We were (kind of) homeless for four days

We, three, enjoyed a nice long weekend- buying and selling houses.

On Friday afternoon we accepted an offer on our house. We  Corey had been negotiating since Wednesday with the buyers and they finally accepted our firm price, thank the Lord! I was enjoying a nice pedicure when Corey called to tell me that we would be homeless unless we found and agreed on a house- which to date, had been impossible. We had looked at around 30 houses and hated them all. So, we were on high alert for the perfect house. Our realtor (Corey's Dad) sent me a listing to a house that had just been put on the market at the same hour that we gave a verbal agreement on our house. There was only one picture on the listing, but I agreed to meet Corey and Rick at the house after my pedicure was over. I pulled up and LOVED the outside, but didn't want to get my hopes up- something that we've learned from experience. Realtors must use Photoshop and wide angles on most of the virtual tours because usually we are vastly dissapointed as soon as we walk through the front door. Many times, we would pull up to the house, put it in reverse and pull right back out. Yeah, there are some real dumps out there. After touring the house and loving everything we decided to sleep on it and see what we thought in the morning. Saturday morning we decided that we still liked it and wanted our family to see it on Monday. So, after a nice breakfast at Cracker Barrel (YUM) we all went to see the house again. Long story short- we decided we still loved it and put an offer on it and after a little back and forth we now have a house!! YAY! We're all so excited and ready for the move. We're all a little nervous because we're supposed to close on our current house and the new house on the same day, so we're hoping that everything goes smoothly.

If you need us between now and mid-October you can find us filling boxes :)

Baby(ish) Dedication

This past Sunday, Mothers Day, Graham was dedicated at Church. He definitely didn't want to be held and tried to squirm away a few times, but he did awesome :)

Springtime Fun

Wow, this has been a fun spring!

So far, we've taken numerous trips to the strawberry patch- a place that has quickly become one of Graham's favorite places to visit. I mean, what more could a kid that loves strawberries and the outdoors want?! He loves to wander the isles and pick his own berries and pop them in his mouth- stem and all. Oh well, and it's even more enjoyable if there is mud to roll around in while eating.

So, what is one to do with an active one year old while Realtors show our house (our house has officially been on the market for four days! Wish us luck!). The park, of course! Much to Graham's delight we've been spending lots of time at a nearby park. It's so fun to watch Graham interact with other littles. Not as much fun as watching him chase his terrified "fur-brothers" around the house, but it is up there :) HA!

Sunday Graham is being dedicated at Church (brace yourself for picture overload). We're a little late doing this since we were visiting other Churches last year at this time and these days Churches usually just have baby dedications on Mothers Day. Just pray he doesn't take off down one of the isles :)

Have a great weekend and Happy Mothers Day!

Fun in Williamsburg

Last weekend we took a long weekend trip to Williamsburg with Isaac and Meg. We had an awesome time and even got to swim in the outdoor pool, which is unheard of for March.  

Graham is a ham and loves to flirt with waitresses. We had dinner at an awesome restaurant on Friday night- the burgers were amazing. 

Aunt Meg and Uncle Isaac

Graham getting ready to eat on of his favorites- a lemon (gross). 

The "boss" explaining how things work to his daddy. 

Graham and Mommy watching horses play

Dinner in Colonial Williamsburg (*please pardon my hair, it had been raining so it looks disgusting). 

Graham and Uncle Isaac checking out some sheep.

Get to know Graham.

Someone (ahem, Corey) has dropped the ball on updating the baby blog, so in order to catch everyone up to speed, here's what's new with Graham.

