The Birth of Taaviah Pearl Joy

October of 2017 I found out I was pregnant with our little one. On February 14, 2018 I had an ultrasound. Everything looked good. My due date by my calculation was Sunday June 24, 2018. The ultrasound estimated my due date as June 27, 2018.

The pregnancy went well and not many hiccups. On June 18^th early in the morning I called my midwife to tell him I was in labor. I didn’t wait for the normal signs such as bloody show because he had already missed 2 or 5 births. I was having regular contractions however once he got here and set up they petered out. We had set up the birth tub and filled it, but nothing progressed. I was not dilated or effaced at all. So the midwife went home and we continued to wait. Every night we walked with the kids about a mile. We did this almost every night until I finally had her. The walks were nice and the kids enjoyed them, the littlest ones asked each night if we were going to go for a walk. The horse flies weren’t fun to deal with though. On July 4^th I went for a walk and actually ended up getting a blister on my heal. That was weird because I had walked in the same shoes every night for 2 ½ weeks and did get a blister until that day.

My due date of June 24^th came and went. I was pretty sure she was a girl and with Talitha and Tabitha being about 5 days late, I figure she would come by June 29^th. That date also came and went. My body was doing some stuff but I wasn’t having contractions at night like I would with some of my other pregnancies. Her head was above my public bone and so she wasn’t engaged at all. I tried things to help her engage but nothing seemed to work. With homebirths you technically only have until 42 to deliver at home. On July 3^rd I went to my midwife appointment. We discussed doing a biophysical profile on the baby on Thursday or the following Tuesday if I hadn’t had her. I didn’t want to spend the money so was praying to have her before that. My midwife recommended different things to help with labor. Three orgasms in 24 hours, walking, castor oil, etc. I was determined to go into labor that week. So we tried for orgasms which had worked with some of my other pregnancies. It didn’t work with this one, though I did have bloody show the morning on July 4^th. I called my midwife and let him know. I knew my body was really ready, but because the head wasn’t engaged I wasn’t going into labor. With Talitha and Tabitha they too were high, but I think being 8 years younger my body was better able to go into labor anyways. My midwife had said that if I tried Castor Oil to do it early in the morning because you don’t want to have to be up all night going to the bathroom.

On July 5^th I woke up and took castor oil around 5:45 AM. I put it in some juice and plugged my nose and drank it. The problem was that though I know that 2 Tablespoons is 1 oz and I needed to take 2 oz at 5:45 in the morning I only put in 1 oz of Castor Oil. I figured this out about 7:00 AM when I started thinking about how much I had taken. The Castor Oil did clean me out. I had some cramping and at one point I was nauseas for a bit. However, because I only took 1 oz the Castor Oil didn’t put me into labor. I called Bill and talked to him about 7:30 AM to tell him I took Castor Oil and ask if I should take another ounce since I took the wrong amount. He let me know that him and his wife had actually come down the day before and stayed in a hotel knowing that when I went into labor he wouldn’t have much time to get here from Montrose which is 1.5 hours away. He then said I could take more Castor Oil or I could do Homeopathic stuff but he didn’t want me to do both. Though the Castor Oil wasn’t horrendous I opted to try the homeopathics because it was hard for me to think about going through more cramps and nausea. He arrived at 11:00 AM with the Homeopathics. I took two pills of three different one every 15 minutes for one hour. I started taking them at 11:30. At 12:30 I was having some contractions but not real strong. I called Bill and he recommended I take two more doses and then wait a couple of hours. At 12:45 I took a dose and then went for a short walk. My contractions were 2 minutes apart but not real strong. At 1:05 PM I took a last dose of the Homeopathics and then laid down for a nap. Bill had said that in Russia the women were either walking or laying down resting but not sitting . I went to sleep and slept for one hour. I woke up at 2:10 PM and when I got up I could feel that the baby had shifted. Her head was more engaged. I did the dishes and walked around the house. Contractions started at about 2:30 PM, I called Bill and asked if I should take more Homeopathics. It was decided to just wait a bit to see if contractions continued. They did continue and I didn’t have to take anymore. I walked around and around our table after I finished cleaning the kitchen. At about 3:00 PM Gil started a war movie that we filtered through VidAngel. I was keeping track of my contractions on my phone using a stop watch that has a lap feature. We had filled up the pool that morning and so it was ready to go though I asked Gil to put more water in it. I wasn’t sure how warm I wanted it because of it being summer. It ended up being about 95 degrees. We also filled it ¾ fulls.

