Matchmaker, Matchmaker, make me a match, find me a find....

I tend to think daily of musical theater lyrics.. or., any lyrics that go along with whatever situation I am in, at any given moment of the day. It wasn't too long ago that my sister and I were together, and whenever that happens, atleast once during our hem-haw, we break into a chorus of "Sisters" from White Christmas. (The musical is coming to Memphis THIS December!) The particular situation I'm trying to think of now has escaped me, but... we were doing something.. when something else happened, we both looked at each other and busted into the same exact random song. Wish I could make the details of that a little more clearer. Ha.

Once upon a time something really funny happened, but no one can remember. Isn't that a grand story?

Oh me, .. the strange things my mind does. As it would happen, I am currently behind two computer screens at the moment, (I know, I'm really just begging for a migraine.) proctoring an exam. This is the only chance I get to update my blog. So, a while ago, I needed a break to pop some ibuprofen, reason for that will come later, and when I went to do that, naturally, I spilled half a bottle of water on myself trying to get the thing open. Great. I walked back into the room full of prospective college students with my shirt all wet. Geez.

One more story about me and then I'll get on to the main point. Brad and I have decided that, in the name of being more healthy, not losing weight, just being more healthy... ("losing weight" makes me nervous.. and more than likely will end in failure) that we will become professional mountain bikers. See, I need realistic goals here. We dug our bicycles out of the garage two weeks ago, shined and oiled them up, and took a spin around the block. Ouch. Riding a bicycle was MUCH more painful than I had remembered, but then, the last time I really rode, I was about 14 years old. Woo. It took me about ten 5 minute bike rides to lose the pain in my sit-bones over the course of two weeks, and then we hit Shelby Farms yesterday afternoon.

It really did scare me to ride on gravel.. its very unsteady, and so every time I came to a downhill ride on gravel, I got off my bike and walked it down. Haha. Lame, I know.. ahaha. As the afternoon went on, I got more and more courage about switching gears on an incline and breaking while going down hill. It is very difficult to keep a bike steady on the little bike trails. They are literally the width of the tire and thats it. So here we go up this hill, Jack (the great dane) running in circles all around us, bike ruts everywhere and big ruts from rainwater, and I'm punching it as hard as I can trying to get up this hill. I'm in the lowest gear, and thought I was really going to make it up when Jack the bonehead gets right in front of me and STOPS! Haha.. so instead of putting my left foot down on the ground, I put the right one down (I had a 50-50 chance of getting it correct) which happened to be over a pretty deep rut. And down I went into the dust and ruts. I just laid there covered in dirt and laughed. What can you do?

Ok, so thats my bike story for the week.

June 11, 2011 - YARD SALE in Midtown! Caroline, Mary Ruth, and Yours Truly, pooled a buncha JUNK together and made some real play money at the yard sale. Must do this again! Sure was an early Saturday morning, though! Whew.

Jack just HAD to play dressup in what was left from the yard sale stuff.

On the way home from the office one day.. I came across two gigantic tractors pulling discs down GERMANTOWN PARKWAY at lunch hour! WHO DOES THAT? I mean... I guess when you need to get somewhere you need to go, but.. really?? Tractors?? This ain't Lauderdale County!

Matchmaker, Matchmaker, make me a match. Find me find, catch me a catch! This is how Grammy plays with her GrandSON.

Isn't Eli such a cutie here??? Wait... yup, you guessed it! This isn't Eli. Its BRADLEY!!!!!! Cunning resemblance, right?

Peace.

June Is Bustin' Out All Over

Greetings!

I'm not for sure on the reason why I have put off updating my blog for over a month.., but, ah, it happens. May was CAH-RAZY for us Harrell folk! I think I got as far as Mother's Day in my previous post. After that, (May 8) I had several playing gigs for churches and schools, etc. Come to think of it, May is very similar to December in the concert world... concert, concert, concert. Very busy... but pretty lucrative.

Mid-way through May I even began a part time job at Union University Germantown campus. Yup, where Brad works too. I'm helping the sweet admissions folks out the office for the summer...and man, could it not have come at a better time! All my private piano students take breaks over the summer, well most of them, I think I have 4 or 5 now..., and so the extra income is very nice.

Here'a few images from the month of May and early June from the Harrell Plantation:

Friday, May 13 I played at my music club's annual spring tea recital. Eli and Brad came to cheer me on... actually, I was somewhat shocked that Eli sat through the whole hour long recital with no hollering out.. !! He is so good, bless his heart. That, and he loves music! But Brad was exhausted from being in baby-entertainment mode during that time.

Eli got his first harp lesson in the orchestra room at church...

April and May were very stormy months... this was the last big storm we had. It was on a Wednesday evening, so the Prices held up with us through the storm! We graded music papers and made oreo balls and even grilled out during the tornado warnings. hahah.

Eli went swimming for the first time at Aunt Freda's house on Memorial Day. This picture was taken a couple of days later at our condo complex. He LOVES the water!

