winter is back!!!!

Coldness! Snow! Brr. I forgot to put my sweater on before I sat in my comfy chair with my oatmeal and coffee...dang. Is it better to shiver or get up and get it? I'll be right back.

Okay. Got a sweater. Plus made a phone call, put the bedding in the dryer, and loaded up the washing machine again. Phew. Should have replenished my coffee while I was at it.

So yes, it is winter again here in central New York State. And since Emily Anne, my oldest child, is turning...ouch, twenty eight years old on Friday, let me bore with you with some memories...

Emily was due on January 16th, which was on a Wednesday, which happens to be the same today. Wednesday, January 16th. My due date came and went...but only until Friday. I was young (19 and 1/2), dumb, and very excited. So I headed to the hospital in the wee hours of the morning, it was still dark. Now, Emily was born in 1985, in what I like to think of as the End Of A Horrible Era Of Childbirth. When I got to the hospital, I was put into bed. And kept there. My mother-in-law came to visit, and was not allowed anywhere but the waiting room, and since I was stuck in bed, dang. (oh, if I could go back in time, I would SO protest!). But remember, I was young and dumb, and this was that Horrible Era. The Era when it was just standard procedure to do shaves and...enemas. Yup. No fun. Anyway....my labor progressed by some miracle, seeing that I was stuck in that bed. When it was time to push, the doctor felt around my abdomen and said that the baby was transverse. He had me sign all the papers for a c-section, then brought me into the delivery room to try one other option, which would not be tried in this day and age, although I am very thankful they still did these in the Horrible Era: forceps. Mid-forceps. I was given gas, knocked out, huge episiotomy, so horrible I can even BEGIN, but anyway....the doctor grabbed her, turned her, and pulled her out. He had 25 years of experience, and was delivering babies before c-sections became so routine. (just think, if he hadn't had the courage to do that type of delivery, I may not have been able to have all these children...)

Anyway. It was rough. I woke up and Paul was sitting there (he was SO handsome when he was 21!) crying. We had a girl first! I said, "First!!!??" Ha, no way was I doing this again, I thought. ha. Anyway....she was 8 pounds ten ounces, and didn't know how to nurse. I had lots of trouble with that at first, but my sister had just had her second baby (2nd girl of seven!), and encouraged me.

So Emily was born on a Friday night, at 9:53 pm. I went home with her the following Monday. I know, crazy, right? Three nights in the hospital! Monday was freezing! I think the high was like zero that day. And guess what? This coming Monday is forecast to be polar cold too.

I am spending some time with Emily tomorrow. We are going to a small city south of here so she can be interviewed for a radio show about a story she had published. She is an R.N., and deals with death on a daily basis. It affects her, of course, but she has to cope with it. So she is going to talk about it. She asked me to go along with her, and of course I said I would. I am planning to take her out to lunch afterward, and possibly to a few thrift stores to find something nice for her new house.

Today, I am not staying home in my cozy warm house. No, I am picking up five kids from school and taking them to the dentist. Only two of them have appointments, shh, but the other three heard those magical words, "Getting Picked Up", and persuaded me to get them too.

We might also stop at Walmart to get some bins for Jon and Sonja. They re-arranged their room and want to store things better. Their bunk beds are now taken down as single beds, which takes up more room, but they wanted a change. Now they have to get more creative with storage. Honestly, nothing gets kids more motivated to clean their rooms as Getting Something New, or changing around the furniture.

I worked on Charlotte Claire and Camille's room for a few hours yesterday. I loved it because I like sorting through stuff. Now all the Barbie shoes and Polly Pockets and baby doll clothes and big doll clothes and Barbie Clothes, ect., are all organized. I found so many barettes and bobby-pins and hair elastics, socks, missing sweatshirts (they like to Pack to Go Places...I found these bags all packed up with clothes and jammies and books...)They weren't really going anywhere, just playing. Anyway, I organized their shelves and made it nice in there for the millionth time, but for some reason..this time it is going to stay clean. ha.

I also cleaned up my own room and vacuumed. If feels nice, looks nice.

I have to keep working when I have this motivation before it disappears and I just don't care so much anymore.

Beagle puppy...not sure. I want one, the kids want one, but Paul is being too practical. He says, "What about vet bills?" I guess it's good one of us is grown-up.

The kids are not thrilled, said we shouldn't get their hopes up. I know, I say to them! Mine were up too!

Oh well.

And this concludes my ramble for the day.