Back to Reality

Today I headed back to work. Augh. I am exhausted! It really wasn't too bad, becuase most of my trouble makers are gone. Can you believe that my third grade class alone has lost 4 boys to alternative school (behavior school) this year? We maybe have had an average of 1 each year, if that. 17 and a half more days of kids left! Mia stayed home with Marc due to some daycare issues - she'll start next week - so that made it much easier to head back, and then they visited at lunch today!

I apologize for being a bad blogger, but things have been crazy lately. And, I still can't get photos on my blog from my new camera, so those will come soon when I get a clue how to do it.

Please continue to keep Amy's sister-in-law Becca in your thoughts and prayers. This past week has been so hard on her and her family, and I can't imagine being them and going through the ups and downs of the days since her surgery.

I feel very blessed to have my children right now, healthy and safe with me. It's so easy to get distracted in life by the little things that truly don't matter, and seeing Amy and Chris and their family going through what they've been through this past week makes me remember how important family is, and how I need to be grateful daily for our health and happiness. That's what matters.

Hello!

I am writing just to prove a point to my Aunt Nancy that I am alive and blogging! And if she'd look, I did post 2 times after Amy was here! There hasn't been many exciting things going on, so I'll just post the most interesting highlights of the week:
1. Mia is doing great. She's recovering from her baby acne spell, and now is just really dry with some red spots. Yet, she's still a cutie! She went 7 hours between feedings the other night which was great, until last night when she was up most of the night. Not crying really, but just "talking" very noisily for a long time! She's a talker already. She's so alert, holds her head up, and smiles a lot at us!
2. Today some pottery people came to the house to make a clay plaque with Mia's hand/foot print in it. I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed talking with the couple, and learning about their life. It's nice to run into neat people unexpectedly. I was a little sad to see them leave! The man commented on how strong Mia is too, as he was trying hard to unclench her fist to make a hand print.
3. I shopped at IKEA yesterday for quite a while, and came out with some Orange curtains for my bedroom. Way cool.
4. I got a new camera! Part of the reason I haven't put photos on is because I have to figure it out still. It's red too - very neat. I had a pale purple version first, but that color wasn't manly enough for Marc I guess.
5. Mia had her first real bath the other night because her cord finally fell off!
6. Bunnies - that's the saga of the day. I heard Molly and the neighbor dogs going nuts earlier this afternoon so I went outside and found Molly with a baby bunny in her mouth, and another laying off to the side. She and the other dogs had found a nest and Molly was able to reach it. So, being the crazy animal lover that I am (anyone remember the Klein Ave. bunny-that-I-hit incident earlier in life??) I felt the need to rescue them. Now, they weren't fuzzy little bunnies - they were brand new, mouse-looking, no fur, umbilical cords still hanging off - bunnies. I have a feeling they were just born today and that's why the dogs took notice. So I loaded them and Mia up and took those 2 to the vet. One didn't make it. Then after explaining all this to Marc, and not finding any more bunnies, we put bricks up around it and ate dinner. But, I look out and Molly moved the brick and found two more! So we enlisted the help of the internet and our neighbors and made a new nest for those two and hope they survive! The neighbor boy said he'll check on them in the morning and we'll see if they are still alive. And a little known bunny fact... mom bunnies feed their babies for 5 minutes, twice a day, and are gone the rest of the time. Boy, what I wouldn't give for Mia to only want to eat 10 minutes a day right now! :)

One month old

Today Mia is one month old. I can't believe how much she's changed and grown in just this little time! This week she's decided to cry/fuss any time she's not being held with a pacifier in her mouth, and is sleeping very little. That's been fun. She's also experiencing a bit of baby acne... not so cool, but I know she's not the first baby to have it! Here are a few more photos from the past week. We were glad to have snow, because then we got to see the Easter bunny's footprints!

Is it April in Texas, or January in Ohio??

I remember years ago having a snow day on mom's birthday - April 6th - in Ohio, and even that was a little rare. However, snow in Texas, in April? Not heard of. Snow in January in Texas isn't even a usual occurrence! Today we left Marc's parents' house in Bryan, TX, where it was 41 degrees and sleeting/raining. As we drove the 2 hours home to Killeen, the temp kept dropping and the rain gradually turned to snow. By the time we reached Killeen, it was 33 degrees and snowing - hard! It was big, wet snow. So, as soon as we got home, we all changed and went out to play! I was pretty surprised that noone else was out playing in the snow too. It reminded me of Ohio winters... not Texas springs! Just Tuesday it was almost 90, and I got a slight sunburn. I wanted to capture the bluebonnets covered in snow, but don't have any right by the house. Here are some photos from our little blizzard. Not the best photos - hard to capture good shots when the snow is huge and your 3 year old won't stand still since he's rarely gotten to play in snow! I love Marc's expression in the photo of him laughing, so had to add that one. And yes, we put our one month old baby in the snow. I promise she was wrapped well and only out there for a minute! We had to have a photo of her in her first snow. The only problem with playing in the snow for us is that we have no gloves, so our poor hands were very red and freezing!

Mia, 3 weeks