The Itch

No. I don't have some weird and creepy disease...sorry, no good gossip to be found here! I'm talking about this itch that I get every year to year and a half to get out of this country.

As many of you know, Lily and I had the incredible privilege of taking a 9 day trip to Scotland last month. (And if you were wondering why you missed out on this news, I kept it off of Facebook...reasons to be mentioned further down.) It makes me sad to know that Jon's entire family lives over there, and that there was a grandchild/niece/cousin that they hadn't met yet. So, we made the decision to go. The best part about it (and the reason I didn't mention it on FB) was that Jon's mom had no idea (well, maybe a small suspicion a while back) that we were coming. When Lily and I showed up to her birthday girls brunch, Jane (Jon's mom, and Lily's middle-namesake) was nearly shaking and got the goosebumps - I think she was excited to meet her newest grandchild!
We had an AMAZING time - truly.

Here are some thoughts on my time away:

~ Airplane restrooms have always seemed small to me, but never as small as on my flight to Amsterdam. I had to bring Lily in with me, fold down the "changing table", attempt to fit my head between the under-side of that table and the toilet and the proceed to vomit. It was quite a site! (I was anxious about flying alone with a baby...I'd gotten myself pretty worked up about it!)

~ Lily is absolutely the most perfect traveling baby to ever exist. She sucked her thumb and fell asleep on my shoulder on every flight. In all of the 30+ hours of travel time, she whimpered maybe twice for about 10 seconds. Amazing.

~ Amsterdam airport is a place I could sit all day long and people watch. It is a true melting-pot of so many of the cultures in our world. People are so beautiful - their clothing and hair and style; their language and expressions and attempts to communicate in a foreign country is magnificent to watch and listen to. I love it.

~ Scotland is incredibly gorgeous - even in the dead of winter. It is so green and hilly. There are still sheep roaming the hillsides. The old castle ruins, and castles still standing are breathtaking under their thin layer of fresh snow. The weather is mild and time at the coast still feels like vacation. And the sunsets...OH the sunsets! What a place!

~ The similarities between Jon and his parents are hysterical...down to Jon's dad hating to wash the silverware - just like Jon. And both Geoff and Jane searching frantically for keys, wallets and phone minutes after they should be out the door. (I say all this out of love, of course, Geoff and Jane!;))


~ No matter how many times I go to Britain, double-decker buses (even the school buses were...) and old-fashioned telephone booths will always be things I get excited to see. (Thanks Jaime and Jo for indulging my American tourist needs!)

~ As much as I would have loved having the rest of my family with me, it was great being there without Jon. Sounds bad, but what I mean is that every other time I've been there with Jon, as his wife...visiting because he wanted to see his family. (That's not actually true, but I can see how it could be perceived that way.) This time, I was able to be Angela...not Jon's wife...in Scotland visiting Jon's family because I chose to - because I wanted to. It was awesome to build relationships with Jon's family without him being there. I had a BLAST!!

"Confessions" of an Almost 29-Year-Old

I don't like talking about myself - it makes me really uncomfortable. But, I was thinking of little tid-bits about who I am, and thought I would follow in the footsteps of my sister-in-law Betsy and write some "confessions". So, for no particular reason, here they are:

1. I really wish I was more motivated - to eat healthier, to exercise regularly, to be super hands-on with my kids, to play in the snow, to keep an amazingly clean house.

2. I really like the movie K-Pax. I may be the only one I know of who does.

3. I don't shower nearly as often as I probably should.

4. I hate it when I go to the restroom in a public place, and when I come out I have to look around like a big idiot for the person I'm with. I give Jon a place to stand and he knows he has to stay there, or I stress!

5. I would move to Africa tomorrow if I could (with my family, of course).

6. Caleb told me yesterday that my stomach looks stripey, little, and a little bit big.

7. Me and my brothers have matching scars on our stomachs from pyloric stenosis when we were babies. If I ever had "work done" on my stomach, I wouldn't let anyone touch that scar, cause I really like that we match.

8. Something that bugs me more than anythings else is someone who presents themselves as being "awesome" or better than everyone else...or someone that thinks they have all the answers. Grrrr.

9. The thought of chewing on a sock is like nails on a chalkboard to me. Why would anyone chew on a sock? I don't know, but let's just stop talking about it...it's giving me the heebie-jeebies.

10. Big Red gum gives me painful little bumps on my tongue that last forever. Other than that I really like Big Red - but I won't chew it anymore.

