Happy Birthday Megan!!

Today my baby turned 11! I can't believe it... she is growing up way too fast. If you will indulge me, I feel like a trip down memory lane tonight.

Megan was born at 4:45 AM on Sunday, March 23, 1997, and she was 3 1/2 weeks early. She weighed 6 lbs 8 oz. and was 18 inches long. Barry had gone out to the movies with one of his friends (they went to go see Return of the Jedi), and I was feeling like things were not quite right. I called my mother-in-law and asked her if she would mind running me over to the hospital for a quick check (I didn't want to call Barry home for a false alarm). Once I was at the hospital I was checked, told that everything was fine, but I had already dilated to 4cm, and the doctor wanted to keep me for some observation. I then went into labor on my own while there, and paged Barry to let him know. He finished watching the movie, then came on to the hospital. His reasoning was that he had been through this with me 3 times before, and he knew it would be awhile before the baby showed, so why not stay and finish the movie that he had already paid for! He was right, of course, and Megan didn't show up until early morning. I planned on having Barry go home and get some rest, and so I let him hold and cuddle her until they finally came to take her to the nursery. While we were marveling at our little wonder, we kind of chuckled over this funny sound she kept making, and thought that she, of course, was perfect, sound and all. Once I was settled in my room, and Megan was in the nursery, Barry headed on home for some much needed rest. I don't remember if I dozed or not, but I do remember being very anxious to have Megan all to myself for a while. Finally one of the nurses popped in to tell me that Megan was having problems getting her body temp back up after they bathed her, so they were keeping her under the warming lights for a little while. A little later, I had a doctor that I had never seen before in my room, telling me that Megan was having breathing difficulties, and she had to be moved to the NICU. I was freaking out! I do remember him saying that it wasn't life threatening, but all that I really registered at the time was NICU. I called Barry immediately and let him know what was going on. I can remember feeling so overwhelmed and sad. My sweet roommate heard everything that was going on, and even though she didn't know me at all, she offered to pray with me. I really appreciated that so much. Soon after that my sil, Misty, and a friend, Jen, came to visit and were a real comfort as well. Barry and the rest of the family finally made it up to the hospital, but we had to still wait a long while before they would let us go down to see Megan. Barry and I were able to scrub up and go into the NICU, but I wasn't allowed to hold her, which really ticked me off! Of course, she was connected to monitors, and was being given oxygen, so really it would have been difficult to hold her. Thankfully the next day she was moved to the Progressive Unit of the NICU, which meant that she was improving, but still needed more monitoring than she would receive in the regular nursery. She had developed some eating problems as well, but at least I could hold her, and I was allowed to stay in the unit with her longer. I was discharged from the hospital before she was, and leaving her there was one of the hardest things that I have ever had to do. It just isn't right coming home from the hospital without your baby. Thankfully she was ready to come home the next day, which I was so grateful for. There were lots of babies in the Progressive Unit that were up to 4 months old, yet they were still so tiny. I remember looking at my baby and thinking how huge she was in comparison! It wasn't until I finally got her home that I realized how tiny she was!

I am so thankul to have Megan complete our family. She has been such a great daughter, and sister. I love her laughter, her go-get-um attitude, and her willingness to try new things. I appreciate her hugs, and the nights that she will still come in to my room to cuddle up before she heads off to bed. I love the way she plays with and cares for her younger cousins. I love watching her and her dad play together.

Megan had a party on Saturday night up at Kristi's shop with the Jean family, and we had another family dinner, complete with cake tonight at home. She wanted a fun-fetti cake with chocolate fudge fun-fetti frosting, and she got 2 of them! She got a new journal from Grandma and Grandpa Jean, basketball shorts from her daddy (so now she can leave her sister's alone!) and a gift card from Build-a-Bear from mom and dad. She also got the blessing of celebrating her birthday on Easter this year, so add all of the above to the Easter basket that she got, and she made out like a bandit!

Happy Birthday Baby Girl! I sure do love you!!


Party at the shop


Cake at home... thanks daddy for baking it!

Weekly update

It has been an excited week for our family.

This past Sunday all of the Mayfield gang was together for Kenadie's blessing. It was fun having everyone at church. We then headed out to Nate and Alisha's for dinner. Alisha out did herself with yummy lasagna, salad and garlic bread. Then we had brownies and ice cream for dessert. It is always so fun for me to watch all of the cousins together. Having grown up without any cousins my age, or even any living close to any, it amazes me to see them all together. I am so thankful for that blessing in their lives that they get to experience lots of aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandparents all living close to us.

Kyle was able to participate in a week of Space Camp with his class this week. All of the 6th grade classes from his school went this week, and they were divided up into teams. He was in the Betelguese (pronounced beetle juice) team, and he was the Mission Specialist 2. He was responsible for turning on the main thrusters and purge valves on their mission. He also learn a lot about the Constellation Program, which is NASA's project to get men back to the moon, and have them stay there for up to 2 weeks. He had a blast riding the rides at the Space and Rocket Center, especially Space Shot. Josh, Megan and I went to his graduation on Friday, which was held at the new Davidson Center for Space Exploration. Here are a few pics that I took there.


