Catching Up

It's only been a few days since I posted, but it seems there is much to catch up on! The house is completely quiet; Ted and the boys went to our small group study for the evening. Charis fell asleep on the couch around 4:30 and woke up very warm and grumpy. Her tummy was bothering her. She ate a little bit of soup and then curled up on the couch again. Since Tobin had some tummy issues last week, and Ted wasn't feeling all that well himself yesterday, we decided it would be best for Charis and I to stay home tonight. Ted offered to stay home with her so I could go, but I felt that I could use some quiet time to catch up on some business activities.

So, Charis and I enjoyed a nice long cuddle session on the couch. I read a few stories to her and prayed with her several times. Poor li'l pumpkin. She's just not feeling so great. I gave her some Tylenol, because she definitely felt feverish. She ate a few crackers and downed some milk, so perhaps her stomach will be all right, but she did complain about her head hurting. She didn't protest at all when I carried her upstairs to bed around 7:15, and I'm quite sure she fell asleep soon after I came back downstairs.

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Ted returned safely from Utah Friday afternoon. He had been at Hill AFB helping evaluate an exercise for about a week and a half. It was a voluntary TDY and great experience for him. I'm glad he got to go do something he really enjoys--it was a nice break for him, but the 5 p.m. to 5 a.m. shifts got a little old. :-) He also enjoyed a nice day of snowboarding on one of his days off. What a rough life!

The kids were extremely happy to have Daddy back home again, as was I. We did have our moments while he was gone, but overall, I think we did pretty well. God helped me have a better attitude than I could have had, and He helped the kids stay mostly manageable!

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Ted wasn't the only one to arrive on Friday! My friend Kris traveled from New Mexico to Vegas, and we picked her up at the airport and arrived home about a half hour before Ted got here. She and I had planned this weekend long before Ted knew about his TDY, so even though it doesn't sound like the best timing, it couldn't be helped. She and I attended the Stampin' Up! Regional Seminar all day on Saturday, and we had a blast. I hadn't seen her since Convention last summer, and even then I didn't get to spend a lot of time with her, since we didn't room together and she had her cute little baby girl with her. This time we got to catch up on our girl talk and of course stamp, and it was great fun. I'm sure the kids enjoyed catching up on Daddy time, and they were all in one piece (Daddy included!) when we arrived home that evening, so I trust all went well! I took Kris back to the airport Sunday morning and got back home in time to eat a pancake breakfast with the kids and Ted. A very fast weekend, but a fun one.

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Sunday afternoon we went to my friend Sarah's house. A few weeks ago we began taking an American Sign Language (ASL) class with her as our teacher and a few other friends as our fellow students. Sarah's husband Ken is deaf, and Ted and I have been wanting to learn ASL to better communicate with him instead of having to rely on Sarah or a computer all the time! Also, I have always been interested in learning ASL...we taught the kids some signs when they were babies, and I thought it would be neat to keep learning more. My sister-in-law knows a lot of signs and has taught her older daughter a lot as well, and I have always thought that was cool. How nice will it be when we're in public and I can sign a warning to my kids?! "Stop that, right now, or else we will go home!!!"

I attended the first session 3 weeks ago--Ted was home sick with the kids that day. Then the next Sunday we both missed because he was TDY and I had a stamping workshop. (My friend and neighbor down the street helped me out by watching the kiddos that afternoon.) So this past Sunday was Ted's first actual class. I had done my best to teach him our vocabulary, but it's so much better to actually be there. The book we ordered on e-Bay finally arrived yesterday, so now we have something to jog our memories.

I'm also excited to be learning ASL because next Tuesday I get to do a stamping workshop for a group of deaf ladies! Sarah has kindly offered to help me by interpreting as well as preparing me for what to expect and giving me tips on the best way to approach the whole teaching-rubber-stamping thing. I'm so excited for this opportunity to share with these women! I'll definitely blog about it afterwards. Who knows, maybe it will be a complete flop?! But then again, maybe it will be something that excites them as much as it does me!

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Yesterday at MOPS we had an interesting session. A woman who owns her own "Little Pastry Chefs" business came in and provided 8" round cakes for us all to decorate! We made a beach scene, crumbling graham crackers for the sand and mixing in blue frosting to create the water. I was very proud of my frosting fish, starfish, jellyfish, turtle, and octopus! I am by no means a good cake decorator, but the kids were thrilled when I showed them the finished product. In fact, when saying his prayers several times a day, Tobin has been thanking God for the fish cake that Mommy made. Arden follows his lead and also thanks God for the fishy cake! Charis is just happy that she got to eat the piece with the pink starfish on it. :-)

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Well, I'd better quit here before this gets too long. I'll write more later about how our schooling is going.