When Ricka Came

Another of my Draft Posts. I think it was just waiting for me to pick some cute pictures of Ricka and re-size them. But if this post is going up before the next baby comes, I should get on with it!

July 28th, 2011....

We just didn't know that Ricka was going to come a whole week early.

It's funny how when you think you have everything under control nothing goes according to plan. I was NOT ready for Ricka to come when she did. I had the whole last week before she was due completely booked. We did not have a baby name chosen, I did not have my hospital bag packed. After Grandma C. got hurt we alternated between going up to the hospital to see her and having Grandpa C. and Dee over for dinner and hockey.

Thursday (June 9th), we'd gone up to see Grandma and the next evening Grace and her kids joined us for dinner too. I was almost one week away from my due date. It's kind of interesting that just as Grace was leaving that evening she said, "Thanks again for dinner, and I hope you have that baby soon!" I laughed and agreed as I closed the door behind her and then started to tidy up since everyone had gone and Sir was finishing the screen door project he'd been working on for a couple days.

A couple hours later after discovering I still hadn't finished packing a hospital bag, Sir insisted I do that before I went to bed that night. "I don't care if you just have one pair of underwear in the bag. I just want to have a bag somewhere that I can grab!". Of course he knew I'd never settle for just partially packing my bag. After all, that was why it wasn't even packed. I had piles of stuff all over the place that I'd been collecting for my bag, but I just hadn't put it all together yet. So, at 11 pm, I finally dug out a duffle bag and put all my piles of collected stuff into it, and with that I had a hospital bag packed. Then we started talking about more baby name options sometime around midnight and when we'd finally settled on something, it was time to call it a night.

I woke up at 4:30 because my water had broken. That had never happened on its own before so at first there was quite a bit of confusion as we realized it was actually labor. Then we had to figure out who to wake up at 5am and ask if they could come watch the older kids while we headed to the hospital. The PLAN was, for my mom to come up from CA on the 13th (a whole 6 days before my due date), and we'd have someone already here when the baby finally decided to arrive. Ricka had her own plans, and thankfully, Chasm's Lady graciously took on this task in all it's short-notice and arrived in good time. I felt terrible asking her to come over when my contractions during the first half hour - 45 minutes weren't even worthy of being called contractions, but they were steadily increasing in intensity, so by the time we left our house to make the 5 minute drive to the hospital I was very glad the ride wasn't any longer.

At first I kept thinking, 'We can't go into labor now! The mattress guys are supposed to call between 7 and 8am to schedule a delivery time for later in the day and we have to be home.' We had decided that since my mom was going to be staying with us for a couple weeks after the baby came, we'd finally upgrade our double bed to a queen which would also give us a decent guest bed. I'd figured I'd have a whole week before the baby came, to set up a guest room for my mom once we got our new mattress.

Anyway, we finally called Chasm's Lady and she got to our house around 5:30. I felt terrible interrupting her day so early - especially when my contractions weren't that strong by the time she arrived, but it was a bit frightening to see how quickly and consistenly they were intensifying. By the time we got to the hospital less than 10 minutes later, I had to stop and really work through a contraction every 2 minutes.

We got checked in, settled into a delivery room and resigned ourselves to this being the 'real thing'. And then there was the hour that seems to take forever. I remember looking at the clock at 7:15 and thinking, 'If this was Butler, he'd be born already!'. To me, it seemed like my most dificult labour, but I was exhausted before it even started. All I wanted was a little break, so I could rest before we got down to the business of having a baby, but Ricka was on her way whether I was ready or not. Just a note: Do not go into labour after less than 4 hours of sleep!

And so, Ricka was born on Saturday, June 11th at 7:43 - just over 3 hours after I had woken up. She came out screaming mad and healthy as a horse! She took center stage size-wise compared to her other siblings weighing in at 8lbs, 13 oz and 21 inches long.

And that, is the story of when Ricka came.
THE END

Savors of Summertime

The Ingredients

Here's my most recent, past, draft post. Sometimes there's nothing quite like a current post either. :) Oh well, if I don't dig through my drafts once in a while, I won't be able to appreciate the more timely-posted posts. Besides, I want to have this recipe where I can find it easily, so old or not, it's going up now.

July 14th...

