The one where I went AWOL (again)

I cannot believe its been so long since I posted. But suffice it to say that things have been crazy busy around here. And I know you're all expecting a "Lu got married" post, but its not happening today. Sorry. Its in the works, but I don't have that kind of time today, because you guys will want pics and the whole works.

I will say that it was a Beeyoooteefull wedding and Lu looked amazing and Luke was awestruck by her and the whole thing went off without a hitch because I'm OCD and had a plan "B" setting in case it rained on the outdoor wedding thing (which it did). Getting Lu to plan and committ to anything is like pulling teeth so I was stressed out until the Friday before, when I finally gave up and took care of all the details myself so that I could get some sleep in which I did not grind my teeth and wake up with a headache. So she is now officially Mrs. Flanagan. Yes, that is super weird.

In other important family news: Dylan is growing like we feed him Acme insta-grow. At two months old he has grown 4 inches in length and put on 4 1/2 pounds. He's a big guy. And vocal! I don't remember my kids ever cooing and responding as well as he does. Already, he'll talk your ear off if you let him. I can't wait til he has words, because I am dying to know what the heck he's saying. He loves his bouncy chair, will only stay in the swing if the classical music it plays is turned on, and rarely really cries. He is delightful and I'm completely in love with him. Oh and Lu has decided that he will call me "Mimi" instead of Grandma. And her Dad is "Pawpaw". Don't ask, I didn't.

Sean is an Eagle Scout. He finished his project before his birthday, had his board of review and its all over but the celebrating. We will be having his ceremony sometime in October. He's getting ready to enlist. Can't seem to talk him out of the Marines.

Mike is doing well. His insurance lawsuit over the accident was finally settled satifactorily. He's gearing down from the summer season and getting ready for duck & goose season. Don't go all "hunting's bad" on me. He loves it and will rationally tell you all of the ways in which it helps to control the population AND the conservation methods and ethics. Plus, he makes me cook the kills so it doesn't go to waste. And let me just say-- I HATE Duck. It tastes like liver. But he and Sean eat it. Goose is pretty good.

And me- well you can hop on over to The Author Spot for all my author news. But I'll just say, I love my job. Love love love. We talked about retirement the other day and I said I was pretty sure Editors didn't retire, they just go blind. And I'm super pumped because Mike & I are taking our very first ever vacation without kids or young adults or anybody!! Yep! We are going to New Orleans for a week in November, just the two of us. Super excited. Staying at a fabulous apartment in the Garden District, a couple of blocks from Anne Rice's house! And I got a steal on the price! I'm looking forward to everything about the trip. I mean, for real, do you know how many cemeteries there are in New Orleans?! Yay!

So here are some recent convos-

Laying in bed the other night, there is some amazing howling going on outside-

Me: I just realized that we no longer have a dog. What is all that howling?

Mike: Coyotes

Me: Are you sure? I've never heard them howl quite like that before.

Mike: I'm sure.

Me: You're sure it's not werewolves?

Mike: Could be, I guess. But its probably coyotes. *and he rolled over and went to sleep*

Sean and I while having coffee on our back deck:

Me: Man, its gorgeous out here today. All I want to do is sit here and enjoy the view. I have no motivation.

Sean: Welcome to the club.

Me: There's a "no motivation" club now? So what, are you like the president?

Sean: Yep. And there's an annual fee of $25. It's another $24 if you want the t-shirt.

Me: Ouch. That's pretty steep. Wait...there's a t-shirt?

Sean: Well, there will be once I get the motivation to make it.

The other night when I planned to have spaghetti for dinner, Lu and Sean were complaining. Mind you, Lu loved spaghetti while she was pregnant and it's always been one of Sean's favorites. Well, until he had to eat it nearly every week at camp this summer. Finally, I said if I heard one more complaint, we'd be eating spaghetti every night for a week. I made it my Facebook status so they'd be sure to see it.

Lu: I saw your Facebook status, so I warned Sean.

Me: Good.

Lu: Because I know you are crazy enough to actually do that.

Me: It's not a matter of crazy. Its just good parenting.

Lu: How do you figure that?

Me: The key to parenting is consistency. Don't make a threat you don't intend to keep. Your Dad and I really like spaghetti and its cheap to make so it would be an easy carry through.

