Aurora Borealis

Agent Murphy spent the morning with a friend from the pro-life committee at our former parish.  Originally, they were going to go to Stone Mountain so R. could do her normal walking routine and then stop by the playground.  But given the rain, they changed their plans.  We’re not sure exactly where all he went.  There was talk of the library and maybe a stop at Chick-fil-A.  We have received a report that he attended daily Mass at our old parish, where he was warmly greeted by some of our friends.  And he came home with two balloons.  He does love balloons!

This afternoon Mr. Tldz and Agent Murphy went with one of the brother Knights to run a few errands.  The other day Mr. Tldz went with a former co-worker and purchased a laptop.  We decided that’s an investment we needed to make given the impending return of his work laptop and since our desktop is upstairs and Mr. Tldz’s office is downstairs.  So a laptop will allow him to have some concentrated job search periods in his office free from distractions by the Agent.  And during past job searches Will’s found it useful to take a laptop with him on interviews.  That way, if someone is skeptical about if/how he can do something, he can just pull out the laptop and demonstrate rather than having to try to explain.  

Well, the docking station he purchased with the laptop turned out to be not compatible with his laptop, so the docking station had to be returned.  And since he was able to find a laptop he likes for much less than we anticipated, we decided to go ahead and purchase a chest freezer.  The more we thought about it, the more we realized it would add value in terms of our grocery budget and food preparation.  So that purchase was made today and the freezer will be delivered on Monday.

Lida came to do our first cleaning today.  The house smells so clean!

We’ll see her again in two weeks, and hopefully we’ll be able to keep it under control until then.

So last Saturday RW graciously agreed to do our grocery shopping and run several other errands for us.  One of the things I was looking for was a husband pillow to help me prop up in bed.  He couldn’t find one in the stores, so he called S. and had her find and order one online.  They even kindly footed the bill.  The pillow arrived Tuesday as scheduled.  Now that I’ve been able to use it for a couple of days, I have to say that not only do I feel like I’m in college again , it is also very helpful for my long sit-recline sessions in bed when I’m trying to read or work on the computer.  (The loaner laptop, btw, has been a Godsend.  Thanks, M.!)  So since I know you two are among our few faithful readers here — thanks much, guys!

We are overjoyed that Mrs. Tldz is home with us again as of this afternoon.

Still on bedrest to be sure, and we know we have a long hard journey ahead of us to get Garbanzo safely on the outside.

To all those who have been praying for us, we sincerely thank you.

To all those who have helped with various errands, giving us rides, caring for Agent Murphy, bringing us food and helping us in so many ways, we also are most grateful.

To note your birthday yesterday (a far more significant occasion than Earth Day) I made my annual contribution to the OU library acquisitions fund in your memory.  I miss you, roomie.

She is 8 today.  And she’s having a skating party tonight with something like 11 or 12 girls.  Hopefully her birthday present has been collected from Grandma’s post office box and will be given to her.

Early this morning Agent Murphy and I trundled off to the OB’s office (in the nasty cold and rain; I’m ready for spring!) to have Laurie the ultrasound tech check on Garbanzo Bean III.  This was just to check the baby’s size to confirm or adjust the due date.  She came up with July 23, so pretty close to the July 25 we were originally given.  We’ll see her again in a month or two when the baby is bigger so she can check on the chambers of the heart and such.

We’ve been reading God Gave Us Two and A Baby Sister for Frances.  Agent Murphy has started picking out God Gave Us Two for story time.  We wonder how much he understands of what we’ve been telling him.  At this age, especially with his not talking, it’s hard to tell.  So after reading God Gave Us Two last night I was explaining to him that we were going to go to the doctor’s office today and they would use a special machine to look inside Mommy’s tummy so we could see his baby brother or sister.  He patted his tummy.  So I told him, “Yes, but Mommy’s tummy.”  Laurie gave him his own copy of an ultrasound photo today.  I’ve taped it onto his dresser where he can look at it while he’s in bed.

I am in a horrible mood.  I guess I wasn’t doing too great, yesterday, either. I keep crying.  Given my wretched mood, I’ve wanted very little to do with The Agent and his antics.  But that sweet boy brought one of his diaper wipes to wipe away my tears.  I don’t know how he’s such a good kid given the crappy mommy he’s stuck with.

I’ve gotten very little done so far today, and I have to try to get ready to host play group next week.  I was hoping to get some artwork up before then, not to mention cleaning, so our house won’t look so pathetic.  (It’s a pitiful little place compared to the mansions some of these women have.  Good heavens — we don’t have a dedicated playroom!  I wonder if we’ll be allowed to stay in play group?)  Agent Murphy has a bit of a cold.  Maybe if he stays sick, I can cancel like just about everyone else has done.  (It’s supposed to meet every week. There was one in the month of January.)

My goodness, another one?  6.1.  Does that really count as an “after shock”?  I’d call that another quake!