Saying good-bye to 2009

Wow, 2009 is coming to a close! Shortly we leave for our annual New Year's trip, also known as New Year's 2010 or New Year's XI, with our college friends. We have been getting away on a mountain retreat with them every year for the last ten years. A whole decade has passed! I laugh when I think back on that first year which was 1999/2000 and thus the big Y2K scare. Ha! Since then I have begun and ended each year (Charles missed New Year's 2004 and 2006 due to deployments) surrounded by some dear, dear friends who have seen us through plenty of good and bad times. It's a delightful tradition and probably the most relaxed we are all year.

So, of course we always reflect on the year behind, and the year before us. What a year 2009 has been! Last year at New Year's I was 15 weeks pregnant and full of hope and anxiety and excitement. Two of my dearest friends were also pregnant, one just announcing it at New Year's, and I looked forward to the year to come!

Charles and I joke that the odd numbered years have been a bit more difficult for us the last several years, and 2009 was no exception. While it has brought us great joy, no doubt, with Emmy's birth, the year certainly started out with a bang. At the end of January during a one week span Charles' mom was diagnosed with stage three ovarian cancer, I found out I was losing my job, and the doctor called with the news that our baby had a higher-than-normal chance of having a neural tube defect. WHOA. Talk about overwhelming. Looking back now, I'm amazed I didn't go nuts with worry.

While being laid off has been difficult and we're still adjusting to the loss of income, I'm so glad I've been able to devote my time entirely to being a mom. Charles' mom came through her chemo treatments with flying colors and is now, for all intents and purposes, cancer free. No one has yet used the term "remission" but I feel that it is inevitable! What a blessing. After she finished chemo her doctors had to make a few adjustments to her Parkinson's meds, but she's feeling great and looking great and we are so thankful. And then of course there's Emmy. What a little fighter! Thankfully, I had that test done that resulted in that false positive for neural tube. It allowed the doctor's to find the real problem and keep a close eye on us. After a lot of bed rest, countless prayers, buckets of tears, many sleepless nights, here we have this beautiful baby girl. She's grown and changed so much since May. Of course, I know that's what babies are supposed to do, but I suppose every parent feels these emotions anew and I can't help feeling that it is extraordinary to see just HOW far our tiny little miracle has come.

We lost Charles' grandmother this year, his only surviving grandparent, and we know she would have loved to have seen Emmy. But, we rejoice that Emmy still has two living great-grandmother's who are smitten with her and that they get to spend time together and we cherish those visits.

2009 has certainly been a special one for us and we're so grateful for all the blessings of the year and the good friends and family who have surrounded us and supported us. Truly, there is no way we would have made it without you! We look forward to a great 2010. Happy New Year everyone!

Christmas

Emmy had a good first Christmas this year! We all had a good time, it was just busy! My sister, my parents, and grandmother all arrived on the 23rd, just in time to baby-sit while Charles and I had a rehearsal for Christmas Eve. It's always a great service, but a three hour rehearsal two days before Christmas is tiring.

Christmas Eve morning we all had our usual Christmas Morning breakfast together. Yes, a day early since we were having an earlier lunch on Christmas Day. Meredith and Mom and I worked in the kitchen prepping for Christmas Day as well as getting dinner ready for Christmas Eve.

Our friends Nate and Amy and their baby Ryan joined us for Christmas Eve dinner. We had lasagna! Not traditional, I know, but I was able to make it before my family arrived and spend less time in the kitchen. We had a good time together! Emmy went to bed at her usual hour, then we woke her up to take her with us to church at 9:00. She was NOT happy with me for waking her up. Then when we got to church, she was like "hey I had a nap, let's play!" We had to warm up and rehearse, and then I checked back on her around 10:30 when the concert started. (Our church has a service of 9 Lessons and Carols that is at 11:00 p.m. with a half hour concert that is part of our Concert with a Cause series that starts at 10:30 which is mostly solos, ensemble, and chamber music). She was NOT happy and was having a hard time falling asleep, so I spent time trying to get her to sleep. By ten til 11, I had to go, so I laid her down in the crib. Fortunately, the nursery worker said she fell asleep quickly then.

