HAPPY BIRTHDAY SOPHIE!

I can't believe a whole year has gone by already!  And I can't believe all the joy this little girl has added to our lives!

March 31, 2011 ~ Love at first sight!

April 2011

May 2011 ~ Mother's Day

June 2011

July 2011

August 2011

September 2011 ~ meeting Eóghan for the first time!

October 2011 ~ Baby Smurf!  Halloween

November 2011 ~ Thanksgiving Day

December 2011

January 2012

February 2012

March 2011

Later today we'll be going to Erik & Lori's for a celebration party and I'm sure I'll have more pictures to share!

I've been busy and away from blogging and visiting, and I hope to catch up with everyone next week.  I've missed everyone and I've missed reading about your lives.  And I thank all of you who have left comments on my blogs and on Facebook.  You're all so kind.

I was in the city on St. Patrick's Day with my friend Barbara, we had so much fun and I'll share about that in a post soon.  Also, I was petrified scared this week because Barbara was having a problem with her heart and needed to go in for a procedure where they 'shocked' her heart into a normal rhythm.  She called me yesterday and she is doing very well!  So I'm breathing again!

And we celebrated Ray's Birthday on March 18th, and I'll post about that along with St. Pat's Day.

AND we celebrated Baby Ray's Baptism last Sunday, so I hope to post about that soon too!  And next week we're all getting together for Easter Sunday dinner and a combined Birthday party at our house for both Sophie and Mia with extended family.  I'm looking forward to it!

'Hope you are all doing well!  'See' you soon!

Same Old Same Old

That was another saying my Mom used to say, if you asked her what was new, she'd say, "Nothing new, just the same old same old."


Well, there's nothing new going on here either, just the same old same old, but I'm not complaining.  I like the same old same old.


This past weekend Ray started cleaning out the back room (it becomes a storage room over the Winter), and he made a good dent in it.  It was cold though, so he had to work with a jacket on, and he was kind enough to tell me that I didn't have to help.  This weekend I'll be going into Manhattan with my friend Barbara for St. Patrick's Day on Saturday, and then Sunday is Ray's Birthday, so I don't think much cleaning out will be getting done, but hopefully, the following weekend will be warm enough for us both to finish the job Ray started.  I plan on bagging and boxing lots of things and doing a big purge from that room.


Other than that, we haven't been up to much lately.
I've been keeping myself occupied with this ~


Diane stopped by with this interesting little case:

And inside was this:

Now, I'm not very good at jigsaw puzzles, it takes me forever to finish them, but once I get started, it's like an addiction.  I stayed up late many nights last week working on this:

It was near impossible!  My eyesight is bad, so I had to resort to this for help:

Having a magnifying glass made all the difference!


The kids visited over the weekend and we had fun with our little "Irish" ones!  (They are actually all more Swedish, and Italian, and Puerto Rican, and Cuban, and there is a bit of German thrown in there too, but I like to remind everyone that they have a few drops of Irish in them too!):

Baby Ray looks like he's saying, "What's going on over there?"

Mia is such a good big sister, and such a good big cousin too!

Jayden was out at the park playing with his Daddy and some of the neighborhood boys, but I snapped this picture of him earlier in the day (much to his dismay, he does not like having his picture taken anymore!):

New hair cut!

'Hope everyone enjoys the rest of the week, and in case I don't get back here before the weekend ~ HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY!

Very Lucky In The 'Good Baby' Department! And Another Nice Weekend

I don't know how we got so lucky in the 'good baby' department, but I am thanking my lucky stars, and most especially the Good Lord above!
Brian and Flora had a wedding to attend so Baby Ray had his first sleep-over with us!
He is one very good baby.  I was afraid he might be lonely for his Mommy and Daddy, but he did very well.  I had the idea to put him in one of Eóghan's 'Magic Sleep Suits', thinking it might help him feel secure, but I forgot about the size difference in the two babies (one looks like a little Buddha and one looks like a little pipsqueak).

Eóghan's suit is way too big, but I left Ray in it anyway because I think our room is too cold.  He did very well!

He got up a few times during the night, but he either took his pacifier and went back to sleep, or he took a few ounces and went right back down.


At first he looked at me like he just wasn't very sure about all this:

I was thinking, "Uh-oh.  Here we go.  He's going to cry."

Then I just started talking to him and he got very happy!

And he stayed that way until his Daddy came to pick him up in the morning!