Lu: I'm still chalking it up to crazy...

Happy Monday y'all!
♥Spot

The one where my children make me laugh...

Okay, so that's pretty much every post. My children are silly and ridiculous and crazy just like I am and we spend a lot of time laughing at each other. Personally, I'm convinced that's a good thing. I think it works as well as my Oil of Olay to keep me looking and feeling young. So these are some snippets from this week...

Lu had her 6 week check up at the doctor after Dylan's birth. And because she hates to go anywhere and especially to the doctor by herself, she drug me along.

Me: I can't believe you lost 21 pounds already. That's amazing.

Lu: It's not enough. I'm still fat and gross.

Me: You are not fat and gross. Your body just changes when you have a baby and never goes back to quite the same. But you look gorgeous and healthy and amazing.

Lu: My thighs are enormous. They rub together.

Me: Um, no. Your thighs are not enormous. My thighs are enormous and rub together. Yours barely whisper "hello" in passing.

*Huge eye-roll from her*

Me: I'm so blogging this.

And Sean and I went to see the Air Force and Navy Recruiters-

Air force- You'd be really great at special ops. We really need para-rescue, combat control, and combat weather.

Me- what does combat weather do?

Sean- duh. They're weathermen.

Me- but how do you combat the weather? I mean, it just is, there's nothing you can do about it.

Air force- (trying not to laugh) they monitor the weather conditions in the combat zone. If the wind is blowing 300 miles an hour you can't jump out of a plane. Well, you can. You just won't make it to the ground with a parachute.

Me- ohhh...

***

Navy- So let me ask you this- if you went into infantry in the Marines, what would you do with that when you got out? There's not a lot of call for guys who just know how to kill people.

Sean- well I'd probably start out with bank robbing and depending upon my level of success and degree of enjoyment, I might try out serial killing.

Me- he's a bit of a smart ass. Good luck with that.

***

Navy- and since you're stuck on the boat for six months and get a little stir crazy, we stop in different ports so you can have some R&R.

Me- and that's how the Navy got their reputation. Shore Leave.

Sean- She's a bit of a smart ass too.

Navy- must be where you get it.

Later in the car, Sean and I were discussing his options. And I asked about search and rescue or being a Navy diver.

Sean: I hate rescuing people.

Me: But you're a lifeguard.

Sean: I know and I hate it. I had to rescue ten kids this summer and I hate it. I just want to say "Listen moron, if you can't swim that well you probably shouldn't be in water over your head."

Me: But you still saved them.

Sean: And you know the stupidest rescue? The one where the kid was wearing a life jacket. For criminy sake! A life jacket! Swim your ass back to shore! And out of ten rescues? Only one kid said "thank you."

Me: Really? That is kind of sucky. I'd totally thank someone if they rescued me.

Sean: Yeah, and that was one I pulled out for hypothermia. Poor kid apologized for having to be rescued and then said thank you. But I still had to get in that cold water and he got my shirt and towel wet also so I was freezing after that.

Me: So rescue of any kind is out for Sean, the reluctant lifeguard. So noted.

See, total ridiculousness. It's what we do. Also, if Lu doesn't stop being so damn picky and find a dress for her wedding soon, I'm going to pull my hair out. She has no clue what she wants. She won't even decide on a flower for the bouquet. We have two weeks left here folks. Two short weeks. Arghhhh...

TGIF,
♥Spot

PS- first I bitch about not getting enough comments and then I hide the comment thingie. Smart, eh? For those of you having trouble- it's invisible until you roll over it with your mouse. It's right by the time stamp. I'll try to get it back....

The one where things change...

The times they are a-changin'. Again. They seem to be constantly doing that lately. I think time speeds up as you age and everything happens at a faster rate of speed. Or maybe we just lose attention span and aren't fully focused. I'm totally blaming this on age. Because I can, that's why.

So the first change is obvious...I changed the design of my blog and went back to the original picture. I love that picture. Being at the ocean makes me happy. Also? I think it defines the "edge". And I almost always feel as if I'm on the edge of something. These days it's usually something exciting. I also simplified the design. I felt it was taking too long to load and had too many distracting elements. So there you go. I hope you like it. I do.

