Things I've Forgotten

This weekend there was a women's retreat in Northwest Arkansas put on by the women of our church. So Thursday I brought Josh to Mom and Dad's house in southwest Missouri so they could watch him while I went to the retreat and so Michael could have a peaceful and productive weekend. Sometimes I'm struck how much I've forgotten about being at my parents' house. Here are some of them:

1. It's a small house. You hear everything. I remember growing up being able to determine who was coming in the door just by the way their footsteps sound and how they shut the door.

2. They like to open the shades every day to let the light in. We have a pretty light house in Arkansas and I often forget to open the shades. It's a nice thing - to let the light in and enjoy the day.

3. My mom works so hard. When I was growing up I NEVER appreciated how much physical labor it took for her to work full time, cook, clean, take care of kids, do laundry, etc. She is such a hard worker, and never complains about all she has to do.

4. I dislike clutter. The older mom and dad get the more they collect. If you look at older pictures of our house there was not much clutter. But somehow it's grown over the years (especially after retirement), and with a small house it's a constant struggle to find somewhere to put something. Although my house may look more bare, I like it that way.

5. My parent's take Josh more in stride than I do. They have always welcomed him into their home and life. Rather than stop everything they are doing they incorporate him into what they do (when possible). Josh is a HUGE fan of my dad and loves to be around him all the time.

6. Mom and dad keep a well-stocked pantry. While it does make more food to store it's nice not to have to go to the store to make a meal. They can always find something to fix.

7. While this is the only house I ever knew growing up, it's no longer home to me. I don't know when that happened. Maybe in college? Maybe when I got married? At some point it became strange to spend long periods of time here. Not because I didn't feel welcome, but because I was used to being on my own and had my own place. Now, with a family I am really settled into our home and so thankful for it.

8. I liked growning up in a small town. The majority of the people I graduated with in my class of 33 were people I started kindergarten with. It was a good experience, and I wouldn't trade it. But I certainly wouldn't choose to live in a small town now without a decent-sized town close by. The closest mall from here is an hour away. At least there was Walmart 15 minutes away when I grew up, but not much else.

Buried in Shirts

I had a pile of Michael's shirts waiting to got the dry cleaners

yesterday. Josh decided that he would cover himself up with them. Why not?

Icky Sicky

Josh has been really sick starting on Valentine's Day and progressively getting worse. We finally took him to the doctor on Saturday. He had eye infections and an ear infection along with a terrible cough and stopped up nose. So our sick-saga never seems to end.

You can see in the pictures how gross Josh looked. This really does nothing to show how nasty his goopy eyes were, how red they got or how crusty his nose was. I canNOT stand to have stuff on his face like that (Mike does not care), but Josh would throw a fit when I tried to get him cleaned up. Maybe his nose was sore.

Anyway, we had about three ROUGH nights without much sleep. There were several breakdowns on my part after the tiredness set in, but we are all on the mend now, praise God!

My Sweetheart is SO Sweet

Michael had flowers sent to me for Valentine's Day. They arrived on Wednesday (a day early). I was feeling emotional for a number of reasons (girls are entitled to that, right?) so when they came I just cried and cried. He is so sweet. Josh was a little concerned about my crying, but I assured him they were happy tears (because I'm sure he knows the difference). :o) Anyway, I have enjoyed my flowers so much over the past week. They sure say "I love you!"

Tulips are my favorite, and they are the first flowers Michael ever bought me. It was our first "real" date in Febuary of 2001. He even made me a chocolate cake (never has done it again) and made the frosting. Unfortunately he slipped on the icy porch of my apartment steps in Indiana and fell. The plate with the cake broke in two pieces. We did salvage the cake, but Mike was terribly embarassed!

Mikey in the News

Michael was the "expert" featured on a story the other night on the local news. He still hasn't watched it! He says he knows what he said and doesn't need to watch it. Here is the link. I'm not sure how long the link will be active.

http://www.4029tv.com/video/15331016/index.html

Bubba's Boo-boo

Joshy got his first real boo-boo a few weeks ago. After I told him not to do it he still reached over and touched the burner on the hot stove. (His favorite word is hot). He cried and cried. He didn't know quite what to do with the pain so he ripped the blister off of the finger burned the worst. Of course that made it hurt more.

