11.6.12

Yesterday was the long awaited presidential election. I can only say that I'm grateful I at least have the opportunity to voice my opinion. Other than that, I'm going to exercise self-mastery and keep my mouth closed.

Tuesday was also a very special Veteran's Day Assembly at our elementary school. The music teacher, Mrs. Stuve, who helps to coordinate parts of assemblies asked our cub scout pack if they would assist in doing a flag ceremony as they've done a few times in the past.

Our Cubmaster made the arrangements and Cooper, a very new Webelos scout, was given the assignment of the "caller".

He practiced calling in Family Home Evening on Monday to make sure it was fresh in his mind. He was solid! When he came home from school yesterday, I asked him how the assembly went. He said his legs were shaking but he thought he did okay.

I went to the school this morning to do my usual weekly volunteering. When I was signing in at the office, Mrs. Creek, the office manager, asked me if I had made it to the assembly the day before. I said no and was bracing myself for something unpleasant. She shook her head and said that Cooper is so great, such a good boy. She said he did a fantastic job with the flag ceremony. I told her he had reported he was nervous and his legs were shaking. Mrs. Creek responded he didn't look one bit uneasy and was very controlled. Apparently he confidently took total command of the room and was so respectful and patriotic. Mrs. Creek said it moved her to tears (and others, too). I could tell she was fighting back the emotion just recalling the moment.

I was so touched! It was so kind of her to share that with me.

She said there was a picture of him and brought it up on her computer.

When I went to Cooper's classroom to get the bucket of jobs to work on, there was an 8x10 color copy of the picture above, mounted and laminated as a gift from his teacher, Mrs. Stewart. She thought I might like to have it. I thanked her profusely and said Mrs. Creek had just told me about the assembly. Mrs. Stewart said Cooper did an amazing job--that he was "so cute".

Love those little cub scouts AND the cub scouting program!

A parent's worst nightmare...almost

Last night was Family Home Evening which meant a slightly later bedtime for the little kids. Karcyn and Calvin headed to bed just before 8pm instead of their usual 7:30.

Karcyn is really good about going to bed, saying her prayers and tucking herself in. I just have to go kiss her goodnight. Calvin, on the other hand, has been a little resistent lately. They share a room with JJ and sleep on a bunk bed. Karcyn's on the bottom, Calvin sleeps on the top.

I had Calvin go potty and we went through our little routine. As I said, he wasn't being very cooperative, so I told him if he didn't choose to be obedient, I would have to turn off the hall light or he wouldn't be able to listen to the "Scripture Scouts" music. He didn't like either of those options, so he complied, albeit begrudgingly. I tucked him in and actually didn't kiss him goodnight. He was too far for me to reach on my tiptoes, and it took SO long for me to get him to actually lie down that, instead of asking for a kiss, which would require him to sit up and stretch in my direction, I figured my loving stroke of his hair was good enough.

Cooper had already put himself to bed and I went to rejoin Jared and Jake in the family room and kitchen. Jake was finishing up the dishes and Jared was rocking with JJ, watching updates on FOX News. I checked Jake's work on kitchen duty and then started to make and pack Tuesday's lunches. Jake got on the computer for a little bit and I read an article or two on Jared's iPad.

Then I remembered I needed to fill out some paperwork for Jake and started working on that when Jared decided it was safe to lay JJ down in his crib. "Safe" meaning: Calvin and Karcyn are asleep and won't wake up JJ by their talking or playing around. All was quiet in the bedroom wing of the house.

As I was working on the papers for Jake, Jared came back into the kitchen with JJ still in his arms and asked, "Where's Calvin?"

"Whatdaya mean?"

"He's not in his bed."

I put my pen down, happened to glance at the microwave clock that showed 8:47 and walked authoritatively past Jared telling him, "Don't worry, he does this from time to time." Sometimes, especially when he has no interest in sleeping, Calvin sneaks down from his bed and sleeps with Karcyn.

I walked into their bedroom. Karcyn was asleep. Jared was hot on my heels and loudly whispered, "I already checked their room."

No offense Jared, but I know how the male species looks for things, so don't take it personally while I go back and check for no other reason than for my own peace of mind. I had to squint as my eyes adjusted to the dark and using the light from the hallway, bent over and reached around on Karcyn's bed. The only thing sleeping with Karcyn was the cat. There was, however, a big mound by the foot of her bed. Sometimes those kids build little forts of pillows and blankets around themselves before falling asleep. I patted around the bulky mass, but all I felt was a bunch of artificial stuffing.

