Saturday was the bridal shower for Laura.  Sunday (yesterday) was a birthday party for Bobby.  His actual birth date is today, but since some of the far-away family were staying over until Sunday, Gail and Rachel figured out to have a birthday party for Bobby on Sunday afternoon.  It was a roaring success!  Gail and Rachel had fixed a great pull bar-be-que spread, and there was lots of good food for lunch.  They were having a hot dot and marshmallow roast in the evening for supper, but we weren’t able to stay for that.

Once again, here’s the event in pictures, mostly.  (All but a few of the pictures are courtesy of Katie.  She had my camera for most of the party, which was just fine with me.)

Bobby, Paul and Hannah are enjoying hors d’oeuvres
before the lunch.

Bobby and the chocolate ice cream cake.

Gail helping Bobby light the candles.

Paul helped Bobby blow out the candles!

All of the little kids wanted to take out and lick
off a candle.

Hannah, Paul & Bobby

Bobby is opening the not-so-concealed bean bag
chair.  (Andrew had wrapped a great big sheet
around it.  That’s about the best that could be
done.)

Glen & Bobby

Bobby

Bobby & Hannah

Linden & James enjoying Bobby’s birthday books.

Bobby

Whose tootsie toes?
(Ahhh…they’re Baby Susannah’s!)

Hannah holding Baby Susannah.

The great game of monopoly.  (Clockwise from lower
left: Lucy, Glen, Linden, Andrew, Luke & Katie.)

And, sadly, we had to leave before Andrew could finish winning the monopoly game.  He really thinks he would have won.  (We had an evening service, Communion Service, at our church.)  As we found out later, Linden won.  Which really is no surprise because he wins in real life too.

It was a little interesting to watch the little kids during the party.  After the gifts were opened, Paul and Bobby were completely absorbed in them.  Hannah, however, paid no attention to the presents.  She stuck to Susannah’s side.  Wherever Baby Susannah was, Hannah was right there watching and I expect helping to take care of her.  She is so much in love with little babies!

Most of you know that Laura is my sister (no. 6 in line), but for those who don’t, now you know how I’m connected to the Laura in this post.

She lives, works, and goes to college in NC, and she’s getting married this summer.  Since a lot of her relatives and at least some of her friends live in this area, we hosted a bridal shower for her up here yesterday.  She came with her friend, Joy, who is going to be her maid of honor.  The shower was held at my sister Rachel’s house, which is very close to my house, just about 10 minutes away.  A whole bunch of my sisters and brothers and my mom did a lot of prep work for the shower, but I just handled the desserts, dropped off a box of my nice glass serving dishes several days in advance, and then just showed at the appointed time on the day of the shower.  Everything was really nice.  The whole shower went smoothly, everything was in place, ultra-organized, peaceful, and well, it just went really well.  (Praise the Lord!)

Next, is a picture-show (not a moving one, but a still one!) of the shower.

Laura, Julia, Miriam

the gift table

Julia did the decorating and fixed up the utensils.

That’s a toilet paper cake, and also a picture
of Branden & Laura.

Laura & Julia (Who, by the way, is the one with
the bad infection in her foot from stepping on a
nail, and she’s having surgery on Tues. to clean
it out and put in a drain.)

Great A. Hazel, Julia, Hannah & Susannah

Miriam (Susannah’s mommy) & Mrs. Fawley,
a life-long friend of the family.

Sarah S. & Laura

Anna & Miriam S., Rachel

The food table.  We had (as always!) very good
food–baked potatoes with toppings, tuna salad
and crackers, a cold pickled bean salad, fresh
vegetables & dip, fresh strawberries, cheesecake
bars with a choice of black raspberry or cherry
toppings, and peanut butter bars.

My mom.

Gail & Joy

Miriam, Susannah & Mrs. Fawley

My dear Hannah, who was excellent
the whole day!

Laura

(Whew! These are a lot to name.) Mrs. Fawley,
Miriam, Lucy, Katie, Julia, Joy & Laura

Great Aunt Hazel, Great Aunt Norma, Mom,
Gail, Sarah S., Miriam S.

Great Aunt Eva, Grandma and Mrs. Fawley

Sarah & Joanna S., Miriam & Anna S.

