Painting

Well, after almost seven years in this house, I decided it was finally time to paint what would be our formal dining room, but for us it's the boys playroom.  After much debate I picked the colors and headed to Home Depot to buy paint.  

Before

On a Wednesday morning I tackled the top portion of the wall.  
On Thursday afternoon, I let the boys help with the bottom...
Here it is finished.  Now I need to find some art...  Greg and I are thinking of going with some pieces from the impressionist period.  We went to an Impressionist exhibit last fall and were very impressed.  Something along the line of Monet possibly.

Spring...

We've been having really pleasant weather the past month or so.  A few storms now and again, but mostly it's been hanging around the 70's and 80's.  I've been really making an effort to spend time outside before it gets unbearably hot for the summer.  The boys and I have been going on a lot of bike rides, I've been doing a lot of gardening, and just sitting outside reading has been nice.  A couple weeks ago Jacob and I went out hiking at our local nature preserve. We stumbled upon a copperhead sunning itself on the trail.  I've never seen one in the wild.  After some debate, we skirted behind it, which was probably stupid, since later I talked to a lady who had seen it at the same time as us, but stayed to take some pictures.  She told me it suddenly whipped around and slithered into the grass, and that she had never seen anything move so quick.  Anyway, we continued on our hike into the wetlands section of the preserve.  We saw countless turtles out sunning themselves on the logs, and a few watersnakes as well.  We even saw a gar fish swim by.  We also found a visiting Canadian goose.  

Canadian Goose
A Turtle sunbathing
The Copperhead on the Trail

Back to the gardening, this is a bouquet of one of my roses called Cherry Parfait.  It had so many blooms the poor bush was just drooping.  So, I cut them all and brought them in the house.  I love my spring roses, it's when the do the best.  They bloom every six weeks, but the blooms just don't do as well in the summer heat.

Speech

Last week Jacob went in for his speech evaluation.  All three of our boys have had speech problems.  People have asked us why this is.  It's kind of a rude question.  However, we recently learned something interesting.  People who have worked in a clean room environment, such as Greg did for the last fourteen years, sometimes have children with birth defects.  This would explain why all three of our boys have this issue, especially since neither Greg nor myself have a history of speech issues.  Thankfully, all the boys have is a speech issue and nothing more serious, and they are all extremely bright.  Matthew has been on the A honor roll this entire year.  Second grade is the first year they put kids on honor roll, and he is in second grade.  However, it is still heartbreaking to see you kids struggle and to see them picked on for not speaking correctly. Matthew is to the point where you wouldn't even know he had a problem, but Justin still is working on it, and Jacob will just be beginning.

Half Our Lives

On this day, 17 years ago, Greg asked me to be his girl.  He said to me, "I have two questions to ask you, one, will you be my girl, and two, will you go to prom with me?".  I obviously said yes, and since we are both 34 now, we have been together exactly half our lives.  This June we will celebrate our 13 year wedding anniversary.  We have three beautiful boys and have had the good fortune to have done most of what we have wanted to do so far.  We are thankful for our blessed life together.

Spring Break in Mississippi

This past week was Spring Break for the boys.  Greg was unable to take time off from his internship, so I packed them up and we headed for Mississippi.  We drove across Southern Arkansas and arrived in the Mississippi Delta, the land of cotton and the birthplace of the blues.  We had never been to this part of Mississippi before.  The reason for our visit was my desire to seek out historical places.  This time I was in search of a site that was a catalyst to the Civil Rights movement.  We visited what remains of the Bryant Meat and Grocery in Money, MS.  It is where 14 year old Emmett Till whistled at a white woman, thus setting into motion a chain of events that eventually gave Rosa Parks the courage to say no to the white man who demanded her seat on that Montgomery bus.  If you do not know the story of Emmett Till, you might want to take a moment to google him.  It's heartbreaking.  We arrived at the store on a foggy morning.  There is no marker or memorial, just a rotting building.  The smell of decay was heavy.  All and all, fitting for what happened here.  

