Many thanks, and a few complaints

Many thanks:

Papaw came through his surgery great! His doctor even bragged on him for how strong he was through the whole thing! They got in there and removed the bladder, lymph nodes and prostate, and they are just almost totally positive that they got ALL of the cancer! He's probably not even going to need any chemo or radiation!! Thanks to all who have been prayer warriors on his behalf. He is still in the hospital probably for the rest of this week recovering. Way to be so strong, Papaw! We knew you'd do great! LOVE YOU!!

Johnathan just loves school. He was actually sitting still on the mats when I went to pick him up! I know this is so good for him to be around lots of other children his age! He fell asleep on the way home, and we both continue to enjoy his long nap this afternoon. :)

Our car is fixed ... again ... but for real this time. Last week, our coolant started leaking, like all of it leaked out. We found that we had an "intake gasket leak" and that it would cost $890 to fix it. Now we've only had this (our second) car for around a month, so we called the dealership, where we bought the car, to see if they would do anything about it. He told us to take it to another place to get fixed, and the quote went down to $520. Plus the dealership said that they would pay half! Hooray! So, we had it fixed ... sort of. Two days later, the coolant was gone. They towed it back and found that something wasn't sealed right, so they did that for free. Hooray! We're back up to two cars! That comes in really handy when we're 10 min outside of town.

I had a really nice baby shower that Glenwood gave me on Sunday afternoon. We had a big turnout! Now it looks like we're actually going to have a GIRL in that nursery! Wow. Lots of pink. I used to not like pink all that much. It's growing on me significantly! Kalleigh continues to grow, and so do I. I had a couple of nice comments regarding how I looked in that Women of Faith picture--what you can't see is the other half of me behind my cousin!! Thanks, Alissa! John went with me to my appointment yesterday, and got to hear her heartbeat for the first time. Isn't it so cool?! I start my weekly appointments next week, since I'll hit the 35 week mark tomorrow. It's flown!

I can't believe Kreg leaves for HUF on Monday!! We had such a fun time together last weekend, as short as it was. If he hadn't come down, I wouldn't have been able to see him before he left! Way to go, Kreg. You're turning 20 on the day my baby girl is supposed to be born. Thanks for being such a good uncle!

... and a few complaints:

Mostly about pregnant issues. Like, I have been feeling just super until yesterday. And it all hit at once. My back was killing me, my feet swelled up and my ankle just started hurting when I walk for no good reason. What's up with that? It's like my body had been asleep during this pregnancy and forgot to give me all the aches and pains ... until yesterday! John was so sweet, though. Last night, he rubbed my back and my ankle, which helped. At least I'm still sleeping really well, and only having one bathroom run per night. Of course, now that I've said that, I've alerted my body to this fact, and it will fall apart tomorrow!

Weight. Man. It's so hard when everyone around you is saying, "It's okay! You're eating for two!" when I really can't eat sugar or too many carbs or I will gain 5 pounds in two weeks, like I proved at my last appointment; when I can't excercise how I want because of my huge belly; and when I can't eat whatever I want when it all tastes SO much better when I'm pregnant! If I gain 5 more pounds, I will be at my top weight that I was with Johnathan. I said I'd never get that big agian. It took 18 months to get it back off! And then I got pregnant again! Okay, so instead of saying, "Oh, it's okay! You're pregnant!" I'd much prefer everyone to say, "Hey. Listen up. This is not about you--it's about Kalleigh! You want a healthy, not humongous, baby! Just stick it out 5 more weeks. Then you can nurse, and it will all go away." I would be so proud of myself if I could possibly gain less than five pounds before she is born. Is that even possible? Maybe they'll induce early ... :)

Why buy things for people for which they did not register, assuming they registered? I don't get it. Making things for people? Sure, that's awesome. You can't register for that kind of thing, and it's really special. But taking the time to go to a store at which you are registered, buying something not on your registry (even though you have all prices available) and including the gift receipt? I actually had a lady come up and say to me, "I went to Target, but didn't pull up your registry. I just got you something, so you can take it back if you want to." For real! I just don't get it. Good greif, I shouldn't complain about that. They didn't have to get me anything! Ok, refocusing.

