Last Week's Recap

We've had lots going on, but not enough time to write about anything. Mom and Dad have been busy at work on our house, and they are making me work, work, work. Dad has painted the entire outside of our home (again...he did that project a few years ago for us), including changing the color of our shutters and front door from forest green to black. It all looks fantastic.

Mom and I have cleaned out cupboards and closets and made a lot of progress. There's no way I would have been able to accomplish all we've done in this same amount of time by myself. Mom and Dad are amazing. Everything looks and feels so good. I love living in organization. I just wish I were better at maintaining organization. It's especially a constant challenge with kids who are constantly doing projects and coming home with treasures that they don't want to part with.

This week started out with Meg having some kind of stomach bug. She seemed fine, but she kept throwing up. Every time she threw up she managed to crawl from the tile onto the carpet just in time, making clean up a nightmare. Then she threw up all over mom. That was nice. At least she didn't have a fever, she didn't act cranky, and it didn't last long. She was adorable the next day when we were shopping in H-E-B. She waved to every person she saw. It would be so nice if we all had her attitude - expecting that everyone was going to love her and wanted to be her friend.

The subject of pets came up again the other night. This is a subject that Brita is particularly interested in. She's always asking me what kind of pet she can have - she's dying for one. We've told her that when we move we'll get a pet so she's feeling out the situation to make sure the promise is still there. I told her that I've heard hermit crabs are super fun. Leah wanted to know what hermit crabs were, so after I explained them to her Brita chimed in and said, "What's so fun about those? They sound pretty boring to me." Anyone with hermit crabs that can tell a different story? Brita decided that she wants to get a gecko so she can put it in my hair and watch me freak out. It appears that we're back to the drawing board.

On Saturday we took a break from all the projects and went to San Antonio. I've been saying I want to go there again before we move, and with mom and dad here it was the perfect opportunity. We went to the Alamo and then hopped on the Riverboat. All of our hopes for a relaxing boat tour remained just hopes. Meg was tired of being strapped in and held all day long, and once we got on the boat she wasn't going to have anymore of it. It was impossible for anyone on the boat to hear the tour guide because she was screaming so loud. She was not satisfied until she we let her roam around from person to person, crawl on the nasty floor, rummage through strangers bags and do other fun stuff like that. Despite the distraction, it was fun to be there with mom and dad and embrace one last San Antonio moment.

After the boat tour, we strolled along the Riverwalk trying to find a place to eat lunch. We had gone quite a ways when I realized we didn't have Leah with us. As we re-traced our steps I expected to find her quickly, but I started to panic when she was nowhere in sight as I rounded each corner. Brita and I ended up running down the Riverwalk shouting her name and we finally stopped at an information booth where mom reported a missing child. I felt like everything was spinning around me and every horrible, evil possibility was rushing through my head. It was the worst feeling I've EVER had. I started to move again and I found her trying to get in the doors at Chili's. She said she couldn't see us anywhere, so she was trying to find a worker so she could tell them her phone number. Later that night when we talked about it, she said she felt scared but the idea popped into her head to find someone who worked there. I felt so grateful for an opportunity to make her aware that the Spirit had spoken to her and guided her. After all of that, I asked Jared what was going through his head at the time and he wasn't even worried at all. Go figure. I just know that terrible and scary things can happen in a split second and I couldn't move quickly enough to make sure my girl was back in my arms. I'm so grateful we were able to return home as an entire family.