2015 has arrived and January has flown by. James' 4th birthday is this Wednesday and I am making plans for a fun homemade chocolate cake (confidence thanks to Gretchen Price and her delicious Moist Chocolate Cake) while his desired birthday theme fluctuates between Superheroes, Ninja Turtles, Star Wars, and Mickey Mouse. I'm thinking it would be pretty awesome to have "May the 4th be with you" written on a Star Wars cake, and his fourth birthday won't be coming by again. I'm also torn on whether or not to invite people to our home. While Ray is the more private type and he would be happier with a quiet celebration with only our family and his parents, I have always loved parties (especially birthday kinds of parties) with lots of noise and decorations and food and, of course, the traditional Pinata. There is also the fact that James has not made any friends yet since we moved and it pains me for him not to have any socialization opportunity (mostly because it is my responsibility to schedule playdates... but, because I lack a car at the moment, I'm having difficulty). Ultimately, our at-the-moment very tight budget will determine the size of the party.... Phooey.
Anyway, as for the real dilemma: I love being a stay-at-home mom and I truly believe that being a mother is my highest calling and I am devoting all of my energy, time, and effort into it (also of which housekeeping is no small part); however, I can't help but feel that some of my talents are wasting away. I love to draw and I was a pretty decent artist in college, or at least my professors believed that I had great potential (Check out my Deviantart page if curious). Drawing or doing art of any serious nature seems impossible under my current circumstances. I have a desire to contribute in some way to our family's monetary means and it would be so awesome if I could somehow commission my art and make money off of one of my passions. I have in the past considered doing daycare in my home, but I get discouraged when I look at the laws and prerequisites and classes for the state of Florida's in-home daycare. Another idea is selling my breast milk after my third baby is born (due April 3rd) like this mom in Deseret News. That would be a lot of work and I would need to focus on my diet and eating habits (I sometimes skip meals for laziness).
So, I have a few options, but none are easy or simple. I guess that is the way of life though.
Note: I would LOVE to pepper posts with recent pictures of our family, but my Macbook charger has died and all my pictures are on my Mac or stuck on my camera. Holiday shots will have to wait a little while longer. :'(
Monday, January 26, 2015
Tuesday, February 25, 2014
Benjamin Thaddeus' Birth Story
This story is very overdue, and I really started it long ago, but it is finally finished. In time to celebrate Benjamin's eleventh month. Benjamin was born April 6th, 2013 at 1am, weighing exactly 8 lbs., and this is his birth story...
"April 5th, 2013,
I woke up at 6:00 in the morning with cramps pulsing through my lower abdomen. Trying to block out the uncomfortable pain, I snuggled up to my softly snoring husband. He instinctively wrapped an arm around me and held me close, putting off the time when he would have to get ready for work.
We both had a big day ahead of us. I was five days overdue and The tension of waiting was high as we spent every waking moment preparing for the coming of our second baby boy. It was Friday, April 5th, and Ray was practically begging me to go into labor. Perhaps my body was just waiting for the weekend. I never understood before that women's bodies could choose when to go into labor, but there is not much doubt left in my mind. It is amazing to me how much control the mind has over the body. My mom joked lots that the baby was waiting for us to finish the kids' room before coming. The room was finally ready, thanks to all of my mother's hard work. She put two drawer cabinets and the bunk bed together with Tristan and even Elian's help. My mom still had a lot of shopping planned for today even and there were things I wanted to get done before I became incapacitated from the labor... so the baby was just gonna need to wait a little longer.
When I told Raymond that I was feeling crampy, he immediately became excited and repeatedly asked if it was finally time. His face fell when I assured him that it was not quite time and told him to go to work anyway. He told me several times to call him from work the moment labor started. Even getting half a day off of work would be nice, but he took a lunch with him, just in case. Right after he drove away, I was struck with a feeling of dreadful realization that I had no phone with which to call my mother in case I did go into labor. Just a couple days prior, my phone took a dip in the toilet and that was the end of it's life. I went about a few of the morning chores in a bit of a worry, and still quite crampy.
Luckily, a couple of hours later my mother arrived with all the kids in tow. We headed out the door and she was all excited after I told her about the pain. We drove up to Clermont and first went to Kohls. We walked around the store buying toys and shoes for all the kids (I got a really nice pair of slip on sneakers that I adore). While at the store, I began to have serious contractions and it was kind of fun to try to hide the fact from people we came across, like store clerks and very few other customers--I'm sure if anyone were made aware that I was about to have a baby, they would freak. This was especially tough because James was going a little wild at the store. There were a couple of employees who even approached me with "Is that your child? You need to keep him under more control." Hah! Love when that happens... How do you keep your two year old in line when all you can do is waddle after him like an engorged cow? Fortunately, the store was practically empty.