There's nothing like fresh salsa. And there's nothing to describe how a mama feels when her little people fall in love with it!
Yesterday I made a batch of salsa thinking that we'd have a little last night, and I'd take the rest with us for lunch on Sunday. But I felt like having some for a snack/lunch today and served up a cereal bowl full. Then PC walked by. "What's that?" he asked (probably because he was hungry as a result of me not serving lunch yet) "It's salsa, but you might not like it... 'cause it might be spicy." I told him. He wanted to try it, and was hooked. He needed his own bowl. It wasn't long before Butler wandered in. I offered him some, but added a dab of sour cream. He was sold too. Before I knew it, both boys were feeding salsa by the chipful to Ricka. She wanted nothing to do with the chips....

Grandpa Dan's Salsa Makes 1 gallon!

• 1qt canned Tomato Juice
• 5 Anaheim peppers
• 7 - 10 Roma tomatoes (any kind will work though)
• 2 Onions
• 2 Green Bell peppers
• 1 bunch Cilantro
• 1-2 Jalapeno peppers (minced)
• 5-7 cloves Garlic (crushed)
• Salt to taste (1-2 Tbs)
• Pepper to taste (½ - 1tsp)
• Lemon Juice (2-3 splashes)

Dice vegetables, add seasonings and tomato juice. Stir well, and enjoy! It's best the next day once all the flavors have melded together. Just don't over do it on the jalapinos - they don't seem so hot in the just-made batch, but can really pack some heat the next day!

I think what I was leading up to (four months ago), was Dolly discovery of the salsa. When she saw Butler's doctored salsa, she made her own version of it (where she crushed her corn chips and mixed them into her bowl of salsa and sour cream), and then wrote down her own recipe so she could duplicate it later. I should post her little culinary treasure, but I'm falling asleep just sitting here right now, so perhaps another day. Perhaps.

Salsa!

October....

There's been so much to blog about that its intimidating just thinking about it sometimes. Then you have to figure out where to start especially when it's been forever since anyone heard a peep out of you. After that... there's just finding the time to get to it and making sure you'll have enough time to finish because one little thing leads to another and pretty soon, you're neck-deep in a post/project/pretty much anything, and somehow you've got to wrap it up. At least that's how it is for me, and so I procrastinate and never even get started. See? All that and I haven't even started!

And I decided to tackle the whole month. Here's most of what we've been up to - mostly in pictures with a bit of explanation:

October 1st - Our last day in California.
As I was packing up the van for our trip home, Auntie V. dressed Dolly and PC up in her firefighting outfits. It was late morning and the temp was already in the high 80's. I was pretty impressed at how well my kids held up underneath all that gear!

Getting a look at each other.


PC - He got to wear the radio/pager thingy. :)


Dolly - She got the mask and water weights.

It wasn't too much later that Emma and PC showed the first signs of the local flu that was going around. They both lost their breakfast just minutes before we hit the road. We left at 1pm Monday afternoon, and by the time we reached the CA/OR border (usually about a 3 hr. drive), it was already after 7pm. Dolly had joined the ranks emptying their stomachs every few minutes and we were making 'dumping stops' very very frequently. It was awful. The only pictures of the whole trip home were what Sir took on his phone while we were stopped at a rest area.

Butler
He only got a mild case of the flu, and it wasn't until we'd been home for a couple days.


Ricka
She never got sick at all.


And Emma.
She made it out of the van and spent the whole rest area stop on the nearest patch of grass.

The trip home was long and exhausting. Instead of trying to drive straight through, we stopped for the night somewhere in Oregon. We figured it'd give the kids a chance to recover and us a chance to sleep. We got home at 2am Wednesday morning and Sir woke up at 5 sick. The kids had started feeling better by Tuesday morning, but I kept them home from school while we regrouped the first day. Sir Stayed home from work for a couple days to recover and thankfully, I never got sick thus being spared the most horrible job of caring for the sick while sick and pregnant. :)

October 6th - Canadian Thanksgiving.
Everyone was soundly on the mend by the weekend which was when we celebrated Thanksgiving. I didn't get very many pictures this year, but we stuck with tradition and went Chestnut picking in the park first thing in the morning before heading to Grandpa and Grandma C's house for breakfast.

Ricka's first Chestnut.


Emma - Proud collector of Chestnuts. :)


Butler's Trophy.


