For Your Viewing Pleasure

 I'm in love with my new camera. Thank you UPS lady for the timely delivery. If no one sees or hears from me for awhile its cause I'm totally obsessed with it. How obsessed? My kids wouldn't hold still so I took pictures of Flynn Rider with a princess horse. Yeah. I've got it bad. I love it so much I can almost push aside the guilt I have for spending so much money on something for myself. I'm sure with time and some picture taking therapy I'll be able to overcome my guilt. Add in the fact that I'm hyped I don't have to use my flash to take indoor pics and I think I'm cured.



I'd like to note that I did not edit these pictures, and also that this was the first time I used it. I'm in love.

**Post edit: I've taken even more pics and need to share a couple more. Sorry but you have to look at more pictures of my kids.

Pulling. It. Off.

Style vs comfort. Its a problem for me. My feet are freezing but my grey socks look a little ridiculous. My two options, yes there's only two cause I'm not wearing different shoes, are: wear grey adidas socks with my flats or make my feet nearly freeze to death in January. I'm gonna go with option two. The world can see my grey socks another day. But for the record, I think I could pull off the socks and flats look. Alana does it all the time.

In other awesome news, our federal tax return was deposited today. Yay! But for unknown mysterious reasons the state one has yet to make an appearance in my online statement. It better show up soon. According to AZ Department of Revenue's Where's My Refund? it should be deposited today. Clock is ticking and I'm not the most patient person in the world. Good thing it won't affect my shopping spree tomorrow. Lucky for them.

In perhaps the best news of the day, I just ordered a fancy and beautiful DSLR camera off of Amazon. I love Amazon. It was $50 cheaper than any store price I found, plus there was no tax. No sales tax is a beautiful thing.

My blog is in need of some attention, but I'm very easily distracted these days. I'm doing math homework on my computer all day, just trying to get ahead before vacation, and it sucks all my creativity right out of my brain. I didn't intend for this post to be so mundane, but the more I type the less inspired I become. I should quit while I'm ahead. Like now. Any second now I'm gonna stop typing. Any second now.

Ok. That's probably enough. You get the point. I'm out of ideas. Done for the day. So long. See you later alligator. After awhile crocodile. Ok. Now I'm done.

Pre-vacation thriftiness

I wrote this last year right before we went on vacation. It pretty much sums up how I'm feeling right now, so I'm resharing for anyone who hasn't read it.

Its only 27 days until we go to Disneyland but from where I'm sitting that seems like an eternity away. This week in particular is dragging on forever. We should have our tax refund deposited in our bank account Friday (I'm keeping my fingers crossed) and then we can make our reservations and go shopping for some new vacation clothes!

I get a case of cheapness when shopping right before vacation. I'm super hesitant to spend any money because I would rather have that money to spend on vacation. There is a reason for my condition - we'll call it pre-vacation thriftiness. The summer when I was 16 I had a job at McDonald's where I earned a slaves wage of $5.15 an hour. I had to really work hard for every stupid dollar I had. Regardless of this I spent all of my money on crap. I had no car, no bills, no worries.

Anyways, we were about to go on vacation to lots of destinations: boring family reunion, the Grand Canyon, Las Vegas for a day or two and finally San Diego where we only really went to the beach and overrated San Diego Zoo. I got my paycheck a couple days before we were going to leave and it was probably like $250, not a lot but at that age it seems like a small fortune. All of the vacation preparations were made: we had boiled lots of chicken for sandwiches and packed some of our crap and rented a van to separate my youngest brothers on the endless road trip. Honestly if we didn't separate them they would fight constantly. So then we go to Walmart in Sierra Vista for a couple last minute things. We didn't yet have a Walmart in Benson so going to Sierra Vista was like a special treat. 

So we get to Walmart and I went across the parking lot and spent just a little bit of my small fortune at Miller's Outpost (now its called Anchor Blue). Nothing to worry about, I have $250, how could I possibly run out of money? Then Melissa and Nicole and I went back over to Walmart to join our parents, who were stocking up on cheap crap to feed us so they could avoid going to restaurants while on vacation. While we were there I figured I could also use a few new things for our trip. Maybe some scented lotion, some facewash, lipgloss that I could not possibly live without. Just the necessities. I also bought some really stupid looking hats for me and Melissa. Why didn't anyone tell us we looked like idiots? We wore those in pictures! So I get to the checkout with my basket full of crap that no one needs and guess how much I spent. Like $200. It was the day before vacation and I had $20 left. No payday in sight. My fortune was gone in a matter of minutes, with nothing to show for it but ugly hats, grapefruit lotion and overall shorts.

