Happy Valentine's Day

This past week I've been doing the 12 Days till Valentines for John. Each day, he has gotten a small gift with a short poem that starts out like, "On the 10th day till Valentine's Day, your true love give to you. . . ". Kind of cheesy, but he has seemed to enjoy it. And I have enjoyed thinking and planning and being secretive about it. I let Abby in on it, and she LOVES wrapping small gifts and hiding them in dad's car. Very exciting for a 7-year-old.

So today, being the 5th day till Valentine's, my plan was to give him 5 flowers. I have NEVER given John flowers, and I don't think he's ever received them from anyone else. So I thought he might enjoy finding a vase of 5 big Gerber daisies on his desk at work. Really, who wouldn't enjoy flowers, right?

WRONG!

This afternoon John called CRACKING UP that someone had just delivered flowers to his office. Not just flowers, but pink flowers with a big purple ribbon on it. His boy secretary and boy boss were teasing him that he'd lost his manhood. I laughed myself to tears listening to all the razzing he was getting at work.

Tonight when John returned home, he walked in the door with the vase of flowers and pretended that he had bought them for me--of course I went along with it and told him what a thoughtful guy he was.

He's a good sport, but he felt a little silly receiving pink flowers. I'm trying to laugh at myself instead of feeling dumb about it. I feel like I need to come up with five masculine items to redeem myself before the night is over.

Note to self: John is a man. He doesn't like getting flowers. Flowers are for girls.

Twins

Nothing is better to a 5 year old than to have another 5-year old cousin show up to play on a Saturday afternoon wearing the exact same shirt and blue jeans.

I wish I could have caught the excited squeels and laughter on tape when these two girls met each other at the door. Pretty cute!

The Game Quilt

John and I have a super wonderful friend who lives in Lake Havasu City, AZ. We don't see her much, but we keep in contact with email and letters. She is a very talented quilter and has sent our family quilts over the years for special occasions. My children can't remember a time ever meeting her in person, but they talk about her like they know her well because of the quilts she

has made for them.

This past weekend we got a package in the mail from her. A quilt. Not just any ordinary quilt, but a GAME quilt. It includes checkers, tic-tac-toe, double rings, and two other games. It is such a beautiful quilt, I've been tempted to hang it on the wall for display instead of spread it out on the floor for play.

I've heard more " this is awesome", "wanna play on the game quilt?", "I love this quilt", and other happy comments from my children this past weekend than I can count.

Thank you, Mary Lou, for creating a centerpiece for FUN in our family. Your quilt is a treasure, just like you!

No More Germs. . .

It seems like our family spent the bulk of January being sick. I think I started the trend around New Years. My bout lasted about 10 days before I was feeling better. Then baby Kate got pretty sick--throw up, fevers, two ear infections, asthma, cold, coughs, etc. Finally when she started to act better, Abby and Mason too their turn. As they got better, Emma Claire and Taylor got sick with the same yucky stuff. Then, poor Kate got hit again and is finally getting over her illness.

The breathing treatment machine has been running nonstop for a month, the cool-mist humidifier has been turned on every night for over 4 weeks, rotating the kids bedrooms according to whoever needs it most, and I have had more sleepless nights, doctor appointments, more wiping noses, and cleaning up throw-up than I can count. Do I dare hope that we're out of it for a while?

I'm crossing my fingers.

Out of all the children, Kate has definitely been the sickest, and the most worrisome because she's still so young. Three years ago when Andersen was a few months old, we ended up checking him into the hospital for 5 days after an ER visit because where he was diagnosed with RSV.

We were blessed that Kate didn't get that sick. She got pretty accustom to getting breathing treatments every 3 hours.

Through all of this, I have gained more appreciation for a generally healthy body. What an amazing creation.