3, 4, 5, 16, 0

Well, what does that title mean? Fortune Cookie say: Deese yo lucky numbah.

Actually...3 is the number of baby "tricks" Violet can do and has been doing for a while now...rolling over back to front, (at 2 months) rolling over front to back, (at 3 months) and sitting up. (at 4 months)

4 is the number of foods she has had. Rice cereal, homemade chicken stock, peas and grits--which she loved. What a truly southern gal we have!

5 is the number of months old she'll be tomorrow...can you even believe it? I know I can't!

16 is the number of pounds we found out she is because we had to take her to the doctor AGAIN.

0 is what we know about what is wrong with her. The Dr prescribed her some augmentin "in case" she has a sinus infection since it's been 4 weeks now. He also had her swabbed for RSV and Pertussis, but those results won't be back until early next week. He said if it's one of those things, it will be a different antibiotic. Her snot isn't green, either. So would you give her the antibiotics or wait to see what the test results say? I'm stuck here. I wanted him to do something for her, but antibiotics just don't seem right. He's not jumping the gun prematurely, I don't think, being as we've seen him 4 times in the last 3-4 weeks, but...I don't know. Something about it doesn't strike me as the right course of action right now.

She puked again this morning, which is the reason I took her in. When they tell you they are going to swab your baby's nose, please understand they mean they're going to shoot some saline up in the sinus cavities and suck boogies while your baby screams and cries. I was thinking large q-tip, but I guess Vi is too small? Who knows. Something that struck me funny, though...she was smiling and cooing at the nurses or lab techs or whoever they were while they were getting "prepped" to suck her brains out. Then they did their mean things and she got her mommy back which means happy baby again...and she was smiling at the nurses again, but she was yelling at the lab tech who did the actual sucking of said boogies. As we walked away she even turned her head to see him and kept on yelling at him. Pretty amazing coming from the girl who doesn't fuss when her sister LAYS on her!

Bah, pray we all get better. I feel like crapola.

Tiny Pampered Chefs

I was getting ready for my show tonight and I realized I have no pictures of myself in my "uniform." So I had Allan take some pictures and then I realized that no picture is worth a hoot without the kids, so we got them involved. Of course, they had to be holding Pampered Chef products! Violet really likes the wisk and GraceAnne loves the mini-scoop because it makes mini-muffins and those are her favorite.

The party went great! There were almost 10 people there, (I don't keep exact count), and the sales are sitting at $300 right now. My host, (my friend/neighbor, Susan), has a couple more outside orders to get so she can get some more free stuff. I'm even closer to my goal! Only $700 more to go before my 30 days are up on October 2nd. I need to submit that in the form of 2 shows and I'll get $200 more for free. YAAAAY! I also got to sign 1 recruit, (I hope she will sign...she should on Monday), so that's even better!

My mom said someone might be interested in knowing my website. It's www.pamperedchef.biz/tdoyle

Everyone here is still pretty sick. It's livable but very sucky. I've been doing a good job taking my vitamins and having no soda and trying to sneak calcium in. I got some orange juice fortified with calcium today since Violet is sensitive to the milk. I love orange juice, so it'll work. I do miss a huge glass of whole milk with a stack of pancakes, though. That's probably what I'll eat to celebrate when we wean. Only 7 months to go! OH MY GOODNESS she's getting so big! *sigh*

We also had a garage sale this weekend, since we were cleaning everything out. We only made 85$, but we wanted to get all of it out of here anyway, so it worked out. We set the rest at the curb and people took it over the course of the day. Pat is being a wonderful Mother-in-Law and volunteered to bleach the kitchen. My cabinets and my pantry are all cleaned and disinfected and re-organized. It's a fantastic feeling and I'm so grateful that she did it for us! GraceAnne is having a blast with her Mommers and I know she's going to be sad Monday when she leaves.