He is getting to big for his little baby cradle thing. :(

Dr. Harrell, I presume

The Final Fabulous Finish Line and Mother's Day

Last week was a pretty high-octane, killer week. Brad spent each day in Jackson with his students who flew in and drove in from all corners of the globe for "on-campus" week. I had several rehearsals lined up for upcoming recitals and concerts, and I was on the final stretch of editing my Master's thesis. The final cut was printed Thursday afternoon May 5 and I got that things bound and presented with a big shiny "A" pasted on the front. Too bad she really didn't have a big hot pink "A" sticker to stick on it..., but then again, I guess I'm not in preschool...

The week began (where I left off in my previous edition) on Saturday. I came home from a morning of teaching lessons and running errands to find my two loves enjoying the beautiful weather on the patio.

Tuesday came around quickly and while Mommy was rehearsing at a nearby school for a choir concert, Eli got to meet and play with his newest friend Adrien - who happens to be two and a half years old and is pretty fluent in English, Chinese and French. We need to visit there more often. :)

This is during one of my practice sessions at the piano. I always turn the little TV on but mute it so I can play. The piano sits right behind this sofa and at one point I didn't hear the racket of toys clanging together, so I turned around and this is what I found. Of course he's more interested in watching Mommy play than in watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. Haha.

Wednesday evening I was very surprised find this scene when I turned the corner to pick him up from the nursery at church. He's getting so big. This sitting up thing is new this week.

Friday morning my Daddy drove down south for a morning of his daughters and little sweet Eli. Breakfast at IHOP turned out to be one of those "misses" in the "his restaurant experiences are hit-and-miss" category, as it fell right during his morning nap time, but we had a good time anyway.

I had to include this one. Brad worked a 12 hour shift in the ER Saturday. This was at breakfast before his loooonnnnggg workday.

I need to find pictures of Wyatt's (Eli's cousin) first birthday party that we attended on Saturday afternoon to include here. We drove up to Ripley, my BFF Kayla in-tow, and went to the big first birthday bash for little Wyatt. Can't believe its been a year since our little family has entered baby-dom!

Later on that night Kayla and I drove to Jackson to attend a beautiful wedding on the campus of Lambuth University and danced and partied our little hearts out at the reception until midnight. Exhaustion set in promptly after that. But we SHO needed a night out to let our hair down and have some FUN! Congrats and Best Wishes to Mr & Mrs Tucker!

So after the huge wedding celebration in Jackson, we decided to bunk at Kayla's in-laws' home instead of driving the hour back to Memphis. So on my very first Mother's Day I woke up in someone else's house, without my baby! :( But I woke up super early and hit the road at 6:30am to make the drive back home in time for church! But, when I got there, we had a big breakfast and went to sleep! Yikes! (Eli had spent the night in Ripley with his grandparents after the birthday party)

We got in the car (again) and drove an hour to Ripley to celebrate Mother's Day with my husband's family out in the country. A big lunch, a tour of the backwater (the MS River is SOO high right now), some lazy talk, playing with cousin Wyatt's new birthday toys, and visiting Grammy (my Mommy) made for a full Mother's Day.

Here is a picture of me, my younger sister, and Mama sometime in the late 80s I would say. Maybe 1988 or 1989. Happy Mother's Day!!

Happy Royal Wedding Day!

The time currently is 1:21pm. I have a slight tired headache because, yes, I set my alarm for 5:00am Central Standard Time to be awake when Kate Middleton walked into Westminster Abbey as the blushing bride of Prince William Mountbatten-Windsor. What a glorious day London has had! I'm thinking it is now about 6:30pm and I'm sure all involved are exhausted to the point of death. Oh Happy Day! Many blessings to the newlyweds!

Yesterday was pretty uneventful mainly because I finished up the final first draft of my masters thesis! Yay! The struggle is over! As a reward to Elijah for literally entertaining himself for the last 2 days, I gave him a pretty little tree in the northeast corner of his bedroom. Looks great... I think I'll do another couple or so around the room later on... But.. he seemed to like it, .. I think.

When Daddy arrived home from Jackson today, we all had quite a hankerin' (that means "craving" for all my yankee friends..) for some Mexican food, so while Daddy and Eli waited on Momma to get everything out of the house in preparation to go, Eli got his first driving lesson. :)

This is a picture of Eli at the restaurant. As long as he can find something to focus on, he's a-okay!

And naturally, this is what he was focused on. Hahahah

Back at home for the evening having HIS supper.. isn't he such a big boy now holding his own bottle? :)

Peace.

He is Risen! He is Risen Indeed!

Happy Easter everyone! I trust everyone woke this morning and gussied up with bonnets and hats and special new dresses and new shoes to go to church and worship the risen Christ!!

