Away from the Manger...

When I went to turn on the tree lights this morning I noticed something amiss.

I guess Mary didn't feel like another long ride on a donkey... it does seem a bit crowded though.

PS This is what my mom is referring to in the comments. Just in case you haven't been playing along since 2006.

Wedding

My brother is getting married today. I've never been more excited for a wedding besides my own. Jodi is amazing. I already love her. She brings out the best in TJ, or Thomas as everyone has been calling him for the past two days. They are so cute together. TJ is a great guy and he loves big. I've always known he deserves someone like Jodi and I'm so glad they found each other. I'd been praying for him to meet just the right girl and I believe whole-heartedly that this is the answer to that prayer. It's a very exciting day!
Lily is one of the flower girls and Ryan is the ring bearer. They are going to look so cute! I'll also be standing up for them as a bridesmaid. I can already tell Jay is going to play a pivotal role in the background based on all he did during the rehearsal yesterday. Lily might need some guidance during the ceremony and he was right there when she needed him yesterday. Today she won't be able to do flips up my legs or run up to Uncle TJ and get picked up, so Jay is key to the whole process.

Lily's Way

Today was a rough day. Especially since Lily was up so late last night with ear pain. We went to the doctor this morning. Lily had some wax blocking the doctor's view. It was hard to get it out so they tried to flush it out with water. Lily hated that part. She sucked it up for a while, but after the third or fourth time she started crying. She cried so hard. It didn't work, but it did soften it enough to pull it out with that long earwax tool they have. They removed a huge chunk of wax the doctor said could have been causing the pain and preventing her from hearing anything in that ear. (Talk about making me feel like a bad mom! I feel so bad when they have chunks of wax, but the doctor always tells us not to put anything in their ears. What do you do?) It turns out she does have a 'pretty bad' ear infection. There was a bunch of hullabaloo about getting her prescription covered by insurance. So even though we had gone to kill some time around town we ended up at home. When everything was ready and I could go pick up the prescription I told Lily it was time to go. "I'll just wait here," she said. I told her we needed to go right then so we could be home to pick up Ryan. To this she said, "I can't go. It's in my story, 'Lily waits here.'" If you watch Super Why you know why I was cracking up at this point. Luckily I have watched Super Why and I said, "Let's change the words 'waits here' to 'goes with Mommy.'" She got up with a wry smile on her face and we went. Phew! I really didn't need to take a fussing girl to the pharmacy. She has a way of brightening even my bleakest days.

Branching Out

I'm starting a new blog. I'll still be posting on this one. The new one is very specialized and just for me and my creative endeavours. I'm hoping to keep myself on track with some new goals in my life and I think the new blog will help.

Master of the Indirect Insult

Our Explorer is at the mechanic right now having some "major electrical problems" looked at and hopefully fixed. So we all packed into the MUCH smaller Corolla this morning for church. It would have been fine except Uncle Ben stayed over last night and there is not much room between the car seat and the booster. Uncle Ben squeezed into the tiny spot and made an off hand comment about being fat. When we pulled up to the church Ryan said, "I can't get out because Uncle Ben is...what he said he is....you know before we started the car." I guess he figured if he didn't say the word fat he wasn't being mean. He really wasn't trying to be mean. He just couldn't undo his seat belt because Uncle Ben was blocking it. If you know Uncle Ben you know he is truly not fat, but the space was very small, so he filled it up. We all had a good laugh about it. Truth be told I'm still laughing a little bit right now.