good mail & a spoiled girl (make that 2!)

These past few days have been great ones for me to receive good mail, I have really needed a pick-me-up, and good mail certainly provides that!

I got this fun package from Amie: book order forms, a great talk on raising missionaries, super-cute "m" rub-ons, way cool circle tags, the tiniest cute little post-its, and a pack of gum. I love it all!

I got an actual letter from Claudia! I don't know why that thrills me so, probably because I know the effort involved in writting letters and I so rarely do it myself. It's hard to tell from the photo, but the envelope and ink are both metallic silver -- so pleasing, and such a nice letter.

Liz sent me a packet of gourmet hot cocoa, the cutest little magnets of world monuments, a cool architectural blank card, and some Hershey's kisses the likes of which I've never tasted (are they dark chocolate with raspberry?). So sweet!

(By the way, Marc noticed the magnets on the fridge and commented, "good mail, I presume?". Poor guy, I thought he got a card in yesterday's mail, but it turns out it was just a thank you note from the store where we bought our fridge! Not real satisfying, as good mail goes...)

Pam sent me such a fun package! She sent not one, but three pairs of super cozy socks. Imagine my delighted surprise when a lipstick rolled out of each pair! I don't know that I would trust myself to choose lipsticks for someone else, but Pam did a great job! (Pam, I don't think you have known that I have a bit of a lipstick fetish...) And did you know they still make Fruit Stripes gum? I haven't seen that in years and years, and my boys have already taken it over. Pam you are just too generous -- not that I'm complaining!

In other news, one of my sickies returned to school today, hooray! Lucas was definitely doing better and although I think he was getting used to the easy life of lounging at home and playing lots of video games, we told him it was time to head back to class.

Now that Max is on antibiotics too, he seems to be improving a lot as well. I'm hoping we can get him back to school tomorrow (crossing my fingers). I went in to the school today to get some of his homework and one of his classmates asked me if he was dead (he was kidding). I'm sure they're wondering if he's ever coming back at this point -- to which I answer with a resounding YES.

I don't want to count my chickens, but it's possible that Eva is doing a little better too. She needs more cough medicine every night between 1:00 - 1:30 a.m. Last night I heard her coughing like crazy, so I headed in with another dose. Instead of sitting up as she usually does in such cases, she was still lying down, so I stood there hesitating, wondering if she was really awake enough to take the medicine. Suddenly she said, "blanket. pink blanket.", thus solving that mystery and making me burst out laughing.

I'm convinced that one of the great trials of my life is going to be getting that girl to eat. Something, anything! (well, not cookies, she does just fine with those.) I feel like every day is spent in my offering one food after another, only to have her reject them completely, or take a tiny nibble. At this point I wouldn't even care if she always wanted to eat the same thing -- it would just be wonderful to know that there was a food she would reliably eat!

This is a picture of Eva looking in the pantry. She does this many times a day. She does get hungry, she just doesn't want to eat anything but treats! And -- no joke -- when I got up this morning I saw that her dad had given her a lollipop for breakfast. (We do have a stash of dum-dums, but I reserve them for when we're running errands and I need a bribe.) When I asked him about that, he claimed she just wanted it soooo much, he couldn't resist. Arggghhhh! No wonder she's holding out for the sweet stuff!


It's not just treats, oh no. This little girl has her daddy completely wrapped around her finger. Here she is lounging on the couch, getting him to play "this little piggy" with her toes ad infinitum. He also falls victim to the "circle babies" game that Eva invented, in which one must take each crayon one is offered and proceed to draw small circles, while Eva exclaims with delight: "green circle baby! tiny purple circle babies!". Is it any wonder she can't wait until he comes home?

When I was titling this post, I made reference to a spoiled girl (Eva). But then, after looking at all my good mail, I realized that that makes two of us. Being a mother to a spoiled girl = not so fun. Being a spoiled girl = pretty darn fun!