I've been waiting to hear you say that!

Two sets of words from two different girls whom I cherish

Rebecca's "wuv you"

Mary-Gail's "hold me"

To my Rebecca: I will always Love You!

To my Mary-Gail: I had to wait days to hold you when you were a new baby; now I can't get enough! I will always answer your request of "Hold Me."

Hi littles!

The ever-fashionable Mary-Gail waving "Hi!" as she sports her summer goggles - her "COOL"

She's feeling much better, by the way...

Not "one" but "four"

Tonight at 5:15 pm I picked Arla up from the vet's office after she had been there since 8:30 am. I insisted on speaking to the vet because the technician kept telling me Arla's tooth was abscessed (which it wasn't - the nerve was exposed and so it was super sensitive & easily irritated). The vet said dgo's eye teeth have very deep roots, and so to extract the eye tooth she had to dig really deep into Arla's gums. Arla has 5 stitches in her gums. Oh, and the vet pulled Arla's 3 teeth in the front - they were "loose." WHAT THE??? No phone call to me to inform me. No phone call to me to ASK me. No nothing. And what's worse is how the tech AND vet were treating me as I asked my batch of questions. I am usually not a complainer (yeah, right. After I've been complaining in the last several posts), but I am really, really, really upset.

When I dropped Arla off at 8:30 am I specifically asked them to give her some pain medicine (I also asked this to the tech on the phone when I called at 8:15 am to get Arla in). My worry was they were going to keep Arla in a kennel until 1 pm and then do the surgery and not have given her any pain meds in the meantime. Well, when I called at 10:30 am to check on Arla, they still hadn't sedated her and the tech wasn't sure if she had been given pain meds or not. So, when I picked Arla up I asked the vet what time they took her back to do surgery, she said it wasn't very long after I had dropped her off. What is the definition of "not very long" to them? Because 2 hours IS a long time - especially when you have a NERVE IN YOUR TOOTH EXPOSED!!!!!

Just keep adding it on

Mary-Gail still has her fever. She's miserable and her throat hurts from having Strep Throat. Rebecca spiked a fever yesterday afternoon and so now she's on antibiotic for Strep too. (Strep is extremely contagious through saliva and seeing how the girls share everything, it was really only a matter of time before Rebecca contracted Strep too). I just dropped ArlaMae off at the Vet's office to have her bottom left eye-tooth pulled - here's the story on that...

I was on our morning walk w/both sets of girls and stopped in front of my sis-in-law, Carol's house, to talk with my nephew. Isaac played with the furry girls, while Rebecca & Mary-Gail were screaming in excitement over seeing the Kemp's cat. Amy came outside, picked up the cat, and brought it closer to Rebecca & Mary-Gail to see. Now, althought I call Pixie & ArlaMae my girls, they are, in fact dogs, and do what dogs do when they encounter a cat - they want to eat it! Arla and Pixie ran to Amy, meanwhile tangling their leash cord across Mary-Gail's neck. Mary-Gail started to cry, the cat hissed and swiped at Arla (who got cut on her chin from the cat's claws). I yanked Arla back from Amy and Mary-Gail, which caused Arla hit her mouth on the curb, which caused her bottom tooth to chip (actually it split down the middle so the front of her tooth chipped off exposing her nerve), which caused me to be so extremely sad (and so extremely frustrated with Amy to do such a stupid thing like bring a cat close to dogs), which caused our walk to be over, which caused Rebecca & Mary-Gail to scream, which caused me even more sadness because I know how much they love being outside...

I'm just going to say it - I feel like a failure. I can't relieve Mary-Gail & Rebecca's sickness, I can't help Arla - instead I take her to a dreaded, foreign place, all alone, to be sedated and have her tooth yanked out - I can't keep my house clean, I can't figure out what to have for supper, I can't find time to exercise, I'm not a good mom. This is really, really, really hard. Really hard.

Test results are positive

Positive for Strep throat. Mary-Gail has Strep throat.

