Our quick trip to Boston

Lunch at Stephanie's on Newbury St.
Evan driving the boat!

He was so happy

Loved it

Lobsta claw

Fisherman statue

Didn't matter that the sun wasn't out

It's cold!

What a great time we had. It was a quick trip but we packed alot in. I'm still recovering! Our flight was at 7 a.m. on Friday morning so we were in Boston by 9. Let me tell you. If you need to fly, tell them you are traveling with someone that needs a wheelchair 'cause they cater to your every need! We joked that Mom will now be going with us whenever we fly-she said we could just leave her at an airport hotel in whatever city we're visiting and then come back for her when it's time to go. :) She's alot of fun to go on trips with and she even admitted that flying again after many years wasn't so bad. She was always used to going places with my dad and he would hold her hand and calm her fears. Evan sat with her and made sure he that as well. It was sweet to see.

We spent time in Needham on Friday (Uncle Bill, Aunt Mary, cousins Julie/Jim and Barbara/Ken and family live there) then all of us went up to Gloucester on Saturday. Jim and Julie have kept their boat there for years and now have bought a little place near the marina. It's darling and I want to live there. Jim got up early Saturday morning and caught quite a few lobsters that we then had for dinner Saturday night. Talk about fresh! We also got a chance to go out on the boat and it was as fabulous as I remember from when we went 2 years ago. Evan got to drive as you can see in the video in my last post. He was on cloud 9. Can I just say that I love the ocean and I love the New England coast? I can see why Jim and Julie want to retire in Gloucester. I truly do. Sunday wasn't quite as nice a day but Evan and J & J's niece Hayley still went in the ocean-I don't know how they did it 'cause I was cold! We all gathered in Needham Sunday night for dinner and then home Monday afternoon. It went by so fast, so, so fast. I've said it before and I'll say it again-I love my family. :)

Oh, and more thing. Jim is a native Bostonian so he's got quite the accent. He taught Evan how to say Gloucester and lobster so in a letter that Evan sent them this week, he wrote that he had so much fun in "Glastah" eating "lobstah". Swear to God-I didn't prompt him to do that! Love it.

Gloucester

Will write about the trip at a later date-Evan begged me to get the videos on so he can show his friends tomorrow! He got to drive Jim's boat AND put a lobster in the lobster pot. :) You need to watch the video on bottom first and then the one above it next. I could attempt to move them around in the right order but that's too much work!

End of school

1st ball game
Evan and Elliott
Spring concert

Awards ceremony

Trophy for honor roll

So the end of school is coming to a close. I can't believe my little guy is going to be in 3rd grade! It just doesn't seem possible. He had his spring choir concert on Friday and then today was the awards ceremony. He made honor roll all 4 grading periods so he was given a trophy. That's two years in a row. I'm just so proud of him. In my attempts to clean up some files in the office, I came across this. I had written it on a post-it note and I have no idea when or where I saw it.

Before you were conceived I wanted you.

Before you were born I loved you.

Before you were here an hour I would die for you.

This is the miracle of life.

So much for no more babies

Why is nothing easy? I show up at 10 as instructed, having taken Valium, a Percocet, a 600 mg ibuprofen and an anti-nausea med. Wait until 11 when the dr. finally comes out and proceeds to tell me that something is going on with their equipment (scope) and that he had been working with the other dr. for an hour w/this other patient trying to get it to work so that they have a clear picture. No luck so no procedure today. As you can imagine, I was not happy since I have had to wait a YEAR for today to happen. I was a bit out of it from the drugs so then came home and slept for almost 3 hours. Talk about a wasted day which I HATE!! The scheduler will be calling on Monday-I'm not sure that she'll want to talk with me because I will have alot to say about this!

It's now Monday afternoon. Just called the scheduler since I hadn't heard from her this morning. Oh, she's gone until Thursday. How convenient. I'm re-thinking this whole thing 'cause now I'm getting pissed!

We did go out later and see Night At the Museum so all was not lost on the day. I love going movies with Evan and watching him laugh. :)

No more babies

So, I'm having this procedure done on Saturday that will take care of birth control FOREVER. I'm feeling very sad because while I know I don't want to be pregnant at age 46, it's just weird to know that once this procedure is done, that's it. There is no chance of pregnancy ever again. Just experiencing mixed emotions about the whole thing. I've always felt bad that Evan doesn't have any siblings but if I had had another baby, there was the chance of pre-eclampsia developing again and I got really sick the first time around. We were lucky it didn't develop until 30 weeks and that he made it until 33 weeks. Very lucky. We were very lucky that I didn't have seizures or experience organ failure. It's a scary condition and it scared us enough to not take that chance. Plus, we were pretty caught up in all of Evan's medical stuff for the those first few years that I couldn't imagine dealing with a pregnancy/baby while dealing with a trach and feeding tube! By the time Evan was in preschool and things were going well, I was just too damn old and tired to think about starting again! The only thing I am looking forward to on Saturday is the Valium and Percocet that I get to take. :)

Today

So, I may have mentioned before that when I was younger I never understood why my mom and her sister always cried in church. Now I always seem to cry in church. If I've mentioned all this before, too bad. It's my blog and I can repeat myself if I want to. :) Anyhow, I haven't been to church since Mother's Day and I know I won't make it next week so I wanted to go this morning. The 7th graders were being confirmed and what got to me today was the fact that this one young kid named Kyle was up there with the group. When he was a little boy, he would always say that he loved the big boy with the whiskers. Well, that big boy was my dad. I looked at Kyle this morning and teared up knowing how my dad would of just been so happy to see him up there and would of taken great pleasure in witnessing his confirmation. That's all it took to make me cry today. I'm sure Evan will make fun of me some day for crying in church but that's o.k. I can handle it.

Oh and by the way, some day I'm going to change the layout of my blog. I even went so far as to print out directions from this one site that I can get a template from. Just not sure when it's going to happen but stay tuned. Maybe this summer I can accomplish that!

Sounds of Love

This is a story about a program at work called Sounds of Love. Our music therapist, other parent advisor and myself applied for and rec'd a grant last year that allowed us to buy CD recording equipment, CD players, pillow speakers, supplies and digital cameras (to take pictures of the babies for the CD cover). Parents can then record a CD for their baby in the NICU that can be played for them when the parents can't be there. Michelle (other advisor) and I promote the program to the families we meet and then help them record. Siblings participate too-in fact we encourage them to. I'm very proud of the program and am thrilled that Channel 10 did a story about it!