Happy Valentine's Day

Yesterday the kids went to a Valentine's Day party with some friends from school and Baby Nae and I hung out with Morning.  In the evening I took AJ on a date while DH took the two middle girls shopping for birthday presents for AJ. AJ,  Nae and I found just what we're we're looking for--some black shoes for AJ that would "go with everything. "

Today we celebrate AJ's 13th birthday with a casual roller skating outing with a few of her friends. 13! I can hardly believe she's a teenager already. She is turning into a delightful,  level-headed,  confident , kind and compassionate young lady. It's amazing to me how much she has grown up,  matured and levelled out these last few years. She's truly a wonderful young person. I'll see if I can get a good bloggy picture of her to post soon.

She's Here!

Baby N (whom I think I'll call Baby Nae for blog purposes) was born at 5:31am on December 9, 2013. She was my smallest and tallest baby at 6 lbs 14 oz and 20 inches long. The delivery went very well and she is a beautiful,  healthy,  happy baby.

She's incredibly alert and interactive for a newborn,  and was holding up her head and turning to look toward voices by the time she was a day old. Everyone here is totally in love with her,  and I'm lucky if I get to hold her much when she's not nursing.

I haven't been able to get out of bed and on my feet much yet,  but DH and the older kids are taking good care of me and Baby Nae. I'm thankful to be able to just rest and know that everything is pretty much under control. :)

I'll try to write out her birth story soon, but for now, here's a photo I took in the hospital when she was first born.

Independence Day 2011

I've felt better the last few days than I've felt in weeks (maybe months). Had a fabulous, memorable day with the girls today. I'm praying that I didn't overdo it too much and won't end up in Post Exertional Malaise tomorrow.

Meanwhile, DH is absolutely miserable with the flu (respiratory/aches/fever version). Poor guy. I hope he feels better soon!

Here's what the girls and I did today:


• We rested and took care of DH (the girls love playing nurse); cleaned up the kitchen and took care of the animals; did laundry (Ebee asked me to teach her how to wash her own load, and M&M folded and put away a load of towels along with my running a couple of loads today);


• Went shopping for fireworks (I gave the kids a $20 budget and picked out one other thing myself) and marked-down 4th-of-July outfits ($2.50 total for each top/shorts set at half off the clearance price);


• Had yummy spaghetti squash with meat sauce, fresh green beans and watermelon;


• Discussed (and used the globe to visualize) how the tilt of the earth in conjunction with its rotation around the sun affects the length of days in summer vs. winter, and why it wouldn't get dark early today in honor of the 4th of July to make the fireworks visible earlier;


• Set off our fireworks; hooted and hollered and cheered; shared our sparklers with the neighbors;


• Walked up to the top of the hill and sat under the water tower to watch fireworks going off for miles around; sang the national anthem and talked about the story of its writing;


• Made a vinegar pie with a recipe from an audiobook we're listening to (The Wonder of Charlie Ann, set in the depression era) and ate it (it was delicious!).

The girls said it was "the best day ever." I was so happy to be well enough to really engage and enjoy the day with them, and not have to spend most of the day in bed and/or walking around in a fog of pain and fatigue fighting an uphill battle just to function and keep everyone fed and basic needs cared for.

It was a day full of the types of moments I wish I could bottle up and keep forever. May there be many more of these kinds of days in our future!

Creative Gift Ideas

The kids have been making a game out of guessing what they are getting for Christmas. They keep trying to catch someone off guard to get one of us to tell them what we're giving them for Christmas.

Some of their answers to the question get pretty cute and creative:

"I got you a baby bottle for Christmas."

"Oh, I would LOVE that! I got you a banana peel to put between your toes."

Melting my Heart

Ebee came into my bedroom this morning, climbed into my lap for a snuggle, and said, "Mom, I'm going to be FIVE tomorrow!"

"Yes, you are," I said. "I can hardly believe it. Five is too old. I think you should stay four."