Papaw, Women of Faith, Johnathan stories

This post will be in several different sections. It's a catch-up post since it's been over a week since I wrote anything!

Papaw: Say lots of prayers today for Papaw as he has surgery today! We're optimistic, of course. :) Plus this week is Mamaw and Papaw's 55th anniversary! Congrats!

Women of Faith: Last weekend, I went to the W of F conference in Dallas with Dad's wife, Maria, and my aunt and cousin, Karla and Alissa. The theme was "Contagious Joy," so it was very upbeat and refreshing! Something I needed after a relatively frustrating week last week. The speakers were wonderful, and I did walk away with a new sense of joy that can be found everyday!



S'mores: After lunch one day, I thought it would be fun to have Johnathan help me make S'mores in the microwave. We made about four of them and popped them in. They were so yummy ... but very sticky. That's one of those afterthoughts where I'm like, "Hmmm ... maybe this wasn't such a hot idea." :) However, we bothh enjoyed ourselves thoroughly!


"I need a na'kin, Mommy."


"Eeeeewwww!"


Hug, anyone?

The Negotiator: Yesterday afternoon, Johnathan came into the room and saw a tupperware container with chocolate chip cookies in it. J: "Mommy, I want some cookies!" K: "I think you know how to ask nicely." J: "Please more cookies?" K: "You may have one cookie." J: "5?!" K: "You may have one." And I gave him the cookie. 5 minutes later ... J: "5 cookies? One at a time? Give for Daddy?" ... good grief. :)

First Day of School: Can you believe it? I sent my 2-yr-old off to preschool! He's going to "Little People's School," which is at the church building. It's included in the "minister package." Hooray! He goes Mondays and Wednesday mornings. He was so excited to go! Here's a picture of him in his first-day-of-school outfit:

Just curious ...

How many of you Curtis girl cousins still have and/or use the jewelry box/cabinet/thing that Mamaw got us for Christmas forever ago? I can't remember who all got them--probably any of us girls who were old enough to wear and keep up with jewelry.

I have used mine ever since then, and just last week, the front of one of the drawers broke off! It looks like the glue just gave out, so I'll probably just hot glue it back on. I mean, what else could I use to store my jewelry?! I've had this one since, well, forever!

Thanks again, Mamaw, for the Christmas gift!

I Won!

I'm so excited! I won a scrapbooking contest! It's kind of silly, though, because there were only 5 entries. But, hey, I still got a $25 gift certificate to my favorite website! The contest was to submit a layout that had to have this quote on it somewhere: "Lead me not into temptation. I can find the way myself." Since I got my pride hurt with the last contest, I almost didn't enter this one. I know, ridiculous. Well, someone had already done a page on coffee and another one on scrap patterned paper, so I thought I'd take a different approach and write it from Bison's point of view. I used that picture that I posted awhile back (Addicted to pugs ...) and a couple others that I had of Bison and took about 30 minutes to throw this page together using some paper that I have had for a long time and just needed to use and some cheap letter stickers that I got for nearly nothing at Wal-Mart. When I finished the page, I took it to show John and said somewhat facetiously, "Look, I'll probably win with this one, even though I just sort of threw it together." I uploaded it to the site, rolling my eyes that I would enter this in a contest.

Well, what do you know? I won. It really wasn't much of a contest, like I said, with only 5 entries, but mine had the brightest colors and a mildly creative layout. Here's how it turned out:

The cool thing is that the website puts the winning layouts on their homepage for a week! So, if you want to see it there, you can go to www.apeekintoyesterday.com.

I'm getting some new paper for sure! Basic Grey and Cosmo Cricket, here I come!