11. Someday I want to deliver babies in Africa. There's nothing in the world quite like child birth, and so many women there have no one to help them through it.

12. I have a really horrible memory. It's pretty frustrating, but maybe once I'm old enough I'll actually just forget that I have a bad memory and it won't frustrate me anymore.

13. My brother Dave and I both have numb areas on the left side of our backs. (Don't be concerned...our doctors have both found nothing to worry about.)

14. I'm really good at burping really loud. I hold it in most of the time - especially when the British side of my family is around! ;)

15. There are VERY few things in my life that I am proud of myself for, but one thing is giving birth to Johnny without any pain medication. Now, I know it's different for everyone, and some people can do that without much trouble, but it was HELL going through it for me, but I did it, and that makes me proud of myself. :)

Scattered Family Together

The last 7 years or so have been crazy as far as family being all over the place. For starters, as most of you know, Jon's family is ALL in Scotland, which means we are able to see them so rarely...it's sad. But even the Scott side is all over the place. We've been in Boston, Philly, Kenya and now Ohio. My brother Mark and his family were near us in Boston until we moved away, and they've just recently moved to Texas. My other brother Dave and his family moved to California just after we got married, and then came to Ohio with us for awhile, then headed back to California and are now heading off to France to the mission field for two years. So, we are one scattered family. We had the amazing privilege of all of us being together over the Thanksgiving holiday...and with Dave and Betsy and JJ being in France for 2 years, and with Jon having NO vacation time for this first year, who knows when we'll all be together again. I LOVE my family so much, and tried to squeeze every minute out of my time with them as possible...including a couple of airport mishaps! Anyway, here are a few pictures of our time together...

My brother Dave with Hannah - playing with her new doll house blocks:


My brother Mark and Cyndi with the pile of kids:


We celebrated JJ's (4) and Caleb's (5) birthdays together:


Johnny, JJ, Hannah and Caleb watching a video together:


Lily and her older cousin (by 10 days) Aaron sharing some time on the bouncer:


Grandpa reading to Hannah and cousin Christian:


Jon and his little girls:


Me with my sister-in-law Cyndi:


And my other sister-in-law Betsy:


We had an awesome time celebrating both Thanksgiving and Christmas together. Hopefully it's not TOO long before we're all together again!

The Busy Life...

It's hard to believe that Lily is nearly two months old now, and I haven't posted a single thing about her - no pictures or updates or anything! (Poor fourth child...I'll blame it on being BUSY!)

Lily Jane is an AMAZING baby! We have been blessed to have four very easy babies - no colic, good sleepers, easy going. Lily is no exception to this. She pretty much sits around happy all day. She sleeps a lot, eats every three hours and is just a great baby! Now that she's eight weeks old, she's doing a lot of smiling and starting to coo and jabber some. It's amazing how even after four kids, that just doesn't get old!

So, life is pretty busy, it seems. Jon is back to work now - as a sales rep. for an office supply company - so it's back to me being alone with the kiddos all day. His unemployment was perfect for me. When I was sick, he could be with the kids. When I was huge and exhausted, he could be with the kids or cook dinner. When Lily was on oxygen, he was around to tote her and her tanks around, change her tubes and tape - it was all such a blessing! But now it's me...from about 7:30am until 8:00pm (well, Jon gets home around 5:30), plus the night time feedings. It's a pretty tiring "job", but - as cliche as it is - I wouldn't change it for anything! I actually enjoy the challenge of getting them all fed, dressed, out the door and into the car...just to get out of the car, load the girls into the stroller and bring the boys into school. (Then I do it all again to pick them up a few hours later.) It has it's stressful and frustrating moments FOR SURE, but for the most part I really enjoy it. (It's also fun to see the look on people's faces when I'm out with four kids under five in public! People think I'm nuts - and I probably am!)

Here are a few pics of Lily and her older siblings over the last couple months...

Lily in the hospital when she was still on her oxygen


Hannah loves her little sister! She still just calls her "Baby".


Johnny is always concerned when Lily cries - he takes SUCH great care of her!


Caleb loves being the biggest - he looks out for Lily and the others.


Daddy's little lady Lily.


My Baby doll.


One big happy family!


Such a sweetie-pie!


Yup, I think we'll keep her! ;)

Lily Update

A little background: The second day of Lily's life we noticed that she would turn VERY bright pink and sometimes almost purple when she got worked up. This was due to a lack of oxygen circulating her body. Her oxygen was only about 80% of what it should be. A local specialist was called in to observe her and today has given us a diagnosis.

