And then there were FOUR!

Well, I've rejoined the land of the living! Kev did a great job getting the first photos on here for all to see, but says now that I'm home I can have that job back. :)My parents came up to the room every day to hang out and bring Gennie so we had to have photos of them with the little guy! Gennie wanted to wear her scrubs from Halloween so she could look like all the nurses and she was a big hit! Everyone who saw her made a big fuss over how cute she looked and the floor nurses just loved it! She was really proud of herself.

My sister Krista and her husband Joey surprised us on Fri morning by showing up at the hospital! I didn't get a chance to talk to her on Thurs because she called just as I was gagging all over myself . . . not the best time to get on the phone . . . so Kev told her I'd call her the next day. She called instead and said she had a great surprise for me. I asked what it was and her stupid phone went dead! I kept saying, "are you there?" and shaking my phone . . . as if that makes it work better . . . and they walked into the room! I looked at her with complete confusion for a few minutes because I thought she was one of the nurses, then screamed at the top of my lungs! What a fabulous surprise! They stayed until Mon morning then had to drive back to RDG for work.

We're all doing well so far and I'm healing much faster this time than last. I got my staples out yesterday and unfortunately the doc discovered that the outside layers didn't line back up straight so he had to "pull apart" the skin and reposition it to line up. Sorry for the graphic-ness of this but imagine how I felt laying there having him pull open the incision with no pain meds! He said it was necessary tho because if they didn't line back up correctly I would have a slight hunch to that one side until the skin stretched itself and that could take forever! Anyway, I'm doing pretty well . . . Go Pain Meds!!! Kev's mom and stepdad are here this week to help out so we'll have photos of them with the kids . . . wow, "the Kids" . . . that looks funny on here . . . realization just hit, I guess . . . to post later.

Josiah Michael Anderson

Well, he's finally here. Josiah Michael Anderson was born this morning at 8:43 am. He weighs 7 lbs 4.5 ozs. He is 19 1/2 inches long. Everything went fairly well except for a few delays getting going this morning. We got to the hospital at 5:30 am anticipating a C-Section surgery at 7:00 am. Unfortunately, there was another mom who came in already in labor and needed the anesthesiologist first. (I guess that's OK!) Once he was finally done with that person, he came to start Amy's spinal block. They started working on that at about 7:20 or so. Almost an hour later, they finally had it in and working. So of course this put us even further behind schedule. Oh well, all in God's timing. In any event, we are all very tired but very happy. Both Josiah and Amy are doing really well. Amy has struggled a bit with some nausea and dizziness, but I think they've got that under control. She was having a real problem with being over heated, but thanks to our wonderful friends Jerrid and Shannon, she now has a fan that blows directly on her and is helping a great deal in regulating her temperature. Thanks guys!!!

Gennie spent the night with Grandma and Granddaddy so that she didn't have to get up so early. It was her very first sleepover. I'm told she did very well. By that I mean that Amy and I didn't get any calls in the night to come pick up the inconsolable child!! In all seriousness, she did really well and slept through the night without incident. Once they all came to the hospital later this morning, Gennie immediately took on the role of big sister. She wanted to hold him and help feed him etc. Later in the evening when the night shift nurse wanted to take him to the nursery to check him out, Gennie had an absolute fit. She thought that the nurse was taking him away. Thankfully the nurse was sweet enough to let me take Gennie in to watch her and to go back with him to Amy's room. She was a little better then, but I don't think she trusts that lady. Well, that's all for now. I need to get some sleep and go back up to the hospital in the morning. Amy is staying there by herself tonight (with the help of the nurses of course) so that I could get Gennie home to bed and feed the dog too. Anyway, more to come tomorrow. - Kev

So, 13 hours to go!

Our surgery is scheduled for 7am tomorrow and we have to be there for prep at 5:30. Wow, that's early! I'm all packed and Gennie is headed over to Grandma's house to spend the night in just a few minutes. They'll bring her to the hospital once the baby's cleaned up and I'm out of recovery. She's sooooo excited to meet her little brother! She plans to wear her little scrubs outfit from last halloween when she comes to the hospital so she can look like the doctors and nurses.

