Message from Queen M

A lot of things have gone on in the last week!! In fact, I sit here tonight wondering where the time goes!! You blink twice and a whole week is past. Thursday was by far our busiest day around here. I started my day on only 4 hours of sleep after a long/short night of call. Did the big family planning clinic. I am still loving that. It is a different kind of work, a little different than the regular routine. And is something fresh. I work with women from age 15 (and yes, they think they qualify as women) to age 51 (my oldest client so far). A client I worked with recently has been having sex since she was 13--which is totally apalling to me, especially since I will have a 13 year old in about 4 months. I no longer freak out when I look in a throat and am greeted by a strange looking foreign body pierced thru their tongues. And I have to smile when I see the closed up belly button rings and have to wonder if they weren't too impressed with the appearance of that ring when they were nine months pregnant! My advice to every woman seems to be different--with not much rhyme or reason to it, and I have to think that God is surely in control of my tongue, choosing words that will be important to each lady in an individual way. This next Thurs, a gal from the the state health department will be here to observe my work throughout the day--I am a little nervous about that, but I know it will go fine. We ran late that day, so I met the guys in the driveway and jumped in with them to get to an appreciation pancake supper and then on to the 5-8th grade program. The boys did a great job. Their bands are coming along well and it is fun to hear the older grades singing in male/female two part harmony! I love music and vocal stuff so much--I enjoy watching them learn! And it should be more fun for their Christmas and church specials. D hated every minute of the program--I think he might get that from his dad,who by the way stood outside the door for the entire program while C played in the hall! D's kindergarten teacher sat behind us and encouraged D to show me the project they had been working on in class, which she had hung on the wall that day. He was so proud to take me down there to check it out. They were working on the letter Q so they had made portraits of their moms who were the "queens of their hearts." Of course, they were all beautiful with their string hair, interesting eyes, and some moms even had a LOT of lovely teeth in their mouths (thank God, not mine!) They had impressive crowns with glitter all over them. D boasted "I just dumped the glitter on mine!" He knows how much his mom LOVES "bling" His teacher said he was pretty worried about getting my yarn hair curled up just "so."
Friday I went with my inlaws to Wichita to be there when my father-in-law had his heart cath. Bless his heart, the procedure was to be at 1:00 pm and he couldn't have any food or drink. He was miserable--they finally got him in around 2:30. The cardiologist was pleased with how things looked. One of the original 5 bypasses had closed but re-routed itself and was supplying the heart with good blood circulation. The other bypasses were clear and all looked good! J brought the kids after school was out. They made it in time for supper and Rog even got to go home Fri night, we thought he would stay till Sat or Sun--as they were pretty sure that he would need an intervention (stent, balloon). After the kids were tucked in, I went all by myself across the street to do my grocery shopping at the new Dillions store. Oh how fun it is to browse slowly thru the aisles to see all the cool things for sale!
Saturday we drove to Kingman for the 4-H regionals. T and his ensemble of girls performed and received a blue rating. They really did a good job. Hoping my friend can get me a copy of the performance (all 3 minutes of it) to put up for you to see. We then went back to Wichita to finish shopping. It was a good trip.
Today was Sunday school and church. I always feel sorry for whoever we sit around in church. C is so distracting I worry that no one can pay attention. She loves interacting with everyone, and is really not choosy. She'll go to anyone and is usually passed from one person to the next. A couple weeks ago, she sat on the lap of a grandpa in the seat behind us and read him a book, loudly! We kept trying to shush her. Finally I stuck a mini M and M in her mouth. She went from babbling to going MMM, MMM, MMM--like chewing out loud. You could see countless people shaking as they giggled. The people with grown children (which is most of them) always say how nice it is to have the "noise" in the church. I know when the kids are gone, I will look forward to those noises again too! At least they are mostly happy noises.
Well, about time for bed to rest up for the new week. Only 5 more days until spring! We are EXCITED! Hope this finds all well, have a great week. M