I open to the inner depths of my being with courage and compassion


Monday, December 31, 2007

The New Year and My Resolution

I don't usually set New Year's Resolutions. You always hear about people setting resolutions and them being very short lived and I think that's lame. And because if there's something I really want to change I'm not going to wait for a specific day to do it, I'm going to just do it! Well I have something I am trying to change that just so happens to coincide with the New Year so I guess I'll call it a resolution.

I have finally plateaued in my weight loss since I've had Edward, so now I have to kick things up a notch. My goal is to get back to the pre-Adrienne weight that I had never gotten back to between kids by Edward's 1st birthday. Since Edward is maybe the last one there's no excuse anymore.

Notice I said Edward will maybe be the last one instead of probably. I'd thought for about the last year and a half that the third would be the last, but not ruling out a fourth. Just in the last few weeks I'm thinking that we probably will have a fourth, not ruling out that Edward may be the last! We'll see where we are a year from now and then decide. If we are going to have a fourth I want that to happen in the next few years so that all the kids are close and so that I am still pretty young. Well enough about that, I hadn't intended to get into all of that.

So we are just sitting here hanging out, playing Wii, nothing out of the ordinary. Maybe a lame New Year's Eve, but such is our lives these days. Mike will be getting up early-ish to paint the exterior of the house. It would have been today, but the temperature was too cold for the paint to dry. It should be warm enough tomorrow (mid 40's) and then raining on Wednesday! He goes back to work on Wednesday too so he really has to take advantage of this small window of time to paint.

Someone's been watching some Dora

Edward spit up on me and I asked the room in general if someone would get me something to wipe it up with. Colette brings me some wipes and I say "Thank you Colette!" She says..."De nada"

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Christmas Sunrise

I forgot I was going to put this up with the Christmas pictures. This is what it looked like outside our window Christmas morning.

Sunday, December 30, 2007

Sheetrock!!

I guess the novelty of a new baby has worn off for Colette. The other day Edward was crying and she was complaining about him being "annoying". That's a new word for her.

So here's the slideshow of the recent progress on the house! We're painting the exterior early this week (if the weather cooperates), it will be "granite grey".

Saturday, December 29, 2007

No nap for me

Different things kept me from being able to take a nap, but I actually don't feel too bad tired-wise, it's more about not thinking straight or being able to form coherent sentences. Maybe after I take a shower I'll feel better. Probably nobody cares about this stuff. Maybe if I'd had some sleep I'd realize that and not write about this stuff..................

Route

I can't say it was a mistake to go last night because if I hadn't I would have been dead tired this morning going on such little sleep and would have to battle with traffic, and it would have dragged on forever. But, it was one of the hardest route nights I've had.

I took Edward with me and when I started to walk down the steps of the porch I slipped and fell down three steps while holding Edward. He was fine, but my back was pretty torqued up and hurt all night, near the end I was barely able to twist my torso to put the papers in the boxes/move the bundles around without groaning in pain. After some ibuprofen, muscle relaxant (valerian root), and aspirin I feel better. I know I'll be more sore than usual for the next week or two, but it's not as painful as it was on route.

Also, it took an extra hour because of the ice and snow, which felt like much more because of going on no sleep. The car was making a loud rumbly noise that had me nervous (explaining it to Mike this morning he thinks it's a wheel bearing). And to top it all off I had a crazy lady following me around on one of my routes. I get that a lot when people think I'm up to no good, but once they see me delivering the papers they usually leave me alone. Not her. I don't know what her problem was, but she was freaking me out and at one point looked like she was going to hit me, which would have been on the side that Edward was on, and the CRX not being a big car had me really worried. So I called 911, and was able to give them her license plate number, and they were going to have someone come patrol the area, but I don't know if anything ever came of it (I was at the end of the route at this point, so didn't stick around to see what happened).

So I slept from 8-9, woke up to nurse Edward, then 9-10, fed Edward again, then 10-11 and then Colette woke up (the girls have been staying up late during the break, so they're getting up really late...Adrienne woke up about noon). So I've had three 1-hour naps basically and I can't wait until it's Colette's naptime!

So there you go, I won't attempt route on no sleep again, and I won't be bringing Edward anymore either - I don't usually, but I didn't want him to be waking up Mike because he needed to work today. We have had family come over and watch the kids Saturday mornings during construction, when the house is done Mike will watch them Saturday mornings again.

Speaking of the house, I still need to put up recent pics...later.

Time to lay on the couch until naptime.

INSOMNIA

I'm about to leave for route because I can't sleep so figure I should at least be doing something productive. I hope I don't regret this!

