Another baby... :-)

I attended a birth last night. It was really sweet to be there with friends, to see a young mother be born at the birth of her baby... To see how a mom goes though this time, watching as her daughter becomes a mother.

I work with mom's all the time: It is fun, exhausting, exciting, difficult, and awesome... But this one was different for me. I've known this young mother since she was in High school, I saw her in her prom dress, and she was the Young Woman that my young woman looked up to (as a new young Bee-Hive). Remembering back to the day I was able to attend their wedding, as she was sealed for time and all eternity to her sweetheart, and now, to be privileged to be there as that sweet young couple became a family of their own.

It is a bit overwhelming, looking forward to the day when that is me with my baby(s) all grown up, and becoming a mother. Realizing it is not all that far off in the future... I had to wipe at a tear or two today, thinking about these things.

Thank you to this sweet family for letting me be a part of their lives. Thank you to my family for being supportive of me and my desire to help mom's and families. For holding things together when I leave for a birth, late night phone calls that inturupt their sleep, and for being my additional cheering squad, and my sounding board when I get home. For sharing my joys, and listening when I need to vent!

I'm thankful for the opportunity that I have to work with mom's, and for the desire in my heart to help mom's have beautiful births.

p.s. Baby P was born at 5:33 a.m. (labor really started at 11 p.m. on her due date), he was 8 lbs 4 oz, and a tall 23 1/2 inches long!!! The nurse measured several times to make sure that was correct!

He is adorable! and Mom did a fantastic job! A beautiful natural birth.

Tonight, I'm thankful for drugs...

Prescription medicines that is.

We just got back from a trip to the Emergency Room. I took Bill in tonight (sunday night). He was in intense pain, enough to make a grown man cry in public, because of the pain. It was awful to see him hurting so bad. There was really nothing I could do to help him. I am used to working with laboring women. I have tricks and tools to help them to get through Labor. We work with it, and try to understand that it isn't a bad pain, a pain that means something is wrong, it is just your body working to do the amazing job of bringing forth a child, straight from Heaven! Not a walk in the park, it's hard work, but you know that it won't last forever (noone has ever been in labor for ever...) and, you get something wonderful at the end of it all. A beautiful baby.

Kidney stones however, aren't nearly as wonderful! I used to think, "Oh, Puuuuhlease...!" when I would hear talk of kidney stones being worse than labor (from men). I then had a dear friend who birthed a 10 + lb baby naturally, (this was before I was a labor doula and have now seen quite a few 10 + lb babies born naturally), then she had a kidney stone and told me it was way worse than labor! So, now I believe, and am a bit more sympathetic than I used to be. She described it to me this way; in labor, the contractions come and go, and you have breaks in between them. You KNOW you will have breaks in between them (even if you might not feel like it at the time, it is true). You KNOW that it won't last forever, and that you get a prize after it is over. Your baby...

With kidney stones, it can be constant pain, you don't necessarily know why (we happened to know this was probably kidney stones), in my friend's case she had no idea what her pain was all about! Until they knew, they wouldn't give her anything to mask the pain, and you have no idea how long you will be in pain. There is no bright light at the end of the tunnel. There is nothing happy to look forward to. It is just PAIN!!!!!!!!

Bill had some partial symptoms over a week ago, and that was why he was sent for the CT scan and ultrasound last tuesday. Being a holiday week, noone got back with him/us to let him know what the scans said, or what to do or expect when the kidney stone started to move. PAIN... and what to do about it...

Yesterday and today he had some slight symptoms, but... he hadn't had any pain yet, and we hadn't heard from anyone at the clinic about what the scans showed. (It was a holiday weekend and the clinic on post wasn't open since Wednesday, last week!)

Today Amanda wasn't feeling well, but she got ready and went to church. After the sacrament, Rebekah drove her home. After a nap she still felt really yucky, but asked if someone would come up and watch a movie with her. Rebekah was invited to dinner at her friend's house. So after we ate dinner, Sariah and I went and we were watching Notting Hill with Amanda. The little girls were watching Christmas movies downstairs, with Liam, and Bill went to lay down and watch something... that's when the pain hit. He tried taking a bath, but Liam came upstairs and kicked him out and took a bath himself. Bill came and got me from girls movie night, to tell me he was hurting and didn't know if he could deal with it. He tried sitting in the hot tub of water but it did little to offer any relief. Before long we were on our way to the hospital to the Emergency room.