After we had finally gathered the kids and checked out, we decided to go to the Olive Garden across the street because it was lunch time and the kids were hungry. The whole ordeal was quite fun because it was a bunch of kids, my mom and myself running errands and timing my contractions while trying to be discreet about my being in labor. The food was delicious, as always, and we got a ton of stuff to go.
The contractions were steadily getting stronger, and when we finally got to my mom's rental home, around 4ish, Anna and Eric were waiting there with their kids, ready to watch all of ours during the delivery (that would be three of hers, one of mine, and three of my mother's, so seven in total... Thank you, Anna!).
My mother, Arwyn and I headed off to my cleaned apartment ready to begin setting up the tub. It was so nice to see my Raymond again after a day of crazy busyness. I lit my lavender and green sage candles and started my music. It was a lovely evening to have a baby. My mother took last minute pictures of my pregnant belly. After the pictures I had a little panic attack as I realized my wedding ring was missing. There was very little I or anyone else could do at the moment about it but it made me kinda sad. It was always loose on me and I had already lost it once in the ocean while at Hawaii, but it had been through so much with me and it was so beautiful and unique. I still miss it terribly. However, there was no putting off the labor and I pushed the thought of finding my ring out of my mind. Ray gobbled his to-go Olive Garden dinner after he and my mother set up the blow-up pool. I hopped in pretty much right away and just soaked the whole time. I loved the warm water...
Kelli Johnson, my Floridian midwife, arrived soon after I had gotten in. She set up her gear and relaxed in the beautiful new beige recliner my mother bought me a few days earlier. We were all set to go, and there was nothing to do but wait and talk. Kelli noticed the Olive Garden dinner and left to get some of her own a returned the same hour. We all chatted away and it was very fun. I asked Ray to play the Hair song and we all sang it really loudly together. I was very surprised/impressed that Kelli knew it word for word. Then I asked Ray to turn on Hatari!, starring John Wayne, and we watched that for the next three hours. My mom made a comment that that was the first time she had seen it and she really enjoyed it. John Wayne was not a familiar figure to me growing up but he has definitely become a love since I married Ray. I was having so much fun, but then the contractions got really bad... I remember that Ray sat on the couch and I leaned on the edge of the tub and held both his hands and wouldn't let him go. He was my anchor.
I don't remember any of the details or the facts of the birth itself. My mother or Kelli checked me once in a while to see how I was dilating, and Kelli and she both listened to the heartbeat of the baby often, but after dark fell all the mattered in the room was the man sitting before me, my hands grasping his, and the warmth of the water around me. The most beautiful thing about having a baby at home is the comfort and the familiarity. It turns a sometimes frightening and traumatic ordeal into an earthy, simple phenomenon. The memory of pain fades but the comfort remains. Though, clear in my mind is the feeling of my water breaking. I pushed and I remember feeling a pop, almost as if I was a balloon that was so compressed that it broke under the pressure. The time that passed was very slow for me. I remember one moment that Ray left to go to the bathroom or something like that and my mother sat to hold my hands in his place. I love my mother dearly but at that moment I knew I needed my husband there with me most of all. Such a different experience than James' birth, when I was calling out for my mother when the pain was the worst.
It felt like eternity between beginning to push and the baby finally coming out. Ray got into the tub with me for the last few minutes before the baby came, and it was so nice to be able to collapse on his strong body in between contractions. The last moments are the most blurry. I remember with James that all I wanted was to be on my side, but with Ben, I wanted to push on my knees and just hold Ray's hands (one thing that the movies get right is that a woman must be placated during labor and the pushing). Finally, my new baby slipped out and Ray caught him and we sat in the tub for a while, cradling our sweet new baby boy, Benjamin Thaddeus.
Later, my mother and Ray told it was only about 15 minutes after my
water broke that the baby came and that was only after a half hour of
pushing. So many people told me that the second was going to be easier
than the first... thankfully, they all knew what they were talking
about.With James, I remember pushing and pushing and feeling like I wasn't getting anywhere and that for every two steps, I would lose one and a half. With Ben, he was coming, and with minimal effort on my part.
Eventually Raymond got out with Benjamin and they snuggled, while I very tenderly got out of the tub. I believe that the placenta came out when I finally stood up. Of course, the stinging was the worst, but it wasn't as bad as it was after James was born. I lay on the couch and tried to nurse Ben but he didn't seem to want to. This was a new experience, since James was a little gobbler from the first moment. Ray held Ben and they both slept while my mother sewed me up quite successfully. After, we all took a nap together and when we awoke my mother brought the rest of the kids to see the baby and she took many beautiful pictures. The first time James saw Benjamin was a touching moment. James was so curious at first. He would try to touch Benjamin's eyes and nose and put his fingers inside Ben's mouth. It was so funny, but a little nerve-wracking because James would try to tackle Ben with a hug and newborn babies aren't really meant to be handled that way. It was a wonderful day and I felt very good and happy. My belly was very fragile, but I was feeling unusually energetic considering I had just had a baby.
