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*** Be warned, this blog note is probably a total downer. ***

I have a friend who's husband was just diagnosed with Stage IV colon cancer. He's young - maybe mid-30s. They have 2 young children, one younger than Anna. It just makes me so incredibly sad. I don't doubt that God has a plan in each of our lives, and I don't pretend to understand what it is all the time....in mine or anyone else's. But I have faith that He has our ultimate good in mind. I just feel so sad.

I keep thinking about all of the effort that my brother-in-law John, who is in Iraq on tour #2, went through to prepare to leave mementos of himself for their daughter to see and have while he was gone for a year. She was only a few days old when he left. And that is seemed so unbearable to think of them being apart for a WHOLE year, and how hard it must have been to plan his departure. And then I think of my friend and think, 'How do you do that for your child's whole lifetime?'

I've been thinking of them constantly, and praying that God will somehow give them peace and strength. They're going to need it.

So, tonight - even more than most nights, I am feeling undeservedly blessed with my health, my husband, our daughter, my family who loves and supports us, and the wonderful friends that we have.

Curtis had to go away on a business trip to NY. Last night, he was explaining to Anna that he'd be gone for just a little bit, and then he'd come home again because he'd miss us so much. Anna's response to this conversation wen something like this....

Curtis: I'll come back REALLY soon, because I'll miss you both so much.

Anna: (Looking worried)Is Mommy going to go with you on your work trip too?!

Curtis: No, Mommy is going to stay right here with you, Sweetheart!

Anna: (Looking relieved) Oh, good. I'm glad Mommy is going to stay here with me.
(Awwww....how sweet is she!?!?!)

Anna: Because if Mommy went with you on your work trip, no one would be here to turn on a show for me.
(So much for sweet!)

Bek: Is that all Mommy is good for? Turning on a show?

Anna: (Cradling my face in her hands) YES Mommy! That's all!

Curtis advised me not to ask questions that I don't want to know the answer too! Wise words!

I met my Prince Charming over ten years ago. And, lucky me, I married him. He will always be the love of my life, and the most wonderful man in the world to me. Right up there with my Daddy, which is pretty high praise. Well, now Anna has met *her* first Prince Charming. It's *HER* Daddy. They are so cute. When he comes home from work, she dresses up like a princess and says,

"Daddy, how about I be a Princess and you be Prince Charming. The Princess is supposed to dance with Prince Charming at the Royal Ball. Do you want to dance with me at the Royal Ball?!!"

How could that NOT melt you? Today, I told Anna that I loved her. She said,

"You know who else loves me? Daddy does. He loves me lots and lots. Have you noticed that?"

I told her, "Yes. He loves us BOTH lots and lots...I notice every day."

It came to visit. And stayed. And would not go. And it did not give prior notice that it would be coming. And when it finally packed up and went home...it took our data with it.

Well....some of it. Actually, for once, I had us backed up fairly recently. But, to be honest, I'm pretty handy with computers - I think. I can figure most stuff out. This, stumped me. It came out of no where. I could not get past it ANY way I tried. I had a friend who does IT for a living help - no luck. I spent HOURS on the phone to Dell tech support (who ROCK, BTW. This computer is over 2 years out of warrantly, and they spent all that time, plus Fedex Overnighted me a new boot disk at NO charge. Awesome.) I replaced the hard drive. I tried to repair the OS. Nada.

So, we had to format and reinstall.

The good news - my computer is brand spanking new and sparkly clean and fast.
The bad news - I have to reinstall around 100 programs (literally).
The good news - I was backed up.
The bad news - I have to unpack about 80GB of data.
The good news - I can get e-mail again.
The bad news - First I have to sort through the 894 that I missed being down for 24 hours.
The good news - I didn't need to replace my hard drive afterall (even though I installed and uninstalled it about a dozen times while trying the new one.
The bad news - Now Best Buy probably won't take back the one we bought, because it has been installed.

Oh well....I guess it could have been worse.

So we're all doing stuff around the house today, and Curtis had been prompting Anna to start cleaning up some of her own toys. Out of the blue, we hear from the other room...

"Daddy! Daddy, could you come here and do me a really huge favor. Like pick up my toys or make my bed or put away my clothes. Yes. Any of those things would be good. [pause while Mommy falls off of her chair laughing] Mommy?! Why are you laughing? [Daddy joins mommy doubled over in laughter] Daddy, why are you both laughing. HEY! Why are you guys both laughing!??"

She is so much fun. We could not be any more blessed.

My toy clean-up threat is no longer top secret. OK, not that it was. And not that it was working or anything. It was, I confess, one of those end of your rope, as soon as it's out of your mouth you think (would I really do that?!?) things that I said to Anna that came back to haunt me today.

Curtis left his shoes sitting outside on the patio table after he mowed the lawn because they were all dirty. Anna peered out the window behind him while we were eating dinner and said, in her most sincere and patronizing voice,

Daddy, you should have put your shoes away. If you don't put your things away, Mommy will throw them in the garbage can.

So, our efforts to have a polite, well mannered child just may be backfiring. LOL!! It's not like we're SO rigid about it, but we've just always reminded her to say thank you, please, be polite, etc. Now she's starting to correct US!

In the past several weeks we've (repeatedly) heard:

You didn't ask nicely. You need to say please.

Thank you. THANK you. I said THANK YOU! You're supposed to say 'You're welcome'.

It's not nice to talk with food in your mouth.

She's such a crack up, this one.

We have a PO box for our business mail - but I rarely use it. To that end, we only check it a few times a year. And usually, that is when we're all out together running errands, and Curtis or I just hop out and run in (without Anna). So, she's been there MAYBE 2-3 times over the past 3 years.

We went to the post office to pick up a package, and I said "Let's go check the mail in our box too." Anna said "OK" and ran off down the hallway, choose the right hall and ran directly up to our box (amidst the thousands of other identical looking little silver boxes) and said, "Here it is. I need the key, Mommy!"

Holy ever lovin' crap. How the heck did she do that?! My jaw probably hit the floor. She's amazing. Scary. But amazing. Definitely Daddy's girl. :D

Yesterday, one of my closest friends had to work so we got to hang out with her two kids (Anna's bestestest friends) for most of the day. It actually went really well. I wasn't worried, because I know them well, and they all have a blast together. But I have to admit - 3 kids is *WAY* different than one. I think it was the general level of chatter that I noticed most. I totally different decibel level than Anna on her own! hahaha

But, I am quite pleased with myself, because not only did we play, and do a craft project and eat good healthy meals. I also.... Are you ready for this? Prepare to be amazed. I also.... got all THREE kids down for naps at the same time. Feel free to bow or throw money if you're impressed. I was. I know it would never happen again - but I'll take what I can get.

Here are some pics from our fun day. I think everyone had a blast!

....now we have Anna. Seriously, there is no better medicine than laughter, and with Anna around there is no shortage. Some recent funnies...

Anna was in the other room singing, so I called out to her, "You have a beautiful voice, Anna!" She replied...

"Umm...I know. Thank you. Now can you please be quiet. But I really do still love you."

Curtis & I were sitting in the kitchen discussing house plans, and Anna called from the living room...

"Are you guys talking to yourselves again?!"

I should blog more - I keep forgetting all the good ones.