Looks like Lily will be in the record books. Lily's condition is called 'transient isolated right-sided myocardial hypertrophy'.

There are only two kids who have been recorded as having this in the past. We have the medical article if anyone is interested...

Basically, Lily's right ventricle was working harder than it should have been, pumping blood from Lily's heart to Angela's uterus - this was due to some kind of constriction in the opposite artery. Because of this overwork, the right ventricle has a mass of muscle material that is not supposed to be there. In the two recorded occurrences of this condition, with the correct treatment, the muscle mass had returned to normal by 8 weeks allowing the correct flow of oxygen around the body.

So...Lily will remain in the hospital here for another couple of days while she is slowly weaned from oxygen. It is highly probable that we will have to take oxygen home with us to continue Lily's recovery. But it's good news overall. A good diagnosis and a fairly simple treatment plan. All being well, we should see Lily returning to normal over the next days and weeks.

Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers - we love you all very much.

KT

Oh, where to begin about my dear friend Katie...

Way back when, in elementary school, Katie and I were friends - sort of. I have this memory of going to her house for one of her pool parties when we were kids...I don't really remember who else was there, but I have a clear memory of being shoved off of her diving board by whoever was behind me in line and falling off and scraping my back really bad. I think it was a diving board lined with a bunch of tiny stones, and I'm pretty sure a bunch of them embedded themselves into my back. Now, for whatever reason, I don't have much of a memory of being friends with Katie after that until High School...I think I've blocked her out of my mind to protect my sanity! I may need counseling to recall those in between times...

But in high school - at some point - Katie and I became friends again, and this time we were best friends! Most of my rebellious moments of my younger days happened with my best friend Katie - the drinking and smoking, the 'shrooms (dad, did you know about me doing that??), the boys, the parties. Now, maybe this makes her sound like a bad friend, but it was quite the opposite. I knew I was safe with Katie. She looked out for me - I looked out for her.

I wish I could find pictures of this story - I know I have them somewhere...It was our junior or senior year, I forget, when KISS 108 (the radio station) was having their annual concert and Katie and I were sure we were going to be there! We were supposed to make a sign and hang it up outside our house and then Randy, the DJ, would come to our house, check out our sweet sign and give us tickets to the concert. Well, we took this VERY seriously. We used a sheet and worked for hours and hours using paints (which stained my kitchen floor) and bumper stickers to decorate this sign. We really did it up! We hung that masterpiece from my second story windows, and it filled up almost the entire front of the house. We sat on the hood Katie's car, playing only KISS 108 music of course, and waited and waited and waited for so many hours for Randy to show up...and, well, he never did. So much for the concert - but we had a great time making that poster! I would have given us tickets if I was Randy the DJ! His loss!

I went to college in the same town I went to high school in, so I saw plenty of Katie my freshman year. The summer after that I really screwed things up with Katie. I got into a car accident that summer which gave me a different outlook on life - I realized that I was just screwing up my life and not taking it seriously. I was calling myself a Christian, but had no concept of what that meant. I was quite the hypocrite. So, when I 'turned my life around' that summer, I totally left Katie in the dust. I became this panicky Christian...I stopped drinking altogether (which was fine, as I was underage anyway), broke up with my boyfriend at the time and stopped talking to any of my high school friends because I thought they would think I was a big dork for really being a Christian now. I turned my back on my best friend.

For a long time things were really weird between the two of us. I didn't know what to talk about when we did talk or what to do when we did actually get together. I felt like she tested me a lot, and I deserved it! Things went on really weird like that for a number of years. I forgot how to be her friend, and I hated that! I thought about that and about her a lot!

One of my very favorite things about Katie is that she never gave up on me. She came to my volleyball games in college, she was there when I got married, she was there right after I gave birth to Caleb, and she came to see me in Philly after I had Johnny. (see pictures below) She was a faithful friend even when I was a big, hypocritical screw-up.



I want to say right here and right now to Katie, because I never said it very well...I'm sorry. I'm sorry for the way that I treated you, and for forgetting how to be your friend. I'm sorry if you ever felt like I judged you, or looked down on you - I never did. I have ALWAYS loved you and appreciated you and the friend that you have been to me. Thank you for not giving up on me.

Katie just got married last month in Boston and Jon and I were so excited to be able to make the drive to be there with her and for her. It was amazing for me to watch my beautiful friend walk down the aisle, with a huge smile on her face, towards the man that she loves. It is awesome to see her so happy. Below are a few pictures of she and I on her wedding day - in a photo booth, which was an awesome idea!!



