Thursday, March 28, 2013

Sammy's "Lovey"

Ever since our summer vacation last year when we stopped at the home base of "Grave Digger", Sammy has been attached to this toy monster truck. He sleeps with it, he plays with it, he brings it to the store with us, etc.  It's what he uses as other kids use their "lovey".  

Sammy and Grave Digger watch TV.

He has several other monster truck toys as well, but this one is his favorite.  Sometimes this one is "Mommy" and the other monster trucks are the babies.  They have discussions about going home and crashing. They line up matchbox cars and run over them.  Sammy does an excellent, throaty, "vroooomm!!"  They watch Netflix shows about monster trucks (Sammy's favorite is a History Channel documentary about the creation of monster trucks).




I admit that this wouldn't have been my choice for his "lovey" - but at least it's easier to clean than a blankie dragged around in the dirt all day!

Wednesday, March 27, 2013

His Infinite Wisdom

I was pondering today the blessings that were poured down upon us during Sammy's pre-birth drama.  If you recall, it all started with a late-night trip to the hospital which they sent me home from having learned nothing.  But then the next morning, Saturday, I passed out several times and was in a lot of pain as the spotting continued.  That time that I went to the hospital they did an ultrasound and discovered my thinned-out-to-almost-non-existent cervix.  But nobody could ever give me any reason why I would have actually passed out (in fact, I think they thought I was exaggerating).  It was a mystery that was overlooked because it just seemed random.

Flash forward to September 1. I am checked into the hospital again, this time having labor induced.  Things seemed to be going well until I started passing out randomly again.  It was finally decided that something must be wrong and an immediate c-section was needed.  Upon doing the c-section, they discovered that Sammy had a 4-inch long cord.  There was no possible way he could have made it through the birth canal with only that 4-inch cord.  So for months I had been crossing my legs if I so much as sneezed in fear that Sammy would "fall out" and in the end he couldn't possibly have come out even if he tried.

So now think about those two parts of the story.  The connection is my passing out.  I believe (although no Dr will confirm this because it is speculation) that Sammy would have been born on my living room floor - and immediately died - if he didn't have that 4-inch cord.  I believe my body was trying to give birth on that Saturday morning.  And the only thing that stopped it was the impossibility of it, brought about by the short cord length.

So, in conclusion, what my current doctor calls "a fluke" saved Sammy's life.  What some might call a birth defect, is the only reason Sammy is here with us right now.  Heavenly Father, in His infinite wisdom, made something "wrong" with my son that saved his life.

I am pondering this now because all of this drama with Sammy started when I was 22 weeks pregnant. And here I am approaching my 22nd week (it starts Friday).  As I think back on this, and so many other miracle stories surrounding Sammy's birth, I can only pray that we will be just as blessed this time around.  I can wish that I won't be on bed rest at all and that the next few months I'll feel good and that this baby girl will be healthy and strong, but all I can really ask God for is the same kind of loving care for her as Sammy received.

With Renewed Vigor

I declare that I shall post on this blog with renewed vigor.  Because I was just reading through old blog posts from years past and I just love the mundane details that I recorded.  When I blog these days it seems to be just for the big stuff - which is great, but I miss the small stuff.  So I shall pick up the regular-blogging banner again.  I swear.

Monday, March 25, 2013

Texas House Pics

Last night we invited all our extended family in the area over for a little "Open House" type thing.  We had some fun treats and the kids played and the adults wandered around and chatted. It was lovely.  I had to work pretty dang hard the last few weeks to get the finishing touches all done on the house.  My handyman (AKA Dad), Richard and my mom all deserve kudos for their help.

Here's the dessert bar from the party:

Here's the family room as I stand in the kitchen nook.  What you can't quite tell from this picture is the depth of the room.  It's a lovely, spacious room!

Then if you, from there, turn to your left, there's the kitchen.  The kitchen with three times the storage as the Virginia house.  I still have a few empty shelves in there even though there are all kind of things stored in them that were not in the kitchen in Virginia!





 Here's the dining room.  It is on your left as you walk in the front door.  

On your right as you walk in is one of the two staircases and a little entry way.

In front of the entry way is the living room.  It's a small room, but I like it that way. I am glad to have a formal living room to entertain guests without them seeing the mess in the rest of the house, but in our Virginia house I felt like we hardly used half our house because it was all formal.  


I adore the two level windows and I adore the blue curtains that are so often the same color as the sky above them.

If you follow the hallway past the living room, you get to our bedroom on the main level.  It's more than twice as big as our Virginia bedroom.  I am looking forward to having this room as a sanctuary on the main level when I have a new baby who sometimes needs to be protected from the chaos of the rest of the house.  (And, it's not too shabby as a sanctuary now either!)

 The master bathroom has a big jetted tub that Richard and the kids very often enjoy.


And there's a vanity for Richard and a vanity for me!  Also in here is a huge walk-in closet.

One last thing on the main level - between the family room and living room is the door to the porch and pool.

If you go up the back stairs, which are next to the kitchen nook and straight in front of the door to the backyard, on the right is the playroom.  (Notice that orange rug. Recognize it from the Virginia house? It use to cover the entire family room floor. That gives you some perspective to how small that house is and how big this one is!)

Over Spring Break Naomi and Asher and I cleaned and sorted all the toys in this room and all the bedrooms. We put away about half of the toys that were in there so it'll be easier to keep clean.  We'll rotate toys every once in a while.

To the left of the stairs is a walk-in game/linen closet, Naomi's bathroom, and Naomi's room.  Grandma A just made this gorgeous quilt for Naomi's room.  With the cheery yellow curtains and the vintage furniture set that I had when I was a girl, this room is just plain adorable for our big girl.

If you walk down this long hallway you come to the boy's rooms.

If you look over the half-wall of the hall you see into the living room on the back side of the house, or the entry way on the front side of the house.

Asher and Isaiah's room is still a bit of a hodge podge of themes at this point. They wanted a "space room" in the new house so they have planets hanging from the ceiling and galaxy curtains - but their beds are still covered with cars and trucks.  We'll work on that!
 Sammy's room is joined to their room with a Jack and Jill bathroom.  We also haven't done much to Sammy's room because when baby girl is born this will become her room and Sammy will move to what is currently my craft room (off the playroom).


And that concludes our tour of the Texas house.  I think I hit the major highlights.  If what you caught from this post is that each room is spacious and more roomy than we could have dreamed of - well, you're right on!  We feel so blessed to be living in this house!