Fabulous couple of days

Well, as you might have guessed, we have had a fabulous couple of days. The biggest reason is that it's been calm and we didn't have any big plans! As I've said before, Fridays are John's days off, so that morning I did my babysitting (I guess I haven't posted this before, but I'm keeping the 7 month old boy from across the street M-F in the morning through the school year) with John there to help with Johnathan. Then "Baby Nathan," as Johnathan calls him, went home and Johnathan went down for a nice long nap. After he woke up, the three of us went to the Discovery Science Place Museum downtown. It was our first time there, and Johnathan loved it! I loved it mostly because there were lots of places to sit down and it was air conditioned! Then we hit CiCi's Pizza for supper. Man, their cinnamon rolls are SO good. Don't tell my doctor. :) After supper we went to Home Depot and Wal-Mart for some little things we've needed for around the house.

Then this morning, we slept in! Of course, my definition of "sleeping in" has changed dramatically since becomming a mother. We slept in until 7:30! It was great. I made "Sunshine Cups" for breakfast, which is a crustless piece of toast that you press into a muffin tin and break open an egg inside and cook for 20-25 minutes at 350 degrees. Honestly, not the most fabulous breakfast, but it was something different because I had time to make it!

John was the real story of the morning. He worked on the PowerPoint slides for Sunday morning, and when he finished with that, he went around the house just doing those maintenance-type things that need to be done from time to time. He added a length of chain to our back porch swing so that my feet would touch the ground, then put together Johnathan's little red wagon that Uncle Joe and Aunt Laura gave Johnathan, then he put in a light bulb in the light on the front porch, then he checked the filters to see what size/kind we needed when we replaced them. What a fabulous husband I have!

We grilled some hamburgers for lunch, and then Johnathan went down for another really good nap while I cleaned up the kitchen. We just chilled after that.

Then we had a wedding to sing at, and rehearsal was at 5:00. One of my friends had volunteered to keep Johnathan during the wedding. Hooray! They were going to go swimming in their pool after they ate supper. Johnathan LOVES the water, so that was perfect. When the wedding was over, I called over to my friend's to see what was going on, and they were still at the pool. Great! We had time to go eat a meal by ourselves! We ended up going to this Italian restaurant where one of our friends from church performs every weekend. When we got there, one of our other friends who had sung at the wedding asked us if we wanted to join him at his table. Sure! The food at Mario's is outstanding, and Danny (the performer) has this great 70's voice--Mom, you'd LOVE going there! We had a great time. Then our friend we were eating with paid for our meal! He said he had been wanting to take us out since we moved here, so this was perfect.

I'll say it was perfect! We had free babysitting, free entertainment and a free REALLY YUMMY meal! My one regret is that I didn't have my camera. John looked AWESOME in his khakis, white shirt and red tie, and I matched him with my red v-necked pretty maternity shirt and black gauchos. We looked good, and there was no way to prove it! You know those rare moments when you're really big and pregnant, but you feel good about how you look? Yeah, it was one of those nights. I guess you'll just have to take my word for it. :)

So, even though we didn't have anything wonderful planned, we had a wonderful weekend!

Papaw Update

Since all 4 Curtis siblings are in Searcy right now, I bet all of you cousins have an accurate update, but for any others out there that may be keeping up with my grandfather, here's the latest:

We were supposed to get the biopsy results on Monday, but had to wait until Tuesday. Grr. Anway, they did confirm that the mass is cancerous and that it is an aggresive type. This kind of cancer starts in the bladder, moves through and into the muscle, then attacks the lymph nodes, and then the bone. The doctor said that Papaw is in between stages 2 and 3.

They did a bone scan yesterday and studied his lung area, too, and found that the cancer had not reached either of these places--yea! His lymph nodes did not appear to be enlarged, which means that they are not overtaken by cancer, though it's possible that there could still be a small amount there. They won't know for certain if there is cancer there until they go in and do the surgery to remove the entire bladder and infected muscle tissue around it.