She shook her head. "Mom, I'm not going to stay four. I have to grow up."

"I know. But will you still be my little girl--my baby?"

She smiled up at me and hugged me more tightly. Then she said, "I'll be older. But I'll still love you."

Happy 2010

There's much to be thankful for from 2009.

Things like God, family, and friends of course go at the top of the list. We are so blessed in those areas. Spending a lot of time with family and friends over the last few weeks has made us realize again how much we enjoy being with our extended families and friends.

Of course, being married to the most amazing man on the planet does give me a lot to be thankful for. :)

This year my health has also improved quite a bit (and/or I've gotten better at pacing myself and limiting activities--still learning that balance thing. :) ). It's particularly telling looking back and realizing that at the beginning of 2009 I was using a cane, and now haven't used it for months.

Our friend and honorary daughter NLASS moved in with us in 2009--she is truly a gift from God.

We have had our lives much enriched by furry friends--we started Mira's service dog training (she can be a huge help to me in pacing myself, minimizing pain levels and letting me know when I'm about to have a "crash" or am overdoing it) and also started raising and showing satin and mini satin rabbits, which the girls and I enjoy immensely.

Homeschooling, housekeeping, parenting and marriage all seem to be at a pretty good place right now, which is a great blessing (typing this may be a bad thing . . . don't breathe--we don't want to upset the balance!).

DH is very good at his job and has good job security, which is also a great blessing.

We're making progress in the areas that were our biggest goals and concerns this year, thanks in part to help from other people or resources. The kids are all doing well and in general we're enjoying life.

We've had some losses and some sadness this year, but also much joy.

I have been feeling lately that I really have no right to be so blessed and happy, with life so full of good things.

May 2010 be a blessed year for everyone!

Birthday Present from the Bunnies

I got the perfect birthday present today . . . 9 baby mini satins. The mother is siamese and the father is white, so the dark ones will likely be chinchilla or self-chin black. Most of the light ones have dark eyes, so they'll hopefully be siamese, although they could also end up being ermine (a.k.a. ghost chinchilla)--white with dark eyes and a bit of grey ticking. Looks like at least 1 regular red-eyed white, too.

The girls and I are so much enjoying the colored mini satins, especially since we're getting some more mellow-tempered ones.

Wordless Wednesday 04 Feb 2009--Weddingness

(If you know me IRL, the photos that show our faces clearly are up on my Facebook album.)

2008 went out with a bang

It's been a very interesting few weeks. We had a snow and ice storm that pretty much kept us home except for emergencies. DH and the kids made a delicious double chocolate cake on my birthday, and my family sent flowers.

For Christmas, I made matching nightgowns for the girls and their dolls. After an initial tantrum from Ebee saying that she "hated" her nightgown and was "scared of it because it has mean ladybugs on it" (fabric she had picked out), things settled down and all three girls have been wanting to wear their nightgowns all the time. I might have to make them each a second set just so they'll let us have them long enough to launder them.

A highlight of the season was seeing the girls act out the Lord's birthday story with their wooden nativity set as DH read aloud from the Bible. We had a cozy holiday time together as a family.

The not-cozy parts were Snowflake's tail getting badly injured (someone--either canine or child--apparently grabbed it through the wire of the cage) and then getting her to the vet in the snowstorm (she is going to be OK, though she'll have a shorter and funny-looking tail), the branch which crashed through our roof (and is still sticking out of the ceiling as I type), and the days-long excruciating pain in my head which canceled our New Year's festivities and took me to the Urgent Care Clinic, where the diagnosis was a badly inflamed TMJ problem.

The bunnies have been relocated to the garage, where they have more space and will be safer, the branch is at least so tightly wedged in that it's not letting rain through, and my jaw is finally starting to feel better (which is a good thing, since I had an allergic reaction to one of the pain and/or anti-inflammatory medicines the doctor had me taking to try to control the pain).

