Home Again, Home Again, Jiggety-Jig

A resounding cry of "More photos!" prompts today's post--that and the fact that we brought our new bundle home for the first time last night. Thanks to everyone who called and/wrote. Shara and I hope to see and share with you soon.

My Rendition of the Story

Hi Everyone! So I have finally had an opportunity to read Brian's comments about the delivery of our little bundle. For the most part it is accurate, however, I will have you know that there was no cursing before, during, or after Madeleine's arrival.

Our first day together as a family was an amazing success - and Brian and I felt like heroes. Last night was a different story altogether though. Madeleine was colicky and left us each with only 2 hours of sleep. We are due to travel home today in another one of Maine's latest blizzards. The two grammies are anxiously awaiting us. More later.

String of 9 Missed Periods Ends Spectacularly!

Hello Everyone...Brian here.
On Monday, Shara had an appointment with the Midwife and it was decided that Shara would be induced on Wednesday morning because the baby's due date was December 9th.
So, after an eventful trip to Walmart and some trash TV to celebrate the two-day-away induction, Shara's H2O broke at 11:30pm Monday night. It seems the baby had her own plans. A call to the doctor's office and we were told to wait until 7 Tuesday morning to head in and proceed with the events. Again, the baby had her own schedule and the contractions grew closer as Shara and Brian watched infomercial after infomercial (seriously, how many things can that guy sell?) in anticipation of the big day. At 6am Shara decided they needed to act "now" rather than at 7 as her contractions were 7 minutes then 3 minutes and then 10 minutes apart. She called the hospital and off we went.
The nurse led us to our delivery room. Shara changed into her johnny and climbed into bed. "One or two centimeters" the nurse informed us. Shara was not pleased because she felt that this meant a car ride home but the nurse reassured her that she was more than welcome to stay. "Great" Shara replied. " I need some medicine!"
The sun rose in the sky. Clouds passed overhead. The contractions increased as did the back spasms. Dilation ensued as the Grandmothers-to-be paced in the hallway, then listened at the door, were yelled at about "privacy", and finally sequestered to a room where they pretended to knit.
Two doors away, Shara opted for the epidural which helped for a while but not really to her expectations. It seems her body only wanted to be numb on the right side. Brian rubbed her back with minimal success.
At about 4:10 Shara and the baby decided that the best way to decrease the back pain would be to push. The midwife concurred and off they went. After an hour and thirteen minutes of diehard pushing a head-followed by a body-emerged. Shara and Brian named the joining of these two Madeleine. There was a decent amount of cursing but not enough to embarass.
Madeleine slept very well through the night and has not fussed at any great length. Holy crap she has a lot of hair. Shara is doing great! Brian is happy.
Enjoy the photos!

Hi! Brian here, presenting a picture of Shara not cooperating. She's extremely good at it--it was her minor in college.


Shara asked me to remove the unfavorable photo of her so I did. Here's a picture of some jumping cats. Brian

Bathroom

So the bathroom is way better than it was.....no more moldy walls, peeling wallpaper, lead painted window...Look closely though. Brian and I have yet to finish the trim next to the toilet. That's the problem with old houses. You work on a project non-stop and get so tired of it, that you can't be bothered to finish the moulding and complete the room. Our living room is the same way - one piece of moulding next to the piano. Old houses are never done.

Christmas Tree

Some More Pregnancy Photos

Our good friend Brooke took some pregnancy photos of Brian, the baby, and I back in November. She did a fabulous job. Thanks Brookie! I am working on getting the images into picture frames before D-day. Four days and counting. Now would be great though.

Getting Ready!

I am way bigger than this now. Only 2 weeks left until my due date!

The Hallway in Progress

Baby's New Room

7 Months Pregnant - Why Not Undertake Major Home Renovations??

So Brian and I decided that it would be best to rent the upstairs apartment once again. This way we might have a prayer of ever leaving our house, which we affectionately call the money pit. Unfortunately this was no easy feat. At 7 months pregnant we moved and renovated the bathroom, porch, and front hallway. I don't recommend anyone do this - EVER. Here are some photos. Oh yeah - and we had help from Butch Vila of course. Thanks dad!

