Swingset Saga

We've wanted to get Clara a wooden swingset for some time now. It's just never been in the budget. We decided to buy one with some of the money we made from the sale of Chris' boat. So we've been searching for a swingset since then.

There are no middle of the road wooden swingsets to be found in these parts. We've been to and called Wal-Mart, Academy and Toys R Us. Some of them had their smallest one in stock, but one step up really made a difference in features and stability. We spent about a half hour in Wal-Mart at the customer service desk trying to find another store with one in stock. They said there were two of them nearby. Great! So we head in that direction, calling the store on the way. No dice, they both did not, in fact have one in stock.

Academy said they're on backorder for months and that no Academy around here can seem to get any.

Home Depot and Lowe's kits were out of our price range.

Toys R Us didn't have any and then I stopped in one day just to check again and they'd finally gotten a couple in! An employee said they just got them, but they were the only store nearby that had and they wouldn't last long. But I was in the car, I didn't have my cell phone nor did I know Chris' new work number, so I didn't feel right just buying it without talking to him first. I just hoped it would be there that night. Chris called later in the afternoon and I told him about it. He said to call them back and put it on hold, that we'd be there as soon as he got off work. Between the time I was there around 11:00 and the time I called, around 4:00, it had been recalled!

What does it take to get a stinkin' playset around here? So, we decided to go get her bedroom furniture that night instead since it looked like we weren't getting a swingset anytime soon.

Soooo, we wake up last Saturday morning and Daddy still had swingsets on the brain. He was so distraught that he couldn't build his little girl her swingset. I told him since he was taking on the side job AND since the rest of that money would be going toward debt AND if he didn't have any other big ticket item that he planned to spring on me later, that I was ok with going over budget a bit. I mean, how could I keep him from doing this for his little girl? I'm not an ogre.

He was up for that and since he had priced the kits at Home Depot, we headed there the trailer. No luck; sold out of the model we wanted. We had them call up one nearby who did have it in stock and they had it waiting up front when we got there. It was a bit tricky getting everything loaded on our little trailer. The kit came complete with everything but 9 4x4x8's.

Chris wasted no time getting started on it when we got home even though it was already early afternoon and hot as could be. He had gotten the tower built when our neighbor (who happens to be on the HOA board), peeked over the fence and asked if we had gotten permission to put it up. We were supposed to fill out a form and submit pictures and dimensions.

Say what? It's a swingset for pete's sake. Apparently anything that will be visible over the fence line (like the other half dozen wooden swingsets in the neighborhood) has to be approved by the Architectural Modification Committee. I knew that additions, decks, and the like fell into that category, but a swingset? I could understand if it was something Chris got out there and welded together himself or something, but it's a nice wooden swingset. Not at all unsightly.

So we filled out the online form, but I still haven't heard from them. Chris went ahead and built a good portion of it to make it playable because Glenn had come over to help him, but he hasn't finished it just in case we have to take it down. I think I'm going to tell them I'll take it down if they come tell my two year old she can't have a swingset anymore.

Dingle Convo

I caught Clara talking to Dingle in sentences yesterday and thought I'd write down the conversation as it happened.

"Dingle is nice."
"Dingle has collar."
"Dingle has pink collar."
"Clara has yellow shirt."
"Dingle is sitting."
"I sitting next to Dingle."
"Here, Maxi."
"Hey Maxi!"
"Dingle?"
"Two. Two eyes, nose."
"Sit on couch."
"Dingle is soft."
"Dingle has owie."
"I sit on pillow."
"Hi, Dingle!"
"Dingle, here!"
"Wait, Dingle, wait!"

At this point in the conversation, Dingle had heard enough and tried to slip out of the conversation, but Clara dragged her back by the collar. She said all of this in a matter of a couple of minutes. It was just one sentence after another. This was the first time I noticed her using lots of prepositions in her speech and was a little surprised she was using them correctly. Now she just needs to master the use of "a" and "the" and "furthermore" and she'll be set.

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I know we're all tired of hearing potty stories, but I have to write down these two stories for the record. By the way, if you don't want to hear icky potty stories, go ahead and stop reading now. Oh, in case anyone is wondering, we've been accident free for 3 days now!

One day when we first started potty training, Clara had saved up her pee for 5 or 6 hours and had gone in her panties. She was wearing regular panties, a cover and a skort. Not realizing the insane amount of pee that was trapped in her panties, I went to pull them down outside of the powder room.

