Busy, busy days

I keep thinking I need to post, but the days just keep getting away from me...... So much going on and so little time!!

On the wedding front:  the gown fitting scheduled for last week had to be postponed due to an "emergency" at the bridal store!  So we're re-scheduled for next Thursday; hopefully, this will work out.  The invitations are being printed by my brother-in-law (a professional printer -- nice to have talent in the family!) and should be done any day now.  The invitations Morgan chose are a bit of an "assembly project" and are going to take some time to put together and mail, so I hope we can get started on them ASAP.  I'll post pictures of them after we get them back..... Other preparations are going slowly, but surely.  I'm feeling strangely calm about all of this -- so why do I get the feeling that I'm either forgetting something very important or it's all going to hit the fan at the last minute???

In addition, our 2nd daughter has decided to get married to her boyfriend.  He's in the Air Force and will be transferred to Texas sometime in mid-to-late July, so it looks like there's going to be a small, rushed wedding in the next few weeks as well...... Just when I thought life couldn't get any crazier....

I needed to have some bloodwork done (complete with fasting..... sigh.....), so I got up early on Wednesday to get to the lab.  It was a quick in-and-out, as I went first thing in the morning.  By the time I came home, it was only about 8 AM, and I was WIDE awake and motivated to get things done.  So I started tackling my office/junk room.  Of course, when you start to de-clutter, you make more of a mess by opening boxes, moving stuff around, trying to re-organize...... you know how that works.  I was right in the midst of this chaos when I got a call from another gal who works at our birth center.  She'd already been at one long birth this week, and was now in the midst of another very long birth, with no end in sight -- and she was beyond exhausted.  She was looking for someone to come in and take over for her.  Even with my disastrous mess, I couldn't say no -- I know that feeling of being drop-dead tired all too well!!  When I arrived at the birth center in Virginia, I found that since we had spoken on the phone, the midwife and pregnant couple had made the decision to transfer to the hospital, so I ended up just staying for a bit more than an hour, cleaned the birth center, and drove back home to Maryland.

Fortunately, I left before rush hour, so the drive home was uneventful.  I was still full of energy and went back to tackling the room and making dinner......... UNTIL........  I got a call that one of MY couples might be in labor!!  Off to bed I ran, hoping to get a short nap -- but the phone rang and rang, and next thing I knew, my couple was calling back, saying I needed to come NOW!!  Yikes -- another drive back to Virginia -- why didn't they do this a few hours earlier while I was still in Virginia???  Fortunately, it was an extremely short birth for a first-time mom; baby was born by 9:45 pm.  We did have a lot of issues with bleeding after the birth, but nothing we couldn't handle; just ended up having to stay for a few extra hours to make sure all was well.  I got back home about 3:30 AM, now VERY tired (sure used up all that energy!!) and collapsed on the sofa, falling asleep immediately.  Only to be wakened........

....... at 7:00 AM by the phone ringing again!!!  This time, another local midwife, one I don't normally work with, was at a nearby Army base doing a homebirth and her birth assistant was tied up at another home with another client -- and she needed someone NOW!!  Fortunately for her (unfortunately for ME!!), I was so tired, I agreed to come, and it probably wasn't until I was several miles up the road that I found myself questioning what on EARTH I was doing, heading out yet again!!!  It was fine in the end; a lovely birth for a 3rd time mom; third son, family very nice and VERY happy.

So in less than 12 hours, I did two births of two nice large baby boys -- both of them were 9 lbs., 8 oz!!

Mackenzie leaves for camp in only a week and a half, so I need to make sure she's got enough summer clothes left that still fit (kid's been growing like a weed) and I need to get busy with packing her stuff.  Additionally, my parents just made arrangements for her to fly back to Florida with them after Morgan's wedding and spend about 1 1/2 weeks at their place, and then fly back solo -- she's going to have a BLAST!!  What a good, busy summer for her!!

Speaking of growing -- just a few weeks back, I took Kenzie out to get some new sneakers; we ended up buying a pair that was a bit large (size 6), but I figured that would be good to cover her for the summer.  Then this week, we went out to find some flip-flops and start looking at shoes for the wedding....... and now she's wearing an 8 or 8 1/2!!!  YIKES!!!  This child may end up with bigger feet than me!!

We have bought wood laminate flooring to replace the ancient carpeting in our house, and had planned to rip up the carpeting and have the flooring installed soon -- probably the weekend of July 9.  But now, daughter #2 wants us to have a family barbeque soon at our place with all her future inlaws -- why do I have the sinking feeling our "destruction period" will be right in the middle of that?  Yup, I just LOVE bringing guests into a torn-apart house -- is THAT really my idea of fun???

I'm still hoping to go to Honduras this fall for my nephew Russell's wedding...... guess I need to start working on those plans as well........

And life doesn't slow down.........  busy, busy, busy......

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