The Best Birthday Present

 This is my little baby, Jarod. He is boy #2. It was his birthday yesterday. He turned 11. It was my birthday the day before. On April 4th (my b-day), 2000, I was in labor with this kid. If he had been nice to me, he would have come ON my birthday. Instead, he didn't come out until I had labored 30-plus hours, on April 5th. I had him naturally, of course, because I am Woman. Hear me roar. Justin was overseas on deployment in the Marine Corps. I thought I would be devastated that I couldn't have my husband with me during my baby's birth. But, once labor hit, as much as I loved my dear husband...........I forgot all about him (no offense, honey). Contractions are funny like that. I had a job to do & I did it. Rather well, if I do say so myself. My mama-in-law & sister-in-law were there & helped me through it. I couldn't have done it without their support. It was an Air Force hospital & the doctors & nurses were amazing. But the MOST amazing thing about the whole experience was when I held Jarod for the first time. I immediately noticed that he looked EXACTLY like my last baby (this became a pattern with the future children I birthed as well), Seth. It was incredible. How did I DO THAT? I also realized, happily, that I was thankful the doctor had not shot me in the head, as I had requested of him at some point during my 9 hours of transitional labor. I was completely overwhelmed, again, with the miracle of life & the existence of an amazing Creator. And then I noticed how alert & wide-eyed Jarod looked. When I would set him down, his eyes followed me around the room. When he heard my voice, he would turn his head to look at me. I fell completely in love with him. So did his big brother Seth. Jarod brought joy to our hearts, which we needed because we were missing Justin so terribly, horribly much. Poor Justin was field-training in Kuwait, when Jarod was born. The Red Cross notified his ship of Jarod's birth, but the message never got to him. He didn't know Jarod had arrived until 2 weeks later, when he was finally able to call me. And he didn't get to meet Jarod until he was 4 months old. Those would have been very tough months, but Jarod brought me comfort, laughter & soothed my soul. He was a gift from a loving God. A caress from Heaven. There was SOMETHING about Jarod. He looked so smart & wise & happy. When I looked into his eyes, I just KNEW something was going on in that head of his already. It turns out I was right. His gears haven't stopped turning since. He's really the most creative kid I've ever known. Every day he creates some new thing..........or SEVERAL new things. Where some people see a stick, he sees a picture frame. Where some see an egg crate, he sees a googly-eyed 17-legged monster. Where some see trash, he sees something he can mold into a special treasure. He is the artist of the family. He is the chef of the family. I can bribe him to do things for me by promising to let him bake something in my kitchen. He is sensitive, kind-hearted, funny & so sweet. With him being so artistic, naturally, I had to let him decorate (with the red letters, not the confetti) his own WalMart-bought home-baked, delectable, culinary-genius-of-a-cake.  
Yes, that says, "Jarod rocks". He has a healthy self-esteem to go with that creativity. 

                                                       This is how old I turned.

        This is how old Jarod SAID I turned. There's that humor.




Then he dug out aaaaallllll the old birthday candles & said I was THIS old. Funny boy, that one.

 
But then I got my revenge when I told him he was THIS old.......................




...........................plus 6. We didn't have an eleven.

 I had to let him play with fire this once...it being his birthday & all.

 That was our little family party, which was actually pretty big, since my sister & her kids are still here. He got legos from me & Justin. Today, we had our "Big Family Birthday Party" with my in-laws. Mom took us out for dinner & Auntie Emily & Auntie Sarah made a real, home-baked, delectable, culinary-genius-of-a-cake. And I forgot to take a picture, naturally. Jarod opened his presents from Grandma, Rara & Emmy. He got EXACTLY what he wanted:


a fedora & a bee-bee gun (which he will only be allowed to shoot with Daddy's help, so he doesn't shoot his eye out)....................

 ...............................and some totally awesome cooking stuff. He says he is going to shoot a squirrel & he knows just how he plans on seasoning it.

Thought I'd repost the cheese picture. He's even creative with Cheese Whiz.

                                            He has his own brand of humor.

                                                        He's a little wacky.

He's theatrical

                 He's a trend setter.

                                                    He's wise & witty.

His sense of humor can be a little morbid.

                                                                     He's cool.

                                    He is a helpful & sweet big brother.

                                         Did I mention his sense of humor?

          He's my baby, even though he's almost as tall as me now. I love him & I always will, even though he doesn't like my kisses any more. Happy birthday, Jarod Matthew! Thanks for almost coming on my birthday. I forgive you for the long labor. I love you. You're the best birthday present ever!



UPDATE:

~Jarod's arm was not broken badly enough to need a cast. He just has to wear a splint for 3 weeks.

~Toby is recovering nicely from surgery. He has not run away again. So far.

April Fools, etc

As I said ealier, my sister Trixie & her kids (AKA: my nieces & my nephew; AKA: Daralyn, Nakayla & Zander) are here visiting me from Seattle. There are 9 children in this house at all times. It is a lovely chaos. I am super happy to spend time with them & am going to miss them when they leave.