Thursday, December 27, 2007

Christmas

This is quick, but here are a few pics from Christmas.

The girls in their new pjs that they love. When they're not out-and-about, they're in pjs.

A few other things to notice in that picture - the camera Adrienne is holding is BY FAR their favorite gift this year (a lot of their gifts were for both of them to share). It's pretty darn cool, 5 stars in my book. It doesn't take the greatest pictures (see examples below), but for kids it is acceptable. I'll mention more cool features in a bit. The other thing to notice - I cut Colette's hair. I layered it and I'm really pleased with the results. Her hair is actually wavy! Who knew...it's always been pin straight. So if anyone is wondering how I did it: I had her lay on her back on a towel and brushed the hair out above her head, and then cut straight across. I'll have to take another picture to better show what it looks like. But here you can at least see that it's wavy.

Daddy figuring out how to use the camera to show the girls:



They caught on quickly:

If this picture weren't so washed out I wouldn't have posted it. My hair looks horrible. I don't know what to do with it these days.

So obviously one of the features of the camera are the fun things you can superimpose on the pics. Also there are games to play, and you can make videos! Here is Adrienne's first video. It'll make you dizzy, but it's pretty funny:



The priciest gift given here was a Wii for Mike (well, the whole family, but I surprised him with it). It was actually a raincheck for one...they were selling them at Gamestop last Friday for $250. When I was looking around to see how much they were the only ones I was finding were in the range of $500-700, then I found the article about the rainchecks at Gamestop. My mom camped out for two hours before they opened, but she was the only one! That was kind of funny. We didn't know how many people to expect, but like the article speculated, people probably wanted something tangible to put under the tree. We were guaranteed to receive our Wii by the end of January, but they called today and already had it! So Mike's setting it up as I type this.

I took some pictures of the sheetrock in the house but I don't have time to upload them all now. So when I do I'll put them in a slideshow and post it.

Saturday, December 22, 2007

Then a not so good day...

...because Mike and I weren't able to take part in his sister's wedding at all because our schedules were too tight. Mike had to work tonight, and I was going to try to go to the restaurant after the wedding, but I didn't have enough time after route to get ready and catch the ferry to make it in time.

One good thing about today is that it's the winter solstice! YAAAAAYYYYYY! This is one of my most favorite days of the year. I get the seasonal depression, so I am always happy when every day stays brighter a little longer. This year hasn't been too bad because it hasn't been raining as much as usual.

The sheetrockers are almost done and the house looks AWESOME. I will take pictures soon. It's getting really exciting. We're painting this week, getting our gas line up to the house, and pouring concrete in the garage. Then the next week we're getting cabinets in, and probably the hardwood to get it acclimated. It's starting to feel very close like it's not just a fantasy and almost a reality.

I should have used this evening to do something productive, but instead I watched some more of the "100 Greatest Songs of the '90's" (there are 5 hours) and I wanted to put up some of my favorite videos. I remember the Jamiroquai one and you've got to love it (Emma, I have no idea what it is, but something about him reminds me of Galen). I hadn't seen the Dee Lite one, but it is so fun - Mike tells me it's the second album he ever bought (after C + C Music Factory). The Sinead O'Connor one is my all-time favorite.



This version has the funny beginning that some didn't have, and had the best resolution. But I have to warn you that you might want to stop it five seconds before the end.



I didn't know this was about her mother who she lost when she was 17 (she's 23 in this video). It makes it even more moving.



Oh wait, here's another one that was pretty cool. Weezer's "Buddy Holly".


This is sort of random and I don't know where this came from in my train of thought this morning on route, but I remembered this joke Mike told me when we were dating and I think it's pretty good.
Every morning the Trids got up, ate breakfast, and marched over the bridge to Tridville to work. One morning, a troll moved in under the bridge. When the Trids tried to cross the bridge, the troll climbed up and kicked the Trids all the way back to their homes. The Trids decided to take the day off in hopes that the troll would go away, but the next morning the troll once again climbed up onto the bridge and kicked them back to their homes. In desperation, the Trids decided to ask the Rabbi for help. So the next morning the Rabbi walked across the bridge several times but never saw the troll. He went home believing the troll had indeed moved on. When the Trids tried to cross the bridge afterward, the troll climbed up again and kicked the Trids back home. The Rabbi returned to the bridge and called out for the troll. When the troll appeared, the Rabbi asked why he was allowed to cross the bridge but not the Trids. The troll replied, "Silly Rabbi, kicks are for Trids."


