On the lighter side

It hasn’t been all gloom & sadness in the garden- the weather has turned almost spring-like, & our schedule of activities is starting to look promising. The bulbs are starting to push their way towards the sun, & before long I’ll be enjoying a planter box full of tulips, similar to what I saw at Filoli Gardens last year. Chris spent last weekend digging in the flowerbeds & cleaning up the yard; we are both itching to start putting things in the ground (drat those garden catalogs- harbingers of false hopes) but we have to remind ourselves that it is only February.

v February is birthday month in our family (over the course of the next 27 days, we will acknowledge 10 birthdays) & first up is our Sam’s 16^th birthday on Saturday, February 3rd. No, he will not be getting his driver’s license any time soon- he hasn’t even started driver’s education yet (probably next fall) & honestly, after the events of this week, I don’t think he’s in any hurry either. I’ve posted an album here of “Sam through the Years”, showcasing the joy of my heart. This was my promise child; as I wrote about here, Chris was my first love & my memories of those first days were decorated with dreams of someday. Our road took several unexpected turns & we were parted for nearly 10 years before we were able to finally build a life together. As I said in my “101” (see “About the Gardener”) it took 2 years to get pregnant with Sam, & from the beginning, it was a tough pregnancy. I started spotting at 8 weeks & the doctor ordered a sonogram for 3 weeks later, but began to prepare me for nothing to be there. I remember how Chris & I nervously gripped each other’s hands, while the technician searched for a heartbeat; I will never forget the moment when she smiled, turned the screen to where we could see, & there was my little man, waving his arms up & down, like Rocky Balboa. It was one of those rare, horrible pregnancies- 7 months of morning sickness, heartburn, edema, pre-term labor, & then bed rest. Sam held on; he arrived one day after his due date, in spectacular fashion (which has been his modus operandi ever since) 10 minutes after we arrived at the hospital in the labor room. He weighed in at 10 lbs 1oz, & 22-½ inches long- the size of an average 6-week old! Although I didn’t know it at the time, I had developed gestational diabetes & began to hemorrhage after delivery; I guess things were touch & go for a while. I had to stay in the hospital for a couple of days, & when I went for my post-partum visit, my doctor suggested that maybe I might not want to have anymore babies (between you, me, & the lamp-post, that was perfectly all right with me- giving birth naturally to a 10-pounder was enough to put me off giving birth for good!)

To tell the truth, what we lack in volume (child wise) we made up in quality- Sam is one of those people everyone loves to be around. He’s cute & personable, quirky & bright, with a genuine & kind heart. God really took our best qualities & combined them into a living representation of our marriage. So, Happy Birthday, dear boy- you are our Sam-Man & we thank God for you.


v Back in October, I wrote about a quilting group being formed at my church. I didn’t mention it before, but the idea came about through a series of serendipitous events. Someone gave my friend, H, several large bags full of really nice coordinated fabric, some with full bolts. She is a beginning seamstress & want-to-be quilter, so this was a wonderful, yet overwhelming, gift. H called another friend, A, who is also a quilter, & asked if she would like some of this fabric for her projects. In the course of sorting through the fabric, A mentioned an idea she had to raised funds for Women’s Ministry by making & auctioning off quilts. H enthusiastically offered to donate the fabric if A would make the quilts. A then called another friend, G, who has a vast library of quilt patterns for all skill levels, to get some ideas of how to use the fabric; G caught on to the vision & started calling other people who like to sew, asking if they would be willing to help. Well, we finally had our second meeting this week, since we decided not to try to meet in November & December. There were five attendees this time & we had a great time! G picked out 2 patterns to start with- a nine-patch & an album quilt- & three sets of coordinating fabric. We met at the church for about two hours, & cut out all the squares & strips for the tops of 2 nine-patch quilts. We’ll be meeting again in three weeks, to start piecing the blocks- we are planning on meeting once a month- I wouldn’t be surprised if we have both of the quilts done by June.


v It’s my least favorite time of the television viewing year- Pledge Drive Week on PBS. I love the specials they show to drum up support, but it plays havoc with my viewing schedule! I tuned in to watch my favorite BBC comedy As Time Goes By with Judi Dench & it was pre-empted by another show, so I decided to go with the flow. They were showing the new Celtic Woman show & though I’d seen it before, I enjoyed watching it again. Then came the first in a multitude of pledge breaks, & I wandered over to the computer to do some blog strolling until the program came back on. Suddenly, the words “tickets” reached my brain- one of the gift packages being offered was a CD, a DVD, & two front row tickets to the show in San Jose. Hey- didn’t I just get a letter saying it was time to renew my annual pledge? Online I go, & see that for only $10 more a year than I pledged last year, I can get the show package. Hot Dog!!! We’re going to see Celtic Woman live on stage in May 16th- since the concert is on a Wednesday evening, Chris is going to take a couple of vacation days afterwards (we don’t handle late nights as well as we use to) leading into the Livermore Games weekend, so he can help set up the dance stage without having to juggle work & traffic.

So, that’s the rest of our week. Weimie already noticed this, but I put up a list of my goals for the year (on my Spaces site), to help remind me what I want to do when I visit my page every day (who am I kidding- I’m on my page a dozen times a day!) If your interested, you can follow along on how I’m doing- just keep the comment encouraging & PG rated!