Variety is the Spice of Life!

The delay in blog postings here has been primarily due to my (Cathy) dental issues. For anyone who has known me long at all knows that I have experienced almost every possible dental procedure possible except dentures and I'm getting closer and closer to that :) (hopefully not!) Long story short, I went through 3 oral surgeries in a 2 week period with the hopes of having a dental implant put in and then in 6 months get a crown and have a tooth to chew on in my back upper gums! Not so much. The implant got infected then procedure #2 was to remove the implant. Procedure #3 was to repair the lining of my sinus cavity that tore after the implant was removed and allowed air to flow from my sinus cavity to my oral cavity (very weird feeling!) No, my periodonist was not using Paper Clips! So have no idea how many stitches have been in/out of my mouth but none are there now and I think infection is over and no more antibiotics. The hope is to revisit this implant idea in 3 months. We'll see! ' In the meantime, life with a husband and toddler move on! So thankful for them to provide support and comic relief! In the middle of all that Jeff and I celebrated birthdays and now are 39 and 37 respectively. I asked my soon to be 41 year old friend if THIS was middle age and she broke it to me gently that it was. WOW! I'm here! Feels great and I'm good with it! Thanks mom and Jim for the great barbeque dinner to celebrate and thanks to all for the calls and cards and emails. Fun to be remembered! We also made a trip to Baton Rouge to visit Granddad, Grandmommy and Uncle Bobby. Note the photos below for highlights of that trip. Having a toddler is a great excuse to get out and do things you would otherwise not do. You'll see we enjoyed a trip to the zoo, visited Uncle Bobby and his dog, McGyver and toured the swampland. It's just fun to watch Claire explore and learn everyday!

Below are some "random" photos of days in the life of Claire. She just turned 18 months and weighs 22# and is 31" tall. Doing great! Learning to eat with a kid fork and drink from a straw and learning new words all the time. Lately her words are bear, key, truck, car, play, outside, bubbles, paint, cah (for color)...I love being able to communicate more and more! She loves blocks, music, coloring and stickers, reading and picking out objects from a page...She continues to do well in Toddler 1 at Cathedral day care and enjoys Kindermusik class. We marvel at God's goodness in the good times and challenges. We pray for enough challenges to keep us humble and seeking the Lord and enough good times to keep us encouraged to keep walking! Our prayer for you too!