this 'n that (pictures and rambling)

This'll be somewhat of a long post.

Lilly outside.
During the craft night this week, we met Paula. Paula comes with her company once a month to do crafts with the children here. This time, they made calendars. It was really fun to see the fun creativity each child has. Paula's calendar turned out awesome too.

At school, the children learned about the world's tallest building that opened this week.

Maggie painted the Space Needle (left) and the tallest building (right).

Maggie's been having fun painting.

Guess who came to visit the House this week! Each child who was here received a Mickey Mouse. I got a really cute picture of the baby with Mickey, and will post it when the adoption is final...the other children were still at school.

At the really nice store next door, we were looking for a few things for Lilly's birthday (today).

It was really fun to see the nice decorating supplies. We just don't have this kind of variety back home. I follow the CakeWrecks blog (listed on the right side of my blog), and have a great appreciation for things that make beautiful cakes.

Lilly liked the Hannukah stars (to the right of the tall candles in the picture) for her cake. But, I'm too cheap and bought m & ms for her cake decor instead. We have some fun candles too.

I'll post those pics tomorrow or later, after we have cake and ice cream tonight.

I am tired all the time here.

The marble tower that the children keep having fun with.

Speaking of toys, the baby is crawling more! Before being hospitalized in December, the baby was almost walking. Because the baby was in a crib for most of December, and receiving so much treatment, the almost-walking and crawling stopped. So, the therapists and I are working to restore the progress that had been made. And, there has been more progress!

At the market next door, we saw a newer phenom~~this time there was a his/hers theme going. There were two similar-style (like, NEW) and same silver color Acura's parked out front. One had 4 doors and the other 2, so which would be his and which would be hers?! Plus, there were two Audi's parked next to each other, and then there were two Lexus' (Lexi?) parked next to each other.

I have seen a lot of children in pain, and at various stages of illness, treatment, or injury. Most have good outlooks, which I try to have also. The thing I try to keep remembering is that the leukemia diagnosis we are dealing with is not a death sentence. It has a 90+% cure rate, but has so many months of treatment. When I was told that we would need 8 months of initial treatment, after being told that it would "only" be 6 months, it broke everything. I flipped out and was so frustrated.

I'm doing better with it now, but part of my happy, caring personality is gone (along with quality sleep). When other parents talk about their child's diagnosis and how they are starting the next phase of treatment (when they were diagnosed the same day as us) and we are nowhere near that next phase, I don't want to hear it! Isn't that awful? I don't know what else to attribute it to, but I don't like being jealous of other parents who will only be here for 6 months or less. I guess this situation will be a learning experience in more ways than one.

Happiness is being able to wait a day between doing laundry because there haven't been any diaper blowouts.

Happiness is also getting a full night's, uninterrupted sleep.

Back when I was young (decades ago), I used to watch Mr. Rogers all the time. Even when the other kids on the bus made fun of Mr. Rogers, I was still watching. Part of the show that stuck with me was the excitement at getting the mail each day. So, every day, I'm missing our mailbox at home. It has snow on it right now, I think. We've been mailing postcards and will try to continue mailing fun stuff to friends. It's a great distraction for the children.