Pee went everywhere! She just stood in it crying. I pick her up and set her outside the puddle and tell her to stand still while I get something to clean it up. She takes off running, getting pee pee footprints all across the kitchen. I yell for her to come back. She steps in the huge puddle and slips, falling on her back. She was wallowing in her own waste and was not a bit happy about it. She cried and cried and was still crying after her bath. I had to sit and rock her a while to get her to calm down. I really hoped it traumatized her enough to not go in her panties again, but alas, it would still be a couple of weeks.

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Alright, that one wasn't so bad, but this next one will make you gag. Promise. Clara was sitting on her potty in the bathroom and mentioned something about poop, which of course gets me in there real quick. She had gone in her regular panties and when she pulled them down to sit on the potty, the contents of her panties got plopped onto the floor. Nice.

I pick up her panties to dunk them in the toilet water a bit (that's normal, right?). When I turned around to pick up the poop, I found that I was a little too late. Max had taken care of it. I was so utterly and completely disgusted! You too?

Later that day, I was in the kitchen and called Clara over. The dogs were in their crates and she was squatted down in front of Zoe and Max's crates with her panties around her ankles. I looked over right as she was pretending to scoop something out of her panties and feed it to the two of them. I yelled at her to stop feeding them pretend poop, so she quickly hobbled over to Dingle's crate and got one more scoop out and fed it to Dingle. You have no idea how much I hope that I don't witness this same scenario, only not pretend.

Bubbles

I took a bunch of pictures of Clara blowing bubbles this evening and ended up with several that I liked. Pardon the mass quantity. I haven't been taking very many pictures lately and figured Grandma was itching to get some gooduns for her scrapbook. Clara was taking her bubble blowing very seriously so I had a hard time getting a smile out of her at first.

Potty Rundown

Today I am thankful for an accident-free day!

I'm going to go out on a limb here and call her daytime potty trained (knowing full well that I have many accidents in my future). She knew to go upon waking in the morning and from her nap. She even had her first public bathroom urination success when she asked me to go, and then actually went, today at Michael's.

I've already had a couple of people ask me what I'm doing, so for them and for any future rugrats I might have that I may want to remember just how things went.......

here's my potty training rundown:

~ I don't think it was anything I did or didn't do. She just had to figure it out on her own. I'm more convinced than ever that her problem was that she didn't know how to force herself to pee. Today, she had hardly anything to drink, and yet she peed 7 times before her nap! She usually drinks 3 0r 4 times that much and only goes once. I am positive that her ability to hold it so well will come in handy in the future.

~ Using incentives works great. If they're ready. I tried giving her a piece of candy if she tried to potty on several occassions, and it never worked for her. After a day, the newness of candy wore off and she screamed and cried when I mentioned the potty. No amount of candy would get her to sit on the thing.

~I made a potty chart for her and that seemed to help a lot. I took pictures of the prizes and put them at the end of each row. So she got a star each time she went. We would count how many stars she had and then count how many she needed and we talked a lot about the next prize. I had her get five stars before she got a prize because I didn't want her to have to wait too long for a success. When she started getting frustrated this past week when I asked her to try, I would offer her a piece of candy if she sat on the potty and that worked great since it was only once every day or two.

~The incentives are where you have to take your individual child and their likes/dislikes and communication skills into account. Clara needed the pictures. She wouldn't have understood what I was promising her if not for the pictures. Other kids might not need pics or even a chart. Someone today told me their grandson had a chart with 36 spots. When he filled the chart with stars, he got to go to Chuck E Cheese. He never had a single accident. That would have never worked with Clara. Other kids need only a piece of candy or a sticker.

~She wears panties during the day, with a vinyl cover most times. I don't think having the character panties really did much to help her learn, but she does like them. My favorite ones are the Gerber training pants that are a panty and vinyl cover in one, but the girl prints are hard to find in the stores around here. She's been wearing a pull up when we leave the house, but now I think I'll switch her to those panties since they really don't leak. I also bought a waterproof pad that goes in the carseat, so I think I'm about ready to live on the edge and venture out in panties.

~She's in a pull up while she sleeps right now. I was a bed wetter until I was in grade school, and since it's hereditary, I'm ready for her to be one too. I did put her potty in her room today before nap and told her to sit on it if she woke up and needed to go. She went on it before going to sleep and she sat on it right when she woke from her nap. I put it in there before bed tonight too, so I'm crossing my fingers that I don't have some terrible mess to clean up tomorrow morning. I'm hoping to phase out naptime pull ups before too long, but I won't begin to guess when I'll be getting rid of the nighttime ones. I'm just really not too keen on the idea of having to wash all those sheets and blankets and mattress covers and clothes and child when she has an accident.

