Week 29!

The Good, The Bad, and The "Find my kids a replacement mom because I am blowing it!"

So, lets start with the "good" this week. On Wednesday, Dawsyn was in the Little Miss pageant for our local festival. I'm sure many remember when I was the "Soy Bean Queen" back in 1996 (the dark ages according to my children). Anyway, Dawsyn was old enough and decided that she wanted to try out for the same festival in the Little Miss division. So, Wednesday, we got her all dressed up and she got on stage (horrible cold and all) and did a great job. Then, last night, she got to ride through the parade and get on stage again and found out that she was crowned "Little Miss 2nd attendant". She is so excited because she gets to ride on the float and be in parades and wear her sash and crown. We were very happy for her (well, ok, I was happy for her, Shawn was like--"what is this going to cost me?"). I included pics from the event.

The "bad"--well, it isn't really bad, it's more "sad". My baby boy turned 8 on Sunday! I just can't believe how fast it has gone. He doesn't have that little boy look at all anymore. In fact, he is losing all of that "chubbiness" and is even getting a little chiseled face! :( He had a great birthday except that I was very sick, but we still tried to make it special for him. Shawn took him to Perkin's Observatory to look through the giant telescope--he was so excited that he could see Jupiter. I took him to the Lego store and he picked out a "Star Wars" set. It was great! I included some pics of my little man too. I think his favorite present was the George Bush figure that says some of Bush's "best" quotes when you press the button. Such a little Republican! :)

Now--the horrible part of our week. It actually turned out fine, but was the scariest 15 minutes of my life! On Tuesday night, we were sending the kids to bed, Drew was finishing homework and Shawn was working on something in the laundry room. I watched the younger three walk upstairs, but then sat down to help Drew. Shawn yelled up to them to get in bed and we would be up in a minute. About two minutes later, Shawn goes upstairs and shortly after, I hear him yell down-"Jill, send Dax up". I yelled back up that Dax was already up there. I heard Shawn begin to walk around upstairs looking for Dax. So, I get up and start looking for him around the downstairs. This went on for about five minutes until all-out panic struck our entire family. The other kids then got out of bed and we are all running around the house and screaming, "DAX!" at the top of our lungs! It was horrible. The kids were crying at this point and saying, "Please Dax, we love you" and "we lost a kid!". We would all yell and then wait and there was nothing but silence. Shawn ran outside to look. I started looking in places like the washer and dryer. We just didn't know what to do, until finally we hear Delaney say, "I found him!" But there was still no noise, so Shawn and I both frantically run into Delaney's bedroom and pull back the little curtain that hangs from Dawsyn's bed and there, all curled up in a ball between Delaney's bed and the wall, and under Dawsyn's slide, was Dax. He just looked at us and said, "Boo!" Then, when he saw our faces, he started to cry too. I couldn't even be mad at him, I just hugged him and all the kids hugged him and we all decided that, even though it was a school night, it would be a good night for a camp-out in Mommy and Daddy's room! Ever since then, the kids have been watching Dax like a hawk. He isn't allowed to go upstairs unless he is holding one of their hands (Drew and Dawsyn created this rule!). So, overall, a very interesting week. It ends today with my 10 year wedding anniversary which is nothing compared to the roller coaster our every-day lives are!