He's a big one year old now!
He's hysterical and likes to put on shows for us.
He LOVES the girls, any girl, any where.
He LOVES his fur-brothers, Milo and Moses.
He's running all over the place.
He's the cutest kid ever.
He's very independent and strong willed.
He has really white hair, so it looks like he has no hair in most pictures.
He's really happy and only throws the occasional temper-tantrum (ha!)
He's still a little guy (first percentile for weight, fifth percentile for height).
He really likes baths and getting into water (especially the dogs water bowl or even :shudder: the toilet).
He likes adventure and climbing on anything that the can get his little leg up on.
His favorite foods are: peanut butter sandwiches, cheese, yogurt, GOLDFISH crackers, mashed potatoes.
He's not a fan of the car seat, highchair or stroller. He likes to be free and can't stand to be restrained.
He jabbers A LOT and can say: Mama, Dada, hi, and hot. Corey was explaining to him that if he could learn to say "girl" that he could say "Hi hot girl" to all his little girlfriends :)


Now that you all are up to speed, hopefully, we'll be better at keeping you all updated!

The Birth - Recap ... Day 2

Friday, February 25, 2011. I was in bad need of some coffee and the nurses warned me that their coffee was horrible. So I called my mom and ordered Hardee's to eat, and called Lydia's mom and ordered a Starbucks! Dr. McLennan, our normal doctor, was on call now, and came in around 8:30 to check on things. He said that in looking over things from the night before, he was a little concerned about Lydia's blood pressure, but we would just keep an eye on it. He had a smile on his face as he examined Lydia, "I'll give her 6 cenitmeters and about 70%" he said. That was a huge jump from just 12 hours earlier. He was pleased that the Cervadil did what it was supposed to and ripen Lydia's uterus.

He wanted to hold off on the Pitocin, since she was progressing along so well. He came back in about a 1/2 an hour later (which I thought was strange), and said that he noticed something on the monitors that he wanted to look at closer. Graham's heart rate had dropped really low a couple of times. He said it was nothing to get upset about but that he wanted to watch it closely. He left and I went to the lobby to eat a very quick bite of breakfast. The coffee hit the spot as well as the biscuit from Hardee's. Lydia's dad Sam had brought doughnuts from Dunkin Doughnuts also, and they were a nice dessert! Our parents were waiting in the main lobby of the hospital, as Lydia did not want to have visitors before Graham arrived.

I came back upstairs and Lydia had full on contractions going on. So they put in an epidural which provided her a lot of relief. we sat through most of the morning working through contractions every 10 - 15 minutes or so. Dr. M came in around 11 because he was still concerned about Lydia's blood pressure so he wanted to do a few more tests. At that time, he checked Lydia again, and he smiled again, "I'll give it about 9 centimeters and almost 100%!" He was really pleased with the progression and said he thought we'd have a baby soon!

I texted quite a few people at that point, including the family that was now waiting in the 13th floor lobby. about 12:15 he came back in because Graham's heart rate had dropped again and he wanted to monitor him a little closer. He explained to us that Graham's heart rate had been dropping extremely low each time Lydia had a contraction. The problem was - she was only going to have more contractions before it was over! He stayed for about 15 minutes and ordered a test or two and asked them to give Lydia some medication. He said he was going to continue monitoring things and worst case scenario, we'd just do a c-section.

That was a memorable moment in the day that I still remember. If you know me, I like to plan things and have all of the unknowns thought about ahead of time just in case. We had been to weeks of LeMaze class to practice breathing and birthing, the one thing they didn't cover ... c-sections. The one thing I had not considered ... c-sections. The one thing (probably was many more) I wasn't mentally prepared for ... c-section. I laughed jokingly and just thought that we are usually not the type of people that have to worry about the "worse case scenario".

Dr. M came back in the room about 30 minutes later, that was the visit that changed the day, the experience, and our lives.

The Birth - Recap ... Day 1

We were due on Thursday February 17th. Lydia had a Dr.'s appointment on that day, and we were hoping that he would say that we were close. We had to see another Dr. in the office because our normal Dr. was on vacation. We saw Dr. Garcia and let us know that Lydia was still on 1.5 cm dialated and only 10%; that was no change from the week before. He said that we should come back in a week and see how its progressing and just in case, we should schedule an induction for Friday morning (2/25).

