Glad and Sad

Today has been a sad and glad day. Yesterday I thought it looked like I might actually get rid of this head cold some time this century, so I was feeling pretty good. But this morning I woke up and felt pretty crappy. All day I've been on the edge of feeling really bad. My throat got worse and worse throughout the day and by the time we went to church tonight (more on that later), it was really bad. Now it's REALLY bad...which is how this head cold I've had all week started last Sunday. UGH!!! I hope I don't have to do the whole thing over again. So that part was sad.

Glad: Hope and I went to the new Hudson 12 Theater today and saw the Noon showing of "Kung Fu Panda." It was cute, but the best part for me was watching my girl. She looked so grown up sitting in the chair next to me. She was so good. This was about her 4th movie (we've taken her to see "Ice Age 2", "The Bee Movie," "Horton Hears a Who" and now this one). She sat on the edge of her seat (she can't sit all the way back or the seat would fold her up), watching the movie, eating popcorn with me. In my mind I could see Hope as a teenager, going to a movie with her friends instead of her Mommy. That made me sad and glad.

After the movie we came home to pick Mark up so the three of us could go to the farm together. We saw the cutest calf!!! We think it was born this morning. It's a red and white holstein. SOOOOOOOOO cute!!! Almost as cute as Reddy (the jersey), but not quite. We named her Carmadillo (a combination of caramel and armadillo...hehehe). I told Mark and Hope that I wanted to go next door to the maternity ward to see the Mamma who gave birth to such a beautiful baby. Well, here's the sad part. I saw the soon to be momma cows and then one in particular caught my eye. I said to Mark, "Hey...look at that one...she's laying down and she's outside the barn." I looked closer and she WAS laying down and she WAS outside the barn...because she was dead. It made me want to cry. I went closer (I know this is weird) to see what tag number she had on her ear. 775. I know that means nothing to anyone, but since we go to the farm almost every day I feel like I've gotten to "know" the calves and the soon to be Mommies. This poor cow must have died while giving birth. I'll have to get the story next time I'm at the farm. So Hope asked some questions today about the cow. That's a tough one. We told her the cow was very sick and now she's in heaven with Jesus. OK. I have a degree in Theology. I know there's absolutely nothing theological about a cow being in heaven with Jesus. As a matter of fact, before I became a Mommy I thought people were nuts when they'd talk about their beloved pets being in heaven. Now I understand. I also know that God has a big enough heart that even if animals don't actually go to heaven, He's OK with us telling our kids that in order to bring them some comfort. That's my two cents worth on that. So the farm was sad and glad today.

I'm taking tomorrow off from work/church, so we went to church at Bethel Highlands in Hudson tonight. It was a contemporary service and was really, really nice. It was nice to be able to worship and not work (although having a toddler in church with you is work...but Hope was really good tonight).

So that brings be to the end of my day. I'm sipping on some hot tea with lemon and honey, hoping that'll help my throat and that tomorrow I'll wake up and feel great. I'm going to read a few more chapters in my latest James Patterson read (3rd Degree) and then I'll hit the hay.

Thanks for reading and for not thinking I'm TOOOOOOO weird about the whole cow thing. Or at least thanks for not saying anything. LOL If I remember, I'll take the camera to the farm with me tomorrow so I can get a picture of Carmadillo. She is seriously so cute!!!

Cowgirl Hope

I had a great trip to Dallas. The only problem is that I didn't want to come home. Well, I was super anxious to see Hope because I missed her so much, but I always feel empty when I have to leave Dallas. I'm not sure why. It's where my heart is for sure. I can't explain it, but I just love Texas and feel like that's where I'm supposed to be. It was wonderful to have no schedule, no responsibilities (except to feed Pam's cats and water her plants...and she has ALOT of plants), and to feel the warmth of the sun every day. It was sunny, humid and 100 degrees pretty much every day I was there. I was in complete heaven!! I love it when it's that hot. I know---I'm crazy. It helps to have a pool to sit next to and take a dip in. The best part of the trip was seeing my friends Jeff and Marsha. Marsha and I went and got pedicures the last day I was in town. That was her first one. I think she'll be going back for more:) I also loved the fact that I could get my Cherry Limeades from Sonic. Since we don't have Sonic restaurants here I go through withdrawal sometimes. BUT....rumor has it that Woodbury is getting a Sonic. YUMMY!!!

