updated photos on The Zoo inhabitants

one of my favorite pics taken on our dock down by the lake

Bekah Sue my 5th grader!! When did she get so big?!

Bobby my 3rd grader and his latest passion, skateboarding!

Zach my 1st grader and his new skill, riding without training wheels!

Miss Madison in her Ariel shades talking on her Ariel phone! Can you guess which princess she is in to?

I'm back with an update on The Zoo!

Hello! I hadn't realized how long it had been since I posted until I started reading through my last few posts! So much has happened and changed since I was last here! Like everything we have done so far it has been fast and drastic change! Since the last time I posted was when Madie was 7 months I guess I should start there....

I last left you with a finally healthy family after Jay and Madison's boughts with MRSA and thankfully they both made a full recovery! They both still are prone to infections and we take any weird looking bumps very serious and they both have been put on meds since but thankfully no more hospital stays or pic lines! We enjoyed a pretty mild fall and early winter with a wonderful time with family for both Thanksgiving and Christmas in 2008. We started off 2009 like every other year, getting back into the routine after a nice long break from work and school. We were finally getting there when on January 15 our world came to a screeching stop! I was just finishing up my shift at PromiseTowne when Jay's boss came to get me saying I had to leave with him right away that our house was on fire! I froze. I felt like I couldn't think or breathe! After franticly making sure the kids (who were all at work with me that day) were all taken care of and going home with co workers I left to meet up with Jay at a scene I will never forget! Jay and I sat in the back of a police car and watched as our house and everything in it burned. Jay's brother who lived with us and was home at the time the fire started was taken to the hospital and treated for 2nd degree burns on his back and arms and frostbite on his feet. We lost almost everything we owned and our 11 year old cat. We stayed with Jay's boss for just over a week until we found another house to rent and were blessed beyond our wildest thoughts by friends and our church family as bags of clothes and toys and all the furniture we needed began showing up! We truly could not have made it without our friends and church family there to love and support us! We then began a season of life that I felt like was a blur! We dealt with insurance companies and moving and going through the mounds of items given to us, returning to work and school. Kids did amazing and Jay and I were in survival mode! I ended up taking a leave from my job for the summer to regroup and finishing setting up house and ended up making the leave permanent. Life strated to settle back down and the fog began to slowly lift! Jay started back to school to get his masters degree in the fall of 2009, Bekah started 4th grade, Bobby 2nd grade, Zach started Kindergarten and Madie was busy getting into everything! In early 2010 Jay had decided to leave ministry to pursue a career in the business world. He began studying and taking IL state test for a position with a company he was going to work for. After a few months and some hard lessons God made it very clear to Jay that he was not done with him in ministry! Jay began applying and we began praying for the right position for him and our family to open up, where ever that may be! The kids and I were scheduled to come to MI for 2 weeks for my nieces 1st birthday party and a cousins baby shower with lots of visiting with family in between! Jay ended up coming with us and interviewing at 3 different churches in MI and before we left MI (after an extended almost 3 week trip) we had accepted a position in Mt Pleasant, MI and went back to IL to pack! We had less than 3 weeks to find a house (from IL) and pack our house in IL and say good bye to some really good friends who had become more like family in the 4 years we lived there! Jay and Bobby ended up making a long weekend trip to find a house and I stayed behind to finish packing! They found us a great house on a wonderful lake 20 minutes from church. We have now been here almost 3 months and are loving our new church and church family and loving being closer to both of our families! The kids are adjusting to their new school and have made some great friends who live right behind us! Bekah is in 5th grade, Bobby is in 3rd, and Zach is now a 1st grader and loving staying at school all day! Madie who is now 2 1/2 and I are loving our days together. We got to church for Mom's group once a week where I get to hang out with Mom's and talk and grow and learn and Madie gets to go to her class to in her words "play with all my friends"!

So there you have it the short version of what has been happening at The Zoo since the summer of 2008! Crazy busy as always with ups and downs, but we have each other and we found through the events of January 2009 that thats all that matters!

