Claire's Bedtime Prayer

Dear Lord,
Thank you for this day. It was a very wonderful day. Thank you that I got to see my cousin, Lillie, who I love so much. I got to see her three times. At her house, in our car and at church. And I really only hate Satan. But I love God and I want to obey Him but sometimes I can't. But I always try hard.
Amen

Typing is hard when you can't use your pointer finger.

I sliced my finger thid afternoon while makinf Sherried Tomato Soup for klunch. It's throws my typing off in a very silly way. It hurts and it's deep. I probably could use a stitch but I decided to go with the wound-up-tissue-secured-with-scotch-tape route instead. So far it's containing the blood.

Spring is creeping in and I'm so very happy about it. The other day the girls brought me the first Spring Beauty that popped up in our back yard. Later on that afternoon we got ready for a special church meeting and I thought about how they looked a lot like my own Spring Beauties.

We took several pictures and realized one thing. Claire cannot pose regular. She has to be twisted some way or another or a leg has to be lifted, something.

We were able to get a couple of pictures where the other two girls had a little more of the spotlight.

But even when she's in the background she's giving it her all.

Life is going to be fun with this one around.



Milestones

Elaina completed her 100th reading lesson just a few minutes ago. It is a good feeling to say we did it. We finished that entire book. It would have been easy to quit about 10- 15 lessons ago because she was already into real books at that point but I felt that for the sake of example we needed to finish the book. Finish what you start.
She amazes me.

Eily is hilarious. That girl has no fear and will probably be the one that breaks a few bones during her childhood. Jason and I like to stand at the kitchen window and watch her play outside. The other two girls have to rely on her to stop the wildly swaying see-saw because they are too scared to put their feet down while going that high. Eily just swings her legs over the side, holds on to the poles and drags her feet on the ground until it slows enough for the girls to feel it's safe to dismount. Then she opens her hands, drops to the ground and runs over the playhouse to climb up on top of the roof.
She makes me laugh.

Claire is becoming quite the fashionista. This morning I picked out a Chuck-E-Cheese play shirt for her to wear and she had to put it back and get a ruffled long tee because that one was "much cuter." I guess it is very important to look good for Charlie, the dog.
She makes me smile.

Claire, as Michael Buble.

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Thoughts

I have hit rock bottom as far as energy is concerned. I think the baby is having a growth spurt and maybe that's why. Last night and again this morning there has been more movement and limbs poking up and out than ever before. I think baby is running out of room and wanting to let me know that it doesn't want to be in my tummy forever.

I did go outside and play with the girls in the snow yesterday. That was really fun. We made a snowman that was pretty awesome and then Charlie knocked him down flat. We also made snow angels and jumped on the snowy trampoline. Guess what? Getting up from a snow angel position when you are The Walrus proves to be difficult.

It has been on my mind a lot lately that Elaina truly starts school in August. I'm a little intimidated and excited all at the same time. It's not the teaching that intimidates me but establishing school as a daily, first-thing-we-do-each-day habit. That is something that I have started to implement but not to a very strict degree. If we have a good morning, we do school. If it's low energy, we don't. That won't be acceptable next year. First grade is not a cheating year. I can't just cancel school to go meet Nanny in Fort Smith. While I am excited to get into this phase of life I'm a little sad to give up the freedom that we have had for almost 6 years.

We have snow! Real snow!! Able to play in it snow!!!

Yes, I call myself The Walrus. Why do you ask?

What we've been doing

We've had a stomach bug here at our house making the rounds. All three girls were hit hard but for some reason Eily never bounced back. Finally, Sunday afternoon, I took her to an outpatient clinic.
They did a urine sample and some blood work and sent us on to the ER.

We were in that room for a couple of hours and then they finally moved us up to the pediatric floor. It was so nice to have a comfortable place to lie down.

Eily never liked the IV in her arm but she was very good to leave it alone and not mess with it. I did catch her chewing the hose a couple of times.

Uncle Josh came by the next afternoon and brought her a new toy. Meet Ellie Mae, the dog.

Ellie Mae comes with a carrier, a food dish, food and a comb.

We were both so glad when they finally told us we could go home. We missed our family.

My favorite view at the hospital: