Sickness

This week has been brutal. The kids and I are horribly horribly sick. We traveled for Easter, were home for three days, then went away again for the weekend, and boy have our bodies crashed. Luke hasn't gotten sick, praise God, and I pray he won't. He has been keeping us afloat this week! He even took the kids to the doctor for me because I was too sick to take them myself. Maybe I should have been going to the doctor too but I was getting by with cough syrup and Tylenol.

I truly feel that mom's should not be allowed to get sick! Seriously, it's like the hardest thing in the world! Your house, husband and children depend on you for so much! Ok, maybe the husband can get by, but it's not easy. It's not what he's used to. Poor guy, Luke has still been trying to get work done, keep up with dishes, pick up soup from the store, change diapers, feed little tummies, keep them away from mommy trying to rest upstairs in bed. In the meantime, Mommy can't rest because all she can hear is whining and crying at the bottom of the stairs, she is thinking about the mountain of laundry that needs to be done, how her little ones are sick and miserable and just want to be held by her, and how her husband isn't getting anything done for his job and falls farther behind....and just is left feeling guilty.

No one made me feel guilty this week, I just did. I hate when I'm not able to take care of my family, they need me. This awful nasal and chest congestion, and wheezy, tight cough has made me stop and just be. It's hard for me to let things go, be a little messy, dirty, chaotic and out of sync. But everything was ok. And when this happens again in our life, as it is bound to, it will be ok then too. Even though it was really really hard to not be productive, take care of the house and my family, I had to take care of myself, and now as I'm on the mend I'm actually glad that things had to wait and life was sort of on hold until mommy was better.  It forced us to slow down, and I think in the end, it was what we might have been needing the most. Rest.

Praying Hailey and I are able to get some good rest tonight and we don't have coughing wars all night long again :(

What I Wore Sunday, vol8

Linking up again with the ladies at Fine Linen and Purple. I got to go to evening Mass by myself, which is sometimes a nice treat. Ok, who am I kidding. The opportunity is always a nice treat. I sit way up front, hear all the prayers, respond to all the prayers and am able to enter in much more fully. Our chaplain gave the homily and it was beautiful. At one point, he spread open his arms like Jesus on the cross and said, "When Jesus hung there for three hours, he knew each one of our names. He knew each one of our names." And Fr. just paused and held his arms there and kept the silence for a few more moments. It gave me goosebumps and needless to say, after that, when it was time for the Consecration and later for communion, my heart was beyond moved. I prefer to go to church in the morning on Sundays, but after our busy day at the circus (so much fun), it was the perfect way to end the day.

rocking my first pair of color pop skinny jeans

this necklace was a Christmas gift and this was the first time I wore it.

isn't she too much? 

Oh and is that what it looks like? That area in my middle section that my shirt is clinging to? Why yes, yes it is :) I didn't know if this would be the week I spill the beans finally on the blog, but after looking at the pictures, I thought it was too obvious. We are expecting! I'm 13 weeks along and we are so very excited. Please keep me and baby in your prayers!

Circus and Haircuts

The campus we serve at as Focus missionaries is in a very small rural town, BUT the circus came today! It was the Piccadilly circus, and they actually held it in the gym of the rec center. We had no idea what to expect, how elaborate or how small it would be. And I could have sworn I heard there would at least be elephants and monkeys. (Luke is reminding me at this very moment that he's not sure even the big circus has monkeys). They were what Hailey was most excited to see and talked about it all morning. So we walked in, and no one took our tickets, ummm, people could have just walked in without paying! Obviously we would never do that, but still. Made you feel stupid that you DID pay for it. It was bizarre.

But in we went and I immediately panicked. All I saw was a huge inflatable slide, a face painting station, people walking around selling cotton candy, a petting zoo and a pony ride. I thought we came to the circus, not the zoo!! And all that stuff that I just listed cost extra money. You could look at the animals at the petting zoo, which we did plenty of, but you had to pay to feed them. I eventually saw towards the back of the gym that there was the main circus ring, with a big curtain hung behind it, so I felt a little bit better....there would be more. When it began, the kids didn't know what to think, there was loud music, bright lights, and horses, people riding horses and doing tricks on them! There were acrobats, a clown, a contortionist, bicyclists in a round cage....Hailey ended up loving it all, and Casey warmed up towards the end, signified by him climbing down from my lap and clapping his hands. But, half way through, that smart little daughter of mine turns to me and makes the sounds for elephant and monkey, asking me, "where are they?" I didn't know what to say, so I fumbled and made up a tiny story. I said, they couldn't come today, they were sick and had to stay home. I hope that's not terrible! I knew she was confused, which was all my fault in the first place, and so I felt I needed to give her a reasonable explanation! Poor Hailey, she will go through so many mommy "firsts" with me. But like I said, she had so much fun. She would imitate the performers by doing what they were doing with their arms and hands, saluting to the crowd (similar to the way gymnasts do). And all evening she has been playing circus by dancing around and saluting.

It was such a wonderful Sunday family outing and it was right down the road, which made it so easy and convenient. I'm so glad we went and would definitely do it again next year if they come back! We got home right around dinner time and had a hodgepodge of leftovers. After dinner, it was time for haircuts and baths. I held Casey for Luke, and he was amazing, never squirmed or fussed. And Hailey was already in the bathtub, but even that didn't make him mad. He is so easy going. Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of him, but darn is he cute. I can't wait to see how handsome he looks in his new Easter 3-piece suit with his spiffy hair and all! It was his second haircut, but Hailey...it was her first. She is 2 and half and I have never cut her hair. Her baby fine curls were still at the tips but they were beginning to look quite straggly compared to the rest of her hair and would get knots so easily. So it was time. I had to leave to go to 7pm mass, (we had to split up for Mass today because Luke was actually attending a retreat till noon today), and I thought he would wait till I got back.

