Hibbets' Happenings

Well, here's my Mother's Day photo for 2008. You can't beat that! We're in the countdown now. It's almost bedtime; when we wake up in the morning (4:30), we'll have just enough time to get our last few things together and into the car, and off we go to the hospital! And then life changes -- again.

David's mom is meeting us here around 5:00 in the morning to stay with Joshua, get him ready, and bring him to the hospital closer to 7:00. Jayden is with my parents tonight, and they'll do the same thing -- we'll all meet up at the hospital in the morning. My grandmother is driving up from Alexandria (2 hour drive for her in the morning); my new sis-in-law works at the hospital, so she's coming into work early in the morning to be with us. I don't know that I'll get to see anyone until after the delivery (unless anyone gets there really early and sees me before I go to the O.R.). That's been some of the worst part with the other two -- hav ing to wait by myself in the O.R., until FINALLY I get to be with everyone else!

I made him a "birthday cake" tonight. Jayden seems to be handling all this very well, but I would imagine CAKE can't hurt things any, either. I made a carrot cake; it's out of the oven now and cooling, so in a little while I can top it with some cream cheese "icing."

This has definitely not sunk in yet. But I remember it being that way before, too. For some reason it's all a little surreal. I guess I'm too literal and practical. Well, reality will be here soon enough!

It was a great mother's day. The weather was beautiful, the kids were both in a good mood, church services were good, we had a nice lunch with Mom and my family, and David and I continued our tradition with a "last meal" at our favorite Mexican restaurant (it's been a different Mexican restaurant each time, but Mexican food nonetheless). Tonight we split the veggie fajitas at Chile Verde, yum! And we brought a little bit of leftovers home David can have for lunch one day this week.

Oh, a little bit of news about one of the other kids: Tuesday morning we're having a home evaluation for a ceiling lift for Joshua. It is portable, not permanent, which is good since we know we won't be in this house long enough to justify installing a ceiling lift system. OCDD will buy it for us if and when they have the funds to do so. I think it will be a good thing.

And Jayden is potty trained! She made up her mind and did it all by herself two weeks ago today. She's done great. So I only have two in diapers after all! I must admit, I was hopeful at the beginning but I had given up. Thank you, Lord! This is a nice blessing. (O ye of little faith!)

That reminds me that I really enjoyed my Bible reading in Psalms this morning. It talked about God delivering us and His mercy towards us. His works are wonderful! Let the redeemed of the Lord say so!

Joshua's doing his nightly crying. Let me go feed him and then maybe he'll be ready to go to sleep. (Here's hoping!)

These are not trick questions. They are straight questions with straight answers.

1. Name the one sport in which neither the spectators nor the participants know the score or the leader until the contest ends.

2. What famous North American landmark is constantly moving backward?

3. Of all vegetables, only two can live to produce on their own for several growing seasons. All other vegetables must be replanted every year. What are the only two perennial vegetables?

4. What fruit has its seeds on the outside?

5. In many liquor stores, you can buy pear brandy, with a real pear inside the bottle. The pear is whole and ripe, and the bottle is genuine; it hasn't been cut in any way. How did the pear get inside the bottle?

6. Only three words in standard English begin with the letters "dw" and they are all common words. Name two of them.

7. There are 14 punctuation marks in English grammar. Can you name at least half of them?

8. Name the only vegetable or fruit that is never sold frozen, canned, processed, cooked, or in any other form except fresh.

9. Name 6 or more things that you can wear on your feet beginning with the letter "S."




Answers to Quiz:

1. The one sport in which neither the spectators nor the participants know the score or the leader until the contest ends : Boxing

2. North American landmark constantly moving backward: Niagara Falls (The rim is worn down about two and a half feet each year because of the millions of gallons of water that rush over it every minute.)

3. Only two vegetables that can live to produce on their own for several growing seasons: Asparagus and rhubarb.

4. The fruit with its seeds on the outside: Strawberry.

5. How did the pear get inside the brandy bottle? It grew inside the bottle. (The bottles are placed over pear buds when they are small, and are wired in place on the tree. The bottle is left in place for the entire growing season. When the pears are ripe, they are snipped off at the stems.)

