My new model...

My dear friend Devin recently gave birth to just about the cutest baby I've ever seen (only to the exclusion of my OWN children, but I *might* be a little biased). To welcome little Lola Claire, I sent a couple of bows, and Devin kindly photographed Lola wearing them so I could post them in my Etsy shop. I haven't had the chance to update the shop, but she also posted the pics on her blog. Go check them out! Be careful not to be mesmerized by the cuteness of her family. Seriously!

Tuesday Tip O' The Day

Your tip today? Share the love. Look at my sweet niece Nomers holding her new baby brother JD. I wish they didn't live so far away.

:'(

Yeah for contests!!

Michelle, over at My Semblance Of Sanity, has decided to have a contest. Anyone can enter, IF you have a birth/adoption story to tell. (I would imagine it would need to be your OWN story, not your cousin's sister's daughter's story). Michelle doesn't exactly have a prize picked out yet, but I have seen some of the prizes she's given away for other contests, and they are pretty COOL!

Here's the rules:
Post your birth/adoption stories on YOUR blog, and post a link to Michelle's blog. If you do not have your own blog, but would still like to participate, you may post your birth story in the comments section of Michelle's blog here. Don't forget to post a link in the comments on Michelle's blog, or else she won't know you posted a story...

Michelle will pick ONE story each day to be "showcased" the next day on her blog. At the end of the contest (which runs until 2/26). On 2/27, we will get to vote on the showcased stories, and on 2/28, Michelle will announce the winner on her Gabbin' Mama blog.

Invite all of your blogger friends to participate - the more, the merrier! Plus, you know how us Mamas L~O~V~E to tell our birth/adoption stories. Daddies are invited to tell their stories, too. Although, Nate, over at CFHusband should not be allowed to participate, since anyone who reads HIS story would just HAVE to vote for him!! He'd win by a landslide! LOL (Just kidding, Nate, if you happen to read this)

I will be posting my stories in 4 separate posts...I'll start with Bubber, since he's the oldest. Most of my stories will contain stuff that some may consider TMI, but since they are MY stories, I'll tell them the way I remember!!!

So as not to confuse anyone - Bubber and Bug have the same dad (my ex husband Dan). I don't have a birth story about Nans, because she is not mine biologically. Puckey and The Jib have the same dad (my husband Ande).

The Story of Bubber

I had just turned 20. Literally, 3 days prior I had my 20th birthday. My due date was October 20, which had come and gone 2 days before. I tried walking, eating spicy food, driving down bumpy roads, etc. None of those things worked. I even went BOWLING the day AFTER I was due. Imagine the looks I got when people asked "When are you due?" And I said "Yesterday". Most people took a large step backwards, as if they thought my water was going to break at that moment. My (then) boyfriend Dan and I had rented a couple of movies and I just couldn't even stay awake to watch the first one, much less the second. I joked that I would most certainly go into labor the next day because I didn't get to watch the movie I actually WANTED to watch (I don't even remember what movie it was anymore...). So, I went to bed. It must have been midnight.

At 5:15am, I woke up to this weird "pop" feeling in my belly. I laid there for a minute, then started nudging Dan to try to wake him up. After several attempts, I finally just yelled his name and he said, "WHAT?" (He had only been asleep for a short time, so he was pretty mad to be getting woken up already) I told him that I thought my water had broken. He laid there quietly for a few seconds until what I said had registered with him. Then he literally JUMPED out of bed and started running around asking what he was supposed to do. (Think chicken running with it's head cut off)

I got up and did the "shuffle" to the bathroom (those of you who have had your water break on it's own at home or elsewhere may know what I mean) to confirm if it was indeed the case. Yep. So I told Dan to call the doctor and our parents, while I packed my suitcase. Okay, so I am a procrastinator. What can I say?!?

As we were getting ready to leave, Dan grabbed a stack of towels for me to sit on while he drove me to the hospital in his baby Iroc Z-28. WHATEVER. I guess he was afraid I'd get amniotic fluid on his seat. So he drove about 90 miles an hour to the hospital because he was afraid I'd have the baby IN the car. I wasn't even having contractions yet...

We got to the hospital by about 6:00am. I was feeling pretty good, and the doctor told me to walk around because I wasn't dilated very far (about a 1). I walked for what seemed like FOREVER, and came back to be told I was still at a 1. Sigh. More walking. It was cool, because at the time the hospital I was in allowed people in the maternity ward to walk the NICU. I was just amazed at those tiny little babies. After about 6 hours of nothing much happening, my back started to hurt. REALLY, REALLY bad. I threw up a couple of times in a bedpan. Okay, this was about the time I started to realize that this was not going to be easy. The doctor put me on a pitocin drip because I wasn't progressing very fast. (So slow, in fact, that at one point my family saw my doctor walking by eating a bag of popcorn.)

