pictures

thanks to jack's aunt leslie we have pictures. hope yall enjoy. it looks like we will be discharged sometime tomorrow morning. joyce could go home today but florida requires all newborns to remain in the hospital for 48 hours--which would put jack's discharge at 10: 30 tonight. we like the idea of one more night with the nursery better than getting home at midnight.

jack

jack herman (middle named after his great grandpa) arrived at 10:33pm and weighed 6lb/3.2oz. he is 19 inches long and, along with joyce, doing great. there will be pictures following sometime but we don't have the proper cable to connect our old camera to the laptop. at the moment he looks a little bit like owen.

jason

we're still here

ten hours and one epidural later we are still watching tv. having delivered two kids without any pain meds, joyce decided she had proved her womanhood and is feeling very little south of the equator. "i am having contractions but i really can't feel them." God bless medication. she says it feels like the dreams when your legs don't work and you just can't outrun the bear. the catheter probably wouldn't help much with the outrunning bears part either. we might have a baby by midnight--which means i can wait until 4:00am to call curt. some of you will get that.

jason

We're here!

we're, here--and on pitocin. we will see what two ml/hour will do. right now it is making the law and order/csi re-runs slightly more uncomfortable than normal. daytime tv is great.

for only nine dollars per square foot you can own an uninstalled, environmentally friendly cork floor. this means that a 20x20 living room will cost you 3600 bucks before taxes, trim, and installation. green and economical don't always go together.

idaho has two republican senators. larry craig and mike crapo. glad i live in alabama.

jason

Where are the words

I am supposed to be in labor, either in pulsating agony with the human experience or in numb participation with modern medicine, I hadn't quite decided yet. I am supposed to be holding this new baby in my arms by lunchtime. Owen and Helen are supposed to be at Grandma's house, eating cookies and listening to stories. Jason is supposed to be flipping through channels in the hospital room giving me an occasional back massage.

Two minutes before we walked out the door to our scheduled change in life, the phone rang. A labor and delivery nurse--they needed to bump me back because of another situation that had arisen. They'll call back around 9 at the earliest.

What?!

Oh well. At least now I can...
...cut up and freeze the okra I picked in the garden last night.
...finish another baby blanket for a gift.
...wash one more round of dishes.
...vacuum one last time, again.
...fold the clothes in the dryer and put them away, again.
...sneak a contraband bowl of Fruity Pebbles because doggone it, I'm hungry.

Hints for Homemaking

I was helping my mother in law clean out part of a bookcase. I relieved her of Ella May's Hints for Homemakers, published in 1973 by Herald Press.

I tried this hint and liked it: "Wash windows with a solution of 1/2 cup ammonia and 1/8 cup of vinegar to one quart of warm water. Your windows will glow with no streaks, and this cleaning fluid is much cheaper than prepared window sprays."

(She forgot to say that a glowing, streakless patio door is an invitation to sticky hands and faces.)

My favorite hint so far: "A house that is always spotless and never cluttered may be a sign that the needs of the family members are not being adequately met. Remember that a house is to live in as well as to keep clean and neat."

Some lived-in signs around here:
Getting ready to make COOKIES!!! (Gasp at Helen sitting so close to my knives.)


Eating corn on the combine, like Owen calls it. Thank the Lord we made it through corn day, and I have 60 pints of corn in my freezer, no cuts on my hands, and no burns on the children from the turkey fryer we used to blanch the corn.

And some last-minute sewing before the baby comes:
A dress for Abby.
And a dress for Helen, made from a pillowcase I found on Lisa's yard sale last summer. Poor Helen hated the dress. Mean mama made her wear it anyway.

I have a doctor's appointment tomorrow morning, right on my due date. Until then, I'll be scrubbing my lived-on floors and folding laundry.

39 weeks--where's the ice cream?

Tried a new homemade ice cream recipe for Father's Day.

Homemade ice cream.....GOOD.
Homemade peanut butter.....GOOD.
Chunks of Reese's peanut butter cups.....GOOD.

You can find the recipe here. I doubled the batch and added more milk--almost to the freezer's fill line.

Soooo.....my dad must have wanted a new outfit for Father's Day. He chose a hospital gown. He's in the hospital recovering from a ruptured appendix and resultant surgery. Just got off the phone with him to tell him that he absolutely must get up and walk around today. He was a little worried about exposing his hind end.

Sweet corn day is scheduled for Wednesday. So now we get to *anticipate* for two whole days prior. Lots of sticky, hot work. Loads of corn in the freezer.

1 week and 1 day away from my due date. Absolutely cannot have the baby this week. Am much too busy.

Sewing for Baby

I loved the baby blanket I made for my nephew Lincoln so much, I had to recreate it for our coming little one. What you don't see is the initial I embroidered in a corner. heh heh.

I ordered an Amy Butler nappy bag pattern on E-bay, and wanted to get some great Amy Butler fabric to use for it. But my budget didn't allow that, so I used the same fabric for the bag's exterior that I had found for the nursery curtain (which my mother in law just finished today.) Giraffe and a half!

I looked in my sewing remnants and found the lovable cowboy fabric I used to make another nephew some pajamas. I didn't have enough, so I used pieces from two old shirts (leaving the pocket and buttons on one.) I still didn't have enough fabric, but then Helen found the flame fabric for me. She opened a cupboard door and said, "OWEN!" Of course, she was thinking of the fire jammies. What a brilliant little girl.

I made the changing pad and case that came with the pattern.

And months earlier I had hemmed some burp rags with the same fabric, not realizing at the time how it was all going to come together.
Imagine my surprise when after all my scrap-sewing and use of discounted decorator fabric, I saw nothing less than skadoodles of GIRAFFE-print bags hanging in the window of Country Charms here in Atmore, similar to this. Earlier that day I had seen a lady toting one at an out-of-town store. Somebody had gotten a sneek-peak of my mind.

Now, any orders for fire jammies or flame western shirts?

Growing Up

After a long, frustrating, continually-redirecting-someone's-attention span of time this morning, a boy got dressed. All by himself. From taking off pajamas and old pull-up, to donning new pull-up, shorts and muscle shirt.Never mind the funny bunch of backward pull-up, the crooked shorts and the backward shirt, this mama is so proud!!
Here he is doing what he does best. Sampling chocolate. In this case, we could also call it eating his supper. There was nothing nutritious consumed by this little man that night except some serious antioxidants.
And little sister is getting crazier. She became fascinated with the ice cream freezer bucket after we made homemade ice cream on Saturday night. She tried wearing it on her feet. She hauled it downstairs, back up and then outside. She tucked her crocs safely under her other arm, picked up the bucket with her pudgy fingers and trotted down the hall. What a child.

Dreaming

I haven’t worked in a restaurant since 2000, but last night I had a waitressing nightmare. I was back at Essenhaus, in the family style area, in section 2 where Fran, a lead waitress, would frequently stick me. The evening was just beginning, and my tables quickly began to fill up. The only water glasses I could find were these stupid little one-gulp Dixie paper cups, and the only available tray was a tiny paper plate that soggily gave way when I loaded it. I had begun the afternoon so cheerfully, but quickly began to panic as more and more tables of hungry people began to glare at me, and the other servers casually watched me go down in flames, hollering at me to keep up my section work, which oddly enough happened to be stocking water glasses. I couldn’t remember how to explain the dining method of “family style,” so my tables were confused when ordering, and I certainly couldn’t remember how to write the ticket, so I knew the kitchen servers would be annoyed…I could just hear Hazel’s gravelly voice.

Thank goodness I woke up to a different kind of circus.