Benjamin didn't nurse for the first 24 hours and that worried me a little. He gagged and coughed up dried blood, among other funky looking substances. We had to use the baby sucker bulb lots. Poor little guy. Whenever I tried to nurse him he would start gagging again and I would tip him a little and pat his back; waiting for all the stuff to get out of his system was all we could do. When I was finally able to nurse him was a joyous moment. He was such a sweet little baby, with all his hair and his olive skin! So different looking from James. Before, I could not imagine how different another child would be. I often imagined just another James while I was pregnant, but Benjy is an entirely different individual, with a different and unique spirit. I'm so excited to meet each of my present and future children as separate and precious children of God. Benjamin was a beautiful babe who slept so soundly, all swaddled up in the new green wrap my mother had given me."
 |
| Benjamin Thaddeus Salls |
I woke up at 6:00 in the morning with cramps pulsing through my lower abdomen. Trying to block out the uncomfortable pain, I snuggled up to my softly snoring husband. He instinctively wrapped an arm around me and held me close, putting off the time when he would have to get ready for work.
We both had a big day ahead of us. I was five days overdue and The tension of waiting was high as we spent every waking moment preparing for the coming of our second baby boy. It was Friday, April 5th, and Ray was practically begging me to go into labor. Perhaps my body was just waiting for the weekend. I never understood before that women's bodies could choose when to go into labor, but there is not much doubt left in my mind. It is amazing to me how much control the mind has over the body. My mom joked lots that the baby was waiting for us to finish the kids' room before coming. The room was finally ready, thanks to all of my mother's hard work. She put two drawer cabinets and the bunk bed together with Tristan and even Elian's help. My mom still had a lot of shopping planned for today even and there were things I wanted to get done before I became incapacitated from the labor... so the baby was just gonna need to wait a little longer.
When I told Raymond that I was feeling crampy, he immediately became excited and repeatedly asked if it was finally time. His face fell when I assured him that it was not quite time and told him to go to work anyway. He told me several times to call him from work the moment labor started. Even getting half a day off of work would be nice, but he took a lunch with him, just in case. Right after he drove away, I was struck with a feeling of dreadful realization that I had no phone with which to call my mother in case I did go into labor. Just a couple days prior, my phone took a dip in the toilet and that was the end of it's life. I went about a few of the morning chores in a bit of a worry, and still quite crampy.
Luckily, a couple of hours later my mother arrived with all the kids in tow. We headed out the door and she was all excited after I told her about the pain. We drove up to Clermont and first went to Kohls. We walked around the store buying toys and shoes for all the kids (I got a really nice pair of slip on sneakers that I adore). While at the store, I began to have serious contractions and it was kind of fun to try to hide the fact from people we came across, like store clerks and very few other customers--I'm sure if anyone were made aware that I was about to have a baby, they would freak. This was especially tough because James was going a little wild at the store. There were a couple of employees who even approached me with "Is that your child? You need to keep him under more control." Hah! Love when that happens... How do you keep your two year old in line when all you can do is waddle after him like an engorged cow? Fortunately, the store was practically empty.
After we had finally gathered the kids and checked out, we decided to go to the Olive Garden across the street because it was lunch time and the kids were hungry. The whole ordeal was quite fun because it was a bunch of kids, my mom and myself running errands and timing my contractions while trying to be discreet about my being in labor. The food was delicious, as always, and we got a ton of stuff to go.
The contractions were steadily getting stronger, and when we finally got to my mom's rental home, around 4ish, Anna and Eric were waiting there with their kids, ready to watch all of ours during the delivery (that would be three of hers, one of mine, and three of my mother's, so seven in total... Thank you, Anna!).
My mother, Arwyn and I headed off to my cleaned apartment ready to begin setting up the tub. It was so nice to see my Raymond again after a day of crazy busyness. I lit my lavender and green sage candles and started my music. It was a lovely evening to have a baby. My mother took last minute pictures of my pregnant belly. After the pictures I had a little panic attack as I realized my wedding ring was missing. There was very little I or anyone else could do at the moment about it but it made me kinda sad. It was always loose on me and I had already lost it once in the ocean while at Hawaii, but it had been through so much with me and it was so beautiful and unique. I still miss it terribly. However, there was no putting off the labor and I pushed the thought of finding my ring out of my mind. Ray gobbled his to-go Olive Garden dinner after he and my mother set up the blow-up pool. I hopped in pretty much right away and just soaked the whole time. I loved the warm water...
