Disclaimer

Ryan is NOT for sure the name because Josh is still "thinking about it" and doesn't know for sure yet. (He gets to name the boys, and I get to name the girls, with veto power of course.) I put Ryan on the wall because it is my personal favorite and I wanted the whole nursery to be done before I got any more pregnant, with a caveat that I will buy different letters if Josh changes his mind in the next few months. Just wanted to clear that up!

Some Changes

Now, this is a bit awkward for me. I don't really know how to talk about what is coming in our family. I have never used my blog as a journal (I keep that private in a real journal, and no Kyle, I will not tell you where!), but just a fun thing to share my life with family and friends.

But this is a time where our life is not just going to be fun. There is a sad and difficult time coming in our family too, and I don't really know how to approach it with a blog. (Blogs didn't exist, at least in my world, 6 1/2 years ago when we went through this with Evan.) So I guess I will take this blog thing one step and one day at a time, which is what I am doing with the whole experience. And I finally feel capable of doing so. I may have hidden a little for the last few months to heal in private, and I feel like I really have. I feel stronger to handle my upcoming trial, and more grateful for the life of my son, regardless of how short that life will be. I am sure it is partly due to the prayers and kind words of everybody. So thank you for that.

This was Maddie's beautiful girl nursery. It was my favorite room in the house because I love pink and it was pretty.

To be completely honest, I wasn't sure about repainting and redesigning the entire nursery for Baby Boy. We don't know how much time he will be with us (the best estimate is Evan's lifetime, which was five weeks), we don't know how much of that time will be in the hospital (I am fighting with doctors and hospitals right now to make it as short as possible), and when he IS home he will probably be right next to me in my bed. One of the hardest things I have ever had to do was pack up Evan's empty nursery that I had worked so hard to make absolutely perfect and beautiful.

However, Josh insisted that if we promised to give him the best, happiest, most loving life of dignity, he needs his own nursery. And no boy can have dignity in a pink room. There must be sports and balls everywhere. It must be all male, and a real "Man Room." It took me a while to feel like I could do it without it being too sad, and we did it, and made it a cheerful act of service for him. Karen & Juli Harris, also happy to serve their grandson/nephew, came and helped paint the walls too.

And, oh boy, Maddie just loved to "help" paint her brother's room too. Yikes.

We picked the most cheerful color of blue (which borders obnoxious). And I am so grateful that Josh pushed me to do this. We sit in the room and talk about our boys and our family, and it is a very peaceful and loving place to be. It is still my favorite room in the house.

Some Videos of Maddie's Weekend Adventures

These videos aren't especially entertaining, but Josh wants to see them (he is in some backwoods of Tennessee right now), and grandparents usually enjoy them (or at least do a really good job of pretending they do). :o)

Actually, they are just Maddie doing really cool stuff and me being annoyingly, over-enthusiastically encouraging. The first one on the horse she looks pale and low energy because it was right after she threw up (within minutes of being dropped off at the Kid's Camp). I ran back to pick her up, and she informed me it was just swine flu and that she will be fine. Where do kids pick these things up?!

Don Tingey Family Reunion

Maddie and I got to join my mom at her family reunion up at Zion National Park. We stayed in a place called Zion Ponderosa, which I would definitely recommend. (Josh was/is on a long deposition tour on the east coast, so these pictures are for him to see too!)

Maddie the Cowgirl

Maddie the Bungee Trampoline Jumper

Maddie the Rock Wall Climber

Maddie, Cole & Grandma Linda, the Swimmers

Luckily they had a rentable golf cart to get me up and down the mountain. This is us in front of our cute little cabin.

We got to drive through Zion National Park, which is stunningly beautiful.

Maddie is pointing to the window in the mountain. You actually drive THROUGH the mountain and they have windows along the way. I was blown away by how pretty it was.

Maddie & Grandma had a grape eating contest. I think Maddie was able to actually fit four of the HUGE grapes in her cheeks at one time.

It's a Disney Day!

