January 31, 2009 by Melanee.

My new vocation if I ever decide to change careers is to be wedding planner. Now that I have planned three weddings in a six to seven year period and in the middle of planning the fourth one for this July-gives me good experience and qualifications to do so. I blame myself for marrying young, so now my girls have followed my footsteps and I can’t protest.
I have had a good time trying to make each wedding unique to each daughter within a limited budget. So, we have been very creative. I remember the remarks from friends and strangers alike when they heard we had four daughters,–Usually a facial expression of some sort–Then “Wow, you have to pay for all those weddings!”

It really hasn’t been that bad, it can be stressful at times, but somehow everything falls into place and then you go with the flow when things don’t work just right. (When it rained during Leah’s day and Ashley’s hair needed to be just right, so we were late for her wedding) We printed Leah’s wedding invitations at home with the computer. Kev, Leah, and I hovered over the printer to get just the right font, wording, etc. Then with our handy-dandy paper cutter we cut, punched, and bowed 200 invitations. Ashley and Pat made their invitations themselves on the computer, then Mallory and I made her invitations on the computer in a different design.

With Leah’s wedding my sisters cooked all the food-chicken Parmesan, shrimp scampi, wedding soup, etc. We had chicken tenders, mac and cheese, and french fries for the grandchildren. My father did all the food shopping. I wouldn’t ask them to do that again, but I sure appreciated it at the time with the limited budget and time we had.
We planned Ashley’s reception on the week night with a very top notch and popular wedding facility. The cost was cut in half because we used a week night and she got to have her very fancy place too.
Mallory made her reception unique by having a slide presentation during their first dance. She made several power point presentations in high school, so this was a wonderful addition to her celebration. Even though Kev passed three weeks before, we had a really fun time. Kev would have wanted it that way.
Now, I am looking forward to making Marlene’s wedding unique. I found a facility within a one hundred acre park that is known for their plant displays and roses. This is so fitting for Marlene since she enjoys the outdoors and loves plants. I may even make the wedding cake because I made Kev’s and mine wedding cake for our wedding and I thought this would be a good opportunity to try again. Plus in my research there is one cake bakery that all these facilities use to order their cakes from and maybe I want some of their business.

Am I just dreaming about all this? Maybe

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January 25, 2009 by Ashley.

Pat is in charge of bath time right before Lydia goes to sleep. He has a really good routine down and Lydia enjoys it a lot. This was from the beginning of November.
CLICK HERE FOR MOVIE –> dscn2220medium.MOV

Pat is hoping to train up Lydia so she can program and play computer games with him by the age of 3. (Not really, but if she could do that, he’d be ecstatic). (Taken in the middle of November)

These are the gifts I made for neighbors and friends who have babysat Lydia. They didn’t turn out exactly as planned, but they worked nonetheless and were delicious! They’re chocolate mini cupcakes formed into a wreath. I used Christmas chocolate chips for the holly. The red ones for the berries and then I melted the green ones and used a plastic bag to squeeze out the chocolate to make leaves.

Over Christmas we were able to get a family photo done (my Mom is so good about that because you never know when’s the next time the whole fam will be together again) and for once I look decent! Actually I think we all look pretty good. Our respective husbands are behind us, except for Marlene who recently got engaged to Steven behind her. (It better work out between you two – we don’t want to have to air brush him out!)

So babies aren’t supposed to have citrus for a while for one reason or another (I think the acid upsets their stomach or something),but I let Lydia taste a Clementine, and she LOVED it! She cried and threw an absolute temper tantrum when I took it away from her.

Lydia’s really getting the hang of her bouncy chair (Pat refers to it as her “jump jump”). It’s really only the first half of the movie that I thought she was so cute just bouncing in her chair. So once she stops, you can pretty much stop watching.
CLICK HERE FOR MOVIE–>dscn2364medium.MOV

One night Lydia and Pat started laughing back and forth. It was really cute because Lydia rarely giggles and laughs. Even here it sounds a little fake at times, but oh well!
CLICK HERE –> dscn2368medium.MOV

Lydia enjoying the written word.

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January 22, 2009 by Ashley.

So some of you may be familiar with a dog we used to have: the dog formally known as Bailey. We have since given him away to a man who adores him where Bailey can run free on the beach and he also now goes by the name George.

Mallory and Marlene were closer to Bailey than I was, but I still can look back fondly on him. Unfortunately, Bailey started going kinda crazy and with all his energy, Mom just couldn’t handle him when dad was sick and thus he went on to become George.

Anyways, I believe that he first started going crazy when my oh so clever grandpa decided to mess with Bailey. My grandpa would take a plastic grocery bag and shake it at Bailey, which would then cause him to bark and bark and run around and get all scared. It got to the point where all grandpa had to do was show up at our door and Bailey would freak out.

