Labor Day Meme...

Since Emma was born on Labor Day 4 years ago, I thought this meme might be something fun to post on this Labor Day. :-) If you want to join in, please leave a comment and tell us where to find yours!

How long were your labors?
Emma - 0 Hours. My water broke and we went straight to the hospital for a C-section since she was breech. I never felt one real contraction.
Kate - 0 Hours. My water broke and we went straight to the hospital for a repeat C-section.

I'm somewhat sad I've never felt real labor, but then again...not really! :-)

How did you know you were in labor?
My water broke with both pregnancies. The first time it happened I called two friends to see if that is what it was. Neither of them knew for sure. :-) With the second pregnancy, I knew it was about to happen (weird, I know) and I ran to the kitchen so it wouldn't make a wet mess on the carpet.

Where did you deliver?
Both were born at Carolina's Medical Center-University. Emma was born in the old wing and Kate in the new wonderful wing.

Drugs?
Umm, yep! The spinal they gave me with Emma didn't work the first time and they had to do it again. I still had a little feeling. More then weird... No problems with the spinal with Kate.

C-section?
2

Who delivered?
Dr. Dickerson did both C-sections. Prior to the C-section with Emma, I had never seen her at the practice. Everytime I had a scheduled appointment with her, she was called away for emergency C-sections or deliveries. When I called the after hours number to talk to the doctor on call when I thought my water had broken, she didn't believe me. I decided I wasn't going to like her. I was wrong! I LOVE her. Losing her as my doctor when we moved to Ohio was one of the hard things about leaving.

Can't wait to read yours!

Funnies...

Friday evening we went to Big Spring to be with Reg, Tera and their kids. We were eating dinner and as usual it was a battle to get Emma to eat. Reg was trying to get Abby (their 3 year old) to eat, too.

Reg: Abby, you better sit at this table and eat your dinner. Do you want to go to your bedroom and talk about it? (which translates into discipline)
Abby: No.

A few minutes later Emma was up from the table and Reg found her in Abby's room.

Reg: Emma why aren't you eating your dinner?
Emma: I wanna talk about it.
Reg: With who?
Emma: With Kate.
Reg: I don't think Kate wants to talk about it.
Emma: Yes her does.

Then an explanation of "talking about it" ensued. Emma didn't want to talk about it anymore.


Last night my parents were keeping the kids so Reg, Tera, Jay and I could go meet up with some old friends. The older girls (Emma and Abby) had been in the bedroom for a little while and things were really quiet (never good). Both girls come out and just looked at my mom and dad.

Gigi: What have you girls been doing?
Emma: Coloring on the door.

Gigi goes to the bedroom and sees the coloring on the door. The girls are scolded and Gigi cleans up the mess. A few minutes later...

Gigi: What were you girls thinking coloring on the door?
Emma: I was thinking about Jesus.
Trent (6 year old nephew): They were thinking about Jesus?!?
Gigi: They weren't thinking about Jesus. (To Emma) Jesus wouldn't like that.
Emma: Yes he would.

She's a hot mess, I tell ya!!

Relationships...

Jonathan and I have been talking about this for more than a year and it's just heavy on my heart. We've been talking about friendships. It seems over the last year or two we've had a difficult time building strong relationships with other Christians. I feel like we were just beginning to build those relationships again in Charlotte before we moved, but it took A LONG time. It took less time to build strong, real relationships with people we didn't go to church with. Those friends were more willing to be honest with us about their lives. They were quick to tell us when things were not good, quick to tell us when they were fighting with their spouse, quick to tell us when their mother was sick, quick to tell us...well, everything. Why is this? Here's my theory: I think Christians are less willing to "lay it all out there". I think we are afraid of being judged by our peers, other Christians. Shouldn't this be the group we feel most safe with, not the most reserved? How do we change this? Or has this not been your experience? Thoughts?

News...

I know I haven't been posting on here much and those that were checking our blog probably aren't anymore, but just in case I wanted to share some news with you. I posted this on Facebook yesterday, but I know there are some family and friends who either aren't on Facebook or don't check it often. So here is the note I wrote yesterday...



There are many times that Jonathan gets tapped on the shoulder about possible job opportunities. He usually tells them thanks, but he's happy where he is. The tap he received this time was too hard to ignore. We decided he should pursue this one and see what happened. Well, what happened was that he interviewed last Friday, was offered the position the following Thursday and starts his new job on April 13!



He will be the Director of Finance over the physician network practices for a hopsital system. What does that mean exactly? He will be overseeing financials for all the physician practices the system owns. A Charlotte example would be practices like Mid-Carolina Cardiology. Ohio Health has 60+ practices right now and hopes to double that in two years.



