Saying Goodbye to Grandaddy

A day that I thought was going to be a perfect day came to an abrupt halt when I got a text message saying my Grandaddy had passed away.  My in-laws were visiting and were watching the kids so that Hubby and I could go to a movie.  I'd been looking forward to getting to see the new Harry Potter movie and eating some Junior Mints (a necessity at the movies) all week.  Of course I turned off my phone when the movie started and apparently a few minutes later my Dad had tried calling me.  When he couldn't get ahold of either myself or Hubby he send me a text message saying that my Grandaddy had succumbed to Parkinson's disease that morning.  I got the message in the middle of the movie.  So I spent the rest of the movie remembering my Grandaddy.  When I got home I cried.

Grandaddy

Most of my memories of my Grandaddy are from the year we lived in Oklahoma when I was 6.  My grandparents lived about 10 minutes away and we used to see them a lot.  He was a truck driver and I remember that one time he took my brother and me with him on a short haul and he stopped at a gas station and bought us both Nestle Crunch bars.  My Grandaddy had a favorite old chair that he would always sit in and his favorite TV show was "Alf."  I remember him watching that show and laughing at that weird furry alien.  It's funny the things we remember from when we were young...

I drove up to Oklahoma with all three kids for his funeral.  Hubby couldn't come with me because he'd just taken leave and was getting ready to take a month off to help with the upcoming move.  I made the girls matching dresses and Crazy a tie for the funeral.  I don't care what people say, you wear black, navy blue or at least a dark brown to a funeral.  Remember that when I die, you will need to wear black to my funeral out of respect.  I packed up the kids and left at 3am to make the 15 hour drive.  I have to say the kids did incredible!  Even Hiccup was great.  We made it to my aunt's house in time for dinner.  Since we had such a long drive I decided to arrive a few days before the funeral so that the kids could relax and have some fun before getting back in their carseats for the return trip.  We had the chance to hang out with my cousin and her baby who is 6 weeks older than Hiccup which was nice. The kids enjoyed swimming in the lake each evening.

Grandaddy's graveside service was in the morning and each of his grandkids had been assigned either a Bible passage or poem to read.  I'm surprised I was able to make it through mine without crying.  The service was very nice and I'm sure that my Grandaddy would have told us that we were making too much of a fuss over him but funerals are really for the living after all.

Grandaddy's family

After the service ended the entire family went to my aunt's house for lunch.  Once lunch was over my cousin offered to take groups out on the boat and the rest of us headed down to the lake to swim or ride on the jet skis.  I gave Crazy and my 6 year old cousin a ride on one of the jet skis and then offered to pull them on the inner tube.  Afterward we just enjoyed floating in the lake until it got dark.  It was nice to spend time with all of my family, especially the ones I rarely get to see.  I just wish it had been for a happier occasion than for my Grandaddy's funeral.

Hiccup's Photo Shoot

My very talented friend Leslie, from Leslie Densford Photography, came over to our house when Hiccup was just over a week old to take her newborn photos.  Leslie did an incredible job!  I love all the photos she took and had a hard time deciding on which ones I wanted to order.  We ordered our birth announcements through her as well and they turned out beautiful!  The announcements were 5x7 and were printed front and back on linen paper.  I couldn't have been happier with both the announcments and our photos.  I just hope that one day we move close enough to Leslie again so that she can take our family photos again.  Here are some of my favorite photos from Hiccup's photo shoot:

Happy Father's Day!

Father's day this year was spent with only one out of three kids (that's a present in itself!) since the older two are visiting Grandma and Grandad. Of course the kids didn't forget him! Besides a phone call, they gave him a card and a travel mug that Crazy decorated himself. My favorite part though was the picture that Crazy drew on the front of the envelope. He drew our family holding hands and even included Hiccup in the drawing. So sweet!

Back to Work

When Hiccup was two weeks old my co-worker called and informed me that I needed to come to work the next day because the Sheriff’s Office was having a volunteer appreciation ceremony and my supervisor wanted me there.  They had a nice little ceremony and presented the volunteers (I think there were a total of four of us) with a very nice plaque.  Taking advantage of being back at the office and being incredibly bored at home, I asked my mentor if I could come back to work the next day.  He happily agreed and said that I could bring Hiccup with me.  So when Hiccup was 2 weeks old I went back to work. I’m not a very good stay-at-home mom am I?  I worked only the mornings and Hiccup slept in her car seat.  Once she woke up and everyone had a chance to hold her I’d head home. Everyone at the office was awesome about letting me bring a baby to work. No one even batted an eye when they saw a baby sleeping in the corner.  Going back to work, at least for a little bit, made me much more productive.  I really missed looking at fingerprints every day and it allowed me to get out of the house and talk to adults.  The only drawback was having to get up at the crack of dawn to have time to get ready.  I was already sleep deprived though so an extra hour of sleep probably wouldn’t have made much difference anyway.

Out of the Mouth of Babes

On the way home from daycare today Crazy was asking me if he could play outside when we got home.  He kept asking me over and over and I finally told him that I'd have to make dinner when we got home.  Crazy then informed me that Hubby could watch them outside.  I told him that he would have to ask Hubby if that was okay with him.  Hubby then questioned Crazy as to why he always asked me instead of him for things like that.  Crazy then quickly answered, "Maybe because she's the important one."  I immediately started laughing.  Hubby was pretty shocked by the answer. What can you do though?  I certainly can't argue with simple logic!

