the full week

we have had a FULL week!

monday--thomas gone, 6 am, for a month away! what will we do without him?! rick was kind enough to drive him to the airport at 4 am, so i could stay with the children!
later that day, a road trip for us! the children and rick and i left for phoenix at 11:30. liz koppa greene was there visiting her brother! it was actually surprise, az. which is the wrong side of phoenix, as we found out. didn't arrive til 3-ish! there were potty breaks and coffee breaks and nursing breaks and unmarked roads and construction and, well, a heck of a distance to drive. but worth it! hurrah for old friends! hung out with liz at a park and at dinner til 6:30-ish. she is so loving, so lovely. funny times, too, because there weren't enought seats in the car for all of us with liz, so we had to stuff tall rick in the back and tell him to get down lest he were glimpsed by an immigration officer! after such good times and "set" and sweet tea at chick-fil-a, then: all the way home! rick and i are suckers for mcdonald's coffee. =) well... not really. it's just that mcdonald's does a LOT better job of putting visible locations near the freeways. i love that whenever i want to stop for coffee, my brother wants to, too. even though he can't have caffeine at night. we call it decaf.

tuesday--we all launched out again at 7:30 am to take sparrow to the dentist for the first of 2 appointments. she needed several partial root canals. (yikes! what have i done?) they had given us the option of 2 work sessions under partial sedation, or one session under full sedation. now the reason that i chose this particular route of treatment was that i thought i could come in to the procedure with her under the partial sedation option. now that i think about it, they had never expressly TOLD me that i could, but they certainly had NOT told me that they separate the parents from the children for all of their procedures except cleanings/consultations. i had gotten the impression that i could not go in with her if she was going completely under, but nothing like that crossed my mind for the partial one! so it was a complete shock when the assistant lady said, "now we will take her to the back. see you in 45 minutes!" what?! i let her know how bummed i was and that this was not what i was expecting, but she was equally flustered that i didn't know the policy and the dentist mentioned that it was on all his forms. well hello?! who reads all the legal jargon!? sad, because they were so thorough about explaining everything else in clear terms, and they neglected that one, which you'd think would be important to most parents! anyhow, the nurse assured me that she would be with her at all times, and so what could i do? they had already administered the sedative, and besides, the other kind of appointment would not have been made until march. well, once i resigned myself to it, i got happy again and waited out in the lobby with rick, golden, and silas. time flew by and before we knew it they said they were done. they said sparrow had been exceptionally good. she was funny all loopy from the meds, and said she wanted to stay at the dentist! i wish my dentist could make me feel so pampered and at-home! but truly, they are wonderful with children and go above and beyond to make them feel special and comfortable. in fact, it was a little over the top. they told sparrow she could pick a tv channel "if it's ok with mom" (i should have said no. i HATE how tv infects their minds with toxic commercials.) and the nurse suggested to me (in front of sparrow!) that we go out and buy her a slushie or an ice cream when it was over to make her numb mouth feel better. well of course we weren't getting away without it! sparrow actually did not beg for it or anything; it was later that night that she said sheepishly, "i shink dat i heard  de doctor shay i was sh'posed to have some ice cream..." oh of course i had to! so.... so far my darling has two stainless steel teeth. She is really proud of them! and more to come later this month. they allowed her to pick a prize, and after the nurse had listed off her options, sparrow said, "i want a sleeping beauty and a cinderella dress!" but a pink hot wheels car would have to do for now. golden was jealous of both the teeth and the car.

