We've lived here for 8 July's and never braved going all the way downtown for the nation's capital's fireworks. This year, Ashley happens to be here for the holiday and needed to get her national parks passport stamped downtown. So how about we all go downtown together and stay for the fireworks. Is this a wise idea?

Getting downtown on this day is not typical. You can't drive - most of the roads are closed, including the bridges to get there. So it's metro only - FOR EVERYONE. We left around 2 pm - we got home 10 hours, 2 potty accidents, 22 passport stamps, 1 picnic, 1 heart attack, 2 rainstorms, 1 lost purse, and 4 sleeping-children-on-the-train later.

Mel's accident was the funniest (always better to assume these things are funny - alter the perspective as much as possible). We were about 15 feet away from the port-a-potty, and walking towards it. Chad thinks she took a look at them and didn't want anything to do with them. But I think it was how you need to go so much more once you actually SEE the bathroom. Anyhow, picture wet footprints as we're walking across the pavement.

Ashley has a national parks passport book that you take to national parks and monuments where you can stamp them for free. And on the Mall, there's one visitor's center that hold all the stamps for that area. All 22 of them. So Ashley, whose family is very diligent about searching out stamps, filled up several pages in her passport.

Then we plopped our stuff down on the grass with a blanket to save a spot for the fireworks. Chad, Ashley, K&T went off to buy souvenirs. Pretty soon it started raining. EV was sitting in the double stroller with Jeffrey, holding the umbrella over the 2 of them. Mel and I huddled under a water-proof-on-one-side blanket. And it really rained. For over 30 minutes. I was getting pretty ache-y under that blanket and tried calling some people to find out if by looking at the weather online, they could see if there was going to be too much rain for us to stay. Michael (poor guy) was available and said it didn't look like much rain.

After this first rain, we enjoyed an hour or so of nice weather, only now everything was wet. It was during this lull I had my heart attack. Kayleigh decided to walk off with Ashley. Only she didn't decide to mention it to anyone. The place was so incredibly packed with people and I went a bit nuts. I'm all in favor of putting micro chips in children and keeping track of them with a GPS system. I hear you can do this with pets. So if you see my kids wearing pet collars in the future, that's why.

The second rain was shorter. This time, everyone but Chad and I huddled under the umbrella. The 2 of us stood there getting soaked. Kinda romantic, only not so much. We talked again about leaving, but by this time it was too late to get home for anyone else's fireworks. And it sounded like the kids were keen to see some fireworks - somewhere (there are oodles of places shooting off fireworks).

But when they finally came, the fireworks were phenomenal. They shoot them off by the reflecting pool, in front of the Lincoln Monument. There's so many trees all over there - they must be constantly rushing around putting out mini fires. You could sometimes see sparks landing and causing some trouble. The guns that shoot them off are visible around the pool and are going off like crazy. And there was music during the show.

Chad was full of great ideas, including how to get back on the metro. It's famous for being super crowded getting home from the fireworks. Which only makes sense. EVERYONE has to ride it to get out of DC. So the metro stops are going to be horribly crowded, trying to get on a train. So Chad decides we should walk down to a further away stop to get on. This proved to be genius. We get on a nearly empty train. Only, at the entrance we realize that Ashley has left her purse by a bench we'd had to stop at to feed the baby. That bench was a very long ways away. She had her camera, passport, etc in it. But no money - that was in her pocket. So we all got on the metro. Chad and Ashley rode it to the next stop, got off there, and ran back to the bench to look for the purse. Luckily, the bench was in a sorta secluded spot and the purse was left in a not-so-visible spot. Still, when they got there, it wasn't there. But then a stranger walked up with it. That part was mysterious. He sorta walked out of the shadows, then walked back into the shadows. Still, a miraculous recovery, I say.

The rest of us, me and 5 kids (pushing a double jog-stroller), rode the train back to our car. Jeffrey and Mel both fell asleep in the stroller. I draped a thin blanket over it and they never saw the hordes of people crammed in all around them. EV tipped over on my lap and fell asleep. Thomas took over Kayleigh's spot and scrunched up on the seat, falling asleep. When we got on the train, it was nearly empty. The next stop filled up all the seats. And the next stop filled up all the isles and door areas. People were packed in all around us. Getting on with a stroller with all those people would have been next to impossible, and no way we would have gotten a seat, much less space to tip over and sleep. So props to Chad for coming up with this plan. He also pointed out that bringing the umbrella was also his idea, only he intended it to keep out of the sun, not rain.

