Happiness

I had a fabulous weekend with the girls. Gary was in Houston interviewing for jobs, and so it was just us girls for 3 days. We spent time at the mall, at Target, at the grocery store, meeting a good friend for lunch, planting spring flowers, painting our toenails, and just playing at home. It was blissful…especially because they were so well-behaved. I was able to have some great conversations with Anna Claire. She is becoming quite the conversationalist and is really fun to talk with.

In other news, I’m frantically trying to get caught up on laundry in preparation for my knee surgery on Friday (our laundry room is in the basement and I won’t be able to navigate stairs for a few days). And yes, my dear husband does do laundry – but he is so good about doing other chores around the house, I usually take care of the laundry (and fewer of my clothes experience shrinking – ha ha).

I’ve been so happy lately – the weather is warming up, I’ve been cleaning out closets like crazy and getting rid of stuff, spending some great time with my family, and just overall becoming more relaxed but also excited about our upcoming move. There will be parts that will be difficult, like leaving good friends, but I am excited about our upcoming adventure and am looking forward to decorating and nesting in our new home. I’m also excited to only work part-time and spend more time with Gary and the girls.

Life is good and I am richly blessed. :)

Cowboys and Indians

How you know your kids have been watching too many Westerns with your husband when you’re not home:

Anna Claire praying last night:

“Dear Jesus, please help those wild Indians not to be so wild.”

Busted!

Happy Easter To You!

Happy Resurrection Day to all of you!

I'm happy to say that Gary is feeling a bit better today and doing well. He even got out of bed this morning and came to church and to brunch with us. After we returned home from brunch, the girls looked at their Easter baskets and then hunted for eggs both inside and outside...then we all settled down for naptime, enjoyed a low-key dinner, and we ended the day with the girls in bed and Gary and I on the couch watching a Netflix DVD of CSI Miami - one of our favorite shows…it was a great day with beautiful weather and I was so glad that he was feeling well enough to participate.

Here are some pictures of the Easter egg hunting outside! The girls had such a great time and Leah really caught on quickly to how to pick up the eggs and put them in her basket. The flower headband is compliments of the Easter Bunny. :)

Sometimes, You Just Need A Girlfriend...

My friend D. is such a rock star. Gary is VERY sick with the flu (the kind that you get the flu shot for that obviously didn’t work for him). High fever, body aches, chills, bad headache, etc. The poor guy is miserable. Anyway, that means I can’t get out of the house without the girls to go get stuff for their Easter baskets. And obviously, I can’t do that or they’ll figure out who the Easter Bunny is, so I was going to go after they went to bed tonight. But my girlfriend D. came to our rescue and decided that she would help us out by doing a Target run for me. I opened the door, and sitting on the front doorstep was a 6-pack of Coke for Gary to settle his stomach, all the fixings for the Easter baskets for the girls, and a BIG Diet Coke with extra ice for me. Pure bliss. It just doesn’t get any better than a girlfriend who buys everything you could need or want for you when you can’t get out of the house.

I love you, D. You’re the best!

Momma Anna Claire

Overheard this morning over the baby monitor:

Anna Claire opens door to Leah’s room.

Anna Claire clucks her tongue and says, “LEAH! I am SO disappointed in you for taking off your diaper and throwing it on the floor. You are going to get a thump on the heinie!”

No response from Leah.

A few moments later, Anna Claire says, “Leah, now repeat after me…Que pasa, que pasa, que pasa!”

No response from Leah.

Miss Manners Would Roll Over In Her Grave

Tonight at dinner, my dear husband decided to amuse our children by showing them all the ways you can play with mini corn cobs (remember the kind that Tom Hanks tried to eat like corn on the cob in the movie Big?). Anna Claire especially thought it was hilarious.

How can I expect my girls to act like ladies when their daddy is showing them how to put a mini corn cob up their nose?

Ladies, can I get an "Amen?"

(OK, between you and me, I thought it was pretty funny, but it also further supported my theory that in every man, there lies a little boy who is still in about 5th grade).

Show Me Some Comment Love!

OK, all of you out there who are reading my blog...time to make yourselves known! :)

Do you know what delurking is? It's when you anonymously read someone's blog but don't post a comment...so come on and show me some "comment love"! At the end of each post, there's an opportunity for you to add a comment. Tell me what you like and give me some ideas for new posts (I do get writer's block from time to time), or just let me know that you're out there!

