My Cup Runneth Over....

First I want to say Thank You Jesus! And congratulations to Gwen and her family for they have found their Abagail in Uganda! God is so good and oh, so faithful!
God's speed home to precious Abagail and her brother Joseph who are waiting for their family.

Life has been so crazy lately.... but in a good way..... I see the Lord growing my family.... growing our faith, our walk with Him, our ability to serve Him. It is just exciting to see Him working in us and preparing us for one day serving Him full time in the mission field.
I don't have much computer time these days.... Seems like we are always on the go which is quite amazing in itself since I can be so reclusive. hehee
Meeshka and Peep started school a couple of weeks ago and I am still trying to find what works best for us now that I am homeschooling a 6th grader and a preschooler. But I think it is starting to come together and I know we will figure out the best plan of action.
Peep is so excited about school but her attention span is quite short. lol
Now I must share our new claim to fame!
The kids and I went to Hilton Head with my friend and her daughter for a day of fun in the sun......Well, I know August is the worst month for jellyfish but have never had a problem before. Nicholas did get stung last summer on the foot really bad. But so far this summer we have been doing ok...... So the five of us are in the water.... no jellyfish on the beach, which you usually see 1-3 at least..... so we are all in the water when Nicholas says, "OW! I got stung!" We look at his forearm and there was a little mark about 2" long where a jellyfish must have just got him with the end of one of it's tentacle... We went to the life guard station and sprayed vinegar and water on it. Talked to the life guard about jellyfish. Nicholas handled it like a man!
A while later we all ventured back into the water...... I am carrying Peep and we are out quite aways when all of a sudden I felt a STINGING CURRENT STINGING MY KNEE!!!! It freaked me out! It felt like the water had a few currents moving through it and it was ATTACKING MY KNEE! It was such a shock that it took me a few seconds to compute what was happening because it didn't feel like there was an actual substance (like tentacles) touching me. The stinging was intensifying and I was trying to carry Peep out of the water so afraid that all of us would get stung....
We made it to the life guard for the spray and I have to say....."I CHEE MAMA! That hurts!" Still not as BAD as I thought it would be but definitely painful! If you have ever been in stinging nettle... it is a lot like that only even more intense!
Sooooooo I was feeling a little gun shy by now. I couldn't believe both of us had gotten stung.... and mine wasn't going away! But after a while I didn't want to rain on everyone's parade so.........
OK, have you ever watched those horror movies when all this stuff happens and you are thinking to yourself, "Ok, people! how stupid are you going to be? Don't you think you should get out of the house by now?!!!!!!!" Well, apparently not getting the hint just doesn't happen in the movies! (by the way I haven't watched those in years. lol)
Well, we WENT BACK INTO THE WATER!!! What was I thinking?!!!!!!!
We were all out there again when all of a sudden Peep starts screaming and crying and I am freaking out. I was carrying her and tried to get her all the way out of the water. She wouldn't talk to tell us what had happened so I had to assume it was a jellyfish. Then she would start screaming louder and I was afraid it was still on her!!!!I kept trying to lift her legs out of the water, asking my friend if it was still on her.... then each time I would lower her back down to try to carry her to shore, her leg would hit my thigh and I would get STUNG! YES! That's right!!!!!!! My daughter was STINGING ME every time her leg touched me! So I am doing this shocked with a cattle prod dance all the way to the beach as I am freaking out for my poor baby and terrified this thing is still on her stinging her (and me)! Poor baby!!!
By now we are speaking with our third life guard! After I got Peep sprayed down with the vinagar I am spraying my thighs and you can start to see little areas where it is getting red and welting up.... not like my tentacle marks on my knee. So I ask the life guard..... is it my imagination??????? Every time my daughter's leg hit mine I would get stung! She told me that no, I was getting stung.... that the stinging cells were rubbing off onto me.
Soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo needless to say.... by now all three of us had been stung. 3 out of 5 of us! I looked at my friend and said.....
"I'm sorry, but I just can't go back into the water!" She had a look of relief on her face and agreed! lol
This turned out to be a very educational field trip.... we learned about jellyfish up close and personal and now Meeshka is doing a report on those darling, little sea creatures! HA!
I will say though.... if you are ever stung by a jellyfish...if you are able to get to CHLORINATED WATER it is amazing!!!!! After a couple of hours of being in pain we headed home and they have a little splash, water fountain play area now for the children. I felt so grungy so I decided to venture in even though the lifeguard said that salt water is good for the sting but fresh water is bad! I found out the fresh water makes it sting even worse when I got sprayed by the little showers to wash off your feet!!! (because of Nicholas' research I now know that it is because there are stinging cells that have not "exploded" yet and when the fresh water hits them they will open up and STING!) Isn't home school cool?!!!
Anyway, when we all went into the fountains it felt so refreshing and I could smell the chlorine in the water.... WELL! It took out the sting! It was about 98% relief!!!! It was wonderful!!!!!!!!!!! And the sting didn't come back. So keep this tid bit of trivia tucked away in case you ever need it. Believe me if you get stung you will want to know what will relieve the stinging!

So now I leave you with pictures of
"WHEN BEACHES ATTACK!"

Nicholas



Me


Peep

(I have to tell you it hurts much worse than it looks! But it is kind of cool how they leave marks on you the exact shape of their tentacles)

On our way home the DJ came on the radio and said, "If you are going to the beaches today be careful! There is a jellyfish alert and the life guards are flying purple flags. There has been a record number of stings today!" I let out a little laugh and all of a sudden I hear Nicholas in the back seat say in a very dead pan voice,
"Now they tell us."
lol (I thought he was asleep)

Will be sharing some sweet pics of our beach day soon.