And we had another nice weekend with some family visitors:

Ray's sister and his Mom stopped by for a few hours to visit with the babies: 

And Mia had a play-date with a little friend, but Erik stopped by with Sophie:

And we had lots of fun with her too!

The Happiness Project And My Little Exercise Guru

I'm reading The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin (thank you, Jill [you can find Jill's blog HERE], for the recommendation [you can find Jill's book post HERE]).  I'm loving it! 


So far, for me, a few of the most notable things from this book, and the most significant to my life:


I had everything I could possibly want, yet I was failing to appreciate it.  Bogged down in petty complaints and passing crises, weary of struggling with my own nature, I too often failed to comprehend the splendor of what I had.  I didn't want to keep taking these days for granted.  The words of the writer Colette had haunted me for years: "What a wonderful life I've had!  I only wish I'd realized it sooner."  I didn't want to look back, at the end of my life or after some great catastrophe, and think, "How happy I used to be then, if only I'd realized it."


~and~


I needed to change the lens through which I viewed everything familiar.


~and~


...people have an inborn disposition that's set within a certain range, but they can boost themselves to the top of their happiness range or push themselves down to the bottom of their happiness range by their actions.


~ and what struck me most especially was this:


...people desire other things, such as power or wealth or losing ten pounds, because they believe these things will lead to happiness, but their real goal is happiness.


This book is helping me to appreciate my life right here and right now:
Such as watching my little exercise guru jump, and jump, and jump!
(I love this little guy's energy!)

Oh, this happy little boy!  Seriously, sometimes I feel like my heart could just burst.  I look at my grandchildren and I think, "It's not possible, it's just not possible to love someone this much."
This wonderful, joyful, heavenly, impossible, miraculous, "I more than love you" feeling ~ it must be the Spirit of God.  This amazing 'more than love' feeling is something that makes me very happy and I get to experience it everyday.

What Does Throwing Live Babies Into The Trash Have To Do With A Woman's Right To Choose?

I'm not debating abortion rights.  I'll leave that subject for another day.  This post is not about abortion rights.  This post is not about a woman's right to choose what she wants to do with her own body (which, by the way, I think many women make some very un-informed choices, but, again, that's another topic that I'll leave for another day).  This post is about the Born Alive Infants Protection Act being violated time and time again in an effort to ensure that a woman's rights are not violated, and in an effort to ensure that the abortionist is not held responsible for an abortion gone wrong.  This post is about a body totally apart from it's "host", a baby's body surviving outside of it's mother's body.  This post is about the inhumane treatment of abortion survivors.


I get that the whole idea of a woman choosing abortion is to ensure that her BABY DOES NOT GET TO SURVIVE.  BUT what if her choice doesn't work out?  What if against all odds her baby does survive the abortion procedure ~ then shouldn't the baby's rights replace and surpass the mother's original choice?
Does the right to choose abortion give the medical professionals the right to leave abortion survivors unattended to die?  Does a woman's right to choose abortion also give medical professionals the right to falsify records, instructing nurses to enter "zero-zero" for the baby's vital signs, when the baby is actually alive and breathing?  Does the right to choose abortion mean that it's also right to put live babies into bio-hazard bags and throw them in the trash?  Does the right to choose abortion give abortionist the right to sever the spinal cords of abortion survivors?  Does the right to choose abortion give one the right to decide that a living, breathing baby is not worthy of living?  Not worthy to breathe? Not worthy to put every effort forth to ensure it's well being, to ensure it's comfort at least, if not it's survival?  Is a life only worthy of medical intervention if the baby is wanted by it's mother?  Is a life only worthy of compassion if it's wanted by it's mother?  And if a baby is not wanted by it's mother, does that mean that every effort should be made to ensure that baby's death?


I guess based on something I read recently, a woman's right to choose does include all manner of foul and polluted behavior.  In 2009 a mother in Virginia delivered her baby in her own home, and then she smothered it with a pillow.  The judge said the mother had every right to do that, he said that a mother can do whatever she likes with her baby so long as the umbilical cord is still attached.  He said that one cannot call a baby a baby unless it can live independently of it's mother.  It's all about a woman's right to choose.  In fact, the law is only about a woman's right to choose.


And I guess I just don't get the law, I guess I'm just not progressive enough to get how any of this is about a woman's right to choose.