Friday, December 21, 2007

Good day

Today has been a good day. It's one of those very rare days where things are taken off my plate instead of piled on! I've been casually doing things like dishes, laundry, etc., the last few hours while watching/listening to VH1's "100 Greatest Songs of the '90's" and I've just been smiling the whole time. It's been fun to hear my favorite songs from that time, and the ones I'd liked but forgotten about (I'll have to add some to my playlist when I get around to updating it). There are very few that I haven't heard before.

More on the eye

Edward's "iris-pupil thing" as I've been calling it has a more official name. It's a persistent pupillary membrane.

Wednesday, December 19, 2007

Funny

My mom was telling me something Adrienne did that was funny. She has a little vet costume with a stethoscope and writing pad and vet jacket. She came to my mom and gave her a piece of paper with jaggedy lines drawn on it (representing an electrocardiogram). She says "I have some bad news, your pet is very sick!" My mom said "Oh no, see those jaggedy lines are good, it shows the heart beating, if the line was flat my pet would be dead." Adrienne goes away for a little while then comes back with a folded up piece of paper and says to my mom in an ominous way "I don't know how to tell you this..." My mom opens up the paper and there's a flat line drawn on the notepad. Then Adrienne says in a much more cheerful tone "But the good news is: I have a new pet for you!" (pulling out a new stuffed animal)

Last night Adrienne was telling me how she never gets to put the clothes on her Madeline doll...because "Whenever I have the clothes, I can't find Madeline...and whenever I have Madeline I can't find the clothes!"

Tuesday, December 18, 2007

House Progress

I just found out the highest my thermostat will go to is 88 degrees. We just got our shipment of Tiger Foam and are getting it up to temperature so it will be ready to spray on later today (ideal temp is 80 degrees). Then the insulators will be coming and doing their thing and by Friday the sheet rockers will be starting work! (YAY) My Christmas present is sheet rock. :-)

I am so sore today after working for 5 hours yesterday. I had to get the whole house clean so the insulators and sheet rockers can work. I was able to work with the three kids because Colette napped, Adrienne played on the computer (I still had a monitor in the house so I could hear her, and it has a walkie-talkie feature so I could talk to her too), and Edward was bundled up and slept in his car seat in the house while I worked. Later when Colette woke up I put on a video for the girls and kept on working! Not every day I try to work outside works out so well like that, so I'm thankful that it did when we really needed it to.

Wow, I'm getting really hot while I type this! It's feels like it must be 76 degrees already!........Well my internal temperature is just a bit off, the thermostat says it 72 degrees now.....if it's going to be getting up to 88 degrees we'd better get our swimsuits on and pull out some otter pops!

Well I'll put up pictures when the sheet rock is up, but it probably won't be until after Christmas. It's a three day job.

I'm writing this Wednesday:
It got so hot it was unbearable. Edward was hating it and I had to give him a bath to cool him off. Then it was about naptime anyway so Colette went down in her room with the vent closed and the window open, and likewise Edward and I took a nap in our room with the vent closed, the window open and the fan on. Adrienne stayed in the living room and played on the computer, and I gave her a 30 oz water bottle and told her to DRINK. After naptime it was nearly time for the foam to go on, so it went in the girls' room and we were able to cool off the rest of the house.

The foam went on easier than was anticipated, and the insulators came today and are all finished. The sheet rockers could have started as soon as tomorrow but won't be able to come until Friday, which is still sooner than we had hoped for....for once things are working in our favor! Hopefully this will keep up and we can get moved in by the end of February!

Sunday, December 16, 2007

Pictures

Here is a picture of Edward's eye with the iris going into the pupil (it's at about 4 or 5 o'clock - if you click on the picture you can see it better). I think they're going to be blue after all. They didn't look so blue in the first week or so, but have since gotten lighter.


One of Edward this morning after a bath and ready for church. I gave him a real haircut this past week - you can see the sides are short, and it's longer on top.


I didn't send Christmas cards out this year, so consider this a virtual Christmas card :-)

This was taken this morning before church. My mom bought the girls their Christmas dresses.


I didn't tell them to do this:


One with the flash on...which looks better, with or without the flash?


(Adrienne's holding her lip funny because she has chapstick on and she doesn't like it)

Friday, December 14, 2007

A little bit about everyone

MIKE: Poor Mike. He SO needs this house to be finished. It seems like ever since we've been married he's been working like a dog. When we were first married he did HVAC, a very physically demanding trade. Then he was going to school for Engineering, a mentally demanding course of study. And now he's working a full-time job and then coming home to work some more! This week was crunch time to get some things done before a big inspection today, and not only did he have to keep up his usual rigorous schedule, but he was sick to boot! He looked and sounded awful, but he couldn't slow down...Last night he and I worked until 11pm to finish everything that needed to be done today.

