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Just some random thoughts

Today I bought all the things I need for my hospital bag. It was surreal doing it again just 13 months after I got my bag ready for Ben to come. I plan to pack it all up in the next few days. Which will again be surreal. My favorite item to pack... the Hershey Kisses wrapped in blue to hand out to our hospital visitors, nurses and doctors. They are cookies and cream flavored and were a huge hit with last time!
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I just realized this week that my poor baby boy is cutting FOUR teeth at once and two of them are molars. ARE YOU KIDDING ME? I HATE seeing my children suffer and really this has been VERY hard on him. I can't wait for him to be his happy little self again.... HURRY UP TEETH!
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I was overcome today with how much I adore these children of ours. I heard Anna singing a beautiful Easter song upstairs today while playing and made a little permanent etch in my memory for that moment. It was such an innocent and sweet song to Jesus from a loving little heart! Then there is Serene who has taken to running up and giving me the biggest neck hugs EVER! She just holds me and says "momma's here, momma's here"... Since the very day she was born if she would get upset, I would hold her and whisper "it's ok, momma's here". Obviously, this stuck with her and is very important to her. I love how she repeats it to herself and to me!
Then Ben of course who has been sick and cutting FOUR teeth this week has been my little constant companion. He won't let me out of his sight. It frustrates me at certain moments but one thing I keep remembering is that soon enough he will be too busy for me to hold him much at all. So with that I hold him closer and take full advantage of this attached to the hip time!
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My husband has really been a source of strength to me this week. Always the loving ear listening to my end of pregnancy woes. Always the literal shoulder to lean on when he walks in the door and I collapse in his arms from weary days of late pregnancy and chasing three other little ones around. My best friend and the only person who REALLY "gets me"... I don't know what I did before November 15, 2003 when I met my man in Southlake for the very first time! I LOVE HIM!!

Just some random thoughts!!!

The birthday boys

Last year on June 19, 2009 I gave birth to our first son Ben and it just so happened to be Jimmy's birthday. It was ten days before my due date and I totally did not expect that to happen. I was thinking it would happen soon but I assumed sometime the next week. Jimmy left for work at about 7:30 and I told him on his way out the door that I was feeling a braxton hix contraction.. which I had been feeling for six or so weeks at that point. That one felt a little intense but oh well nothing to be alarmed about. As soon as he left I started making plans about taking him to a steak dinner that night for his birthday. I was checking the internet trying to decide what I thought might be the best place when the pain started getting worse. I noticed another contraction and then another and then another. Within 20 minutes of Jimmy leaving things had progressed a lot. I called my mom who told me she would come right over and help out with the girls so I could just relax and wait and see what happened. Then I called Jimmy and just gave him the heads up and told him mom would be over to help me out so not to worry. You see the labor with our second child Serene lasted 22 hours so in my mind I'm thinking we have all day to sit and just wait things out and then if by chance this was the real deal (which at that point I doubted it was) we could go to the hospital later. Within 10 minutes of talking to my mom and Jimmy I was down on all fours in our study beside the computer desk breathing trying to breathe through the contraction which were now getting close to extremely painful. I called Jimmy back and when I was not even able to speak through the contraction which were now about three minutes apart he said he was on his way back home.

Jimmy called my mom, his mom, and the nurse at my OB's office on the way home. The nurse in turn called me and after speaking with me for just a few minutes and seeing how close and intense the contractions were by my interaction over the phone told me to call a neighbor or the ambulance and get to the hospital immediately. I thought that was nuts and told her my last labor had been very long and I didn't think it was necessary to go just yet. Jimmy had just pulled into the parking lot at work when he decided to come home so that meant he had a full hour to get back. Although, on this day I'm pretty sure it didn't take quite that long. =) He sped home and when he arrived his mom was close on his heels so she could stay with the children.