Kelli Johnson, my Floridian midwife, arrived soon after I had gotten in. She set up her gear and relaxed in the beautiful new beige recliner my mother bought me a few days earlier. We were all set to go, and there was nothing to do but wait and talk. Kelli noticed the Olive Garden dinner and left to get some of her own a returned the same hour. We all chatted away and it was very fun. I asked Ray to play the Hair song and we all sang it really loudly together. I was very surprised/impressed that Kelli knew it word for word. Then I asked Ray to turn on Hatari!, starring John Wayne, and we watched that for the next three hours. My mom made a comment that that was the first time she had seen it and she really enjoyed it. John Wayne was not a familiar figure to me growing up but he has definitely become a love since I married Ray. I was having so much fun, but then the contractions got really bad... I remember that Ray sat on the couch and I leaned on the edge of the tub and held both his hands and wouldn't let him go. He was my anchor.
I don't remember any of the details or the facts of the birth itself. My mother or Kelli checked me once in a while to see how I was dilating, and Kelli and she both listened to the heartbeat of the baby often, but after dark fell all the mattered in the room was the man sitting before me, my hands grasping his, and the warmth of the water around me. The most beautiful thing about having a baby at home is the comfort and the familiarity. It turns a sometimes frightening and traumatic ordeal into an earthy, simple phenomenon. The memory of pain fades but the comfort remains. Though, clear in my mind is the feeling of my water breaking. I pushed and I remember feeling a pop, almost as if I was a balloon that was so compressed that it broke under the pressure. The time that passed was very slow for me. I remember one moment that Ray left to go to the bathroom or something like that and my mother sat to hold my hands in his place. I love my mother dearly but at that moment I knew I needed my husband there with me most of all. Such a different experience than James' birth, when I was calling out for my mother when the pain was the worst.
 |
| Everyone greeting the new baby |
Eventually Raymond got out with Benjamin and they snuggled, while I very tenderly got out of the tub. I believe that the placenta came out when I finally stood up. Of course, the stinging was the worst, but it wasn't as bad as it was after James was born. I lay on the couch and tried to nurse Ben but he didn't seem to want to. This was a new experience, since James was a little gobbler from the first moment. Ray held Ben and they both slept while my mother sewed me up quite successfully. After, we all took a nap together and when we awoke my mother brought the rest of the kids to see the baby and she took many beautiful pictures. The first time James saw Benjamin was a touching moment. James was so curious at first. He would try to touch Benjamin's eyes and nose and put his fingers inside Ben's mouth. It was so funny, but a little nerve-wracking because James would try to tackle Ben with a hug and newborn babies aren't really meant to be handled that way. It was a wonderful day and I felt very good and happy. My belly was very fragile, but I was feeling unusually energetic considering I had just had a baby. |
| Brothers meet for the first time |
 |
| Wearing the hat Midwife Kelli made |
Thursday, March 28, 2013
A Recap of our many blessings!
So much has happened, and I have been putting off working on my ancient blog. I just didn't see much point to it before, but I have decided to give it another try, since I don't regularly keep a journal either.
Alright, so 2011 was a fun year with our little boy, James (he was a surprise, as anyone could tell from my last blog, we thought we were were having a girl). I went a full six days over due and on Jan. 28, at noon, James Gideon was born. James's birth was perfect. My whole family flew over and when I went into labor my mother and Kelli rushed over and prepared the tub. I spent the rest of the time playing in the water, being fed homemade granola, water through a straw and a plethora of fresh fruits, all while listening to Enya surrounded by candlelight.
Learning to be a parent for the first time had a great many more ups than downs, but it was still a hard learning experience and it made the whole year an interesting one. The Disney college program was unforgettable. We lived for three months in a one bedroom condo with extremely few of our own possessions. We knew no one in Florida so most days I just cared for James and waited for Raymond to get home from his wacky Magic Kingdom hours. I didn't even have a license then, so I didn't go anywhere without Ray and most of the time we would go to the parks and walk around.
I remember a great tender mercy was having Ray's parents living in Georgia which resulted in them visiting often and often by surprise. Mury and Terry's visits were precious to me because with my social nature I would have otherwise gone crazy those three months with no friends and only my husband and newborn infant to talk to.
Oh Man, I can barely remember now, but in April, I think, we moved back to Rexburg to go to school for the Spring and Fall Semesters. We had a nice apartment in Subsidized Housing and I made a couple of good friends, while Ray and I traded off hours at school and hours at home watching our growing child. We were happy and blessed and we were so excited to return to Florida in January for Raymond's Professional Internship with Walt Disney World's Logistics team. We had a wonderful Christmas with my family in Oregon and then we headed to our first apartment in Clermont, Florida.