This One's For You, Kristin

A girlfriend of mine, Kristin, has three beautiful children, two of whom are girls. Since Anna Claire was 3 months old, Kristin has been kind enough to pass down the clothes that no longer fit Katie and Annie, and we have been SO unbelievably blessed with some beautiful outfits! Seriously, my children dress better than I do!

So, this morning I put on one of the sweetest outfits given to us - and I had to take a few pictures of Leah in it so Kristin could see how much we love Katie and Annie for sharing with us...thanks so much! We continue to enjoy the clothes more than you know.

(and Leah is not crying in the last picture - she's laughing!).

Big Girl Day!

Anna Claire and I had a great time today after church. She and I went to the mall and had our nails done and then we met my friend Mary and her daughter, Madeleine, to see the movie Horton Hears A Who. We had so much fun! I had been given a $50 spa gift card, which we used to get our nails done, and I'd also received a $50 gift card to the movies, so our whole day was free with the exception of a few dollars at the movie theater. So, not only did we have a great time together, but I hardly spent any money! Yahoo!

Here are some pictures of Anna Claire having her nails done - the lady painted them pink with 3 blades of green grass on each - they look really cute and Easter-y.

Here's Anna Claire waiting for Madeleine to arrive before the movie.

Here's Anna Claire and Madeleine after the movie standing in front of the Horton movie poster.

Needless to say, after doing so many fun things this weekend, Anna Claire is flying high!

Our Little Princess

This afternoon, Anna Claire had the pleasure of attending a school friend's birthday party where they were instructed to wear their best princess dress! She dressed up in her Halloween costume as Tinkerbell...she had such a great time!

She is really having a fun weekend - we have another surprise for her tomorrow afternoon, so you'll have to stay tuned to see what we do!

Well, the clock has struck midnight and it's time for our Disney princess to clean her bedroom - I can hardly walk in there because there is so much stuff on the floor. I guess eventually every princess's carriage turns into a pumpkin...

Here Comes Peter Cottontail...

We took the girls to an Easter egg hunt this morning at the historic Freeman House in Vienna. It was so much fun! This was Leah's first egg hunt, and she loved it. Anna Claire was a wonderful big sister and showed her how it's done. Leah even did pretty well when it was time for her to have her picture taken with the Easter Bunny - I wasn't sure how she'd react because she's terrified of Red Robin and other characters who are dressed up. In sharp contract, Anna Claire practically tackles Red Robin and often stands up in her chair and yells enthusiastically across the restaurant, "I love you, Red Robin!"

Anyhoo...back to the egg hunt - it was a bit chilly, so we didn't stay for for the story time or the egg roll, but they loved hunting the eggs and were excited to find out that there was CANDY in the eggs! Here are some pictures:

I love the last picture of Anna Claire with her arm around Leah - they are becoming such good friends...

Knee Update and Other Stuff

Well, I went to the dr yesterday and he could see it was still swollen from Sunday (for no apparent reason, my knee started to swell). He’s decided the best thing to do at this point is arthroscopic surgery to clean it out. He said I’ll be up and around in a few days after the surgery, so I’m going to try to schedule it for early April.

I’m excited we’re going to finally get this taken care of – the last thing I want to do is have to worry about it in the middle of our big move!

In other news, we had a great weekend. On Saturday morning, Gary and I went to a home buying seminar through our credit union. It was awesome and I’m very excited to move through the process of buying our first home now that I know a little more about what we’re doing! On Sunday, Gary and Anna Claire went to church while I stayed home with Leah and did laundry – over the weekend, I did a total of 14 loads of laundry – which I know isn’t terribly exciting but I am feeling so much less stressed and more caught up as a result. I also baked my famous oatmeal raisin cookies for my dad. Leah had her first sample of one of the cookies and LOVED it. Her Papa would be proud. :)

Where is Spring?

I’m in a funk. I think I can just smell spring around the corner, but the March weather has me bumming. I’m SOOOOO ready for spring. We had chicken on the grill and the windows open on Monday and now today is rainy and cold. Blech. I know it will make for green grass later on, but I’d just love a warm, sunny, 75 degree day right now.

