Busy as Bees

It's spring! We're busy. Let's see, we:

1. Are painting our kitchen cabinets white
2. Are half way through ceramic tiling the master bath
3. Finished putting up beadboard and trim in the master bath yesterday
4. Went strawberry picking (20 lbs.)
5. I'm going to the state homeschool conference to work at the Classical Conversations booth at the book fair today (required for directors). Jon is watching the kids.
6. Summer projects at the college are in full swing for Jon.
7. Shakespeare has a permanent tooth coming in behind a baby tooth--have to get dentist apt.
8. I still haven't unpacked completely from vacation.
9. Dad built me a bookshelf for Gem's room and I have to sand and paint it.
10. It took me an entire day to get all the stuff back in the kitchen cabinets yesterday.

That's why we hired four guys to remodel our bathroom and paint the kitchen cabinets. Whew!!! And you thought that I'd lost my mind.

Pictures to come later--when I have time to download and post them. I'm going to love my kitchen.

More Wedding?

If you'd like to see more wedding photos and video, visit my brother and sister-in-law's blog here or my mom's blog here.

The Blessing

Warning: grab a box of tissues before watching. Trust me. You'll need it.

Em's Wedding

My beautiful sister got married on Friday. She was absolutely stunning. Watching her walk through the dunes to the beach on my dad's arm made tears stream down my face. It brought back memories of Dad giving me away. Dad had been on the verge of tears for days, so that made it all the more emotional. It was the most gorgeous wedding I've ever been to--beautiful natural surroundings and one so precious to me as the bride.

Who gives the woman? Her mother and I do. Jonny's dad and my dad performed the wedding--so neat when the fathers can tandem the service.

Sorry about the foggy pictures. My camera lens was dirty from beach gunk. The vows--including the "I do's."

The most beautiful part of the service was the blessing. Both mothers joined the dads and they pronounced a blessing on their children. I'll post the video of this segment later if I can manage to download it successfully.



The kiss.


Mr. and Mrs. Jonathan Walls!


And here is Gem with Mrs. Walls. AHHHHHHH!!!!! I can hardly believe she's married. As I write this she is somewhere in Italy with her beloved, recovering from jet lag. Have a wonderful honeymoon, Woo and Jonny!

A New Toy and More Pictures

This week I had a justification for buying a new power tool!!! Yea! I got a Bosch jigsaw. Here I am cutting out the trim that went up in the baby's room the day before yesterday. We were just going to use 1x4 to separate the green and pink, but the scalloped edge looked so much better--hence the jigsaw.



Mom painted for days, covering the dark colors that had been on the wall and then having to repaint the pink again because I got the color wrong the first time around. She had to wear the same paint clothes three days in a row. But the end result was worth the effort. We have a few more things to hang in the room, but mostly it's done.














All Five



Sarah is doing well. She has had a few 2-4am wake times to keep me on my toes, but other than that she's a wonderful baby. Even at 4 am I can enjoy her.

More Pictures

Here are some better pictures of Sarah.





Ears from me.





Proud big sister.



Gem dressed her this morning and then she pooped up the back of the outfit.



Shakespeare is in awe. He is so precious with her.



Sinatra meets Sarah. He refers to her as "he" and can't seem to get the difference. It's cute.

New Arrival, Just In.....

Sarah Elizabeth. 6 lbs,15 oz and 20.5 inches. Born at 8:32am, delivered by the nurse, Donna. Mom and baby are very healthy and resting nicely. Mom needs sleep!

Dad is also doing very well and preparing to leave the hospital to pick up existing clan for a visit of their new baby sister. It is also noteworthy that this is Dad's first blog post. Also noteworthy is the accelerated need to re-name our family blog. Stay tuned.

Preemptive Q/A:

When is help arriving?
Erin's mom is slated to arrive Thursday evening.

Where are the kids right now?
Home with Gem (And a good family friend).

Are you done having children?
Have to ask Erin but she answered "no" to the tube tying question. But don't read into that!

Where are the kids all going to sleep?
The boys will all sleep in one room and have been already throughout this spring. The girls will have their own rooms.

Does the baby have hair?
Yes, dark hair.

When will Mom and Baby come home?
Probably tomorrow.

Little Known Facts About the Experience
1. Dad cried when he saw the baby and doesn't remember having that sort of involuntary reaction before.
2. Mom must have commented 68 times about how wonderful the epidural was compared to the last "natural" experience.
3. Mom only had to give one "half of a push" in her own words. Yes Ladies, that's one half of one push.

More pictures for your viewing enjoyment.

Let It Begin

I went to the doctor yesterday: 1cm/30%. We're warming up. Ten days to due date.

I spent an hour this morning (before the kids got up) in the baby's room. I got so much done. It's such a relief to put things in order. It's still a ways from done, but if she came tomorrow I wouldn't panic. I also spotted and washed all the old clothes yesterday and hung up all the new things. I know that you can never have too many onesies, sleepers, burp cloths, and receiving blankets for that first month. I have plenty. I'm just looking forward to seeing her face and holding her soon.

Showered

On Sunday my church gave me a baby shower. Our pastor decorated the room beautifully and put out quite a spread of wonderful food. I was so blessed. Pastor Sandra also made a big to-do of the big sister. On Gem's chair there was a pink bib that says "I love my big sister" and a tiara and corsage. She felt celebrated.

It was wonderful to be surrounded by pink and bows and ribbons and dresses and all things little girl. It's amazing how much my femininity has grown since Gem was born. She was just lucky that I didn't put her in blue all the time. I believe that yellow and red were my colors of choice then. But Gem's love of all things pink soon drove me to accept it and even embrace it. As I write this I'm wearing a pink T-shirt.

I got so many wonderful little outfits and all the bedding that I still needed. I especially love the soft blankets. My friend, Melissa, already bought me a new high chair. I REALLY needed that. I thought about registering for a bouncy seat, but I couldn't find one that collapses flat and didn't have every bell and whistle imaginable, so I'm going to sew a cover for my old frame and attach new dangly toys. I might buy the material and have Mom undertake that while she's here. She can whip something like that out in about an 8th of the time it takes me.

Mom arrives on the 30th--three days before due date. She has never been here when a baby is born. Perhaps this will be the exception. We'll see.

12 Days and counting!

A Yard Sale-ing I Go

This morning I set out at 6:30, looking for a dresser and bookshelf. The deals were plentiful. I could have bought a large botanical print for $4 or shoes for $2, but I chose these things:

Not pictured: $3-my color Mary Kay blush, $4-2 car jacks that I used to replace the wood supports under Gem's queen bed frame.

$1, 12 picture announcements
$1, Scrapbook with pages and stickers



$1, some Summer reading for Shakespeare--and a very hopeful book for Sinatra:



$.05, a small ceramic watering can that will be spray painted white and added to my pot of tulips on the front stoop:



Now we come to a find that elicits two opposite emotions for me: delight and cringe, delight because I LOVE this thick, blousy, quality bunting hanging on each section of my front porch (I bought three), and cringe because I paid $25 for the set. (Yes, Jon, you read that wrong--think $2.50, my Love) She asked for $30. As I walked away I knew in my gut that she would have taken $15. BUT...every year on the 4th of July and on flag day I will not feel cringe, just delight.