July 4th

Annie had a busy first 4th of July! I ended up getting the entire day off for low census at the hospital which made me SO unbelievably happy! We spent the morning with Michael and Cubbie playing in the house and being thankful that we could spend a holiday together! That afternoon, we were surprised with a visit from Grandma Purse and Great Grandma Purse! They brought us some nice treats and some cute new outfits for Annie. Poor Annie... I thought she was going to have to go naked for a while there. ;o)

Michael grilled some amazing chicken on the charcoal grill that afternoon. After dinner, Annie got to go for her first swim! She got to sport her patriotic two-piece (the first and last the Michael will let her wear I think...). She tolerated it. She did do a lot of kicking around in the water, however I'm not sure that she knew what was going on with the the "giant bath tub". But we had a blast! She only got to stay in for about 15 minutes because it will still a smoking hot 88 degrees at 7pm. Since the bugs here are man-eating and to protect her ears, we did not partake in the fireworks this year, but hope to next time!

Annie is still enjoying blowing her spit all over everyone in the near vicinity (the cute term for this is blowing raspberries, something we can thank Grandpa Shields for showing her!). She loves to do high-pitched squeals and laugh out loud at that silly brown hairy thing with a tail (AKA Cubbie). I am having trouble willing myself to make her do her tummy time since she wails about 3 minutes into it. However, I am fairly certain she isn't going to learn how to crawl in her bouncy seat or on my lap, so it's time to buck up and let her cry a little I think.

Work is supposed to be getting easier for me. That is what I'm told. :o) However, I still feel like I am abandoning her when I leave in the morning and even tho

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h it is just twice a week, it is miserable to just walk away from her! I can only imagine how this will multiply when I work her first Christmas... but such is life and as long as we do health insurance this way, such it will still be! On the other hand, I have never been happier in my life with so little. I don't care if I have nice clothes, or if we can eat somewhere nice once a month. I don't care if it's raining or if it's nice or if my house is a wreck (which is a big deal for me to not care about, just ask Michael!) I feel SO blessed happy and contented just to be with my daughter and my husband. Anywhere. Doing anything. Who knew life could be so rich and full... Happy 4th of July! Here's to hoping your holiday was full of reasons to be thankful to live in a free country!