More odds and ends

Well, Friday did arrive and Erin did get here. While Stacey and the kids and I were at the airport retrieving her, Mom used her "foam" crafts and made Erin a couple of things, including something that had "Baby Beaver" on it - with Joe's help to spell Beaver. Erin was generously kind and thankful for the gifts while getting a big hug.

Needless to say, there has been a lot of activity around the house with Stacey, David, Micah, Levi, Julie and her friends. To complicate things further, our routines have been disrupted by our dog Haley having surgery on a torn ligament in her knee on Friday morning. Mom accompanied us to the special vet hospital in Dallas to drop Haley off on Thursday and again this morning to pick her up. She has been very worried about Haley but she Mom was invited by her friends Margaret and Diann, to go driving Friday night to look at Christmas lights. This distracted her a bit. By the time they got home, Mom had had her ice cream and was exceedingly impressed by all the lights and decorations she had seen. She is still talking about it!

With all of the commotion around here, it was inevitable that the calm that we have been experiencing would would wane. Mom and Levi exchanged words today and Joe had to redirect her a number of times when she spoke sharply to the kids about silly things. I was able to get her out of the house tonight to go to church and then to, where else? IHOP. Joe stayed home with Haley, who has to be kept quiet, and all Mom could do was talk about whether Joe had eaten, maybe we should take him some dinner, why didn't he come to church?, we need to take him some food. Geeez!

I do hope that I can get a more recent picture of her on this site. But for now, just remember her how she looked this summer if you saw her or how she looks in the picture above. Right now she refuses to get her hair cut again and Joe teases her about looking like George Washington or Einstein. She has no idea who those people are but they must look pretty good if they look like her!

I really appreciate the feedback I get from those of you who read this once in awhile to see what we are up to. We are blessed by your love and concern and wish you could be more a part of her life these days. Distance and circumstances have not allowed that - but we love and miss you all!