After arriving, it took nearly an hour for us to get put into a room, and once the Dr. finally saw him, he was able to get DRUGS... then they took him off to get another CT scan and ultrasound done on his kidneys. The drugs worked really well, and he asked if we could just bring some home with us to keep on hand... ;-) The Dr. came back and confirmed that yes, it was a kidney stone. It is between 3-4 cm, in size. Most likely he will have to pass it... it was over 4 -5 mm, they'd have to go in and break it up (I think they do that with ultrasound waves or something like that), before it could pass. They sent us home with a prescription for serious drugs/meds, and a referal to call and get an appointment in the morning with a urologist.

So... until he passes the dumb stone, he will most likely be drugged, unable to drive (or operate heavy machinery...) and it could be a hard week for him. Oh, that's right, he'll be heavily drugged and won't feel (or possibly remember) a thing!

So, today, I was thankful for medicine, and Bill said he was thankful that he got through Thanksgiving weekend before he had to deal with this! Thankful, we didn't have to spend Thanksgiving Day in the Emergency Room at the hospital! Bill also said he is very thankful that the worst of the pain he suffered was at the hospital and not at home, so that the kids didn't have to see him in so much pain.

Thanksgivng

I'm thankful for the help I had preparing Thanksgiving dinner, and I'm thankful for my family.

I had help making rolls... They didn't turn out quite like mom's, but were fun to make. Liam kept eating his dough...

On Bill's way home from Football he stopped and bought a couple of things I forgot to get, and he brought me home flowers. I loved them! So bright and harvest colored. I love when he surprises me and brings me home flowers. I don't NEED Roses, or anything fancy. I just love that he thinks of me and will bring me flowers (even if it's just from the grocery store). :-)

Bill is the Apple Pie man at our house usually. He makes what he calls a Frumpy Apple Pie - he stuff's as manyapples as he can in the pie. After Playing football with the guys from church that morning, He was laying on the couch watching football... and we were having fun in the kitchen, so Hannah did most of the apple pie this year. Mom helped with the apples (since the apple slicer was a little unwieldy for Hannah alone), and Amanda helped by making the pie dough. Liam helped out by eating the apples...dad came and helped with putting the top crust on. We ended up with a lattice top since we were running out of dough. It turned out quite Lovely and tasted very good.

And of course there are a couple of other Thanksgiving traditions - Amanda donned the Olives on her fingers...







We were cooking several things at once, and we had JUST looked in the oven and the marshmallows were barely getting a slight color to them, and in no time at all they had burned to a crisp... Rebekah peeled them off the top of the sweet potato cassarole and we topped it with fresh marshmallows, and cooked them till they were lovely toasted brown and yummy.

Something I have wanted to do for a long time, but I've had a somewhat small table and a lot of young children for a lot of years, and so we normally eat on our regular dishes (plastic) or paper plates. This year I just really wanted to have a special dinner, and I got out the China.

Years ago I got my china - very basic, white with silver rims around it. When my mother died, I got her china. I packed it up and took it to my friend (and Bishop)'s house and Sister C let me store my mom's china at her house. It spent 20 years in her basement underneath the pool table. I finally had her send it to me a year or two ago, when I felt like we were somewhat stable, and It needed to get out of her way. My mothers china is grey with white flowers, and it has a silver rim around the outside.

When we lived in Japan, I bought a set of china there. It is a white background, with japanese scenes on it in a grey color - Mt. Fugi, etc, with pink cherry blossoms, and it has silver rims around it, so I thought it might be cool to have the three sets that might all blend together with each other, and some day... if, after I die, my kids all want the china, they could each get a couple of each set - my old china, my mothers - their grandmother's, and the Japanese set where they all lived (except for Liam).