At 3:30 PM I called Bill and asked him to be at our house at 4:00 PM. He arrived at 4:00 PM and set everything up. That was done by 4:30 and at 4:34 when he was getting ready to check heart tones on the baby, my water broke. At that point I got into the pool. I could still see the movie. The birth tub was in the kids room and so I could look out and see the TV. It was really interesting because I have read and heard that labor is mental, and women can have blocks that keep labor from progressing. Well, I have to say most of my labors I have put on Fernando Ortega and I labor listening to his music which is calming. The movie we were watching was not so calming and it got over at 4:55 or so and it wasn’t until that was over that my body started going through transition. I had Gil put on Fernando Ortega and add some hot water to the tub as 95 degrees wasn’t hot enough to help with the pain as much as I wanted it to. I could also feel a change mentally after the movie was over. It was like my mind told my body it was now time to get to work and get the baby out. I wonder if I would have had her earlier if we hadn’t been watching the movie. I do know that things changed for me mentally after it was over. Transition started at about 4:55. At about 5:03 I told Bill and Gil that the baby was coming. I feel the birth tub was too full. I would have preferred a little less water in it. I started pushing at about 5:04 and she was delivered at 5:07 PM. She came out face down as she was supposed to, but her chin wasn’t flexed and so instead of birthing the smaller part of her head, I birthed the hole circumference of her head. I had pain from hip to hip as I pushed her out. When she came out she was blue and her heart beat was 30, but she had good muscle tone. She umbilical cord also was not pulsing. We stimulated her and she color improved along with her heart beat and she started crying. The cord went up around the back of her neck and then back down. Though it wasn’t wrapped clear around her neck we think that the cord may have gotten pinched for up to a minute which is why she was blue and had a low heart rate. However, she wasn’t in distress and she was not limp. Bill said her eyes were open when she came out.

I would say this was my second hardest labor because of how she came out. Though Azariah and Zeb both came out posterior I don’t remember them being as painful. Uriah who had the cord wrapped around his neck three times and the placenta detached as I pushed so he could come out was the most painful, but I believe Taaviah was second to him in pain.

The birth was beautiful, and I am so glad that everything went well. After 9 births I am still amazed and awed at the process. Though it is painful, the Word of God is very true when it says in John 16:21 "Whenever a woman is in labor she has pain, because her hour has come; but when she gives birth to the child, she no longer remembers the anguish because of the joy that a child has been born into the world.” 

Taaviah (TAH-vee-uh) Pearl Joy Lawton. Taaviah means beloved or adored by God. Pearl is after her Great-great Grandmother (she shares the same birthday, this is Taneil's Grandpa's mom.) and Joy because she is a joy to our family. She was born at 5:07 pm on July 5, 2018. She weighed 8# 8oz, and was 20 inches long.

Tikvah's Birth Story

Tikvah’s Birth Story

I became pregnant with our 8^th baby in December of 2014. What I joy it was to know that the Lord had blessed us once again with another little life to train up in the way of the Lord. We aren’t perfect parents and all of my children can tell you how we fall short and have to apologize to them, yet as sinners saved by grace, we rejoice in the forgiveness of our Lord. This little one was very much wanted, and we looked forward to having her.

My pregnancy went well and I had very few issues during it. My back did go out at one point and that was painful for a couple of weeks. Everything else went well.

My due date was Thursday, September 3^rd, 2015. For two weeks before this date I would have some contractions but they would always stop and weren’t low on my abdomen, but high. However, I knew that my body was preparing for the birth. Our little one was high and the hair on my legs didn’t grow very fast so I was pretty sure the baby was a girl. All of my girls have been high and all of my boys low except for Uriah who had the cord around his neck three times.

I heard that curry and spicy foods can put one into labor, so on Friday September 4^th when I went to lunch with my Mom and Dad, I ate some of my Dad’s spicy curry soup from the Chinese restaurant we ate at. This was in hopes that it might put me in labor. When nothing happened I figured it didn’t work or wasn’t enough. That evening around 7 pm we put the movie “Home” into the computer to watch with the children. At 8 pm I was having contractions that were consistent and hard enough to be real contractions, however after the movie was over they stopped. So once we got the children in bed I suggested a walk around the fields. Usually a walk will get labor going if it is on the verge. Well we walked the whole way around the field and I did not have a signal contraction. I put thoughts of having my baby that night out of my mind so I could sleep. We went to bed around 10:30 pm. I had a hard time falling asleep and was just dozing off and on when at 11:45 pm I had a contraction that made my eyes pop open. I waited for two more contracts, each happened 5 minutes apart and were low and strong. 

