Lucy's Birth

Lucy was born on Monday August 24th at 5:51pm.

Many have commented to me that they wanted to know how everything went, others I'm sure don't want all the gory details, so go ahead, feel free and turn away now.

We arrived at the hospital at 7:15am, my induction was scheduled for 7:30 but I was eager to get there. They immediately got me to my room and all set up. She checked me and my cervix was at 2cm. About 8:30 they started my pitocin drip. We sat there and just waited for the contractions to begin.

We told my nurse that I usually go fast (Myah - my first - was a 8 hour labor, Brett was 5 hours and Evie was 7) but all came within thirty minutes to an hour of my water breaking, so once I go I REALLY go. So about thirty minutes later the delivery team came in and set everything up early just so we were ready to go.

Mom and Ashley arrived at the hospital sometime that morning. The next time the nurse Amy (she was AWESOME by the way) checked me I was at a good 3-4cm. This was around 11:00am. She asked me about the epidural and I went ahead and said yes. The pain was not unbearable, but considering I went from 4cm to 10 with Evie in a matter of about 45 minutes, I didn't want to gamble going through pushing without an epidural.

They came in and gave me my epidural, then doc came in and broke my water. This was around noon.

We waited.

And waited...

And waited....

2pm I was STILL at 4cm, and contractions were all over the place. Nurse Amy helped me get things going by switching the position I was sitting in. We all start to take bets on the time she will be born and the weight of the baby. The nurse even gets her bet in.

About and hour later I was between 5-6cm. This lasted for a while. They upped the pitocin. During this time Aaron arrives at the hospital and we discuss them going to meet the kids at the house when they get off the bus. My cousin Treasure has Evie, so we don't need to worry about her for a while. A&A leave to go get the kids. The school calls Brett had missed the bus. So now we call A&A and have them go to the school and pick up Brett.

Myah calls a few minutes later from home (she has a house key) in a frantic panic that her brother got left at school. Daddy calms her down and lets her know we have it all under control.

During this time my contractions became regular and STRONGER. By stronger I mean pretty unbearable. I thought I had an epidural to avoid this? I found out later these are called "breakthrough" contractions meaning the pain is so intense they break through the epidural. Nice. Didn't know these existed.

The anesthesiologist comes in and gives me more epidural. By now I'm at a good 8cm. The kids get there and I get to give them hugs and kisses before I deliver Lucy. The doctor comes in and we send the kids out in the hall with Aunt Ashley and Uncle Aaron. Now I'm ready to push. I hit my epidural button one more time just to make sure I won't feel anything (I find out later this was QUITE unnecessary I was numb for HOURS into the night).

Lucy comes out without a hitch, two pushes later. She is gorgeous and totally healthy! Doc exclaims "she has more hair than her daddy!"

My ten hour labor. The longest of them all. Who would have guessed that? All things considered it went well, but it was definitely harder than any other one I had experienced. I am so glad though to have my little girl here with us. She is a total sweetie.

Oh, one last thing I forgot to mention. Jamin comes home to get the kids ready for bed that night and the dog (the suicidal one) is all bloody and scratched up again. Just couldn't be a Miser birth without a kid missing the bus and a doggie suicide attempt...

Craigslist

I don't know what it is with me and my luck on Craigslist, but I always have THE WORST experiences.

People jerk me around, never come to pick up when they say they will, they try and get me to give them things for free, and people are just downright rude to me. It's to the point where it is just not worth the hassle to make a little bit of money.

I recently tried to sell my broken TV on Craigslist. I didn't ask much but thought someone handy could fix it. That didn't work so I just offered it for free to get it out of my garage. Once you offer something for free, the offers start FLOODING in.

There was another TV I was selling and some guy wrote me saying he wanted it. I told him ok, come and get it. FOUR days pass by and I receive an email that goes something like this:

Thank you for your quick response. Please consider the item sold to me. I will be paying you via check. I will send my delivery man to come and pick up the item. Please send directions.

Obviously this was some kind of scam. If it wasn't he was just the biggest prick I've ever seen in my life.

Also, if I find something I want, I email someone about it. They NEVER email me back, or they write me back saying it's sold. If it is sold DELETE YOUR POSTING ALL READY. Geesh.

