pictures from my mom's memorial service...

Each of the grandchildren made a collage for the reception...
you can click on the pictures for a larger image...

Timmy Bailey's:

Nicole Bailey's:

Chloe Bailey's:

Jonathan Tobey's:

Summer Tobey's:

Jesse Tobey's:

Me and my brother Mike

Emma Bean and her mommy...

My cousins Tami & Garrett, their daughter Rebecca, my aunt Barbara and my cousin Roger

My cousin Roger and myself

Yanking up the rumor weed...

Ummm... I heard some news about myself this week that came as a shocker...
Evidently Tim and I are trying to get pregnant!
Someone said that they read it on my blog...so to be diligent in my damage control, I reread my last post and found the weed seed...

"We are in the beginning throes of more change in our household, which I will explain soon. Suffice to say that we have not sold the house yet and therefore are not moving and we are not pregnant... :) "

When I said that I wasn't pregnant...I just meant that the news that I couldn't share yet was not that I was pregnant, because when you tell people that you have new news, they usually jump to that conclusion...which is perfectly understandable considering our track record by the way, so no offense taken here :)...
Let's try planting a new seed...
Jennifer and Tim are NOT trying to get pregnant at all...really.
Please pass it on...

Long time no post...

I am so sorry to have taken such a long break. But it was very much needed. I will be in the process of back posting soon. I have so many wonderful pictures from Christmas and Morg and Dave's wedding and lots and lots of stuff.
We are in the beginning throes of more change in our household, which I will explain soon. Suffice to say that we have not sold the house yet and therefore are not moving and we are not pregnant... :)
For the moment, here are two short movie clips of Emma that are wonderful examples of the joy she brings each day, and some mini updates on each of us...
Chloe is about to lose her first tooth, which she is nervously anticipating.
Timmy is starting his second season in the major leagues of little league baseball.
Nicole is starting her first year of soccer and is very excited.
I played the keyboard Sunday for the whole worship set, even leading and singing one of the songs. I was quite nervous, having only played publicly one other time on one song a while back. I have led with guitar extensively but had never tried the keyboard. I had so much fun! It wasn't nearly as hard as I had anticipated, and I got some great feedback so it must have been not too bad. I had a blast regardless.
Tim is doing fine at work, actually doing great. He got huge kudos from the boss recently regarding the last jobsite that he completed. Evidently his foreman skills resulted in finishing the job early and coming in under budget when the job was zeroed out. He was given a brand spankin' new work truck with his choice of custom tool boxes, and we are awaiting a bonus for the job mentioned above!
He is so modest, but I am so proud of him. He is an amazingly hard and loyal worker and deserves every bit of praise.
I guess that is all for now.
I will write later today or tomorrow about the other new changes, but can't quite yet...
Love to everyone...
Here's the movie clips... Enjoy!
This one is her "reading" her favorite picture book to Daddy...



This one is our Bailey infamous "sweet eyes"...

Evolution of Dance

This is an absolute RIOT!!! Enjoy.
Jen

am i cute or what....

i know, i know....

I'm sorry for being a blog flake... I didn't even realize that I needed a break, but I guess I did.
I'm still not sure when I will fully be back. Just need some time to get some priorities straight.
Love to everyone!
me

happy birthday to emma-bean...yesterday!

I meant to get this up yesterday and just didn't get to it... but in honor of her first birthday, I thought I would FINALLY share her birth story! Hopefully I am not too graphic for some of you...but I wanted to be factual because, well, I just do.
So here it is... and HAPPY HOMEBIRTH DAY BEAN!!!