Now this is a little off topic, but I've read of groups such as Rachel's Hope, and Rachel's Vineyard, and Project Rachel, and Circle of Prayer, groups that offer prayer and counseling to women who regret having made the choice to abort.  And I've read about 'adopting' an abortionist, where you find the name of one abortionist, and you pray for him/her.  


But, I'm thinking now of all the doctors, and nurses, and technicians, and politicians, and judges, who maybe made the choice to say no to offering even some small comfort to an abortion survivor.  People who may have looked at a suffering soul and felt no compassion.  And, as sad as their choice makes me, I'm thinking that maybe one day they will have regrets too.  So, if you feel inclined, I invite you to join me in prayer for them.

Laser Dacryocystorhinostomy? No Thank You!

(Warning! Gross photo inserted into this post!)


First let me tell you that I know I'm being a big baby, but that's who I am.  I am also a freak when it comes to my eyes.  I can't even do eyedrops, I am such a baby.  During an eye examination I feel like jumping out of the chair and running right out of the office when they come with the drops, or when they examine my eyes with that awful machine!  I have to do my 'labor and childbirth breathing exercises' in order to stay calm (I do those exercises a LOT at other times too, whenever I am experiencing any kind of pain, or when I am trying to steady my nerves, I use what I learned in Lamaze and it has come in very handy over the years).


Okay, so I went to the eye doctor a few months ago to get a prescription for progressive lenses (to be able to see things far away and also to be able to read without having to change glasses all the time). I just wanted to be able to get up in the morning, put on one pair of glasses and not have to take them off until bedtime.


Armed with my Lamaze I was able to withstand the eye drops the technician put in and the awful machine.  Then she went through the eye test with me (easy, no Lamaze techniques required), and she created a prescription, she had me try it (I was amazed!  I could actually read words from far away!), and everything was fine, or so I thought.  Then she told me that normally they would dilate my eyes with drops but because she saw that I had very narrow tear duct openings she would wait until the doctor examined me (oh good, no more drops in the eye!).  The doctor came in and re-examined me with that awful machine and he agreed with everything she told me, and he added that I should never to let anyone put drops in my eyes to dilate them because there was a chance then that the tear ducts would be completely blocked and that would be big trouble for me, it could cause glaucoma and even blindness.  He also said that it could just be something I was born with, that due to the shape of my eye this was my normal situation, or it could be something that developed recently and he wanted to monitor it so I would have to come back in three months for him to better assess the situation.  He asked me if I had trouble with my eyes tearing all the time.  I don't.  If I go out into the air though, then they start tearing a little, so I wear sunglasses no matter the weather, even if it's raining I have sunglasses on.  He also asked me if I was sensitive to light and I said yes (another reason I am constantly wearing sunglasses), he asked how long my eyes had been sensitive to light and I said for as long as I could remember.  He said that gave him a clue that I was most likely born with these weird eyes (he didn't use the word weird but that was the gist of it).  He asked me if I was prone to infections.  I've never had an eye infection (knock wood!).  He then went on again to say that it's probably just the natural shape (or rather unnatural shape) of my eye, but he said if it turns out to be a degenerative condition that they could do a very simple laser surgery.


Last week I went back to see him again.  The technician put drops in my eyes and did that awful machine again (Lamaze again!),  but she assured me they wouldn't dilate the pupils, then she went over the same exam as last time, and the same questions again.  Then the doctor came in and asked me why I was there to see him.  I told him that he wanted me to make this appointment so he could check my tear ducts to see if they had gotten any worse.  He looked at the chart and said, "Oh, yes!"  He put more drops in my eyes to numb them (MORE Lamaze!), he looked at them, said a bunch of numbers to the technician and then he moved the machine closer and I felt a lot of pressure (as in it HURT) in the corner of my left eye (forget breath in one-two and breath out one-two, I was on to "quick breath, quick breath, quick breath, quick breath, blow and repeat"!).  After the exam he said I better have the laser surgery on the left eye to prevent it from completely closing.  I asked if it was worse than last time and he said no but it was worse than the right eye.  He told me the surgery would be done in his other office by his colleague, and that they had just acquired a new machine, and with this new machine there was much less bleeding.  (BLEEDING???!!)  I think the technician must have seen the horror on my face because she quickly said, "It's very safe, and it doesn't take more than an hour."  (AN HOUR???  What happened to "very simple laser surgery"?  I thought 'very simple laser surgery' meant a little 'zap-zap' and it's over.)  And the last thing I remember him saying was, "This is just preventive surgery."


