The Silence is Deafening

After a weekend filled with chatter, laughter, screeching (there were 5 kids here, after all), and all the various noises associated with a full house, I am sitting here alone in a house where the loudest noises are the hum of the refrigerator, the ticking of the clock, and, of course, the clicking of the keys as I type. There were 12 of us sleeping here Friday night, but one sister and her boys left last night, the other sister and my brother's friend who has pretty much been adopted as part of the family (to quote Nathan, "Good luck getting rid of me") left after church today, and my parents have taken my brother back to the airport. He flies back to the base tonight where he has to finish cleaning his room including *hand wax* the floors before the big Going Away Party tomorrow. Glad it's him and not me! Even the girls are sound asleep, so I'm here enjoying the peace and quiet by myself.

While the excitement and activity all weekend were fun, I am rather glad to get back to almost normal. Even L seemed ready for some peace. This morning she went to the nursery at my parents' church, where she has been before and never had a problem. When I picked her up, the worker said L had a mini-meltdown about 10 minutes before when she was simply DONE with all the noise and other kids. I can imagine. This is the kid who didn't like the ocean because it was too loud and she'd been rather bombarded with loud noises all weekend.

Speaking of noises, my sister told me an interesting story before she left. Yesterday my Uncle James was outside pushing L on the swing. They were laughing and carrying on and having a fabulous time when both of them heard a very strange noise. He and L looked around, but couldn't figure out what in the world it was. He went to pull her of the swing and realized that the sound was coming from L. He could feel her heart buzzing hard in her chest and heard it over the sound of L's laughing. He immediately grabbed his cell phone and called his son (putting someone through med school gives you the right to call them on a weekend) who reassured his dad, probably told him that as long as L wasn't turning blue and clutching her chest, it was okay. Last time we saw the young doctor, he heard L's really loud heart murmur and accompanying "thrill" (that means you can feel her heart buzz), so he wasn't too worried. Apparently, he did such a great job of reassuring his dad that no one ever thought, "Hey, maybe we ought to mention this to her mom, who's right inside." It is really weird since I've never heard L's heart without touching her chest. Oh well, L was fine and she has a cardiologist appointment Tuesday, so we'll get Dr. B's take on it. He's supposed to make the call this time as to whether or not L has to have surgery to correct her heart defect, so please be praying.

In other exciting news, K displayed her competitive streak this weekend and took her loss during Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader hard, but then she creamed us in Mexican Train, which is amazing since half the time she was watching a movie and not even paying attention. Yep, it was a sad day for the rest of us. Dad didn't play as he was busy printing off some fabulous pictures of the girls and the family over the weekend. As soon as I get my hands on the files, I'll post some pictures.

Tomorrow, my mom is taking off work and we are spending the day hanging out. We were trying to think of something fun and cheap to do, nothing came mind, but I think I may have the very thing. Of course, it only qualifies as cheap if we leave our wallets in the car to avoid the temptation, but it ought to be a neat experience even if we don't cave in and buy everything in sight.

This weekend, the a new store opened in town.

A very special store.

Only the 5th in the nation.

What could this possibly be?

An American Girl store.

The pinnacle of every little girl's dreams. A store doused in pink and full of dolls with clothes and accessories and books. Now I must confess that we really aren't into the American Girl stuff. We only have a few books from a consignment sale, but K has been mentioning them some lately. She's said she'd like to have a doll and that she'd really like to go to one of the stores. The target audience is girls ages 7-12 and we're making a beeline right into that territory. I think it would be really, really cool to go see the store. It could be incredibly crowded, but we'll at least have the advantage of going during school hours. And maybe we can think about getting a doll for Christmas. Like next Christmas, since those things are $80-something.

I'll let you know if we go.