He has to have a kind of heart surgery, though, before the bladder surgery to ensure that his heart will stay strong through the 2nd surgery. After his biopsy on Thursday, his heartrate shot to over 200, and they put him in CCU until they could manage the heartrate. So, the heart surgery does something to prevent that from happening again (I'm a little fuzzy on those details). He'll have to go to Little Rock for that surgery b/c it has to be done by this specialist there at Baptist Medical Center. Since Papaw will already be in LR for that surgery, his doctor recommended that he just stay there to have the bladder surgery. I'm SO happy about that. I think he will receive MUCH better care there than in good old White County Hospital.

So, what we're waiting on is for the doctors to get their schedules together to see when they can do the surgery. They seem to be all on the same page that this is urgent, so that's good. Hopefully we'll have surgery dates soon.

Two blogs in one day--two very different topics!

Keep praying everyone!

Preggy Scrap Page

As per Tiffany's request, I'll post a belly picture. Now actually, it's a layout that I did of my belly, so it doesn't even have my face in it. I do want to take some pictures of our family around my belly, though, so if/when I take those, I'll post them for sure!

For a better view, go to this scrapbook site: http://www.apeekintoyesterday.com/photopost/showphoto.php?photo=11740&cat=500&ppuser=1124

There is a description under the picture that includes the journaling words. I entered this layout in a contest, and didn't win. :( Serves me right, though ... I thought I had it in the bag! We all need our little humble reminders every now and then, right?

Learning the hard way

First of all, I feel like I should apologize for the emotional vomit from the previous post. Though, just like when you throw up for real you usually feel better, I did feel better. Thank you so much for all of your encouraging comments. I have such a great family and friends!! Love to all.

Saturday morning, I fixed french toast for breakfast (with whole-grain bread and sugar-free syrup, of course). We all ate and enjoyed ourselves! Johnathan got down first, after saying thanks and "Mang-be-goosed?" which translated is, "May I be excused?" Hee hee. So, he got his little stool that he's been toting around the house with him for a few days now and put it over by the range/oven. He climbed up while I was saying not to touch ANYTHING up there b/c it might still be hot. He picked up the turner that was on the counter and began to pretend to fix breakfast. I said in a very firm voice, "Johnathan, please get down now. The range is hot and you could get burned." Now this is one of those times when I debate in my head the pros and cons of letting him learn the hard way. Obviously, I don't want him to do anything that will hurt badly, but sometimes I will let him fall a short distance or experience something a little painful if, after me telling him to stop the behavior, he doesn't stop. Again, I told him to get down. Again, no response. So, I could give him a time-out or a swat for disobeying, or he could get a little red mark from the mostly-cooled down burner if/when he touches it. Not touching the range/oven is not a new lesson for him. Every time I cook--nearly every day!--he wants to come too close, and I tell him to keep away, being more careful then not to let him touch it because it is VERY hot, obviously, when it's on.

So, he's still holding the turner and pretending to cook. Then he decides to get down. "Oh, good!" I thought. "He won't have to learn the hard way." As he is getting down, still holding the turner in his right hand, he grabbed the oven door handle with is left hand, then put the bottom part of the back of his thumb down right on the "mostly cooled" element. "Ah!" He screamed, and the turner went flying. My first response was a sense of sick satisfaction that he had learned his lesson. But that quickly turned to extreme guilt when I saw the blisters that were forming on his precious little hand!! We rushed to run the wound under cold water, then got some Neosporin on a Nemo Band-Aid and stuck it on. I felt so badly!

So, that was two days ago, and it is still hurting him pretty good. We continue to try to keep a bandage on it, but with it being his right hand and in such a tough spot to keep anything one it, it's been a challenge keeping it clean. Plus it hurts him so badly when we have to wash it off.

Here are a couple of pics from this morning of his bandaged wound:





Finally! I ended up having to post just one picture at a time to get it to work. Not sure why I couldn't do more than one at a time like I usually do. Oh well.

PS--Thanks, Elizabeth, for the nurse's advice on treating a burn!