We had a lovely time with DH's family on Monday, after the family Christmas party was rescheduled because of the weather. Today, we're grieving with our nephew and his wife and family as they mourn the loss of their unborn baby, the one we chatted happily about just a few days ago.

A couple of slightly newsworthy things to note:

A couple of days after getting the bunnies, we traded Bun-Bun the girl back to the breeder for her brother with the same coloring, who is now Bun-Bun the boy. The primary reason for this was finding out that it costs about 10 times as much to get a female rabbit spayed as it does to get a boy neutered.

The bunnies are completely charming, and amazingly enough Snowflake is still friendly and bold even after suffering through a tail injury and daily treatments. Gingersnap is quite the character--we were joking today that we should have named him Socks, because he likes to follow me around and nibble on my socks. Bun-Bun the boy is apparently older than the other two (and older than we were told) and is still a little shy, but we're hoping he will relax and warm up to us soon.

Mira and I had our first session with the trainer from the owner-trained service dog program. Initially she had said she wasn't sure if she would accept us or not, but would work with us for a month (or 4 sessions) before deciding for sure. But after our initial evaluation and then our session working on public access skills at a mall, she said that she had decided she would like to work with us. She thinks we show real potential as a team. So that's exciting! Of course, there's still no guarantee that we will be able to complete the program and pass all the tests, but for now we're in.

AJ, MM and Ebee have been having great fun playing with their dolls and their new toys, and have mostly been playing well together. This coming week the challenge will be getting back into a routine with our homeschooling after taking some time off for the holidays.

In the past few weeks, I've found myself increasingly thankful that we are all together, safe, and warm. Our needs are being provided for, and more. I'm thankful that we are held in the hollow of the hand of the One who knows the number of hairs on our heads, and doesn't miss the fall of a sparrow.

May 2009 be a full, peaceful, healthy, joy-filled and blessed year for all.

J's Birthday Party, by AJ

AJ has been doing a unit this week on the writing process. She started with brainstorming ideas and writing a word web. Then she picked a few of her favorite details to include in the story, and numbered them in the order they belonged.

After that we wrote a first draft, revised it, copied the new draft (including some more descriptive words she chose from the thesaurus), proofread it (including looking up words in the dictionary to check spelling), and re-read it again to catch any errors that were missed the first few times.

Then it was time to "publish" her story. I decided to allow her to start her own blog, with careful rules and supervision. If you want her blog address, drop me a note via e-mail. I'm not going to share it online.

Here's AJ's story about her cousin J's birthday party the weekend before last:

One Sunday we went to our cousin J's birthday party in B------. It was fun. While we drove there, we counted cars.

When we got there we ate. The food was delicious. The games were fun. We didn't play the sock race game, but I played the balloon race.

On the trip home it was dim outside and shadowy inside. We were glad to go to bed when we got home. The day was enjoyable.

Here are some photos I took this weekend at Adventurous BIL's and Artistic SIL's property in B-----. It's incredibly beautiful out there.



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Impromptu Trip

We took a wrong turn Satuday night and ended up at the coast, so we decided to make an adventure of it. We spent a night and day at the coast, then came halfway home and stayed at Adventurous BIL and Artistic SIL's house the second night. After an afternoon exploring and playing on their acreage, we finally came home just in time to cook dinner Monday night.

It was a great adventure that the kids and I will remember for a long time.



It's a good reminder that God can take even a wrong turn and make it into a beautiful thing.

Tooth!

Our new camera came today--hooray! I love it. The resolution is much higher and it takes better pictures than the one we lost.

I am finally feeling a little better. It may or may not have anything to do with the fact that I've gone back off of gluten and most sugars. I'm back to where I'm willing to try just about anything if it will help, LOL.



M&M's tooth came out today. She was beyond excited, and AJ was so sweetly enthusiastic with and happy for her. Ebee wanted me to check her mouth to see if she had a loose tooth yet, but no such luck (thankfully).

