Rex's Surgery

Everything went really well on Friday with Rex's surgery. He was such a little trooper, and very brave through it all. I was so relieved that the weather cooperated, and we didn't have an ice storm to contend with. We had to be downtown at the Children's Pavilion surgery center by 6:30 in the morning! It took a couple of hours to do the pre-op stuff, and then they took him to the O.R. around 8:45. He was out of surgery about 20 minutes later, and came to us in the recovery area about 30 minutes after that. The whole process was very quick. We left the hospital around 11:00. As you can see by the pictures (sorry the quality is so poor...we forgot our camera and had to use Tim's phone to take the pictures), Rex was all smiles through the whole thing. He did not complain of any pain or discomfort (except when they took out the I.V....he said, "ouch!"), and thankfully the anesthesia did not make him sick. Thank you for your prayers!

Mary and Joseph

Mara and Rex were playing together this afternoon. Mara put a blanket over her head and pretended to be Mary. Rex came and told me that Mara was Mary, but I misunderstood him. I thought he said, “Mara is married.” I then said to Mara, “You’re married? Who is your husband?” Without hesitating she said, “Joseph”. That’s when Rex explained that he had told me she was “Mary” not “married”. I must admit that I was very impressed that my 2-year-old daughter knew that Joseph was Mary’s husband. She really is a smart little girl. Now if we can only apply some of that intelligence to potty training. =)

Super Rex

Rex is modeling his new Superman costume. He earned this costume for good behavior at school. He receives stamps from his teacher in his daily folder for good behavior. Then, we put stickers on a chart on the refrigerator each day he gets a new stamp in his folder. The chart has 25 boxes, and Rex gets to choose a toy ($25 or less) when his chart is full. For some reason (not sure where he got his inspiration) he wanted a muscle chest Superman costume as his reward. He was very excited to wear the suit. He kept walking around the living room pretending to punch things, and saying, "this suit really does make me strong...it really does." I'm glad that he earned his reward before the weekend so that he can play with it as he recovers from his surgery on Friday. Rex is having a new set of tubes put in his ears and his adenoids removed tomorrow. Please pray that all goes well with this procedure.

Who should I vote for?

I am not an aspiring political scientist, but I do like to make an informed choice when it comes to voting. I pride myself on being an independent voter, but sometimes I have a hard time knowing which candidate would best represent my personal views. That's why I was intrigued by a website that I discovered on someone else's blog. http://www.selectsmart.com/president/2008.html This site has a simple survey where you can input your preferences, and then it generates a report that compares your choices to all of the presidential hopefuls. This allows you to see which candidates are most and least compatible with you on many of the major issues. I hope that you might find it helpful as I did.

High Five

When I went to get Mara out of her crib following her nap this afternoon, she was all excited about her shoes. It took me a few seconds to figure out what she was trying to tell me, but it all became clear when I noticed that her shoes were on the wrong feet. She had obviously taken off her shoes, and then put them back on her feet all by herself. She even managed to fasten the velcro on her own. I was very impressed, and praised her saying "good job". She then said in a most adorable way, "High five, Mommy!"...and put her hand up in the air for me to hit. It was too cute!

Girlfriend Time

I had so much fun this past weekend with my girlfriends in Tyler and Canton. There were six women in our group (all from our small group Bible study). We drove from McKinney to a beautiful condo on lake Palestine. We spent Friday night there, then went to First Monday in Canton on Saturday, then back to Tyler for Saturday night, and finally home on Sunday. We had a blast just visiting. It's amazing how much we can talk when given the chance. Having no husbands nor children around to distract us gave us ample opportunity to gab. I think I went to sleep around 3:45 a.m. on Friday night and 1:30 a.m. on Saturday night...or should I say Sat. & Sun. mornings? Either way, it was very late, but well worth the sleep deprivation to have such great talks with my friends. I am so blessed with such loving Christian sisters. I talked so much that my throat was completely hoarse by Monday. My only regret is that I forgot to bring my camera. Oh well, I'll just have to be sure and take it next time. I can't wait to go again!

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

Wow! It's hard to believe that 2008 is already here. This past year has just flown by for me. 2007 ended well for the Dooley's. We had a wonderful Christmas holiday with our family. Rex and Mara had so much fun with their new toys on Christmas morning. Then we all enjoyed visits with our grandparents, great-grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. Everyone had fun playing with Tim's new toy (Rock Band). This is always such a fun time of the year...Can't wait to see what's in store for us in 2008!