Aunt Margaret

First I had an Aunt Margaret...now I am one.

On Thursday night (which was Feb 25) Nathan answered a phone call from his mother saying that his sister was going to labor and my mother-in-law wanted one of us to drive her to the hospital because she didn't think she could focus enough to drive and my father-in-law was unavailable.

Neither of us were busy that night so we both went.  We arrived at the hospital at roughly 7:00 and Nathan was good enough to run out to Jimmy John's across the street and the three of us some dinner.  Janelle's mother-in-law had not yet arrived by the time Nathan got back and Pam, who is a friend of hers, knew she would want to be there.  Pam called Lynne and let her know what was going on and Lynne drove up to the hosptial, getting there at just about 8:00.

For the next couple of hours we all sat in the waiting room partially watching the Olympics on the TV and too excited to read the books we had brought.  We told stories, Pam and Lynne talked about when Nathan (Janelle's husband) and Janelle were young.  And Nathan (my husband) and I told our stories about childhood.

It seemed like every couple of minutes someone would come out of the maternity ward and we would all get excited but for hours none of them were Nathan.  Finally, at just before 10:30 he came into the room and told us he had a daughter.

She was born just after 9:00 and they named her Sophia Violet.  We stayed out in the waiting room a little longer, giving Janelle and Sophia time to nurse, then Nathan came back to get us.

She was still crying quite a bit, but I was the first one to hold her.  She is perfect and pink with a full head of dark hair.  We stayed there for about an hour, passing her around and asking Janelle how she felt.  We actually did get Nathan (my husband) to hold the baby.  He sat down in a chair and his mother set her in his arms and you know...he's the only person she did not cry for.

The next day I called Nathan after work and let him know I was going to be stopping back by the hospital and he said he'd meet me there.  When I arrived my in-laws were already there and Sophia was very quiet and calm.  I held her for quite some time as she slept.  Then Nathan arrived and she actually woke up and looked around when he held her.

Initially I called myself "Auntie Margaret" but I think I'm going to drop the "ie" and just go with aunt.  I can't wait to get to know my niece.

Lent

Every year I make Lenten resolutions and begin the season with the best of intentions.  And every year, not long into our 40 days, I start forgetting things.  It seems the first thing I always forget is that I'm not supposed to eat meat on Fridays and a slice of pepperoni pizza or a ham sandwich slips its way into my lunch or meal time out of habit. 

Then my resolutions start to fall by the wayside, not because I didn't mean them when I made them, just because I can be inattentive sometimes.

But this year, I'm trying harder, this year so far I remembered just in time that I couldn't bring a leftover ham sandwich to work today and I'm doing my best to keep my resolutions at the front of my mind.  I hope to do better.

New

I have started a new blog.  The problem is, I have absolutely no idea what to do with it.  It is part of my desire to do something to help promote the issue of congenital heart defects.  It's got a stupid title which I hate and I posted my story on it, but I truly have no clue where to go from there.

But it's a step in a direction.  And I needed that.  It's called Helping Hearts (I told you it was stupid).  It's at www.helpforhearts.blogspot.com.

Am I being selfish?

I am pro-life. I have been pro-life since I knew there was such a thing. So the actual position is not new to me. But I have come upon a rather unsettling revelation lately.

I think since Nathan and I decided we were going to adopt, I have become even more strongly pro-life. The feeling is something like "if I'm not pro-life, I really don't have any business adopting." But I'm also concerned that this increase in feeling may be driven by an impulse of "if there are suddenly an abundance of abortions, there might not be children for Nathan and I."

Then I start feeling selfish. I'm just not sure.

Little Cups of Heaven

I come from a meat and potatoes family and I just generally love food. That being said, a few years ago, when I went to study in England for a semester, I felt like I was going to be right at home in a meat and potatoes culture.

But the highlight of my British culinary experience was by far Yorkshire Puddings. They are basically a little cup of batter for putting gravy into and are served traditionally with roast beef and vegetables. I developed a deep and abiding love of them. When I returned home I thought about them with a twinge of longing from time to time, but would then have a slice of pizza or some spaghetti and feel better.

Not so this year. I began an all-out quest to find them in the "international foods" sections of one of the many stories I shop at. They are harder to find than I would have thought. In England you can buy them frozen and just heat them up, I could not even find that anywhere. So I located a recipe and tried making them. The recipe I had advised using popover cups, which I do not have, so I thought a muffin tin would work just as well...turns out, not so much.

But as it happens, my family loves me and wants me to be happy. For Christmas I received not only the requisite popover cup pan, but also, direct from England and special ordered for me by my sister Anne, two little boxes of Yorkshire Pudding mix. The sound I made when I opened the package was something akin to a song bird being throttled.


This is what they look like in the pan...I was so happy when I pulled this out of the oven and they looked right.


And that golden brown cylinder of deliciousness is what it looks like on the plate. It was amazing.

Thanks, Anne!

A fond farewell

I am not a "shoe-girl." I could careless about most shoes as long as they are comfortable and allow me to walk from A to B, I'm pretty happy. But there are exceptions to every rule and for me that exception is my Chuck Taylors. Since middle school I have had six pairs, four of the traditional hi-top black with white toes, one low-top blue with white toes and my "work Chucks" which are black with black toes.

With the arrival of my new "non-work" Chucks, my last pair has departed. I received those shoes as a gift from Nathan when we had been dating for a year...it was a fantastic present.

I have had them ever since. In five years we have really gotten to know each other, they have molded to my feet, become dirty and riddled with holes where the rubber and canvas meet. More pairs of shoelaces have passed through those sixteen silver eyelets than I can remember.

I have had them longer than any other pair of Chucks I've ever owned. I will miss them.

Christmas

I hope everyone enjoyed a Merry Christmas. Ours was lovely, despite the weather and my new schedule. Because I'm new at work and my trainer has Mondays and Tuesdays off, I had to work both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.

It is traditional in my family to spend Christmas Eve with my dad's family in Pecatonica, where he grew up. After I got off work Christmas Eve, the weather was already turning nasty and I did not feel like making the drive all the way to Pec, so Nathan and I opened our presents to each other (I got a puzzle and a T-shirt with a great British TV reference on it and a food processor). Then we went to Mass at my church in a nearby town, then we went to Nathan's church service.

After that we went to his mom and dad's house to spend time with them and his sister and her husband.

After work on Christmas Day, I stopped at home and we rounded up the presents and then set off through the softly falling snow for my mom and dad's where we had a lovely meal and opened presents.

After that, we packed up and headed back to Nathan's mom and dad's where we opened presents with them. Through all these gift opening, we received many lovely presents, including Nathan's new computer monitor and my new pair of non-work Chucks, which I love.