I knew this was it. I got up and told Gil we needed to get the birth tub filled. We put our table on its side and put the birth tub in the middle of the room. We then started filling it. I knew from previous times that the hot water heater would run out of hot water long before the tub was filled, so I had my two 4 gallon stock pots on the stove to boil. We then used pots to fill at the sind and dump in the pool until the hot water heater ran out of hot water. I had failed to buy a new clean hose to use to fill the birth tub. I had thought about it, but always forgot when I went to the store. All the other hoses around the place have had dirty water run through them so I didn’t want to use them. By the time we used all the hot water out of the water heater, the two stock pots of water were boiling. We dumped those in the pool and then started adding cold water to bring the temperature down from 120 degrees. Meanwhile, as we filled the pool this is what else happened…

At 12:15 am I called my midwife who lives 1.5 hours away from my house. He then called Brook who assists him and lives in Ouray. He said he would wait for her, but to call him if things changed and he would leave without her. Well, for all my other seven births I have had contractions for 4-6 hours before I delivered so I figured we would be good this time. I didn’t wait a long time after the contractions started to call him, and so I wasn’t concerned. I also texted my friend who really wanted to see the birth and let her know I was in labor. 

Gil and I continued to fill the pool. At 12:45 am I called my midwife back to see if he had left yet. My contractions were getting stronger but not bad. He was in his car in his driveway ready to leave the minute Brook arrived. At our house we were having a major rain storm and it was moving south towards where the midwife was coming from.

At 1:15 am I called the midwife back and found out they were on the Montrose side of Delta. That meant they were still a ways away. I also received a text from my friend that said she was having issues with her contacts. The contacts had not been in a neutralizing solution long enough and they were burning her eyes. So she wasn’t able to leave her house yet.

Gil and I continued to fill the birth pool. The hot water from the stock pots allowed us to get it filled up faster since we had plenty of cold water to bring the temperature down.

At 1:30 am I called my midwife again and found that they were about 1 hour away in normal conditions but it was pouring rain on them and so they could not go any faster.

At 1:40 I finally got in the birth pool. The whole room was very warm because I had shut off the A/C not wanting the room to be too cool for the baby once the baby was born. Plus we had been making it humid by boiling water. The birth pool was 105 degrees when I got in and we added some more cold water after I got in. My friend arrived just as I was getting in the pool. I called the Midwife and told him I was getting close to delivery. He said to call him if I was going to deliver.

At this time, I had Gil get the birthing stuff out and told him to get the bulb syringe out. Then I told my friend to get the “What to do if the midwife hasn’t arrived yet” sheet from the fridge. I told her, you can read it if you want, but you don’t have to if you don’t want to. I could tell that I was getting close and with a few more contractions, I would be pushing. I asked my friend to call the midwife and tell him I was getting ready to push. It was probably around 2:00 am. Gil was right there by my side ready to help in whatever way he could. Bill, my midwife, said that if I felt a cord to make sure I got out of the water. 

At this point I lost track of time. On my first push, I noticed that I didn’t have the typical feeling of my water breaking. I pushed again and the bag of waters was coming out with the baby, meaning the baby was being born in caul. This means that the amniotic sac has not broken. I reached down and pinched the sac trying to break it. It was hard to break. I have never had this happen before so it was a new experience. I finally ripped the sack and pulled a large piece off. I then felt for a cord and thought I felt it so I stood up. At this point the head had crowned. Gil walked over to flip on the overhead light as we just had a side light turned on up to this point. While he walked over and turn on the light, I delivered our little girl. She came out just fine with no issues. Her cord went from her belly button up around the back of her neck and then to the placenta. It wasn’t even wrapped once around her neck, so no problems with the cord. Gil later told me that I was suppose to read his mind, because he really wanted to catch the baby this time since he has never done it before. Well, he failed to tell me this until after she was out. Kind of a bummer for him that I didn’t know what he was thinking.  I could have waited a few seconds so he could have caught her. But we were both glad everything went well and she was fine.

