Just as Busy!

Since my last post, things have not let up. In fact, things are even crazier than before. My dad has moved the big items, and most everything else is taken care of. We decided to go through some of my mom's things later in the summer, so those things are staying. I painted Amberlea's room hot pink on 3 walls, and lime green on the other wall. As of right now, if you go in the room, you will look a shade of pink or green. So I am anxious to get all the decor and bedding in there, and I know it will look nice. Tye's room is done (thanks to Karis). It is Royals blue on the bottom and gray on the top. The gray is a little darker than I wanted. I went back and had white added twice, and it is better. It isn't terribly dark, and will look nice, but I still think it is darker than I had invisioned. The only thing left in there is a chair rail, which will get taken care of in the midst of Rachel's room being built. Which is another thing...I am getting bids for her room and trying not to spend a fortune on a bedroom for a 13 year-old!

I've been meeting myself coming and going for about 10 days now. I shouldn't even be writing on here because I need to pack, or sleep. I am super excited about moving and being at the same address where my mom grew up, where my grandparents were for so many years, where I played as a child, and where my mom and dad lived when she died.

My dad took a full load in the pick-up tonight, along with the trailer. And yet, it doesn't look like anything is missing really! Sheesh! He took the bikes and play toys, deck furniture and mowers. I am very anxious to just be done with all the shifting. Even if I'm not all the way unpacked, that will come this summer. I just want to get this house cleared out.

I don't know the buyers, but it sounds like they are really excited to move in. I even got some mail for them already today, even though we don't close until Monday.

I will post pictures of the new rooms when I have the chance, hopefully soon.

Super Busy...Quick Update

Super Duper Busy

House sold! Praise God! Closing on May 3rd. Moving Dad out hopefully on the 24th and us in on May 1. Whew!

Painted Amberlea's room today. I believe the colors were yellow lettuce and pink singe (aka lime green and hot pink). Wow! The pink is a bit darker than I thought I wanted, but it is really what Amberlea wanted, so it will be perfect. One wall is green, the other are pink. At least her room will be ready to go. I will post pictures when she is all settled.

While I was painting the lime green, Tye came in and said...is this Rachel's room?

No, it's Amberlea's.

I thought it was going to be Rachel's.

No, we are building Rachel a room.

Oh.

(Silence, kind of in awe of the green)...I really don't think Papa is going to like you painting this wall this color.

I'm buying the house, remember? It won't be Papa's house anymore.

Oh, ok. But...will he still be our Papa?

Just Gettin' Our Groove On!

Today was a great day for Amberlea's birthday, and we had lots of fun. I will post pictures of all the birthdays later, but I just had to get some of this video up to see.

I got Amberlea the Wii Just Dance game.

It was a hit, and we all got in some major exercise after school. We even got Papa Paul involved in the Eye of the Tiger, which was a full aerobic workout! I forgot to charge up the Wii remotes, so we couldn't all dance at the same time at the beginning.

Below is one of Amberlea's first attempts.

Then Tye gets his groove on! (Rachel refused to dance infront of the camera).

And I couldn't resist showing another one!

Dance off is coming soon!

My Sweet Amberlea

It has been a loooonnnnggg wait for my sweet Amberlea.  While all 3 kids have birthdays in February, poor Amberlea's is last.  Finally today is the day!  She is not too happy that she was born at 9:46pm because she told me today that means she only gets 2 hours and 14 minutes for her birthday!  Then she asked about basically everyone I could think of, wanting to know the time of day they were born.  Pretty much everyone was born earlier in the day than that! Ha!

I would be lying if I completely sugar coated the story of Amberlea's birth.  So I will just preface this story and say that if it doesn't seem as glamorous and exciting as Rachel's birth, that has nothing to do with Amberlea.  It has everything to do with the fact that things were not good between Tim and me, and frankly a lot of Amberlea's birth was a blur because I was just trying to survive what was happening in my marriage.  On top of that, my Grandma Eickholt, who I was very close to, died suddenly when Amberlea was 9 days old.  So all of that time in my life just ran together.  Anyway, there are a lot of things I don't want to share, but I'll do my best to share with you the joy this child brought to my life.

So here goes...

I had a miscarriage in November 1998.  The pregnancy was a complete surprise, especially considering that it took almost 9 months to get pregnant with Rachel.  We had about enough time to share our excitement before I lost the baby.  We started trying again after Christmas, and when I found out I was pregnant in June, we were pleasantly surprised to find out we were due in February again, this time on Feb. 29.

