If I knew then what I know now,
I would have worried less about what other people thought.

If I knew then what I know now,
I would have made better financial decisions.

If I knew then what I know now,
I would have tried more of some things and less of others.

If I knew then what I know now,
I would have never worked at that one place.
(You know the one.)

If I knew then what I know now,
I would have believed in myself
and been confident in the person I was becoming.

And if I knew then what I know now,
I would have told myself to dream big;
expect the unexpected;
and remember that the past is worth remembering,
the future is worth anticipating,
but what really counts is the right here, right now.

I would have told myself to breathe deeply,
drink in every moment,
and be  happy.

I’m glad that even though I can’t go back and tell myself those things,
That there was someone, my special someone,
Who loved me enough to tell me these things when I needed to hear them.

Marshall, thank you for telling me and teaching me and loving me.

It’s been the best 9 years of my life, and I can’t wait for more.

P.S.  Your head is not nearly as oddly shaped as this picture makes it look.  Just sayin’.

Today was the tea party.

The only thing that made it a tea party was the fact that we served tea (and pink lemonade).
(Because really?  What’s a sunny day without any lemonade?)

But she wanted to call it a tea party, so we did.

And one of her friends couldn’t come because her brother was at home sick.

But we had fun making chinese lanterns
(which I thought everyone made in preschool but discovered that I’m the only 30-40 year old who’s ever made them).

The food was fresh and yummy.

And the impromptu water fun was a plus!

But the best part was finishing off an entire box of Push-Pops,

which somebody really liked!

So what fun thing did you do this Friday?

I’ve wanted to join in on the “You Capture” fun for a while, but never got around to doing it. When I saw that this week’s theme was feet, I couldn’t resist. Some of you know, some of you don’t: Carter has what we call “special feet”. He only has 8 toes-5 on one foot, 3 on the other. We don’t know why or how or what will happen as he grows, but as of now he wears two drastically different sized shoes. The leg of his “little foot” is shorter than his other leg. The current plan is to do nothing about it. When he gets bigger and starts to hit a big growth spurt, he’ll have surgery to stunt the growth of the longer leg so that the legs can even out in length. (At least that’s the plan for now. Unless they come up with a better option by then.)

Because of this we talk about feet a lot in our house.
There are times when Lydia has actually come to tears because she has 10 toes!

I’ve never seen Carter cry about only having 8.
At this point, he doesn’t even seem to notice or care that his foot is different from everyone else’s.

You know he’s having fun when the shoes come off!

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Also?  Gratuitous photo of baby feet.

See more of our “feets” here.

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Today hasn’t been good.
I’m sick.
So are all of the kids.
This is the first time we’ve all been sick at the same time.
Luckily, they are faring better than I am.
We’ve been lazy all day, watching TV and eating nothing but muffins and pancakes.

All day Carter, Lydia, Asa and my headache have all been volleying for attention.
And I’m afraid that  I showed partiality towards the headache…and the nausea.

They’ve cried.
I’ve cried.
I slept some.
They slept some.
Not always at the same time.
(Thank you, Playhouse Disney!)

I found myself getting very frustrated with them all today.
And I had to keep reminding myself that they don’t feel good either.
They are tired and achey and feeling yucky too.
I had to keep reminding myself that I’m the adult here.
I need to be nice, not lose my temper, not get frustrated.

But it’s hard.

I don’t want to be the grown-up today.

My mom stopped by this afternoon and brought treats for everyone, buoying all of our spirits.
Giving proper germ-free hugs and kisses, she made us all feel better.
Now for a good night’s rest and hopefully we’ll all be as good as new tomorrow!