Norah Claire made her appearance at 4:57cst Monday July 25, weighing in at 7lbs 8oz and 21 inches long. Her mama(Hannnah) had a much easier delivery this time. She was a trooper, did not even have an epidural...didn't really need one and after it was all over she was glad she went natural.
I am in Virginia with them as I write this. I am so glad to have gotten the opportunity to be here shortly after Norah's arrival and to get the chance to know her.
I have had fun with Aidie. We have had a couple of real adventures. One on Tuesday when we set out to the hospital to visit the rest of her family. Please understand that I drove to their apartment after dark. I was tired and was not paying too much attention to anything more than the directions Michael S jotted down on a piece of scratch paper. I made it to the apartment fine but when we left the next morning I went the wrong direction toward West Virginia...It took me about ten miles to realize something was not right. I had absolutely no idea where I was so I consulted the trusty TomTom. It told me right away my location but that did not help since I am not familiar with any of the streets or little towns surrounding Blacksburg. I tried to type in the name of the hospital. It recognized the name and proceeded to take me to the nearest library. Perhaps I should have just gone in and asked directions. I typed in the name of the hospital again. This time it took me to within a mile of where I started, the apartment complex. I was about to get really frustrated...it was now lunch time. Aidie had been a complete angel in the car but was showing signs of distress. I figured we'd find her some chicken nuggets and milk and she'd perk back up. I started looking for golden arches or something, somewhere to get food fast. All I came up with was Hardee's....not my personal favorite for lunch (although you can't argue with their biscuits in the am. I whipped in and ordered. I pulled into a parking space, gave Aidie her lunch, refilled her milk cup and consulted TomTom again. He is an idiot!! He said the hospital I was looking for was .85 miles away. That was a lie and I knew it. I could practically throw a rock and bust out a window at the kids' apartment from there. I knew it had taken me about 20 minutes the night before to get home from the hospital. I finally gave up and called Hannah. I asked which direction I needed to go and she told me. I made it to the hospital in just under thirty minutes this time...because I started going the wrong way again a little further down at another change in the road...I realized it by the way the mile markers were going and turned around in one of those little turn arounds the state puts on highways and then tells you you can't use them because they are only for "authorized vehicles" which I'm sure means Troopers but I did not care. I had my story all ready if I got stopped. The state of Virginia not only owed me this privilege of turning around, they also owed me half a tank of gas for bad signage! A person should be warned if she's headed to West Virginia! Thankfully I didn't have to use it. We made it to the hospital, visited and found our way back without incident...on the road anyway. Going to Target was another story.

oops!

Lots of new things happening around us. We are presently waiting on word from Virginia that baby Norah will be here soon.
Michael has started his second year teaching Auto Tech at OHS. He went back today. We thought he had this week free, nothing like being called and told you were supposed to be at work yesterday.
I am still writing for our hometown paper and putting feelers out for other things. I am talking with a young friend about a new project...also creative in nature so I'll share that as soon as we get something solid. In the meantime I'm plugging along, ready for kids to get back into a routine, ready to have a quiet moment now and then (as I write this I hear my three little girls laughing in my bedroom...a sure sign they are destroying something).
I hope to be more committed to my blogging but I can't promise. With a life as crazy as mine I'll just promise to do what I can.
Thanks for reading.

Mercy sakes! Ariel is wailing inside...she has a big fat "F" in math. I happen to hate math too but my mother did me a favor and made me practice multiplication and division at the kitchen table until I could at least do that much. I told Ariel to write out her multiplication facts in columns.She asked me why she had to. I asked her why she had an "F" in math, she said she didn't have time to finish her work. Her teacher told me months ago that if she didn't finsh her work she could do it for homework. Ariel never has homework...at least that's what she tells me. I haven't been getting weekly reports for a while. I'm starting to wonder if she is signing my name herself and forgetting to show it to me. I am very frustrated with her right now...ADD is a lack of focus, yes but it is not an excuse to lie and say you don't have homework or schoolwork for that matter.
I got Ariel started on her multiplication facts at 3:00, told her she had to write them all out 1-10. She has been trying to avoid it the entire time...she just handed me 1-5....it is 5:36. She has missed the first day with the new pool. If she had just gotten going on it she could have gone into hyper-focus mode and finished by 3:30. Instead she went into "poor pitiful me" mode and is still working..thankfully the wailing ended about an hour ago.

I haven't been keeping up with my blog lately because I am writing for the paper and on facebook so much I don't have time. I really should take the time to copy and paste but I figure if anyone really cares they can friend me on facebook or buy the Opelika Observer...boy, how is that for lazy.
I am excited about all the events of the last month....the new baby next door being at the top of the list.
Follow his mother's blog...Baby of Mine.

