This Is Not How To Memorialize Me

I always think it is really cool when people choose to remember their loved ones in a way that highlights one of their great qualities and preserve it for the future generations.  I think it would be really neat to have a building, park, or some sort of monument named after me some day, so I thought it was pretty neat when I saw this at a farm we visited in Oregon:

It is clear that Millard's family found great comfort in him when he was with them in person.  It is a great idea to name a comfort station after a person like this, until you realize what a "comfort station" really is...

Yeah, that's one monument to my memory I could do without.

Howdy Stranger

I didn't just have a baby, or go through a major illness, or go through a major life change.  I wish I could say I had a really good excuse for not posting in a coon's age, but alas, there is no good reason.  I did continue to add books to my finished reading list though...does that count for anything?

We recently got back from a glorious 2 week vacation to Oregon.  I just love the Pacific Northwest.  I really hope it is in God's plan for me to one day live there, because really?  I don't think I could ever get tired of views like this:

Or of having sights like these on my morning walks:

Isn't God's creation marvelous?  Normally all I see is suburban sprawl and green/brown shrub growth, so this trip was a real treat!

Less than a week after returning home, we started another school year.  I was excited, Ethan was excited, Aaron was not so much.  We are less than a week into the school year and there have already been tears, pouting, whining, complaining, and melting into blobby heaps on the floor at the mere mention of writing.  I was still thrilled about school in the 2nd grade, so I really don't understand all of this drama.  It could be a very long year if we don't find some way to motivate my oldest child.

Also adding to the commotion is my youngest, who does NOT appreciate having mommy's attention pulled away from him and suddenly showered on his brothers for hours at a time.  He is more than a bit jealous of me normally, but this week his jealousy has been off the charts.  We have done some lessons over the loud screams coming from Andrew.  Usually he is screaming the word, "ME! ME! ME!" over and over again.  I don't know where he gets that from...

Regardless of these issues, we are getting into a routine and personally I am glad to be back to some normalicy in my days.  Hopefully I'll be able to share more about my vacation and the goings on around the house with kids, school, and home improvement, too!

A Couple of Things

I think this is huuurr-larious! (Leah linked on FB)

Four Levels of Social Entrapment

This is a really interesting article that Granny linked to on Facebook.

God, the Gospel and Glen Beck

Things went very well today with all the kids. Her boys and our girls got along really well, especially once they found out that we have light sabers and the girls play Star Wars. Even Anna got along with their daughter quite well.

There are only 10 kids here (you can barely see Kellen back there) because Arianna was wandering around and Isaac was asleep. The ages are 9,8,7,7,5,5,4,3,3,1,1,newborn. I had the oldest and the youngest. It was fun to talk about all the births we had between us. She is a new homeschooler, too so I showed her our curricula choices and how I planned it and reassured her that the chaos was normal and we gave her a ton of A Beka stuff that had been given to us. Their names are Nolan, Kellen, Jaylen, Deakon, Mikalen and Arianna. Fun family! It was quite fun to commiserate with a real person over the comments, "Are they all yours?", "You know what causes that, right?", "You sure do have your hands full!"

I was stunned that Anna was so nice to Arianna. I thought she'd be jealous and try to knock her over or something. Apparently my mom exudes that Gramma smell because Arianna was immediately following her around wanting to be picked up. So there's Mom, with two one-year-olds trailing behind her wanting to be picked up. It was really cute!!

Baby Lips

YUM!

Three Things

First, this is the kidney stone that I finally was able to get rid of. Something this size rolling around in your kidney and down your ureter does not feel good. It's amazing how much better I feel today than I have in the last week because of it.

Second, Isaac is really cute. Sarah took these three pictures with my cool camera and macro lens.

Isn't he sweet? He has a nice quiet cry, unlike the last two babies.

And look at the toes. So precious.

Third, Anna is silly.

Ode to Isaac

Okay, I don't really write odes. I mean...EVER.

Anyway, Isaac was finally born on Monday, August 16. Here's how it all went down.

A few weeks ago I could tell I was passing a kidney stone. Not sure if you've ever passed a kidney stone, but I hope you never have to find out how much it hurts. The pain went away and I continued on, whining and complaining and crying about being pregnant...still.

So then at my appointment last Thursday the OB tells me that I've dilated to 3cm and she thinks I'll go in the next day or two. This is something you should never tell a pregnant lady that's miserable. You should just let her believe she's got another 11 days or she'll go crazy looking for signs of labor. Truthfully though, I did have all the classic signs of labor but nothing much was happening. It's hard to convince my body to go into active labor on its own. It just sort of leisurely contracts when it feels like it and never really gets the show on the road.

Friday, Saturday and Sunday come and go with absolutely no baby. How frustrating. Sunday night I start to get severe kidney pain again, on my right side. The pain is so strong that I soon can't tell the difference between a contraction and the pain in my kidney and ureter. I call the OB nurse around 2:30AM and ask her if I can take a Darvocet I have. She okays that and says to come in to the office in the morning to get checked out. The pain killer lasts about an hour and 40 minutes. The whole time I can feel contractions; they're nice and strong but about 5 minutes apart. Upon pain of TMI, about 4AM I sorta thought my water broke, but due to some other circumstances that are best left unmentioned, I just couldn't tell for sure. The pain of the kidney stone was increasingly getting worse and worse. Del finally told me to call the OB nurse again and she told us to go ahead and go to the hospital.

At the hospital they finally gave me morphine for the kidney pain, but it only took the edge off and it was short-lived because it was IV injected. Surprisingly the doctor on call said that I should be admitted, treated for the pain and labor induced. I was ecstatic. I hugged the nurse, who has six kids; the first one is a girl and the 5 younger ones are boys.

The rest is easy, I got a room, I got an epidural which totally took care of the incredible kidney pain and the contraction pain, I got a whiff of Pitocin, I napped for a little bit while listening to Isaac's heartbeat, I felt like I should push, they came, they saw I should push, we conquered child birth.

Isaac was born at 5:07PM. He weighed 8 pounds 5 ounces, was 21 inches long and is definitely a boy. Wow, what a shocker. He's the heaviest baby we've had by nearly a pound. Rachel has been the biggest so far at 7 pounds 9 ounces. He had a hard time with latch for the first 24 hours but he's got it now. He's home and we're all settling in nicely.

Still having trouble with the kidney stone, but it'll go away eventually. I'm on Lortab for that. I'm tired, obviously, but feeling very happy and energetic.

So there you go. And now for the pictures.

The cord was wrapped twice around Isaac's head so Del didn't officially get to cut it this time, but he got to cut off the leftovers.

Our nurse Cindy and Dr. Sanchez.

Screaming little boy. Look at his hands. They had him under a warmer for a long time because he couldn't maintain his temp.

Not my best pose, but hey, I just had a baby.

Sarah and Isaac. The kids came with my parents the next day and they loved him instantly. They like to sit on the couch and hold him.

And I love this photo because of those yummy squishy lips.

*if you'd like to see more pictures, go here: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=21963&id=100000415701409&l=47c0313f33

Giveaway!

I just wanted to let you all know that Debra at Footprints in the Butter is having a great giveaway full of Seventh Generation products.  Click over to her blog to check it out and enter!