Catching up

I haven't blogged in several days, so I'm catching up today. I stayed around the house until yesterday. We got out for a little while yesterday evening. I've felt good, my groin area is just a bit sore. Nothing ibuprofen won't fix. I just can't imagine what little Mav must have felt, though. They poked so many times the last time they tried to do the heart cath to create an ASD. And I know that pain was nothing compared to his two open heart surgeries and other procedures and operations. He was truly a tough little guy.

We all went to church today. The sermon was great. It was on James 3:13-16 and was about wisdom. Here's one thing Todd said, "Wisdom is not understanding all that is going on. Wisdom is making good decisions as life is thrown at you." I've been trying to understand the why's of everything that has happened. I still can't make sense of it. I know that I need to just continue on and focus on making good decisions now. Sometimes it's hard though. His sermon gave me some things to ponder and implement.

I can't tell you how palpable the relief is in this house. Things were so tense and uncertain before the procedure. We weren't sure if it would work or if we would be looking at an open heart surgery sometime in the near future. And there are always risks with any procedure. The kids were pretty wound up about it, especially Maddie. Greg was very concerned. It's just been so nice to have this issue behind us, and I've been feeling better emotionally since it's over. Greg has, too.

One thing I'm going to miss are the amazing meals my friends cooked, though. I can't, in good conscious, "milk" this anymore... sigh. My children are going to have higher expectations of me this week. Every night at the table, the kids had nice compliments to say about the food and the person/people who prepared it. My favorite/funny comment was from the Chlo, of course. She said, "Ms. Gaynell is da best cook in da evah." We got a bunch of groceries at the big W. Maybe I can win them back over with my "famous" spaghetti. That's the dish they all like the best of mine. My secret? Prego from a jar - pour into 1 pound cooked hamburger meat. I don't know what happened in my family. The good-cook gene was passed on to my brother instead of me. That is so not fair.

Thanks for all your prayers. Love you all, jc

Wash Me

Ok, I can't figure out how to rotate this image from my phone, but you can read the writing better this direction anyway. She was playing outside with Carter and Kirk without shoes on and her feet were black. Dianna (Kirk's mom, my friend) gave me the idea to do this to her feet. She giggled the whole time I was "writing" on her feet.

Maddie's tomatoes

Here's a pic of Maddie with her first ripe tomato - it's kind of hard to see. It's a cherry tomato. She has several different kinds growing and they've all done amazingly well. She also has a watermelon growing. I think she has a green thumb.

Kids playing

Here are the kids playing yesterday. Kirk dressed up, the girls put on their army shirts, and C-man just stayed in his regular clothes. The girls came into the kitchen with blue sparkly stuff under their eyes before they went outside. I asked Maddie what it was. Want to take a guess? Nailpolish. I let her know that taking it off would be stinky and the fumes might hurt their eyes and noses. Then I dismissed them outside - that was dealt with later. They played for quite a while and had fun. The polish came off without many complaints, but that will probably be the last time they decide to do that. It does look pretty cute, though.

Me with my ice cream

Ok, the ice cream pics need an explanation. We've been to the big W and I did alot of shopping. The ice cream bars the kids have were free - I had some good coupons. The Starbucks ice cream I have - caramel macchiato - is yummy and was only around 45 cents from a coupon in last Sunday's paper. So, we sat outside this evening and had some ice cream. The "cool front" that came in left the temperature in the low 90's today, and after the 100+ weather the past several day, it felt pretty pleasant outside this evening. I just had to brag a little about my deals :)

A pic of Carter with his ice cream sandwich

He's had a good weekend. He and his friend Kirk have played pretty much all weekend. They keep themselves entertained and have a great time together.

A pic of Chloe and her favorite baby

Chloe continues to take care of her baby. She puts clothes on it in the morning and changes it's diaper and puts jammies on it at night. She talks baby talk to it and talks to us about it all the time. Sometimes baby is a girl and sometimes it's a boy. Baby is usually just baby, but sometimes its name changes. Baby has been in the hospital and was very sick, "but she got betta. She not die." She'll bring up the times that baby had the yellow thing in her nose (Mav had a yellow feeding tube in his nose). The other day she said, "My baby was all ova me in da bed last night." I think she's heard that line from me - she still sleeps with us sometimes. Here's a funny story about "baby" from a few weeks ago. We were at Walmart getting some groceries and baby had to go with us. Baby had clothes and a hat on and had to sit in the front of the cart I was pushing. I had some coupons and stuff sitting on baby's lap and baby was laying back and to the side with it's head kind of out of the cart. A woman walked by us on the toothpaste aisle and I saw her out of the corner of my eye. She did a double take and I heard her gasp. I looked up at her and she was looking at baby and then at me. I had to show her that baby wasn't real and explain that she has to go with us everywhere. We both got a good laugh out of it.