It has been such a busy week! I will be so glad tomorrow to kick my feet up and enjoy the day without doing anything at all looking like work. I am so very thrilled with all of my Pampered Chef business, but I'm glad I promised myself, Allan and God that I wouldn't work on Sundays. What a fabulous idea He had! ;)

Love and miss you all!

My Family is not Here

Allan and GraceAnne went to a Lions game tonight with Mommers. This is Gracienese for Allan's mom. She got here last night and will be with us until Monday morning. GraceAnne could not be more thrilled! They have been hanging out and having a good time. GraceAnne has colored her about 100 pictures. No exaggeration, either. Pat seriously has a stack an inch thick. I'm glad she's so happy to have her Mommers. They all went to the game tonight and I couldn't go because it's just too loud for Violet. It's very strange to be home "alone" since I don't really get any time to myself at all. Vi slept for the first hour but now she's up blowing bubbles on my arm.

Violet is feeling a wee bit better but still vomiting here and there. She's still hacking her little lungs out and my throat hurts like heck, too. She's been very fussy at night and has a hard time sleeping. If she's not better on Monday I'm going to take her back to the Dr. I pray she is better and I don't have to deal with it anymore.

I went to get an x-ray done on my wrist last week because it's really bothering me. The Dr. called back and said that I have degeneration and demineralization in my bones. Sure enough, my other wrist and my elbow are hurting now. I've been being more diligent about taking my prenatals and cut out soda. I know caffeine leeches calcium from the bones. I really don't want to have to deal with arthritis and osteoporosis later in life, so I'm hoping I can get the bone built back up now. He said if it still hurts in 10 days we'll have to splint it :(

Because I don't like the sound of these posts with pretty much nothing but negative to say, I will update about Pampered Chef. I'm at the top of my cluster for sales and I got my first commission check. I made 187.xx in the first 2 weeks as a consultant and I had only submitted 2 shows! I also got $200 PC dollars, (and promptly spent 85 on business supplies and the rest on stuff I "need"), and half of my kit cost back. My goal is to have $1050 more in sales and to submit 3 more shows by October 2nd. If I do that I'll get all kinds of little cool things for being on top of my game :) I only have 1 show booked for October so far, (my goal is 6-8), but I have 2 for November and as soon as I'm done with my big show this weekend I plan to work it as hard as I can. I have my website and my wedding registry now, so I'm going to be visiting local businesses to rally for the brides. I am SO excited about all this! I really like this business! I can't wait until I'm a hair more seasoned and the house is organized so I can do this a ton.

Slightly Better Day

Violet discovering GraceAnne's old blocks
GraceAnne re-discovering her old blocks
How sweet it is to watch a baby truly enjoy their surroundings!

Well, last night Violet went down a little after 9pm and slept, (fitfully), until 9am. She only woke once, at 7am, to eat. She also slept a lot the day before and slept half the day today. Hopefully this means she's on the way up. I didn't take her back in today, but if she's still hacking tomorrow we'll go.

For having a sick baby I got a lot done today. I ordered a lot of business supplies I needed with money I earned for doing a good job in my first 30 days. I hope to get some more of that incentive money, but I definitely can't complain if I don't. I reserved a booth at Fall Festival for myself and faxed stuff all over the country so Tricare can get their stuff straight. They think my daughter is a boy and they also gave her crappy coverage, so dealing with that has NOT been fun. I appreciate that the government takes care of us, but they really kinda suck. We also got some grocery shopping done and I got some more boxes for packing stuff up. We're cleaning it, packing it and taking it to the guest house. It will stay there until the house is done being fixed and then come back in. Hopefully by then we will have places for all of it!

Despite all my pissiness, I have been seeing God work in these last couple of weeks. I was mad going to WalMart to get cleaning supplies for this rat fiasco, we got a parking spot close to the front at a busy time and there was a buggy with a baby seat on it right in front of the spot. Allan and I manage to be ranting about something at opposite times. Just when we need the other to be calm, the other is calm--completely outside of character. I was scared about the money for the exterminator and the cleaning service...Allan got a change check from school for tuition. I've been scared for the baby and everyone's been praying and it really does help.

