Thirty Five Is Middle Aged

We celebrated Nate's birthday this weekend, the big 3-5. It was a cram packed three days of fun that has been extended even longer due to snow and canceled school. Two of my brothers and their families were in town for the weekend, which added to the festivities. The long standing tradition is that the honored birthday person chooses their birthday meal and dessert. I was not surprised at all when I found myself cooking a full Thanksgiving feast for Sunday dinner. This man doesn't just love his meat and potatoes, he loves his GBC (green bean casserole) and stuffing. And also Boston Creme Pie.

I gave him a gift full of self sacrifice. I went snowmobiling with him. I've never liked it. It's cold and you end up smelling of exhaust. But Nate LOVES his sleds and I decided that the best thing I could do is go along, even manning one of the machines myself. Turns out it's kind of fun. And for Monday's actual birthday meal? Meatloaf. Another meal that I loathe and he loves. Opposites do attact. I stuck some random candles in it and called it a cake.


And sticking candles into a hot meatloaf results in melted pockets of wax. Just an FYI.

Happy Birthday Carnivorous, Snowmobiling, Man Of My Dreams.

Whew. I Need A Nap

It's monday morning. The whole family oversleeping was a telltale sign of the pace of this weekend. Let's racap.

1. Nate was gone all last week on the West Coast. I was reminiscing that back in the day, when he would travel I would do some sort of a big project. Mostly repainting a room or something like that. Now? It's just survival mode. I get lazy, don't cook, stay home, and wear sweatpants 24 hours a day. It's fun times. Kudos to you single moms or military wives. You are amazing.
2. You all delurked. That was amazing and a highlight of my week. What an excellent and diverse group of readers there are here. I drank a cup of coffee out of my snowman mug for each of you. And boy am I on a caffeine high!
3. My birthday was on Friday. The highlight? Wii telling me that I'm 24. I'm going with it. Nate got home that afternoon and we had a date night at Pizza Hut. Don't judge me, that's what I was hungry for. I'm fancy like that. Also there were two trips to Starbucks. What more could a girl want?
4. Saturday night was Gourmet Club. I'm sure I've told you about Gourmet Club before but I'm too lazy to go digging in the archives for it. We've been meeting for ten years now, which is CRAZY! Maybe that deserves a post of it's own. The food was great, the theme country was Peru. Yum.
5. Sunday was cram packed and very busy but we made room for a quick birthday party with my parents. My mom made Red Velvet Cake. There are a couple pieces sitting on my counter right now, taunting me. I'm ignoring them but I can't ignore them forever.
6. Also, I'm so proud of this:

There will be no "before" picture because while I can be pretty transparent, I do have my limits. Let's just say, the kids were very surprised at how much space there actually IS on the counter when it's not covered in everyone's junk. Also, obviously it's time for some banana bread. The little Nate/Heth salt shakers on the left deserve their own post.

Super fun weekend, but now it's laundry, laundry, laundry and will power practice, what with that cake screaming at me and everything. Maybe it will be a reward for each load I finish...

I Love Her More Than Cream Cheese Frosting

You know you really love someone when you want to buy ALL the sappy Hallmark cards for them. It was hard to narrow it down to just one when I bought my Mom her birthday card this year. There are so many things I wanted to tell her about how much I love her and what she means to me, it's impossible for one little card to sum it all up. So in addition to her card and gift, I made her a heavenly carrot cake and I slathered it (and I mean slathered) in cream cheese frosting.
Dessert is our family's love language. I talked to her this morning and she was eating the leftovers for breakfast. See where I get it? It's in my blood. Love you Mom.

Everly's Birth Story

Just a heads up for those of you with a weak constitution or any men who don't want to read about the details of labor and delivery, you might want to skip this post. You have been warned.

We have late babies. It's not uncommon for me to go a few days or up to a week past my due date. It became our normal and so during my pregnancy with Everly, I just expected it. Turns out she was an on-time little lady, being born smack dab on her due date.

The evening before was our church's potluck and baptism. Braxton hicks had become a way of life for the last week or two and so I was used to a contraction here or a contraction there. That evening I knew something was different. I sat on a lawn chair at the city park with a huge plateful of food on my ginromous lap and I had the thought..."what if it really is labor? Do you want to see this devil egg again?" But like a good pregnant lady, I snarfed down every last morsel on that plate, even the peanut butter pie. Especially the peanut butter pie.

