I'm a Grandma!!!!

OK, if you follow me on Instagram, you knew this already!  

On January 2 at 5:32 pm, little Mr. Adam James made his much awaited appearance!

His due date was December 26.  Miss Angela & I had been out walking every day - like close to 2 miles per day, trying to move things along.  She had a doctor's appointment with her midwife on December 30, with an ultrasound and non-stress test.  They estimated he was measuring about 8 1/2 lbs then and she was dilated to 3 cm.  They told her to come back on January 2 for another non-stress test  and that the hospital would be calling her on Friday January 3 to let her know when to show up on Monday the 6th to be induced. 

She went to her appointment at 8am on the 2nd and after they examined her, her water decided to break!  So they told her to drive herself to the hospital.  She called me at work and then went home, showered & grabbed her bag, then met me outside of the maternity wing of the local hospital.  

She got settled into her room and we went for a walk.  2 laps around the ward and she told me it hurt too much to walk anymore. 

Waiting to her her epidural.

Putting makeup on during full-on labor actually made her blood pressure lower! 

At 5pm, the 2 midwives & the RN shoo'd the family out, except for me & dipshit (I still don't like baby daddy).  Adam was born at 5:32!   

The RN made sure to check her makeup before I could take any pictures - LOL!

8 lbs, 10 oz and 21 1/2 inches long!  A mop of dark hair & huge feets!

Already totally in love with this little guy. 

Great-grandma is thrilled!  

He's #5 great-grandbaby for her, but the only one that lives in the same state.  

So he was born Thursday afternoon, but they didn't get to go home until Saturday night.  Adam had a wee bit of jaundice and the poor guy was stuck under tanning lights for 24 hours.  And they'd been concerned that Angel's heart rate was too high during labor and took way too long to come back down.  So she had an ekg and was checked over by a cardiologist before they decided she was OK.  

Rusty was at the door to meet the new addition.  He seems a wee bit jealous, but hasn't tried to do anything worse than walk where he doesn't need to be (like ON the baby!)

Daisy is taking longer to come around!

Maddie is wondering what this creature is that is taking her person's attention away from her!

Paws

He's just too adorable!

One more post for the year!

Holy crap.  Ya know that saying that the days going fast but they year goes slow?  Yup. 

But first & foremost....

This bump is indeed still there!  

Miss Angela was due on the 26th and little Burrito is showing no attempt at making an appearance. 

We've been out walking every day, at least a mile, if not 2 miles.   She is getting tired easier, tho.  We went about 1.6 miles today and she was out of breath a lot. 

We were upwind from these does and the big one on the far left was rather interested in us.  

So how was Christmas in your neck of the woods?  

This was so true!  It was in the upper 40s on Christmas day.  There was fog in the morning, so I guess that counts as our white Christmas. 

Or the swirly white clouds do. 

We spent Christmas Eve at my sister's house and we had a good time.  I can't believe we had the almost the entire family there and nobody got any group photos!  We played a game where my niece wrapped up a bunch of goodies (like mini booze bottles & lottery tickets) in plastic wrap and we had to wear an oven mitt on our dominant hand and try to unwrap as mush as we could while the person next to us tried to roll doubles on some dice.   Lots of laughs!

Christmas Day we all met up at a local Chinese restaurant for dinner, since Angel's midwife recommended her NOT to go to Frankenmuth for dinner like we'd planned, since it's well over an hour away from our house / her hospital.  Not even masses of sweet & sour chicken helped her go into labor!

Earlier in the month, my niece coordinated "A December to Remember" at the golf course she works at.  They had Santa in the clubhouse, along with vendors selling stuff and food.  They passed out a pamphlet and had a word scramble game and guess what the emojis were saying type game.  Then we had to go around can count how many Santa stickers and wreaths were in the clubhouse.  

 It was pretty fun. 

It was dog friendly, too. 

Ranger (sister's dog) can't see much, but he was interested in Santa!

Last Sunday we went to Rochester for dinner and to see the lights. 

It was a mild night, so there were tons of people out!  

 My knees have been doing pretty good with all this walking.  I've been going to physical therapy for a couple weeks and I'm noticing a big difference.  The therapists are having me concentrate on strengthening my hips, oddly enough.  But they affect the knees, so I guess they know what they're doing.  I always thought I had some strong muscles on the outside of my thighs, but apparently it's just the tendons that are super tight.  So each time I go to PT, they use a rolling pin on my thighs and it really freakin' hurts!   I do occasionally get shooting pains behind my kneecaps so that's still a thing.  And stairs are a trial.   

 Christmas Eve morning....

I love this tree on my way into work.  

Which, I was expecting to be there all day, but I did less than a half, since there was nothing going on!

 Santa Kisses & Santa Remmie! 

 Our tree.

 Angel toddling out of her room in her onsie on Christmas Day.... 

 So between Santa & the white elephant gift exchange during the SAR Cmas Party, I've gotten some more cool things for my pack.  I'm excited about the GPS,tho.  It's exactly like the ones the team has, but it's nice to have my own.  And the geocache setting is pretty cool, too. 

 The sunset coming from from our walk the other night.  The ground fog was so creepy! 

 Some LOLs to keep in mind for next year.  