So thanks for the prayers and for reading this, even when I'm not-so-funny as usual and just downright ugly. We do appreciate it. Love and miss you all!

Is She Okay?

My sick baby :(

Violet is still sick. We haven't gotten much sleep at all the last few nights because she hacks her little brains out and then vomits. She wakes up around 1am feeling crappy and then can't fall back to sleep until around 4am. She's ravenously hungry because she feels icky during the day and doesn't want to nurse. Then she eats like a pig at night while she's sleeping and then pukes it up a few minutes later. She's been to the Dr. 3x in 2 weeks and he can't find anything wrong with her. We had to take her in for chest x-rays Friday and her lungs are clear--which is GREAT!--so we still don't know what the problem is. If I had to guess I'd say allergies. It seems like she's mostly puking up mucus, so maybe that's all it is.

Allan and I have decided that we're going to clean the house top to bottom, (thanks to the stupid rats), but it's pretty slow-going since we're both busy as all get out and I'm allergic to bleach. We have an exterminator coming out next week sometime and I'm thinking I'll have to hire someone to help me clean the house. Between Allan's school, my Pampered Chef and the kids, we just don't have the time. He did the bathroom really, really well and it looks fantastic in there. I started the computer room, but I don't know what to do with the paperwork and we don't have any boxes and no place to put the crap when we pack it up. UGH! I hate being so overwhelmed.

I know my blog has been a major b-fest the last few times I've posted, and I'm sorry. It's just kinda the way I feel right now :(

Hope all is well with everyone. We love and miss you all.

In a P*ssy Mood

It's been brought to my attention on a board that I have frequented for 2 years and have many friends at that people feel I'm "begging" for business. I suppose I can see how it seems like that so I'm sorry. I won't be posting about my excitement or my goals or my accomplishments for Pampered Chef for a while. I feel like someone deflated my balloon. The ONE bright spot in my night and I got ripped to shreds about telling everyone I only needed 50$ more in sales to be qualified.

I hope my family is a little more understanding. I am not trying to force anything on any of you and I love you all and I'm sorry if I'm a bum. *sigh*

On an even brighter note, please pray for Violet, (YES, I AM begging for prayers!), because she's puked up everything she's taken in in 6 hours and has diarrhea to boot. We have a Dr. appt at 9:30am and I'm just praying that she isn't dehydrated and doesn't have Pertussis. When she heals up from this we're going to get her vaccinated against Pertussis.

Thanks.

So Sweet!

I've been a posting fool lately! You'd think I have nothing better to do, but in actuality, this is about all I do on the internet now except read about new ways to enhance my Pampered Chef business. Plus with the kids sick, I don't get out of the house much. Besides, you know you love daily updated pictures of the most beautiful siblings on earth ;)

Adding New Foods...

to our repertoire!

Our baby is a huge advocate for Whirled Peas. Okay, so that was totally cliche' and probably not even funny, but she really does like them! It's been 2 weeks since she started Violet on rice cereal and last week she had a bit of homemade chicken broth, (which she loved!), because we were all sick. Since she made it through that with no mishaps I was going to wait a while to give her a different food, (maybe a couple more weeks?), but I fed her cereal at lunch time and come dinner she wanted nothing to do with nursing and was grabbing my food and smacking her lips and just all around freaking out because she wasn't eating, too. So I opened a jar of peas, (I wanted to make my own baby food, but had some great coupons, so ended up with a HUGE stockpile of organic baby food for $9.xx. At least it's organic!), and tried them out. She is in love!

