To my 10's of readers:

My apologies for being absent. I know it's been hard. :)

I'll give you a peek at life since my last post.

I spent the weekend at Lake Martin (down near Auburn, AL) with 3 of my mommy friends. SO fun. I left the camera at home so Chris could document the cuteness that is my kids in my absense. He did not. Therefore, there are no pics of either my cute kids or of me with my friends(except one we took upon my insistence before leaving. Heather, I want it when you get a second!). We did a whole lotta nothing, it was super! We went shopping at World Market, Target and Hobby Lobby then grabbed dinner at a Hibachi place. Yum. The eating trend continued all weekend, you know how happy this makes my heart. We stayed up way too late chatting, then I slept until 9. When it got to be 6:30 we decided it was time to put on makeup and drive back in to town for dinner. Dinner at Olive Garden. I have a funny feeling my friends were totally indulging me, but it was good. Unnamed boy likes sub-par Italian, what can I say? We got home on Sunday around 5. When I was tucking Anna-Kate in that night I asked her what her favorite part of the day was (as I do every night). Her response, "when you came home to see me and gave me a big hug." Incidently, Monday, Tuesday and tonight her answer has been the same. I told her she had to pick something from today, she said that was still her favorite since she missed me.

Monday obviously involved getting back into life, grocery shopping etc. I try and have at least 1 pj morning a week, Monday was it and it was fabulous! :) I tried to get a lot of work done that I had acquired (is that the right word??) from the craft fair last Friday, but as I left my stuff set up at my friends' house, I had very little, material wise, to work with. So frustrating. That evening I had my neighborhood Bible study, which I love. The topic was hot, it was in regards to children. The book is called "The Lies Women Believe (and the Truth that Sets Them Free)" and the biggest "lie" of the night was something along the lines of, "it is up to us to determine the size of our family." I don't have an answer to that to be completely honest. I don't quite understand how one can truly believe in the Sovereignty of God and be on the pill etc, but, I'm also not interested in having 25 kids. Clearly, I'm a work in progress.

A side note, I have been experiencing severe pain in my butt and tailbone the past few weeks with this pregnancy. It's to the point that sometimes I can't sit down and if I have to (even in my car which is uber-comfy) I'll have tears in my eyes. Anyway, a girl at my Bible study offered to check me out and give me her advice (this is what she does professionaly, it wasn't weird, ha!). We were both free Tuesday during naps so she was going to come to me, what an answer to prayer! When I got home to put it on the calendar (yes, I put things that will happen in a few hours on my calendar...) I realized I had forgotten about Anna-Kate's allergy appt. So I had to cancel. I can't tell you how bummed I was.

Tuesday I took Anna-Kate to school, went to the post office, picked up my stuff from the craft fair and took Ryan to the pediatrician. He told me twice on Monday that his left ear hurt and Chris twice over the weekend. Either it cleared up on it's own (totally a possibility) or he said his left ear hurt 4 times. Regardless, he has no infection. We picked AK up from school, and took lunch to eat at our friends' house so I could put Ryan down and take her to the allergist. As excited as I was to get the appointment, it was terrible timing. I'm slammed with work and really needed naptime to get stuff done (and to get healing for my tailbone!). The doctor was very nice, though Anna-Kate seems to not like men. She flipped when he walked in and looked at her ears and listened to her heart. She reacted fine to the nurse and only cried about 30 seconds with the skin tests. Results are that she has a small allergy to dust mites (my extreme allergy) and this 15 week cough is a sinus infection that has gotten worse over time as it hasn't been treated. She is on a heavy duty antibiotics for 20 days. The pharmacist warned it could be a long road as this almost always causes diarhea. Yippee. I think I'm going to look into some probiotics I can add to her food/drink. She and I shared an icecream at McDonalds (where, oh where, have I failed her? She chose McDonalds over Chick-fil-A icecream??? WHAT?) Anyway, I rushed back from there to get Ryan then hurried home to cook dinner for company. It was a lot of fun, as always. Put there just is never a dull moment around here people!

Today, I was slated to host playgroup, but noone showed. To be completely honest, I was a bit relieved. Chris has asked me to step back from a commitment or two just to give myself some breathing room. I struggle with that as I was definately raised that if you commit to do something, you follow through. Period, the end. So, I'll let you know how that goes. Anyway, my coffee maker broke so we had an impromptu trip to Target. I picked up Anna-Kate, rushed to get her prescription, got the kids down late, Ryan napped horribly, and I spent from 1:50 until dinner cooking. We had 2 other families over for a pre-Thanksgiving dinner. It was FANTASTIC! All of the food was so delicious. I"m still full, 3 hours later. Anyway, I spent my day making a pumpking pie, sweet potato casserole, mashed potatoes, getting the house ready and table set (thankfully, I got the apple cake made yesterday!). A lot of fun, but I'm pooped. My camera had no batteries, but Katie got some pictures I'll try and post later this week.

Tomorrow is Anna-Kate's Thanksgiving party at school, followed by choir tomorrow night. Friday I'm taking the kids to Macon to see my parents and grandparents (my grandmother is in rehab for surgery down there and my grandfather is staying with my parents while she's down there). Should be fun, but quite the busy week. I'll be glad to see Saturday.

Are you still glad you wished for a new post from me? :)