DH commented, "Now I understand why someone invented the tooth fairy! They needed a way to convince kids not to carry their teeth around for weeks showing them to everyone after they fall out."

New Home

We drove all day today to go get Baby and bring her home. She is fabulous.

The owner decided to try to keep the chi-pom with her, so she didn't come home with us. That dog wouldn't have been a good fit for our family anyway--too strongheaded, high-wired, yappy, independent and slightly aggressive.

Baby is very worried right now that we are going to leave her, which is understandable. I'm going to have to get some advice on dealing with severe separation anxiety. We are going to either go to church in shifts tomorrow or one of us will stay home with her. We'll probably start working with her by gradually having her spend increasing amounts of time in a crate, starting with short periods and working up to longer times until she understands that we are not going to abandon her. First I have to figure out if I can get her into a crate. :)

She was so unhappy when we got home and I told her, "This is home. This is your home now." Her head and tail drooped and she didn't want to come into the house. She wanted to go to the home that she knew. Poor Baby.

Ebee is the only one who really likes Baby's name, so we're thinking about changing it. DH and two older girls want to call her Lady. I think that name is a bit too common for dogs, but I might be willing to compromise with it unless I can come up with something that we all like better. At least it sounds similar to the name she's used to. I like the name Daisy, too.

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She is so amazingly smart. And beautiful, and sweet. She is a bit protective of her people; we'll have to wait and see how much if any of an issue that will be. She is obviously very in-tune with her person and their emotions.

She came without a collar or leash . . . the previous owner hadn't used either on her for so long that she didn't even have any. Baby was a bit uncertain about the collar and leash when I first put them on her, but was ok with them. She doesn't pull excessively on the leash. She seems to already know how to heel on the left side.

She really does fetch things, including the remote, and she is quite tall standing on her hind paws to reach things. We're going to have to guard the kitchen counters, as she has already demonstrated that she can easily reach them. :)

She's very talented at catching pieces of food tossed into the air, and happily does tricks for food. So far I've seen her shake, sit up and beg, sit, lay down and come with alacrity. She's supposed to be able to count to any number up to 10, but hasn't shown us this trick yet.

She is quite polite. She has not tried to drink out of Kelly's bowl, only her own. She stands and waits at the side of the car until you tell her to get in. She was used to sitting in the passenger seat in the car, and at first every time one of us got out of the van she would jump into the empty seat. But it only took making her get down a couple of times before she understood that she wasn't supposed to sit there.

If you spread out a blanket and tell her to lay down on it, she will lay on it instead of the carpet.

One of her favorite pastimes at her last home was attempting to herd the landlord's horses, so we'll have to see how high her prey drive is. Hopefully she won't try to herd the kids. She hasn't tried to jump on the kids at all or be anything but extremely gentle and quiet with them. She will fetch a toy and bring it back to them.

I'm guessing she's not a big chewer, because her two favorite toys that she brought along with her are both stuffed toys in quite good condition.

She is quite thin . . . it doesn't look that way so much on first glance because her fur is beautiful and fluffy. But every knob in her spine sticks out, it's very easy to feel her ribs, and her sides are like gullies next to where her hips stick out. She was so hungry, she gulped down all the food we gave her. I'm not sure how much it's ok to feed her. We'll have to ask the vet about that.

I got some canned dog food that is basically meat with a few vegetables and added vitamins, and the highest-quality dry dog food I could find (mostly meat, and no grains except rice). She has been eating exclusively table scraps for a while, the lady said, because she couldn't afford to buy the dry food that she used to feed her. Baby devoured a can of dog food, a 5-piece chicken nuggets (her favorite treats, we were told, were Hot Wings and chicken nuggets), and some dry dog food, then took about 3 minutes to demolish a large Nylabone edible chew.

