And since it's been a while...

Here are some random pictures of Mabes. Because let's face it, those are more fun than my rants, right?













Mabes in her new skirt from Grandma Ostler. A friend at church asked where she could get the grown-up size, and I was like, "lady, I would have been all over that..."














Mabes in her new raincoat. She's now ready for whatever crazy rainstorms the South would like to throw at her. Unfortunately, she insists on wearing it all day when it's raining. Because you never know when it could start raining inside Target. When we got it out, she said "Here's your coat, mommy! You're the mommy, so you can wear the mommy coat and say 'shush.' Because you're the mommy and you say 'shush' in your coat." First, I didn't know that I said 'shush' that much. Second, I didn't realize that my shush-ing ability was dependent on my outerwear.

Oh, and despite seeing long lines at the gas station yesterday, I drove by ours today and there was no line! I was at a quarter tank and starting to get nervous, so I went in, got my gas, and was out of there in 5 minutes. The decreased demand must have been a new thing, because they still had security/traffic directors there, but they were just sitting there enjoying the lack of cars. The relief of being able to actually find gas without waiting in line makes the sting of gas prices much easier to bear. Kind of like, "We're still going to kick you in the crotch, but at least you don't have to wait an hour for it." And I don't have to worry about being able to go to the grocery store.