Mel’s Graduation

My youngest sister Melody graduated from Newport High School this week. Sniff. We joined the family in Bellevue for the festivities. It was an enjoyable weekend of quality conversation and Mom’s fancy food with some of my favorite family folks: Mom, Dad, Grama and Grampa Gwynn, and Mel (and us). The Christensens (my aunt, uncle, and cousin) came to the graduation so I saw them briefly too. Score! We were missing plenty of other family members, but it was nice to spend time with the ones who were there. We all thought Mel was a gorgeous, intelligent, talented graduate. I mean, she was in the top 5% of her class! GO Mel GO. It was a pleasure to be there for her Day.

Now I’m going to post all of the pictures we took. Well, Jeff took most of them. He set up his tripod and went to town. The photo shoot was all finished in about 10 minutes, right before we left for the graduation on Monday night. That lush green backdrop is just part of the average summer view in the Seattle area. It was restful for my desert-burned eyes to look upon for three whole days.

Proud parentals on the verge of an empty nest. Ahh!

 

Grama and Grampa

Three generations of wonderful women

Sisters. With high heels and a square hat, she’s almost as tall as me, ha ha.

a quick flashback with my sibs, 10 years ago…

Yep, a whole decade. Woah.

BTW: I found an easy-to-use collage making website! At last. It’s called picmonkey.com, and it’s way better (for me) than impossible Picasa.

Time to leave! Jeff nobly stayed home to put Jay and Rose to bed while the rest of us went to the graduation. As a high school teacher freshly released on summer break, he wasn’t all too sad to miss out on a high school event, if you can believe it.

The graduation was held at the University of Washington’s giant gym. We sat up high in the steep seats. Mel is walking up the middle of the aisle in this picture.

Almost to her seat…

…and [an hour or so later] going up for her diploma. This was the most efficient graduation I’ve ever been to. They had over 400 graduates, but it was super speedy. The kids practically had to run to keep up with the diploma passing pace. They had kids come up on both sides of the stage and leave down the middle. It was, like I said, efficient. We were in and out of there in 1 hour and 34 minutes flat, from pomp-and circumstance parade in to hat-tossing departure. The band played the Star Wars Imperial March as the graduates exited. Awesome.

She’s the golden-haired one in the line. Check out her cute high-heeled bootlets! One thing about Mel is: the girl’s got style. That gene seems to skip around in our family. :)

Things went out of focus when she had to start walking faster…my camera at full zoom sans-flash is a tad fuzzy.

I call this one triumphant diploma walk, in the blur.

The whole class, all diploma’d up.

 
Hat throw!

Mel is going to BYU-Provo this fall to join the education program. College is the BEST. I’m so excited for her.

And that was our weekend.

A.K.W.

Amber Kay White. She’s on my mind. And in my tummy. I was tempted to keep her name to myself, because it seems so special to share. There’s always a chance of her turning out to be a him, but we already refer to her as Amber, so I’ll tell you too. She’ll be Amber because we like it and Kay because it’s family-friendly on the Argyle side via grandmas. She’s been named for years, and now we know that we actually get to hug her in five months (or less!). It’s strange to think that we won’t have any of the other kids on our names list. Jeff and I have had six kids named names ever since we were married, more or less. Nevertheless, we’re all getting pretty excited about little Amber Kay!

I’ve been feeling her squirm around inside me for a while now—I was surprised to first notice her poking me around 15 weeks. It was so fun to sneak a peek at her this week. We actually got to see her move on the screen, and it was so cool! Even in her grainy black and white image, she looked pretty cute to me.

We took a poll beforehand, and Rose was the only one who held out for a boy. The rest of us guessed girl (obviously). I thought it was sweet that Jay hoped for another sister. He’s such a good big brother. I’m so glad that Rose gets a sister. This was her only chance, and she won! There’s nothing like sisters. The bond! The friendship! The matching dresses! Rose still insists that she wants it to be a boy with orange hair, named David, but I think she’s coming around to the idea of a sister. I got out her old baby dresses and showed her how tiny and pretty they are, and it helped some. I also told her that since she and Jay were born with orange peach fuzz, it’s very possible the girl will have orange hair too, so she’s somewhat mollified.

