Catching Up

We've been really busy the past couple of months.  At the end of the holidays Chris came down with the flu and was sick in bed for days, Julia kept spiking a fever after we kept thinking she was getting better, Emma had a cold and I was busy trying to stay well and keep the house running.  Let's just say that for that week I really missed our old fenced in yard for Finnegan and now understand why single Moms might not want to add a pet to an already incredibly exhausting workload!

Julia celebrated her birthday in early January (I'm putting the finishing touches on her annual birthday video this week) and was mostly sick on her big day.  Poor girl!  Chris managed to reappear from the bedroom long enough to say Happy Birthday to her and see her open her gifts.  She felt a bit better by late morning so me and the girls went to Build-a-Bear where she "made" her new buddy Scarlett but that was about all she was up for at the mall - she turned down my offer to buy her a present in the Disney store and eat ice cream at Friendly's so I knew she wasn't feeling well at all!  

January was a busy month.  Julia competed in an Irish Dance competition and had a lot of fun and won a couple of medals.  We celebrated her birthday at school with her classroom Birthday Circle - a unique tradition her school has where everyone sits in a circle and focuses on the birthday person and everyone in the circle takes a turn sharing what they think is really special about the birthday person!  Julia picked a day to celebrate her Birthday Circle that both Emma and I could attend because "Emma didn't come last year and I want her there."  Chris was able to join us in the classroom so Julia had her whole family there to share her special Birthday Circle!  This year we video taped it and think she'll really enjoy having that video when she gets older.  Afterwards we joined her and her friends for lunch and then she shared homemade cupcakes with her classmates.  It was a very special day for her and for us.

I went away for a ladies weekend retreat with a few good friends and it was wonderful to reconnect with myself a bit.  I love my role as Mommy and Wife, but it sure was nice to have time to focus on just me for a couple of days.  The fact that I was at a hotel on the beach with wonderful friends and an agenda that included some very inspiring speakers made me feel my time away was very well spent.  Thanks so much to Chris for encouraging me to take that time for myself!

Chris caught a couple of basketball games but I'm not sure he saw as many football games on tv as he would like - we'll have to figure out a better routine for him to watch more of his sports teams for the Fall lineup.  And, I'd love for him to go on a guys weekend but it seems like they guys aren't as good at planning a weekend away as the girls!

Emma had surgery on her adductors and hamstrings.  I'm happy to say Emma recovered her spirits within a couple of days of her surgery.  The day of surgery and the day after were rough on all of us but Emma bounced back quicker than we expected.  She was off most of her pain meds and vallium within a few days rather than weeks and has been slowly regaining her stamina.  She slept a lot the first week but was able to head back to school the second week!  She has a busy schedule of PT 3x's/week for about 6 weeks post-surgery in addition to school and she is handling it in true Emma fashion - with a smile.

Life is busy but oh so good!