With an ever-expanding waistline, our time to travel and do anything besides sitting with my feet up is running out. So when Josh's depositions cancelled last minute, he had the great idea of going to Disneyland. I have begged and pleaded to stay in a Disney hotel forever, and this time I got my wish! (Wishes come true at Disneyland, didn't you know that?) I was just as giddy as Maddie about it. Here is my little family swimming in the hotel pool. I just watched them having so much fun in the pool and was overcome with gratitude for my family.

Then we got to have breakfast with characters, which Maddie was so excited about that I couldn't get her to eat anything.

This picture was Maddie's idea. She is cute and little.

And my new Disney hat that Maddie helped me pick out.

Josh wanted to take a picture of our baby boy's trip to Disneyland for his scrapbook. Maddie told him through my belly every ride we were going on and not to be scared. I'm pretty sure he enjoyed his Disney day.

And we got to go on It's a Small World for the first time with Maddie because it is finally open and the line was a lot shorter than it used to be. Maddie kept asking, "Are those people real!?"

Some Befores and Afters

Before & After #1: A lot of my house is neutral colors because I get sick of colors quickly and want to change it up often. (Which is why I don't ever paint walls. I'm not balsy enough.) My living room was nice and everything, but incredibly boring. So, inspired by the greens of Ireland, I changed a few of the accessories and made it have at least a little more personality. (Don't expect a dramatic change here.)

Before & After #2 - Before Friday, I was stressed out and trying to remember the slight nuances of UCC vs common law, the different theories of strict products liability, each element of each murder, etc., etc. It blows my mind (quite literally) about how much we need to know for a six hour law school exam, but I crammed and I crammed. The day before my exam, I came home and found this on my desk from my little Maddie girl. It was so sweet. And after Friday, I am sleeping, reading silly little novels, and doing absolutely nothing. Breaks between semesters are lovely.

Before & After #3 - Jamie wanted me to help her make a video of her daughter's dancing for her blog. Her daughter seriously knows how to shake it. Strangely though, Maddie joined in on the dancing, with absolutely no apprehension, and we were ALL surprised. (She has never been much of a dancer or performer before.) Even Lucy barely moved because she was in awe of Maddie's.....um.....dance moves. Now, I love my daughter, but the girl can not dance. Okay, I haven't danced in the eight years since I married Josh. The problem? He is not a dancer. And apparently Maddie got his (non) dancing jeans. She is SO WHITE when she dances. I was never a professional dancer and wasn't the most coordinated, but I definitely knew how to shake my hips and have some rhythm. So when I saw this video (follow this link to view http://rodandjamie.blogspot.com/2009/07/to-all-single-babies.html), I knew something had to be done. Maddie was registered for a basic dance class the next week. Unfortunately, she also inherited my clumsiness and tripped on her way into the dance class building because she was so excited. I told her ALL ballerinas trip sometimes and get their tights all black. Hopefully she will learn some ballet grace too. She has some serious gene deficiencies to overcome.

U2 Videos

Stalking Bono's House

Opening Song - "Breathe" - It opened very cool with Larry Mullen coming out alone and doing his drum solo, followed by Edge and Adam on guitar and bass, and then Bono joined in with the vocals.

"Get On Your Boots" - Maddie's Favorite U2 Song. I admit, completely lame on the album, but amazing live.

"One" - Probably My Favorite U2 Song

"With or Without You" - Classic U2 Favorite

Frank McCourt's "Angela's Ashes" walking tour in Limerick

My husband went all the way to Ireland for a rock band. I went for a book walking tour. Which one of us is more nerdy?

Don't answer that.

Here is the Patty who gave us our walking tour. He was adorable. He told the stories so enthusiastically, which is exactly how I read the book. (For some reason, he felt the need to literally squish me down. I was at least six inches taller than him, but he put his arm around and over me and squished me down for the picture, which is why I am painfully contorted.)

