happy happy happy...

 anniversary to us!  Paul and I have been married for 39 years today.

I was so young, 18 years old...a twelve dollar dress, borrowed shoes....a Friday night wedding ceremony Paul's mom's living room, then a whirlwind honeymoon:  one night at the Holiday Inn, one at the Red Roof Inn, then back to work on Monday morning.  We didn't actually go on a honeymoon trip until 26 years later, when Camille was two...five glorious days in Jamaica.

We took some weekends away through the years, this is at Watkins Glen a few years back.

He's clever, he got these last night, hid them, and when I woke up bright and early, they were in the vase!

It's been busy here, and exciting.  Miss Kathryn Grace had the baby!  Jamison Jack was born yesterday morning, and I got to go see him at the hospital last evening.  He's home already, Darius came and picked up Rhys and Achilles...now it's just Wulf and Tennyson here.

Camille showed them a picture of their new baby brother!

Such joy.

Wulf, and some of Jonathan's old Nerf supply.

Achilles

I brought these Tennyson and Wulf for a little walk after Rhys and Achilles left.  But the wind was cold, so it was a short walk.  Grandpa got out the car ramp, Tenny likes it.

Not too long ago, I had my hands full on a regular basis.  These kids were our youngest seven, on a little trip to the cemetery to visit baby Robert.  Camille, Charlotte Claire,  Jonathan, Sonja K., Suzanne, Evelyn, Kathryn....(ages 2 to 11)(Robert was in between Sonja and Jonathan)...in any case, they didn't seem very sad:)

Evelyn, Suzanne, Sonja, Jonathan, Char, and Cam, the youngest six...oh, how time flies.  (Suze...so glum...she apparently wanted to go to Chinese...and apparently we did...)

Wulf is playing an assortment of things that aren't actually toys, a light up training wheel, a plastic golf ball, a screwdriver...Sunny is very interested in the light-up training wheel, so she's following him intently.  Tennyson is all tucked into a nappy-nap.  

Diapers and sippy cups, bottles, pretzels, crackers, pull ups and helping little ones in the bathroom, pancakes with sprinkles, making heart shaped waffles, cold coffee,  Duplos and Nerf bullets and Matchbox cars underfoot...it's old hat.  Familiar territory, in my groove.  

Rhys still wakes up in the night, last night twice.  The first time I changed her diaper, gave her a bottle, cuddled her a little, and put her back to bed.  Since I'm old, when I climbed so gratefully back into my warm bed, all comfy with the flannel sheets, I was WIDE AWAKE.  Wide awake when you're old means:  you feel every ache and pain.  You can't find a position that's fully pain free, on one side the hip aches, on the other the arm falls asleep, on the back, snoring!  You try, and try again, and you think about things, and you pray for your kids and their kids and your friends, and you wonder if your first grade teacher can possibly still be alive, and if the stock market is REALLY going to crash in a matter of days, and how could the Murdaugh guy actually do something so horrible.  

The second time she woke up, out of bed I got, and of all the things in this world, why is it so hard to be wakened from a sound sleep, jarred from dreamland?  Getting up, feet onto the cold floor, but...I gathered another diaper, got the milk ready....but she was quiet...hmm....should I go back to bed? Will I just be awakened again in five minutes?  Oh, that bed, yes, back to bed.  I woke up at seven-twenty and she was still asleep!  

I did think to myself, I'm too old for this!  Then I thought, nonsense.  I'm just a complainer. It's FINE.  But shh, it IS hard when you can't fall back to sleep!  The flip side is:  I can totally commiserate with tired new moms, like Kathryn. 

It's hard to miss pool days.  It's hard to claim those times, because when I'm asked to help, I want to help. Finding the balance, and hanging on to my pool times is challenging, but I'm going to work on it. It's not a WANT, it's a NEED.  It helps that I totally enjoy it.

I have chicken breast in the refrigerator, and a bag of stuffing the pantry...I'm thinking to season and roast the chicken on top of stuffing, and serve with veggies...or, I have more cauliflower rice, I could make Asian chicken...hmmm.  wow, I almost feel like I could take a nap....

Anne, I love love love your nursing posts!  I'm going back to read them again.  I am not a nurse, but four of the kids are nurses (well, one an NP), and one almost done with nursing school, oh I've heard the stories, and know how very difficult it is:  understaffed, terrible patient ratios, no lunch breaks, overworked.  I plan to share them with Miss Sonja, my nursing student daughter, when she's a bit more relaxed...she's studying, again, for a big test, again...she got a 92 on the last one, she's doing well, but it's hard. I cannot tell you how touched I am that you thought of her!  Thank you.