Rachel & Great Aunt Eva

Joy & Laura

Somebody knows Laura!  It was a
pantry shower, and somebody gave
her a 4 lb. bag of chocolate chips!  I’ve
never seen one that big before.

Miriam & Susannah

Laura (She’s opening the gift that
Mom and all the sisters went together
to get her, and that’s the one that
got rained on and had to be wrapped
twice.  You can see my previous
post to read about all that.)

Laura (The gift was a set of stainless steel cookware.)

Laura

Laura

Miriam & Susannah

All the sisters.  Since the oldest two of us are
pregnant, we got the bottom step, and then it
goes down in age from there.  So, from the bottom
right, going R to L and up:

Gail, Sally
Rachel, Julia, Miriam
Laura, Lucy, Katie

(Note:  Lucy flew in from Wyoming to help
with and attend this shower!  It is a very rare
occurrence for all the sisters to be together
any time other than on New Year’s day, so this
was really special.  Hopefully we’ll all be to-
gether again at Laura’s wedding.)

Mrs. Fawley & Gail.  (Mrs. Fawley is
a school teacher (still teaching) and
she taught Gail (2 yrs.) and I (1/2 yr.)
back when we were tiny tots and
before my parents started home-
schooling.  She and her husband were
friends of my dad before he was even
married.  So, we go way back!)

Laura & Grandma

Hannah, Julia & Susannah

Hannah, Laura, Julia, Susannah,
Paul & Bobby

Susannah (and just to her right you can see the
little round cracker that Hannah gave her!)

Hannah helping to shell peas.  Miriam
brought her peas along (she lives in
the Richmond area), and my mom and
Hannah spent most of the shower and
a long time afterwards shelling peas.
Some others helped too.

Hannah & Paul shelling peas.

Hannah & Sally washing dishes.

After Hannah and I had finished washing and drying all the dishes (all the fancy serving glassware), we got it boxed up and I had helpers tote the stuff out to our van.   We left there at 6:45.  The shower was at 1:00 p.m., and we had gotten there very soon after 11:00 a.m., so it was a pretty long day.  And, Hannah had gotten up at 6:15 that morning, and neither she nor Paul took any naps that afternoon.  They both fell asleep on the 10 min. drive home, and I carried them to their beds, and they slept until 7 and 8:00 this morning.  They were very tired!  However, they had behaved very well and did amazingly good for not taking any naps and being that tired.

We all enjoyed the shower, and we enjoyed helping out too.  I just love getting together and working together with my sisters.  We grew up working together, and somehow, we still just do things the same way, think the same way about how things should be done, etc., and it just goes so smoothly!  Things just flow and get done when we’re together.  (That’s why it was such a jolt when I got married, and suddenly, I was either doing stuff all by myself–and wondering why in the world I got so little done until I realized I didn’t have 10 people working on the project–or working with someone who had a completely different idea of how to go about things, a different idea of how much and long you should work at something, and just had no idea how I operated (and I thought everybody operated the same way as me and my siblings!).  It was a jolt, but I’ve survived, and learned to operate in this realm.  But, I still really enjoy getting together with my sisters and working together to make real progress efficiently.  Thanks, all my sisters, for all your hard work!)

Today, we had another big day, with church in the morning and evening, and a birthday party for my nephew Bobby this afternoon.  I hope to put up some pictures from that party tomorrow.

How’s that for alliteration?  Normally I refer to perambulators as strollers or buggies.  So, for the rest of this post, I’ll use my normal term.

This morning, after my run to town for an early morning doctor appointment (in which the verdict was that Baby Miranda is just fine, weighs 2 lbs., is in the 65th percentile, and is head down), I got the kids dressed and sent them outside to play before it got absolutely roasting hot outside.

Hannah gave John-Bear rides around the yard in the stroller and pushed him on the swings, and Paul mowed the grass with his tractor.

I know this is a lot of pictures of Hannah and John-Bear, but she is so cute with her curls and pigtails, how can I help it?  I had a hard enough time limiting the pictures I put up on this post  to just these.

I got a rare shot of Paul—he’s looking
at the camera and smiling.  That’s not
easy to accomplish these days.

After a while, Paul decided to join Hannah and he got his John-Bear and the other stroller.  You can tell it was getting hotter outside because they preferred being in the shade on the porch.