Aside from my sis' visit this past week:
~I've gone to band practice, which was incredibly fun.
~Jammed out with the TMC worship team, which was also a blast.
~Brother in law, Joshua, & his wife (AKA:Heather Jr; AKA: my sweet & lovely sister in law)also came from Seattle for a visit. They brought a very cute puppy with them.
~Made at least 17 & 1/2 trips with my sis to our fav hang-out: WalMart (AKA: the only place where they allow moms with 87 kids to come & shop & don't arrest them for opening up a box of Graham crackers to stuff into little mouths to get them to stop screaming before paying for them. And if you didn't understand that sentence, you are obviously not a mom with 87 kids.)
~Isaac, Daralyn & now myself, have gotten sick. Again. Not surprising with all the little walking petri dishes on legs, all jammed into a tightly enclosed living area & breathing into each others germy little goo-infested, but cute, faces. More little sickies shall develop in the coming days, I am confident.
~Had 19 people (including the above visiting family members) in my teeny wittle house for a yummy chicken ravioli dinner & some more sweet & happy chaos & laughter.
~Had a big family park outing in the beautiful sunshine.
~Haircut day happened. Zander was included.
~Had a cousin picnic in the back yard.
~April fool's day happened. I awoke to Jarod climbing onto my bed next to Isaac, just in time to stop him from drawing a mustache on his baby brother with a sharpie. Seth barely missed being doused by the cup of water Jarod had placed precariously above his bedroom door. I was almost fooled into believing the cat had pooped on the kitchen counter. Until I remembered what day it was & who I was talking to: Jarod (AKA: little prankster). You'd be amazed how similar-looking to a turd rolled up mud is.
~Since we actually had a couple days of spring weather, the boys naturally needed to collect worms to race in the back yard. If you've never had the immense privilege of witnessing a worm race, you just haven't lived.

CONE OF SHAME: the Sequel

I guess Toby was REALLY ashamed of his cone. I don't think I can tape THAT back together.

      This is SO much more dignified.

                                                    "Woe is me."       


                                
         Good choice, Toby. That stupid cone was just humiliating.

LOST: Mom's Sanity; Call Heather @ 555-HEL-PMEE If You Find it

Our yellow lab, Toby, went missing on Tuesday afternoon. He hadn't been neutered yet & I guess he wanted a fun adventure involving a female dog. He escaped out of our backyard fence, which was recently broken by some very strong wind. The boys & I were very worried about him. They made signs to hang in the neighborhood.

.

By Gideon

                                             By Micah

By Seth

                            Justin had the only working car (he's been working on one of them) at work with him. So we walked the neighbor hood & surrounding areas, looking for Toby.

                              We walked & walked & walked..................

         ......................and walked & walked & walked.................

         .........................and stopped for a minute.....................

 ......................and walked some more until we were so tired we had to come home for a break.

 We went out again for a while. We walked & walked & walked a whole lot more. When I'd finally had enough, we came home again & I made lunch. I sent Seth out on his own to hang up the signs he had made. A neighbor man saw him hanging up signs & asked Seth what he was looking for. Seth said, "A yellow lab." The man said, "I think I can help you. This dog followed me home." He gave Toby back to Seth. Seth hugged the man & said, "You're my BEST friend!!!" & brought Toby home. 

We were all SSSOOOOOOOOO happy Toby was home, safe & sound.

                  (Always with the freakin' bunny ears!!! Sheesh. Toby's gonna be SO embarrassed when he sees this pic. I bet he didn't even know Jarod was doing that.)



So I promptly went out back & fixed the fence. 2 hrs later, Toby was missing again. I don't know how. I think he may have magic powers because I did a pretty good job on that fence. It was back to the drawing board, worrying about Toby. Worrying about my kids' potential broken hearts. Worrying about MY broken heart. Anxiety ran high yet again. Seth re-hung signs. The boys prayed. I made phone calls to vets & the humane society. I put an ad in Craigs' List. (Or maybe I did that the first time....I can't remember.) My sister & her kids arrived from Seattle (which is completely unrelated to the doggie story, except that she arrived in the middle of it all). I was very excited to see her, but I left & went out looking for Toby till almost 3 in the morning. Couldn't find him. Went home & went to bed, extremely sad & worried, but OH SO EXHAUSTED. Next day, a neighbor brought Toby to us, asking if he was ours. We have some amazingly nice neighbors..........this guy had kept him overnight to keep him from harm. We were SSSOOOOOO happy to have him back home. Safe & sound. Again. I didn't take pics. Just scroll back up to Jarod & Seth's happy faces when Toby came home the fist time. It was just like that. Again.

 (Isaac & Zander: the "twin cousins"........only 3 days apart. More to come, on the currently on-going cousin/Auntie visit, in a future blog post.)

In fact, I was SSSOOOO happy to see him that I promptly made an appointment to have him neutered Friday. Don't feel sorry for him, even with those pathetic puppy dog eyes. He made his OWN CHOICES. This is what happens to little doggies who can't control their inner animal. They get their masculinity taken from them & have to wear (horror of horrors): THE CONE OF SHAME!!!!!!!!!!!!! "Dun-dah-dun"

 I worked on some music in my "studio" this week. Practice for the band is coming along swimmingly. Except when it's not.

Jarod broke his arm on Thursday. Surprisingly, it's the first broken bone in the family. He was running & fell. Yup. That's it. Fractured his wrist & arm. Has to get a cast next week. At least he & Daddy got slushies on their father-son-ER-outing. I was glad my baby was OK, of course............but EXTREMELY glad that I didn't have to take him to the ER myself with all the kids this time.

                                      My 2 little invalids.

 Toby couldn't stand THE CONE OF SHAME any more. Our other dog, Scout, must have felt sorry for him because the teeth marks on the outside edge of THE CONE OF SHAME were most likely hers. Unless Seth felt sorry for him too. One can never be sure. But I found THIS outside today.

But I wasn't going to let that little setback keep me down. I paid an extra $8 for that thing, boy howdy!!! You thought the CONE OF SHAME was embarrassing before, Toby?

                                  How do ya feel NOW???


BTW......My Hobbit feet are swelling. Great.