Home Sweet Home

We've had several busy, hectic days, but we're home at last. We headed to Missouri Wednesday afternoon and arrived at Grandma and Grandpa's house that evening. Elsie immediately dove into the toys and Claira got reaquainted with Papa and Grandma Rose too.




Thursday morning, I woke up feeling pretty terrible and was sure I'd developed a case of Mastitis overnight so I played phone tag with my doctor's office in Illinois and the pharmacy in Missouri trying to get a prescription. I had mastitis several times while pumping for Elsie and this is my second time while nursing Claira. If you've never had it, you don't want it! You basically feel like you've got the flu, you're exhausted, in pain, and you're either sweating or freezing...there's not a happy place. There's not much that makes me feel more awful than it does so coming down with it the day before my brother-in-law gets married wasn't exactly my idea of fun. Anyway, Thursday was not a lot of fun.

The best fun of the day was Claira taking her first bath in the big tub. She enjoyed it.



Friday was fun. Well, for the most part. The wedding was at the church we used to attend when we lived in Missouri so we were looking forward to seeing old friends, but the church is an hour's drive from Grandma and Papa's house. On our way there, the car started acting up, and we weren't sure if we were going to make it or not. Jason was a groomsmen in the wedding and had to be there at 2 p.m. for pictures, and the wedding didn't start until 5. That left me with 3 lovely hours to keep Claira happy and chase Elsie around. The time passed quickly though and before I knew it, the sanctuary was starting to fill up for the wedding. Moments before it started, Claira began to fuss, and I picked her up to change her position when the scent of her diaper hit my nose. I lifted the back of her dress up to reveal a mess. Great timing she's got. So, I scooped her up, took Elsie's hand, and found Jason in the hallway, already lining up. Great. By the time I had Claira cleaned up, most of the wedding party had already gone in, and we watched the bride enter from behind. Then, we had to wait until she was on stage before we could enter the sanctuary. When we finally made it to our seats, Claira found herself content to start squealing so we made our way back out to the foyer where applause let us know that Uncle Eric was now married rather than an exchange of "I Do's." We missed most of it. What we did manage to see was lovely. Randi was a beautiful bride. After the ceremony, everyone made their way through the receiving line and then outside to blow bubbles at the newlyweds. We got to have more pictures taken and then headed to the country club for the reception. Elsie had the most fun there as she danced the night away.

Here's Claira before the big diaper blowout:



Eric and Randi after the wedding:



Bubbles, bubbles!



On Saturday, we spent some time at the farm and then us girls visited Grandma Teresa while Jason went to a tractor pull with Papa Walt. We had a picnic dinner in the living room, Elsie tried on Papa's boots, and her and Grandma Teresa took a nice nap together.





On Sunday, our only plan was to pack up the car and head home, so that's what we did. Or, that's at least what we started to do. We got up, had breakfast, got dressed, packed the car, and started on our way. Jason had changed the fuel filter on Saturday and the car had been running fine since then. We got about an hour from the farm when the car started stalling again. So, we decided to turn around and head back to the farm. It took much longer to make it back as the car had trouble maintaining speed and kept losing power. We ended up calling Jason's parents to come rescue us, and we spent the rest of the day back at the farm...Jason and his dad changed the fuel pump and strainer, and we were finally on our way home shortly before 8 p.m. The car did fine the entire way home, and I haven't driven it since then, but I'm praying everything is A-okay with it.

One good thing about the day is that Uncle Brian dropped by the farm while we were there with Jackson and Chase so the girls got some play time with their cousins.