First of all, making the decision to have a home birth was a hard one for us. We live in such a small town and we are an hour away from a hospital with a regular OB/GYN on staff. I did some research and found out the LIFEFLIGHT info from the good hospitals and decided to do it. We truly felt that God was calling us to.
My best friend, Noelle, is a doula and a childbirth educator and I attended her homebirth, which was amazing. I also had attended one in Orlando when we lived there. I have been at several hospital births other than my own and KNEW I didn't want THAT experience again (stories for another day). I already knew the midwife I wanted, but after hiring her and having our first prenatal, she had some family problems and dropped me...I was 32 (?) weeks before I finalized my new midwife... yikes... anyway, I chose the new one because of her tremendous amount of experience, specifically with rural area births...She was a midwife for the Amish in PA for many years and is also trained as an EMT. She had over 1500 births under her belt. That was a biggie for us. We started to prepare for the birth by trying to finish the upstairs (our new bedroom, where we wanted to have her)...We exhausted ourselves trying to finish and actually, the day my water broke, we had worked our behinds off...The room was NOT finished, for the record...:)
It was 12:30 AM on the 27th, 2 weeks before my due date, and I was lying in bed next to my snoring husband, surrounded by construction materials and MESS! and suddenly....a gush of water soaks me, the sheets, the blanket...everything! I FREAKED OUT!!!
Not really...but I just remember thinking..."Oh LORD (truly praying), she's coming NOW! I'm really going to have this baby!" I knew that if my water broke, that baby HAD to come out within a day or so...I woke Tim up and we called the midwife and all the people that were going to be here (several friends and a back-up midwife). They were all SOOO wonderful, they came and cleaned up the whole upstairs, moved out most of the construction stuff, disenfected the bathroom, set up the pool, etc. ALSO, Noelle was on her way back from TX!!! I called their cell and her husband Jon answered... I said, "Umm, you might want to drive a little faster..." He said, "Whhhyyyyy????" I said, "Because my water just broke!!"....
They were in MISSISSIPPI!
Needless to say, they broke all speed limits to get here....
Terri (midwife) had just been out to see me earlier that day for a prenatal! She lived 3 hours away, so she started heading my way. Taking into consideration that this was my fourth, we figured it would go fast.
It didn't.
We petered through many a small contraction that early morning, but never got into any real good ones...
Noelle and her mom arrived Sunday AM at about 9... All day Sunday, we walked and tried herbal tinctures (nasty.nasty.nasty!!!) and nipple stimulation (releases oxytocin, the natural form of pitocin, and stimulates the uterus to begin contracting) and well, I guess that's enough huh? To no avail...we would have some smallish contractions, but they would stop as soon as we stopped the stimulation. That evening at about 6, she checked me and said that I was only about 2 centimeters...I cried...I was soooo tired...Also, Emma was posterior (facing forward instead of back, this can cause lengthy labors, because the head can't slide properly through the pelvis)
Finally at about 2 AM on the morning of the 28th (I had been up for almost 40 hours!), I slept for awhile. When I awoke, Terri gave me some castor oil...(I know, you're thinking YUCK!!!, but truly, it was not near as bad as I thought it would be... she mixed it with peach syrup and had me take one sip of the mix and then one sip of plain syrup...it worked fairly well...I only gagged once...) :)
Somewhere in here, we called Summer, who was visiting her mom and dad in Florida, and arranged to move up her flight home, hoping that perhaps she might make it to the birth.
Anyway, then we walked...then I rested...still NO contractions at all. I did have some diarrhea from the castor oil, which was normal, but it was not overwhelming at all...but no contractions...So, at about 3 pm, she sent Tim and I upstairs to do more nipple stimulation, since that had worked somewhat, by at least producing contractions the day before. So we weren't up there for more than 15 minutes and WHOA, here they came--- 3 MINUTES APART!
I think that this is when the labor truly STARTED. I think my body was not ready for labor and that Emma broke my water prematurely with her hand, which was raised up by her head as she came out...
So.... on that note....here we go.
I labored downstairs for about an hour, then we decided to go ahead and get into the birthing pool. No sooner than I got in there and they were coming very fast and VERY hard! The last time we had checked, hours before, I had only been 2 cm, so I still thought I had hours and hours and hours to go... After ONE more hour, I was trying super-hard to not get overwhelmed when suddenly I started feeling like I needed to push...and when I say that I mean NEEDED TO PUSH!!! It was SO strong. Soon after that I literally began to feel my cervix fully dilate and feel her moving down the birth canal. It was so incredible...I can't even describe it. It hurt like the dickens but I could really FEEL her moving down! I knew right where she was. As she began to crown, the midwife said, "Okay, Jen, stop pushing now...Look at me...she's this far out (holding fingers about an inch apart)" I couldn't vocalize anything at that moment, but I KNEW THAT!! I knew exactly where she was....It was so empowering.
So then, at 5:47 pm, out she came and Tim delivered her up to my chest! She was so beautiful! We had another girl!
Summer was in the air somewhere between Palm Beach and Atlanta...
We realized right away that she was not breathing and so we began to pray. The cord had not been cut yet, to allow all the the life-giving oxygen rich blood flow to her until the placenta stopped pulsating completely, so she was still receiving oxygen. Her heart rate was doing well. The midwife used a little contraption that blew room oxygen into her lungs, and we kept praying. We finally just spoke LIFE to her, in the name of Jesus, and she began to make some small noises. We kept massaging her little chest and she finally began to breathe on her own. It was quite scary, but yet there was such a peace in the room. The midwife was sooo calm and had everything under control. It was wild.
So, then I birthed the placenta and then got up on the bed. She nursed fairly quickly and her whole family fell in love. We were surrounded by so many friends and family and it was so beautiful. I can't wait for the next one, if we decide to have more.
We did the newborn exam, right there on my bed and she did great! She was 7 lbs. 1 oz. and 19 inches long. Her head diameter was 14 inches.