Mary-Gail's fever spiked to 102.3 Sunday night. I'd been dosing her with Tylenol and alternating with Motrin to try to break the fever, but I couldn't get it lower than 99.9. I took her & Rebecca to the Pediatrician Monday to have Mary-Gail checked out - I thought she had another ear infection (#6). 2 hours later we were seen. SueAnn checked Mary-Gail's ears, they were OK, and then she checked her throat - red, raw, and swollen was how SueAnn described it. SueAnn swabbed Mary-Gail's throat, which induced severe dry heaving, and tested the swabs for Strep Throat. The rapid test came back positive. Positive for Strep Throat. We're on an antibiotic twice a day for 10 days.

Rebecca was so protective of Mary-Gail during our office visit with SueAnn. Rebecca was screaming in protest, so much so that the little veins in her neck almost popped! SueAnn was amazed to see Rebecca's reaction; Mary-Gail is the little sister after all.

Waiting for church

It's 8:15 am. Church starts at 9:00 am. I'm giving the opening prayer, and I haven't even showered yet. BUT, these cute girls were so stinking cute I couldn't help myself!

Rebecca has sad puppy-dog eyes (I held her still while I did her hair)

Even w/her puppy-dog eyes, she still has the most beautiful brown eyes I ever seen

Prettiest girls in yellow and blue!

A long day for Mary-Gail

Mary-Gail had a long day afternoon & evening yesterday. Tony took these pictures, shocked to see Mary-Gail having "a moment" like this. My sweet, little Mary-Gail; it's hard being a toddler.

I've always wanted one of these!

See how happy these girls are?!

Can hear their laughter?!

Kristie brought by some toys that her kids have outgrown and one of them was this Little Tikes Activity Cube w/slide. I have been searching for one of these for so long! Little Tikes doesn't make them anymore, and the cubes posted on classified sites sell so fast - I thought I'd never get one. I even mistakenly bid on one on Ebay - it was in Maryland and the seller wasn't shipping it (which explained why the shipping costs were "FREE." Someone out bit me at the last minute - whew!) As a last resort I took JoJo's kid's cube (JoJo wasn't too keen on the idea, eventhough she said it was OK).

Kristie gave us the cube with the orange slide, and JoJo - we'll be bringing your cube back this week.

Kristie - we LOVE our new toys!!!!! THANK YOU!

1, 2, 3, ...

GO!

Mary-Gail showing her skills of climbing the slide

(and taking a break while going face-first down the slide)

Rebecca comparing her NEW slide with her "old" slide - the new slide won!

I snatched the girls to take a quick self-portrait of me and them

THANK YOU KRISTIE!

My sister, Kristie, surprised us with several wonderful toys. Mary-Gail and Rebecca took to them immediately! Here's one of the toys Kristie gave us: a Cozy Coupe Car. The horn still works!!!

A glimpse into the future - sweet sixteen. Tony's nervous already...

Suddenly this Cozy Coupe has become more cozy :)

Rebecca telling Mary-Gail to "share!"

Pioneer Day @ Thanksgiving Point

We celebrated Pioneer Day at Thanksgiving Point's BIG RED BARN

with our cousins

Spencer, Cy, & Carly

Mary-Gail & Rebecca getting up close & personal w/a Donkey

Mary-Gail, Rebecca, Reese, McKena

This baby calf is getting up close & personal w/Mary-Gail

Wow! Look at the size of that horse!!

Carly w/Cy, me w/Rebecca

McKena, Mary-Gail, & Gage are inside the Jail

This is why Tony calls Mary-Gail "Mary-Jail"

Feeding the ducks and geese

Jed has baby Taylor in the Bjorn; baby Ella is in the stroller

Lovey & Rebecca, Spencer & Mary-Gail

waiting our turn to ride the ponies

JoJo & Cy - Cy loved the ponies!!

Gage

McKena

Abbie - totally in her element

Spencer w/Rebecca

Mary-Gail riding 'side-saddle'

(she got nervous around the ponies)

Rebecca pushing Spencer away saying, "no"

(she didn't want to get off)

We had a GREAT time at Thanksgiving Point!! The animals were well taken care of: they were all healthy, had shade to cool off and lie down, and they had food AND water. Such a different experience than our trip to the Hogle Zoo. Next time we'll forgo the zoo experience and visit Thanksgiving Point instead.