Lessons from Parenting?

Hello friends!  Kirsten and I have been asked to facilitate a seminar/discussion for parents at an upcoming family camp (InterVarsity Family Camp). Our camp director has suggested a few questions for discussion such as: 


What is the biggest struggle with parenting?  What practical ideas have helped you the most with parenting?  What has been the biggest shock with parenting?  What do you wish you had know earlier?  Where have you seen God show up as you've raised your children?  How has parenting impacted your marriage?


We would love to hear your responses to some or all of these questions. Or if you have suggested topics/questions that would be great to hear too. Thanks!

Linnea's Eyes Update - Sept. 22, 2009

One month after Linnea's eye surgery (trabeculotomy) we took her in Monday morning to have her eye pressures checked under anesthesia. Our babysitter stayed the night so that she could get Caleb and Elise off to school while we ventured over to the surgery center from 6:00 - 9:oo a.m. Once again our little trooper Linnea did amazingly well. She wimpered when we had to hand her over to the nurse but never cried through the entire process. The nurses all thought she was so cute and were vying for the chance to hold her. She didn't have to get an IV because she only needed to be unconscious for about 10 minutes. She was put to sleep with gas anesthesia only and, therefore, woke up relatively calmly. Linnea's right eye (surgery) pressure came in at 24 and her left eye at 20. The Dr. deemed the surgery 80% effective. Normal eye pressures are 20 and below. We will have to continue using the Xalatan eye drops in both eyes now and she will have her next under anesthesia exam in 8 weeks. We are grateful for the 80% effectiveness through the surgery and for the drops that seem to be working.

Going Out on a Limb for Crystal the Bird

There's quite a bunch of kids that play together on our street. One summer night not too long ago they found a baby sparrow down at the base of a big pine tree in the Mayers front yard. They named the bird Crystal and put her into a shoebox. All the little girls were enamored with little bird Crystal. I assumed Crystal had probably fell from a nest in the pine tree so I climbed way up to the top. Sure enough on one of the highest branchers I saw a nest. Kevin & Rich rigged up a bucket and rope and I pulled Crystal up to my precarious perch. Rich wondered if he had enough liablility insurance as I manuevered out toward the end of a top branch. I put Crystal in my gloved hand, reached to the limit of my reach and . . . and . . . wa-lah! Crystal went back home. I know my kids already think Kirsten and I are the greatest but these hero moments sure feel good.

New K Kid in the House

Eight days ago Elise walked through the gates of Glen Taylor Elementary school into her first day of kindergarten. She said her first day was boring because "the teacher talked too much." The subsequent days were better as she learned to write the letter L and then O and made a hopscotch friend on the playground. I picked her up at 11:40 a.m. - so fun! She saw me from far away at the gate and exclaimed, "I see my daddy!" while waving with the biggest smile on her face. We went to the classiest of places for lunch afterward - McDonalds. There's nothing better than picking up a kindergartner who thinks the world of you. Lise, I think the world of you too!

Update on Linnea

It has been just over two weeks since Linnea had her eye surgery (trabeculotomy). She is doing well. We took her to an appointment a week ago Monday and the Dr. was encouraged that she had no sign of infection. He informed us that the swelling and redness will probably take about a month to dissipate. She doesn't open her right eye much past halfway yet but the redness has definitely improved. She has to go under general anesthesia again on Sept. 21 to get a new eye pressure reading. The nightly eye drops (Xalatan) are working. Her initial eye pressures were 40 - right eye, 25 - left eye. Normal is 14 - 19. After a month of using the drops her eye pressures had come down to 35 - right eye, 17 left eye (normal - yay!). Our prayer is that the surgery will be completely effective in getting her right eye to regulate its pressure and that her left eye will eventually return to normal without need for long term use of eye drops.

God is Bigger

Caleb became really afraid of the librarian at his school. Apparently, he got in trouble for someone else talking and the resulting scolding he received from Mrs. Wright made him practically terrified about going back into the weekly libary class. We listened to him and asked questions to try and understand what was frightening him. In the end it was the wisdom of a cucumber that carried him through. In one Veggie Tales episode Larry sings to a frightened Jr. Asparagus, "God is bigger than the boogie man . . . He's bigger than Godzilla or the monsters on TV . . ." We talked with Caleb and prayed with him about God being bigger than our fears.

When the next library day came around we waited in suspense to hear how Caleb handled Mrs. Wright. He said the libary class went really well and on the way to library he kept repeating to himself, "God is bigger than Mrs. Wright."

