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Tuesday, July 31, 2007

It's time to go to the Doctor when . . .

. . . I'm trying to smooch with my husband and can't kiss him because I'm so stuffed up I can't breathe through my nose.

"I'd love to kiss you, honey, but give me a break every now and then to breathe."

Pitiful. Dr. Billy, here I come.

Monday, July 30, 2007

Equalizers

My mother is in need of some extensive dental work. Last week, I took her to our regular dentist who took X-rays, explained the problem, and referred her to a specialist to be evaluated for implants. Her appointment with the specialist was this morning. My father came down to keep the children so I could take her.

As we were finishing up with the specialist, he called our dentist to explain how he was going to proceed. Our dentist suggested that since we were in the area to have us come by his office and he'd do an imprint for a temporary plate for Mom while her mouth is healing. We buzzed right over to her dentist's office and they took us right in.

As we were leaving his office, my sister showed up. She's a realtor and our dentist had called her and asked her to sell some property for him. We were tickled to see her and Mom decided we should have lunch together.

I felt bad about abandoning my father with the children, so we called to check it out with him. Daelyn answered the phone.

"Jesus loves you," he crooned in that sweet, 5-yr. old voice.

"Hi, baby. Is Grandpa there?"

"HI, MAMA!" he shouted, with great excitement in his voice, as if I'd been gone for 3 or 4 weeks.

"Hi, honey. Is Grandpa there?" I repeated.

"He's in the bathroom right now. Do you want to talk to Donovan."

"No, honey, I don't want to talk to the dog." I could hear my mother and sister laughing, then Mom repeating the situation to the office help.

"Just go stand outside the bathroom door, don't go in, and tell Grandpa that Grandma and I are on the phone and we need to speak to him."

I could hear Daelyn walking down the hall, then I hear him calling to my father.

"Grandpa?"

"What!" rather gruffly in response.

"Mama's on the phone and she says she needs to speak to you."

"Well, I can't do anything about that right now. Tell her she'll have to wait." I suppose Grandpa's not too accustomed to little boys disturbing him at such a sensitive time with a phone call.

"Okay, Mama, Grandpa said you'll have to wait, so I'm putting the phone to Donovan's ear. Say hello."

"No, Daelyn . . . hello, Donovan," as I realize he can't hear me because he's already put the phone to the dog's ear and is yelling for me to speak to our pet.

Mom and Toni crack up. So much for handling the phone call in a business-like manner.

Children are a great equalizer. My friend who had her baby last week told me that, while she was pushing, her doctor's beeper went off. Her doctor, who is a woman, asked the nurse to check it for her as she was a little busy.

"You daughter wants to know what chores she needs to do before you get home from work," the nurse reported.

I guess even doctors have children to topple their hopes of professionalism.

Ah, children. Thank you, Lord, for giving me a constant reminder of my own insignificance and for not allowing me to take myself too seriously.

Friday, July 27, 2007

Clementine(s)

We have a new illness in our house. It manifests itself by uncontrollable laughter and milk spitting out of the mouth. Occasionally, it even spurts out a nose.

Now, lest you think otherwise, I'm not really that hilarious. However, you wouldn't know it by the condition around our table at mealtimes.

On Monday, Deanna spit ice cream onto her plate. Today, Dane spurted milk onto his. And all this mess because "Mommy's SO- O-O-O-O funny."

Ever since our beach trip to the Outer Banks last summer, we've had a fruit bowl out on the counter in the kitchen. Even when we were in England, I kept a fruit bowl. It typically has oranges, Gala and Granny Smith apples (some like 'em tart, some like 'em sweet), and bananas. Every now and then, just for variety, I'll throw in grapes or kiwi fruit. Today I was at Wal-Mart with my mother and they had Clementines cheap, so I bought a bag. They didn't quite make it into the fruit bowl, but were laying on the kitchen table when we sat down to eat dinner. After I finished my black beans and rice (Don's Grandmother's recipe - she was a gourmet - and they're WONDERFUL), I opened the bag, picked out a piddly little Clementine and, as I peeled it, began singing the song by the same name, being careful to demonstrate the "ruby lips above the water" while I sang about them.