The service is always so beautiful, if I do say so myself as a part of the choir. After church, Emmy woke up again, ready to play! We took her home and Mom put her back to bed while we went to Jim and Jamie's for soup and champagne. I was reminded that this is a tradition not meant for those of us while small children because I was SO TIRED! Waking up Christmas morning at 8 am was rough!

We woke up to a happy baby, and happy news that our friend Chase was an uncle. His sister, Nicole, gave birth to their baby girl, Amelia, at 7:37 on Christmas morning. She was three weeks early, so she was a surprise Christmas gift! Here is a photo Mom took of Chase and "Lia" a couple of days after Christmas.

Emmy sat up by herself for the first time Christmas morning, which was a nice surprise! She helped tear paper off her presents and proceeded to shove whatever paper, tissue, or ribbon she could in her mouth. It was a lot of fun! Here she is with Grandma after we were all done unwrapping gifts and showered for the day.

We had a big dinner midday with Mary Ann, Joel, and Mary Ann's parents, Larry "Bear" and Marilyn. I was a bit ambitious this year and made a crown roast of pork with apple pecan stuffing and mashed rutabagas and it turned out well, I think! Joel had smoked a turkey and they also brought mashed potatoes and two types of green beans so we had a TON of food! It was delicious and we all ate too much.

By the time we were cleaning up the dishes, I was exhausted. I had to stop for a while. My parents and grandmother left around 4 and shortly after I was asleep on the floor. Ha! Emmy and I then went back and took a nap on the bed for a while. Meredith stayed Friday night with us so we had some sister time. She left Saturday morning as we prepared to hit the road for Rome to see Charles' folks.

It was a quick trip to Rome but we had a good time. We had not traveled in a while so we didn't know how Emmy would do, but she did pretty well. She didn't nap well in the car, so we put her down for a late nap at the hotel. She woke up just before 6 and we went to get dinner, but we should have probably just let her sleep because she was not the happiest of campers at dinner. After dinner we took her back for her bath and let her play and open presents from her grandparents, and of course eat more tissue paper. She slept pretty well in her pack-n-play and since she went down later, she slept until 6. I love this photo I took of her sitting in our bed before we put her in her dress for church. So cute!

After church and lunch, we headed back home. Charles had to work Monday and we had to unpack and repack for our next adventure! We hope that all our "readers" had a wonderful Christmas holiday season.

LOTS more photos are in the December Picasa Album. Enjoy!

Merry Christmas!

Emmy hopes that all her loved ones have had a very Merry Christmas.

Emmy's first starring role

It is tradition at our church that the youngest baby in the church is Baby Jesus in the "Birthday Party for Jesus" Christmas Pageant every year. Now, before you get illusions of grandeur, keep in mind this is mostly an impromptu performance done by the children's choirs. Sure, they rehearse their lines, but the itty bitty's in the Wesley Choir who play the angels sing one song alone and then several members of the junior choir have solos during The Friendly Beasts but mostly the whole audience is singing along with the kids. They play all the different members of the nativity and the mother and father of the "Baby Jesus" play Mary and Joseph.

As you can probably assume now, Emmy is the youngest baby at St. John, so this year she was Baby Jesus. That's right folks, we all three starred as the Holy Family. I was, as my friend Mary Ann pointed out, the Blessed Virgin Marion. Um, sure! I was extremely nervous about Emmy's acting debut for 2 reasons: it was close to bed time (and there had been an earlier and shorter than usual afternoon nap) and for goodness sake, she's 7 months old, hardly a newborn. It was a very unpredictable event.

Fortunately, Emmy was perfect! She started to get fussy right before we walked out, so I handed her to Charles because he can often get her to settle down better when she's tired, so Joseph carried Baby Jesus this time. She snuggled up with him, looked around a good bit the first few minutes, quietly "sang" through the first song, then about halfway through, she fell asleep! She was also really interested in the "animals" when they came up to do their solos, and then knelt by the manger. I caught her staring at Corey-the-cow a good bit. Watch out, Corey!

Here we are with the little Wesley choir singing their song. Note that Lucy on the far left couldn't stop looking at Emmy and grinning at the baby, Lucy on the right was clearly not happy to be up there. Something happened just before they went up to sing and it upset her. And allegedly Sam (tallest in the center) had an incident just before the performance and his halo fell in the toilet. Erika (one of the Moms/helpers) had taken him to the bathroom and she told him "Well, everyone's halo falls in the toilet sometimes," so that's our new motto.