I stood upright and checked the top bunk. I pulled all of Calvin's blankets back and made sure he wasn't tucked down in a corner. Calvin's bed was empty.

At this point, I was running out of ideas. I quickly turned on the overhead bedroom light and checked all of those places again in case I had missed something in the darkness. I looked in their closet, I looked under the crib and under the bunk bed. No Calvin. How is it that of all her kids, the one that was missing was the one this mommy neglected to kiss goodnight?

I turned off the light and we left the room. I went into Jake and Cooper's room. Cooper was stirring and he groggily said, "I already told you Calvin isn't in here." Jared obviously looked in there before coming to find me. But I checked the beds and under their bunkbed and closets anyway.

I left that room and we started calling for Calvin throughout the house. Jared had looked in the living room behind the couches and in corners. I looked under the dining room table. As I surveyed the area, I took note that the front door was still bolted shut. Calvin's been known to leave the house without our knowledge, but usually when the big kids are out front or he sees someone he knows. We looked in the family room. Jared, with JJ still in his arms, opened up the door to the garage. Calvin also likes to go out to the garage and play. It's a place we usually find him during the day when he's not in the house.

Jared exclaimed, "Ohhh!" I thought Jared had found Calvin and that his exclamation was because Calvin was making a mess by intentionally mixing the cat food in the water dish or adding water to the litter box and smearing the clumps all over---speaking, sadly, from experience. What he found, however, was that the garage light was on and the garage door was open!

This was extremely concerning because it just so happens that after dinner, when we were getting ready for family night, Jared had gone out to the garage for something and noticed I had forgotten to close the garage door when I came home earlier. When he brought this to my attention, I looked over in his direction and asked, "Did I?" I saw that it was dark in the garage and then heard Jared click the button and the garage door close for the night.

Jared just stood on the landing for a second while the weight of what we just realized washed over us. He handed JJ over to me and without saying a word, immediately left the house and started calling for Calvin as he quickly walked into the darkness across the street and down the path to the nearby playground.

That's when my heart stopped beating and plummeted to the floor. Refusing to believe my baby was out there, alone and in the dark, I countered, "Calvin can't reach the button to open the garage." Jake corrected me and said, "Yeah he can. I've seen him do it." What? He can? It still didn't make sense. How could Calvin have gotten out there without any of the three of us seeing him? He can be super sneaky and we can be distracted, but I'm confident I would have noticed him. We were all in the family room area after the kids went to bed. Calvin would have had to walk through the narrow path through the kitchen and the family room and in his bright yellow t-shirt and athletic shorts no less, to get to the garage. It wasn't adding up. I couldn't get my mind to accept that Calvin left our home undetected. At night. In the cold. But stranger things have happened and the heavier truth was that we couldn't find Calvin anywhere. And the possibility of Calvin leaving our house on his own was certainly more believable than someone taking him from our home. But once he was out there all by himself...all it would take is "opportunity" for this situation to go from bad to horrific. I shook my head in determination. I couldn't let my mind go there.

I passed JJ to Jake and hustled to the backyard barefoot and in my jammies. I started hollering for Calvin. Surely he would answer if he was out there, right? Nothing.

This wasn't good. I ran back inside and headed to my room. If Jared didn't find Calvin, we were going to have to get help. What do we do first? Call the cops? Tell our neighbors? If we got others involved that would make this real. I threw some socks on. While I was in my room, I searched it also. I looked in our bathroom, the shower stall. I looked under our bed and in our two closets. No Calvin.

I left my room and met up with Jake in the hallway, who was holding JJ. Jake said he was starting to get really worried. Not really acknowledging him, I instructed Jake to please put JJ in bed and told him we were really close to leaving to get help and I would need him to stay here at the house. I also asked him to start looking in all the cupboards and any other small space he could think of.

Coming back in from his search outside, Jared found us in the hallway only to report that Calvin wasn't at the playground. I didn't know what to do next and I don't really remember what happened next. I just remember Jared opening the small hall closet where we were standing, the door opening towards me, blocking my view and I heard a very relieved, "CAL-VIN!!" I think it was actually Jake whose voice I heard.

