Cankle, singular

 Here are some pictures of my elephantitis leg (the left one.)

These two pictures are the ones I took and sent to my father-in-law. This was the day I went into the ER, actually about 30 minutes before I left the house.





 The pictures below are of my leg two days ago, 4 days after starting the blood thinners.

 My cankle (above).

 My regular ankle. (Look how shapely! :))

Left leg vs right leg. I haven't seen a reduction in swelling yet. It definitely makes me feel a little self conscious. It might not be obvious to other people but I feel like I'm wearing a big neon sign that says, "Look at her legs! They're uneven!"

Thoughts on a 5th Pregnancy

I'm 30 weeks this week and have entered the home stretch with this pregnancy. And boy do I feel stretched....

Anyway, this being my fifth time around I've had a number of thoughts about it.

First off, this baby is a BOY. Definitely a boy, he wasn't shy!!

But more than that, I've noticed how relaxed I've felt this pregnancy. This time has presented some unique challenges and despite these, I feel comfortable and relaxed. Maybe it's because it's a boy but I got big, and fast. However, I haven't grown too much in the last 5 weeks, so maybe it was just my body knowing exactly what to do and put on the pounds early on.

When I was about 11 weeks I went in for a dating ultrasound, and it was there that the ultrasound tech discovered a "subchorionic hematoma" which is essentially a blood blister between the wall of the uterus and the amniotic sac. I couldn't run and had to be careful with too much walking. I was restricted from lifting anything or being on my feet too long. Of course we moved about 4 weeks after that, and that was difficult for me to limit myself. But we had great friends who helped a lot. At the 20 weeks ultrasound, my body had absorbed everything and there was nothing to worry about anymore.

I started feeling him kick around 17/18 weeks, which is on the later end of the spectrum for my pregnancies. Even now he doesn't seem as active as Emily or Nathalie, but more like Lydia's pregnancy. He kicks a lot when I lie down at night (of course!) and he seems to get hiccups a lot. He's also been really low the entire pregnancy. He just likes to hang out really low. He likes warm showers or a warm rice bag on my stomach; that always gets him moving!

This time around I got lucky enough to go to the Midwife Group and Birth Center. In Ohio there wasn't a midwife within two hours on our side of the state line and the midwives 45 minutes away were only licensed in a different state. So I always knew I'd be delivering with my OB at our hospital (except with Lydia, who had a different plan....) The Birth Center is wonderful. They have a great and supportive staff, the midwives are great and I was excited to deliver there. Plus you only have to stay for 8 hours after the baby is born (provided everything is okay) and then you get to go home. Sounds like heaven to me!

Just this last week I was having some really intense leg pain. It was right up against my groin and I thought I'd pulled the inguinal ligament there from walking (I'd walked 4 miles the night before). It got worse and worse over the course of a few days and on Wednesday I woke up and noticed that my left leg was starting to swell. The swelling increased throughout the day and I kept thinking it was a weird reaction to a pulled ligament. Any movement hurt. Finally, I texted pictures to my father-in-law (a PA) and had Matt measure my leg-- sure enough, my left leg was significantly larger than my right. Both of them said that I needed to get to the ER immediately-- I probably had a blood clot.

They were right. I have a blood clot from my groin to my knee. So now I'm giving myself a shot two times a day (a blood thinner) and I have to go see a hematologist this week. I also might have to be seen by a perinatologist and transfer my care. I most likely won't be able to deliver at the Birth Center since the blood thinner changes things. *Sigh* But even through that, I still feel calm. It will all work out.

I think that's been the biggest difference this time around. Yes, I gained a lot of weight and got bigger early on. But I didn't worry about it because I was eating healthy and exercising. Then I had the blood blister. But I didn't worry too much about it. I just felt calm. Now I have this (ridiculous) blood clot, and I still feel calm! It's amazing what a little experience and perspective can do. After 5 times, even though I worry, I realize that I'm doing all I can and the doctors are doing all they can. There's no use worrying myself sick over something I can't control very much.

In the meantime, I'm getting more and more excited to meet this little boy! I can't wait to kiss his little cheeks and nibble his little toes and dress him in dinosaur/train/plane/dog/monkey outfits. People have been so generous to us. We have so many clothes for him and haven't bought a thing. It's going to be so wonderful. I haven't felt excited about the prospect of a baby for a long time, but I'm excited to snuggle him and smell his newborn smell. Only 10 more weeks!

(Need an updated pic, this was 25 weeks)

Emily's Baptism Day

 Emily was baptized on October 3, 2015. We were blessed enough to have both sets of grandparents and an aunt and uncle in town! My mom gave the talk on baptism and Matt's mom gave the talk on the Holy Ghost.

As a mother, it was really special to see Emily make this next step. She is such a special girl and holds a dear place in our heart. I was happy to have her choose to be baptized. I was happy her little sisters could watch her being a great example. I was happy to be able to watch Matt baptize her.

I have a lot of thoughts, most of which are personal, about her baptism that I may or may not share at a future date. But in the meantime, it was a beautiful celebration of a beautiful girl.