We were a little discouraged that things weren't progressing, but we knew Graham would come when God wanted him to come. So another anxious week went by and we went to the Dr. on Thursday morning (2/24). This had become a weekly ritual followed by lunch and then back to work to report how things were going. This time we saw our normal doctor ... Dr. McLennan. Lydia still was only about 2 cm and "maybe" 15%. So Dr. McLennan decided it was time to do something about it. He gave us the option to be induced the next day or the following Tuesday, as those were his on-call days. Lydia was ready, so we decided Friday would be good, plus it would give the family the weekend to visit. He mentioned that Lydia's blood pressure was high for the first time of the pregnancy, so they would monitor that once we got in the hospital.

The next discussion that Dr. M had was that we needed to check in the hospital that day at 5. They needed to ripen the uterus before induction with a medicine called Cervadil (sp?). It needed 12 hours to work. So for those of you who know me, I hadn't planned on doing anything that day, so finding out we had just a few hours to pack and be at the hospital was CRAZY!! We went and grabbed lunch because they told Lydia she wouldn't be able to eat for about 24 hours, then we started calling and texting as many people as we could. Lydia had taken the day off so she went home to clean and pack. I went to work to wrap a few things up and I left about 3.

We packed quickly and headed to the hospital for check-in at 5. We were put in room 1338. I can't even begin to describe how nice, new, clean and state of the art the room was. I also can't even tell you how awesome the care of the nurses was. We had a new nurse every 12 hours and for the entire stay - they were incredible.

Dr. Garcia was on call Thursday night, so he administered the Cervadil around 9. Isaac, Meg, and Becki came to visit us and brought me dinner. We had a lot of fun and even managed to play a few games of Skipbo. It really helped ease our anxiety to have them there and the time went by quickly. Lyd went to sleep around 10 but would wake up about every 45 minutes in pain (labor) or to use the bathroom.

I slept great (every 45 minutes). They had a monitor hooked up to Lydia to monitor Graham's heartbeat and that was connected to large speakers in the room. So I listened to his heartbeat all night. The nurses came in often to monitor Lydia because her blood pressure continued to go up, which was unusual.

We both woke up around 7:45 on Friday morning. ...

In the Hospital

We are in the Hospital!!!

We checked in at 5 and are now in room number 1338 at Carillion. It won't be long. Lyd is asleep and I am watching Parks & Rec. I'm too nervous and/or excited to sleep! :-)

Baby Graham's Nursery

Here are pictures of baby Graham's nursery!

Getting Used To NO Sleep

How awesome is it that God prepares you in ways you would've never thought. Now that Lydia is 9 months pregnant, she is very uncomfortable, especially at night when trying to sleep. So for the past week or so, we've both been getting less and less sleep ... using the theory that if she's awake and uncomfortable ... I'M awake and uncomfortable. So last night brought about 3 1/2 hours of sleep total through about 4 different periods. We are getting used to the cycle that's about to start ... at least we are getting a preview.

We've also noticed that neither of us can sleep past 8 any more on the weekends. Funny how God adjusted our clocks before G-Man arrives.

We are blessed that God is preparing us and has been for a while now.

The Crib is up!!

Now its official!! For whatever reason, the crib is the one thing that makes everything else seem complete. Well ... ta da ... the crib is put together and ready for a mattress, bedding and a little G man.

Lydia's Mom's friend Cathy Martin was SOOO nice to help us order a bed from Pulaski Furniture's Creations collection. She is a distributor and was able to get a great deal. The bed came in yesterday around lunch time and I headed to Martinsville right after work. Lydia's Dad (Sam) and I loaded the bed, and I was back on the road headed home by 7. I got home, ate, and decided to tackle the bed (you know me). Well ... 1 hour and 5 minutes baby!! knocked it out! It was a thing of beauty - one person, balancing the head board and foot board while mom to be catches the needed z's. Its done and we're happy. Thanks Cathy & Becki.

