Okay, this morning I have been a total bum. I decided to find the photographer that a high school classmate is friends with and did a wonderful job capturing the personalities of her family. I have not been good about taking family pictures. Why, you ask? Well, for one, they are usually a lot amount of money. Two, what if my hair doesn't turn out (I know, that ones selfish!). Three, where would we take them? I don't want studio type pictures so you have to pick a location. So anyway, I found the blog of this photographer (she's on blogspot too) and started reading. I've laughed, cried, been humbled and felt normal all in this short time of reading her blog. I really don't know her, but love her. Not in some stalker kind of way, she just kind of sounds like me (i.e. to get out the door she has to remind her kids over and over to do the same thing and then yells when they don't do them) and I love the way she writes her blog ~ mostly all positives. Every once in awhile her posts are just a list of the things she loves (characteristics, feelings, etc.) about her children, individually. She'll have a cool picture of them and that is followed with the list. In light of reading her blog and feeling somewhat uplifted, I am reminded of Chris' wish for us this year. To be positive. It sounds simple, but in this economy (and LONG winter) it's more difficult than I thought. Case in point, we ran into some friends yesterday at Target and I start out the conversation with complaints about this and that. Chris reminded me (when we were at home, thankfully) :-) that no one wants to hear another person complaining. So true. . .I used to be always happy-go-lucky but this winter (maybe some hormones too) are taking there toll on me lately and Chris is somewhat afraid to ask me what's wrong. . . Not a good way to live! So, I've added some new tools or something, I forget what they are called. The first is a funny quote thing. Hard to be crabby when you are laughing. The second, I just thought was cool is a webcam thing that will show different shots from all around the world. This can be beneficial because if you see a place you are enjoying, (according to the directions) you can click on it and it will take you to that webcam (on the blog, it flashes through different locations). You can dream about being in that place or maybe the weather is crappy there and it will make you grateful for where you are :-) You see, I feel better already ~ helping you be happy! LOL

I bet you are wondering about Brayton. Last night after his crying out, Chris called the ER (too late for any fast clinic) to see if it would be worth our while to drive all the way to the other side of Rochester for a visit or if we should just wait until today (Chris gave him Tylenol). The nurse finally called back and said if he was sleeping, to let him be. I set up the baby monitor (yes I still have it ~ the boys do sleep all the way downstairs!) so we could hear him better if he was having more pain in the night. He slept fine and actually slept in a little this morning. His throat was looking just a little swollen and he said it didn't hurt. We are crossing our fingers and praying that it's all over. I'm thinking today if he feels up to it to go to the sledding hill as a fun family thing. It's sunny, so we better remember our sunscreen!