As it healed he was quite obsessed with having a bandaid on one or two fingers. Now that it's better he still wants a bandaid on his finger. Unfortunately they end up falling off quite often.

We Have A Climber!

Josh climbs onto and into everything he can think of. We have to really watch him. Lately he has been dumping out the clothes from the hamper, turning it upside down and then climbing onto it. Then into the dryer he goes. It's quite unsafe because the hamper is not too stable.

I Have Nothing To Say

Here is a day when I have nothing to say but want to say something. I talked to my mom today and really couldn't think of a single interesting thing to say. I've just been cooped up in the house for so long I'm desperate for intereaction with someone that is older than 1 year of age. Help! I need to not be followed to the bathroom and have to announce "Mama has to go potty." I need to not read and re-read the line "Roses are red and Elmo is too. There are so many red things and so much to do." I need to not hunt down a binky every 10 minutes.

I called my friend Julie today and asked if I could stop by to chat for a minute and bring her a loaf of bread. I didn't have anything interesting to say to her either. But I needed a girlfriend to make me feel human again. She did. She's very real and funny and engaging. And there is always a new development to tell me with her friend who is having a terrible torrid secret affair. (The latest is that she's dumped him). It's quite disturbing.

All in all. I just need a break every now and then. Being sick has kept me at home for so long. I need to breathe! I think I'm going to get my hair highlighted on Thursday. It looks quite skanky and is overdue. Maybe that will be the pick-me-up I need. I told Michael tonight I'm just not feeling Valentine's Day this year. Maybe on Thursday I will.

Snow (barely)

Not a big fan of the snow in his hair or eyelashes.

We recently got some snow here in Arkansas. It wasn't even enough to cover the grass, but that's all we ever seem to get! It's not even pretty except when it falls. Josh was quite fascinated with the snow and kept asking about it the next day. It sounds more like "no" than snow, but I know what he is asking. In fact he still asks about it and notices it on tv when it's on.

I miss the snow, but it was awfully nice to go out on this Sunday afternoon in February without jackets and play in the backyard.

A Symbol of Our Love

For our recent date night Michael brought me a flower. Here is a flower a week or so later. Michael always tells me when I admire whatever flower he has brought me to hear it say, "I love you! I love you!" If I listen closely I can hear it tell me just that. But after it dies I like to tell Michael that the flower is just a symbol of our love. Ha!

Curtains - finally!

My parents came a month or so ago for a visit. While they were here my dad and Michael got my window treatments put up in the kitchen. The story behind these can still make my blood boil if I think about it too hard. The lady at the store who made them said it would be 8 weeks before I got them. Well, it was 5.5 months before I got them. It was ridiculous!

Then they were kind of crazy to hang so they sat in our hall closet for a long time until Michael could get some help to hang them. When they went to hang them they found one was too long over the sink where the fabric is mashed up against the cabinet. Also the board over the big window is BOWED! Is is off by about 1". My dad urged me to have the people make it right, but after all I had been through with them I never wanted to talk to the lady again. Anyway, they are now up and unless you look the problems are not too obvious.

I'm so glad to have window treatments after living here 4 years!!! You can see in the picture that Josh was worse than a puppy dog trying to "help." He has to be right in the middle of everything.

The Flu

It has felt like life will never return to normal. Michael came home with the flu last Thursday, absolutely miserable. He spent at least three hours sitting in the bathroom thinking he was going to throw up. Then he just sat there because he felt so crummy with a fever close to 104 degrees. After a few days I then got the illness. It has just zapped me. Even after I felt better I would just get so sleepy I could hardly go. This is day seven and I finally feel close to normal. Praise God!

During this whole time we were praying Josh would not get it. Well Thursday his voice sounded a little bad so we kept him home from the babysitter just to be EXTRA cautious. We didn't want another house to suffer like we had. He ran a slight fever on Thursday evening but has never had much besides that. We are so thankful!

We did feel like dorks having to cancel our Super Bowl party on Sunday. Then I was supposed to talk for a bit at the women's meeting at church Tuesday. I had to cancel that as well. We've just chalked it up to life. It happens.

We are so looking forward to a "normal" week of feeling good and getting stuff done.