pictures to go with the last post

Here are the pictures that I promised in my last post.


Rebekah in her fancy dress setting out the break-and-bake cookies.

Rebekah making valentines for the home-bound church members.

A card I made for my grandmother out of candy boxes.

Rebekah and Shannon working in the yard.

Rebekah's poison oak on her chin and her cheek (you might have to click on the picture to see it).

Shannon's poison oak on his arm.

And because it would be criminal to let this post go up with no picture of Annabelle, here is her first ice cream experience. She stole my cone and smushed her little face right into it. She thought it was especially funny when I took a bite while she was holding it.

ear infections and poison oak--oh, and Valentine's Day

I'm blogging at work because I've been too busy and tired to do this at home. That also means I don't have all my pictures with me. I'll have to add them later to illustrate this post.

Illnesses
We all seem to have recovered from our various ailments. Annabelle had it worst because she had an ear infection that lasted almost a month. It took three rounds of antibiotics to finally get it better. Now she is well and back to her joyful little self.

Valentine's Day
Rebekah loved Valentine's Day. We went to the church party again, where she passed out valentines to the other children and also made cards for the people who can't get out of their homes to go to church. On Valentine's Day, she came home from preschool and put on her fanciest dress to celebrate the occasion. She wasn't quite ready when Shannon got home, and she actually started crying because she wanted to look just right for her daddy. He had to wait outside until she was dressed and then we let him in with the flowers he brought for all of us. I cooked shrimp scampi, at which Rebekah initially turned up her nose. When I told her it was a special Valentine's dinner, she changed her mind and dug in, exclaiming "This is the best Valentine's dinner I ever had!" After dinner we made some "Break and Bake" cookies.

Yard Work
Shannon and Rebekah spent some time working in the yard over the weekend. She swept the porch, and they both raked and bagged leaves. The result was a nice, clean yard and two cases of poison oak. It's always something, right? Not to worry--they are healing and not too itchy anymore. I had no problems because, as much as I love raking and sweeping and bagging dirty scratchy leaves, I had to stay in the house with the baby.

Walking?
Annabelle has taken seven steps in a row, but we have not yet convinced her to repeat the performance. She doesn't fall down when she tries to walk; she simply refuses to walk. She takes a few steps, then changes her mind and crawls. But no hurry. She's only ten months old, so we're impressed with her mobility as it is. And finally, after months of only two teeth, she has a third, with a fourth soon to follow.

That wraps up our adventures over the past few weeks. Except I should add that I absolutely love the class I'm teaching right now. My students are fantastic. Hopefully we'll have more reports of good health and no rashes over the coming weeks.

the plague

We've had it rough the past few weeks. Annabelle had an ear infection, followed by another cold, followed by another ear infection, and just when we thought we were out of the woods, she caught a stomach virus. Yesterday Annabelle was doing well, so I was expecting to get back to work, but at 3:00 a.m. Rebekah came into my room to tell me that she was sick. She spent the wee hours of the morning sick and is home now with the stomach virus. Shannon got the flu, which caused him to get bronchitis, and he is just now feeling better. Since he had to take several sick days for himself, he hasn't been able to stay home with the kids, so I've missed two full weeks of work. I've had a bad cold, but I'm starting to feel better. I just hope I don't get the stomach bug, too. So that's what's going on in our lives--sick, sick, sick.