So I got out a tablecloth that my mother had, and washed the china, and put it on the table (with a little sparkling juice to celebrate the day). I mixed and matched the china at each place setting, and I think it looked nice. It was nice to think of my mom as I got out her china.

I brought in a little table to make more room at the table, and Hannah and Liam were very excited about sitting there, so that worked out nicely. Sariah ended up sitting at another little table (a desk from her summer classroom) to make room to set a few more things on...

Liam was getting quite fussy just before we managed to eat dinner, and I knew he was tired, but dinner was just about on the table. He started eating his dinner, but then climbed up in dad's lap, and fell asleep. At some point Bill put him up in bed, and he woke up and came back downstairs, climbed up on dad and fell back asleep, so he napped while Bill watched some t.v. Amanda is so silly some times. As she was eating, her plate was all cleaned off, except for these last three green beans, and they were in a 'smiley face' pattern. Amanda was so funny, and her face was all smiley with a big grin too, to end off our meal!

More Giving Thanks

Yesterday, we worked on cleaning up our house (so that we could have a nice thanksgiving and then the next day we can decorate for Christmas).

Amanda spent most of the day working in her own room - which didn't exactly help the family much, but desperately NEEDED the time and attention!!!!! Sariah had a sleep over the night before and wasn't going to be home so she cleaned up Liam's playroom (formerly our music room, part craft room and supposed to be dining room), before I took her to her friends house for the night. Marissa also went to a sleep over but came home early enough to help with a few things. Hannah helped out quite a bit and Rebekah came through with flying colors... she whipped the kitchen into shape!

Now, I have a confession to make -

'Hi, my name is Wendy, and I am horizontal surface challenged!' I am a packrat, and have a hard time getting rid of anything that 'might' still have a use of some kind or other! I also have a problem with 'out of site out of mind'. If I have something that I want to work on, at some point... if I put it all away, I will NEVER get to it! So... I have a hard time putting things all away.

I think I need better organizational tools (shelves, baskets and such), Bill thinks I need to get rid of more STUFF! But, that is an entire post for another day!!!

Anyway, Rebekah helped a tremendous amount.

Then we decided to put together some of the food for today's yummy dinner, so we didn't have so much to do at teh last minute.

Hannah helped me make dough for fresh, home made rolls for today. Hannah also helped put together the sweet potato casserole by opening all the cans (no I don't cook my own sweet potatoes down and make it fresh, even though I do love sweet potatoes and have a whole bag of them).

We put together the cranberry sauce (also canned cranberry's), I got this yummy recipe from our friend D many years ago (when I had Christmas with him and he invited several of his Soldiers over and we fixed a big dinner), since Bill was in Saudi Arabia and I was home alone in Germany, pregnant with Rebekah. D called his mom for this recipe and still had it a few years ago written down on the same envelope he jotted it down on. Bill and I really like this recipe.

Now, this may be a sacrilege, but I am not a huge fan of Pumpkin Pie, and quite frankly... if we don't have pumpkin pie (which I haven't made in YEARS, and probably have never made a regular old pumpkin pie), I'm fine with that. When Rebekah was in Kindergarten a little girl made a yummy pumpkin pie recipe with her mom and brought in the recipe to share for the class Thanksgiving party. I did make that recipe for a few years, but in the past several, we have been blessed to enjoy Thanksgiving day with friends and I let someone else handle the pumpkin pie. ;-) Well, this year, Rebekah decided pumpkin pie was a necessity, (I was going to do a pumpkin cheesecake), so she went on line looking for recipes. Thank you Paula Dean!!! A creamy pumpkin pie recipe with cream cheese and half & half. Rebekah made cute little individual pumpkin pie's in mini muffin cups. So cute, and yummy!!!! Somehow I think I could eat quite a few of these little bite sized pumpkin pies.

Marissa and Liam and Amanda all got involved at times. It was fun. I thought I had more pictures... but can't find them.