I love the finding-out part of pregnancy. I always joke that it’s the only part I like about being pregnant, and it really is. I felt so neutral about the boy/girl question (I already have one of each!) that I felt amazingly calm and unsurprised when the ultrasound lady told me it’s a girl. It’s so weird to know at last. It feels like I’ve been pregnant forEVER already, wondering who’s in there, and now that I know, I feel slightly dazed. I’ve been processing the news for a few days now, and I’m getting used to the idea at last.

Facing front, with two little paws up by her face.

Apparently that means it’s a girl.

Spine shot

Profile facing up. Doesn’t she have such a cute little nose and chin? I think so. I love looking at this picture.

The lady said that the ultrasound machine was pretty new, and I could tell. Look at the difference between Jay, Rose, and Amber:

      

Jay’s profile, face down                  Rose’s profile, face up                   Amber’s profile, face up

Can you see any family resemblance? Me neither. It’s amazing what 6 years will do for image quality. At least we know they all have heads.

And here’s what it looks like from the outside at 18 weeks along. Wow, I look almost as tired as I feel.

And of course, a little comparison…it looks like the third child gets the most space:

                 Jay: 18 weeks                         Rose: 18 weeks                        Amber: 18 weeks

 

 

My view.

I love babies.

Come on, November!

The Next White Thing:

We had The Ultrasound today. Yay!

Now back to surviving…

An Impromptu Outing

About mid-morning yesterday at snack time, I found myself looking at half a loaf of stale banana bread and sighing deeply. I didn’t know what I wanted, but I knew it was not stale banana bread. I felt bearably yucky but as usual, nothing sounded good. Then I had a revelation: GO GET SOME FOOD! Ha, that sounds so obvious, but I have been extremely nervous about leaving Grandview because:

1. the nearest place with the good stuff is 40 minutes away
and
2. last time I made that trip I wore myself out too much and a few days later I was puking my eyeballs out and getting stuck full of needles.

I have been very careful since that last “episode” and not overstretched myself at all. Rest between chores. Take a nap. Take the medicine. Etc. But our pantry was suffering. It had been over 3 months since our last trip to Costco, and most of my carefully stocked reserves were severely depleted. We have Safeway and El Mercado here in town, but they’re no Costco. While no food really tastes good right now, I do still need to eat. Since I wasn’t feeling dangerously queasy, I snacked down a few pieces of that stale banana bread, packed up the kids, and we drove to the Tri Cities!

It was liberating! I didn’t over-think it and talk myself out of it. We got there right at lunchtime and got the kids to a rare treat—McDonald’s cheeseburgers and yogurt parfaits. We took those over to the new Five Guys burger place where I got a juicy well-pickled, mushroom-layered burger with a pile of signature fries. It wasn’t exactly nirvana to my pregotongue, but it was a far cry better than anything else I’d eaten this week! I ate the whole burger. [Side note—why do they call the single patty burger a “little burger” while the double patty is a regular? I had to ask, and I’m glad I did because there’s no way my baby would have been ok with a double dose of beef. The “little” was grande enough for us.] Jay and Rose adored their yogurt. It had strawberries and blueberries in it!

I did feel kind of guilty for bringing McDonald’s into Five Guys—it seemed like treachery—but oh well. They didn’t throw us out, even when I shared my pile ‘o fries with Rose.

After that filling, useful lunch, we headed over to Costco. On the way we saw the angel Moroni peeking up over the housetops and decided to take a detour to see the temple. It was a good choice. I have to ration my energy carefully, but this expenditure was worthwhile. We walked around the outside of the temple and admired the white walls and gorgeous flowerbeds. We paused at the stair-step waterfall fountain on the far side and listened to it rushing along. Then Rose had to go potty so we left.

I love how we can feel the peace of the temple even by walking around it on the outside. I have been craving that feeling. Aha! A craving! At last!

Costco was heavy going with that double wide cart loaded with everything, but we made it out in one piece and somehow I loaded those heavy things into the trunk (I love van trunks) and we drove home to the Piano Guys and some spunky David Archuletta (a guilty pleasure, hee hee). Oh, and good news! Our Costco carries Jif peanut butter again! It’s been 2 years of small grocery store jars for us, (because we’re 100% devoted to Jif) but now we’re back to the massive 3 pounders. I can’t wait to like peanut butter again.