Apparently, a lot of people read the book and thought it was depressing or miserable. I read it and thought it was one of the funniest, most honest books I have ever read. It is one of my all time favorite books, so of course I wanted to do the tour in Limerick while we were in Ireland. Sadly, Mr. Frank McCourt passed away only a week before our Ireland trip, so I got to pay tribute to him while I was there as well.

When Frank was growing up, it was during the depression time. So a lot of the city was slum. Today, the city is booming. So most of the buildings he talks about in the book are torn down and replaced. Here is the lane that he would have to walk up to get to the two story house that was Italy upstairs and sewage downstairs, with the angel on the seventh step, and the second story that they eventually tore down and used for firewood, which obviously got them kicked out by their landlord. There are so many stories in that house, I was so sad to see it gone, but the way he described it I would be offended if it still existed!

And the pub at the bottom of the lane where they accidently let the baby's stroller go and it rolled right into the pub. The men were so freaked out, but then gave Frank & Malachy free lemonades for the entertainment of the day. So then they started going around trying to recreate it in all the pubs of the city and of course got in trouble.

Row houses like the one that belonged to his nasty distant cousin (who had the "excitement" with his mom, and who tried to get him to empty his chamber pot, which made him move out and then go live with his cousin who was "dropped on his head" as a child).

Here is the confession box where he would make up sins of his friends to make his own sins not seem so bad.

And the church where he received his first communion, which he later threw up in his Grandma's backyard and made her freak out that "god was in her backyard." That was one of my favorite stories.

Here is the house that they moved into right after his first twin brother died, and the window in the back on the second story was the one that the other twin would stare out of looking for his twin. Eventually, that twin died too and Frank's mom couldn't stand to be in that house any longer because it made her so sad.

Here was Frank's school. Oh the stories I could share about what happened here. All I can say is, read the book if you haven't already.

They had a memory book for people to sign. Josh snapped a picture. I always felt that Frank and I would be friends if we ever met. I'm sad I never got the chance.

And here is the St. Vincent Society where Frank's mom would have to go and basically embarrass herself by begging in front of a whole crowd of people so that she could have shelter, furniture, and food for her family.

And on the way over a bridge, I snapped a picture of the River Shannon, which Frank hated and believed was the reason so many people were sick and dying in Limerick. I have to say, that was the coldest and wettest day we experienced.

Now I need to go track that book down and read it again.

Stalking U2

For anyone not obsessed with U2, this post might seem weird, maybe even creepy. But I am telling you, Josh was one of the least freakish fans I saw in Ireland. We are talking about people who travelled from all over the world to see the band perform in their hometown and see the U2 sights. Ohhhh, the stories to be told...... But as an example, here is a picture of a man's tattoos that make Josh seem perfectly normal and harmless. :o) (For those who are not up on these sorts of things, that is a picture of the Joshua Tree from one of U2's CDs, and the emblems representing the last four U2 tours......on his body......forever!)

Bono's childhood street and home. (Also featured on the "Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own" music video.)

The high school where it all started. Bono, Edge, Adam & Larry went to school here (and three of the four met their wives here) and answered a post on the posterboard to meet at Larry Mullen's house after school if they were interested in starting a band.

The hotel owned by U2 (and the beautiful view of the river we had from our room). The band used to come here after gigs when they were very young and talked about one day being rich enough to buy the hotel. Well, they did. And we stayed there, which made us feel super cool. They had a VIP party in the lobby the day AFTER we checked out. Bummer.

The studio where they recorded most of their early albums. The entire street is covered with colorful graffiti. (Both in color and in language.) Apparently, not all the Irish are fans of the band.

And the studio where they are currently recording their album.

And hiding in the bushes outside of Bono's house gate. We were a few of hundreds of people waiting there.

Sorry to report, after all of the stalking, we never did get a sighting of any of the band members. But the concert was freaking AWESOME!!! It was in one of the biggest stadiums in the world, packed to the ceiling, and as fantastic as ever. Wherever you live, look up their tour and buy tickets to the nearest show. I promise you won't regret it....