Oh, how we love her.

Overheard at our house

(We were driving to the store after dropping Char off at preschool.)

Lydia: "Mom, we go to pool after store?"
Me: "Sorry sweetpea, the pool is closed. It's not summer anymore."
Lydia: "Pool closed?"
Me: "Yep. We can't go swimming today."

............Pause..............

Lydia: "Ocean not closed. We got to ocean? Play in waves?"


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Nathalie: "Mom, I know what it feels like to be a human but....I don't know what it feels like to be a mermaid."

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Nathalie: "Mom, how many molecules are there on Earth?"
Me: "Honey, nobody knows that."
Nathalie: "Does Siri know it?"

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Charlotte: "For Christmas I want a two-wheeled scooter and a real broom."
Me: "You want a real broom?"
Char: "Yes, a real broom. You know, one that flies. I know how to ride one!"

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Emily: "Today Mrs. S asked me to organize her binder."
Me: "That's great. What did you tell her?"
Emily: "I told her I would because organizing is my thing."

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These kids are hilarious!

The South

We had lived in Savannah for over two years now so I'm obviously an expert on the South.

HA! It still seems like a foreign country to me most of the time, but I'm going to try and outline some things that have been really new to us as we have lived here.

1. The heat and humidity: Holy cow. I thought I knew humidity from living in Ohio. And it's true, sometimes Ohio is just as humid as Georgia, but Ohio doesn't have the heat along with it. You don't know heat and humidity until you've lived in the South. It is absolutely brutal. That is the truth. During the height of summer we have days where the nighttime temps are low 80s and the humidity is over 90%. Daytime temps are in the high 90s and humidity is around 80%. To put it into perspective, by 9:00am it has already reached 93 deg or so. It is horrendous. I thought summers in Ohio were too hot and humid for me and summers in the South are completely miserable. By the end of summer even the pools and ocean are warm and there is no respite. On the up side, my girls are great swimmers because we go to the pool every day.

2. Racism: Having grown up in Ohio and then Upstate New York, I have never experienced racism like it exists down here. My friends throughout all my schooling having been varying nationalities and so I never thought much about skin color or ethnic culture. We were just all different and that was fine. But here.....here it is NOT FINE. I am white which means that I have to be very careful how I act/treat black people and very careful with what I say. In the South skin color matters. I remember a conversation I had with the girls' principal a few years back about requesting their teachers. These were his exact words to me (he was white, by the way), "You can submit a teacher request for your girls but frankly, we probably won't honor the request because your children are white."

One thing that really shocked me was that black people really don't like white people. Our neighbors who are black don't talk to us. The cashiers at the store who are black will chat it up with the black customer in front of me and behind me but when I am checking out, they won't talk to me or make eye contact. Black parents do not like white people interfering with their children AT ALL but will let other black people yell at their kids. I knew before we moved down here that the "older generation" of white people had a lot of racist opinions and this is true. However the younger generation of white people doesn't feel the same way.

For those of you who have never experienced the South this may portray me as being horribly racist. I assure you, I have never experienced this before. The racism is incredible. This is one of the biggest reasons Matt and I don't want to stay here long-term-- not because we don't like black people, but we want our children to be friends with lots of different ethnic peoples that can all live comfortably together and tolerate each other. The South is not that place.

3. Southern Food: This has been really fun to experience. Because we live in Savannah we get to experience seafood galore. Oh boy, we love seafood! Even the girls have developed a taste for it. Their favorite dishes are fish fingers and fried shrimp. Matt and I have now tried all different kinds of seafood and it is so good! One of our favorites is the low country boil. In a huge stock pot you boil potatoes, onions, corn and sausage and at the last minute you add live crabs and (not live) shrimp. And then you spend the next two hours at a big table outside cracking open the crabs and eating everything with your hands. It is so messy, so fun and so delicious. It's a tradition we will keep up when we leave Savannah.

Other Southern foods we have tried include: okra, okra and black beans, beans and rice, alligator (for real!), collard greens, banana pudding (big down here), shrimp and grits, sweet grits, low country boil, and fried green tomatoes. We draw the line at boiled peanuts because that is seriously gross. Okra isn't our favorite. It has an interesting flavor but depending on how you prepare it it is either chewy or slimy. Rice and beans is delicious, shrimp and spicy grits are delicious but sweet grits are gross. Banana pudding is meh and collard greens are gross because people like to boil them. We prefer collards to be dehydrated and then sprinkled onto foods. Fried green tomatoes are delicious with a little bit of soft goat cheese and alligator can be good if prepared well, but if not it is excessively chewy.


4. The speed of things (or rather, the lack thereof). The South moves slowly. It just does. At first (and sometimes still) that really bothers me. People walk slowly, talk slowly, listen slowly, process things slowly, etc. For example, the average time it takes me to check out at the store is usually about 20 minutes. There is no such things as rushing people-- they just get mad at you! I've had to learn to talk more slowly because people would say, "You must be a Yankee. You talk so fast." I don't really talk that fast actually; it's all relative. Also, there is an average 3-4 month wait period to get as a new patient with a doctor down here. Everything just moves slower. Sometimes it is seriously annoying because there are much better and more efficient ways to get things done. But other times it helps us realize that we can stop and smell the roses and notice the sunset. It has helped me realize that I need to slow down and enjoy more.

