updating

first, an update: the not eating sweets is not going so well. i think going cold turkey might be a little much for me. but i have cut back. i don't like feeling like i want to eat sweets every minute of every day. but i love desserts. so i'm doing sweets in moderation. that's working pretty well. for example, i would normally eat dessert after at least lunch and supper. on my new plan, i only eat it after supper. so we'll see how it goes.

elise is so cute. she makes up songs all the time--just words describing what she is currently doing or thinking about set to music. the other night she was eating some pepperonis (one of her favorite snacks), all the while singing along. i was sort of in and out of paying attention to what she was singing about, when all of a sudden i caught this snippet, "pepperonis--i'm sorry that i ate your friends..." i still giggle when i hear the tune to that line in my head.

our cat, maria, has created some drama around here this week. she (well, he) is a really nice cat, and we like having him around. but he's strictly an outdoor cat and roams around quite a bit. we only see him from time to time as he comes to eat his food. our neighbors across the road are quite taken with him, having fed him sometimes when we're out of town. they've even started feeding him when we're here and made a bed for him on their front porch on these cold nights. needless to say, maria spends a good deal of time with them. on monday, our neighbor came over and said that maria had gotten hurt--probably from a fight with another tomcat--and wasn't walking on his back leg. she also thought he was running a fever. she thought he should probably be seen by the vet. cory & i had a slightly different take on it, and weren't a big hurry to rush off to the vet. we thought we'd give it a couple of days and see how she did. well, on wednesday, our neighbor came back over and now really thought maria needed a doctor's attention. i had been dreading her coming back over, knowing that we had differing views on when a pet should be taken to the vet. i just didn't really want to deal with her about it. i was kind of hoping she would just mind her own business. but when she came over, instead of an awkward situation or a confrontation, she offered to take maria to the vet and pay for her dr. bill. i was overwhelmed with her kindness. here i had been hoping to avoid this woman, who ended up doing an extremely generous thing for us and little maria. it was a true christmas gift. there was only one minor catch to the whole scenario: maria did indeed need anitbiotics and would have to be kept inside for a week. did you catch the part earlier about how maria was strictly an outdoor cat? but cory & i did not want this kind lady's generousness go to waste or in any way seem ungrateful by us letting maria roam free. so maria has been in our laundry room for 24 hours. as i type this, however, cory is in the process of organizing the garage so maria can have a home in there for the next 6 days. we are definitely not cut out to have a cat in the house.

in other news, merry grace is crawling very well and has started what we have dubbed the "crab crawl". she moves along, but instead of crawling on her knees, she gets up on her feet. its very cute. but pretty much everything she does is cute. =)

ian is getting more "boy" by the day. sometimes the testoterone just overwhelms me. he's so cute, though. his new favorite activity is playing in the "sandbox" in the driveway. technically its just a spot that is more dirt than gravel. but he takes this green rake out there and digs and digs. he makes slides for his cars and trucks to drive on and adventures for spiderman and stingray. even though its pretty cold out, he still loves playing out there.

all in all, life is pretty good around the barnett house...