The second change is that I'm about to be a mother-in-law. Yep, you read it right. Lu & Luke are tying the proverbial knot. They got engaged last week. I know- you're dying to hear the story of how he popped the question. And even if you aren't, I'm going to tell you anyway. Luke works nights at a steel factory and comes home covered in black grime. So the first thing he does is shower. But last Tuesday night he came home a little late and Lu was so busy worrying that he was late, she didn't notice that he was clean and had changed clothes. He'd also brought her home a cherry slushie & mozz sticks from Sonic which are two of her very favorite things. On one of the mozz sticks was a gorgeous diamond engagement ring. Cheezy story, huh?

I knew it was coming (I helped pick out the rings) but it was still odd. My little girl has a baby and will soon have a husband. How does this happen so fast? They are getting married in a very small outdoor ceremony on September 18th. Only immediate family and their closest friends will be in attendance. Luke is enlisting in the Air Force that week and they will be having a big wedding and reception after he finishes basic and tech school. Not knowing, exactly when that will be, we will start the dress shopping and wedding planning right away. So exciting!!

Lu & Dylan will stay with us while he's away. Then, they'll join him at his first assignment. I'm excited they are about to start their lives, but sad that they will probably be moving fairly far away. I guess I will be traveling a lot to see my grandbaby!

Sean is back from his travels and has some amazing stories to tell! He met some of the most interesting people. I guess we both know the cool kids. He's applying to work at the steel factory with Luke so that he make some bank. But first on his priority list is talking to the recruiters and enlisting. He's wanted to be a Marine since he was six. To make me happy he's agreed to talk to the Air Force and Navy recruiters as well, before enlisting. Too soon, I may have an empty nest. And again, I'll have to travel to see him. Good thing I can work from anywhere, huh?

And I must apologize- I totally left town without alerting the blogosphere. We went to my sister's in Ohio last week and stayed with a friend in Indy on the way back. Visits to my parents bookended the trip. Lu, Dylan and Sean went with me. I do have some funny stories (and pics) to share next time. But the thing that made me giggle was a text I got, two days into my trip.

J: Did you leave your house without letting the blogosphere know? How can we keep track of you if you do things like that?

So you all have my deepest apologies. I'll try to make it easier to stalk me from now on.

♥Spot

PS- For those of you who wondered (you know who you are), Sean did indeed make a fried egg sandwich his very first morning home from New Mexico.

The one where we pick up a hitchhiker

I know- you're all freaking out, going "You did WHAT?" Settle down now. It's not what you think. I mean I did pick up a hitchhiker, but it was a blind boy. See, you're not so worried now, right? Have you ever heard of a blind serial killer? No, didn't think so.

Friday night Lu and I decided at around 7pm that we needed to eat something for dinner. And we both agreed that DQ sounded amazing. So we put Baby Dylan in his car seat and headed to Hamilton. Hamilton is a tiny town about twenty minutes north of us if you take the back roads. And we always take the back roads. Those roads are the roads my kids learned to drive on. There's hardly ever many cars on them and they wind through sleepy little towns, well if you can call a collection of houses a town. So we drive through the first little town and round a curve when I see a guy waving his arms over his head to flag me down.

Lu: Don't stop!

Me: But it might be important. There might be an accident or something.

Lu: Or he might be a serial killer.

Me: (slowing down) Lu, I'm just going to roll down my window a bit and see what's going on.

Lu: What if he has a gun?

Me: (Almost at a stop and close enough to really see the guy) Lu, it's just a kid.

Lu: So were the children of the corn!!

I stop, roll down my window, and realize that there's something wrong with the kid. He looks about twelve and I realize his eyes aren't focusing and he's blind. So I ask what he needs and he starts walking towards my voice. He runs into the door of my car.

Him: I'm blind.

Me: Yep. I got that. Can I help you?

Him: Well, I'm walking to Tioga and I just wondered how close I was.

Me: You're walking there by yourself?

Him: Yeah, it's okay, I do it alot. I go all over.

Me: Where are your folks? (who lets a blind kid wonder around by themselves??)

Him: Oh the're at home. We don't really get along. My dad's 71. I'm adopted.

