Here some family fun for Black Friday! Christmas will be here before you know it!!
“Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good!
His faithful love endures forever.” Psalm 136:1 (NLT)
Well here it is, in less than 5 hours Stephanie and I will have eaten our first home made (our home, by us) turkey and shared a meal together as a family with my Dad joining us. This year is different for us in many ways. Typically we are in MO seeing my side of the family and then traveling to see Stephs side of the family. It typically includes a lot of food, a visit to the farm for a tractor rides, and yes, the forced family picture that no-one really wants to take. But this year we are home in Texas because we will travel to MO in December for Stephs brothers College Graduation.
But being away from the norm or tradition sometimes helps put life in perspective. We have all heard it said that we take things for-granted. Many times we don’t realize what we have until it’s gone or we miss out on something we are use to doing. So today, make sure you tell the people closes to you how thankful you are for them. As they say in the UFC be first, don’t wait for someone else to say something before you.
Today, let’s not just eat a bunch of food and gather as family and friends without letting the people in our lives know how thankful we are for them. They may never know how you really feel, and you may never have the opportunity to share how special they are to you again. So be thankful!
Where did it go?
The weekend was filled with highs and lows but defiantly one we wont forget. The highs would include seeing our families, celebrating with Rachel on Graduating College, Eating at Mexican Villa in Springfield MO, taking the bots to Dunnigan Park in Bolivar MO. This is the place that Stephanie and I started dating and have been dating ever since. The weekend ended with a great end of the year small group party at the Winters Home for our 11th and 12th graders and a Craw-fish Boil today at the Millsaps. These were some awesome times in a cram packed weekend. But it wouldn’t be a Gould weekend without some sort of Drama.
Here are the lows from the weekend, Pizza Hut in McAlester OK, The Drive to Missouri, Josiah getting croup while in MO, The Drive back to Texas in the rain, which caused us to miss the Big Cabin exist forcing us to take the long way home. But the real kicker came Sunday Morning when our projectors went out just before our MS service. This through me off so much because I had 2 videos taking up 8 minutes of my talk. We ended up showing it on a little 27 inch stage monitor turned to the crowd. Talk about throwing you off your game. I was thankful we got one projector working for the HS school service.
However, even though it went by fast, it was a good weekend filled with several memory markers. Here are some pics that I captured from the weekend:
Well the blog has been quiet for the last couple of days due to Jackson having another seizure. This one was scary in the sense that he stopped breathing and started changing colors. Because of this, we called 911 and the ambulance arrived 5 minutes later. This was much different from the 20 minute wait we had the last time we called 911 in November. They loaded Jackson up for the Hospital and after a short stay at Centennials ER, we were released with a prescription for Bronchitis and instructions to control his fever.
However, I have to say that we were really disappointed with the nurse that we had. This was the second time we have had her and both times we feel like we get poor care. Not that we are needy, but come on, at least a smile and show some friendliness. This isn’t to much to ask for is it? Or, how about turning off our beeping monitor. I don’t understand why they have it hooked up if when it goes off no-one even seems to check it! I know they heard it, we were right outside the nurses station. Anyhow, sorry for the rant, it only got worse later.
We were released at 1:00 am on Friday morning with no new answers. I had to ask the nurse to take his temperature before we left because Stephanie and I both thought Jackson felt warm. His temperature was normal and she said we could offset giving him Tylenol and Motrin every 2 hours. So we gave him a dose of Tylenol in the car on the way home.
When we got home his fever had gone back up to 101.4. We knew we were in the danger zone but could only wait it out until we could give him a dose of Motrin at 2:45ish. Well, we didn’t make it that far. Jackson had another seizure exactly like the first one that evening. This time we didn’t call 911. We waited out the seizure and I called Centennial to tell them what had just happen. As I was telling the lady on the phone I asked if we should come back in and she told me that she can’t make that decision for us or recommend that either. Basically she couldn’t give us any advice. She informed me that the doctor we had seen had already gone hoe for the night, and if we chose to come back in the new doctor would have to reevaluate him. I was shocked, mad, and disappointed that this is all the help they would offer.
