HAPPY BIRTHDAY DANIEL!!!

Exactly 15 years ago today at 10:36 p.m. , our 4th child and 2nd baby boy was born into our family. We named him Daniel Ray White and he weighed 9 pounds 2 1/2 ounces and was 22 inches long. He was my biggest baby. He also shares the same birthday as my father, so that makes this day even more special. Daniel was different from the rest in that he had coal black hair. He also is different in another way in that we felt God's presence from the very beginning with him.

Randy told me from day one that he KNEW the baby was a boy and that his name would be Daniel. I got to name the other 3 children, but Randy named Daniel. I really didn't like that name to be honest ( I love it now though) but every where we went, the name "Daniel" would be mentioned. We would be in the car listening to the radio....and a guy would be preaching on Daniel. We went to someone's house one time, and the man who prayed before our dinner mentioned the name "Daniel" in his prayer. When I would ask our 1 year old Aaron to bring me a book to read, he would bring me a book about "Daniel". Things like that happened all the time. It was really wierd but I knew God was telling me too that we would have a boy and we were to call him "Daniel". When it was time for my baby shower, I told everyone I was having a boy and to give me boy clothes. I had no idea for sure because we never found out the sex of our babies. I took a chance in saying that he was a boy because that is how sure we were that he would be a boy!! And he was!!!

His birth was quite stressful for me in that my Doctor insisted that he be taken by cesarean on his due date. Because she believed a baby should not go one day past their due date. We went round and round with her. She made my life miserable. She even went so far as to tell me that she hoped she wouldn't visit our baby in the morgue!!! All of my babies were late and we were going to trust God in his timing of birth and not man's. Brooke was 3 weeks late and Paige and Aaron were exactly 9 days late. Daniel ended up being 9 days late also. During these 9 days of lateness, the Doctor made my life even more stressed.

Well, God has a funny sense of humor. The morning of February 22nd, I woke up and knew that I was in labor. The pains were not bad but I knew it was labor. My mother was with me and we went to the mall to walk. We even went out to eat at the Eola for lunch and people would say "How much longer do you have?" and I would say, "I'm in labor now." That really freaked them out!!! Later that evening the pain was much worst. I remember being in bed watching the Olympics with all that Nancy Kerigan and Tonya Harding stuff going on. I was in so much pain. The family would come check on me and I would send them away because when I'm in pain, I like to be left alone. Based on my painful experience with Aaron, I knew the hospital wouldn't let me have an epidural until I got to a 5 so I decided to be in pain in the comforts of my own home and not in some cold hospital. When the pain got so bad I just couldn't take it anymore, we went to the hospital. They checked me right away and I was at a 5!!!!!! Oh joy, joy, joy......that means I get my epidural!!!! They told me to go to the restroom and then they would give me the epidural. For you younger readers, you may want to leave at this time. Anyways, when I went into the bathroom, the baby's head started coming out. I started screaming for the nurse and she got me to the table where SHE delivered him. That mean doctor never even got the pleasure of delivering a beautiful, healthy baby boy. This was the first time for that nurse to ever deliver a baby so I was quite the talk of the hospital. Unfortunately because I went from a 5 to a 10 in a matter of minutes, my body wasn't ready and Daniel came out bruised from head to toe. No joke - he looked like he had been dropped on the floor he was so black and blue. You know how bruises change colors as they heal...well he was different colors for a good month after he was born. The nurses in the hospital nick-named him the "Skid Mark Baby." He came into this world in a big hurry!!

Out of all my pregnancies, we felt the hand of God on Daniel's life more than any other child. He is indeed a very special gift that was given to us.

The name Daniel means "God is my Judge." Our prayer for Daniel is that he will live his life for an audience of ONE and not live to please man. We want him to only care what God thinks about what he does and not man's opinion. Daniel is so special to us and he has such a tender and caring heart. He is so much fun to be around and I love him more than words can say

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DANIEL. I AM SO BLESSED THAT GOD GAVE YOU TO ME!!!!!

Prom Days are Back

Randy and I got to attend the Prom at the boy's school on Saturday. We were in charge of the "coat check" area. We got to get all dressed up and it was a lot of fun. I do have to say, we aren't as young as we used to be because it wiped us out!!!! There was a breakfast afterwards and a lot of the kids and parents spent the night at the house it was at. We got home about 2:30 a.m. It was on Valentines night!!! My boys were the most handsome ones there, of course!! It was fun to feel like a kid again!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AARON!!!!

