February Funness

As promised, here are more pictures. :) Gabby's 6th birthday party was this weekend at at MyGym, a gym for children 8 & under- PERFECT for  little kids in the rain that you can probably see out the windows. They had SO much fun & Randal made a GabbySaurus cake, which of course, everyone loved. Except Tobin, who wouldn't eat a dinosaur cake because he's a vegetarian. There's also a picture of a DinoCake that I made, only it's an uber pancake made from a mold-doodle-thing that my mom got the kids for xmas. It says it works with eggs- which is a complete and utter lie- but I finally mastered it with pancakes and now you all can see its glory. Okay, so it's nothing like Randal's, but nothing ever is, so why try? :)

There are also pictures from the gathering after the kid-festivities at Amber & Gabby's- Aiden made friends with their two french bulldogs, Ziggy & Petal, as well as a little girl named Keiko who is SO cute, as you can see. We found out that she's a model for Pottery Barn Kids, Gap and Children's Place or something else, too. They potty trained Gab's Cabbage Patch Kid- good thing, because otherwise  she would have been NO fun to sleep next to.

Randal is enjoying work very much- it is SUCH a blessing for all of us for him to have a job where his skills are so appreciated, especially since it's only 15-20 minutes away, as opposed to the base, which is  90-120+ minutes away, depending on traffic, weather and idiots on the road, which there are plenty of between here and there. We'll be moving in June to a bigger house with easier access to the freeway, and possibly a town or two South to shorten his commute even more. We trust the right place will come at the right time, although moving with a 2 month old should be interesting. It will be too bad to move from the close walking distance it is to both my mom's & grandma's houses, though. That is something really special. However, Randal's commute is not special at ALL and he commutes a lot more often than we walk, so move we shall. Poo. I have to use this jacuzzi tub while I can!

Oooh, speaking of which- I wish I could have Annika in that wonderful, huge tub, but it costs $3500 to have a midwife come to your house! Criminy. I really just don't love hosptials at all and it seems completely backwards in about a hundred ways to me to make childbirth standardized and medicalized, but at the current asking price, I have to be sensible and try to have a natural, normal birth in a completely unnatural, abnormal place. I'm just going to grab my ipod, some lavender oil, dark chocolate & raspberry leaf tea and hope for the best... but I am NOT wearing one of those butt-flap gowns, I don't care what they say!

Well, speaking of all of that, I have to get to the base with the boys to get a doctor to tell me I'm healthy and can write me a slip so I can see an OB (who actually has a midwife, which is excellent) so I can give birth for free in their stinkin' medical facility. Man. She better not come early! I'll be 37 weeks, which is considered full term, especially if you've had a child (or two) before. I'm not due until March 23rd, which is Amber's birthday, so she is under strict orders not to come out on ANY other day, though, like Aiden, I feel like she'll be a bit earlier. We'll see...

Whew. Okay. I better get going. I hope you all are well- do you like Annika Rose or Annika Jane or Annika something else? Feel free to comment....

oh-, and yes, for the record, I am STILL puking. Oh yes. The saga continues.

quote for the day: "The truth for women living in a modern world is that they must take increasing responsibility for the skills they bring into birth if they want their birth to be natural. Making choices of where and with whom to birth is not the same as bringing knowledge and skills into your birth regardless of where and with whom you birth."<?XML:NAMESPACE PREFIX = O /> Common Knowledge Trust

the homestretch

There it is, in all its rounded glory. I'm 8 months along- that's 34 weeks as of tomorrow. So close, yet so far, dammit. Amber took this picture when we had a playdate with the kids this weekend, which was wondeful. You can see the glory of the maternity jeans (which I have finally resigned to- although I *did* put on my size 6 stretch-cords the other day and was fine.... muahahaha!) But all considered, I'd rather just be rockin' the sweats, especially on rainy days like this. It's been absolutely gorgeous lately- clear and cool, one of my favorite combinations. Cloudy and rainy is necessary at time, too, I suppose. I never seem to find time to write when it's sunny out- I can't imagine why! :) I used to have a hard time staying in school (especially once I got my license!) when it was sunny out, too. Carpe diem, I say! ...as long as you take care of your responsibilities first.  That whole latter part took a bit longer to sink in, but that's what being a teenager is good for, right? :)

Today, the kids and I are taking it slow- Tobin is on his last placement tests (hooray!!) in homeschool and doing amazingly well. We've been working with flashcards about time and money, in a workbook for addition and subtraction and reading books like Cat in the Hat (of which I have a 1957 first edition copy in excellent condition- thank you, Me-Ma! :) and My Father's Dragon, which he LOVES. They are both very into dragons and dinosaurs and play games for hours (SOMEtimes, but they really do play long and well, when they do...) involving, "Pretend that I was an invisible comet dragon -but you didn't know I was invisible- and then you touched the comet and an invisible dragon came out and you said "Wow!", but not yet because we're ot playing yet and then I shot you with flames, but you had a magical cloak on to protect you and it was invisible- but I didn't know it was invisible- but you did and you put it on and..." ohhhhh, my. I'm glad they have each other, because after about the 20th instruction, I'm not sure if I'm the magical healing fairy of love (naturally) or a wolf-mother battling to save my son from the evil invisible (but I didn't know it was invisible) snow ninja. Hey, at least they're creative!

Randal has started his new job at Kendall-Jackson, which he LOVES and I love for him. His first day, he cooked 100 Maine lobster with guidance from the former seafood chef from the French Laundry. He & the rest of the chefs taste everything before it goes out, meaning Randal gets mouthfuls of amazing goodness throughout his entire workday, as well as wine to wash it down with- it IS aplenty at a winery, of course. It's actually a great work ethic, since the entire kitchen if filled with people at Randal's pace, who love the entire preparation process & presentation of food and who work tirelessly to produce mass quantities of it. He's still managing to have a day or two completely off per week between the two jobs, which is important as well. I'm so glad for him to have found something so well suited to his time & talents, not to mention the pay's much better than Oliver's, too! :)

As for me, I'm getting both excited and a twinge nervous about the impending labor & birth, but am definitely looking forward to holding a new little soul in my arms afterward. If I haven't mentioned, we've decided to have Annika at home, preferably in the jacuzzi tub I love to love so much! I'll have to get a picture of it in here- it was the clincher in deciding to rent this house. (well, and the location so close to my parents and grandparents) Last time, labor was only 2 hours long, only 10 minutes of which was spent at the birthing center before Aiden was born and the ride there- 20 minutes- was hands down the WORST part of it. Since I've had 2 natural births before, I have no issues about my mental of physical capabilities of birthing naturally and the midwife we've chosen has decades of experience delivering babies, her RN, a MA in Psychocolgy, certification for Hypnotherapy and probably a few others I'm forgetting. She is wonderful, informed, calm & positive- all things I look forward to bringing to the birth.

Well, I've got to get back to Tobin's flashcards with him, as well as get through some more laundry and dishes before Randal comes home from work. As always, I hope you are well & I'd love to hear from you!

quote(s) for the day, from two different spiritual guides, both of which help me in my mental preparation for all of this:

"Rain, after all is only rain; it is not bad weather. So also, pain is only pain; unless we resist it, then it becomes torment." I Ching

"For God did not give us a spirit of fear, but of power, of love, and of self-discipline." 2 Timothy 1:7