wednesday--road trip to mount lemmon! left at 11:30 again, drove 2 hours up. one hour there, half of which was spent gettting clothes on and then off for going pee and then on again, then off because soaking and freezing! but we did get to slide down some snowy hills on our makeshift sleds (baking sheets and cardboard covered with trash bags) and the children saw their first "real" snow--snow that sticks. (it snowed at our house the day before new years eve and was very magical, but we made only a tiny snow man, and it was all gone the next day) actually, golden had found her mittens in my bag after i had packed all the stuff to leave, and she had played with them in the house and then left them there! so her poor hands were frozen and she could only handle about 15 mins. of the snow play. she spent the rest of the time sitting in the volvo sucking her thumb! (we stayed right by the car.) sparrow was elated and hilarious. we have no snow pants, so her bum was wet and freezing in 10 minutes, but did she complain? no! she was elated! the first thing she did after getting out of the car was throw herself down and try to make a snow angel on that packed, old snow! hahahaha! love her! anyhow, after all that fun, we drove 2 hours back home. plus a starbucks run. (there goes kreikebaum collaboration again!) later that night i watched "iron man" with rick.

thursday--to silas' pediatrician appt. in the morning with the girls. just a checkup! and then to take sparrow to her first dance class of the year, which daddy wasn't teaching that day! =( then cleaning and preparing for a small party at my house at 7; lauren was leaving again for phoenix the next day. chris came too, and the schmidts. but omi was sick, or at least threatening to! her children were not feeling well. we sat around and drank mulled wine and played "set" and talked. lauren is so sweet, she told me she was SO jazzed about our nightly family devotions, which she participated in the other night when she was here for dinner. i love that girl, and i love that a simple thing like family devotions can inspire and refresh like that. that is what it is meant to do!

friday--supposed to be a home day, after that crazy week. i usually only go out once a week, and that's for shopping, sheesh! but then i wanted to read with the girls and told them we could do a quick run to the library. well. uncle decided to come with us, so i thought i'd stop at the community center for a quick minute and see about maybe finding some shoes for golden. i left rush limbaugh on the car radio for rick, and then of course it took waaaaaaay longer than anticipated. when i reemerged, i noticed my car headlights were on too, and when i tried to start the car, ...it wouldn't! horrid thoughts went through my brain: electrical problem! no money to fix it! and i don't even have AAA anymore, so how are we going to get this thing out of here?!?! well, at least we could attempt a jump start...if anyone was willing to help us! i asked about three people, all of which had a different excuse, and was feeling a bit hopeless. my brother was finally able to recruit a lady who said she could wait til the guy next to us moved out of the spot--one of the unhelpful naysayers. and sure enough, that started the car! i was so humbled to be completely at the mercy of this hardened, down-and-out older woman with few teeth and a raggedy pony tail. the only one willing to help. she shrugged off my hug and "God bless you," but i am praying her a blessing anyways! praise God it was NOT an electrical problem. just rush limbaugh. OH i am SO thankful for my car!!!

we have been playing bed chess at my house lately, and the moves are getting more and more complicated. the girls usually fall asleep in their room but usually end up in my bed before morning. which is fine, but lately they've added a few elements: for a few days we had their princess tent up and they were falling asleep in there together. then last night sparrow said she wanted to snuggle with golden in her bed, but golden said "no!" (not really the tpuchy-feely type.) i convinced her to let sparrow in, as a service to her sister since sparrow gets easily spooked. but before i had even gone to bed, golden was awake and transferred to my bed. now i had in my bed one silas and one golden, and though the bed is fairly large, i did not want to attempt to squeeze between them. so i took the monitor and went into the girls' room, where sparrow was still sleeping in golden's crib, and i fell asleep in sparrow's bed! the monitor woke me up several times to feed silas, but i was in her bed til morning, and of course, during the night, they both joined me after all! so i woke up in sparrow's bed with two little girls, and it turns out silas got my huge bed to himself all night long! haha!

saturday--a home day! at last! we didn't go anywhere except to drop off mail at the box in the morning, and a walk to check the mail in the evening. we did crafts today! and math! and i got to take a shower! and we ate leftovers! i love home days.

the bed chess is a little less complicated this evening. i put silas in his own bed next to mine, and while golden fell asleep on the couch and stayed there for hours, i did just now bring her to her bed, and sparrow is in hers! now i must go to bed, before all the places get rearranged again!

goodnight, sabbath! may next week be full of home adventures!