 

I delivered the placenta and got out of the pool. This birth was much easier then Uriah’s birth. I was actually standing when I delivered her, which worked well. I sat on a chair for a little bit and then handed her over to Gil to hold while I took a shower. The midwife and assistant arrived at about 2:40 am, about twenty minutes after I delivered her at 2:18 am. 

I was amazed at how good I felt after 24 hours. My previous birth was very hard because Uriah had the cord wrapped around his neck three times and I had to push so hard. With this birth, I was reminded how good I could feel after a birth. It was a beautiful birth and another unique delivery. The midwife wasn’t present, but the Lord was present and in complete control. He took care of this mama and my baby. My contractions only last 2 ½ hours. The fastest labor and delivery I have ever had.

The next morning, Gil and I were in our room sleeping when the children woke up. With Uriah and Zuri’s births there was no tub so they didn’t know we had the baby until we told them. This time, the birth tub was still set up and so they knew I had the baby. Uriah, who is 18 months old, was way more excited about the tub of water in the middle of the room than his new little sister.

After three days we finally settled on the name Tikvah Faith Lawton. Tikvah means hope in Hebrew. She weighed 8# and was 20 inches long, born at 2:18 am on Satruday September 5, 2015. A beautiful little girl, this makes the count even at four girls and four boys.

2012 Ladies Retreat

It is always nice to get away and enjoy time with other ladies. This last weekend I was privileged to go on the Twin Peaks Bible Camp Ladies Retreat. The speaker was Kathy Ptazak from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. It was a very good time spending time with ladies from all over, especially ladies from my church. Here are a few pictures of our time.

Catching Aspen leaves as the wind blows them off.

 The cabin

Taking us up to the cabin so we call haul our stuff down in the gator.

As great as the retreat was for me, I had to take time and plan out meals for my family while I was gone and then when I am gone I wonder how things are going for Gil. He decided to keep a little journal of what was going on at home so here is what Gil wrote with a little editing and my comments in Italics:

Friday night:

Tirzah had started milking the goats before I got home and also helped Azariah and I get the eggs. However, Tirzah left the milk room without telling me what goats she had milked. She allowed a lot of flies into the milk room and failed to get Vanilla into the stall. After milking I come inside and 

Tirzah is listening to Lamplighter Theater while Tally, Tabby and Zuri are outside in the playhouse. The other two (Azariah and Zeb) have Legos all over the living room. There are also clothes all over the table. When I came in, no one knew where Zuri was. And my Wonderful Wife (WW) left no instructions for milk (meaning to save it or separate it), along with the above things, the carrots and potatoes in the chicken stew were still hard. (I didn't get them in the crock pot till about 2:30, I was hoping they would be done, but they weren't). WW did try to have supper made and ready,and i am very thankful for all the preparation my WW made. She is very thoughtful about taking care of me when she is gone. The children stopped playing and cleaned up and Zuri was still alive.

Once Zuri was found and the children started doing what they needed to do, I started separating the milk and turned the crock pot to high. The children, except Tirzah and Zuri, went outside to play. I finish separating the milk and am now washing the milk stuff.

My WW does not clean the sink or the rags in the way I do. Dirty scrubbies, and  wash cloths at the bottom of the sink not spread out and food in the strainers in the drain. I want to scream, but I carry on bravely amidst the messy sink and dirty scrubbies, watching my older boys and younger daughters play. Basically running around on the lawn yelling. All is fine for a while until I look up and see Tabby crying and Azariah on his knees yelling at the top of his lungs at himself. I am not sure what he is saying, something to the effect of "I am so stupid. Daddy is going to kill me. Why did I do that? I killed Tabby…" I watch and Tabby had stopped crying and she was standing up. She seemed ok, but Azariah is still carrying on and on. About this time I am washing the milk stuff, when Megan comes out to her car. She sees Azariah screaming and goes over to see why Azariah is yelling. She then sees that Tabby has an owwie. I can't see anything until she picks up tabby and brings her over, then as she gets closer I see the blood. Her hair on the left side is bloody and there is blood all over her neck and shoulder. So we have a head wound,( nothing new for our house).
( To add a little extra info from Aunt Megan, She was on her way to meet someone, and was already late, but she took the time to go see what was going on. She walked over and tried to console Azariah as he is screaming about being stupid and killing or hurting Tabby, she tried to tell him it was ok, but then Tabby turned and Megan saw the blood. So here is Megan dressed up and ready to go out, and she has this little bloody girl. Megan then carefully picks up Tabby to bring her in, but Tabby is all bloody and so Megan has to hold her carefully so as not to be covered in blood herself. Aunt Megan picks Tabby up so that she is holding her like she is sitting in a chair. Tabby starts to reach around to hold onto Aunt Megan's clothes (think blood on the hand) and Aunt Megan says "Here, hold my hand Tabby." Tabby complies with no problems. She then carries her carefully inside our house. Now Talitha our 4 year old, our empathetic little child, is trying to help. Megan is trying to see if Tabby has a concussion or not so she asks her what her name is, "What is your name?" she asks Tabby. However Tally answers for Tabby of course, "Tabby!" Megan says "Tally be quiet", and asks Tabby again "What is your name?" Tally then whispers, "Tabby". At this point, Megan gives up on getting Tally to not answer and Tabby to answer. Tally isn't very good at not talking. Thank you Aunt Megan for your help.)