Nervousness has set in now, so I apologize for this post. I have a feeling I'll look back on it and laugh at how fragmented it is. Kev just pointed out that there's less than 12 hours until we have to be at the hospital. Thanks, babe. Needed that! For some reason, too, I seem to be having an allergy attack yesterday and today. I can't have any food or drink even water after midnight tonight so I'm not sure how i'm supposed to clean all this snot out of my sinuses. I was really hoping it wasn't a cold because i don't want to put off the surgery or deliver a sick little kid or hold him and sneeze all over him. but I don't feel sick otherwise, just a stuffy, runny nose and cough because of the constant dripping. My photos tomorrow should be just fabulous. :) Red nose and all.

well, that's about all for tonite. Kev says he'll get some photos on here tomorrow night when he comes home . . . he could stay in the hospital room with me but all they have for sitting are those wood and canvas lobby chairs which he doesn't really want to sleep in all night. So he'll come home and feed Maggie and sleep better in our bed instead.

I don't expect to sleep much tonite so I've picked out several movies to keep me busy instead of laying there and imagining the prep and the surgery and the recovery. Of course I wouldn't be thinking about how awesome it will be to finally have him out . . . i have so much else to worry about before I can enjoy that :).

Here we go . . . wish us luck!

how we became "we"

Since today is our 7th anniversary, I thought I'd tell the story. Most of you have heard pieces of it so now you can put the whole thing together.

Background: I went to HS in Montana, Kev went to HS in Manteca, CA. Dating has a different meaning in each of these places. In MT, if someone asks you out on a date, it means that he wants to be your official "boyfriend". None of this Saved By the Bell dating stuff where a guy takes out a different girl every weekend. No, once a guy asks to take you out, it means that he's decided you're the one he wants to see exclusively at that time. Apparently, this is not the case in CA. If a guy asks you out it's because he wants to take you out once, maybe twice if he asks again, but no committment beyond the excursion in question. Having said all this, our relationship began with a huge miscommunication that worked out wonderfully for us . . . but I'll get to all that in a minute.

I'm one year older than Kevin . . . well, 359 days older . . . so I was already at Simpson College one year before he got there. The weekend following the first week of school is always Worship Team retreat . . . all the teams went up to the Need Campground just outside of Redding and spent Fri nite, Sat and most of Sun practicing music and getting to know each other as a team. The first nite at supper we had to go around the room . . . okay so there's 5 or 6 teams, each of 10-12 members, lots of people . . . and introduce ourselves and tell what we did on the team, etc. We didn't end up on the same team because I decided to join late in the summer and most of the teams were already formed by then. I remember Kev standing up and talking, and thinking to myself that he was a cutie. When we were done for the evening, my roommate Charity and I decided to stick around and hang out with the people who didn't want to go straight to bed. Kev and his roommate/teammate Matt stayed also, so I got all brave and went to talk to them, dragging Charity with me. After the obligatory small talk, Charity got really flirty and giggly and it seemed that both guys were responding to her, much to my annoyance, so I kinda drifted to another group and let her have them. I figured if Kevin had been interested in talking to me he would have ignored her more. Later on, he told me that he was Super Annoyed with her too but being such a considerate guy he couldn't think of any way to get rid of her and didn't really want to leave poor Matt stuck, either.

After that first night I don't remember seeing much of him the rest of the weekend. He says he kept an eye on me the whole time, but I really didn't notice. We all went back to school Sun nite and ended up in the cafeteria for supper. Kevin and Matt called Charity and me over to eat with them . . . remember, it's the first week of school and you kinda hang out with your roommates alot until you get settled into your cliques, etc. . . . so we went and sat with them. Kevin was much more attentive to me this time so I was starting to think there might be something there. Throughout the next week, we planned to eat meals together and hang out after classes, etc. We even had one class together so we got to sit together for a whole hour!

