2005-01-31 - 1:59 p.m.

Last night as I finally climbed into bed around 11:30pm (a good 1.5 hours past my usual 10pm bedtime) I found a card under my pillow. It was from my hubby, telling me how much he missed me already. No wonder I love him so much.

In case you are curious, I didn't get that laundry done, but spent a good time working on cleaning up some of my family webpages instead. As I went upstairs to check on all of the kids, I found Noah in the corner of his crib and awake. Once he knew I was there, he looked up so I couldn't walk out. I changed his diaper and sat and nursed him for a while. I knew I had heard him crying earlier, but it had subsided so I figured he was fine. I tell you, I'm really going to miss the whole nursing baby thing. I just love that quiet and bonding time and the way Noah holds on and doesn't let go, I think he may have a hard time giving it up too.

Around midnight, Nicolas wandered into the bedroom and asked if he could sleep in bed with me, just for a little while, and then he'd go back to his own bed. Yeah right. About 30 minutes later he was complaining that his ears hurt and why wasn't I taking his temperature. He didn't feel warm at all, but went ahead and gave him some motrin anyway for the ear pain. He wasn't complaining at all today, so hopefully he's fine. Of course, he slept in bed with me the whole night. Around 5am Noah was up again, and I brough him into bed as well to nurse for a little bit and then put him back in his crib when he was asleep. Did I mention the card that Frank gave me said "Nobody's sleeping in my bed!" with a sad little bear on it. I guess he was wrong there, huh?

Have I mentioned that I really feel extremely happy lately? It's just odd, but I feel so completely content and happy with my whole life right now, so much that it's almost overwhelming to me. In a way it's a little scary, like I am just too happy and something must be getting ready to go wrong. How messed up is it that I think like that? Yet I am still very happy.

So the laundry won the battle last night, but I am determined to get to it tonight. Part of me is really tempted to take the kids out tonight to the mall for dinner and then do some quick shopping. Did I mention our refrigerator has broken once again? That freakin' ice and water in the door gadget has been just about the biggest pain in the butt ever, and after already spending about $150 in repairs on the thing once, and facing at least that much in repairs again most likely, Frank is just ready to throw in the towel on this thing and replace it. Part of me says perhaps give it one more chance, but really thinking that we will most likely spend another $150 or more on repairs and it's given us so many problems in the last year, maybe he's right to just pitch it. It's a shame since it's barely 3 years old and the rest of it works just fine. I was trying to see if I could find a charity to come to the house and pick it up, but no such luck. I think we'll just pay to have it hauled away whenever we get a new one. Besides, we really could use a bigger refrigerator, since ours is always packed full. I think this one looks pretty cool: