Parting Is Such Sweet Sorrow

Can I just mention that my heart was broken this morning? Jackson and his daddy drove me to the airport. As I got out of the car I opened the back door to give Jackson a hug and kiss. He had the most worried expression on his face and as I leaned over to give him a kiss and tell him goodbye he grabbed my arm and started crying. I explained to him that I'd be coming back very soon and would bring Pops with me, but he would NOT let go of me! It broke my heart to have to pull away from him and leave! It still makes me cry just to think about it!

And now I'm officially 'stuck' at the Denver airport. I LOVE that we can fly standby via Ashley's employee benefits, but it's always a bit dicey to know if you'll be able to get on flights. I don't know what I was thinking trying to fly standby on a Sunday. So note to self, "Don't ever try to fly standby on the weekend!" Would have been better if I'd been 'stuck' in Dallas so I could go back and play with the grandbabies some more!! Lesson learned! There's an outside chance that I'll be able to get home (to Seattle not Yakima) by about 11 p.m. tomorrow! Good Times!

So Sad, Heading For Home In The Morning

I'm so sad I have to leave for home in the morning. I'm just getting to know this new little grandbaby of ours! I sure will miss little Bryn, her big brother Jackson and her big sister Karlee. It's been fun to teach Jackson some new 'tricks'! He's quite proficient at winking, blowing kisses and giving kisses now and he mastered the art of climbing the ropes on his 'jungle gym' by himself to get to the top of his slide and then slide down it by himself. I couldn't get a good picture of his wink, so will have to wait until we come back for Bryn's baby blessing and if nothing else, I'll video tape it!

Yep, She Waited For Her Photo Op!

Jackson's idyllic 19 month life as the center of attention and only little person in the household was brought to a screeching halt around 4:30 this morning when his peaceful silent slumber was pierced by a horrendous howling sound that he was sure MUST be a nightmare! It was actually his new baby sister, Bryn Nora Chatwin. After sleepily watching and listening to the noise box for a time he was persuaded to rock-a-bye with his Nana before laying back in his crib.

Erin had some sporadic contractions yesterday evening which turned into regular ones around 10:30 p.m. The midwife and Russ's Mom Joni were called around 11:30 p.m. Joni came to stay with sleeping Jackson while Erin, Russ and I met the midwife at the birthing center at 12:20 a.m. Erin was 3-4 cm dilated at that point and 100% effaced. Although Erin was experiencing extreme back labor (which was relieved to a point by some major hip holding during contractions by Russ-thanks to the midwife for the instructions) she made the labor seem like a piece of cake. She wanted to have a water birth, but the tub almost didn't get filled in time! When it was finally filled the baby was ready to be born, so Erin got into the tub had another contraction or two and pushed that little girl out! Bryn was born at 1:22 a.m. and was 8 pounds 3 ounces, 20 inches long, head 14 cm. No trip to the hospital needed for that little girl, she definitely has a healthy pair of lungs, she likes to eat and look at all that hair! Yep, she must have been waiting for the camera to make her debut!

Nothing, Nada, ZIP!!

So, for enquiring minds NO Erin has not had the baby yet (yes she's at 40 weeks plus 4 days or 41 weeks plus 2 days depending on who you're listening to)!!! We PROMISE to let you know when baby arrives! And since everyone keeps asking, I'll give you the gory details to date. She went to her midwife appointment on Tuesday and wasn't dilated but was 25% effaced. They told her to get some walking in, along with some other suggestions...We walked Wednesday and this morning at her appointment she was dilated 1 1/2 cm and was a little more effaced. They stripped her membranes but not as 'forcefully' as they did with Jackson (who was born in less than 12 hours if I'm remembering correctly). They told her today if she continues to have cramping to come into the office in the morning and they'll strip her membranes again. Erin has suggested that I may want to get to bed relatively early as she's had some contractions this evening.

The camera Darvin bought online for my birthday was delivered today, so if this baby girl is just a little prima donna waiting for her first photo shoot I'm happy to tell her that it's OK to be born now...ANY...TIME now!!! Nana's been here 2 weeks awaiting her arrival and I'm leaving on Sunday, so, REALLY, any time now!!!