Baby's 6-week-old puppies (her second litter) were just taken away from her a couple of days ago, and she is quite engorged and dripping vast quantities of milk everywhere. I'm told we'll have to wait until her milk dries up before she can be spayed.

She has cheat grass sores on her feet that look quite painful, too--I need to figure out what we can do for that while we wait for her vet appointment Tuesday morning. I don't even know what cheat grass is. The tops of her toes and the areas between her toes are swollen and painful-looking, and at least one is oozing pus, but they are a normal color of pink--not red or purple or anything. She has licked the skin off the sore parts, and you can see the marks where it looks like something (cheat grass?) is embedded in the skin.

Her coat and skin and everything else otherwise look quite healthy, though. She doesn't seem to have any fleas or ticks. She does shed a lot, but we can handle that. :)

The previous owner said that she was born November 15th, 2006, but the vet records she gave us show that she got her first set of puppy shots in the first week of September 2006. So she appears to be just over age 2. She is due for all her shots, but did get the full set of puppy shots (and worming) and has had a Rabies vaccine recently enough that it's unlikely to have worn off yet. It's so helpful to have all her vet records.

The lady who had her said that Baby's mother was a collie and the father was a "big black St. Bernard." I don't think there's any such thing as a black St. Bernard, and she doesn't look at all like she has Newfoundland or St. Bernard in her, so I'm not sure if that's accurate or not. I'm just calling her a collie mix for now. :) She is brown and white, with long black fringing on her ears. Her skin is pink with dark spots on it, but the spots on her skin don't coincide with the spots in her fur. She is about 23" tall at the shoulder.

She gets along ok with Kelly, Morning's dog that we're dogsitting. (I checked with Morning to make sure it was OK to introduce them, since they were acting like they really wanted to meet each other.) They're about the same size, but Kelly weighs a lot more of course.

Kelly was so excited to see Baby and wanted to play with her, but Baby just sniffed her and then pretty much ignored her. Kelly was slightly disappointed and then went back to lounging around. They both seem quite comfortable around each other, but they're not going out of their way to interact. Baby doesn't like it when one of us pets Kelly and is not petting Baby. :) She doesn't try to hurt Kelly, but she does try to push her way between us to edge Kelly out.

Baby was slightly nervous around DH at first (she lived with an abusive man in the past, from what we were told), but as soon as she realized that he was gentle, soft-spoken, and kind she latched onto him. She's spent much of the evening sitting on his feet. DH, the dog and kid magnet, wins again. LOL.

Containing her is going to be a challenge--at least if we're trying to contain her away from us. She already figured out how to open the bathroom door and the baby gate, and she panicks when she's left alone. She wants to be right with us--preferably touching us--at all times.

We got out a large crate we were hoping she would feel secure with and use as a den, but she was uninterested and Kelly (who hasn't been crated before, at least in the time Morning has had her) immediately claimed it and hasn't budged from it since. She seems very happy in it. I'm guessing she must have been crate-trained as a puppy.

I'm noticing lots of little things, like that Baby took forever to go to the bathroom. She wouldn't go no matter how many times I tried to take her potty until she finally HAD to go on the grass. She cringed just a bit as she was going, then visibly relaxed when I praised her. Apparently she wasn't sure if we were going to get after her for pottying or not.

She is going to have to get used to our soft-spoken ways. She's used to being spoken to repeatedly and with growing intensity in both Spanish and English until she does something, from what we saw. She does seem to respond better to Spanish than to English, so it comes in handy that I speak a little Spanish. She picks up anything so quickly, though, that I don't think she'll have any trouble transitioning to English.

She's not at all food-defensive, and let me take her edible Nylabone briefly and then give it back to her with no trouble. She did growl at me slightly when I first got out of the van when we arrived. I think she sensed that her owner was upset to see me, because she was holding back tears at having to hand over her dog. As soon as the lady told her I was a friend and shook my hand, she was fine. So we'll definitely have to keep an eye on that. We're not going to have the kids around her unsupervised, and will be closely involved with any interactions for the forseeable future, just because we don't want to take any chances.

