Cape Ann

While we await Baby Girl, we decided to do some sightseeing. As a kid, I had fond memories of Cape Ann. We had nice weather.  Love the beautiful New England houses along the rocky coast!

Rockport

Daniel squinting

View from coffee shop window

Oliver

Steve in the foreground in downtown Rockport

The fishing shed is knownas Motif Number Oine. My father took numerous photos of this when I was a kid

Outside of town we found a flock of about 25 turkeys..very timid but later two of the
males charged Oliver and me. One of the males fanned his feathers, a first for me. See  below

Steve and the boys in front of the Gloucester memorial  for all the fishermen lost at  sea. 

Not on Cape Ann but in Cambridge Sunday entering the hospital to
have Baby Girl..didn't happen

Lobster traps

Can't have too many Motifs, best photographed in the afternoon. We were there in  the morning

My Bone to Pick with the Big C

Here in the Land of False Labor (another impressive bout last night lasting until 2 am)  I have been catching up with cable shows I do not have (along with the drugs I need I wish I brought my own computer as the little boys have made this one nearly unuseable).
In the Big C, our heroine Cathy has Stage 4 melanoma. In Season 2, she is enrolled in a clinical trial along with her new friend with the same diagnosis.This must be some drug because the only side effect it seems to have is loss of fingernails. She is thrilled with her fingernails falling off as she believes it is a sign that it is killing her cancer. She hides this sign from her friend because she knows he still has his fingernails and thus his cancer. Indeed the drug fails him and he dies though not before noticing her attempt to hide the missing nails and being struck with a mixture of resentment and envy.

By the same logic, I should be having a recurrence now because I had less side effects than others on the same regime. I am afraid that those on chemo will now worry that lack of side effects will doom them.

So despite saying she is tired, our cancer patient has a full head of beautiful hair, glowing skin, works a full time job and takes a new job coaching swimming at a high level, throwing parties, dealing with her needy family members and then running a marathon. Even her doomed friend still runs though he admits that running five miles now feels like running six (mean while my friend on my chemo didn'thave enough breathe to finish a sentence). Death comes quickly for her (Hugh Dancey) cute friend.One week he is running, the next week he can't breathe.

Despite the glaring misportrayal of being on chemo, the show is amusing,well written, and well acted. It does show how cancer changes ones priorities.

Back in the Land of False Labor and Wild Little Boys, we did the long walk to the OB hoping it would jumpstart something. Dr. Sweet Young Thing was happy to report that she should last the whole 2 weeks until the planned section. She has dilated a bit since Sunday..half of a petite Asian finger. Ms  Baby Girl now is about 8.5 lbs. Comeout;comeout!

Empty Arms

We were so excited going to the hospital. Steve stayed home with the boys but he was to bring them when Baby Girl arrived. Do I have time for a shower?Steve asked.
No..I barked back.
We thought for sure we'd meet Baby Girl that day. I took photos of the expectant couple outside of the hospital. Shanna had not eaten anything in 2 days nor did she drink much.Once hydrated, the contractions subsided. There was no medical reason to keep her but they were sure she'd  be back later that day.She was told not to eat. But at home she fell asleep and the contractions went away. Back to eating.

I have been running up and down the Minuteman trail and playing with the grandboys. We hope our wait won't be long..Today she hardly had any contractions.

Still waiting for Baby Girl

We got the call yesterday at noon that maybe Shanna was in labor. I  said I would call back in an hour to see if they were continuing as we were not home. Steve insisted on doing the laundry before we left driving me crazy....why  oh why? Shanna thought that the contractions were continuing so off we went on our 12.5 hour journey. Nice roads though strong winds were pushing us every wish way and we sat through long lines at both borders. We pulled in at 2 am. The whole family was up but the contractions had seemed to subside only to wake her up again 4 hours later. We went to the hospital this morning. They were not impressed with the contractions. She is not dilated or effaced and it is too early to have a C-section without being in labor.  Unlike the other babies, Baby Girl is head down! She could be a VBAC. Shanna was told to go home and wait. It is now noon and that is what we are doing.    Waiting.

