Little blessings

I don't pause to think of it often, but I am so blessed to have healthy, growing, kiddos. Gabi is currently in the "I can at least try to do it myself" developmental stage. This is a picture of her taking a bath. Yes, the water is on, the toys are in place, even the shampoo is in readiness... however, when you are almost two, you may forget a little thing or to like taking clothes and diapers off. But hey, what is a little thing like that? It saves mommy having to wash them. She also has decided that now that she is a big girl she really should start using a pacifier. I have started throwing them away as I see them. There is no way I'm going to let her start developing that habit at this late date.

My little mop head is proudly showing you her owie on her lip. You can barely see it on the left hand side. The blessing comes in the fact that it isn't much worse. We were at the beach yesterday throwing rocks. I didn't see it happen, but my understanding is that Karis threw a good sized rock. Instead of going out into the water as planned it went up and came back down on her lip. I am grateful she has all her teeth intact and no eyeballs are missing.
This one doesn't even need an explanation, but I'll give it anyway. The plant is feeling blessed to have me as it's owner and still be alive. I think it has given me enough confidence to attempt some flowers in a pot next year. Karis is thrilled.

Two weeks ago, or so, Dustin got into an accident.

Thankfully not his fault.

As accidents go, it was fairly minor. A van pulled out directly in front of him, he slammed on his brakes, but with the rain and the lack of time he slid the right side of the car along the vans bumper. The van was barely damaged, our car however is currently residing in the junk yard nursing a broken axel.

Now, the taurus itself was no great loss. It had some car disease that acted up in cold weather. I'm serious. When it gets cold, the power steering goes bad. When it is warm out, it works like a charm. Don't ask me, I'm just repeating what I was told. All that to say, we knew my car was dying. But we were hoping we could hold onto it for a little bit longer. After all, between my health, the remodel, and the basement, there is precious little money to spend on a car.

The insurance money came to $2,600. Better then if we had sold it, but not buying much of anything, especially with the cash for clunkers going on. Blast the government. Not a decent clunker to be found. Dustin spent a discouraging day looking at vehicles with around 130-150 thousand miles on them. Pieces of junk. We were pretty discouraged when a man from church who works with used cars gave us a call. He had just bought another taurus ( I guess it is our lot in life to own these) and we could have it, tax, title, and license for $2,500. The best part? It only has 68,000 miles on it. Half of what our old one had. God is good. No, it's not flashy, and no, it doesn't have power locks, but you know what? We don't care. It runs, the power steering works, and it was under our budget. God knew our old one was dying with no money to replace it and He took care of it. Now.... just wait till the Honda gets about a 100,000 more miles on it and He can do the same thing. :-)
Amazing how beautiful a car can look under the right circumstances. :-)

When you are four...

....and you decide that you can't wait for your honeymoon, your mom will be asking you questions, as this mom did when those exact words came out of her four year olds mouth.

"I can't wait for my honeymoon, mom." Sigh... as if it is just around the corner for her.

"Oh," I said, "And what will you be doing on your honeymoon?" (this should be interesting.)

No hesitiation, "We'll go camping, and fishing, and camping, and butterfly netting, and hiking, you know mom."

I guess she told me. We'll see if this is the same itinerary she will have twenty some years from now.

The parasite meds have been easier this time around. I am almost done with round two. Four or five more days, I believe.

Health update

At the moment I am recovering from a nasty cold, but aside from that and the lack of sleep I am feeling remarkably well. Now that I'm not coughing my lung out because of the cold I am noticing that my continual cough is going away. I can sit for half an hour and not have a hack. We were talking about that last night and Noelle commented on the fact that she would know I was in the house because I was always coughing. I am proud to say that while I still cough - and I'm thinking a lot of it is due to the cold, still- that is no longer the case. I can be quiet just like everyone else. Once again, I'm letting my hopes creep up, but not too far yet.

I had a blood test for allergies done the last time I went to the Dr. The nurse called me to report what I needed to avoid for the moment. I'll just give you the highlights.