~Something that may have contributed to her success, but I have no idea for sure, is the cool alert pull ups. I bought some last week because I've tried everything to get her to tell me before she peed. She wore them when we left the house or napped, but I was pretty lazy and didn't change her back into her panties upon returning home or waking, so she wore them more than usual. I don't know if they helped or not, but I can't completely discount them.

~Really, I just gave up on trying to force her to sit on the potty. I just put on the vinyl covers and called it good. I've done my share of laundry these past two weeks, but it sure beats the potty war that was going on. The covers don't do a great job of holding in leaks, but they're better than nothing. It's the taking them off that's the problem.

So there's my take on potty training. Bottom line- it's no fun. And Michelle, my heart goes out to you right now. I can't imagine taking on two of them!!

By Jove, I Think She's Got It!

Clara attained yet another potty prize today, a Dora DVD. I think she's turned a corner in this adventure. She's going without prompting on occassion and is going quickly when we ask her to sit and try. She seemed to be having trouble "releasing" on command before, but I think she may have finally figured out how to control those muscles better.

We are far, far away from being officially trained, but we're now seeing real progress in her understanding of what's going on. I know it will be a long time before she's at all consistent.

She's so funny. Right now, she'll come up to me walking all bow legged and say "Pee pee on potty", which can be translated as "I just peed in my panties and I need you to clean me up, slave woman."

And when she does have a success, she gets the cutest expression on her face. She gets all quiet, eyes and mouth open wide and then when she's done she jumps up and yells "I pee peed on potty!" and claps for herself. She does the same thing when we go, too. Even in public bathrooms.

Potty Progress??

Clara got her second potty prize today!! It only took a week to get 5 stars on her chart! (please note the sarcasm.) I just basically gave up and figured eventually she'd get tired of wet panties, and lo and behold, that tactic might be working.

A few days ago she started crying a lot and kept asking for a diaper. I also had to put the pull-ups out of reach because she was taking off her panties and replacing them with the far more absorbant pseudo-diaper. That's a good sign, right? She's obviously uncomfortable.

Chris went out to eat with her and Glenn and Becky last night because I had something going on. She asked Chris to go potty at the restaraunt 3 times and she asked me once at storytime that morning too. She never actually went, but hey, I'll take the asking part as progress.

She went on the potty twice this morning. The first time she sat down on her own, the second I just asked her to try to potty before sitting down for lunch and she said "Ok" and actually did it. Novel concept.

I remain hopeful.

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Tonight we met up with Micah and Lisa for dinner at Ghengis Grill. We hadn't seen them in a long while, so it was nice to catch up. This was my first time at this restaraunt and I really enjoyed it. You get a bowl and walk through the buffet style line and pick your raw meat, seasonings, veggies, and sauce, hand it over to some guy and tell him if you want it on rice or noodles and they grill it up and bring it to your table. It was really yummy. I highly recommend it. The veggies were all really fresh and there was a really wide selection of everything. I didn't see the bill, so I don't know how bad that part was.

Balle-Neenas!

Here's something else that we've got going on this summer.



Isn't she just the cutest little ballerina (or balleneena as Clara calls them). She's taking a ballet/tap/gymnastics class during the summer and is excited as can be. When I signed her up last week, we peeked in on her teacher teaching the 4-5 year old class. Clara started crying when we walked away yelling "Neenas! Neenas!". I think dance class is going to be a bit hit. We'll have to get Aunt Linsey to show us some of her moves. Hmmm, I wonder if I can find a picture of Aunt Linsey back in the day. I seem to remember one especially cute costume. Oh heck, they were all awesome; I might have to put 'em all up here :)


Here's another Clara approved outfit from today. I think I'm going to have to put all of her clothes out of reach because she's changing her clothes all. day. long.




Tonight we got to take advantage of a company perk. Chris' new company has a box at The Pavilion and employees can sign up to win the tickets for every concert that comes to town. Chris won the tickets tonight, so the three of us saw the Houston Symphony Orchestra: Let's Dance. We had free VIP parking and access to the VIP lounge. The parking was awesome; not the 1 mile hike you usually have to endure. Chris will be putting his name in the pot quite frequently, I'm sure. He was bummed he didn't win the Police/Elvis Costello tickets last night.