On our 'walk' in the mall today we stopped at the Merry Go Round to watch it while Mommy went to the bathroom. Erin indicated that Jackson had ridden the M-G-R before but that he was petrified holding on to her TIGHT the whole time. WELL...he was giving me all indications that it was his greatest desire to ride, so we bought a token (which he was VERY proud to hold until it was his turn to ride). No scared little Jackson THIS time, he's a big boy now Mommy!

Yesterday Erin and I met Ashley, Vicki, Rob, Chloe and Bobby at Justin Rush's house where Ashley and Justin had prepared a wonderful meal for all of us. Was fun to see the Tovar kids and have another chance to chat with family!

Teething Stinks! and I LOVE the Old Testament

Poor little Jackson is in the midst of major teething. It makes me feel so sad when everything that can be done for him is done, but he's still in pain! Erin and Russ use teething tablets, a special necklace, cold foods, teething biscuits, the whole nine yards! Poor little guy was still miserable today and not having a very pleasant time as we were trying to finish shopping and get out of Walmart. As we were in the checkout line Jackson spied a kids toy cell phone. Normally I curse those marketers for putting all those impulse buy items in the checkout lanes, but this was precisely what we needed to divert this little guy from a mouthful of pain. He was a happy camper the whole way home-making phone calls and talking to Daddy, listening to his phone ring, etc! That was the best 3 bucks I've spent in a long time!

I never thought I'd say that I LOVE the Old Testament, maybe it has something to do with loving my Seminary class this year too! Anyway, I just finished reading all of Moses, Abraham and Genesis. WOW! I must give credit to David J Ridges who wrote some wonderful books called "Your Study of the Old Testament Made Easier". He gives clarification of the text with brief notes and also quotes from prophets, general authorities, institute study guides, etc. I've always thought of myself as the "Seminary for Dummies" teacher as I am NOT a scriptorian, so these books have been very helpful in improving my understanding of the Old Testament. Now, it's time to start getting some lessons planned. I have some fun ideas and I can't wait to get back to Yakima to start sharing with my class!

Can I also mention that I'm addicted to the Mormon Messages site on youtube? Now that I've figured out how to download clips to my laptop I can't wait to use them as supplements to my Seminary lessons!

Sunday, Sunday

Church was great! The Dallas temple president and his wife, President and Sister Packard, spoke in Sacrament meeting about the importance of the temple and our responsibility to do our family history and temple work. They are the aunt and uncle of the Packard family in our ward. They asked me how the Packard's cherries turned out this year. I told them I didn't know, but I had tried the pears they grew and they were delicious! After church Karlee came home with us. I gave her the travel Simon game and Reese's peanut butter pumpkin I'd bought for her. We played Simon together. She was SO appreciative and said it was the best game ever! I had (AKA made) her read me "The Grouchy Ladybug" by Eric Carle. Jackson was taking a nap, so I told her to pretend that she was reading it to Jackson. So she did and she played up the story very well! We both had fun! She indicated she's ready to come back to Nana and Pops' for a visit next summer!

For dinner I made "To Die For Crock Pot Roast" I added potatoes, carrots and half an onion to the roast. I also made Betty Crocker Traditional Brownie Goody Bars for dessert. Erin and Russ had invited some friends that are moving over for dinner and everyone seemed to enjoy the food.

Still no signs of baby girl...I wish she'd hurry up and come. I have a lasagna crockpot recipe I want to try and Erin gets awful heartburn when she's pregnant, so for now, no tomato based sauces for her!

It All Starts With A Wink! and Reverse Psychology Didn't Work...Boo!

Ah ha! YES! Taught little Jackson to wink this morning. Now I've converted him to blowing kisses and GIVING kisses too. His Mommy kind of thinks the winks are cute too!

Well, my reverse psychology of planning a girls trip to the movie theater to see the chick flick "The Help" didn't work! Baby girl Chatwin STILL hasn't presented herself. Tomorrow was her original due date, so maybe she'll follow in the footsteps of her cousins and come on her due date! At least the movie was good!