Then we headed over to the swimming pool for baptisms. Since Nate was going to be in the water helping with the baptisms, I figured I better give him a head's up. Just in case I had one of those moment like you see in the movies, one huge contraction, eyes popping out of the head, and declaring "It's time to go to the hospital, we're having a baby!". As I sat beside the pool the contractions kept coming about fifteen minutes apart or so. Nate kept giving me questioning looks but it was all good. No sudden turn of events.

We figured the best plan was to just go home, go to bed, and if it was real then labor would wake me up. So that's what we did. Nate fell asleep immediately, I laid there wide awake in anticipation. But not before packing my hospital bag. I packed my bag right before I got into bed. Procrastination is my middle name. I was able to fall asleep for a little while but sure enough, every ten minutes a contraction would wake me up. I got up out of bed and walked around for awhile and they were getting pretty uncomfortable. At few minutes before 2 am I woke Nate up and told him that we should probably head up to the hospital. He was tired, I was tired, and we both were wishing we could just hit pause, catch a good nap, and then do this later. No such luck. We called to have my mom come over and stay with the kids and we headed out.

Walking from the parking lot to the entrance caused a couple more doozies of contractions. They asked me if I wanted a wheel chair to get to the other side of the hospital or did I want to walk? I opted to walk and then halfway there, regretted it. Wow, these were some painful contractions. Not fun at all. When we got to OB they did all the stuff they do. Paper work and hooking me up to a whole bunch of machines and all of that business. The nurse asked how dilated I was at my last appointment. I was at 2 cm and maybe 50% effaced. She informed me that I was exactly the same, nothing had changed, in fact the baby was still really high. This is where I had a moment of "ARE YOU KIDDING ME?" I was so, so shocked and sad. What in the world were all of those contractions doing all evening? Seriously? Dang it.

It took about an hour for them to take care of all of the stuff they had to do to get us admitted. They called the doctor, gave her the update on where I was at and she gave me two choices. I could get an epidural and try to rest or I could get up and walk around and try to get things moving. I opted to just lay there and weigh my choices. By now the nurses had left the room, Nate was chilling on the couch, and I was deep in negotiations with myself. The contractions kept coming, painful but not too bad. I was tired. I wanted to sleep, but I also just wanted to get this over with. If it was going to go on for hours, I just wanted that epidural and a nap. But what if I got up and walked, maybe it would happen soon. For about 20 minutes I laid there, thinking.

Then there was a contraction that felt different. Lower. Weirder. I told the nurse and asked if she could check to see if anything was different. I was hoping for a five, maybe even a six. At this point her eyes popped out of her head. She said, "You're complete!" in a panicked voice. And the flurry of commotion began. They called the doctor, started running around the room in preparation, and I just laid there. Seriously? That was it? We are ready to push? Alrightythen.

Since the doctor lives about twenty minutes away, she knew she wouldn't make it in time. So they called in a local doctor, a good friend of ours. But while he was on his way, they brought the ER doc in. He stood by the bed and waited, just in case any baby catching was suddenly needed. And yet I had no overwhelming urge to push. The contractions were still coming five to six minutes apart and they really weren't that bad. Turns out my water still wasn't broken and that was just enough to keep things from progressing all the way. When the local doc arrived a few minutes later, he took over for the ER doc and stood guard. Again, no overwhelming urge to push, so we just stayed in limbo. Limbo with feet in stirrups is no fun but whatevah.

Finally the OB came walking into the room and was very surprised to see that we hadn't delivered yet. She got all gloved up and said "Let's do this." She broke my water and wham, there it went. I'm just going to skip the description of pushing because all mothers know there are no words that can capture it completely. No words except for OhMyGoshWhenWillThisBeOver?

And then there she was. Another moment that there are no words for. A Holy moment. She was beautiful. Seven pounds, five ounces of me and Nate. And yet her very own person. How can anyone not profess that it is a complete miracle?

Everything went great after that, for a couple hours. Then, as they were about to take her away so that Nate and I could rest, everything turned bad. I really, really, really had to go to the bathroom. I must have consumed a lot of fluids before labor. The nurse accompanied me to the restroom, as is protocol. This is the conversation that followed, Nate listened from the next room.

