Our "Little Birdie" Turns 8

I'm watching Andrew play on the Wii... can he really be eight??? Our "Little Birdie" isn't so little anymore...

I'm amazed that God blessed me with a son such as Andrew... He's as close to perfect as you can get. We knew immediately upon his birth that we had something special... Although, being our first, it was a rather interesting 12-hour journey to his birth.

Laurie had gone to bed but I was still wide awake (that isn't out of the ordinary, we're still that way). I was watching TV and playing games on the computer... I just couldn't get tired and go to bed. Laurie is usually a pretty sound sleeper and once she goes to bed she's usually out. But, I remember hearing her stir a lot and get up a few times. I think she even came downstairs a couple of times. I just felt soemthing stirring in me and I couldn't settle down. But, by 3 in the morning I finally decided I should go upstairs.

However, I was only in bed for 15-minutes when Laurie roused up and said... "My water broke! No, I'm peeing. No, my water broke!" "Are you sure???" I jumped up and started getting things ready...

We hit the emergency room by 3:30... up to a room by 3:45. Then... we waited. Honestly... I thought it would move along more quickly than what it did. But, things moved very slowly. Finally about 7:30 the contractions started... then by 10:30, she was asking for an epidural. This is where all our plans for the birth went out the window. The WHOLE nine months Laurie had planned on doing the birth naturally... i.e. no epidural. Just a couple of days before we headed into the hospital I suggested to Laurie to keep an open mind about having an epidural. :') I guess she listened to me.

So after the epidural... we both slept for a couple of hours. Then... the contractions began getting getting stronger... and stronger... and stronger... I'm not sure who was more thankful that Laurie kept an "open mind" about the epidural.

Dr. Jacob kept a close eye on Laurie and about 2:30 he finally thought she should start pushing. So... Laurie pushed, and pushed, and pushed, and pushed, and pushed. Dr. Jacob was in and out a couple of times talking with nurses. He came in one last time, leaned over the end of the bed smiling at Laurie and said, "I'll give you five more minutes." Of course, he already knew that baby wasn't coming out... he had already asked the nurses to prep the surgical delivery room for a c-section.

The five-minutes came and went and they wheeled her into the surgical room... I got dressed in my surgical clothes and headed in. By about 3:15, we had a beautiful baby boy.

The eight years have gone by so quickly... and my "Little Birdie" will soon be an eagle. Andrew is an amazing son and I feel so blessed each and every day by having him. He's very loving, has a servant's heart, enjoys giving more than receiving, is extremely sensitive, and is well ahead of his years in understanding God's plan. I am so excited to see where God will be taking Andrew over the next few years.

Happy 6th Birthday Princess!!!

Our little princess turns SIX today...

Since getting up this morning I've been replaying memories from six years ago...


Laurie knew early in the day that "it" was starting. But, she chose not to say anything and began her day, just in case it was a false alarm. Classes at ISU were just beginning for the fall semester and she wanted to get things started herself and tie up any loose ends. She showed up at the bank about 4 pm... Some small talk, then, "If you have anything that needs to get done, get it done, because we're going to have a baby tonight." Of course, I didn't catch what she meant at first (I'm such a guy, huh? DUH!). Then I figured it out... I need to be home as soon as possible after work.


An aunt of Laurie's came by and picked up Andrew about 6 pm... we waited patiently to not rush in too quickly. Then about 8 pm we decided it was time to head in. And, although the nurses made several attempts to get the doctor into the hospital, he took his time (he said he wanted to be certain she was really ready... DUH!!! SHE WAS READY!!!). By the time he showed up about 11:15 pm the nurses were, to say it kindly, TICKED. We were NOT happy campers either - the delivery was suppose to be a c-section, but everything was moving very quickly and the doctor was moving too slowly. I remember at one point saying to the nurses, "We WILL have this baby before midnight." Not only was I concerned about Laurie's physical condition, I didn't want my two kids sharing the same birthday... how selfish of me, huh? :')

So... our little princess was born. We cried like it was our first... and six years later I still get choked up thinking back to that moment God blessed us by bringing Savannah into our little world. And He continues to bless us daily with her beauty, loving heart, gentle spirit, creative mind and cheery smiles.

We are SO blessed :-)

Lazy August Sunday Afternoon

Nothing like sitting on my back patio on a sunny August Sunday afternoon and reading a good book. If only all weekends could be this relaxing B:)
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Action Figures

Watching Andrew play with. a couple of action figures reminds me of when I was younger playing with the little green army men.