Spinich is number 1. Good thing I'm not Popeye:-)

Also, Bananas, Almonds, Dairy, Chocolate, Sugar, and Coffee. The last one isn't a big deal for me, but the others? Especially the last three. Now, I'm not off these for life, they are just ones I should avoid for now. I haven't actually talked to the Dr to see why, so I'll give more details after my appointment on Sept. 16th. I moved it back from the 26th of this month because I wanted to be all done with my parasite meds. The second round is going so much better than the first. As usual, the last ten days are worse than the first, but nothing to really complain about. And the good thing? So far I haven't seen one single parasite! That is how I like it!

Family Reunion 2009

Enjoying the food. Gabi grazed all day, even getting her first sample of beer when mommy wasn't looking.

My handsome husband. I don't know if I've mentioned lately how blessed I am to have him. He takes such good care of us, even when I'm sick and grumpy, like I was on this particular day.
The girls playing on the deck by the water. They had so much fun in the sandbox and water. Unfortunately I only took these few pictures. Like I said, I wasn't feeling so hot, I had caught Gabi's cold, so these are all I got. You would never know there were about forty more people there. :-)

He is here!

Kalvyn(calvin)David

Seven pounds two ounces

Eleven days early

The girls adore their new cousin. It took Karis forever to remember his name, but she loves holding him, and he is now one of the highlights of going up to Grandma's house.
Proud mommy making sure Kalvyn isn't squished. Although, Gabi is the one we really have to watch out for. She LOVES babies and gentleness isn't a strong point of hers quite yet.
This is what happens when both mommies are inside packing and they are left to their own devices. It was sure fun, though, and Karis is going to miss her friend. Her latest solution to Owen moving to Brazil went like this.

"Mommy, I have an idea."

"What's that?"

"I'll move to Brazil with Owen and Jackson and Nathaniel."

"Oh, well won't you miss mommy, daddy, and Gabi?"

"Oh, You will move there too."

And there you have it. Problem solved. If only things were as simple as they are to a four year old.

We chose one of the few hottest days to go to the zoo. Daddy forgot his shoes to change into for work, so when we delivered them we decided to spend a little time in the air conditioned parts of the zoo. The girls had other ideas and overall had a great time viewing every part of the zoo, but the drinks had to be the highlight.
Ta da! This little girl has developed quite the love for dresses in the last two months. If given the choice she would be in one all the time. It really is adorable to see her spin around and show daddy how pretty she looks. What a girl!

I know

It's been forever since I've posted. Honestly, it's because I am doing so well. I still have occasional pain, but I am getting my energy back and this makes me hope a little more that maybe I'm finally getting a little better. I know you won't believe this, but I actually did laundry yesterday, folded it, and.... get this, put it away. On top of that I cleaned our bedrooms, bathroom, and the kitchen. It may not sound like much, but to me it is an amazing accomplishment.

I guess this post is to tell you I'm doing great, feeling fine, and am busy catching up with my life. I have several adorable pictures I want to post, and hopefully that will come soon, but I just wanted to let my faithful followers know that life at the Rankin household is starting to return to the normalcy of having a mommy that can do what a mommy needs to do. :-)

Family Reunion

Miniature golfing and thinking she is pretty big stuff.

Playing with cousins.

She was given the choice of colors before mommy could intervene. Probably too much information, but did you know this stuff even turns your poop blue? Needless to say, she only got to drink about a fifth of it. :-)

Field Trip

They love their Grandpa!

My dad let us come out and see where he works. While he didn't get to explain all the technicalities of his job to my little munchkins they enjoyed the basics.

Exploring the rows.

Helping Auntie Rae

It's a jungle out there.

Doing her favorite thing, running in open spaces.

I'm telling you, these unstable slats are hard to walk on.

Thinking we are pretty big stuff riding in Grandpa's work van without carseats.

Gabi loves to pretend to drive.

As you can see, she climbed back into the car in favor of the outdoors.