wound up

I've just been typing an email with a long list of suggestions for how a friend of mine can get rent money by TOMORROW so that he won't be evicted. He doesn't have family here, few dependable friends right now, and no rich friends. I've told him about all the emergency assistance charities I know of, don't know what else to do. He waited this long to ask because he thought he was getting help from someone else but it didn't arrive yet and he's very worried. He doesn't want a handout, just a loan.

Takes my mind off E's surgery, which is probably a good thing, but I'm still wound up. I've got to figure out a way to earn more money someday because I hate it when I can't help!

E seems excited about tomorrow. We enjoyed buying all kinds of cold treats to eat and picking out a new movie for her to watch in the surgical center before we get to come home.

"before"

When the doctor saw these tonsils he said, "Whoa!"

the best deal ever

E is into making deals lately, and as she was asking me to come keep her company in the bathroom she listed some elaborate "deal" about Daddy and me taking turns to go with her while she poops. She said, "That's the best deal ever! God and Barack Obama like that deal."

vegetable cake

E has been required to eat vegetables every night this week and has earned 20 stickers on her chart. This means we're going to make a cake in the morning! (Not really a vegetable cake.) Tonight she tried a piece of raw mushroom (after scraping off the dark brown part under the cap) and a piece of lettuce, which took forever to chew and distressed her greatly. She has eaten sweet potatoes with marshmallows, baby carrots drenched in honey, single garden peas sandwiched between slices of hot dog, and corn mixed into her scrambled eggs. She actually eats corn quite happily now, very proud of herself for eating something that's "on the healthy list" that they have up at preschool. She still doesn't LIKE anything green but at least she knows she can get it down and "be brave".

E's first operation

E will have her tonsils and adenoids out soon, which should cure her sleep apnea and give her improved quality of life. I had scheduled it for Monday because David has to go to Fayetteville the following week and I wanted him to be around while she's recovering. But tonight when he realized my new insurance plan year begins April 1st, he said he can delay his trip so we can get this expense counted toward my high deductible. It will be about $2,000 best we can guess right now, so that's worth doing. Last I talked to the dr's office they had an opening on Friday so tomorrow I'll call and see if we can get that rescheduled.

party girls

E attended the birthday party of a girl at her preschool, who's turning 5. It was at a place dedicated to little girls' parties called "Sparkle Plenty" which E calls "Sparkles Twenty". The staff help the girls get dressed up all fancy and then they get to do karaoke, dancing, and the Limbo.

?

I forgot what I was going to write.

overly simple theology

E notices her peanut butter & jelly sandwich isn't folded in half perfectly and complains, "Somebody messed up my sandwich and they did it on purpose!"

Me: "Why would they do that?"

E: "To make me upset!"

Me: "Why would somebody want to do that?"

E: "Because they don't like me!"

Me: "Who do you think did it?"

E: long pause, then, "God!"

Me: "God?! But God loves everybody."

E: "It's a bad God."

Me: "You mean the devil?" She nods seriously, though I don't think she's heard about 'the devil' before. I see an opportunity... "Yes," I say, "the devil likes to make people upset and mean and get in trouble. He tries to trick us, and when he does that, what we have to do is ignore him and act like we're not upset at all. He doesn't like us to be happy and nice and cooperative."

After a pause to digest all that, during which her eyes are glued on me and her mouth hanging open, E suddenly raises her eyebrows and puts on a big cheesy grin, eats her mis-folded sandwich with manufactured glee.

The rest of lunch involves me pretending to narrate for the devil, getting angry at every good thing she does and giving a little evil laugh when she does something wrong, like put her feet on the table or stop eating. She is so contrary these days that it worked like a charm!

sleep reading

Last night E fell asleep in the middle of turning a page.

new dress for spring

Grandma Mickey sent E a new dress! E is holding one of the cinnamon buns Grandma Mickey also sent home with David, and a volcanic rock that David brought back from his train trip. E took the rock to show at preschool. (The black thing is the rock, not the cinnamon bun!)

David got to take E to school Monday before heading on to Fayetteville for the week.

bad dream

E woke up at 4 this morning and cried out, "Mommy check on me!" She sounded upset. She had a dream where she saw "a witch's nose poking through a hole" and it really scared her.

brave attempt at pronunciation

When E tries to say "the abominable snowman" it sounds like "the vomital snowman".

misc

E relaxing on the weekend: notice her little nest she's arranged with her loveys. The frog is behind her head.
A photo she took of her purple blanket

fun play

E and I both enjoyed playing with the little happy meal ponies on Sunday, fixing their hair and arranging them on the thing we built with blocks (which was at one time an elaborate Scooby-Doo monster trap and then turned into just a bridge).

The Pegasus daughters
E holding the Mommy

pictures

Link here to some old and recent family pictures