All in a days work...

Jeremy helped rescue a manatee yesterday. The water down here has been so cold and the manatee got stuck in a canal and was freezing to death. He said it took about 20 people to move the animal and it was still soooo heavy. They relocated the manatee to Sea World. Pretty cool

Christmas pics...

Here's some pics of our Christmas. One thing we realized is it's difficult to help Jakob open presents, video tape and take pictures with the camera. Between me and Jeremy we needed about 4 more hands, so there's not a ton of pictures. As you see from the few family pictures it was quite a chore trying to get a picture where Jakob would look happy. He had too much going on to sit still for a picture! Our Christmas was very nice. Jakob kinda opened presents all day long because he had so many and wanted to play with each one right after he opened it. His way of opening presents was to rip one piece of the paper off and then look into the present. When he saw it was something cool he tried to pull the toy out. I think we spend so much time teaching him not to rip books and things that he thought it was strange that we told him to rip the paper off the presents. He did learn that there was really cool stuff inside the gifts though and liked opening them. I cooked a whole Christmas dinner by myself, so I was actually relieved that it wasn't too hard and happy with the way it turned out. Anytime I ever thought about cooking a whole holiday meal it seemed very daunting (we have big, huge meals on holidays) but I ended up cooking a large meal that was just enough food. We ate left overs on Sunday and finished it off :) It was definitely different having Christmas without all the family around. It was quiet. We played wii golf (which I am getting much better at and actually beat Jeremy once!) and watched some Christmas movies. It was really fun. I have always watched movies and heard Christmas songs and lamented the fact that I've never had a "White Christmas", but sitting on my couch on Christmas day with the doors and windows open I definitely enjoyed 60 something degree weather. Especially once Amber started sending me pictures of her white Christmas :)  I hope you all had a great holiday too!

Christmas 2010

Christmas 2010

Christmas 2009

Merry Christmas Friends

James 1:17- Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.

You know how excited we are to give our children their Christmas presents? We've thought and planned and bought exactly what we think they would enjoy. It's such a happy time to see the smiles on our children's faces. Can you imagine God's happiness and excitement knowing that the gift of his son would  forever change our eternity? I have been contemplating the fact that we cannot even thank God properly for the gift that he so lovingly gave us because in our human minds we cannot really comprehend just what that gift means. Still, my heart longs to give God the worship and adoration he deserves. I am so thankful that Jesus came to earth, took on a body of flesh, felt pain, hunger, scorn and hatred from those he came to give the free gift, all for me. I am excited for Heaven, when I can finally truly understand what Jesus went through to save me, and also finally give God the thanks he is worthy of for the gift of his only Son. God gave us the greatest example of giving when he gave us his Son. 

I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas this year, with lots of food, happy memories and time with family.  

♥♥♥ Shauna

After being stuck in the house for 5 days with a cold

Jakob went outside and found a turtle in his backyard

He walked right up to it, picked it up and flipped it over on it's back, but mommy didn't have the camera ready

Daddy told him turtles don't really like to be on their backs and then helped the turtle escape across the street...and away from Jakob :)

After I spent all day running around looking for a doctor for Jakob Jeremy came home and said he wasn't feeling that good. He woke up the next morning and our pipes were frozen (in S. Florida!) and he quickly came back to bed and said he didn't feel good anyways and was not going to work. He began to feel worse and worse. He developed a nasty cough, and decided to go see the doctor himself. Surprisingly he got in the same day. The doctor said he has a sinus infection and gave him a bunch of meds. I really feel like having a sick husband is so much harder than having a sick baby. -Maybe it's because I feel like I have two babies in the house right now!!!-  Jakob is doing much better. His fever is gone now, he just has a really runny nose and a yucky cough. Tomorrow is his last day of anti-biotics and I will probably keep him on the benadryl for a while. I will be glad when all this sickness leaves the Preston household :)

