Good eaters and other blessings

I'm blessed with good eaters. The kids are not picky, and will eat just about anything we serve them. The key with these guys is variety. They like to have more than one or two things on their plates (don't we all?). Tonight, Daniel was eating his chili using tostitos as little scoopers. He can eat a whole bowl of chili using the same 4 chips, they start to get a little soggy after a while, though. When he was done with his chips, he was using his lettuce to sop up the remaining liquid in his bowl. It was slightly gross to watch him dipping pieces of radicchio in his chili bowl. The kids helped me make salad tonight. They put in a few different types of lettuce, some carrots, some chopped radishes and then topped it off with some crunchy sesame noodles.

Because the kids will eat just about anything we put in front of them, I've had to hide a certain little plate from them tonight. Our neighbors just got back from vacation and they brought over a little plate of cookies from Mike's Pastry, a favorite pastry shop in the North End of Boston. Keith and I used to live one street over from Mike's when I was pregnant with Joshua. I would be willing to bet that most of my pregnancy weight came from Mike's Pastry (and the other part from Pizzaria Regina). So anyhow, now I have this nice little plate of cookies in the kitchen that I totally plan on devouring tonight while I study for my Health Assessment class.

Speaking of studying....I scored 3 really good nursing reference books that someone who dropped out of the nursing program donated to the Salvation Army. I ran in there today to drop off a few more things, and the lady knew me from the clinic and asked if I wanted them for no charge. I was thrilled - so for 75 cents I got 1-2-3 Magic (which I currently have checked-out of the library, talk about a coincidence, I've been wanting to read it again for a while) and 3 nursing texts (a care plan guide, a new A&P book, and the newest addition of Maternal/Child Nursing). Each of the texts are copywrited from 2006 or newer, which makes them newer than my 10 year old set of nursing texts that I think I've been hanging onto them for sentimental reasons.

And speaking of college nearly 10 years ago. I got the most exciting phone call the other night. Our entire community has been praying for a mom that was recently sent off island because she was found to have a brain tumor. The husband is stationed here and knows Keith. So I get this phone call from the husband the other night giving an update to how she's doing (which is fabulous, absolutely fabulous) and then he says, "hold on, there's someone here who wants to talk to you"....it was a friend that Keith went to highschool with and that I went to college with. We've recently in the past couple of years really began to nurture our almost-forgotten-about relationship via email, after not really talking for more than 5 or 6 years. Not for any real reason, I guess sometimes you just loose touch with people. Anyhow, this husband and wife are getting care in a hospital in Texas, and were chatting with their nurse about how they are from Kodiak, Alaska, and Jen was like, "yup, I know just where that is, you don't know the Holloways do you?". I was so excited that they called me to tell me all about their divine intervention, and that I got a chance to hear the voice of an old friend. Man, that brought me back years.