Well, lately I’ve thought of Bailey because I think Lydia has a little bit of Bailey in her. Every single time I’m in the kitchen changing out the garbage bag, or putting groceries away and collecting all the plastic bags together, I suddenly hear crying or upsetting yells from the livingroom or wherever Lydia is. Pat and I then have to go over to her and reassure her everything is ok or pick her up and comfort her. Here’s to you Bailey… we still remember you!

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January 20, 2009 by Mallory.

So I really don’t understand how people can teach for many many years. I am SOOO exhausted, I feel like I could just lay in bed and never get up. I keep saying that I’ll teach one more year, but I’m seriously so tired. They expect so much of teachers. There’s so many expectations and not enough time to get it all done. And sometimes I wonder how much of what I’m teaching is really getting through to them. I really don’t know. Hopefully a little bit. All I know is that I can’t wait for Wendell to be done and then once he is done, I know I’m done and we can leave Memphis. Alright…I’m done venting.

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January 20, 2009 by Melanee.

This year will be a good year for me and my family. I know it will. Marlene will be married in July. Leah and Ed are purchasing a home. My grand children are growing and learning. I love to talk to them on the phone or web cam. All will be well-I know it.

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January 11, 2009 by Melanee.

Okay, I did it. I used the snow blower this morning and cleared about 4 inches of snow off the driveway. My son-in-law Pat replaced the spark plug and showed me how to start it while he was here for Christmas. My co-worker Kathy and her husband helped me practice starting the blower yesterday. I started it today and was able to maneuver the big machine up and down my driveway and clear the snow. It was done in less than on hour. It’s a big machine so it took some muscle to work with it, but I got the hang of it. My driveway is more than 250 feet. In the past, friends come over occasionally to help plow or shovel. Now I feel confident that as long as the machine works I will do fine with clearing New England’s constant snow on a regular basis.

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January 7, 2009 by Melanee.

It’s taken me a few days to recoup from all the Christmas joy that was shared with my family. The house is way too quiet now. The clutter has disappeared and I can find room for things. I am not sure if I like it that way. The girls have returned to there homes by getting back to their daily schedules and Marlene is back at college buying books and attending classes.

One thing I haven’t shared is we had an extra person added to our family for about five days. Marlene’s friend, Stephen, came to meet the family because he and Marlene are really smitten with each other. Our family enjoyed the time with him and see why Marlene is so happy. A few days later after she went to meet Stephen’s family, she called to let me know that she is engaged. She continues the family tradition of getting married young like Kev and I did. I am really looking forward to having Stephen join the Webster family(that keeps growing and growing). I will let you know any future plans.

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January 7, 2009 by Ashley.

So, periodically (and more often since Lydia was born) Pat will kind of get up in bed and I’m a really light sleeper so that will either wake me up or at least bring me to a lighter level of sleep and so I ask him what’s wrong. I do think because I know he’s still asleep and prone to talking in his sleep and I think people who talk in their sleep are one of the funniest things and I never miss a chance to try and make them talk - hehe. So I ask him what’s up and most of the time in this sleepy worried voice he always says, “Where’s Lydia?” or “Where’s the baby?” And the other night he did this so I replied that she was in her crib in her room. And he would reply with a sleepy yet still confused “Oh” or something like that.

Although I think it’s funny when Pat does this, it still puts me on edge a little bit because it makes me think again, “Where’s Lydia?” “Is she ok?”

Now to understand the next part of the story, you need to know Lydia usually sleeps on her boppy. For those who have no clue what a “boppy” is, it’s a horseshoe shaped pillow that is often advertised for breastfeeding, but has so many other wonderful uses. We use it so she can sleep on her side without getting smothered like with a conventional pillow.

So some time later I hear her on the baby monitor so I go into her room to tend to her and I look to the left side of the crib where she should be sleeping cozy in her boppy and it’s empty with blankets all bunched where her feet should be. Now in the wee hours of night/morning I’m not the most alert person so for that millisecond my heart completely skipped and I in my head I’m like, Oh my gosh - where is the baby?? Suddenly I see her on the complete opposite side of the crib laying on her back facing the opposite way we put her down (her head was on the left side of the crib, now it was touching the right side) and her head was framed by the corner of the crib, like she was trying to scooch on her back but her head hit the rails of the crib and she could go no further and so that’s why she had started crying for me to come.

I looked at her completely surprised and she just gave me this big smile. Needless to say, I’m now more cautious of her environment. She has never shown any signs of crawling or even rolling over, but man does she find her own ways to move around… and scare her mom at the same time.

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