%!@#!*!!!!

We're working on expletives in our house. Every family has its parameters, and ours includes honoring God and people with our words. So even minor words like "gosh" aren't supposed to be uttered as well as "butt", "stupid", etc. The eldest child is trying to navigate the nuances of first grade, and we are trying to find some replacement words in his insistance. The middle child has happily settled into "Oh my cows!" Our baby has decided to get in on the action as well. During a diaper change, I let her know that I would be using medicine on her bottom because she had a diaper rash, and she said, "Dang it!" My grandmother taught me that if people used curse words (worse than these I suppose!)it was because they weren't smart enough to have a varied vocabulary. That stuck with me. In other words, she was saying they were STUPID. (hee-hee, get it?)

We traveled and had a ton of great family time over the thanksgiving break, and we even went out to the Homestead Heritage craft fair on Saturday. I ate a funnel cake for the first time in 20? years, and it didn't let me down. We enjoyed the Mission Waco toy drive at church with the Christian motor cycle group on Sunday. That is a highlight each year. Because I was having sleep issues anyway, I tackled JoAnn Fabric, ToysRUs, Walgreens and Mardel bookstore on Black Friday. That was actually very pleasant and fun. Waco people are nice. Because McDonald's didn't have their hot chocolate cranking, I had to settle for Starbucks ("at a lower temperature, please")and probably negated any savings from the sales! Totally kidding. It was worth every penny. I got back to the house a few minutes after everyone woke up with a specially-chosen donut for everyone and a coffee in hand for my husband. It was nice being the hero for a whole 5 minutes! Today, I'm in Dallas for hopefully my last drug infusion for CMV. I've had two negative test results, and I expect the same today. I've had to have fewer platelet transfusions over the last couple of weeks, and my PA is thinking that two week Dallas check-ups and one week Waco lab draws should suffice. Platelets seem to be holding steady at 37 today. Yea!

With Cade in school, timing can be tricky for Van's required medical conferences. This year it is a bit easier because we are stickin' to Texas (no lugging carseats onto airplanes!!!), and taking it easy. He'll be on the River Walk in San Antonio for 3 days learning about feet. Feet. Yep, feet. Because we only want Cade to miss one day of school, and because we don't want to have two vehicles, Van will be traveling by Greyhound. The bus, not the dog. He said they may even have wifi on the bus (the dog wasn't equipped). We'll see how that goes. We're planning on doing something with the kiddos on Friday afternoon with the kids in San Antonio (probably either the zoo or squeezing in one more trip to Sea World before our pass expires) and then handing them to grandparents so Van and I can have some River Walk fun. (I'll have Saturday morning to myself in a nice hotel--SWEET! I wonder if I should take my sewing machine?) Then, we'll all be in Utopia for a night when his conference winds down. That's a good plan. He's been tying flies in anticipation of a fishing venture--a nymph larvae--what in the world--but it doesn't look like it is the right time for that particular river and that particular trout. I'm learning way more about fishing than I thought I ever would!

Our house plans are coming along nicely. Van and I are going to look over a spec sheet with the builder while kiddos are at parent's day out on Tuesday. We're in a hard decision making stage about what is important to keep and what is not to keep costs reasonable. I've been praying for wisdom about this because I want to "have in mind the things of God, not the things of men." We hope to start building in January. Wow, January is coming up soon. We'd better get crackin'.