Before the show, they had a few dancers performing in the plaza, a make-a-dancing-star craft and an instrument petting zoo. They let you pick up the instruments and play them (they wiped them down with alcohol pads after every person). Daddy is demonstrating proper trombone embouchure here. I can't believe I remembered that word. I just impressed myself.

And here we are in our box before the show. The show consisted of different dance pieces. The first was the can-can song and they played the waltz from Sleeping Beauty. The highlight for Clara was a piece that included a performance by about 10 members of the Houston Ballet. She was in the aisle trying to mimic their dancing. It was so sweet I couldn't stop smiling. She is sooooo going to love being a ballerina.

I think it's funny how it's so natural for little girls to love princesses and ballerinas, even without prompting. I think she's had one pair of ballerina pajamas and that's about all it took to fall in love with ballerinas. She's never seen them in person until tonight but has been enamored with them for a while now. Oh, and now she has one on her quilt, so she's pumped. She's all about ballerinas now. And she had never seen a princess movie and didn't even know their names, but by golly, she knew the princesses were something special from very early on.

Big Girl Bedroom

Here's a quick picture I snapped this evening right after getting Clara's new big girl bed all set up. I'll have to take some good pics once the room is all the way done. I've got to buy new curtains and a few things for the walls, but that stuff will have to wait a while.


I keep forgetting to mention a Clara milestone. Two weeks ago, she said her first unprompted "I love you". Daddy was the lucky recipient. He came home from work on his first day at his new job and she jumped in his arms and said, "Daddy! I love you Daddy." It was very sweet and the perfect end to his first day.

I Can See Clearly Now

I can't believe it's already been over a month since my miscarriage. I'm thankful that the time has gone by so quickly. I thought I was doing great, but it wasn't until last week that I realized I wasn't doing so hot after all those first few weeks.

Up until last week, I really was just in a daze I guess. I didn't want to cook dinner, clean, go grocery shopping or even blog and I wasn't eating well. I wasn't dwelling on the miscarriage or emotional about it or anything (on the surface anyway), I just wasn't myself.

I was really bad. Seriously, I don't think I cooked more than a couple of meals, Clara ate lots more junk than usual and watched a lot more television. The worst part though, I didn't even send Mother's Day cards. I know, I'm terrible. Chris told me last week that I didn't even act like I was excited about his new job. Ouch.

I'm not sure what pulled me out of my funk, but it could've been one of a few things. It could've very well all been hormonal. Now that my cycle's back on track, I'm feeling pretty good. Also, I could've been malnourished. I had a complete lack of appetite and I also kept forgetting to take my vitamin. I forced myself to start taking it again last week and I've also been eating more. Or, it could've been getting that first paycheck that snapped me back into reality. Whatever the reason, I'm very glad to be back amongst the functioning.

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I want to keep myself busy in the coming months to keep my mind off of things. I finished painting the living room and kitchen and have plans to paint our room. (Later though, that last paint job took me forever.) Friday we bought new big girl furniture for Clara and I put it all together this weekend. We were supposed to go get her mattress tonight, but it won't be in until tomorrow. I've already got her new bed together and the crib in the other room, so Clara's sleeping on the floor tonight.

I found her furniture on clearance at Wal-Mart. It actually looks quite nice and although it's particle board, it's really heavy with nice pulls. It doesn't look cheap to me. It's a twin sized sleigh bed, 3 drawer dresser and an armoire all in an antique white finish with pretty scroll accents. We got all three pieces and the rail and slats for $500. Not bad at all. I was bummed that they were sold out of the nightstand. I'll be sure to post pics when we get the bed all put together.

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We found out last week that Clara's going to have another girl cousin! Yay! Now if Aunt Linsey can pull through and produce a girl too, those stinky boys will be outnumbered. She should be finding out before too long.

Oh, and a quick note on girls in the family. I was the first granddaughter born on my dad's side after five boys and Clara was the first great-granddaughter born after four boys. Not sure why I just thought of that, but I did.

FINALLY!!

Look who finally got 5 stars on her potty chart!

This child amazes me. She must've peed in her pull up before coming into our bedroom this morning around 7:45. Ate breakfast, got ready, went to the mall, drove through the bank, strolled through Toys R Us, and came home with a dry pull up at noon.

I figured it would be a piece of cake to get her to go since she hadn't peed all morning. Nope. I just hung out with her for 2 hours before she finally peed. 2 HOURS! I was not going to let her have an accident when she surely had to go, so I fed her lunch on the potty. I'm so bad I even pulled out her baby doll so she could see it and told her she couldn't have it until she pee peed. An hour later she finally went. How does anyone go 6 hours before having to pee? I went probably 3 times in that same time period.