It was pretty cool, because not only were my parents and Dan's parents at the hospital, but my sister, her husband, and his little brother from Big Brothers/Big Sisters drove up from Detroit (they had been there for a Lions game that afternoon). I think my mom was the first one there. She nearly beat us to the hospital. (Bubber was her first grandchild, so she was pretty excited)

For those of you who are all about natural birth and all that - good for you! I, however, am a HUGE wimp when it comes to pain. Pretty much immediately after they started the drip, I started asking for drugs. They didn't want to give me an epidural because I still had a long way to go, so I got a shot of Demerol (sp?) instead. That didn't even touch what I was feeling, so they gave me something else (I can't remember the name of it). Still, did not really help too much. Fortunately, I had finally progressed in my labor enough to where they felt comfortable giving me the epidural. Instantly I felt relief!! What a strange feeling, however, to watch something touch my legs and not be able to feel it.

Because I was on the pitocin, I was also hooked up to the monitors so the nurses could keep an eye on my contractions. At one point, my doctor told Dan to read off the numbers to me when there was a contraction. Our families were in the hall, and they kept hearing Dan yelling out numbers. They asked the doctor what Dan was doing, and he said, "He looked a little bored, so I gave him something to do. It's gonna be a while". I really liked Dr. Rinehart, he had a great sense of humor!!

Finally, at about 7:30PM, the doctor told me I could start pushing. I told the nurses that I had to go to the bathroom. They insisted that it was just the baby. I told them I REALLY needed to go. They said it was the baby, and to go ahead and push. I pushed, and much to my horror, had a bowel movement. (I have a hard time peeing in public restrooms, so you can imagine my embarassment) I REALLY wanted to tell the nurses "I told you so" but thought better of it.

After nearly 2 hours of pushing, at 9:23PM my son was born. All 8lbs, 6oz and 22 inches of him. I thought Dan was going to throw up or pass out (or both!?!). I looked at my precious newborn son and thought "I've given birth to a CONEHEAD!" Poor little Bubber's head was pretty pointy when he was born. Fortunately it rounded out in a few days...then he started to look a little like Charlie Brown (which is not a bad thing, I LIKE Charlie Brown)

Back by Popular Demand!!

Okay, so I'm breaking the rules and posting funny stuff even without Ande's permission...LOL. Things have been a little busy around here and I just haven't had a lot of time to actually sit down and post stuff. Plus, I got tagged, and I had to come up with my answers and figure out how on earth I was going to tag 7 people, since I've pretty much exhausted my resources of blogger friends. You'll see what I ended up doing later....

First things first....how are you all at math? I'm not the greatest, but I thought I'd share a couple of story problems with you...

Once, there was a little girl.

She was a happy little girl (and cute as a button, I might add)

One day, she met a handsome little boy.

Eventually, they had a baby.

Who does she look like?

Okay, next problem...

Same little girl, different picture...

Same little boy (sorry, only have this one picture at my disposal right now...)

And they had ANOTHER baby.

Who did she look like?

I guess I never knew that A + B = A!! (No wonder I didn't do so great in algebra!) Since my older kids don't really resemble me, I LOVE it that Puckey and The Jib do!!


Okay, now, I've been tagged AGAIN. I'm beginning to run out of unique answers for these things, but I'll try to be as interesting as I can. Here goes:


Mary, at Mom2-2GoodBoys, tagged me. I have to tell her (and you, my reading audience) 7 interesting things about myself, then tag 7 other people to do the same. I can't guarantee how interesting they will be, but I'll try.

1. When I get to Heaven, I get to meet my 3 older brothers. That will be cool!
2. I can wiggle my right ear and my nose.
3. I have been friends with my best girl friend for 20 years. We met in 7th grade gym class.
4. I played Thomas Edison in a school play when I was in 4th grade.
5. I still have all 4 of my grandparents.
6. My husband and I worked for the same company for over a year before we met.
7. One of my favorite veggies is spinach.

Man, that was kind of hard! I'm really not a very interesting person. Okay, so now I have to find 7 people to tag. I only had 1 person left out of my friends that I haven't tagged yet, so of course, she's first on the list...

Destini - who is one of the kindest people I know (hey, you asked for a post, you got one, sister!)

Now...where to get the other 6? Well, when all else fails, just randomly pick out people from the blogger world. So, here's the other 6...

Keely - because I love her name and I think we may be similar in our thinking...

Faithful Chick - because her blog is pretty...and she is apparently a master of the computer, according to her son!

Emily - because she gives some good tips she learned about saving money at the grocery store.

Suzanne - her hubby works for Starbucks. Need I say more?

Rachel - because her most recent post is pictures of an 80's party.

Sweetly Broken - because she seems to have a good sense of humor.

Wow, that was REALLY hard! I don't know any of the above-mentioned women, so I can't say whether or not they will respond. I hope so, because I really enjoy reading other people's perspectives on things, and it would be fun to add some new "blogger friends" to my list....

