I will try to limp along with a new blog entry today. Last night was kind of rough, but usually Allen sleeps pretty well. He has been a bit on the gassy side and if baby ain’t sleepin’ - ain’t nobody sleepin’. We called Tara & Jim and caught them up on Allen’s transition. Katy loves to kiss him and they were happy to hear it. We were happy to hear that things seem to be going well for them. They include us in their nightly prayers, and we try to do the same for them. Looks like it’s working!

Katy’s newest obsession is with rings. Not just any jewelry – it must be a “wee”. That’s how she pronounces “ring” and she tries to pull them off my fingers whenever she sees them. I’ve been calling her Gollum from “Lord of the Rings”. If she starts calling them “my precious” then we’ll really know there’s a problem. Instead I opened a dollar set jewelry set and gave her two plastic silver-colored rings. She loses them every five minutes and sobs until I find them. It’s almost like a new game for her. “Where it go? Boo hoo hoo”. Speaking of that, when Allen cries Katy gets concerned but she says, “Waaa” and imitates him. Someday he may not find that funny.

Well, we’ve been very, very spoiled. On top of all the cleaning, organizing, landscaping and decorating that Kathy and Karli did, they also provided several meals for us. I need to get some photos. Then at least four or five people have brought meals in for us. I haven’t prepared a single meal since I returned home over a week ago. We are also eating leftover chicken salad sandwiches from Allen’s baby shower on Thursday (which was fabulous!) so when I say we’re spoiled, I really mean it. Now we have another meal coming tomorrow night and again on Thursday. Sweet!

Sarah has come through her neck/back/spinal surgery today, but we haven’t heard the official results from the doc, yet. Apparently there is a 5% chance of paralysis with this particular operation, so we tried to be braced for the worst. I told Sarah we would decorate her wheelchair with ribbons in the spokes. Yes, I am a horrible person. But once again we’ve been blessed and Sarah is able to eat ice cream tonight. Yay!

This past weekend Mom had a house-full with a visit from Keith, Sarah, Mike, Laura, Emily & Abby. Amy had already stopped by earlier in the week to help me organize new clothes, clean and pamper my two kids (sounds weird to say it) and spoil them even more than they already are. Dad met Allen at the airport, so there aren’t many Texas family members who haven’t witnessed his adorableness in person. Hmmm…Chris, Delma & gang, Aunt Donna, Uncle John…slackers! Ruth, Helen & Sheila have already introduced Allen to our fabulous “HaHa Sister” lunches, and Julia dropped by with goodies galore. Of course, Peter’s family came over the first night Allen arrived to fuss over him and hold him tight. So he’s been visited and kissed and loved! Mom’s first introduction included a ride on the “poop shoot express” so she had to go home and change both her shirt AND pants! Hopefully Allen is so cute that Mom can’t hold it against him for long. She took our first official family photo since Allen joined the family. Our usual photographer - Uncle John - was a slacker and didn't make it down for the occasion. Although I did hear that he's feeling sick again so I guess that's a good thing.

One sad thing that happened was that Missy (our family dog of 19 years) passed away on Mother's Day. Sarah called me while I was still in Utah to let me know. She was a wonderful companion and she will be greatly missed. Sarah took it especially hard and I felt so bad that she had to bear the brunt of it while I was gone.

OK, lots more than that happened but I’m still on a semi-blog-cation. I don’t want to overwhelm myself too much. I need to keep up my strength to answer the door when gifts and food arrive.

Feeling abundantly blessed…

Meg