Now, for the pool part of the post.   I was listening to the radio while driving to and from town and I heard the weather forecast.  After today, it is supposed to be hot and humid through Monday, with Monday being 90 degrees and really humid.  I was on my way home when it dawned on me that the kids would love a little plastic wading pool.  I popped into Finders Keepers, hoping they’d have one for a song.  They didn’t have any, but they did have little girls’ bathing suits for a song.  I found this one for Hannah, and according to Pastor Dale, since it says Speedo on the front, she could wear it to the “Wear Something” church.  (O.k., that’s a little joke there.  The FBC people who were there last Sunday will get it.)  (That’s not our church, by they way!)

When I got home, I mentioned the wading pool idea to Andrew.  I was afraid if we waited very long, everyone else would rush to town and buy up all the wading pools and we would never get one.  (When our snow shovel’s handle started crumpling this winter, we couldn’t buy a snow shovel anywhere in Harrisonburg.  There were none to be had.)  So, Andrew suggested we go out over lunch and get one.  I called Wal-Mart first to make sure they still had some, and they did.  Of course, when we got home, the kids had to take naps first, but as soon as they woke up, they were determined to go swimming.

Andrew got some hot water in buckets from the bathtub, and we put a little water in the bottom.  Next, it was time to start swimming, but it was cooling off, cloudy, and it had started to sprinkle.  But there was no thunder or lightning.  So, with his knack for making things fun for kids, Andrew got out the umbrella to take them to the pool.

And then he held it over them while they swam.  Soon, the rain quit and he could put it away.

It kept getting cooler and cooler outside, and pretty soon, they were huddled down in the pool and Andrew could see from his office window that Hannah was shivering because her little pigtails were shaking.  So, he brought them in and that was the end of their swimming for today.

The present part.  Sigh.  If I could give myself a prize for the stupidest thing I’ve ever done, this might be the one that would win.

Yesterday, I got a lot of things ready for my sister Laura’s bridal shower (which is not being held at my house!), and I even carried the main present out to the van and put it in.  I also put in the van two boxes of canning jars, each jar individually wrapped in newspaper to make the trip to NC with Laura (she wants to can a lot this summer).  Well, that was great.  I was feeling like I was getting things done ahead of time, and really going to be prepared, relaxed, and ready to enjoy the party on Saturday.

Ha, ha, ha!  When we were preparing to go get the pool, I suggested we might need to lay down the back seat to put it in the van and therefore should take out the present and the canning jars.  Andrew took them out and asked me if I thought it would rain before we got back.  I said no and told him to just set them on our deck.  Huge mistake.  Giant mistake.  Costly mistake!  It poured cats and dogs before we got home.  Everything was soaked and the boxes ruined.  (I said costly mistake because of the time it took me to peel off the soaked newspaper from each jar, and to peel off the soaked box from the gift and then to rewrap it.)  Fortunately, the present was in two boxes, and the underneath box was slick and somewhat water resistant.  The outer box was soaked like a wet waffle and peeled right off, but the under box was only a little wet in a few places, and the contents stayed dry as far as I could tell.

While we were at Wal-Mart and it started to rain, I knew I had no more wrapping paper except paper that was glaringly Christmas.  So, I bought a roll, even though all the paper there was what I considered hideous.  I did rewrap the gift tonight in the hideous paper.  Then, I found this ribbon in my bow box that I think helps break up the polka dots (that look like a digital color picture blown up way, way too big and all the color grains show) and make it look nicer.  By the way, the original wrap that got soaked had really nice fruit on it, which I thought was very appropriate since this is a pantry shower.

The jars are all unwrapped and in a wash basket.  I don’t have more newspaper to wrap them in, and I don’t have more boxes appropriate for putting them in to go to NC.  I was prepared to give her one of my wash baskets, if necessary, and just buy myself another one just so she’d have something to haul the jars home in.  However, my mom thinks she has some boxes and newspaper, so she’s going to bring them to the shower tomorrow.

Take-home from this: never leave non-weatherproof items outside, and never leave home with all the windows open (it rained in on 3 sides of our house.  I spent some time wiping up water messes and puddles.).  I hope I’ve learned something.

By the way, I no longer feel ahead, ultra-prepared, and relaxed about tomorrow.  I have managed to recover most of the way from this bout of stupidity, but I’m in no way as ahead as I was last evening.