I loved going on an outing with my sweet kids! I find myself cherishing everything that just the three of us do together these days because I know that in a few months everything will change when Jay starts school and then again when I have a baby. So yesterday was golden. We didn’t do the million other errands that need to be done “in town,” but we had such a nice time together.

There’s something to be said for taking it slow and easy.

Insurance

Remember that week I spent in the hospital?

 

 

Good thing we've got a bearable deductible! It was maxed out weeks and weeks ago.

They may not pile the money on teachers' paychecks, but there are other perks.

I'm so thankful for insurance.

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Last Week

The better I feel, the more pictures I take. Or maybe it’s the excitement of early summer fun combined with energetic cute kids. Or all of the above! Here’s the week in pictures:

SATURDAY, MAY 24TH
Memorial Day weekend! Rose and I went shopping in the Tri Cities together. We went to Goodwill and Target. Gasp, I know—so adventurous. It was my first big outing without Jeff, and it wore me OUT! (it’s a 40 minute drive to the Tri Cities). But we found some cute summer clothes for Rose who has been wearing her too-small winter wardrobe for about two months too long. I came home and passed out asleep for a few hours, woke up to eat, and then went to bed around 8pm.

Playing Jay’s birthday game, Boom Boom Balloon. It’s awesome and ends with a POP.

 
Party animal on her way to shop.

It’s sunglasses season! I love having a little girl to take clothes shopping. It defies reason that someone who despises clothes shopping as much as I do can love to take a little daughter shopping as much as I also do.

Showing off the outfit she picked out. She loves that shirt so much.

 

SUNDAY, MAY 25TH
I went to church for all 3 hours for the first time in 3 months! I taught my primary class and everything! It was exhausting. I came home ready for another long nap but decided to do a blog post about Jay’s birthday instead. Then Rose snuggled up and took a snooze of her own, but by then I had to eat something so I eased out from the recliner and left my warm little girl bundle snuggled up. After dinner, we brought Jay’s birthday stomp rocket out to the field behind our house. Those things are so much fun.

 
 

 

Jeff really got in to it.

I always have Jay change out of his Sunday khaki pants right away to avoid holes, but I’m not as strict with making him change his shirt, so that explains the bowtie with jeans look.

 

MONDAY, MAY 26TH
Happy Memorial Day! Sadly, we didn’t do anything patriotic. We just stayed home and enjoyed our first taste of the coming summer when Daddy will be home home HOME for two months! I felt amazing enough to—wait for it—not take my nausea medicine! And Jeff blew up the pool Rose and I picked up from Target. That thing turned out to be ENORMOUS. I mean being 6 feet tall, I know that 72 inches is big, but 72 inches of puffy blow-up pool is giant. It took a while for crazy Jeff to blow it up with his lungpower. He wanted the challenge, even though 4 houses down, his parents have an air compressor. I left him to it and an hour or two later, the kids went swimming. Layne came over to swim too. The hose water was frigid and it wasn’t very hot outside, so mostly they stood in the pool and splashed around a little. Rose’s new swimsuit turned out to be saggy-baggy and huge on her! The bottom part wouldn’t even stay on her little hips so I tried attacking it with my sewing machine. That helped a little, but the butt was still baggy and the top sagged halfway down her chest. We’ll be saving that one for next year!

I also made some smooth, beautiful bread that day. It rarely looks this pretty, so I took a picture of it. Oddly enough, I still have a major aversion to bread, even homemade. So the fresh, warm smell of this bread baking was actually rather nauseating. Bummer for me, but the smell of store bread is even grosser, so I chose the lesser of two evils and baked some.