Me: "I'm a little dizzy."
Her: "Are you ok?"
Me: "Yeah, I'm ok."
Me: " No, actually, I'm really dizzy."

And then loss of consciousness. She called for Nate to come help while she pulled the nurse call button. Nate and the other nurse went in search of a wheel chair. I don't remember any of this. I do remember a wheel chair to my right and them saying they were going to put me in it. I remember not really caring either way. Nate says my eyes were open the whole time but it was clear that no one was home. My face had gone completely white from such a rapid loss of blood. It turns out I had majorly hemorrhaged, my uterus hadn't been contracting and tightening down. They got me back in the bed and by then had called a code blue. This brought the ER doc, the lab, and a whole bunch of other people to the room. By now I was on oxygen and my IV was hooked back up. I was conscience by now. I remember laying there, looking up at the ceiling in a haze. Weirdest feeling ever.

Nate and the nurses kept asking my questions, trying to keep me awake. I was just so tired. I knew by now that I was going to be ok, but I just didn't have the energy to do anything except nod. So tired. So, so tired. They gave me a shot of something or another in my leg and a bunch more pitocin in the IV. Then they proceeded to practically pound on my stomach to get that dang uterus to tighten back down.

And it did. And I was fine.

We opted to turn away visitors for the first few hours. Both of us were exhausted physically and emotionally. We slept most of the morning and then we were ready to see friends and family by noon. It was a story we didn't share with our kids. The older ones got the modified version.

And so that is how Everly came into this world. It's funny how just three weeks later, it seems like she's always been here. Recovery has been a lot slower than the other births. We've had a lot going on, life just doesn't seem to slow down at all. But I'm trying to cut myself some slack and just take more time to sit and hold her. This morning she smiled at me for the first time. How is it that no matter if it's the first baby, or the eighth baby, one little smile can absolutely melt you and bring tears to your eyes.?

I guess it's just the awe of a little bundle of miracle.

Everly Ivy is Home

Little Miss came home from the hospital today.

To My Newly Six Year Old

Dear Jack,

Before I say anything else, I have to apologize for cutting your bangs two days before your birthday. Not sure what I was thinking. They aren't straight, that's for sure. You look like you should be a member of the Beatles. Don't worry, I have an appointment for you to get it fixed tomorrow morning, but that's one day late for all the birthday pictures. Sorry.

You are an absolute joy. Six suits you. That smirk, the giggle, the witty comments. Not a day goes by that you don't totally crack me up. I hope you enjoyed your birthday. It started with donuts and ended with candy.

When we snuck away to Dairy Queen together this afternoon I couldn't help but chuckle. I was heading out of the driveway to drop Tyler off at baseball practice and on a whim I invited you to jump in the backseat, fully prepared to sneak some ice cream with you. It wasn't until we were almost there that I thought to take a look at what you were wearing. A glance in the rearview mirror confirmed what I suspected. You were wearing the shirt you slept in, a pair of shorts and no shoes. But you know what? It's your birthday so whatever. I let you pick anything you wanted off the menu and you chose the most expensive thing they offer and then ate just a few bites. We sat out on the picnic table and talked about what you wanted to buy with all you birthday money. So many options.

I know some day your voice will drop an octave and you won't skip the number 38 when you count to 100. You will probably eventually brush your teeth unprompted. For now I'm just trying to eat up every moment with you. Happy birthday buddy.

Mom

Birthday Girl

Watch out world, somebody just turned four and she's got wheels.

I Know He Will Never Be Terrible

Toby turned two on Saturday. We celebrated by going out to eat as a family. Since little Mr. Man hasn't had the greatest track record at restaurants lately, we decided to go somewhere that would be appropriate for a squirmy two year old. Burger King Playland.

We drove to the nearby Bigger Town and hit a BK that we had never been to before. We ventured into the unknown and explored strange new worlds, we sought out new life and new civilizations, we went where no man has gone before. We came out with an obscene number of little cheap Star Trek toys that say "Beam me up." when you hit the button. Imagine how fun the ride home was. They have all been confiscated.

Here we have birthday boy appropriately celebrating with two toddler sized burgers.

Happy Birthday Toby.

