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Just Another Day in Our Lives

So, I'm sitting here eating my failure at a great lunch. All because the mixed greens I bought for my salads tastes like dirt and grass. Not like spinach and other yummy green leafy things that I love. So, I picked out the grilled chicken, pecans, dried cherries, and green onions that I had put in it and left the disguised dirty grass on my plate. I was so excited about making my salads and now, *pouty lip out* I either have to suck it up and eat the nasty stuff or just wait til I go to the store again.

So, we got home from a VERY intense workout at the gym today. I came home soaking wet with my legs shaking. . . and I'm still trying to not be inappropriate with it, but it's just so funny! Anyways, great workout! I'll be feeling it tomorrow for sure. The girls had to read their Bibles for a little bit before they could play. They then came out and informed me that Courtney was now Jenna, and Jenna now Courtney. They even switched clothes. This will last until about 5 o'clock when we get ready to leave for a friend's house. At one point I told them I was sick and tired of being their mom, and so from then until 5 I would be my sister. They both yelled "OH NO!!" and ran to their room.

We have a new pet. It's our only pet right now actually. He is a tiny little painted turtle. A friend decided their miniature zoo of sorts needed downsized. So they did the only logical thing they could. They got rid of the smallest animal they had. So, we now have their turtle. About 4 years ago we had a turtle named Mortimer. He died while we were on vacation. The girls decided that they wanted to give our new turtle his name. Jenna also wanted to name him Arty Drako after the boy in the Gummie Bears show from the 80's. We have it on DVD, just in case you were wondering how they know about something nearly 20 years before their time. They also wanted him to keep the name his former owners gave him, Tank. Plus he has to have our last name. His name is therefore, Mortimer Arty Drako Tank Allen. I believe he thinks he's a snapping turtle because he goes to the corner of his tank and "attacks" the bubbles with his mouth. He does it all the time. It's quite entertaining.

*I found an O.C. Supertones cd at Goodwill the other day. Hello 1999!! I love the ska/rock of my teenage years. I need to get my cds from my mom's house and pull out Burlap to Cashmere, Silage, Grits, (the original) Newsboys, Five Iron Frenzy, Benjamin Gate. So I'm sitting here bobbing to the music.*

I've gotten a lot accomplished in the past few days. The pile of "get rid of" clothes keeps growing. Mine and the girls. I hit a "purge the house" mentality and am trying to simplify. I have my motivation back and am plowing through things around the house that needed done a while ago. Accomplishment feels great. I'm also making "responsibilities charts" for the girls. I got cute little 10cent things like candy and silly clearance jewelry to pick from if they keep it up consistently all week. If they keep it up we will do something fun as a family at the end of each 4 weeks. Go to Hocking Hills, Mohican, the drive in theater in Mansfield, cheep and fun active things.

I feel like I need to clarify something regarding Caleb's situation leading to his death. The nurse that contaminated his PICC line was a home health nurse that came into my parent's home. She contaminated it there. He was THEN taken to Children's Hospital a few days later with the fever. It was not a hospital nurse. This was not as clearly communicated as it should have been.
We're all doing pretty good. Mom is finding out now what free time she has, what they can now do. Caleb was so high need and so weak that he couldn't go out much, do much. Now Mom is learning what they can do with Josh and Davey that they couldn't before. She's getting out and doing more. Filling her time. It's good for her. Jenna has had a few over reactive moments that I think are her way of releasing the emotion she doesn't know what to do with. She's a stuffer, so she hasn't really outwardly shown much. Courtney is doing better. I'm doing ok. I almost broke down at the gym today because I imagined Caleb and Chad on each side of me pushing me to keep going. I was thinking "Caleb pushed on through his disease and to his death, I can do this stupid set of reps and not quit. It's not near as hard as what he did." Which almost brought me to tears. So I picked something else to mentally push me. When I picked the girls up last night at my parent's house I found a package of mini Rolo candy that I had taken to Caleb when he was in the hospital. He loved those. It was like a punch in the gut. Things like that will keep popping up. I break down a little here and there.

And on that note, my swapped children are playing in my room, on my bed, which is not allowed.

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