We met up at the car in the parking garage. Somehow, Chad and Ashley were only about 10 minutes behind us. They'd run a lot of the way. Chad reported that the lines at the other stations were indeed long. In fact, so long that they had to leave and go to another station to get on a train. It would've taken at least an hour just to get on a train.

We sang Happy Birthday to Kayleigh in the car, just after we pulled out of the parking garage - it has just become the next day (midnight). And K&T had a swim meet the next morning. (Which will explain why Thomas accidentally swam the free style instead of breaststroke in his relay. Oops.)

Loving this beautiful baby, Jeffrey. My folks have been here for about 2 weeks now and we've been loving that, too. There's a lot of lovin' around here these days.

And Jeffrey had his baby blessing last Sunday, the 8th of June. Afterwards, we took a picture. Brother Grisgsby, the Clements, and Rita had already left and didn't make it for the picture.

[see all of the photos in this slideshow]

Congrats to Sarah and Michael. (Michael is Chad's twin, if you're not familiar with that already) Their second baby, a girl, was born yesterday. And dramatically. Sarah went into labor suddenly and very quickly. VERY quickly. And though she put in her requests for Michael to pull over the car on the way there (and you can imagine the poor girl), Michael said he pushed on to the hospital, parking the car under the drop-off car port area, running in for the nurses. And minutes later, with a gaggle of nurses surrounding the car, Sarah delivered in the front seat. Sounds easy, eh? What a story for the grandkids. And impressive bragging rights. WHEW!!!

http://michael.hansens.org/cgi-bin/foto.pl?g=baby

An actual tornado hit the area. Sorta. It hit Maryland, and areas around ours got blasted pretty hard. Power was out for a while, as close as Manassas. It made the news a little spicier that evening. One death - that was very sad.

I happened to be in the McDonald's parking lot when it came by here. EV and Jeffrey had just had doctors appointments. EV was supposed to get a shot, but it ended up being postponed. We went to get a McDonald's sunday anyhow. And as we sat in the parking lot eating our treats, my friend Kelly came by. We were talking there in the parking lot when the sky got quite suddenly very dark. And the wind was getting started and you could tell the rain was just about to pour. So Kelly fled back to her car. It was all very sudden. The trees were blowing all over the place. As I went to drive out, a realized half an old tree had broken off and was blocking my retreat. So I turned around to leave the other way and discovered 2 more huge limbs had come down on and around a couple more cars, parked not far from me. So glad I wasn't parked under a tree.

I skipped my other errand and headed straight home. The rain had already made huge puddles on the road. It was just crazy weather. But I still didn't think too much of it. It was soon discovered that our neighbors tree had blown over - very tall one.

The kids at school had only minimal excitement. Kayleigh's class is a trailer. All the trailer classes had to come in the building. But her class was already in the building for some other reason. So they didn't even know about the storm. Except they couldn't get back to their trailer for their backpacks. And I guess they dismissed the school just a little late, waiting for the storm to settle down some.

Then Chad came home with information about bad weather all over. And tornado warnings. My Dad didn't believe him, so we turned on the TV and watched all the footage about our crazy weather that day. Which continued some into the night.

Watching the news is not healthy for my family. Or at least it wasn't that night. B/c I decided to make a trip to Costco that evening with Chad, leaving the kids with my folks. My Dad called me while I was in the store - "Your daughter, Kayleigh, is a bit upset." She was crying and thought we were out in a tornado. She'd heard some more news about more tornado warnings and was sure we were doomed.

The next day, we learned that areas around here were without power. Even my doctor didn't have power a couple days later, which he happened to mention at my appointment.

Kayleigh found 2 names from her recent history lessons that relate to our boys' names. Thomas Jefferson (Thomas and Jeffrey) and Jefferson Davis. And Jeffrey entered this world with a bang, finishing our family with an exclamation mark! He arrived 2 glorious weeks early.

Saturday, May 17, Chad and I celebrated our 11th anniversary by going out to dinner. Chad was over-tired as he had gone on the Father-Son ward campout. One of Thomas' friends joined them in their tent. Therefore Chad had no rest that night. Then our regular Saturday schedule of soccer games and yardwork, etc. Then out to dinner with me. I think he laid down about 11:00 and fell into a deep sleep by about 11:01.

