Alyssa the Philosopher

Last night on the way home from church Alyssa was just full of questions and comments. This is a usual thing for a Wednesday night and I believe this is due to the fact that I am usually extremely tired from a long work day. Anyway Alyssa first asked me if God was a boy or a girl. She thinks he is a boy because we call Him Father. I explained that God is just God, not male or female and backed it up with some scripture. She seemed to accept my answer but then said, "But Jesus is a boy."

The girl loves to ask though provoking questions when I am at my most tired. So then came the next statement. It went something like this...

Mom I don't believe this but what if God isn't real? That would mean nothing is real because God made everything but nothing is something.

WHAT?! How am I suppose to respond to that? So I said, "Alyssa, I don't even know how to respond to that. Have you been taking philosophy classes at summer camp?" "No mom. What is philosophy class?" "Don't worry about it Alyssa."

Then it was blissfully silent. No more questions...for now.

Sick

Nobody likes being sick but I will take a cold any single day of the year over having a stomach bug. Getting a stomach flu seems to be becoming a every summer occurance for me and I do get flu shots. I always chalk it up to occupational hazard and as hard as this is to believe, I will take getting a stomach flu once a year rather then give up my job. God has given a burden for caring for preschoolers no matter how many germs they may pass on to me.

Anyway back to the real reason for this entry...

Brian has not been feeling well either but for a different reason. He has been very dizzy all week which makes it quite hard to do his job. He went to the doctor yesterday and she has him do all these things and kind of makes a lot of "huh?" noises then and goes and gets the other doctor in the practice. She comes in and does the same things and makes a lot of "huh?" noises. Not exactly what you want to hear. So they take some blood and tell him to call them by 10am tomorrow if they have not called him. This is great. I can barely move off the couch and my husband has something wrong with him but they have no idea what it is and I can't go to the doctor with him because I can't move off the couch.

This morning comes and the doctor sends him to get a cat scan. Brian is telling me they will finally find the giant tumor he has always tried to convince me he has had. For the entire time I have known Brian, everytime he is sick he says it is because of a tumor. Obviously it is a joke but this time since a cat scan was involved I did not find it very funny. In the end he has enlargement of his membranes from an infection, most likely sinus related. So as of now all he needs is an antibiotic. Praise God!

Now if you think being sick is horrible, which it is, then don't try both parents being sick at the same time. My poor children were making PB&J and cereal for every meal. Thankfully I had cut up a cantelope before I got sick so there was some fruit for them to eat. There was good that came out of both of us being sick at the same time though. It was obvious I was sick but with Brian it wasn't as obvious. If I had been fine I think the kids would have noticed how Brian felt. I also think Alyssa would have been very worried about him because she is old enough to realize people don't just get dizzy all the time. Instead she was more worried about Carter not saying, "Mommy is puking again!" because she cannot stand that word. She says blah blah instead. I guess if I had to get sick to take the attention off of Brian, I would do it again. I mean that is what you do for your children right?

Granny

I have been very blessed in life but I would say the biggest blessing in my life is my family. My great grandmother (I call her Granny) is 91! How many people my age can say their great grandmother is still living? My children have been blessed with a relationship with their great great grandma which I think is also amazing! Another blessing is that I have not really had to see someone I am close with get sick or pass on. Now my Granny is sick and has been for a little while now.

It is heart wrenching for me to see her in a hospital bed, to hear doctors come in and say this and that and leave her when I visit. Last night I couldn't sleep. I lied there praying very little, mostly just being silent. See I know Granny wants to go home. She has been saying for months that she prays for God to take her home every single day. So I pray for no pain and I pray for His will to be done but it seems like such a vague insincere prayer. It doesn't seem to be enough but then last night God, in my silence, reminded me that I can pray for her healing. Praying for healing doesn't mean I am going against her wishes to go home. Healing doesn't always mean a physical healing here on Earth. It really doesn't make it that much easier but I do have some peace.

On the way home from the hospital Carter says from the back seat, "You know if I was super old like Granny and had to stay in the hospital super long, like all day and all night, I would be really sad." He said it with so much compassion for her it brought tears to my eyes. Then wouldn't you know "Temporary Home" came on the radio after that, once again reminding me of the fabulous outcome in the end for all of us if that is what we have choosen. Only God knows if Granny is here for another day, another year or another decade but then again only God knows those things for each of us too.

The Theater

So last night Alyssa and I saw Cinderella at La Comedia with my mom and Christy. Great food, great show and great company! What more could you ask for? Alyssa cracked us all up when she wrapped up two of these little muffins and put them in her purse to take home. I think she was totally fascinated by the production and I know how she feels. To me there is just something about a musical that makes you smile. In fact I think we should break out in song and dance or a regular basis in real life. Actually scratch that...I think others should not myself (I don't have that great of a voice.)

So the actors used the aisle right by our table quite a bit. Everytime one would come in the aisle Alyssa would just stare and whisper, "Look!" The Prince even came around the tables trying on the glass slipper on random people. Afterwards Alyssa asked and received all of their autographs. They were all very gracious and it was a perfect ending to a great night.

Fishing Derby

So bright and early this morning we went to the West Milton Park for a fishing derby. We arrived at 7 am and the place was almost packed already. Brian found a place for the kids and I went and registered them. 7:30 hits and it's time to fish. Alyssa catches one within minutes but it got away just as Brian was pulling it out of the water. She recasts and Carter catches a fish. He got his out of the water and they took it to be measured. His was 14 inches long which was a little guy compared to most of the others. Brian gets Carter recasted and then Alyssa's bobber goes down. I run over to help and we hooked him and started reeling him. Thank goodness Brian came over to help her because this fish was strong! Alyssa and Brian got it reeled in after several minutes. The thing was huge as you can see above. It measured in at 25 1/2 inches long. Too bad they don't go based on weight because I think she would have won first if they did.

Alyssa came in second for the 10 and under category. The first place fish was 1 inch longer and also caught by a girl. She won a new pole and a tackle box that came with accessories. However I think she was more excited by winning a little plastic trophy with 2nd written on it. I am pretty sure she thinks she is a master fisherwoman now and I am also thinking that fish is going to get bigger everytime she retells this story.

Carnival

So tonight the kids and I went to the carnival they have every year in the West Milton Park for the Fourth of July. I wonder why Alyssa likes going to it. She doesn't really like rides. I am pretty sure that her knuckles are probably white as a ghost in the picture above. She wanted to ride the little ferris wheel so badly but that being up in the air stuff is just not for her. Maybe it is the pressure of thinking she is suppose to like them. She did see several friends at the park who were riding about everything. Don't get me wrong; she did have fun. Her favorite was the Funhouse because her feet never left the ground.

Carter liked everything. In fact, the higher the better. He would go on a ride and Alyssa would try to talk him out of it. He wanted to go on the swings but he wasn't tall enough. Which I think was a relief to Alyssa. She was getting scared for him. I went on the Spinning Bears with Carter. Alyssa wouldn't go the first time because she wanted to see how fast they went. So the second time she did go and I think she regretted it. Inside the bear you can make it spin faster if you spin the wheel thingy (that is the closest I can get to what it's real name is). So as soon as the ride started Carter is spinning that thing as fast as he can while Alyssa is saying stop. Of course he didn't stop but Alyssa survived. She held onto my arm like her life depended on it but she made it. All in all we had a great time!