Sugar Cookie Heaven

These last couple of days Ihave stayed at home. Tuesday was a day that I needed to get things in order a little. Gunnar and I were able to sleep in pretty late and just hang out around the house. Last night we had Enrichment about the 5 love languages. We then learned to watercolor and made our own valentine using the techniques that we learned. It was pretty fun. The best part of the entire night was the sugar cookies. I LOVE sugar cookies but hate making them because of the rolling out part. They just take way too long. There were so many yummy different sugar cookies. I ate like 6 of those things. They are my second favorite cookie after chocolate chip. My very favorite ones looked like they had been drop cookies, not the rolled kind. They had white frosting and pink sprinkles. They were just so darn good. Anyway, so today I had visiting teaching and one of the ladies we visit is the enrichment leader. We were talking about the cookies and I found out that she handed out the recipe to several others ladies to use in making cookies for the night. I was amazed to know that everyone used the same recipe and they all tasted and turned out differently. The recipe that Carrie had could be rolled or nonrolled and the best part is that there were like 5 ingredients total. I got the recipe from her and made cookies this afternoon. They were soooo easy and turned out perfectly. I had all intentions of giving some to those that helped us out while I was in California until Jeff told me that he had to take a treat to work tomorrow. I guess that they will be heading that direction instead. Gives me an excuse to make more tomorrow. Thanks Carrie for the best sugar cookie recipe ever!

Gunnar has preschool on Wednesdays so getting to Elks is tricky. Mondays and Wednesdays will probably be the days that we are home until she comes home home which will make it easier to go over there. My dad told me that my mom was having a rough day yesterday. When he arrived she was pretty depressed. She was doing PT in bed which my dad asked if that is usually how they have been doing it. Of course it is not but that is what she wanted. My dad told her that she better get up and do it with the PT or else he will do the PT with her (which nobody would want). She threw the covers back and got out of bed. My dad said that she walked 10' with the help of the parralel bars on either side. I am curious to see what that really means since she really can't move her right leg at all yet. She totally has a right to have down days however we need to keep them from happening to much. She has enough spunk and determination that she can get through this. I know that she can.

Tomorrow I plan on going in with my dad, Heidi and Gunnar to be with my mom. Her speech therapy has been changed to 8:30am so that the three of us girls can be there to learn what we need to do to help her. This will be the first therapy (I am pretty sure) that Heidi and Mindy have sat in on. They are very interesting. I love being at the therapy sessions. I tend to soak in all that I can, learn as much as I possibly can. The medical field has always fascinated me. I also love to see my moms reactions to things and to see her progress. It just makes me happy but also keeps it very real of what she is up against. We always told her in Sacramento that we were her cheerleaders. While we are doing that and I am hanging out with her for the day, Gunnar and my dad are going to play around the town. I really am not sure what they are doing but they are going to spend time together. Gunnar just loves his grandpa.

I just quickly needed to mention one of my friends. Her name is Rachel and I also visit teach her so I was able to see her today and at the activity last night. Her mom right now is dealing with MS. It is pretty severe and greatly affecting her. Rachel cares for her during the day. Rachel is somewhere in her mid 20's and her brother in his early 20's. They remind me of my family in some of the things that we are experiencing. I love talking to Rachel because we can both talk about our moms and relate. She expressed today, at our visiting teaching visit, that she appreciates someone else that can understand what she is going through. She mentioned that for a while there she thought that she was the only one feeling the way that she did. I can assure her that she is not the only one. We were talking last night about people asking how my mom was doing. I really don't know what to say most of the time because she is good but not good. Definately not the way that she used to be but very much in recovery but slooooow recovery that is. There is no quick fix. Rachel told me that she will tell others that her mom is decent today. That's a pretty good word to use. Not bad and not good just decent. Today our visit was very short. My companion and I joked that it was probably the shortest that we have ever had. It was about 15 minutes because her mom was having a rough day and she needed to get back. Completely understandable. I really, really appreciate her as a friend!