Finally, here's the sleeping Baby Jesus.

Acrobat or Monkey? You decide.

As I mentioned in a previous post one of Emmy's new tricks is to push herself off your lap to flip herself over backwards and hang upside down. Here's a picture of her the other morning performing one of her tricks. Don't mind me in the background.


I know that we should let her watch TV yet, and usually we have the TV off. When it is on, it certainly does catch her attention, especially when there's music involved. Saturday morning Charles was looking at some clips on YouTube of musical groups, and she was fascinated!


Emmy is also fascinated with her hands lately. I'll often catch her looking at them. It was hard to snap a photo, but Charles did get one of her on her changing table the other day. I've also caught her looking at my mouth when I'm singing different songs and she'll move her mouth like she's trying to figure out how to form different words. So cute! Today I was sitting in front of her singing "The Itsy Bitsy Spider" and she was entranced by the hand movements. It's so funny to see what catches her eye. Music is seeming to be one of her favorites lately and we'll have to see about starting Kindermusik in the Spring!

Here she is today so cute in her new "Baby Legs." I admit when I saw these before I was pregnant I thought "leg warmers for babies, what?" Now that I have a baby I think "these are brilliant." Emmy has some cute onesies (like the super cute fish one she's wearing here that Mary Ann gave her) that would be fun for her to wear but I worry about it being a bit cold. But, pants or tights are just a pain, especially when we're just hanging around the house. The Baby Legs are cute, and they don't have to come off for a diaper change. Woohoo! Now that I've tried one pair, I want more! I can see her wearing them instead of tights under casual dresses.

7th Months Old!

Emmy is 7 months old today! It's so hard for us to believe. She has come so far from the little peanut she was on May 8th!

I took Emmy to the doctor yesterday just to confirm if she had Hand, Foot and Mouth. Dr. J believed that yes, indeed she does, she just has atypical presentation of symptoms. Fortunately, today the bumps on her fanny are gone and the ones near her mouth are almost gone. When we went into the doctor's office yesterday one had appeared on her hand, but other than that, she's not showing any new symptoms. Her fever is gone, too, I think. She's continually been her usual happy self, so hopefully we evaded the worst of it this time.

She is so happy and smiley and when she laughs, you can't help but laugh with her. She loves music and she loves to be sung to. If she's getting fussy, usually a song will get her laughing again, if only for a minute. Of course it makes us happy that she likes music so much.

Her favorite new "trick" is trying to flip herself upside down while she's in your lap. Seriously, she likes to be upside down. She'll just hang there for a minute, and if you don't hold on, she'll push herself off your lap! Crazy girl.

Today she started moving backwards in her walker. She's moved around a tiny bit, but today was the first day she really covered some ground. Charles said she seemed frustrated she couldn't move forward, but she'll figure it out! The walker is just, great, though because she can sit up and see and play with her toys. Currently she enjoys pitching the pieces of her wooden nativity set on the floor. She also swings her rings back and forth. We wised up and attached them to the slide on the walker itself so they don't fall off.

She's just so much fun and we love watching her grow!

What's been goin' on

On Tuesday Emmy had her check-up with the developmental clinic at the hospital where she was born. We met with an occupational therapist and a speech therapist, and then their findings were given to a neonatologist who met with us. Essentially, they took a check list of gross motor skills, fine motor skills, and social skills she should have at different ages and just played with her and marked them off. They were looking for her to meet all of the skills she should have for her adjusted age (they were using 4 1/2 months adjusted, 6 months actual although she's really more like 5 months adjusted 6 1/2 months actual). She is doing everything she should be doing for her adjusted age, and is doing somethings in the 5 and 6 month categories. Emmy is completely caught up in the social category (no surprise) as she is quite the happy, laughing, smiley, "talkative" baby and she follows objects, etc. so that's good. She's farthest "behind" her actual in gross motor skills. But they said that's always the last to catch up, and of course at this point there is no concern. They will have us come back in 8 months to evaluate her once more.

One of the items she was listed as just "emerging" in was rolling from her back to her front. She'd done it only once and when she was angry in her crib so they couldn't check it off, but they listed it as emerging. Well, the next day, it emerged. Charles went to get her about 7:15 when we heard her talking in her crib, and she was on her stomach. Later in the morning I put her down on the floor for tummy time and she rolled from her stomach to her back, and then to her stomach again, and she's just kept on! She's on the roll! You can tell she's quite proud of herself.