Plane Crash Swimsuit

The movie, Air Force 1, was on TV a couple of days ago. There are scenes in the movie of a plane in distress flying over ocean water. As we traveled in the truck across town Caleb began to ask questions about ocean plane crashes. "How does water get into the plane?", he inquired. I told him that when a plane crashes it usually breaks open and that is how the water would get in. Elise joined the conversation and in a serious tone and proclaimed that if she was in a plane crash into the ocean she would make sure to bring her swimsuit.

Linnea's Post Op

Let me introduce the Eye-Patch Pirates (left to right) - Elise, Pama (Mike's mom), Linnea, Caleb.

We spent the night at Papa & Pama's house Sunday night so we could more easily get Linnea to her 6:30 a.m. surgery. We were a little late because the surgery center staff had called to tell us the cornea transplant wasn't in yet and we needed to wait a couple of hours. What cornea transplant?! Turns out they had confused us with another case. Linnea was getting a trabeculotomy but with a method that does not leave a bleb (eye blister).

After all the pre-op paperwork and patient prep she was taken away by nurse Vicki at about 8:10 a.m. Nurse Maria came out early on to tell us the eye drops we've been using were working and that her left eye pressure was now in the normal range. Her right eye pressure was down but still way above normal so the surgery would proceed. Some pacing in the waiting room and at 9:20 a.m. we were brought to Linnea as she was awakening.

We had been warned that she would probably be upset as she came out of the effects of the anesthesia - a little bit of an understatement. It took both Kirsten and I with a nurse to keep a hold of her. She was screaming like we've never heard before while wriggling and wrangling around. The iv tube became entangled around her and she pulled off her eye bandage twice. She kept saying she didn't want to be busy, which we interpreted as dizzy. Finally she began to calm down and began to repeatly say, "I want to go home." The doctor came by and said the surgery went very well, anatomically speaking. The next phase is waiting to see how effective the surgery is in reducing her right eye pressure. We brought her back to Papa & Pama's house and she slept into the afternoon. Between 4 and 5 p.m. she began to perk up and take some food and drink - an ice cream cone with sprinkles being the clear highlight. She didn't try to take off the eye patch at all and, in fact, enjoyed being a pirate with the rest of us faux patch pirates.

We took her in for a follow up appointment today and she bravely let me take off her eye bandage. She wasn't about to let the Dr. look into her eye but he saw enough to assure him things looked good. We now have the daunting task of putting antibiotic eye drops into her eye 4X/day and steroid ointment 2X/day. Please pray for that and also that her right eye pressure will drop to and stay in the normal range. Thank you so much for your prayers and phone calls!

Hello

Kirsten was driving today when her phone started ringing in her purse. She has a smartphone of some sort so as I was fishing it out I wasn't sure how to answer this particular phone. I asked her, "How do you answer your phone?". She replied, "Hello." Helpful . . . so helpful.

Like Chicken

Caleb came home from school the other day and proudly told me he new what poultry was. So I asked, "Caleb, what is poultry?" He replied, "birds made out of chicken."

Linnea's Diagnosis

Dear family & friends,

As of Monday, July 6, Linnea has been diagnosed with infantile glaucoma or congenital glaucoma. She is scheduled for a surgical procedure called trabeculotomy this Monday, Aug. 17, with Dr. DeBry of the Wellish Vision Institute. He reported an 80% - 90% success rate with this procedure. We appreciate your prayers for her and for all of us.

Our pediatrician recently referred us to Opthalmic Associates Dr. Rovit. He tested Linnea's vision and it seemed that her right eye was seeing images at the 60 level while her left could see at the 20 level. Dr. Rovit with colleague and glaucoma specialist Dr. Miller had us bring Linnea in for a more thorough exam under general anesthesia. Linnea was such a good little patient - so sweet and pleasant. She couldn't have any food or water after 12 midnight and we woke her up at 5 a.m. to arrive at the surgery center by 6 a.m. with the exam starting at 7 a.m. She never complained about getting no food or drink. Under anesthesia she was given in iv in her hand and the exam took about 20 minutes. Normal eye pressure ranges from 10 to 21 mmHg. Linnea's left eye pressure is 25 mmHg and her right eye is at 40 mmHg. She does have some miniscule but irreversible optic nerve damage in her right eye.

Both Dr. Rovit and Dr. Miller recommended seeing Dr. DeBry because they were highly certain it would take eye surgery for Linnea's case. We saw Dr. DeBry, Tuesday, July 7, and subsequently scheduled the trabeculotomy surgery for Aug. 17. Linnea will again have to go under general anesthesia and have an iv. There are many possible side effects from this surgery. The procedure is estimated to last 45 minutes. In the mean time we are using Xalatan drops into her eyes every night to help reduce her eye pressure.

