hello everyone

we had a WONDERFUL time celebrating bret's birthday thanks to ryan and lesli. we saw tristan and isolde at the theater and went to starbucks afterwards. the rest of the night went well, too :-).
the not so good part is that bret woke up monday morning feeling really sick. he went to work anyway trying to be noble, but he was home by 3. he stayed home today and continued recooperating. i think he has been fever free since noon. hopefully he will take it easy tomorrow and continue getting better. wednesday is his LONG day so that might be easier said than done.
i had a bit of a frustrating day. i was supposed to go to ladies bible class today and then afterward we were going to clean the toddler room and get it ready for all the new toys to go in before tomorrow night. well, no one had contacted the childcare workers before today to see if they would mind meeting in the nursery or preschool room so we could get everything cleaned up while we had childcare. they were not at all happy with my request to oust them out of their room. i had gotten there late and they had been situated for about 30 minutes before i got there. the other rooms were suitable, but not as good as their regular room and they had about 10 children that would have to be shuffled and they did not think it was a good idea. so, i had driven a total of 50 miles today and was not able to get anything accomplished. i got there too late for the bible study discussion after i had dealt with all of the other so i just sat in the auditorium a bit upset and asked God to change my heart. i ended up having a great lunch with lesli. we went to her (very clean) house and ate our lunches. it was nice to have some time to chat with her. i miss not living next door to her and talking almost everyday like that.
anyway, after lunch, i went and got the kids and took the with me to joanns. i had a gift card and thought if i went and did that, my trip to dallas would not have been totally for nothing. they had a lot of things on sale and i had picked two things to buy when all of the sudden, from the back of the double stroller, bekah began to wail. i looked down and anna had bitten her on the finger. it was awful. i thought i might get turned in for harming my child in a public place, so we left immediately (without buying anything!) and i told anna when we got home she was going to get a spanking. that was good for anna because i had 30 minutes to cool down and think rationally. she did get her spanking when we go home and them she took a nap. i have no clue what possessed her to do such a thing. it was almost like she just did it to see how it would feel or what would happen. i don't know. we talked about it and how she had hurt rebekah and how she much she loved rebekah. we don't want to hurt anyone, but especially those we love. i think she actually understood what i was saying and felt really bad. tonight when she went to kiss rebekah goodnight, she kissed her finger. those are difficult parenting times. i think she got the point. bekah's finger is fine now. hopefully anna will not do anything like that again. it is not like her to do that, but then everday is a new day with my 3.

i am hoping we are all well now and that we will be finished with all the sicknesses. we have hardly been sick at all since our move to dallas, but lately, between tummy aches , fevers and ear infections, we have not been the heathiest bunch. i think we are on the mend. i hope you all have a wonderful day. take care and stay well!
summer