The next two weeks left me strategizing on how to ration out $20 on souvenirs or any other crap that I wanted. I ended up with postcards and an apple tart at the the Grand Canyon: $5. Then more postcards at Las Vegas: $1. Even more postcards in Hollywood and a cheap crappy keychain at the San Diego Zoo (which broke like 2 weeks later) : $8. A few random vending machine candy bars and sodas: about $6. Lesson learned not to blow all of your money right before you go on vacation: Priceless.

The Real Most Wonderful Time of the Year

I love tax refund season. Better than Christmas to me! The way my bank account looks with tons of money in it. The anticipation of waiting for money to be deposited, waiting to go shopping, waiting to go to Disneyland. Looking at the camera that I so badly want on Amazon 100 times per day. Its lovely.

The night before our tax return is scheduled for direct deposit is very Christmas Eve-ish for me. I'm anxiously waiting for the refund St Nick. Last year I even woke up around 4 am to logon to my bank account and check that the money was deposited.

All year I look forward to our tax refund. When I really want something but can't afford it, I tell myself to wait for taxes then I can get it. When I see cute clothes online at BabyGap, who's clothes are so cute but sometimes expen$ive, I tell myself that when taxes come I will buy some of them. When I look at other people's pics on their blogs, who I know have nice cameras and I really really want a nice camera too, I tell myself to wait for taxes.

This year with our taxes we are going to Disneyland. Fourth year in a row! I'm starting to feel like a Disneyland expert after all these trips. With the extra that's left after we pay some bills and pay for Disneyland, we are doing some shopping. And I'm so buying a new camera.

I've been looking forward to shopping since I filed our taxes and as it gets closer I'm even more excited. I love a good shopping spree. And shopping for new clothes to wear while on vacation always makes me excited. Did I mention I love shopping?

I'm not only counting the days till we go to Disneyland, I'm counting the days till we go shopping. 20 and 5, in case you were wondering.

Uphill Battles

My kids are sick again, but this time I decided to take action immediately and took them to the doctor the day after they started showing symptoms. Not the emergency room like I sometimes do cause I don't feel like making an appointment, their actual primary care pediatrician.

After a couple of exams on one cooperative lady and one uncooperative lady we received a diagnoses: each girl has an ear infection in her right ear. Order up a double shot of antibiotics, no amoxicillin for Ava though. Alana has a croup-like cough and has to take a steroid for three days to lessen the swelling of her throat. And finally: Ava has mild bronchitis in the bottom part of her lungs. She has to get breathing treatments every six to eight hours for a week, then go back to the doctor to check her progress.

Kids are quick and heal quickly, but the problem is that they need their medicine. Neither of these stubborn girls take any medicine willingly. People must be restrained, teamwork must be used, vomit is almost inevitable. If I hold Ava down I can manage to give her most of her medicine and she's all good. But Alana is a different story. She's the most stubborn person to ever live. We've tried bargaining. Sometimes it works. We've tried bribery. It rarely works. She will deny wanting anything just to get out of taking medicine. She doesn't want to go to Disneyland, doesn't want a million dollars, doesn't want candy or popsicles. Nothing. In a desperate moment we tried restraining her and making her take it, but she gagged so much she threw it up, plus some chicken nugget. On me. I don't know how to make her take it. She is a major drama queen.
This is the longest rap sheet of illnesses we've ever had. I typically have one sick one at a time, then they get better before the other one gets sick again. It seems like they just got better from the post-Christmas and New Years illnesses.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that after these germs go away and everyone is better that they will stay that way because we're going to Disneyland in three weeks. Three weeks of healing time should be more than enough, I just hope no one gets reinfected.

Wish me luck.

A Little Joke, Courtesy of Alana

Alana just took a break from her nonstop iPod listening to tell me a joke:

Knock knock.
Who's there?
Madame.
Madame who?
Madame foot hurts.

As funny as I thought this joke was, mostly because it was my four year old telling it, I kind of had to nip it the bud. No telling jokes with implied bad words.

At least she didn't hear it from me. She heard it from my mother in law.

Back to Reality

My Christmas break is over. Blah. Now I have to start doing homework again. The good news is that I'm only taking two classes this semester and one of them should be cake.