The House That Built Me

My daddy built our house. It was not very big by today’s standards. My first room was painted blue. I don’t really think Daddy was wishing for a boy, if he was he never made me feel like it. We had hardwood floors my mama fussed over. I could run and slide down the hall in socks. The bathroom was a neutral green and the inside of it’s closet was never finished, I’m not sure why but the furnace could be reached under the house by taking out a piece of plywood. You could also see the ground when it was moved and I was sometimes afraid a monster or witch would sneak up at night to get to me…I finally realized nothing was under there but dirt.
The kitchen was varnished pine with pink Formica countertops. There was a window over the sink that allowed a view of the big oak tree, the garden and assorted fruit trees. Huge old Hydrangea bushes peeked back in during summer months waving sky blue mop heads back and forth.
I remember playing under my mothers dining room table. My Barbie’s and baby dolls could often be found behind the tablecloths or in the upholstered seats of the fancy chairs. Every now and then Mama would let me help her polish the silver forks and spoons she kept in a special box in the china cabinet. There was a spoon, smaller than the rest with my initials on it. Mama said I used it when I was a baby.
We had a room we called the den. Daddy and I watched Bonanza, Ed Sullivan, Disney and the Flintstones on TV. At some point there was an aquarium with dozens of guppies and an orange Naugahyde couch. Neither made it very long. The guppies started eating their babies and the couch would stick to sweaty skin in the summer. Daddy decided after ten years or so to enclose the carport and make a new den. The old den became Mama’s sewing room and Daddy got a recliner and a fireplace. We all liked the addition but I kind of missed the sun coming in the kitchen window on winter afternoons. Mama insisted we needed a “sectional sofa”. I thought just a plain old sofa would have done the job with only three people in the family and Daddy in his recliner. We kept that gold couch for a long time. It made it through most of my childhood and two more houses.
When I was seventeen Daddy built us a new house. My mother tried to be happy about it but I knew she wasn’t. I was excited about picking the color of my new room even though I only lived there for a year before I left for college. I picked a light peach color with a slightly darker carpet. I got my parents mahogany bedroom furniture and a comforter that looked like a grown up. It made it easier to leave…since I didn’t grow up there I had no ties, no history, no openings where the witches and monsters could get in. I spent a couple of summers there but it never meant as much as the little brick house I grew up in.

There is a new Miranda Lambert song that inspired this note…I love her spunk and energy but this time she kinda tugged at my heartstrings.

My Reality Show Idea

I have a brilliant idea....Those with ADD know what comes next...I rant for an hour about my brilliant idea, then I lose interest in my brilliant idea and move on to the NEXT brilliant idea. This constant motion is a character flaw in us...those of us who have the "H" in ADHD. The truth is we can't help it, things tend to go unfinished especially if the idea is a long term commitment. (I wonder how many marriages have imploded due to one of the pair losing interest. For the record, I still find my husband very interesting.) I have a closet full of projects that I started and meant to finish. I have so many interests it's hard to pin me down to one. I have said many times I am good at a lot of things...NONE of which generate any income...they usually only generate OUTGO! But for unfinished projects I'd probably be a millionaire! I certainly am not, but...this brilliant idea has potential!!!
I have an idea for a reality show! Somebody needs to get me in touch with the people at Style or Discovery or HGTV. This would be a huge success. Ok, here's my idea.
Take "Super Nanny", "Clean House", "Hoarders" and "Extreme Makeover Home Edition"...put them all together and you have "Extreme Messy Family Makeover"! I am as serious as I can be. I want to be the first family turned in!
I can see it now. The bus pulls up and some hyper, super organizer people hop off and run to our door. They don't send us to Disney World for a vacation while they bomb our current house and start from scratch, they make us all stay and HELP! In fact, besides the dream team we are the ONLY help! They set up shop quickly, they line up my children....the five at home. The first thing we have to establish is it takes all seven of us to get this project off the ground. EVERYONE will participate. It's going to take two full days, huh, maybe weeks to work the magic necessary to get us done.
In the end I dream of us all standing outside in our freshly manicured yard staring up at the clean windows, the siding sparkling and the gutters clean. We are asked if we want to see what we accomplished in a matter of two weeks (or months maybe) we all nod and smile. In we go to see everything in a proper place, laundry all done and put away, kitchen gleaming, bedrooms spotless, tubs and toilets shining, closets easily open and nothing falls out! Quite the contrary, everything inside is filed and sorted. Bins and baskets hold every needed item, and for each tool a drawn outline to mark the spot where they go, where they are and where they will be returned to. Surely by now I am sobbing. There on the bulletin board is a chart with each of my children's names and a list of jobs they are expected to do each day starting with picking up their pajamas off the floor.
It is utopia! Paradise! I love it! Of course this is where I inevitably wake up and nothing has changed. But, I think my show has real promise…in the meantime if you want a brilliant project and you are NOT ADHD, call me.