One of “those” weeks

Apparently the Murray family (at least the Alexandria, VA Murray’s) is having one of “those” weeks. Before I explain, let me first thank everyone for the phone calls, email and prayers this week. We appreciate all of the support! Ella’s hand is on its way to healing. She is still very gentle with it and won’t crawl with it, but it looks like its getting better and should be back to normal soon. And Ella has been sleeping better. She’s only been waking up once or twice a night, which is a big improvement to the 4, 5 or more times she was getting up. We've changed things up and are trying some new stuff on her boo boos and in her bath water, so hopefully that will help with the itching.

So now to the completion of the Murray week. Yesterday afternoon I went to a convention for work. I was only there a few hours, but I managed to find some fun freebies that I thought Ella would like, as well as some nice stress balls to add to my collection at work. Not that I’m a high stress person, but when I was on the hill we always had lobbyists bring them to us, so it just kind of escalated into this collection. After the convention I needed to run to Babies R Us to pick up a couple of things. I was inside for 15 minutes when they paged “the owner of a green Toyota Corolla.” I thought someone had probably accidentally hit my car when parking or leaving. Oh no, someone had broken into my car! My first thought was, surely it’s another car, one nicer than mine. Why would someone break into my car? Allow me to clarify…I drive a 1999 green Toyota Corolla. The front bumper is cracked, it has a huge dent in the side and the paint is scratched all over. Needless to say, mine is not a car that someone would typically look in for “loot.” Apparently, however, they looked in the floorboard of my passenger seat and saw the bags that I got at the convention that afternoon and decided that they wanted them. The bad news is that once they broke my window and grabbed the bags, they also saw my GPS which was hidden under the bags, and they took that too. So minus a bunch of free junk, they got away with a really nice GPS.

Luckily we have insurance and by 10 am this morning my car window was fixed. We should be able to get a new GPS soon, so there wasn’t any permanent damage. It was just more of an inconvenience. Joe, being the wonderful and protective husband that he is, came right to the store to make sure I was ok and that everything was taken care of. He made friends with the cops (are you surprised) and he even let me drive the minivan home and he drove home in my car in the rain (it rained all night). When we got home he stood out in the rain and covered my window with a gabage bag. What a good husband.

The trip to the store did bring about a couple of good purchases for Ella. She got a new Elmo sippy cup that she LOVES!!! When I showed it to her she took it and cuddled it, just like she does her Elmo doll. She also got a new Elmo shirt.

To add a couple of funny Ella stories to the post, the other morning Joe and I were in a nice sleep, and all of a sudden we heard a sweet little voice from down the hall yell “Daddy!” The good news is I knew that she didn’t want me, so I got to stay in bed and sleep while Joe got up to play with Dancerella. The other funny Ella story is, we have started using a new cream on Ella. It’s really thick and smooth. We used it on her hands for a while, and just recently started rubbing it on her tummy. What is hysterical is that when I rub it on her, she moans and closes her eyes, like it just feels so good she can hardly stand it! Even when I rub it under her chin she gets a dreamy eyed look and lifts up her head so I can rub more. I don’t know what it is about this new cream, but she loves the way it feels. Of course Joe and I start laughing every time she does it because it’s so funny.