That means the bean bag chair for Bobby is completely finished!  This is a record.  I bought the fabric on Friday, and now, on Tuesday before mid-night it is stuffed and ready to figure out how to “wrap” it to give as a present on Sunday.  Normally, I give myself at least 4-6 weeks to do a bean bag chair.  Let me tell ya, though, I’ve really let a lot of stuff slide to get this done.  Also, I chose a very simply character, a teddy bear.  Anybody can draw one of those, so it was really simple to draw my pattern.  And, I didn’t do 16 different colors for the applique in tiny intricate designs.  That was on purpose.  I needed something I could have done by Sunday.

Andrew helped me fill it.  I use packing peanuts, by the way.  I get the local large animal vet’s office to save them for me whenever I foresee a bean bag chair project in the future.  They do crunch down as the kid(s) plays on it, and you have to add more from time to time.  For that, I put a huge zipper in the bottom.  It’s also there so in case it ever gets really dirty, you can open it up, discard the stuffing, wash it in the washing machine, and re-stuff it with clean packing peanuts.

I’m pleased with the outcome, and I’m looking forward to giving it to Bobby on Sunday.  I have given strict order to Paul and Hannah not to tell him about it when we see him at Bible Study tomorrow evening.  I hope they don’t spoil the surprise.

Yesterday, when it was raining and Andrew was getting the kids geared up for an “adventure” in the rain using umbrellas, Hannah repeatedly stated she wanted a “pink-brella”.  She did get to use the pink floral umbrella.

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I was serving the kids some leftover lasagna.  Hannah kept calling it “sanana”.

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Yesterday (Saturday) while I was sewing I had my back to Hannah, who was at my computer desk.  At one point I asked, “Hannah, what are you doing?”

Hannah replied, “Well, I’m not drawing on the floor.”  That didn’t answer the question, but yes, it was good she wasn’t drawing on the floor.

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Today while we were listening to Pastor Dale preach, Hannah leaned over and whispered to me, “I think there is not a baby in Pastor Dale’s tummy”.  Wow!  The profound truths learned during a Sunday morning sermon!

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Paul:  “I’m going to Aunt Rachel’s house.”

“Aunt Rachel, are you up on your roof?”

“No, you’re inside with your dog.”  Babbles a little bit more and then says,

“Bye-bye, Aunt Rachel!”

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We were out in the garden hoeing weeds and picking rocks.  I had shown the kids some earthworms.  After a little while, Hannah suddenly started wailing loudly.  I thought maybe she had stepped on something sharp.  I asked her to stop crying and tell me with words what was wrong.  She said, “The snake bit me!”  (She and Paul kept referring to the earthworms as snakes.)  When I pointed out to her that the earthworm was a good 18″ away from her, she was fine and didn’t cry any more.  Evidently my mini science lesson that was replete with statements that earthworms don’t bite did not sink in.

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Andrew finished lunch before Paul and Hannah, and he was attempting to discreetly eat some M & M’s.  Paul knew something was up and repeatedly asked, “What do you have, Daddy?”

After asking that many times, Andrew finally said, “What do you think I have?”

Paul said, “M & M’s.”

“How do you know?”  Andrew asked him.

“Because I can feel it in my bones!”  So Paul can feel it in his bones when someone has M & M’s!  He did get some M & M’s after he finished his lunch.

Hannah talking to her Aunt Lucy on the
phone this evening.  (Paul was still
napping, so he didn’t get to talk to
her this time.)

Today was such a nice, cool, cloudy day that I figured I should not pass up the opportunity to attack the weeds that are taking over the garden and the flower beds.  I also was keenly aware that the problem would not get any easier to remedy as time went on, especially with the nice rains we’ve been having.

We hoed in the garden for about an hour this morning.  As you can tell, we have a pretty small garden, but we have lots of rocks, sadly.  We picked rocks as we went along, putting them in a pile at the edge of our garden.  One of my neighbors wants them to make a rock garden with (yeah, I think that’s crazy too).  We got the beans, beets, pepper, and tomatoes hoed around.  That leaves the two long rows of corn to hoe, and then the big bare spot where I want to plant some more corn and beans.

