Para Ti, Abuelo

Abuelo,
Cuanto te extrano. Cuando fui a escoger mi ropa hoy decidi ponerme esta camisa. Se la lleva a mi mama y ella me dijo que era una buena opcion. Me dijo que Fanny me la regalo y que es del equipo que te gusta mucho de beisbol de Venezuela. Cuando escuche eso, de ti, me emocione bastante y me la queria poner aun mas.
Te amo tanto y espero que te guste como parezco en esta camisa. Mi mama dice que a lo mejor vas a llorar verme asi. Yo se que me amas tanto (y la abuela tambien) y quiero que sepas hoy que te amo tanto tambien a ti!
Estoy orando que Dios deje que Uds. vengan en junio y quizas, dice mi mama, podamos ir a un juego de beisbol como familia. No seria demasiado divertido?
Te amo, Abuelo!

PS

For those that don't understand Spanish...

Abuelo (Pancho's papa),

I miss you so much. When I went to pick out my clothes today I decided to wear this shirt. I took it to my mama and she said that it was a good choice. She told me that Fanny gave it to me and that it is of your favorite baseball team from Venezuela. When I heard that, I got really excited and wanted to wear it even more.

I love you so much and I hope that you like how I look in this shirt. My mom says that you will probably cry when you see me like this. I know how much you love me (and Abuela too!) and I want you to know today that I love you just as much! I am praying that God allows you all to come in June and maybe, Mama says, that we can all go to a baseball game together. Wouldn't that be so fun?

I love you, Abuelo.

Price and Quality

My grandpa apparently used to say, "Quality is remembered long after price is forgotten." I am not sure if he coined that phrase, I wouldn't be surprised if he did, but according to my mom, he said it often.

Well, tonight I thought of Grandpa while I was preparing our dinner. I was making a reuben bake that called for cresent roll dough for the bottom and top layer. Nearly two weeks ago at Walmart, where I do most of our grocery shopping, I bought the GV brand cresent rolls. I distinctly remember looking at the Pillsbury tubes and then the GV brand tubes and thinking, "The GV brand is cheaper. It is the exact same thing. I am buying the GV brand."

Well, a red flag was raised when one morning last week I opened the refrigerator and much to my chagrin found one of the GV tubes busted open. You know they are pressurized or something something must have triggered the pressure in one of the tubes and it burst. I shoved the cresent rolls back into the tube and put it into a ziploc bag.

So, tonight I was getting out the ingredients to prepare the reuben bake and I figured the tube that had been opened would give me a bit of trouble. I was right. You have no idea how right I was... It was piecemeal to say the least!

Surely the other tube would be workable. Well, it was not. The second tube was just about as bad as the first. I had to roll it out and lay it on top of the reuben ingredients which were layered upon the first tube. When I tried to roll it out it tore into a ton of little pieces. Again, I had to piece together these cresents. They are not the exact same thing. Not even close!

Meanwhile I remembered this saying that my grandpa taught his 14 children, "Quality is remembered long after price is forgotten." Boy was he right! I don't think I will ever buy another GV brand cresent roll (at least not for this recipe!).

Winter Fun Day 2010

Yesterday it was quite warm outside so we decided to head out for a little winter family fun!

We were not out long since the snow was really wet and we were all soaked.

Samuel was not too sure about walking in the snow but he gave it the old college-try. Katrina and Pancho made a snow bunny and then had a fun snowball fight. Samuel and I had already headed back indoors since he was getting chilled with the wind.

We will see if we have another winter family fun day (that ended up being a half-hour).

I love this girl...

* At children's church she accidentally wrote on her face!

What a difference a year can make...

Happy 1st Birthday

Dear Samuel,

I have written this letter three times and blogspot has not been working, so hopefully this time it will take!

Where do I begin? We just celebrated your 1st birthday and it was such an emotional time. I spent a good part of the day remembering how the day of your birth unfolded.

I had been a nervous wreck basically the entire pregnancy since we had lost three babies before you and we were classified "high risk" and were doing some pretty intense medical treatments with you throughout the pregnancy. As the delivery date neared I was more and more nervous that things were going to go wrong. We had learned that God always does as He sees fit and we had come to understand (as best we could) that He saw fit to take the other babies without us being able to meet them. I just wondered if I could bear that same ending again.

So, I woke up the morning of January 19th with simple contractions. I was excited because I had not really experienced contractions with Katrina. I waited a while and then woke up Papa to have him help me time them out. They were 5 minutes apart and consistent but not very strong. It was a bit disconcerting because I was getting a blood-thinner injection every morning and evening and I had been told that if I took the blood-thinner too close to the time of delivery (I was going to have a C-section no matter what) that I would have to be put under for your birth because of possible complications. I really didn't want to be sleeping for your arrival, so as soon as I felt like the contractions were steady and this was probably it, I called the on-call ob line. No one called me back and as I waited for the call, the contractions began to become less and less consistent and even less strong. I was bummed, but called the doctor's office and explained the situation. The nurse told me that because the contractions basically tapered off that I should take the injection and see how the rest of the day panned out.

So, Papa gave me the blood-thinner injection in my thigh and we went on about our day, wondering in the back of our minds what was going on. I had an appointment for a non-stress test (NST), which they were doing once a week, in the afternoon. Uncle Shawn and Aunt Leanne offered to watch Katrina during the appointment so I left her with them and headed to the clinic. I had been experiencing some contractions throughout the day, but nothing consistent.

At the clinic I explained what happened much earlier that day and my ob was on-call that day and was in the office for a minute. The nurse thought he should come in and check me, so he did. He checked and said that I was not dilated at all and that I was most likely experiencing false labor that morning. I agreed with him and told him I would see him in one week for the scheduled C-section.