 

TUESDAY, MAY 27TH
Tuesday was a day of doom for me. My Monday without nausea medicine really bit me in the belly HARD. I woke up heaving and didn’t really stop for the rest of the day. Jeff came home from work early and took me to the hospital outpatient clinic for a liter of fluids and liquid promethazene, but I was still puking when we left. Later that evening, Jeff and Dan gave me a blessing and then Jeff drove me to the ER around 9pm. They pumped me with two more liters and some liquid zofran, and miraculously my heaving stomach stopped heaving. We came home around 1am to a Grampa Dan snoozing on the floor (he babysat during the graveyard shift for us, blessed man). My arm was full of holes and kind of bruised because when I get that dehydrated, they can’t get needles into my collapsed veins. Eeew. My hazy memory of the day tallied up at least 14 separate barfs. Talk about backsliding! It was horrific. Lesson learned: take the medicine.

WEDNESDAY, MAY 28TH
This was a recovery day, with small sips and little nibbles. Jeff stayed home from work to take care of me, five star husband that he is. The sky was glorious. I didn’t barf. After dinner, Jeff and the kids entertained me by playing Punch Out on the Wii. It is a goofy cartoony boxing game, and watching it made me laugh so hard that I felt the soreness from yesterday’s barf-a-thon in my diaphragm.

Rose carefully watched Jeff and Jay play, and when it was her turn, she DOMINATED Jay! It was awesome.

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I’m having issues with youtube letting me post my videos onto this blog, so here’s the link to the video in case that other one didn’t work: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6gZoNo4p0A

 

THURSDAY, MAY 29TH
Another take it easy recovery day. With great effort, I managed to make myself the cinnamon rolls of my dreams. They’ve never ever turned out this well for me. Moist, melty-sugary-buttery with just the right amount of cinnamon, they did not even need any frosting. It was good to enjoy a food item after Tuesday.

    

FRIDAY, MAY 30TH
In the morning a bird flew in through our open front door! Jay had opened the door for some fresh air, and a cute little birdie flew right inside. I was feeling too feeble to get up and chase it around the house, so I called Grampa Dan to come rescue us. He came right over and shooed the bird out in no time. After that excitement and some breakfast, I organized the kids’ clothes and then my own closet, putting away winter clothes at last. It was hard to put away my running clothes, knowing that the next time I run it will practically be Christmas. But I did it. Then I gave Jay a much-needed haircut.

At 1:30pm, we went to our elementary school with a stack of important documents and registered Jay for kindergarten. I was surprised at the surge of emotion I felt when the lady came to take Jay away for his screening test. I felt ROBBED, like I wanted to tower from my height over the little lady and boom “who said you could take my boy away from me?” Instead I swallowed my sob, patted Jay’s back and told him to go with the nice lady for a test. He came back with a cookie and a sticker, so it must’ve been ok. My first experience with school. Sniff. After such an emotionally-fraught half hour in the school, we decided to go to the park next door to enjoy the shady trees and warm air. I showed Jay and Rose how to make little houses in the roots around the base of gnarly big trees, like I used to do when I was little. They built and furnished little root-houses for rock people for a long time. Then it was home to get ready for family movie night! We made pizza and watched the live-action Peter Pan, one of my all-time favorite movies.

Playing with sticks

Building root-houses

Playing with Daddy

 

SATURDAY, MAY 31ST
Grampa Dan cut some roses from his garden and let Rose bring me my favorite peace roses.

 

SUNDAY, JUNE 1ST
Happy birthday to Jeff! It was a low key birthday for him. We went to church. I gave him a small present—a card game called Guillotine—“the game where you win by getting a head!” His other present was that comfy desk chair Rose and I found at Goodwill, but we gave it to him a week early since it was too big to hide.

After church, Grampa Dan flew kites with Jay and Rose. They did a great job!

Sunday night, we had the family over for birthday dinner, which I actually cooked. Even more surprisingly, it turned out super pretty and tasty! We had sausage penne, corn on the cob, and cold watermelon. Jeff’s mom brought the brownies. Success! After the kids were in bed, we used our iPads to play a cross-country family game of Ticket to Ride with Brad and Dani (in Utah) and Jesse (in Missouri). Jeff won both games like a pro. Birthday victory is sweet.

Sausage penne birthday dinner. Even I ate some of it and liked it!

Jay and Rose had a “sleepover” on the floor of their room while we played Ticket to Ride.

And that brings us up to TODAY! Whew, I hope I can keep up better this week so I don’t have to do such a lengthy catch-up post again any time soon. Like most things are for me these days, it’s tiring!