Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Health Update: As I was filling out the new patient paperwork for my doctor's appointment on Monday afternoon, I got a call from the doctor's office, telling me that my doctor was called into jury duty on Tuesday (the day of my appointment!)  We had to reschedule for this coming Monday.  The receptionist was going to try to squeeze me in with the Nurse Practitioner because she saw in my chart that I was coming in for pain, but after asking a bit about my history, she said, "No, you definitely need to see the doctor herself."  I thought it was nice and encouraging that she was trying to meet my needs even in a less than ideal situation.

I stopped using my estrogen medication (estrogen is what makes endometriosis grow) almost two weeks ago, and I haven't been having hot flashes or feeling too emotionally or mentally crazy.  Yesterday I had some mood swings and started crying for no real reason (stuff felt real at the time, but it was magnified waaay out of proportion).  Hopefully that's not a portent of things to come!  Greg is a great stabilizer for me. Since I read that women's cortisol levels and MOOD are affected by male sweat (click here for the scholarly article and here for the article in layman's terms), I laughingly decided that when I was feeling down, I would snuggle up and stick my nose in Greg's armpit.  The funny thing is that it works!  Maybe it's the sweat, maybe it's just that I'm getting some cuddles, maybe a mixture of both, but it really helps a lot.  

Thanks for sharing your sweat, honey!

Church Update:  We finished the five-week life groups training on Sunday, and the leaders asked if we would be willing to attend the next training with the plan of leading the group of people that came out of that training.  Sounds great to us!  We look forward to getting to know more people.  

The church runs a free medical clinic for the community every month, and I thought it might be helpful to have a developmental and communication specialist (me!) there in case families have concerns about their kid's development.  I could either do a screening right then and there (I have the screening tool already) or I could be there to refer parents to the appropriate free services.  So I called about that this week, and the woman who has been running it is the wife of one of the men who led the life groups training over the last five weeks.  She said, "I'm glad to get the chance to talk to you - my husband has been saying, 'I love this couple!' and he's excited you're part of our church." Then she said she had been talking to herself in the hall about "must call Christie back" when Jessica (the children's team person) walked by, and Jessica heard and started ranting and raving about how excited she is about me being there and being a great fit.  Once again, it's pretty fun to be wanted and appreciated!  I meet with Jessica this coming Wednesday for further talks about team development.  She and her kids have been really sick, so we haven't been able to really get things rolling yet, but that's perfectly fine, since I'm a little draggy anyway, and since we're getting to know the church still.  And enjoying it thoroughly, I must add!

While I'm on the topic of work stuff, if you haven't checked out my Chirp website lately, hop on over and take a peek!  I updated the design AND the content recently (as in this past week).  I even figured out how to get my logo to be my favicon (that's the cute little bitty icon that appears in the tab of the web browser!) 

And now I will be able to add videos (of lessons being taught or streaming trainings!) and password-protected pages for people who are users of the curriculum.  I have all sorts of exciting plans!

And now on to the kittens, in case your cute bucket was getting empty. 

A kitten in a canvas shopping bag!

A different kitten in a canvas shopping bag

Two kittens in the canvas shopping bag at the same time!

Three cats on the couch, giving lovey eyes to the camera (and ME, who was wielding it!)

One Allistair, who decided to rip up this large poster of some brainstorming I was doing with a group of people about the Special Needs Team months ago.

"Ahhhh . . . paper is comfy!"

Yesterday, a miracle occurred!  ALLISTAIR's tongue was sticking out!  It's usually Stephen.

Here is up-close proof!

And the Stephen followed suit.

And there was another exciting event!

And it was TOMATO soup!  Not something I would expect a kitten to like!

That was two days ago.  Last night Greg brought me some flowers (yes, he is the best husband I have ever had!) and we successfully kept them safe last night, but this morning, once the two-person zone defense was gone because Greg went to work, Allistair tipped over the vase that held the flowers, and the vase broke and water went everywhere!  That'll teach me to leave anything new and interesting on the kitchen table!  The flowers are now softly scenting the air from their position high atop the tallest bookshelf we own.

Bjarne's sweet sleeping face.

Hope you have fun plans with people you love tonight.

Thanks to all of you for being in my life and for your encouragement, love, and support.  I'm thankful for you.

xo