First Smile

This posting is coming to you a day late.  I had the best of intentions of writing this last night (Friday) but somehow, things went astray.  I put the kids to bed and then decided to take a nice relaxing bath while I sipped a decaf tea.  I got out and by this time it was about 9:30 and as I put on my pajamas, I looked over at my bed...you know, the bed I no longer sleep in...and it looked so inviting and I thought "I'm just going to lie down there for like 15 minutes."  And then the other voice said, "Don't do it because you'll never get back up."  But the first voice won.  Fast forward about an hour and a half and I finally wake up and groggily make my way to the couch where Duncan is passed out cold.  The voice says to me again, "Boy, that couch looks really comfortable.  Let me just rest my head there for a few minutes."  And yup, by the time I woke up again, it was 1:20 and the blog was not happening.  So is the life of a mother with a six week old baby.

Backing up to last Sabbath, Calleigh went to a new Sabbath School.  I mentioned previously that she had ended up in Aubree's class (four & five year olds) because there was no teacher for the 1st - 4th grade class.  That may seem strange but we actually have two sessions of Sabbath School at our church.  There is the Sabbath School at 10:00 and then there are also Sabbath School classes at 11:15.  This is the 11:15 one which has smaller attendance.  Anyway, there was no teacher to start but then a few weeks ago one was found.  

Calleigh had wanted to stay with Aubree but then someone mentioned to us that Calleigh might get more out of the other class so she decided to try it out.  Of course, this then forced me to go to Aubree's class with her because she didn't want to be by herself while meanwhile, Duncan had both the boys in Cradle Roll.  The girls' classrooms are across from each other so I dropped Calleigh off and then went with Aubree to hers.  It turned out fine because I helped out one of the tables with the crafts, etc.  At 12:15 as we were about to get out, I saw Duncan peeking in the door and then he sent me a text saying he was going to the van.  A few minutes later we were done and Aubree and I started to go get Calleigh but then I noticed that the lights were off in her classroom so I figured Duncan had gotten her.  Aubree and I casually made our way to the van.  As we got there, Duncan says "Where's Calleigh?" And I say "What?  She's not with you??" Neither of us had her!  Duncan took off like a shot to go find her.  I wasn't really worried though since it's the church and all (not that bad things can't happen there) and Calleigh's smart enough to not panic or whatever if she can't find us.  A few minutes later Duncan texted me that he had her.  It turns out that her class moves to the room next door to do their crafts at the end which I obviously did not know.  Calleigh, of course, was oblivious to the fact that we "almost" left her behind like Jesus.  As for the class, it looks like it was a hit and she'll be going there permanently.

I almost forgot to mention that the girls had signed up to the collect the offering at church this week which would be the first time for Aubree.  We had to rush to make sure we got there in time but when we got to the back room, we discovered we were the last ones to arrive so we drew the short straw of having to do the offering on the balcony.  Just as the girls were about to leave to go up there, Aubree whispers that she has to go potty.  I tried to take her as quickly as I could but naturally, as we got upstairs, they were just finishing. Aubree held the plate for a few seconds but didn't actually collect any offering.  Oops.

Sunday morning Duncan left for Kansas City for work.  He doesn't usually leave in the morning on a Sunday but this was just the way the flight worked out this time.  Kind of stinky but it is what it is.  He was gone until Wednesday afternoon.  Meanwhile, back at the homestead we had the triplets second birthday party to attend to which was at someone's barn in Apopka.  It was a gorgeous setting, all decorated for fall.  It was not fall weather however as we alternated between sweating and getting rained on.  It wasn't a big deal though because the barn was plenty big enough for us to all hang out in as we waited for the shower to pass by.  There were some games and even a pony to ride on which Brady was extremely excited about and was all he could talk about on the way to the party.  One of the games was trying to eat a donut as it was hanging on a string. Calleigh exuberantly recited to me about how she won the game which I unfortunately missed while feeding Colby.  Darn baby.  Ha!  The low light of the party for me was when Aubree offhandedly commented to me, "Wow, Mommy.  Your belly is still big."  Hmm. That might have been after I had my third bowl of chili.  But hey, I thought it was only polite to try all three different kinds.