6. Three English words beginning with dw: Dwarf, dwell and dwindle.

7. Fourteen punctuation marks in English grammar: Period, comma, colon, semicolon, dash, hyphen, apostrophe, question mark, exclamation point, quotation marks, brackets, parenthesis, braces, and ellipses.

8. The only vegetable or fruit never sold frozen, canned, processed, cooked, or in any other form but fresh: Lettuce.

9. Six or more things you can wear on your feet beginning with "s": Shoes, socks, sandals, sneakers, slippers, skis, skates, snowshoes, stockings, stilts.

Reality has both set in, and still not. We both said it hasn't completely sunk in that we're having a baby Monday. This week is final exams -- enough said! We're both just so busy that thinking ahead even until next week is hard to do. (It's like the Bible verse, sufficient unto the day are the evils thereof -- or something like that!)

I think we have everything in place that has to be. Nothing extra, no where near as much as I would like to have done -- but the things that have to be done are. Everything else we'll just do as we can. And I think some of that has to do with him being Baby #3 -- I'm able to be not QUITE as uptight, because I know things will work out, and that not everything has to be done in advance. The only thing I don't think I've done that I need to do this week is fill out his paperwork for the pediatrician. I brought it home and then never filled it out. And I haven't been preadmitted at the hospital yet. I tried to call yesterday, but was unsuccessful, so maybe I'll try again this afternoon.

So, the plan (as best there can be one): unless he doesn't like this arrangement and wants to rush things, we go to the hospital 5:30 Monday morning to go get him. We're scheduled for the OR at 7:00am. So Gabriel Rayne will arrive shortly thereafter! I think the normal plan is to keep me 3 nights, which means we'll get to come home on Thursday. Our parents will help us with the two "older kids" while we're in the hospital. Joshua will still be in school during the day and get to be with grandparents at night; Jayden is not in school next week, but she can be with David and my Dad during the day and with grandparents at night. This way, David will be able to be with the baby and me at the hospital at nights, which I'm excited about. It will be fine if I have to be by myself some during the day, but I'm glad I won't have to be by myself at night. That's important to me, and special.

I checked this morning on the video camera, and we have a blank 60-minute tape ready to go. (Just one, but that should last us until we could get to the store to get more. Plus, this summer, I'm going to work on transferring these tapes to DVD -- so I don't plan on buying many more video camera tapes, if any.) We bought LOTS of extra batteries for the camera, and there's plenty of room on the SD card. AND we found out we'll have wireless Internet in the hospital, so we'll bring the laptop with us and be able to both download pictures (unload the camera) and SHARE pictures from the hospital! Hooray! There's been several little "bummers" along the way with this pregnancy (only two grainy, yucky ultrasounds, and those were both early; so no fun 3D/4D ultrasound this time; I have no idea how much the dr thinks he'll weigh or his position right now -- which it doesn't matter, but it's kind of fun to know). So I'm excited about this new thing for us -- being able to email friends and share pictures from the hospital! (Hmm, I may need a lap desk! But I can probably just use pillows.) I've been a little concerned about my "nutrition" in the hospital (I'm not expecting them to offer me much I can eat), but (1) I know David can bring me something as needed, and (2) he's met and made friends with one of the dieticians at St. Francis through his courses -- go figure! So she told him she'd take care of me. We've got a few snacks put together to bring with us, too. I know I'll be fine.

I've got a classroom full of students taking their final exam right now. They finish at noon; I'll eat lunch with David and then spend the rest of the day grading these and working on their course grades. I really hope to get these first two classes completely finished and grades posted before giving my third (and last) final Thursday morning. Then I'll be able to just finish up their grades at the end of the week, and then Switch Gears to Baby Gabriel's arrival! I'm looking forward to that.

Alright, I have a handful of papers turned in which I think I'll start grading. I could use a bathroom break, but I'll have to try to make it!

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