Another confession - I am not very patient in the kitchen. I don't particularly enjoy cooking with small children in the kitchen. We don't have 'fun' family cooking events very often. I haven't gotten around to making Christmas cookies for several years (o.k. time orgainization is also not a skill I have in great supply either). I had a fun time cooking with my kids in the kitcheon yesterday. This year I am actually thinking that making Gingerbread houses and christmas cookies might be fun.

A day for giving thanks...

To start with, I wrote the post about NaBloPoMo and then I haven't managed to post anything for the past three days...

Some of the things that have been on my mind - but just haven't made it onto my blog yet...

I am thankful for Health Care (even if it is a bit like socalized medicine).

In the past few weeks we have had multiple appointments at the clinic on post. Between the 8 of us we've gone in for a Kidney infection, Hip Pain, Candida, Refill Prescriptions, and x-rays. We've been sent off post for CT scans, Ultrasounds, Orthopedics and Physical Therapy. Upcoming we have more x-rays, and an MRI scheduled, along with more appointments to Orthopedics, and possible minor surgery

Because we've been in the military, we've always had this available to us, and at no cost. The most we've ever paid for any of the health care (that the military has provided) was when the oldest two girls were born. Since neither of them were born at a military hospital, we had to pay for a part of our food while there... I think we paid about $7.00 dollars or something silly like that.

I really haven't had to think about our health care costs in the past. I'm ever so thankful, that when Liam was sick and we spent three weeks in the hospital, and then another three weeks with home health care stopping in once a day until we were done with his I.V. medicines, and we have been to the orthopedic Dr. many mutiple times and we go to weekly physical therapy... and it has all been covered. Many, many thousands of dollars, and we haven't paid a penny.


Now this being said, I will comment that my husband has had multiple deployments overseas, he is technically on call 24/7 and if necessary, is willing to give his LIFE for our freedoms, and THAT is a pretty HIGH PRICE to pay for all of the health care benefits we've had available to us...

There have been irritations about the 'system' that we are in at times. There have been fustrations about our lack of choice of who we go see, at times. I am currently a bit frustrated that they denied a request for an orthotic to go in Liam's shoe to help his walk be evened out somewhat... the silly thing only costs just over $20.00, so I told our P.T. to just order it and we will pay for it ourselves!!!


However, in the near future, Bill is getting ready to retire from the military... I wonder who he will work for, and what kind of insurance benefits we will have. I don't know how it works when you have retired military insurance as well as a secondary insurance. Will that cover the cost of co-pays that I hear others talk about when they go to the Dr?

Frustrations or not... I have to be thankful for the health care and inurance that my husband has provided for us over the years.

I'm thankful for Church... and teachers for my children

I have certainly had my share of teachers (for my children) over the years. I enjoy hearing what each of the children "learned today in Primary" or 'Young Women's or Sunday School Classes. Last week there was a really cute one however. Bill ended up stuck (partly because they had no 2nd helper, and partly because Liam wouldn't let him leave...), but got to see and hear what went on in class. They were learning about the First Article of Faith. http://scriptures.lds.org/a_of_f/1We Believe in God the Eternal Father, and in His Son Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Ghost. By the end of class Liam was telling us he had learned about God, Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost. the way he said it was just so darn cute!!!! The girls of course all got a very big kick out of it! ;-) They kept asking him to get him to say it over and over again.
('D' does such a good job of writing down how her little man says some words, it is so cute and I can hear how he says it... For me, it's really hard to capture how to spell things out so you could hear the intonation and everything, about how Liam says things. It's not just the words themselves but the WAY he says it as well. I want to be able to remember all of these cute things.)
Anyway, after saying it over and over, he sort of changed things a bit. If any of you have seen the more recent movie of Alvin and the Chipmunks, (which I have, unfortunately about a million and one times...), Liam then spouts out with Hoooly Ghost, with the same intonation of how Alvin says, Hoooly Nuts! on the movie. I was VERY glad that he dropped that after just a few times!!!!!!!! It just didn't show the reverence and respect and spiritual nature of what he'd been taught that day in nursery class!
Anyway, today I'm grateful for good, wonderful teachers who take the time to love and teach my children.

Thankful for blogging...

