Does Anybody Know What Day It Is?

If you guessed today is our 34th anniversary, you'd be right. Kind of. Our anniversary got upstaged 18 years ago and pretty much every year since.

Today is an especially important day. Today Megan becomes the last one of her generation on both sides of the family to become an adult. How quickly time flies.

Megan age 18

Eighteen years ago I was busy with other things.  I was gradually losing amniotic fluid, but not even thinking about going into labor.  My doctor gave me the choice of being induced on Tuesday, April 20th or Friday, April 23rd (the days the doctor was available). Of course I choose Friday, even though it was our 16th anniversary, because that meant I could give birth, go home Saturday, get kids to church on Sunday, and be up and running to get kids off to school on Monday.

 Geesh. What was I thinking?

Of course, things didn't work out quite as I'd planned.  Megan was delivered by emergency c-section after a uterine rupture during labor.  She was completely blue, not breathing, and not responding.  My labor and delivery nurse later told me Megan was delivered "more dead than any baby she had ever seen". Ten minutes after birth, she still had an APGAR score of 0, despite resuscitation efforts. They figured that between the rupture and the first breath, Megan was without oxygen for 16 minutes. 

I've tried holding my breath that long. It's really hard.

Megan immediately jetted down to Denver's NICU for some around-the-clock pampering, followed by more days in the Billings NICU. Not exactly what we planned. Total cost for Megan's luxurious accommodations and care: $68,000+.

That was 18 years ago. I'd hate to know what the bill would be today.

My clever plan to be on my feet, getting kids off to school on Monday didn't really work out so well, either. I didn't mosey home from the hospital until Tuesday.

Megan would be more than a week old before I saw her again.

We don't know how much Megan weighed at birth.  In all the chaos, no one weighed her. By the time they weighed her in Denver, she was full of IV fluids, steriods, and seriously retaining water.

Megan, 3 weeks

Although the doctors told us Megan had suffered serious brain damage and would have ongoing, life-long issues, she started walking at 10 months and developed into a real chatterbox shortly after that.

Christmas 1994, Jessica, age 7, Ashley, almost 5, Megan, age 20 months

 Megan's only lingering problem was that she didn't feel a need to eat

Megan, age 20 months

 unless it involved chocolate or sugar.
Some things never change.

Megan, age 2 

Megan has given us lots of joy over the years. No really, she has!
 Jessica loved her so much, she gave Megan chicken pox when she was 2.

The joy of shared chicken pox, Megan, age 2, Jessica age 8

 Megan was as blonde as Ashley and Amy as a little child.  She gradually lost those blonde locks over the years.

Ashley, age 4, Megan, age 2, Amy, age 9

Megan was is so sweet and cute, she just naturally became the adored baby of our family.

Megan, age 3 and Shelly, almost 16

 Megan was always very small for her age.  She had "failure to thrive" issues for the first 6 years of life. After that, she still was under the fifth percentile for height and weight, but I think the doctors gave up trying to fix her.  She was always at least half a foot shorter than her next shortest classmate until her sophomore year when she suddenly stretched to a respectable 5' 3".

Megan had a serious passion for all things Winnie the Pooh for at least a dozen years of her life. 
She claims she's over it but I'm pretty sure I hear her humming
"The Wonderful Thing About Tigger"
under her breath all the time.

Megan, age 6

Megan tells me she has almost no memories of Scott living at home.  When I sort through pictures, I can't help but notice how few we have with Scott and Megan in the same photo.  Megan was 3 when Scott left home for college, and 4 when Scott moved out of state. 

It's funny because of all of our girls, Stan and I think Megan is most like Scott .

Megan, age 1, Scott, age 16, Shelly, age 14

And now Megan is preparing to ride off into the sunset.

Megan, age 7, Jessica, age 13 

 As for all that brain damage predicted by the doctors, we just pretend not to notice.

Megan has grown into a beautiful young woman, and we are going to miss her when she's gone.

Even so, it's been a very, very long time since our anniversary has gotten equal time.

 Watch out everyone! Our inner party animals are about to escape!

Dying To Desert Me

 I've been forced to recruit new helpers.

Hailey, Makayla, and I were home alone on this good Friday, since Stan worked, Megan played, and Bassetts went to visit family.

We put on our clothes saving t-shirts

and carefully read the instructions.

We boiled our eggs

and started dipping.

Hailey liked the pinks, oranges, and reds,

Makayla preferred the blues and greens.

Although she was concerned about the way it turned her fingers blue.

We colored 17 eggs.  We ate the eighteenth egg because it rolled onto the floor and cracked.

Dyers extraordinaire!

 Hailey and Makayla volunteered to set the table for all of us.

It's good to have replacement dyer/helpers. We just hope no one cares most of the forks were on the floor at least once, and a few of the napkins were used to wipe goobers.

Visitors

We had some visitors come by today. 

Hailey, Makayla, and Amy admiring Ava

 

We took the family to the upscale, 5 star restaurant "Fuddruckers".

Grandpa and Chase

I took a few candid shots of Chase,

 but when he noticed me, he immediately gave me a cheesy, goofy smile.

Cute girls sharing a drink.

 Can you guess which one of these children felt some stress about having all these people to share the "your food is done" buzzer with?

Caden and Hailey

 Wow! This Montana meat is so much better than South Dakota stuff!

Kailyn is working on being a Montana cowgirl. Golly dern, Ashley, your cowgirl boots have sure been popular! I hope baby Pearson isn't expecting to take them over.

 

How fun for Grandpa and Grandma to have a houseful of little sleeping angels for a night or two.

Bassett boys: Chase and Caden

Bassett girls: Jordan and Kailyn

Bassett baby: Ava

Bassetts are on their way to a Bassett family gathering in Wyoming. 

We are so happy we live along the way!

A Spaetzle Noodle In Our Streudel

Today is Oma's birthday.  She would have been 116. 

We always celebrate this day by having one of our favorite family dishes, a German dish Oma frequently made.

 Oma, age 57

Makayla and Hailey joined me in kitchen to mix the dough

and stir the lentils.

April 18, 1993 was the date Megan was suppose to be born.  She ended up running several days late.

Now that I know Megan, I'm not surprised.
We thought it appropriate to recruit her to squish the dough.

Megan was concerned about getting spaetzle elbow.
That would be bad.  She has some important tennis games coming up.

She got a little steamed about it.

We decided it was time to pass the noodle squisher and Stan stepped in.

Ta-da! Oma's Spaetzle und Linsen (Spaetzle and Lentils).

Makayla dug right it.

Even Hailey liked it.

 Makayla loved the lentils, something I couldn't eat without gagging until I was 31 2/3 years old. 

Now I love them. Old age will do that to you.

We always freeze the extra in individual serving size-one cup noodle, one half cup lentils. It is by far our most popular leftover.  I send frozen baggies of spaetzle and lentils off to college with my kids to give them a taste of home when they get homesick.

Now that dinner is over, I'm going to stay out of the kitchen and hope the clean up elves stop by before I go down to breakfast tomorrow.