Time to Write= Long Post

Well I must start by offering a sincere apology for the lack of posting last month. First I thought 'nothing of interest' was going on in our lives, and then once I realised that was not actually the case, I also realized I was so busy that I hardly had time to read everyone else's blogs let alone write a post in my blog. Today however I have what seems like an endless amount of time available to write. Caitlin is sick-again. This time with just a miserable cold and yuck fever. She's been off and on sick since Thursday but I thought she was ok enough to go to daycare today, no fever when she woke up, stuffy nose seemed better, maybe just a little tired. I was wrong. At 9.22am the daycare called-she had a 101.2 degree fever and was feeling very sad/sick. So we came home, turned on some cartoons and settled in on the couch with the laptop to catch up on the communications front.
Lets see since my last post Caitlin has started swimming lessons, we've been to two birthday parties for two different 1 year old's, attended one baptism and one funeral, celebrated Fathers Day, had a sleepover, had hair cuts for the entire family and celebrated Independence Day with great friends. It has been a busy couple of weeks.
The swimming lessons are twice a week in the next town over because our town doesn't have a public pool. Caitie just LOVES swimming, and her teacher "Miss Anna" is very sweet. She said that Caitlin is already a great swimmer which helps with the rest of the class. I didn't mention that this is the second time Caitlin has had swimming lessons so a lot of what they're doing is review for her. We also practice frequently in the swimming pool at our apartment complex.
The birthday parties were for my friend Tammy's daughter-Alexus and my darling Shannon's son/my Godson Matthew. Alexus -aka- Lexy turned one on June 10th and Matthew-aka- Man-Man celebrated his first birthday on June 23rd. Both parties were held the weekend following the birthday. Lexy has such an independent little spirit and really curly blond hair. She 'bear walks' because she doesn't want her knees to scrape on the hard ground and she growls a lot. She's got a lot to say but I still haven't learned her language so most of the time I've got no idea what she's talking about. Matt on the other hand is a walking machine. He also has an independent spirit but it's different, more tolerant I think. Probably because he has an older sibling while Lexy is currently an only child. Both parties were fun and it was nice to visit with everyone. The day after Lexy's birthday party was her Baptism. Of course I dragged Ryan along as well, I take any excuse I can to get Ryan to attend a church service. Ken Savage was the Priest and we knew him from St. Barnabas Episcopal church in McMinnville where Ryan grew up. So he asked Ryan to do the reading for that days service and Ryan even went up for communion. It was a happy day indeed:). Then sadly the very next day our dear friend and Faith's "Papa" passed away from "complete coronary failure". In some ways this wasn't a huge shock, and in others it still boggles my mind. Papa Jim was only 66 years old but he'd really lived his life, enjoying all manner of foods and drink. The last few months had been really hard for him and he'd been in and out of the hospital a lot. We all knew the time was coming, and I think he knew better than any of us how quickly. He was a truly generous man who loved life and enjoyed it well while he was here. He will be greatly missed. I think Ryan decided to honor Papa Jim this Fathers Day weekend by shopping just like him. See he really loved a good bargain-he'd buy all sorts of food even though he didn't need any just because it was on sale. So Ryan purchased a 30 pound roast, which he then proceeded to spend all day slow cooking on the BBQ, even though there were only three people eating the thing. Ryan, Matt and Mark.
Now for the hair cut part... In the middle of the night Wednesday night/ Thursday morning Caitlin came down with a fever and a cough. She was miserable, cranky and generally whiny which annoys the bejeepers out of me. So I called in sick to work and stayed home to cuddle her and nurse her back to health because I had plans for the weekend and a sick kid was not a part of them. By mid afternoon she seemed to be feeling a lot better, we all needed out of the house and Ryan badly needed a hair cut. Caitlin loves to get her hair cut, but it takes forever to grow so we don't let her do it often. We'd promised that the next time daddy went in she could also, so off to Whipper Snippers we went. While we were waiting our turn I noticed one of the stylists was working on an adult. Since their fees were equal to what we usually pay else where I made an appointment for myself impulsively and one for Ryan out of desperation. Now I should mention to those of you that don't know me super well, I have pretty much always had long hair. In fact the last time my hair was even just shoulder length was nearly ten years ago. This time I went REALLY short. It's chin length! I bit the bullet and told the stylist to cut it all off and donate it to Locks Of Love. Kelsey went to work doing her hair cutting magic and the end result is actually very cute if I do say so myself:). Caitlin's is about 4-5 inches shorter now, but still basically the same. I should have done this years ago but I don't think I quite had the confidence to pull it off until now.
Finally to bring us up to the present Caitlin and I spent the 4th of July weekend up in Monroe, WA with my friend Tammy, her husband Jeremy and some of her family. I called Tammy on Thursday and told her about Caitlin's ish-cold and asked if we were still invited. Her response was perfect and completely in line with my way of thinking- Caitlin's not puking and she's gonna be sick whether she's at home or at someone else's house so she may as well be sick where her mom can still have a chance at some fun. Plus the change of scenery is a good distraction from the cold symptoms. In my defense, for the most part Caitlin felt fine, every once in a while she would start shivering despite the 90+ degree weather, so I would give her some Tylenol, wrap her in a blanket and cuddle her until she felt better. Then once the medicine kicked in it was like she was a whole new child and not sick at all. Caitie and I drove up Thursday night after swimming lessons and went straight to bed. On Friday afternoon we drove out to the a local Native American Reservation where we picked up more fireworks- this time mostly for the kids. We watched a great movie called The Ultimate Gift Friday evening. It brought tears to my eyes but Caitlin slept through it, it was probably too advanced for her anyway. Saturday morning dawned bright and beautiful and all the sleep Caitlin got on Friday night meant that she didn't even need any medicine Saturday morning. Yippee! Because I knew we'd be up late that night I forced Caitlin to take a nap and I even took one with her in the afternoon. Then we went to the neighbors house for the bbq because they have a bigger back yard. Everyone was kind, generous and friendly. It really made the day perfect. A very "Small Town America" kind of celebration which of course is my favorite kind. This is Jeremy's favorite holiday of the year and they live in a state where really cool fireworks are legal so they went all out and put on a nearly three hour display. Caitlin said "Wow this is just like Disney Land! When it's this day next year can we come back here?" Sure thing baby-roo! I can't wait to go back next year! So there you have it, an update on our lives for the past few weeks.