2012 was an exciting year. We were so glad to be back in sunny Florida and Raymond really began to love his work and love his co-workers and he was so good at it. I got my license in Rexburg the year before, so I was able to get to know the area really well and I did all the shopping on my own and explored with my now one-year-old boy. Mury and Terry visited and we celebrated James' and Mury's birthdays and our second wedding anniversary with them. We bought a new computer and enjoyed life and our own income.
A couple of months later James learned to walk and then disaster struck. For Ray's birthday I bought him a set of Bucky Balls, which were these tiny round magnets that were really fun to connect and disconnect and build shapes with. In March, Ray brought them home from work to show his parents on their next visit and we found out that James was really fascinated by them. We tried to keep them out of his reach, but on the morning of March 5 we were talking on the bed together and suddenly realized how quiet James was being. We found him sitting on the floor with the Bucky Balls in his palms next to his mouth.
Not knowing how many he swallowed Ray desperately counted the 100 or so balls out while I searched the web for evidence of there being any danger to our sweet boy. I found out that the magnetic balls had a bad reputation of causing great harm to the intestines because they were strong enough individually to connect within the body, across walls and to tear holes in organs. I panicked and called 911. The ambulance came and drove us to the hospital only for the doctor to take an x-ray and tell us to go home and see if the balls would pass through on their own, but to return the next morning for another x-ray. He had swallowed 18 balls in total and they connected to make a little ring in his baby tummy.
The next day, which was a Sunday, we returned to the hospital only to find out that the magnets hadn't moved at all which resulted in the doctor declaring that James had to get an endoscopy, a surgery in which they put James to sleep and the doctor inserted a probe through his esophagus to his tummy and pulled out the magnets through his throat. We were transported to Florida Hospital for this procedure and after we had to spend the night at the hospital and I can honestly say that it was one of the worst and longest nights of my entire life. Holding my baby boy while he was in so much pain from his throat and all connected to IVs and not allowed to breastfeed him at all was so hard for me. That was my first time spending a night at the hospital since I was born, I guess, and I now know why women choose to have home births. Don't get me wrong though, Florida's hospital was beautiful and comfortable as far as hospitals go, but I wouldn't go if I had any other choice or if it wasn't an emergency.
Anyway, after that incident, we didn't have much spending money because were unfortunately uninsured and we had to pay all our hospital bills out of pocket. It took us almost a whole year to pay off all the hospital debt. However, the Lord watched over us and we have not had any more major accidents. The remaining time we spent in Florida was filled with memories of sunny days, Mury and Terry's visits, wonderful Sundays with a ward we loved, and a lot of fun spent at the Disney parks during the Flower and Garden Festival and Star Wars Weekends.
In late July we said good-bye to Florida and drove to Georgia, spending a week with Mury and Terry and then flying to Oregon and from there to Hawaii for a month-long vacation with the Gallardo Family, a truly memorable experience. August was full of swimming, relaxing, family craziness, traveling, exploring, boating, snorkeling, and all the things you could enjoy at the islands.
On one occasion I lost my wedding ring in the ocean. It just slipped off and was instantly buried in the sand! That was a frightening moment. I was so scared I would never find it again and Ray could see that I was really distraught. A man on the beach approached us and told us about men who you can pay to search for lost treasures with waterproof metal detectors. I desperately searched the internet for a credible guy and found and hired him to look for it the next morning. He found it in three hours and we paid him $200. That was such a relief! My wedding ring is extremely unique and I would have been devastated if I had lost it for good. I definitely learned my lesson about wearing my ring in cool water. Other than that, Hawaii was fantastic! My mom is so amazing and generous to have taken our whole family several times already (I think that was Ray's third time and my fourth).
After Hawaii we flew to Salt Lake where our car awaited us (thanks to Mury and Terry), and then we drove back up to Rexburg for a chilly fall at school. It being our final semester, we rented a small apartment close to campus and I took as many credits as I could afford with Ray going full time so he could graduate. James went to daycare two days a week while I was on campus and the rest of the time I spent with my freshly weaned little boy.
Oh yes! I forgot to mention that at this time I was pregnant with my second child. I can't remember exactly when I got pregnant, only it was before August. It must have been early-July. That was my main purpose for weaning James because I simply couldn't support my own body's health being pregnant, nursing, and going to school. James was so hard to nurse at this time that it was pretty easy to say good bye, but I am really looking forward to nursing a tiny baby again.
Classes were fun. I will miss being a student. I took this wonderful figure drawing class that I loved. Ray and I were able to figure out the rest of my schedule so that I could graduate online. It got colder and colder of course and eventually it was much too cold for me to want to take James out to the park and I felt so bad keeping him cooped up in the tiny apartment all day. For Halloween Ray was Peter Pan, I was Tiger Lily, and James was Toodles in an adorable skunk costume that everyone loved. James and I trick-or-treated a few doors and he had fun doing that.