Dolly and Daddy stepping on chestnut cases.

After breakfast we hung out at Grandpa and Grandma C's house. There were walks in the park, puzzles to do, snacks to munch on, and I brought a pumpkin project for the kids to do during the day while everyone waited for dinner to be ready. Finally it was time to eat and I did remember to get a pictures of the tables before the feast was fallen upon.

The Cousins Table


Most of the rest of us.


A few of the finished pumpkin projects.

After Thanksgiving, the kids and I harvested most of our garden produce. We went bowling with Grandpa & Grandma and Uncle A., and PC found a Wooly Caterpillar.

About ⅔ of the main crop. We'd been harvesting various things all summer, but it was getting colder, and I didn't think the garden would last much longer. Clockwise from top left: Green tomatoes, Russet potatoes, Tomatoes, Cherry tomatoes, and Zucchini. The kids ate all the strawberries before they came in the house that day.

Bowling

The 'Toss' by Dolly


The 'Slide' by PC


The 'Slowest Ball Ever' by Emma


The 'Patient Wait' by Butler


The Kid's Final Score.



PC and His Caterpillar


A close up when we let it go.

October 14th - Roasting Chestnuts
A week after Thanksgiving, Grandpa and Grandma C. invited us over to roast the chestnuts. The kids got to participate in almost all the steps involved in getting the chestnuts from the forest to in a snack bowl. Everyone helped out in the first peeling stage. Once that was done and Grandpa was roasting the chestnuts in the popcorn maker, most of the kids scattered throughout the house to play, but a few stuck around to watch. After they were toasted, Grandma brushed off the inner papery peel, and when they were cool enough to eat, everyone got a taste. Butler especially liked them, and stuck around until all the batches were done.

The Peeling Party


Concentration.


Roasting


Butler helping Grandpa


Ready to eat!

October 15th - 31st
For 2nd half of the month, I just have random pictures here and there. Butler, Ricka and I 'put the garden away for the winter' on the 22nd, which means we picked every last thing weather it was ripe or not. Our mystery plant this year turned out to be a pumpkin and it was still mostly green when we finally picked it, but I wanted to beat the frost. The older three kids had a school field trip on the 26th - in the pouring, very cold rain. Other than that, there's just random life pictures, but some of them are worth posting. :)

A pretty tree next to the Dr.'s Office.


Rainbow!


Up close


Ricka's newest trick - Balancing on a Drum


Baby.Basket.Books. AKA: Ricka


A different basket, different book, same baby.


Our garden pumpkin. I knew the older kids would each get a pumpkin on their field trip, so this one was officially Butler and Ricka's pumpkin.


Still green. We didn't know if it would finish turning color after it was picked.


Matching Sisters!

The Field Trip

Group Shot.


Emma with her pumpkin on the Hay Wagon.


Dolly and a barn kitten. She's wanted one like this since we sold Olive's white kitten two years ago.


Kids.


Teeny tiny piglets! They were only 2 weeks old.


PC and the goats. They loved him.


Butler and Ricka's pumpkin. It turned color beautifully! The kids are anxiously waiting for me to tell them we can cook it up.

And that's it for October. We'll see what November brings. :)

Their Expressions Say it All

We told the kids we had a surprise for them Friday night. Then I changed Ricka's outfit and we had them guess/figure it out. They all had slightly different reactions, and I love that this picture captured each one so perfectly.

Ricka's shirt is actually the very same one that Emma wore in the pictures I put in this post, but we were running out of original announcement ideas and figured that if we were going to use the same method twice, we might as well, use the same shirt too. I just revised the date on the back with some masking tape and a Sharpie and told everyone to ignore the ultrasound picture.

So, now we wait for February to roll around, and although we've waited longer to 'tell the news' in the past, it really won't be that long (pregnancies go faster in relation to the number of other children in the household) and we're coming up on the half-way mark in just under two weeks.

Reminders...

I found this paper on my desk this morning and it was just what I needed to start my day today. PC gave it to me a few weeks ago when he was practicing it for Sunday school. Some things are best in their rawest form.

1 Peter 5:7

It's so easy to accumulate so many cares, that you just crumble underneath them. This is the remedy. Half of what I needed today was the realization that this little paper for today was prepared for me to read weeks ago and it surfaced to the top layer of my desk right when I needed it as a reminder.