She is a sensitive soul, and responds very well to praise and rewards, and so far she listens well to being told "no." (We'll see how mischevious she gets once she gets more comfortable here--she could definitely keep us hopping with her intelligence and abilities!) She'll fit right in with our parenting style, I think--we prefer to focus on instruction and praise and non-punitive consequences rather than punishments even with our kids.

I'm thanking the Lord for sending us this dog. I know we're in for some challenges, and I'm sure we'll face some unexpected hurdles. But I think Baby is perfect for us. The previous owner told me that she had been praying every night that she would be able to find a nice family with children who would love and care for Baby, and we've certainly been praying for the right dog for our family.

I can't wait to see how things progress as she gets more comfortable with us.

Just now she got up and stared at me, made a low almost growling noise in her throat, and waited. When that didn't bring the results she wanted, she gave a low, short bark, still staring at me intently. I said, "What is it, Baby? What do you want?" and she started toward the doorway, looking back to make sure I was following, and tried to lead me down to the kitchen. She was hungry again.

Baby

We may be getting our dog tomorrow. Her name is Baby, and she's supposed to be a lab/collie mix.



If what the current owner says about her is true, she's truly an amazing dog. The owner was telling me about the "cute tricks" she does--including opening the refrigerator to get out a bottle of water and bringing it to someone, bringing keys, remote, etc. upon request, coming in response to a bell ringing and then going to fetch a person the bell-ringer requested, and getting anything that someone points to and asks her to bring.



None of these were things that anyone specifically tried to teach her, supposedly. Just things she picked up on her own. The lady's brother had cerebral palsy, and the dog just started doing these things to help him. The brother passed away recently, and Baby's owner is no longer able to care for her.

If she is as described, she is not only incredibly smart and loving, but also great with kids. She loves to play frisbee and fetch.

She's 1 and 1/2 years old and just weaned her second litter of puppies. Poor thing. We won't be able to have her spayed until her milk dries up, but we'll be taking her to the vet to get checked over right away. She does have some cheat grass sores on her paws that need to be treated, and I want to make sure she's up to date on her vaccines and doesn't have fleas before we bring her into the house.



There's also a chihuaua/pomeranian mix from the same family, also needing a home. The lady who has them is being evicted on Sunday, and hasn't been able to give the dogs good care for a while anyway.

So, we're going out to see the dogs tomorrow. Baby sounds almost a little too good to be true, so I'm reserving judgement until I see her. She's certainly a cutie. If she is anything close to what the lady says, she'll be coming home with us. If the pom/chi mix seems like she'd be safe around the kids, we might also take her at least for a few days until we can find a rescue or foster home for her.

Since Kelly isn't leaving until Monday or Tuesday, we may end up having three dogs in the house for a few days.

Fun at the Fair

We went to opening day of the fair with Morning again this year. A local store always sponsors free entry and a pancake breakfast with coupons from the store. We skip standing in line for the pancake breakfast, but try to go to the free opening day every year.

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DH had planned to take the day off work and go, too. But with his project deadline at hand and several missed work days due to illness this week, he decided to wait.

We had thought AJ would have to stay home after being sick in bed with a fever all day yesterday. But her fever broke last night, and she felt perfectly fine this morning. So, since we would be mainly outdoors anyway, I went ahead and took all three girls. AJ felt fine and was full of energy all day, so it was a good decision I think. We did try not to breathe on or get too close to anyone, and washed hands often. :)

M&M is sick with a tummy ache and diarrhea tonight, and Ebee was complaining of a tummy ache too--which seems like a different virus altogether if it's not just from the fair food. The fair food actually seems to be as likely a culprit, given the sensitive tummies we have here. I was just so thankful not to have to worry about food allergies this year.

