Getting Out and About

Wow! It is so good to have been able to get out of the house more in the last few days. I am happy to say that Emma is breathing better, coughing less, and getting back to her normal self. In fact, Kris and she just went to the pool. She was SO excited, as this is the first time to the pool in over a month. Crazy! We are above 90 degrees today, and I saw that we will be 100 or above this week. Aaaaah--welcome Fall?!? Well, at least we still have plenty of swim time left. While I've been missing MI lately, because Fall is my favorite season, and friends have been posting about the change in the air, I know we would not be enjoying many (if any) days of swimming left there. Olivia is not quite ready to be out at the pool yet, so I am hoping that she and I will make it over there later this week.

I did enjoy a day of shopping with Emma yesterday. She is growing, growing, growing. We went to the mall and hit some sales at Gymboree and Crazy 8. I have hardly ever shopped at Gymboree, although I would have liked to. :-) They can be quite pricey for us, and we didn't have one in Midland for me to check out anyway. I have gone to the one here a few times and found that the sales are better than I realized, and too I had a 20% off coupon that could be used on anything yesterday. We found a couple of cute t-shirts, an adorable skirt, a short-sleeved knit dress and a long-sleeved one. I was able to get Gymbuck$ that can be redeemed in Oct., so I need to look through Olivia's closet and drawers next. Crazy 8 is a store owned by Gymboree, and their prices are a little lower. I had never heard of it before, but I love this store! We found a few things Emma needed there as well. Payless Shoes was our final stop to get Emma some sandals and black dress shoes. Gotta love the sales there and the $2 coupon I got for their store as well. It just so happened that the mall was doing a promotion yesterday, and I was able to get a $10 mall gift card that I used at Payless for the shoes. Praise the Lord for providing great deals for us and the clothes and shoes Emma needed! It was also a blessing to spend some Mommy/daughter time with my oldest. I can hardly believe that she will be 10 yrs. old in December. I'm taking advantage of these special times.

We appreciate the prayers for our girls. This has been a long haul--worst sickness we've ever seen. It all started 5 wks. ago today with Emma. This past week was so much better for her. For Olivia, it was her worst. The coughing really peaked and was almost constant throughout the day and night, even with meds. She was throwing up often from coughing so hard. Her antibiotics have been done for a while. The sickness is just running its course. The same thing happened with Emma for the most part. Olivia seemed to be better yesterday and had a decent night last night, so she and I stayed home from Sunday school but went to the morning service today and then out to eat afterward as a family. She had a few coughing episodes but did fine. It was great to be with God's people and have opportunity to reach out to those who don't yet know the Lord. Olivia really enjoyed getting out of the house and seeing people too.

We are looking forward to starting our 3rd week of homeschooling this week. It's going well so far! A highlight of this week should be our trip to the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach. I know that I can't wait! :-) I've heard great things! They are having Homeschool Days this week and offering $6 admission for each of us. We are going together as a family, so it should be a wonderful day. Well, I best go see what Olivia is up to and spend some time with her while Emma and Daddy are gone. Hope you all have a great start to a new week!