Where to start… I've moved and am getting settled in. Most boxes are gone, most rooms are somewhat organized. I'm finally connected to Internet, but only after several days of madness, dealing with DSL support, Computer support, no one able to help me get connected using my desktop. Finally tried my laptop, voilà, I'm connected. Still no idea why my desktop won't connect, but I'm exhausted from talking with multiple technicians, configuring, reconfiguring my desktop, working in Safemode, clicking here, rebooting there. Nothing. Not sure where to go from here, but at this point, just tired of the whole thing, particularly since I am actually connected. So, I'll move on… for now.
Much has happened in the last couple of months. I moved into new offices in our new building. Have spent the last few weeks getting settled, adjusting to new surroundings, figuring out where departments are now located, where doctors are now sitting.
Shortly after I moved offices, I spent a week down south with my daughter, son-in-law, my grandson Bubba, and NEW grandson, Uriah. Yeah, I have a new grandson!
Uriah Matthew was born March 13, at 7:33am, via C-section. He weighed 8lb, 9oz, measured 20.5 inches and is perfect and perfectly beautiful. Mommy has recovered and is doing wonderfully. Daddy is as proud as a peacock, with two sons! And Bubba? Well, he has been so adorable. He loves to hold his brother, gives him kisses, and then isn't bothered much with the baby. He's happy and we're happy.
After that amazing and eventful week being grandma, I came home and recovered. No, I wasn't exhausted helping take care of the baby. After all, he sleeps most of the time and Mommy is the primary caregiver, because she's nursing him. No, I was responsible for taking care of Bubba! That involved, getting up when he got up (read early), getting him dressed (read chasing him to get socks or shoes or shirt on him), feeding him (fortunately he likes to eat, so not such a problem), and then keeping up with him as we watched Baby Einstein and VeggieTales (repeatedly) while taking turns kicking and throwing whatever balls he happened upon, and then going outside to go repeatedly up and down the stairs to play in the courtyard and chase whatever balls he happened upon. And he had a plethora of balls; soccer balls, footballs, bouncy balls, basketballs, nerf balls. Of course, most of my time playing with said balls involved running after them or him. OK, so I was tired. But I wouldn't trade a moment spent with him for anything! We had fun and I'm grateful for every moment.
I eventually recovered, only to learn of an opportunity to move out on my own again. I've written about that, so won't elaborate too much, other than to say, it is nice having a place of my own with room for my own things. It's been like Christmas as I opened boxes which had been in storage for four years and found I have a lot of "stuff!" I've put most everything away and am now working on re-arranging it all to be more convenient, accessible. My daughter has visited twice now and it's been nice having room for them. This last time was also nice because I now have a full-size bed for them to sleep on instead of an air mattress. My mom was wanting to get rid of her old headboard and footboard, so I took them and bought a new mattress and box springs and had them all set up when my daughter visited this last weekend. So now all my bedrooms are set up for company to visit. Yay!
This was a wild and crazy weekend, too. It was Mother's Day and Mandy had initially wanted me to come down and spend it with her because Matt was going to be gone fishing with some buddies. Yeah, I know, gone fishing on Mother's Day?! But they had already tried other weekends, and the lodges were booked or one of the guys couldn't get away, so they finally found a weekend that would work for all the guys and booked it, only to find out afterwards that it was Mother's Day weekend. The wives gave their blessings and let them get away anyway. After I moved into my house, I told Mandy to come up here instead and she agreed it would be nice to spend time with family here.
I say it was wild and crazy because several other things were going on this weekend. For one thing, it was opening weekend for the new Star Trek movie. Hey, my sisters and I like going to see shows on opening weekend. It adds to the fun factor, ok! And it was the new Star Trek movie! Let me say this about that… It was AWESOME!!! Yes, we went to see it Friday afternoon and had the theater pretty much to ourselves, which was nice because we got to talk during the movie. No, we were talking about the movie, the various characters and actors and effects. It was way cool and so much fun to laugh at all the references. It was a thoroughly enjoyable movie. So we managed to get that out of the way and then it was time to get ready for the evening event.