We sure did! Bellevue was busting at the seams this morning at the 9:30 service and had a big ol' crowd again at the 11:11 service too. The orchestra and choir lead the worship at both services, so we arrived bright and early in our "uniforms" (no new easter dresses or bow ties for us!) promptly at 8:15 and parked in the soccer field parking lot. (We were asked to park there to leave room for visitors in the main lots.) We three Harrells boarded a BBC shuttle bus with a couple of other orchestra friends and rode through the parking lot to the church. Everyone was so excited! The excitement of everyone was so apparent from the door greeters to the nursery workers and everyone else we met in the hall. The choir room was FULL of food and was buzzing with Easter greetings, the aroma of coffee and old spice, and ladies applying some last minute lipstick.

The worship service was glorious. And when I say glorious I mean you could SEE the Holy Spirit in that room!! Amazing! We prayed and laughed and sang some amazing music! The choir and orch went back to the choir room for some of that food that was in there and we actually watched the sermon from the choir room. (Since there was no room in the inn! - i mean, in the sanctuary for any of us to sit since the Prodigal set is still up and the choir loft really isn't there right now...)

It wouldn't be truly a day in the life of the Harrell family if some silly little tragedy did not occur. Brad and I had our little plates of breakfast food (some AWESOME cheesey grits casserole!) and glasses of orange juice with us on the top row of seats in the choir room. Brad thought it would be a good idea to set his glass of orange juice down on the pathway through the riser. Oi. I SO saw that accident waiting to happen. One lady passed through and stepped over it. Phew. Another mother and daughter were coming through. The mother stepped over it...but alas, the daughter kicked the whole glass of orange juice over, spilling juice not only on the top level where we were but down onto the lower level and I'm sure dripping all down underneath. (The levels are like risers.) Nobody made any type of mood to clean it up. Nobody! So.. here goes momma Harrell, with napkins in hand and butt high up in the sky trying to dry up the juice. BRAD!

Ok, ok... so after church we headed straight home to crash.., and crash we did. After a very light lunch of hamburger surprise, we popped in the new DVD we were given at church this morning of the Prodigal performance, put Eli to bed, and then put ourselves to bed. We slept until 5pm. All three of us. lol.

After a couple of hours of more tv and more R&R, we went over the Shelby Farms to get some fresh air and to let the dog run and jump like he likes to so every now and then. We loaded up Eli in his trusty stroller and off we went. Home again in about an hour and to bed everyone!

What a wonderful day in the Lord we spent together!

Easter Eve

Greetings, all! Happy Easter! He is Risen! He is Risen Indeed!!

Today is Saturday - the day before Easter Sunday! I have such fond memories of the day before Easter growing up in the Asbury Community in Ripley, TN. We always had a great big Easter Egg Hunt on the church grounds. The "prize egg" was the most coveted egg hidden and it was always a potato wrapped in foil, if I remember correctly. Wonder why the "prize egg" wasn't even an egg?

Anyway, today I happened to be out early this morning running an errand, about 10:30am and I ended up coming back home through Bellevue's parking lot. I saw the Easter Egg Hunt. Wow!!! So many people and children and then I saw a whole soccer field literally covered in multi-colored eggs! Hahah... That brought a big smile to my face. I wonder if Eli will be big enough to hunt eggs next year... oh the fun we will have!

Today Grammy and Papa Don came to visit. Sister also visited during her lunch break and we all had quite a feast of pork tenderloin and rice with artichoke hearts. Yum. Eli had sweet peas and some yummy formula. :) After dinner and after Sister went back to work, the four of us went on a stroll around the community.

A much needed break after a long walk...

A nice warm bath to end the day and to be fresh and smellin fly for church in the morning!

Dr. Brad went in to work today at the hospital, and so he's been gone all day. I got my house back in order, which was an all day process with a four hour break in the middle to visit with the parents, and then after Eli went to bed at 8:30p, I finished my day up with putting away clean laundry and baking some chocolate chip cookies that'll be fresh when Brad gets home tonight. Good night!

Happy Easter!

Rolly Poly

Here is Eli's little SeaWorld Jungle Gym that he can lay in on his back and look up at things to play with. He has been using this since he was a week old and has been quite successful at playing in it. Yesterday, however, I laid him down in it and proceeded on to the kitchen to get some cleaning done and when I walked back in to the nursery to check on him FIVE minutes later, this is what I found! Hahaha. He had rolled all the way over in the middle of the floor in the dirty clothes pile. Movement, here we come!

Top o' the Mornin to Ya!

Good morning all! A typical morning at the Harrell House: baby is full form breakfast and is settled in front of Mickey Mouse Club. Dog is full from breakfast and his fast asleep in exactly the one place he does not need to be. Sigh. Oh well, he sure looks comfy.

The Painfully Ordinary

I dislike days like today. It was a day filled with nothing but the ordinary happenings of a little family on a day when nothing special occurred. Brad is still sick. In fact, he is still so sick that he went to the doctor this afternoon. This doctor-nurse practitioner went to a doctor office as a patient. His chest is filled with gunk and he has not been able to kick it out! He is going to have a chest xray maybe tomorrow and then hopefully we will have an answer as to whether he has some monster asthma, or will have the dreaded diagnosis of pneumonia. Yikes.