I called a bunch of doctor's offices yesterday trying to find somebody I could take Jakob to. In the town we live in there are probably only 4 or 5 doctors all together. Two of them are pediatricians, but I called their office multiple times and nobody was there (it was a wrong number for them). I called a family practice doctor (whose phone book add said he also does pediactrics) and they said no, we only see ages 5 and up. I started google-ing doctors in the next town over and called some, but I was on hold for a long time (a lot of kids are sick!) finally I found an urgent care which was about 45 minutes away. I bundled Jakob up and made the drive over. When I got inside the office this guy who spoke very broken english asked me "you or him?" I told him Jakob was sick and he made this face like uh-oh. I could tell it was not a good sign and said very quickly "I'm pretty sure he has an ear infection, I just need somebody to look in his ears." I also told him we have just moved here and don't have a pediatrician right now. He told me they only see babies 18 months old and up. I said next week he will be 16 months old, and he said he would ask the doctor. He came back not even 2 minutes later and said no, we can't help you. I went back to the car and started balling. I have never in my life had such a hard time trying to find a doctor. When Jeremy talks about how much he likes the small town we're in I always tell him there's disadvantages to small towns, and this is one of the worst. I could not believe that I have such a sick baby (his temp was 103.1 yesterday morning) and nobody wants to help me. Finally I called Jeremy and told him that the emergency room was right up the road and I was just going to take him there. When I got to the emergency room Jeremy called me and told me he found the correct phone number for the pediatrician in our town, but they couldn't see Jakey till Thursday, so it's good I just went to the ER. When the girl asked me who was sick I told her how frustrated I was that my son is very sick and I can't find anyone to see him. Of course I am totally mentally exhausted and frustrated now. She was so sweet and understanding. Thankfully the ER was not really busy so they saw us in about 30 minutes. Jakob has an inner ear infection and he had a lot of pussy blisters in the back of his throat. They gave him some anti-biotics and told me to keep giving him motrin and benadryl like I have been doing. It seems like every time he gets a really runny nose that I can't get to clear up he gets an ear infection :( so that was my day yesterday. I just could not believe that with a sick baby somebody would turn me away and tell me no, we're not helping you. My appointment for today is getting changed, I haven't called them yet, but it'll probably be Friday. The nurse called the lab and they hadn't finished running all the blood work yet, so I don't want to drive to Ft. Myers today and then have to go again to find out results, I'm just going to reschedule

So I've been up with Jakob all night. He would fall asleep and then wake up screaming 10 minutes later. I'm guessing he has an ear infection. All of the doctors offices don't open till at least 8:30 and the "urgent care" clinic opens at 10. I'm going to try to get Jakob an appt. in our town because it is freezing cold this morning and I don't want to have to bundle him up and drag him all over SW Florida. Please keep him in your prayers ♥

Jakob is sick. Fever of 102.3, pretty yucky cough. A virus has been going around the nursery at church, and I think he finally caught it. He mostly wants to cuddle with mom and sleep. Hopefully he'll get over it quickly

So I went to the doctor today, and he's pretty sure I have pcos. He gave me some progesterone pills to help me start my cycle (for now) and took a lot of blood to test my hormones. I am going again on Wednesday morning and he's going to test my blood sugar and we'll discuss how to get my body back on track. (hopefully regular cycles are in the near future) Jeremy and Jakob went with me today, and we actually got a lot accomplished while in "town"(lol) I felt really bad bringing Jakob with me to the doctors office, but it was a new doctor and over an hour away from home so I really wanted Jeremy to go with me the first time (and we don't have any babysitters just yet).  I can just remember how it feels to sit in that office, your emotions are so out of your control, and then if they had pregnancy magazines, or any magazine with a pregnant girl on the front...uggghh!  Thankfully there weren't a whole lot of people there, I actually only saw one couple, but I wanted to go to them and say "he's an IVF baby." I want them to know they're not alone, and it wasn't easy for me either, but it will happen. If infertility has taught me anything it's all about community. Everything is a little easier when you know someone else feels the same way you do. Anyways, I should know something by Wednesday, I'll keep y'all updated.