The next weekend, Kev was heading home to get some stuff he'd left, and he told me he needed to have a serious talk with someone back home. He said he had a girlfriend who was a senior in HS but things weren't that great between them and he was realizing that he didn't want any ties back home. The word "Rebound" was echoing thru my head but I worked really hard to ignore it. He left after classes on Fri and was planning to be back in time for WT practice on Sun nite. Needless to say, my weekend sucked waiting for him to come back.

When he walked in to WT practice, I couldn't believe how happy I was to see him. I mean, come on, we'd known each other only 2 weeks and I missed him?! Whatever. I had only a minute before we had to break into teams for practice so I asked him how "The Talk" went. He said it wasn't pretty and she'd been mad but it was done. And then he asked if I wanted to go to Denny's to talk after practice so he could vent all the details. I said yes, just happy to get to hang out with him sans girlfriend. We agreed to meet outside my dorm at 10pm or so. I ran back to my room after practice to get dolled up without looking like it and I told my roommates I was "going out with that Kevin guy to let him tell me how he broke up with his girlfriend." Stacy wasn't convinced that's why I went but Charity believed me.

Very long story a little bit shorter, we spent all of about 5 minutes talking about the breakup and the rest of the time talking about ourselves and just hanging out. I think I slipped back into my dorm at about 1:55am just before the dorms locked at 2, giving him just enough time to run back to his.

The next week we kept up all the eating together and hanging out, and on Fri nite he asked if I wanted to go see Armageddon with him. Of course I said yes. During the previews he leaned over and said he was really enjoying getting to know me and hanging out and was hoping to continue. I said something stupid like, "I'd like that, too" and reached over to hold his hand. Here's the miscommunication. In my mind, because of my experiences, he was asking me to be his girlfriend and wanted to see me exclusively. I was totally fine with this and thrilled to have an official boyfriend to brag about. I found out much later that he had just meant it how he said it, that he wanted to get to know me and hang out more. As time went on, he decided there wasn't anyone else he wanted to date and there wasn't anyone else that I was interested in either so it worked out. We spent our third date in the ER getting his dislocated shoulder reset, went to the Christmas banquet together, all the normal christian college dating stuff.

Two days after he proposed. This place actually isn't there anymore. In 2002, the area was burned to a crisp when Redding was plagued with wildfire. Now it's just a barren drop-off into the river with a not-so-grand view.


This all happened between Sept of '98 and June of '99. On July 1, 1999, he drove me out to the overlook off of Hilltop and proposed. The pullout overlooks the Sac river and downtown Redding with all its lights and reflection in the water, which I love. Apparently he was planning to get out of the car and get down on one knee and do it properly but as we pulled in he noticed a group of homeless people having quite the party under the lone tree at the edge of the overlook so he decided rather than risk life and limb, and a potential mugging for the ring, we should just stay in the car. I have no recollection of what he said in his proposal mostly because I was acutely aware that there was a fabulous piece of jewelry on his person and I REALLY wanted to have it. But I don't feel bad because he says he can't really remember what he said either. The bottom line was that I said yes and he produced the ring . . . the very first one I had ever looked at in all our wanderings in the Redding mall while we looked for something to occupy our time. We drove back to campus . . . we both lived on campus during the summer and worked for the college . . . and woke up everyone we could find to tell them the good news. Two days later we came back to the spot and took this photo. My parents were in town at the time so he had asked my dad for my hand, and they wanted to see the spot where he had asked me . . . you know, all that sappy stuff that I'm glad we did so I could scrapbook it later.

Thirteen months later we were married, July 22, 2000, and it's been fabulous ever since. Of course we have our fights and our disagreements . . . I drive him crazy and he returns the favor . . . but we've truly been blessed these last 7 years and can't wait to see what God has in store for us for the future. I love you, Kev!

Today, 7 years and 1 and 3/4 kids later! And still in love. . .