She's also pushing herself up completely on her arms (also something that was just emerging on Tuesday) and while tummy time was becoming better and better, now she's wanting to be there! This means she's also rolling over to sleep on her tummy, and that's created a bit of a problem. It must not be as comfy as she'd like because now she'll cry when she can't get comfy. We'd just gotten into this great routine where she didn't want to be rocked, really, so we'd put her down and she might fuss a bit, but she'd be asleep within 10 minutes. Now it's taking longer, she's waking up more, ugh. I hope this passes quickly!

Unfortunately the last week she's finally weaned herself from nursing. She was just getting too frustrated with nursing, I guess because she wasn't getting much, and she'd cry for the bottle after just a second. I know I have done the best I can and in some ways I'm relived, in others I'm sad. It just was never the great experience I'd dreamed of and I feel a bit guilty, but I don't regret pushing through to this point. I'm still trying to pump, but I'm getting less and less, so I don't know how long I can keep it up. I'd like to keep giving her that little bit of extra immune support, especially through this nasty cold and flu season, but that may not be in the cards. We'll see! I'm pleased we made it this far and certainly this summer I had my doubts!

Emmy's little friend Timothy has Hand, Foot, and Mouth Disease. No fun! Poor baby has had a nasty fever and been so miserable this week. Of course he probably picked it up at church, which has had me worried for Emmy. And then yesterday a low grade fever emerged. But, she has no other symptoms; she's eating fine, she's happy as usual and there don't appear to be any sores in her mouth and no rash on her hands or feet. She's got three little bumps by her mouth, though, and a rash on her bottom, so I'm worried she may have a case of it, too. I'm planning to take her to the doctor tomorrow if they can fit us in just to confirm either way. If it is indeed HFMD, there's nothing they can give her, just Tylenol or ibuprofen to help with the fever and any pain (the mouth sores are supposed to be painful). Of course I'm supposed to entertain spouses from Charles' unit on Tuesday night so I'm anxious to find out if it's a good idea for me to still have them over. Adults rarely get it, but they can carry it and I don't want to infect anyone else. Argh, miserable timing, but as Charles pointed out it's better this week than last week!

Here's Emmy "hanging" her "Emmy's 1st Christmas" ornament and a photo of her with a present from some friends at church for her baptism. It plays "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer" and she loves it

Emmy's Baptism

I know, I know, it's been a week and no post. But most of you who actually read this blog were here for her baptism, so I figured you weren't chomping at the bit for me to give you a run down of the weekend's activities. Plus, I was tired after Thanksgiving plus Baptism plus decorating the house and I concentrated my efforts on doing as little as possible and then doing a bunch of Christmas shopping that had been pushed to the back burner.

It was a good weekend! After an exhausting day of cooking Thursday after and exhausting day of cooking Wednesday we went to bed early on Thursday and woke up Friday morning and went and picked out our Christmas tree. I have never bought my tree that early and I think we may have been their first customer since the masses were all shopping for Black Friday sales. It was home and in the stand by lunchtime and falling out nicely awaiting lights and I was up to my neck in pulling out decorations when my parents arrived Friday afternoon. After a quick trip to church to drop off the cake, soups, poinsettias for the tables, and other essentials I wanted out of my dining room and kitchen, we spent the rest of the evening decorating, frying turkeys, and eating at Rhinehart's. Meredith got in just after we came home from dinner and in time to kiss Emmy goodnight before we put her to bed.

Saturday we got up and decorated the tree. Emmy loves the lights and we have had her walker positioned near the tree most of the time since we put it up so she can see it while she's playing. Charles' parents had gotten to their hotel late Friday so they came over around lunchtime Saturday. While Meredith and I did a last minute store run and picked up lunch, the rest of the family started arriving! Saturday afternoon was spent with family in and out, watching Clemson Carolina, attempting to get Emmy to nap with our loud families in the house, and doing last minute preparations for Sunday's lunch, like carving up turkeys and arranging food on platters.