Well, Katie, I love you and I'm incredibly happy for you. I'm also happy to still be your friend all these years later, even after all I put you through. NOW, let's see some pictures of your sweet shirts! ;)

My Final Pregnancy

It's a mix of emotions knowing that this is the last time that I will EVER be pregnant! Some of you may be thinking, "Yeah, whatever. I've heard that from them before. She'll have more!" Well, not so, my friends, not so. This time I'm getting my tubes tied, and it is permanent!! That's a very strange feeling. It's a move I am completely certain that I am ready to make, however it is a strange idea to have my child bearing abilities completely taken away from me. After all, I'm only 28! On the other hand, both of these last two babies and have been surprises. While we could not be more excited, we certainly weren't planning on 4 kids. So, I must admit that I am incredibly happy to be nearing the end of this pregnancy stage of life. In the last 5 years I have been pregnant for 3 full years, and my body has been completely destroyed - specifically my belly region, of course. My body has been so many different sizes, that I'm still hanging onto outdated and grungy clothes from college just because I haven't given myself the reason or opportunity to shop for new clothes - I just keep going and getting pregnant again! But not this time, people! When Lily is born (in just 11 days!) I will begin my process of reclaiming my body and losing weight, knowing FOR SURE that I won't get pregnant again, and then maybe one day I will be able to bring myself to spend a few bucks on some new clothes.

As well as my weight having its ups and downs, this pregnancy has also had its emotional ups and downs. I had a sneaky suspicion that I was pregnant, but after a negative at home test I assumed I was wrong. When no period came some days later, I bought another test, and this time got different results. This news came at the height of Jon's unemployment, when he was struggling with that the most. He REALLY had a hard time with the news of another baby - or another mouth to feed, as he saw it at first. But, even by the end of that first day of knowing, Jon's heart had changed and a small glimpse of excitement began to show. I struggled the worst through the first trimester with sickness - getting sick well over 30 times. I was pretty miserable, but at that point I was PRAISING GOD that Jon was unemployed and could be with the kids when all I could do was lay in bed. The 2nd trimester was fantastic. We found out we were having a girl, decided on a name and could completely picture our Lily as another member of our beautiful (yeah, I'm allowed to say that!) family! We would look around the table and picture our two little boys and two little girls. And still, we can't imagine a more perfect family for us! We only continue to get more and more excited as the day draws closer to meeting her!

Will I miss being pregnant? Um, let me think...NO! I will NOT miss the morning sickness, and I will NOT miss the comments from untactful people. I will NOT miss how GINORMOUSLY I carry my babies...it's just the way I carry, and it's awful! I will NOT miss my nasty, peeling hands, or my horribly red splotchy face! The one and only thing I will miss is feeling a baby move inside my belly. It is the single most amazing thing I have ever experienced - knowing that there is a human life growing and developing and wiggling and playing inside my body...MIRACULOUS! And that feeling has never ever gotten old - even in my 4th pregnancy!

I LOVE my children with the deepest of loves that is so unexplainable. I could nearly squish the life out of them with all the hugs and kisses and squeezes that I have for them. I am excited to have one more baby to feel this way about! It's amazing that a parent doesn't have to divide their love among all the children, but rather there is just MORE love that appears for the next child. It blows my mind, really! Being a parent is the greatest 'job' in the world, and I thank God for my four wonderful children, and for my amazing husband, the Daddy of my kids.

Here are some pregnant and baby pictures...don't be scared by my huge belly, and yes, I only ever had one baby at a time!

8 1/2 Months Pregnant with Caleb:







Newborn Caleb:





8 Months Pregnant with Johnny:







Newborn Johnny:





8 Months Pregnant with Hannah:





Newborn Hannah:







8 Months and 1 Week Pregnant with Lily:






I know we all carry differently, but you have to admit, I carry pretty large!! And these pictures aren't even from 9 months pregnant! This is one of the main reasons that I am just done being pregnant. I am SO uncomfortable for the entire last trimester! And I have big kids...Caleb was 5 days late and weighed 9 lbs. 6 ozs. Johnny was 6 days late and weighed in at 9 lbs. 13 ozs. Hannah was a c-section and was born 5 days early at 8 lbs. 12 ozs. Lily will be a c-section 6 days early, and I am pretty curious to know what she will weigh - they tell me she's a decent size and has a big head! :)

So, that's that - my final pregnancy. Even ending this post seems strange...my last pregnancy post. I guess I'll just end it...