This evening, when it was cool and getting dark, we went out and pulled and dug weeds out of our flower beds in front of the house.  We did that for about an hour.  I’m learning new ways of doing things.  Ordinarily, I like to get started and get something done.  But, with the cumbersomeness of pregnancy and the aching muscles that come from over-doing, I’m figuring out that it might be better to do strenuous things in small little spurts.

When I wasn’t hoeing, or reading Bible stories, or pushing the swings, I did work on the bean bag chair.  I think I am done all the applique now.  You’ll notice I did a fair amount of ripping and took off the blue on the tummy and the ears.  Andrew and I think it looks better that way.  I don’t think I’ve ever ripped that much on a bean bag chair before.

There’s a little story behind the purple balloon.  I went through my material scraps to get some bright colors for the balloons (I wanted 4 of them since it will be Bobby’s 4th birthday).  I couldn’t come up with any purple or orange.  Andrew thought orange would be best.  So, I dug around in our drawers (I had already combed the rag box) and came up with a purple T-shirt of mine that I could take the front pocket off of to make a purple balloon.  I also found a blaze orange T-shirt in Andrew’s drawer, but it didn’t have a pocket on.  He didn’t want me to cut a piece out of it for a balloon, since it was a wearable T-shirt.  So, the 4th balloon is purple (and my T-shirt doesn’t have a pocket any more).

Well, that does it for today.  I hope to sew the halves of the bean bag chair together, put the bottom and zipper in, and fill it tomorrow.

The B.B. stands for bean bag.  I could have added another “b” for Bobby’s bean bag chair.

I finished appliqueing the bear on just a little bit ago, and then I added the eyes, nose, and mouth.  I still need to add a bunch of balloons that the bear is supposed to be holding.

I commented to Andrew that I should have used yellow or brown or something else for his features (pads of his feet, tummy, insides of his ears, etc.).  He said I could just add another layer and do that yet.  Well, I think the bear will be as he is.  Andrew says he looks like he is full of holes.  I said he matches really well!  We’ll see what I think about him as time goes on, but I doubt I will want to spend the time changing him.  I am considering sewing on some red for a bow around his neck.

Of course, this is the other side of the bean bag chair, which has the name on it.

Well, that’s all for tonight folks!

Well, that’s a little bit of a skewed title.  For a lot of today, I just slept.  Yes.  Lots and lots of sleeping.  I slept all night and half the morning, sleeping until 9:00.  (No, I didn’t exercise today.  I thought getting rested up was more important.)  Then, before lunch, I laid down on the couch for 1/2 an hour because I was tired and sleepy.  Then, in the afternoon while the kids were napping, I took a big fat 1 1/2 hour nap.  Then, finally, I felt ready to get in gear and be productive for the day.  I cannot remember the last time I slept so much in one day.  It feels great, let me tell ya!  (And I figure soon enough, a day like this will be impossible for a year or two.  So, take one now if I can!)

So, when I wasn’t sleeping, we did have fun.  When a nice, gentle rain started, Andrew thought it would be nice to take the kids out in the rain for a walk with umbrellas and boots.  They were tickled to death and it was named an “adventure” rather than a walk.

I didn’t take any still pictures when they returned, but I got some video footage.  On this adventure, they saw a snake, some moss on a tree, and a broken bird’s egg shell.  They also brought back some grass with seed heads on to put in a vase on the table.

This was before their naps.  In the evening, Paul built a tower with his blocks for “Baby Susannah”.  I took pictures of it and told him we would send them to her on the computer.  So, Aunt Mini, be sure to show these pictures to Susannah.  It was very important to Paul that she see the tower he built for her.

This is Paul smiling these days.  He
says, “I’m smiling as hard as I can!”.

(Note:  Paul wanted to get out the colored blocks.  I had told him yesterday evening when he asked for them that he had to pick up all the other toys first before we got them out.  With no prompting this morning, he started picking up all the toys so he could get out the colored blocks.  Of course, Hannah and I helped too, but we got them all picked up and now he has out the colored blocks.)

After supper, Andrew gave the kids a bubble bath.  If we had water jets in the bathtub, I’ll bet the whole room would have been filled with bubbles!

Here’s Paul with a white goatee!