Brad didn't sleep much last night, therefore I didn't sleep as soundly as I normally do. We had a pretty rad storm around 11pm and then fell asleep sometime after midnight, but then Brad woke up around 2am and couldn't go back to sleep. I am such a sound sleeper, I didn't realize he was awake for quite awhile until I heard the noises from a movie being played on the ipad right net to my head. Poor guy. He just couldn't sleep, couldn't breathe, couldn't get comfy, and so he went on watching videos and movies on the ipad until around 7:30am.

I was exhausted when I woke up, so after feeding Eli and playing with him for 2 hours or so, when I laid him down for his morning nap, I laid myself down for a morning nap! I slept another two whole hours and felt much more rested when I finally got rolling at noon. Noon!!

Gah... i seriously need a life.

The weather was a little cool for being April 20, very windy, gray, and gloomy. I went over to Bellevue to teach a few piano lessons at 2p, and by the time I left to come back home at 5:30, the thunder was rolling again, lightning was electrifying the dark sky, and rain was coming down in torrents!

My most favorite couple in the wide world is always at our house on Wednesday evenings before church and today was no different. Dinner was Chop Suey with rice and potstickers! Yum! Since tonight's rehearsals at church are in preparation for Easter Sunday, and I more than likely will not be there because of Eli's little sickness, I decided not to rehearse tonight. The Prices did not go as well because they won't be there Easter Sunday, and so the three of us - Kevin, Kayla, and I had a marvelous little supper without Brad. :(

Incidentally, Brad is STILL over at church and its 8:35p!

Anyway, so here I am, only about 8 hours since I woke up today, back in my room settling in for the evening. Eli is still taking his evening nap. I should go in there and wake him up - doesn't need to sleep too much longer.

The more I think about it, the more I should really be thankful for days like this when nothing special happens. I woke up, didn't I? I got to play with the sweetest little baby boy ever born, didn't I ? I get to share my life with a wonderful husband, family, and friends. I have a lot to be thankful for.

So maybe today is ordinary because I didn't do much, but its always extraordinary because its a gift from God - filled with people that I love.

Thorns.

I have learned to appreciate everything I do for sweet little Eli. So many people will tell me "Oh! Don't waste any moment with him! He'll be grown before you can turn around!" REALLY?? I suppose thats true..., but there is ONE thing that I could SO live without doing.. and that is changing crib sheets. That daily activity - well, mostly a daily activity, since the little guy seems to be a pee pee factory... could cease at this very moment and I will delightfully NEVER look back for it. But alas, here are a few pictures documenting today's thorn.

DONE! :)

Until tomorrow.....

The Plague

Every time Eli gets sick, does that automatically mean that I will be sick too? Geez, Louise! This is the second round of sickness that he's had, and the second round of nasty cold that I've had. And naturally, it came the week of the Prodigal (Passion Play) Performances at church. Poor little baby - antibiotics, breathing treatments, skin oil.. the works!

Not only did I get a nasty head cold along with him, but Daddy did too! Brad and I have been married almost 6 years and dated 2 years before that, and I think I remember him being sick like this TWO times. He never is sick!! And yet he is worse than I am! I've got TWO sick boys! Atleast Jack isn't hacking and gacking like the rest of us.

Last week during rehearsals at church, I had to sit out for the final dress rehearsal because poor little baby boy was so sick. He's so sweet though - he doesn't let much make him unhappy, he's still all smiles and giggles and is sleeping pretty good to be so congested in his head and chest. I'm so glad. Instead of a night of dress rehearsal, we took a stroll around the community. Thats when I snapped this picture. ;)

LOL !

If you don't know what LOL means... well, then that means you aren't reading this, but.. it means LAUGHING OUT LOUD.

Guess what!!?!? Guess who LOLed? Yup! You guessed it! Baby Elijah LOLed last night!

What had happened was..

Daddy was gone to an out of town dinner meeting waaaayyyy up in Dyersburg, TN and in the meantime at home, Mommy was cleaning up Christmas Decorations and trying her darndest to entertain Little Mr. Harrell. After the videos on the ipad wore out their welcome, we resorted to the lay-the-blanket-on-the-floor-in-the-nursery game with lots of toys to look at and music and lights flashing. You know the drill. He was pretty happy and having a little fun looking and touching everything, then I thought it'd be the perfect opportunity to read a little to him. Well, he was SO not interested in hearing me read to him! His fussiness lured Jack (the great dane) back to the nursery and while I had Eli on my left knee bouncing him a little to take his mind off of whatever it was that was making him fuss, Jack came in the room pacing back and forth trying to find a spot to lay down in.

I was shocked when my little not-yet-3-month-old babe just chuckled his little heart out looking at the dog! The dog! Hahahahaha... Love it!

