Kids, Dogs, and Ticks: Life Is An Adventure!

Well, last week was a seriously crazy week at our house! Shelby went off to 4H camp on Sunday. I was very excited for her. Her BFF Therese went also. The camp in over by Monticello. Unfortunately the weather was not the most cooperative but that did not seem to hamper any of the fun. When we picked them up on Thursday evening they talked non-stop for the next hour and a half about everything they did. Yes, that is right the whole way to Bloomington, all through dinner at Arby's, and all the way to home they talked, and they talked, and they talked. LOL! They also came home with a whole list of new friends to add on Facebook, and another list of things they needed to remember for next year.

Here are some pics from camp!

While Shelby was away having fun at camp, Jake was having a not so good week. Somehow on Saturday while putting away some chicken for me he left the freezer out in the garage open. I did not find it until Tuesday. Needless to say, everything was bad. I had a least 20 lbs. of ground beef, some chicken, the corn and green beans we put up from our garden, and deer summer sausage in there. Jacob had to clean out the freezer. Since this is the second time this has happened we decided to move our freezer to the basement over the weekend. We are currently in the process of reorganizing the basement to find a spot for it.

Jake continued his bad week with a series of other mishaps including mowing over an extension cord that was still in the yard from our 4H camp out the weekend before. Poor guy! On a positive note he is doing excellent in baseball this year. He plays on 1st and 3rd base frequently. He is doing a great job fielding the ball. His hitting is also much improved. It has been great to watch him this year.

Jadon had an appointment with a urologist last week while Shelby was gone. The week before he had one of his pain episodes. During the episode I decided to give him a bath. He was pretty dirty from playing hard in the yard and I thought it might relax him some. While I was lotioning him down after his bath I noticed that the right side of his groin looked swollen. When I touched the area I felt a rather large round mass. Matt took a look at it and said it looked like a hernia. Since it was evening the only place we could go was to the ER. We went over to St. Francis but their ER was so busy we sat for two and half hours and never got seen. At about ten Jadon started acting like his normal self. He was flirting with the ladies, and being goofy. I took him in the bathroom to check his groin and the mass I felt earlier was gone. This led us to believe that it was most likely a hernia. We told the ER staff that Jadon was feeling better and we would see his pediatrician about the hernia in the morning and left. The next morning Matt took him to see the pediatrician and he referred us to this pediatric urologist. Which brings you up to speed.

The urologist confirmed that Jadon does have a hernia or should I say "hernias". Yes that is right. Jadon has bilateral inguinal hernias. One on each side of his groin. He will have surgery at The Children's Hospital Of Illinois's outpatient surgery center on Friday, July 9th to remove them. The surgery is a very minor one that will take about an hour. He will be discharged later that day. Matt leaves for Brazil the following morning!

Most of the time Jadon is happy, energetic boy who is always into something! Lately he loves to put other people's shoes one. He has also figured out how to climb on the couch and recliner by himself. Nothing on our end tables is safe anymore. Just today he figured out how to climb up on the dining room chairs. The only problem there is that he can't get down so he screams for me to come get him down and then he climbs right back up! Ugh!

My nephew Owen came for the weekend. Jadon and Owen get along great! They had a lot of fun!

Jadon putting on Caleb's shoes to wear around.

Jadon having fun with his brother in the pool.

Typical goofy Jadon. Wearing Jacob's Cubs hat.

More water fun.

Jadon thought he would be funny and stick his toes in the camera. Jadon and Owen were enjoying a bedtime snack.

Jadon wrestling (or torturing) Daddy.

Jadon got under this chair and got stuck. He could not figure out how to get back out. Mommy had to rescue him, but I had to take a picture first! LOL!