LETS FACE IT ... I'M NOTHING LIKE MY MOTHER!

Grace has been sick for the last two days. *blek* I hate it when one of my little ones is sick ... especially pitiful Grace. Unfortunately, she is built like me. I get sick (the flu & sinus infections) about twice a year. Sean, however, is built like his daddy. He rarely gets sick. Maybe once every 3 years. Of course, there was this one year, when the kids were little, that all 4 of us were sick at the same time ... and we only had 1 bathroom. It was aweful.

I try to be like my mom ... I really do. She is an awesome mom. She always loved on me when I was feeling down, disciplined me when I needed it, and came to my rescue even as an adult. But when it came to being sick, she wasn't the best. She always told me: I'll give you 24 hours of sympathy. After that, you are on your own. So I've tried to do better than that. I've tried to strive for that 25 hour mark. NO LUCK. After about 8 hours of constantly throwing up (she literally threw up over 20 times ... I lost count after 21 trips to the trash can), I had had enough. She was whiny and jirating all over the place, making me think she was going to throw up every 10 seconds. She slept during the day and was wide awake during the night! She threw up all over the couch & the floor & I was none too happy with her. I tried to be sweet, but I had just asked her if she was going to throw up and she said, "I don't know". I shoulda known that meant it was coming as soon as I sat down. It always does! I didn't last too long. I held her hair back when she puked; I followed her to the potty every 30 minutes and held a bucket under her chin, just in case; I forbid her from eating pizza, PB&J sammies, Dr. Pepper (which she never gets anyways, but thought since she was sick, she'd still ask and hope for the best) and drinking milk. I did the best that I could. But my mom always took care of me. ALWAYS. Come to think of it, she usually lasted over the 24 hours mark. Me? Not so much...but I tried.

I'm a lot like my mom in so many ways ... but when it comes to being sympathatic to ones plight of sickness, I'm built like my dad. He runs for the hills and hollers across the house, "ARE YOU DONE YET?" Yep, that's me! I asked Grace, "when Mommy gets sick, are you going to take care of me like I took care of you" and her response, "maybe. we'll see. I'll feed you though".

IT'S THE MOST WONDERFUL TIME OF THE YEAR

I love this time of the year. The leaves changing, the weather cooling down, it finally being ok for you to have Christmas lights up! It just feels so good to me.

Things have finally settled down here.

I had planned on taking a year off from teaching, seeing as my pregnancies are so hard and my mom was sick. After losing the baby, I stayed at home for about 2 months. And I started to miss work and church. I couldn't have been more thrilled when my boss called me and asked me to come back. THRILLED! I love it. And this month, Jodi & I received the OCTOBER TEACHER TEAM. YEAH, US!

I received a raise at work (WOO HOO). J received a raise at work (BIGGER WOO HOO). He finally earned his vacation days, which was helpful, as he had to use 1 day right after they were granted to him, so he could go with me to take G to get an absessed tooth pulled! YUCK!

Last week was tough, tho. An aquantance of mine died in a tragic car accident. It was very had not being able to hug those that I knew were hurting (like Rachel) or to hug those that I knew would comfort me (like my mom). But it truly is a blessing that Rachel's mom is now working at our church, for one of the pastors. I was able to go up and get a hug from her ... and I don't know if Ms. Debbie will ever know how much I appreciated that! It was like getting a hug from my mom & Rach all in ONE! My two favorite women. I needed that, and I'm glad that our church provided me the ability to go visit her!

Church has been good for us. It has opened up the conversation lines for J & myself. We have had many discussion about our Christianity and faith and future! It's been amazing. And after 2 years, we finally feel like we have found our "FIT" in the church. We love our new CONNECTION GROUP. We are with people our age, who have kids our kid's ages, and have similar interest (and J's best friend, Jim is coming, too...what an answer to prayer). God is really working in our lives! I am seeing things now that I never saw, with a father who was the Minister of Music & attending a private BAPTIST college, majoring in Religious Education (emphasis on Children's ministry) and minoring in music; and J is discovering a more personal relationship than he ever had as the son of the Pastor! We are growing. We are growing TOGETHER. We are growing as a family and passing it along to our children. It is such a blessing to be a part of church that has our hearts (for our children and for us) interest! TRULY A BLESSING!