I pulled the door out of my way and saw Jared squat down and fish out Calvin from beneath the heap of coats and backpacks. I'm surprised he even saw him.

Jared said, "Calvin? Calvin, what were you doing, Buddy?" Calvin was limp with sleep, his hair matted with sweat. He laid his head instinctively on Jared's shoulder and remained asleep. We weren't going to be getting any answers out of him tonight. Jared and I locked our eyes which both reflected relief and love for the little boy he was holding in his arms. Once I knew he was safe, I smiled, shook my head and through gritted teeth said, "I'm gonna kill that kid." That was when I started to actually feel my heart, pounding in my chest as I considered a handful of "what ifs?"

It sure is hard not to overreact when it comes to the safety of your kids. We would have turned the house and yard completely upside down before calling the police. But we were pretty darn close. I had even checked the dryer. That closet--was one of the few places we hadn't looked yet.

This morning, Calvin didn't say a word about waking up in his bed as opposed to the hall closet. And when we asked him, nonchalantly, why he went to the closet last night, he said he didn't feel like sleeping in his bed. Of course.

As for the mystery of the garage door....we concluded that the light must have been turned on when Cooper went to get the broom to sweep after dinner. As for the open garage door, the only thing we can deduce is that when Jared closed it, the cat must have walked under it, activating the safety sensor that made the garage door pop back up. Those two things combined to create a very scary possibility for us last night. I made note of the microwave clock after Jared put Calvin in bed for the second time. 8:53. This ordeal lasted only six minutes.

Thank you, Heavenly Father, for our happy ending!

Cooper's solution

While Jared and Jake were on a cold and wet scout camp out last night at Silver Falls, the other kids had fun playing in every room of the house. Counter to my usual OCD nature, I actually ignored the mess when we went to bed and left it for the next morning.

After the kids got dressed and had breakfast, I asked all three of them (Cooper, Karcyn and Calvin) to please clean the living room mess which consisted of mostly big duplo legos and stacking blocks as well as the decorative couch pillows, strewn all over the floor. I had to remind them a few times to clean up.

Finally, on my way to the other end of the house, I walked past the living room to see Cooper kicked back, lounging on the couch, typing in an exaggerated fashion on a calculator in his hand. At the same time, Karcyn and Calvin were working together to clean up the mess in stiff, jerky movements.

I stopped midstride as I assessed the situation. I narrowed my eyes and peered at Cooper.

He responded with melodramatic innocence and smiled knowingly. "What?? They're my robots and I've programmed them to clean up the mess."

I decided not to dignify the situation with a response and proceeded to leave the room.

I don't know what disturbs me more. The fact that Cooper would take advantage of his siblings and concoct such a scheme. Or that it worked.

Happy Halloween!

I will be the first to admit it. We are not big Halloween lovers here in the Hough household. I dressed up when I was younger and went door to door, but it wasn't (and still isn't) my favorite holiday. And I'm not really one to dress up...costume or not. I think I just lack that creative gene.

Fortunately for me, ever since Jake was a baby, we discovered the brilliant invention of "Trunk or Treat" at our church. It is the GREATEST creation. Ever. Instead of trudging around a neighborhood for an hour or two and in unpredictable weather, you drive to church where all of your friends from your ward pop open their tailgates and the kiddies walk around the parking lot, getting plenty of treats in just a matter of minutes. So if the weather is nasty, it doesn't last long.

We've lived in several LDS wards in Northern Utah and Oregon and a ward in Kalamazoo, MI. In the past 12 years, they've ALL offered a Trunk or Treat of some sort or another. And that, my friends, is the only way to do it! It's quick. It's safe. It's quick. There's not normally a ton of candy involved. It's quick. Did I mention it's fast? Seriously...10 minutes tops and you're good to go!  I'm all about efficiency. So sue me.

Today started out with me chaperoning Karcyn's first grade class on a field trip to the pumpkin patch. Wooo doggy. It was cold and wet, wet, wet. But the kids had fun regardless. We were the only school there, which was nice and this was in place of a Halloween party, which I thought was perfect. I forgot my camera, of course (and don't know how to use the one on my phone), but we all looked like wet rats when it was over. And then I went and bought Karcyn a rain coat when I got home.

I was bracing myself for a lot more rain for the Trunk or Treat and even wore my rain boots. But the clouds parted and we actually saw patches of blue sky. We didn't get wet at all. And the temperature was rather pleasant, all things considered. It was a Halloween miracle.

