Happy Birthday to Me

Another Prime birthday (geek joke).  I had two parties, one at home today, with taco salad--a pedestrian name for something exquisite, especially John's fresh salsa and Amy's homemade lime cilantro salad dressing.  And triple chocolate cake, which always makes me look this way:

Amy and I went to a party yesterday in SLC, which included a visit to Colette's school art fair.  Johnathan and Colette showed off their mad playground skillz, as a prologue to the festivities.

We saw Colette's class' projects, played games, ate treats, and watched performances at Ensign Elementary.  We had pasta, pizza, and chocolate brownies at home when the fair became just too exciting to bear.  Rob gave me a set of four vampire movies, and Nicolle gave me a succulent planting which she had put together.  When I brought it home, John found a tiny plastic snake to add to the collection.

Today Betsy, Ellie,

and Ethan came to lunch, along with Amy, Jamison, and Dex.

We sat out in the sun and the rain with the kitties.

I might need to rename Claudio "Cheshire" (he sort of looks like it, except for the lack of a smile), because

my Alice statue finally arrived.  As you can see, I need to decide on siting, what sort of base to use, how to do the garden around her, etc.

Lots more fun presents, including music from John, a Mary Poppins bag of fun stuff from Grandma Gene, and a date in with Amy.  Betsy's going to help me find a base or plinth for the Alice statue.

But best present and last of all, we caught Ellie's first real smile on camera!  She was talking to Amy:

and had a lot to say:

although some of it wasn't that interesting:

Still, what a cutie.  Three weeks old.

Betsy promised she was going to post pix on her blog, so check it out.

Advent of Rayen Elizabeth

Amy and I left Provo at 4:30 pm (16:30), and Amy stayed back with Ethan while Betsy, Brett, and I drove up to the hospital.  Right after we got there it was snowing outside.  We were in the same room where Ethan was born. No drama as there was with Ethan--no gas leaks and threatened evacuation.  Things were pretty slow for awhile.

Things were pretty slow for a long while.  

Brett went home for a nap.  By early morning, things were heating up again.  This (below) is not Betsy's natural resting smile:

At 6:16 we texted Brett to come back.  And hurry.

Taking a tiny break before the final lap:

Dr. Bennett, who made it there even after Brett:

Rayen Elizabeth, born 6:55 a.m. Feb 17, 2011.  Weight 9 lbs 1 oz, height 21 inches.  Blond, curly hair (but the curly probably won't last, as both parents and Ethan have straight hair).  At 9 lbs she is all filled out and cute as a button.  Her skin is perfectly translucent, and it was so interesting to see her change color when she was born and as she cried, from blue to purple to white to red.  Oxygenated blood! She seems to me, at home now as the grandma downstairs, to sleep quite a lot.  She had no difficulty learning to latch on--I suppose some of that had to do with being Betsy's second.

 Hello Ellie!  Welcome to the world. 

Daddy Brett caught her on the way out, and snipped the cord, and took her for her first check-over, and helped with her bath.

 The new room was nice--in the new hospital wing, with a beautiful view.  The best view was of the ladies:

Ethan came to visit.  Of everyone involved, he will probably have the hardest adjustment.

Thank you to Brett and Betsy for letting me be there.  I am honored.  I love you all.

Betsy and Ellie's Baby Shower

So Betsy's having a baby, in case you didn't know. Due February 13, and named Rayen Elizabeth. Big brother Ethan is excited, although it's hard to imagine what he actually envisions the baby to be, in mama's tummy. He calls the doctor's office the "baby Ellie store."

The shower was fun--a brunch with sweet fruity whipped cream and powdered sugar crepes and savory egg, pepper, mushroom and onion crepes, hot chocolate, tea, and oj (we accidentally left the yogurt sitting in the cold garage on top of the freezer).

Ethan, Betsy, (baby Ellie), and Grandma Gene were there (above), as were Rachel, Barbara, Susie, and Samantha:

Liz and Karma Sue (not sure what Karma Sue is thinking):

Amy, Rachel (again) on Mary Ann's lap, and Grandma E:

The guys (besides Ethan) came too--Alan (and Rachel--she's gets in all the photos--good thing she's so photogenic:

Grandpa declined to come into the party room, preferring to read his Kindle in peace and quiet. Notice that he did have a crepe:

Ellie got a lot of practical girl things. Amy stayed up all night finishing her a lovely crocheted receiving blanket in rose, blue, coral, yellow, and soft green. Is there a chance at all that this baby will be anything but a princess? Although Betsy was never content with the princess role--Amy could be the princess, but she was the QUEEN.

I promised Betsy I'd take a week off work and go stay at their house when Ellie comes. I've been warning my patients that we will miss a session. Hooray for granddaughters!

The Parties Are Over

...but we sure had fun. We gave up the traditional marathon present-opening with 25 people in the tiny Christmas room, and had the families open their presents whenever they arrived Christmas day. It was much more relaxed and more room to maneuver.

Ethan liked his truck from Grandpa:

Colette shows off a new book:

The next party was at J.Lynn & Tana's for Grandma E's birthday:

We ate in the well-heated garage. The California Moungas were there, and most of the Gales. Jody took two and a half hours driving through horizontal snow to get from Provo to the Farm, and Damien hadn't made it back from Utah County due to an accident on the freeway. John and I made it home by driving behind a semi at 35 mph after the fog had blown away. I was thankful not to be driving from Houston to Utah and back this year, as we did for several Christmases in the past. Much better to drive 40 miles than 1400 (or however many it is).