Here's the weird part... well you ladies may understand this. Once Jimmy and his mom got home, I insisted that I take a shower before we left. I mean I didnt' want to be all gross at the hospital. So through what was now two minute apart contractions I took a shower, shaved my legs and got some cute clothes on. I even put perfume on. This is while stopping every two minutes to have an EXTREMELY painful contraction. Beauty is sometime painful right?? =)

Finally we are in the car and headed to Denton. Jimmy asked me to tell him whenever I have a contraction so that he can kind of gauge where we are on the 30 minute drive up there. Much to his disbelief AND mine. The contraction are now coming ONE minute apart and to the point of unbearable pain. I rode the whole way to Denton facing backwards holding on to the back seat. Jimmy and I laugh because I kept saying "Jesus help me, Jesus please get me through this".... He said I sounded hilarious. I told him I was legitimately begging Jesus to help me! =)

We finally got to the hospital which felt like about a two hour drive to he and I both. The nurses were acting nonchalant like they are thinking maybe things aren't quite as bad as I'm making them out to be. I'm sure they see lots of women come in seemingly ready to have the baby and still be hours away. So to them at this point I'm another one of those. They get me back there get me checked and I'm dilated to a TEN. At this point you would think I was the calm one. They started yelling out the door "we have a ten we have a ten"... people started racing around setting up tables, getting the baby bed ready, people are yelling to get the doctor their ASAP, etc. etc. Meanwhile I'm laying there thinking this might be the end of my life.... labor is painful people! =)

Finally my doctor arrived and Ben came FLYING out. The whole thing from the moment I thought that first "braxton hicks" contraction was kind of intense until I was holding my little man was 3 1/2 hours... see, I still had plenty of time for that shower! =) As I'm sitting there holding our new little baby boy and kind of still in shock as to how fast this whole thing happened, it hit me... it as Jimmy's birthday. Our first son was born on his daddy's birthday. How totally cool is that?! We didn't spend the evening going to a nice steak dinner that night. Instead we feasted on hospital food and admired the amazing little boy we had been blessed with. WAY BETTER than Kirby's any day!

One other thing about this day that makes it so special for us is that I had two previous c-sections with our first two daughters. Then, Ben was born completely naturally without a single complication. What an amazing day it was for us. A day I will always cherish. My precious son born on his daddy's birthday and the birth experience I always hoped for. (minus the crazy car ride)!!

Now, here we are a year later.... my guys just celebrated their first real birthday together and I can't wait to watch them celebrate many many more together! Oh and now we await the arrival of son #2 in just three or so weeks. I hope we make it to the hospital again this time! =) Well, as long as I get a shower!

Library

On Saturday our Colleyville Library had a kick-off breakfast for their summer reading program. It was so much fun for the girls and Jimmy and Ben... a little hot for this 8 month pregnant mommy! =) They had a yummy breakfast of pancakes and sausage, crafts, face painting and balloons. After standing in the balloon line for a LONG time (you don't even wanna know how long) each girl got an adorable balloon that looked like a gum ball machine, complete with beads inside to look like gum balls. Thrilling to two little girls! I didn't get photos at the event but I got some at home afterwards.

I added the picture of Ben hammering the wall because this is a common occurrence around here. He loves to use the hammer to beat anything and everything in sight....the wall, the windows, his sisters... =) He's a wild man!

Sunday school fun

This past week in our class all the supplies for VBS were out in our room which included about twenty of those pool noodles. The children made it through almost the entire class without getting into them but right at the end they found them and it was a total free for all. They had the best time! They are all very obedient children though because after giving them about 10 minutes to go hog wild with them, when we asked them to put them away, they piled them back in a nice stack and that was the end of it!

Backyard golf

Nana's birthday

June 5th was my mom's birthday. We spent the day waiting for Jimmy to get home from his long anticipated CFA level 2 exam and then spent the evening going to dinner with my mom and dad and then swimming at their house. We had a very nice evening and obviously Serene enjoyed the chocolate pie we made for Nana! =)

Eggs

This past Saturday Anna made her first scrambled eggs pretty much by herself. She loves to help me cook and was pretty proud to do this on her own!

Neighbors

I thought since mentioning my neighbor who was concerned for Anna's socialization, this might be a good chance to write about all our wonderful neighbors on this quaint little court.