About a month ago, Megan and 2 of her friends entered a project in the school's science fair. For their project they set out to prove if the gasses put off by the combination of baking soda and vinegar could blow up a balloon. They put vinegar in a bottle, and baking soda in a deflated balloon. Then they attached the balloon to the bottle and combined the baking soda and vinegar. They were able to prove their theory, and the balloon inflated. They won 3rd place, and were invited to participate in the regional science fair at UAH. That was on Thursday of this week, and they had fun skipping school and talking about their project. On Thursday night one of the other moms went to take down their project, and discovered that they had placed in the regional! The girls were so excited! The awards ceremony for that was on Friday afternoon, so as soon as we finished with Kyle's graduation, we ran and picked up Kayti at school. We met up with Barry and headed over to UAH. Thankfully we didn't have to wait long, Megan's division was up first. The girls once again won 3rd place! Megan hung up her ribbons on her bedroom wall! Here are pics of her and her friends:


Yesterday afternoon Barry and I snuck out of the house and went on a walk. We took the camera with us to capture some of the early signs of Spring that are popping up around us. We weren't out too long when the kids discovered that we were gone and started calling us. Megan found us and joined us. We had a storm move through earlier in the afternoon, complete with hail, so it made me worry that alot of the blooms would be gone from the trees, but we were happy to see that was not the case. Here are some of my favorite pics from the afternoon:


This week is Spring Break! I wish that I could say we had some fun stuff planned, but we don't. I head in tomorrow to have one of my wisdom teeth cut out. YUCK! I am hoping for some good drugs to knock me out for a couple of days! ;) Hopefully it won't be too bad. They are going to sedate me, so Barry will be taking me and bringing me back home. I am hoping that I will feel better by the Thursday, and if so we are headed up to the farm to hang out for a few days. Megan's birthday falls on Easter this year, so we have that to look forward to next weekend. She is excited to be one year closer to YW! That scares me to death!!

Well, I'm off to fill out paperwork for tomorrow. Fun... NOT!

Snow Day!

Look what we woke up to Saturday morning... SNOW!!! It had been in the forcast for a few days, but we weren't too sure that it would really come. Most of the time if the weathermen are talking about it, it is a sure sign that it won't happen.


Kyle was the only one that got out in it. Josh and Kayti stayed in bed, and Megan was at a friend's house. I got a couple of pictures of him. He was actually really mad about the whole thing, because on Thursday it was 70 degrees outside, and he was LOVING the warm weather. He eventually decided that it wasn't so bad, and made a snowball!


I have to admit that as much fun as it was to see the snow, I will be really happy to have the warm weather back as well. I don't mind the cold around Christmas time, but other than that, give me warm sunny days! I should be in luck this week... it will be back close to 70 in a few days. YEA!!!

Hot Mommy Monday

My sil, Cari, posted an idea a week or so ago about doing "Hot Mommy Monday" to encourage each other in our weight loss goals. I have been thinking about her idea the past week, and thought that I would post a couple of things that I have worked on this week.

The younger kids and I have been packing salads for lunch. Kyle isn't a huge salad eater, so we got some whole wheat pita's and he stuffed a half of one with his salad. I tried it as well, and it was pretty good. I had gotten into a bad habit of eating out almost every day, and so this is not only good for my waist-line, but also my bank account! I did eat out once for lunch last week, but I was good and got a salad.

I am a huge Sprite drinker, and I have been trying really hard to give it up this week. I am drinking more water instead. It hasn't been easy! I know that Sprite doesn't have caffeine, but I sure think that I am addicted to it!

I have also been eating my Special K for breakfast every morning... or Smart Start Healthy Heart, which is pretty good. I actually got started eating that soon after my dad had his heart attack.

I did get a bunch of chocolates from Kristi's last week, but I have been limiting my intake of those as well. Of course, by the time that the kids all got some, there wasn't a whole lot left for me... which is a good thing ;)

We did manage to get out once last week before the weather got yucky and go for a family walk. I should have also done more over the weekend, but that didn't happen. Hopefully the weather will actually start to level out here soon and warm up for good, and we can get out more often. I always want to excercise more, but I always seem to have a hard time fitting it into my schedule. That is something that I have to work on more.

Barry and I both want to get in better shape for Destin this year, and I also want to look better for the family picture that we will be doing the end of April. It is very rare that I let anyone take a picture of me. I had to have pics taken for school (for the yearbook) and it about killed me to do it! All facutly/staff then were given their pictures for free. I tried to burn mine before anyone could see them, but that didn't happen. Barry was whoopin' and hollerin' when he got his hands on them... maybe more out of shock that I actually had them than anything else. I want to be able to feel good enough about myself to take some great family pics at the beach this year. Barry has decided that if I won't be in any pictures, then neither will he, and I would like to change that for both of us.

Well, that is how my week went. Hopefully I can keep it up this week, and find other areas to impove in.