This year, in our Halloween line-up, we had the following:

Cookie Monster--who wasn't all that happy about his costume.

But gradually warmed up to the idea.

And of course, was perfectly fine with it once he got his cookie. (What was I thinking?)

Oh, and this...is Wes. Unless Dad or Mom is around, it's all Wes. And even then, it usually ends up being Wes. He and his family are our Oregon family. They sit with us in Sacrament Meeting each week (because Jared is on the stand) and are always thinking about and serving us, especially our kids and we love them to pieces. (Bev was the incredible Relief Society President I was privileged to serve as a counselor to for 2 1/2 years!)

And then there's...the crocodile (or Godzilla T-Rex, depending on the day)

Calvin, Calvin, Calvin...

 

Calvin got to wear his costume and go Trick or Treating at the high school on Tuesday where his Pre-K class is held, so this was his second round of Trick or Treating. But I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that it was 10x more fun because Wes was there. He and Calvin are bud-dies! And when one is in trouble, the other is close behind!

And introducing...a bumblebee--in rainboots. Buzz, buzz.

Ohhh, boy.

After making 2 rounds to the parked cars, Karcyn decided she was done. So she climbed into the back of the suburban and helped me give out candy with Elissa (Bev and Wes' daughter...and fellow Calvin charmer and JJ snuggler). All of a sudden, Karcyn started announcing to the nearby Trick or Treaters, "Candy for sale. Come and get your candy!" That's when I informed her this candy was free so long as they said "Trick or Treat." She did a good job passing out the treats. A couple of minutes later, though, I noticed she had a piece of candy in her hand ready for the next child and it wasn't the candy I bought. She had been handing out candy from her own candy bucket! Silly girl.

And we have....Darth Vader--he always shows up at Halloween. The reason he doesn't have his red light saber is because he killed Luke Skywalker and stole his light saber.

What is it with my kids and cameras?

 

 

I didn't see Vader much tonight, but he seemed to fare just fine.

After the kids were satisfied with their Trunk or Treating haul, we closed up our trunks and headed into the cultural hall inside the church building for some more socializing with our friends. The Monster got his cookie, Elissa got the Monster, the Crocodile played basketball with Wes, and between me and Karcyn, we drank about 6 cups of cocoa. It was to die for!!

I didn't see the Slender Man until it was time to go. When we got home, he and Cooper went on their first "real" Trick or Treating experience around our neighborhood for an hour with Jake's friend Elena. They were very responsible and came home right when we asked them to. And then they had to organize and sort their mother loads. Cooper got so much candy the plastic handle on his bucket snapped off. They weren't too happy to hear we were issuing a 10% duty tax (payable in candy only) for letting them go around the neighborhood :)

And here is Slender Man. He's supposed to instill fear. His look is a little freaky. Slender Man was actually an LDS missionary at school today with a name tag that said "Elder Hough" in yellowing letters. There was a costume contest during lunch and Jake was surprised to find out he was actually "voted" to be in it. He didn't place, but he got some nods :)

A hunting we will go...Part deux!

Some of you may recall this post one year ago, almost to the day. Jared's first experience in shooting a deer last year has become quite the legend around these here parts. Jared even wrote a poem about it.

He has had quite the year trying to live that one down. But to his credit, he has remained undetered and started planning for hunting season again this fall.

Unfortunately, for Jared's hunting plans, we've had an Indian summer. The weather was beautiful through mid-October. However, because of the warm, dry temperatures, the department of Fish and Game had declared the area where Jared would be hunting as "closed" due to the risk of fire threat when firearms are discharged.

When the rains finally came (and boy did they come alright), Jared still had to wait a week for his area (up near Vernonia) to open up. He went last Saturday, for his first hunting opportunity. Our friend's dad, Art, who lives in and hunts the area regularly, knows the hot spots and took Jared and our friend Brian around. Sadly, it was a bust.

This weekend was Jared's last shot (no pun intended). In fact, he and Brian took a half day off on Friday, so they could use what daylight was left that day to hunt and then spend the night with Art and get another early start at 6am today.

This morning they drove to an area where Art had seen signs of deer and proceeded to lead the city boys on a strenuous 5 mile hike up and down hills through that entire area. And didn't see anything. Nothing. Maybe 2 bluebirds. Oh and a frog. Jared also slipped and fell twice as they trudged through clear cuts. So all he got out of that was a 5 mile workout, blisters and a flare up of plantar fasciitis.