I could copy and paste some of Rachel's birth story here because once again, I didn't go into labor the way I thought I would.  I had things set for a sub at the end of the month, but on Feb. 9 when I went to my appointment, she told me I better get things ready because I was already at a 3. My sub was quite surprised too, and we had to have a fast meeting over the weekend to make sure things were set.  I was scheduled for my next appointment a week later on Feb. 16.

On Valentine's Day, I made homemade pizza, and we spent a nice evening together.  I had a lot of contractions, enough that we were counting and thinking this was going to be it.  But just when they started getting closer together, then they started spreading apart again and eventuall stopped.  I thought sure I would have to call Tim to come home from work that night.  But the night came and went, and so did the next day.

We scheduled the basketball pizza party for Feb. 16 (when I still coached), and so I stayed after school for that.  I had a 4:30 appointment, so I came home to get Tim.  By then he was working nights at Eveready, so he had just gotten up.  I had a pizza from the party, and he ate it on the way to the appointment.  I will say that I was feeling a little funny all day, no contractions, no real pains, just an odd feeling.  So when she checked me and I was between a 6 and 7, she kind of freaked out and told me to go straight to the hospital.  At this point there were no contractions, and she was concerned that my water would break and boom, there would be a baby.  We had to get Rachel where she needed to go, so we ran to the sitter's and then took her to my parents' house.  I just never thought it would happen the same way again, just being checked into the hospital because I was dialated so far.  I guess I should have been more prepared.  When we arrived at the hospital, it was nearly 6pm, and my doctor was actually there waiting for me.  I barely was checked in and she just went ahead and broke my water.  When you are dialated to 7 (by this point), there for sure is no going back.  They barely got me on the monitor when my contractions started up.

As I said before, Amberlea was by far my most difficult labor, yet the shortest.  I was having contractions by 6:30pm and she was born at 9:46pm.  When I started pushing, I remember being so surprised that it was over so fast.  Thank God because the pain was way worse than with Rachel.  And my pain after having her was way worse too.  I barely had any pain after Rachel, and with Amberlea I was doubled over in pain.

So back to Amberlea.  I thought she was a boy.  I didn't hope she was a boy.  I didn't have any way of knowing.  I just thought.  I was very surprised when the doctor told us it was a girl!  I was super excited to use her name.  Tim and I chose Rachel really soon after I found out I was pregnant with her.  Finding names for Amberlea was very difficult.  Our relationship had greatly deteriorated since he started working at Eveready, and we didn't spend much time doing anything to get ready for this baby.  I am thankful that Tim put up the crib and helped get the baby's room ready over Christmas break.  How we came about Amberlea's name is kind of by accident.  When I was pregnant with Rachel, Tim said he didn't want any names that started with A since our last name started with an A.  With Amberlea, I was at a loss on what to name her.  I wanted something unique and beautiful.  Rachel's boy name Ryan Timothy evolved into Cole Timothy for this pregnancy.  Early in the fall before her birth, we were out for dinner at A&G and there was a girl there named Amberlee (I think that is how it was spelled).  I just asked Tim if he liked the name, and he just replied yes.

Then a few weeks later I brought up baby names, and out of the blue he said...what about that name Amberlee, how would we spell it?  I hadn't thought about it again, and I was excited and surprised that he was interested in it.  I said...I'm not sure about that.  I liked Amberleigh, kind of.

Tim and I had used sentimental names for Rachel's middle name JoAnn after my mom Ann, and my grandpa Joe.  Tim's middle name came from his grandpa, and we still wanted to have something like that for this baby.  The next thing we knew, we had concocted Amberlea Jean Elizabeth.  Amberlea pronounced like Kimberly, with no emphasis on the lea part, as in it is not two separate names like Amber LEE.  I know that sounds funny, but we fight that even now.  We also agreed NOT to call her Amber, and that has stuck.  If anyone calls her that, we just politely correct them, the same as someone who is called Jennifer and someone calls her Jenni but she never goes by that, or Steve when his name is Steven. The LEE became LEA from my sister Karis Lea Ann.  And no, Amberlea is not Amber LEE A, or Amber LEAH.  I checked the phonetic makeup of her name before we named her, and we are correct in pronouncing Amberlea with just the LEE sound at the end. I have argued it, believe me.  Amberlea started out as Amberlea Elizabeth (my other sister Erin's middle name), but then I didn't want to leave out Tim's sister.  So we started experimenting with her name, Tammy Jean, and hoped we could find a way to fit Jean in.  I tried hyphenating, putting the Jean first and then last, everything.  I was concerned because Karis had 2 middle initials, and I knew that the 2nd one is rarely recognized, so she is usually Karis L.  I finally figured there was no way to avoid this, and knew that anything that really mattered would allow her to be Amberlea J. E. Sure enough, she gets just the J. quite often, but anytime I am asked for a middle initial, I always put both.

