Back From The Windy City

My lack of posting has not been due to laziness on my part. I was in Chicago from Tuesday until yesterday at a Children's Ministry Conference. I went with a group from church and was supposed to fly back into town on Friday night. Due to some weather, I was stuck in Albuquerque with a friend and ended up not arriving until Saturday night around 9:00pm. Luckily, my in-laws live there and we were able to stay there. It was kind of nice, actually, because my parents-in-law took really care of us and we just spent the day doing nothing! Then, the flight to Amarillo on Saturday was an hour delayed. Of course I could have updated my blog yesterday, but that would have interfered with my three-hour nap.

The conference was fabulous. I'm working on a blog post in my head to put all my thoughts in some kind of order and I'll post that as soon as I get it together. It may take me a few days, but I'll be sure to think about it while I'm working on the mound of laundry that I have to do. Thankfully, that does not include any of my children's clothes. My sweet sister-in-law, Paige, who kept the children while I was gone, sent all of their clothes home clean! What a blessing!! Aren't other moms great?! Unfortunately, Brad and I continued to wear clothes so I'm not totally in the clear, but it's not so overwhelming.

It certainly feels great to be home. I was really glad that Phoebe put off her walking until I got home. After that, though, no holes were barred. She started taking multiple steps last night at small group. Of course, she had already taken a step or two, but this was five and six and seven steps in row! Then she started standing up herself and walking. I'm so excited and sad at the same time. It's always exciting to see your child walk for the first time, but I'm already grieving the fact that her "crippled crawl" (she crawls funny...I have a video, but I haven't posted it, yet) is on it's way out. In a week or two, she'll never crawl like that again. One of the girls at small group told Brad last night, "Today she's taking two steps, tomorrow she'll be walking down the aisle." I think that brought Brad up short since he is never one to expend emotional energy on things that you don't have to think about right now. It's both a blessing and curse. But she's right and it makes me tired. At least I can still comfort myself with the fact that Phoebe wanted me to hold her ALL DAY LONG yesterday! I'd put her down and she would fall into a heap on the floor in desperation. It's nice to be appreciated.

I have some precious pictures from Brad's iphone to post on the blog, but the computer and the iphone are not on speaking terms so it might be a few more days. I'll be sure to take some pictures today so there will not be a grandparent revolt!