And another baby makes 4

You may remember a post several months ago where I thought I could never have another child. Parenting one was frustrating enough, two sounded unbearable. I felt like that for a while, but then  my heart started to be softened. Jeremy has had several experiences with child neglect in his rotations, and one case where if a child's parents had called an ambulance he would have survived a gunshot wound. But for whatever reason, they brought him in themselves and he died (there was suspected gang activity and/or drug abuse). Jeremy has also seen a lot of women come in to the hospital who didn't know they were pregnant. One woman came in with four children under the age of four, most likely from different fathers, and the doctors came in and told her that she was pregnant and had an STD. She cried. The poor thing, I would too in her shoes.

All of these experiences got me thinking, and I had a bit of inspiration in early May. I was washing the dishes and thinking about all the children who are born to parents who don't want them, or in homes where they will not be cared for, or taught how to reach their potential. I know that any children born in my home will be loved and cared for. They will be taught the gospel of Christ, and given the best education we can give them. They will learn to work, and how to make something of themselves. How many children will not have this opportunity? And I wanted to deprive any more children from a loving home like mine? I realized then that I needed to soften my heart and be willing to bring more children into my home so they could receive the blessings of the gospel. I also knew that the Lord would let me know when that time would come.

A few weeks later towards the end of May I was pretty sick with a flu bug or something. I got sick right before the weekend, so Jeremy was able to take care of Tayvin for me. That Sunday I stayed home in bed while Jeremy and Tayvin went to church. I had been reading the Harry Potter series for the umpteenth time, and decided that I needed to take a break and read some conference talks. After I was finished reading from the Ensign I felt that I should pray. What happened next is so special and personal, but I feel like I should share it. While I was praying I thanked my Heavenly Father for allowing me to be sick at a time when Jeremy would be able to help me so much. I also asked for guidance for the future, and then I felt inspired to say, "I feel that there is a spirit in heaven waiting to join our family, even though I did not know that a minute ago." I knew right then that it was time to get ready to add to our family.

Jeremy has always been so supportive of me and our family. Whenever I asked him if he wanted more kids he would tell me that when I was ready for more kids he would be happy to supply, but he was not under any circumstances going to get me pregnant if I wasn't ready. He remembers the horrors of my last pregnancy a bit more clearly than I do. But when I told him it was time to get ready for another baby, he was immediately on board. He did double check with me. "Are you sure?" was asked several times, but I told him that for me to be any more sure an angel would have to come down and tell me, so Jeremy understood how sure I was.

We are so very blessed to be very fertile. We started trying in May and got pregnant in July. I have several friends who have and are currently struggling with getting pregnant, and my heart goes out to them and all women who have that struggle. Wanting to have children is a righteous desire, and I don't know why the Lord grants to some so easily. But I know He hears our prayers.

At about 6 weeks with this pregnancy I started to feel nauseous. But I didn't throw up until a week ago, and it was just one time in the morning. Then the same thing happened a couple days later, and yesterday was the worst day I have had since I was pregnant with Tayvin. I threw up over 6 times. It was incredibly miserable, especially since my medication didn't seem to be working. I had called a neighbor down the street to see if she could watch Tayvin for me, and bless her she did, and was so willing to help. I am incredibly thankful for my friends who have helped me, and for all my neighbors who have offered to help me. I was worried about being pregnant so far away from any family, but my fears have been assuaged. I am afraid to be pregnant again, but I know this child needs to be in our family, or that we need to have this experience right now. Today has been a blessedly throw-up free day. I actually ate food this morning, some yogurt and saltines with lemonade and water. I had a bowl of cereal for lunch. Considering that yesterday I could only keep saltines and water down for a max of an hour this was a huge blessing.

There is going to be a lot of uncertainty with this pregnancy. We're moving right in the middle of it, and I'll be giving birth somewhere in Idaho. I'm afraid that I will have to have another C-section, which I really don't want. I'm not sure how we will pay for pre-natal care because our current insurance does not have maternity coverage, and I'm pretty sure adding it will significantly increase our monthly premiums, in addition to co-pays and deductibles. I'd really rather not go on Medicaid, mostly for pride, because here in Savannah there's a certain kind of people who go on Medicaid and abuse the system (Jeremy has seen a lot of this in the ER). Thankfully my parents have offered to help us should we need it, and I am so grateful for their willingness to help us out.

Fears and doubts aside, I know that this pregnancy was inspired. I have always felt that the Lord would let me know when it was time for us to have another baby, and I was surprised to have felt it so concretely. I'm thankful for Tayvin, who helps me see that every day of my pregnancy with him was worth it, and it will be the same with this one.

Going from Harry's sister to Unpronounceable

Growing up I always liked my name. Grace Potter. It was short, simple, and easily pronounced. If someone misspelled my name name it was because they were an idiot (I'm looking at you, American Red Cross. Pottere? Really?). Especially after J.K. Rowling released her book series of awesome and Harry Potter became a household name. All of a sudden whenever I introduced myself I was asked,

 "Are you related to Harry?"
"Are you Harry's sister?"
"Do you have any relatives named Harry?"
 "Heh, I bet you're related to Harry Potter! And I'm the first person to ever think of it!"

