Babbling Wednesday & Birthday Time!

***It is with sadness that I write that Precious' blog, Frugal Makes Cents, is no more.   She posted about a week ago that she was going to end her blog.  I left a comment about her leaving the blog up as a reference tool for frugal seekers, as she had many good ideas included within over the years.

I went yesterday to see what other comments had been left and if someone had taken over her "Money Saving Challenge" for 2012, but I can't access the blog, as it's been privatized and I haven't been invited to view it.
*sigh*

I guess she's going to use it for other things and not leave it up for a frugal reference tool.
If anyone knows if someone is going to Host the Money Saving Challenge, please let me know.
I thank you....

***While Hubs and I completed filling out the FAFSA forms this past weekend, I didn't actually submit them until Tuesday evening.   I also found out I could efile the older 2 kids' federal taxes.  Did 1 and once it was accepted by the IRS, I efiled the 2nd one yesterday.  Beats having to mail them to the kids for signatures and then having them pay to mail them certified/return receipt requested.  Too bad Hubs and I can't efile our federal return or tele-file our state return.  Gots to go OLD SKOOL with the paper returns.....

***I can't believe how many things I have crossed off my "To Do" List for February so far.  This coming week is all about cleaning out & organizing the garage.  I need to get Hubs to drop off the Sallie's load in his car so I can load him up again.  The donations are backing up here....

*** I also can't believe the weather we've had this Winter!  Tomorrow is suppose to hit 50 degrees here and Friday 54 degrees....INSANE!!!  Usually by this time, it looks like this around here.....

 OR like this in really bad years.....

Not what it actually looks like today....

***Today is my baby's birthday.  16 years ago today I was in labor and trying to pop his massively large melon head out my HooHa.  The week preceding his arrival, our region was facing massive flooding from a late February Winter snow melt-off combined with days upon days of rainstorms.

My water broke as I rolled over on the sofabed at home at 5:30am.....I had been sleeping there as my regular bed had been too uncomfortable to sleep on since December.  Dropped 2 kids at friend's house and Hubs, my mother(who had flown up from VA for the birth)& I drove to the hospital.

Got hooked up to PIT around Noonish, to get things cranking along.  Around 2 o clock is when the pain got heavy.
I was going to attempt another no epidural/drugs delivery.  By 4 I was pushworthy.  His head was down and engaged in the birth canal but he just coudn't/wouldn't leave.  The nurses had me standing on the bed, hanging onto a bar which they set up over the bed(think gymnastic apparatus!) in a semi-squat position.  This power position and gravity was to help me squeeze him out.
After almost 4 hours of this, interspersed with mind blowing contraction pain, I threw in the towel and BEGGED for a C-section.

And about a half an hour later at 8:26pm, the youngest was pulled from my abdomen and commenced hollering.  Hubs still remarks about how freaky it was to be sitting next to me in the OR while the doctors had my ueturus sitting out on my abdomen, chatting away with him, while they cleaned up large amounts of scar tissue from an emergency appendectomy I had undergone when I was 30, before putting me back together.  Yes, good times!

And they fished #2 Son out not a moment too soon, because by the time they stitched me up and got me cleaned up and back to my room and got the morphine flowing(ah!), it was Thursday and nearly time for ER to come on tv and I never missed that show!lol  That boy would rue the day he interfered with his momma's shows.....

And we found out why there was no way on God's green earth he was coming out the other way.  The doctors(I got 2 for this procedure...I am special!lol)said his head was the largest they had every seen(well, for a non hydrocephalus baby).  The nurse measured it when they take all those vital statistic thingys and his head was literally the size of a toddlers.  He was a big boy anyway at 9lb. 11oz.  So between my 5'1" frame with a normal sized pelvis and his melon head, there was no tunnel egress for him!lol

And both his mother(that would be me)and my oldest brother had exceedingly large heads when we were young so it runs in our family.  My brother had a genius IQ so I like to think that WE both needed those larger than normal heads to hold all those brains WE had......well, that's my story anyway.

Because of the C-Section, #2 Son and I had an extended stay in the Maternity Ward.  Between my surgery/stitches and his high Billirubin count(and his time under the lamps with his cool shades), we became fixtures on the ward.  By the time we came home, my mother was worn out from watching the older 2.   Pres. Clinton came to town while we were lazing around the ward but he didn't stop by the hospital.  I still tell #2 Son that Clinton came to town to celebrate his birth.....so what if the town the hospital was in was declared a federal disaster area that week due to the heavy rains, massive snow melt and unseasonably high temperatures that caused flooding.....the presidential visit was all for HIS birthday!

#2 Son has always been my quiet child.  He is introverted and is not one to yammer on or show off, like his older siblings.  We never thought he'd talk when he was young, as his siblings never shut up long enough to give him a chance to speak!lol  When he was born his sister was 3 and his brother was 4.5 years old.  Yes, I had 3 kids under the age of 5 at once. ;-)
#2 Son is my last hope for producing an artist.  #1 Son had a talent for performing/acting and he studied music for awhile put lost interest in it.  Daughter is the least gifted in the artistic realm but she has continued with playing her guitar.  #2 Son has a gift for visual arts(though he doesn't believe what his teacher and I see there) and he has a passion for music.   He eats, drinks and breaths music.  Though he gets good grades in all his classes, if he didn't have music, he'd probably decide to drop out of school now that he's old enough to do so.(And it's not like I'd allow that anyway!lol)  Being an introvert, he can take or leave the whole social aspect of high school.

He lives for music.  And I am thrilled to say that he is making progress in his skills and music loves him back.
Happy 16th Birthday #2 Son!!!

Sluggy