Yes, just as you predicted - milk out of the mouth and nose. I was beginning to think Deanna might even shoot it out her ears.

By the end of dinner, Dane and Daelyn were both happily singing their own rendition of "Clementine" - "you are lost in Mommy's tummy. Dreadful sorry, Clementine."

Deanna shook her head. "You're ALL crazy!" she pronounced.

Just remember, babe. The apple (Doughty, in this case) doesn't fall too far from the tree.

Wednesday, July 25, 2007

"1, 2, 16"

When we re-did our house and built a kitchen nook, I bought a table at which I intended for us to eat all our meals. Unless, of course, we had company. Then we could sit in the dining room.

I found a lovely natural wood table that seated 6 comfortably and had a drop leaf. I purchased 4 chairs for three sides of the table, and a bench for the side that goes along the back wall.

In the three of four years since buying the table, we've had many different seating assignments. At first, I put Daelyn next to me so I could help him with his meal. He was in a booster seat, which only attached to the chairs . . . or so we thought. After not being able to get through a single meal without him laying all over me and grabbing me, we decided to give his booster seat a try on the bench. Then Deanna complained that Dane twiddled his hands constantly during our grace before meals. It drove her crazy. Deanna had to be moved. There was also the issue of Deanna frequently falling off the bench. Anytime she got really tickled about something - whoops! Off she'd go.

Our final seating assignment is - Don at the head, me at his left. Next to me on the chair is Deanna. On Don's right is Daelyn. Next to Daelyn is Dane. The chair at the opposite end is the guest chair.

This arrangement has been working fairly well. However, my children have been pretty tired and snarly since getting home from Colorado. Mountain time is two hours behind us and we're getting over our high-altitude sickness, so this week has been challenging. Today we went for Mexican food at lunchtime. Halfway through the meal, Dane curled up in a ball in the booth and told me he was going to take a nap. I hurried the children into the van, home, and into their beds. We all needed a good nap.

The problem is this - they desperately needed a nap, but they feel so much better now, they're giddy. Daelyn has been laughing uncontrollably about nothing. Dane is smiling sweetly, and Deanna even asked me kindly to dish up salad with only a few tomatoes for her. Then she commented under her breath, "I know, I know. I REALLY do feel better after a nap. You don't even have to say it."

"I wasn't going to say that," I told her. "But I was thinking something very similar."

"What?"

"You can catch more bees with honey than you can with vinegar," I explained.

"What does that mean, Mama?" Dane asked. I explained, making sure they knew that the correct saying was "flies" not "bees", but flies sounds nasty. Bees sounds so much nicer.

Dane smiled. Daelyn started laughing and fell off the bench.

When he pulled himself back into place again, Deanna said, "Are you okay, Bud? How many fingers am I holding up?"

I glanced at her. She was holding three fingers in the air.

"16," Daelyn blurted out.

Yep! He's just fine.

Monday, July 23, 2007

The Cherub

My friend, Kelly, had her baby today. What a joyous occasion! I kidded both my pregnant friends before I left for Colorado that they had to hold out for my return. Kelly managed to pull that off, so I spent the day at the hospital with her.

Once her beautiful, 8 lb. 10 oz. baby boy was born, I was standing in the room, holding him, in awe of the miracle that is childbirth. Kelly was watching him and I was watching her. I got very choked up. God's gift of life is amazing. Tears began to flow down my face when she looked at me. She started to tear up and then we both laughed.

10 very long, thin fingers. Two big feet with perfect little toes and nails. Thin, dark eyebrows and a beautiful little button nose. Just the right amount of redness to indicate a healthy baby. Just enough rolls to keep you from worrying. An intensity in his glance that warms the heart. And a darling cleft in his chin that hints at cherubim.

Ah! The beauty of new birth. God must love us to give us precious little creatures like this to care for.

And precious friends with which we can share our joy.