Saturday night 20 of us had dinner at the French Market Grill as a group. It was good, just hard to visit with everyone. Of course, dinner time is way to close to bed time, so before we could even order dessert (you must have peanut butter pie at the French Market) it was evident it was time to go home, so Charles and I got our dessert to go and headed home to put Emmy to bed. Aunt Priscilla and my cousin Michael came back with my parents, sister, and grandmother so we could see Michael's wedding photos from earlier this fall and they visited while I finished putting family baby pictures in frames for the tables. Finally, it we bed time!

Sunday was a lovely day. In some ways it's a blur. There were so many people who came to the service and I feel like I didn't get to really visit enough with everyone! Emmy did so great during the service. She was just a cute little thing, though her hands were up in her mouth all the time, but then that's par for the course these days! Our pastor, Gary, is wonderful and we're so glad he baptized her. As I took her out to the nursery when the baptism was done, she sang a happy little high pitched "song" as we walked out the door, which made everyone giggle.

Lunch was delightful, thanks in large part to my dear friends who helped cook and make everything go so smoothly. There were I think 55 of us for lunch, so it was quite a crowd, but we had plenty of food. I mean, have you met my family? I don't know how to NOT have enough food!

We were just overwhelmed by the number of people who were able to travel to be with us to celebrate. It's been such a year for us and what a way to rejoice in how blessed we are, and how appropriate over Thanksgiving weekend and at the start of Advent.

I'm not going to even attempt to put up a representation of the weekend in photos here because it would take to many photos and that's more decision making than I can do right now! So, there's a family shot of the three of us and one of Emmy with Gary, and MANY more (273, I think) can be found in Picasa.

P.S. The cross she wore for her baptism was Emmy's great-great-grandmother's, my grandmother's mother. Grandma gave it to her the night before. What a special gift!

Happy Thanksgiving!

We have a lot to be thankful for this year! We wish all our loved ones a wonderful Thanksgiving!


Emmy's baptism is this weekend and we're also planning to get all decorated for Christmas, so surely there will be lots of photos to post soon! Check out Picasa for a few random photos of the last couple of weeks. Sorry I've been absent from blogging, but we've been spending lots of time getting ready for this week. We had friends here this afternoon for Thanksgiving dinner and lots of family and friends are arriving for the baptism this weekend. (Of course the five of you who read this blog are among those arriving, so you know this already!)

Fight For Preemies

Last month I missed blogging on October 15th in honor of Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness. This month I certainly don't want to miss mentioning that today, November 17th, is in honor of Prematurity Awareness.

I doubt I will ever be able to see a premature baby on TV or read another parent's story about their premature infant without getting tears in my eyes. I'm not sure six months later I can even put into words what it was like to see her hooked up to all those tubes. And we were so, so blessed that she did so well and never needed breathing support, never had any major complications. I cannot fathom the strength it takes a mother who has to watch her baby go through such ups and downs as some preemies do, to drive back and forth to the hospital for weeks and weeks and weeks.

But thanks to research and organizations like the March of Dimes these babies actually have a chance. When Emmy had her PICC line put in, someone (one of my nurses? Dr. L? I can't remember) noted how amazing it is that they can put PICC lines in such tiny babies. How far medicine has come that babies born so tiny and so sick can thrive!

I am still a bit sad about what I missed out on not giving birth to a full term baby. I missed out on bonding with her right away, we missed out on getting to breastfeed right away, which has contributed to all the difficulties, I missed out on those last few weeks of pregnancy and anticipation and preparation. I spent the last the last few weeks of my pregnancy in fear and frustration. But in the end I have this tiny, perfect miracle who is, so far as we know, completely complication free. How utterly amazing.

Premature birth rates continue to rise and we need to keep searching for answers and preventions. Today is dedicated to raising awareness about premature birth. Thank you, March of Dimes, for all you do to raise awareness and continue the search for answers.

6 month check up

Today was Emmy's 6 month check up. She is 11 lbs 7 oz and 22 inches long. She needed a nap so she was a little fussy, but when Dr. J came in to examine her she gave a few smiles for her. Dr. J was happy to see her smiling and "standing" and to hear that she's rolled over and is laughing, etc. All good things for her to be doing.