Me: (thinking age is no excuse for letting a blind kid walk around by himself) well you don't have any weapons on you, do you?

Him: No. Just cash.

Me: Get in the car, I'll take you back to Tioga. (Lu is frantically shaking her head in the back)

Him: Thanks a lot. I'm going to Mark Foster's. Its a trailer house. Do you know where that is?

Me: No. I'm not from Tioga. Which side of the street will it be on? Do you know what it looks like?

Him: Left side. No. Not really (well of course not, he's blind.)

We drive through the town and I don't see it on the left side. And there are a ton of trailer houses in this town. So we stop to ask a guy on a four wheeler. He says we missed it and to follow him. So we turn around and he leads us to the house. It looks pretty run down and has like a forest full of firewood stacked next to it.

Him: (pulling out money and asking me what each bill is) here's some money for your gas.

Me: No, it's cool. Don't worry about it.

Some really disreputable people come to the window and tell him the guy who lives there isn't home. I tell him to get back in the car. No way I'm leaving a blind kid with them. So I end up taking him back to the intersection where I found him. I did not feel right dropping him off there but he insisted. In the course of the ride I found out that he was fifteen, lived on a farm, his oldest brother is about to turn 50 and he's only been blind for three years. He lost his sight in a four wheeler accident in the winter when he was herding cows. He was lucky to be alive. He had been going to the small high school there but was going to go to the school for the blind in Jacksonville this year. He was a sweet kid. I told him where we lived and and kept saying "we". He probably thought I was crazy because Lu never made a noise the whole time. Nor did Dylan. So he probably didn't even know they were there. After we dropped him off~

Me: You could have said something.

Lu: You were chatting away, doing just fine on your own. Besides, I was being you silent back-up.

Me: What? In case the blind kid attacked me?

Lu: Yes. Now I know why Luke wants me to keep a pocketknife in the diaper bag for protection. You aren't supposed to pick up hitchhikers.

Me: Lu, he tried to pay me for 5 minutes worth of gas. I think he was harmless.

We went to DQ and returned home. We didn't see the blind guy on our way back. Later that night I was working in my office when Lu came in with Dylan.

Lu: Dylan needs a bottle but I'm scared to go into the kitchen.

Me: Why?

Lu: I keep hearing this knocking noise coming from there. And I'm still creeped out from earlier.

Me: You think the blind kid found our house and is waiting outside?

Lu: Well you did tell him where we live...

Me: And what? He's going to make his way through our house, which at the moment has boxes and dressers everywhere, and murder us in our sleep? I'm pretty sure I'd hear him bumping into things. Hell, I can't walk through here without running into things.

Lu: You never know.

Me: You do know the windows are open, right? It's probably a noise from outside.

Lu: I didn't know. Will you get the bottle anyway?

I got the bottle. *sigh* Later I was telling Mike the story and I ended with the fact that maybe we were running late that night for a reason. Maybe we were supposed to help him. The universe gives you all sorts of chances to do good things, you just have to take them.

Mike: was it that house that has all the wood stacked around it?

Me: Yes!

Mike: That's a really seedy looking place. You really need to be careful.

Me: I wasn't going inside. I was just dropping him off. Geez! It was just a good deed.
Me: Maybe, in an alternate universe we didn't stop and someone ran him over. Or maybe in an alternate universe those disreputable people got him when he made it to that house alone.

Lu: Or maybe in an alternate universe he had an accomplice and when you stopped, they whipped out guns and jacked the car with us inside.

Me: Or maybe he got terribly lost and couldn't find his way home and died.

Lu: I think if you die in one alternate reality, you have to die in all of them.

Me: I don't think it works that way.

Lu: I'm pretty sure it does.

Me: And since when are you the alternate reality expert? I just read a book about them.

Lu: whatever. I'm pretty sure I'm right.

Me: We'll ask Sean when he gets home. He'll give us some long drawn out Quantum physics answer that neither of us will understand and will sound like 'blah blah alternate reality blah' but then he'll dumb it down for us.

So we're waiting on Sean. This story makes me laugh but at the same time it makes me sad. I'm sad that my kids have grown up in a world where they  don't trust anyone and can imagine such horrible scenarios. I'm glad they're smart enough to know that not all strangers are the good guys, but mourn for the innocence I'm not sure they ever had.