Martha's Vineyard

Okay, so as usual I am behind the eight ball. Brian and I have been back from the Vineyard now for....oh....about 3 weeks. There would be more photos too but Bri didn't want me to post him sitting on the beach with his sunburn :(

We've been keeping pretty busy between work and getting our last summer days of fun in before the weather turns cold.
Brian is trying to get his classroom ready for the first day of school. I've never seen a more beautiful building. Everything is clean, well lit, and brand spanking new. The foyer of the building is designed to look like a lighthouse - a bit cliche I know - but it works.

Brad, Katie, Dee, and Meghan came up last weekend and we really had a great time. They brought clothes and toys for the baby. I felt totally spoiled. We toured Camden, went to the winery, did some antiquing.....Thanks guys for trucking all the way up here for us.

Paul and Dawne from South Paris, Me have also come to visit. Brian and I helped them board the French, a schooner out of Camden this weekend. They are out on a 4 day sail and in the mean time we get to drive their Subaru Outback. Great car by the way!

Brian and I are down internet access at the house so I am afraid my blogging will be worse than ever, but I will try to continue our postings. Until next time.....

Sydney Visits

Howdy! Brian here--filling in.
Our friend Sydney came up to visit last week, a plan hatched a couple of months ago by her Mom and step-Dad to give us a taste of what life with an 8-year old is like. What's it like? AWESOME! Syd came up and we spent the week having fun. She went to the toy store, hiked a mountain, swam in a lake, explored tide pools, watched Full House (that Joey is HILARIOUS!), built a hotel alternatively for her stuffed cats, our real cats, and her Barbies, played Beauty Salon, and practiced her piano. However, of all of the things we did all week, Syd's favorite was building Fairy Houses.
A friend of ours told Sydney all about Fairy Houses. You can see them on some of the islands off the coast up here, as well as elsewhere. Syd decided to build one in the yard and a rainstorm created a Fairy Lake in the driveway so she built some boats for them too. She left some food for the fairies to eat (blueberries and chocolate) and built a dining room and bed for them to sleep on.
I took pictures of the Fairy House and Lake for Sydney to take home with her. The amazing thing about this is that nothing struck us as out of the ordinary as we took the photos but when I printed them out we could see fairies in the pictures! I've tried to get the pictures to appear on the blog but they won't. So I took pictures of the pictures so you all can see them.
The next day we went to the state park to build some Seaside Fairy Cottages. The same thing happened when I took photos of them: we saw nothing unusual until I printed them. Note to Syd: I'll mail you copies of these pictures.
Anyway, here are some of the pictures.




Here's the Fairy House by the garage. How many can you see?











Here are some the Fairies enjoying a day on the lake.









This is the Fairy Beach House. It's quite large, with a great view of the ocean and its very own swimming hole and indoor mini-pool!










Two of the fairies were apparently enjoying the swimming hole.





I printed this one by mistake--it's not the greatest photo--but it looks like Sydney was being followed!

4th of July

So Brian and I spent a leisurely day with our friends Carol and Steve for the 4th. We had lobster, and played horseshoes. We ended the night with smores (dark chocolate of course) by the campfire. There were sparklers too. Check out Mr. Taco and his patriotic bandanna.

Erin's Shower

Okay Guys. I promised, so here it is. I really ought to keep up with this blog, because every time I go to sign in again I've forgotten my password.

Although there was a lot of driving this weekend, I wouldn't have missed the party for the world. Erin, your apartment is perfect.
Ciara is off to a good start.

Trish, Jon, Syd, and Sully - Thanks for having me as your house guest. Your place is great!

The Renovations Continue

Hi Everybody. So it has been over 6 months since my last blogging adventure. I can't keep up like you can Trish. You never cease to amaze me. Well anyway, here it is. The red room is our new dining room. I only wish you knew what it looked like before this - coral pink peeling wallpaper. We still have to paint the moudlings and sand the floors but we are almost done!!

The other picture is my latest project - the upstairs front bedroom. I thought it would be a quick fix - some paint and voila. So much for that though. Bri pulled up the carpet and broke through the subfloor so we either have to repair the subfloor or go after what's underneath. I think it's wide pine and probably worth going after.

Aside from the house all is well. Bri is finally student teaching, but still hiking to Bangor and back every day. It's three hours round trip.

As for me, I've been on call a lot lately but I got a well deserved break yesterday when Molly, Brooke, Sam, and I went to Portland in search of trouble. Sorry to say I didn't bring my camera. We did some damage at the outlets and went out to a swanky restaurant for dinner. Thanks guys.

For those of you who are frustrated by my lack of blogging, I promise from here on in not to be such a slacker.