She's really good at sitting up now and can do it on her own for a long time. She even sits pretty rigid instead of immediately going for her toes. She's been a very good sport this week, despite being sick; she must have a virus because I can tell by her diapers she's getting antibiotics from me and yet the sickness is not going away. Allan and I both have sore throats today and GraceAnne is also a little more under the weather...yay! I might have to take them back to the Dr, (his request), but I'm not sure what they'll do. I'm very much convinced it's a virus. That's the great thing about public school, eh? Despite that, GraceAnne is in pretty high spirits, too, as you can see below:
Man I have cute babies! :) Hope all is well with everyone! Please pray for my shows this week, (I am closing 3 of them!!), that I get lots of orders and lots of bookings. I really need to get October filled up!

Surviving My First Hurricane

When I woke up this morning it was incredibly dark. In fact, I went back to bed hoping for a little more sleep and it was so dark GraceAnne didn't get up until 9am. She wakes up as soon as the sun comes up. We had a lot of wind, and the big old pecan trees looked like their tops were going to be twisted off. We had some rain. We were scheduled to get a pretty good beating this evening but then Hurricane Ike decided to turn further eastward. I think Allan was slightly disappointed that we weren't blown off the porch, but I'm cool with that.

The one really awful thing that happened today and I feel so bad about is that a friend of ours, (actually, the daughter of a friend of ours...who is also our friend), goes to school in Nacadoches, TX. She didn't want to come home last night. I guess she didn't think it would be so bad, (same thing so many thought!), and so she stayed. Today she was scared and wanted to come back. Allan said that we could go get her, so we were trying to work it all out. GraceAnne was going to stay with the neighbors and Vi was sleepy so she'd sleep most of the way there. We were looking for directions and all...but we couldn't go. Because everything was too flooded there, (they got hit HARD!), because roads were shut down so there could be 4 lanes for evacuation, because because because. She sounded so disappointed when I called her to tell her we couldn't come. She was very understanding and said she had felt bad that we were going to come, but I feel awful that we couldn't help her when she was scared and needed us. What are friends for? The only thing I can say that makes me feel slightly better, (although it's completely disturbing), is that GraceAnne can't lose her mom, dad and sister. I trust that God helped us make the decision we had to make and kept our friend safe, too. I only wish I felt better about that.

Please pray for everyone on the coast...looks like they'll be without for a while.

Soooo Excited!

Last night I had my very first solo Pampered Chef show. I wasn't nervous at all, and I can only attribute that to the Lord giving me peace. The hostess was a wonderfully sweet woman from my church and I was so glad to have them be my first party! There were over 10 people there, (I think 12 or 13?), and we made warm nutty caramel brownies. They LOVED the interactive show where they got to help with things and try out the products and the show will close at $500 if she finds 29.50 more in sales! That means she gets 90$ in free product, 2 half price items, plus the cookware at 60% off and her gift for being one of my charter hosts, (she chose the spices). That means I make 100$ in commission and I'm 500$ closer to being qualified! WOOHOO! Only 450$ left to go! I'm praying I can do that before the bridal show so I'll have my website and my registry privileges. I also get PC dollars for every 4 shows and 1250$ in sales I turn in, so I'm HOPING that by the end of this month I'll have about 200 PC dollars to spend on business supplies and my inventory. ;) If I book 2 more shows this month I can up that to 300 PC dollars! YAAAAY!

The kids are great, Vi has a cold, but not strep. She's doing much better and even though she cried for about an hour last night, she did alright with daddy and GraceAnne is as good as ever. She loves taking her antibiotics because she thinks they are yummy. She is always asking me for the "medicine that kills the germs." Funny, I recall thinking it was pretty tasty when I was a kid, too.

Allan is doing great, too. His new semester is off to a good start and he's working on his senior project. He has a ton of resources already and I'm REALLY proud of him for not procrastinating this thing. He's such a great student and I know he'll be an even better prosthetist. I also want to thank him for all the support he's given me in this PC venture and in everything. You are my hero, Allan, and I love you so much! I know it's not fun to take care of a screaming baby, but you did it without complaint and you even had a smile on your face when I walked in last night, so THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU! I'ma give you kisses when you get home ;)

Thank God I get to Hate TriCare!