♥Spot

The one where things are random...

Life is random. There's no doubt about that. Popularity is random. Everything seems random lately. I've got 226 Twitter followers. I only know a handful of them. I have more Facebook friends than I know what to do with. Again, I only know so many of them. But apparently being an Editor and a Writer makes me a "cool kid". I'm slightly confused, because I already thought I was cool. I guess I'm just "cooler" now. But then again, I'm probably supposed to be spelling it "kewl" to be really cool. And while I am enjoying getting to know all my new friends and followers, I still want to keep my old ones. And some of you seem to be missing.

I didn't start this blog to make friends, but that's what happened. And there for awhile there was a core group of us. I could count on their comments and they could count on mine. I got to know them through their blogs and when I was in one of the darkest times of my life (Mike's accident), they helped pull me through with their constant outpouring of love and support. They reached out to me in real life, not just blogland. I miss you guys. I know I've gotten busy and don't blog nearly as much. I know I don't always make it to your blogs as soon as you post, but I do try to keep up! So, if the absence is because you're busy too- just know that I still value you.

And newbies- I heart you too of course. But leave comments, it's how I get to know you and helps insure that I visit your blog as well.

And now for the random portion of the blog. Because this blog is nothing, if not random.

Me: ugh. My hair has sooo many grays in it! Its definitely time to color it again.

Lu: Maybe you should go with the aunt Vicky style. (Mike's aunt who went through chemo. Her hair grew back this absolutely beautiful salt and pepper. She keeps it short and she looks amazing!)

Me: Um. I don't think I can pull off that short look. She looks so sophisticated now. I think I even like it better than her blonde hair she used to have.

Lu: Yeah. It looks "artsy". I don't think it would work for you.

Me: What the hell? I'm "artsy". So what do you think I'd look like if I let my gray grow out?

Lu: Kind of like a hippie.

Me: Oh great. So aunt Vick's hair says "artsy chic" and mine says "aging hippie". Thanks alot Lu.

Lu: Um. Sorry?

Me: Doesn't matter anyway. I'm going to start calling them silver highlights. That makes it sound like I put them there on purpose.

***

We were watching TV the other night and saw an advertisement for one of those shows where they show funny clips they find on the web.

Lu: Isn't that what Tosh.0 does?

Mike: yeah. And Web Soup.

Me: Well I do not have all day to comb youtube for funny videos you guys. Frankly, I'm glad someone else does it for me.

Lu: But I just want to see funny cat videos. I think they should have a crazy cat lady who only shows cat videos. And they can film it in her house with her 80 cats. And she can be all "Mr. Tickles found this clip!"

Mike & Me: *silence*

Lu: Well I'd watch it.

***

Lu & I made a trip to Dairy Queen. The closest one is 20 minutes away in a tiny town if you drive the back roads. So we're driving along and we stop at one of the few intersections. There are stop signs on the road we are on.

Lu: So for the longest time I didn't realize that wasn't a four way stop. And one time I almost got smashed by a semi.

Me: Is this a story where you're such a bad driver you almost died?

Lu: Pretty much. And there was this guy in a pick up truck at the other stop sign and when I went he freaked out. He looked so horrified. Glad that semi missed me. If it hadn't he probably would have told the cops I committed suicide.

Me: And they'd have been all "Ma'am, we think your daughter committed suicide" and I'd have said, "No. She's just stupid."

Lu: I can see you saying that to the cops.

Me: And Sean would be all "I told you she was too stupid to live."

Lu: *giggling* Guess I should pay more attention.

Hope you are all enjoying your week. Mine has been interesting to say the least. More on that later.

♥Spot

The one where I'm someone's favorite...

That's right! I'm some one's favorite blogger of the week. Okay, so my post was her favorite post of the week. But that totally translates into me being her favorite blogger, of the week anyway. So you should totally read Hamlet's Mistress' post!