Finally, Thanksgiving rolled around and we flew to Oregon to spend the holiday with my parents. We had a lot of fun with everyone and James had a lot of kids to play with and I got a perm. Thankfully nothing as eventful as crashing our car on the interstate or missing the birth of Ashlen happened this year.
Our last few weeks in Rexburg flew by and we drove out of that snowy state as soon as school got out. We met Terry in Denver and James and I flew to Georgia, while she and Ray drove the car. I stayed at the Georgia house with Robyn and Mury while we waited for James' daddy and grandma to get there. Christmas was a blast! Everyone got really sick of course, except me, but we still had bunches of fun. Ronnie and Phil and their two children, Ivy (5) and Dean (3), joined us in the joy of the holiday. I had great fun baking and decorating a ton of sugar cookies with Ivy. James had fun playing with the hundreds of toys there while avoiding Dean (he and Dean didn't get along so well). Christmas arrived and Ray got his long awaited smart phone from his parents and a pair of really nice earphones from mine. I got beautiful jewelry and an awesome culinary torch which we have used several times to make homemade creme brulee.
After Christmas, we departed once more for our beloved Florida and for Ray's second Professional Internship. We rented a bottom-floor, three-bedroom apartment in Clermont and did a lot of organizing and unpacking to finish up our year. Mury and Terry visited a number of times in January and once again we celebrated James and Mury's birthday and our anniversary together. We were back where we wanted to be and we love our new home. The weather has been unbelievable... and a bit unpredictable. It has gotten up to 90 degrees some days and it could go down to 50 during the night. Nevertheless, it is always beautiful and sunny or every once in a while it will get humid and stormy (which I find kind of exciting).
For Ray's birthday in Feburary the five of us (Mury, Terry, Ray, James, and I) went to Texas de Brazil for dinner. I got a seasonal pass to the parks so we have been going there lots to take James to play on their fantastic playgrounds. And every week I got bigger and bigger. March finally rolled around and even passed pretty quickly. Robyn came down for a visit with her best friend, Rachel. My birthday came and I made myself a chocolate fudge chocolate cake (that I am still working on) and Ray and I made Mole for my birthday dinner.
It is now the 28th of March and my pass is blocked off for Spring Vacation, but I'm pretty immobile anyway because my due date is three days. I feel a little bad for James because he is stuck inside all day when I can tell he really wants to get out and play in the sun. Thankfully, my mom arrives today with Tristan (10), Elian (7), Arwyn (4), and Ashlen (2) and James will be preoccupied playing with his uncles and aunts. They'll be here until April 13th along with Ray's parents arriving sometime after the birth of the baby too. Ray and I are so excited to meet our new baby! Life has been so good to us.
Alright, so 2011 was a fun year with our little boy, James (he was a surprise, as anyone could tell from my last blog, we thought we were were having a girl). I went a full six days over due and on Jan. 28, at noon, James Gideon was born. James's birth was perfect. My whole family flew over and when I went into labor my mother and Kelli rushed over and prepared the tub. I spent the rest of the time playing in the water, being fed homemade granola, water through a straw and a plethora of fresh fruits, all while listening to Enya surrounded by candlelight.
Learning to be a parent for the first time had a great many more ups than downs, but it was still a hard learning experience and it made the whole year an interesting one. The Disney college program was unforgettable. We lived for three months in a one bedroom condo with extremely few of our own possessions. We knew no one in Florida so most days I just cared for James and waited for Raymond to get home from his wacky Magic Kingdom hours. I didn't even have a license then, so I didn't go anywhere without Ray and most of the time we would go to the parks and walk around.
I remember a great tender mercy was having Ray's parents living in Georgia which resulted in them visiting often and often by surprise. Mury and Terry's visits were precious to me because with my social nature I would have otherwise gone crazy those three months with no friends and only my husband and newborn infant to talk to.
Oh Man, I can barely remember now, but in April, I think, we moved back to Rexburg to go to school for the Spring and Fall Semesters. We had a nice apartment in Subsidized Housing and I made a couple of good friends, while Ray and I traded off hours at school and hours at home watching our growing child. We were happy and blessed and we were so excited to return to Florida in January for Raymond's Professional Internship with Walt Disney World's Logistics team. We had a wonderful Christmas with my family in Oregon and then we headed to our first apartment in Clermont, Florida.
2012 was an exciting year. We were so glad to be back in sunny Florida and Raymond really began to love his work and love his co-workers and he was so good at it. I got my license in Rexburg the year before, so I was able to get to know the area really well and I did all the shopping on my own and explored with my now one-year-old boy. Mury and Terry visited and we celebrated James' and Mury's birthdays and our second wedding anniversary with them. We bought a new computer and enjoyed life and our own income.
