortionist sucks out the kicking, living baby's brains, causing the skull to collapse, killing the baby. The body goes limp. The doctor delivers the head. The baby is discarded. This is sickening. And it was being performed through all nine months of pregnancy.
You can read more about the decision here.
I was pretty appalled at CNN's twist on the story in their article. C'mon people, can the bias be any more deliberate?
You can look at the full ban yourself here.
And learn more about the procedure here.

Sweetie

On Monday, my family's cat "Sweetie" went home to Jesus. She was with us for 19 "sweet" years. I remember the day my mom showed me a picture of the kitten we were getting...then bringing her home. I was 5 years old. When you have a pet that long, they really do become family members.
We will miss you, Sweetie. You were the best, sweetest, most gentle cat ever.

It makes me laugh...

...and as a journalist, it makes me wince.
Watch this from your good ol' friends at jib jab.
*note: there is one "off-colored" moment involving brittney spears - for that, I do apologize

Congratulations Dale & Brenda!!!!

Samuel Dale Larson was born today - 7 lbs 9 oz and 20.5 inches long. Woo hoo!!!! :)

Poor Caleb, Part Deux

The vet confirmed that Caleb does indeed have lyme disease. We started him on antibiotics yesterday and he should be back to his old self soon. :)
Thanks for caring.

Poor Caleb

On Monday morning, I noticed our 1 year-old wheaten terrier, Caleb, was limping around pretty badly. His front left foot seemed to really be bothering him and he was applying very little pressure to it. By Tuesday it seemed really bad and he wasn't putting any pressure on it at all, so I took him to the vet. $215 and a few x-rays later, they couldn't find anything wrong with him. They said the pain seemed to be in his elbow, and perhaps he pulled a muscle. The vet told us to keep him inactive for a couple weeks and hopefully he would improve. But just in case, they were going to send his x-rays to a specialist at the U of M to see if he could find anything.
This morning when we woke up, Caleb seemed to be doing a little bit better. He was walking on his foot but still limping. Then I noticed: he was limping on the OTHER leg! My first thought was that he had been faking his injury the whole time. JP used to have a wheaten when he was young who would fake injuries when his sister, Lisa, was away. Could this be a big act to get attention?
I called the vet to ask him if this is something a dog would do, and he told me he wasn't surprised that Caleb had shifted legs. That's because the doctor from the U of M had gotten back to him - he found swelling in the carpi in BOTH of Caleb's front feet and a "dropped" carpus in his right foot. The likely culprit: Lyme Disease.
I looked up Lyme Disease in Dogs online:
"The most common symptom of Lyme disease in dogs is a reoccurring lameness that may shift from leg to leg. Most commonly, it is a front leg that is affected and the lymph node on the shoulder of that leg may be enlarged. Many of the sick dogs are depressed and run fevers. Occasionally...the superficial lymph nodes all over the dog’s body are enlarged. It is common for infected dogs to have hot, painful joints when lameness is present [This would explain Caleb's elbow hurting]. They may yelp when these joints are pressed and be quite reluctant to walk. When they do walk, they walk with a stiff shuffling gait and an arched back because of the pain. Unfortunately exercise-induced sprains, arthritis, hip dysplasia and lumbar or cervical spinal problems present very similar signs."
Without treatment, Lyme Disease can lead to problems with the heart, kidneys, and nervous system. Caleb likely got it over the summer, either out at Jim & Margie's house or on one of our camping trips, even though we had tick collars on both him and Sadie. The vet said it can be months or even years before dogs will show symptoms of Lyme Disease, if they show any at all.
So...tomorrow Caleb goes in for blood work. If it is indeed Lyme Disease he will be treated. If the test comes back negative, they will do a joint tap to check for early onset arthritis (he's only a year and a half old). Please be praying for poor Caleb! He just lies around the living room all day, only getting up to hobble to the bathroom or drink some water. He hasn't finished his dinner in three days and keeps his tail tucked under his legs at all times. Sadie can't understand why he won't play with her, and it's driving her crazy.
We'll let you know what we find out at the vet tomorrow!

I hope you all had a blessed Easter...

...and that you got to spend some time with loved ones as we did. We celebrated Jesus' resurrection with the big Charlebois family on Saturday, then went to church with JP's dad & step-mom on Sunday (Quarry folks - it was great to see you!). Afterwards we had brunch with JP's mom, step-dad and grandmothers. Then we had dinner with my family.
We had the cutest Easter bunny in town:

Israel also held her head up from on her tummy today. It's the first time she's really done that. It was short-lived, but I'm still proud of her. :)

All Smiles

Thumb Sucker

Some people have told me to give Israel a pacifier so that she won't suck her thumb. I don't really have a problem with her sucking her thumb, especially because it has been helping her soothe herself back to sleep during nap times. She cries if the pacifier falls out of her mouth, but she can find and utilize her thumb all by herself.
Plus it's so stinkin' cute.
Any thoughts from experienced moms out there?

Seven Staples

Yesterday I was sitting at home when my brother Nathan came in with blood running down his face. He had a blood-covered rag up to his head and claimed he didn't really remember what happened. He was at the dump unloading JP's dump trailer when something must have flown out and hit him in the head. He didn't know what hit him but he thought maybe a 2x4.
He didn't want to go to the emergency room, but after observing the nearly 4-inch gash in his head, I made the call that we were definitely going. The doctor ended up putting a few stitches and seven staples in Nathan's head. It was actually pretty cool to watch.
Thankfully, Nathan is going to be okay. He is already back to work today and feels just fine.
Here's a blurry picture of the staples.