So this lady comes by last night to look at this vanity I'm selling. Her and I have been talking over the weekend, but with our wedding, and some of her family issues we were never able to get together. She decided to come by yesterday, no problem right? She was supposed to be here at 7pm. She shows up at 9:00 at night! 9:00! Her and her daughter stand in my living room looking at it for 15 minutes. She tries to talk the 7 year old precocious girl into it, but the 7 year old is finding ALL kinds of problems with it (it's not big enough, she has to bend over too much to write on it She can't open the drawer right). I mean, are you friggin serious? You are letting your 7 year old make this decision? I don't even let my ten year old make these decisions on furniture.

They leave, said they will let me know today if they want it. I think she is going to try and talk her daughter into buying it. At this point I don't care if they take it or not. It's not worth it. I'm only selling the thing for $30. My time is MUCH more valuable than that.

I think I'll just call Goodwill and have them pick up my stuff from now on. It totally isn't worth the hassle.

The Wedding Day

So this past weekend was my brother in law's wedding. Now, normally you expect wedding days to be a little bit complicated and have some issues, but nothing major usually happens.

Unless you are part of our family.

My morning started out with my sister in law, her kids, my kids, and our hubby's sitting around the breakfast area by our arcadia door. All of a sudden a duck flew into our back yard. What are the chances? One in a million if you are anyone else on the planet, but if you are the family that owns a beagle chances are pretty high that the duck will wind up in your yard.

Of course the dog started howling at the duck. The duck laid down flat on the ground like it was dead. Finally we were taking bets on wether the duck was dead or just playing dead. I brought the beagle in the house and I went out to go poke the duck to see if it was alive. I got about 10 feet from it and it started flapping. Me, being scared of birds screamed and ran back into the house.

About half an hour later the duck was still in the yard, but I needed to let the dog out. So, there we are and all of a sudden WHACK. The duck hits the arcadia door with a HUGE thud. All the kids and girls scream, my sister in law dumps her coffee everywhere because of the fright.

So, this should have been an omen to me as to how my day was going to go.

Here is a short list of the other wacky events that happened that day:

My daughter took her diaper off like ten times today. She ended up peeing on the kitchen floor.

The dog (our beagle) was vomiting all over the house.

The family members that were decorating the church accidentally locked themselves out of the room that had all the tables in it for the wedding.

We forgot the sash to the brides dress at home and had to stall the wedding while I came back home to get the sash.

The AC in the sanctuary got turned off to avoid the candles from blowing out: caused PROFUSE sweating.

The dog (the beagle, of course) comes downstairs eating a dirty diaper.

My niece poops her pants.

My other dog (the normally well behaved one) jumps up and grabs a chicken leg out of my sister in law's hand and eats it.

Now for the icing on the cake, the part of the story you have all been waiting for.

My son floods the church during the reception. Yes, let me repeat that again, MY SON FLOODED THE CHURCH.

Let me tell you one of the worst possible noises in the world that someone can hear is the sound of GUSHING water where there should be NO gushing water.

Come to find out my son was in the handicap stall in the church. In that stall they have the toilet and a sink attached to the wall. In the next stall over is my nephew. I don't know what happens to my son when these two get together but trouble just seems to find them, and my son absolutely looses his mind. Typical boy, he decides to stand on the sink and peek over into the next stall to be funny and irritate his cousin.

This causes the pipe in the wall to break, the sink to fall off the wall and hundreds of gallons of water to begin gushing out of the pipe. I don't ever think I'll forget the look of terror on my pastors face while this event unfolded. I'm certain at this point we are going to have to find another church to start attending (ok not really, our pastor is a SUPER cool guy and we have an AWESOME church).

This is the point in time where I melt down. The shear embarrassment of the entire situation just broke me down. Luckily the water got shut off, and the men did an excellent job of cleaning up the water disaster, and a plumber came out and fixed the pipe before service tomorrow. It COULD have been much worse.

I swear to you that this is the complete truth about my day. I can't possibly make this stuff up. I have witnesses that can account that this is my "normal" life.

One day of drama in our household is equivalent of what some people only get in a lifetime.