THANK YOU!!!

I just wanted to say a big thank you to all of Anna Kate's family and friends that helped to celebrate her 4th birthday. You were all so generous with her gifts! And don't feel slighted by this pathetic excuse for a mass thank you. Thank you cards just went out in the mail...

So from Anna Kate

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Truly Inspirational Music

A friend of mine (and co-worker), an amazing musician, has recently completed her second CD project. Honestly, it's insanely good! You will have chills throughout the entire thing. There is even a song her eleven year old daughter wrote called, 'I Will Praise You'. A.M.A.Z.I.N.G.!!!

I want to give you a small snippet of the CD for your enjoyment. I'm telling you, it will give you chills!

Marcia Hudson ~ back to basics

If you are interested in purchasing a CD, please contact the following:

Marcia Hudson

(334) 687-7875
15 Price Drive
Eufaula, AL 36027
mkahudson@yahoo.com

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Randomness

This has been one hectic week. It started out on Sunday with me discovering our linen closet had 'flooded'...AGAIN! Every single thing in it was wet and reeked of mildew (so if any of you who were here for Anna Kate's birthday party last Saturday, thought you smelled a hint of funk on that end of the house, you did.) I had to empty the closet and have spent the past five days (literally) washing and drying the sheets, towels, wash cloths, extra blankets, pillows, etc. I have the last load in the washing machine now, and then I move onto our regular laundry. *SIGH*

Wednesday I had to travel to Birmingham for a meeting at Corporate office. That's a 6 hour drive, round trip. After a long, dramatic, and exhausting meeting I started the trek back home. I should have gotten home around 5:45ish, but as my luck would have it, there were at least three traffic accidents on I65 and then another one on I85. I didn't get home until close to 7:30. So I worked/traveled for over 13 hours. I did stop at my mother in-law's house to pee, which did eat up a little of the time, but not much. Needless to say, I was in bed and asleep by 8:30.

Thursday was back to the office. I ended up leaving at 1:30 to comp out some time. Then yesterday (Friday) we had the annual Groundwater Festival on campus. Basically over 100 4th graders from schools all over Barbour and Bullock Counties came to learn all about water. I had the 'Edible Aquifer' class. We taught what an aquifer is and then let them each build an edible aquifer. They had some ice cubes in the bottom of the cup, which represented bed rock. Then I added a little Sprite that was to simulate water. On top of that was vanilla ice cream, which was top soil. Then I walked around with Hershey's chocolate syrup = motor oil, red sugar sprinkles = fertilizer and then topped it off with chocolate sprinkles = another contaminate. They observed how all the contaminates sunk to the bottom of the aquifer and polluted our drinking water. They then placed their straws in the edible aquifer and were asked to turn their 'pumps' on at the count of three. This was to simulate the water being pulled from the aquifer, up the pipe to the water tower, through the household plumbing, out of the faucet and into your cup. I think they got the point when all the contaminates came through their straws. It was quite entertaining and I'm glad it's over!

When we all got home from work/school yesterday afternoon, we decided to take a golf cart outing. I just happened to have my camera with me (imagine that), so I took the opportunity to snap some pics of Jeff and Anna Kate. I had my 50mm lens on, which is a macro lens, but I made it work :-)

And here are just a few random macros I took, as well. The roses are blooming in our backyard and I'm sure you recognize the others as Belle and Barkley.

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Montgomery Zoo Field Trip

This past Friday Anna Kate's school went on a field trip to the Montgomery Zoo. The kids were so excited. Our day didn't start out all that great (late start, road work, traffic accident (not us)) but it ended up being really great. I'm going to post a few pictures to get you by until I get time to upload the rest to my online album.

Let me preface by saying Anna Kate is rather smitten with her little boyfriend Andrew. It's so cute watching them together. She stares at him, everything he says is knock-you-down-hilarious, and of course, is soooo cute :-) You just wait until you the pics. I'll post those first.

The next few pics are of Anna Kate with her best friends Anslee and Carter. We all rode together to the zoo and laughed our heads off at these crazy kids!

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Finally...Anna Kate's Birthday Party!

We were finally able to have Anna Kate's 4th birthday party yesterday. Unfortunately, it rained again, so outdoor activities were a no-go. We resorted to playing in the playroom and screened porch (that did not flood this time.) Anna Kate was so excited to have all her friends at her house. She was so diplomatic about playing; her friends were spread out all over the house, so she kept running from room to room being sure to play with each and every one. It was precious. Her friends REALLY enjoyed her playroom. It's like any other kid, you go to a different place with all new (different) toys and it's the coolest thing ever. It was a really nice party. She had her best friends here (minus her boyfriend, whom you will see in my next post about the zoo field trip) and was so happy. I really didn't take that many pictures because I was so busy 'hosting'. I'll post a few on here and then post the link to all of them as well.