I take Tabby and set her down in the sink and start to see just how much of a head wound she has.  First I take off her shirt and start to run it under cold water to try to get the blood out and Megan reminds me that hydrogen peroxide is good for that. (Thanks for that Megan, I had forgotten that) Tabby is perfectly quiet  and calm as I examine her. She had a deep split on her head, about ½ inch long, a pretty good cut. A fair amount of blood, but not profusely bleeding. Some pain but not so much that I can’t look at it and clean it. Megan asks if we have any paper towels. Talitha, the ever helpful child says "I'll go get one." She runs out to the barn, gets a paper towel and runs it back in to me. Megan saw that it was one little paper towel, this was rather comical as it was so small. As Megan was bringing Tabby in, Azariah finally gets up and I see he is swinging something around which I think is a chain dog leash. I am already guessing he was swinging that and whacked his little sis in the head. He runs off and doesn’t come in yet. Tally is in helping me with Tabby. After she went out to the milk room and got me a paper towel she then tries to be very helpful by suggesting a shower and special soap. I go out to the barn to get some bactine, and I tell Azariah and Zeb to come inside which they do. Megan has left by this time.

 Tabby's wound

I give Tabby a shower and ask Tirzah to help me, she had been asleep since I started washing the milk stuff. (What Gil didn't know was that I had asked Tirzah to start milking before Gil got home, but since she tends to sneeze and itch when she is in the barn around the goats, I told her to ask Gramgee for allergy medicine. That is why she had gone to sleep, but Gil didn't know that at the time.) I got upset with Tirzah because she was not helping with anything, I asked her to bring me some soap, and she just laid on the couch. She finally got up to help me by getting supper for everyone else. Azariah was taking care of Zuri for me. I finished washing Tabby and then I tried to find some thing to close up her cut, I couldn’t find anything and since it had stopped bleeding I just put medicine on it and a band aid and as far as Tabby was concerned she was as good as new. Tirzah got Zuri ready for bed and gave him a bottle. She then read proverbs and I prayed. Azariah, and Tally crashed on the couch, and Zeb and Tirzah went to bed.  They fell asleep fast. Tabby was up for another half hour or so. I finally finished washing the milk stuff and everything at 9:00 pm.

I thank the Lord that Tabby was not hit in her eye or face, and Azariah was not being mean or angry when he did it. It was just a careless mistake. I talked to him about needing to help Tabby and not feel sorry for himself, but I found out it was not a chain that he hit her with, no it was a rope which Megan told me, but seemed odd that just a rope would make the cut Tabby had. Well a rope will do that when it has a rock tied in a knot in the rope. Picture my hand to on my forehead here. This is my son…

Well some people thrive on stress, not me I have a very low stress tolerance level. When stuff goes wrong, I feel like the world is ending, so this evening I am tired and stressed but yet thankful for the Lords grace, and writing about my wife's different ways of doing things helps me to be less frustrated and puts them in perspective.

Saturday:

Basically a normal day. Chores, pancakes, mow the lawn. I thought I might try to do something with the kids, but Paige called and asked if I wanted to move a car for them, so I did from about 2 pm to 4 pm. Mike and I picked up the old nova at his dads place, we had to put the rear wheels on and air up the shocks and put some blocks in, but it worked. We took it to the guy Mike was trading it to for a jeep. Mike picked up the jeep and drove it home. Paige came over and watched the children for me.

Tirzah did very well with breakfast and lunch and supper.  All the children had a  good day. They were excited to have Paige, Parker and Sterling over. Thank you Lord for your help this day. And thank you Gramgee for your help with showers and baths for the children. Sorry Parker that you hurt your ankle on the trampoline, i hope that it heals well.

