Long week

To say last week was long would be like saying my Dad thinks basketball is nice: an enormous understatement! By all accounts it was a completely normal week at the end of April: piano lessons on Monday, soccer on Tuesday and Wednesday, family movie night on Friday. The difference was in with Jeff's schedule. His week was jammed full to bursting with parent teacher conferences Monday and Wednesday nights and track meets on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. He left at 6:30am and we were lucky to see him again before 9pm on five nights! We are used to seeing a whole lot more of the man of the house, and by Friday night I was worn to the bone with parenting alone and Saturday was just another all-day track meet! It was HARD, and nobody said thank you to me of their own free will all week. I was feeling used, abused, and taken for granted all by my very own beloved children. They weren't trying to make my life hard (with the exception of Amber--ha), but it was HARD!

Today instead of dressing up and driving an hour to sit in stake conference for a stressful two hours, we stayed home all day together and snuggled and talked and relaxed together and went on a walk and did things together, and it felt so right and so necessary. My bone-dry well of family balance started filling again. Tomorrow the week begins again, but thankfully without parent teacher conferences and only one track meet. We'll be back to tolerable levels of Jeff-withdrawal. Could we have made stake conference work? Yes, but the strain and drain would have been steep and we may not have recovered before the new week struck. Would we have gone to normal church meetings? Yes, but I am so glad we had the option to opt out of stake conference and refresh our family. Thanks to our Sunday at home together, I feel charged up, geared up, and ready to take on another week.

 We tried out buns/pigtails in Amber's hair for the first time in weeks with different hair ties, and they worked great--her crazy hair was tamed at last, more or less.

Our sink on Monday morning--it was not the greatest start to the week. 

Monday: Amber and I took a brief detour from an errand and found a nice little nook outside Union Gap, WA called the Jewett Greenway. 

With the wettest spring in a decade, this valley has never looked so green! 

Monday afternoon was piano lessons. 

Practicing piano the next day was very emotional for Rose because her assignment was to start looking at the music more than her hands. 

Monday after piano lessons we drove to Sunnyside for a quick $5 pizza dinner, then visited Jeff at parent teacher conferences like we always do when they fall on Monday night--we bring family home evening to Jeff. 

We had to wait a surprisingly long time for our single plain cheese pizza, and I forgot Amber's shoes at home, so we looked like complete ragamuffins, chomping on complimentary ginger cookies in the small dirty foyer. 

Tuesday evening: soccer and Jay's second grade music program. The songs were silly and fun, and Jay had a good time (although I saw him yawn once or twice up there in the center of the back row). 

Bad cell phone digital zoom, but there's Jay in the middle of the back row. 

Wednesday was soccer game day. Amber wore Rose's last year's team shirt to show her support. She wants to be just like her big sister. 

It was sunny but super windy--typical spring weather around here.

My morning glory girls, Thursday morning.

Amber's antics! Climbing, raiding, exploring the world half to death. I roped the fridge shut one day. 

Some days you open the car door at school and realize that you forgot your shoes. We dashed home, retrieved the shoes, and squeaked by without a tardy somehow. 

Her curly pigtails make me happy. 

 Thursday afternoon: we went to McTeacher's night at the Sunnyside McDonald's to support the kids' school. It seems to me that if the kids of a teacher go to McTeacher night it cancels out our contribution, but these kids will take any excuse to get those Happy Meal mini chocolate milks!

After McDonald's, we drove over to visit our favorite coach at the Sunnyside High School track meet. Amber climbed a 6.5 foot tall fence yelling "DADDY, DADDY! DADDY!" loudly the whole time until Jeff came and got her. 

 MONKEY girl!

 Thursday evening at the kids' bedtime, sweet Grama Leslie came over and watched them while I slipped out for a sunset run with my cool friends. I love these ladies so much! This is only the second time we've ever taken a picture together in the past three years.

Post-run sweaty hair means nothing to Amber--she will run her fingers through my hair regardless of its sodium content. I took Amber to visit Jeff during his planning period on Friday so I could sneak in another run. 

Friday I found some sweet floor puzzles at Goodwill and got them even though we're moving soon and will have more to pack. The kids sat quietly for a solid half hour, absorbed and thoughtful. It was so nice and peaceful. 

