"It smells like Baby Maverick..."

"It smells like Baby Maverick out here," I heard Chloe say as we were getting out of the truck late tonight. She's my child who always smells everything. She'll smell your breath and ask if you've been eating "x" and she's usually right. She'll smell perfume on someone walking by in a store and say, "She smells like grandma." She has a very sensitive sense of smell. It caught me off guard when she said this. We had just driven outside of Shawnee to pick up Carter. He decided late this evening that he didn't want to stay at his friend's house for a second night. It was dark outside, but the light of the full moon was bright enough for me to see her looking up at the sky and breathing in deeply to capture the scent. She said it again and again as she spun around on the driveway with her arms outstretched, looking up at the stars. I finally said,"Maybe he's telling you goodnight." She looked at me for a moment then looked back up and started spinning around again yelling, "Goodnight Maverick! Goodnight Maverick! I love you!" Then I said it too with a tear in my eye.

I'm continuing to work on cleaning and de-cluttering. I'm getting closer. I may call for some help tomorrow - my friend, Dianna wanted to come over tomorrow so the boys could play. She's good at organizing things and I'm not. I know my weaknesses and that's one of them. That play date may help me get a lot accomplished - get ready Ms. Di.

Maddie's still working on her room. We found a desk at a thrift store the other day for $14.98. It needed sanding and painting. I taught her how to use the palm sander and she's been tackling that task. She enjoys learning how to do things and likes to do them herself. She'll be well equipped for the real world someday. I'm so proud of her. I'm so proud of all of them, it's fun to watch them learn new things and grow up. I just wish time would go by a little bit slower.

Maddie, Chloe and I went to Edmond today for an appointment (Carter was at his friend's house). Maddie had a dark spot show up on her palate (the roof of her mouth), so our dentist wanted her to see an oral surgeon. He thinks it's just a "freckle," but just to be sure we're having a biopsy done on Wednesday. They'll send it off for pathology and we should know something in a week. Keep her in your prayers. Our dentist told us the chance of it being something bad was "like the chance of winning the lottery... But someone has to win the lottery." With our luck in the past year I wonder if maybe I should start buying lottery tickets, hmmmm.

While we were sitting in the waiting area, Maddie was skimming through an Edmond magazine. She spotted an ad for Baskin Robbins and about went wild. She loves Baskin Robbins and has since our trip to Colorado several years ago. They're kind of hard to find in Oklahoma. She pleaded to go by there before we went home, so we did. That made their day. Chloe wanted to bring home an ice cream cake. I kept telling her that it would melt by the time we made it home. She tried to talk me into it by saying that we could eat it quickly on the way home. She's such a funny little mess. I would have taken a picture, but my phone is having technical difficulties.

I guess my phone finally got tired of being dropped. Now whenever someone calls, they can't hear me very well. To demonstrate, Maddie called me from my phone and her voice was so garbled, it was difficult to figure out what she was saying. We had an extra phone here, so I put my SIM card in it. It takes pics, but they're horribly blurry. There's also not a complete keyboard for texting, so I am handicapped when I try to text. It takes me forever. Greg just let me know my contract is up so I can go in anytime and get a new phone. I would really like another one like my old one (Blackjack). I had just learned how to do most of the things I needed. Greg says there are so many nicer ones out now. I need something fairly easy. I just read over this paragraph and I sound whiny. It's hard to believe that we used to get along just fine without cell phones. Do you remember the very first ones that looked like you were carrying around a brick? I remember going into a store with a guy I was dating when cell phones just came out. He walked around that store talking on his brick-like phone and I remember thinking "What a dork. He's trying to impress everyone with his new technology." That was obviously BG (before Greg). He would have never done that. Now everyone, myself included, do it.

Speaking of my hubby, his legs are really bothering him. He's now having some numbness and pain in his legs and feet. It's due to his back, but these symptoms have just started in the past couple of weeks. Keep him in your prayers, too.

Love you all, jc