Anyway, we did have a wonderful time. It was really great to have Morning along, and we enjoyed ourselves thoroughly taking in the fair.



We saw all kinds of creatures, including bees, cats, livestock of all types, rabbits, poultry, and even reptiles. We saw sheep being sheared, cows being bathed, and goats being shown.





The kids especially enjoyed getting to pet some of the critters we saw--including an alligator!



We found our exhibits, and were excited to see the ribbons we had won. AJ and M&M were thrilled that they won third place ribbons this year instead of the "thank you for participating" ribbons they got last year. Ebee got an "excellent" sticker and a note that her picture was "very sweet"--not bad for her very first entry.

AJ's scrap art entry: Bobbi the Alien Warrior:



M&M's painting, "Happy House with Tooth-Shaped Cloud":



Ebee's sketch, "Happy Daddy":



I won second-place ribbons on all four of my photos, and Mom and SisJ got seconds on the photos I helped them enter, too.



I was surprised (and pleased!) to do so well on my first attempt at entering photos in a contest. Most of the categories at our fair are graded on a system of merit, and only a few of the awards (such as "superintendent's choice") are limited in number. So there can be many first, second and third-place ribbons given out in a particular category.

As a last-minute thought, I pulled out the only crocheted project I had completed and kept this year, and entered that. It won a blue ribbon, which was not a surprise after the last few blue-ribbon crocheting experiences, but made me happy. :)



Ebee grew several inches this year and was finally big enough for all the kiddie rides, which was very exciting for her. DH and I bought discount ride tickets in advance, and we had enough for each child to go on two rides. I went along with M&M and Ebee on the little caterpillar roller coaster, which was fun for M&M and me, but not so much for Ebee. She later she said that she enjoyed the roller coaster a little bit and was only a little scared.

Morning took AJ over to ride on the merry-go-round while the rest of us were doing the little roller coaster, so I sent the camera with her:



As a special highlight of the day, we also saw a beautiful little sheltie. She was an assistance dog for a lady in a wheelchair, and her owner let us pet her and told us about the work she does. Even Ebee (who is usually uncertain with dogs) fell in love with the little lass. I hope the shetland sheepdog my SIL rescued is so sweet and gentle, and that we get to take her home from the shelter this week.

Fun at the park, a baby, and a rash

It's been a fun couple of days. Last night I went wedding dress shopping with Dr. AB and we found "the one." It is rather unique and special, and it looks lovely on her. I got to meet Dr. A's future SIL also, which was fun.

We went back to Dr. A's place after our shopping trip to eat and hang out. She lives on a hill, and there's not enough parking near her condo, so as usual I ended up having to park clear down at the bottom of the hill near the entrance to the complex.

I was really encouraged, because I walked all the way from my car to her apartment with no trouble and wasn't even much winded when I got there. Last time I was there I had a really hard time making it up the hill and had to stop 3 or 4 times to rest and then was completely tired and out of breath when I finally made it. It's really encouraging to see a tangible sign of progress like that. Without those measurable signs of progress it just seems like it's still taking forever to get fully recovered from having had mono.

Ebee was feeling significantly better by Friday, and today she seemed perfectly healthy and energetic. So we went to the picnic to celebrate the birth of our newest niece (DH's sister's child). That was a lot of fun. Little SR is adorable, and we had fun playing games and watching all the cousins enjoy the park, the lake and each other's company.





Here's a photo of SR and her mother--aren't they lovely?




In the afternoon, though, I noticed that Ebee had some sort of funny-looking spots on her torso and upper arms--oh, and on her face too. They looked sort of similar to the rashes she used to get with her allergies. I figured it was probably a heat rash, irritation from the sunscreen, or something like that. But since my SIL is an experienced mother, I asked her what she thought of it.

I was really surprised when she looked at it and said, "Oh, that looks like Rubella (or German Measles). When my child had it . . . " and started detailing symptoms and a progression of illness that pretty much exactly fit with what Ebee had this week.



