Catch-up, catch-all.

Goodness but things are hopping around here. I thought the first 6 weeks were rough, but it turns out the second 6 may actually kill me. Dead. Gone.

I'll just give you a little taste of what's happening down here in Texas. Our ten-year-old niece Alison has been here since last Sunday. We're having a blast with her. She's polite, funny, chill, amiable and easy-going. We've had a week positively FILLED with swimming, swimming and more swimming. We've also been baking, cooking and baby-kissing. That's mostly because Claire just begs to be kissed 24/7. Alison and Andrew are out on the town right now, hunting for boxes and getting some late-evening items ticked off the list. (I'll bet that includes Sonic.)

"Boxes?" you query? Well, that's because we're moving in ONE WEEK. Our closing was pushed up just enough to allow us to move next weekend instead of two weeeks from now, so we're furiously packing to try to get into the new house before Nina and Lilly show up on the 12th. It would be nice not to have to move right in the middle of their visit.

Mom C arrives tomorrow morning, which will be a HUGE blessing to us this week. She seriously couldn't have picked a more perfect week to visit. I have doctors appointment and we'll be packing all week, and I know I'll really appreciate having an extra set of hands around here. The girls are all just completely jazzed about picking her up at the airpoort in the morning!

We're also dealing with a very weird illness right now, that may or may not be related to previous health issues. I've had a pretty rough recovery from having Claire, and now we're seeing a few more things crop up that are starting to affect my quality of life. It's been pretty hard to do my part around here over the past week, and now the odd symptoms are just starting to really take a toll. I'm hoping that my visit to the doctor on Wednesday will reveal something. I'm in the middle of a few tests now and am waiting for results, and am trying a new drug to see if that works. What I'm dealing with is actually a side effect/infection from a previous drug for my abcess, so it's kind of a blind stab at anything that'll work. I'm so lucky that this is all happening now, as Andrew's time off and our visitors are working out well to distract the girls while I'm getting this all taken care of. I'm really, really praying that my new doctor will be able to shed some light on what's going on and get this under control. I'm just not used to being sick and fatigued and my mental state is starting to suffer. (As if it were stable to begin with...)

We're going up to Roanoke tomorrow night for some 4th of July fun - I think we'll do 5pm Mass and then head up after that. It's going to be incredibly hot tomorrow, so we need to plan accordingly! We're going to meet some friends and try to catch the fireworks before the entire family falls apart. Yeah...it does seem like a gamble at this point...

Well, Claire has decided that she's not QUITE ready for bed yet. Off to snuggle the little darling a little longer!