By around 11:15 or so, I finished my singing stuff for the next day's Primary. It was simple and cute. I loved it and the kids were going to have a blast. I got up from the chair, then turned around in dismay. I had wet my pants. But soon in the bathroom, as more and more water continued to come, I realized I hadn't wet my pants and I needed some assistance. But my assistance was sound asleep. My calls didn't wake him easily and he was too groggy to figure out how to call the doctor's office. I couldn't figure out how to explain where the phone number was. We were off to a great start.

But very soon, our wonderful neighbor Wendy was awakened and over to our house to sit with the kids till Chad's cousin Kristin could make the drive over from her house in Arlington. (And on her birthday no less. Even her "Lordy, Lordy, look who's Forty" birthday.) And we were in the car on our way to the hospital. It wouldn't be right if we didn't get stopped for a train on the way. And I didn't slosh my way out of the car and into the wheelchair Chad found. I said something intelligent like "I can't sit in that. I'll get it all wet." Chad - "Just get in the chair!"

My nurse, Tracy, though nice enough, said very little the whole night. There was also the anesthesiologist - very quiet man. And the doctor on call continued in the less-is-more fashion. So it was a quiet night. But painful. The IV was extremely painful. More so than any other. The epidural was also very painful. And it didn't take on my left hip. So I felt contractions there all night. I had checked in the hospital about midnight. The baby was born by C-section at 6:32 a.m. I had stopped progressing and the quiet doctor became anxious for the baby. He didn't exactly ask my opinion. He was in quite a hurry. So for whatever reasons, Jeffrey came into this world and my world in a new (new to me) fashion. The doctor held him around the blue sheet for me to see him, just as the screaming baby proceeded to pee on everyone. I saw pee flying around and thought "That's my boy! Get 'em!"

This is a thumbnail picture. That means click on it and it will get bigger.

I've had time to think about that day. God was watching over me. And doctors are entitled to inspiration. It could very well have been the best possible outcome, having that delivery. Most important is the beautiful baby I have to look at each day and love more and more.

After a nice anxiety attack, I awoke in the surgery recovery room. Chad, in his scrubs, had the baby and he (not named for a few more days) was ready to try some eating. They had called Chad over as they weighed and washed up the baby a bit. So he left while I was being stitched closed. And also while I flipped.

From there on, it was like magical munchkins in The Wizard of Oz. They just started appearing everywhere with smiles and personalities and so full of delight at a new baby. And here, let me help you in every way feel comfortable and ready to start recovering. And don't worry about a thing, we'll do it all. The nurse in the surgery recovery room was simply delightful. As was the next nurse and the baby's nurse. And it continued for 3 more days till we discharged on Wednesday.

If I could choose another college major, it would now be nursing. What an amazing way to help people. It must be difficult to always treat patients with their best efforts. It must be tiring. Especially working at night.

Visitors in the hospital were:
Kristin and Laura, Aunt Lynne, Kayleigh, Thomas, EV, Mel, Kelly Schetselaar, and Rita Pemberton. Everyone was wonderful. Rita made a visit each day, bringing various items I needed. From these angelic visitors, there were cute baby outfits and great snacks from the outside world. And chocolate, of course.

We even had Family Home Evening Monday evening, watching the piano recital of my piano students on the TV. The recital had been the previous day, the day Jeffrey was born. Chad video- taped it and I watched my students play their pieces. And even ate some left-over cake from the recital for FHE treats. I remember we had time for family scripture reading and it felt so wonderful to have the whole family there with our newest member. We stole popsicles from the patient-drink room for all the kids. We were noisy and got a lot of attention in those quiet hospital halls. Very nice!

It's been a week now since Jeffrey's Birth-DAY (I started writing this on Sunday the 25th). We chose his name the evening before leaving the hospital. Jeffrey David. My Dad's name is David (David Paul - he goes by Paul). His Dad's name was also David.

And before coming home, I was drilled over and over on how I was to take it easy. VERY easy. So I've been doing that. Fairly successfully. Chad and the kids have been working very hard. Also Kristin. She's been a mother hen, making sure I'm behaving and have plans for the kids. She's come to help, not only the night he was born, and the whole next day, but a couple times while in the hospital and yesterday, she and Laura spent most of the day with the kids. Which is exhausting. We really should send the 2 of them on a cruise. If only, if only...

