Marlo's Memo

      As I sat here listening to Gov. Abbott tell us the plan for opening the state of Texas, I could see our daughter, who is a senior, standing across the room. When Gov. Abbott mentioned schools will be closed for the rest of the year, her shoulders dropped a little. Then when he talked about graduation, or at least some type of plan for it, her shoulders and countenance dropped even more knowing graduation will most likely not happen as she planned. It was the first time I had seen her feelings about this in physical form.              Yes, I hurt for her. I know she wants to wear her cap and gown. She wants to decorate the top of that mortar board so we can “find” her in the sea of black gowns and matching caps. She was excited to receive her graduation package back in March – two days before spring break, two days before her senior year ended, two days before her life of primary education ended. None of us knew those things then, but we have anticipated the announcement confir

It has been a beautiful day...wonderful temps, sunny yet partly cloudy, great weather for playing outside this afternoon and evening which is what our children did for hours. We decided to sit outside to eat dinner tonight. After we finished, our children continued to play. Randy and I sat out there and read while laughter filled the air -ours and our kids'. What a wonderful way to spend our evening...what a wonderful start to our Easter week-end. BUT is that even a good thing to say on this Good Friday? Good Friday. Think back to the story of that Friday, when Christ was betrayed, wrongly accused and convicted, sentenced to crucifixion, beaten, crucified, then He died. It might have been a beautiful day of weather where the children could play outside, where people went about their business, where it was seemingly a normal day... BUT on that Friday evening, Jesus was dead and buried in a tomb. The remaining disciples, one of whom had denied even knowing Jesus, we're huddle

I'm missing my husband today. Yesterday, he embarqued on a journey to Africa. Ghana to be exact. It's his first time to travel there, and I am very excited for him. At first, my thoughts of this trip were along the lines of, "What are we going to do without him here? How will I be able to manage being a single mom of sorts while he's gone? I'm not going to sleep well. I'll be exhausted." etc. Looking back at each of those comments, what I notice is selfishness. I was completely consumed with ME! "Poor, pititful me" BOO HOO! Call the "Waaaambulance". Seriously. That's what was running through my mind. Then, I realized that my routine is going to be basically the same. I'll eat foods I like...and know what they are. I'll sleep in my own bed, have running water...hot and cold. I'll have safe water to drink. I'll see a mosquito and not worry about malaria. I'll kiss my kids every night and morning.

Here I am just a little over 14 days until Sutton's c-section date, and my emotions are weird, again! I am so excited to have her here to hold her, kiss her, watch her being loved on and hugged on by Sydney and Micah. It is just so exciting!!! However, at the same time, I'm sad. I've come to realize that this the last time I'll be pregnant...which is something I truly enjoy. So the "mixed" part is that I don't want her to come out just yet. I want to continue to feel her kicking and moving around on the inside. It's such an amazing feeling that only God could create! So that is where I am. Pray for me, please. Both are strong emotions right now. My other concern is I don't want to go through post-partum like I did with Sydney. Thanks for reading this one =)

Micah is doing great with using the potty. We still, however, put him in a diaper overnight. Sometimes he's dry in the morning. Sometimes he's not. Last night he wanted to wear his underwear. I was reluctant. Randy asked him what he would do if he needed to go tee-tee during the night. M: "I ' feeze ' it" R: "What?" M: "I feeze ' it" I thought maybe he was saying "reach" because he uses an f instead of an r, so we asked. R: "Reach it?" M: "No. ' Feeze ' it" R: "Do you mean freeze it?" M: "Yes" We still had no idea what that meant but were already laughing. R: "Like the cops say "freeze" and you hold your hands up?" M: "Yes. I say ' feeze ' and go in there and go potty" as he pointed to the bathroom. We all laughed hysterically !!

My day started early...well I just didn't sleep well. My stomach hurt. I still haven't figured out why. It's something to do with a little Miss Sutton in there. At 6:38 am on this Saturday morning, I had to go potty - not unusual since I'm 33 weeks pregnant. When I got back in bed, I still could not get comfy. Randy snuggled up behind me and put his hand on my "bouncing" tummy. We just lay there for a while feeling Sutton kick, squirm, flip, jump, karate chop - this is at least what it felt like! He finally said, "She's doing cartwheels this morning. Can you sleep when she does that?" I laughed and said no. I had just been lying there smiling. I like it when he gets to feel her move. So that's how the Daddy/Daughter day started. Daddy "feeling" his youngest girl move and say "Good Morning World"...she may be just like him in the mornings =) At 3:40 pm, our doorbell rang. It was Daddy coming to pick up Sydney