Seven Years

Yesterday marked the passing of 7 years of marriage to the love of my life.  This gorgeous surprise was delivered to me in the morning:


(Lillies, my favorite flower -- Calla Lillies made up my wedding boquet)

Isaiah was posing as Edna 'E Mode today.




A few days ago he had his first bath.






He was cool with the idea until Hannah started washing his head.  Then he had much to say.  All that ends with a froggie robe ends well, however:


Last week I took my children and three youngest siblings to the Discovery Center.  We ended up only being able to play for the morning through lunch because of Lavella's dire need for a nap, but everyone seemed to have a good time anyway.





(Apologies to Christopher, Joel and Rachel for not including them in any of the shots, as my camera battery was on it's last bit of juice when we got there.)

Joel bravely took both my boys and both dogs for a walk the other day (it was just a walk around the chicken field, but still).  Elijah ended up throwing a fit and it took some effort to get him back to the house, but they were very cute heading out:


Lavella's been sick for the past few days with a terrible diaper rash, runny nose, runny other stuff, and a fever.  On Sunday it was especially high, so she just wanted to do this all day:

Very sweet, but I felt so terrible for her.  I got a prescription to a medicated cream for her rash today, and her fever is nearly gone, so everything seems to be looking up in her world now.

The puppies have started eating "solid" food (or as solid as dog food that has been soaked in water for several hours can be).

Some of you have asked what we plan to do with these little guys.  My parents breed Golden Retrievers to sell; these are this year's litter, and so far the dark dude already has a home promised him once he hits the 8-week-mark.

My dad is installing an outdoor wood-fueled boiler off to the side of the house.  A few days ago he started by having a trench and big hole dug for the boiler and the pipes that will connect it to the house.


Although I'm sure it was all hard work for the men involved, my younger siblings and my children both found much entertainment in the digging.







Greg grew up in a farming community where his parents still reside.  My father-in-law told any sheep farmers he knew to save any wool they didn't want for him this year.  A week or two ago, he showed up with these seven (SEVEN) bags of raw, stinky fun.


Rachel and I spent much of the morning on Saturday sorting and washing two of the fleeces.


From what I can gather, there seems to be 14 fleeces all together.  Woah.  I may have to share my wealth a bit with some of the fiber folks I hang out with on Mondays.

Tomorrow we have plans to microwave-dye them with KoolAid.  My little guys will definitely be in on it, and it should make much messy fun.

Did you know that "wool" is the gift of choice anniversary #7?  How appropriate.  =)

Entirely unrelated to anything else, but did you have any idea you could get into this much trouble while using watercolor paints?

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A visit with Hannah and a puppy video

Hannah and Isaiah are coming home from the hospital today!

Grace and my mom have been taking turns sleeping over at the hospital with her and helping her with the baby through the day.  Also, between our family and some of her friends, we've managed to supply her with enough Real food that she hasn't had to eat many hospital meals at all.

I went there last night and picked up some sushi for whoever was going to be there (she's been dying for "real" raw sushi the whole pregnancy, just as I am, so I knew she would be pleased with the idea).  We had a great time cuddling the little guy and hanging out with Hannah, who is recovering excellently.








Here are some shots I took of the puppies today.






And for those of you who just have to see them "live", here's an unnecessarily long video of the puppies being cute, from yesterday (24 days old).

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Isaiah Samuel

Introducing Isaiah Samuel, 6 lbs 15 oz, born 1:40am, July 21st.

Hannah and baby are doing well, and we can't wait to bring them both home!

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Little Lawn-Chair Queen

Last week Hannah bought a little pool for my children to play in. Joel and Lavella oversaw the set up on their respective lawn-chair thrones:









Here's a video of the puppies (19 days old today). They play and bite at each other now, although they were kind of just waking up in this clip. I'll try to get some more active footage in a few days.

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Puppies, 17 days old

Jonathan has asked for photos of the puppies every three days. While I feel that it's a tiny bit of a tall order to dictate my blog content for the next two months, I did take a few shots of them today.



This week their eyes and ears opened, and they've just started trying to bite each other and wrestle a little. They can yelp and almost bark, although their voices are still babyish and high.









They get cuter and fatter each day.

Now if we could only get my little nephew to make his appearance...

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Random snapshots

Since there's still no new baby to report on, here's some random shots from the past few days.

Hannah, cuddling on the couch with Lavella.


Grace and Lavella creating art on the white board.


Grace had been in a bit of a funk yesterday, until Christopher realized that the only cure was to help her into the kiddie pool.