I did have some tearing, but that was to be expected considering her head circumference and the fact that her hand was up by her head as she came out... hence the excruciating pain worse than all the other births...
The midwife stitched me up and told me to stay upstairs for a whole week! I was to be Queen Jennifer! HA!
Actually, everyone did treat me like a queen. They were all WONDERFUL! My church family brough yummy meals and movies and books, and even homemade bread! I loved being at home and being in my own bed with my own family taking care of me. SO different than my other birthing experiences. Maybe I'll write those out someday...
Actually, if there is a next time, I want to do a more hands -off approach. I certainly want the midwives there, but I feel like I can handle the birth part better just by listening to my body, rather than a person. It was kind of frustrating to be listening to both this time.
Summer arrived a few hours after the baby, and sobbed as she held Emma for the first time. I was so sad that she missed it. She had been at Chloe's birth, and was so looking forward to this one. :(
All said and done, the TRUE labor only lasted about 3 hours! YEAH BABY! But I will say this, those 3 hours were like all the pain from the longer labors crammed into 3!!! I've heard it said that quick labors are like a train ride, once your on, you just hold on for dear life 'til it's over! SOOO TRUE!
But I certainly got my reward in the end... What a beautiful baby...
She is our "bean"...
Anyway, that's my story and I hope you are blessed by it. If you haven't seen the slideshow, you should check it out.... See the sidebar on the right...

on turning thirty-five...

I can't believe it. I , Jennifer Elizabeth Bailey, who was 13 yesterday and might still be somewhere in this head of mine, will be turning 35 on Friday. Did you hear that...
35...
thirty-five...
T-H-I-R-T-Y- - F-I-V-E !!!! That is half of 70!!!
Last week, I was talking to a young man at our church group and he siad he was born in 1987. He is an adult. In 1987, I was almost done with high school. He is an ADULT.
I know all of you who are older than myself are just chucklin away, thinking "Just you wait, sweetie-pie, just you wait..., " but you need to remember how you felt when you had that defining moment of realization that you were truly getting "old."
That all the young hip twenty-somethings are ALL calling you Ma'am now.
That is has been almost 20 years since you graduated from high school.
That the fashion trends that were so popular in your era, have already passed the "out of date-how did we wear that" status and are becoming the latest "new thang" (bangs, perms, side ponytails, long shirts, leggings under a jean mini-skirt, sam&libby's, neon, blue eyeshadow, legwarmers...!)
That your generations music is now referred to as "OLD school!" HA!
That grey hairs and wrinkles are there to stay...and get worse.
That your body will NEVER look like it did...EVER, no matter how hard you work out.
That your son is only a year away from being a TEENAGER! AAACKK!
And only 3 years away from DRIVING A MOTOR VEHICLE!!!
Egads.
Calgon, take me away.
Just for awhile.
Or at least let me pretend to be 13 for a day.
No responsibilties, no worries, lots of friends, fun and all the food I can eat (with no caloric consequences!)
CAN SOMEONE GIVE ME ALL THAT FOR MY BIRTHDAY?????
yeah right.
:)
happy birthday to me.

junk pumpkins...

Last weekend was our church fall festival. On the Thursday prior, we went out to help with some decorating. Our friends, Hank and Nichole and Janice and Marc were hosting the festival. Janice is Nichole's mom and they live next door to each other, out in the country.
Anway, I will post pics of the actual festival later, but here are the pics of the centerpiece "Junk Pumpkins" that we made.
We had SOOOOO much fun.
And for the record, Marc carved a beautiful calvary scene on one pumpkin and I forgot to go back after dark and get a finished picture of it. But it was so intricate and very well done. Good Job Marc.
Here's the slideshow... Enjoy!

If it is in the middle, just click on the first picture at the bottom to start over...and if you want to pause it to view a picture longer, there are controls at the top for that...

Get Your Own! | View Slideshow

tongues in cheeks and idiots...

For those of you who are interested... My slightly very mental husband, who possesses the incredible ability to sound like the wittiest man alive and an absolute idiot at the same time, depending on who is reading or listening and whether they KNOW him, has decided to finally begin his own blog.
Oh. My. Word. :)
Actually, I have enjoyed watching him get his creative juices flowing and have an outlet for that amazing sense of humor that he has. And those that don't "get" the humor, and do think that he is a complete idiot, well... I suppose it would be their loss for not knowing him.
I have never known a man like him in all my days and I am so honored to have his love and his never-ending wackiness in my life.
For those that dare, click here:
verbal grinds
Enter at your own risk, but please put your tongue in your cheek first...
:O)