Well, that about does it for today.  I did get a little sewing done on Bobby’s bean bag chair (for his birthday present), but not nearly as much as I planned on doing (I slept instead).  Andrew and I played a game of Scrabble this evening, and I lost by only 37 points!  I was glad to give him that much of a challenge!  I even used one of the triple word score blocks (usually he uses all of them).

I’m sure our neighbors think we’re entirely lazy and bums.  We were the only ones around here that weren’t outside running tillers, planting, hoeing, etc. in our gardens all day long in the rain.  But, we had a good day and we were happy.  And, I’m not doing 3 loads of soaking wet laundry in the washer and dryer tonight!

Can you believe that I am almost at the 27 week mark with this pregnancy?  It is passing by so quickly.  Two things stand out to me right now.

1.  I am not nearly as far along in my preparations for this baby as I wanted to be by now.

2.  I think the fun and easy part of the pregnancy is now over.

As far as the no. 1 item, well, I am just poking along, getting done little bits at a time.  And, also, realizing that life will go on if some of my major projects are not completed by the end of July.  (Since it seems like our babies come early, that’s my deadline for getting whatever done I want done before Baby Miranda arrives.)

As far as item no. 2, I can’t believe how absolutely huge and cumbersome I feel!  I don’t remember my baby bump being so bothersome and inhibiting in my other pregnancies.  I move around so slowly, it’s pathetic.  I don’t “whip into high gear” and get stuff done like I used to.  My garden needs a hoeing so badly, and there are weeds just taking over my flower beds, but I just groan and wince thinking about trying to do those things around my bulging baby bump, not to mention the agonizing pain in my stomach muscles for the next day.  I picked strawberries for 2 hours on Monday, and gracious!  On Tuesday, my kangaroo pouch muscles hurt so badly it was hard to bear.  On top of all that, my energy level has dropped several notches recently.  Yeah, before, whenever I sat down, I could hardly stay awake.  It didn’t matter the time of day or night.  I just had to keep moving, and then I’d be fine.  Now, not only could I sleep for 2 days, but even when I’m up and moving, it just seems to take so much energy just to plod along.

So, the long and the short of it is, if you drive by and see weeds knee high, or stop in and see half a million little things needing done that would “just take a moment” to do, please have mercy and don’t think too harshly of me.  I’m on the slow road right now.  Check back in 5-10 years.

(I really have to wonder if my age has something to do with all this.  I sometimes wonder if my child-bearing and child-raising would have been different if I’d had my kids when I was in my 20’s.  It worked pretty good for my mom!)

Once again, my Tiny Talk Tuesday post has turned into a Tiny Talk Thursday post.  I promise that all these quotes came before Tuesday.  Now, I need to get busy listening for ones for next week!

Hannah:  “I’m going to walk with Mommy.”  (It sounded exactly like walk, but she may have meant “work”.)

Paul:  “No, you should walk with Jesus.”

We have not even talked about that in our Bible story time!  He must have learned that from listening to Pastor Dale or is Sunday School.

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On Saturday, Paul, Hannah, and I made a run to town, primarily to take the van to pick up a dresser I had bought at Goodwill for our new baby.  (I was in out little car when I bought it, so I couldn’t haul it  home.)  We also made several short stops–lace for Rachel at Rag Time Fabrics, milk at Wal-Mart, Huggies that were on sale at CVS, painters tape at Home Depot, etc.  You get the picture.  Of course, Paul and Hannah got in and out of carseats a whole lot of times.  After the last stop and we were headed home, Paul said, “My goodness!  We went to a lot of stores today!”  I then asked him if he would rather go to town and go shopping or stay home and play with toys.  He said he’d rather stay home and play with toys.  Ahhh…that’s my boy!  A son after my own heart.

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Recently, I was getting ready to bathe Paul and Hannah.  After I took off Hannah’s shirt, she said (something like), “I have a belly button.”  Immediately she followed with, “Sometimes it’s in the back.”  I thought about saying something, but then I asked her where her back was, thinking perhaps she didn’t understand what was her back.  She reached her arm around behind her and touched her back to show me where it was.  Hmmm…this is a first, someone with a movable belly button!

Now, a few pictures.

One of Hannah’s favorite things to do is play in
water.

One morning, Katie fixed Hannah’s hair.  She
didn’t get along very well with traditional pig
tails, so she just put one pony tail in Hannah’s
hair.