The list is getting very long of angels being good to us. Aunt Lynne's brought lunch today and dinner last Sunday, the day he was born. I have fabulous neighbors, Wendy, Lisa and Sara. Wendy (who came over at midnight when my water broke) brought dinner one night, and Lisa another. Sara calls and takes the younger girls for a while to play with her children. I'm surrounded by very amazing, thoughtful ladies.

Today, also, we had a visit from Mark. AKA, Uncle Marky-Poo. I'm not sure why he dares visit us. The kids go absolutely Coo-Coo with him. They yell and climb all over him. For a young, college student, this noise and chaos must be ridiculous. But he came. He may never return. We'll cherish the memory.

Props and thanks go to my 2 older sisters who sweetly sent a bouquet of baby-boy-blue flowers to me. My kids wanted to know how they got here all the way from Utah. Hmmm...

... and the thoughtful, diligent home teacher who brought a box of ice cream. He knows us well, it seems. Thanks Brother Ricks.

... and Visiting Teacher. But also just a thoughtful friend. Thanks, Becky for the stool and expert advice.

Jeffrey is sleeping better and better. The day after coming home, we went back out to a ENT doctor to get his tongue clipped. Thomas had also been born with a short phrenulum (no idea how to spell that, but it means tongue-tied). Very easy procedure that had made it easier for him to nurse and easier on me. The lactation specialist at the hospital (Sharon) discovered it. My baby doctor didn't recommend getting it clipped, but since I knew it was actually a very good idea from Thomas' experience, she recommended the ENT.

My drugs put me to sleep. And at first I slept a ton. But each day I sleep less, and Jeffrey sleeps more. His first night was quite noisy. But better each night. The kids love to hold him - EV asks the most. He has slept on her shoulder a couple of times and she loves it. He's very cuddly. Dark hair, dark-ish skin. Dark blue eyes.

[Click here to see all of the baby photos]

This was not actually from the Book Club, but I read it because it came up in another book from a couple months back, Twilight. Michelle loaned it to me and I had to see what the big deal was.

I finished Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte today.

Continue reading...

I have the pictures now of Mel's birthday. First, the Friday party, with some neighbor friends. Click on these thumbnails to view larger:

And the cake that day...

Then the next day at Aunt Lynne's house..

And the cake from that day...

And here's from her actual birthDAY, though the pictures weren't nearly so good that day.

Here's a slide show of them all:

[slideshow]

EV can now swim. She had a lesson today (every Tues, her and Mel). And there she was, officially swimming. I consider it swimming if her face/head is in the water and all 4 limbs are off the bottom of the pool and all 4 limbs are also attempting to swim. Which they all were. She hasn't figured out the breathing part so it only lasts for as long as she can hold her breath - so maybe like 10 seconds or so. But what a cool trick.

I know K&T couldn't do this at age 5. I was bragging about EV at dinner tonight and K&T were both scoffing that they could do so much better till I told them when they were both 5, they couldn't swim near so well. EV also did a little backstroke by herself. I think it's great. She's so dang proud of herself. As we were walking to the showers after her lesson, she smiled at me and said "I'm ready for Pups", which is Developmental Sealions Swim Pups team (pre-swim team that she's signed up for).

I swim while she's having her lesson. Mel's is the hour before. It's so hot there by the pool that I can only take it for one 30 minute lesson anyhow (indoor pool - the chair for observing are under the heating vents and they have had the heat turned on too high). So EV and I watch Mel's lesson, then take her to the child care for EV's lesson. Mel loves being in the pool, just doesn't have much attention span. There's only 2 little girls in the class. So she gets loads of attention. She only spends about half the time actually listening to the teacher though. Same with the other girl in the class. The teacher just rotates between the 2 of them. So far, it's been the best swimming money I ever spent. I get forced to swim while EV's having her lesson PLUS the kids are improving a lot.

Melanie is now 3 years old. She's been partying hard for the last 3 days.