Sunday, July 22, 2007

The Rockies

We've been in Vail, Colorado for the last week, having a wonderful time. We decided to trade our timeshare in Hilton Head for one in Colorado so we could see Don's sister and brother-in-law, who live outside of Denver. We submitted our vacation request last summer and RCI (Resort Condominiums International) found a match for us while we were in London after Christmas. Delta was able to hook us up with frequent flier tickets, so it seemed like all the doors were opening.

We flew out last Saturday - early morning - and arrived in Denver around lunchtime (their time). We picked up our rental car and headed to the mountains. Don's brother-in-law has recently started a new job and doesn't have any vacation time accrued, so they rented a condo at the same place we were staying for the weekend. We got to spend Saturday afternoon with them and most of the day on Sunday. We had dinner together Saturday night and they took Don grocery shopping while I unpacked some. We had a wonderful time and the boys fell in love with their Uncle Brian. Deanna was very attracted to her Aunt Sue and almost wore Sue's poor ears off.

On Tuesday, we drove down to Colorado Springs to visit Focus on the Family's campus. We had a wonderful time, riding the 3-story corkscrew slide called "A-bend-ago" and eating ice cream at Whit's End (from the radio program, "Adventures in Odyssey"). We hit the bookstore and they had some great sales. Then we took off north to meet Brian and Sue for dinner outside of Denver.

The following day, we went White Water Rafting on the Colorado River. Sue drove up and met us to go with us. Daelyn had whined and complained, saying he was too scared to go, but we reassured him that the Colorado was a very easy river, and he had nothing to be worried about.

We had been in the raft about 5 minutes, headed downstream, when Daelyn pronounced "this is boring!" Hah! That was only minutes before we hit the first rapids.

By the time we had been through a few rapids and two people flipped their ducky and we had to perform a rescue in the middle of rapids, he changed his mind and decided white water rafting was pretty cool. Dane (my daredevil) felt it was a little too mild for him. He wanted rougher rapids with a little more excitement, so he'll be well-positioned for future rafting trips with Mom.

We were amazed by the road we took to the Colorado River. The Rockies are amazing, in that the side of the mountain that faces away from the sun is green and lush due to snow covering the ground for numerous months out of the year, then melting nicely to produce green, lush undergrowth. The other side of the mountains, the side facing full sun, is like a desert. The ground was rocky and the only thing that grew was sagebrush. It was a drastic change in environment from one side of the mountain to the other.

Some of the highlights of our trip were: walking through the B-17 bomber that's used as the Clubhouse in the Last Chance Detectives, another radio series from Focus; seeing the stagecoach road cut into the side of the mountain as we floated down the Colorado River; taking pictures of the chipmunk on the top of the mountain when we took the gondola ski lift to the summit to look around; visiting Buffalo Bill's grave and realizing that the old West really did exist - and right where we were at! Of course, the best part of our trip was spending time with Brian and Sue.

I'll post some pictures later in the week. We got home after midnight last night, so I have lots of unpacking and laundry to tend to, but I ought to be able to fit in a Post or two.

Thursday, July 12, 2007

Tops and Bottoms

I've been going to physical therapy twice a week for my ankle. You might remember it got hit by the leg of the kneeler at church. Progress has been slow, but it seems to be doing a little better today after a week's rest, so we're back on track with more exercises.

After therapy, we stopped at the Mall. In my nesting, I've cleaned out Deanna's dresser drawers. We got rid of clothes that don't fit or that she doesn't wear and, in the process, found two pairs of shorts without shirts that I didn't even know she had.

Penney's had some darling shirts on sale a few weeks ago that would go well with her shorts, so we made a quick stop to pick up two.

The boys insisted on looking in the boys' department. As we were wandering through, I realized that all of Dane's shorts sets need help. I found a great buy several years ago on Adidas athletic shorts and bought him several pairs in different styles and colors. Later, I found shirts for him on sale, and we matched them up to the shorts, producing 4 or 5 nice shorts sets. Lately, I've noticed that the shorts are plenty long, but the shirts are getting way too short. I found a 3-pack of screen-printed T's on sale in the right colors and threw it in with Deanna's tops. When we got home, we matched them to his shorts and he tried on the new outfits with the old shorts.