Into October

John, Sergene, and I went for a picnic at Nunn's Park today between conference sessions. Thanks to Mary Ann J. for the picnic basket--isn't it cute?

The reds are not as red as usual, probably because of the lack of rain this month. We're supposed to get rain starting tonight and continuing all week, however.

Yesterday the three of us drove the Alpine Loop, starting in American Fork Canyon, and ended up having sandwiches at Sundance. I forget how breathtaking that drive is (I also forgot my camera).

Friday John and I took off for Detroit, leaving home at 4:50 a.m., in hopes of catching a connecting flight to either Manchester NH or Burlington VT so we could go visit Janet and her husband John P. Unfortunately, by the time we didn't make our standby flight to Manchester, we also realized that we wouldn't be making any other flights, including flights through Atlanta or NYC, flights to Boston and drive 3 and 1/2 hours, or any leg of any flight home on Sunday. So we waited around for the perfectly open flight back to SLC that evening. While in the airport John worked on his computer in peace, I walked from one end of the (interminable) terminal to the other end and back for my exercise, we had a nice Mexican lunch and a nice sandwich dinner, and we each got to watch our separate movie in the relatively roomy bulkhead seats on the way back, so it wasn't a total loss. In fact it was at least mildly fun.

But we decided that our best use of Rob's free flight perk (or is it perq, for perquisite? I never know how to spell it) is to decide when we have flexible time and then look around to see which direct flights to whatever city are open on the day we want to leave and on the day we want to come back--and by open, I mean at least 30 unsold seats. That leaves a lot of options but requires us to be a little more flexible and spontaneous than we're used to. Then if we don't make any of the flights, we just go out to lunch in Salt Lake and drive home. Easy!

The other nice thing in our lives right now is refinancing into the new extremely low mortgage interest rates. Just when I was starting to panic at my inability to save $1K per month for my share of the family budget when we're in England next year, we looked into refinancing our mortgages, and discovered that we can move from 5.5% on our main mortgage and from 8% on our second mortgage to a combined rate of 3.37% and drop our monthly expenses by about $1K! Whew! And if we pay a couple hundred of that directly into the principal every month, we'll be debt-free even faster! I don't know why we didn't think of it before, except we're both financially sub-literate. The only trouble is we have four separate and mutually exclusive ideas for that extra money every month. Or maybe I mean overlapping. Four separate places to spend the same money, anyway. So we'll probably still go bumbling cluelessly along as usual, but with a little more financial flexibility.

I'm still doing well with my fitness and diabetic eating program, although it's harder to not eat more carbs since John has started making bread. I know, isn't that great! He's already taken over the drying and bottling of produce from the garden (I'll have to take a picture of our fruit room), but now he's taking up baking! He made his first batch--five loaves--of whole wheat bread today, and it's delicious. And he cleans the house at least as thoroughly as I do and does his own laundry. Soon the only homemaking advantage I have will be that I can (and do) make a better bed. I don't mind.

Tomorrow we're having his birthday party by eating out at a Korean restaurant and coming home for angel food cake with 7 Minute Frosting. Yeah, yuck, but he loves it.

We're Going to Have a Wake

Everyone with an interest in my uterus will be invited--past interest, alas, as my uterus and its accouterments are now on their way to the biopsy lab, where we will discover if the organ which is now dead has any chance of coming back and biting me on the butt. That would be the Zombie Uterus.

I think I'll bake a Uterus Cake, since the original will sliced, diced, frozen, and unavailable for viewing. With pink and brown frosting, and Red Vines licorice for the fallopian tubes. We will each tell stories of our experiences with my uterus (to a point), and maybe sing a dirge. Amy and I were trying to pick a song last night. Maybe "Suite Judy Blue Eyes:"

It's getting to the point

Where you're no fun anymore.

I am sorry.

Sometimes it hurts

So badly I must cry out loud.

I am lonely.

I am yours. You are mine.

You are what you are---

And you make it ha-aa-aard.

Sunday morning, Tuesday in the afternoon.

What have you got to lo-o-ose.

Friday evening. Please begone, I'm tired of you.

What have I got to lo-o-ose, & etc.

For those of you not familiar with 70's rock and Crosby Stills Nash & Young, check the Youtube link above.

Well my lunch is here (at Utah Valley Regional Medical Center) and John is eating my jello, so I'll continue this later. Thanks to all for your best wishes and prayers.

Grandpa's 78th

Rob, Colette, and Johnathan went with me to The Farm for Grandpa E's birthday party. The kids liked playing outside on Aunt Tena's airplane (above) and indoors with the Wii. They also liked the trampoline, the forest, the gardens, the lane, the bull, the haystack, etc.
Grandma E's new bridge over the stream:
Johnathan goes fishing:
Happy birthday Grandpa!
Grandma E:
Rob and Johnathan at the pond:
Looking for fish:
Colette holds the rainbow:

Grandpa E and Jody:
Tena, Teane, and Johnathan:
Cindy and Grandma E:
We decided to go fireless, even though it was cool after the sun went down.
Rob and Colette:
It rained just enough to cool things off and give us the lovely rainbow.