I have to take my second and final math class, which I'm taking online and not looking forward to. The tests and homework I'm okay with, but are discussions really necessary for a math class?

My other class, which didn't require the purchase of a textbook and should be easy, is a humanities class about religion in pop culture. We mostly have online discussions about designated religious topics, but we also have to watch movies and determine the religious influence over them. Most of them I've seen, like Signs or The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, and those ones I like. I'm dreading having to sit through the Matrix again, because well, I hate it. I don't care if Neo chooses the red or blue pill. I just want the dumb movie to be over.

My goal for right now is to get really far ahead so that I don't have to do any real homework while we're on vacation. I might have to post on the discussion forums, but since David got me a laptop for Christmas and our hotel has free wi-fi, I can do those while on vacation, but only if I absolutely have to.

As an added bonus to these discussions I do not have to cite references. This makes me happy beyond words, because my psych class last semester I had to cite two references per post and each of the eight discussions had four posts. It was a pain in my butt.

As much as I didn't want this semester to start, I'm not dreading it too bad. I won't have a huge amount of work like with my four classes last semester and I don't actually have to go anywhere. I can do all my work from the comfort of my own home, in my pajamas, which is my preferred method of doing things. I'd be writing this wearing pajamas if it weren't for the dance off that I attended and lost at my sister's house this morning. I need to squeeze in some practice on the Kinect in between assignments, so that I don't get my butt kicked again. Until then, I'm the dance off runner-up.

Mini Golf Champs

We spent part of our kid free Saturday acting like kids, by playing a rousing round of mini golf with our friend Allie. That counts as exercise after eating too much at the Olive Garden right? David won, which is probably the best thing since he may have thrown his golf club in the water at the same course after losing one time. Neither Allie or I am that competitive, so if Tiger Woods David wants to beat a couple of girls then that's fine. I should also mention that he was 2 under par, just so you'll all be extra impressed. Win or lose, it was still fun. Acting like a kid has its benefits.

Remember When

Alana loves to reminisce. She dreams of a simpler time, before she was four, when life didn't seem so complicated. Her memories don't date back far, after all, she's only four, but sometimes I'm surprised at what she remembers.

Remember when I held the hamster at Aunt Dole's when I wasn't 'posed to and then Aunt Dole made me wash my hands and I said I hate you and you were sad?

Remember when I used to watch Ratatouille every day?

Remember when Ava was a brand new baby and she was nice?

Remember when Jayden and I were fighting over that one toy?

Remember when I used to want to go outside in the back room everyday to blow bubbles?

Remember when we had our dog Daisy and then you didn't want a dog anymore cause you were tired of cleaning up after her?

Remember when we went to Disneyland all those times and I met the princesses and gave them hugs?

Remember when I said I wanted the candy with sour cream in it and you knew what I was talking about but Daddy was confused?

I do remember almost all of these things. I remember her as a chubby little baby with crazy curly hair, but the older she gets the harder it is for me to remember what it was like when she was brand new, even when she was as small as Ava.

My kids love to watch home movies, and I always sit there with a hopelessly nostalgic feeling as I watch a cute two year old Alana hold brand new Ava. I see Alana, then Ava, learn to crawl, then stand, then walk. I listen to Alana talk like a toddler, then grow a little bit sad with every word that she now pronounces correctly. No more fooies, instead of fairies. No more yucky charms, instead of Lucky Charms. Bye bye yittle, hello little.

The baby in our children sometimes fades so suddenly that before we realize what's going on it has vanished. Its nowhere to be found. You can check under the bed and in the closet, but the only place you're going to find it is in old pictures. It seems surreal that 30 pound Alana was once a seven pound baby that was in my stomach. It seems crazy that one year ago Ava couldn't sit up on her own, crawl, stand or walk. Now she's a force to be reckoned with. A stubbornly independent 17 month old who feeds herself and dances along to any music on TV.

I'll try to remember when, but I'm getting old and my mind is a little fuzzy sometimes. Luckily I have photos to help refresh my memory. I swear I just took these pictures yesterday.

Also, for the record: I did not put those ugly socks on Alana in the above picture. And candy with sour cream in it is York Peppermint Patties.

Something to Look Forward To

I just made hotel reservations to go to Disneyland next month! I'm so excited! Only 32 days till we leave, and you can bet I'll be counting them down.