O.K. this one my be lame... but I have run across a sight called NaBloPoMo. It is National Blog Posting Month. I found it late, but figured I could do it starting now... http://www.nablopomo.com/

You are just supposed to blog every single day for one month. I am a bit clumsy on the computer however and sort of can't figure out how to post the badge that I am part of NaBloPoMo on my blog page so I can share this idea with others... but I decided to post the link.

I started a blog post the other day and had to leave it unfinished, and it got lost.... I am going to try harder.

So... to go along with the post title for today, I AM thankful for this blogging thing I've become slightly addicted to! ;-) I started bloging so that I could keep a record/journal of the daily craziness of my life and the lives of my family. I don't find time to journal, and have often found that writting a letter seemed like a better way to 'journal' my life than just writing in a journal - as that seemed flat and uninteresting (to be fair, I'm sure that what I write about here may be just as uninteresting to many as well.), but for me it is a lot easier when I write this way. I can already see the benefits of blogging and being able to look back at it for future times to be able to remember the things that were important in our lives at this time.

Another reason I am thankful for Blogging about is that it allows me an easy way to share our lives with friends and family far and near. And in this way I also get to share some of their lives a bit more often than otherwise, since I don't hear from many of my far away friends on as frequent a basis as I do by reading their blogs. My Uncle has been following my blog, and has captured a few pictures I've posted, and done a digital scrapbook page and then printed it and sent it in the mail to my kids. They have really enjoyed seeing these scrapbook pages that their great Uncle (really, the only relative of my family that they have much memory of) has taken the time to add his own little comments on, and then send to them specifically. So sweet!

So... for today I am thankful for this new technology and the blogging people for comming up with this great easy access easy to share way of keeping track of family and friends. (I have even made a few new friends on-line through blogging. Someone saw a post where I commented on one of their friend's blog and then read my blog and followed those links and has since become a friend and I follow her blog every now and then and she mine as well. So that is fun as well.)

I'm Thankful For Visiting Teaching

Yesterday my Visiting Teachers came. I have new V.T.'s, well, K was my VT back when we just started in 3rd Ward, so it was fun to have her back again. And C is my other 'new' VT. I really enjoyed getting to know her a little more. I enjoy visiting teaching as a fun way to get to know the other sisters in your ward. We talked about lots of things, and then C decided that the message she'd like to give was somethign different than what she had planned. She said that she and her mom had been talking recently and on the issue of trying to be a parent and to make everything FAIR, all the time for every child - if one child gets something or other, you then feel like you have to get an equal amount of something; be it Birthday presents, Christmas presents, etc... in order to be fair. As a mother I often fall into this, trying to 'be fair' to each child... and C's mom had this thought. God doesn't treat us like that. God gives us what we NEED when we NEED it. He doesn't try to give us what we want, or if one person has wealth or health or something else he certainly hasn't given that same thing to ALL of His children here on Earth, just to be FAIR. But that is better for us. And over all, it all works out in the end. So I'm going to try this approach a little bit more in my life. One child may NEED something (new glasses yesterday), and another child my also need new glasses, or want new glasses, but doesn't Need the same type of fancy glasses, and another day that child may need something else, and it will all work out for their good. I hope that I can remember this also as I go into the Holiday season... just because one child might get a certain # of items or $ amt. of items, doesn't mean I have to kill myself trying to make everythign for each child completely equal in # or $ just to be 'fair', so I end up getting something noone needs, or wants essentially. I'm going to try hard to do better. Wish me luck! Now to get reasdy for my day and my turn to go Visiting Teaching.

Thankful for employment

Today my post was going to be about being grateful for my husbands' job - for a steady job and a steady paycheck.
Last night I got a phone call from my friend R in NYC who just had the twins, on Oct 4th. Since I left them at a week post partum, her husband actually lost his job (officially). He worked for Lehman Bro's in the stock Market. Since that time (even while I was there), he has been working on getting another job. He has had phone interviews, and then about two weeks ago, he flew out for a couple of interviews (mom was on her own with all four kids for about 4 days), and SHE DID IT!!! Well, they accepted an offer and have been packing up their apartment. Tomorrow they get on a plane and fly with a (just turned) 7 yr old girl, a 2 1/2 yr old boy and 6 wee old twin baby boys! They will be moving in with R's in-laws for a while till they get setteled and can find a place of their own. G will start his new job next week, in San Francisco. At least they will have his parents to help out.