No kissy, kissy? Then how about a winky, winky?

Well, Jackson is not a kisser like the two other grandsons, so this morning I made it my goal to teach him to wink. EVERY 19 month old should know how to wink don't you think? At breakfast this morning Jackson officially learned how to wink! Unfortunately my phone is WAY too slow to catch a wink, but I understand that Darvin is priority or express mailing my birthday present (a new camera) to me in Texas so I'll add photos later.

Groupon Shloupon AND Veggie Tales...Oh yeah!!

Funny story-I've been wanting to see the movie "The Help" and knew there was no way that I could convince Darvin to take me as it's definitely a chick flick! So yesterday when I learned that Groupon had a super discount price on tickets for the Studio Movie Grill we checked to see if "The Help" was playing there. SURE ENOUGH it WAS!! Erin was happy to be invited as my date as she was sure she'd never be able to convince Russ to watch it either.

I carefully checked the terms of the Groupon which indicated that we had to use the tickets between October 8th and December 8th. So we planned a trip to the theater for Saturday. I had an ulterior motive as well thinking that we'd use some psychology on this unborn child. If we make plans she'll want to mess them up and Erin will go into labor, right?! So tonight when it came time to coordinate schedules with Russ to watch Jackson while the girls went to the show we looked online and found that TODAY was the last day that "The Help" is playing at the SMG!!! What?!? No FAIR, it's still playing at a bunch of other theaters in town! We WILL see the show on Saturday (as long as baby's still in utero!) but it'll have to be at another theater. Erin has a gift certificate to another theater, so we can use that and she and Russ can have a date at the SMG at a later time! Oh my!

And those cute little talking and dancing vegetables...Who would have thought that Jackson would be so enthralled with them? Jackson sat on Nana's lap quiet as a mouse and as still as a statue as we watched Veggie Tales together today! Nana had to get up part way through to take a phone call, so we may have to watch it again tomorrow and see if we get the same reaction.

AWESOME BIRTHDAY!

How awesome is this? My daughter Lindsey created this blog for my birthday. I really appreciate it because I'm not a diligent journal writer (that's the biggest understatement of the century), but I AM a pretty good facebook 'poster'. So hopefully the facebook posts will transition to blog posts. Then maybe I can print a 'journal' at the end of each year from my blog posts. That's my plan anyway!!!

So, a little about me. Today is my 49th birthday, I am wife to a wonderful husband who thought I was beautiful from the moment he set eyes on me (which was between our freshman and sophomore year in high school). He first saw me at church when we'd moved to Safford, Arizona. Now you can only appreciate this story if you saw what I looked like at that point in my life. To give an idea, I was the epitome of the awkward, gawky teenager. I had SUPER short hair, zits all over my face and braces on my teeth. Yep, I was quite the looker and it was love at first sight for him!?! I'll have to try to resurrect an old photo and practice my blog uploading photo skills so you can see that my future husband was definitely a keeper as he saw beauty in me that no one else could see (including me!). Thanks Darvin, I love you with all my heart!

I am mother to 4 beautiful and talented daughters. They are each unique and special. They have and continue to bless my life! Our oldest daughter Erin lives in Texas with her husband Russ, her step-daughter Karlee, her son Jackson and any day now a new baby daughter. I'm currently staying at Erin's awaiting the 'blessed event'. I requested a granddaughter for a birthday present, but it looks like that wish is not going to come true! Erin just started her gig as SAHM (stay at home mom) day before yesterday, what a blessing...

Ashley is our second oldest daughter. She lives in Kansas City, MO. I guess I should say she's based in Kansas City. She's a flight attendant (or air waitress as she calls herself) for Republic Air. She likes to 'live' in the Dallas area when she has days off as she enjoys spending time with my little sister Vicki and her cute little family. Ashley has recently been accepted to Paul Mitchell cosmetology school in Dallas and her plans are to start school there in January. I'm VERY excited for her, but a little sad that we'll lose our parental flight privileges. Ashley has been so awesome to share her flight benefits with us. For my birthday she flew me down to Dallas to be here for the birth of Erin's baby!