Papaw

Well, I'm tired of it. I'm tired of going around, writing cute blogs, when something else is really on my mind: My Papaw.

Our family is SO good at being over optimistic to the point of denial that we often forget to deal with real life. Honestly, for me, it's a lot easier just to try not to think about things that make me uncomfortable. I mean, then I might actually have to come face to face with reality! It's easy to live in my own little house with my own little family and do my own little cooking and scrapbooking and not deal with anything!

Well, bear with me while I process:

Tuesday night, Mamaw took Papaw to the hospital because he was having severe pains in his lower abdomen area. After waiting quite some time, they got him in a room and gave him some morphine to help with the pain. Wednesday, they did a CAT scan to see what was going on inside, and sure enough, they found a mass in his bladder area. They learned that this mass had apparently started inside the bladder, had made it through the bladder, and was into some of the muscle around the bladder. Word spreads quickly in Searcy, so lots of people were praying for him!

Thankfully, on Thursday, some of that pain had gone away, though no one knew quite why. When talking to Mom about this, I was saying that maybe the morphine had helped to relax his body and that took some pain away. Then Mom put it all into perspective when she said, "Or maybe there were just hundreds of people praying and the Great Healer took some of the pain away!"

Papaw had his biopsy today, so we should know the results on Monday. Depending on those results, they may or may not do a bone scan after that. Then, I think, they'll do surgery to remove the mass and, if they need to, the whole bladder.

My concerns are intensified since John's dad passed away after having his bladder removed because he had breathing difficulties during the night while coming out of the anesthesia. They had to remove his bladder because of a mass that they found in it.

I love to hear Johnathan pray. Last night he prayed about Papaw and for God to take away his owie. :) So, that's what I'm praying, too. As Chris Rice says (and as Mom quoted in her email today), "I figure You're big enough." And He is.

But I don't understand why he has to go through this mess of a process. I know in my head that God will make good come out of every situation, but it's no fun to deal with bad stuff when it's happening. I was just telling a friend the other day, that I'm constantly trying to convince God that I'm very weak and that I can't handle bad things very well. So, if He would just keep all those yucky and painful situations away from me, that would be great. I was saying how it seemed to work most of the time ... then Mom called with the Papaw news--while I was IM'ing my friend! God's timing is impeccable.

I'm trying to trust and trying to be at peace, so that's another thing I'm praying for.

Thank you for all of the prayers that have been said and will be said.

Just Penny's

This morning, I took Johnathan with me to the Brookshire's wildlife museum and park. Main reason? It's free and got us out of the house! I also needed to go by JC Penny to pick up some towels for a wedding gift, but since it didn't open until 10:00 am, we hit the park first. Johnathan loves the museum. It's small, but jam packed with all kinds of stuffed wildlife. We have fun "walking slowly" and trying to name all the animals. After we get done with the museum we go to the park, just outside. It's the best park in town, in my opinion (which is all this blog is) because it is fenced in and kept super clean! With the museum right there, the bathrooms are indoors along with water fountains and vending machines. We spent about an hour there.

Then we headed to JC Penny, which of course, I call Penny's. Incorrect, I know, but that's where I told Johnathan we were going. We got in, bought our towels, passed all the other incredible sales, and started to head home. Being a good wife, I called John to tell him about my purchase. Johnathan said, "Who ya' talkin' to, Mommy?" I said, "I'm calling Daddy to tell him that we spent some money." Then he said, "No, Mommy, not money--just Penny's!"