Sunday:
Ah here we go, Daddy trying to get 25 goats fed, chickens fed and watered, horses fed, dogs fed, and 14 goats milked and the milk saved and the milking pails cleaned. Of course I oversleep. What are the chances of getting us all to church on time? So thankfully WW has taught Tirzah how to cook some basic stuff. Tirzah does a great job this morning of cooking the muffins and helping with some basic things. But when I come in my children have already begun to allow the stuff to start to take over, clothes, toys, just clutter stuff is creeping everywhere, and not only clutter, but my flyswatters have been swallowed up in the devouring stuff somewhere, and I have what is probably an unreasonable hatred and need to kill flies, So Daddy suggests that if the children want to eat, than the house must be picked up, and my flyswatters must be found. Always seems like a simple basic thing to me, but what to Daddy is obvious clutter and mess, to children seems invisible. So after a few parental frustrated explanations of what has to happen, and tears, Azariah is finally able to figure out he needs to keep cleaning until Daddy says it is clean, and they have found one of my 2 swatters. Unfortunately Daddy is still missing a flyswatter and I am overly frustrated. So when Azariah whines at me asking me if he can eat, because he is on the brink of death I am sure, I refuse until he can ask without whining. Thankfully after a few more tries he regains his composure and is able to ask calmly without whining and have his muffins. Of course he sees that the one flyswatter has been right under my nose the whole time. Yes this Daddy over- reacts and makes mistakes, more often than I care to admit.

So everyone was told Saturday night to make sure that they have their shoes for Sunday. They are told again Sunday morning to make sure they have their shoes. Well 3 out of 5 isn't too bad i guess.
So by the time I finish washing the milk stuff and getting everyone ready, it is 8:55. I still need to take a shower and get myself ready. We managed to leave around 9:18, which is pretty good. We get to the church about 5 minute late or so, and of course Tally and Tabby don't have shoes, not the end of the world, but because I had so carefully told Tally to make sure she had them it was a little frustrating. Still, I don't care a lot if Talitha and Tabby don't have shoes, they take them off usually anyways. Tabby finds some (hideous) flip flops on the floor of the suburban and puts them on. Actually she finds one and doesn't want to get out of the car without the other one. Miracles still happen and I find the other flip flop and we are ready to go....or not, because now Talitha is distressed because these are "her flip flops". I get to explain in no uncertain terms that "no you will not get these flip flops because you did not obey and get your shoes earlier when I told you to." A few corrections  and many tears later we are finally on our way into the church. Sunday school was peaceful. I did have a sneaking suspicion that the loud noises and laughter from the 3 yr old- first grade room were from my children. Now the thrill of a wifeless Daddy braving church time with 4 children. What could possibly go wrong? Amazing how the privilege and pleasure of holding two children can turn a peaceful Father into a frustrated Father. I am trying to sing and praise the Lord in song and my two children that I am holding, decide that arm positions around Daddy's neck is a matter of life and death, and worthy of physical violence. There is nothing like having children who are yelling at each other and fighting in church, so I put them both down and then we just had crying and pouting. We are then sitting down and of course it is the law of the pew that the child on my left side must touch and annoy the child on the right side of me until the child on the right yells out. At least he stopped before his life was forfeited. After continuing noises and general child like pew unrest during the rest of the sermon, my oldest daughter needs to use the rest room. No big deal right? When she arrives back at our pew, she has the hiccups. This is not a child who is good at keeping noises quiet, no she just lets it out even magnifies them if possible. After looks and mouthing to her to try and be quiet which resulted in blank stares from her, I am ready for duct tape therapy. I survived, we made it through. I told my children that if they ever acted that way in church again that they would be in big trouble. Well it is good to know that even as frustrated as I was with them they were able to still say they believed I loved them.

Now we have nothing to worry about except lunch with Gramgee and Papa and then going to the Fruta fall festival. Thank you Gramgee and Papa. Of course i won't mention the lost blanket, the door lock that was flipped out of place so that the door wont shut on the Suburban, or the overreacting father who is going crazy. We did finally get us all to the fall festival and enjoy seeing WW again and being together as a family.

Gil held down the fort pretty well, but I know he missed having me around. I arrived home to find out that they were picking me up and we were headed to the Fall Festival with my parents. It was a good day too and it was fun to spend time with my family at the Fall Festival.