36 years ago, in a small naval hospital, a woman labored heavily with her first child. She had been in labor for more than 24 hours, so the doctor told the woman's husband to go home and rest and they'd call him when it was time. He left, and when he arrived at home the phone was ringing. The doctor demanded the man return to the hospital because it was time. By the time the man arrived back at the hospital, his baby daughter had been born.
Me.
It has been a glorious weekend so far. Yesterday, BigDaddyFish came home from work early, so we could go to the pool. We have a wonderful neighborhood indoor pool, with waterslides and fountains and other interesting features, all layed out like a lagoon, complete with water cannons "firing" water at you. BDF HATES to go to the pool, so this was a hugely significant thing. We all, all three kids and BigDaddyFish, had a BLAST, the kids mostly because Daddy was there, BDF because the place is fun. Then we spent time riding around listening to the fire scanner to see what our friends and relatives in the volunteer fire department were up to. We got to see the local engine and truck roll out of the station to reset a fire alarm (that happens a lot here - resetting the alarms, I mean. It isn't often we get to see the apparatus roll out because they tend to already be out, it's fairly busy). A beautiful breeze was blowing, the temperature was perfect; it felt just like being at the beach, without all the sand. Magical.
Today, we slept in, ate the wonderful birthday cake my friend N. baked for me for breakfast (she also brought me a lovely little rose bush that I can plant once we are done enjoying it in the house - she's quite a blessing to us), and ran a few errands, then we went to look for houses in a neighborhood a good 40 miles from here. We found two adorable houses well within our price range to consider. One of them for some reason had not turned up on our internet search, so after we checked out another house on the same street, we pulled up in front of this one to just kind of check it out from the outside. While we were sitting there the agent came up and asked if we were there for the open house. We explained that no, we were just driving by and decided to check it out. She invited us in to look, so Little Man and I went in to walk through. It is an old house, built around 1910, and has been in the process of renovation for years. Parts of it are completely renovated, like the kitchen (YAY), and other parts still need work. One of the bedrooms slopes rather dramatically, so I'd want to get a structural engineer to take a look to make sure it isn't compromised, but simply has character. It has a separate house, really the garage that they converted to storage, with an apartment above it, and it has a shed and gazebo, a couple of ponds, and enough room for a garden, besides. Really a darling house. The agent seemed to take a liking to me, apparently because of the pregnancy, as she asked a lot of questions about that. Since she was on her way out, and apparently wasn't doing another open house on Sunday, she gave my son the chocolate bars she had purchased for the open house for him to share with his sisters, and then she gave me the TWO DOZEN PINK LONG-STEMMED ROSES she had from the open house, too, since they were just "going to go bad in a day and a half." Her words. I had to laugh, since it was my birthday. They are a beautiful salmon color and just smell amazing. In the small town where the house was located, we found the cutest little book shop, and I stayed with Sunny in the car while BigDaddyFish took the big kids in the store. They bought me three books that I didn't have and wanted to read, and adorable toys for the kids. Then we drove around through the countryside in Virginia, and we saw a rainbow. I think it was the first time the kids have seen a real, live rainbow.
When we got home, we watched the Empire Strikes Back. A great, fun day with the people I love the most in this world.
Who could ask for a better birthday present?
Note: This post was supposed to go up on July 22. I was interrupted when trying to write it out, and then a minor emergency happened after 12:15 am. Life goes on. But at least I had a great birthday.
A little late, but no time like the present. Speaking of presents, happy belated birthday. Which was the point of my comment.
Posted by: Emily Drew | August 02, 2006 at 03:39 PM