Flashback Friday

Five years ago this week, this was my view when I looked down ::

I'm so thankful to not have that view any longer and for the sweet girl who was hanging out in there waiting to be born. What a blessing she is!

you might want to grab a kleenex {or maybe that's just me}

In early 1999 -- January. Maybe February -- we started. Crib shopping, that is. Our first little bundle was scheduled to arrive right around April Fool's Day and he or she would need a place to sleep, right? So the two of us "kids" {me not even a quarter century old and Kirb just barely ahead of me} went crib shopping. We found one we liked after much discussion {drop side? sleigh? dark wood? light? painted? one that converts to a toddler bed? -- so many options} and took it home and painstakingly set it up. Then we took some pictures of the finished, bug-themed nursery and waited for the baby. That baby arrived a little earlier than we expected, but we were ready. Beginning the night of March 25th, 1999 -- the day we came home from the hospital with little Jacob -- our crib went to work. That was nearly 5,000 nights ago. Most every night since then {with the exception of times we were away from home} a Stoll baby has slept in that crib. First Jacob. Then Rebekah {who got kicked out at 14-months to make way for her new sister}. Then Lydia. Then Joe {who had the longest run in the crib -- nearly 3 years}. Then Anna. Then Sara. It has served us very well and has been more than worth whatever it was we paid for it.

But last night that crib was empty. We weren't out of town. No vacations or anything. We were here. We were here and it was empty.

Last night Sara slept in her big girl bed. A twin bed. She looked so big under those covers!

She went to sleep without problem and didn't even try to get out {she was, however, extremely tired!} About 4:30 I heard some little footsteps. She doesn't usually sleep all night, so it didn't surprise me that she would wake up, but I was curious as to what she would do when she was awake and able to escape. No longer a prisoner in that crib, she plodded along in the dark and ended up in our room. She came to my side of the bed and announced :: "I dit out. I sleep a Daddy's bed." So I gave her a little boost and she crawled up, snuggled in and joined us for a couple hours.

I'm not sure how tonight will go. If she'll sleep in the big bed again, or if she'll be in her crib. We're not committed to totally going cold turkey {like we did with the nuks a month or two ago} or anything. We're just at that transition point. Maybe two steps forward and one step back. Who knows. We'll see. But it certainly is the end of something. I'm not quite ready to take the crib down and live in a crib-less house, but that time is fast approaching. Weird! I've always had a baby, it seems, and now I don't any more. I'm certainly a bit sad, but it feels ok too. You can't keep them little forever!

flashback friday saturday

exactly one year ago::

multitude monday

Here's my continuing Multitude Monday post, which all started a while back, right here.

"One Thousand Gifts":

898. my grandma's laughter
899. fall colors
900. a family hike on Barn Bluff


901. no more cord for Sara {it fell off on day 12 -- after a few days of tremendous stink!}
902. introducing Sara to more friends
903. an extra-long weekend
904. Saturday afternoon nap . . . cuddled up with an adorable 2-week-old
905. unexpected generosity and blessings galore
906. successfully finding "shoes" that stay on Sara's feet and keep them toasty warm {thanks to Peapods!}
907. 4 generations of {Fletcher/Carlson/Stoll} women

908. fresh, clean {flannel} sheets
909. dinner at my parents910. this guy {and his new shirt}911. my new bracelet {with names and birthstones of all 6 kiddos}
912. middle-of-the-night thunderstorm {I love a good thunderstorm, and we really needed the rain}
913. non-maternity pants that button {under "normal" circumstances they're a bit big . . . but let's not think about that, ok?}

Alrighty, that's it's for now. Tune in next Monday for the next installment.

thankful thursday

Today I'm thankful for the fabulous time we had at Family Camp at Trout last week. Last year was our first time at Family Camp and we had the best time. So, nearly 6 months ago we signed up to go again this summer. I will admit that family camp is more fun when you are not pregnant and when it's not super hot and extra humid. But, even so, we had a great time once again. A few of us weren't 100% health-wise while we were there, which was kind of a bummer, but we made the best of it and all had a great time anyway! I really do think that family camp is the best family vacation around!

The kids loved their classes. Joey even "performed" in the 4's & 5's program this year (rather than standing on the stage looking extremely grumpy) and was a complete ham. Anna was quite a bit more of a participant than she was last year and felt completely comfortable at Trout by the time our week was up. A tad too comfortable at times . . . like when she just decided -- more than once -- to take off on her own. Once we found her in the chapel (which reminded us of this passage), once she was heading back to our cabin and sometimes she was just out for a leisurely stroll. Thankfully, we never found her in the lake! We played in the water, we ate lots, we sang crazy camp songs, we learned lots, we mini golfed . . . and after one extremely uncomfortable, really hot night we even (we, meaning Kirb!) commandeered a fan for our cabin (thanks to my large belly and current "state"). What a blessing!

