One Looooooooooooong Night

Aaron's been gone for four days now and the girls have been pretty well behaved for me. Natalie Jane has not tried any death-defying acts yet. That always makes me breath a little easier. Last night I had my old college friend stay the night with her little guy and we all had a sleep-over. We got to bed kind of late after watching a movie and couldn't get our kids to stay in their beds until after we went to bed, so they were up late as well. Bella ended up in bed with me and then woke up with her stomach hurting, so I was up most of the night with that and half way through the night the thunderstorms started and my big baby of a dog Zoe, who is afraid of thunderstorms, jumped over the baby gate that keeps them in their bed at night and ended up in bed with me. She was shaking so hard that the bed was REALLY moving. Bella and I kept sighing and then in the dark I could hear her whisper into Zoe's ear "don't worry Zozo girl, it will be OK". It was so sweet. After about 4:30the thunderstorms stopped and I got Zoe back in her bed. My friend had to leave at 7:30, so I woke up to say good-bye to her and never really got back to sleep. Bella woke up soon after that and watched cartoons in bed. Luckily Nat slept until 9:30 so I could at least lay in bed a while. Tomorrow we are off to Joliet to see my family so please pray that I make it OK alone with them both. Long car trips were a lot easier when Natalie wasn't old enough to fight with Bella over who got to hold the DVD player. They have no idea how lucky they are to even have a TV in the Car! Back in my day............ha ha ha. Happy fathers day dads. I hope you have a good one!

Life

Hello friends and family who tune into see how we are all fairing. Spring was a difficult time for us. We suffered our third miscarriage and are trying to heal from that, as well as figure out where God wants us to be in our lives. Talking to friends lately has made me realize how much pain there is out there. To all my beloved friends who are suffering from emotional pain from circumstances beyond their control - I am praying for you all! Life is difficult. Bella, who I count on to be my rock/perfect child, has decided that bringing frogs into our house is a great idea despite how much I punish her. Yesterday when she knew I was coming in from the garden, she quick passed off the frog to Nat, who was so pleased with herself that she nearly squeezed the life out of it. Bella, by the way, took off to hide from my wrath. Urgh!!! The other day as Aaron was talking to her about it for the 100Th time she cried to him, "Daddy, I just can't take my eyes off the toads!". I'm hoping this will pass just like everything else. Natalie on the other hand, I pray that her naughtiness will pass, but it never does. In the last month I've walked into the bathroom flooded from her playing in the sink, watched as she scooped water out of the toilet with a cup and drank it, found that she colored all over the stair walls with a black permanent marker, decorated Bella's wall with that same marker, painted the white kitchen cabinets with a pink marker (don't know where this one came from - believe me, we learned our lessons from the past), learned how to climb up on the deck railing (it's a long way down), learned how to stick metal screws in the light socket(yes we have covers - she learned how to take them off at nine or ten months), learned how to unzip the safety enclosure of the trampoline and fell out on her knees(also a long way down), learned how to let Bosley out the front door so he could take hiself for a walk (our lovely neighbors have brought him home three times now)........I could go on forever. Needless to say, she keeps me hopping (no pun intended). Aaron will be heading to Washington (the state)for 5-6 weeks starting June 15Th, so I will need lots of prayers that I don't loose my sanity with a child that's so active! I hope you all survive the summer with all the kids out of school! Take care.............