Can't wait to hear that little laugh again!

Merry Christmas! And Welcome to Our Light Show!

Whew wee - were the holidays a busy time or WHAT? Let me just catch you all up on everything since November 15. On November 16, my sweet Bradley turned thirty years old. Oh yeah... middle age is coming on fast - we ain't seventeen anymore - although that was a fun year and in my heart I'll always be seventeen or twenty... haha. Anyway.. that reality hit, and so now we really are on the road to being grown ups. I guess.

I went back to work at FUMC - my church job where I was Director of Music. After two weeks of being back, I turned in my six week notice that I would be leaving for good. (Big frowny face.) Even after only doing it for 2 weeks, I could see it a whole lot more clearly that that job and driving and hauling my sweet tiny babe in swaddling clothes back and forth just was not going to work. I didn't like relying on my mother to keep him, although I think if it were up to her, I could just GIVE him over to her and she would happily spoil him for the rest of his days. Hahaha. Grammys.

But I didn't want to just walk out on them right before the start of Advent and Christmas. Oi. We got through the Christmas Cantata and all the other things that were going on and it turned out to be quite a success I might add. A bit of advice for all you other church music folks: don't do two cantata performances in one day, especially on a Sunday because you have all the regular Sunday morning grind, then rehearsals starting two hours later, and after the FIRST performance you're ready to roll over and take a snooze. I thought I was going to die that day. And then I went home and slept straight for about 26 hours. :) (Disclaimer: yes, definitely DO 2 performances or 6 or 8 or whatever you have in you, but just don't do them in the same day.)

Okay, where does that put us? Elijah happens to be doing quite well. That little piggy is eating and giggling and playing and sleeping his way through life. Can't wait until he's Dancing Through Life. Haha.. I love Wicked. Anyway.. Christmas was tough on the little feller. He was passed around like the little hot potato he really is, but that wore him out! On top of that, he got his first round of vaccinations the day before Christmas Eve. He seemed to do fine with that, we pumped his little booty full of Tylenol all during Christmas just to help him relax a little if he happened to be a little sore.

And now... for the traumatic happening during Christmas....

You know, (big sigh), there is always some sort of drama going on during the holidays. I think its because everyone has a crazy family and when multiple crazy people get together, then its almost like as crazy as a loom. (Loooommmmm.....orrr.... dump truck??) HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHA. okay, only about 4 people get that one. But here's what had happened:

Picture this: freezing cold Thursday night, December 23. About 6:00pm. Dark outside. Wind blowing. (A little background for the story: everyone knows we happen to have a very large Great Dane - he's not THAT big, like Big George the Great Dane, but Jack is unusually tall for the Great Danes he goes to school with.. haha. The daycare had lost his leash, and on top of that my husband had misplaced his gentle leader - which is a contraption that we affectionately call his "G-String" because its a collar that wraps around the back of his big boy ears and goes on his nose, like a horse thing - maybe a bridle? Anyway, the gentle leader helps you control the large dogs, because they won't pull AT ALL when their control is from their nose. *would you pull on something that was going to yank on your nose? nope. not us either*) Okay. so back to the main story:

I was taking Jack out on his normal evening outing to take care of business. This young man is walking by with a small dog, maybe of the Shih-tzu Breed or something of the like. Now, you know, Jack loves little dogs, in fact, he really thinks he's a Shih-tzu since he was raised around one. He loves their quick movements and especially their bark - they just get his motor running if you know what I mean. lol. So, I forgot to mention that I had him on some kinda thread leash cheapest of the cheap thing that the daycare gave us since they lost his heavy rope lead. Oi. Let's wrap this up, Rach -

Jack is pooping. Just as he finishes, the little dog is walking right by out on the street. The little dog yelps. Jack lunges, and I try, oh gosh did I try, I TRIED to hold him, but when 150 pounds of dog decide to run, and you don't have something trustworthy to hold him with, guess what? He runs. The poor guy - I had never actually seen before walking his dog, although I know his face from living in our community, but I really don't think he had ever seen our big Jack before. Jack scared the living daylights out of him because he was running, full speed ahead, towards him and his little dog.

One can only imagine what insued in the following moments. Screams from a man, screams from a little dog, and a very loud and joyous BARK from Jack filled the cold night air at 1792 Appling Oaks Circle. I went on about my business taking Jack's business in the house for flushing, and then something completely startled me! It was the man! He was yelling at me! At ME! Oh my, and what he was yelling at me was not a melodious "Merry Christmas!" Oh no, it was not. It was more like something you'd hear from a crazy and gory rated NC17 movie down at the discount movie theater on summer ave. I was in shock! My shock was in shock! No one talks to me that way!! Especially on Christmas Eve Eve! The nerve.

Well, the scourging ended and he merrily pranced his way down the street after my large and wooly husband stood in the front door and looked all mean at him. Ha! Serves hi right! The big and almighty Dr. Harrell scared the mean man away!!