Friday - I invited over a few of her friends, sorta impromptu. They hit a palm tree pinata and ate cake. The pinata bat was almost too heavy for Mel (and the other 2 three year olds) to swing. As the kids in line got older, the blows were more impressive. I put Kayleigh and then Thomas at the end. Kayleigh got one piece of candy to come out. On Thomas's second swing, it exploded. There was lots of candy, cake and new sand in the sandbox. But not her birthDAY yet.

Saturday - Aunt Lynne had us all over for a birthday party for Melanie. Dinner was fabulous - ribs. And all good food. Yum! The kids (which here includes Chad) and dogs played and played outside in Aunt Lynne's backyard. They had frisbees, bubbles and various ball tossing gizmos. I sat up in the sunroom in the most comfortable reclined chair with a soft pad covering it. And didn't move until I absolutely had to (I had just spent hours outside at the Family Fun Fair at the school, volunteering and with the kids. Too much sun for large me).

She got some cute presents, including these cute green rain boots. Which she adores. And tromped around in. But still not her birthDAY yet.

Sunday - It's her official birthday. But she wouldn't believe it. Maybe like "The Boy Who Cried Wolf" story. She wasn't going to be fooled. Or maybe she's smart enough to realize that if it's finally her birthDAY, the parties will be over tomorrow.

Our neighbors came over for dinner. Which was supposed to be grilling outside. But the weather turned cold. We decided to do it outside anyhow. Chad made a fire in the fire pit. It was like camping - uh, camping back west that is, where it actually gets cold at night. We sat around the fire eating grilled salmon and a whole lotta food. And at the end, Melanie got one more birthday song and blowing out the candles (she got to go through it 3 times this weekend, and she laughed and loved it each time). The neighbors had brought her a nice present. And later, EV dug up a present we'd bought her a while back (and EV never forgot about that present) and wrapped it herself by putting it in a gift bag (sorta) and covering it with colored paper (not tissue paper). Very sweet. It was a My Little Pony toy, EV's favorite. No wonder she remembered that present so well.

She seemed to be a very happy birthday girl. She's working on getting her fingers right for showing 3, in case you ask her how old she is. It was certainly a fun birthday weekend for all of us. She got a birthday card in the mail from her great-grandma Hansen. I am sure that Grandma Hansen has never missed one birthday or Christmas of Melanie's. The kids get sooo excited at those cards in the mail.

The weather here warmed up several weeks back. At that time, my ankles disappeared. Today I had to stop wearing my ring. It wasn't even my wedding ring - it was a larger, replacement ring. Then last week I discovered a painful, purple spot on the back of my knee. Something different happens with each one of these pregnancies. Something's screwy with my circulation this time. I often wake up with my hands numb.

I'm shocking to see. I just keep my eyes down as I walk through crowds. The hardest place to go, ironically, is the gym. I get confronted there more than anywhere. And people ask the funniest, and often overly-personal questions. Unfortunately for them, I'm also irritable. Fortunately, I have the best doctor. He's no-frills. Yes, it stinks. No, you can't change it.

My kids are great about the whole thing. I didn't tell K & T till I was on month 4, and they hadn't complained much about all the extra sleeping and being sick. And after they knew, they just went along with it. Helped around the house more. Helped with Mel more. When we found out it was a boy, the girls were a bit disappointed but Thomas was just ambivalent. I really don't think he cared either way. Now he says he's excited, but I wonder if it's not just b/c people keep asking him all the time. He was baptized last December and it occurred to me that when this brother is 8 and old enough to be baptized, Thomas will be 16 and old enough to have the proper priesthood to baptize him. (I thought of that b/c Chad had baptized his sister and it seemed like such a special thing). Hopefully they'll get along 8 years from now.

Well, it's still 4 and a half weeks away. The weather is getting beautiful and we all want to be outside all the time. K, T & EV have soccer games every Saturday. Now's the time to get the gardening done. And it's been raining a bunch so the grass is very green and the flower beds are easy to dig in and weed. It's hard to stay inside and put my feet up. Chad's been out, working very hard all over the yard. With all this green grass, it keeps needing to be mowed. And he's getting the garden boxes ready.

It reminds me of that primary song "Whenever I Hear the Song of a Bird" - it's Spring and inspiring. I can sit outside in the shade and just enjoy everything. In a couple of months, it will be too hot. A couple months back, it was too cold. I want to take my kids and wrap them up in hugs and not let them grow up. I want to enjoy everything all at once. Very odd feelings for someone with no ankles.