Bryant Meat and Grocery, Money, MS

After we left Money we drove south.  I really enjoy seeing the bayous and back road country. It's mysterious in a way, like something you can never really know.  Our destination was Flora, MS.  In Flora is the Mississippi Petrified Forest.  This is the only petrified Forest east of the Rocky Mountains.  Apparently 38 million years ago, these trees came down river, got buried under silt and turned to stone.  Today, through erosion, they have re-emerged.  As you walk the trails, you see logs sticking out of the ground here and there.  It was a lovely hike.

38 million year old log

After our hike we continued west toward Vicksburg.  We traveled on the Natchez Trace Highway for a little while.  What a beautiful road.  Someday it would be fun to drive the whole lenghth, from Natchez, MS to Nashville, TN.  Upon reaching Vicksburg, we spent the remainder of the day at the battlefield.

Jacob near the Shirly House, Vicksburg, MS

Justin "firing" the cannon

The next day was spent finishing our tour of the battlefield, then a trip down to the Windsor Mansion Ruins outside Port Gibson, MS.  This mansion burned to the ground in 1890.  Now only the columns remain.  

Us at the Windsor Ruins

We drove home across Louisiana, thus making a circle of sorts.  It was a rewarding trip, seeing new sites, the boys doing so well, and knowing I could handle it on my own.

Happy Birthday Justin

Justin is six years old today.  I remember the day he was born well.  I was having such a hard time carrying him, he was so darn big, even though my doctor seemed oblivious to it.  I knew he must be big, because I could barely walk.  I was scheduled for my weekly check up that afternoon.  So, that morning, Greg, Matthew and I went on a walk to see if I could speed things along, even though it was still nine days before my due date.  I went to the appointment alone, taking Matthew, who was two, was pure torture for him.  So, the doctor checked me and said, "you're in labor".  I hadn't felt a thing, so I was a little surprised, although I think I mostly felt relieved. His office was in the hospital building, so he had me call Greg, and sent me down the hall to the maternity ward.  So, I get there, and talk to the check in lady, they ask me about contractions, and I said I haven't felt any.  They looked at me like I was crazy and asked why I was there.  I think they called down to my doctor's office.  They finally put me on a monitor, and sure enough, they registered contractions. Although at that point in a pregnancy I'm sure that you're having some contractions anyway. Honestly, I often have wondered if the doctor suddenly realized how big the baby must be, and just decided to induce.  They started the IV with Potocin, and pretty soon I started to feel real contractions.  Greg finally showed up, I was starting to wonder where the heck he was.  He had to wait for my sister to come stay with Matthew, plus he decided he better eat some dinner.  Lucky guy, I was starving and only allowed popsicles.  So, all this started around 5 pm.  I remember watching "A Few Good Men" while we were waiting.  I turned down the offer of a epidural.  I hadn't had one with Matthew, by God, I wasn't going to have one this time either.  That turned out to be a blessing in disguise. I did have the pain meds put in my IV though.  Finally, near the end, I got really irritable, I didn't want Greg touching me, any noise set me on edge.  At one point the nurse brought in a warming bed for the baby, and it kept beeping.  Greg was told to make it stop. That is the only delivery where I remember being really irritable like that.  Finally it was time to push.  It didn't take long, thank God, because Matthew took three hours of pushing, and  I thought I was going to die by the end.  Justin was born at 11:31.  He weighed 10 lbs 4 oz and was 21 and 1/2 inches long.  I think I did a double take when the nurse said 10 lbs.  She told me it was a good thing I hadn't had the epidural, because I probably wouldn't have been able to push him out, and would have ended up having a c-section.  I remember going past the nursery on our way to my room, and he looked so big compared to the other babies.  Matthew came the next morning to meet his little brother.  He didn't have much interest in him though.  I don't think he was ever too happy he suddenly had to share mom and dad.  As we drove home from the hospital, I noticed all the trees had started leafing out.  It was our first spring in Texas, so it was kind of neat.  All my tulips and daffodils were in bloom at the house, so I always know spring will come around Justin's birthday.  Now six years later, he such a creative, bright personality.  I'm so thankful he was sent to us.

Justin at Good Morning Borchardt

This past Monday, Justin went up with all the other birthday week kids to sing the birthday song at Good Morning Borchardt, their morning assembly.  Later in the assembly he got to go up again to receive his art show certificate.