EMMA MARIE KELLER MEMORIAL
This weekend, we attended the 2nd Annual Emma Marie Preeclampsia Walk. Our support group has a couple that lost a child -ultimately due to preeclampsia. They held a walk to educate people and to remember their child, Emma. She lived for 6 months and then passed away.

Did you know that Lindy is a preeclampsia survivor? My labor was induced with Lindy due to preeclampsia. The walk was VERY well organized and I appreciated that the couple took the time to talk about the symptoms of preeclampsia. We walked about 3 miles, Lindy got her faced painted, and we felt lots of camaraderie seeing the majority of our support group there. There is nothing at all like sharing the pain with other people who have lost a child.

ice cream on the nose and butterfly on the cheek

playing dress up in mom’s clothes

THE TREE
Last month, Dale tackled the job of taking down this 35ft tall tree behind our house. Pictured below on the left. You can see it is taller than our house. He single handedly took down the top half of the tree by himself. Luckily, Matt came over and finished it off by pulling the tree down in the direction it should go -NOT on the neighbors house. Having it gone adds SO MUCH light to the back of the house. Someday we’ll add a deck exactly where that tree used to stand.

The tree (on the left) that Dale took down in 2 days

Watching Dale and Mr. Matt take down the rest of the tree.

counting muffins

BEDTIME
A day does not go by that I don’t find Lindy in bed with SOMETHING out of the ordinary. This week was a balloon and a book still propped up like she was reading it. You can see the Real Simple magazine made it into bed with her below AND her black patened shoes.

Oh, the things we sleep with

SALTWORKS YOUNG COMPANY PRESENTS: HAMLET
This past weekend was Dale’s opening and closing of Hamlet. A modern twist of a classic. It was done so well -might be one of my favorite shows that they have put on. The kids did such a wonderful job. It was simple and the focus was put on the kids and their acting -very well done. yay! Congrats Dale and kids for yet another great production!

THE BATHROOM
Four things went wrong in our bathroom this week.
1. Lindy flooded the bathroom while giving her barbie a bath at 10:30 at night when she was to be sleeping.
2. The toilet chain broke.
3. The hot water shower handle got jammed and wouldn’t shut off.
4. I reached for a towel today and the rack fell off the wall.

I think we’ve decided to use the attic or basement bathroom. This bathroom is a mess! Dale is currently trying to fix one of the problems.

VACATION! 3 DAYS!
So, we head on vacation this week. Driving to Minnesota to see Rich & Michelle and Scott & Jenny. Then on to Chicago to take care of my new niece Kellyn while mommy and daddy work! Should be a fun little road trip!

MY BROTHER BRENT
Please keep my brother Brent in your prayers. They have found cancer again and this time they will not be able to operate due to the location of the tumors. He is currently undergoing chemo which has helped him and moving his legs. We are hoping to go home for Thanksgiving instead of Christmas this year to be with him and encourage him.

SCRAPBOOKING
I’ll leave you with something that my therapist told me the other day which has been on my mind a lot and have told some other people in passing. We have a good laugh.

“Scrapbooking is of the devil.” TONS of women she sees have guilt related to scrapbooking and how their books aren’t done. ha. Add me to that list. Kudos to you ladies who can do it -guilt free- BUT I cannot keep that burden on my shoulders until Lindy is 18 and out of the house. see ya scrapbook!!

Friday, at nine in the morning, I decided that we needed to get out of the house that night and what better way to do that than to camp! We haven’t camped in a year and we used to camp ALL the time. We even camped on our honeymoon! So, I packed the car up all day with everything we needed and then awaited Dale’s arrival home that night to surprise him. It was a long wait…but we were in the car by 6:30 and at the site by 7:30 -just enough daylight to enjoy a walk. Dale built a fire, I set up the tent. We ate some rice and filet mignon (always gotta eat steak when we camp). It ended up being turkey filet mignon? Ever heard of it? During dinner, I realized I had made a very big mistake in forgetting…a pullup for Lindy at night. She is potty trained but at night I keep her in a pullup because I can’t even make it 12 hours, how could she? So…I got in the car at 9 and drove around looking for a place that was open out in the middle of the sticks. Found a place. No diapers. I had to improvise. Maxi pads! I’ll have to tell her she wore one when she was 2 1/2. It seemed to have worked!

She woke up SCREAMING at 6:30am -I think she was a little disoriented. We couldn’t calm her down and by that point, EVERYONE had to have been woken up on the campground by our daughter. oops. We jumped in the car and Dale packed everything up. We were home within the hour. That is how we camp.

I have also been rowing again this season with a local corporate team. I rowed with American Eagle last year and this year only one other person wanted to row, so we both joined another team. It is a good group of people. I enjoy my Thursday nights rowing with them. It gives me some time for just myself AND a way to exercise that I enjoy. We had a race last weekend that is hosted by Heinz. Our team ordered obnoxiously pink t-shirts -you could spot us from a mile away. We were in SECOND place when one of our team members caught a crab…:( and then we got last because we couldn’t recover from it. A crab is a stroke that goes bad. The oar blade slices into the water at an angle and gets caught under the surface. A bad crab can catapult you out of the boat. They are VERY scary. I’m just glad I didn’t catch one!

Want a piece of the action? Watch the video!

I am in “2″ seat. If you count from the right. I am the second person. The last person on the left is the Coxswain -he is the person that steers the boat and essentially coaches us during a race.

Dale starts a VERY busy week this week as he begins his August show “Hamlet”. His students will rehearse for 2 1/2 weeks and then put on the show. It’ll be a bit of a challenge as he has cast a girl in the Hamlet role -but that is all a part of his show. I enjoy his creativity.

This past week, I cleaned out Everett’s room officially. It had started to become the “junk” room of things I just didn’t want to deal with -toss it in there. I decided to get rid of the junk and clean out the dresser and closet and changing table. It had all been frozen since that day. The lotion, soap, diapers, that we had bought that very same day he was born. We had gone to Target to get just a few more things for the preparation to be complete. We were 3 weeks early and everything was ready!

I bought some blue storage bins and folded all his newborn clothing and put them away. I was shocked to think he would not be wearing those clothes at this point! He’d be 5 months old. Lindy enjoyed digging through the clothes and trying them on. It wasn’t as hard as most people would imagine -but it is done now. Fundamental steps in the grieving process, the last step that everyone wants to achieve is “acceptance”. The hard part is getting there and feeling guilty about being there so soon. Obviously, I have days of “anger” and times of “bargaining” (a few other stages), but it is hard to NOT accept it when you don’t have him in your arms.

The diapers are back in storage, the lotion and bath towels are stored away. I’m going to give away the crib accessories that I had bought for Everett -I don’t want to re-use the sheets and bumper -we bought those specifically for him. Another child seems SO long away and that hurts. Lord, please keep me patient and give me joy in what I DO have.