Happy Birthday, Ethan!

I can't believe it's been a whole month since I last blogged! When it rains - it pours. And well lately it's just been raining busy! But I have to do a short blog in honor of my baby, Ethan. Well as of yesterday he's not a baby anymore. Five years ago yesterday our youngest was born at Riverview Hospital in Noblesville, Indiana. It was a scheduled C-section so of course I had my hair done and my make-up on and my nails done. (These are luxuries you take when you know when your baby is arriving.) The house was completely ready for the new baby to arrive. The one thing I wasn't totally prepared for is what happened following the C-section. Ethan was born 7 lbs. 12 ozs. and 19 inches long. He cried a hearty cry and had great color. They kept me on the table to finish sewing me up and Jason went with our new baby boy and the nurses to the nursery to clean the baby up and show him off to the family eagerly waiting on the other side of the glass in the nursery waiting room. The rest of it Jason told me about later. My best friend Lynne had been present during the operation, a freak blessing due to the timing of her finishing her clinicals, and she was with Jason as he carried Ethan down the hall. She happened to notice Ethan's color changing. The nurses quickly took him and began giving him oxygen. They discovered that Ethan's lungs weren't fully developed and the more he breathed the weaker his lungs became. He didn't have the lubricant on the inside of the lungs that keep them from sticking together when you breathe. So they rushed him to Riley Children's Hospital and hooked him to several tubes and machines. Jason stayed with him there until they let me leave my hospital a day and a half later. That was the longest and loneliest day and a half I've ever had. Ethan was very touch and go for the first week. When I first saw him I couldn't stop the tears. He had a machine breathing for him that made his chest pump up and down in a very mechanical way. He had patches over his eyes because he couldn't have anything stimulating at all - we couldn't even touch him at first. His body was all puffy and swollen from the morphene they were sedating him with. He didn't look anything like the baby I had just welcomed to the world a day and a half earlier. They told us a few times that he might not make it. A few times it truly looked like they might be right. They also told us that he would likely spend 2 or 3 months in the hospital. But we prayed and believed that he'd be healed and be home by Thanksgiving. God is great!!! The day before Thanksgiving we took him home! He never had to go back again. Just a few follow-up checks and one year later they gave him a clean bill of health!! God is faithful! Thank you Jesus for giving us our wonderful little Jason look-a-like!

Oh, what a man!

Blogs are for bragging, right? It's been a hectic couple of weeks so I've gotten behind on blogging again. But I wanted to jump on and add a "brag" really quick. For those of you who might not know what Jason does - well he's an Economic Development Director. It basically means that he works for our city government and oversees several areas that all lead to bettering the economic future of Kokomo. He certainly doesn't do it all alone! But I think that is part of what's so special about him. He not only compassionately and skillfully leads his own staff but he also works with many other community leaders and organizations. Very often I will meet someone from Kokomo that will say something like, "Oh, I know your husband! He worked with us on (insert community project here)! He had such great ideas! He's really smart! He was so great to work with!" OK so all those quotes has exclamations! Not everyone is as dramatic as me. But in general they all seem to be genuinely impressed by his intelligence and charm. He impresses me! Last week he was interviewed by a local business TV show. He just seemed so natural and humble and charming. Can you tell I'm a little biased? Well I am! I think he's Mr. Wonderful! If you'd like to see how biased I am then you can watch his TV interview. Just go to http://www.insideindianabusiness.com/the_show.asp?ID=368 and click on the top story. You'll learn a little about Kokomo and get to watch the most handsome man on Indiana television!

Misery loves company!

OK, I am such a bad person! I just read my friend, Michelle's, blog. I must say I smiled and smirked to know that she has had a similar week to mine. I know it's mean, but you see, she is just perfect in so many ways...and well knowing she also isn't a morning person gives me slight enjoyment. My husband has also been gone this week. I wrote in my last blog how I was gathering myself up and changing my attitude because I had been quite the baby because he was getting to go to New York and not me. OK - the truth is that this has turned into a week long battle. At times I've swayed from good attitude to bad attitude as fast as within 15 minutes periodically. There you have it. I feel like the Apostle Paul when he says, "the things I want to do I don't do, and the things I don't want to do I do." If you just inserted "feel" in there everytime it says "do" you'd have some insight into my internal battle this week. I'm not as smart as Michelle. I guess I keep thinking that if I don't go to bed then he's not really gone. It's so silly! I know that I'll be the one with the kids the whole next day - and it's not fair to have a sleepy mommy. A sleepy mommy is a grumpy mommy in our house. My boys are so funny. They get up in the middle of the night and they stealthily walk into my room and then just stand at the side of the bed until I wake up. So it's always a startling wake up while I whisper out loudly, "who's there?" I don't know why I ask because it's always one of the boys- but I have to admit it scares me everytime. But I am such a sleepy head that I don't get up and walk them back to their bed. I just pull back the covers and let them in. Grace just sleeps quietly in her own bed. Did I say quietly? Oh I forgot to mention that she often talks loudly or yells out in her sleep. She's such a social child that she must dream of playing with her friends because I'll be sound asleep and then she'll yell out, "I'm next!" Or, "Will!" Sometimes she just laughs really loud. It suddenly wakes me up and I sit straight up in bed and it takes me a minute to figure out what just happened. As loudly as Jason snores you'd think that when he's gone I'd sleep like a baby. But I don't. And just like Michelle I spend most of the morning with the coffee cup pressed against my lips. I even decorated my kitchen in coffee decor. So now I'm sitting here singing, "The best part of waking up...is Foldgers in my cup!"
Please go to the following connection and enjoy! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5KBhtHbJNF0

Or if you really love mornings like me and Michelle...watch this one!!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vt8QmhllSuk