The same thing happened a couple of days ago. She woke up dry from her nap so I figured she really had to go. It was about 2 hours before she finally peed, and of course it was in her panties 2 minutes after standing up from the potty.

I'm crossing my fingers that this big prize thing works. She was sure excited about getting the new baby.

The Past Week in Pics

One morning last week we were getting ready to leave the house. I hollered "Are you ready to go?" and she came into the room looking like this. I'd say she was ready to go. She now goes everywhere with a purse and sunglasses.

Here's another one of her outfits. She's become quite the dress up queen as of late.

We did a baby dedication at church on Mother's Day. The children's minister asked if we'd like to include Clara. They hadn't done one since 2006 and there were a couple other older kiddos, so we said yes since we hadn't done it when she was a baby. She got her picture flashed on the screen and in the program and a pink bible with her name on it. And Mommy got a carnation for Mother's Day.

After church, I picked Jason's Deli for lunch. We're not big fans of crowds, so I wanted to avoid potential Mother's Day hotspots. Turns out Jason's Deli is not a hotspot. I splurged on a piece of turtle cheesecake to mark the occassion. Then we went into Kirklands and World Market in the same shopping center and I picked up a couple of things for my Mother's Day gift.

Later, I ran to Home Depot to pick up more paint and I got a ficus tree for the rest of my Mother's Day gift. Then we hit the pool for our 2008 inaugural swim. She was apprehensive for about the first 10 seconds and then loved every minute of it. It was a lovely Mother's Day.

Here's Clara tonight before bed playing Rock Band with Daddy. What a multi-tasker. Oh yeah, did I mention we're potty training again? I've pulled out all the stops this time. Potty chart, stickers and prizes. We're one star away from getting our first prize. Maybe tomorrow????

Ok, one quick note about the potty training. We started on Monday. She's only had 3 successes. All three happened with Chris in the room and not me. Any way she's only doing it to please Daddy? Or maybe just to tick me off? I know kids can be a completely different when they're with their primary caregiver as opposed to other people. I often see Clara act differently, so I guess it's possible she's ready to be trained. Just not by me. Man, what I wouldn't give to live closer to a grandma right about now!

Happy Mom's Day To Me

Look what I got for Mother's Day. Clara fell asleep in my arms while reading a story this evening. This never, ever happens. Granted, it's because she wouldn't go down for a nap this afternoon. But still. My baby slept in my arms! It was a good day.



Sorry I've been a bad blogger. I've been painting the kitchen/dining/living rooms for the past few nights. And I have a few nights to go 'til I'm done.

The Messmaker

Chris had a great first day of work today. Clara didn't fare as well, though. I knew she'd have a tough time when he went back, but add to that the ant bites and the rainy day and she was a little booger today. She whined a lot, but I don't know how much of it was Daddy and how much was the bites.

I think my stressful month along with the start of his new job finally hit me today. I put in the Bee Movie for Clara this morning and I fell asleep midway through. And then I took a 3 hour nap this afternoon and slept hard. I woke a few times really disoriented and it took several seconds to remember where I was and identify things in the room. It was weird. I guess with Chris off at work (ahhh, that feels good to say), my mind was finally able to rest. And rest it did.

Clara came up with a new phrase today. She's always called ponytails pigtails. I correct her, but she still calls them pigtails. Well, today she asked for a "back pigtail" like Mommy's. I thought that was a clever thing to call it.

Last night I caught up on shredding. I've had a pile of papers sitting on the floor for months now, so I finally got to shredding. It was like Christmas morning for Clara when she saw the bag of glorious shreds. She pulled a handful out while I sat at my desk. I told her to put them back in the bag while I read an important email. When I turned around I saw this:

Owie!!

Clara stepped in ants for the first time this evening. She was standing in the front yard helping me wash the car when she started crying all of the sudden. I thought she had just gotten herself all wet and then I looked down and they were all over her from the ankles down. Poor baby. She did well though and didn't cry for too long. They swelled up after just a few minutes so I gave her some benadryl and the swelling went down real quick.

She's gotten an ant bite before, but this was the first time she stepped in a hill. The thing is, there was no ant hill; they were in the grass with no hill in sight. I guess we need to do ant killer all over the yard, but I hate the idea of spreading that much pesticide where Clara plays.