Now in all honesty, I really didn't mind. My whole family loves the Harry Potter series, so we found it amusing. But anything can get old after it is repeated 274 times. I started to get a little huffy with my replies, and would say, "Yeah, Harry's my brother. He's dead." Yeah, that's harsh.

 Once, however, when I was setting up a utility in my name I told the operator my last name was Potter, like Harry. And he replied, "Oh, I was thinking more like Colonel Potter." Thankfully I had watched many a M.A.S.H. rerun, so I totally knew who he was talking about. Talk about a generation gap, though.

I always told myself as a kid that I wouldn't take my husband's name. My last name was waaay too cool to give up for any mere mortal. Famous last words, because I met my husband.

Totally worth it.

His last name is long, a whole 13 letters (which happens to be half the length of the alphabet) and it more than twice as long as my maiden name. It takes four syllables to say it, which is intimidating in and of itself, and it also has a "ch" that sounds like a "k," so people mess it up all the time. My favorite story my husband has told me about our last name happened when we moved to Georgia. He walked into a local Walmart wearing an old football shirt from his high school days that had his name and number on the back. It stretched from shoulder to shoulder. A man walked up to Jer and asked, "Son, is that your last name?"
"Yes sir, it is."
The man paused, like he was trying to pronounce it in his head, gave up, and said, "God bless you," and walked away.

Here's a few variations I have heard since marrying my amazing husband:

Reddenbacher (which when i was substitute teaching turned into Mrs. Popcorn)
Rizzenbacher
Rindlishbaker
Rindlesbee
And Rrrrr.......*pause* R. Grace R.

Scrabble Tiles

Jeremy and I went through a "let's play board games together" phase before his rotation started. It was fun, and we still play when he doesn't have to study... which is never. BUT we make time for it, nonetheless. After playing Scrabble one night I was looking to see how much it would cost to buy a new set of letters for crafts. The game came with an order form which says that a complete set of 100 tiles cost $6.50. I decided to look online and see if I could find anything cheaper. Nope! Sellers on etsy and various craft sites were charging at least $12 for a bag of tiles.

So if you're ever in the market for Scrabble tiles, here's a link to the order form on the Hasbro website:

http://www.hasbro.com/customer-service/orderform.cfm?sku=4808

 

 (Image from http://interactive.usc.edu/2011/08/30/scrabble/ )

Reading Ray Bradbury makes me wax poetical

My house looks like this today:

Normally I would help Tayvin put his cars away, arrange the pillows on the couch, and tidy up my house. Not today.

Why? Because this is how it looks outside:

This is the only perk about living in Savannah. It was 75 degrees this morning. Tayvin and I got ourselves a book and lay down on a blanket in the grass under our maple tree. A cool breeze blew the scent of jasmine our way, and when we took a break to lay down, the green leaves were dappled with pieces of blue sky and the occasional white piece of cloud.

Have you ever had a moment when you got to truly enjoy nature's beauty and felt a little piece of heaven on earth? This was one of those moments.

Catch-Up!

I feel like I've been secluded in my little house and routine, probably because I am, and I keep on thinking, 'I need to put this picture in my blog!' and then don't. But now I am. Here's what's been keeping me and Jer and Mr. T busy.

Baking. I love love love to eat sweet things. And since the stuff at the store is expensive and not always tasty I also love to make it myself. I recently made a key lime trifle with homemade shortbread, which turned out picture perfect, as you can see below. :)

Also, for April Fool's I made mashed potato cupcakes! It's just a cupcake with a smooshed yellow starburst and caramel syrup. I thought it was funny. Probably because I love puns and silly things. No one else was super amused, though. Oh well.

Jeremy finally finished all of his classes! HOORAY! He studied a lot and has worked really hard.

Jeremy had a week break between his finals and the start of his clinical rotation, so in between more studying he did a lot of fishing. Jeremy's new favorite thing is beach fishing and Tayvin loves it too. He is always asking to go "Catch a fish! Catch a fish!" He always wants to hold it and feel it move.

The last time we went to the beach I brought an intertube along to see if Tayvin would like it. He loved it and carried it around the entire time. He even loves it in the tub. :)

 

Tayvin loves lizards and frogs and bugs. I love the lizards and frogs b/c they eat they bugs! Every night we get at least two of these geckos on our outside window, and sometimes a tree frog. Tayvin calls them "slithers", although he really is trying to say lizards.

I found this in our garage as we were getting ready to go somewhere. Thankfully the garage door was open and he was on his way out. This is the biggest spider I have currently seen in Savannah. I know bigger ones exist, and they can stay far, far away.

This is what is helping me keep busy here at home. We made two above ground gardens in the backyard (I say we, but mean Jeremy. He bought the wood and put them together. I just spray painted them.) and planted some vegetables that I raised from seeds and strawberries. The bugs were terrible, so I sprayed an insecticidal soap and planted some marigolds and most of them seem to have left. Take that, bugs!

