little update

In an effort to be mindful of how much time I sit here updating, I'm going to do this update utilizing 'bullets' rather than wordy paragraphs-well, try anyway.

Friday:
*signed a bunch of papers that morning to finish the closing on the sale of our house!

*Even though we've been keeping Ellie home from church, we have gone out a few places with her. You know, they say it's better to take them to a store than church because at church people want to look & touch, etc. while at a store, people don't necessarily pay much attention to them. So, I decided I'd like to try to go to one of the local outlet malls. We got all loaded up and made it through 1 store before the lawyer handling our house closing called saying we needed to sign yet 1 more paper and she could fax it to the store across from our apartment (we don't have a fax machine) so we drove the 15-20 minutes back to sign 1 more paper. A little frustrating but for a good cause!

*took the girls to the pool. Ellie is getting practice riding in her stroller by this point!

*It was Gramps's birthday (the day before) so we went out to celebrate. Decided to go to the Galleria afterwards. I was hurting quite a bit by this point but had the 'itch' to be out of the house! Remembered we had left the stroller at home (ugh!) so Ellie had to be carried. I was a little worried since she wouldn't be as 'sheltered' as she can be in all covered up in the stroller, but she was kept pretty close to one of us the whole time.



Saturday:
*Gramps & Gramme left to go home after spending almost 2 weeks here helping us.

*"Nana Kay & Mr. Ron" came to visit for a few hours. They were at the hospital in Uvalde when Gracie was born and were 'surrogate grandparents' to her for the first 9 months of her life before we moved to South Carolina. It was good to see them and let them see Gracie again and get to meet Katie & Ellie! We look forward to seeing them more often now that we live closer.

*A sweet couple from church brought us dinner that night.



Sunday:
*Chris, Gracie, & Katie went to church while I stayed home with Ellie.

*I was able to sleep that afternoon in a hope that it would give me more energy to stay up that night if needed since 'someone' around here likes to stay up in the wee hours!

*Chris, Gracie, & Katie went back to church that night. He had offered to let me go while he stayed home with Ellie, but it'd be a little hard for him to feed her at this point. He brought home a gift from someone at church-some beautiful burp cloths & a bib. LOVE them!

*Ellie slept in her own bed (well, mainly in the bouncey seat in her bed!) for the first time since her room is also the guest room and has been occupied for some time now. I slept in the other bed in the room so I could be closer for those times when I need to get up with her-which is all too often!



Monday:
*This was my 1st day to stay home with all 3 by myself all day. I survived. I guess.

*A sweet lady from church called and said she and some others are going to plan a shower for us. That is so nice of them to do that-especially with Ellie being a 3rd girl. Someone told Chris, "Everyone gets 1 shower (at this church) whether it's your 1st or your 3rd." Very sweet of them!

*Chris was kind enough to stop & pick up dinner on the way home.

*I got some precious monogrammed baby gifts from my college friend, Valerie! Also, the girls received some letters from South Carolina, we got another gift from a SC friend, and a 'welcome baby' card from another SC friend. It was a great mail day! Getting mail is a huge highlight for me, so it was really great to get so much at once!

*The girls had planned a 'family party' for us that night. We played "Pretty, Pretty Princess" together, Gracie did her daily Bible reading for Bible Class, we sang some songs then gave Ellie a bath. Giving the bath wasn't part of what G&K wanted to do, but since we let them 'help,' it made it a little more bearable for them.

*Monday night was a tough one. Ellie just really wants to be held...a lot. She also has tummy issues poor thing. Makes for a sleepy mommy is all I can say.



Tuesday:
*I went back to sleep during Ellie's first morning nap. It was just necessary.

*Gracie & Katie were so great today (well, for most of the day anyway. Gracie was the whole day. It's hard for Katie to be good the whole day poor thing!) They played together and are really such good helpers.

*Ellie had a great afternoon of being peaceful, so that was good.

*I spent some time looking at houses online and talked to at least 1 realtor. My prayer is going to be that we can find something BEFORE school starts and somehow not lose too much money getting out of our lease early. I'd really like Gracie to start school where she's going to finish out the year rather than have to switch again. We've pretty much decided on which suburb to look in, so we feel good about that. Lots of people from church live there and the schools seem to be great as far as rankings & test scores & reputation, etc.

*My mom & mother-in-law had put some things in the freezer, so I got out one of those for dinner tonight. It was nice to have that available.

*I'm hoping for a good night of rest. *sigh* We'll see. I'm struggling with this newborn stage as I usually do. I'm just tired and miss going to bed and sleeping all night. I know 'this too shall pass' and my baby will be grown up sooner than I want, but I still miss sleeping.