Speaking of the heat, when we returned home after being gone for 5 days we turned our air back on (no sense spending a fortune cooling a house no one is in) only to find that it didn't work. It was 87 degrees in our house and we were all crabby and miserable (and, need I mention . . . overtired!). We still have to get another opinion, but it pretty much looks like it's shot and we might as well just replace the whole business. Not a huge surprise, since the AC is probably between 15 and 20 years old. But a bummer nonetheless! So I am very thankful for the drop in temps we had overnight on Tuesday and the lower humidity too. The weather yesterday was about as close to ideal as you can get, if you ask me.

I won't make you look through all of them, but here are a few pictures highlighting our time at Trout (I am thankful that I have any pictures at all, since our camera had a little run-in with some water and was completely out of commission for about 24 hours. But, it seems to be back to something close to 100% given a few days of "healing" time). Enjoy::

sisterly love::

{if you look carefully, you can see Anna about to go down the slide}::

our cabin is right through those trees
{obscured from view by our enormous van}::

my extra-brave, adventurous husband climbing to the top of a telephone pole for "The Leap of Faith" {you climb to the top -- harnessed in, don't worry! -- and then steady yourself on the top of the pole with no platform or anything, then you jump off and try to catch yourself on a trapeze bar, then you let go and they lower you down} This is something I will not be trying. Ever. Watching him was more than enough adventure and nervousness for me!::

Adventurous activity #2, the "Zip Line".
Climb the platform {harnessed, once again} and jump off and "zip" down a cable where you go for a long ways and drop about 70 feet in the process. Kirb is the guy on the far right and the building on top of the hill is the new Timber Ridge dining hall. My dad has done probably 95% of the masonry work on it -- foundation, block work, fireplaces, a huge chimney on the opposite side of the building and all the exterior stonework.
I believe I will try out the "Zip Line" the next time I am at Trout in a non-pregnant state. It looks like fun! Both Jacob and Lydia did the zip line too {they have a slightly smaller scale one for anyone over 8 to try) and they LOVED it, but that was during the cameras recovery time, so we haven't got any photographic evidence of their bravery::

Anna at the beach
{the last picture taken before the camera troubles began}::

Jacob on the rock climbing wall::

and back at the bottom::

Jacob & Lydia climbing {I think Jacob got to the top 4 times and Lydia did it 5 or 6 times . . . the little monkey!}::

Rebekah's climb::

Joey and his class performing "I am H-A-P-P-Y"::

Hot chocolate is a great way to start the day::

View of the lake on the boat dock side::

All the kids by the sign . . . notice how torn up Anna is about leaving camp::

It was a great week and we all look forward to next time!!

multitude monday

Here's my continuing Multitude Monday post, which all started a while back, right here.

"One Thousand Gifts":

747. planning underway for next June's big family vacation
748. more than 24 consecutive hours spent with wonderful, wonderful friends
749. nice ER doctors {who remind the injured child of their favorite teacher} who staple your head closed again . . . and the dads who go along so the moms don't have to endure the emotional pain of watching staples go into skulls. YUCK!
750. tummy x-rays showing no more coins in Anna's tummy {we must have missed it on its exit during our week-long, thorough poop checks somehow . . . glad we went to much of that super fun work unnecessarily!}
751. surviving my nearly 9-hour long 8-kid day last week {9 kids if you're counting the one I'm carting around in front of me}
752. Schaeffer Christian Carlson
753. the hours at the front-end of the day, before I start waddling {by the end of the day, I can't do anything to stop the waddle . . . believe me, I've tried}
754. more than 32 weeks down, 8-ish left to go
755. life-long friends
756. sleepovers
757. birthday parties {happy 2nd birthday, sweet Ava!}
758. the anticipation of family camp
759. 3 days until the fair starts!
760. seeing the Elliott's {the circumstances under which we saw them boggle my mind quite a big, but we're thrilled to see them nonetheless!}
761. the laughter of kiddos
762. a trip to the zoo
763. a couple more things to check off on our summer list . . . and a few more extra fun ones to come in the week ahead
764. a safe 400K bike ride for my no-longer-in-his-30's {or even 40's or 50's} father . . . way to go, Dad. You're one of a kind!!
765. the little hint of fall in the air {but only for one day} we had last week
766. contentment
767. a big week for my brother's family::1 new baby, 30 years of life for Jenn, 6 years of marriage for Mr. & Mrs. Carlson {and before next week, 2 years of life for Haddon!}
768. the excitement of kids when given their very own cameras! {thanks, Elliotts!}
769. my grandma {it's her 84th birthday today!}

Alrighty, that's it's for now. Tune in next Monday for the next installment.

flashback friday and pregnancy update

Here I am just a few weeks before Anna was born in early March of 2008::

And, here I am just last weekend at the Kelley farm::

Generally speaking, it's not the best picture ever, but it's the only recent one I have of my belly. If you want to see it bigger {the picture, that is}, just click on it and voila, it will get huge!

