Poison ivy/oak, ticks and no hot water--oh my!

That pretty much sums up last week--we had an awesome time camping up at Goliad State Park over the last half of spring break; however, 2 days after we returned home, my littlest man was covered in bumps and was itchy all over. While we were out camping, he got into some poison ivy or poison oak (not sure which) when he and his brother were out exploring on the bank leading down to the San Antonio river or in the little wooded area behind our campsite. Aidan fell asleep on the couch by 5 p.m. on Tuesday, his cute little face swollen and covered with flesh-colored bumps. He had a red rash under his right eye, on one of his ears, on each side of his chin, on his neck, spots on his legs, arms and hands. There was no crying (on his part)--he just itched and took his plight like a little champion.

The hubster took a quick trip to Walgreens (or Walmart--one of those Wal-stores...) after we consulted with a good friend about what to use to treat it. He came home with Zanfer, or as we like to call it in our house: liquid gold. 3 treatments over a period of 3 days, and now you would almost never know that he had it!

Here he is after homeschool co-op on Friday

Now to the no hot water. When Rob got home from work last Wednesday, he saw a small water puddle out by the garage door. We didn't think much about it at first, figuring that maybe someone decided to fill up a water bottle or something with the hose that is on that side of the house. We ate dinner, got ready for Awana and then noticed on the way out the door that water was running off the step from the area where the hot water tanks are in the garage and was trailing out the garage door. He sent the boys and I on without him, and stayed behind to take care of the water mess. The tank was leaking from the inside, and needed to be replaced. However, the home warranty company's contractors were not going to be able to get it taken care of until Monday!!! Ugh. We are so thankful for friends who offered to let us take showers at their houses, even if we only took one friend up on their offer. It's such a blessing to know that our Heavenly Father has blessed us with wonderful friends. :) The hot water was fixed yesterday, so we could finally take showers at home. And, come to find out, someone had turned the water main down, so we now have more water pressure than we have had since moving into this house. It is SO wonderful! We can now run two showers at the same time, which we haven't been able to do before. Oh, the little things we get so excited about! ;-)

Ticks...David found one on his stomach yesterday and freaked out a bit about it. To his credit, he picked it off himself and killed it. However, my little hypochondriac was scared that the bump was getting larger and redder (it was shrinking, but was only red where he was scratching it, every time that he thought about what had bitten him there). Today, the bite is nearly invisible--yay! I am unsure where he picked it up. He didn't have any in his hair or back or chest when I had checked him after our hike on Saturday, and he hadn't noticed anything until yesterday. Thankfully it is now gone, and we will now be on the lookout for more!