There is the super sweet couple across the street (the aforementioned "socially concerned" neighbor). He is a Methodist preacher in Grapevine and the home they live in is actually the church parsonage. They are both two of kindest people you could ever meet. Since our first days of owning the house they have welcomed warmly. She has been so kind to bring me information about the local library, given the children coloring books, brought us muffins our first week in the house, brought the children bubbles and some extra pool floaties she found when cleaning out her garage. Lots of small kind gestures such as those and always stopping to talk and chat when we are out in the yard with the children in the evenings are some of the reasons we are totally going to miss them when they move in just ten short days.

Being that he is a Methodist preacher they are being moved to a new congregation and a new preacher and his wife will soon be moving in. We will greatly miss Randy and Naomi and Nathan and feel sorta slighted that we only got them for neighbors for such a short time.

Next on the street we have Mr. Whitmire. He has lived on this street for 45 years... amazing. He moved in when he was in his late thirties and is now in his eighties. Kind of where we are now... Jimmy and I are both 33 and I can't imagine being here for 45 years and the memories we will have of the changes life has brought over that amount of time. He is our local historian of the street. If there is anything you want to know about anything that ever went on over the last 45 years on this street he knows it. He can tell you how many snakes sightings there have been, who had marriage problems, who had financial problems, what year the pecan trees had a good harvest, how many fish have been caught in our pond, about each preacher that has lived in the parsonage, etc. etc... you get my point... the many KNOWS this street! We really like him and Jimmy enjoys "chewin the fat" with him out in the yard in the evening!

Now we come to the front half of the street.... A sweet young family with three kiddos and one on the way (sounds like us). They have two of the sweetest little girls you would ever want to meet who have been super friendly to Anna since we were first just coming over here to work on the house. They love to ride bikes and often ask Anna to ride with them and this just makes her day! They have a little brother who rides his bike up and down the street about as fast as lightening.... he would make any daddy proud!!! He is all boy and hopefully can show our boys a thing or two when they get bigger. I regret that we haven't reached out to this family a little more to get to know them better for ourselves. My dad knows him really well and we know they are a great family we just need to get them over to our house for a cookout or something.

Next door to that young couple are her grandparents and parents. They are super friendly and have made the transition to a new neighborhood much easier.

All in all we have been so blessed to discover this little street with lots of friendly people and beautiful surroundings. Can't wait to see if we will be the old couple in our 80's telling the new young folk about how this street looked WAY back in 2010!! =)

So what are you going to do for Anna's socialization??

This is the question Jimmy got from our VERY sweet neighbor tonight when he told her we would be homeschooling Anna this fall. She was actually positive about the general idea of homeschooling but was concerned for Anna's social future.

Honestly, this is the most common question we get, which I find interesting for several reasons. Mostly, I wonder why it is everyone's first thought. I mean seriously, why is their first concern not the level of education she will receive or whether or not she will learn to read and write properly. They just have the need to know if she will be properly socialized with that one single age group of children.... hmmm...

Here is a good excerpt from a blog I was reading tonight. This comes from http://greggharrisblog.blogspot.com

"To those who ask, "But what about socialization?" I can only weep. Socialization has always been a double-edged sword; it cuts both ways. "He who walks with wise men will be wise, but the companion of fools will suffer harm" (Prov. 13:20, NASB). What my wife and I are doing in our home school is positive, biblical socialization that makes our children become wise. My children walk with me, and though I definitely have a long way yet to go, I try to be an acceptable companion to my children.

Most of our modem school-based socialization is of the foolish, harmful sort. Pooled ignorance leads to poor taste in clothing, music, films, and TV - the kind of people who read the grocery store tabloids and believe them. But the harm is far more than cultural. Disinterest in school, disrespect for teachers, rapacious dating, promiscuity, substance abuse, and gang violence also come in waves-- pounding waves of youth culture that erode moral standards. Even a small population of these poor creatures requires that high schools be run like youth prisons.

Good socialization is primarily age-integrated. It occurs when the young are included in the lives of older and wiser people, especially parents and other family members at home and the spiritual family of one's local church. Walking with the wise is a lifestyle, not a program. It is a club of fellow enthusiasts, not a class of uninterested age-mates. It includes working together, eating together, playing together, worshiping together, and studying together, This is where God placed the responsibility for child training and education, and it works very well in aiming children at God's highest and best targets in every area of life."

Good stuff!