When I was in NY and I told my sweetheart about G probably losing his job - he asked me if I was sure I still wanted him to Retire and get a 'civilian' job in the real world. I am pretty sure I do, but the Job Secuity for the past nearly 20 years has definitely been nice.

So for today... along with many other things, I am thankful for Job Security and a regular paycheck.

Giving Thanks and Gratitude

I've been thinking (along with many of my friends) about the lesson we had (thanks K) on gratitude. I sort of wanted to do a gratitude post as well, but didn't want to seem like I was just COPYING... so I kept putting it off. I give up now, I want to do a gratitude post... it is good for us to have to think of the things we are greatful for.

*I am Thankful for a wonderful husband, who was born of Goodly Parents, and raised in such a way as to have a desire to seek out answers to his questions. I'm thankful that he took me to the temple to be sealed together forever so that we would have the opportunity to have our family with us for eternity. I'm thankful that he is my best friend. I'm thankful for his support and all that he gives to me. I'm thankful for his Love of Country. (and has taken me to foreign and exotic places) :-) I'm so thankful that he is a great dad

*I am thankful for each one of my children.

*Rebekah - for her strong spirit, that will hopefully serve her well to be a leader. I'm thankful for all the hard work she has done searching out college information and for the scholarships and grants she's been able to get to help with College next year. I love her dearly. I am thankful that seh will have the opportunity to head off on her own, and yet sad to see the day come when my 'baby' leaves the nest... I will miss having her around! I am thankful that she finished her YW in Excellence, before she turns 18 and can move on to Relief Society.

*Amanda - I am thankful for her fun personality and her sweet spirit. I am looking forward to seeing how she grows and and for the person she is becomming. I am thankful for her willingness to help (usually) and her ability to let us 'tease' her about the Jeckyl/Hyde moments of life. I am thankful that she and Rebekah have been able to be in Marching band together this year.

* Sariah - I am thankful for this girl in my life. I am thankful for all the help she has been with Liam in his lifetime (thus far). I am thankful for her bright personality,and how much fun she can be. I'm thankful for (and trying to learn to let go and let her) fun way of doing things, even if it isn't always the way 'I' would do it. I am thankful for all that she is teaching me. I love that she is willing to take chances at times and try new things (like sassy new cute hair cuts)! I am thankful she is growing into an amazing Young Woman. I am thankful for how much effort she puts into her projects (ahead of time even...).

* Hannah - I'm thankful or her sweet (most of the time) personality. I am thankful for her willingness to see things in others and to stand up for others (outside of her family) ;-) I'm tyinbg to be thankful for her different style - tomboy is new for me... we've had so many fights over everyone wanting pink and fru fru for so many years, this doesn't seem to care about girly things is a bit hard for me to get used to.

* Marissa - I'm thankful for her spirited personality. I'm thankful for her ability to play. I'm thankful she is doing so well in her karate classes. (even if I'm not the best 'sports' mom ever!) I'm thankful for her zest for life. I'm thankful that she got baptised this year, and is growing in the gospel. I'm thankful for her fun 'fashion sense'...

* Liam - I am so thankful for this little wild man! He is a fresh breath of air. I am thankful for his energetic personality... even though it wears me out at times. I'm thankful for all that he is learning (even if it means he is going to be more computer literate than I am in a short time). I am thankful for his wilingness to learn all of the silly things his sister's teach him... Like to be a 'gentleman' - when he kisses a lady's hand... or when he sings a silly made up song or game they teach him. Even if sometimes the songs and accompanying dance are a bit embarrassing in public! I'm thankful that he is healthy and doesn't even know he ever was sick or had surgery. I love his ability to make us all laugh.

I am thankful for my wonderful, amazing, sometimes crazy family. For the path we are on together to be a forever family.