Nothing New Or Unusually Marvelous To Report

Monday is drawing to a close. It was a normal day. Audrey went to school, Steve went to work, and Caleb went to camp adventure. During the morning as I was out and about, I heard a little "pop" from my ankle. I assumed it was just the normal "April's-joints-are-creaking" noise and didn't think anything of it until a few moments later when my ankle started feeling tender. So I've had to slow down today and I've actually iced it twice. I don't know that the ice has helped, but what do I have to compare it to? It doesn't look discolored or swollen, it's just hard to move through the full range of motion. Hopefully it won't take long to get better.

We went back to our friend Orla's today at the top of the hill. Her 9-year-old son, Rory, was there and wanted to play trains with Caleb, who was more than happy to oblige. They had a great time. While we were there, I got a call on my cell phone from the grocery store delivery man - he was 15 minutes early! Good thing we were just a couple of houses away! The kids stayed at Orla's while I limped down to the house to get our groceries. Delivered right to our door. What a treat! I know it's not a new or even uncommon thing in some places, but it's both new and uncommon for small-town me! It was nice to have someone else schlepp my food to my doorstep. My bananas, mushrooms, onion, and garlic cloves even look nice. I might have to try this again! What a time saver! Actually, forget being a time saver - for me this is truly a SANITY saver.

In spite of the fact that we had wonderful new groceries, not to mention a plan for dinner, Steve wanted to order out. I think he was just jealous that I had the groceries delivered and wanted something delivered to him. So we had Indian. We have found some Indian cuisine we don't like: it's a naan bread with coconut powder on it. Not what we were wanting. We also ordered a Jalfreezi dish. Steve loved it, but it was waaay too hot for me.

Julie had a hard night last night. I ended up sleeping in the twin bed beside her crib with the side rails down so I could reach in (while still sleeping) and replace her binky when needed. I never could have done this at home since her crib mattress sits up higher and the crib side doesn't drop down in the same way. It sure beat kneeling beside the crib with my arm falling asleep because it was resting on the top of the crib to do the "binky stuff" move. Not that Julie needs any help stuffing her binky in her mouth. She's perfectly capable of doing it herself now, except when she's in the throes of a tantrum. I remember when Caleb would get ticked off like this when he was an infant, he would move his legs as if he were stomping. I don't remember what body movement Audrey did while having a tantrum, but Julie takes both arms and flaps them like a bird. Makes it hard for me to use "stealth binky mode" in the middle of the night when she smacks my hand while trying to take flight during a crying jag.

Terry & Gwen: Elizabeth looks fantastic in that dress! What a little darling! For everybody else, if you look at Dr. Bubba's blog (the link is below my weather thing to the left), he posted a picture of his younger daughter wearing the dress I made for Audrey's 2-year-old portrait. Gwen and I did a "baby girl clothes swap" before we left for England and I think we both ended up with the better end of the deal! ;)

That's it for now. I booked our ferry crossings from Scotland to Northern Ireland and then from the Republic of Ireland back to England. I'm holding off on hotels for now until Steve can get some info from his cronies at work. We've already gotten some good info, so I think I'll do some hotel booking tomorrow. We're going to Scotland on Friday, August 25, then to Ireland on Monday the 28th, then back home on Friday the 1st. So I did it. We're committed. Thank you to Terry, Auntie A, and Liz for the encouragement to just bite the bullet and pay the money.

Nighty night!