Easter is one of my favorite holidays because it often happens around my birthday in April. I distinctly remember when all the Easter/spring decorations were on display in 2004. It hit me like a ton of bricks one day when I was in the grocery store that I was still alive. I know that sounds strange, but I really didn’t think I was going to live through the winter of 2003/2004. I knew that I would probably live through the cancer and the subsequent chemo treatments, but I was not at all sure that I would still be alive after the blood clots I’d had. I remember coming home from the hospital, sitting at the top of the stairs in our townhouse just outside my bedroom, feeling very out of breath (common when you have blood clots in your lungs) and telling my mom that I was terrified that something would happen to me because I was no longer in the hospital where I was hooked up to all the heart monitors and other tubes. No one was watching me anymore. Obviously, they wouldn’t have discharged me from Fairfax Hospital if they hadn’t thought I would be OK, but I wasn’t convinced.

As winter turned into spring, and I slowly started to feel better, I went to grocery store to pick up a few things…and seeing the Easter stuff, I realized I was still alive and I’d lived long enough to see spring’s arrival. I started to cry – right there in the store…not because I was sad, but because I was so relieved I was still here. I’m still both a little melancholy and simultaneously grateful whenever I see the Peeps, Cadbury Eggs and Easter baskets.

I’m often mentally caught in between being so grateful I’m alive, with a terrific, handsome hubbie and 2 great kids – and feeling guilty that I’m still here, yet many of the friends I’ve met in the past 4 years are not. An acquaintance of mine, Mary, just passed away about 3 weeks ago from ovarian cancer. Like me, she was a young mom, married 7 years, 2 children similar ages to mine, and yet no matter how hard she fought, she did not survive. She and I had talked often about how to manage the disease when you have young children…I loved my conversations with her. Two years ago on her birthday, we all went to her house where a bunch of her friends and family had gathered to plant new bushes, flowers, etc in her yard – Mary absolutely loved flowers and having a pretty yard. It was one of the most blessed times I’ve had. If you think of it, keep Mary’s husband Jason, and her two children, Molly and Phillip, in your prayers – they really need it right now.

I think I’m going to put on my hot pink flip flops, pour a Diet Coke in my favorite spring cup from Target, and do my toenails tonight. I need a little “spring” to get myself out of whatever mood this is I’ve been in for the past few days.

Two Steps Forward, One Big Step Back

So I decided to really focus on being healthier this year. I had torn the cartilidge in my knee in November and it took a long time to heal to the point that I could walk to exercise.

However, it did finally heal and I began walking on the treadmill and had increased up to the point that I was walking a little over 2 miles in 30 minutes. I was also sometimes doing a walking video at home and feeling good that I was making some progress. I'd even lost a few pounds!

Last week, I injured my knee again. Not really sure how, but it hurts in the same place and as a fun bonus, it hurts like crazy in NEW places too! (big dejected sigh). I'm so discouraged. And living in a townhouse isn't helping with all the stairs we have. I'm particularly frustrated because my dad had orthoscopic surgery last week to fix his knee problem, which is similar to mine, and he walked out with less pain than he'd had in the previous 9 months. I would love to have the same thing done, but my doctor isn't cooperating because my pain comes and goes - it's not cooperative enough to be consistent. I'm starting to feel like a hypochondriac and yet I know that something really is wrong.

Compared to 4 years ago when I had cancer and blood clots in my heart and lungs, this is no big deal. But it doesn't change the fact that I'm discouraged...

OK, I'm done whining. I'm off to a meeting.

Heart Disease?

Actual conversation that took place in the car yesterday morning:

Anna Claire: "Momma, do you have heart disease?"

Me: "No, why?"

AC: "I heard that snoring is linked to heart disease. Do I have heart disease?"

Me: "No, sweetie, I think you're just a loud sleeper - you have been since you were born."

I've got to stop listening to the radio when she's around...

My Dream...

I know. It's pathetic. I dream about this almost daily. I told my husband excitedly the other day that I was "within 6 loads of being done with the laundry." This is a huge accomplishment. And depressing. And yes, that's the kind of conversation you have when you've been married for almost 7 years.

One of the things I'm really excited about in our upcoming move to Texas is that I get a new washer and dryer. I'm going high efficiency. My girlfriend Karen got a set for her 40th birthday and she said it was one of the best gifts she ever received. See? I'm not the only one! :)

So, you may be wondering where I've been for the past week. I've been doing laundry!