I drove back to Shawn and Leanne's house to get Katrina and while I was there I had quite a few really strong contractions. That was really confusing to me since I had just been told I was not dilated at all. I put Katrina in the car and began to drive home. I was having contractions quite consistently and they began to take my breath away. I called Nana and asked her to please pray that my water would just break so that we would know for sure if it was real labor or not. I did not want to run up to the hospital and have them say, "False labor, ma'am." I didn't want to do that to Katrina or myself. Nana played on the phone with me and we hung up.

At home I asked Katrina what she wanted for dinner. Papa was still working and she was hungry. She asked for pancakes. I took out the Bisquick and was going to get a bowl when I had a really strong contraction and bloop my water broke. Literally about 20 minutes after Nana had prayed that it would be completely clear if you were coming or not.

Needless to say I was thrilled. I called Papa immediately and told him he better come home that my water had just broke. I called Nana and told her and she was so excited that she hung up the phone and was on her way before I even realized she wasn't there anymore!

I got the bag of my stuff (totally forgetting to grab the bag of your stuff) and waited for Papa and Nana to come. Papa arrived and got the car seat into the car and a towel on the front seat. Nana came and took Katrina to her house for dinner. We drove to the hospital and made some phone calls on the way.

When we got to the hospital they had our room ready and the doctor came to see me while the nurses got me all ready for surgery. It was important to take my blood to check the thinness before it was determined whether or not I could be awake or not. The contractions were really hard and painful and the doctor told me they were working as fast as possible with the blood, etc.

They eventually took me to the delivery room to get the spinal block ready. I was in a lot of pain and Papa had to stay out. I started to cry because I was getting really scared. The nurses said that Papa could come in and wait with me until they got the call from the lab about my blood. Just then the phone rang in the OR and it was the lab. My blood thickness was fine. They administered the spinal block, got Papa and got to work.

When Papa came in I was a wreck. The moment we had been waiting for for SO SO long was finally here and it was like all the emotions of those years of waiting came spilling out. I was sobbing and sobbing. Papa was asking me why I was crying. I told him and he said, "God is good all the time and He will do as He sees fit, just like He has in the past. It will be for our good and for His glory and we can trust Him." Shortly after that you were out! You were crying and crying and you were absolutely beautiful. You were much more white than we anticipated (Katrina was really red when she was born).

Papa went with you to the nursery while they washed you and got you all ready to see me. As they fixed me up I just laid there basking in the blessing of the Lord. You were here and you were healthy and we were so grateful to God, even more grateful after all He had brought us through to get you.

I went back to the room and Papa came to tell me you would be coming soon. We called Katrina and Nana and Grandpa to tell them to come on up to meet you. We called some other people too!

You came to the room and I held you for the first time. It was the greatest feeling, holding my son in my arms for the first time. Katrina and Nana and Grandpa came and saw you and thought you were the best little baby ever.

And now, you are one year old and this has been a year of incredible blessings in our family. For the first time in a long time we have not experienced any tragedies for a whole year. It has been so good to realize that we can be close to the Lord in the good times as well as the hard times. We can and do praise the Lord for the good times He has given to us this year. It is refreshing to know that we will and do cling to Him in the midst of all circumstances.

So, happy birthday, Samuel. We love you mas que nunca and cannot wait to see what God has in store for you and for us as we grow together.

Mini Birthday Party

Samuel turned one today and we had a mini birthday party for him at lunch.
We will be celebrating more tonight and then there will be a combined party with Katrina, but here is a glimpse of a mini celebration!

Gehring Family Christmas Celebration

On Sunday evening we gathered as the Gehring family to celebrate Christmas.
This is the second year that we have celebrated after Christmas and it is really nice. There is so much less stress and it is nice to have one more gathering to look forward to after Christmas and New Year's are over.
Shawn and Leanne hosted it again this year. It works out really nice because Leanne loves Christmas and I love Thanksgiving so we each get to host our favorite holiday! Amber, I hope you love Easter!
Leanne made bread bowls and Nick and Amber and Pancho and I brought soup for the bread bowls. Leanne also made a spinach artichoke dip and Mom brought an assortment of cheeses. We enjoyed a delicious soup supper and then opened gifts.
This is the second year that we have gone with the "my favorite things" theme. The ladies are responsible for picking out something (within a set budget) that is their favorite thing of the year and then getting one of those for each of the other ladies. The guys do the same. Some people stick with the rules a bit more than others, but it doesn't really matter.
This year I bought each of the ladies an assortment of little bowls. I really like having specialty bowls to serve dips and sauces in for casual meals. None of them matched the ladies dishes and none of them matched each other.
Pancho went out on a limb and claimed the prize for the most original gift idea... He made certificates for the guys to join him at Red Lobster for lunch or dinner this spring. The certificate stated that one of his favorite things is spending time with them. Another one of his favorite things is lobster. So, being a math guy, he put one and one together and came up with that idea. The guys really liked his idea (so did the girls, actually!).
The kids enjoyed their gifts as well, as the collage depicts.
So, we are back to the drawing board for our favorite things for 2010. Can't wait to see what everyone comes up with this year!

Katrina-isms

"When I grow up I am going to be Samuel's aunt."

"Mama, my hands are basically wrecked and tight."

Home again, home again, jiggety jig

We are home and settled.
If you know me at all, you know that I was unpacked and had the suitcases out of the bedroom (for the first time in 5 LONG weeks!) before noon on Wednesday morning (we got in to our house at 11:30 PM on Tuesday).
We are settling back into our routine and enjoying our days filled with basically nothing. We are missing our family a lot and are continually grateful to the Lord for His provision of our trip to Venezuela.