A couple of months later James learned to walk and then disaster struck. For Ray's birthday I bought him a set of Bucky Balls, which were these tiny round magnets that were really fun to connect and disconnect and build shapes with. In March, Ray brought them home from work to show his parents on their next visit and we found out that James was really fascinated by them. We tried to keep them out of his reach, but on the morning of March 5 we were talking on the bed together and suddenly realized how quiet James was being. We found him sitting on the floor with the Bucky Balls in his palms next to his mouth.
Not knowing how many he swallowed Ray desperately counted the 100 or so balls out while I searched the web for evidence of there being any danger to our sweet boy. I found out that the magnetic balls had a bad reputation of causing great harm to the intestines because they were strong enough individually to connect within the body, across walls and to tear holes in organs. I panicked and called 911. The ambulance came and drove us to the hospital only for the doctor to take an x-ray and tell us to go home and see if the balls would pass through on their own, but to return the next morning for another x-ray. He had swallowed 18 balls in total and they connected to make a little ring in his baby tummy.
The next day, which was a Sunday, we returned to the hospital only to find out that the magnets hadn't moved at all which resulted in the doctor declaring that James had to get an endoscopy, a surgery in which they put James to sleep and the doctor inserted a probe through his esophagus to his tummy and pulled out the magnets through his throat. We were transported to Florida Hospital for this procedure and after we had to spend the night at the hospital and I can honestly say that it was one of the worst and longest nights of my entire life. Holding my baby boy while he was in so much pain from his throat and all connected to IVs and not allowed to breastfeed him at all was so hard for me. That was my first time spending a night at the hospital since I was born, I guess, and I now know why women choose to have home births. Don't get me wrong though, Florida's hospital was beautiful and comfortable as far as hospitals go, but I wouldn't go if I had any other choice or if it wasn't an emergency.
Anyway, after that incident, we didn't have much spending money because were unfortunately uninsured and we had to pay all our hospital bills out of pocket. It took us almost a whole year to pay off all the hospital debt. However, the Lord watched over us and we have not had any more major accidents. The remaining time we spent in Florida was filled with memories of sunny days, Mury and Terry's visits, wonderful Sundays with a ward we loved, and a lot of fun spent at the Disney parks during the Flower and Garden Festival and Star Wars Weekends.
In late July we said good-bye to Florida and drove to Georgia, spending a week with Mury and Terry and then flying to Oregon and from there to Hawaii for a month-long vacation with the Gallardo Family, a truly memorable experience. August was full of swimming, relaxing, family craziness, traveling, exploring, boating, snorkeling, and all the things you could enjoy at the islands.
On one occasion I lost my wedding ring in the ocean. It just slipped off and was instantly buried in the sand! That was a frightening moment. I was so scared I would never find it again and Ray could see that I was really distraught. A man on the beach approached us and told us about men who you can pay to search for lost treasures with waterproof metal detectors. I desperately searched the internet for a credible guy and found and hired him to look for it the next morning. He found it in three hours and we paid him $200. That was such a relief! My wedding ring is extremely unique and I would have been devastated if I had lost it for good. I definitely learned my lesson about wearing my ring in cool water. Other than that, Hawaii was fantastic! My mom is so amazing and generous to have taken our whole family several times already (I think that was Ray's third time and my fourth).
After Hawaii we flew to Salt Lake where our car awaited us (thanks to Mury and Terry), and then we drove back up to Rexburg for a chilly fall at school. It being our final semester, we rented a small apartment close to campus and I took as many credits as I could afford with Ray going full time so he could graduate. James went to daycare two days a week while I was on campus and the rest of the time I spent with my freshly weaned little boy.
Oh yes! I forgot to mention that at this time I was pregnant with my second child. I can't remember exactly when I got pregnant, only it was before August. It must have been early-July. That was my main purpose for weaning James because I simply couldn't support my own body's health being pregnant, nursing, and going to school. James was so hard to nurse at this time that it was pretty easy to say good bye, but I am really looking forward to nursing a tiny baby again.
Classes were fun. I will miss being a student. I took this wonderful figure drawing class that I loved. Ray and I were able to figure out the rest of my schedule so that I could graduate online. It got colder and colder of course and eventually it was much too cold for me to want to take James out to the park and I felt so bad keeping him cooped up in the tiny apartment all day. For Halloween Ray was Peter Pan, I was Tiger Lily, and James was Toodles in an adorable skunk costume that everyone loved. James and I trick-or-treated a few doors and he had fun doing that.
Finally, Thanksgiving rolled around and we flew to Oregon to spend the holiday with my parents. We had a lot of fun with everyone and James had a lot of kids to play with and I got a perm. Thankfully nothing as eventful as crashing our car on the interstate or missing the birth of Ashlen happened this year.