ME: My foot has been bothering me for a few months now. My ankles are VERY flexible and they turn really easily because of that (I don't feel pain as soon as others would and so by the time I do, oftentimes it's too late - or at least that's how a physical therapist from high school years explained it to me). Doctor thinks it's a lot of little sprains over time adding up and that I need physical therapy for it. Not the most interesting thing to blog about and I wouldn't have mentioned it, but it leads me to another story....While I was there for my foot I asked the doctor if I could ask him a couple quick questions about EDWARD: I showed him his eye because the iris of his eye looks like it protrudes into his pupil so that his pupil isn't round. I was supposed to be getting an x-ray on my foot after the visit and he asked if I had time to take Edward to the eye center right around the corner after my visit. I said I wouldn't because I had to pick up Adrienne. He said skip the x-ray, this is urgent. So slightly freaked, but staying calm until reason to be otherwise I take him to the eye center and they got him in right away. They dilated his eyes so they could see better what was going on. Turns out what he has is harmless and just an anomaly, and once they knew that they let me in on what the big deal was about. I guess there is a very rare, but deadly eye cancer that babies can get. The doctor said it's devastating, so maybe something not many if any babies survive. PHEW! What a relief.

ADRIENNE: She was telling me about her friend who has two boyfriends, one of whom is her former boyfriend Gavin. I asked her if she has a boyfriend and she does...Jay. I asked why she hadn't told me about it and she said she forgot. I asked if he knew he was her boyfriend and she said no, that she hadn't TOLD him yet. So funny.

COLETTE: Is such a helper these days! There was a small pile of diapers collecting on the living room floor. I kept meaning to put them in the garbage and by the time I went to do it they were gone! I asked the girls who put threw them away and Colette said she did. I was very pleased...I didn't even ask her to! Then later that day I gave Edward a bath and she was behind me watching. After I was in the living room for awhile getting him dressed I realized she was still in the bathroom. So I went back to see what she was up to and she had been wiping up the drips of water that had fallen on our scale with toilet paper.

Thursday, December 6, 2007

Kids say the darndest things

Colette: I want to watch Dora!

Me: Okay, can you get me the remote?

Colette: I can, I've got arms! I do!

Monday, December 3, 2007

Today has been INSANE. It snowed several inches over the weekend, I'm guessing about 6-8 inches here at our place. But then (this is the bigger story) today it's been raining so hard and so much that almost all traces of snow have been washed away. I heard that it rained 6 inches today! It was the 2nd most rainfall in a day on record! To put it into perspective, we get about 36 inches in a year! So for those of you that don't live around here, you can imagine that that much rain in one day had to do some damage. I'm going to talk about what I've seen and experienced, but if you want to know a more widespread scope of things around here, here's an article my mother-in-law pointed out in an email.

So this morning I went out to the van to get it warmed up before taking Adrienne to school and this is what greeted me in the shop where the van was parked:

From the drivers side I couldn't tell if the whole shop was flooded and we have some (a lot) carpet matting laying on the floor of the shop on the other side of the van, but luckily the flooding didn't go that far. So we haven't had any damage to any of our property because of this massive rainfall, but it was a close call - my dad dug a trench around a window that leads into the basement and avoided it all spilling over into the basement (where all our carpet is stored). Also it's pretty lucky we just finished with the siding or we'd have more wetness inside the house to deal with.

So when I left to take her the first sign that this rainfall was pretty heavy was the ditch at the bottom of our driveway was overflowing and water was running across our driveway:

This is our neighbor's driveway:

These pictures were taken after I'd already done my errands while Adrienne was at school. So I didn't have my camera with me for the most extreme thing that I experienced. I had taken Edward to my parents house, and then to do an errand up in Poulsbo - on the way back I took the Newberry Hill exit (I know people that don't live here don't have a clue about what I'm talking about - sorry), at the bottom of the exit there was water all across the roadway. This wasn't the first time I'd encountered water across the roadway in the course of the day and I watched a car drive through before me, so assumed that me being in a van it would be okay for me to go through as well...well as I was driving down into the water (very slowly) I stopped and opened the door to check how high the water was...it was just inches from the level of the floor, and I was just barely entering the water - there was probably about 30 feet left to drive through and I could tell it would only be getting deeper. The thing that really made me decide not to go was watching branches float along in front of me and then...a railroad tie (There's actually a railroad track up the hill from the exit, Mike saw more railroad ties later tonight, so I wonder how bad the damage is to the tracks)...so I wasn't about to drive through that water not knowing how deep it was or what kind of debris could be in it. But by now I had to wait for all the cars that were piling up behind me to back up onto the freeway, and as I was sitting there for the 15 minutes or so I could actually see the water rising. It was pretty freaky. So after I got back on the freeway and took my thawing frozen food home I went to pick up Edward. This is what it looked like at the bottom of El Dorado hill, you can see the mud and rocks across the road:

By the time I came back from picking up Edward the road to the left of the picture above was closed. Everything seemed to progress so quickly that I was getting worried that the bus would have trouble dropping off Adrienne or that Mike might not be able to make it home later that day. When I got home I was waiting at the bottom of our driveway where the bus now drops off Adrienne when I got a call on my cell from her teacher that the bus hadn't even arrived yet (then Adrienne's stop is 1/2 hour into her route). So she suggested that I come to get her. I wasn't thrilled with the idea since I'd have to bring Edward and Colette in with me in the torrential downpour and Edward was hungry after 4 hours since his last meal, but at that point I wanted all of us safe at home, plus there was no clue when the bus would actually get here. What I didn't know was that the whole school was being let out early (the whole district actually) and so the parking situation at the school was horrendous. It took about 15 minutes for me to get a parking "spot". Then, and this has to be the most annoying thing of the day, as I'm loaded up with Edward and Colette and a very large umbrella and preparing to walking into inches of water and get soaked up to my ankles (fun stuff) a car pulls forward and cuts me off. The traffic in the parking lot is still backed up and that car wasn't going more than a couple feet before stopping again for who knows how long (and sitting in a dry car I might add). I didn't hide my annoyance and I believe I rolled my eyes and scowled to myself. The driver must have noticed because he/she jerked to a stop and I hastily crossed in front of them. The rest of the day was pretty uneventful except for being sick (body aches) and dropping the lasagna on the floor that was supposed to be our dinner. Mike got home okay, school is canceled for tomorrow.

So here are the rest of the pictures I took - they're on the way to and from my parents'. They don't look quite as impressive now that I just saw an email my mother-in-law sent out that were on the news websites. I'll put those in at the bottom.

Here are some of the pictures from the email my mother-in-law sent out. They're all from places not too far from here.Oh, here's one last picture, of the trees in our backyard yesterday...thought it looked pretty:

All right well I'm being rushed to finish this up (it's now 10:07...three hours after I started this), Mike needs to use the computer.

Friday, November 30, 2007

Recent House pics

As of yesterday the house is sided! The porch is going to have shake, so that's why it's not done. We're still deciding on a color for the house.


Also exterior doors have been installed. Here's our front door - will likely be painted a cranberry red, or maybe a hunter green.


French doors going from the dining to the back porch. I love these because the blinds are between two panes of glass so they don't get dusty or bent up, etc.

Wednesday, November 21, 2007

Two weeks

Well it's been just about two weeks! (officially tomorrow on Thanksgiving) I realize all my posts lately have been about Edward, and here's another one. Edward had his two week check-up on Monday (they do it within a range) and they like to see the baby's weight back up to their birth weight by then. Even 3 days short of two-weeks he weighed in at 9 lbs. 4 oz. (birth weight was 8 lbs 11 oz), so he's doing well and starting to plump up.

Today wasn't so good for him though, but a necessary evil...he was circumcised. I was assured his crying was from being strapped down and not from pain (they numb the area with novocaine). So I stayed with him the whole time. I guess most people don't want to, or back out once they do...they kept asking if I wanted to step out. But I thought if I could be any comfort to him that it was better than comforting myself.

Sunday, November 18, 2007

First Haircut...kind of

Today I trimmed Edward's hair around his ears. I think it makes him look more boy-like. Here are a few pictures:


Thursday, November 15, 2007

Today

I survived my first venture into the world alone with three kids. I went to Costco tonight, Edward didn't make a peep the entire time, and that's no exaggeration. The hardest part was just that I am still sore and so walking around and carrying things have caused me to require the help of ibuprofen...again.

Adrienne got put on the wrong bus today and so was taken back to the school. I would have thought that she would get upset by something like that, but when I picked her up she said that she wasn't scared (although her face did show more concern than I think she was letting on). I'm going to find out what her bus number is so that she can look for that to know she's on the right one.

Adjusting

So adjusting to three has been pretty good - I just keep getting ahead of myself and trying to get right back to a schedule and I have to keep reminding myself that it's only been a matter of days!