We missed having the family here, but we all knew how hard it would have been for them to make the trip down two weekends in a row. All-in-all, it was a really nice party. The important thing is that Anna Kate had a great time and couldn't have been happier :-)

Picture Link

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Over The Hill...

That would be my dear husband!!! Bless his heart, he's having such a difficult day. He woke up to a card with 'OLD MAN' written on the envelope and then he got to work and his office looks like this

He has received numerous gag gifts, including a black balloon bouquet and Oreo cookies from AK & I. He's even been covered in silly string this morning.

The Sheriff showed up at one point with a warrant for his arrest for being 'Over The Hill'.

I have to say though, he really has been a good sport about it all.

So dear, you may be 40 and to some, that's old, but you are not old. You are well on your way to another wonderful, fun, happy and healthy 40 more years of life in a house full of girls (and one boy) ;) We all love you and HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

The birthday boy and his birthday present - 'Sir Charles Barkley', an 8 month old Italian Greyhound.

**Edited to add the link to PARTY PICS**

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Four Years Ago Today...

Happy Birthday Anna Kate!!!

I was at a normal check-up (well, as normal as weekly NST's with ultrasounds beginning at 17 weeks are), when my doctor told me we needed to do an amnio to check the validity of the baby's lungs. My ultrasound results stated that Anna Kate had not grown at all since the last ultrasound, which was concerning since I only had the space of half a uterus. (I had been on bed rest since 17 weeks for preterm labor and every week we made it through was a true miracle.) So my doctor said he would meet me across the street at the hospital in 45 minutes to perform the procedure and off we went. My mother-in-law still says to this day that she took one look at me and knew I was going to have Anna Kate that day. Apparently I didn't look so hot ;) We left the office with me crying as I was only 32.5 weeks and according to the ultrasound, it appeared Anna Kate weighed less than 4 pounds. I was scared to death!

We got to the hospital and after being admitted, the nurses began 'prepping' me. I knew something was up when they started an IV. It was shortly after that that m.a.j.o.r contractions started. From all the action at the doctor's office, I had missed my dose of Brethine (a drug to stop contractions. I took it every 4 hours, 24 hours a day starting at 17 weeks.) Missing that one dose threw me into labor. Seriously, within 15 minutes, the contractions were on the pain scale of 1-10......an 8!!! Five minutes later Dr. Waller walked in and was dressed out in full scrubs, mask, hat and booties on his shoes. He told me that he had conferred with a specialist at UAB and had come to the agreement that we need not wait. We were to bypass the amnio altogether and go straight for the emergency c-section. (Given my history of miscarriages (3), preterm labor, the fact that Anna Kate was frank breech and running out of room and the distress she was in - it was just time.) Let me say that we had nothing with us. My doctor and the hospital were 89 miles from our house, so we couldn't just run to the house and grab our bags. We had 30 minutes to get our thoughts in order. My parents lived in the same town as we do, so we called them and had them go to our house to get our stuff. Jeff's mom lived in the same town as the hospital, so at least we had a family member with us when all the chaos started.

From here, I'll fast forward to 3:32 pm on Wednesday, April 7th, 2004. That's when our lives changed forever. Little Anna Kate weighed in at 5 lbs 12 oz and 19" long. She was absolutely perfect. She did need some oxygen to get her started breathing (she was blue when they pulled her out), but other than that.......PERFECT! According to my doctor, it was an extremely difficult delivery. I had to be cut vertically and horizontally in order to pull her out from under my breast bone. She was lodged up there and it was risky to pull her out without doing damage to her neck. Amniotic fluid - well it measured great on the ultrasound, however it was not so great. In fact, I had none. I mean, I was bone dry. Nonetheless, our precious little girl was thriving and was gorgeous.

My parents did manage to make it to the hospital before she was born, but missed me before I went back. Jeff & I had previously requested 15 minutes alone with Anna Kate when they brought her back to the room. We didn't want anyone else in the room except for us three...our new family. Those were the best and most beautiful 15 minutes of our lives. The next three days in the hospital seemed like a dream. We kept commenting that it felt like we were just borrowing someone else's baby. It all seemed so unreal. Like it wasn't happening to us. But after seven L..O..N..G years of multiple miscarriages, infertility, surgeries, needles, medicines and heartache, it really was happening to us!!!

Now, that precious, tiny baby is a happy, healthy, active, free-spirited, loving, sometimes-difficult, beautiful 4 YEAR OLD GIRL! She is such a special little girl...she's our miracle baby. Literally. Anna Kathleen, you are our pride and joy, as well as our reason for living. We truly, unconditionally love you, our 'punkin'/'boo-boo'/'spunky monkey'! :) Happy 4th Birthday!

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