4 more Thankfulnesses

***Update: About 1 hour after I posted this our phone rang and it was Metti. She's back in town and came right over to visit Ella. We're all glad to have her back...and she's glad to be back.

Ok, so I’m obviously slacking off a bit with all this thankfulness stuff. Here are 4 more things I’m thankful for, but I’m just going to jot them down then get to other more exciting things.

Saturday: I was thankful for health insurance! Not that we had to use it on Sat any more than we have to use it any other day, but just knowing that we are able to get Ella what she needs is reason enough to be thankful!

Sunday: I was thankful for modern travel conveniences. Specifically, airplanes. It is so incredible that we can jump on a plane in the morning, and within a few hours we’re across the country visiting family. I love that one night I can be talking on the phone to my parents, and the next night they’re here visiting. Growing up in WY we learned all about the Oregon Trail and the Mormon Trail, so I know just what those people had to go through to travel just a few miles. I am so glad we don’t have to deal with that!

Monday: I was beyond thankful for my bed! In a nutshell, I worked hard all day rearranging and cleaning the kitchen, dining room and living room of our house. By the time I crawled into bed that night I was so thankful for a comfy, warm bed to sleep in.

Today: I am thankful that Ella has been SLEEPING THROUGH THE NIGHT!!! Yes…Oh yes, it finally happened. It actually happened about 2 weeks after I started staying home full time, but I didn’t want to jinx anything by mentioning it on the blog. Sure, she gets up now and then, but it’s not as often as it had been. And when she does wake up I just go in and tell her that I’m here, ask her what’s wrong, and then she turns over and goes back to sleep. Usually she just wants a blanket taken off or put on or something like that. Not nearly as labor intensive as it had been. And she hasn’t gotten up and stayed awake for several hours like she used to. If she wakes up 5 times tonight I’m going to blame all of you! Not really, but it will confirm that I totally jinxed it by posting the good news on the blog.

Not much else has been happening around the Murray house. Preschool continues to go well and Ella looks forward to going each day. She still cries every day when I drop her off, but the teachers tell me that once she gets inside she’s completely fine. And when I pick her up she’s happy as can be, so I figure she gets over it pretty quickly. She talks about the other kids all the time and is very interested in what letter their names start with. I’ll ask her who the weather helper was (because that’s her favorite job) and she’ll say, “It starts with a C…C C C (making the C sound)…Cole.” This is how she refers to every kid in her class. I’m wondering if this will translate into reading sometime soon. And since she loves being the weather helper, the first thing she asks in the morning is what is the weather outside. And when we get in the car after school the first thing she tells me is whether or not she was the weather helper.

We went to our friends house on Sat and the men did some yard work, while us women folk stayed in the house with the kids. I noticed that Ella was actually sort of playing with their 2 girls. She’s not as assertive as they are, but she definitely got in there with them and played with their doll house and their chalk board. We even went outside and Ella and their older daughter played baseball…which made Joe very happy. Ella is usually the 'watch and observe' type, so the fact that she was willing to get in there and play with the other girls was pretty exciting for us. I attribute this step to preschool.

We did have some major respite care issues. In a nutshell, we can’t go more than 60 days without using our respite care benefits. Since Metti has been gone for 2 months we had someone else come in for that time. Well, she showed up for 1 week (3 visits) then never came back…yeah, that was nice. And she didn’t tell us that she wasn’t coming back, she just never showed up. In fact, she didn’t come one Monday, so I called her. She called me back later that day and told me there had been a death in her family and that she wasn’t going to be in that week. Ok, fine. The next Monday she called to let me know that she was going to be 30 minutes late…no problem. Except that she never showed up…and she didn’t come on Tuesday either. The agency called and said she would be out that week for a death in the family but that she would definitely be back on Monday. So Monday rolls around and she’s no where to be found. Yeah, she didn’t come back Tuesday or Thursday either. Unless we got someone in this week we would lose all of our benefits, which would be a disaster! Fortunately Joe called the agency and they sent someone over yesterday, and she promised to come back Wednesday, so I’m crossing my fingers that she’ll be here. In the meantime, we don’t know if Metti’s back or not, so we’re trying to get in touch with her too. Needless to say, this has been a bit stressful.

So that’s a summary of life at the Murray house. Not too exciting, but pleasantly predictable.