I delivered most of my routes on Tuesday night and Mike so kindly delivered part of them as well. I felt really great at the time, but woke up on Wednesday morning and couldn't move for a few minutes because I was so sore. Once I got up I couldn't stand up all the way, but after ibuprofen kicked in I was fine. I've lost 15 lbs this first week, which is about what I'd lose in 2 weeks after the girls...so I'm off to a good start. It's funny because I realized the other day as I was getting in the shower shivering that I hadn't been cold in 9 months! I had my internal heater. Now my feet are constantly cold. Well enough about me.......

Edward is a very easy baby. When I was pregnant he didn't move much and it worried me for a long time. He's pretty much the same! He doesn't like being moved around much, but other than that he doesn't complain except at the expected times. He sleeps really well and I have been getting anywhere from 3-5 hour chunks of sleep at night. I think a lot of that has to do with the fact that he's sleeping with me though. I think once he gets a little more fat on him he will sleep better on his own.

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

About Edward

Just some info about Edward for anyone who cares about such things. I think I mentioned before that Edward is a family name, but I don't think I mentioned how. It's Mike's middle name, his dad's dad's name, and his mom's dad's middle name. For those that didn't know me before I got married, his middle name Lybbert is my maiden name. And he's just saturated with family meaning because he also shares a birthday with Mike's mom's mother who passed away last year.

Monday, November 12, 2007

Trouble In Paradise

Last night Adrienne told me that she's not "in love" with Gavin anymore, but she still loves him. She said he doesn't know that she's not in love with him anymore and that he's still in love with her. I asked since she's not in love with him but still loves him if he's still her boyfriend or not - she said not. Phew, I'm sort of relieved it was a short-lived relationship. Hopefully she won't be on to another one anytime soon!

Sunday, November 11, 2007

Update

Things are still going well here. Only glitch has been a bit of a nursing issue...if I didn't have 33 months of experience already I might have given up by now. Here's a picture of Edward after his first bath at home earlier today. His hair gets wavy when it's freshly washed then straightens out when it dries...just like Adrienne's did. I still say he looks just like Adrienne as a baby, only his coloring is different...he's got blond eyebrows and you can see his brownish-reddish-golden hair, and his skin gets so pink! We'll see what color his eyes turn out to be, but I don't expect them to be blue like Adrienne's because hers had a really light blue ring in the middle from the start.

The girls are still nutty about him, Colette probably the most. Adrienne is fascinated by his little nails, especially his pinky nail. Colette is smitten by his cheeks. They fight over who gets to hold him. It's been really nice to have Mike around this time to help out. He was in school when we had the girls and so didn't get time off and there was always some test looming in the future. I don't think I needed his help as much with them though, so far having three has definitely been more of a challenge. It will be a big help to get into the house, this place just shrunk even more.

But we're all happy and healthy and thankful for that. For those family and friends who read this I also want to say we're thankful for you...thank you for the calls, emails, gifts and dinners. We're so blessed.

Friday, November 9, 2007

Welcome Edward Lybbert Miller!

First the stats: Born November 8th, 2007 at 9:34 p.m., 8 lbs 11 oz. and 20.5 inches long!
(If you played the guessing game, click on the link below to see the results and your ranking :-)


I'll start with pictures and then if things hold together here long enough I'll write about how things have been :-) So far 3 kids hasn't been too bad, but then I've only been home about an hour...........

A super-close-up

A view of his hair - brown with golden highlights. Adrienne and Colette both had dark brown hair.
One with his eyes open!


So there have been many opinions on who he looks like. I instantly thought Adrienne, especially his puckery mouth. He's got dimples like Colette. His nose reminds me of Mike. So basically he looks like everyone in the family except me :-)

.....Looks like I still have some time to write.

Contractions started yesterday about 4:00 p.m. or so, but were mild. It wasn't until 4:30 that they were strong enough that I was pretty sure I was in labor, so that is when I have been saying that labor started. Just about 5 hours later Edward was born! The girls both took 19 1/2 hours, so I was quite pleased with his speedy arrival. So a little summary to fill in that time between labor starting and his birth...Mike and I arrived at the hospital at about 5:45 and I was at 4 cm and 70% effaced (yay! ready for an epidural). The anesthesiologist got to me by about 6:45 and so I only had to labor hard for about an hour. With the past epidurals it also took about 10 minutes for them to start to work, this one was a little different and worked immediately! That man is an angel :-) From then on out everything was smiles and pleasant and easy. That is why I opt for getting epidurals....it makes the experience serene, and not traumatic. I was also checked around the time of the epidural and was 5 cm and 80% effaced. At about 8:45 or so (so about 2 hours after the epidural) I was checked again and was 7 cm and 100% effaced. So with 3 cm to go everyone seemed to think it could be a little while longer. But about 15 minutes later I was feeling a lot of pressure (the epidural took away the sensation of pain, but not pressure)...so asked the nurse to check me - baby was ready to come SOON! So, the doctor was called, but my regular doctor was at a conference, so another was called in. As soon as he got there and was ready, so was baby and I and about 5 minutes of pushing later baby Edward was born!