Softball in WY

Thursday night was the first night of our softball tourney this year. Our record wasn't so hot this time so we had to play a double-header . . . and that's a long time to sit on the bleachers. It's a co-ed league so there has to be the same amount of girls and guys, and this year we've had a really hard time getting enough girls to come so we don't have to forfeit. My mom even had to play! She was a good sport, tho, and even scored! The other team was really having fun with the fact that my dad was umpiring while she was at bat . . . nothing like having your husband whisper batting tips while trying to keep track of balls and strikes. Go Mom!

Kev got a triple and 2 doubles so he was in a good mood. He says he'd rather just hit it out of the park because then he can pass on all that running.

Gennie loved going to all the games but really only cheered when Kev was up . . . "Go Daddy, Go Daddy!" . . . and had more fun playing in the grass with the other team's kids. She apparently learned how to play Duck Duck Goose somewhere along the line because when I went to check to see where she was she was sitting with these kids and playing right along. Kinda hard to make a circle with only 3 players but they were having fun so whatever.

We play again next Tues night and if we win, we might have to play on Thurs., too. Needless to say I'll be otherwise occupied then but Kev says the game's only an hour and since I'll be sleeping I won't even know if he slips out and goes to play. We'll see . . . :)

Baby update

Are you tired of waiting for this baby yet? I know we are! Yesterday's appt was anticlimactic . . . same old stuff . . . blood pressure, "any problems?", measurements, heartbeat. All is still just fine. Doc said that if he had to guess the size he'd say that the baby is somewhere around high 6-low 7's and should be around 7lbs 12 or 13oz. at birth. That really surprised us since he's been telling us that we could expect to have another 10 pounder just like Gennie. But here's something to think about . . . Gennie was delivered at almost 42 weeks . . . Josiah will be delivered at just over 38 weeks . . . meaning she actually had an extra 4 weeks of cooking time on him . . . so it stands to reason that she'd be bigger than him. Doc said he has been wrong before, but with the measurements he's getting now, he doesn't really see another 10lb baby in there. We were talking later about how we are going to have to be more careful with a littler guy . . . we never worried about hurting her on accident or anything because she was sturdy.

We made a paper chain last night to help Gennie count down to "Baby Day." I had meant to do it sooner but since she can only really count to 11 . . . "8, 9, 10, 11, 49 momma!". . . it is a little easier for her to have only 10 days to go. She got to tear off #10 last night before bed and was SOOOO excited! Only 9 days to go . . . and now my heart has resumed beating. Wow. . .

50th post

This is my 50th post! Kind of a milestone, I guess, since I didn't think I'd do 50 posts all year. It helps to have kids to write about . . . and I get lots of messages that the extended fam loves to hear how we're doing since I'm not so great at emailing everyone about our activities. Yeah, number 50!

Last Sunday we went to the Crowells' for lunch after church . . . that's Avah's grandparents' house. Gennie and Avah had a blast after lunch playing in the pool. I'm not sure where the idea for the shampoo came from but I was inside playing a card game called Apples to Apples . . . loved it . . . you should try it . . . requires no thought whatsoever . . . and Kev and my parents started hollering for me to send the camera outside because the girls were really funny. When I got the camera back these are what I found. I guess Barb had gotten out the shampoo and the girls decided to wash each other's hair . . . no need for a bath tonite! They crack me up . . . they have so much fun together, in between stealing each other's toys, but within minutes the crises are over and they are back to running and screaming together. Here's to best friends!

haircut

So, I cut my hair.

A lot.

I was really tired of it.

A few posts ago I put in a photo of Gennie and me, where she's hugging my stomach in front of the bushes. You can kinda see my hair in that one . . . down past my elbows.

Not anymore.

I figured that since everyday I was just scooping the whole mess up into a ponytail or claw, not taking the time to do anything with it, what's the point of having all that hair? Too hot, too easily tangled in tiny fingers.

So I had it all cut off.

