Recovered Chairs

Last summer, I bought four chairs at a garage sale for $10. I had grand plans to paint them and recover them, but then I got pregnant.

And then I had a baby, who, once he started crawling, took it upon himself to tear the raffia off the chairs.  Actually, looking at the "before" picture, below, I can hardly believe how much he wrecked them!

So a make over was long overdue.

And although I truly meant to recover them myself, my wonderful, generous mother took over for me and did them all herself.

Originally, I planned to paint or re-stain the chairs, but I guess I got lazy? But they still look infinitely better than they did, so they might just stay unpainted.

Uncle Simpson

Our long-time friend (and CHS '04 classmate), David Simpson, came over for dinner this week. David told us all about his exciting exploits in Cincinnati and played with Ezra, before he and Seth headed off to trivia at Farelli's.

Ezra is always delighted to have attention and now that he has a brief respite from teething, was back to his cheerful self. He particularly enjoyed "Uncle Simpson"'s watch and a piggy back ride.

MBR II

"March Basketball Retreat"
"Multi Baby Reunion"

"Mint Banana Rhubarb"
"Mint Banana Raisin"
"Mint Banana Rooster"
"Mint Banana Red"

"March Cracker Reunion"

You can see how the discussion about the what the initials "MBR" really stand for broke down...

In March 2008, Seth and his friends Eric Meldrum and Kaleb Paddock (as well as Eric's wife-to-be, Rachel and their friend David Andrews) went to the first round of the NCAA College Basketball tournament (i.e., "March Madness"), at the Staples Center in L.A.

Then, in March 2010, the three of them (and Eric's dad) drove the Meldrum's RV from Winamuca, NV, to Salt Lake City, UT, for sweet sixteen and elite eight games.

And then, in March 2011, Seth and I (eight months pregnant) flew to Reno, NV, and met up with Eric and Rachel (and two month old Jesse!) and Praus Nichols and we drove to Truckee, CA, where we met Kaleb and T.J. Stone at Kaleb's uncle's cabin. (Truckee had so much snow! It was up to the second story windows of the cabin! See photos here.) This was the first year Eric and Seth started calling "it" "MBR," short for "Multi Baby Reunion," apparently.

So this year, it was our turn to host. Eric, Rachel and Jesse (now 13 months old) drove up on Tuesday night and Praus and Kaleb flew in Wednesday night. Seth made t-shirts to commemorate the now annual reunion/retreat and we decided that actually "MBR" stood for "Multi Baby Reunion".

We filled out brackets, watched a lot of basketball, Jesse and Ezra "wrestled," we went bowling, we ate out a lot, we watched a lot of basketball, the guys played a few games of basketball, we played Clue, we went to Seattle and we watched a lot of basketball.

MBR II t-shirts

Bowling alley

Clue

Ezra and Jesse

Lots of laughter

Car ride high five

Ferry from Bremerton to Seattle

Pike Place

MBR II

Kevin and Astrid met up with us for dinner

80th Birthday Celebration!

My Grandpa (my mother's father) just turned 80 on March 18th. So we (his four children and eleven grandchildren and one great grandchild, and their respective spouses/significant others) went to his house in Shoreline, WA to celebrate.

Ezra and his great-grandpa!

Ruth and her boyfriend, Jake.

Bonus: the quilt my mom made Grandpa for Christmas 2011

BFF Trip to Vancouver

My attendance at Covenant High School was instrumental to my life in many ways: spiritually, academically, and relationally. Not only did I marry one of my classmates, but I also met several girls there who have become my nearest and dearest friends.

Though Hilary still lives in Tacoma, and I get to see her most, Ali moved to Moscow, ID, and Charissa moved to Vancouver, WA. So when Ali came to Tacoma for two weeks, we hurriedly planned a trip down to Vancouver for the weekend.

Hilary, Ali and Sam and Ezra and I drove down to Vancouver Friday morning, and we hung out at Charissa's and went to lunch, and then Ezra and I took the train back to Tacoma in order to fulfill some previous obligations (but Hilary and Ali and Sam spent the night). Though a quick trip (especially for Ezra and I), it was wonderful to spend time with my friends, and for Ezra to spend time with his BFF, Sam.