Unfortunately, Emmy fell off the growth curve this time. She did gain and grow longer, but she gained less than 2 lbs and grew only 1/2 an inch. The good news is that her head grew and is still in the 5%. I'm admittedly a little disappointed, but perhaps she just had a big growth spurt before our last visit and another one is on the way. Dr. J wasn't terribly concerned, but she does want us offering her a bottle after every feeding, which we are already doing. She does not want us starting any solid foods yet, which we're in agreement with, just a bit surprised with how emphatic she was about it. At her four month check up she said she prefer that we wait until she was at least six months old, but was pretty casual about it. This time I was really expecting her to say to start when we saw X,Y,Z signs and when we thought she was ready, but she wants us to wait until her next appointment at 9 months. She doesn't think she's ready developmentally, and we really don't think she's ready just yet now either, just surprised we may be waiting 3 more months. If we feel otherwise before 9 months, then we'll call her, but for now I'll keep nursing as much as I can and giving her formula. She's been getting very frustrated with nursing lately which is frustrating for me, but we keep plugging along. Until she's on solid foods I don't want to stop.

We did remember on the way home that we haven't been as good about giving her the vitamin supplement she's been on since birth. We were expecting to stop it by now, but we will keep giving it to her. I don't know that this has affected her weight gain, but it certainly can't hurt.

So, say a little prayer that Emmy keeps growing! She's done so well and hopefully she'll be back on track in March! Most of us gain a little weight during the holidays, so hopefully she will, too, she just won't be eating all the sweets and other delicious foods. Ha!

Our Doodlebug

Yesterday was Emmy's first professional shoot with Allison, of Doodlebug Photography. Allison's daughter was in Mom's class a couple of years ago (and one of Mom's favorites, even though she doesn't play favorites) and we asked her to take some 6 month pictures of Miss Emerson. She came over to Mom and Dad's and we had a great time with her! Emmy "performed" quite well, I think. For a sneak peak of the results, check out Allison's blog. Thanks for a great session, Allison!

If you'd like to see all of the photos when they are ready, shoot me an email or leave a comment and I'll send you the password once I have it.

Charles said I should title this post "She rolled over and screamed her head off." That has been today's theme. She has been VERY fussy today. If a tooth doesn't pop through soon, well, I don't know what I'll do, but it better because if this continues for weeks then we're all going to the insane asylum. She wants to be happy, there have been certainly moments of giggly fun, but overall you can tell she doesn't feel good and those gums are giving her fits.

In fun news, Emmy rolled over today! Three times from her tummy to her back! I don't know if she realized what she was doing and I wasn't able to catch it on camera yet, but hopefully she'll get the hang of it soon!

Birthdays

Saturday was my 30th birthday and Sunday Emmy was 6 months old. Her first half birthday!

We spent the weekend at our choir's retreat at Lake Logan in the mountains. It's such a beautiful place! Sadly, I did not take many photos, but Mary Ann took some lovely ones, far better than I could have, so I will "borrow" them and put them in Picasa. We love going there and her pictures do it justice!

Emmy didn't adjust very well this trip. She did not sleep well and just generally wasn't her usual happy self. It was a little frustrating and stressful trying to run back and forth with her and try and make rehearsals and we couldn't really both participate in any of the worship because she was fussy or "talking". Thankfully our friend Steph was willing to take care of her much of the time we rehearsed. Next year she will probably enjoy spending time with her grandparents and we'll probably be able to relax better as well! We did enjoy hanging out with everyone, especially all the folks in our little cabin, which included Timothy and his mom and dad. The babies got to play and we had others to hang out with at night while the babies were sleeping. Here's a picture of Emmy in her cute bonnet (a Lilly hand-me-down also made by Ma May, who made Emmy's coming home dress). Thanks for taking the cute shot, Mary Ann! Also, a family photo at retreat.

We went back to my mom and dad's Sunday afternoon and celebrated my birthday with them and a few family and friends. We had a good time and Emmy got to hang out with Will and Stella.

Today was Emmy's first professional photo shoot! We had fun with Allison and we can't wait to see the results! Fortunately, Emmy slept well last night and today our happy baby had returned!

P.S. Today is Emmy's Aunt Beth's birthday, too, and Uncle Awesome is 30 today.

Halloween Photos

Here are a couple of photos from Emmy and Rags getting ready for Halloween night!

A fabulous find

This blog was created to keep our friends and family informed of Emmy's progress when she was in the hospital, and we've kept it up to share with those near and far what a joy she is!