We really appreciate your prayers. We want God to heal her eyes to be to normal healthful function. We are praying that Dr. DeBry will be in optimal health that morning and easily give his best to Linnea's surgery. We are praying that, by God's grace, Linnea feels minimal pain and is not heavily traumatized by the surgery and recovery. We are praying that the surgery is 100% effective and that Linnea will need minimal follow up. Thank you for praying with us.

Stinky Like Beautiful Archived

Ah . . . my first blog post in months. RD will be so shocked and pleased. I've renamed this blog to MiKi+ as you can see. The explanation is in the blog title description block. It used to entitled Stinky Like Beautiful because in Nov '05 Caleb (age 3) smelled Kirsten's hairspray and said, "You smell stinky like beautiful." What a phrase! Now this blog will be about general Nalley Family, the Mike & Kirsten Nalley family that is, happenings, stories and photos. Hope you enjoy!

Green Me

Do you want a receipt? Up to now I've always replied "Yes" at the gas station when prompted with this question at the end of a tank fill-up. Truth be told I was motivated more by conspiracy theory than sound accounting practices. My logic: if I print a receipt then THEY won't try and overcharge me with what shows up on my credit card bill. I thought of some person sifting through gas station for transactions where no receipt was requested and targeting those stiffs. I nickel here, a dime there and a million customers later some conspirators have skimmed a hefty sum off us blokes!

Well, as exciting as that might be I've renounced my belief in a grand gas station no receipt skimming conspiracy. Now I say "No" to gas station receipts and consider myself a little friendlier to the environment.

Jetpacks

Recently Caleb asked me, "Dad, how do you make a jetpack?" I replied, "I don't know." Caleb exclaimed, "Dad! You're 41 years old and you don't know how to make a jetpack?!"

blog or die

Okay, "I heard it from a friend who heard it from a friend who . . . " said Rob Dixon is giving me an ultimatum to publish a fresh blog post here at Stinky Like Beautiful. If I don't produce he's threatening to remove me from the blog roll. I made the grave error last time I was searching for blog material to ask Rob for some tips on what I might write about. He happened to be with some other IV staff yahoos who came up with a top ten questions list for me. They asked questions like, "Why is Mike's head so big?" and "Why am I always a half-step behind Rob in the humor department?" and "Why does Mike only wear carpenter pants?", etc., etc. Well, needless to say I'm not writing about any of those popular topics. They already cost me $600 in counseling fees to even begin to think about blogging again.

So, what could I write about. I could write about how much I appreciate Barack Obama's speech in response to his former pastor's infammatory remarks. I have never heard a politician address the racial realties/tensions so directly and accurately. Will I vote for him? Maybe. Either way he (and his speech writers) earned many respect points with his courage and candor.

But this blog is primarily devoted to Nalley kid stuff. Our 16 month old, Linnea or Nay-Nay, has affectionately earned the label Menace to Society. Even the older two sometimes call her that. She is a wild one! Here is a list of a few of her antics -

* regularly turns off the power strip which controls the phone & modem

* turns off and on the desktop computer tower

* takes clean clothes from the to-be-folded pile and puts them into the bathtub

* stands on the dishwasher door and throws clean silverware out onto the floor

* pinches our neck skin between her sharp fingernails when being held to sleep

* climbs up on the table and gets into other people's food

* pounds on any computer keyboard within reach

* has dove headfirst fully clothed into a full bathtub

* eats dirt (photo above)

* is so dang cute we love her to pieces!

No Way

Open . . . open. Brushing my kids teeth requires focused concentration on my part while my kids practice focused distraction. Caleb has been brushing his own teeth for awhile but Elise is as squirrely as ever at teeth time. The other night I was, once again, attempting to brush her teeth and had to use my most potent weapon. I asker Elise, "Do you want to this the easy way or the hard way." Elise replied, "No way."

The Life

The other night Kirsten was tucking Caleb into bed. He climbed into his bed, manuevered under his covers and as he lay his head down on his pillow with his doggie and mouth bound thumb he proclaimed, "Ah . . . this is the life."

Bear at the Door

I drive through the airport I-215 tunnel with Caleb and Elise on the way to preschool. They like to pretend the tunnel is the bear cave in the children's book, We're Going on a Bear Hunt. In the book the bear chases the adventuring family all the way back to thier front door. Caleb asked me, "Daddy, what should we do if a bear comes to our front door?" I seized the opportunity to coach he and Elise about door answering caution etiquette. "Caleb, that is a good question. That is why you should not open the door but ask, 'Who's there?'. If you find out the person at the door is someone safe that you know you can open it." Caleb followed with the painfully obvious question, "Daddy, why would a bear ever come to our door?"

Elise likes dirt and gak and floam and sand and . . .

Very tactile she is.

With the Greatest of Ease

Caleb soaring into the warm springs of Sunny Side, Nevada. WSBC camping trip - Oct. '06.