Ezra's Birth Story

My mother, and of course Ezra's grandmother, recently started taking a few classes at Pierce College. For her English 101 class, she wrote up a brief version of Ezra's birth from her perspective:

Grandma and Grandson

My husband and I pulled into the driveway of our house at the same time our son-in-law, Seth, did. As the three of us walked into the house, we found Autumn, our daughter and Seth’s wife, leaning over the couch breathing heavily. Hannah, another of our daughters, stood there rubbing her back, but left as soon as she saw us, saying “Oh good, someone else can take over; I’ve been doing this for an hour! I’m going out to the fire pit to join everyone else.”

Autumn was a week overdue with her first baby, and obviously things were finally starting to progress. Her dad didn’t want to see his darling daughter in any distress, so he headed out to the fire pit as well. Seth and I spent the next thirty minutes trying to make Autumn comfortable and figure out if she was ready to go to the birthing center. As we timed her contractions, she didn’t appear to meet the criteria the midwife gave, so we didn’t call. Then Autumn said she had to go to the bathroom, so we slowly and tediously walked her through the family room, through the kitchen, down the hall and finally into the bathroom. Once there, Autumn said she wanted to go to the birth center, so Seth went to load their bags into the van and bring it closer. I started to run upstairs to get stuff ready to spend the night to support my daughter through her long, arduous labor until I realized we had left Autumn alone by herself and decided to go back to her. As soon as she saw me re-enter the bathroom, she breathed “He’s coming!” as she stood bracing herself against the counter. In complete denial, I argued, “No, he’s not!” but I still ran to tell Seth, who was on the phone with the midwife. As I quickly returned to the bathroom, Autumn said, “Mom, you have to catch him!” and I squatted down next to her as his head popped out.

Ezra William Parkinson, 5 minutes old

Now, each of my own six children had been born screaming and wriggling, so when I saw this baby, my grandson, completely still and quiet, I was filled with dread. This dread turned to horror as I saw something wrapped around his neck. Oh, no!

In seemingly slow-motion, I made myself reach out and touch it… Then I slowly lifted it up and it turned out to be a scrawny, little arm. The baby startled, took a gulp and started crying. And before I could blink, the rest of his body whooshed out and instinctively my arms shot out and caught him. Oh, the relief! He was alive!! As I crouched there holding a tiny, bony bottom in one hand and a screaming, round head in the other, I was overjoyed that he was alive and apparently healthy. Finally, I heard Seth coming down the hall and I exclaimed, “Look what I have!” As he stood there, in shock, I shouted, “Go call the midwife!” He ran back down the hall as I continued to squat there with my hands full, unable to do anything else. Autumn continued to stand, holding onto the counter.

Soon Seth came in and shoved his phone between my shoulder and ear and asked me to talk to the midwife. She told me to call 911 as they would get there sooner than she would, though she would stay on the phone until they arrived. So, I thrust the still-screaming-baby into Seth’s arms so I could pull out my phone.

As I had a phone to each ear, Hannah came in from the fire pit to use the bathroom to get ready for bed. She heard and saw the baby and turned around to go tell the others outside, but barely opened the door to yell “baby” when Autumn called her, saying “Hannah, I need you!” So she ran back to the bathroom to help out. We had to maneuver the still-connected-to-the-umbilical-cord-baby around so she could sit down and get off her trembling legs. As this was happening, the group around the fire pit sat there, wondering what Hannah had yelled so quickly from the house. They made Ruth, another of Autumn’s sisters, go in and find out what was happening. When Ruth walked up to the bathroom, she didn’t see or hear the now-quiet-baby, but only saw blood all over the floor. She ran back outside and threw up in front of the fire pit crowd, yelling ”Blood everywhere! Worst crime scene ever!” and threw up again. This sent the whole group into a frenzy of fear, which increased to complete pandemonium when they saw an aid car and fire truck pull up to our house.They thought something serious had gone wrong!

After much confusion, tears, prayer, and attempts to comfort one another outside, the fire pit crowd learned of the joyous, albeit, astonishing news: that mother and baby were perfectly healthy and happy.

Ezra, several hours old

Welcome!

One of our goals for 2012 is to be more diligent to stay in contact with the people we love. This, in part, means sharing our lives with them by relaying our activities and thoughts and milestones and photos (and so on!). Thus, this blog was born.

Seth, Autumn and Ezra (July 2011)