They finally left that spot and started "road hunting"--basically driving around the logging roads and looking for deer from the truck. (Like what Jared did last year, when he shot the wrong deer).

They used this method for another hour or so. A couple of does were spotted, but Jared refrained this time.

The two "office men" decided they were getting tired so they tried one more logging road as they made their way back to Art's house (which sits on 64 acres) and saw nothing still.

As they headed back to Art's house around 1:30 in the afternoon, Art mused facetiously, "after all we've done today, watch us find deer in my yard."

As they drove up the beginning of a very long driveway, would you believe Art spotted 2 deer...a doe and a buck sitting in his yard?! He told Jared, "get your gun and get out of the truck." Jared did as he was told but kind of stood there for a minute because all he got a good look at was the doe--and was a little gun shy (literally). Art urged him on, "walk forward a little bit." Jared did so and when he looked through his scope, he saw the doe and finally saw the buck walking behind a tree. As it cleared the tree, Jared knew the safety on the rifle was off and readied himself for the shot.

He took careful aim and "click". (Whoops! A dry fire.) Obviously, you don't want to have a bullet in the chamber of the gun when you're riding around in a truck on a bumpy road and in all the unexpected excitement, Jared forgot to put a bullet in the chamber.

So...he had to lower his gun, pull the bolt back, load a bullet in the chamber, (making a lot of noise and out in the open no less), raise the gun, and look through the scope again. [At the same time, in the truck, Brian was asking Art if he should be getting his rifle ready because all they could see was Jared dinking around, wasting precious time with a buck that had been served to him on a silver platter.] While Jared was making his gun more effective, the deer had walked maybe 5 yards then stopped. When Jared looked back through his scope, the deer was standing broadside and turned to look right at Jared while he was taking aim. Jared said the buck looked like one of those lifesize archery targets that just stand there. So he shot it. He shot a little high, but he dropped it in one shot nonetheless. Jared said it wasn't a very smart deer and deserved to die since it just stood there with a rifle pointed at it.

Art graciously gutted and skinned it. Apparently there was a lot of fat on that buck and Art commented it's gonna be some good meat because of all the apples the deer eat on his property. It'll be like eating a grass fed cow :) Our friend's husband Rick (who took Jared on his infamous hunting trip last year) is taking care of the hide as well as mounting the antlers and will take the meat to be processed for us after it hangs for a couple days in Art's barn.

Next year for hunting season, Jared and Brian said that they'll just bring lawn chairs, sit in Art's yard, eat Doritos and drink hot chocolate while they wait for the deer to walk by. Whatever works!

Spelling

A couple of weeks ago, Karcyn was dutifully sitting at the dining room table, anxiously engaged in her spelling homework. Doing homework with her is a dream--because I don't have to do it with her. She's a total self-starter and when I even mention the "h" word she lights up and happily complies with my suggestion to get it done. But only when she's mildly sidetracked. Usually she's the one that reminds ME she needs to do her homework.

Fortunately, we have no academic concerns with Karcyn. (We feel so blessed considering this same child wasn't speaking just 3 years ago!) Once we agree on what task she's going to do, I can walk away and supervise another child.

Karcyn's assignment this particular afternoon was to use half of her spelling words in a sentence. One of the words was "am".  She came looking for me so she could show me her work, which was a little unusual for her. She usually waits for me to come check it. But she was so proud of her sentence. It read:

I am a child of God.

My mommy heart just melted! It was absolutely precious. First of all, she used the spelling word correctly :) Secondly, she not only thought of a fantastic sentence, she recalled the most IMPORTANT sentence she could ever remember. I was so thrilled with her sentence choice, that I wrote a note to the teacher (whom I volunteer for regularly and who has also been to our Primary Program in the past) to tell her that Karcyn came up with that sentence all on her own and how happy it made me to see it printed in Karcyn's sweet first grade handwriting.

Last week, Karcyn was writing sentences again using her spelling words. For the word "came", she again wrote all on her own:

I came to earth from Heavenly Father.