Lindsey is our third daughter. She and her husband Thomas live in Boise, ID where Thomas is attending Boise State University pursuing his bachelors in MRI. Lindsey has her teaching degree and is currently substitute teaching in the Boise area. Thomas works at St. Luke's hospital as a radiology tech in his 'spare' time!

Briana is our fourth and youngest daughter. She with her husband Ivan and two little boys Alex and Emmett currently live with us in Yakima, WA. We love, Love, LOVE having little grandsons in our home! What a wonderful blessing! Ivan is currently completing an unpaid intership at Yakima Regional Medical Center (the same hospital where Darvin works). Ivan's degree is in business with an emphasis in marketing. He will be graduating in December and we are VERY hopeful that he'll be able to find a job in Yakima so that our hearts aren't broken by having our grandsons move away! Briana and Lindsey both graduated in April from BYU-I. Lindsey with her teaching degree and Briana with a bachelor's in Sociology. Briana is currently pursuing a masters degree through Arizona State University in Criminal Justice.

As mentioned previously we have four awesome grandchildren and one expected any day now! Erin and Russ have blessed us with our 12 year old step-granddaughter Karlee, our 19 month old grandson Jackson and 'coming soon to a Chatwin home near you', our first baby granddaughter. Briana and Ivan have blessed us with two little grandsons. Alex is 25 months old and Emmett is 5 months old.

Boy did I get spoiled this birthday! Before I left Yakima Briana and Ivan gave me a gift certificate for a pedicure and eyebrow waxing at one of the local salons and Darvin ordered a new camera for me. Ashley flew me down to Dallas, Lindsey set up this wonderful blog and gave me a tutorial. Today my Mom took me, my sisters Margaret and Vicki, my niece Bethany, and my brother-in-law Rob out to lunch at Kosta's Cafe a greek restaurant in Plano and then Erin and Russ took me out for dinner at Twisted Root Burger Company and then for gelato at Paciugo. My sister Margaret gave me a scandalous funny birthday card, my little sister Vicki and her husband gave me a CD from their band Rude King (give me a 'holler' if you'd like to buy one-it's awesome music), my Mom gave me a hand carved stone kissing pair of giraffes from her trip to visit my brother Lance in Africa and Lance and his wife Donna sent back a birthday/early Christmas present of a handmade wire and bead Christmas tree.

For those inquiring minds, at Kosta's we shared the four dip appetizer and I tried the Greek Combo which included dolma, spanakopita, souvlaki, broiled scampi and mousaka. I was partial to the mousaka, broiled scampi and souvlaki. For dessert we shared baklava (of course!). Twisted Root Burger Company was a highlighted Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives restaurant. You can't go wrong if you dine at a DDD restaurant! I had the special of the week the HADES burger! It had green chilis, jalapenos, pepperjack cheese and chipotle sauce. It was hot, but not too hot, just delicious! TRB Co treated me to a root beer float (with their homemade root beer) because it was my birthday. Then afterward Russ spotted Paciugo across the street so we had to go over there for 2nd dessert! I had a small cup of gelato with chocolate turtle, coconut creme pie and amarena black cherry swirl-delicious!! On a side note, as we were dining on the patio at Twisted Root Burger Co little Jackson noticed the water fountains in the roundabout down the road. Erin and Russ learned not long ago, that Jackson's afraid of fireworks. Well apparently colored water fountains look a lot like fireworks, because he was NOT a happy camper when we had to walk towards the fountains to get to Paciugo's! Poor little guy.

Happy Birthday Mama!

Mom,
I'm so excited for you to have a blog so all of us girls can know what is going on in your life. As I get older I realize more and more how wonderful you are. My desire to spend time with you and the rest of the family increases too.
Thank you for being a fun, energetic mom who is always up for a good time.


You have taught me so much about being a good person and a good mom. Thank you for always being us girls' cheerleader and counselor.
You are an amazing Nana.



Love you tons!!!

Lindsey