I am so TO'ed right now, (see Napoleon Dynamite for this reference). I really am! Thank God we have a decent insurance coverage through TriCare. I'm not sure we could survive medical bills if we didn't have it. I don't know how people do it without insurance. I also don't know how people pay hundreds of dollars per month for insurance costs. So let me preface this by saying THANK GOD we have medical insurance and that it's so cheap.

Now let me totally b*tch about it! Today I took GraceAnne to the Dr because she's had a cough for 2 weeks now. I thought it was just allergies because she sometimes has issues with post-nasal drip, so I put it off and put it off. But yesterday and today I woke up with a sore throat and the baby has been coughing, too, so I took her in. After waiting a good HOUR between the waiting room and the exam room, (don't you love waiting so long that your kid is hungry again, even though you JUST ate before you came? Yeah, I do, too.) FINALLY, the Dr. looked her over and said she's totally fine other than a little bit of pinkness in her throat. She said, "the strep-screen was negative, so..." I said, "wait a minute...she didn't get a strep-screen." The nurse had said she was going to come back to swab her throat but never did. So they came and did the swab and said, "six minutes." So 20 minutes later I walked out there and asked if it was done. They said, "oh yeah...it's positive" FAN FREAKIN TASTIC! So they sent the Dr in to talk to us again and it took her 30 more minutes to get in there and MAN was I mad when she told me the baby "probably doesn't have it" and I "shouldn't be worried." I asked her what to look out for and she said, "well, usually nasal drainage." BUT GraceAnne's nose has been dry as a bone, so my guess is this is not a typical strain. UGH. So I asked her if I should get tested...she said, "strep is not so easily-passed as we'd like to think" UMM...then she said, "only be worried if she's in the baby's face a lot or if you guys kiss on each other lots. HELLO!? OF COURSE we kiss on each other--we're family. OF COURSE she's in Vi's face every 2 seconds--Vi's her favorite play thing!

So I got home after an infuriating time at the Dr's office and Allan is home. He is laying on the couch because he feels "drugged." He checks his temp and it's over 101. FANTASTIC! So I call our primary care manager (PCM from now on), and they have NO CLUE what I'm talking about when I ask for a Rapid Strep test. She said, and I quote, "I have no idea what they did, but there's no way to test for strep in 6 minutes! It would take DAYS to grow a culture." and that we can't get in until tomorrow anyway. I said, "I don't have days. If the baby is getting it I need to be on antibiotics NOW." So I call Tricare and they tell me tough sh*t so I call Ennis Regional and they say they can do it for 84$ each. WTF? So I call Tricare again to see if they'll just pay for us to go and get labs at Ennis Regional and they say, "not without a Dr. authorization" so I call our PCM and ask them to write a referral and she says, "no way. We'd need at least a week to get a referral done, because Tricare is so hard to get a referral from...they're VERY hard to get to cooperate." AS IF I HADN'T NOTICED THIS! So I called Tricare again to see if there's ANYTHING I can do and get told tough sh*t again. But then the PCM calls us back and "OH, did you mean a strep SCREEN? Because we can do those." Can you see my face turning a thousand shades of red right now?!

Long story short? Allan is going to skip school tomorrow so we can go get strep SCREENS done and get some antibiotics and probiotics running through our systems. We'll only have to pay 12$ each for our co-pays and 3$ each for the script. I'm thrilled to have insurance, but did I REALLY need to go through all that for exactly what I asked for in the first place? *sigh*

The Smartest Babies!