In other odd news about me- Did any of you watch Bret Michael's Rock of Love show? C'mon, you can admit it, we're all friends here. No one will point and laugh, much. I watched it. All three seasons. Let's face it- Bret is still hott. And those crazy women! The drama, the fights, the boozing all go a long way towards making me happy I'm not them. So anyway, on season 2, there was this chick from Brazil, Marcia. She was the one who threw up and then kissed Brett (he didn't know). Yeah, now you remember her! She started following me on twitter, out of the blue, just randomly. How weird is that? Like I told Sean- I'm famous, yo.

Also, checking my blog stats and where people travel to my blog from, I'm still popular with the Eastern European crowd (shout out to my homies in The Czech Republic!) but also now, I'm popular with the goth crowd. Woot woot! I was wearing black and reading horror before it was a whole subculture. Go me!

Seriously, I don't understand any of this, but I'm thankful that anyone reads my ramblings. And the fam? Well, they are doing well.

Sean was home for just over 24 hours between West Virginia and New Mexico. Drove him to the train station on Monday evening. May have cried a little after he boarded. He may be a "hott guy" to some of you, but he's still my baby. And while I have complete confidence in his ability to take care of himself, it seems like we've graduated to a new era of his independence and I'm feeling a little lost. Plus, I miss him.

And Lu is settling in to being a mom with remarkable aplomb. Sure, she occasionally tries to pass off a dirty diaper to me to change (ain't happening folks, I did my share), she does everything else herself. Although, she will take me up on the offer to watch Dylan so she can get some sleep occasionally. He's an awesome baby but seems to think playtime is from 11pm to 2am. He's obviously a night owl like his mama. Unfortunately he also thinks being awake from 7am to 9 or so is cool. Not so much his mama and daddy.

Being a grandma is great. I get to smoobie the hell out of that baby, but don't have to get up in the night, change diapers or deal with the "after baby" body grossness. Mike is also way thrilled with being a grandpa.

And the editing business is booming, which reminds me that I need to get back to work...

Happy Hump Day!
♥Spot

The one where Lu has a baby and Sean wrecks a car...

Yes, all at the same time. That's so not the phone call you want to get from one child when you're in the delivery room with the other child. But let's start from the beginning.

On Sunday, the 17th of July, Luke and I painted the master bedroom blue w/brown polka dots to match the nursery stuff they'd got for baby Dylan. Lu kind of helped, but mostly just watched. I know we were late getting to it, but if you read this blog regularly- you know things have been crazy busy. We were moving into Lu's old room so they could have the larger room w/space for the crib. (It also has an attached bathroom which enables them to stay in their room at night when the baby wakes up- thus creating less noise and more sleep for grandma & grandpa). It turned out beautifully!

About four o'clock Lu started having contractions. She'd had some off and on for the last week but they never got regular. Well, these ones didn't either. Some were 3 minutes apart, some 10, and so on. So we decided just to go to bed. I told her if it was real labor, they'd wake her up and told her to wake me up if she needed anything in the night. We got up Monday and she said they'd kept her awake most of the night, but they still weren't regular. So we started moving stuff into their room and Luke put the crib and changing table together (let me just say here that the rest of my house looked like a hoarder's paradise because we'd moved our things out, but not into Lu's old room because I wanted to shampoo our disgustingly old carpets. So we had no less than three dressers in the living room along with a king size mattress). At 11am Lu's contractions started coming every 3 minutes. So she took a shower. And then I did. And then she refused to go to the hospital until the room was finished. That's my Lu!

We finally got to the hospital around 3:15 Monday afternoon. She was dilated to a 4 and 75% effaced. They told us that first time mothers have to thin all the way before the dilating really gets going. They hooked her up to monitors, she filled out a million pieces of paperwork and at 5 the doctor came in to break her water. As anyone who's ever had a baby will tell you- that's when the contractions get more painful. Lu had decided she wanted a drug free birth, no painkillers, no epidural. She was getting more and more uncomfortable and having a load of back labor. The nurse showed us a more comfortable position and how I could press on her back to offer some relief. I was in charge of back pain relief while Luke held her hand and tried to help her stay strong and calm.