They looked great on him. He now has shirts at an appropriate length. As I was folding the old shirts to put in the pile for Daelyn to grow into, I checked the size on one.

5! It was a size 5. No wonder they were getting a little short on my 8-yr. old.

So much for putting them away for Daelyn. He's in size 5's now.

Wednesday, July 11, 2007

There's Something in the Water

I got a phone call while in England from a friend of mine. She called to tell me she was pregnant. She didn't want me to hear from somebody else, so she got my number from my parents and called to give us the good news.

"Have you heard about the others?" she asked.

OTHERS, you say?!? What others.

Apparently, two friends for which I had been praying (and who both live within 2 blocks of me) conceived at almost the same time. One has 4 boys and I've been praying for a little girl to soften them there boys (although another boy would be great, too, and she's already a great mom to boys, so it'd be a no-brainer for her). The other has two sons and has had difficulty staying pregnant since her last child. Both of them have been on my prayer list for quite sometime, and here they were - both pregnant, and both while we were in England.

The two for which I have been praying are due anytime now. It occurred to me today that all this cleaning and neatening may be displaced nesting. I've made sure both my friends know that I should be the first call for babysitting, so maybe all this preoccupation with order is my hormones, preparing for a baby.

Just don't drink the water around here unless your nursery is set up and ready. But if you need a sitter, I'm the gal to call!!

Saturday, July 07, 2007

Hidden stuff

We've finally gotten our Den Armoire put together. Don's been moving our electronics into it so we can get rid of our old entertainment center. Last night, I organized all the DVD's and VHS's. This afternoon I was standing in the Den when one of the kids opened the drawer to take out a movie.

"WOW," he child exclaimed. Everything was neat, you could read the titles of all the movies, and they are EASY TO PUT AWAY NEATLY!!

I'm on a roll now. We have our new leather couch and our armoire where we can stash everything neatly behind closed doors. There's a very nice, large drawer for Deanna's dance mats, Dane's video games, and all the remotes. And the cushions on the couch can't be removed. I haven't a single time had to put them back on the couch correctly, like I'm accustomed to doing a dozen times daily.

Don's having visions of being able to find the remotes. The kids are having visions of being able to find their movies. And I'm having visions of neatness. "WOW" is right.

Next stop on the Doughty organized-home train - a new 4-drawer wooden file cabinet (to replace the three 2-drawer ones we have now) and a computer armoire so all of Don's computer mess can be organized and neatly closed off.

Excitement is rippling through the house. I'm beginning to feel like order in our home is attainable - at least, putting the stacks of papers behind closed doors is possible.

Hurrah for armoires.

Wednesday, July 04, 2007

New Pic


After our computer died while we were in England, Don purchased a new one that has a camera in it. We played around with it one evening, trying to get good shots. Don doesn't like pictures, so his came out like a still from "The Blair Witch Project". Mine was pretty good, so I'm going to change the picture on my Blog to this one.

Hope it works.

Tell me what you think.

A Visitor in our Home

I was on the phone with a friend several days ago and we were taking about her family going camping yesterday and returning today. In the midst of our conversation, she remembered that she was dog-sitting for another mutual friend. Mickey, a female poodle-mix, was staying at their house.

"What am I going to do with Mickey?" she wondered aloud. "I guess we could take her with us."

Mickey is older, a little frail, and doesn't quite seem like the camping-kind-of-dog.

"You could bring her over here and see if she and Donovan get along. If so, we could keep her for you," I offered.

I picked Mickey up yesterday afternoon when I took my kids swimming. She and Donovan seem to have come to some agreements, at least until he found her lying on the leather couch next to Don this morning. Jealousy erupted.

It's going okay, but we'll have to be careful not to hold her or be affectionate with this very affectionate dog while Donovan's nearby.

We love our Donovan best, but she's awfully cute, and don't we have an obligation to be hospitable to visitors?

Donovan votes "NO"!

Tuesday, July 03, 2007

Like Father, Like Son


My Mom: "He even hitches up his pants like Dane."

YUP! I never dreamed they looked so much alike at this age.