This last week has been crazy and it just flew by. We are so not ready for Spring Cleaning tomorrow. I've done the best I could, but with a husband always procrastinating and three children pulling items out of boxes as fast as I put it in, it's not been going very well. The good news is that they're only really attached to toys, and since most of them are gone (that were going to go), I really don't have to worry about detaching a shrieking toddler from a toy that they decided to attach themselves to at the last second but probably wouldn't really miss after a few days anyway. Our goal was to go through all clothing not in boxes or in the dressers. Sigh........ We are maybe half way done and since tomorrow's the big day, we'll either be up really late or not as much will get done tomorrow. :( Either way, I'm screwed.

Carey did surprise me. On Tuesday evening, he decided that he wanted go watch a movie, 300 (he said it was really good). On the one hand, I know he needed some time to himself, especially after the really stupid misunderstanding that we had. But on the other hand, I just wanted scream (or cry, not sure which) because I needed so much help from him. Especially since I'd be out of town for two days. Bleh.... In hindsight I shouldn't have made those appointments for this week. He promised he'd get a bunch done while I was gone. He did surprise me by actually getting stuff done. But he didn't do near what he had said he would. I admit, I'm happy that the huge shelf moved upstairs out of the living area and into the office. That makes the room look so much bigger now but since that was such a huge job, I had decided that it could just wait until the rapidly approaching move. So instead of getting a bunch of laundry done, the dishes, and the living room picked up, he moved a huge shelf (and managed to really gouge the wall pretty well in the process).

The appointments went great. Deedee is now 27 lbs and 36 inches tall. She cooperated with the doc really well. She also did great giving some blood for a couple of routine tests. The lab worker only had to fill a couple of tiny vials, but for such a tiny little body, it took a while. She didn't like the warming pad that was strapped to her hand, and she only fussed for a few seconds when her finger was poked. But after that she avidly watching what was being done. She even giggled a little bit. Silly child. She definitely deserved some ice cream after that. Kitty is 17 lbs and 27 inches long. She's also doing great. Carey had a concern with her not sitting up very well yet, and having a hard time staying up once she's there but the doc said right now he didn't seen an need to worry. However, if she's still like this in about six months, then he'll start getting concerned. Deedee still has the little skin tag on the inside of her bottom lip, but he said to just leave it alone for now. She's too small to cooperate with it's removal and she hasn't been complaining about it. I guess she's had it for so long, she probably doesn't really notice it any more. As for me, the doc manipulated my hand and fingers quite a bit before deciding to send me down to have it x-rayed. Haven't heard anything about it, so I'm going to assume that's good. He said that when he was young, he broke he thumb in the same general area that I hurt my finger and that it took over a year to finally heal.

The PAT group appointment was reasonably enjoyable. We walked since it was such a beautiful day and because the building being used was so close. If there weren't a few trees and a couple of houses in the way, the CAF building is viewable from my old bedroom at my parents. I had managed to forget my sling at home (something I really regretted while at the hospital) so I dug out a long length of fabric I'd seen in my mother's stash, hoping it was long enough to tie Kitty to my back. I had watched some of my friends do it, but having never done it myself, I checked out Wear Your Baby to get a few ideas and decide how I wanted to do it. It took a little bit of work, and it was a little awkward at first, trying to balance a baby on my back as I wound the fabric around us, but I figured it out. It was really comfortable, so I plan on buying a long length of the proper fabric soon. This month the group learned about money. We were shown different savings time tables and it was surprising just how fast it actually adds up. One we looked at had you putting aside 2K a year for 43 years at 9% interest. It actually yieled over 1,000,000! All of the kids got to "buy" a book. Each was handed some money, they were told to choose a book, and then they paid for it after being told the amount. James especially enjoyed this since we've been working with money lately.

Carey and I both enjoyed our weekend at the Coeur D'Alene Casino. The room was awesome. Carey decided we'd get a suite this year. It actually had two bathrooms. We remembered our swimming suits this year, so got to enjoy the pool for a while. The rat kept trying to drown me. Bleh. Why do I put up with him? :D We wanted to have dinner at the buffet (it was seafood night) but even at 8.30 when we finally came back downstairs for dinner, there was still a line. :( So we ate at the cafe instead. The garlic & goat cheese appetizer was great, and we both really enjoyed our dinner. I love pepper, but even I have to admit the cracked peppercorn steak I got was a little too much. Especially with the wine. I chose a 2003 Forest Glen White Merlot, the perfect accompaniment and it really made the pepper pack quite a punch. We took our desserts back to our room to enjoy, and watched The Holiday (cute movie). It was that or The Pursuit of Happyness which I admit looks like a great movie but I just didn't want to watch something so depressing while we were supposed to be enjoying ourselves. And boy, did we. We weren't quite sure what to do with ourselves after winning a nice amount that more than covered our room and meals on a slot called The Jade Elephant. (Now I know why I love elephants so much. :D). I didn't know whether to jump up and down and scream, or faint. In the end, I did neither. I just sat there in a bit of a dazed shock that I had just won that much money on an impulsive stop at a pretty machine on our way past. (We were supposed to be heading to the bathrooms.)