So,we choose to stay home and watch Jackson like a hawk. In a short time we got his fever under control and then tried to get as much sleep as we could. Later Friday morning Jackson saw our Neurologist who has now given us liquid Valium to give him if he starts getting a fever. Everything seemed to be going good, until this morning.
As I was teaching during our MS Service, Jackson’s pager went off. Stephanie ran from the Student Center to Son City all to find that Jackson had a little fever. As a dad, I was stuck. I didn’t know what was going on with Jackson, and was in the middle of the talk. Needless to say my heart went to my stomach immediately. We stopped what we were doing, payed for Jackson and tried to continue with the lesson. I figured if it was serious someone would be coming soon to get me. About 5 minutes later I got a thumbs up from one of our volunteers who had gone down to check on the situation while I was teaching. Thankfully it was not an emergency! But definitely a day and weekend I will never forget.
I personally want to thank all the people that have loved on us, encouraged us, and prayer for us. We are so blessed to have each of you in our life and thank God daily for you. Every time we look at Jackson, we see the power of prayer, and we are reminded of how much people care and are willing to invest in out little family. So with that, I say thank you!!!!
We had some warm weather yesterday and the family tried to take advantage of it the best we could. While grilling some steaks the boys and I played in the back yard One of their new favorite things to do is ride in the wagon. So, I strapped Jackson in, he like to bail mid ride and the seat belts keep him safe and contained, and pulled them around the yard. Even though the scenery never changed we had a lot of fun. The highlight for me was seeing Josiah pull Jackson around the yard and hearing Jackson say cheese every time he went past me! Here are some pic of our wagon ride.
What a day!!! It all started with the boys both getting ready for School today at the same time. Yes, Jackson started preschool today. I was so excited for him and he seemed to have had a great day. Here are some pictures,
After we dropped him off to school I had the pleasure of participating on a “Man’s Panel” in MOPS. I was the only guy on the panel that had his wife in the room. Talk about accountability! It was fun and the questions were good. There are somethings that I feel I am doing really well at as a Husband and Father but there are definitely somethings I can work on. I learned a lot just from listening to the other guys. I was blown away by some of the answers when it comes to date nights, conversations, evaluations and stuff like that. My prayer was and still is that it would be helpful and real for all that were involved.
Last night the family made a trip to Dallas to hang out with Tyler and Jenn. Tyler serves as our Student Worship Coordinator and Jenn is a first year teacher. It has been fun getting to know them. Tyler is doing such a good job at Fusion.
After the long drive, (I respect what Tyler does even more knowing how far he drives to invest in our students) we had dinner at Royal Thai. I must say, that the food was amazing! Probably the best Chicken Fried Rice I have ever eaten. The place reminded us of our favorite restaurant in Warrensburg called Siam. I ordered the Pad Thai Chicken and Stephanie had the Mongolian Beef. The food was great, the company was awesome, the boys behaved, and it was fun just to get away and have dinner with family and friends!
Now we just have to find a Thai food place this good closer to us, any suggestions?
Jackson has been working on his dance skilz. We happened to catch a short clip on video of it this weekend. Here is his debut, enjoy!!!
Yep, its official . . . today I turn 32! Hard to believe I know! So I thought I would do 32 random facts about me:
Wow, I made it. I got stuck at about number 8 but was able to pull it through!
So, today was valentine party day at MDO where Josiah goes to school. On Tuesday Night Stephanie had Josiah put his name on all of his classmates Valentine cards. As he was filling them out he asked if he could give one to Dani “his girlfriend”. Dani was the girl that Joe played with all last year. They were in the same class but this year they are not. So this morning, he went to the other class and gave her the Valentine present that he had picked out for her. Her eyes got real big when she saw him and saw the little heart shaped box of chocolates, Josiah got ready to walk away and she gave him a hug! It was a proud moment for the Gould boys. Josiah was on cloud 9 and I was so proud of him!
When I picked him up, Dani came into his classroom and gave him a special valentine. Again it ended with a hug. At this age it really cute and so innocent . . . I just hope I am not training him to be the womanizer that Brittany Spears describes in her song but a young man that will treat girls and women like a daughter of the King.
Here are some pics of him putting his classmates gifts together!
Dan Gould 