Breathe, Jennifer!

Hi everyone. Wow, what a whirlwind the last few days have been! Hope everyone's doing well and that the week is off to a great start for all of you. Gosh - is it really Wednesday tomorrow?!

We have really gotten "in" to entertaining in our home...inviting friends over, cooking (or grilling out), enjoying conversation and laughter, etc. We have a great relationship with our next-door neighbors (well, with all of them, but these folks most especially), and they've helped us with numerous projects. We'd initially invited them to come over "the Saturday after Easter" for a dinner party, only to realize (as "the Saturday after Easter" got closer and closer) that we'd overbooked ourselves. On "the Saturday after Easter," we'd planned to do a little family soirée to celebrate two birthdays (Mom Smith's on the 31st and my brother-in-law's on the 4th) and our fourth wedding anniverary (this Thursday - woo hoo!). So instead, I took the afternoon off on Friday and furiously shopped, prepared, decorated, and cooked for our friends. They were amazing, and we had a GREAT time. So, so funny, they are! Their son is two months older than Erin, and they always have a great time playing and goofing off. After drinking entirely toooo much and laughing hysterically on Friday night, we spent the day in St. Joseph with Curt's side of the family, and I had sorority meetings and business to attend to on Sunday. Monday was a good workday. BUSY. This damned project needs to end. SOON. Last night, poor Erin tripped and lost her balance as she walked down the (carpeted, thank God) stairs and she hurt her little elbow. God, how it ripped my heart out to hear that sweet little tearful voice say, "Mommy, my arm hurts!" She's (like her mom) got the tendency to diva-things-up a bit, and over-exaggerate things, so we kept a careful eye on her arm and watched for mobility and tenderness and swelling. All seemed to be OK, and she actually slept in "capital-Y" format with her arms stretched apart and open, leading me to believe that she was OK. That wasn't the case. This morning, her little elbow was all swollen and, God love her, she didn't want me to change her clothes or bathe her. After a struggle in the tub, we took her in to sick call at her pediatric clinic. Her doctor was able to see her (not that I don't like the other doctors, but we prefer this doctor...she's been with us from the NICU days and we don't ever want to lose her). Anyway, the doctor examined her and wrote us a referral across the state line for an X-ray. The referral sheet read "fractured left elbow." I damned near lost it right there. My poor baby! After four very painful X-rays, we were sent home fracture-free (thank God!) with the directive to use Children's Motrin for the pain and to have Erin take it easy. Bless her little heart. She's just fine now...stretching her arms out open and wide, playing with the puppy, laughing and hamming it up. So I think she'll be OK. Crisis averted, thank God. I was so scared!

Have you heard Rob Thomas' new song "Lonely No More"? I can't stop listening to that! Good, good stuff.

Can I make a suggestion to you, my friends? If you're candle fans, you simply MUST burn Yankee Candle's "Vanilla Cookie" candle alongside the Colonial Candle "vanilla+mintleaf" fragrance. Oh-my-yum! The whole basement smells soooo vanill-y and yummy.

I'm off to check EMAIL and crochet a bit with my family. A big thunderstorm's pushing in to our area and I lovelovelove the way the air feels and smells. Might run out for a second and take it all in before heading for cover in the basement with my family, my candles, and my crochet. :)

Ta!