I kind of feel like a big dorky kid sometimes, because of how much I like Disneyland. But its awesomeness cannot be denied. Everyone should just be upfront about it. You all know its the happiest place on earth. Except David who says its the second happiest, after the Cowboys Stadium that is. I say happiness at Cowboys Stadium is conditional upon whether they win or lose.

Dorkiness aside, I'm excited to go. I need a vacation. One week where the only thing I make for dinner is reservations. And a maid makes the bed and takes out the trash. And my kids are so tired from the days activities that they pass out at 7 pm. And I'm so tired that I want to pass out at 7 too!

Seeing the excitement on your child's face at Disneyland is just pure joy. As far as Alana is concerned, that is the real Mickey Mouse in that suit. Alana has never been afraid of the characters, she's my social butterfly. Ava will probably be scared, because she has way more stranger anxiety than Alana ever did, but she'll live. No one ever had any permanent damage from being scared of a guy in a costume. I have my suspicions that David likes getting pictures with the characters more than Alana. It always seems to be his turn when someone cool comes around, and I'm left taking a picture of my 31 year old husband and Mulan.

Something about Disneyland brings out the kid in all of us, and I'll be asking Are we there yet? the whole way.

Here's to more memories like these:

The Possibility of If

I spent my weekend in a limbo of If and When. I had weird suspicions that there was a possibility that I was pregnant. I'm not, confirmed by my doctor. Let's just get that out of the way right now. My mind was busy pondering possible scenarios that would happen if I had a third baby right now. If I was pregnant right now, I would be due in September. If I was due in September I'd have a long, hot summer ahead of me. If it was a long, hot summer I'd need to go to the pool A LOT. If I was having another baby I will get less sleep. If Ava's not potty trained before then we'll have to buy diapers for two kids at a time again, which is dreaded and expensive.

I was very distracted all weekend. Then we got our W2, so I filed our taxes. Yay! What I spend tax money on would be partially determined by a potential unborn baby. If I'm having another baby, I'm gonna have to buy a new carseat, since I was pretty quick to sell the last one. What if it's a boy? I have no boy things, I'd be so unprepared! Boys are gross. What if he pees on me? And lets face it, he probably would.

We had a Disneyland if while waiting to file taxes. If we get enough money back, we are going to Disneyland again! We are getting plenty, we are going. Yay! Now I just have to wait the ridiculous amount of time till we get the money, since the IRS doesn't accept returns till the 14th, so even though I efiled we don't get our return till the 28th. That seems like forever. What if they don't accept them because I made a dumb mistake, then we have to refile and wait longer? I may have put my own last name wrong on a return a couple of years ago. Its all speculation though, nothing can be proven.

There were too many ifs to consider while watching the news Saturday. There was a huge shooting in Tucson, where a Congresswoman that I like and support was shot, and several other people were killed and injured, including a nine year old girl. Too many ifs surrounded this event. It hit so close to home. I lived in Tucson the first half of my life, and now I only live about 40 miles away. What if I had gone to this event? I've always wanted to meet her, and she holds small public events like this frequently. What if someone else I knew had been there, even just as bystander, going to the grocery store or something? Seeing a tragedy like this on a familiar backdrop, somewhere I would normally consider a safe place, really stuck with me.

Of all the ifs and whens of my weekend, I'm glad they're mostly all gone. I know things with certainty right now. I know there is no baby in my immediate future, and although I was slightly relieved, I was also disappointed. Its a pain to try to get pregnant, it would've been kind of nice to do it without the extra work and planning. I know the awesomely large amount of our tax return. I'd like to thank my children, because although they cost lots of money the whole year through, they are an awesome deduction. I know when and if we're going to Disneyland, and I'm excited. I love me some Mickey Mouse. I know everyone that I know and care about is safe, for now.

People Are Crazy

Somebody just shot Gabrielle Giffords, an Arizona Congress Woman, in the head. They shot her point blank, while injuring at least 12 other people. One of the reported casualties was a nine year old girl. How is that justified?

Why would anyone do something so extreme? I can't even begin to understand people like that. She will probably die of her injuries, with her blood on their hands, all because of someone's political views were different than hers.

I voted for her numerous times, and I think she was a great leader with lots of potential. Now because of some crazy person, who probably had some crazy views on immigration, she is in surgery and might not make it. This person didn't even take into consideration the fact that she has family and people who love her. They just acted on an insane whim and did something so extreme that it cannot be taken back.

