loooooong!

So, I have been away for a while and there is lots to catch up on. Unfortunately there are not nearly as many pictures of things as I would like.


We went to Indiana for about 10 days and got back yesterday late evening. There were two weddings on the 20th, one for my good friend Bekah and her husband David at 2pm and the other for Greg's cousin Kaylene and her husband Vince at 4 pm. I was in Bekah's wedding so I obviously went to that one, and the plan was for Greg to take Luke with him to Kaylene's wedding.


Bekah and I used to work together as CNA's in a nursing home in IN. We got along great and were close friends really quickly! We both loved watching TLC shows about interior decorating and the "What Not To Wear" show, going to Hobby Lobby, our residents at work etc. We often went to a burger place after work and always wrote on the comment card for them to please serve breakfast 24 hours a day (since we worked evening shift). Often she would call this "friend" of her's, David, on the way to the restaurant. Since she always seemed to be on the phone with him it almost felt like he was part of the gang, so I always told her to say hi to him, even though we had never met, and he always said hi back. (-;


Two of Bekah's favorite things are civil war history and the Indianapolis Colts. She is one of the only girls I know who frequently checks Colts scores on her cell phone (if she can't watch the game) and who would love to spend hours at a civil war battle field, just soaking it all in, even if it is raining! Way back when she was planning a civil war wedding, and her groom was just going to have to deal with it. I guess she decided that all the work that would go into finding/making proper attire for everyone would be too much, so she settled on a Colts themed wedding instead. Her dress had a blue sash and we wore blue dresses. She had Colts jewelry and flip flops and tossed a colts football instead of a bouquet. Everything was blue and white. It was a lot of fun, and very beautiful! So now she and David are married, and have a beautiful little boy as well. Congrats, you guys!


Bekah's wedding was over in time for me to get to Kaylene and Vince's reception just as it started so that worked out nicely. While Bekah's was a small, intimate outdoor wedding Kaylene's was a big church wedding with a beautiful hall booked for the reception. Since her wedding was later they had a full meal planned and a live band played jazz music the whole time. Luke wasn't too impressed by the food, but he did like the music. After the food was put away and the dance floor was cleared he and all the other little kids ran out to dance! He stood right smack dab in the center of it all and turned round and round for two whole songs before he came over to see what I was doing. I'll post a video later.


Because of Kaylene's wedding there was a lot of out of town family there besides us, all of Greg's cousins from Texas as well as his sister from Canada. Luke really enjoyed playing with all of his older cousins and learning from them, and I enjoyed the chance to get to know his Texas cousins a little bit too. When we first got to Indiana Luke spent several minutes giving his 8 month old cousin Easton about 25 kisses! He gave him many more kisses over the rest of our trip, but that was the most at any one time! He also followed Cassia, 3, and Isaac, 4, around pretty much wherever they went and imitated them all the time. He learned soooo much from them! For example we always read "Where the Wild Things Are" and Cassia enjoyed listening too so Luke learned how roar his terrible roars, and gnash his terrible teeth, and show his terrible claws. (The rolling of the eyes was a little too advanced for either one of them.)


His language explosion has continued with a new word, "BALL"! He also learned signs for "bath" and "thank you". We utilized a new light weight blanket that I crocheted the edge around as a cover up whenever he wanted to nurse and started calling it the "nana" blanket, since he calls nursing nana. I was worried about all the nursing in public we were going to be doing since he isn't a big fan of being discrete, but he picked up on the nana blanket pretty fast and by the end of the week he would bring me the blanket when he wanted to nurse! I am working on a second blanket now and have plans for two more, one for a good friend who is pregnant and another for my nephew who will be born in September. As I work on them I think about my great grandma. She crocheted lace around the edges of hundreds of baby blankets, way more than enough for all her grandchildren, great-grandchildren and Luke. I have one she made that she gave me when Luke was born and I have another that she gave my mom when I was born. My first blanket is not nearly as pretty as hers were, but this second one is turning out a bit more uniform and the lace part definitely looks much improved. Doing this makes me feel connected to her in a new way, and I like that.