Now I have to actually do something with it each day, but luckily it just needs a little mousse and upside-down drying and it's ready. This photo was taken the night I had it cut . . . I wanted to have a record of what it was supposed to look like in case I couldn't get it to act correctly the next day when I tried to do it myself.

I love it.

Except that at the end of the day, I forget that it's all gone and still try to put it up in a ponytail.

Then it kinda looks like Pebbles from the Flintstones. All I need is the tiny bone.

Boy, I look tired in this photo. I should go to sleep.

Vacation Bible School

This week is our church's vacation bible school. I'm co-directing with my friend Lisa . . . well, because of my current condition I haven't been directing so much as being there for her to bounce ideas off of and getting the sitting down stuff done . . . and we've made it thru day 2 without incident! Gennie is technically too young to go yet because it starts at age 4 but since I had to be there the other teachers and helpers all expected her to come this year so I let her join the class with the little guys . . . ages 4 and 5. As you can see, she's as big as they are and actually does just a well as they do in the bible story classes and sitting still.

She says her favorite part of vbs is the recreation outside because they get to run around and play with balls. Our theme is a combination of secret agents and space missions so today's snack was astronaut pudding . . . the kids got instant pudding in a baggie, added the milk, zipped the baggie and smooshed it up to mix in the milk, then they cut a corner off and got to squeeze the pudding into their mouths. A HUGE hit with all the ages. I'm not sure that astronauts actually do it this way but it worked for vbs. Gennie LOVED it so I may have to keep it in mind for future desserts.

She's also learning to use scissors quite well . . . she opens and closes her mouth with each cut so it's a kick to watch. VBS is over by 12:30 so it's not a whole day but it makes for a very busy morning and she's been very ready for lunch and a nap when we get home. She's been sleeping all the way until 4:30-5pm . . . so I get a catnap, too! I think by the end of the week she will have grown up a whole year's worth . . . it's fun to see but kinda sad too in that she's not a toddler anymore . . . she's a little girl. What am I going to do when she starts preschool?!?!

Had another baby appt yesterday . . . we're on the once-a-week ones now. I've been feeling like the kid is hanging out between my knees for a few weeks now so I told him about it and asked him to check and make sure everything is okay. He did, and I'm dialated only about 1 cm, not effaced at all, nothing to worry about. He said that things could progress quickly but probably won't since they didn't at all with Gennie. He said he could feel the head already settled upside down so that's probably what all the pressure is about. But the best part is that we finally got him to commit to a date for the c-section! He mentioned the end of July now and again, talked about doing it between 38 and 39 weeks, "maybe the 26th or so" . . . but this time I told him we needed to plan so we needed to nail down the date. So, he actually wrote us on the books for July 26th! Now we just have to register at the hospital and then wait. Of course, if the kid decides he's done before that then we'll do it earlier but otherwise, that's the big day. Now I can stop worrying and just get the last minute stuff ready for him. And look forward to sleeping laying down again. I know they always say that the sleeping stops as soon as you bring them home, but since I have been so uncomfortable for the last 2 months and haven't been able to lay down I'm actually looking forward to sleeping when he's here . . . at least the sleep between the feedings will actually be SLEEP!

Happy birthday, Krista!

Today my sister turns 25! Can't believe it! I always thought it would be fun to have your birthday right next to the 4th of July because everyone is all decorated and you have ready-made party themes, etc. But she says it actually sucks because everyone is done partying from the day before . . . and who always wants red, white, and blue for party photos? We could probably do a scrapbook of all her birthdays over the years and wouldn't have to change the color scheme at all.

I copied this one from a page of the scrapbook she made me for my birthday this year . . . I don't know where she got all the photos of us as kids . . . must have raided mom's stash when she was last home. She and her husband live in Redding, CA, and we don't get to see them nearly enough . . . last time was Christmas of 2005. Personally I think 2 years is too long, but with work schedules and all it's hard to just pick up and head west.