-c-

Pack n Plays and Strollers

Quick observation I've quickly noticed ... baby items come with HORRIBLE instructions. I put the pack and play together Saturday while watching the Steelers/Ravens game, and it literally took almost an entire half. The stupid instructions started out with how the pack n play should be put together as if Graham would be 9 months old, but it didn't say that. So step two is to undo what you did in step one and move the pad up. Step three is to undo step two and move the pad up again. Not to mention the bassinet and changing add-on pieces, which are ridiculously confusing and add in a vibration mechanism and an electronic panel for the side ... I was ready to curse. The instructions show a two dimensional picture in black and white. One picture per step ... COME ON PEOPLE!!! Please?!?! And the stroller ... don't get me started. Let's just pray the wheels stay on.

So that leads me to this question/thought.

We bought a special collar for Moses this weekend and it came with 5 pages of instructions for a dog collar! The pack n play, which is where my precious son will be sleeping came with bare bones instructions. What's wrong with that?

Shower

The shower turned out awesome last Saturday. Not that I was really there, but Lydia told me all about it. For a snowy day, there was a great turn out. We received a ton of nice gifts. Meg and Ken did an awesome job and worked very hard to put everything together. So Meg and Ken ... THANK YOU SO MUCH. We love y'all.

Snow Showers & Baby Showers

Today is the big day! Well not THE big day. Today is the baby shower for Graham. The sisters (Meg and Ken) have worked very hard to get things coordinated and put together. Lydia is so excited about it.

It began to snow yesterday, but the always reliable weatherman said "flurries". We woke up this morning and the snow was still coming down and there was a good coating on the roads and grass. The Lord had a plan obviously because its now 10:30 (shower is at 2), and the snow is melted off of the roads and sidewalks and now it just looks cool on the grass. So thank you Jesus!

-c-

Gift Registry

Microsoft, Cisco, Apple, etc. ... all are great examples of great technology and furthermore they are examples of how far technology has come in recent years. My note to Wal-Mart and Target ... CATCH UP!

So we went to Wal-Mart earlier in the week to return something, and the lady informed me that I could only make 3 return transactions within a year, and its tracked by my driver's license. You can have multiple items at once, but each time you go in for a return, that counts as one time. Later in the week, we went to Target, and that lady told me that their policy was you only get $70 worth of returns within a year's time and that also is tracked by a driver's license.

Granted, this is only for returns without a receipt, but wouldn't you think that with the technological advances these days, that they can determine by the bar code or item number, etc, what came from their inventory and what didn't? Technology is amazing, the economy is bad. Good business sense would lead one to believe that by combining those two facts together, you could get a leg up in the industry. Inventory control/tracking combined with a more lenient (if any) return policy, would be an appeal to most consumers.

Its frustrating to setup a gift registry, as we have done at Target for the upcoming "event", meaning we've almost guaranteed you business, and the return favor is not so favorable if a loved one happens to forget a gift receipt. "We appreciate all of that business you sent our way, but we can't exchange this because you have reached your $70 limit."



-c-

Why Graham is Graham

Its a pretty big deal picking out a name. I mean, you could change your name ... but who does that? So it is up to the parents to bless the child with a good name. And not just any name, think ahead to the first day of school that the child will go through every year. Each teacher reads the full name. So we can't go with a name that has a wacky first name and plan on using the middle name - that's pointless. If you want him to be called something ... NAME HIM THAT. So needless to say, Lydia and I have over analyzed the name. We have three books, each of which are about three pounds and have thousands of names and their origin and meaning, etc. We started looking through the books early on, before we knew the sex. The girl name was tough, and quite frankly, we only eliminated it down to a top five list. Apparently the thing to do now is keep those a secret in case we ever have a girl later on, no one will "take" those names (as if we have ownership of them...). I didn't waste nearly as much time thinking about the names as Lydia did, because I didn't see the point spending brain time on something until we knew the sex. However, the boy name came pretty quick, which is all the better since we found out we are having a boy! We decided early on that we wanted the middle name to be Everett. Why? Well, Lydia's dad's middle name is Everett, my (Corey) grandfather's (mom's side) name was Everett, my great uncle's middle name was Everett (although he went by his middle name), and Lydia has a distant cousin or someone named Everett. So that was easy - it was a given. Now to the first name. We had a top ten list that revolved quite a bit and no two days was the top ten the same as the day before. I don't remember how we heard the name first, probably a commercial or in a name book, but Lydia said, "Hey, what about Graham?". There was something about the name that just sounded perfect. I didn't even have to think about it or hear it out loud several times. I replied, "That's it!!" So from that point forward, Graham has been Graham Everett. 