Well, Amber ran around like a crazy person but the other two were calm. 

Friday evening I made a hefty hearty pizza and we started family movie night without Jeff. He came in halfway through after track practice. 

 Friday night sleepover! 

Saturday morning destruction! She scrubbed the floor with our DVD collection. It'll be a miracle if any of them play now. I was feeling very maxed out at this point. I took it all out on the lawn mower. 

 My sweet kids noticed my exhaustion. Rose gave me two foot rubs.

Jay brought me breakfast in bed at 6:15am this morning. He said "I know you're tired from the long week, so I wanted to save you energy." I gave him a big hug while I tried to wake up groggily.

On Saturday I was in a funk--nothing sounded interesting and after the long week I could not face going somewhere with the kids. And Amber continued her work of destruction in the midst of my floundering. I was stressing about fixing things around the house and getting ready to move, but not accomplishing anything. Mowing the lawn and pumping out some of that pent-up frustration on our manual mower really helped. (my arms are sore!) I made it through Saturday thanks to the mowing. But this morning the blah mood lingered. What really took me out of myself more than anything else was visiting Jeff's amazing sister Steph and her new baby in the hospital today. CUTE Cole Argyle Gibbons was born in the wee hours of Sunday morning, and he looks about perfect to me. Newborn babies are the sweetest, happiest little big miracles and the flood of memories and love and joy that filled me to the brim while visiting the hospital effectively washed away my lingering week-long angst and irks.

I brought our real camera, channeled my inner Emily Broadbent/Sarah Wells (the two professional photographers I know) and did my best in the dim, drab, mixed hospital lighting. A trip through the assembly line in Adobe Lightroom spruced the amateur images up to snuff, and I sent Steph a satisfyingly fat file full of happy hospital newborn joy pictures. I'll share my favorites here.

The new family of SIX! We love these guys so much--they are growing such a great crop of kids. 

Can you even believe the perfection of that face? He was eight hours old when I took this picture! 

 Being held by his second mama--his biggest sister Layne.

 That fuzzy head of soft newborn hair was irresistible!

I found black and white to be the most forgiving on the hospital's multiple light sources. 

 The little guy was thoroughly kissed, rubbed, patted, hugged, and loved by his siblings and cousins. My heart was exploding.

 Joseph Argyle White holding Cole Argyle Gibbons. Jay said "finally, another boy!" Cole is Jay's second boy cousin on the White side.

 Grayce and Amber, making coffee in the background (literally--they were messing with the hospital's coffee machine) and Tate playing peek-a-boo with Cole in the foreground. Tate is ready to PLAY with his new brother! Give it time, buddy.

 Amber was obsessed with Cole's hair.

 The marvel of Aunt-ing is that I can relish the joy of holding a newborn baby without a single part of my own physical body hurting--all of the joy, none of the pain. 

 Blurry, but a very happy auntie picture. He looked right at me for a second there!

Uncle! Nephew! Argyle men! 

That bronze-blond hair shows Cole's true Argyle roots. (FYI--Argyle is Jeff and Steph's mom Leslie's maiden name)

Amber was being a tad over-exuberant and kids' elbows/faces/legs were flying everywhere. I did my best to protect little Mr. Cole amidst the swirl of bony body parts. 

Jeff said "remember when Amber was that tiny?" while he wrestled her flailing long limbs. HAH! It feels like a very very very long time ago--way more than 2.5 years.

Those Gibbons kids sure are cute. Ages 4, 3, almost 1.5, and newborn. Keep 'em coming! I need babies in my life! 

I forgot to take an all-cousins picture, but that may have endangered Cole's new little life, so we will have to try that another day. 

Honesty alert: this picture makes my severed Fallopian tubes ache for another little baby of my own. These moments are just so fleeting and beautiful! I told Jeff that I'm glad to know that I will ALWAYS want another baby, no matter how many I have. It is a comfort somehow, because a miraculous three babies is what I got, and I am at peace with that number. Newborns always awaken that motherly yearning, I can't deny it, no matter how officially done I am with childbearing. I LOVE BABIES!

It's not every day that you get to meet a new cousin.