Happenings in February

At my appointment at the end of January, my blood pressure was elevated and I had protein and sugar in my urine. Not a good sign. I came home and cried sort of. I informed my family that I was done with anything stressful related and pled for more help around the house. At least Jessica listened and has done a pretty good job helping me out with the younger kids and the housework.
After some research and a not so coincidental conversation with a student who has diabetes, I decided the culprit must be sugar!! It only makes sense seeing how my blood pressure hasn't been elevated until Girl Scout Cookies came on the scene and I have been pretty good about avoiding sugar until then.
So I cut out all refined sugar goodies for the next couple of weeks. Last week things seemed to be back to normal. Blood pressure went down and my tests were normal. I'll find out if diabetes is a real issue in about another week. Meanwhile, I'm trying my best to avoid all the cookies, brownies, cake, chocolate, candy, round rock donuts, etc. . . that seems to make their way into my vincinity. Not an easy task I assure you.
In other news - February 4th was a busy day. Jhonny, Jessica and I got to go see Wicked. Finally! I'm glad to know what the hype is all about. It was good. It might have been better if we'd been closer than the second balcony, but I was happy to be there at all. Jessica loved it.
Later that day, Jhonny took the girls to a daddy daughter dance down the street and Gavin and I went out on our own Valentine's date. He was so excited to be on a date with Mommy. We ate and came home with Cars 2 and watched it together with a bit of icecream. He fell asleep before it was over, but I was impressed that he paid way more attention this time then he did when we saw it in the theatre. He commented that he loved that show.
The girls reported an equally enjoyable time with their dad, especially dancing salsa with him at the end. He is a pretty good dancer. I'm glad he got to have a partner or two that could actually keep up with him. I'm not so good at it right now.
We've also had a lot of movement on the house in Rockdale!! Yeah! We thought we almost had it sold for real this past weekend, but the couple couldn't make up their minds yet and wanted to see some other places. So we're back to lease to own with our original choice of tenants. We should be meeting with them this week to sign a lease agreement. Hurray! It couldn't come at a better time. Paying for two houses is NOT fun. As soon as we can get that money back in our pocket, I can start preparing for this baby. Since we sold everything, we've got a lot of shopping to do. I've had my eye on a few items that I'm just biding my time for. . .
Lily finally lost her second bottom tooth. It took some wrestling it out of her, but we finally got it out. Unfortunately she lost her money to making restitution for some stolen m&m's. After informing Lily that she would have to use her tooth fairy money to pay for more and return what she had eaten, she (unbeknownst to us) wrote the tooth fairy a note telling her what happened and requesting a second dollar to replace what she had lost. It was a sad morning when she revealed the still present note under her pillow and I had to go over how the tooth fairy and the repentance process works.
The kids are all getting excited about Ammon coming into the family. They love to feel him kicking me. I just keep thinking - at least 12 more weeks and then any time. . . I hope the time goes quickly.
I finally got the taxes done. I was dreading it, but somehow we've been blessed once again and not only do we not owe anything, we are actually getting some back. Phew!