I love her! She's the best sister I could have been blessed with. I know people always say that but I really believe it. Even tho we don't see each other much, we always just pick up where we left off, even on the phone, and it's like we've never been apart. Our husbands crack up when we're together because a lot of the time we don't even say anything, just a look across the room and we both know what the other is thinking. We often collapse in fits of laughter that no one else understands. It's just one of those sister things, and we're not even twins. I'm so thankful for her and I hope she has a fabulous 25th birthday!


Oh, and Krista, your present is coming. I'm sure you knew it would be late, like always, but I just wanted to make sure you'll be looking for it! :P

Happy 4th!

Hope everyone had a great 4th yesterday! We stayed around town and then had a BBQ with my parents. We took Gennie's pool over to their house and let her cool off for a while, then had hamburgers and watermelon for supper. We weren't sure if the powers that be were going to do the fireworks in GR because a few weeks ago at Flaming Gorge Days they set a grass fire at Scott's Bottom and it took them an hour and a half to put it out . . . freaked out all the town officials since we haven't had a good rain in months. So we decided to stick it out and go get positioned to watch the show if they decided to do it afterall. Just as the sun was going down a huge thunderstorm with lightening and a ton of wind blew into town so we were almost sure they weren't going to set them off . . . then they did! But they did them all so fast that what is usually about a 20-30 min show only took about 15min. Thankfully I wasn't trying to get any photos . . . I shot this one about 3 years ago . . . it was part of a whole bunch I took that night and since most of the time firework shows are the same stuff every year, I don't have to shoot again. Still one of my favorite shots. Anyway, after braving the wind and Gennie cringing every time they exploded, we had a pretty good 4th!

It's official.

I'm compulsive. I can't help it. This last weekend we attended THE WEDDING. The one our church has been waiting for since 1999. Our really good friends Jerrid and Shannon are married. Our church family has been trying to get Jerrid married since 1999 when he moved to town . . . Shannon just moved here last Aug. . . so the wait hasn't been as long for her. Anyhow, they were one of the 11 wedding couples I had to turn down this summer because I'd be too preggo to shoot their event well. So, instead, I brought my camera just for me . . . and ended up with more than 90 shots. I told you, I'm complusive. I can't not take pictures. I guess the good thing is that I wasn't responsible for getting all the important shots well and moving around to be in position for them. I just got what I could from where I was . . . and even stayed in my seat. Most of mine have kinda this ethereal glow to them because of the camera settings I had to use to get them not blurry and dark, but I'm going to scrap a mini book just for fun and turn all the photos b&w so the glow will just add to the effect. Kevin made me promise not to get in the actual photographer's way . . . like so many family and friends do with their point & shoot cameras with flashes . . . drives me crazy when I'm the photog because they don't have any idea what their little flashes are doing to my shots. Anyway, I left her alone and can't wait to see what she did for them. Of all the weddings I was offered this summer, this is the one that I'd have liked to do the most just because the couple is so special to us . . . and it's not like they could put it off until next summer when I can shoot again . . . but I guess just being there will have to be enough this time. Oh, and the 70 or so shots I'll be able to use for my mini book from the ones I got . . . :)

I really don't want to clean up.

After this last busy weekend . . . I'll blog about that later . . . I am really not wanting to clean my house. I remember this being the worst part about the last weeks of pregnancy - people coming to see the new kid and me not being able to get the house in order beforehand and then really not being able to do it while recovering from major abdominal surgery. I've been putting off the bigger cleaning stuff (not the everyday toilets and vaccuuming, etc. that's just gross) because I guess I think if I do it closer to when people are coming then it will stay that way for a little longer. Kev's been great and doing all he can, but I still feel bad that I'm sitting around all day and he works then comes home and does all my stuff, too. It's really frustrating that my body doesn't let me do the things I know I can do . . . it's not like being sick where you aren't really even coherant enough to do the little stuff . . . my mind still works just fine and I don't feel bad until I stand up and try to move about. Grrrr! I guess I just have to do the little stuff and not worry about the dust on the curtain tops, etc. If anyone actually had the gall to mention it to my face having just had a baby and my insides spread about the OR table . . .