Speaking of scared, that whole thing SCARRED my whole Christmas weekend!! But, in hindsight, I suppose, if I were an unassuming individual walking my cute little puppy on Christmas Eve Eve and enjoying all the Christmas Lights (especially ours!) and then suddenly a GINORMOUS dog came bounding across a yard at me... AND the owner did not seem to do much about it, I suppose I'd scream obscenities too. I knew Jack wasn't going to hurt them. But THEY didn't know that. I should've thought about that. That would've been neighborly.

But then.. I haven't really been known for being neighborly.. OR thoughtful at all for that matter...

The Hormone Highway... or, Love and Respect

Greetings, readers! I am happy to report that Elijah slept in his big crib for the first time last night. I must admit it was a little scary leaving him in another room - even if it is directly outside OUR bedroom - but we made it and he did great!

Last night was a Wednesday night and Brad dutifully went to orchestra rehearsal at church as he normally does. The entire hour before he left, I was breast feeding Elijah, then the little piggie cried for more.. then he cried for more.. then he cried because of a poopy diaper,.. then he cried because he was wet, then he cried because he was wet, then he cried because he was wet, then he cried because HE WAS WET!!! Have I mentioned that this baby is a pee factory?

Okay, on with the blog I meant to write..

I would just like to say that in the last 4 weeks - yes, its been 4 weeks since little Eli squeezed his way down the birth canal, and left his signature next door, that I have been on QUITE the emotional rollercoaster. I knew it would be considerabley noticeable that after giving birth, I'd have several emotional breakdowns just because I've never been just 100% together when under a lot of stress and pressure, but I just had no clue.

It all started to hit me the moment we started packing up our things to leave the hospital. I cried when I got in the truck, I cried in the drive through at Krystal's, and I especially had a nice hard, long cry when I walked into my forever-changed little condo and saw this freshly squeezed baby lying in that crib that had been waiting for him for so long!!!

Boohoo.

I cried when he wouldn't breastfeed right; he gets like a crazy wildman when he can't get it together in the feeding department! (The app doesn't fall far from the tree!) Oh! It was just crying off and on ALL the time for nothing at all!! The nurses told me I'd do that. I have no idea why I didn't believe them. Haha.

It last about 10 days - then we started to get into somewhat of a routine - we can NEVER be too routine - its not in our DNA, then life began to settle a little.

Its rough traveling on the Hormone Highway, which I have some to the conclusion that it was built by MEN!

Men have it easy. They take things as they are or blame us women for it. Simple. Women's brains never stop working and are constantly thinking of atleast 10 things at once. I took a brain-based learning course last fall at Union University and in the text book, which is in sight at the present because I loved that subject so much, there is plenty of research stating that men can ONLY think of ONE thing at a time. Its the way they are wired.

How did I get on THAT?

Brad picked up a CD at church the other day that was an excerpt from the Love and Respect conference that came to our church earlier this year. The speaker was talking about the neverending discussion of Women vs. Men. He said... "women look in their closets and say "I have nothing to wear!" when they actually mean, "I have nothing NEW to wear!" Men look in their closets and say, "I have nothing to wear!" when they actually mean, "I don't have anything clean to wear! She ain't washed my clothes!""

I have laundry to do.

Eli and the swing

Elijah is so sweet. He's spent quite a bit of time in this baby contraption that eats batteries like candy and plays really watered down music box versions of a couple Beethoven and Mozart piano pieces. But he seems to love the music. Ahhh. What a relief! He kind of had a "scrappy" day. Meaning.. he wasn't happy all the time.. he fussed a little bit. Not the whole the day... not like a week ago Sunday.. my Lord.. if today had been like that, I would have no hair left on my head. And neither would he for that matter. Even Brad might even have yanked out a strand or two of his precious tresses. But I digress..

It's 10:21pm on a Friday night. I've been sitting here doing homework on the computer - yes, something I really should have done MUCH earlier this afternoon - but I couldn't tear myself away from baby Eli. Actually, he couldn't tear himself away from ME. Finally at 4:30, we gave in, packed his little buns in the car seat and drove around for 2 hours. Hello, sleepy baby! Also, hello baby who will not sleep tonight! Haha.

Anyway, so in his sleepiness, we came home, I fed him while Brad ate supper, I ate cold mac and cheese much later, and then put him in his little swing while I worked on homework.

Here's to a night FULL on sleepy restfulness for ALL!

Factor Z

Today begins the 11th day of being home with Eli. We are actually getting some sleep! I can't believe it! Everyone kept telling me.. "oh, you'll never sleep again! Just get ready.. if you think you've been losing sleep now..." Please! I knew Eli would be the exception! Ha!

I better shut my mouth now before I jinx it.

We had had a couple of rough nights. It seemed as though little 7 pound Eli wanted to eat 7 pounds worth of breast milk each feeding - which took FOREVER! He was especially never satisfied in the middle of the night - of course. Breast feeding is SOME phenomenon! Let me just tell you, if you've never experienced breast feeding an infant before, its HARD! Well, its not that hard, but when the little bugger just will not cooperate even though he's plainly telling you he's hungry, then you want to throw his cute little butt in the garbage can !!! AGHHH!!