We did a lot of reading. I had finished reading the Wizard of Oz just before the trip, reading one or two chapters each night as he fell asleep. I continued to do that in IN with the second book "The Land of Oz" and he got so used to it that he sometimes would bring me the book when he wanted to sleep, and not just at bed time but also at nap time sometimes when he needed to wind down and nursing alone wasn't doing the trick. We finished the second book and started the third, "Ozma of Oz" on the way home. The third book has a yellow hen that talks and Luke thought the way the yellow hen talked was really funny so I read several chapters on the way home, even when he wasn't tired. I was impressed that he actually enjoyed this, because there aren't many pictures and generally I think he just allows me to read aloud to him because he is nursing and tired and the sound of my voice soothes him, but he really did laugh every time I read what the hen said. Later though, when he actually wanted to go to sleep, he started to whine when I read the hen parts, so I stopped reading them in the hen voice and read everything in the same voice and then he stopped fussing and relaxed and was asleep really quickly.


I turned 30 while we were in IN and Greg bought me a string of real pearls for my b-day to wear to the wedding! They were on sale about 65% off so it was a bargain, but I have always wanted some pearls, my birth stone. We had a party with family since one of my mom-in-law's sisters and her husband both share my birthday! Everyone talks about how hard it was to turn 30, and while I don't really like the way it sounds I don't really feel that old so it hasn't bothered me too much yet. I did think, you know, if I live as old as my great grandma did then 30 is less than 1/3 of my life, so I could have quite a ways to go yet. I also did think though that eventually I will get to that stage, be a grandmother instead of just a mother, and if it feels like things are going by fast now I can imagine that it will feel even faster then. I hope I can look back and say that I really lived my life and was present for all those precious moments with my family and loved ones. Everyone is talking about Michael Jackson these days and what kind of legacy he left, the music, the madness, which do you remember? He talked about how he hoped his art would be eternal, make him immortal in some respects. I may never do anything that big that the whole world will remember me forever, but I do want to live with integrity to the best of my ability, and with great love.

The trips to and from went pretty well. On the way up Luke and I flew because Greg had gone up about a week ahead of us to go fishing in Canada with his brother and he had taken the car. I thought maybe Luke would enjoy flying this time, looking out the window and stuff, but when we got on the run way and were gearing up for take off he started to scream before we even started moving! I think he must have gotten scared. I started singing to him because he wasn't settling down and I didn't know what else to do and almost immediately he put his head down on my shoulder and stopped crying. He nursed as we climbed higher into the air and fell asleep quickly and was out the rest of the flight. After we landed he kept right on sleeping so I got someone to help me put on my mei tai baby carrier and we made it through the Chicago air port. He woke up just a little before we got to baggage claim where my father-in-law and sister-in-law were waiting for me with her two kids. When Luke saw his papa he perked right up and gave him a smile and pointed at him, so sweet! I didn't know if he would remember him, but I guess his visit with us in April was long enough and recent enough to make a good imprint on him.

On the way home we drove first to Indy for an overnight visit with some friends and then left in the morning for the long haul home. He did pretty good most of the time with books and toys and singing and snacks. He slept a little, but not his usual two hour naps. The last hour was torture for the most part, he was just too tired and what he wanted was to be up in front "driving" with Greg! When we pulled over so I could try to nurse him all he wanted to do was climb over the seat and play with the steering wheel! We were all pretty relieved to pull into the driveway.

Unfortunately Greg discovered that our fridge had died while we were away so he spent a couple of hours trying to get it to run again and then gave up and looked for a replacement on line. I bought one this morning and he was going to go pick it up after work today. It is pretty standard, except that it is energy star so it should save us some money compared with our previous fridge which was about fifty years old I think, and a nice avocado green! It also has an ice maker which will be great once it is installed since Greg uses a lot of ice for his water jugs that he takes to work, but doesn't always remember to refill the trays. (-;

Harvest was mostly over by the time we got back, I think they finished up today (Monday). Luke and I did get to ride for about 40 minutes with my uncle Dwight in the combine before I had to go to work and that was a lot of fun. Dwight explained everything to him and let him push a few buttons when we weren't moving and play with the steering wheel a bit so he had a lot of fun! I was just glad to get out to the field a little bit even though we missed all the big family dinners in the field and celebrating my Grandpa's birthday with everyone.

Well, this is way long for a blog post, but I had some catching up to do. In a few days I'll try to post some of the pics we took, but I have to work for the next few days so I can't right this instant. Thanks to our IN family and friends for the wonderful week we spent with you! It flew by too fast. Congrats to Matt and Erin on their engagement! Can't wait to see you in October for the wedding!