Hee hee. Smart kid. :)

The Scary Squash

As you other parents know, we could fill every day's blog with stories of our kids, assuming we had time to do so. At this stage in my life, I have that time after Johnathan goes to bed. Don't expect much after Kalleigh comes. :)

The Scary Squash:

So, Johnathan was watching Veggie Tales's "Classy Songs With Larry: Larry's High Silk Hat," something that he had watched before with no issues. However, this time he was sitting about three feet away from the tv in his little camp-type chair. He was swaying and dancing in his chair along with the song until the huge squash from the gym pounded onto the screen. Johnathan screamed, got out of his chair and ran behind it, and cried very hard, keeping his eyes glues to the squash! John and I were doing other things, so at first we didn't know why he was crying. In fact, I was taking his laundry basket to the utility closet and thought he might be throwing a fit about the fact that I was taking his things somewhere! So, I stopped and asked him what was wrong. "That one's scary!" he said, through tears. This was one of those moments when John and I had to control our laughter--who knew our son would be scared by a squash on Veggie Tales! Not even a mean one, at that; just a really big and ugly one! I said, "Let's watch it again, and you can sit with Mommy." "Yeah," he said, almost in a whisper. So, we watched it again. This time, he didn't cry, but kept a watchful eye on the big squash. After the song was over, I paused it and asked him if he was still scared. "Not scary anymore," he said, and went back to his chair to finish the rest of the show!

I suppose some of the things in life that we think are SO scary at first, really turn out to be big, ugly squashes that's aren't so scary afterall. Isn't it great that "God Is Bigger than the Boogieman"?! That no matter how big our squashes are, God is always bigger than our biggest fears. Praise God!

Hummingbird Saga Continues

So it really is true that they don't like Splenda-water and love real sugar-water. We're back in business with the real sugar.

Now we have this male who has claimed the feeder as his own. He sits there smugly NOT drinking anything, but chasing off anything bigger than a dragonfly. He fought off three others at one point this morning! I had to take a picture:



Look at him! Just sitting there! He's not even taking a drink. I wondered how long it would take for him to actually drink that whole thing all by himself. I think he belives that it is his right to do so. Look how fat he is! Male dominance--ugh!

On another note, here's the Johnathan story of the day:

For all of you Little Einstein fans, this one's for you ... So, Johnathan was about to watch Little Einsteins and he says, "Mommy, you watch, too." I say, "No, baby, I'm making bread for our supper tonight." I assume he's okay with it, for I didn't hear a response. LE kept going, and it got the part where, "June is patting! Quincy's patting! Annie's patting!" Johnathan yelled out, "Johnathan's patting! Mommy's- ...... makin' bread." The latter part sounded a bit disappointed. :) It's always an adventure ...

Addicted

I'm not sure when it started. Maybe high school? I'd see one and all I could think of is when I could get one. But not in college. They don't allow those kids of things in the Harding dorms. And not right after we got married. We were renting a townhouse, and the landlord would've found out for sure. You can't hide that sort of thing.

And then I'd think, "The wrinkles, the snoring, the clean-up ... maybe it's not worth it." But my longings would get the best of me and I'd be thinking about it all over again. We moved to CO, and I began thinking about it almost everyday, and then sometimes wanting it several times a day. It was consuming me.

I brought it up to John, and we discussed it in every detail. Why did I want this so badly? After awhile of serious discussion, John finally said, "Kim, you're gonna have to face it: You're addicted to pugs!"

And it's been like that ever since! We have two pugs, Bison and Belle. We're true Harding grads, I know. (Belle is after the Bell Tower.) They snore, shed and Bison even sings ... sort of. :) They are not, however, two more children. We do draw the line somewhere. They are even learning to take commands from Johnathan these days!

I have often wondered if I would consider getting another kind of dog, and I think I might be interested in having a bulldog at some point. But it would be hard to pass by those little puggies in the window! Here's a scrapbooking LO I did a few days ago. I scraplifted it from an article in the August Creating Keepsakes magazine. That one's Belle at 7 weeks. Yikes! We were both little!



You can't really see the "P" below the picture, but it is an epoxy sticker on top of a metal charm.

Then here is a recent picture of Bison. Talk about your big brown puppy dog eyes!














Note: Anything quoted of John has been adamantely denied. :)

Homemade Play-Doh and other such things

Friday's are always good because they're John's days off. We can actually take care of Johnathan together! It takes the stress off of me a little.