Tim and I were very proud to name our baby girl after our 3 sisters.  We were also very thankful there were just 3 sisters so she didn't have a massive last name.  She already ended up with over 1/2 of the alphabet in her name!

We were also very excited that she had hair! Black hair!  Not the full head of hair, but hair, nonetheless, as opposed to Rachel's bald head!  I figured Amberlea would end up with blonde hair, but so far after 10 years, it is still dark brown.  She weighed 7lbs. 6oz. and I think she was 19 3/4 in.  She was a very good baby, and I would not have survived my life falling apart in the coming months if it wouldn't have been for her. 

Tim left on Mother's Day weekend when Amberlea was just shy of 12 weeks.  I was nursing her, and this blessing helped me keep my head on straight.  God had a purpose for Amberlea, and in the midst of my marriage falling apart, I was reminded that Rachel and Amberlea both were products of a deep love in my heart. This baby needed me to keep it together, and I was determined to love and nurture her.  It was a rough time in our lives, and I often wonder if that is where Amberlea's temperment came from, the fact that things were so stressful during my pregnancy and also during the early months of her life.  She was full of laughter and smiles, and Tim and I are still blessed by her sense of humor, her uniqueness, and her creativity.  She teases me that she can never find pencils or other things with her name on them, and I should have known better.  I am the oldest, and my parents followed a 1973 very common name of Jennifer with a little sister named Karis, who also never found any pencils with her name on them!  We have had many compliments on Amberlea's name, and her name just seems to fit her personality.  Once when I was coaching, the team we were playing had an Amberlee. When the coach yelled her name, I was shocked because it is the only time I've heard her name used!

So how do I end this.  I read back over it, and it feels like so much is missing.  I want to say that while things were indeed falling apart with Tim and me, this was a very special time for us, and one we will both always cherish.  She came into our lives at seemingly a rough time, but brought so many blessings and warmed our hearts.   Her big sister was quite smitten with her, and I am thankful everyday for having Amberlea in my life. I used to think that Amberlea missed out on so much, she was robbed of some basic things that should have happened in her life as a baby...then other times I think that those material things and anything I think she might have missed don't matter because what really matters is that Tim and I love her very much, and we have since we found out she was on the way, and especially the moment we laid eyes on her.

Allergies Persist

We were making Tye's lunch for SACC on Friday, since he had to go there while I was in KC at a meeting (no school).  I have several varieties of yogurt, and when I grabbed one, he said...I'm allergic to that.

Really!?

So I started saying...Tye, you aren't allergic to it. You might not like that flavor or something but you aren't allergic.  (I continued on.)

He looked really puzzled, kind of furrowed his eye brow, and said...well Mom, I AM allergic to bobcats.

Huh!?

How do you know that?

Well, Papa has this neighbor that has a brown and white horse that got scratched by a bobcat! And I'm pretty sure that I AM allergic to bobcats.

Good to know.

Ahh...the Love of a Sister!

I was gone for a little while yesterday to go back to school and finish my midterms. The girls were home alone. I think all went well, as nothing caught on fire!


Amberlea told me this morning...Rachel saved my life!

I was thinking, what? Rachel kind of smiled and said...I showed her how to change her paper to double-spacing instead of single.

Lol! Amberlea is so dramatic!

I was impressed that Rachel helped her with her newest state project, and we will just ignore the fact that Rachel saved Amberlea's paper as stupidstatereport.doc. I guess she was trying to save it and Amberlea said...call it Texas. And Rachel said...how about the stupid state report? Amberlea laughed when she told me and said...I told her, that works for me!

Share the love...

Tye Laughs

Tye was snuggling with me this morning and we started talking about all kinds of things.

T: So you remember right, that I am going to keep living with you until I am 27?

M: Yes, I remember (not worth arguing about because I know he will change his mind, at least I hope so)

T: Well, I've been thinking that I should change that to 29, or even 30.

Super.

T: I'm going to marry you.

M: I know you love me so much honey, but you can't marry your mom.

T: But why?

M: Because I will be too old for you, and I will always be your mom, not your wife.

T: When I have kids you can be their grandma, ok?

M: And I can take care of your kids when you take your wife on a date.

T: Date! I can't go on a date! I don't have any money and I don't have a job!

So true...