This morning, I asked Elijah to put his shorts on.  He thought that he should still wear pants.  Apparently, he felt this should be an acceptable compromise. 


Today I took Rachel, Christopher and my three little guys to the nearby library, and then to a playground.


Lavella, being a little monkey.


King of the playground.


There's nothing like the joy of a little child on a swing.


There were tons of these little red bugs in the one part of the playground.  I have no idea what they were, but I've seen them in Germany too.  Gross, and strange.


After we were done playing, we went and got some pizza, and then ice cream.

It's naptime now.  Should be a nice, quiet afternoon.  =)

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On pregnant people and my love of sushi

Now, I know that people have started to stop by this blog in the hopes of a hint as to how Hannah is doing. No worries, she and baby are fine, but he still hasn't made his appearance yet (and yes, today is her due date). At the moment she's still living her normal, active (although increasingly uncomfortable) life, and we're all just waiting. It's sort of like sitting around watching a bomb, waiting for it to go off. We'll let you know as soon as the Big Event has taken place and list the stats and everything right here.

By the way, congratulations to Beka, who just gave birth to her 4th baby -- finally a little girl! (Beka, I would link to your blog here, but I can't seem to figure out where your blog is.)

Now since there's nothing more to say about Hannah and the little guy we have yet to meet, I'm going to talk about me. =)

With each pregnancy, I've struggled with a good deal of back pain. This is largely because of scoliosis, but also the shear size of my babies in comparison to my small frame adds to it (although most people would say that a 9.5 baby is large for any size woman).

In the last few weeks before Andrew was born, I had trouble walking, driving, and sitting for periods longer than 10 minutes at a time; I was constantly going to lie down.

When I was pregnant with Elijah, I had just recently been in a car accident before I conceived, so our insurance paid for regular chiropractic care almost up to my due date. It made a huge difference in the constant back pain (which went from almost unbearable to just minimal and definitely manageable). I also saw an increase in energy, probably because of better circulation due to regular adjustments.

With Lavella I had no care at all, and once again the pain was back full force.

All of this to say, I finally decided to go and get a pre-natal massage this past Wednesday. I felt strange about dropping so much cash to have someone spend an hour rubbing my back, but let me tell you, it was incredible. I felt rested and relaxed and cared for. I think I'm going to have to pay a few visits to both the chiropractor and massage therapist while I'm home this summer; I'm already having trouble walking when I'm tired (it's like something in my low back just gives out, and makes it painful for me to lift one of my legs). When I get back to Germany I'm going to have to look into what options the Army has available for me -- I know that they do physical therapy of sorts, and maybe my German midwife can work something out.

Anyway, now that you've heard all about my back pain (which was probably just as fascinating as watching the paint dry), let me just say that the place where I went to get the pre-natal massage, Traditions At The Glen, is completely worth going to. It was a lovely, soothing experience from the moment I walked in the door, and I highly recommend it to anyone looking for a few hours to unwind and pamper yourself. It's a fluffy towel/white robe kind of a place, and the staff is exceptional.

After my massage and a good long steam shower, I stopped at Wegmans for some sushi (my selection was fully cooked -- no worries).



Besides the fact that sushi is addictively good, is the fact that it's so aesthetically pleasing. Mmmmm.... I'm already hungry for more.

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Where the hell is Matt?

How is it that I've never heard of Matt before? More than likely, it is because I, like my friend Becca, never, ever click on video links (many apologies). However, since it was on Becca's blog, and she happens to be one of the funniest people that I know (and one of the funniest bloggers), I decided to click...and now I know who Matt is. So no pressure, but if you want to be in the know too (or just want to make fun of me for being so behind the times that I've never heard of the guy), check out the following video (NOTE: this clip is entirely family friendly and non-offensive to the general public):




You can find out more about him at WhereTheHellIsMatt.com. (If you do go there, be sure to click on the "about matt" section, which is hilarious).

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Thai Thai

Tonight, Hannah and I went out with two old friends (meaning that we have been friends for a few years now, rather than that the friends themselves have actually aged to anything that might be considered old). Faith and Eve were not sure if they wanted to eat adventurously, but we decided on a Thai place (called Thai Thai and located on Rt 11 between the two strip clubs -- good, inexpensive food, in case anyone is interested). Both girls bravely ordered, and ended up liking their dishes! Hannah and I got a few extra things as well to give them the full experience, and we had a lot of fun together.

Here are some pics that we took.


Faith and Eve


The first belly to belly picture that has been taken of us so far.


I think that Faith and Eve felt sort of left out.


(Faith, Eve, Hannah, Faith/me)

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