Every moment

14 years.  S always sends a bouquet containing the stargazer lilies I carried so many years ago.  My dear friend Bob always used to say of marriage,  "every moment, pure bliss".

Band Concert

K's first band and choir concert.  She was lovely and so grown up.

Christmas 2008

We had a lovely day.  We watched Its a Wonderful Life for the first time as a family and then went for our annual drive to look at lights and for Rudolf.  We stayed up later than usual, so Sam slept in until 7:00 am.  The kids were delighted with their gifts.  Mom, Dad, Carlos , Grace, Chris and our student from the college, Wenyang shared lunch with us.   We rested in the afternoon then walked down the street to dinner at the Redings with the Cogleys. 

Birthday

A slumber party, cake, candles and presents.  Our family and a friend of K's (for emotional support) made the trip to Des Moines to get K's ears pierced.  s was a great brother, holding her hand tightly the entire time.  Although she asked if it was ok if she screamed, she didn't let out a peep.

Twenty five

Some scenes from our gathering over the weekend.  We were elated to have Greta with us.  On top of that, Marie, came to visit for an evening.  I need to work on having my camera with me more often.  I don't have many pics, but I do have lots of memories.

Twenty Five

I find the stories that make up an oral family history fascinating.  Our family stories include K using the word 'bread' when she lifted her glass instead of 'toast',  s trying to sound out the word breakfast, S leaving me on the golf course in the hail storm, the list goes on.  Growing up, my Mom always told us the stories of the day we were born on our birthdays, and I tell my children their stories as well.  What pivotal events those days were, the days we met K and s.

As the first child, K's story is longer.  It begins tomorrow, Nov. 15, a day I was certain I would be no longer pregnant.  I knew the chances of a first timer going over due, but managed to convince myself that the workload of a resident would hurry labor along.  It didn't.  So, beginning on November 15 and continuing for the next seven days, K listens daily to "You still weren't born".  The septuplets were born in that week.  Every year, they are in the Sunday paper the week before K birthday.  Along with the "you're STILL pregnant?" comments, I was also hearing "Aren't you glad you don't have seven?"

Finally, on a Friday evening, the contractions started and worsened.  At midnight, we went to the hospital.  The every two minute contractions were not doing much and we spent the night fitfully sleeping, me sedated, sitting straight up to be as comfortable as possible, vomiting hourly.  The next day brought pitocin and finally an epidural which helped speed labor along. At 8:00 pm, we got to meet our K.  The pain, the struggle, all wiped away in an instant to meet this unique, special girl. 

My mother, who had been as impatient as I the past week, eventually called the hospital after we hadn't answered the phone all day.   At 5:00 pm, as the epidural had just taken effect, a nurse stuck her head in the door and said "Your mother is on the phone, she wants to know if she should come".  We asked the nurse to tell her to come.  My parents arrived in the waiting room 15 minutes before K was born, waited until she was all cleaned up, came in to sing her happy birthday and turned around to drive the 180 miles home.

As all new parents are, we were enthralled with our girl. We still are.  K is an amazing person; I am so lucky to know her and so proud of how special she is.  Without a doubt, all worth it.

K, I love you with all my heart, I always have and always will.  

Twenty four

Halloween weekend.  K had a birthday party, so she tricked and treated elsewhere.  s was a jedi. We had some friends join us for our travels.  Because daylight savings has been pushed back, we started in the light on an unseasonably warm evening.  It was beautiful.  Later we went to a lovely family halloween party.  I was pleased with my pirate costume, but eye patches turn out to be annoying.  

s started reading books to himself this week.  I have been waiting for this development for years and was overjoyed to find him curled up in the sunroom, reading to himself the books he has always loved to have read to him.  He started with a Scooby-doo book.  As he went upstairs to get another book, he laughed and commented, "Mom, I forgot how funny this book is!"

The election is only 3 days away.  I am so excited to take the kids with me to vote for Barack.

Also another first:  s asked me to turn up the radio so he could better hear the story playing on "This American Life".  Granted, it was a ghost story, but still...