I was going through the memory card and came across a couple of pics from last week that I never posted. Jason came into town for a night to pick up a small boat he had stored with Chris' boat and take it back to Irving. He happened to be here the day Chris got his job offer, so he went out with us that night to celebrate at P.F. Chang's. Here is Clara and J-Dog walking at the mall.

She loved having him here. He read his fair share of books those couple of days. I would try to distract her with other toys so Jason could sit in peace for a while, but she wouldn't hear of it. She wanted to be in his lap the entire time he was here.

Last week, Clara jumped into her beanbag, which happened to be too close to the wall. She hit her nose and forehead on the window sill. Owie again! It was a bad one; she cried for a long time. I got ice and put it in a towel for her. This was the first time she let me put ice on an owie. She liked it so much, she wanted to do it herself. I really thought she was going to have a black eye and swollen nose, but it went away in a day or so and never swelled up.

Clara got really brave on the play equipment Friday. We went to a playgroup at a playground and I was impressed at all of the things she was trying. I was biting my nails a few times, but she did really well. She's started mimicing other kids a lot lately and was following the bigger girls around. They headed up to the tallest slide and slid down, but Clara second guessed herself and decided it was a little too scary and came back down.

A few minutes later she heads back up on her own and goes down the big, spiral tunnel slide all by herself. I was surprised she did it because she's always been leary of the enclosed slides, even with me by her side. I was quite a ways away from her, but I wanted to see her face when she exited. Sure enough, she got off and was clapping for herself. It was too cute. She immediately came looking for Mommy and of course got claps and hugs from me. It's things like this that remind me how quickly she's growing up.

She's taken off her diaper by herself several times today to go potty. I think she's taking it off midstream, because she's getting pee on the floor, but not much in the potty. Once Chris is back at work for a few days I'm gonna try "it" again. Removing a diaper midstream has GOT TO BE A SIGNAL SHE'S READY, right? I mean, how could it not.

Chris starts his awesome new job tomorrow. Yay!

God is Good!

In the study we've done this spring in ladies bible class, the teacher spoke at length about the importance of looking for ways that God is working in your life, to constantly be on the lookout for Him in the big and small things. She also stressed how important it is to share those stories with others as a way of strengthening their faith and encouraging them in their own walk.

So, I'm going to share how blessed we are by Chris' new job. First off, we have no idea who gave Chris' resume to the guy who hired him. Chris never applied for this job. He got a phone call one night and his now boss just started asking him questions about his work history and was reading right off of his resume. He told Chris the name of the person who gave it to him, but we don't know the man. Chris only gave his resume to a couple of people, so again, no idea how it got into this guy's hands. And his boss isn't a real close acquantaince of the man either, so it remains a mystery.

Secondly, during the first interview Chris went on, by the end, his boss started re-evaluating what position he wanted to hire Chris for. He thought, instead, that Chris might be a good fit for a higher position, which meant a higher salary.

Thirdly, all the while, Chris is going on other interviews. He is offered a contract position for a 1-2 month contract and accepts it because he didn't want to turn down a good offer in case the other jobs fell through. So, he was supposed to start it today.

Well, he got the job offer he was waiting for yesterday, for a management position. Chris calls the company back that he was supposed to contract for and tells them he took a permanent full time offer but that he's still willing to take the contract if he can work from home on the side. And it looks like they're interested! They've been trying to fill the position for several months, so they really needed Chris. He'll know next week if they want him or not. If he does get the contract, it should be enough to pay off our car.

So, the new job is higher pay, better benefits, plus bonuses and we're eligible for health insurance on day one, no waiting period. We could not have asked for more with this job. God has truly filled our cup to overflowing. The day Chris lost his job, we started looking for ways that God was working in the situation. We both agreed that maybe He was preparing something great for Chris to walk into and that losing his job was just a means to an end, and what do you know!

We should be debt free except for the house in only a few month's time now. This is an awesome thought because we've been whittling away at debt for a very long time now and something always, always, always comes up to put a kink in our efforts. Now the question is, what is God wanting us to do with our money?

My immediate thought is adoption. It's always been in the back of my mind since we had decided to adopt before Clara came along. In fact, I think it may be part of the reason I'm handling the miscarriage so well. I'm quickly reminded that having a biological child is not the only way to bring a new child into this family. And that brings me a great sense of peace. All hope is not lost if my body is unable to carry another pregnancy to term. So, maybe that's why I miscarried. Maybe that's why we'll be making enough money to pay off debt. And then be able to afford an adoption. Maybe our next child is already out there or soon will be. And then again maybe not. I don't know what God has planned, only that I'm excited to see how all of this plays out in the coming months.