Our house, you might be wondering... We have only lived in our current house for a little less than a year and with the market not being prime to sell a house right now, we are looking to rent it. We have some serious possibilities that we are hoping to finalize this week. You can be praying about that! Our specific prayer is that the Lord would put people in the house who have the same passion for this neighborhood that we do. When we get to Columbus, we will be in an apartment short term while we look for a house. Our desire is to be in a neighborhood similar to the neighborhood where we are now.



We are hopeful and encouraged about a church we found and were able to visit the weekend of Jonathan's job! They seem to have a similar vision as the church we attend now.We are hoping to have the movers here 2 weeks from today and then drive up to Ohio on Good Friday. We'd like to have Saturday to settle as much as we can and then attend Easter services Sunday morning.



I would be completely overwhelmed if the company weren't completely moving us (packing our house and everything)! Don't get me wrong! There is still plenty to do!! I have 9 different to do lists!



This is an exciting time for our family! We are DEEPLY saddened to leave Charlotte and everything and everyone that we love here, but we are confident that Columbus is where God would have us for the next chapter in our life. His mercies are new every morning and He has already been preparing hearts and minds for our arrival there!


A little bit of a bomb shell...I know!!



Anyway, there's the scoop!!

"It hurt my heart"...

Right after lunch, I was busy doing something I couldn't stop. I heard loud noises and knew toys were most likely being dumped. When I was able to get to the living room, Emma had pulled every one of her books off the bookshelf. It was obvious I was not happy with her. She was disciplined and we put the books back on the shelf. Not long after that happened, it was time for naps. Emma took a really good nap which means she wakes up happy (this is not an everyday occurance so I'm ALWAYS so thankful when it does happen). She was getting her snack and she said, "I'm sorry I made you sad." I told her I forgave her and asked how she made me sad. Then she said, "It hurt my heart to make you sad." Again, I asked her how she had made me sad. I had forgotten about the book incident. She told me she made me sad when she threw all the books on the floor and it hurt her heart to sin. Of course I told her again that I forgave her. We talked about sin and how God forgives us when we ask Him to. Then she told me that everyone sins. She may have made me sad earlier in the day, but she certainly made my heart smile this afternoon! As hard as it is sometimes around here, it's nice that the Lord gives me some glimpses of Grace through my sweet daughter.

247 emails and 'Kelly Girls'

As of 7 minutes ago, I've received 247 work-related emails this week. The sheer volume of information that comes to me by desk, phone, conversation, email, and text can be staggering at times. This has been one of those weeks.

In addition to all of this, I had an evening meeting on Tuesday, I went to work early on Wednesday, I stayed at work late on Thursday, and as of 5 minutes ago will be working late tonight.

Most weeks aren't like this one, but when I have a week like this, I miss my girls. Belive it or not, I even miss the crying, whining, and misbehavior. I just want to hold them, squeeze them, and kiss them lots. However, I do have something that helps me to keep sane. I have a playlist on my iPod named 'Kelly Girls'. It is a playlist of music that reminds me of my girls. The music is whimsical, alive, happy, and full of joy and love.

247 emails.....but I have the 'Kelly Girls' to help me through. Ooops...248.

Quantities like 'So Much'

Recently, we've been working with Emma to learn about quantities and size. We talk about little things, big things, too much, a lot, and she is learning her numbers from 1-12. She has even begun negotiating how many M&M's we should dole out. I'll say, "I'll give you 2 M&M's". She will then reply with "I want 5 Mns" (she can't quite say M&M's).

So when Emma began to use the quantity 'so much' I was puzzled. Her typical usage is to say 'Tickle me soooo much'. This morning I finally realized why she was using this usage.

Nicole's favorite book to read to Emma is 'Guess How Much I Love You'. It is about Little Nutbrown Hare and Big Nutbrown Hare and they talk about how much they love one another. To reinforce this, Nicole and I always hug her and tell her 'I love you so much'. Emma now thinks that 'So Much' is a quantity, and it is the maximum possible quantity known to mankind. After all, mommy and daddy tell me that they love me 'So Much' and that is more than anything.....

S L O W . . .

Dear Blog,

I know it's been pretty slow around here lately. Not many posts, hardly any pictures and virtually no comments. It's partly my fault. I'd like to say I am not neglecting you for another, but that would be a lie. The truth is there is another. It's name is Facebook. It's faster and easier to download pictures to, there are more people there I know and there are other fun things besides writing and pictures there. So, I'm not quitting you all together, but most pictures and family updates will be there. So if you are reading this and you haven't jumped on the Facebook band wagon...jump on! It's easy!

Always yours,

Nicole McConnell Kelly (this is how you can find me on Facebook)