A New Year, A New Decade, and a New 10th Birthday!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEAR SWEET KYK!!

I pray for this year to be the best ever...

I cannot believe that this year has gone by so soon! I cannot fathom that this year is over! It was wayyy too fast and filled with so many things! I think the top on my list - is getting myself healthy - to be a better me, a healthier (in all aspects - physically with my back especially) ME! I look fwd to really working on maintaining this healthy relationship with my body... wish me luck!

The Marriners brought the new year in with some of our fabulous friends - it was so fun to be with our close friends. They are our extended family when our family is so far away. Besides some wonderful toasts to such wonderful friends, delicious food, & crazy singing,... we each told where we were at the turn of the century 10 years ago! WOW we all had such great stories!


I shot my hand up... this was a NOOOooooooo BRAINER!! I was NINE months... FULLY pregnant - I mean she tried to come right before Christmas - so I was ready to BUST! It looked like I swallowed a BIG basketball! We counted down the new year with my parents and my SOoooooo silly dear Mr Safety Man - escaped out in to the garage at the stroke of midnight and shut off the power... It was HYSTERICAL! My dad says to us... "Well I guess that's that - I'll toast to THAT!" And then my oh-so-funny hubby flipped back on the power. It was a lot of fun being with my parents - for this "momentous" turn of the century... I kept singing "We're gonna PARTAY like it's 1999!!" (a Prince song - for those of you who aren't as cool as I)!

We were hoping that our little bundle of joy would come right then... well she wasn't due till the beginning of February. But she came soon after the new year commenced.

Hours after Ky's birth... HAPPY BIRTHDAY SWEET BABY GIRL!

So much has changed in these last ten years. I've grown in so many ways. My dear Safety-Man has grown! Our family has grown! Our lives have changed exponentially. Ten years ago we had been in our house for about 10 months - our own house with lots of used and mixed-matched, old furniture and we have come so far in this house... it is now our home- with lots of love, sweat, blood, tears, but mostly hardwork and love. I was still working for my company in Orlando but was mostly working from home due to being SO PREGNANT! AND the biggest change for me... I WAS PREGNANT! Hello!?! If that is not the biggest change in a young, married couples lives what is?! Our married lives were about to change for the best.

Our oldest daughter blessed us and arrived on January 4th, 2000 at 10:08pm. My water broke (sorry for the tmi) at noon. Kyky was bound and determined to come that day. She was early...by three weeks. My contractions would not cease... I couldn't believe my dr wanted me to come in to "make sure" my water had broken. Heeheehee well joke was on her as I got on the table - sure enough it "broke again" only on her shoes! heheehhehe!! (A small victory for the slam to my dignity...)!

We went directly to the hospital at that point. Normal contractions look like little turtle shells across the read-out tape. Nope not mine... mine looked like the Rocky Mountain cliffs! There was no relief, no end to the pain, and I just couldn't relax... (PLUS I couldn't remember ANY of the Lamaze we had learned in all those weeks of classes with my favorite OB nurse Sue)! I asked for an epidural - only the anethesiologist had 2 emergency epidurals he had to do - so I got "bumped". I did, however, get a shot to fall asleep -but immediately upon waking, they were just as bad. If I didn't progress - I would have to do a c-section. The baby's heart rate did drop. Finally the epidural came. Not a pleasant experience - but I will spare the tmi there!

Luckily I progressed and was able to relax. They backed off the epidural so I could feel and start pushing. Our baby was born at 10:08pm. The NICU nurses were there. It was all so surreal. I got to hold Kyky for seconds... and the first thing I noticed was her color wasn't right. It actually matched my nail color - a grey/purplish color. Then she was urgently whisked away. My DEAR Safety-Man was a saint that evening. I had to do "things" after she came - and he knew what was happening with our baby. My first, dear sweet baby was not breathing. She was quiet. Too quiet. In fact my baby had the cord wrapped around her neck several times. She had been without oxygen. I asked her Apghar score... and no one would answer me. It turned out it was a ZERO then. My darling hubby- stepped in between me and my Ky getting resuscitated. He held my hand and glanced backward to watch his daughter. She wouldn't cry. I had NO idea what was happening the entire time - which was a huge blessing. He shielded me from that pain. I kept asking him to move and he kept telling me how proud he was of me. What a wonderful man. They worked on my baby girl (but I didn't know it) for quite awhile. I remember hearing at one point - one nurse say "she won't cry. She needs to cry" and another nurse shushing her.

And finally... I heard it. I heard the most beautiful sound in the whole world. My daughter crying.

It was the sweetest, most blessed, most angelic sound I had ever heard.

My Kyky was born and my Kyrakin has been the most beautiful child one could ever ask for. She is lovely, smart, intelligent, beautiful, sweet, caring, loving. She truly was the BEST pregnancy, the BEST baby, the BEST little girl. I mean she amazes us every day...