Our baby is getting too big!

Madie is now 7 months old! She is enjoying trying solids. So far green beans are her least favorite(though we have yet to try peas!) and cereal,a mix of Gerber Rice and LP-Fruity Pear flavored(her Lo-protein cereal), her favorite. She is sitting and starting to try and scoot while on her back and tummy! She keeps trying to get on her knees! I think we are starting to get teeth as well! She is chewing on everything in sight (me included!) and drooling like crazy! It still amazes me how different each of my kids are yet how similar too (does that make sense?). She loves her brothers and they love to make her laugh! Bekah still loves to pick out Madison's clothes and has tried to veto some of my choices! She still has blue eyes and I am praying she keeps them! She is a blessing and a delight and I love waking to her cooing and babbling! Seeing her smile makes it hard not to get up happy!

So far so good...

Well we are into our second week of school. Bekah and Bobby are adjusting to the new school and have both made new friends. They still miss the kids from last year but are doing well. Bobby is learning to read and Bekah is doing great with her cursive! Sad to say though her homework is already posing a challenge for Jay and I to help with! I told him we are going to have to hire a tutor soon to help! Zach is adjusting as well to not having his brother around to play with. Zach started Speech on friday and is happy to be back at "his school"! Hard to believe next fall he will be going to school with Bekah and Bobby! Everyone has continued to be in good health with just a sore throat and low grade fever to report so far!

What a crazy summer!

The Raitz household had one crazy summer! I wish that meant we went to a lot of fun exciting places and that the kids will be talking about all the fun times for years to come! Unfortunately they will be talking about it but not in a "wow what a fun summer 2008 was", it will be more like "remember that summer "Daddy broke his foot and got an infection and Madie was in the hospital...". Things started to get crazy when Jay broke his foot/ankle on May 31 (for those of you who don't know it was our 11 year anniversary). He then had surgery a couple days later and ended up with a bad staph infection a month later! He was in the hospital for 2 nights and came home with an IV pic line that stayed for 2 weeks! I had to hook him up to IV meds every night! Never thought I would get nurse training! Just when I thought things were settling down, Jay was better, pic line out, no cast or boot and he went to camp with Elevate. He was home barely 24 hours and Madison was put in hospital for a staph infection from an infected pimple on her bottom! I forgot to mention we all passed around a stomach bug the week before Jay left for camp (I was lucky to get it the night before he left and Madie the day he left!!). She was in the hospital for 2 nights as well but was able to come home on oral meds (no pic line!) for 10 days. Jay is finally all better having just been released from his foot doctor and Madison is perfect and doesn't even remember the bad IV placed in her little arm. I wish I could forget it as well! 

The summer officially ended for us this past tuesday at 8:20 am when Bekah (3rd grade) and Bobby (1st grade) got on the school bus. It was a fun and sad day. Fun because a new year is starting for them in school but sad cause now Bobby is gone all day! It was weird walking into PromiseTowne with just Zach and Madie! Zach is starting to feel it as well. He said tonight he misses Bobby in PromiseTowne. They are pretty good buddies (most of the time) and Zach is a bit lost without Bob there lead him along! I think it will be good for Zach to make his own friends though and be able to become his own person away from his older siblings. He has never really done anything without one of them there. This will force him to figure out who he is without being Bekah or Bobby's little brother.

 So now we enter the fall season with the hope it is much duller than summer and much healthier as well! 

They are all getting too big!

I can't believe how big they are all getting! Bekah is 8 and going into the 3rd grade! Bobby will be 6 in 15 days and will be in 1st grade in the fall! Zachary just turned 4 and can't wait turn 5! And little Madison is already 5 months! They are all so different yet the all are so alike (if that makes sense!). I feel so blessed to be their mommy and can't wait to see what they will do next! Though I hope it doesn't require me to clean up any messes!

