Friday, November 26, 2010

Unexpected Thanksgiving treat!

Yesterday, Nelson, Mackenzie and I went to Harrisburg, PA to spend Thanksgiving Day with my daughter-in-law's family. They live within 20 minutes of Hershey Park and during the day, we were talking about the park, the chocolate factory, and all of the interesting things in Hershey. Mackenzie mentioned she'd never seen Hershey, so our hosts checked on-line and found out that the Chocolate World tours were open last evening. So after dinner, we took an impromptu trip over to Hershey's Chocolate World, did the tour, and then explored the gift stores and displays in the huge atrium area. I used my cell phone to take these pictures, so they're not the greatest shots in the world, but here they are anyway!!

They had this large, lovely tree right inside the front door....


And then -- look at this beautiful Christmas Cottage they had on display --



Now look again, more closely. You'll see that every single part of this house (which is as large as the storage shed in my back yard) is made of CANDY!! Wow!!

The roof is made of Cookies And Creme chocolate bars, and the spaces in between are individual Kit Kat bars! The decorative edges are large and small York Peppermint Patties and the red trim pieces are Twizzlers!


The design over the front door was created from wrapped and unwrapped Hershey Kisses.


Along the roof ridges, you can see Hershey Kisses that weigh almost 3 pounds each!



The front door design was created from red Twizzlers and the door wreath was made from holiday-wrapped Hershey Kisses!



The sidewalk was made from chocolate pieces and the door mat was a FIVE POUND Hershey bar!



The fence railings on the porch were covered with Ice Breakers Frost, wrapped with Twizzlers "ribbon" and the garland was made of more Hershey Kisses! The porch itself was made from white-chocolate-covered Kit Kat bars!



Each railing post was topped with another large Hershey Kiss. The stained glass windows were made of a sugary mix; the colored portions were Jolly Ranchers melted into it!



The snowman was covered with the Ice Breakers Frost; his hat was made from mini-Twizzlers; his scarf was long braided ropes of various flavors of Twizzler strings; his eyes were York Peppermint Pattys and his buttons were made of dark chocolate Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. Even his "carrot" nose was made from orange Twizzler strings!



This isn't the greatest picture in the world, but this was the information poster that shows the details of types of candy used on this cottage.



For a confirmed chocoholic like me, what a treat this was!!
~~~

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Happy Thanksgiving!!

Enjoy your Turkey Day from two new perspectives!! Hope you have a wonderful, joyous and THANKFUL day!!





Sunday, November 21, 2010

Busy, busy month!

My business partners and I have been extremely busy keeping up with all the "Snowmageddon babies" that were conceived during our back-to-back-to-back blizzards of last February! On November 10th and 11th, we did four births in under 36 hours! That might be a new record for our partnership!!

So...... my personal belated congratulations to the couples I worked with:

Jia and Matt, who gave birth to a baby girl, Leila, on November 11 at their home; it was a lovely homebirth for their second baby, and a personal victory for Jia, as her first labor two years ago had been long and difficult. This one was sweet and rewarding!

Kristina and John, who birthed their baby, Katherine, at our birthing center on November 16. This was their first baby, and Kristina did an AMAZING job of staying relaxed and calm all the way through the birth process! Good job, mama!!

And just yesterday, Ksenia and Adam gave birth -- after an EXTREMELY long labor -- to their beautiful little girl, Anastasia at our birth center in Virginia. I'm so incredibly proud of her; she was in ACTIVE labor for nearly 44 hours (71 hours total if you include early labor!) -- and she never ONCE asked to be taken to the hospital. This was a difficult struggle of a birth, and she did it!! Congratulations to this lovely family!

On top of all of this have been my interviews with a new childbirth organization to potentially be hired as a regional representative/teacher trainer. I had a first interview on Tuesday and was called back on Friday for a second, follow-up interview. I don't know when I'll know for sure whether or not I got the position, but I'm hopeful! More information to follow on that soon, hopefully!!

I'm being very bad today -- skipping church!! -- but after being away from my house for about 40 hours and hardly sleeping in two nights, I needed a break today!!

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Sunday, November 7, 2010

2nd VBAC for Carole!

Congratulations to Carole and Ross, who welcomed baby Asher into their family this evening! This was Carole's second successful VBAC, and I was incredibly blessed to work with these two fabulous people. Getting to see their four older daughters (two biological, two adopted) arrive at the hospital afterwards to meet their new brother was absolutely priceless! What a joy! Welcome to the world, little boy -- and thank you to the whole family for allowing me to be part of such a special day.

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