Rori Rose, you are 6 years old today! Six years ago I was preparing for the day you would join our family. Oh, how I prayed for you! I prayed for your safe arrival into my arms. Throughout my entire pregnancy I was unable to relax. I knew I wouldn't be able to until you were breathing in my arms. About two weeks before you were due, my fabulous doctor told me he was going to induce me because at that point he wanted to get you out. He said you were safer outside because he had helped us through our prior experience and I think he wanted you to come out healthy and whole almost as much as we did.

We scheduled our induction for Monday, July 18 and you were due July 23. I was so excited and starting to relax a little. We knew exactly when we would be holding you! I told my boss that my last day would be Friday, July 15. Ha! You had other ideas. In the early morning hours of July 14, my water broke. I lept out of bed and told your Papa. We were both incredibly excited. We knew we would have a baby within 24 hours! A baby! OUR BABY!

We called the hospital and they told us to come in. Then for about 3 hours the nurse kept saying ,"IF your water broke, blah blah." She wasn't entirely sure that it had. Finally around 10 am the doctor came in and confirmed it! Contractions hadn't really started so they gave me some drugs to increase them. I tolerated them for a bit--I'm not a big one for pain. So I got an epidural. Papa, Grandma Hoo Hoo and I then laid back and watched some tv...until the doctor came in and told me to push. So I did. For 20 minutes. Then you came into the world! So beautiful, so alive. I don't think the healthy birth of any baby caused more celebration among our family and good friends.

Photo courtesy of Baba Hoo Hoo of http://storiesofafairygrandmother.blogspot.com/

Rori, you have been more than I ever hoped for in a daughter. I am so thankful to be your mommy, and I love you more than you will ever know. Happy 6th Birthday!

Warrior Dash 2011

Last year, my darling sister, talked to us about doing the Warrior Dash. We didn't do it because none of us had trained for it and it was right around when we went on vacation. She said we MUST do it the next year. I said sure, not thinking we really would. At least not thinking that I really would. But, in December, Jenna called us up and told us we had to sign up before the end of the year and the price went up. I decided to be brave, live a little, and sign up, along with Bill, Ryan, and Bill's brother, Todd.

I started training. They suggested you run, run, and run some more. So that's what I did. I hate running. It's bouncy and jiggly, and doesn't involve chasing a ball and I really see no point in it. Frankly, I run much more like a Phoebe than a Rachel. If you watched FRIENDS you know what I mean. Plus, I run more up than forwards--I would be super fast if I could propel my body forwards instead of straight up. Basically I'm a train wreck. However, somehow, someway, I've started to like it. Anyway, I got the running part down. Then I started doing this and this because I knew some of the obstacles were climbing and I had zero upper body strength. I am not exaggerating--when it would be time to change the shower curtain liner, my shoulders would ache and I would have to do it in two stages.

By the time the Dash rolled around, I was ready. I was thankful I did the upper body training because they changed a lot of the obstacles from what had originally been posted, and most were climbing over walls and things. Jenna warned me that the weekend before, a girl had fallen off an obstacle and had to have multiple surgeries with a long road to recovery ahead of her. perfect. just what I was looking for.

We started our run pretty strong and easily did the first obstacle of tires and climbing over junkyard cars. We made it through obstacle after obstacle. When we got to one of the climbing ones, I figured I'd better go first in case Bill had to push me up :) However, I scrambled to the top pretty easily. Then I looked down. Not good. It was far down. And you had to lift your leg over and put it on the other side. The thought going through my head was "This is not tv. You could fall and die." Awesome. Everything was a little slippery because it was coated in mud, and I had visions of slippng and falling as I tried to maneuver myself over the top. But I did it. And shut my eyes as I watched my sister do it--lest I see her fall and die. My mother would've been horrified.

Anyway, we scrambled, scampered, climbed, sweated, and sloshed through it all. The obstacle I thought would be the scariest--leaping over fire, was a cakewalk compared to the rest. At the very end was the mud pit that you had to swim through under barbed wire to get to the finish. I had mud everywhere. You don't want to know what my undergarments looked like. Well, now you can imagine.

After we finished the race, we got to get hosed off by the giant water truck that shot obscenely cold water on us. I stepped into it and it took my breath away so badly that I had to step out or I would've hyperventilated. Once I was ready, I braced myself and stepped back in. The thought constantly running through my head was "the water is freezing and there aren't enough boats." I will give a nickel to anyone who knows what movie that's from. We went home and reshowered, and cleaned out our belly buttons for a week.

It was honestly one of the most amazing, empowering experiences of my life. This is from a former chicken who didn't ride a roller coaster until high school. And I'm talking senior year of high school--and only because our class won a trip to Six Flags and I decided it would be less humiliating to die on a roller coaster than admit to being afraid of them.

So thank you my dear sister, for making me do this. And next year we will do it again!

Happy 4 years old Liam James!

Happy Birthday to the one who has taught me the difference between Green Lantern, Green Arrow, and the Green Hornet. I had no idea who Iceman and Firestar were until you came along. Now I can easily name at least 40 superheroes and villains--(really, who knew there were at least 40 superheroes?)

Liam's regular identity (isn't he handsome?)

Liam's SuperHero Identity shhh....

I love you, my firstborn son, and cannot wait to see the man/superhero you will become.

And in case anyone else didn't know the difference--from left to right--Green Lantern, Green Hornet, Green Arrow.