Breathing through a contraction

About 7pm she got to get into a whirlpool tub (where the hell was that when I was in labor??). It helped with the pain alot and she stayed in there for an hour. By this time, contractions were much stronger and she debated on a painkiller shot. Luke and I both told her it was her decision. The nurse checked again and 8pm she had completely thinned out and dilated to a 6. Things were moving rapidly. Back in bed, the pain was worse, much worse and I called the nurse back in at 8:30. She had dilated to an 8! 2 centimeters in half an hour! The nurse explained that that was why the contractions were so strong and close together, because she was having a lot of rapid movement in the cervix. We asked for a shot of Nubain (a mild painkiller). Lu had debated on an epidural but decided against it and by then it was too late anyway. The next hour and a half were filled with more strong contractions, but thankfully the tiny shot had helped take the edge off. The nurse came in at 10:45 and asked Lu if she was beginning to push during contractions. Lu told her she couldn't help it. The nurse checked and she was dilated to 10 and completely thinned! Time to push! The nurse called the doctor who didn't believe Lu was already ready to push. She thought the pushing would take longer.

Luke decided he'd stay by Lu's head and I'd be the one holding her leg and seeing the birth. And what a sight to see. The doctor barely arrived in time. Lu only pushed for 18 minutes and part of that time was the nurses telling her not to push because we had to wait for the doctor and them trying to keep the baby's head in the canal! Lu was a trooper and baby Dylan was born at 11:16pm on July 18, 2011. He weighed 7lbs 10 oz and was 19 inches long. Lu had no ripping or tearing or bruising. Unbelievable.

!

Baby Dylan♥

I've never been on that end of the birthing before and it was the most amazing thing I've ever seen. Luke and I both cried at the absolute awesomeness of the miracle of birth. And I'm so proud of Lu for sticking to her guns and pushing through the pain to have the birth she wanted. The nurses were amazed too and kept praising her.

The very next morning she was up and about, showering and even wearing makeup. That's my Lu!

The very next morning!

Both mother and baby are doing great a week and a half later. In fact Dylan has already surpassed his birth weight and is up to 7lbs 14 oz. He's thriving. And he's a super chill baby that doesn't cry or fuss much at all. He doesn't enjoy diaper changes or being really hungry, but other than that he's a quiet happy baby who seems to really take in his surroundings. He loves to be talked and sung too. And yes, I am a very proud grandma!

Sleepy baby & sleepy mommy

What a cutie, frowny face and all!

Now for the other child...

Sean has been working for Camp Callahan again this year and feels his responsibilities keenly. He knew Lu was in labor but couldn't get away until he'd gotten his campers to bed. So he was headed to the hospital at 10pm that night. We'd told him to drive Lu's car because he had a taillight out on his truck and we didn't want him to get a ticket. He called me at 10:45pm to tell me he'd had an accident and was pretty sure he'd totaled Lu's car. He tried to give me details but he was shaken up and hard to understand and Lu was starting to push! So I told him to call his Dad (who was in the waiting room, not in the thick of things!). It seems he was going way to fast on the little blacktop road that runs from our gravel to the highway. He was trying to make it to the hospital in time. Apparently Lu's headlights aren't that great and it was a dark night. Somehow, he managed to miss the stop sign that is where the blacktop meets the highway. He ended up flying across the highway and up a 5ft embankment, coming to rest in the yard of the house that sits there. 6 inches to the left and he would have hit a tree. Another foot and he'd have hit the water meter. I have no idea how he did it.

In typical Sean fashion though, he knocked on the door and told the girl who answered he'd parked his car in their yard and could he borrow her cell phone? Apparently his was dead. After he called us, he sat on the porch with the girl (the house owner's girlfriend. the house owner wasn't home). He had a first aid kit in his bag which he used to bandage his hand- it had gotten bruised and burned by the airbag. (Thankfully that was his only injury) He also had oatmeal cookies and Gatorade which he shared with her. He ended up getting a ticket for "failure to reduce speed to avoid an accident". He could have ended up with three tickets and a suspended license. We are still waiting to see if the insurance company totals Lu's car or fixes it again. Sean's insurance just went way up, I have no doubt.

Lucky for Sean, we all had something to distract us, so he didn't get in to too much trouble.

Uncle Sean

What a night! Here's a few more of my favorite pictures:

Happy Family♥

Could they be more beautiful?!

Grandpa & Dylan

Isn't life grand?

♥Spot