I am basically speechless at this point. I am so mad! I can't even properly form a sentence, much less convey how angry I am. I don't think I've ever cried over the death of someone I didn't know until today. I supported her and her views, but even if I didn't I wouldn't of wanted this fate for her.

Did this person believe so strongly that illegal immigration was personally affecting them that they needed to lash out at someone who doesn't support SB-1070? Did we not all descend from immigrants at some point? Building a stupid fence won't help. What was this man afraid of anyway? Health insurance? Immigration reform? Higher minimum wage? How narcissistic was he that he thought killing off one democrat and her innocent supporters would greatly affect the entire country and the direction of Congress?

The most ironic part of events like this, and other political assassinations, is that people some claim to do it in the name of Christianity. Last time I checked Christians don't believe in killing somebody because you have different beliefs than them. There is never a time when hurting or killing someone like this is justified. Never. If you want to make a difference, hurting innocent people is not the answer. The difference that you're making will never be a good one if your solution to your problems is violence.

My thoughts are with her and her family, along with the families of the other innocent people who died today.

Waiting is for Losers

I try to be patient. I do. Promise. But sometimes I run short on it. There's a shortage, which is only increased by lack of sleep and other people whining.

My kids are patience testers. Certified and everything. They will test anyone's patience for free. They start with a methodical rewatching of the same annoying TV show, over and over again, till you are tempted to cancel your cable. Then they will cry at your feet, pull on your pants when you're doing dishes, and ask for stuff they don't really want, like a bowl of cereal they have no intention of eating. But they're cute and I love them, so I keep them around.

My husband is a patience tester. Men and women and completely different when they're sick. Women still do all of the normal stuff they usually do, at least I do. Men lay on the couch and watch football, while reminding their wife that they are sick, in case you forgot. David also loves to watch sports, but I hate it. I put up with it though, because its less annoying than the complaining he does if I watch a bunch of episodes of How I Met Your Mother in a row. I'd rather be the annoyed one, than the annoying one.

Everyone is annoying at some point. Your family. Your in-laws. Your boss. They don't mean to be annoying, its just a side effect of good intentions gone wrong.

To me the most annoying patience testing thing in the universe is waiting for something. Waiting for my kids to finally be healthy again, so I can sleep through the night. Waiting for my cold to pass so I can breathe through my nose, my preferred method of breathing. Waiting in line. Waiting for David's W2 form so I can file our taxes. Waiting for our tax return to arrive in the bank so I can go shopping. Waiting to go on vacation with previously mentioned tax return.

Waiting takes forever to me. When I was trying to have a second baby, and every month I would have to wait and see if we were successful or not, that was the worst kind of time-slowing waiting possible. I hate waiting to know things. I need an answer! When I first suspected that I was pregnant with Alana I was at work. I didn't want to wait till the end of the day, so at lunch I went to the store, bought a test and took it back to work to take it. Then instead of waiting till the end of the day to tell David I was pregnant, I texted him at work. True story.

I've never been good at waiting for things. In reality it drives me crazy. It tests my patience more than anything. The worst part is that there's nothing I can do about it.

Hang in There

I really need to clean the cobwebs off of this neglected blog of mine. Its neglected, to say the least. I've been slacking. Lacking inspiration. Tied down to the couch by a sick baby who refuses to be put down when she's asleep. I have a giant sinus headache, which feels like something is pounding on the inside of my head, right behind my right cheek bone.

But excuses aside, you all deserve better. I need to be there for my blog, so it doesn't start feeling like I'm taking it for granted. It needs a nice romantic dinner or some flowers to really understand its the number one blog in my life. Blogging shouldn't feel like work, and it never has to me before. Words flow freely from my busy fingertips as I drone on about how cute I think my kids are, they really are, or whatever I happen to be pondering that particular day. During some monotonous posts I simply post pics and captions, but once again the cuteness of my children is my saving grace. Look at Alana's clothes! She's so funny!

My children are a blogging crutch, and I've used them many a time when I lack inspiration. Right now I really just need an idea. Something, anything, needs to inspire me. Everytime I get on the computer I go to my blog, scroll through everyone else's blogs, and ponder what I should write about. Then a little girl inevitably approaches me, asking for some love or cereal, and I abandon my computer. Inspiration is few and fleeting.