I am 29 weeks pregnant.

That means I have 11 weeks to go before my due date.

I went to the doctor on Wednesday {I go every other week these days} for my checkup. Everything looks pretty darn good. My glucose screen came back {as it always has} to show that I don't have gestational diabetes {phew!}. All the levels in both my blood and my pee looked just dandy. My weight gain is completely within normal ranges {and is slightly below what I normally have gained by 29 weeks . . . maybe that has something to do with it being summer and not the dead of winter?} However, at each appointment they measure your belly {among other things} and that number should correspond pretty closely to the number of weeks along you are {isn't that a cool fact. I love when God thinks numbers are cool, just like me: I must have gotten that from Him!} Well, guess what I measured? You would think that the first sentence in this paragraph might be hint, but if you thought that you would be mistaken. Nope, not 29 {like would be expected}, but rather just a hair under 35! Nice! I guess I shouldn't be surprised {and, really, neither was my OB} because I have big babies {my smallest was 8 pounds and 4 ounces -- and he was nearly 2 weeks early! and my biggest was 10 pounds 2 ounces -- although a week late. The others have hovered right around 9 pounds. Give or take.} But, since I have 11 more weeks of growth ahead of me {and the largest, most rapid time of growth is still to come!} I'm pretty sure I'll be HUGE long before the baby is ready to make it's grand entrance. Oh well. I've done it before, I guess I can do it again. Right?

On another, pregnancy-related, note, I have had a few charlie horses in the night over the past month or so. Those are NOT fun! Also, I had my first bout of nasty late-pregnancy heartburn this week::let the good times commence! I know the end is approaching when these things start to begin. Still to come are::can't get up from the couch, can't get comfortable enough to sleep well, completely out of steam, "I can't be pregnant for one more minute!!!", Braxton-Hicks contractions all the time and back pain. Oh, the joys! {but so worth it!}

Also, the baby and I {mostly me, the baby was no help, and sometimes even a hindrance} finished the Lazyman Triathlon at the Y {so did Kirbs, by the way!}. That means we biked 112 miles, ran/walked {I opted for WALKED!} 26.2 miles and swam 2.5 miles over a 5-week period. It was more of a challenge this year than it was last year, but I'm glad I finished. I need some motivation to do something or I'll opt for sitting poolside and reading a book while the kids swim rather than getting in there and doing a few laps myself!

Here I am with my Lazyman finisher t-shirt::

Alrighty, that's all. Enjoy the weekend!

what's up with 2?

Lately, I've been waking up in the early morning . . . sometime in the 2 o'clock hour, and can't seem to get back to sleep. I'm tired. Really tired. I want to be sleeping again. But instead I just lay there flopping around, trying to get comfortable. Hoping to fall back to sleep. Usually, there's nothing in particular that woke me up. No crying baby, no kiddo scared from a bad dream, no snoring husband {well, usually that's not the problem}. I just wake up. And stay that way. Sometimes if I lay there long enough I'll fall asleep again. Unfortunately, I'm not a patient person and just laying there is not easy! Sometimes I get up and try to sleep again on the couch so my flip-flopping all over the bed doesn't wake Kirb up. Sometimes I just give up all together and read a book or pay some bills or make some cards or just get some general stuff done around the house {as long as it's not noisy stuff}. But even if I get lots of unexpected word done or finish a really good book, I'd still much rather be sleeping!

Fast forward 12 hours; a full revolution of the clock::without fail lately, at 2 o'clock in the afternoon I completely hit a wall. I can't do another thing. I'm completely worn out. I need a nap! Sometimes it passes rather quickly; I can lay down for a few minutes {hopefully with my eyes shut, but that can be dangerous if a certain smallish girl does not also have her eyes shut with sleep!} and feel better. Sometimes I got to bed and am still in my gross fog of yuck.

So, I wonder . . . what is it about 2 o'clock? I'm not really big on "lucky numbers" or such things, but for some reason I've always been partial to multiples of 3. I just like them, what can I say. Maybe 2 is just getting even for the years and years of preferential treatment I gave to her {or is it his?} neighbor #3. I kind of doubt it, but it's a thought!

Anyway, I guess until it passes I'll just have to push through that 2 o'clock hour for a while. Hopefully it won't last much longer!

To cheer up this post, here's a current picture of my favorite 2-year-old in the world! I have no complaints about her {well, I suppose I do. It involves markers . . . but that's not the point at the moment!} Isn't she a doll?


{For you really observant people who noticed that this blog entry was posted at 2:07 in the morning . . . good for you, that's impressive! But, nope, I didn't really write it at 2 in the morning. It was actually 7. But you can schedule blog entries to post whenever you want them to, so I thought it would be fun to have it be time stamped at that time.}