I got this cute little cowgirl outfit for Hope while I was in Texas. She wore it today...along with the pink cowgirl boots that Grammy got her about a year ago. Isn't she cute??? I'm not sure what's up with that silly smile though.

An update on my Mom's surgery: She came through it with flying colors. The doctors said there were no surprises, so that's a good thing. The pain has been much less than she thought it was going to be, so that's good, too. I think she went for her post op check up either yesterday or today, so I'll have to call and find out how it went and when she starts pt. That'll probably bring some pain. Thanks for your prayers for her.

I guess that's it from the Brue home on this Tuesday night. I just found out that it looks like we'll be going to Stillwater on Sunday for Drum Corp performances. I can't wait. I LOVE DCI!!! It'll be Hope's first introduction to Drum Corp. She's going to go crazy!!! Go Madison Scouts! Oh...also...Saturday is the annual "touch a truck" event in River Falls. It's at Meyer Middle School. I think we'll take Hope because the Oscar Myer Weinermobile is going to be there. How cool will that be to see??? Let's hope we have a weekend with great weather.

A couple of quick notes

Yesterday was a GREAT day at the farm!!! Yes, like I've said before, these trips to the University Lab farm have gotten to be almost a daily thing. I think I like the trips almost as much as Hope does. But yesterday was so much fun!!! We noticed a new calf in the calf barn. She didn't even have her ears tagged yet. My guess was that she was about a day old. So we spent some time in the calf barn visiting with all the calves. Then we headed to the "maternity ward" to check in on the pregnant cows. There was a brand spanking new calf laying on the hay!!! We figured it was probably about 8-10 hours old (what do we know about calves??). We were so excited!!! Then we headed to another barn and on our way back to the car we were getting ready to take one more trip through the calf barn and we saw two farmers (two college girls who are working at the farm for the summer) carrying the new calf into the calf barn. YEAH!!! We found out the calf was actually only TWO HOURS OLD! It was still wet!! Hope not only got to pet the new baby, but she got to help the farmer (Kat) give the baby her first bottle. Such a neat experience. There are 6 more cows in the "maternity ward", so we'll be having lots of new calves in the next week or so.

I'm headed to Stevens Point in about and hour. My Mom, even as I post this, is having rotator cuff surgery. The surgery was scheduled to start at 7am and was supposed to last about 4 hours. Sheesh!! That's almost as long as my gastric bypass surgery was. So please say a prayer for my Mom. The recovery for this surgery is supposed to be pretty gruelling, but once that's done it'll be so much better for her. I'll keep you posted on that.

Wednesday I head to Dallas for 5 days of R&R!!! I'll be staying at my friend Pam's house and she won't even be home. I'm bummed that I won't get to spend any time with her, but it'll be so peaceful. They have an AWESOME in ground swimming pool with a hot tub attached. Pam also got a baby grand piano for her 50th b-day a couple of years ago. As long as her blender is working so I can make some margaritas (lol) I'll be in heaven. I'll miss Hope so much though. I suppose I'll miss Mark, too (hehehe). This will be a great break for me though. I'm feeling a little guilty about leaving Mark to fend for himself and Hope, but I figure that I did it for almost 8 months while he was in Stoughton and Appleton, so I think I can use this trip. Plus, maybe it'll help him see how much I really do at home. That's always a good thing. I know when he was gone I realized how much he does, too.

That's all I've got for now. Thanks for reading and thanks for keeping my Mom in your prayers!

A trip around the world??

My friend Lloyd is a musician. He belongs to an awesome Christian band called Echelon and he also does solo stuff. Hope's favorite CD right now is Echelon's latest CD. One of the songs on that CD has a chorus that goes like this: "You, giver of life, maker of all things made that have been made. Oh I could go 'round the world and find nothing better to do than worshiping you, Lord." It's a great song with great music and great words. Well, Hope knows the words and we sing it every day. Tonight as she was finishing supper I was singing the song to her. A few minutes later, here was the conversation:
Hope: Mommy?
Mommy: Yes, Hope?
Hope: Can I go around the world with you some day?
Mommy (melting inside): Yes, Hope. That would be really nice. Where would you like to go first?
Hope: First to the farm to see Baby Reddy. Then to the playground. Then around the world.

I just smiled and gave her the biggest hug. I just thought that was so precious!!