When I talked to Dr. A, she said it certainly sounded like a possibility. So we'll call Ebee's pediatrician tomorrow and see if they want to run titers or anything. Since Rubella is contagious from about a week before the fever starts until 4 days after the rash is gone, we've probably exposed some people. :-(

It's not a serious disease except for unborn babies . . . there is a risk to the baby if a mother comes down with it during pregnancy. I am a little concerned since we were with my friend JT who is pregnant, and another friend who is TTC this week. I'm guessing, though, that they probably all had their MMRs as kids and are most likely immune.

We're definitely staying home from church in the morning, though. We don't want to be exposing everyone there.

White on White

Here are a couple of pictures I took last night. We watched the video of our wedding and then opened the cedar chest to look at my keepsakes.

The girls are enthralled with my dress and veil, and say they want to wear them in their own weddings someday. Of course, I know their tastes may change as they get older, but it would be fun if one or more of them decided to wear my dress.



DH and I actually celebrated our anniversary on Tuesday. Our friend CreativeCrafty watched the girls while we went out to see Wall-E (cute movie) and then out to dinner. It worked out really well, since Ebee ended up getting sick on our anniversary.

Ebee is feeling much better already today. I've been lacing her watered-down juice with sodium ascorbate (buffered Vitamin C), and giving her cod-liver oil (in capsules--she actually likes them!) and a children's echinacea concoction, and that seemed to help quite a bit. She has no fever and much more energy and cheer today.

As Amy mentioned yesterday, I'm so very thankful that days like yesterday are now the exception rather than the norm. Praise the Lord for healthy kids!

9 years ago today

I signed my life away.



And I'd do it all over again in a heartbeat.



My Beloved, I'm so incredibly blessed to be married to you. I love you.

Summer Smiles

We've had some great things to smile about this week. First, our newest niece was born (to Musical Family from Overseas).



Isn't she adorable?

We've had several births, a wedding, and lots of great family get-togethers this summer.

Also, my friend Dr. A is getting married. Hooray! I'm also excited that I get to be in the wedding. I've been cake cutter, punch server, gift attendant, etc. many times, but this will be my first time actually being in the wedding party in a wedding other than my own. I'm the matron of honor, and I'm so . . . well . . . honored. :) M&M is going to be the flower girl and AJ will be doing something, too; possibly being the guest book attendant.

One of our neighbors is having a garage sale and offered to let us put some things out to sell, too. It's such a blessing to me because I have some things I wanted to take to consign, and just haven't had the energy. I definitely wouldn't have the energy to run a garage sale myself right now, so being able to put some things over at the neighbor's sale is great. I took over our old crib and about 3 big bags of clothes, and a few miscellaneous other things. It's so nice to be able to get those out of the house.

After taking things over to the sale yesterday, though, I was exhausted. Thankfully my friend Morning was understanding when she came to visit. After she left, I ended up spending much of the afternoon lying on the couch. At least from there I was able to supervise the kids and direct them in picking up their things and getting ready for their end-of-VBS performance that evening. DH brought take-out Chinese food home for dinner. Thanks so much, Honey!

The performance was very cute, and they did a great job. It was especially nice that my dad and sisters and Dr. A were able to come see the kids' little program. That means so much to them. My mom can't go to things like that because of her compromised immune system (kidney transplant), but sent her love.

Tomorrow we have the family reunion for my mom's family. That will be nice . . . I'm really hoping I'll have enough energy to get through the weekend. Right now I'm completely out of spoons.

Priceless Memories

We got home last night. We're tired, but happy. I'm feeling a little better after a long sleep last night.

Here are a couple more pictures my mom took of me and the girls playing in the water.





I'll try to do a little less running and jumping next time (I think that was what made the tendonitis in my ankle act up so badly), but it was worth being a little tired and sore to create these kinds of memories with my kids and family.