Yes, I meant to blog all day yesterday, but I must have had a brain lapse. I never got around to posting pics of the week. Fortunately, Mandy took care of this for me! :) Yesterday, Mandy (have I mentioned lately how much I adore her!) picked up Ellie from school and spent the afternoon with her. The idea was to give me a break and for Mandy and Noah to have some quality time with Ellie. I think all of this was accomplished. However, I'm sure Mandy probably crashed last night! I know Ellie did. Check out Ellie's grand adventures on Mandy & Josh's blog.

Thanks Mandy for giving Ellie a wonderful day!! We all love you!

We have had one wild week around here, and it's only Wednesday! WOW!!! Yesterday, Ellie had a check-up at the dentist. Can I just say now that we absolutely adore Dr. Friend!?!? He is so awesome! The first time Ellie met him, she bit him. What a difference a year and a half make! He has been incredibly patient with Ellie and has caused her to absolutely love and look forward to going to his office. She was hysterical yesterday. She did convince the hygienist to cover her eyes with a towel. For some reason, she didn't want to see anything. Silly girl! There were no cavities this visit! Double Yippee!! She was awesome and let them take x-rays and then laid very still for a fluoride treatment. There was a little bribe involved: 2 toys from the toy box, a sticker, new toothbrush and her own copies of her x-rays. E was super thrilled. She took her x-rays to school today to share with her friends. By the way, you may have noticed in the pictures of Ellie losing a tooth that it looked like she had lost 2 teeth. She actually had 2 teeth in the space where there should have been 3 teeth! One tooth migrated over leaving a gap. Dr. Friend is pretty sure that there are now 2 permanent teeth coming in in the gap. He also told Ellie to get to wiggling those top front teeth - they are next on the list to come out! My toothless wonder - she's growing up!

This afternoon after we finally got home, I sat down to have a bowl of cereal since I missed lunch. Mollie wanted a bowl of rice krispies, so together we sat down at the table and "visited" about our day. Before I realized what was happening, Mollie was eating a spoonful of cereal and then giving Gidget (our dog!) a spoonful of cereal. Yes, she was using the same spoon!! Gross!!! Oh, well. Hopefully, she will survive! Kids!

Today was my second visit to Dr. Baltz, my new hematologist. After waiting for a few hours, I was told that my levels are rising! Yippee!! The nurse said that one of my levels (I'm very challenged when it comes to medical terms) showed that my body was actually storing iron! This is very good news. Dr. Baltz was very pleased with the progress I have made in the past 12 days since my infusion. If I understood correctly, I actually have increased the amount of blood that I have. I was so thrilled to finally be finished that I didn't ask any questions. Fortunately, I don't have to go back for 6 weeks.

It's strange to think that by the time I go back to see Dr. Baltz I will be about 5 weeks from delivering Annie and Mollie will have turned 2!

Thanks to all of you for your prayers! I can't tell you how much I appreciate you all checking on me and praying!!

I came home from Texas and discovered that Ellie had a very, very loose tooth! Brian didn't want anything to do with it. After a little persuasion, I talked Ellie into letting me wiggle it with a wet wash cloth. While I wiggled it, I quickly and very easily pulled it out. We both laughed. Ellie cried until she realized that it didn't hurt. Once she realized how exciting this was, she wanted to call everyone. She talked to Nannie, Pawpaw, Mimi, Papa Jim, Mamaw, Mom and Papa! She was thrilled. We sent text messages to Mandy, Caleb, Micah, Kelsey and Stephanie. This was a very exciting day for Ellie!

A very belated Happy Valentine's Day from the Bennetts! (We celebrated a day early b/c I spent the weekend in Whitehouse, TX, with Karen and her new baby. Brian was a sweetie to let me go!) We started our day with our annual gift exchange. Ellie loved her Barbie and collection of fun items for the ever-popular dollar section at Target & Michael's. Mollie loved her Super Sleuth Tigger and her variety of items. :) Brian is waiting on his new books to be shipped from CBD. Brian outdid himself once again. He got me the "Annie" charm for my necklace and an emerald tennis bracelet. Emerald is Annie's birthstone. He is so thoughtful! He always amazes me!! Before school on Friday, we took our annual Valentine's Day picture. This year, the girls were modeling their matching V-Day t-shirts from ABHS. Mollie was thrilled to be dressed like a big girl. :)

Mollie had her Valentine's Day party at First Kids Day Out on Thursday. She had a great time and loved all the sweets! Ellie's party was Friday. She had a really good time passing out Valentine's to all her friends.

Tonight during the Arkansas Baptist High School basketball games, the school honored the members of the 1997 and 1999 State Championship Basketball Teams. Josh, the oldest of my brothers played on the 1997 team and attended this reunion. So, we all loaded up to support him.

I have to admit that it was a lot of fun to watch him and to see some of his friends again. You see, beginning Josh's freshman year in HS, he began dressing out for the varsity basketball games. I was a senior, so we often went to the games together. I really enjoyed having him around and getting to spend time with him. I had the privilege of watching tons of his games. I always loved going and enjoyed the time I got with my dad driving to and from the games. I was there to watch his State Championship game. It was definitely a privilege.

Josh (middle of the pic with the white polo) and several members of his team and the championship team from 1999.

A couple of pics from the week...

Mollie desperately wanted to play My Friends Tigger and Pooh on the computer like Sissy had done. Daddy came home just in time....

The roller coaster of life in our little world has continued on, often faster than I would have liked at times. The Lord has been reminding me all week that HE is in control, not me. I am very much an in control, all my ducks in a row, kind of person. I like things to be in order, but don't look at my house right now!

I have been content in the little world that God created for us for some time now. One of the matters of prayer that we have had but that I have not worried about is our health insurance. About the time that the Verizon purchase of Alltel was completed, we (Alltel employees) were notified that our health insurance would be changing. WHAT? This is so not good. I kept thinking you have got to be kidding me! The change would be effective April 1st. Baby Annie is not due until May and my doctor was not on the Cigna list. Serious problem! I asked the Lord several weeks ago to take care of it. I had honestly forgotten about it until this morning.

Well, as He always does, God took care of it! Brian called me today while I was in line to get Ellie from school. They had been notified that Health Advantage HMO, our insurance, had been added to the Verizon Health Insurance plan for Arkansas employees!! Go God! Yeah!!! This is especially exciting this week because I found out on Monday that I will need to start seeing a hematologist to receive iron injections to help with my anemia. I was able to get my referral from my PCP today. It only took an hour! God is answering our prayers and taking care of us better than we could have EVER imagined. Now, we don't have to take new insurance cards to our doctor and deal with all of that hassle!

Be still and know that I am God....

This weekend marked yet another project in our house. Brian was off work on Friday and worked on painting the doors in our upstairs hallway. The goal has been to paint all the bedroom and closet doors as well as the trim. As he does this, he's been replacing the door knobs. It is now much easier for Mollie to open the doors! The two doors on the list for this weekend were those to Ellie's and Mollie's rooms. Friday night, Ellie slept on a pallet in our bedroom, and Mollie slept with me. Ellie said that she just couldn't sleep in her room when their wasn't a door! :) Last night, Brian rehung the doors. Praise the Lord! The girls both slept in their own rooms. It was wonderful! However, as Brian finished up hanging the doors and was working on fixing Ellie's closet door, Ellie fell asleep in her bed; and Mollie fell asleep on the couch. We couldn't resist taking Mollie's picture. It was too cute. She was laying on the couch watching TV. I saw her feet come over the side. Then, she didn't move a muscle.

What a sweetie! It's been a long weekend. :) Hopefully this week will find us getting back to our normal routine.