I'm back

I started this post 3 days ago. I think I finally have it ready to post. I hope it makes sense. I've rambled I know.

I took a hiatus from blogging. Well, not really, because I've been blogging on The Mommy's blog and The Isaacs blog, but, you know, a hiatus from my own blog. I guess I just really haven't had anything to say that I thought would be interesting enough to write about. I've been in a funk of sorts. Hopefully I'm on my way out. Sometimes life just beats a person down and it's hard to see the sun through the rain. You know what I mean, right?

Since I've been gone I've made two trips to the Smoky Mtns. of TN, a trip to the hills of KY and I've gained a new family member....my beautifuly new baby niece Ellie Grace. Memorial Day weekend my friend Shelly and I drove to Gatlinburg and spent the weekend working at Gaither Family Fest for the Isaacs. We had a grand time. We heard lots of great music, had some fantastic food and spent hours laughing and just enjoying ourselves. This is our 3rd trip together and each year we have a good time. This year we didn't walk ourselves to death like we have the years before. We usually come back so tired that we need a week off to recover.

The Isaacs singing at Family Fest

in Gatlinburg

Last weekend the hubby and I made a trip to Berea, KY. We had the best time. I wrote about it HERE. I'm still thinking about it. It just amazes me that people still live like Aunt Edna with no electricity or running water. She wants for nothing though and she seemed to be the happiest person I've run across in a long time.

Edna Isaacs showing us around the farm

My niece The Mommy had asked me a few weeks ago if I would like to be in the delivery room with her when she birthed her baby girl. Of course I didn't have to think twice about that one. I have been with each of my great nieces and nephews except for The Muffin. I wasn't invited that time and my feelings were injured. No, not really, it just didn't work out that I could attend. So I was really excited to be invited this time and I told my Director that I wanted to be there and I might just have to run out at some unexpected moment from work so as not to miss the event. The Mommy was planning to have the baby in a nearby county that would take me at least an hour to get there so I was kind of glad when she called me on Thursday to say they were going to induce her on Friday. My sister and The Muffin and I got to the hospital around 9:00 on Friday morning and we found her walking the halls in her hospital gown and dragging her IV pole behind her. She walked and walked and walked some more. We got settled in her room and spent the day there. They would come in every once in a while to check her and to get the baby monitor positioned on her belly where they could monitor the baby properly and we would wait some more. By 4:30 she just wasn't making any progress and they couldn't up the dosage of pitocin anymore so they came in and told us it didn't look like there would be a baby that day after all. I was so disappointed! I can't even tell you how much. You see we had planned this trip to KY and we were leaving very early on Saturday morning so if there wouldn't be a baby that day then that meant I wasn't going to be present for the event. I could hardly believe what they were telling us. They said that they wanted to stop the pitocin and let her uterus have a rest and would start it again early on Saturday morning. She wanted so much to have the baby without having a c-section and they said this would be the best chance to make that happen. So my sister and I packed up the camera and the laptop and the Muffin's toys and books and we headed home. We hardly said a word on the long drive home. We were tired and it was as if someone had let the air out of a balloon. Anyway, The Mommy ended up not having the little girl til 10:30 on Saturday night. I was getting so worried. I had text'd with them all most of the day and they kept me updated with what was happening (or not happening) and at 10:00 that night I was starting to get worried. I couldn't believe she had not had the baby yet. She gave birth to a beautiful little girl. She gets more beautiful with every photo I see of her and I've visited with her twice now and she is changing daily. Her name is Ellie Grace.

Sweet Baby Ellie

Work has been crazy for the last few weeks. I work on a team of about 5 people and somehow I became the "fill in/do their job when they're out" person. For the last 6 to 8 weeks we have not had a full team but maybe 2 days. There has been medical problems, deaths, vacations, you name it! Hopefully next week we'll have a full team again and things will get back to normal. Whatever normal is!

It sounds like we're going to have 95 degree weather coming up this weekend. Sigh! The rain last night was so hard that a lot of our mulch is on our sidewalk this morning. I think we've had enough rain to last a while. Not that what I think matters though! No huge plans this weekend except a short trip to Weaverville, near Asheville. For an Isaacs concert, what else! I wish a good weekend for each of you! Keep blogging. I sneak in and read your posts every single day.

Sending love your way........