Inspiration comes knocking for me when I least expect it. At night, when I drag my tired body to bed and lay there replaying the day, that's when I get the best ideas for my blog. I laugh to myself about my hilarity, make a mental note to blog about it the next day, then forget about it. Those mental notes need to be made on post-its, cause I keep losing them. Then my day flies by without a post and once again I lay down to go to sleep. Switch on the blog idea pop-up blocker, because those things bombard me in my pre-sleep minutes.

I need for my ideas and posts to be my idea. I don't want to do cliche posts, just because they're popular and everyone else is doing them. That's not why I have a blog. I have it to....Why do I have this blog? Is it to record my children's memories, because I'm too busy/lazy/cheap to scrapbook these days? Is it just to ramble on about stories I never tell in person? Is it to post pictures for my family and others to see, so that they may marvel in the cuteness of my children? I guess its a little of all. I need a creative outlet, so here I find myself, sitting at my computer, staring at the screen. When inspiration finds me, you'll be the first to know. Until then, hang in there. Better days are ahead of us.

Sickos

To sum up my life lately, see above.

My kids have been playing ping-pong with the flu.

Ava had a super high fever about one week before Christmas, it wouldn't go away with just tylenol and I had to take her to the doctor. Perk of living in small town: doctors offices are closed at Christmas time. So at 10 pm on a Wednesday, Ava and I went to the hospital emergency room. Other perk of small town life: hospital is small, so the er is small, so the wait time isn't half of what it would be in a bigger town. Hospital smallness aside, we still waited three hours, thanks in part to a belligerent drunk guy and someone with a broken knee. Ouch. Final diagnosis: ear infection. Reason I know advil they gave her worked: She wanted to play after it kicked in. At one am. In the hospital.

About a week after starting her amoxicillin she was back to her normal bratty self. Hooray! I'll take bratty kids who are into everything anyday over a sick feverish baby who wants me to hold her 24/7. Then Alana went to a Christmas concert with my sister and came home just wanting to sleep. Reason I know she really didn't feel good: going places with my sister and her ratboy cousins is Alana's dream destination. She has to really feel bad to want to come home and sleep instead of play with her ratboy cousins and admire her baby cousin Brinley.

After a couple days of coughing and fever, I took Alana to the doctor. Her regular doctor was on vacation, so we went to a walk-in clinic, because they weren't going on vacation until after Christmas. Diagnosis: a virus. A couple of days later, luckily right before Christmas, she was feeling better.

Christmas day Ava woke up with a huge rash all over most of her body, which was so dark and prominent at first we thought she had chicken pox. After David talked to his boss, who is a pharmacist, we came to the conclusion that she probably had an allergy to amoxicillin. We stopped giving her meds, and her symptoms were gone so we were hoping to be in the clear. No such luck. Monday after Christmas her fever came back, so we returned to the hospital. We were in and out of there in just under an hour, which is a Christmas miracle. Diagnosis: ear infection came back with a vengeance, it was now in both ears.

After a few days of new antibiotics, given to Ava against her will, she got better again. On New Years Eve Alana started to feel sick, and just wanted to sleep all day.

We went to dinner at the Olive Garden, without our sick kids, where I ate the most delicious dessert ever, which David kept stealing bites of, even though he said he was full after his Tour of Italy. That was the last of our fun for a few days, because Alana has been sick since then. To her credit, she is the most well-behaved sick kid ever. She just wants to sleep. She makes no demands. Her only downfall is her absolute refusal to take medicine. She will occasionally take a Triaminic thin strip or chewable tylenol, but other than that we have to hold her down and force her to take anything, with is challenging.

Yesterday Ava's fever came back for awhile, which left her wanting to be held constantly for about 6 hours. When it broke she was ready to party again, even though it was 9 pm. But she's okay so far today, and for that I'm grateful.

Alana has been passed out all day, with the exception of her request for cereal, but she fell asleep right after she received it. She is still coughing like crazy and refusing to take medicine.

The past couple of weeks have left me extra grateful for the good health my ladies usually experience. Ava has never been sick before now, and she is almost 17 months. That's not a bad track record. Alana has only been sick a handful of times before, but never anything serious. By the time they're both healthy I will be in need of a vacation. A good, fun, allyoucaneat, buy some new clothes, count down the days until then and pack a week in advance cause I'm so excited vacation. Until then, I just want to sleep through the night a couple of times and I'll be fine.