Just about everyone who's ever met GraceAnne has been amazed at how smart she is. When we moved to TX she was barely 2 and speaking in full sentences. She's always been bright and I figure if she got nothing else of mine she got my left leg, (since daddy doesn't have one), and my big fat brain. ;) (Both are a joke, people, don't have a cow)

But did you know she's not the only genius in the house? That's right! Her baby sister is following in her footsteps and I'm only a little bit biased. Okay, maybe a lot a bit, but let me tell you what she was doing this evening and you might agree!
We were playing and she was sitting on my lap facing me. I was giving her kisses on her forehead and talking in a ridiculously infantile tone. She was, of course, rewarding my absurd behavior with her beautiful toothless smile and just being generally cute. Then she decided to join in the game. She pushed up to standing and "kissed" my forehead. The word kiss is used loosely here, as it was really more of an open-mouthed smack, but you get the idea. Then she laughed. I thought maybe I just knicked her ribcage in the right way, but no! She sat down, smiled, stood up and did it again. After the third time I deemed her fairly clever and we went around like this for a while. After we got bored of the forehead kissing game, I started to kiss her neck so she'd giggle, (my girls are wildly ticklish on their necks...I can't even wash GraceAnne's neck without getting a violent reaction), and then she DID THE SAME TO ME! After we took turns a few times I decided she was pretty smart and wondered what else she could do. So I kissed her cheek and moved my head back and forth on it, (like blowing bubbles on a belly). Then she laughed and "kissed" me on the cheek and moved her head back and forth really fast. For any of you nursing moms, you've seen the face where they look real determined and go in for the kill while nursing. Yeah--that.

There you have it. My kid is a genius. 4-months-old. WOOT!

Sweet Success!

Wow, what a week! As you all know, (if you read my blog regularly), I had my first Pampered Chef show this week and I also wrote to the guy who is supposed to be getting funding to get our house fixed. We've experienced a bit of success on both fronts.

At the party we had a great attendance. I got 3 bookings, (people who are interested in hosting parties themselves) and 150$ in sales. That's awesome because my whole goal for the party wasn't even to get sales, it was to get prayers for my business start-up and ideas of how to show people that I know Christ without being a nutjob. My recruiter ran the show for me, so I got to see someone in action, and that will go a long way toward being good at doing this, She also had everyone sign a Season's Best cookbook for me. There were some really awesome well-wishes in there and I'll cherish it forever! My first solo flight is next Thursday at Jina Armstrong's house. I feel so Blessed to be able to have my first parties with people who love us and wish us well.

As for the house...this was difficult. After finding 4 mice in the course of a week, dealing with the hot weather inside of my house and feeling pretty desperate about the floors thanks to a baby who can now roll both ways, I was pretty well done with not hearing anything about the house. So I wrote my laundry list to the guy who is looking for funding. It felt awful to write it because I know we are so well Blessed, and I hate to sound witchy about something that is such an awesome gift. But I did it. I am sure he has his own difficulties, but I'm tired of getting my hopes up and seeing nothing happen. We have other people willing to fundraise, and since that is all we're waiting on, I figured I'd give him one last chance to respond to us before I asked the General Contractor if he'd be willing to do the work with money from other places. I had several people proof-read the letter and everyone approved it, so I sent it off. I heard back the next day and the guy says he found funding and he needed all of Allan's documents. So I sent them to him and today wrote to ask if he'd gotten them and if he needed anything else. He said he did get them and now we're just waiting on the application to get approved! YAY! Prayers were answered, (THANK YOU ALL!), and now we have something else specific to pray for. Maybe we'll actually have a warm house for Christmas after all. WOOHOO! :)

Nervous

Monday was free chicken strips day at Chick-fil-A if you dressed in football attire. You all know I LOVE CFA, (if you don't, you should know, because it is my very favorite!), so we dressed the girls in their Bears cheerleading outfits and got some free chicken strips. YUM! Everyone was talking about how cute they were. My babies are the cutest! :)
Tuesday was GraceAnne's first day back to school. She was so happy and I just want to know, WHEN DID MY BABY GET SO BIG?!? She doesn't even look like a baby anymore, just a big kid! *sigh* Such is life, right?