Mike was with me for most of the time, except for when he ducked out to get his dinner. Mike's parents were there for awhile and for the birth, and my parents came with the girls near the end and for the birth. They were all off to one side of the room and so had a discreet view. The girls are crazy about their new baby brother...especially Colette, who calls him her baby.

I am doing quite well today, the fact that I needed NO stitches has a lot to do with that. The worst after effect are the contractions I'm having (for those not in the know - happens to get the uterus to shrink back to normal size) - they're about as painful as contractions during labor so I hope they go away soon!

Edward is beautiful, calm, sweet, and perfect. Having a little boy in the family makes our little family feel complete. We look forward to getting to know him!

Wednesday, November 7, 2007

TAGGED

Fellow blogger Elizabeth tagged me...

Where did you meet your husband?


At church...the Silverdale singles' ward.

What was the first thing you said to your husband?

Oh, this is embarrassing. I had wanted to talk to him, and he seemed shy so I didn't think he'd talk to me first. During volleyball he was fooling around by climbing up behind the basketball hoops...so my lame line to start a conversation was "How'd you get up there." Him: "The wall." Me: "Are you scared?" (Duh, why would he be up there if he were scared)......anyway, obviously he saw past my lameness.

Where was your first date?

We went to Fort Flagler and walked around and talked. He was much more serious than I thought he was - I had mostly seen him goofing off up until then. He was also a good listener. After that we went to dinner at Red Robin in Silverdale where we met up with Mike's good friend Neil and his new wife Bobbye who had just gotten married.

Where was your first kiss?

I think it was the next day on our 2nd date. We went to Seattle with a some friends and saw "The Mummy"...I think the kiss was on the ferry on the way home.

Did you have a long or short courtship/engagement?

I don't know what's normal...maybe a little fast. We started dating early May 1999 and were engaged by early August 1999. Then we were married July 1, 2000. So a three month courtship, and 11 month engagement.

Where did you get engaged?

Salsbury Park in Poulsbo. We were on the beach trying to watch "Pure Country" by generator for the 2nd time (first time the generator died or something - 2nd time there was a problem with the tape)...so we were just cuddling and talking and it came up and he asked...it wasn't planned, but it was a memorable night and that is where we had our reception.

Where were you married?

In the Seattle LDS Temple.

How did your reception go?

It was on July 29, 2000 at Salsbury Park. It was very casual (our style) and I thought it was a really great day...sunny and beautiful on the water and lots of family and friends came and we chatted the whole time.

How was your honeymoon?

We had been working really hard on getting the trailer livable for the few months leading up to the wedding. We had closed on the property early May of 2000, and so had about 2 months to get it ready (and we both worked full-time) - we moved in the day we were married. So basically our honeymoon was hanging out at home for a few days since we just wanted to relax and get to know our new place (it wasn't so cramped when it was just the two of us, and we were so excited to own it and not be renting!). I remember we watched all the Anne of Green Gables and Anne of of Avonlea :-) About a year later my parents paid for our tickets so we could take a belated honeymoon to Hawaii, I was pregnant with Adrienne by then.

Whose turn is it next?

I'll go with fellow married bloggers - Karla, Emma, Lisa, Melissa, and Rachel.

No more guessing

Well contractions went away...I'm done guessing. You'll hear from me after baby's born.

Oh, and if you haven't been keeping track, today's the due date.

Maybe today

Don't want to get my hopes up just yet but I'm thinking today will be the day. I'm just back from delivering route and have been having contractions the whole time. They've been more intense than in weeks past, but no pattern yet.

Tuesday, November 6, 2007

More waiting and...salmon

My mom told me about a creek just down the road from her that has salmon swimming through on their way to spawn. So I stopped by with the girls to see...These are probably about 2 feet long:

Don't know if you can see them very well because they blend. I counted 7 salmon in this picture. It helps if you click on the picture for a larger view:


So, it's a day before the due date and I'm still pregnant. I really don't want to pass the due date, so I'm hoping something happens in the next 33 hours!

