"Double digits!" or "My baby is 10!"

Sept. 7, 2000, at 9am, I called my midwife to tell her that (for the fourth day in a row) I thought my water had broken.

Honestly, I think she was getting sick of me, so she told me to come on in and if it hadn't broken, she'd break it for me.

Hooray! We'd be coming home with an Emma!

In we went to the birth center. No, my water hadn't broken. (Hhhmmm... what was that I get feeling then?? Ew.) With a long little hook thingie, she popped that bag of water and got that labor started.

Of course, contractions didn't start immediately. Scott and I walked and walked and walked through the beautiful, historic neighborhood nearby. Still nada. I remember clearly how disappointed I was. What was taking this kiddo so long?

Then I got hungry. Not just hungry, but starving. About to die starving. We swung into a 7-11 and I asked Scott for a king-sized Snickers bar. It sounded so right, so amazingly delicious. And I wolfed the entire thing down in probably less than 60 seconds.

And then, immediately then, contractions started. Not itty, bitty starter contractions, but drivers-staring-at-me- doubled-over-on-the-street-corner contractions.

Two hours and 50 minutes later, in a bathtub of cold water, Emma made her squalling arrival! What a joyous sound! The midwife instantly put my baby on my chest and I said, "You have a side part!" And then, "I love you!" (That side part comment cracks me up!)

7 lb. 13 oz., 20 in. long. And gorgeous. So incredibly gorgeous. Even with the teeny hand print bruise on her cheek and her black and blue tongue. (Apparently, she was sucking her thumb during birth and with so little room in that there entryway, her hand squished against her sweet little face. She also, in the process, bit the tip of her tongue. It looked so sore!)

Seven and a half hours later, we came home and for the first time, held both our precious daughters in our arms.

And here she is today... 10 years old, gorgeous, funny, talented, intelligent, compassionate and oh so wonderful.

Thank you, God, for sharing this amazing blessing with me!

Tuesday Tag-Along Time!

Participating in Tuesday Tag-Along a couple weeks ago delighted me with finding new friends and receiving about 20 new followers!

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

Let's see who I get to meet this week. And for all you Non-Blogging Readers, peruse through the list below and click on the icons that look like fun to you.  Don't worry about getting to them all at once. It's just not possible. This post isn't going anywhere, so come on back when you need to!





Have fun!

If you have kids, this will CRACK you up!!

This came home in the info packet I received at Emma's Back to School Night...

Homework Guidelines

or

A Child's View of the Job

Here is a student explanation of our homework policy.

Students should not spend more than 90 minutes per night on homework. The time should be budgeted in the following manner:

• 15 minutes looking for the assignment
• 11 minutes calling a friend for the assignment
• 23 minutes explaining to parents why the teacher is mean and just doesn't like kids
• 8 minutes in the bathroom
• 10 minutes getting a snack
• 7 minutes checking the tv listings
• 6 minutes telling parents that the teacher never explained the homework
• 10 minutes sitting at the kitchen table waiting for Mom to do the assignment
• It is not necessary to have the student's name on the assignment.

Long Term Assignments:

These are given the night before they are due. This explains the name "long term".

• It is a long-term commitment to time that begins at 9:30pm and ends at 11:50pm.
• It is important that the whole family is involved in the project. It is imperative that at least one family member race to Wal-Mart for poster board and that one family end up in tears. (This does not have to be the student.)
• One parents needs to stay up and complete the project. The other parent needs to call the school and leave a message that the student is out sick.
• It is not necessary to have the student's name on this assignment either.

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Does the person who wrote this live in my house???????

Happy Blog Follower Day!

Yesterday was apparently "Good Neighbor Day" or some such idiosyncratic day of celebration.

So I decided to make today "Blog Follower Day" to let you know how much I appreciate you coming along with my on my parenting/reading/volunteering/writing/moving adventures. Whether you're an actual follower or not (*hint hint*) doesn't really matter. What matters is that you click onto Delicious as Pie every day or two to see what's going down in the D___ house.

I would love to send you each a pretty, bright bouquet. But, well... that's just not gonna happen.

Instead, here are some flowers that I shot this morning. They are so perfectly beautiful that I couldn't resist preserving their early morning innocence.

    Happy Blog Follower Day!

Stickies

Thank the good Lord for Sticky Notes!

'Cause this is what happens when you wake up in the middle of the night, subconsciously having figured out the ending to your newest chapter...