Here are Kyra and Elijah hard at work peeling their clementines. Elijah was so proud of himself. He kept saying, “Me do it all by myself, Mama.”

Whew! What a busy week. I have had to go somewhere or do something every day this week. It never ceases to amaze me how fast time goes by. The older I get, the faster it goes. It is kind of sad when you think about the rest of your life passing by this quickly. The kids are getting bigger so fast. I don’t even want to think about them growing up and moving out. So, I won’t. I’ll get on with this post.
Owen and Elijah are pretty much better. They both have mildly runny noses, but are both feeling fine. We took Owen back to Children’s on Thursday, and he got a completely clean bill of health. My mommy instinct was right. My baby was fine. I knew he was. He’s too happy and content for there to have been something wrong with him.
I’ve been trying to brush up on my math skills in preparation for the COMPASS test. I called Roane State (the community college I applied to) yesterday, but they haven’t received my transcripts from high school yet. I can’t register to take the COMPASS test until they have my transcripts. So, I’ll call them back on Monday. The next testing date is on the 13th, and I’m afraid I won’t make it. Classes are all filling up, so I’m a little worried that I won’t be able to start in the spring semester. We’ll see. I wish I had of decided to apply a little sooner. There’s nothing I can do about it now, though. I’ll just keep working on refreshing my math skills, and take the test as soon as I can.
Last night I took the kids to the birthday party of a little girl at church. They had a lot of fun. Elijah played with their race track all evening. It was really neat. It was the kind where you shake the cars to make them go. He was so cute shaking them up, and then putting them on the track. I am thinking it would make a really good birthday present. Kyra played princesses all night. The birthday girl is even more into princesses than Kyra is. Their grandmother told me that I needed to bring them over to play one day. I think I will, because they had a lot of fun.
I went shopping on Tuesday with Misty (my sister-in-law), and I finished my Christmas shopping. The only thing I have left is to buy a couple of gift cards for some people, but I can do that here in Harriman any time. It’s so nice to have it all done.
I went to lunch with my friend, Jen, on Monday, which was a lot of fun. We hadn’t seen each other in a long time, so it was really cool to catch up on things. Hopefully, we can do it again soon. I really enjoyed going out with just the baby, and talking with a friend. Jen turned me on to this new Mexican place here in town. It was really good. I love it, and had Chris go with me again on Wednesday. Thnaks, Jen, for adding to my growing weight problem. (pun intended)
I cut my bangs the other day. I’m not sure if I like them yet or not. Don’t worry, it wasn’t a Kyra cut. I just trimmed them all straight accross. They don’t look bad or anything. They’re just different. I havne’t wore my bangs this way since I was like thirteen. Anyway, that’s neither here nor there.
Thursday evening, we bought a new (to us) car. Chris really needed a car to drive to work. His truck has a LOT of miles on it, and doesn’t work as well as it used to. The heat doesn’t work anymore, and Chris was freezing going to work and back. He has been looking for a good used car for some time now. He decided on a 2002 Dodge Stratus. It’s pretty nice. It’s white, and has been taken good care of. I like it. I have missed driving a car. My big van is very useful, but driving a car is a lot more fun.
I spent Thursday night helping my brother, Luke, work on a research paper for school. It is due on Friday, and he hadn’t even started on it. Typical sixteen year old boy behavior, no?
So, that’s what I’ve been up to this week. It was a bit of a jumbled recap, but, oh well. I just wrote about things as I thought of them. I have to run to Kroger in a minute and get stuff to make a cheesecake and a green bean casserole for the church Christmas dinner tomorrow night. I’m really proud of my newly acquired ability to make a real cheesecake. I love cheesecake. We are desperately in need of me taking care of Mount Laundry today, too. Elijah is out of pants. Hopefully, I’ll get it all taken care of this afternoon. I’m supposed to take the kids and go to my parent’s this evening. Misty has set up an evening of fried fish (compliments of my dad, the master fish fryer [and fish catcher, for that matter]) and Rook. I love to play games. I like board games the best, but I enjoy card games, too. About a year ago, we were really into playing Rook, but everyone else kind of got burned out on it after a while. We need to invest in some games that everyone can play. Outburst or Pictionary or something. Did I mention I love to play games? So, anyway, that’s my day. I hope everyone has a great weekend! For those of you around here, the kids’ Christmas play is next Sunday night (the 17th, I believe). My brother, Seth, has one of the biggest parts in the play, and Kyra and possibly Elijah (depending on if he cooperates) will be in the nativity scene. Kyra has a small part in quoting a Christmas poem, and will be singing a song with the Children’s Choir.

I apologize to all of you without a high speed connection. This movie is kind of long (about four minutes, I think). It’s really cute, though, so I had to share it.

I took Owen back to the doctor this afternoon. He said that Owen sounded a lot better, and that he looked good. His RSV test was negative, thankfully. He put him on an antibiotic, in addition to the other medicines that he prescribed yesterday. He said that he was afraid that he might develop pneumonia if he didn’t put him on the antibiotic. So, that’s a total of four medicines that he’s on. They do seem to be working, though, and Owen hasn’t gotten any worse. He sounds much worse at night, but he never got really, really bad. He hasn’t been coughing too much, but he sounds wheezy when he cries or fusses.
I appreciate those of you who have mentioned Owen in your prayers. It’s nice to be able to ask you guys to pray for him. It just adds a certain measure of comfort to know that people are taking your little one before the Lord in prayer.

As an aside, I’m taking him back to the gastroenteroligist on Thursday. I am expecting her to give him a clean bill of health, and pronounce him completely normal and healthy. Especially since Owen weighed 13lbs 5ozs at the doctor yesterday. He has really been gaining good since we started giving him baby food. I guess he really did just need some extra calories. Again, thanks for your prayers.