Maybe Baby

On our way..things seem to be progressing...

Job's first daughters

In Sunday school, we were given a rewritten Bible for children to help us understand all the stories. It left out some of the juicier aspects of the Bible.I had plenty of questions that the teacher patiently tried to answer. I always missed the point of the lessons. I thought the serpent made a good argument to Eve about obtaining knowledge versus blind obedience. Obviously blind obedience was preferred to constant questioning. I looked for stories that had female heroines. Well there was Esther...
I wondered aloud why the Biblical patriarchs seemed only to father sons? Well they probably had daughters too but rarely were they of interest.
The story that raised the most questions for me was that of Job. Job had been blessed with many children, wives, servants(slaves?) and livestock and he was suitably grateful to God. But then Satan somehow talked God into a bet to show that when the chips were down, Job would not be all that grateful anymore. Why did God get into a bet with the Devil? Shouldn't He be above that?
Disasters began to befall Job. All the livestock died; all the servants perished; then the wives and then the children. And then Job himself was covered with painful sores. But what upset me the most was the death of the children, what a weak reason for them to die.
The point as I was told was that Job never lost his faith. All that he lost was then replaced with newer and better. Better children? More numerous children? I felt bad for the first children.

My friend has a daughter-in-law with an unusual name. I was told that it is the name of one of Job's daughters. First set or second set?
I looked this up. The names of the second set of daughters were given. In a unusual move, Job decided to give these three daughters an inheritance. This was not discussed in my Sunday school class Some groups use that to show that God meant for the sexes to be equal. There are organizations called Job's Daughters.

We were spared the tornadoes that swept the Midwest but strong winds battered our house all night. I am glad that today is a day off of running.

About a year ago, when we bought Naomi's wedding dress, we were told that it would include a free sale rack dress. I had forgotten about that until recently. Will they still honor that? We went there yesterday to claim this dress from a bunch of samples. Samples are generally  size ten, big for Naomi but she was able to find a slinky black number that will need only very minor adjustments. What struck me though was the bizarre gyrations she went through to make sure I didn't see her body. Junior high aged kids guard their bodies carefully..no one is going to see what they have. I assumed after childbirth and being close to 21, Naomi's guard would be let down. She must be hiding something. Yep I guessed it, a silly tattoo. As she pointed out, it is her body. At least it isn't usually visible. Sigh....

They had a few fancy dresses for children that we could have gotten instead. In particular, there was a beautiful peach taffeta number that had sold for $250. It was in a weird size, Size 5. This was too far in the future to  for Naomi to imagine Maya wearing it. Well when Ms. Maya is ten or so, I have a beautiful never been worn dress for her that I had spent more for than my own wedding dress. We still have the $5 back-up flower girl dress, size 24 months (she wore the 18 months version) for Maya or her cousin, Ms. Baby Girl to wear.

This was Ms. Maya's first trip out in a while as she recovers from her virus. Still raspy and crabby. She is making more of an attempt to copy our spoken words.

Shortly after Naomi left, a Mom called for an impromptu Happy Hour. I just had been there the night before..the staff must think I am quite the barfly. We ended up back at my house drinking shots of the elephant fruit liquor. Fun.

Sint Maarten/St. Martin redux

We didn't stop at this bar

These are sheep, not goats (tails down)

Hurricane Luis came through in 1995 and destroyed 70% of the buildings. Recovery has been slow in part because taxes don't have to be paid until the project is completed. So the lower level is fixed and people live there. It will be a while until they fix the top.

Pretty stone church

We had crossed the border over to the French side. This is the sign greeting us when we came back

In the town square, there are statues of Icons of Sint Maarten: a butcher, a cleaning lady and TaTa  the Bus Driver. Our bus driver was also named Ta Ta though I think he is the son of Ta Ta Senior

Very hard to see but there is a large iguana here

Me feeding the vervets.

Interesting drink menus along the beach strip. Not sure what 'ruff sex on the beach' is.