Birthdays Birthdays Birthdays

Camryn's birthday was on Sunday. She's ten now and I'm not sure how exactly that happened.

There are two sides to Cam, the side most everyone knows:

And the Cam we get to know:

Oh to laugh like that every day.

FOURTEEN?!

I don't think he's the last eighth grader in the world to get a phone, pretty close though.

Yesterday Tyler turned fourteen and we allowed him to play hookie for the afternoon to hang out with his dorky parents. It's worth it when you are hitting the Verizon store and getting a Chocolate out of the deal. I'm wondering how long it will be before it takes a ride in a pocket through the washing machine. We killed a little time at the park and let the little ones play. I love watching my teenager be so tender with his littlest siblings.

I see such big changes in you this year Tyler. More than just your hair turning curly. You are becoming quite an amazing young man and we are proud of you.

I Guess I Really Am 32

Today was my birthday. I still have 35 minutes left. Some highlights:

• A new laptop bag for my The Golden Laptop
• BK french toast sticks and ciniminis for breakfast
  
• It ended up being a good hair day. (You never know with a mullet)
• Tiramisu
• Starbucks
• Wii
• Mom taking the kids for the afternoon and evening
• Dinner out
• Monster cookies (see a theme?)
  
• Packages in the mail
• Facebook birthday wishes
• Another year marked by God's faithfulness

It was perfect.

She's 12

She turned 12 and we took her out, alone. Noelle's birthday was on New Year's day so she kind of gets hosed every year. Usually everyone is dragging after a late New Year's Eve night and her birthday is spent with tired, grouchy people. We celebrated with family that evening and then last night Nate and I took her out for dinner and a movie.

She chose a Japanese Hibachi grill. You know, the kind where you all sit around the grill and the guy with the crazy knife skills lights a flaming onion volcano right in front of your face. Now wouldn't that be fun to see pictures of? I thought so too but apparently the company I was keeping wasn't too excited about me pulling out my camera and drawing attention to ourselves while the people around us were just trying to enjoy their noodles and whatnot. So no pictures. Then we headed to the movies. We had a bit of a wait until the next show so we killed time at Best Buy. Good times. Who do you suppose chose that store? Let me give you a hint.



It appears she takes after him, she hacked into some games on the demo netbook. Good work Welly.



We saw the movie Seven Pounds and then headed home. It was a really fun night with our new twelve year old. Happy Birthday Noelle. And keep up the growing just a little bit more. Only about a half a shoe size more and we can share and that will be a happy birthday present for both of us. Double the shoe choices. Wheee!

Caedmon

His fingernails are never clean and the bottoms of his feet are always brown.

The minute we pull into the driveway after school he jumps out of the van and runs to his secret spots, the places where he knows he will find a creature. It could have four legs, six legs, eight legs, or none at all. It might crawl, hop, scurry, or leap away from him.

I decided last last spring that I needed to document all of the "things" Caedmon would catch in one summer. I give you the summer of '08, the summer that Caedmon was six.



Today he is seven. Happy Birthday buddy. I wish you endless bugs, worms, toads, frogs, and who-knows-what-else this next year.

(This is a picture of a picture. It's the poster I had made and blown up.)

Updates

Since this blog has been mostly silent with the occasional post about vacation, I will update you on some of the goings on around the Laundry Pile this summer.

• First of all, the pile of laundry is fairly large right now. I'm hacking away at it one load at a time. That is when we are not at the pool.
  
• Toby learned to walk while we were on vacation. He's in that stumbly, out of balance, but still trying phase. It's completely adorable and I want to gobble him up.
• Jack is now 5. He had a birthday on the very day we were driving home from Northern Minnesota. I decorated his car seat with green balloons and streamers in an effort to win him over from the worst birthday situation possible, a whole day in the car.
• The kids just got back from "Grandma camp". They spent three days and two nights at my parents' house and we were childless. They made tie dyed shirts, played Frisbee golf, had a campfire, made a pinata, slept in a tent, and who knows what else. Nate and I went to a local water park without them and ate out as much as possible. Lots of Starbucks was consumed.
• I also took the child free opportunity to do some gardening. I made a new flower bed behind my garage. It was quite a sight, a crazy sweaty lady digging up her lawn. I do what I can to provide entertainment for the neighborhood.

