Not feeling too good!

I think Claire must be cutting a molar; she's been running around a 101 temp since last night. I started asking her if she felt hot or sick throughout the day just to gauge how she felt, so now she's started saying it. "I hot, Mama. I sick." It's so sad! This evening, I was trying to do a quick phone interview while she sat on the floor reading a book. We had talked about her being quiet before I made the call. ("Mommy's needs to make a phone call; what do you need to do?" Claire: "I be ki-et.") But during the call, she climbs up on the couch next to me and sits with her head on my shoulder. No harm done so far. Then she starts to cough a little. Then she turns her head and coughs right into my ear, and right into the phone. Then she says, again, right into the phone: "I cough, Mama. I need med-cine." The lady I was interviewing at this fancy restaurant goes, "Uh-oh, I heard that!" Oh, the perils of being a work-at-home mom!

Here's hoping Claire's little tooth comes through so she can go back to normal. Tonight we ran over to Matt and Kim's house to drop off stuff for their garage sale, and I told Claire several times that we wouldn't get to stay long because we didn't want to get Katelyn sick, like Claire. So she was so good when we left after only a little bit--just frowning and quietly saying, "I sick, Mama. Don't get Tatie sick." But on the way home, she started saying, "I see Tatie in morning." I don't know where she got that! But we're going to try to go hang out during the garage sale if Claire feels up to it.

Five years of marriage today!

Five fun memories from Jay and my marriage (all numbered one b/c Blogger is weird):

1. Playing two-on-two volleyball on our honeymoon with a couple from Coleman, OK. (They had the same wedding day AND the same honeymoon package in Puerta Vallarta!) Jay and I usually make it a point to NOT play on the same team in sports or games, because we have different competitive spirits, shall we say. We're both competitive, but in sports, Jay thinks I'm not trying hard enough when I do badly, and I think the same of him in games. But in the past five years, we've learned to compete together, I think. This year, we actually played a game of Nertz as partners without getting mad and won a series of volleyball matches as a team.
   

1. My first Thanksgiving with the Maucks in Kansas: Jay shot a deer, but was the last one in the deerwoods, and this was at about oh, noon, when we're CARVING THE TURKEY! So his dad, cousin, and uncle wolfed down some food, drove out to meet him, and processed the deer so that Jay got back to his darling wife after I had been hanging with his family--some of whom I was meeting for the first time--for about six hours. We drove home with a deer head and an ice chest full of meat, along with all our Black Friday purchases of couse. Tight squeeze.

1. Jay and I got our first dog, a full-grown stray yellow lab that we named Beau. He was well-trained in fetch, sit, and come, so we wondered at first why he was a stray. Then he jumped our fence, repeatedly, and we figured it out. One neighbor told us he put him in his six-foot fence while he tried to get a hold of us, only for Beau to jump it. Someone else told us they saw him push the fence latch up with his nose. That dog knew come, but he did not know stay. So we gave him to another couple who loved him, but had to keep him in their house to keep him at home.
   

1. Going fishing with Jay the first few times: He comes to the understanding that I will NOT participate in his usual four-hour fishing excursions unless I get a padded seat and a book. To him, if you can't go for at least four hours, it's not worth going. To me, if I have to sit on a metal seat for four hours with no entertainment besides casting and reeling, I'd rather jump in the lake. Jay gives me the "pity reel," when he gets a fish on, doesn't tell me, and then asks me to hold his rod for a second, watching my delight when I realize I caught a fish.
   

1. And of course, the birth of our first child, Claire! That same year, Jay and Preston bought a restaurant and I began my short stint as a high school teacher, so it was so busy! But Claire was the uniting blessing through it all: she never fails to make us laugh and smile and work together.
   

Fun times with cousins!

Audrey, Kerrigan, and Carson came down this week to hang out for a few days, and the kids had a great time playing together. Katelyn came over and got in on the action, too.

I don't know why playing in the dirt pile was so much fun on such a breezy day. They were rubbing dirt out of their eyes half the time.


Riding four-wheelers is always a must-do at Mamaw and Papaw's. This is actually a kid-size four-wheeler that you don't have to shift. Don't think it's made for three passengers--except in the case of expert driver Papaws!

Fun in the slip-n-slide--wearing their clothes! They had their swimsuits on earlier, but Mamaw turned it on when they weren't in them, and Kerrigan went over and started drinking the water squirting up. The other girls followed suit, and then Carson, and finally Obi, the new puppy! They were all soaking wet by the time it was all said and done.

Kerrigan was the most serious about getting drinks!

Summertime, and the living's easy...

YUM!

Don't just laugh Tyler, save her! Claire was acting really silly this day, kept jumping up and down on the steps, going under, and then coming up laughing! That's why Tyler was just laughing at her.


It's Saturday, and OF COURSE Claire wakes up earlier than she has all week: 7:15! I know for many moms, this is actually late, but Claire usually wakes up around 7:45-8:00. And OF COURSE I decided to stay up late reading because she had gone to sleep fairly late, around 9:30. No such luck with the whole sleeping-in-on-Saturday thing. Oh well! Every day is a blessing, so might as well get up and enjoy it, right? So far today, we've read our new library books (I already finished mine!), watched cartoons, taken a joint shower, and baked cookies. Claire already knows it's her job to stir, unwrap the butter, and of course, lick a beater and spoon (I still reserve the right to one beater!).

Jay rolled out of bed pretty soon after Claire came in our room, and got a phone call from Nana, asking if he was at the job site yet! Ha! It's so funny to me that he got that call. Last night, Jay arranged for Nana and Grandad to come look at his homes in Calera to get some ideas for the kind of home they want Jay and Grant to build for them. So at 7:20, Nana called to tell him they were already in Durant! I guess they were excited to get going on the house! We're all excited about Nana and Grandad's new house; we hope to start on it this summer!

So Claire and I have had a great summer week, with shopping, a play date at the park, a trip to the library and farmers market, and an afternoon at Mom's pool! It doesn't get much better than that! Play time's over for me for a while though; this week I also got two story assignments, both due in two weeks! Actually, it really won't affect our schedule that much. I usually just make phone calls and write in the afternoons during Claire's nap and post-nap milk and TV, and then get a babysitter whenever I have to make a trip and also just before my deadline. I love my part-time job! I just sometimes wish it was a little more regular. It seems like when it rains, it pours! I'm sort of trying right now to find some sort of monthly paid writing assignment.

Anyway, we're both looking forward to this afternoon, when Claire will go four-wheeling and fishing with Daddy, and I'm going to go see Up with Mom and Ty (and maybe a few other fam members, not sure yet). Hope you're having a GREAT summer, too!

Claire's favorite things to say right now, some stinker and some adorable:

• "No! By self!"
• "Happy birthday to Kerrigan!"
• "HIJKLMNOP" (She usually sings this and Kerrigan's birthday song together! Have tried to get this on video several times, and she has yet to cooperate, although she has been singing this on and off all day for a week!)
• "What you doing, Mama?"
• "What's that?"
• "Don't want to...[anything I want her to do]"
  
• And of course, the perennial two-year-old favorite: "MINE!"