Loving It!

I've had so many good things happen lately I am way behind because I haven't been blogging about them. Life is GOOD.

Saturday
Saturday morning I was up bright and early for youth drama practice at church. We were doing a last minute practice for the play we were doing on Sunday morning.

From church, I dropped Brianna off and mom and dad's and picked up Stephen. We met Granny and Granddaddy at their house and we were off to Fayetteville! For three years in a row, we have gone with them to the Cape Fear Regional Theatre to see "The Best Christmas Pageant Ever". Love, love, love this play. They tweak it a little every year so it's just a bit different. We always get great seats, and everything about the play is always so much fun, and touching, and just awesome. Also, we always go to eat at Haymont Grill beforehand, which is this great Greek place. This year I got flounder and shrimp. Pete, the owner, actually goes down to the coast to get the fish fresh. So you know it's good! Stephen got a lamb gyro which was so good. The owner knows Granny and Granddaddy and always stops to talk to us. It's so cool. The best part of it is just driving up and back with them, having an opportunity to talk without interruption or time limits. This was the first year we went in the afternoon instead of the evening. So usually on the way home we stop to look at Christmas lights but this year we had to get home early to rescue mom and dad from Brianna. (Haha!)

Sunday
Sunday morning we did the youth drama. It was choreographed to Switchfoot's "This is Your Life". I did videotape it but of course it's on the video camera which I cannot hook up to my computer for some reason. I need to figure it out because it was awesome!!!

Sunday night we had our adult Christmas cantata. Mom and dad once again watched Bri, this time from the pews in church! Since Stephen and I are both in the choir and there was no nursery, they were the best option, especially since they were coming to the cantata anyway. I thought the cantata was beautiful, and I absolutely loved singing it.

Monday
Yesterday was a super busy day. I had to complete everything for Fed By Faith and all my personal errands just so I'd have the rest of the week "off" so to speak. So, Brianna and I went all over the county, from the post office to Walgreens to Blockbuster (dropping off a free movie we got last week) to Rite Aid. Then it was off to Harris Teeter, where I paid $1.70 for $20 worth of groceries. Just had to throw that in there. Then I had to go to Lowe's Food where I spent $5 for $25 worth of groceries. Just throwing that in there. I saw mom in the parking lot (go figure) and asked her if I could please use her freezer while I ran the rest of my errands. Isn't it handy to have parents close when you need them?? =) She not only let me use her freezer but kept Brianna while I went to church. I dropped off diapers/wipes and more food/stuff for our Fed By Faith family. I also took the opportunity to switch some things from my old "office" to the new "office" since I had two hands. As soon as I finished, brought Bri home, and fed her it was time to start cooking! I made more wassail and got a batch of molasses ginger cookies ready for Gail's Christmas party at Matt and Jenn's house. Of course I didn't get any of it done and had to finish it at Jenn's, but that didn't matter. The party was great! Claire went to bed early again but she was perfect while she was awake. Brianna was in some kind of mood last night. She was so funny!! All I did was lay her down to change her clothes and she started doing some hilarious things. We played with her for a long time. Gail and Jeff got her this cute toy - it's a mama elephant and a baby elephant, and the mama elephant sings to the baby. She played with them for such a long time, and we got them out again tonight for her to play with.

Tuesday/Today
This morning we started off the day with a doctor's appointment. Brianna lost a little bit of weight a few weeks ago when she had a cold and we were supposed to go back today to check in and make sure she's gaining weight back. I'll say she is! She had gained 13 ounces in just a week! She's definitely totally over the sickness now, feeling great, and getting back in her groove. To think it all started over Thanksgiving when our heat went out. That's when we think it started, anyway. After that I went to work to put in some time since we're getting ready to be gone for long over Christmas/New Year's. I was planning to only stay for an hour or so but Brianna fell asleep and ended up taking a nap that lasted about 2 1/2 hours! She takes naps like that at home but never at work. The trick? I put her in the bathroom with the exhaust fan on. I don't care what people think. I don't care. It works. And I got so much done while that child was asleep. We have three bathrooms at work, so people were detoured but no one cared.

I had to run to the post office after work and it was awesome! There was a long line, I had to pee, and I knew Brianna was hungry but I wanted to get this package mailed out today. One way I could tell Bri was hungry is that as soon as we got in line she grabbed the package and started gnawing on the corner of it. I let her, because, hey, she was quiet. I noticed a little boy next to me in line who would peek at Bri and then just start giggling.

Boy: Why is he eating that?
Mom: (exasperated laugh) It's a girl!
Me: She eats on everything!
Mom: She must be teething and that feels good on her teeth.
Boy: (gross face) But she doesn't have any teeth!
Mom: They're coming though.
Boy: My teeth growed in!
Mom: Grew in.
Me: And now they're falling out!! (Two of his front teeth were missing)
Boy: And I have two more loose ones in the front!!

