Who's your Bronco driving friend?

We were supposed to go to Atlanta this weekend to visit with my parents and my brother & his family, but I got sick. :-( I started feeling kind of bad-sore, swollen throat etc.-but I was trying to ignore it. Wednesday, it just kept getting worse & worse. I stayed home Wed. night while Chris & the girls went to church. In the night Wed. night, I started having chills and could hardly breathe through my nose at all and my throat was soooo swollen! I felt awful! Chris was able to stay home late enough Thursday morning to take Gracie to school but he had to go in to work due to a pressing matter. I got up for awhile and ate breakfast but really felt bad the longer I was up so I called the doctor to make an appointment.

I took the portable DVD player into our bedroom and got Katie set up with that and I dozed off & on in the bed. I had to get up to drive to the doctor and wasn't sure I was going to make it a couple of times. He tested me for strep which was, of course, negative. At the time I didn't believe the test but now I do. My throat actually stopped hurting pretty quickly but it was still somewhat swollen and my nose was stopped up and the longer Thursday went on, the more my head hurt + chills and general achiness. I know I'm whining, but I just felt horrible! You know where you're lying there and you just keep tossing back & forth and moving your legs because they ache and your head hurts and nothing makes you very happy for very long? Yeah, that was me Thursday. I told my mom there was just no way I could come to Atl. the next day. It was going to be a less than 24 hour trip and even if I felt better Friday I wasn't up for it. I hate that because it's been since May since I've seen Josh & his family. Hopefully we'll see them at Thanksgiving.

The doctor gave me a prescription for some stronger pain meds than what I could get over the counter which Chris got filled Thursday night. I was so relieved when I took them around 8:30 that night and didn't wake up until about 3:00 a.m. It was a good feeling to realize that I'd been sleeping so well for so long. Friday, Chris had to go in to work again-but was able to stay home long enough to take Gracie to school-so I dozed off & on while Katie pretty much hung out in my room with me then I hung out on the couch. He came home earlier than usual and I was able to take a nap. My wonderful friend Mary Beth picked Gracie up for me both Thursday & Friday which helped me out so much! Thank you! It is such a blessing to have a friend who I know I can count on to help me out with things like this!

One time I went to an Anita Renfroe show and she was talking about the different kinds of friends we have. She told us to think about who our "Bronco driving friend" is. You know, the one who would drive the Bronco for us like that famous "innocent" ex-football player's friend drove the Bronco for him. Well, Mary Beth is definitely one of my Bronco driving friends! She would drive me out of town then stop to ask, "What'd you do and how can we fix it?!?!" Everyone needs that kind of a friend-and she loves God too which is the BEST part of all!

I felt better Friday & Saturday and kind of felt bad again this morning but I took something this afternoon that I'm hoping will continue to help with the headache and general "stopped up-ness." The doctor gave me a prescription for an antibiotic and said if I don't get better I could get it filled and take it. I dropped it off this afternoon but the jury's still out on whether or not I'll take it. Whatever I took earlier seems to have helped so we'll just wait & see. Both girls have had somewhat runny, stuffy noses and I hope so bad that they don't get this.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Gracie & Katie are working girls now! We've decided to give them an allowance based on some specific chores. I struggled with this for awhile because there are some things I feel they should do just because they're part of the family and should help. However, I also feel like an allowance is part of growing up, so I came up with a pretty simple system for them to earn a little money. Really, I started out with it being just for Gracie but Katie caught on pretty quick that she wanted some money too so we came up with a modified system for her.

Basically, I told Gracie that each Monday she'll start out with 5 quarters. One for each weekday. She doesn't actually get to have them yet but they are hers for the taking. Each day when she goes to school, I'll check to see that she's completed 3 simple jobs. 1.) She has to make up her bed. 2.) She has to put up her pajamas. 3.) She has to take her breakfast dishes to the kitchen. If she does all of these, she has earned her quarter for the day. If she forgets one of these, she doesn't and I take away the quarter for that day. Last week, she earned it 4 out of 5 days. Tuesday, she took her breakfast plate but not her cup so she didn't earn it. Essentially, she has the possibility of earning $1.25/week or $5/month based on a typical 4 week month.

I gave her the $1.00 she earned for this past week and we discussed the 10% she should give to God so she went to get 10 cents out of her bank for that. She had some other church money to give so she put some in the change can we have for the children's home and she saved some to put in the collection plate at church. Chris & I hope to teach her about giving to God. I won't pretend for a second that he & I always do that as well as we should so I'm hoping that we can teach our children from a young age so that they won't think twice about it. I remember my parents giving me my allowance. We had 4(?) baby jars. One was for church, one was for savings, one was for spending & one was for Christmas. I think that was it. Goodness knows my dad tried to teach me about money. Why do I struggle with the management of it so much?!?! Definitely one of our areas of struggle.