The first full day we were home, (Sat. Oct. 23) I had taken a couple of doses of hydrocodone (I guess thats how you spell it... thanks, kindergarten phonics) to ease a little pain I was having. Well, the next day - Saturday - little Eli was too drunk to function! He wouldn't wake up, he wouldn't eat,... so by 3pm when he STILL would not wake up to eat, I called the nurse. She said to force feed some formula down him just to keep him from getting dehydrated.

I thought - nope.. no formula for my baby! But alas, he would just not arouse to breast feed or anything, so we had to shove a bottle in his mouth and force him to eat. Turns out, the hydrocodone I was taking made him drunk! Geezz... why did they prescribe that to me? For goodness sake. So I suffered through pain so my three day old kid would not be buzzing on NARCOTICS!

Where was I going with this..?

Oh yeah, so we fed him with that bottle. It was terribly easy. AND we could make sure of how much he was actually ingesting. Hmmmm..... so with all of his little tempers he was throwing because he couldn't seemed to get "latched on" enough to breastfeed (he only did that in the middle of the night, naturally!), I thought, well, I can pump and he can just take it in a bottle.

We have done that for the last 48 hours, and my, my, my what a difference a bottle makes! I AM proud that I lasted until he was 10 days old to give him a pacifier or a bottle, but still. He breastfeeds when he wants to, and when he doesn't he has the mommy milk in his bottle. How perfect is that?? Temper-throwing does not occur in this house - baby or no baby, breast or bottle! Whew! Its completely NOT what I had planned on doing with him, but hey, you gotta do what works for you, right?

If I can sleep for 4 and 5 hours at a time, and so can Eli and Brad, hey, who's to say there's anything wrong with that? Everyone wakes up in a good mood and we all go on our merry way to have a fabulous day!

Cheers!

Deflation!

Attention everyone:

Another big exciting thing has occurred !

Towards the end of my pregnancy, I retained a TON of water and swelled up like Humpty Dumpty which means that my feet looked like little pillows. They would not fit in any shoes except for purple fuzzy slippers that belong to my mother. You can imagine what those shoes look like..

Anyway, so as of yesterday, my feet had completely gone down and I got to fit them into my favorite shoes!!! My confetti Danskos!!! Yay!

The BM degree

When I graduated from college, I earned a BM degree - Bachelor of Music. I think I'm working just as hard to earn another kind of BM degree..

I'm guessing anyone who will read this is A) a family member; B) a friend, ; or C) someone interested in baby blogs. With that disclaimer put forth, I am happy to say that I just gleefully announced to my household (which includes my snoozing great dane, my working husband in his office, my sleeping 9 day old baby, and my grand piano - who yes, understands my every thought) that I indeed just had a more or less pain free bowel movement!! Hooray! Cause for celebration! Pop open the bubbly... or not..!

Maybe some of you seasoned mothers can fill me in.. but as of right now, it has been 9 days since I delivered Eli. Why am I STILL having such an issue with constipation?? (Now I really must apologize for this blog... so sorry, but this is what I need to discuss today.) Like I mentioned in my previous blog, I have stitches from NYC to Miami and it has been a rather wild and crazy ride trying to rid my body of things that previously worked quite well! I'm just so confused. I have been trying to eat high fiber things, no bread, not much cheese, and lots of fruit... but still.., the suffering still comes. I'm even on SIX colace a day!

Brad maintains, with all his medical degrees and experience he has..., that I am not staying hydrated enough. I've never been a water drinker... heck, I sometimes think water tastes bad! Especially if its room temperature. But I don't like it with ice either. Water just tastes funky to me... and my sweet husband says.. "Taste? Water doesn't have a taste! How can you say it tastes bad??!!" I guess thats why I really don't like it. Where's the taste? Anyway... so today, I'm trying VERY hard to drink as much water as my tummy (and my taste buds) can stand. We will see if it makes a difference.

Any suggestions?

Here comes Elijah!

At 3:00 on Wednesday, October 20, 2010, my husband Brad and I became parents. Whoa. First of all, I never ever expected to be able to say that. Back in 2008 we decided that maybe we'd like to see if we could get pregnant, so I abandoned all forms of prevention, but we never really sat down to plan it out. Soon after that, my doc let me know that I have a condition called PCOS - polycystic ovarian syndrome - something that left us not knowing if I was ovulating at all. We never tried and we never really gave up.

Last October when Brad's sister called to tell us they were having a baby, my heart broke. Well, it sang out in joy for Sara and Josh - it was obvious they'd make fantastic parents - but my heart broke for me and Bradley because I turned to him and said through my tears, "I'll never be able to call anyone and tell them that."

Lo and behold God had a different plan.