Both Adrienne and Colette were born 1 day before their due dates, so I haven't gone over yet. We'll see with this one if he wants to follow that pattern, but I'm pretty sure it won't be today since there are only 9 hours left...but I have a good feeling about tomorrow (but then I felt that way about Saturday and Sunday too :-P)

Another thing that is weird is the idea of spontaneously going into labor. Again with both Adrienne and Colette, I woke up and knew it was going to be that day (water broke with Adrienne, contractions woke me up with Colette)...it's weird to think I could be going along with my day, doing errands or something and have it hit me all of a sudden.

Colette and Adrienne's births were alike in other ways too - both were about 19 1/2 hours long - that's one pattern I am more than happy to break from!

Well, this is what is on my mind these days, it's what I dream about too. I am really looking forward to meeting this baby, but now that it is imminent I am getting nervous because of the whole pain thing. I keep planning on employing some home inducement methods, but then end up saying...uh, maybe tomorrow!

Check back folks, because it could be any day now!

Wednesday, October 31, 2007

HALLOWEEN

I know this picture isn't too much different than the one from the morning, except Colette's makeup - I didn't think the one big eye thing was going to work out. So here they are right before trick-or-treating:


The weather was perfect...I'm not sure what the temperature was exactly, but I think it was somewhere around 50 degrees, and it wasn't raining! The girls had lots of fun tonight going to the trunk-or-treat at church, and visiting each set of grandparents. Hardly anyone could tell that they were aliens. People guessed bees, butterflies, fairies...one or two people guessed aliens. Oh well, the girls liked their costumes and that's all that matters to me!

Oh, and I'm 39 weeks today! I'm glad I made it through today because I wanted to be able to participate in Halloween. Now I'd just like to get to Saturday afternoon and then anytime after that is fine with me :-) We'll see if baby cooperates.

Halloween so far...

Somehow I didn't get the memo that the kids weren't supposed to wear costumes to school. And Adrienne's class was having a Halloween party that parents were encouraged to volunteer to help out with. Not knowing about the no costume thing I thought if I were to get Adrienne all dressed up in her costume and not Colette, that Colette would get upset...so Colette and I planned to come to the party, so Colette could get dressed up too and I would help out with the party. When we walked in the class I saw right away that no kids were dressed up, and here are Adrienne and Colette looking like this (they're aliens):

I know how Adrienne is, so I knew she was going to be upset about being the only one dressed up (she's a lot like me, I would have been upset too). I told her she could stay in her costume or we could go home and change and come back. She wanted to go home and change. We were back at the school in a half an hour - they still had pink and green hair, but didn't stand out anymore. By the way, I had planned to do a better job on their face makeup, but ended up rushed. I don't know if you can tell that that is supposed to be one large eye in the middle of Colette's face...maybe I'll do a better job later today.

So after that little hang up, things were a lot of fun. Colette was very well behaved, so that was good or I would have felt bad about bringing her. They had the kids divided up into four groups and the groups went around to different activities - like bean bag toss and bowling. I helped out at the bingo table - looking over the kids shoulders to help them spot the pictures that they didn't notice they had, or when they'd get a bingo and not notice.

After the activities they had snacks, and then a quick recess. Recess pretty much consisted of the kids running around aimlessly because they didn't have time to pull out the toys. Running around aimlessly never looked so fun! It was so cute. At one point Adrienne went up to her crush (he's adorable by the way) and he stopped running and let her give him a hug. Then later when all the kids were lining up at the wall to go back into the class, he and Adrienne huddled up together, and I'm not sure, but they may have been holding hands. Goodness, this relationship is progressing so quickly! I'm not nervous yet because it is all very innocent and sweet.

After recess Colette and I left, while the rest the class, along with the rest of the school went to a Halloween play in the gym. Later when I picked up Adrienne at the bus stop I told her that I got to see her crush - she informed me that the status has been upgraded from crush to boyfriend. Then she told me that he told her that she's his true love. Oh my.

Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Update on Adrienne's Crush

So Adrienne just informed me that she told her crush today that she's in love with him.

I asked her what he said...he's in love with her too. Then they pretended they were married and had a house.

I should be scared, but I think it's adorable. :-)

Monday, October 29, 2007

Colette's Art

Up until now Colette's art has consisted of scribbles with not much thought put into it, as far as I could tell. Well I know these don't look like much, but I was impressed by the difference of time and care she put into these. She did this at church, and even though it still looks like a lot of scribbles, it must have taken quite awhile to change crayons so often, plus it looks like there was more of an effort to stay in the lines.

On this one she put the stickers on a week or two ago at her grandma's house, today she decided to add the crayon - again she took more time and care to color that than she's taken coloring in the past (and more time than she took to put those stickers on!).
So it will be interesting to see what she does from here :-)