Benjamin's Surgery

Thanks so much for praying for Benjamin today. His surgery was scheduled for 1:30 and by 2:30 a nurse was out in the waiting room telling us they were already finishing up. It was really the 'best case scenario' of the possibilities the surgeon described...He told me he wasn't sure if he was looking at one hour or if it would be several, just because he couldn't know what he was dealing with until he got in there. Thankfully it was much less complicated than it could have been and Benjamin is comfortable and already drinking. I asked before the surgery if I could possibly take him home tonight if he was doing well....and the doctor said, "I think that sounds very ambitious, but you could probably go tomorrow." Well... with his blessing, we're planning on leaving in about an hour. One more dose of IV pain medicine before they pull that...then a stop at the pharmacy on the way home to get some pain medicine for home if we need it. But he's looking good. We're so thankful! Who would have guessed we'd be back in our own bed/crib tonight?
Again thanks for your prayers, and keep them coming as Benjamin recovers.
Love,
Janelle

Home stretch...

Hello!

Benjamin and Krissy have just a day or two of school left.  I'll enjoy the not-so-early mornings for sure!  Krissy did get into ESY (extended school year) which will give her 2 mornings a week at her current school, just for the month of July.  I think it will be really good for her to have that mid-summer bridge and will help her manage the transition back into the full time routine in the fall. 

Benjamin doesn't ever get summer school, so we're working on some fun options for him.  We are very excited that Greg, his special ed teacher from a couple years ago that Benjamin LOVED has agreed to work for us part time this summer.  Greg plays the guitar and sings, and  I think probably reminds Benj some of Steve Ziegler (a very good thing!) so we're thankful that he'll get to enjoy this regularly this summer.

David and Jamie made it thru finals (David is very happy with his B in Calculus) and are enjoying school being out.  Anne is also relaxing before her summer session starts.  She won't do full time school, and I think has worked out a strategy where she'll work harder one week in order to have the next one off.  Whatever works!  She's been really helpful around home.

For those of you not in the Portland area, suffice it to say that we are treading water here....we thought summer was coming, but it was a false alarm I guess.  Maybe August??

As promised, here are a few more pictures from our trip.  Note a most unusual sighting of David talking (for an EXTENDED perioe, no less) on the cell phone.  He sure missed Emily but they enjoyed an occasional visit by phone.  The picture of the lake is a brief stop we made at Lake Shasta...it was late evening, but that didn't stop Jamie from wading while I had Krissy run laps around the car :o)

He went out to Emily's family's place to help plant their big garden yesterday (they live in the country), but I guess they decided to wait for a nice day in the next week or so to do that (you can always hope...)

Drop us a line when you can....Love Janelle

Just a short note to say we had a great trip and are all home safe (and very tired!).  I'm heading for bed, but will catch you up soon, along with some pictures.  Good night for now....

Good Morning from Anaheim...

In retrospect, it may not have been the best choice to hop in the car for a 1000 mile road trip the morning after Seussical closed....but we did it, arriving here yesterday surprisingly on schedule.  Krissy was/is so excited.  We had a beautiful trip thru S. Oregon.  When we decided it was time for ice cream, Jamie said she saw a sign about ice cream at the Wildlife Safari.  We knew we didn't have time/budget to take that in this trip, but we visited the 'Village', seeing a cheetah and monkeys.  Krissy and I enjoyed (or should I say 'endured') a camel ride....Krissy sat in front of the hump and me behind it.  We loved seeing Lake Shasta...Jamie even waded.  With these several fun stops, we didn't get in to Sacramento until close to 11:30pm.  Krissy was asleep around 12:30, then awake at 3:20 but I told her it was still night and she crashed until almost 5:30.  So we got up and were on the road by 6am.

We're off to California Adventure first thing this morning after spending the afternoon and evening in Disneyland yesterday, complete with fireworks.  This is David's first time to California adventure so we're excited to show him our favorites. 

More before long,

JDJK