grapefruit=love

Who peels their grapefruit? Anyone who is serious about eating it without sugar, I'll venture to say. And it is so delicious! However, it is a LOT of work.

Well, I have shared my love for Key lime juice, now, I also really love grapefruit, especially while pregnant with my last child, Gideon. As it happens I had a craving for the two together.

Back when I was on bed rest my mom peeled an entire bag of grapefruit from Costco and put it in Tupperware in the fridge for me, so I could have it when ever the craving struck me.

This is love folks.

While I do really like grapefruit...

I'm talking about my mom and her love for me. There are so many ways that we can show our love, real love, not that sentiment that is only expressed on contrived holidays such as Valentine's Day. My mom chose to share it, not only by watching my kids with my dad and taking care of all the meals and clean-up while I was on bed rest and Gary was in FL on his last trip, but also by standing at the sink for who knows how long peeling me a bunch of grapefruit.

Gary's Valentines

At Gary's work this year they did an old fashioned Valentine exchange. I got pretty excited about it. Gary had the idea to use the picture from our fun last year.

Of course I had to change it up a little.

What are you talking about? That stands for Valentines Day.

What is a valentine without something sweet?

We had some Jelly Bellys and I had seen this nifty little thing to make your own "bags" and so I set to work. Only, I didn't twist them.
Decorating some paper with stamps

double sided taping the edges and crimping them shut

into neat little packages

Then I stapled the packages to the Valentine Card and sweet....

And Olea and I decorated a Kleenex box for him.
Gary commented, "you are having way too much fun with this." I was, I really was!
He was a good sport. :)

He handed them out at work and everything... and got some good laughs out of people. A group of CS guys that got moved to a different building put up his Valentine where all the truckers could see it. "Who's that guy?" they kept asking.

I'm so glad he indulged me.

Validation

Warning: this post contains no pictures. Get over it. It has some links to pictures though. :)

There are lots of things we do in life. Some of them, or most of them go unnoticed and lots of those unnoticed things are the things that keep life running. That's okay.

There are also lots of loosing battles we choose to fight... or at least play at. I'm sure you can think of plenty of them in your own life in hobbies, parenting, life, etc.

My Tatties, is probably one of those, I likely will never make enough money to have a viable business out of it. That's okay. I do it because I think it is a good idea, because I like to do it and because I believe in the quality and value of what I do. The other day my Dad had somethings to say about the business end of it, how it was probably a loosing battle, because of the time and love I invest in it. While monetarily that may be true, it isn't true for the validation and the joy I get out of doing it. Sometimes, someone really gets it and loves them at least half as much as I do, and for that it is worth it. Also being able to do something and create something is a thrill, that I think we all need to experience that on whatever level of creativity we entertain. I love to be able to teach people to tat. Or to share with them the things that I am able to create. I sell them because I do have to recoup some cost and because lots of people have encouraged me to do so. I love the challenge of creating a new pattern and now have quite a few that I can call my own.

At different stages of my life different avenues of creativity, or the ability to use my skills have presented themselves and I have enjoyed the opportunities. Aside from tatting I love to edit photos, design, create wedding announcements, sew, draw, paint, knit, crochet, ceramics, re-purpose/ renew and learn more about all these options and have the opportunities to share my skills or exercise them.

We all do something that internally brings us joy. But it doesn't hurt to have outside validation. I never took on a job that implemented my Bachelor's Degree in the formal sense. So when I get an opportunity to do a graphic design job, it is a thrill for me. It is a form of validation that most people get when they are hired to do a job in their field.

I chose to be a mom first and so my validation in this way comes in small doses. A freelance job here, a Tattie sale there, a well received gift... That's fine. I enjoy what I chose.

The Birthday Party

Before Gideon was born Zurich and I were talking about his birth. Zurich had some funny things to say. One conversation went like so:

Zurich was cuddling on the couch with me this morning rubbing my belly. We were talking about the baby. Zurich said "When baby is born they cut the pooh."
"They cut the umbilical cord; it's not pooh, I guess it looks like it though."-c
"And then they stir and stir the pooh." -z
"No, there is no pooh!"-c
"Baby brother has no bum!?"-z
Well, that's jumping to conclusions don't you think!?