But, I interrupt this regularly scheduled blog to share about these wonderful light bulbs I have discovered. Yes, I said light bulbs.

We do our best to live as "green" as possible at this point in our lives. There's still a lot more we'd like to do but for now we recycle everything we can, compost, keep our thermostat set as high or low as possible (depending on the season), buy organic when we can, try to avoid using harmful chemicals, and other other little things I can't remember right now. We also use the compact fluorescent light (CFL) bulbs in most of the lamps in our home.

Nonetheless, I have never been a huge fan of the light put out by these curlique fluorescent bulbs. It's very yellow and just not very pretty light. Until now! I have discovered a glorious light bulb brand called Bright Effects. It is a fluorescent, and thus energy efficient, but it puts out a pretty, clean, white light! I love them! (I found them at Lowe's, by the way).

Using the compact fluorescent bulbs saves you money in energy costs, which is good for you and the environment! Plus, they last much longer than incandescent bulbs so there are less bulbs in the landfills. However, keep in mind that they do contain mercury, so you should not throw them in the regular garbage. Home Depots now collect them for recycling, and sites like lamprecycle.org can help you find out how to recycle them.

In case you can't tell, I'm really excited about these light bulbs. Thank you for indulging me. Perhaps next time I'll give you a diatribe on composting. Yay!

I now return you to Emmy updates. By the way, Emmy loves the wonderful light coming from the lamp by her changing table that now has one of these CFL blubs in it.

Happy Halloween!!

Last night we worked on carving our pumpkin. It's Emmy's first Halloween! We bought a BIG pumpkin to carve, in the hopes she would fit inside of it. Thankfully, it worked. Here's a few favorites from the photo shoot.


Then we put her in her costume for a few minutes, but she wasn't all that excited about having her photo taken. (She is Cindy-Lou Who from "How the Grinch Stole Christmas.") We'd planned to dress her up for the fall festival at church Wednesday night, but fell asleep and didn't wake up until a few minutes before it was over. Oh well! We'll try to dress her up and get some better photos tomorrow. Happy Halloween everyone!

Two little pumpkins and a wedding

This weekend we headed up to Mom and Dad's for our friends' wedding in Hendersonville. We were planning to just relax and enjoy not having a plan. Then we got up Saturday morning and the guys working on Mom and Dad's house were there replacing the back door and getting started on building the screened porch. This equaled lots of hammering which was driving Rags CRAZY. So, we took Lisa and Lucas up on the offer and we headed over to their house for lunch. We'd discovered that we had matching Halloween outfits for Emmy and Will so we dressed them up. Aren't they the cutest?? It was nice to let the dogs play, the babies play and the adults got to eat lunch in peace while the babies napped. Woohoo!

Saturday afternoon Mom and I did some shopping while Emmy napped with her Daddy. After dinner we visited with Grandmommie, cousin Jessica and her hubby Nick. Emmy fell asleep and slept with Grandmommie for a bit. So sweet!

Sunday we'd decided to skip church and head on up to Hendersonville and go to Sky Top orchard for apples and to take pictures. The wedding was at Camp Kanuga so we thought we'd make a day of it. When I told Lisa our plan, she got excited because they had wanted to go to an orchard this fall, so she talked Lucas into skipping church, too, so we all headed up for lunch in Hendersonville then went to Sky Top. I wish we'd had more time, but it was fun! Sadly, we did not have time to wait in the long line for apple cider donuts. We'll just have to try again next year! The drive up was wonderful, the trees must have been close to peak. I can't remember the last time I saw them so beautiful!

So, Charles, Emmy, and I headed over to Kanuga for the wedding. We did a quick change of clothes and I fed Emmy. She fell asleep right before the service started, and she mostly slept through the hour long ceremony, save for a bit of fussing when the music stopped after the processional. The child loves music, that's for sure! Here's Emmy with the groom, and then the bride and groom, Joe and Kathy. Congrats you two! It was a beautiful day, a beautiful setting and a wonderful ceremony.

After a quick chili supper, we gave Emmy a bath and headed home. It was a nice weekend! But, we look forward to being home this weekend and getting some yard work done. It's time to plant pansies!

I'll leave you with my favorite photo at Kanuga after the wedding. Have a good week!

Road Trip!

