tribute to friends

I just want to thank all my wonderful friends! (And my awesome family too, but they are far away!)

In the last couple of days, I've gotten several calls a day from friends to see how I'm doing/feeling. Several friends have graciously offered to watch my girls while I get school work done. Today I took Aly up on that and my girls had a great time playing at her house this afternoon. It was so helpful. I have the first 3 weeks completely planned, the first 2 weeks or work almost totally copied and my classroom mostly set up now. If my baby were to be born in the next few days, I could go in for about 2 hours next week and be okay.

Not only did Aly watch my girls all afternoon but she baked us homemade bread (It was DELICIOUS!) and made rice krispies.

Carin and I cooked meals to freeze and then traded them so that we'd end up with 16 meals each. That was a huge help.

Shannon, Carin, Jaylynn, and Nene have all offered to watch the girls while I'm in the hospital. My friend Brenda, from work, has called to see how I'm feeling and is really helping me get ready and I know she will help my sub while I'm gone.

I'm sure I'm forgetting others who have called or offered to help. But I just want to say thank you to all of my friends for being so kind and helpful.

It's reminded me a lot of when Ella had her open heart surgery. That was scary, but I remember...even more than being scared... that I was overwhelmed by the kindness our friends, family and neighbors showed. So many people did/offered to do so many kind things. I felt like if I needed anything there was a list of people I could call. Every once in a while Alfredo will say, "Remember that other house that we looked at.... I really liked ______ about it." But I feel so grateful that we bought this house. The house itself isn't perfect, but I can't imagine living anywhere else. (I'm sure we would have made good friends anywhere we lived, but I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE our friends and neighbors here!)

Thank you!