For all of those potty-training mothers out there, I have no advice. Just singing Johnathan's praises for going poopy in the potty for the second day in a row. ("Look, look, look! Big ones!" said Johnathan.) We are FAR, FAR, FAR from being potty trained, and not in a rush to do so, as I know he will probably regress on whatever progress he might make when little Kalleigh gets here. However, if he's in a good mood and wants to go, I'm all for it!

Today we made play-doh. I thought about making several different colors, and then was reminded of Elizabeth's latest blog with Carter's colorful creation, and decided to go all blue. :) (Carter, it WAS beautiful!)

Since we don't own any play-doh (and we don't need any, thank you!), Johnathan hasn't had much experience with it. We did it right with the pastry roller and cookie cutters, and he had a blast! I even made a few creations myself. Here are just a couple of pictures of Johnathan working hard.

Yeah, he puts clothes on about half the time. :)





On a side note, I've leaned that hummingbirds don't like Splenda. I knew better than to try it--that stuff's expensive!--but we were out of sugar (yes, I'm embarrased that we ran out of sugar) and the hummingbird feeder was almost empty. So, instead of going grocery shopping as I probably should have, I just mixed up some Splenda with the water instead. It's been interesting to watch the hummingbirds' reactions to this fake juice. They'll buzz around and perch because, hey, it looks good. Then they'll take a drink, and jump back a little. Then they'll move around to all four flowers to taste them and all with the same reaction. Then they fly away ... disgusted and betrayed.

I'll go shopping tomorrow. :)

$2.48

It was the best $2.48 I've ever spent ...

The other day, I was sitting on my back porch swing around 7 am drinking my coffee and noticed two hummingbirds flying around our yard and the neighbor's yard. Neither one of us had hummingbird feeders. It looked like they were looking for food. I was amazed at this and thought that surely if I put a feeder up, they'd come over to it, since they were already flying around.

So, I went to Wal-Mart and saw feeders ranging from this mere $2.48 up to around $20. They had special nectar and all kinds of "frills" that I had no idea what they were even for! Obviously, I had never hung a hummingbird feeder before! Being cheap, I figured the $2.48 one was just as good as any, so I took it home.

Then I called Mamaw because I thought I remembered her making her own "nectar" for her feeder. Sure enough, she told me the "secret recipe," including a touch of red food coloring, and I had my feeder hung in no time.

The following is not an exaggeration: Not 60 seconds after I had come inside from hanging the feeder, I had a hummingbird drinking away!! I couldn't believe it. I thought, well, maybe they'll find it in the next couple of days. No--60 seconds!!

In the past few days I have enjoyed watching these amazing creatures buzz back and forth and chase each other away and fight for dominance and enjoy the simple sugar-water tinted with red. I believe it's been the best $2.48 I've ever spent!

Here are a couple of pictures I took today:




The lighting isn't the best, but you get the idea. :) I'll have to take some in the morning. I bet the light would be better then.

So THIS is hot

This time last year, we were in CO where it occasionally would get up to 95, but then at night almost always get down into the upper 50's. Oh, and no humidity. We didn't have air conditioning, so we whined when it got up to 80 in our house, but always knew that it would cool off later. Well, now we're in TX, where it regularly passes 100 and we're lucky if it gets in the 70's at night! Much humidity. Plus, I'm 7 months pregnant. I think I'm beginning to understand what "hot" really is!

I shouldn't complain, though, because I know a lady who lives in AZ whose high the other day was 131!! I told her I couldn't imagine what that would be like. She said, "You know how it feels when you've been cooking all day and you open the oven and the heat burns your face? Yeah, that's what it feels like when I open the front door!" That put things in perspective for me. I'm suddenly very content with 100 degrees!

Johnathan and I have been having fun going swimming about once a week at a friend's house, so we're finding ways to keep cool and work on our tans! Everyone always comments on his olive complexion. He's his daddy's boy!

I'm forever grateful for air conditioning and will try from this day on to be content, no matter the temperature! (But I wouldn't mind a little rain!)