Chuck & Angie

Yesterday Duncan's sister, Angie and her boyfriend, Chuck, arrived from North Carolina to spend a few days here.  The main purpose being that Chuck had an informal interview but obviously the other reason is to see Ron and Elaine and us.  We last saw them about a year ago when they came down.  Despite a passage of a year (which probably seems like a lifetime to a 3-year old), Calleigh seemed to remember who they were and was excited about seeing them.  In fact, as we were preparing for their arrival for pizza night last night, she ran over to her closet because she wanted to find a special dress so that she could look "really pretty." She chose a completely white dress that I figured would be covered in sauce from the pizza but as you know from recent posts on here, sometimes it just isn't worth it to fight her on her outfit selection.  They were due to arrive at 6:30 and at around 6:00, Calleigh started asking me at about three minutes intervals, "When are they going to get here?"  I kept telling her to be patient but by about 6:40 when they still hadn't arrived, she told me quite frankly, "You're just kidding me.  They aren't coming."  They did finally arrive and while Calleigh was thrilled, Aubree was a little reluctant.  Of course, by the end of the night, she gave hugs to everyone before she went to bed so she gets over it fast!

Her "very pretty" dress.

Waiting.

At last!

Providentially while they were here, we got a call from Dr. McAbee regarding Marlee.  I say providentially because Chuck is a pathologist so he was able to offer us a lot of insight into what Dr. McAbee had to say.  Duncan was on the phone with him for at least 20 minutes, probably longer, and I was dying to know the result.  He finally came downstairs to where we had been stuffing our faces with pizza.  As it turns out, Dr. McAbee is now of the feeling, and Chuck agrees, that she does NOT have cancer.  The blood work came back showing nothing regarding the liver as it had before but it did show that she has low protein levels.  In fact, this makes sense because the low protein can cause swelling (I know I'm not repeating this correctly) in certain areas and Marlee's chest area looks distended.  Dr. McAbee had compared how she looked to a child from a third world country who is  malnourished and their bellies stick out.  In addition, since Tuesday, we've noticed one of her back legs get swollen during the day (it recedes during the night).  Dr. McAbee was at a loss as to what is going on but he admitted that he's like a primary care physician for a human.  He's done all he can do and now it's time to go to a specialist.  Duncan has an appointment for her on Wednesday and quite likely she'll end up with an ultrasound or CT.  That way we can see if there's any kind of growths in there or not.  In the meantime, she's still a happy camper, wagging her tail and eating so that's good at least.

This morning we had a larger group for our yard sale-ing as Elaine and Angie joined us.  Chuck had his interview or he would have joined us as well.  They moved to NC this past summer and decided to check out a yard sale to look for kitchen chairs.  They found some and got hooked on yard sales so they are kindred spirits.  Obviously Angie couldn't buy much since they flew here.  It was a very successful day as I found a mini backpack for $2 that I have been searching for for weeks.  It even has a little phone slot on the front so I'm doubly happy.  I need to take that off my Christmas list.  At the next stop, I was completely dismayed when what do I find but a book for $0.50, in mint condition, that I had just purchased off someone's Christmas list last night.  Honestly, what are the odds?  It's not even a bestseller or anything.  I bought it anyway.  I don't know that I can return the one I had already bought because I bought it used.  Oh well.  I found a bunch of other Christmas gifts so it was a great day.  It's such a nice feeling when you can spend $14 and come home with three bags of stuff.  For lunch, Elaine treated us at Panera Bread.  Mmm, I think I could go for a bowl of that tomato soup again right now.

At Panera...Aubree is in the midst of an unhappy moment.

This evening we went out to look at Christmas lights.  Aunt Wanda was supposed to join us but she ended up double booking herself and I insisted she go to her other engagement since she'll be seeing plenty of us coming up really soon!  Chuck and Angie rode in our car and Ron and Elaine followed.  Calleigh and Aubree were very excited to see all the lights and Calleigh was full of exclamations..."Look at how BIG that house is!"  "Look at ALL those lights!"  "I just can't decide which color is my favorite!" Aubree was very into it too which I was a little concerned about since she can sometimes be a terror in the car.  The finale of the evening was going to the house that has the billion lights (or whatever the number is) and it was a big hit as expected.  Many other houses in that neighborhood are decked out as well and as we drove around, we noticed two houses have set up tiny villages in their garages.  I'm talking villages like the ones people set up under their tree or wherever.  But these must have hundreds and hundreds of pieces.  It was too late for us to stop but we'll definitely be going back next week.

She did remember this from last year because when I told her earlier in the day about going here and that I thought there was a Santa on the roof, she corrected me and said he was in the garage and you clapped to make him talk.

Yesterday we did our usual Publix and Walmart runs.  As luck would have it, we got behind someone in the checkout line at Walmart that had some problem and so we just sat there....waiting.  All the other lines were super long so there was no other option.  There was a lady behind me and she started chatting with the girls.  Aubree usually sits in the front baby seat of the cart but by this time, she was very antsy so I let her out and she immediately went to sit with Calleigh in the big blue seats in the very front of the cart (these carts are monstrosities that you can use if you have toddlers that need special seats in the front).  Finally, when more time had gone by, the lady asked the girls if they wanted to sign some Christmas songs to make the time go by faster.  Yup, they did.  So they started going through their whole repertoire of songs starting with "Jinger Bells" as Calleigh insists on calling it, then to "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" (complete with the figgy pudding verse), on to "Silent Night" and "Away in a Manager."  They concluded with "Jesus Loves Me" which Calleigh was singing just as loud as can be and Aubree practically knows all the words to it too so she was singing along.  I sure got a few smiles from that.

Things are still going well with no binkies.  Every now and then she'll say "binky" like she wants one but nothing serious comes of it.  A little bit ago while she was getting ready for bed, she was running around when she wasn't supposed to be and she bashed her face off the door frame.  I held her in my lap and yes, she did start crying for her binky.  I know it's a big comfort to have it after an injury.  But she only said it a few times and the moment quickly passed.  She's been cracking me up though about Christmas.  She clearly associates presents with her birthday, I guess because it's been her birthday more recently then it's been Christmas, so anytime she starts talking about getting a present or what she wants, she says "I would like this for my birthday present" or "I want Barbies for my birthday."  We keep telling her that she means that she wants these things as Christmas presents but she somehow keeps saying it the same way.  The other night I was doing some Christmas cyber shopping and she poked her head down to see what I was doing.  I told her and now each night (or nap time) when she's up in her room, supposed to be going to bed, she'll call down to me, "Mom, what are you doing?  Are you buying my birthday presents?"  Last night after she asked me that, she leaned down the stairs a little farther and whispered (don't know why it was a whisper), "I want Barbies, Polly Pockets, princesses, cars, a Thomas train."

That's all the news for now.  Have a Happy Sabbath.

Calleigh's photography.  Note the thick sweater.  It was pretty chilly this week and before I finally turned on the heat along about Wednesday, we had to wear warm sweaters downstairs in the morning to keep warm.

We finally decorated our Christmas cookies on Wednesday night with some help from Grandma and Granpa.  Daddy was at a "holiday" (insert sarcasm here) dinner function for work.

Eating was just a little more fun than the decorating.  Fortunately icing does not stain.