And now my Ky has turned TEN! TEN!!! She continues to be such a wonder to us. We have our great days and of course our struggles. She is very independent yet she wants to be a little girl too! She wants to grow up - yet still needs us greatly. It is an interesting journey. A glorious journey. An exciting story that is unfolding.

Happy Birthday sweet girl! We love you

And now look at this gorgeous girl... This was taken on the eve of her birthday. She had this EXTRAVAGANZA of a party...her friends all came dressed-up to the hilt. They all got to walk the red carpet... and my-o-my did she look TOO old that night!! We're not ready for her to grow up too fast... not quite yet. One year at a time is fine by us!

Musings on a wonderful decade...a momentous decade - beautiful moments!

A great day...

Even though there was a lot of pain today (two days of intense - like a knife in my bones...no more like hot embers deep in my spine - I PROMISE NO more overdoing things! LESSON LEARNED!!! I PROMISE - it's really not worth it my friends ouch), I felt really good mentally!
(sorry folks for the run-on sentence - it's late and i don't proclaim to be a great writer!)

It was such a super day! NOoooooo really it WAS!! It really was a nice day. (I really don't like the word nice (ask my Safety-man - he gets grief for that a lot)... there are so many other great adjectives but it was a NICE, NICE day).

I have to say I wasn't sure at first that it would be... I started to stress over little things. That's so me. I wonder where my little girls get it - and there it is right from me! I just start thinking and then worry... Today it was things from - how I was going to get to my appointment this morning, getting back, if dear Mr Safety-Man would be able to get my youngest Boo to her pulmonologist appt, and how would I get my oldest home from the bus stop- not being able to drive is KILLING me! It takes all your freedom away! It's amazing how I get myself all worked up - Jeesh.

But what I should have remembered or had faith in, was that everything would be ok and would work out for the best. I should start with the fact that my hair has been bad for a LONG while - I just couldn't sit long enough to get it cut/colored after the surgery. So I finally got an appt - but it wasn't until NEXT Thursday - and I have tons of activities coming up! LOW AND BEHOLD she had a cancellation and I got an appt today!!! YES!!! HMmm but if Chris wasn't home... how to get there...

A wonderful friend ended up having most of today off and came and got me, she then got called in to work - I started to worry about getting home. I was going to try to walk - but the way I was feeling during the appointment - walking home (close to my home) wasn't going to be an option (especially if I wanted Mr S. Man to talk to me again...). But they called her and pushed her going in to work back, so I got to show off my new do and get a ride home! I am so thankful for everyone who CONTINUES to help me out... Then my dear S.Man was able to pick up Boo and take her to the pulmonologist (which she really needed to go to - as she has been having several asthma attacks in Utah and since we've been back home). AND we decided together that KyKy could just come home early... GREAT! It just worked out!

And the hair appointment was AWESOME - I don't know if it was because I waited SO long to get it done - but ms rachael did a wonderful job and I had a nice time. It was so awesome to feel relaxed, on my own, and free! I even got enough courage to ask for my eyebrows to be done. I don't know why - but normally I wouldn't ask - because I didn't make an appt and didn't want to trouble them... but I just went with it - and BAM! Finally got my eyebrows done. The AWESOME part... I ended up getting it for FREE for a promotion they were going to start - and gave to me early! (Wish the hair appt was free!) hahaha!

Then we got all ready for my daughter's (and friends' daughters) school Christmas show. It was absolutely like ALL school shows... but it was SOooooooo cute! I took photos of my girls and friends while they performed. Ky got very nervous so didn't smile as much as normal but she did FANTASTIC with her lines and Boo did a fabulous job in her Tiny Ballerina number! SO adorable! She didn't disappoint me - she shaded her eyes and looked for "Mame" (mommy) and Daddy in the audience! And of course in the middle of her dance waved at us! Oooooo how sweet and how precious.

We were so proud! I have photos - but am so tired - I will post them later. I really am so proud!! The show really was cute! Only a parent would love!! =)

AND THENnnnnnnnnnnnn my most wonderful hubby in the world, to help me from bending and doing things I shouldn't be doing, loaded the entire kiln of our First Impressions hand prints/footprints... ALL 49 of them! I still cannot believe he got them all in - one firing! AWESOME! THANK YOU BABE!!! He even sharpened the stilts to ensure they wouldn't stick to the impressions. He does so much for me, our family, to help everyone. He truly is the BEST.

Soooo turning worry in to remembering about having faith things will work out, a great haircut and feeling a bit better emotionally after getting it done (i wish physically too - but soon), to a precious holiday show that I just got all warm and fuzzy watching those I love perform, and finally to a hubby who really does EVERYTHING for me - in order that I heal CORRECTLY!

I am a lucky girl... and I do feel blessed. I truly am.

Thanks for the patience of a rambling post...