So I very reluctantly agreed to the laser surgery.  I made the appointment for March 6 before leaving the office and then went home and googled all about it.  YUCK!  It is NOT a little zap-zap very simple laser surgery.  There is anesthesia involved, there is cutting, there is bleeding, it involves nasal passages, there is after-care, there is swelling of eye and nose, there is bruising.  Oh no.  This is not a good thing.  
Then I read studies about how this type of laser surgery may not be as good as traditional surgery.  I also read about the many problems some patients developed after the surgery (nasal problems, dizzy spells, bleeding, bruising, infections, etc.).  No, no, no, no, no.  I am not having any of this.  
I read that most patients who have been suffering with infections or constant tearing from blocked or partially blocked tear ducts are usually very happy after this surgery.  But patients that weren't suffering were very UNhappy once they had surgery to 'correct' the 'problem'.
I am having no problems that I feel need correcting.  Having to wear sunglasses all the time is no big deal to me.  It's definitely not worth taking the risk that things could be much, much worse.


And I have no intention of going through this:

No how!  No way!




I called the office to cancel.  I told the receptionist that I had many social functions coming up over the next few months and I definitely didn't want to show up looking like a prize-fighter.  I told her that I had originally thought this was a little nothing surgery and I just read that it's not.  Her response was that "It is nothing!  You won't feel a thing before, during, or after.  This is so you don't have to wear glasses, right?"  I told her that it was the tear duct surgery and she said, "Oh.  Okay."  She didn't argue or try to convince me otherwise.  Whew!  Oh, a wave of relief flushed over me!


So I'm putting this eye surgery on hold until I really, REALLY NEED to have it done! (God-Willing that will be NEVER)!
Laser Dacryocystorhinostomy?  No thank you!

Sing Me Irish, Mommy

There has been a big split in our family.  And I mean a big division.
At first I tried staying neutral, then I tried playing peacemaker, then things got so bad that I just gave up.
And now things have not only gone from bad to worse, but from worse to WORST.
I don't think these two ladies will ever see eye-to-eye.  And, in the beginning, I had a hope that at least while they might never be the best of friends, they would at least be cordial to each other, treat each other with a modicum of respect, and that they'd make sure not to involve the children, but it's gone beyond that now too.  "All the king's horses, and all the king's men..."
It makes for very strained family gatherings to say the least.  It's gotten to the point where Ray & I enjoy it so much more if one or the other is not around when the family visits.  
I have to say, I did see both sides at first, but now, I think they have both behaved in a most negative manner, they both have acted hateful, malicious, and antagonistic, and the only side I'm taking now is the side of the grandchildren.


I'm wishing so much to have my Mom here now.  Just to talk things over with her, and maybe to have her give them one of her pearls of wisdom, such as:  "Oh, get over yourselves!  Quit yer bellyaching at each other and just get along!"  My Mom was very "no-nonsense"!  I miss her a lot.  And I'm asking her to ask the Greatest Peacemaker of All to intervene.  Because it's going to take a miracle and I am no miracle worker.


I've actually adopted an attitude I never thought I would ~ "accept and move on".  I'd love it if we were one, big, happy family.  I have to accept that we are not and move forward.
I'm concentrating on the Blessing of grandchildren and the joy they have brought to our lives.  I'm concentrating on the Gifts God throws my way everyday.
I've been missing my Mom so much lately (she's gone six years this month).  And while searching for Irish music to put on the playlist on my blog I found an Irish folksong my Mom used to sing to me ("That's How I Spell Ireland" ~ the song has my name in it, and my Mom said she always loved that song and that's one of the reasons she picked my name).  In fact, it was my favorite lullaby that she sang to me.  I used to climb up onto her lap as she sat in the big rocker in the living room, and she would rock me to sleep as she sang, and my request would always be, "Mommy, sing me Irish.  Sing me Irish, Mommy."
I cried and cried when I found that song.  Jayden said to me, "Umma, are you crying?!"  I shook my head yes and told him why I was crying, and he said, "Well, at least you're a little bit happy, right?"  Later on he was telling everyone, "Umma was crying today, but they were happy tears."
It's hard to explain to a little seven year old boy the jumble of emotions I was feeling, but he's right, there were very happy tears there mixed in with tears of longing and loss.  It felt good to have that release of emotion that finding this song brought out of me.


Mommy, sing me Irish.