In the beginning of January Zurich asked me when his baby brother will be here.
I told him that it wasn't his birthday yet.
Then he asked me if we could have cake on "baby broder's birfday"
That made perfect sense to me. And thanks to his Uncle Cim it was arranged nicely so when the kids came the next day to visit us in the hospital we had some football themed cupcakes to have a party with. We did just have a birthday after all!

Thanks Uncle Cim. Zurich really liked the cupcakes and the neato toys on them too. :)

Two Birthdays!

Last Friday was Gary's 31st birthday. He thought it would be awesome to have the baby on his birthday. I had told a friend that the 4th or the 10th was when I expected the little boy to come, just due to my history of having babies 5 days early... so depending if we went off the due date or the latest ultrasound due date is where the 4th or 10th came from.

Friday I woke up with a plan since I knew I was going to have the baby soon there were a few things I wanted done, such as making bread and making dinner for Gary so he wouldn't have to cook on his birthday. So when he called at 5:30 and was slow leaving work and still had some shopping to do I was bummed. I had also been on my feet for the majority of the day and all though the bread and the dinner was made, when he suggested picking up Papa Johns on the way home I didn't protest. Saurkraut Soup is always better the next day anyway.

So knowing we had more time I got a bit more adventurous with the kids and took them down to the studio to let them make cards for Gary. In the process I broke my C plate for my Cuttlebug, trying to hurry things along before Nev started ripping all the hearts in half. Zurich was very excited for the "cake" part of the birthday and kept talking about the "ghost cake" as he made his card.

We brought up the cards and set the table. I had finally found the photos I had printed out for Gary's new wallet and included them. Once again, I was giving him an IOU card. I owed him skiing for his birthday.

About 6:30 my water leaked, but I wasn't having any contractions that were consistent or concerning so I kept that information to myself and figured we'd go ahead with the birthday celebrations. Gary got home and we ate and then he and the kids played together while we waited for his parents to arrive. I sat back and watched and kept a quiet eye on the contractions.


When Gary's parents arrived I warned his Mom, "I'm pretty sure we're having the baby this weekend."
We ate Gary's carrot cake... Zurich wasn't as excited about that kind of cake, for the record.

About halfway through my cake I leaned over to Gary and said, "After this we better go to the hospital."
"What?"
"I had a water leak."
"Really?"
"Ya pretty sure."
"You're serious? When?"
"A while ago, like 6:30 or something."
"Why didn't you tell me?"
"It wasn't relevant at the time. I wasn't having contractions and I was hungry."

As we gathered stuff up he kept saying, "You bad kid. Why didn't you tell me?"

After he read his card I said, "I did get you something but it isn't here yet speaking of Gideon and what I had ordered from Amazon." Ya, I can be cryptic like that.

We headed to the hospital and Gary, knowing that I would want it later took this pic.

Can I tell you how happy I was to see that little ph strip turn blue? We were checked into a room at midnight. I told Gary to take a nap, I'd let him know when I needed him.

However, contractions weren't doing much even though they had fully ruptured my membranes... so we started oxytocin at 2 am. I took notes of the evening up to that point on my ipod touch and then finished tatting a wreath (after having to untat, because I wasn't paying enough attention during an uncomfortable contraction).

At 2:30 I transitioned to the ball, and contractions started to hurt.

During transition I picked up my tatting again in between contractions. I had a goal to finish a Lucky Shamrock for Gideon before he was born. I did it too. :) Yup kid, you can tell them that your mom was tatting while you were being birthed... er something.

At 3:10 I was ready to have the baby. However, Gideon had a pretty large cranium and even larger shoulders so it took some work and a little time. So Gary didn't get to share his birthday, but pretty darn close!

He is the biggest baby so far. Just out doing his big brother by 1 oz, and 1 inch. Their heads both measured 37 cm. Happy Birthday Gary!

Our midwife was awesome. I love the midwives at the New Beginnings Clinic in Orem.

Gideon after his first bath.

Hospital mug shot

Gideon with his Lucky Shamrock

Gideon was ten days early and measured large for his gestational age and had low blood sugar, which was monitored but by the time we left the hospital it was all good.