Thanks for caring!

After receiving phone calls and hugs from several of you who read my last blog, I thought I better update you on my mental state! I actually felt much better after venting my frustration on my blog (I call it my blog therapy!), and by the time Paul got home from work I was over it (not crying anymore anyway!).
I also did some decorating therapy yesterday. I have been trying to get some pictures for some frames (that were abandoned here when we moved in) for weeks now. I decided to use the pictures of the kids' first time in the "ocean", and had a 1 hour order for 3 8 x 10s to a local (and shall remain nameless) pharmacy just down the road. To make a long story short (or maybe not so short afterall), the pictures got shuffled to the wrong place and they would not be able to do them, so 2 days later they had me send them to another branch still close to me and on the way to almost every place we go. I re-sent them over the computer and was told it would be 3-5 days to get them. Fine, just wanted to get them done while my sister and mom were here...fun to see the completion of a project. So, after 3 days I get an email that my pictures are ready. Stop in for them...not there, come back in a couple days. Couple days later, stop in...not there. Now they are getting alarmed and tell me to call back when the manager is there to try to figure out where my pictures are. We figure out they are on the way. Several more days later I get an automated phone call that my pictures are in the store. I send Paul by on his way home...not there!! I call the next day and they find them (now it has been 11 days since the order), woohoo! Seems they were looking in the 4 x 6 size pictures and not finding them. We went by after church later that night (a Saturday) and ...you guessed it...not there! Now they are really alarmed (and wanted to prevent me going postal in their store though I just laughed each time they told me they couldn't find them!), so they gave me a $25 gift card! I left with no pictures, but up $25!! Monday I gave them a call and they still couldn't figure out what had happened and asked me to save the pictures to a disk and bring that in to get it printed directly (why we didn't do this weeks ago, I don't know!). SO, I went in yesterday armed with my disk plus the disk of our family pictures our friend Ryan Prouty took (as seen in the collage) to get prints of those as well. It still took 2 trips to get it all right, but I got ALL the prints I wanted for FREE!! Plus the woman helping me yesterday happened to be the one there most of the days I went in, and she got the biggest kick out of choosing 5 or 6 extra pictures to print off for me including insisting on printing an 8 x 10 of the picture of Paul and I!!! I offered to pay for the other prints (besides the 3 in the botched order), but she wouldn't hear of it!! She kept saying, "Is there anything else you want, you're not paying!!" So, that was a fun boost of my spirits (and another comfirmation of God's provision for us!), and I went home and framed my pictures and got them hung:

Here are the "ocean" pictures. The left one is from the baptisms at the beach we went to weeks ago and the right one is the kids' first experience in March with the ocean.

And this collection resides in the living room/den above the chair I sit in most often to blog (because its close to the wireless router and gets a good signal!)

In addition to the blog therapy and decorating therapy, I also get to share great news that my friend Jeanie is expecting! She shared her news today with the unveiling of her own blog. Check her news and blog out at http://www.thekochanklan.blogspot.com/! I also added 3 other blogs to my blogroll today (and that is always a good thing)!!

So, again, thanks for your hugs, your comments, your prayers, your emails, and your phone calls. We will be victorious in this and are determined not to allow Satan even the tiniest bit of our territory! We love you all!