No more pencils no more books no more students dirty looks!!!

I'm done!!!!! I can't believe the year is over it went so fast. I think I'm getting better, at the end of this year there wasn't the uncontrollable face twitching, 0-angry in .05 seconds, or the desperate need to lock myself in my man cave until the shaking stopped. I think it is sad that with 90 plus students that I didn't get to know some of them better. Some kids are so quiet that they go under the radar. One boy was this way, we hardly had a one on one conversation the whole year, until he started coming in for some early morning tutoring. I found out that he was really funny and very smart, he caught on so fast. It made me stop to wonder how many other opportunities had I missed, students that I could have gotten to know. I am ending up this year wishing I had more time. But isn't that life though, so many chances and potential experiences and only so much time. Any way I'm loving getting to spend so much time with Jenn and Little E. I have to tell you she has the cutest hiccups, they sound like a little frog croaking. Here are some of our latest pics. Jenn wants to make a book of pictures of the hand of the special people in her life holding her hand. And by the way when mom was here she wanted to try slicing a milk jug with a sword. I have to tell you she was perfect!
-Michael

Lots of Great Pictures!

Here you go Amber! Now stop bugging me!! j/k

Bath time! How sad!!!

A visit from Little E's cousin Alexis and her friend Josh

Jeepers! Creepers! Where'd you get them Peepers?

Glow little glow worm! Glimmer Glimmer!

Grandma Phyllis' first visit

Getting ready to leave the hospital

Billy Goat Gruff and the Glow Worm

Well, I am back and feeling like a new woman!!!! I can't believe how lucky our little family has been. Michael's mom came down and has been a total angel helping out around the house and with the baby, and my mom is right next door. I am so spoiled!

I have had a really great recovery. I honestly feel a million times better than I did while I was pregnant. I can eat whatever I want without thinking, "how will this taste when I deal with it again on the way back up?" Its wonderful.

Our darling baby has had a bit of jaundice that we have been battling. So on Saturday the doctor sent us up a Billy Blanket. It is a box connected to a light that we have to keep against her skin about 23 of the 24 hours in the day. The light is a fun color of blue that helps to break down the Billy Rubin in her bloodstream. When we hooked it up we came up with a new nickname for her. She is now our little glow worm.

We also had a grand time giving Little E her first bath. It was really fun, for us at least. She seemed to think that we just wanted to torture her. :( But her hair has a lot of natural curl in it! It looks strait most of the time, but when you get it wet it curls into a hundred little ringlets.

Little E is turning out to be the perfect little baby. She only wakes up twice during the night to feed, and then goes right back to sleep. We have been working hard to help her stay awake and happy as much as we can during the day, so that she will rest more at night. But when she does wake up its really sweet because she smiles a lot. Its always at something in midair, we think that maybe she is seeing some of her old friends or something. :)

May 21st 2008!

On may 21st at 3:37 am Jenn gave birth to our daughter! Isn't she adorable!! She started having regular contractions at 2:30 pm on may 20th but they were 7 minutes apart and not very intense, in fact she had a hard time even deciding if she had had one or not. Jen had been dilated to a 3 1/2 for a week or so, and earlier that day she had her membranes stripped. It seemed as if fate was converging that day since it was a full moon, a low pressure system had just come in, and to top it all off that's right a thunder and lightning storm was brewing! Jenn's family decided to help things along by taking her on a vigorous walk at around 10:00 pm. We got about 25 yards out of the house when Jenn suddenly stopped. Connie's first thought was " You disobedient child! Let's get a move on we've got some walking to do and I want to see my grand baby!" Then Jenn informed us that her water had just broke! We waddled back to the house in top waddling gear. After that the contractions kicked into high gear coming at a regular 4 minutes apart and with power too. Soon we were rushing off to hospital! It was so hard for me not to gun it and go 100 the whole way there! We got all checked in at around 12:00. When the nurses check her she was at a loose 6 and she could feel a head full of hair. They filled the jacuzzi tub for her and in about an hour she went from a 6 to a 9 1/2 ! She would have stayed longer but she let slip that she was getting the urge to push. So we zipped her back to the room. I have to tell you it was amazing. The mid wife just let her body do what it was made to do, no drugs or other interventions were needed. The feeling in the room was calm and focused at the same time. There were no doctors rushing around, just quiet intensity as Jenn did her amazing stuff. After the baby was born Jenn said "That was it? I thought it would be harder". I couldn't believe the feeling of holding that bundle of pink and squirming arms and legs and knowing she was ours! She was 20 inches long and 8lb and 1 oz. and a very healthy baby, she is very musical too. She was so full things to say grunting about this and that. She has a great blond Mohawk!! Mother and daughter are still in the hospital and might come home today or tomorrow. I'm sure Jenn will want to write about it from her point of view soon. But until then this will have to do.
 -Michael

Maternity Shots

Well we finally have Internet again! We are all moved into our new home and will be putting up pictures of out new digs shortly. In the meantime we hope this will help fill you in. We have a wonderful neighbor who wanted to practice her photography. So she asked if we could model for her. Well we were happy to oblige. Let us know what you think of her work so we can give her some good feedback.

-Michael