Our last few weeks in Rexburg flew by and we drove out of that snowy state as soon as school got out. We met Terry in Denver and James and I flew to Georgia, while she and Ray drove the car. I stayed at the Georgia house with Robyn and Mury while we waited for James' daddy and grandma to get there. Christmas was a blast! Everyone got really sick of course, except me, but we still had bunches of fun. Ronnie and Phil and their two children, Ivy (5) and Dean (3), joined us in the joy of the holiday. I had great fun baking and decorating a ton of sugar cookies with Ivy. James had fun playing with the hundreds of toys there while avoiding Dean (he and Dean didn't get along so well). Christmas arrived and Ray got his long awaited smart phone from his parents and a pair of really nice earphones from mine. I got beautiful jewelry and an awesome culinary torch which we have used several times to make homemade creme brulee.
After Christmas, we departed once more for our beloved Florida and for Ray's second Professional Internship. We rented a bottom-floor, three-bedroom apartment in Clermont and did a lot of organizing and unpacking to finish up our year. Mury and Terry visited a number of times in January and once again we celebrated James and Mury's birthday and our anniversary together. We were back where we wanted to be and we love our new home. The weather has been unbelievable... and a bit unpredictable. It has gotten up to 90 degrees some days and it could go down to 50 during the night. Nevertheless, it is always beautiful and sunny or every once in a while it will get humid and stormy (which I find kind of exciting).
For Ray's birthday in Feburary the five of us (Mury, Terry, Ray, James, and I) went to Texas de Brazil for dinner. I got a seasonal pass to the parks so we have been going there lots to take James to play on their fantastic playgrounds. And every week I got bigger and bigger. March finally rolled around and even passed pretty quickly. Robyn came down for a visit with her best friend, Rachel. My birthday came and I made myself a chocolate fudge chocolate cake (that I am still working on) and Ray and I made Mole for my birthday dinner.
It is now the 28th of March and my pass is blocked off for Spring Vacation, but I'm pretty immobile anyway because my due date is three days. I feel a little bad for James because he is stuck inside all day when I can tell he really wants to get out and play in the sun. Thankfully, my mom arrives today with Tristan (10), Elian (7), Arwyn (4), and Ashlen (2) and James will be preoccupied playing with his uncles and aunts. They'll be here until April 13th along with Ray's parents arriving sometime after the birth of the baby too. Ray and I are so excited to meet our new baby! Life has been so good to us.
Monday, January 24, 2011
Overdue...
Ray was so sweet this morning. He lay his head on my huge belly and was coaxing Ginny into coming out today. He hopes that I go into labor tonight because he has Tuesday and Wednesday off. It would be so wonderful to just be with him the next couple of days. My parents are visiting right now and it has been so great spending my time with them, but I sure do miss my husband. He has been working so hard, but he loves it and it has been really good for him to get used to going to work everyday. I wish we had another day at Disneyworld together simple to enjoy ourselves like last week. That was wonderful! Ray pushed me around in a wheelchair all day as we explored Animal Kingdom and Epcot for my first time. Being wheeled around the world showcase and watching the fireworks with the man I love most was an experience I never want to forget. I will post all of our pictures later. We have been hugely blessed. I'm so glad to be going through life with such a wonderful and gentle companion.
Friday, June 25, 2010
School Coming to an End and Craziness!
Boy! I have never truly felt so busy in my entire life! Ray an I are going to be really relieved when the summer session begins and we can finally sort of relax. I will be taking a class to catch up on requirements and he is going to be trying to search for an internship. Even so, it is going to be much more mellow than going to school full time and Ray working all the time. I'm so excited for the baby. I can't stop thinking about him or her (which is kind of inconvenient since my mind should be on all my projects and homework and tests ^_^). We have been making some crazy plans too. We are hoping to live in Florida during the winter so that Ray can do an internship with Disney (which would be WAY cool). That will probably be settle in December. And then the baby will come in January, so that's really exciting.
I really miss being able to visit family, but we are going to see my parents for the fourth of July weekend. What I really wonder is whether or not I will ever be able to visit my grandparents again even though I am more independent and separated because of my own family unit. I wonder whether I will be able to go to anymore giant family reunions and see all the people hat I love so dearly. I sure hope so... but I don't see it happening very soon. I pray that things work out the way the Lord wants them to and we will just keep trying to do our best.
I really miss being able to visit family, but we are going to see my parents for the fourth of July weekend. What I really wonder is whether or not I will ever be able to visit my grandparents again even though I am more independent and separated because of my own family unit. I wonder whether I will be able to go to anymore giant family reunions and see all the people hat I love so dearly. I sure hope so... but I don't see it happening very soon. I pray that things work out the way the Lord wants them to and we will just keep trying to do our best.
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