Yesterday.

Good but long. There were no naps by the bigs, so the energy level in our house was very high! We went to the park with a friend in the afternoon, and then to Grannie Fae's for dinner. The park was great! Neato play equipment and sand area. There was also a nature center that had real live deer, owls, tortoises and a racoon. The kids were wet and sandy, so it was great for them and I got some much needed time with a great friend. Dinner at the in-laws was good, and I didn't eat too much so I was proud of myself. I was down 4 lbs this morning to 150lbs. So I was stoaked....all my hard work is starting to pay off! Hopefully today I can tackle the laundry situation and get back on track and sew Abbie's doll sling...she has been waiting so patiently!

Productive Weekend

Bill and I were very productive this weekend. It felt soo good to climb into bed last night and not feel like all we did all weekend was sit around drinking coffee and reading books (although thats not all bad!) Here was our weekend:

- clean off patio
- put 2 coats of paint on our bedroom bookshelves (yeah...it's finally done)
- put drawer hardware on shelving unit
- paint new shelf for living room
- hang new shelf in LR
- found a new home for Pixel :(
- visited with Mom, Dad and Grandma Bobbie
- went to mass
- visited Great Grandma Peggy
- washed diapers..twice!
- made homemade bread
- made homemade organic chicken stock
- made yummy dinner of wild alaskan salmon, garlic fries and broccoli
- played puzzles and math games with the kids
- watched another episode of Rome

All this while still changing about 8 diapers a day, taking 2 year old potty on the toilet about 6 times a day, feeding everyone three meals a day, dealing with 4 year old attitude and 2 year old tantrums and finding time to love the 28 year old also! NO wonder I did not want to get out of bed this morning! I actually feel asleep last night before Bill was finished reading our nighttime prayers..ooops. The kitchen is a mess, and laundry is everywhere, but I am enjoying hearing the bigs playing together, watching Adeleine sleeping and feeling blessed that this is my life!

Queenship of Mary

Father, you have given us the mother of your Son to be our queen and mother. With the support of her prayers may we come to share the glory of your children in the kingdom of heaven. We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.

I have been gushing over the birth of little (but big), Adeleine. Her birth was very much anticipated since I was quite unsure what exactly would happen. After two hospital births and two epidurals, I was starting to question what I was thinking and how it would all play out. How would I endure painful contractions for an unknown amount of time, and after all that, push the baby out?? I had an awesome, highly recommended midwife, I had done my hypnobabies for 10 weeks, I had surrounded myself with positive people who knew that homebirth was safe and they were praying for me. Was all this enough? Along with a lot of praying by me...it was! When L the midwife arrived she checked me and I was already 10 centimeters. I started feeling like pushing and a few minutes later Adeleine Rose was born weighing 9 lbs 8oz. I was on a birth high for weeks and weeks. All I wanted to do was think about it and I could not believe that I had done it and it went perfectly! I am still in awe that God allowed my body to create this perfect human being and then have an amazing (not very painful) birth. I am so blessed.

Old Friends

I am very happy and excited to have talked to an old friend today. We have seen eachother a few times in the last few years, but we connected on the internet today, so keeping in touch is a whole lot easier now. We worked together for almost 4 years and we were quite the duo. We were total opposites, yet great friends. We listened to eachother and had a deep respect for the other, which made us great fiends and working buddies. I left when Abbie was born and she is still working there. She had a baby last year and I think thats what has made her a softie :) She was a great friend to me, and I an excited to see her again!

Sadness in the South

Ada and I got back Tuesday night from North Carolina, where my parents and I bid farewell to my BFF, my sister. It was so hard saying goodbye, and when we hugged, I didn't want to ever let her go. I told her I loved her, would miss her and to be smart! She is an awesome person and I know that she will be wise and have a great time. I was still at the hotel sleeping when my parents said their goodbyes, but I can only imagine how hard it was for them to leave their pampered princess 3000 miles away! My mom will have a hard time adjusting to LOTS of time to herself since my Dad works long hours and has a nasty commute and my bro (who is still at home at the ripe old age of 25) isn't often home. Luckily I have enough laundry and grocery shopping to keep us both busy!

My wonderful husband took two days off work to stay home with the bigs while we were gone. He did an awesome job of handling everything. When I got home the house was clean, laundry was folded, and he even did some organizing! I was so proud of him! I was so happy to see them. I have never spent a night away from Jameson and only after I had James did I spend the night away from Abbie, so it was a little hard leaving them in the airport.

I am in love with North Carolina! The architecture, the accents, the food, the trees overgrown with ivy, the way everything is closed on Sunday, the church steeples, the friendliness, the porches and the slower pace of life. If my parents were ready to leave I would move tomorrow. I would be sad about leaving good friends and our church, but I long for those things for my kids. We would miss a lot of Bill's family here and it is important to us both that our kids know and love even the extended relatives, but being able to sit down as a family more than 1 or 2 days a week and have dinner and being able to fish, hunt and explore nature in your backyard are really important to me. Those things are available to us here, it just takes sacrifice (for the family dinners possibly moving so that Bill doesn't have such a long commute and more camping trips and organized outings for nature). No one is ready to leave yet, but each time I go out there my desire to up and leave intensifies. As I had lots of time to ponder moving and living somewhere other than Cali I made a mental list of requirement I have for any state we would move to. My list is as follows:

1. must have state trooper not highway patrol (This may come from watching to much COPS!) silly...I know!
2. car dealerships must use those metal nameplate things that they put on the back of the car (usually opposite the name of the car, and almost always the dealership name is a man's name)
3. must have places named "Bojangles", "Piggly Wiggly"...where else would you find names like that
4. must talk with an accent. I heard they cutest kids talking all southern in walmart (which leads me to the next requirement)
5. must be Walmarts on every corner (I try not to go very often, I am more of a Target girl) but they are everywhere and a true sign you are not in CA
6. must have a battlefield in the state. How cool is that!?! We went to Cowpens in SC, and it was amazing to be out in a field and imagine that a real revolutionary war battle was fought right where you are standing. I was thinking of all kinds of neato things you could do while homeschooling when studying the revolutionary war

So, the trip was good. I am trying to settle my brain of crazy thoughts of moving tomorrow (my mom isn't helping this since she is just as eager to move as I am). I am focusing my thought and prayers on my sister who is 3000 miles from all her family in a strange city with no one she really knows. I pray for her to meet good friends who value her as much as we do and for her to be comforted in her times of loneliness. I love her and miss her tons!!!

2 recent obsessions

Two of my new favorite things are:

1. Rome. Bill rented this last week and now we are hooked! It's juicy drama and historical. It ran on HBO for two seasons and we are quickly watching season 1. I recommend it to anyone who doesn't mind graphic killing, graphic sex and likes history.

2. True Lemon. I almost always have lemon in my water and I use so many lemons (and our newly planted trees don't have fruit yet) that I run out a lot. I found these at Vons and love them!!! Nothing artificial, no sweetners and made with real lemon oil. They taste just like real lemon and are easy to take on the go.