Welcome Emeric!

The newest addition to our family, Emeric Russell, is ten days old. WOW! Where did this time go? Well I know that a lot of it has not been spent on the computer. I've quickly checked e-mails, but that is it. Now that I am between feedings I will quickly get some typing in.

Emeric was born on September 19th, 2009 at 4:24 am. He was two to three days past his due date (depending on which MD you talk to). But once this little guy decided to come, he didn't take his time. I had my first contraction at 1:22 am and as you may have noticed he was born 3 hours and 2 minutes later. I was at the birth center for 23 minutes when he came into this world. Yes, we pushed it just a bit on leaving the house. We left our house around 3:15 am and I was back sitting on the couch naping at 10:00 am. Since he and I were healthy and fine there is nothing like a birth center birth, they get you in and get you home. Except for the fact that I had been up half the night and just had a baby, so I was tired, I couldn't stand just sitting on the couch. I had to get up and move around. It was really hard not to help mom and Brian with things. Now that they are both gone back home and to work, I really miss their extra hands.

Things are settling in just fine here, now my big task is to remember to take lots of pictures for everyone back home.

P.S. Here is the yummy peach pie I made when he was four days old.

Lisa Leonard Designs Jewelry GUEST GIVEAWAY!!!!

Lisa Leonard Designs Jewelry GUEST GIVEAWAY!!!!
The spoons!!! I love them. I can see the three kids eating breakfast or the five of us eating ice cream, yum! What about Christmas presents for the neices and nephews? I would love to win this contest.

The Scoop

I have been enjoying sewing over these last few weeks. I made those pod swaddlers and then I worked on a few other projects. We are planning on using cloth diapers for the baby. Therefore one of my projects was flannel baby wipes. Might as well have something else we can reuse - this being green can be fun. Then I made a bag for my clothes pins. Silly, I know, but I had fun and it allowed me to practice making button holes. Brian needed a flag for our canoe, since it sticks aways out of the back of the truck. Then over the weekend I finished "The Scoop". It is a combination play mat/toy bag. When the mat is open it is a nice big round space for baby to play. Then when you are all done, you just close it up toys and all and it is a handy bag. Angela and I joked about closing it up with baby too, but I know know that he/she would like that. It was a lot of fun and super easy to make this project. I can't wait for whatever may be my next project.

Kitchen Island

I would like to start off this blog by telling you, "My husband is absolutely and wonderfully amazing!!!" No, I am not just figuring this out, I just wanted to reiterate that fact. Labor Day weekend. We had planned to spend the weekend camping, but due to a lack of pre-planning (I know, can you believe I just said that) all the campgrounds we looked into were full. Therefore we decided to spend a quiet relaxing weekend at home. Boy could things have gone any different. We have been talking about getting new cupboards for our kitchen since we moved in. I especially wanted an island. The kitchen is quite larger than our last one, but it had a huge open space. So I found an old table in the basement and it has been my faux island. After some discussion, we decided to redo the kitchen in phases. Phase number one: The kitchen island. The island will be a main counter with a raised breakfast bar. It will also have a dishwasher in it. I had hoped that it would be ready by time the baby arrived. We himmed and hahhed about ordering everything that by time we did, we didn't think it would get here in time. Well, Friday evening after dinner, Brian decided to call the Home Depot to see if our order had arrived. To his surprise it had showed up that very day. I went off to teach my water aerobics class, Brian and the kids headed to the Home Depot (1/2 hour away in the next town). If you are following now you see why I was super wrong about a quiet relaxing weekend. What is it with us doing projects on holiday weekends? A fence on 4th of July, now this? Saturday morning, to appease his wife and kids, Brian put off starting the project for some canoeing. We had been wanting to go for a long time. So we canoed, the kids swam and we had a picnic lunch. Now - home to work! He spent the afternoon/evening lining up where the island would go, building its wall, installing two outlets and the beginning of the dishwasher drain system. Sunday morning was spent mudding the wall and wiring the junction box in the basement. Then Brian got a friend from down the street to help with the plumbing. The friend showed up at noon and after a long, hard, grueling day (he went home at midnight), they had the plumbing all finished. This included setting up the hot water to the dishwasher and running a drain from it to the sewer system. It sounds really easy, but they had to fight rafters and all sorts of other little hang ups. Not to mention the required beer breaks. Monday morning Brian sanded the wall. It was almost perfect, but he ended up having to put another layer of mud on it. We waited and waited for that to dry. Finally he couldn't take it any longer (watching mud dry is like watching a pot boil, it doesn't work) and we all went out for a walk. Once home, he sanded it down again and then we got to paint it. Next came installing the cupboard and the accent piece next to the dishwasher. Then we attached the counter top. Except for lots of measuring all of that went super easy. So when he went onto the dishwasher something had to go wrong. He hooked up the drain, electricity and then the water and we turned the water on. Oops, we had a leak. Understandably so, it was 10:30 at night and he was a bit tired, he forgot to use his Teflon tape. Once he put the tape on the leak was gone. Yeah!!! After a really busy weekend the island, with dishwasher, is complete. This morning, I had my work cut out for me. There was sheet rock dust all over the main floor of the house. I have been cleaning like a mad woman, but at least I got to run a load of dishes in my new dishwasher!

1st Day of 3rd Grade

Today Angela started the 3rd grade. It made me feel really old that she is getting to be so big. But not so big that she didn't need me.... Our morning started out well. She got ready much faster today than she did on any of our last few practice days. She actually had time to sit and read some books. We got her picture taken and then started walking to school. I thought it was nice in Spokane that we were five blocks from school. Here we are just one block from school. Once we got there, we had to wait for them to open the doors. When it was time to walk in she said, "Mom, I'd like to hold your hand." We made it to her class room and had a little time to talk with her teacher. We will be bringing in birthday snacks later this week. I told her I would meet her outside the building and she asked, "Could you please meet me up here?" On my walk home I just about started crying, she may be getting big - but she still needs me.

Prior to the start of school Angela kept saying she did not want a male teacher. Then we found out she got assigned a man. She was really unhappy about it and wanted to change it. Well after the first day was over and she got home, she said it wasn't too bad. He and a female teacher team teach so she spends the morning with him and the afternoon with her. She told me that they are the best teachers. (above is the classroom pet, I don't think I will be volunteering to care for the pet over Christmas vacation) It sounds like over all school was a lot of fun. Although, she did end up with homework today. That was a bit of a fight to get her to start it and complete it. I guess that is another routine we will have to get back into the habit of. For dinner tonight, I decided to do something fun and special in honor of the first day. We made pizza!! Angela had fun spreading the sauce as well as putting on the Canadian bacon and pineapple. When it came out of the oven I said it was a very handsome pizza. She thought that was really funny for me to call it that. Who knows maybe homemade pizza on the first day of school might become a tradition.