Catching up with Old Friends

Before I begin, let me just say that believe it or not, I've lost another camera...thus, the lack of pictures.  I'm pretty certain that I left the camera at Sabbath School since that's the last place I had it but I won't know for sure until tomorrow when I call the church.  Hopefully that's indeed where I left it and hopefully church does have honest people!  The good news is that if this camera isn't found, it's not that big a deal.  It's my old one and has problems.  This could be the kick in the pants I need to finally get a new one.

On to actual interesting stuff...This weekend we were very excited to see our friends Cory and Amanda Reeves whom we haven't seen in almost exactly two years.  They moved to Tennessee about two and half years ago and we sure have missed them!  In the interim two years since they last visited, we had Aubree and they had another son, Jake.  That's in addition to Noah who is the same age as Calleigh.  Cory had some work stuff down here and Amanda and the boys tagged along.  They sat with us in church and it felt like old times except the kids were obviously much bigger now.  Noah had us laughing right from the get go when an older gentleman with white hair got up to announce the offering and Noah whispers to Amanda, "Is that God?"  Noah fit right back into the group with Calleigh and Braelyn and after Sabbath School, they started running around and having a good time.  I'm not sure if they should have been running around the room but apparently it was a good time and Calleigh told us after that they were playing "Bump" which is where you bump into each other....exactly as the name would suggest.  It was about this time that I whipped out the camera to take pictures of the three of them and I assume I must have put it down somewhere that wasn't my bag.

After naps (which Calleigh did take after a time), we packed up some food and headed down to Celebration to meet the Isidros and Reeveses for a picnic and some fall festivities going on down there.  We eventually found our way to them (it's been years since I've been there and we got a little lost in the thriving metropolis of downtown Celebration.  Stuff was blocked off so that's my excuse).  We found an empty field with bushes all around it so the kids were able to run around as much as they wanted and we didn't really have to worry about them too much.  And of course, they pretty much decided to just run around instead of eating but what can you do.  Little Jake, who turned one last month, refused to sit still and kept walking off and trying to climb up things while Aubree just sat there very meekly eating and watching what was going on.  I told them that was the difference between a boy and a girl!  By the time we were done eating, it was past dark and the mosquitoes were atrocious.  We had to clean up as quickly as possible and get out of there.  As we walked the streets looking at the booths and such, Calleigh and Noah were hand in hand as if they were lifetime friends.  It was really cute.  Sure wish I had my camera for that one.  At 8 pm, they had "leaves" falling and the kids were able to pick them up and put them in their bags.  I use the word leaves extremely loosely but it was fun nonetheless.  After that, time to hightail it home and get the girls to bed.

This morning we did a solo outing to First Watch as Ron and Elaine are in Chicago on business.  They'll be back in the morning.  I'm getting the Sunday paper again for the coupons and they had some good one in there so as I sat in First Watch, someone left a paper behind and I went over as quickly as possible to swipe the coupons.  I have a feeling this will be a new First Watch tradition!  Because the girls got to bed late last night, I was able to put Aubree down for an early nap because yes, you guessed it, we had another birthday party this afternoon!  We have one just about every other Sunday it seems.  But really, we don't mind them because it's something fun for the girls to do.  And they sure had fun today, especially Calleigh.  This one was for Maddox Meidinger who turned one.  There was a pool there and I kid you not, Calleigh was probably in there for almost three hours with only a potty break to break it up.  At first, she was the only one in there for about the first hour.  It didn't phase her in the least.  She had her life jacket and she jumped in off the edge and that was that.  She probably jumped off the edge about a hundred times.  Eventually some other kids went in too and that was an even better time.  She was holding on to some big girls hands and jumping in over and over again.  The face in the water fear is for certain, over.  Aubree went in a little on the steps but that was about all for her.  She was content just walking around and eating.  As you can imagine, they were pretty worn out when we left the party (four hours later).  Sure enough, Calleigh was asleep in about the first ten minutes of getting into her bed.

We have some potentially bad news about Marlee.  The vet called me on Friday to give the results of her blood work.  It came back with high marks regarding her liver.  He said that could be a range of things from cancer to hepatitis to something else.  The only way we'll know what it is is if he does a biopsy of the liver.  If we're lucky, it will be something that can be treated with medication and all will be well.  If we aren't lucky, well, I think we know what that means.  I'm going to call them tomorrow to move forward with the biopsy and then supposedly it will be five to six days after that when they'll get the lab results back.  Keep her in your prayers!  I'm trying not to dwell on this information since we don't know anything yet.

I think that's all that we've been up to of interest.  I do have a bunch of announcement though.  The first is that my cousin, Jonathan (David's brother), and his wife Marcela, had their baby today.  So neat...10/10/10.  Her name is Zasha and she weighed 7 pounds, 7 ounces.  Unfortunately they live in Texas so I have no idea when I'll get to meet her.  This is the first baby born to a cousin who is not a Brace so that's a milestone.  Speaking of Braces having babies, I completely forgot to mention that Shawn and Camille found out, quite some time ago now, that they're having a girl (due in February).  So Calleigh and Aubree will have their first girl cousin. My brother really wanted a girl so I'm so happy for him especially.  Every father should have a daughter I say!  I especially say that because I have such wonderful, wonderful memories of me with my father.

The other announcement is that the girls and I are going up to Boston on November 10.  I really didn't want to do more travelling as we've done so much this year and definitely used up the the travel budget.  But, that being said, JetBlue had a good deal going on and I so desperately wanted to be up there hopefully during the birth of Alison and Heath's baby but if not the birth, hopefully to see him after he's born.  Fortunately, some generous grandparents said they would chip in and the result is the three of us going up.  We'll be there until the 16th and hopefully baby Edwards will have made his appearance by then (he's due the 13th).  But even if he doesn't, it will be nice to see everyone and be up there for my dad's birthday on the 15th which of course, is the day we start our Christmas music so even better!

In closing, just another funny comment from Calleigh.  Apparently she doesn't understand how often bodily functions happen.  I was getting her changed for her nap the other day and I asked her if she needed to go # 2.  She shook her head no and informed me that she had already gone.  Thinking I may have somehow missed it (very doubtful) since we had been visiting friends at their house, I asked her "When?"  She replies "A few days ago."