Where did the week go?!?!

Wow, I can't believe tomorrow is Friday...ALREADY! The first two days of this week were spent holding Ella for nearly 48 hours straight! I don't mind doing that typically, but I got absolutely nothing done for 2 whole days and felt like a complete couch potato. Mom & Dad were so great to watch the girls for us Saturday when we went to A-Day, but they said they had to hold Ella all day or else she fussed. This is not typical around here! She's normally totally content napping in her swing which gives me some free time. But...sure enough...I had to hold her A LOT the first few days of this week. (This also made blogging difficult (actually impossible!).

When I went to the gym Wednesday night, it had been nearly a week since I had worked out. I was feeling totally frumpy & didn't want to weigh in but I remembered my commitment to do so on the blog. Thankfully, I hadn't gained any. Whew! I'm still feeling rather frumpy though since I haven't been able to work out as frequently this week.

Tomorrow we are hosting a birthday playdate for Taylor! She wants a Mickey Mouse birthday party, so we'll get a Mickey Cake for her party at the Watermelon Patch next weekend...but, we're keeping this playdate simple. We'll be serving hot dogs, chips, and rice krispy treats (I'll stick a candle in one for her to blow out!). It will be a pink theme--pink plates, pink rice krispy treats made with strawberry marshmallows, tortilla chips with pink dip (salsa & sour cream mixed together) and I'll made a pink dipping sauce for the hot dogs (ketchup, mustard, & mayo mixed together). All this topped off with pink lemonade! The funny thing is...there will only be 1 other little girl from our playgroup attending...the rest of them are BOYS! Oops! :)

We used our new Kirby vaccuum cleaner to shampoo the carpets tonight! It turned out really well considering how terrible our carpets looked!!

After getting the abdormal results from Ella's newborn screen done in the hospital, we received a letter about 2 months ago saying they had collected "insufficient amount of blood was collected" for her repeat newborn screen done in the doctors office. I thought...you have to be kidding! After the situation with the cystic fibrosis testing, I surely thought we were done with the newborn screen. Well, here we are & Ella will be 3 months old next week. Yesterday, we got another letter in the mail saying we needed to bring her in for the newborn screen for...you guessed it..."insufficient amount of blood was collected"! Oh, man! So, I guess I'll need to take her back for that again.

Scott is leaving for Talladega at 6 in the morning. I don't like staying home alone, so the girls and I have a weekend slam-packed with activities!

Mom and I are responsible for bringing refreshments to our Esther Bible study. We really went back and forth trying to decide on what to prepare. Mom is going to make a spinach salad with mandarin oranges, almonds, feta cheese, and poppy seed dressing and a fruit trifle. I'm sure both will be delish! I'm making a pasta salad and chocolate chip pie.

We only have 2 more lessons of our study. I have enjoyed it so, so much. Along with the Ester study, I've been listening to Beth Moore's online study from the website I posted awhile back--http://www.oneplace.com. There are just so many things God is teaching me through both studies. This week, as I was listening online, Beth was teaching about holiness--that we are to be holy. God calls us to be holy. You might ask...how am I supposed to be holy!? The only holiness within us comes from the Holy Spirit, nothing of ourselves. So, you must be filled with His Spirit. Another thing that hit me, I actually laughed out loud when I heard this, was that we are called to "other than this world"--set apart. She said we are called to be the "Others"! Now, if you're a fan of the show Lost, you might get a kick out of that like I did! I've really been praying about and thinking about what that means to be an "other". I've also been thinking about how I can best minister to others. I want everything I do, everything I say, and every way I behave to point to my Lord Jesus.

Sorry this post was so random, there was just so much I missed out on writing about this week!

I hope to be more consistent next week. I hope everyone has a great weekend! :)