With Duncan gone, I would, of course, been on my own with the four kids but Ricky ended up coming over each afternoon/evening to help and watch various sporting events with me.  That worked out very nicely since the kids just love Uncle Ricky.  The last night here he enthralled them with the story of his head/brain and how he had surgery on it and they had to peel down some of his skin on his face to get to the spot. Calleigh, especially, was on the edge of her seat.  

On Wednesday I had my six week post-op appointment at my doctor.  I dropped the three kids off at Ron and Elaine's who had a fun day lined up.  They were going to keep them there for the rest of the day and bring them back later in the afternoon.  This, of course, was like a gold mine for me because then I could go do a bunch of errands and I even got to the Salvation Army where they have half of clothing every Wednesday.  Meanwhile, since Calleigh was missing school that day, I gave Elaine some instructions on doing some things for Science like collecting and studying flowers and also looking at soil.  It looks like they had a good time working on it and indeed sent us home with a box of different containers of various flowers, plants, insects, etc.  Anyway, the doctor went fine and courtesy of my "official" weight check there, I have 16 pounds left to lose.  Exercise starts Monday.  Yay!  That was very sarcastic.  

Because all of my errands kept me around their house, I went back to Ron and Elaine's to pick them up around 4:45 which would save them a trip to our place.  The girls had Adventurers that night and as we puttered on home in rush hour traffic, I quickly came to the conclusion that we were not going to make it home in time to eat and change and get to Adventurers on time.  I called Duncan who agreed to meet us at the church with their clothes.  We ended up grabbing a bite to eat at Taco Bell and ran into a bunch of other Adventurers who apparently were in the same boat as us including the Bergherms.  I fed Colby at the church and then took Duncan's truck back home while he stayed with the three kids.  The only problem was that Duncan has a headlight out and it was starting to get dark.  That equated to a stressful trip home as I debated between blinding people with my high beams on (both headlights worked in this case) or taking the chance with the one and hoping I didn't pass a cop.  I was about three minutes from home and had my high beams on when what do you know, a cop passed me coming the other way.  Thankfully he didn't seem to notice the high beams and it was all good but I was glad I dodged a bullet on that one.

On Wednesday when Duncan flew in, he went right to the nursery to pick up some plants and trees that we had to order because they weren't in stock.  The two trees were Crepe Myrtles and somehow he didn't realize how big they were and that there was no way they were going to make it in his truck.  Fortunately there happened to be a couple of guys in the parking lot who had a lawn care business and they offered to bring the trees and help him plant them (they're 300 pounds each).  So it all worked out.  While they were there, Duncan lined them up to do some work on our irrigation system and also most importunately, re-sod our backyard.  We haven't been happy with our grass back there pretty much from the get-go especially when we compare it to the lushness of the Isidro's grass.  Yes, we have grass envy!  We think it all stems from back when we first moved in and we didn't realize our water was turned off and our grass wasn't getting watered.  However it happened, we haven't been pleased and now that we don't have as much grass back there due to all the plants/trees we've put in, it's not THAT much to re-sod it.  I was hoping to post some pictures of it but unfortunately they haven't finished it yet.

Yesterday I ran to get a few things at Publix and there was a lady at the front giving out samples of cheese.  "Would you like to try a sample of this bry cheese" she calls out to me.  Hmm, I thought.  Never heard of bry cheese before but sure.  I look at the package and see "Brie" cheese.  Bless her heart.

Today we headed over to Pine Lake Retreat where the Adventurers are camping for the weekend.  Two years ago we stayed for the weekend but the last two years we've opted to go for the "day."  I put that in quotes because we really just stay for about four hours.  We got there around 10:00 which is when worship started and then they worked on an animal honor.  To that end, they had two ladies who brought a bunch of animals with them including a python, prairie dog, hedge hog, among others.  After, they rode their scooter and bikes while we waited for lunch to be ready.  Aubree was very excited because she got to ride her actual bike instead of her tricycle.  We had lost her helmet but got one at a yard sale yesterday so she was back in business.  We left about 2:00 to get home for naps.  

Some other pictures....