My first Pampered Chef show is tonight!! I've never so much as been to one, so I'm excited and nervous. My recruiter is going to be helping me with this, so I will try to absorb as much information from her as humanly possible. I think I'll also be trying to come to some of her other shows, (in between my own, I'm getting rather busy!)

We got a new stove, (because as my sister-in-law informed me: Pampered Chefs to NOT have rats in their stoves), and it's beautiful! Our neighbor gave us the name of an appliance place in the next town that resells used appliances. We got a GE Profile XL 44. What that means is big, stainless steel gas stove. I tested it out on Monday night with a couple of recipes I intend to make for my guests tonight and it's AWESOME! The best part about it is it's an 1100$ stove brand new, but we got it for 300$ and it LOOKS brand new! YAY! A rat should have died in the stove a long time ago! It doesn't match a thing in our kitchen, (the rest of the appliances are white), but my dream is to someday have a stainless kitchen, so we're on our way. 33% of the way to achieving our goal. :D

I also wrote a long, harassing letter to the guy who is supposed to be working on funding for our house. He said he thinks that he found the funding and had me send him copies of Allan's official retirement paperwork. If this goes through, this is a serious answer to prayer and we thank EVERYONE who has been praying. Please continue to pray that it does work out and that the builders get here soon so that we can have a WHOLE warm house for Christmas and a floor for Violet to crawl on when she's ready to do that in a couple months.

So in this roller-coaster of our lives today is an up day. Who knows what loops are in store for us in the coming days, but for today I will shout from the mountaintop! :) Hope all is well, we love and miss you.

The Beginning and the End

Yes, today our youngest daughter is 4 months old. I can't believe the summer is over already! GraceAnne starts school tomorrow, the evenings are finally cooling off, (although we still bake during the day), and Violet is eating solid food now. She's so big! We got to looking at GraceAnne's baby book and discovered that at 4 months, she was also 25" and 15lbs 9oz. How cool is that!? They're the same size! :)

Violet has been begging me for food for weeks now. She gets desperate and grabs plates, drinks, whatever is in your hand, really! She opens her mouth and arches her back when we put food in our mouths, (can you tell she is on our laps constantly? Can someone tell the child she can sit by herself for a few minutes? ;) ), and cries when we don't give her a bite. So after getting the go-ahead from her pediatrician on Friday, we gave her her first bowl of rice cereal this morning. I made it thicker than they say to, but she loved it! She wanted to help with the spoon and is actually pretty coordinated with getting it in her mouth. I suppose when you imagine doing something for so long it comes easily.
GraceAnne is super-thrilled to be starting school tomorrow and so am I! She will feel so much better when she has a social outlet once in a while. I'm going to try to walk her to school as much as possible when the weather allows. It will do me good to have a reason to get out and get some excersize.

There's been a lot of drama around here this last week. The scooter is broken, (he called the shop and they told him what was wrong and he fixed it and it still doesn't run), the car broke down, (the Falcon...I had to go get him on Friday morning despite the garage sale that was taking over my front porch/yard!), and the rats have taken over our house again. This time they seem to be just mice, though. They tore up my pantry and I had to throw out a ton of my stockpiled food. We found one dead in the stove so we got rid of the stove, (would YOU cook on it ever again?!?), and now have no stove. We have killed 2 and there are more. *sigh* SO...I'm going to be spending the next couple of weeks riding some @sses about the home repairs that were supposed to start months ago. We'll see what comes of that. I have my first Pampered Chef show at my house on Wednesday and I have no stove...every person on craigslist that I write to has already sold theirs. We only have $300 for it, so it's not as if we can walk into Lowe's and pick one out. I'm being diligent, praying and trying to have faith and patience. Sometimes there's not enough of any of those 4 in me. So if you could pray, too, that'd be great ;) It sounds like a country song around here!

Despite all that, I am VERY excited at this month. I'll find out if GraceAnne is in dance classes this week and I have a busy month with kitchen shows. I feel so Blessed that this business is already growing. Have to cut this off now, I hope all is well! We love and miss you all.