God turned His back

The other day, I was reading to Rori and Liam, from the Jesus Storybook Bible--if you have kids, get it! We were reading about Jesus dying on the cross because Liam was struggling to understand what a cross was and how someone could die on one. We got to the part where God turns His back on Jesus and the book says, "'Papa?' Jesus cried, frantically searching the sky.'Papa? Where are you? Don't leave me!'" And I could tell that Rori could feel that. She started to cry and asked me why God left Him there on the cross and didn't answer Him. I started to weep. My sweet daughter's sensitivity and fear for Jesus gave me a clearer understanding of the magnitude of the sacrifice that God the Father and God the Son made on that day. For me, sweet Rori. He turned His back on His Son for me and for you.

Igor

Most of you that know me, know that we used to have the world's best dog. Her name was Leia, and she died suddenly when Rori was just about to turn one year old. We looked into getting another dog soon after, but she was irreplaceable. We had talked about it here and there for the last 5 years and occasionally browsed adoptable dogs online. I told Bill that we could get a dog when everyone in the house could use the potty. I wasn't going to housebreak a dog while changing diapers. That's just too much poop for one person. Well, Brendan is nowhere near potty-trained...but...I am clearly not a woman of my word.

Bill is on an email list from a pet photography place that takes pictures of adoptable animals. Bill showed me one named Igor. I laughed at the name, but then started to read about him. He was smallish--35 pounds, he was sweet, got along with other dogs (which is important because of Sarge--my parent's dog especially because they bring him with when they visit), and he was housebroken. We emailed about him to see if he had been cat tested because we had tried to adopt a dog a few years ago (I think I wrote about it then) and she was not cat friendly and tried to eat our cats. I'm ok if the dog wants to eat the neighborhood feral cats, in fact, I encourage it. However, I'm not wanting that for my personal cats.

Cortney, the person fostering him, emailed us back and said he hadn't been cat tested but would be happy to bring him out to see how he did. So that evening she and her husband came over with Igor. Cortney, if you're reading this, I apologize about the state of my house--Bill gave me about 45 minutes notice that you were coming and we had been busy all day so the house was a disaster. Who am I kidding, the house usually looks like that by 4:30 on a Friday ;-) Anyway, they brought Igor in and he seemed a bit nervous. I had instructed the kids not to get all up in his face and scare him, so they hung back until I told them it was ok. Rori, I could tell, immediately fell in love with him. So, we brought him to meet Scout, our cat. He pretty much ignored the cat and he listened really well. I was starting to think this was our dog! They left and Rori immediately asked when Igor could come over again. That night Bill and I talked about it and decided that if they wanted to let us adopt Igor, we would love to do it!

The next morning, I had an email that they thought we were a perfect family for Igor! We were all excited and couldn't wait to officially adopt him. Even Liam, who does NOT give his love freely (which if you've met him, you know that) asked when Igor was coming back. Cortney dropped him off that evening and he was ours!

I was sure that he was going to become "my" dog since I would be spending the most time with him. However, I learned tonight that I was wrong. I had to speak rather sternly (i.e. yell) at miss Rori Rose this evening at bedtime because she was not wanting to go to bed. Igor leaned against my leg real hard and when I left the room, he laid down by her bed. I called him to come out but he stayed there. I took a shower and peaked in and he was still there with no desire to follow me. He has found his true love. And she has given him her heart as well.  I am pretty sure if she wasn't in the top bunk, the picture below would be a nightly occurrence! (For the record, he has won my heart too, but I don't think he cares nearly as much about that as he does about the children)!

Parental Supervision

I had an opportunity to go to an HR conference (I work in HR) and Bill offered to stay home and watch the kids so that I could go. While Rori was at school, Bill decided to work out. He assumed that Liam (3 years old) and Brendan (17 months old) would be ok upstairs while he worked out downstairs. When he was finished, this is what he found...

It's even in Brendan's hair. Bill said it was also down his pajamas...

Clearly they had a good time whilst un-supervised. Apparently they had also colored the wall. Thank goodness for washable markers!

Twi-Night!

My friend Karen was made to host parties! Our friend Beth suggested that several of us get together and watch the three Twilight movies and Karen volunteered to host it for us! They have an amazing movie theatre in their basement with leather recliners so we knew it would be a comfy evening. Everyone was bringing delectable snacks. The only night that worked for everyone was a Tuesday evening starting at 6pm. We all geared up for a late night! When we got there, Karen had decorated the bar with jewels, Eclipse plates and napkins. She had tattoos for us, and glowing engagement rings. It was AWESOME!

The food was AMAZING! We had beer bread, dips, potato skins, pepper jellied cream cheese, mini meatballs, Karen made amazing "blood" red velvet cupcakes, and I made hand pies--which were individual hand held pies in the shape of hearts--they were cherry and raspberry for blood, and apple because April likes apple :) Everything was delectable! We laughed and had a great time through the first two movies. You would think that would have been enough to get us through the night. Sadly, half the girls left as the third movie was starting, and two of us left (well Ashley was riding with me otherwise she probably would have stayed) at 12:30 because I didn't want to die in a sleepy, fiery crash on the way home. Only Leslie (who was 6 months pregnant and has 4 year old twins and a 2 year old boy) and Karen made it to the end. Karen, it was a fabulous party--but I am just too darn old to stay up that late and function at work the next day. I fell asleep by 1:45 and had to be up at 6:00.

Ashley spent the night at our house because we work together--she slept in Liam's bed and he slept with us. In the morning she offered to help me with my makeup because I am makeup-illy challeneged. Apparently it didn't help. A co-worker asked if I was feeling ok, because I didn't look so good! It was totally worth it! It was a wonderful night that managed to make me feel young and old all at the same time!

you can see Karen's tattoo and April's ring is glowing. I am in sweats because I am planning for a long evening--don't tell Bill--he says we don't wear sweats...

Look at all that yummy food!