The ER

You are the light of the world, a city on a hill, a cup of coffee 

in the hands of one who is cold.

You spread light and love and warmth to those around you.

Friday after morning family prayer time I went to work at my new nanny job for a majority of the day. The moment I got home Mom and Dad were walking out the door. I didn't take it personally. They were headed to Dallas for the evening that extended to be most of the early morning too. 

I asked for a few minutes of time by myself in my room after giving a little direction. Of course at least three different children then came to my room with questions during the next five minutes, but... 

After dinner the littles set up their movie in the schoolroom, "A Cinderella Story." And, at the recommendation of a friend, the rest of us settled in the living room to view "Stardust." I love both movies, "Stardust" is probably more of a bigger kid movie, but it's really good if fantasy and crazy plots are your thing. And "A Cinderella Story" is adorable for anyone. 

Because it was storming, we live in the country, and both movies required wifi, we ended up having to pause our movie so the kids could finish theirs in time to get to bed. It was worth the wait and I got to make Trim Healthy Mama Hot Chocolate (aka, guilt free hot chocolate that is actually full of good protein). 

Mom and Dad were going to be late because of the rain and having such a long drive so everyone except me went to bed. I stayed up to wait for them, obviously. By 11:00 pm I was getting concerned. 

I was about to call and check on them when Nana knocked on the back door. Of course I immediately thought Mom and Dad had crashed or something. Thankfully they had not. They were about 1/2 a mile away, but Dad had started to feel lightheaded and pulled over. He promptly blacked out. 

Mom was able to call Grandfather to come right away and sent Nana to me. 

Mom and Dad had pulled over in front of the house of one of our neighbors who lets Chloe ride their horses. Within a few minutes those neighbors got home and had Mom and Dad and Grandfather go inside with them. The Husband called 911 and while they were waiting they were able to check Dad's blood pressure. (He was awake by the time they were going inside.)

The Ponder Chief of Police (whom I'd met the day before...) was the first one there and the ambulance arrived soon after. They checked some things and recommended that Dad go to the ER with them. 

Mom got to ride with him and Grandfather followed them. The rain made for a very slow and not fun drive. 

They were seen pretty quickly at the ER. (So, if y'all ever need to go, 3:30 am isn't very busy.) The doctor ran some tests and everything came back negative. Dad was cleared to go home and was encouraged to follow up with his own doctor on Monday. 

Saturday had been a fully booked day, but when Mom and Dad didn't get home until early in the morning we canceled our plans in favor of resting. 

Mom and Dad called a meeting in their room to tell the rest of the kids what had occurred during the night and then we all did whatever we could to let them rest. Dad was tired, but especially as the day went on he felt better and mostly normal. 

Aunt Lauren and Uncle Phil picked up things to make us dinner and brought it out so they could spend time with us. Uncle Phil had lots of little helpers getting dinner ready and Nana and Grandfather joined us. It almost felt like it was a holiday or birthday or something, it was fun to be together. After dinner we all watched "New in Town." 

Sunday we had our brunch with Aunt Lauren and Uncle Phil and a lady Mom and Dad had met Friday night. Uncle Phil got to learn some new games. 

Sunday was the first of November which meant that National Novel Writing Month or NaNoWriMo began. Chloe and I had heard about it from a friend and both had been thinking about participating, though neither of us told the other until a couple of weeks ago. So that afternoon we both began our stories. 

The basic idea is that you start writing a novel and work on it until the end of November. The rules; it has to be 50,000 words long and you can do no writing until November first. Both of us had basic plot ideas and a little bit of characterization thought through. 

Essentially you have to write about 2000 words a day to complete this. 

That night we got Pizza from Papa John's (Dad's favorite) and watched "First Knight." This movie has been called "The First Knight," "Last Knight," "The Last Knight," "Last Night," etc. I was positive it was called "Last Knight." It's not. Anyways, we enjoyed it and Mia's commentary especially was humorous. All movies we watch come with extensive commentary. 

Country Sunset.

Monday Mom and Dad went to a doctor's appointment for Dad and they didn't find anything alarming. At this point they are doing a few heart tests. We are so grateful. 

Chloe had a job interview with a woman that works locally as a photographer specializing in senior and family pictures and horse photography and she got the job! We are all thrilled for her. 

I went out to run some errands thinking I'd only be gone a couple of hours. I was gone for four. But I found what I was looking for, namely, speech tournament clothing and shoes, and Blue Bell Ice Cream!! 

She is so excited that she can "finally" read her Bible! 

This is not normal for Gabe... 

When I got back Aunt Cendei was at our house. She had delivered dinner from another family in our church and we invited her to join us. Gabe wasn't feeling well, but after we all laughed with Aunt Cendei (because she brings laughter with her everywhere) and watched "Zookeeper," he was perking up.

His Fingerprints

Dad and Christian were supposed to leave for a missions trip to Haiti next week. But, they could not go because Christian's passport application process hit a snag right before our Maui trip. At the time we were upset, but trusted that God had a plan. After Dad's incident, we are so grateful they are not leaving. We were content to never know why the passport issue occurred and trust God, but knowing what we do now, we see His hand so clearly.


That Moment When...

You change out of jeans into pajama pants. 

Dad gets to meet the Chief of Ponder Police and the Ponder EMTs. 

Gabe falls asleep in the middle of the living room floor in the middle of the day. 

The Herd: Quoted 

"Hey! I have curls too!" -Mia

"You did, but they were wilted in the shower." -Gabe 

"He didn't give me a ticket, though." -Me telling my story about how I learned that turning left on red is illegal. 

"Of course he didn't!" -Dad

"He was old!" -Me

"Yeah, old, not dead. He probably felt sorry for you too, since your response was 'you can't do that?'" -Mom

"If you took out all the romance-" -Christian 

"-And all the battles, there would be no movie." -Me 

"I found my scarf! It was inside my coat like a liver." -Mia

"What?" -Me

"You know, it was inside my coat like the insides of a body." -Mia 

"How are you surviving, Lydia?!" -Christian during our cold photoshoot. 

"I'm not." -Me 

"I got some great shots!" -Chloe

"It's a good thing your model didn't freeze... All the way." -Me 

"Yeah, that's always good." -Chloe 

"So, Dad, funny story... It's not just construction workers in Maui that like me..." -Me

"Funny? Why don't you tell us about that." -Mom

"Well, I was in traffic and the truck next to me rolled down the window and looked over at me. I glanced over and someone in the backseat was violently waving. For a second I thought it was someone I knew, but then I realized the entire truck was full of guys checking me out. I looked away pretty fast..." -Me 

"We are going to have to start sending little children with you!" -Mom 

"I've been trying to think of signs I could hold up like, 'My Grandfather has a gun.' or 'My uncle just got out of jail for taking out the last guy like you.'" -Me

"Or you could make one that says 'I'm visiting my husband in jail.'" -Ava

"What?!" -Mom