I was looking at the front of the front of the line when I saw something out of the corner of my eye. The little boy had a stuffed penguin and he was making it dance for Brianna, trying to get her attention.

Mom: Do you want to ask her name?
Boy: What's her name?
Me: Brianna. What's your name?
Boy: Joseph. How much months is he?
Mom: (laughs) How many months is she? She's a GIRL.
Joseph: How many months is she?
Me: Eight.
Joseph: My Webkinz is zero months. (holds up Webkinz)
Mom: The Webkinz is a newborn.
Me: Aww, that's very cool! What's it's name?
Joseph: Little Peeps. But she likes to be called Peeps.
Me: Is she your only Webkinz?
Joseph: No, I have a dragon at home too. Called Drags.
Mom: We were buying Webkinz for other children and I told him I would buy him one too.
Me: You have a great mom!
Joseph: (nods head rapidly, grinning)

Later....

Joseph: Does it have a brother or sisters?
Mom: (sighs) She's a GIRL!
Me: No, no brothers or sisters right now.
Joseph: Wow, I thought I was the only one like that, without brothers or sisters.
Mom: (rolls eyes)
Me: I promise, you aren't the only one like that. Plus that makes you special! You'll always be your mom and dad's favorite!
Joseph: (nods head rapidly, grinning)

Later.....

Joseph: Why is it holding onto that thing? (the envelope)
Mom: SHE!
Me: I think she just wants to see how it feels. It's new to her.
Mom: You were touching our package at first, remember?
Me: Yeah, look at how bubbly your package is!
Joseph: Yeah, it's so cool. What else does she like to do?
Me: Pretty much put things in her mouth and sleep. That's pretty much it.
Joseph: (looks bored) That's it?
Me: She can't do all the cool stuff you're able to do yet!
Mom: What kind of stuff do you like to do?
Joseph: Go swimming... go under water.... be in the water.
Me: What do you do in the winter when it's cold outside?
Joseph: I play with Legos inside. But I like being in water. Even though I can't do a flip yet. But I can probably do one by the time I'm ten.
Me: How old are you now?
Joseph: Six.
Me: I bet you'll be able to do one soon. You should definitely try this summer.
Mom: I bet you can do one by the time you're seven.
Joseph: That envelope is soggy.
Me: Yeah, the post office people probably won't appreciate that.
Joseph: (stares at me) What are they gonna do?
Mom: (laughs) They'll just tape over it or something.
Me: It'll be okay, I promise!

Up at the counter...

Post Office Employee: (This guy and I mutually love each other) What happened to this envelope!?
Me: (giggling)
Joseph: The baby did it!!!
P.O. Employee: Oh my golly, I just can't believe this. Tsk, tsk.
Brianna: .....
Joseph: (cackling)

I'm laughing as I read this, picturing this adorable red-headed boy with two front teeth missing, who had an unbelievable grin, a laidback mom, and such a great personality. I know he lit up the entire post office. He made my day!!

Tonight I went to the hospital to see a friend of ours. I think I spoke about her in a previous post - my "3rd grandmother". I went with the intentions of singing some Christmas songs to her but when I got there I found out the family had called hospice in. She was on so much medication I think she barely even realized I was there. We're leaving for Georgia the day after Christmas and I'm pretty sure we'll receive the news of her passing while we're there.

Someone one time said that we should lay our hands on her and pray, and she would be healed, "because that's what the Word says." Well, I believe in God's healing powers, and I believe in prayer, and I know four specific occasions that people were healed and it had to have been God that did it because doctors didn't have any answers. But I also believe that when it's your time, it's your time, and that God knows what He's doing. I stopped praying for her to get better about 2 weeks ago. She's in a lot of pain and keeps having mini-strokes and has a bleed on the brain now. I was praying for healing for her completely out of selfishness. So all I pray now is that she's not scared, not in any pain, and for the family. But doesn't it just seem unfair for this to happen right at Christmas? I know life isn't always fair. But it's still so easy for me to think that - it isn't fair.

As I was leaving the hospital, weepy and sad, I remembered the fruit in my trunk. Tracey and Mark had a ton of leftover fruit from a church function that they had given me to give to our Fed By Faith family. Unfortunately I wasn't going to have the chance to see the family again until after the new year and I was scared the fruit would all go bad by then. So I went out to my car and brought in these boxes of fruit, marched up to the 2nd floor - Labor and Delivery - and pretty much said, "Here ya go!" The nurses ran over as soon as they saw I had goodies. They promised they would share them with the nurses, patients who could have them, and visitors. They were so appreciative and you could tell it just made their night - even just to have a little break in the monotony. Although I doubt there's ever monotony on the L&D floor!!!

All in all today was such a wonderful day. I laughed and I cried, but I loved my life today, which is the norm. I do apologize for this post - the longest post in the world. Congratulations if you made it this far. I applaud you. Now go get some eye drops.