5. The Wildlife. The fauna is no joke around here. Venomous snakes, venomous spiders, sand gnats (small biting flies), mosquitos, fire ants, alligators, sharks, jellyfish, cockroaches, possums, armadillos, wasps-- oh boy, all the creatures here are big or nasty or aggressive or venomous or disease ridden or multiple combinations of these characteristics. Did you know that not only are armadillos fast little buggers but they also carry the bacteria which can cause leprosy? Seriously. And I have NEVER seen possums as big as the ones I have seen here. And the bugs....oh the bugs! Sometimes parts of our bodies look like we have hives because of all the bug bites and that is with bug spray. And then the sea creatures, especially jellyfish. We've all been stung by jelly fish except for Lydia and that's only because she doesn't go into the water far enough. Whew! I won't miss these.

There are a lot more things to write about but I have to pick up Char from preschool....

Summer Nights (and Days)

Summer is always a fun time because I get to have my girls home with me!! This summer was a bit harder than usual because I was in the throes of morning sickness and fatigue. The heat only exacerbated all of that, so unless we were going swimming, we played inside all summer long. And the kids watched a lot of TV. Oh well, c'est la vie.

Luckily I have a handy husband who helped with indoor boredom. First he made these marshmallow guns out of PVC. The accuracy, speed and number of "bullets" depend on your lung capacity-- so Charlotte could only make shots from a short distance away one at a time. Matt could shoot up to 5 marshmallows at a time across the room. In close range, it actually stung a little! But the problem is that if you use the marshmallows too many times they get a little sticky and get stuck in the "guns" so you have to take the guns apart.

Then he made PVC swords and shields. He also made a scythe and a staff. We still have a lot of fun with these!

We captured chickens.

Read lots of books.

And of course we went to the beach. That was basically the only outdoor place to feel cool besides the pool.

We also took Odin to the vet and introduced him to the guinea pigs and he was verrrry interested.

Lookalikes

Matt's sister at 2. It's hard to see, but Nathalie and Emily looked like this.

Matt's sister around 5 or 6. This is the most amazing picture to me because Nathalie looks exactly like that, except with light hair. When I saw this picture I was blown away by the resemblance. It's so crazy!

While we were with family this year, the girls and I had the chance to see some old pictures. They're so funny. Some of them are downright uncanny in terms of looking like my girls! See for yourself-- the picture above is Matt's dad (far right), Matt's older bro (middle) and Matt. Matt looks to be 10-12 yrs old.

This is a picture of Matt's Gramps. He died while Matt was on his mission. My girls don't look like him, but Matt's sister is his clone!

This picture is of me and my siblings in the summer of 1997. We're so cute!

This is me around 3 yrs old (and so is the picture underneath. I loved that tutu....)

This is me as a baby. Charlotte looked a lot like this picture.

Another one of me as a baby.

Lydia looks like this sometimes (me in the Norwegian dress, above)

This is me and my sister on our first day of school. I think I might have been in 2nd or 3rd grade. Emily looks a lot like me right now.

This is Matt about 16 months with his mom. Does that look like Lydia as a baby or what?!

Matt around 4 yrs old, which is basically Charlotte 25 yrs earlier. She looks so much like this.

I think Matt was about 5 in this picture....and Charlotte looks like that. Also Nathalie.

Matt in 1st grade, which bears resemblance to Nathalie.

Matt with his cousin. All my girls looked like this, but most especially Charlotte!

End of School

Summer Adventures: The Rest of the Trip and More Partying

 After Indiana, we headed up to Michigan to be with Matt's family as we celebrated our oldest niece graduating high school. We had a grand old time and it was SO NICE to be able to play outside during the day time in the month of June!

 Char and the cousin closest to her age, J, adored each other and played the whole time together. This is the first time she and he have had a great time together, but we hope for lots more fun!

 We had lots of grandkids, lots of craziness and lots of love.

 We found a park on our way up which was amazing. It really helped give the kids a break from the car.

 Lydia and I cuddling.

 I got my hair cut super short. It was great until I got home and then I found that in the humidity, this hair cut doesn't work! I look like the lady with triangle hair from the Dilbert comics. Oh well, it was a good experiment I guess.

 The view in Michigan. Oh, how beautiful it is. We love it there.

 The drive home. Our favorite part of the journey is driving through the Blue Ridge Mountains. They are so, so beautiful.

 We left Emily in OH for an extra week to go to the "Cousin's Camp" my mother-in-law does. She had a good time. And a big thanks to my sisters-in-law who took care of and sent me pictures too!

 We played at a fun creek in Indiana.

We had a grand time on our Midwest trip this summer. We love, love, love these places. We long for them. We are homesick for them. Maybe someday...