When Dr. Giddens held little Eli up in the air in all of his gooey and purpley glory (this was after he immediately popped out and peed on the Dr), what ran through my mind was something like, "oh. my. lord. what in the world did I just do?" They laid him on my chest, but I wouldn't touch him. I rubbed his little head through the blanket he was halfway wrapped in and then in a mighty swoosh Brad cut the cord and the next thing I knew Eli was over on the baby table being cleaned and wrapped up. It was SO fast!

What happened next - I'll never forget. I was somewhat versed in what happens when one gives birth, what happens after giving birth, and still what happens after that. But nothing can really prepare you for what you feel physically and emotionally. I saw Dr. Giddens with a pair of hemostats attached to what looked like metal string. I thought... "awww, man! she had to cut me!" Well, truth be known, the labor and his coming out party happened so fast that I had some pretty rad tears. Fourth degree to be exact. Ouchie. Big Ouchie.

My heart sank when she told me about that. She sewed on me for 30 minutes, but PRAISE THE LORD FOR THE EPIDURAL because I seriously felt nothing except the pressure of an event occurring in my netherlands. I was too preoccupied anyway... I mean, HELLO! This little being who drove me insane living in my uterus for 9 months was laying in the next bed screaming! I watched Bradley. That was sweet. He had the biggest smile on his face and, camera in hand, took some great shots of our little one moments after he was born. Bradley and I got a few seconds to lock eyeballs with one another. There were too many thoughts and emotions running through both of our heads to really nail down how we felt in that moment.

In an instant we went from being "Rachel and Bradley" to being "Eli's parents."

And so it goes..

Let me tell you about the year I've had:

Today is Wednesday, October 27, 2010. Exactly one week ago from this very moment, I was lying in a hospital bed just beginning to push. It had been quite a morning - we arrived at Baptist Women's Hospital at 4:30am.., well, I think it was more like 4:40am (must always be fashionably late..) to begin the long journey of getting our firstborn son - born.

2010 has been a whirlwind. I'm sure its going to continue to be a whirlwind. We learned on February 19 that we were going to become parents this year. I remember every detail of that afternoon and evening after finding out. I also remember every detail of the following day: when we told our families that we were expecting. The 20th was a Saturday - I had gone to Amro to a music competition that one of my piano students participated in, Brad was playing in the church orchestra at the Tennessee Baptist Children's Home, and then we decided to go over to Oak Court Mall to do a little celebratory shopping. We had lunch at Rafferty's across the street where Brad had some kind of chicken dish, then drove out to Germantown to the Apple Store to purchase me a new iPhone since my previous one died the day before. While in the Apple store, Brad started to have an allergic reaction to that chicken he ate, and so he ended up in the ER over at Baptist Hospital.

Fast forward 8 months through my entire pregnancy. The rest of February was fairly uneventful, March proved to show signs of being pregnant: a little nausea, headaches, terrible hunger, April and May flew by, and then June came. The weather was getting warmer and on June the 1st we found out the big news: its a boy. Elijah Freid Lawson Harrell was definitely in there cooking and on the way!

July was hot! Temperatures were near or over 100 for the entire month, which made for a VERY hot pregnancy. I could not get cooled off! I think I sweated straight for two months and even by sitting in the house almost completely naked with multiple fans pointed in my direction, I STILL sweated! Gah.

August arrived - the seventh month. I began a new job teaching school part time and continued with my part time church gig. An influx of piano students also came with the beginning of the new school year. Needless to say, I was a busy busy pregnant lady! Though it was rough, and I was tired, some days were 12 and 14 hour days, and I really was working seven days a week.

By the end of September, by very pregnant body was overly tired, my feet and ankles were the size of small watermelons, and my blood pressure was through the roof. Bed rest, she says! My "bed rest" started on September 29, 2010. I was finally able to take off work and raise my feet up to hopefully get them to go down. Turned out, bed rest WAS NOT easy. I probably did too much, went too much, and had too much fun, but the time off from work was absolutely wonderful in getting ready to meet baby Eli.

On my weekly visit to the doctor on Tuesday, October, 12 my doctor decided it was time and we set the date to be induced. I was ecstatic to know when Eli's birthday was going to be. I was also SO ready to not be pregnant any longer!

SO - here we are: last Wednesday. It happens to be 3:00 right now - exactly the time when Eli flew out of my body last week. The labor and delivery was quite easy. We arrived at the hospital at 4:30am, they finally got my rolling with "vitamin P" around 6:00am, and then the doc came to break my water at 9:15. Thats when the real fun began. As soon as she broke my water, whew!! Those contraction came FAST and HARD! I have NEVER been in such pain - I thought I was going to die. But luckily, a nice man with a big needle came to save the day. The epidural was fabulous. It worked beautifully - something that I was very afraid of to begin with.

By 1:45 I was fully dialated, and at 2:25, I began to push. Elijah entered this world on Wednesday, October 20 at 3:00pm, straight up.