Latest Pictures of Eden

I figured I'd post some recent pictures of Eden because I know that is the real reason most of you tune in!

Eden after mommy kissed her:


Eden sitting in her bouncer - laughing at her toys:


Eden looking at herself in the mirror - one of her
favorite activities:


Eden in the dress Grandma Kesler gave her (she loves
to suck on it and everything else):


Eden with her cousin Matt (who just got home
from his mission to France/Switzerland):


Eden with her friend Katie (mommy with her friend
KayDawn):

Unexpectedly Tagged

I've been tagged by Charlotte. I am to write about 8 unexpected things. I'm choosing to write about 8 unexpected things since I moved to Alabama a year ago.

1 - I didn't expect to be pregnant so soon (two months) after I got married and that it would be so emotional for me.

2 - I didn't expect that my husband would have medical problems and end up having three surgeries last fall.

3 - I didn't expect to love the songbirds who make Alabama their home.

4 - I didn't expect flowers to bloom in January.
(this is a photo taken in our back yard last January)


5 - I didn't expect to miss my best friend's wedding (because I was 8 months pregnant).

6 - I didn't expect that Alabama would celebrate Confederate's Memorial Day.

7 - I didn't expect to make it through labor and delivery so well (and that Eden would come four weeks early).

8 - I didn't expect that my husband would have more medical problems and have another surgery this fall.

I'm not going to officially "tag" anyone but feel free to include your own unexpected things in either a blog or a comment on this blog.

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unrelated:
I just have to shout out a wonderful thing! IT IS RAINING! (It hasn't done that for quite some time here.)

Television Favorites

Ok all of you who lived the late 70s/early 80s, tell me which of these were your favorites:

1. Magnum P.I. or Rockford Files
2. Brady Bunch or Partridge Family
3. Sigmund & The Sea Monsters or H.R. Pufnstuf
   
4. Star Search or The Gong Show
5. Solid Gold or Dance Fever
   
6. Love Boat or Fantasy Island
7. Diff'rent Strokes or Facts of Life
8. Silver Spoons or Punky Brewster
9. Battlestar Gallactica or Buck Rogers
10. Bionic Woman or 6 Million Dollar Man
11. Lavern and Shirley or Happy Days
12. Alf or Mork and Mindy
13. Fame or Welcome Back Kotter
14. Moonlighting or Remington Steele
15. Charlie's Angels or Hardy Boys

my answers:

1. Rockford Files
2. Brady Bunch
3. Sigmund
4. Gong Show
5. Dance Fever
6. Love Boat
7. Facts of Life
8. Silver Spoons
9. Buck Rogers
10. 6 Million
11. Happy Days
12. Mork
13. Fame
14. Remington Steele
15. Charlie's Angels

What other shows were your favorites?

Motherhood

Tonight as I sat rocking my sweet Eden (and not wanting to lay her down quite yet), I pondered about how much I just didn't know before I became a mother. I thought about the times I was a royal brat to my own mother. I had no idea how much she loved me, sacrificed for me, cared for me, and worried for me. I just didn't know. Now it kills me to think that someday (all too soon), Eden will be a teen or a tween and will say any number of the following: "You just don't love me!" "You don't understand." "I don't love you." "You're mean!" etc. It will KILL me!

Motherhood is HARD! There is just no way to comprehend the sacrifice (whether it is sleep, or ice cream, or free time, or whatever!) and the concern (is she breathing? is she developing correctly? am I doing this right?). This afternoon Eden seems to have had a bad tummy ache (she has acid reflux) and she was crying in obvious pain. I seriously hurt with her. It is impossible to comprehend this kind of love until you've actually experienced it.

I wonder how I can ever repay my own mother. How can I ever apologize enough for the bratty things I did and said as a thoughtless teen? How can I repay her for the sleepless nights (and not just when I was an infant) or the numerous prayers in my behalf? The truth is that I can't. The other truth is that regardless of my behavior my mother continued, and continues, to love me with the same (and yet more developed and perfected) love that I am just now coming to understand.

Motherhood is amazing!

Its all good & well irregardless of who your talking to

Admission: I'm a bit of a grammar snob. I get a kick out of the English language with all of its rules and exceptions to the rule. I don't always get my own grammar shined to perfection but I still enjoy editing (in my head) when others are speaking. Here are a few of my favorite errors.

Good and Well
I had a friend who was disgusted whenever someone answered the question, "How are you doing?" with the reply, "good." He'd say "nuns and priests do good." In other words good is not an adverb so it can't describe how you are doing. The correct response is that you are doing "well."

Adding prefixes and suffixes
People, intelligent people, say "irregardless" all the time. Well, I hate to say it (actually I LOVE to say it), but that isn't a proper word! What people really mean is simply "regardless." Irregardless is considered nonstandard because of the two negative elements ir- and -less. It was probably formed on the analogy of such words as irrespective, irrelevant, and irreparable. Those who use it, including on occasion educated speakers, may do so from a desire to add emphasis. Irregardless first appeared in the early 20th century and was perhaps popularized by its use in a comic radio program of the 1930s. My friends (Tom, Charlotte, Phil, Tracey) and I came up with the ultimate word for this category: disirregardlessliness.

Who v. Whom
If the person about whom you are speaking is receiving the action it is "whom" if the person is performing the action it is "who." This is so old-school that hardly anyone uses "whom" anymore. It is like the young women at church Sunday who read a scripture that said, "ought ye not..." It drove them nuts! They kept saying, "ought not, ought not? What does that even mean?" That is probably how most people feel about whom but I still think it is useful.

Its, it's, your, you're, to, two, too, there, they're, their, etc.
Just get these correct, please! You can't rely on spell check for everything!

Prepositional phrases
Hardly anyone uses these correctly anymore. These are probably in the "ought not" category. Strictly speaking (or when speaking strictly), a sentence should never end with a preposition (to, from, about, etc.).

Strange phrases (popular in Utah)
"Is what it is, is"
"Might could"
Need I say more? Unfortunately I might could but is what it is, is that I just can't stomach it!

Passive voice
This comes from years of writing essays and papers in history courses. No passive passages allowed! Now it simply drives me nuts to hear people speak passively. The one that really gets me is when people pray that we "might" do this and we "might" do that and that we "might" be blessed with this and that. It is so passive and if there is a time for action, I think it is in our prayers. I hate to admit it but sometimes I'll whisper in my head, "he means bless us that we WILL do this and we WILL do that and that we WILL be blessed with this and that."

And that, friends, is when you know you've gone too far as a grammar snob. Correcting people's grammar during prayers is just too much!

(feel free to edit any errors in this post) :)

We're Back

We had a very nice time with friends and family and now it is good to be home. It is hot and humid here but it was hotter and dry (too dry) in Utah!


Eden had such a nice time meeting lots of people and especially seeing all four of her grandparents again. She spent lots of time with them. She has grown so much. She has doubled her birth weight now.

Here are a few pictures from the trip.

This is Eden after her first experience in a swimming pool (she didn't like it).


Eden playing with Grandma Kesler:


Eden with cousin Alex (who was in Utah for EFY - he lives in Corning, NY)


Watching Punka's TV with cousins Allison and Tanner:


Eden was really fussy this day but her 4-year old cousin, Brady, was sure he could calm her and sure enough he did!