This weekend we headed to Charles' hometown for the weekend. Mary Louise and Richard, AKA DiDi and Granddaddy, were of course glad to see Emmy after a couple of months!
On the way we stopped in Alpharetta to have lunch with Jane and Jasper. (Jeremy was at work.) Jane is my "Little Sis" in my sorority so we have always had a special relationship and it was fun to finally introduce Emmy to Aunt Jane! Jasper is two and he was really more excited to see Rags than Emmy, but he was cute with her. He showed us around his new house and gave us a counting lesson on the stairs to the basement and then up to the 2nd floor. Fourteen is the magic number! We had a great time visiting with them!

We arrived in Rome and got settled in the hotel and then met Richard and ML for dinner. Emmy fell asleep in her Daddy's arms when we finished eating so it was obviously close to bed time. We went back to put her to bed and ML came to visit during bathtime, etc. while Richard went to the football game. He's the "color announcer" for the high school marching band. Here's a photo of Emmy and DiDi after bath time.

Saturday we took Emmy to Granddaddy's clinic (he's a veterinarian for our readers who didn't know this) to meet some of the staff. Here she is all dressed up and ready to go. Also, we got to see Rags after her little procedure that morning. She needed her teeth cleaned for the first time (at 7, that's pretty good!) and while she was under anesthesia Richard also fixed the umbilical hernia on her tummy. She did fine and was very glad to see us! She stayed at the clinic while we went to get some lunch, but Richard took back at their house later in the afternoon.

After a delicious lunch of BBQ (and fried pickles, yum!) we went downtown to take pictures at the new fountains at the Forum. It's representative of the fact that Rome is built where two rivers meet to form a third. Then we went to the visitor's center to take a few photos. ML's garden club (aptly named the Three Rivers garden club) takes care of the flower boxes around the center so we took some photos there. Then it was nap time! In the photos we are in front of one of the River monuments, and the other photo is Granddaddy, Daddy, and Emmy at the visitor's center. It was COLD outside!

Emmy got a little tired of being put in and out of her car seat, which she let me know by stiffening up so she was practically standing up when I put her in. I love the look on her face, as if to say "see, I told you I was tired of this!"

We had dinner at their house that evening and of course many more photos were taken. I will post more of Richard's photos in my Picasa album, too.


Sunday we went to church and Emmy stayed with us since she was a special part of the service. Each year the United Methodist Women at the church where Charles grew up give donations in honor of all the babies and grandbabies born in the last year. They made a special presentation at the end of the service and invited the babies and their parents and grandparents down to the front to present certificates. Overall, Emmy did SO well during the service. During most of the hymns, she "sang" along with us which was hilarious! However, during the final hymn she fell asleep (as you can see from the photo I posted here). Of course all of the Richard and ML's friends were glad to meet Emmy. She was so good; she did us proud. :)

After lunch we went back to change, and more photos ensued. (For those of you who don't know my father-in-law he's a photo fanatic and rarely without a camera!) Here Emmy is posing with Granddaddy after church. Then it was time to hit the road. We stopped again in the Atlanta area on the way home to visit with friends. David was Charles' brigade commander several years ago and we have stayed close to their family. Walking into Sharon's house is just like coming home and tt was so great to see them. They have always been such a huge source of support with us and I know their prayers helped get Emmy here safely! Unfortunately I didn't take any photos while I was there, but we'll take some next time! We stayed for a delicious homemade supper, then headed home.

Emmy fell asleep in the car and I was able to transfer her to her crib without waking her. Yahoo! Of course then she woke up at 2 a.m. That's been the routine lately. I'm not sure if it's the cold she's had, the fact that we're not swaddling her anymore, or something else, but she is now waking up between 2 and 4 am. (She goes to between 8 and 9 pm.) Sometimes she's ready to eat, sometimes she just needs help getting back to sleep. Needless to say the switch from waking around 6 or 7 to 2-4 has been hard on her Mama. I need to make myself go to sleep a little earlier. I was doing pretty good for a while, but I'm moving back into my night owl ways.

Many more photos from the weekend are posted on Picasa in both the October album and one containing all of Richard's photos from the weekend. Enjoy!

P.S. Sorry that the text is running into one of the photos. I am an inexperienced blogger and with html, so if anyone has a tip, let me know!