In a month's time...

It's been a month. While I want to keep all of you wonderful readers updated on us, I do feel it's more important to live life than write about it. But since I've kept you all in suspense for so long, here's a post. :)

June was a rough month. Grandma passed away. A week later, my wonderful aunt lost her mom. The next day, Uncle Don passed away. A week after that, the same aunt lost her dad. Other friends have lost parents and grandparents. This is not a fun part of life, but the longer we live and the more people we love, the more inevitable it becomes. Thankfully, the streak seems to be over for now. Too much death for my liking.

Nora is getting more steady and is almost running. The way she toddles after her sisters is adorable. Less adorable is the way she stands on the couch and giggles when we sternly tell her to sit down. She's talking a bit now and jabbers a LOT. She says bye and waves at people until they actually close the door. A few times people have tried to wait for her to stop doing it to leave and ended up standing in the doorway for a while. She also says "tickle tickle tickle" while tickling her stuffed animals. And she LOVES to give hugs and kisses. To people, toys, food, inanimate objects. She's becoming a ham too, which is fun.

Ella and Mia are doing a sports camp at the park this month. It's twice a week for three weeks. Ella loved Tuesday. Mia stayed close to me and Nora, but says she'll play soccer tomorrow. I hope so, because I think she'd have fun. They're both getting so tall. They are less and less my babies and more and more little girls. I still can't believe Ella is going to start school this fall.

I can't remember if I mentioned it here, but I was having what appeared to be gallbladder issues a while back. After an ultrasound, my doctor determined it was my stomach. He wrote a prescription with instructions for me to call back if I continued to have issues. The prescription worked...until it ran out the same day as my grandma's funeral. Not good if it was at all stress related. So I'm back on the prescription and saw a gastroenterologist last week and had an endoscopy this morning. Big scary words to say he put a camera down my throat to see what the problem is with my stomach. No cancer, no ulcers, but I have a hiatal hernia and an inflamed stomach. I'm off caffeine, my prescription is now twice a day instead of once, and the head of our bed is now six inches higher than the foot. This should solve my issues within a few weeks. Decaf coffee it is.

Annie and Thomas came to visit for a few weeks. They are having a girl (yeah, I know, all girls, can't we produce a boy, blah blah blah. We <3 girls and are happy with our healthy, beautiful girls) and had a shower while they were here. Jonathan also came home for a weekend. It was good to see all three of them. Sarah will be back in a few weeks and Leslie will be coming to visit for a week and a half soon after that. I miss them both and can't wait to see them too. I do wish Paul could come too, but I'll take whatever family members can come.

There's not much else to report. Life is busy. We bought a kiddie pool, which the girls LOVE. Ella is a junior techie already and changed the tablet's language to Japanese. Mia usually has a tiara or ring or necklace on, if not a full-blown princess outfit. My class is still usually just me and Kristy but I have faith that it will grow. I got the word out on a few community calendars and I keep wearing my shirt and telling people about it. Steve seems to be learning his new position and (mostly) enjoys the challenge. Other than my stomach issues, we've been healthy. Life is good, just busy. Hopefully next time I'll have something witty or profound to say. Today I'll leave you with this: focus on what is important. Family, faith, revitalizing relationships, your passions. Drama, the lawn, the latest technology, your pride, the car you drive - these are not of real importance. Focus on the lasting things.