Nope. This is what I came home to....

I'm a little sad I wasn't there for it, but it might have been for the best. I probably would have gotten choked up.

So thankful for a blessed day with my family!

Hailey Talking

It has been such a joy to hear Hailey talk. I feel like I have waited forever, when really, looking at the big picture, she was not really that behind. She qualified back in the fall for the Infants and Toddler Early Intervention program and a speech therapist has been coming to our house every other week for a 45min session for the last couple months. Hailey has really grown to love her teacher and has been making such amazing strides. Here are some of my current favorites:

The instant she wakes up in the morning, or from a nap, "I awake!"

The other day, it was 4pm and she was asking for dessert. I told her she had to wait til after dinner. Her response, "I not hungry." haha, not dinner time yet sweetie...

She knows we are going on a plane in a couple days so we are hearing over and over all day long, "we're gonna FLY!!! up high!!!" You should see her face, eyes so big, she's glowing and ready to burst. I love witnessing the authentic joy and wonder of little children.

Every day when Luke leaves for work, nodding her head to the side like an adult, "Daddy go work, he'll come home."

Hearing Casey cry, "Tasey, why cry? Mommy, oowie, Tasey oowies." She knows he's teething.

Wanting to share food with Casey. "Tasey. Tasey! Come here! Bite!"

And today, she melted my heart. Casey woke up first from his nap so he was downstairs with me playing. I had put the gate up on the stairs to keep him from going up. When Hailey woke up, Casey heard her coming down the stairs and went to stand at the gate on the bottom step to greet her. When she got to the gate, she was groggy but very softly and sweetly looked down at him and said, "Hi Tasey, you awake too?"

Visit from Grandma

The shopping went well today, but I purposely left everything in the car because I didn't want to show the kids everything at once. Luke is working this weekend, so my brilliant plan is to gradually show them things over the weekend. Heck I might even drag it out over the next couple of weeks. They will enjoy the new things longer and then stay out of my hair! Here's hoping.

So instead, tonight I'm uploading a few pictures of my mom's visit with us this week and I thought I'd document what a great time we had!

My mother truly is amazing. For the Feast of St. Joseph she wanted to put on a nice St. Joseph's table for us and the team. It's a traditional meal honoring St. Joseph and we did it a few times growing up. She brought a statue, fake white flowers to represent purity, she brought with her homemade lentil soup, homemade bread, homemade spaghetti sauce and meatballs....she did so much prep at home! Then she also made pasta and fish. It was a feast. Oh and how could I forget the cake.

Hailey loves baking and she waited so patiently all day to have a piece!

Playing grocery shopping and making

This guy loves to bring you a book for you to read to him. 

In the meantime, Hailey was trying to build herself a slide. I think her baby doll ended up being more successful going down.

Everyone was sad to see Grandma go today, Hailey will be talking about her visit for a while around here!

Tot Swap

No, we are not exchanging children with any neighbors, relatives or friends. It is the name of the mega consignment event of all things infant and toddler related, that I am going to tomorrow morning. I'm pretty excited for several reasons: I'm going without the kids, aka, I get to take my time, enjoy myself, I'm going on a Friday morning - in the past I've gotten there on Saturday afternoon and things are already picked over, and my mom is in town and is coming with me!

I have high hopes to find everything on my list but we shall see. Some of it includes a toddler step stool for the bathroom, a life jacket for Casey, puppets, animal magnets for the refrigerator, a toddler bed (which I'm trying really hard not to get too hopeful about, but I would so love to bring one home for Hailey tomorrow.) She has been sleeping on the floor on a folded up sleeping bag that's topped with blankets, and has a sheet tucked around it for the last several months. She kinda freaked out when I tried to transition her our of her crib into a twin bed with a toddler railing and I have since learned the little lady wants something her size. After all, even Goldilocks chose to sleep in the smallest bear's bed, not the biggest one. Anyway, it's time to get her off the floor and into a bed.

So stay tuned and see the loot I find. 

What I Wore Sunday, vol 7

Happy St. Patrick's Day! 

I love celebrating this feast day. It was always a big tradition growing up, we'd go to the parade downtown, then go watch some of our close friends who were Irish dancers perform at a restaurant or local Knights of Columbus, then in the evening go to grandma's for an Irish feast that was to die for, with her authentic Celtic music playing away in the background. Now I have the great joy to pass on these traditions in my own little family! There was sadly no local parade, or Irish dancers, but I was in the kitchen all day, and if I do say so myself, it all tasted just as good as my mom or grandma's. Which naturally made me feel a bit homesick. 

We went to the vigil mass again this weekend, because Luke and the team had an event with the student leaders this morning. Afterwards we went over to the seminary for a St. Patrick's day party, with pizza! Honestly, I didn't care, it was perfect for the kids. There were a few other little girls there that Hailey had a ball playing with. When we had to leave, she said to me, "where dey go? hug?"

Someone wanted to join me, love her.

this scarf was a gift from Luke that he got in Assisi back in October. It was the perfect accessory to this outfit making it St. Patrick and Pope Francis celebratory. 

Speaking of Luke, he worked close to 70 hours this past week and let's just say, by yesterday afternoon, I was really feeling it. It was a crazy busy week, and I tried to remind myself (as did he) that these weeks don't happen often, but I had already hit that point where seeing the bright side of things wasn't really going to happen. Hopefully, this week will be less chaotic. I'm trying not to think about the fact that he has to work this upcoming weekend too. We do have a break for Easter, which will be much needed, but we are traveling, spending the holiday with in-laws, so the kids will be out of sync....yes, I'm being a little pessimistic at the moment, it will pass.

Of you go now to greener pastures. :)