Little does Mrs. Hugelier know she's getting the first missionary discussion on the sly from Karcyn :)

Cooper has landed

My due date for baby #2 was 10/22/02 ten years ago. It certainly had a nice ring to it. However, I had no desire to go to my due date. We still don't know if Jake was on time or not because my cycle was irregular when I got pregnant and the due date I was convinced we had (because Jared and I were apart before that!) was actually not the way he was measuring. So I had no idea what to expect with baby #2, except that we were having another boy. Plus we were having a vaginal birth after having a C-section to add more mystery to the mix.

Like all my pregnancies, I labor for about a month. And go no where. It's ridiculous. I have friends that sneeze and they go from 1 cm to 5 cm. I labor for hours, in REAL labor and I don't get to a 1.5. I had actually considered trying a natural childbirth with Cooper, even though I had no idea what I was getting myself into. My contractions finally started to be consistent on Sunday evening, October 20th (when, again, for the third time, a man at church asked me if I was having twins. REALLY??? You don't ask a woman that even if she IS having twins, but especially a woman who is about ready to pop and already feels like the Goodyear Blimp). My mom had flown in the day before and I'm convinced Cooper was waiting for her to get there.

The problem with my contractions is that they start out of virtually out of the blue and they are hard and close immediately. There's no building. But even though they're hard, at least with Cooper, they aren't productive.

After laboring at home for about 2 1/2 hours and getting in the tub to see if that did anything, we finally drove to the hospital. This was around 2am. We were about 2 blocks away, alone on the road, with no one else in sight. Except for the police car. Who then proceeded to pull Jared over. Are you kidding me?

So we're waiting (well, I'm trying to crawl out of my skin becasue of the contractions which are torture when you're sitting in a car) for the officer to approach our vehicle. He shines his light on Jared and asks him where he's going in such a hurry. (Seriously, Jared wasn't going but a couple of miles over the speed limit. He wasn't going fast enough in my opinion). I didn't wait for Jared to respond. I leaned over my big belly as much as I could so the officer could see me and I said as nicely as I could, "to the hospital!"

He shone his flashlight on me and said, "Well looky there. How nice. I've got kids too. How exciting." He may have even gotten his family photos out to show Jared while I worked through another contraction. I'm not sure. But then he let us go on our merry way, without giving Jared a ticket. If I hadn't been in excrutiating pain, I would have argued with the officer. Jared has been pulled over for speeding, oh, about half a dozen times that I know of and each time the officer has let him go. I got pulled over ONCE on the worst day of my teaching career with a sick baby crying in the back of my car and I don't get one little "where you going so fast?" or courtesy warning for a spotless record. And I got slapped with not one, but two tickets because I couldn't find my insurance card either. So while I was glad we were moving again, I was a little miffed Jared did it again! Is he seriously more charming than moi?

That would only be the first of a few crazy scenarios over the next 12 hours. I was shocked to discover that with the labor pains I was experiencing, I was only at a 3. I wanted to cry. When the nurse asked me what I wanted for pain, I said an epidural. This was insane. It was late, I was tired and some sleep would be nice. That's when the nurse said an epidural wouldn't be possible. Excuse me? Turns out a week before, the anesthesiology group (the only one in Kalamazoo serving both hospitals in the city) decided that they were no longer going to administer epidurals to VBAC women. (Vaginal birth after Cesarean). That would be me. Yet no one cared to let me know. Although a lot of good it would have done. Jared asked what on earth were they thinking? Well, it was a tactic to get more money. We VBACs are at "higher risk" for uterine rupture and have to be monitored more. So if they have to monitor more, they want more money. However, and here was the clincher...IF I wanted another C-section, they'd come at my beckon call to do that. Because those are faster. If women are laboring, who knows how long they'd have to stick around. So feeling beat up and exhausted, I was told at 3 in the morning my choices were: door #1) another C-section or door #2) a natural, drug free vaginal delivery. I didn't want to do another surgery. But after what I'd already been through, I didn't want to do natural either. But here was my chance to "try" it, even if it was forced. So that's what I did.

Pure hell. I can't explain it any other way. For almost 12 hours. It was the hardest, most excrutiating physical distress I've ever been in, with no end in sight. The nurses gave me Stadol, which as Jared so accurately described, is like giving Tylenol to someone with a migraine. It's useless. And it made me mentally miserable. I had tunnel vision and hearing. I couldn't speak the words my brain wanted to say. Why people voluntarily do drugs is BEYOND me. That was also around the time I was feeling nauseous and got sick. And oh, yes, the contractions started to piggy back...when right after one has peaked, another one starts up without giving you any rest on the way down from the first. Yeah...I did that for several hours.