Katie Boo has 2 jobs each day. 1.) She has to put up her pajamas. 2.) She has to put up her breakfast dishes. If she does that she will earn a nickel for each day. So, she can essentially earn 25 cents/week or $1.00/month based on a typical 4 week month. We're only doing the "earning" on weekdays although they're expected to perform their jobs on the weekend as well.

We'll see how it goes.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Some friends & I have started something that I'm way pumped about! A friend mentioned it and we decided to go for it. There are 4 of us participating at the moment and more may join soon although we may have to break it up into more than 1 group if we do just because of the logistics of the situation.

We're calling it "entree swap" and we just completed our 2nd one last Thursday. Me being sick made the actual swap a little difficult (we'd planned on switching at playgroup) but Chris out in our driveway-in the rain-shuffling casseroles back & forth between 3 different cars finally got it all worked out! Every other week we each make 4 entrees. Speaking for myself, one of them I have kept for my own family to eat that evening. The other 3 entrees I freeze in the same kind of pan. At a designated time, I meet with these friends and we swap! I come home from the swap with 3 different entrees that my friends have prepared for me while I give my 3 entrees to each of them.

It is awesome! It has been so nice to think, "What am I going to fix for dinner" and then think, "Oh yeah! I have so & so's entree to pop in the oven." For the first swap, I made a "Beef Enchilada Casserole" for each of them and I received a pan of "Chicken Enchiladas," "Baked Spaghetti" and "Shepherd's Pie." This last Thursday, I gave my friends "Chicken Spaghetti" & "Parmesan Rolls" and I received a pan of "Lil' Cheddar Meat Loaves," "Ham & Potato Casserole" and "Chicken Pot Pie." It is so nice knowing that those 3 entrees are waiting in my freezer to simply be thawed & baked! Preparing 4 entrees takes a little time & money but it's worth it when I come home with 3 different dinners that I didn't have to take the time or spend the money to make!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
We had Life Group tonight and had an interesting thing happen. During our Bible study, 2 "elders" from the local Mormon church came to the door. There is a congregation right down the road so it is very common to see 2 of them walking, riding their bike or driving around the neighborhood. I saw them walk up the sidewalk and Chris went to the door and invited them to come in. They came in, sat down & stayed throughout the remainder of the study. One of them even participated in the discussion. Very interesting.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Mom is coming Wednesday to stay with the girls a couple of nights while Chris & I go off to celebrate our anniversary! It was actually August 13th, but it worked out well to wait until this weekend to celebrate. We are going to Daufuskie Island for 2 nights and we're really excited. We made our spa reservations today and are just planning to have a nice, relaxing time! We'll spend most of Thursday in Hilton Head then catch the ferry over to the island. We'll have our spa treatment Friday and just basically relax & enjoy being together while enjoying some good meals. I'm excited!

Once again, Mary Beth will probably be stepping in to help with getting Gracie to & from school. Mom could do it but car line is really best reserved for those who are used to it! I'm kidding.....kind of. Mom could do fine, but I think it'll just be easier on her if MB helps with this part. Also, MB will be watching Katie for her a little bit on Friday morning because it happens to be 'Grandparent's Day' at school! It worked out perfectly scheduling wise so Mom will get to visit Gracie in her classroom. I'm anxious to hear what she thinks about it.

Gracie also has her first soccer game Wednesday so Mom will get to watch her in that. She won't get to play the whole game because we will need to leave early for church but she'll make at least part of it.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I wanted to mention 2 new links I've recently added. One is Julie. She was my "big sis" when I pledged my social club at ACU. Her husband was one of Chris' roommates a couple of years also.

The other one is Houston. He is an "old" friend from ACU. We ran around in the same group our Freshman year. It seems that the group didn't run together as much after our Freshman year. Life got in the way I guess, but I remember him with fondness as one of the "good guys." I'll never stop being impressed with him & some of the other guys who formed their own little group with their "secret" name of "PACHS." I remember finally finding out what PACHS stood for. I'm not sure what I thought of it at the time but looking back, I think it was so neat that Houston, Jake, Kyle (we had so much fun at his parents' house & the lake!), Bert, Slade (I'm sure there were others) decided to hold each other accountable for such an important thing as they did. Chris & I need to pray that when our daughters get to ACU (or wherever they end up going!) that they find Christian young men such as those guys. Of course, finding a Christian young man such as their daddy will be a fine find as well!!!!! I tried to find some pictures of Julie & Houston to post. Pictures from our long ago ACU days. I'll keep looking!