How they got their nicknames

I was asked how the kids got their nicknames, so I will try my best to explain...I'll start with The Jib...

The Jib is (almost) a year old. When she was born, my husband and I thought it would be cute to call her "Jillybean" as a nickname. Puckey, who was 18months old at the time couldn't say that, but she COULD say "Jibby-Gee", which was what we called The Jib for a while. Then it got shortened to "Jibby", and finally, "The Jib". Not really sure where the "The" came from, but it sounds cool, kinda like she's in the Mafia or something. (Not that I condone criminal activity, but you have to admit that some of those guys had some pretty cool nicknames) Occasionally she is referred to as The Jibinator, Jibernathy, Jibsworth, or Jiblet as well.

The Jib Then....

And Now...

Puckey, who is 2 1/2, started life being called "Monkey" because when she was born she was all long limbed and hairy. Even her little ears were hairy. She was SO stinkin' cute! Little did we know that her nickname would also indicate her LOVE of climbing. She climbs everything. One day, after she started talking, she informed my husband and me that she was "Puckey". So she's been Puckey ever since. There are variations, such as Puck-ster, Punkinator, Pucksworth, and Puckey-pie, but mostly she's just Puckey. (Although if you ask her now, she'll tell you she's a dinosaur)

Puckey Then...And Now...

Nans, who is 9, has been called Nans by my husband for years. When she was really little, she was Hanner-Nans or Hannah-Banana. Nans was just the natural progression (plus I think SHE likes it a little better than the other names.) My dad calls her Hannah from Savannah. She is also referred to as "Sissy" by Puckey.

Nans Then... And Now...

Bug, who is 10, started out being "booger", because she always had her finger in her nose. Then she developed an intense interest in bugs. She was always catching bugs and playing with them. To this day, she's not really bothered by bugs. (I, on the other hand, only like ONE bug - HER!!) She is also called "Sissy" sometimes by Puckey, but more often she is called "Ashwe"

Bug Then...And Now...

Bubber, who is 13, got his name because we wanted something cute for Puckey and The Jib to call him. (Ande's mom called her brother "bubber" when he was born, and it's pretty much stuck ever since. He's known as Uncle Bub now...) Before Puckey and The Jib came along, he was Bud or Buddy. We wanted a special nickname for the babies to call him, though, because he really loves his baby sisters (whether he'll admit it or not is a whole OTHER story).

Bubber Then...

And Now...

I guess, all in all, my kids have pretty decent nicknames. It's better than the one I had when I was a kid...Pooper. Yes, you read right. Apparently it had to do with a diaper incident when I was just a baby. My dad, in all of his dad glory, used to LOVE taking me to the mall and if I happened to run into someone I knew he'd yell something like, "C'mon, Pooper, we need to get going!" Yes, it was fun being 16 at the mall with my dad.

This is my dad and my Great-Grandma Lula (Full name LulaBelle, yeah, she was from the south) in 1980 - check out my dad's mustache!! (Watch out Tom Selleck)

My dad is king of the weird nicknames. My cousin Ted was (and always will be) Mathilda. Why? Who knows. My aunt decided that my dad had cursed Ted by nicknaming him Mathilda, though, when he ended up marrying a girl named Hilda. What a pair! (Hilda is a lovely woman, by the way, who has made Ted quite a happy man and a daddy twice over!) Then there's my cousin Samantha - AKA Yosemite Sam from Alabam. Yeah, my dad's an odd one...but he's pretty funny. One of my favorite things about my dad is that he sends each member of the family a Christmas card, and on Ande's, he always signs it, "With Love, Ron Martin" Ande and I have been married for nearly 5 years. He signs my brother in law's card the same way. My sister has been married for 15 years. I guess he just wants to make sure they know who the card is from?!?!

These are my parents (on the left) and our former neighbors on Halloween 1981...yes, my dad is dressed as "Ronna Summers" Classy, right? Apparently that year they decided cross-dressing was the way to go - the lovely cheerleader's name is Dave. Notice the sweet wall decor - SO 70's!! I wonder if my mom still has that stuff...it went GREAT with our verigated GREEN shag carpet.

Well, hopefully I haven't bored anyone to tears with this. Thanks, Devin, for asking!!

Oh, and as a special request from Ande - "Hi, Aunt Pearl!!!" (Grandma says she reads this blog, so we wanted to say hi)

Oh, Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree

How lovely are your branches...and we'd like to keep them that way. After a week of having our poor little Christmas tree terrorized by Puckey and The Jib, I decided to try a new route. So here's our antique steamer trunk holding our tree out of the reach of our two littlest.

The train helps keep their focus off of the tree....

I guess I'd better finish decorating the tree already...it looks a little bare

(This was before I moved the tree - note the jubilant look on The Jib's face...)

Shh...Naptime