I've been remiss in sharing about my friends, Chad and Rica, who have started the process to adopt from China. I've been privileged to be part of Rica's prayer team and participate in the joy of watching as they adopted their two children, Cruz and Isabelle over the past few years. It's been amazing to watch how God has worked things out and how they have been blessed with these two beautiful children. I can't believe Cruz is almost six now. I remember holding him in my arms after they brought him home from the hospital after he was born. Izzie is now four and such a beautiful young lady, but I remember holding her after she came home from the hospital. Such a privilege it has been to be part of their lives. And now, God is opening the door for Chad and Rica to add to their family and He has put it on their hearts to look to China for another daughter. You can follow them as they write about their journey at their blog, Adopting Faith. I'm so excited to see how God will work this all out, but that now brings me to this weekend again.
This was also the weekend that a benefit dinner and silent auction was being held for them to help raise funds for this adoption. I had initially thought I was going to be down south with Mandy for Mother's Day, but after things started falling into place and Mandy decided to come up here, I realized that we would be here for the dinner so we bought tickets and attended.
Now, we had intended to leave Bubba with family and take Uriah with, but at the last minute we decided to bring Bubba along since they were planning to have childcare at the dinner. The kids were being taken care of upstairs while the event was held downstairs. We thought, cool, Bubba would have fun playing with other kids. Good intentions have a way of working contrary to plan. Bubba was not in a sociable mood and between dealing with a sad and fussy two-year-old and a nursing and fussy two-month-old, we left early. We were there briefly to offer support and share the excitement and it was exciting. You can read more at their blog about the evening.
So, that was how the weekend started. Saturday was relatively quiet after that busy Friday. We spent a lazy morning as Bubba played in the back yard and then we got ready, ran a few errands and headed over to my mom's for some family time. We were excited to see my brother and nephew and had some pictures taken of the four generations and then Mandy and I spent a quiet evening getting babies fed and bathed and put to bed. And then we went to bed. It can be tiring getting babies fed, bathed and bedded.
It can be even more tiring getting babies fed, dressed and ready for church in the morning! Of course, we had managed and even had them in the car ready to go. I was the last one out the door because I wanted to make a quick cup of coffee to go and I also had the keys to the house. So, we're in the car on our way, I'm putting lipstick on and Mandy makes a slight turn in the road. The coffee, which was in a travel mug with a lid and sitting in a cup holder next to me, tipped and suddenly coffee had spilled into the seat and all "under" my jeans. I'm ashamed to say that a few expletives escaped before I remembered there were little ears in the back seat. Needless to say, we turned the car around, headed back to the house where I quickly changed and then headed off to church again, where I asked forgiveness for my unruly tongue. So far, we haven't heard Bubba saying anything yet…
Mother's Day progressed to my mom's house where we ate and enjoyed visiting with everyone again, and then Mandy was off on her way home to her husband and I headed home, too, where I am now sitting and writing after getting the house back in order. It's quieter now and I'm missing Bubba running around and whining (he is two you know) and pulling on my hand to go with him wherever he is wanting to go which is usually outdoors somewhere.
So that's it. That's been life for the past few weeks, months. Well, that and the play that I'm rehearsing… Yeah, I'm also doing another play. Why not? Why not add one more thing to my mad schedule? I auditioned in February and landed a part in Rio Arts' Shakespeare in the Park this summer. You can read more at the Rio Arts website, but we're doing "Taming of the Shrew," this year and I play Baptista Minola, the "mother" of the Shrew. Yeah, I know this normally is a male role, but they decided to make the father a mother and I now am rehearsing three nights a week for the play which will be staged the end of June. As always, would love to see you there.
So now, that's it. That's all… for now.
All Things Elda 
