Sunday, January 20, 2008

It's always something new...

Life this week amongst the Arnold's is another story of busy days and busier nights. I am starting to get pretty nervous about an upcoming business trip to Dallas that I will be taking in mid February...shhhh don't tell my boss that I am nervous! I have been pulling lots of early mornings and leaving late from the office again this last week. The worst thing is I am starting to dream about work... ugh... anyone know how to clear a restless mind. Good news is I am starting to reform. My boss offered me a laptop to take home with authorization to work from home (so I could be home with the kids in the afternoons)... you will all be happy to know I said thanks, but no I don't think I want to do that; but I will keep it in mind for when I am ready to tele-commute... Someone must have been praying for me hard that day... Thanks!!!

Jim and I tackled a few household projects this last week ie. repairing the screen door that Shadow managed to rip off the house (it's way better now then when we bought the house), re-glued the counter edge that my hip and Deryck seem to snag every time we walk in the kitchen and the Pine box car managed to get a few layers of paint on it. It is really coming along I will post the final project. The kids cleaned their rooms (under a few threats of death and giving everything away) and we had to return / replace the electric room heater that suddenly stopped working for the upstairs. Jim and I have started talking about window replacement for the house but we want to wait until we have been here at least a year and know we will be sticking around for a few more... its gonna be pricey to replace every window in this house.

Sherman and Judy prepared for a surprise trip to Kansas to visit Judy's sister, Genine. Sarah started have labor pains on Wednesday causing Sherman, Judy, Doug and Sandy to rush to Bellingham...but it was pre-labor so Sherm and Judy headed out to Kansas hoping the baby would wait for their return. And we were all a little surprised by the early but safe arrival of Sarah and Andy's newest bundle of joy... Penelope May.

Penny had a different idea and decided that Friday was going to be her day of entrance into this busy family. The kids were very upset when I told them that "Sarah had her baby today" when I picked them up after I finished work Friday evening (they hoped to be in town when the birth happened again... but we never planned for that due to our busy schedules) and that when we got home we could "see" her and the new baby. They somehow thought that Sarah and Penny were at our house...oops. They wanted me to drive to Bellingham the very moment they realized Sarah and the baby were not at our house. I used my best "No, because I said so" mommy voice and told them we would maybe visit later that weekend; depending on how everyone was feeling and schedules. Jim and I took the kids up on Sunday afternoon for a short visit...the kids were glad to see everyone...even though the pictures that we managed to get don't reflect that. Ashley was her normal self of "I'll take my time to warm up to someone new"... Later on she was holding Penny's hand and really looking at this newest addition to the family; I think Doug (Andy's Dad) got a few photos of them together. After we got home later that evening she told me that Penny was a nice, quiet, and pretty baby and hoped Theo would be good big brother like Deryck was. I smiled and told her I had no doubt that Theo would be nice and good to her.

We retired to bed early, around 7:30 last night but sleep didn't come easily to me; my thoughts turned to my children... the challenges and blessings I have faced and those that are yet to come. I prayed myself to sleep with thoughts turned towards Sarah, Andy, Theo and little Penny...

1 comment:

SL said...

What a tender and thoughtful post. I wanted to tell you how much we all enjoyed your visit! I know we are all busy and don't see eachother as often as we'd like to, but know that I think about you and pray for you often.

All our love,
Sarah* (and the rest, too!)