We had this "pine tree forest" in our yard and the ground was covered with needles. I would take dozens and dozens of army men out into that area and set up a war zone - bunkers using the needles and dirt, rock piles from our gravel driveway, downed trees from sticks and limbs. Pine cones and small rocks were usually the bombs and missiles. Wow - that was so much fun - I'm sitting here smiling so big because that was an awesome fun memory I haven't thought of in awhile.

Oh, to remember more of those times as a child.

I wonder how many of those little green army men are still buried under those needles? :-)
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Wii Morning

Guess what Andrew and Savannah were doing bright and early this morning :-)

They're in "training mode" right now - starting with bowling then moving on from there. They're smiling from ear to ear while playing. I can hardly wait to see them play Lego Star Wars & Hannah Montana.
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Java Drinks @ Theatre

I LOVE our newest movie theatre in B/N - they serve cold JAVA DRINKS - WOO HOO!!!
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Some Boys Time

Andrew and I are hitting "Star Wars: The Clone Wars." He's been SO pumped about it all week!!!
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B-Day Celebrations Begin

Andrew and Savannah began their birthday festivities a few days early this year... They each were surprised with a friend showing up to play on Friday morning for a few hours, which made them both VERY happy. After lunch Laurie pulled out an ice cream cake she had bought from Schwan's (YUMMY!). We haven't bought a #8 candle yet for Andrew's real birthday cake, so a 7+1 had to be used for him :-)
I got the Wii all set up last night - downloaded updates for it after setting it up with our wireless internet (SO COOL). Then, after playing a little baseball, bowling, golf and tennis I packaged it back up to be wrapped. We're going to give it to them today then give more games to them on their birthdays (Andrew is 8 on the 20th & Savannah is 6 on the 19th).
They're each going to have friends sleep over for their birthdays, too - just haven't set that date yet.
Setting up the Wii was a lot easier than I had expected - I love tech stuff, but sometimes you have to jump through hoops to get everything going. I did set parental controls on the Wii for the internet - otherwise, Andrew would be checking the weather for storms every 5 minutes.
Yes, Andrew is going through a very difficult stage right now of being very fearful of storms. He's constantly looking out the windows at the sky, asking "what kind of clouds are those," asking "is it suppose to rain." If we do get a storm, he gets visibly terrified - hands shaking, pacing, praying out loud for the storm to stop. It can get a little frustrating at times, but we're trying to work him through it. Luckily we haven't had any storms lately, but that doesn't keep him from analyzing every cloud that we have overhead.
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More fun at the park

The kids LOVE our spray parks :-)
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End of Summer Fun

Having some fun at a park today :-)
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Fall Schedule Starts Today

Wow - what a gorgeous morning! A completely blue sky, cool (60), humid (90%) and no wind. This is like a perfect morning for me to sit on my back patio beside my pond with a cup of coffee (Kona is the brew of the day). So - I am :)

I love hearing the sound of my waterfall and spitting frog - my pond is FINALLY clear and the muck on the bottom is almost all gone. Better late than never I guess.

Well, today begins our "Fall Schedule" - Laurie heads to work today for her first day back; meetings all day (she's very excited;) ). So, I'm at home with the kids - they start school next Thursday the 21st (half day).

We'll probably go to a park for a time today, but my main task today is putting together a talk on "Caring For And Wintering Over Tropical Plants" for a Master Gardener class Thursday night. So, that means I'll be at my laptop most of the day working on a power point presentation using a lot pictures from the past couple-three years. A friend at a nearby garden center is letting me borrow several tropical plants from his store for the talk.

I can already see that some of my summer annuals (i.e. geraniums) are beginning to lose energy - foliage color changing slightly and flower are getting less full somewhat. They usually keep going strong thru August and into September, but - every year is different. I'm just thankful I didn't have the vole problem this year at the one house (cross my fingers). That was VERY frustrating last year.

Sprinkler rotation has begun in my beds and the back is next after the front, so I should go. I need to get the kids their breakfast, too.

What a perfect day for our fall schedule to begin.
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Back to Burying

Tumnus is back to burying again tonight. After moping around the house with a bone in his mouth for several minutes he finally found a satisfactory place to bury it - behind Laurie on the couch :-)