Tiger's house

My girls have a few special (imaginary) friends.  It used to be one tiger, but then my eldest learned that tigers die.... so they started procreating...  now there are anywhere from 2-14 tigers in our house on any given day.

Since we're all living in the small living room of our house, while the upstairs gets a face lift, there really isn't room enough for 14 tigers.  Some time ago they moved into our water heater room, a great arrangement, except when the girls went to visit they would come out with some lost treasure (mostly stuff that got shoved in there by yours truly).  Was.not.working.out!

Anyways...

the tiger's house needed some work so one day the girls and i decided to help them out. Us, having opposable thumbs and all... and the tigers (who, at first were very put out) are now happier than ever.  

Before:

this is actually before we moved in
so it doesn't have all the crap that it did have a couple days ago.

 After:

and do you see that little zebra print stroller peeking out?
Yeah, I made that... well the cover anyways.  More on that later.

What does it Mean?

JesUSAves

I used to really hate these shirts, like despise them.  If you know me, you know that I'm a strong believer that Jesus and America are not interchangeable.  I have no love for God and Country, I love God and people.

But then I realized that this little... whatever it is... word? saying? Made absolutely no since to me.  So... What does it mean? 

Jesus saves Americans?
Americans love Jesus?
Christians love America?

USA saves Jesus?

Jes USA ves...?

Is it something that you're just supposed to wear to the 4th fireworks so that people know that you're Christian, but not a terrorist? Is it klingon? I just don't know...

A whole new kind of art.

I'm seeing evidence of fall all over these parts.  I have to admit I am NOT ready, I love summer.  My parents gave me a tree for my birthday, though, a maple.  It makes my heart happy.  Seriously, I've never had a tree that turns anything but brown before the leaves fall to the ground. It's making the transition into winter almost exciting.

I looked outside this morning and thought "all of that beauty is just falling to the ground I want to save some of it". (dramatic? Yes! but true) That led me to a hole new world of art. The girls and I collected a few leaves and flattened them in a book... soon, very soon, we'll be pulling them to try out some yummy fall art.  

Smile...

"where are your teeth?"

Under Construction

The last few months we've done a lot of holding of babies, and hammers.  As mentioned earlier we moved into our house only three days before the babe was born.  we've been been doing a lot of renovating... this house had been stuck in the 70s for way too long.  Walls coming up, walls coming down... paneling coming down, drywall going up... carpet coming out, wood floors going in.  Still a lot of work before winter hits, but we're making progress. 

Flip-flop Love

Made these cute little flip-flops a couple days ago for The Mar.  They're made of a tiny bit of left over fabric from a shirt, some shelf liner and a bit of bicycle inter tubing... because that's the way I like to do things.  

I'm considering writing a tutorial on how to make these little cuties, if there's enough interest out there.  Drop me a little line if you think this is something you'd like to make, and I'll see what I can do.  

Dakai Namaste

Born June 26th

Weighing 8lbs 6oz, and 21inches long

Welcome to the world little man!

Weren't you pregnant? Cont... #2

My mom is called to come on over, it must be getting close now *crossing fingers* Wonderful, awesome, amazing midwife, Susanne Scott and her assistant show up after labor has gotten intense again, even with the help of the tub I'm ready for this to be over and to hold my little one.  I figure it can't be long now and I'm done.... really, all I want to do is sleep. 

It's morning, maybe 7:00-ish? The sun is up and there are beautiful rainbows bouncing all over the walls, and even on my skin.  *This is something really cool about our new house... the sky lights cast rainbows around the living room all morning.* The sun helps a little for some reason, I feel a bit of renewed strength and determination.  This is the day my little love will be born! 

I'm being encouraged to move around a little, maybe get out of the water... what?!?!  I do stand up for a second, but that's as far as I get... no, the water is were I belong, it's saving my sanity.  I end up trying a few different laboring positions, but since it seems I'm having crazy back labor again, leaning forward is the most comfortable position by far.  I labor a bit more, the midwife checks me, I'm at 9cm she gives me some homeopathic something or other to reduce the swelling and a bit of honey for energy and I'm ready to rock-n-roll.

One push.... 

-Born sunny side up, in the caul, all natural, purple as all get out, in the water is my beautiful, over cooked, baby boy!!! 

What an awesome way to enter the world!

Weren't you pregnant? Cont...

I woke Danny up around midnight I think... grunting, "hey you, come and do your effin part... love of my life".  Apparently he got the message... cause he was a-freaking-mazing! With a little guidance from his sister *amazing birth partner, sister* he was providing counter pressure, helping me into the shower, and comforting me perfectly.  Seriously, people, he was awesome!

And then... everything stopped being amazing.  Contractions were coming back to back and my mind and body were taking bets on who would go first... not cool anymore! not fun anymore! and who's dumb idea was it to give birth in a house that we'd only lived in for three days? (I'm actually not sure that I thought about the house at all, but looking at those pictures sure makes me wonder aloud, now... more adventure anyone...?)

More people showed up... Michelle's (Danny's sister) husband, Neal (he was officially coming to take Michelle home since she had been puking her guts out... yeah, she's hard core) and the lovely Katie B.  Was this before or after I started loosing my mind... no idea.  Does any one remember? Was I foaming at the mouth?

So now we have 5 people in our living room where we are living out of boxes and half the outlets don't work... what the freak was I thinking?  Doesn't matter now, go with it...