These curved bricks were originally ringed around the tree in our front yard, only the roots had pushed them out of position and it looked awful. I moved them to line the bushes in our front yard, but they didn't extend all the way and I thought it looked goofy. When I saw we had extra dirt from our garden I took the bricks and made some little planters in the corners of our yard. There are nasturtiums that I grew from seeds on the left and some native plant that I stole from a canal on the right, along with some lily thing that grows in our backyard.

More lilies, nasturtiums, and a fern that I bought. I was so happy that the nasturtiums did so well. I tried planting impatiens and poppies, but the impatiens only had 4 seeds in the bag (total ripoff!), none of which sprouted, and the poppies are struggling. Oh well.

I love my garden! I have heirloom and roma tomatoes, basil, red onion, sweet onion, banana peppers, lettuce and strawberries from right to left in the big box, bell peppers and eggplant in the little box, and cilantro and thyme in the pots, along with a couple late-start nasturtiums that will be transplanted soon. And my marigolds standing guard around the edges. I tried something called companion planting, and it wasn't perfect, but something fun to try. The organizer side of my brain got a kick out of planning my garden.

This past Monday Jeremy started his first rotation at Memorial Hospital here in Savannah. He's doing Internal Medicine, which is tough because it covers just about everything. The schedule is a little erratic and there was a rough start. Whoever was in charge of the orientation for the PA students (Jeremy and three of his classmates) really dropped the ball. Nobody told them anything when they got there, so Jeremy felt like he had been dropped into the deep end of the pool head first. He now has his ID badge, security clearance and a pager so he can actually get into the hospital wards to see his patients (there's a funny story along with that, I'll see if Jeremy will share). 

Another funy story: Monday night Jeremy came home with his pager and was studying. At 10pm the pager went off, Code Blue, attending physician needed, or something to that affect. Code Blue means someone is dying. So Jeremy was rushing around calling the medical students to see what was going on and if he needed to go in. It turns out the hospital pages everyone for things like that, so there was no need to worry. But Jeremy got a little adrenaline rush worrying that he needed to run to the hospital. He said he now understands how paramedics feel.

Here's what Jeremy does at the hospital. He is part of a group of two residents, two medical students, and himself, who are under an attending physician. His attending dr. happens to be the head director of internal medicine. Score. On a typical day Jeremy goes in the morning and sees two patients, takes their history, does a physical, and figured out what they have and how to treat it. He then goes to the attending physician and presents his findings. There are resident doctors above Jeremy who have also seen the patient and given the doctor charts to look at, so Jeremy is really just practicing. After that he goes and checks on patients with the doctor, looks at patient charts, lab results, etc. and studies them so he can familiarize himself with what they look like and how his patients are doing. 

Every four days Jeremy in "on call." That means he has to be at the hospital at seven and is in the ER seeing patients with his attending physician. This is the day he wears scrubs to work. He is "on call" until 7pm, possibly as late as 10:30pm, although that hasn't happened yet. Then the next day he is also in scrubs and is doing follow up visits with the patients he saw the previous day. Jeremy is actually doing everything that he could be doing in the future, just under the watchful eye of his attending physician. It's pretty cool to hear him tell me about the patients he has seen and what he gets to do. His attending physician is also really good about teaching Jeremy and pushing him to remember what he has learned in his classes. It's been a good experience so far, and there are only 4 weeks left, so it goes by fast! After this all the other rotations will seem easy.

So that's what's happening here in Savannah! Right now we're planning on setting up Jeremy's last two rotations out West and moving this December. I'll be honest and admit that we can't wait to get away from the heat and the bugs, but it will be hard to pull the the little roots we've made. We have sooo many good friends down here, but a lot of them are moving too. I can't wait to see my family, though. It will be a good Christmas this year. :)

All Grown Up

I recently went shoe shopping with a friend of mine. This is a big deal because I haven't bought new shoes (flip flops don't count) in a really, really long time. I was a girl on a mission: I needed new dress shoes that weren't black. And I didn't want to spend more than $30 on them.

We started at TJ Maxx, and the selection wasn't that great. But there were two more discount shoe stores plus a Marshall's in the same shopping center (not that we planned that or anything...), so we continued on to the next store. Nothing caught my eye. Rack Room Shoes was next, and the first thing we see are exactly what I don't need: Black ankle boots. But they're really cute, and majorly on sale. And they happened to have a BOGO half off sale. I kept on looking around and found these:

What's this? A pointy toe! Ack!

I have always shunned the pointy toe. It's too fashionable, it's uncomfortable, blah blah blah. But I found these and love how grown up they look. I think that was the biggest problem for me, that they looked so grown up. But I'm feeling more grown up lately and learning how to reflect that in how I dress. And the ankle boots?

 

Bam! Those are some sleek shoes. The best part? I got both pairs for $35. Done deal.

A Quote to Remember

The biggest burdens always turn out to be the greatest blessings.
- Glenn Beck

That sums up perfectly how I feel about raising my son.