On Wednesdays at church we're studying how to deal with lost people who don't believe in God at all, and know so many reasons why they shouldn't (apologetics). Last night the question was "If God is a good and loving God then why is there suffering in the world?" One point was brought up that I hadn't really ever considered. The God of the Bible (our God) is the only one who came to suffer for his followers. You do not find that in other religions. Seeing that Jesus came down and suffered for us, with purpose, you can conclude that there is purpose in our suffering. Now, we won't know what that purpose is until we get to heaven, but we don't suffer in vain. On the way home Jeremy and I were talking about Jesus on the cross. Most people just see a man hanging up on a tree. We know (from the Bible) that Jesus took the punishment of every sin ever committed onto himself when he was on the cross. In our human minds I don't think we can even begin to comprehend the pain that was on Jesus as he suffered punishment for every sin mankind would commit. On top of that his own Father turned his back on him, and wouldn't/couldn't communicate with him. Imagine your child in pain, hurting, even dying, could you just turn your back on them and ignore their cries for help? I know you couldn't, and neither could I. God did that for us. Jesus suffered total separation from his Father. He'd always been in communication with God until the cross. I cannot imagine a life without God. A second without God. It scares me to think of it. Jesus endured punishment without the comfort of knowing God was with him...for us. Wow. I know it's Christmas and the world sees a little baby in a manger. I would like to encourage each one of us to remember that the manger was just the beginning. It was huge, because Jesus Christ left all the glory and comforts of heaven to come to earth for us, but it was not over that day in Bethlehem. Jesus did give us the greatest present ever. He came to earth to die, rise again, and offer us forgiveness for our sins, a personal relationship with God, and a home with him in heaven.       

It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas...

 

Here's a few pictures of Jakob hanging his ornaments on the tree. He actually really liked helping put the ornaments up, for at least the first 4 or 5 and then I quickly lost his attention to something else. His daddy helped for about the same amount of time, then I lost his attention to football. Short attention span seems to be a man thing :) I put out a few decorations around the house, but didn't want to tempt Jakob to getting into too much trouble, so most of them are still out in the garage. We got a real tree this year. This is the first year we've had a real tree since our first year of marriage when we had the Christmas tree that fell over and I vowed we'd never buy one again. You just cannot beat a real tree. They smell awesome and they just look so pretty. The weather down here has been pretty cold. (yes, I know cold is a relative term :) Last night it did get down into the 20's and we actually turned our heater on. The high for today is 64, I think. Perfect weather to remind you that Christmas is right around the corner. I have talked to a couple of you from up north, and let me say a high in the 30's...well, I'm glad it's you living up there and not me. There must be a reason why I was moved back down to Florida (lol). Last night we watched "A Charlie Brown Christmas" which is such a cute movie. Even after all the times I've heard it, it still feels so special to hear the story of Jesus birth from Luke chapter 2 especially on television where most people would rather forget about Jesus and all he came to do. It has been a little difficult thinking of things to get Jakob for Christmas. The child really doesn't need much of anything. The things he really needs (like a bookshelf for his tons of books) doesn't seem like a really fun Christmas present. He is really into Toy Story right now. It's all he wants to watch (he brings me the movie all the time) and at my mom's house he was constantly carrying a toy story character around. My mom has bought him Buzz and Woody, and I really wanted to get him Bullseye, but Toy Story is really popular this year and I cannot find the plush bullseye that they released when Toy Story 2 came out. Actually, you can find them, but people are wanting 80-100 bucks for them ( I guess Toy Story is the thing this year), and I'm not paying that. I will wait a while and when they are not so expensive I can (hopefully) get him Bullseye. Other than that I think we are going to get him a little child size guitar, because he always wants to play his Daddys guitar. Some chunky puzzles, because he loves shapes and putting things together. That's about where my list stops right now. We really want to get him a small swing set, but we have to talk to our landlord about that. We'll see. I hope that you are all having a good week and staying warm :) 

A temperature of 37 degrees this morning, some frost on the windshield and a high of 69 for the day, not a cloud in the sky...sound like anywhere you might know? Sure doesn't sound like South Florida, does it? Well it is, and I'm happy :)