Now the tough part - Lydia's grandmother (dad's side) goes by "Gram". So now we have two Gram/Graham's in the family. Hopefully context will help decipher who we are talking about. 

We are excited

A lot of people ask us if we are excited. Heck yeah we are excited.

Graham's room has been painted, a new door, window, and closet door put in, carpet installed and we are ready for a crib and all the rest of the furniture to fill it up with.

Lydia has the closet full of Graham's clothes. We have a ton of clothes already and enjoy shopping for them each time we go somewhere.

Each week that passes brings more excitement, but it also brings us a little closer to Graham getting here.

We are so excited!!

-c-

The Egg

Was it a mistake? How did it happen? When did you find out? How did you find out? Are you excited?

These are some of the most common questions we got early on. So i'll start with the first one. Was it a mistake. Drum roll .... it was NOT!

A little history here. Lydia and I both had always felt that kids were nice, but nice for someone else. To be honest, I couldn't stand to go into our McDonald's but once in a blue moon because of the play room they have (its enormous for a fast food restaurant). The sound of kids, especially poorly disciplined kids made me go nuts on the inside and I could never imagine living in a home that sounded like McDonald's all of the time. So needless to say, kids were a big ole NOPE, NEVER from both Lyd and I.

We began working in the nursery once a month at church about 2 years ago, and honestly, for me, that was one of the biggest reasons for the change of heart. We started out in the toddler room, and I think we had about 8 2 year olds on average (yeah ... NUTS!). But I had a lot of fun playing and watching the kids learn things. We moved to the "Crawler" class due to a bigger need with that group. At first, Lyd and I both were a little bummed because they weren't as much fun. Over the course of a few months our opinions started to change. It was like the difference in a dog and a cat. A dog is fun to play with; so is a cat, but you have to work at the cat to get its attention. The crawlers just lay on the mat for a while, but once they acclimate to their surroundings, they start to become the cat. And then ... THEY CRIED!! yeah - new concept not experienced often in the toddler class. So what the heck were we to do?? neither of us had a clue, so ... I picked one of the crying crawlers up! Yep - other than the awkward holding of a new child of a family member or friend just to be nice, this was pretty much a first. And when the crawler stopped crying and started to touch my face ... it was pretty cool. So to make a long story a little shorter, that begin the thought process for me - if this is someone else's kid and it can have this impact on my feelings, what in the word would a little Payne Jr. do??

Lydia was experiencing similar feelings for different reasons. She had a lot of friends that went through a pregnancy and it turned out ok. She got a chance to visit and spend time with their children and see how someone she knew before and now after birth is managing. It put her at more ease. I remember her saying something like "I could probably do that". And for Lyd - that was big.

So we decided to begin talking about "Well, what IF we had a kid?"

2009 was mostly full of fence riding with this new outlook on 'life' (get it? - ha). Towards November we decided that we were sure it was something we wanted to do, we just didn't know when. In January we decided that we would go on one last big vacation without kids in May and begin trying after that.

So, we decided to keep it a secret until we were successful - the only exception ... Lydia's brother and his wife. We called them and asked if they wanted to go on a big vacation, because we may not be able to go for 18 more years. It took Isaac a minute to get what I was saying ... but he got it eventually.

And that, my friend, is how Little Graham began. So .... NO MISTAKE!

-c-

I'm a newbie

So this is my first ever blog post - so we'll see how this goes. Those of you who know me, know I don't like to shut up so the fact that I have to type, means I'll probably get sore fingers before I run out of things to say. This will be a simple one - the purpose, I think, of this site is to help keep connected with everyone that we don't get to spend time with as often as we'd like. We are getting ready to, or possibly already are, in a new chapter or phase of our lives ... building the family.