Christmas, Sickness and Grace's Upcoming "Procedure"

Grace has to have some dental work done before she can have her cleft palate repaired. She is having some sort of Frankenstein appliance placed on her gums, teeth pulled and tubes inserted in her ears on Jan. 7 (with anesthesia at Scottish Rite with a dentist and an orthodontist presiding). I'm not looking forward to this at all. I felt like such a moron crying with her during her shots in September, this pain will last longer and be just as mysterious to her, I am anticipating.

Christmas was great, except for Grace having strep throat. She was in good spirits, but it was a mystery what was ailing her until she saw her new pediatrician, Dr. George, on Saturday. Antibiotic until the day of her "procedure" So far, so good with Frannie (not sick).

We are so excited to have Kevin's brother Mike and his family visit us on Jan. 8! We have a few surprise activities planned and I'm sure card-playing and beer-drinking will be part of it. We love Mike, Gwen, Connor and Maria! Hope one of you can fit in Frannie's spare toddler bed -- think "Elf." Ha ha

Don't be Offended, It's Just Her Way of Saying Yummy

Make a Smilebox slideshow

This Pretty Much Sums Up Our Day

and then there's some of this...

Who Has Time to Blog?

Although I love to keep a "journal" for the girls (this blog), it is getting harder and harder for me to keep up. Some bloggers, I think, tend to blog to see how many comments they can get, like it's a popularity contest. Others just like to keep in touch and keep that running journal for their kids or lives. Since I have let my house go to pot and I'm officially not exercising any more, why would I take the time to blog over those two? I'm just tired this morning, sorry.

We had a GREAT time in Florida for Thanksgiving and got to see all our loved ones, except for my nephew Jim who is somewhere exotic, I can't even keep up with him. Belize? Costa Rica? Living the life I tried to live in my twenties, but couldn't afford.

The story with the jewelry: my sister Peg has helped me so much, learning colors and techniques and although I love making jewelry, I never knew if I could actually make money at it somehow. So my friend Julie at school got me fired up to make jewelry for PROFIT and long story short, I may actually make a few dollars doing something I love. Wish I could go back to Guangzhou and spend about $500 on pearls and crystals again.