Fall Back

1) Olivia at rest 2) The early morning sunshining brightly 3) Jacob loving Bella 4) Lemon poppyseed muffins with the drizzle! Because we were given the gift of "falling back”, we got up earlier than unusual. It was 7:15am ET when we rose. To, we were greeted by a beautiful sunny morning. Both of us had gotten up through the night to feed and change Olivia. I got up at 2:30am EDT (1:30am ET). But Mindy got up too to help me get her settled back into her outfit and chair. Mindy got up by herself for the next event sometime near 4 or 5am. Neither time did Olivia cry. We instinctively responded to her stirring before it lead to an emotional cry. As we greeted the new day we were both more than pleased at how well she slept. We left Olivia sleep while we began our morning. Mindy began taking care of Jacob and Bella’s early morning demands, and I began exercising. Soon I was outdoors with Ykraps. On our walk we ran into a strange new dog who befriended us. We could tell he was a “kept” dog. He had all the tell tale signs. He had a license and a bandana. After some sniffing and liking, we parted ways. I was more than anxious to suck down some coffee, so once I returned home I did just that. It was more than good! I had a plan for the day but not nearly as aggressive as Saturday’s plan. Today I hoped to run, stack new firewood, visit Sheila in the hospital, have Kaileigh over for a visit, and dinner at Gloria’s. I left for my run by 8:30am – doing all I could to remain on task. It was nice to run in the sunshine. I was home before 9:20 – just in time to enjoy some maple bacon and lemon poppyseed muffins covered in a tasty lemon glaze. They were delicious! After breakfast I helped ready Jacob and Bella for church. That was no small task and netted Bella a timeout for being unruly. But after some coaching from Mindy, I got Bella to be a cooperator! Just before they left for church, Ashley showed up to get Olivia. I was hoping that she’d forget about her. Darn! After they left I began cleaning up around the house. That took a while. As soon as I finished I took a shower and did a load of running clothes. As I stated earlier, it was beautiful and sunny, but the temperature was still very cool. Despite the chill, I grabbed the BM’er keys and left for Giant Eagle. My plan was to pick-up some flowers and a card for Sheila, as well as flowers for Mindy. Once in the BM’er I realized that I needed gas in it too. I filled up for $2.16 per gallon - most likely the last tank of gas in the BM’er till next spring. I found some lovely live mums for Sheila that I knew she’d love. I found some white roses for Mindy – her favorite! I headed home. On my way home I was once again pulled into a big problem at work. I spent the next hour back at home helping to coordinate that. Some time close to 1:00pm Mindy arrived home from church. She had dropped the kids at hr mothers so that we could visit Sheila in the hospital. We arrived at Mt Caramel West around 1:30pm. Margie and Brenda (Sheila’s sisters) were there at her side. They left the room while we visited. Sheila looked surprisingly well for being so sick. I was happy. She even had on make-up and pretty purple pajamas. We visited for about an hour. I was most impressed with her positive take charge attitude. There are two ways you can go. You can take the high energy approach and demonstrate a determination to fight, or you can take a more low energy, woe is me approach. We talked about her faith and beliefs and the possibility of a misdiagnosis. She also shared her treatment plan, which included volunteering for any experimental drugs or procedures. I was so proud of her. We told her that we loved her, gave her hug, and then we left. While we were in her room, Kaileigh called to confirm our plans to pick her up. We told her we would be there around 3pm. Judging by the clock, we were right on schedule. It was 2:40pm when we got into the Trooper. We arrived at Kaileigh's right about 3pm, just as planned. She seemed excited to spend time with us, and I know I was excited to see her. We went directly to Mindy's mother's from there even though we had earlier discussed going back home and stacking wood. But how much fun would that have been for Kaileigh especially given that Jacob and Bella were at Mindy's mom's. We arrived at Gloria's just after 3pm - an hour earlier than usual. We took advantage of the alone time with just the kids and her mom. We watched a little of the Bengals game while the kids played. Not long after, others began arriving. Todd and Larry were both on duty today, but their wives showed with their kids just the same. Craig and Jeff came too. If I didn't mention, Todd was in a horrible fire Friday that took four lives. He and his peers were lucky to escape the inferno themselves. In fact, two of the firemen went to the hospital with severe burns. We had ham, macaroni salad, and tater tots. The ham was a Kroger ham juiced up via Gloria's own special recipe of fruit juice, cloves, and brown sugar. It was as good as any Honey Baked ham. Dinner was delicious, and just as usual I ate too much. Dessert was spice cake with topped with cinnamon flavored Cool Whip. Again, delicious! We hung out until just after 7pm, but don't forget, it was really 8pm EDT. The kids were cranky and tired. Gloria, bless her heart, gave each of the kids a Halloween goodie bag. Kaileigh fits in well with everyone is such a pleasant little girl. We dropped Kaileigh off first. I'll miss her. Homeward. We arrived home and just like always, I walked Ykraps while Mindy began the bathing/jammie process. When I returned I headed up and did the read and tuck thing. After all of that we chilled by the television and watched a smidgeon of the SNF game. Not too much downstairs. Mindy convinced me to go to bed just after 8:30pm. We were both tired so we headed to bed where we could watch football and snore.