What a great weekend

Both Mark and I actually had four days off this weekend, so it's been a really nice weekend. The weather mostly cooperated (say a prayer for those whose lives have been changed by the tornado in Hugo...a suburb of St. Paul, MN) and we were able to be outside a lot. Due to the fact that I'm going to try to be in bed by 10pm (WHAT???), I'll keep it brief. We got to go geocaching THREE TIMES this weekend. We found a total of 6 caches. Fun!! The first day, Mark had a woodtick on his ear. Today I came home with THREE of them. I still have the creepy crawlies, so I think I need to take a shower before I go to bed. We also went to a couple of graduation parties, the farm a couple of times, Como Zoo (where Hope went on a carousel for the very first time. She was a bit freaked out by it, but she made it through and I think it'll be easier next time), and to our friend's Scott and Jan's house tonight for an impromptu picnic.

I didn't get anything done in the garden or in the house, but it was worth it. We spent lots of time together and it was great. I just wish it could always be like this...but work calls tomorrow.

With that, I'm off to get the creepy crawlies off and hit the hay. Please remember all those who have given their lives for our country as well as those men and women currently serving in our military. Today we're saying a special prayer for my nephew Andrew who most of you know is serving the US Air Force in Germany.

Heartbreaking news

I just read something heartbreaking on line. Christian singer Steven Curtis Chapman (one of my all-time favorites) and his wife experienced something horrible on Wed. night. Their 5 year old daughter was killed in a car accident in their driveway. Maria was their youngest daughter and they had adopted her from China. Here's a link to the article. Please keep this family in your prayers. http://chapmanchannel.typepad.com/inmemoryofmaria/

House update

Well, the showing went well yesterday morning. The couple just did a quick look through, but I sensed it was fairly positive. The wife LOVED it (except she walked into the kitchen and said, "This is it?" I have the same reaction and I've lived there for 6 years). She was really impressed with all the storage areas (there are lots) and she was REALLY impressed with the fact that the house has two bedrooms and two FULL bathrooms on the main level. I wasn't sure if the stairs up to the loft and down to the basement (the husband has a bad left knee) or the small kitchen would be a deal breaker or not. Apparently they weren't because the husband called us around 6:00 last night to talk price. He did mention that the stairs were a bit of an issue, but that they were still interested. I handed the phone to Mark so they could talk about the price. Mark told him what we were going to list the house for and he didn't laugh or anything like that. He said they'd talk about it and get back to us. Now the story takes another interesting turn. We are set up with Keller Williams Realty for email housing alerts. We set up the criteria we're looking for in house (number of bedrooms, price, square footage, etc) and when something matches our criteria, then send us an email. Well, there's a house in River Falls that I walked through that I absolutely LOVE!! It's currently owned by a couple with two young girls. I know them because they're members of the church I worked at in River Falls and were involved with the children's ministry there. The house is PERFECT for us. Today we got an updated listing from KW and that house just dropped in price by $10,000. It's on the outer end of our price range, but if we can talk them down just a little more and if we can get the price we're hoping to get for our house, it would be so great. BUT...Mark and I did talk about how we love the location of our current home and how hard it is going to be to move from there. We talked about doing a really good add-on job which would mean adding two new rooms (an office for Mark and a guest bedroom) and the kitchen of my dreams. That would probably mean adding a 1/2 bath or 3/4 bath, too. The more I think about it, the more I think the cost would be way too high for us to do that. We'll see. We'll pray. There's also a house in Baldwin (right across the street from our friends Ron, Beth and Hope...hi guys!!) that I've been keeping my eye on. It also went down in price by $8,500. The new price on that one is $161,400. TOTALLY do-able for us for sure. So we'll see what ends up happening. Oh...the house in River Falls is just a block away from the Elementary school where Hope would go. It's also two doors down from a very good friend of mine.

More exciting news for us: we officially have a potty trained 2 year old. WooHoo!!! I know there will be accidents from time to time, but she really has this potty thing down-pat. She's even wearing big-girl panties now. This was a long road. Everyone kept telling me that one day it would just click for her. I started doubting that. They were right though. YEAH!!!

That's it for now. Time to get ready for my elementary aged kids that are coming in just 45 miutes. It's the last Kids Club of the school year. I love them, but I'm ready for summer to be here.

More to come on the housing situation....