Enter AQUA-DURAL (lovingly nicknamed by my midwife)... the birthing tub.  I climbed over the side in between contractions and actually started to giggle.  Nothing had felt this good in all of my life (well, that's what I was thinking at the time... I've taken a bath since and It was no big whoop).  I could not help but smile, it felt so good!  "*giggle**giggle* I AM A GODDESS *snort**giggle**giggle*", even had Michelle fanning me so I didn't get over warm.  I really was a goddess, and treated like one, too.

Does this look like active labor to you?

To Be Continued...

Weren't you pregnant?

Better late than never???  There are about 15 reasons why I'm only now writing about #3's birth.  They're all pretty dumb and uninteresting, so I'll just get on with it, enjoy...

A week late and we all kind of decided that this little one needed to get a move on... so, after moving (yeah, that's right, we're crazy enough to move into a new house the same week that I'm due with baby #3... we don't want to be at risk of living a dull life) and cleaning, and watching girlies all day with mild, regular, contractions... we decided to hand over the girls to my parents for the night and take a nice walk down to the local dinner joint of choice.  

We walked (I waddled) a mile or so to the restaurant, ate *we'll I ate* both mine and husband's meal, all of it... every last bite.  When I was done with my double meal danny rolled me back home.  I then ate a huge helping of cornbread that he had made for himself (since he didn't get dinner), and then made myself a coke float.... yummm.  

After ALL of that food I got super sleepy... apparently watching me eat made everybody pretty tired, so we all headed off to bed (I should note that Danny's sister was here helping us move... and... is an amazing dula... perfect!!!  Unfortunately she was also super sick... boo!).  We all slept for a few hours, I woke up around 10 labored for a bit on the birth ball, digested all of that food, and waited.

to be continued...

Water Color

There's a first time for everything... this was my first (since childhood) water color.  I don't pretend to know anything about it, and I know it's probably not the most impressive piece ever but it was a bit of a family effort -all of the trees are actually our (dan, the girls, and my) fingerprints- so it feels pretty special.  A gift for my mother for her birthday... it was fun little project.  

Oh yes, and any tips on how to water color for real would be lovely :o), I'd love to do another water color project in the future...

Square Peg

Last night I did something that I love... watch the University of Arizona beat kill Duke in the sweet 16.  While doing so, though, I realized that sports do not seem to fit with the rest of me.  now more and more things (that don't quite fit in) are entering my brain.  I'll share a couple just for fun...

1.) Sports fanatic- I love sports, and I'm not talking about jousting and gymnastics.  No, I love the popular money making sports.  In high school I kept stats for Football, Basketball, Wrestling, and Baseball (well technically that baseball was before HS).  Those were pretty much all of the sports offered in our little school and I was pretty excited that nobody else was interested in "book keeping" in exchange for a free pass to all of this sporting goodness.

• Why it doesn't fit : I hate meaningless things like sports that we lift on a pedestal and give a whole bunch of money to.  I have absolutely no interest in ever attending another college class because you basically pay a lot of money to get a little piece of paper that says you know how to jump through hoops.  I want, in no way, to support this.  I hate that our society takes kids right out of school and sends them into debt because that's what they think they have to do.  But I CAN NOT tear my eyes aways from a good UofA game... or even a bad one.  I love, love, love it!

2.) Medical testing- I would love to have my family tested for allergies, and if I could afford to do an A1C every three months you know I would, and if any other kind of broad spectrum test was offered I would hop aboard.  Its not because i'm a hypochondriac... in fact I rarely think anything is a big deal until somebody stops breathing or there is blood squirting out of something.  I just want to know... I'm curious, very curious!

• Why this doesn't fit: I hate Dr. offices, and hospitals, and needles.  I don't care for new aged medicine and the money making business of legal drugs.  I don't like that good heath care is only for the rich in America.  And most of all I hate that people think they need to be fixed.  If they are sad they go to the Dr. and get Anti depressants (for the record I do know that some of you struggle with depression, and that's not what I'm talking about), if they have a cold they go to the Dr. and get antibiotics, if they drink too much coffee and can't go to sleep they get sleeping pills.  I haven't gotten any of these tests (*update: that was a total lie... a friend of mine bought me a home A1C test... very cool gift!) and probably never will... but if I ever find a home test for allergies I'm totally going to buy it.  

3.) Science Fiction- Star Trek, Firefly, Battlestar Galactica, Ender's Game... There aren't even words to describe how happy these make me.

• Why this doesn't fit:  Filled with war, artificial life, and fake food, they are a far cry from everything I value or want in this world.  I am a hippie (kind of) after all... does it seem to fit to you?

What, if anything, do you do/like that doesn't seem to fit with the rest of your personality?

Thoughts?

while reading I came across this quote:

"In His dealings with us as His children, God does nothing like reaching down and spanking us each time we disobey. Sin has natural consequences, but God bears them with us, redeems them, and works in the secret places of our hearts transforming our beliefs and understanding about Him. Greater obedience results. His graciousness is not permissive, but it is very patient—training yet not demanding." - That Mom

[photo by Danny]

*Sorry that I've been MIA... I'm now 27 weeks along with Harmon #3 and sick as ever (seems that I have re-entered the first trimester puking).  I'm hoping to find some energy somewhere and let you all know the thoughts that have been floating around in my head all these months.  Honestly, though, it just feels overwhelming.  At night I mentally write blog posts when I can't sleep... they're really good, trust me, sorry that they never actually make it this far.*

Winter Finally Hit

 From This:

To This:

In a Week.

60 degree weather and then BAM, snow. It finally stopped falling after around 3 feet.  It's turned to winter all right....

And a Baby Makes Three...

Three little Harmon kids, that is.

And many more sweet moments to come!