 So I did indeed pass my amateur radio test and moved up a notch to a general license.  I was pretty confident that I'd pass on my first try, since that 12 week class was so helpful!  And I did.  I was sitting next to the one other guy from my class who was taking it (the class started out with 7 people, a couple dropped out and the rest took the test early and passed so they didn't come back) and of course there were people there who knew Randy.  In fact, how they told me I passed was Jay came over and told me the Randy owed me a box of chocolates!  

Another thing that happens at these exams, is once you pay for and pass one test, is you get to try the next higher test for free.  So Jerry, the guy who coordinated the class I took, came over and put the Extra exam in front of me.  They said I did really good for getting 20 out of 50 correct.  Considering I was looking at words that I'd never seen before! 

There was a mostly hearing-impaired man sitting next to me.  He took his technician exam, passed it and told the examiner to bring on the general exam.  HE PASSED IT!  and was working on his extra exam when I left.  I kind of wanted to stay and see how he did on that, too!  

Next month is our search & rescue team recruitment night - I'm sure it'll get more attention after this nice article in The Lapeer County Press.

Here's how Chuck's turkey costume turned out for Thanksgiving!  I'll be redoing the feathers for next year, but the rest I'm pretty happy with.  Look at his feet!!!!  I was giggling was I sewed them on! 

Gosh, it's not even 7pm and it seems so much later!  I'd best go get dinner on for the family before the natives get restless!

Hoping to have a post soon with some GOOD NEWS in it!

What's Up, Weekend? 11/15/19

I am linking up with the lovely ladies Lindsay, Beth & Charlotte at the Peaceful Posse. There's too much crap & negativity in the world, so these are all positive / happy / grateful posts in this linkup.

Holy crap - I didn't even write a Veteran's Day post this year!!  Sheesh.  I'm slacking.  Guess because I was too busy shoveling the 9+ inches of snow that got dumped on us Monday.

 At least it's pretty!  

 We got another inch plus over night. 

Sunday, Randy & I went out to sister Laurie's to get the grandbaby's dresser that's been in her garage for a month or two.  And we stayed to help her do some stuff around her house to get ready for winter - that ended up taking a lot longer than expected, and we still had to work on our own yard!  We got home and blew leaves out of the gutters and the front yard, got all the flowerpots emptied & stashed in the shed.  The patio furniture & garden hose got put away.  And the last thing we did - after dark, of course, was cut down a branch in the tree out front that was hanging in front of the awning.   

We got done just in time. I drove to work Monday in a light coating, but it was nasty coming home!  And I had a doctor's appointment to get to.   

Ya know - I don't think I ever mentioned it!  I finally went to get my knees checked out!  They took x-rays and thought they saw a possible bone chip in my left and sent me for an MRI on it. I had that last week.  This one was to talk about the results.  No bone chip, but there is a small tear in my meniscus and I have osteoarthritis in both of them.  So I'm opting to do physical therapy, if I ever remember to call and set up an appointment.

 We had a beautiful sunrise Tuesday, tho. 

We've had a busy week, so it's nice to sit here & chill for a while.  Monday we got all that snow.  I've been going to a class to upgrade my amateur radio license on Tuesday nights.  I'm nearing the end of the 12 week course and the test is December 3.  Wednesday was supposed to be my WW meeting to learn about the new program and then a VFW meeting and I skipped out on both.  Randy left yesterday for Arkansas, so Wed night was the only night we had to get furniture moved around in Angel's room.  I needed him there for that, since Angel couldn't help move her heavy desk out into the garage or that equally heavy dresser in from the back of my car.  

So I went to WW last night & that's when she decided to text me about how does someone know if they have hemorrhoids or not.

Yes - I laughed!
Because I can relate.

 So we went on a quest for Preparation H and medicated wipes and also for storage bags that you suck the air our of for the multitude of dance costumes that she has.   

34 weeks & her furry orange hemorrhoid. 

(He's not the one she's trying to remove.) 

Today at work we were supposed to wear our "team colors" because the Michigan State / University of Michigan game is this weekend.  The owner of the company and all his sisters (department heads) went to State, so they mess with anyone who dares wear blue & maize.  

My contribution to the board in the conference room is in red, down in the corner - LOL!  I usually wear something with the Razorbacks since I don't have a preference in Michigan rivalry and I figure in my world, husband outranks work.  

 Apparently the baseboard heater can get quite hot - and the hot water pipes aren't covered in the back of Angel's closet.  This is the garment bag with my wedding dress in it!   Luckily my dress is OK.  

And I tried it on, for shitz & gigglez.  I am approximately the same size I was when I wore it, since I couldn't get it zipped up.  And for my wedding (in 2006) I was sucked into a corset. 

That's depressing. 

 I went to Joann Fabrics on the way home tonight to get the fixin's for a craft project I want to do and found these adorable ugly Christmas sweater earrings!  I love me some funky earrings!  

Oh - the project I want to do? 

I'm going to make Chuck a turkey costume for Thanksgiving! 

So that's all that going on around here.  Randy safely got to his buddy's house in Arkansas.  Angel has to work in the morning, so I will be either going to the gym for a bit since I haven't been there in way too long - or I'll start doing some cleaning / purging in this house.  

Ugh.  Choices. 

They both need to be done, but there's only one of me!

  The vet is coming out to Laurie's house sometime tomorrow to do some dental work on one of the horses and he'll likely need to be sedated.  I offered to go if she needed help. I'm hoping she doesn't call, but if she does that's where I'll go.  

But for now - I have kitties telling me it's time to crawl into bed.  And I believe them!

Stay warm everyone!

This is what I have to look forward to.