I can't manage to catch my breath

One of the most frustrating things when you are being tickled is not being able to regain control and catch your breath...that is how I feel on most days. I am running, moving, picking up, dropping off, creating, washing, feeding, but I am never just catching my breath.

If you could see the old school planner I have sitting in my lap right now you would be disturbed at the obvious ink explosion that has occurred on it. Arrows showing when to reschedule, red ink means important, post it tabs to highlight shows that week...it's all crazy and it's all catching up to me this week.

I will rewind to the Thursday before we left for Chicago. I brought Ellie Grace into the doctor to have a suspected diaper rash checked out...only to find out that it is a rash caused by an allergy to a particular type of food. Now let me remind you that I am the MOST anal mother on this planet and I carefully plan all of Ellie's meals to make sure they are well balanced and healthy. Actually, the fresh tomatoes I had been cutting up for her salad at lunch were the culprit. She is indeed allergic to acidic foods...which is most of them! We are on a new diet with the hopes of starting out bland and identifying the culprit when we spot the rash reappearing. I can report that Ellie looks good and the bland diet seems to be working so far.

Now, onto Chicago. The song from Dirty Dancing ques in my head, "Now I've...had the time of my life and I owe it all to you..!!" Brandon and I had a blast in Chicago. We got there on Friday and went straight to the convention center. I think I found my calling...I LOVED looking at all of the kitchen and bath appliances. I think I had officially redecorated my next 4 homes while we were there...AWESOME! I told Brandon that I am just a little jealous that he gets to work with that industry everyday. I think God might have switched us at birth...:) We were treated to fantastic dinners and coctail receptions. We also got a tour around the cities most famous landmarks ~ in the snow by our limo driver! AMAZING!!!

Now we are back to reality and trying to adjust. We got a call on Tuesday from a show in River Oaks asking us if we could please fill in for a company that didn't show. UUUMMMM ~ sure. We do need the money and the ability to get our name out to a completely different area of town was great. So, we packed up the little inventory we had left from our last show and headed down to Saint Lukes to set up. I got home last night at 10pm and started working on the monogramming machine until 3am. Long day... The show is turning out to be pretty good and we have made several very good contacts. So this crazy week continues. Tomorrow we will do the last day of the show, take down and start preparing for the next 3 shows we have in 4 weeks. God is great! We have been praying for this time and it is now here. Unfortunately, this news came on Bennett Day, and I couldn't be out there with my little man, his daddy, sister or Grandmom. I have been working so hard and been so stressed out that I haven't even had a minute to sit, talk and cry to my little prince. In the free seconds that I can steal for myself I keep saying, "10 months...10 months...it's just getting too far away." I am planning a special day for myself out with my little man. It's about time we had a talk with Bennett and asked him to help pick the final scripture for his headstone. :) I am the only mother that has taken this long on deciding about a headstone, becuase it is SO FINAL! I have read through the bible, I have looked through song books and read poems. I have searched high and low with Brandon and I think we are down to about 3 choices. I just feel like this isn't a pair of socks or a first day of school outfit...this is the one forever we can give to our Bennett and it needs to be just perfect...as perfect as perfect can be.

Breaking News about the Crawfish/Walk for Babies:
We are still collecting money for Walk for Babies until Aptil 22, 23 which are bank days. PUSH, PUSH, PUSH for even 1.00! I am so proud of all of our friends and family that have taken this event and made it as important to themselves as it is to us.
*****There has been one major change. We will be holding the crawfish THANK YOU party on May 3rd. We couldn't get the clubhouse on the 26th, so we did a little rearranging. We hope all of you can make it to this thank you celebration that is the only way we can honor all of you. We would still like to caravan on Sunday morning, or plan a group meeting spot near the walk, in order to hand out the t-shirts we have for our participants.

Prayer requests...there seem like so many this week. First and foremost, please pray that Ellie's little body can recover from her awful rash and that we can figure out exactly what she is allergic to. Also, we need guidance in this decision making process for Bennett's headstone. I just need those perfect words to come to us and say, "this is it!!!" Please pray that we have continued success with our business...it is the only reason I haven't had to go back to work yet. And please pray for Brandon as he travels and gains knowledge in order to help make him successful and confident in this new career. Please just pray for normalcy for our family. We hit the road running when our twins were born and we haven't slowed down yet...life doesn't slow down...and it's just plain hard to catch your breath sometimes.

Enjoy the new pics...and thanks for praying with us!