Then, as if it couldn't get any worse, I got stuck at a 9. I was at a 9 for a good hour. That's when the midwife on-call gently suggested that after all I had been through we should think about a C-section since I wasn't progressing and I'd labored so hard for so long already. We had two different reactions to that option. Jared went ashen and his heart sank. He immediately thought: We went through all of that just to do a C-section anyway? My verbal response to anyone who would listen: "I don't care, just get this baby out!"

So while Jared got in his scrubs, the midwife told me to change positions while she went to find the doctor and let her know we were doing surgery. My mom had arrived by this point. I think it was 15 minutes or so before the doctor showed up. She checked me and in that amount of time I went to a 9 1/2. She looked at the midwife and said, "Just hold up this part of the cervix and let her push."

Hallelujah! I didn't care how we did it, I just wanted to do something to get this show on the road. I pushed hard and was told I was a champion at it. It was only for about 30-40 minutes, which impressed the nurses since this was my first vaginal birth. When Cooper came out he had his fist up by his cheek, so I tore. Horribly. I had to be sewn up in 3 or 4 layers, by 2 doctors. And I bled. A LOT. My mom even leaned in to Jared and said she had never seen that much blood before. I was dangerously close to needing a transfusion. The second they got me up to go to the bathroom, I fell flat on my back and passed out. Consequently, I was put on alert and couldn't get out of bed without someone else in the room. And I almost had to have a catheter, but somehow managed to dodge that bullet. Then I had to go to the ER a couple days later due to massive swelling in my feet due to the loss of blood. Fortunately it was nothing a little pill couldn't fix.

People are amazed I decided to have more kids after that. Which is funny because it never crossed our minds to stop at just 2. But I've never been through the ringer quite like that...or since, I might add.

Despite it all, we were so glad to have our new baby who arrived at 11:59am on 10/21/02 and tipped the scales as my BIGGEST baby at 7 lbs. 9 oz. Cooper is named to honor my Grandma and Grandpa Cooper. Interestingly enough, for those who weren't there when it happened, we moved to Kalamazoo, Michigan when I was 6 months pregnant. After spending 2 days looking for a place to live, we were thrilled to discover we were approved to live in brand spankin' new apartments with new EVERYTHING. A dream for starving students living in a variety of dumps for the past 7 years.

The development: Cooper's Landing Apartments
The street: Cooper's Landing Drive
Township: Cooper

No joke. Pretty crazy since we named Cooper before we left Ogden, Utah.  I asked the management if we'd get a deal on our rent since we were naming our baby Cooper. No such luck. Fortunately it was already priced well to begin with.

Here's the new family after a couple of weeks:














This was Cooper at one month. (Reminds me of JJ).

 

 



















Here's big brother Jake holding our little linebacker! He got really big, really fast :)

 
















Here we are getting ready to say good bye to Kalamazoo and make the 2700 mile trek to Forest Grove, Oregon!

 

 

I love this picture of Cooper. He was caught in mid-air!

 

Fast forward 10 years from that "special" delivery in Michigan. I got a text from the Birthday Fairy who said she'd be at our house Saturday night with helpers to leave a surprise on our doorstep.

 

This is what I found Sunday morning.

 

Right as we were getting ready to leave for church, I said loudly, "What on earth? Are you kidding me? Who's knocking on our door at this hour and on a Sunday no less. Cooper? Would you get the door please?" Dutifully, he went to the door, while I grabbed the video camera.

 

He opened it and said, "What the?" and then just stood there in shock. The other kids had run (and crawled) to the door to join him (because if the door is for one person, it's for all of them!) and were giddy to see all the ballons falling into our entry way and started playing in them like a pile of recently raked leaves.

 

Cooper asked if I knew who did this. I said, "the Birthday Fairy, of course." I explained he's crazy if he thinks I'd spend all that time blowing up 30+ balloons.

 

 

 

Where's Cooper?

 

 

 

 

So many balloons!

 

It was SO thoughtful of the Birthday Fairy to pay us a visit for Cooper's birthday. We've only had a couple of balloon casualities and are still enjoying them.

 

Happy 10th Birthday, Cooper!!

It's been quite the decade. I can't wait for many more!