Zach's new do

Jay took the boys to get hair cuts yesterday and this is how Zach came home! He has been talking about getting a mohawk for awhile but I didn't think he would actually do it! I should have known better though! He looks adorable and loves it!

What happens when you combine 150 6th & 7th graders an 8 ft round inflatable ball and a a Youth Pastor? Part 2

So Jay was having some pretty good pain last week in his ankle and friday it got pretty bad, so he went to the doctors and they removed the cast, pin and found an infection. They sent him home with a walking cast boot and an antiabotic. Sounds simple enough...stay off it as much as possible, take your meds and come back in two weeks. Wrong! He woke this morning with pain so bad he barely made it to the bathroom! He took off his boot and the bandage and it was oozing from where the pins were and was swollen and red. We went to the ER right away and they did x-rays and a bunch of blood work and a culture of the wound site. He was admitted to start IV meds and hopes to be released sometime tomorrow. Hopefully by the time his doctor sees him tomorrow the meds will have done their job and his foot will look better! Keep him in your prayers!

Madie

I put together Madie's exasaucer the other day and as you can see she is just big enough! She likes to try to eat the toys and looks at me wondering why they don't quite reach her mouth! I finally put the batteries in today and now the piano plays music and lights up. the base also makes noise but she isn't quite strong enough yet to make that work. Once her legs get a little longer and stronger though I have a feeling I will be sorry I put the batteries in! I can't believe how fast she is growing and changing! It seems like every day she learns something new! I bought her a sippy cup to see what she would do and she seems to like it! Over the past couple days she has taken 3 oz from it! She continues to be the happiest babies I know, always with a smile on her face! 

Zachary James

Zachary turned 4 this past monday! I can't believe he is already 4! The years just flew by! Zachary continues to be the ham of the family. Always ready for fun! His smile lights up the room and he is a very sweet little boy! He is very excited to be 4, because now he can go into the 4 year old room at church! He is a delight and we are blessed to have him for a son!

What Happens when you combine 150 6th & 7th graders an 8 ft round inflatable ball and a a Youth Pastor?

You get to ride in an ambulance a broken ankle and a broken foot and a date in the operating room! Jason was playing volleyball with the kids at Elevate on Saturday night and fell, landing wrong and breaking his foot and ankle! He was taken to the hospital in an ambulance and put in a splint up to his thigh! He broke a bone off in his foot that twisted 90 degrees! This morning they went in and turned the bone back into place and inserted two pins and put a screw in his ankle break! The screw will stay but the pins will need to come out in 6 weeks. He is in a splint until monday and not able to put any weight on it! H is getting pretty good at hobbling through the chaos we like to call home with his crutches! Monday they will put on a regular cast and put him in a walking boot. He is in pain but is putting up a brave front! He even talked about going back to work thursday! I think I have him talked into staying home and on the couch with his foot up until monday! The kids can't wait until he gets the real cast so they can draw on Daddy's leg! Jason just can't wait to get the cast of so he can hopefully enjoy some of the nice weather running and playing softball!

Bobby and Madison

Bobby has refused to hold Madison until Monday night. His answer was always "when she is bigger". I think she just looked to fragile to him. Well Monday night Bobby, Zach, Madie an I were in my room while I got Madie ready for bed. Bobby looked at me and casually said "Mom I have never held her yet". So I asked him if he wanted to and he said yes! Of corse the camera was downstairs and he didn't want to wait till I could get it! So he held her for about 2 seconds then told me to take her back! He then proudly ran down to tell Jay that he had held her! Last night he wanted too hold her again and this time the camera was handy so I could capture the proud big brother smile as he held her (4 seconds this time!). Then when we got home from church tonight he wanted to not only hold her but feed her too! As you can see in the pictures he is about the proudest little boy around! I am the proudest Momma around too! He is so sweet with her and is always found next to her talking to her or just rubbing her head if she is sad! I hope he is always so protective of his little sister!