In summary. Summer is good and I love it. Lots. Favorite season of the year hands down.

Vacation.

Ok, so here is the official vacation post. I have narrowed my 1000+ photos down to a mere 16. It's pretty much one of those vacation slide show experiences where your dang neighbors/family/friends/whoever, drag you over and pour you a lemonade and make you look through all of their snap shots from their recent trip to the Grand Canyon in an RV and it takes four hours. Except I have no lemonade, there are only sixteen pictures, and you can leave whenever you want and I won't be offended. I won't even know.

First of all. The best way to start a day at the lake is pancakes. This is my plate. Don't even think about stealing one of my pancakes.

We pack lunch before heading to the beach. PBandJ taste even more awesomer at the lake.

A typical day might include a little snorkeling,

some hunting for "crawdaddies",

definitely some jumping off the dock,

some jet skiing, (I am now a self declared "jet ski enthusiast")

a little bit of fishing (a lot more if you are one of the guys),

some swimming, reading in the sun, minnow catching, and then watching a gorgeous sunset.

This year we celbrated the 4th of July while at the lake. A couple highlights:

We also celebrated a certain someone's 5th birthday. This is his second birthday while on a vacation. Poor kid. I hope The Hulk cupcakes for breakfast made up for it.

We did a little bit of touristy shopping. My brother Luke bought a fabulous little lute type thingy that he proceeded to serenade us with.

And also a deer slingshot. Because it is the awesome.

And also, a coonskin hat is a must have.

On the way home we had to make a stop at Cracker Barrel for supper. Can't resist the rocking chairs for a family pic.

And we also stopped at Treasure City. But it deserves it's own post. Here is a teaser.

The suspense is killer isn't it?

Yesterday Was Gemma's Day

She's three! I love this age. Every emotion is felt with abandon. As each birthday gift was opened, it was welcomed with a squeal, or a giggle, or even a little dance. She had two cupcakes before dinner. Pink princess cupcakes. And a birthday perk? You don't have to share the beaters.

One

What a difference a year makes.
Happy First Birthday Toby.

Auntie Heth

I have a new little nephew, I got to meet him today. Let me tell you about him.

He's very punctual, he arrived right on his due date.

He's very handsome.

He's destined to be an A's fan. He pretty much has no choice.

He's completely adored.

Let me introduce you to Austin Mark.

Austin, you have seven cousins who are anxious to meet you.

Birthday Season

We are in the heat of our annual March Birthday Extravaganza around these parts. Tuesday was Tyler's birthday.

Trivia Question: What is the difference between 12 year old Tyler and 13 year old Tyler?

Answer: 5 inches. The kid grew 5 inches. Just a minute while I go spend all my money on new pants for Mr. Highwater.



Camryn's birthday is today. She requested Cotton Candy cupcakes. Good choice Cam.

Birthday

Today was my 31st birthday. I feel like I'm talking about someone else when I say thirty-one. In my head I know it's not old, I just can't get over the fact that 31 sounds so middle aged. When Nate and I were first married we hung out with some other parents of young kids from our church. A lot of them were significantly older than us. Like a decade older than us. We were invited to one particular lady's surprise 30th birthday party. I remember thinking, "She is so middle aged."

Now that I have passed that number, it doesn't seem middle aged anymore. But it sure sounds middle aged when I say it about myself. I'm still nineteen right? Nineteen with 7 kids? Hmmm, something isn't quite right about that.


Despite the numbers, I love my birthday. We started celebrating on Sunday with a party at my parents' house. I didn't get to blow my candles out. While I was inhaling in preparation, two little boys on either side of me were exhaling, stealing all the glory.



This morning the kids and I started the day off with some crazy-awesome dancing to a little Family Force 5 in the kitchen while eating a breakfast of chocolate chip bars. From there on it was nothing but food. Nate took me out for lunch with no kids and then supper too. I know you won't believe me but by the end of the meal I was so full that I didn't even order dessert. Let me repeat that. I DIDN'T ORDER DESSERT. We were even at one of those restaurants where if they find out it's your birthday they sing and carry on and embarrass you and then give you free dessert. What was I thinking? I should have at least taken it to go. Then I could eat it for post birthday breakfast tomorrow morning.

Again, what was I thinking?

Now I've got birthday regret.