And Baby Makes 5

 On May 27th at 10:27am we welcomed a beautiful baby girl into our family.  She's absolutely perfect and since we're overjoyed to have her in our lives I will proceed to bore you all with the story of her birth.

When I was about 36 weeks pregnant I finally got fed up with my military doctor and at the suggestion of several of my friends I switched to a civilian doctor. I absolutely loved my new doctor! In the three weeks I saw him I got four ultrasounds and turned down three offers to induce. Apparently my fluid levels were low enough to justify inducing that early but I needed to wait until my last mock trial at work before I had a baby. When we went in for my last appointment I was about 38 weeks and when he offered to induce the day after my trial we gladly accepted. It was so nice to arrange for one of my co-workers to come stay at my house to watch the kids while we would be in the hospital. I was also able to call my parents and let them know when we’d have the baby. They decided to drive over that weekend (12 hours one-way for them to stay one day!) so they could see the baby and help with the kids.

We arrived at the hospital at 5am on Friday and by 6:30am I had my first contraction. At 7:30am the doctor came in to check on me and break my water. That’s when he informed us that he had forgotten that his daughter had an awards ceremony that morning that he had promised to go to. He wanted to know if I thought I’d have the baby before he came back around 9:30am. I assured him he didn’t need to worry but to hurry back because if he wasn’t there Hubby would deliver the baby. He thought that was funny but I’m sure three hours later he understood that I was serious. As a precaution he told the nurse to stop increasing the meds while he was gone. A little after 9:30am he called and told them to increase the meds again since he was back. That’s when things got a little out of control. I jump from 4cm dilated to 8cm in about 30 minutes. At 8cm the room suddenly became a sauna. I literally thought I was going to die from heat exhaustion. Obviously the room really wasn’t that hot, it was just me. Thankfully Hubby had the nurse get a bucket of ice and several towels and he made some cold packs for me. Without those cold packs I wouldn’t have made it. Shortly after that I informed the nurse that I really needed to push. She paged my doctor and then we waited. And waited some more… I told her again that I had to push. She told me that the doctor wasn’t responding to his page and that I needed to do some breathing to keep from pushing. At that point I began telling Hubby to get ready because the baby was coming anyway. Thankfully before that happened the doctor came running in and immediately began putting his gown and gloves on. It felt like he took his sweet time too because the baby’s head had already crowned. When I was finally allowed to really push it only took four pushes before Hiccup was born. I believe the doctor was in the room for a total of 5 minutes. From first contraction to birth I was in labor for 4 hours, a new record for me! Hubby was very proud of himself too because he was the one who talked our doctor into letting us begin the induction at 5am instead of 1am like the doctor originally wanted. Hubby assured the doctor that I would have the baby before he ever showed up at the hospital if we started at 1am. It’s a good thing Hubby insisted on having it pushed back and the doctor actually listened!

Grandma holding Hiccup

Once my parents arrived on Saturday afternoon they brought Crazy and Boo to see Hiccup. I was a little worried how Boo would react to having a baby in the family. The girl thinks she’s actually a boy and shows no maternal instinct at all. When they arrived though Boo immediately wanted to hold Hiccup. I believe her exact words were, “Give it to me!” She insisted on holding her at least five different times and barely let anyone else hold her. Crazy was less than impressed but did want to hold Hiccup at least once.

We stayed in the hospital for 48 hours before we were allowed to be discharged. We were apparently a big joke to the nurses. We never wanted or needed anything whenever one of the nurses came to check on us. I made a quick recovery and Hiccup was doing great so we didn’t need anything. Whenever there was a shift change the nurses would come in to introduce us to our new nurses and they would all get this grin on their faces and ask if we needed anything. Of course we said no and then they’d turn to the other nurse and they’d start chuckling. We even had one nurse come in and ask if we were sure we were okay because we were making it too easy on her. Being the easy patients on the floor paid off the last day though. Hiccup’s nurse brought us all sorts of free stuff and told us that we could skip the discharge class if we wanted. My nurse made sure that I was the first discharged when my doctor made the rounds that morning. By lunch we were on our way home. Overall delivering at a civilian hospital definitely beats the military hospital.

Since coming home and becoming a family of 5 everything’s been great! Crazy and Boo have been fantastic and show no jealousy at all. Boo helps out by informing me when Hiccups starts crying (like I can’t hear her) and giving a pacifier to Hiccup. Crazy did ask me though why God thought he needed another little sister instead of the little brother he wanted. I wasn't quite sure what to say to that, but after reassuring him that it was a good thing because that meant he’d get his own room he was fine with it.

Shortly after Boo was born a friend who had also just had a little girl remarked to me how great it was to have a boy and girl and that she felt like her family was complete. She asked me if I had the same feeling and I had to stop and think about it. I felt like a terrible mother because I honestly couldn’t say the same. Now that we have Hiccup though I realized one morning that I know exactly what my friend was talking about. We never planned on having three kids but honestly now our family of 5 feels complete. And it’s a really good feeling…

All Smiles

Here's one of my favorite pictures of Boo.  She was getting ready to go to a friend's birthday party and wanted her picture taken in her new shirt (yes, I made it).  I think she looks like the most adorable little girl in the world, but of course I'm a little biased (just a little though).