GratiTuesday

HAPPY GRATITUESDAY!!

1. Last week marked our 6th wedding anniversary! We were able to go out to dinner (Gobi Grille--a Mongolian restaurant that's become our new favorite) and to a movie ("Blind Side", which we LOVED).
2. Our friends Becky and Jim took me to the George Strait/Reba McEntire/Lee Ann Womack concert last week!! Brent had to work (and truth be told, wasn't interested in seeing George Strait again...what's the matter with him?!). IT WAS AMAZING!! It was humbling to be in the presence of so much talent!! The artists and their bands are so gifted.
3. I'm lucky to have worked with great people at great companies in the past, but am constantly reminded how perfect my current job and my current boss are for this stage of my life and the current ages of my children. God's timing is perfect, isn't it??
4. Brent and I were able to pay off two of the debts on our Dave Ramsey debt snowball last week (with our income tax return)!! Woo hoo!! We're making progress!
5. Brent's company had a soup contest last week and we won first place!! He took "Buffalo Chicken Wing" soup and homemade croutons. To vote, everyone paid a quarter...so our prize was $22.75! I'll post the recipe this week.

More posts and pictures of the kids this week!!

What will $218 buy??

$218 at your local pharmacy will buy you 3 TEENY TINY bottles of antibiotic eyedrops to treat 3 cases of pink eye! Woo hoo! (...it's with a great sense of nostalgia that I recall a day when our insurance was much, much better and this kind of thing didn't come directly out of our pocket...sigh...)

Picture of one of Graham's eyes...the picture doesn't do it doesn't do it justice, but you get the point:

They've all had three doses in each eye today, and it seems to be helping already. Poor Graham's eyes are the worst, I feel awful for him. He's such a trooper, though. The doctor said they could be around other people within 24 hours of taking their first dose, so that's a big praise--otherwise I would have had to stay home from work tomorrow with them. (Side note to our babysitters: If they infected you earlier this week before we knew about it, I will feel AWFUL and will gladly pay for your prescription...and make you food...and clean your houses...and do your homework...!)

Today was MAPS at church, and I stayed up late last night making food for brunch (and also finishing sewing sequins and beads on a shirt for Sophie so she could be dressed in "Valentine's style"...). Such a bummer that we couldn't go! Here are pictures of the cute cookies I decorated, though. (Remember the cookie decorating class Melissa and I took a while back?? I'm finally getting the chance to practice!):

...and a couple of shots of Sophie's glittery shirt:



Please pretend to be impressed. It would be REALLY great for my ego.

GratiTuesday!

Happy GratiTuesday! Things we are grateful for this week:

1. My friend has been going through an ordeal settling her dad's estate. It's been an awful two-year battle that is finally coming to a close. I can almost see the weight being lifted from her shoulders. Praise God!
2. Sophie had the stomach flu last week and the boys didn't get it.
3. Someone shoveled our driveway yesterday! Brent was ecstatic!! We have no idea who it was... Thank you anonymous friend!
4. I've been waiting for overalls to go on sale so I could get some for the boys (because, really, is there anything cuter than little boys in overalls??). Apparently they clearanced them at the Target stores and sold completely out. "Something" told me to walk through the little girl section, and lo and behold...TWO 2T overalls with $11 clearance tags were stuffed between some little girl sweaters. They were the only two I found, and they were exactly what we wanted. NOT coincidence. :-)
5. My co-worker keeps the birdfeeder full outside of our office window, so we're always in the company of squirrels and birds.
6. A new entertainment place opened in Wichita--it's a huge building full of inflatable bounce houses (moonwalks). The kids LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it!! We bought a punch card, so all 5 of us got in for $12!! Blake was hesitant at first, but we finally tossed him onto one and he was hooked. They bounced until they were panting and red-faced. Brent even went on some with the kids--pictures coming soon!
7. Our MAPS group was lucky to have Gracia Burnham speak last week (she is the missionary who was taken hostage with her husband for over a year, then lost her husband in the same gun battle that saved her). She spoke about "hope" vs. "wishful thinking" and it was incredible.
8. My friend Melissa transferred to a new job with her company and loves it! Better yet, one of her best friends that she's known since kindergarten has accepted a job in the same office and will start next week.

Valentine's cookies

This extra day at work every week has really thrown off the balance in my life, and I'm frantically trying to get the balance back. I'm struggling to come up with meals that the sitters can throw in the oven for me; I'm struggling to keep on top of the housework; I'm struggling with getting exercise time in; I'm struggling to keep up with friends and their needs. By the time I get home from work and we get finished with dinner and baths, I find myself just snuggling up with the kids wishing time would slow down. There are several things that would be helpful (meal prep, help cleaning, etc.), but are expensive and would negate my reason for working the extra day. I'm trying to understand God's lessons in this, and know I'll come out on the other side a better mom and stronger person...but BOY it's an exhausting phase of life right now.

I know for sure that I'm missing blogging! Especially the GratiTuesday posts. I go back and read them occasionally and feel RICHLY fortunate.

The kids decorated Valentine cookies today! We rolled them out and baked them yesterday. Sophie was BESIDE herself with excitement--she kept running around telling everyone in the house. "Daddy! Mommy's making COOKIES!"..."Brothers! Mommy's making COOKIES!" Who knew sugar cookies could elicit such a response?! They each had a turn at rolling out the dough, too.

This is a video of them decorating their cookies. They used paintbrushes to apply the icing, then decided it was more amusing to rub the frosted cookies all over their faces. I wish the video did it justice...they were a MESS!

I'm looking forward to this week's GratiTuesday post! It's been too long!