Exactly 17 years ago today, I had our first son - we named him Aaron which means Bearer of Light. I pray every day that he will be a light to this dark world. He was born at 8:22 p.m. and weighed 8 pounds 11 ounces. Out of all my births, he was the most painful. We didn't know whether he was a boy or a girl. We really felt like he was going to be a girl. I knew Randy wanted a son so bad so probably was convincing himself it was a girl so he wouldn't be a little disappointed. As for me....I wanted a girl. I wanted a house full of girls and no nasty, dirty little boy who likes to bug his sisters. That's until I had a boy of my own. I can't even describe the love I have for him. If you are a parent of both a boy and a girl you will understand what I'm talking about. There is a special, different kind of bond between a mother and son - just like there is between a daddy and his daughter. I never imagined having a little boy could be so wonderful. Yes, they are dirty, nasty and like to bug their sisters. But I love every minute of it!!! I love their chubby dirty little hands and their hugs and kisses. I love watching them play ball. Now Aaron is grown and now I get to squeeze those hard muscely arms and still love those hugs and kisses (even though they aren't as much!!)

This baby inside of me was very strong. Out of all the babies, he kicked and punched the hardest. At times, it would almost take my breath away. I knew whatever this baby was, it was going to be STRONG!!! When I went to bed that night 17 years ago, the baby was kicking and punching harder than ever. I could hardly take it. My last words to Randy before I went to sleep were, "This baby is kicking so hard, it's going to break my water and my body isn't going to be ready." Sure enough in the middle of the night - BAM - one very hard kick and there goes my water. I called the hospital and they told me not to come in until I was having contractions. I waited 2 hours and still no contractions - nothing was happening. They told me to come in and they gave me Pitocin which causes you to have contractions. I was dilated to a 0 now so I was really not doing anything. I had such strong contractions it was unbelievable. They said they couldn't give me an Epidural until I was dilated to a 5. I have always had very long labors. Even baby number 7 took me 20 something hours to have her. I went all day long in excrutiating pain. They wouldn't help me. Finally that night when I was so dilirious in pain I wanted to shoot myself, they said I could have an Epidural. They paged the Anesthegeologist. He was under the hill and his pager wouldn't pick up. I begged, I pleaded, I bribed for SOMEBODY to please give me the Epidural. Nobody could give it to me but him. Oh the pain, the pain. I screamed, I cried. I finally got to a 10 and still no epidural. You could hear my screams all over the hospital. Probably all over Natchez!! The Doctor and nurses were getting mad at me and kept telling me to quit screaming - I would scare the baby. At this point, I didn't care. I was out of my mind in pain. Finally at 8:22 p.m. a precious little boy was born. He was worth every scream, every tear, and every pain. His Daddy was so happy to have a son. He is also the first to carry on the "White" name.

I have loved every minute of these 17 years with Aaron. And yes, he is still strong. Not only physically, but also strong willed. He is smart, athletic and he is mine!!

I love you Aaron and Happy Birthday!!!

Happy New Years Everybody!!

I haven't updated since Christmas. We had a very nice one I might add!! We got to add another stocking to our fireplace mantel this year - one for Chad. So now we have 10 stockings on our mantel. We have a fireplace in every room so we will have plenty more room to add more stockings in the future for spouses....our grandchildren......great-grands....no telling how many stockings we will have!!!!!

Santa had a very hard time putting together Benjamin's 8 in 1 game table. If it had not been for Chad, I think the table would have been thrown out the door - no kidding!!! So thanks, Chad!! They were up until 2:00 in the morning putting that thing together.

My happy news for the day is that Brooke found me an artifical tree at Hobby Lobby. No more tree disasters to experience. It was a $350.00 tree that she got for $98.00 - that includes tax too!! I wish I could put it up this year since I only got to enjoy our tree this year for such a short time. My only fear now is that when we set it up next year - the lights won't work!!!

This is the last day of the year. Tomorrow starts a new beginning. A time to think about changes you would like to make....things you will do differently.....goals to set.....attitude adjustments.....so many things. May God bless all of you this coming new year!!

One of the best Christmas trees yet!!!

I can't believe how our little Charlie Brown tree turned out. It's absolutely beautiful!! I'm so so so so happy!!!. Randy was so clever in his idea of putting it on top of a box. Actually it was a book shelf he made that I didn't even know about. I have plans for that book shelf that he had hidden away. - after Christmas is over! It's laying face down with a maroon blanket on top of the box. All my ribbons and stuff are gold and maroon. The tree is absolutely gorgeous. Then sitting on top of that maroon box and all around the tree on the floor are my black and white presents that are wrapped out of Brooke's wedding reception paper....well....you can't help but just stare at it. I have wrapped the presents in maroon and gold ribbon. I was wanting to buy a huge tree after Christmas, but I love this idea and it's so different!!! I wish all of you could see it!!

We are having Randy's side of the family over at our house on Sunday for our Christmas celebration. I have the house looking so good!! Bethany said, "Momma...we going to get the house all cute-seed up in Christmas style?" She is so much like Hannah it's kind of scarry!!! Well we got it all cute-seed up for sure.

I'm in the Christmas spirit......pretty much finished with all my shopping except for stockings......and I've been thinking and meditating on the "true" meaning of Christmas. I pray that all of you have gotten to that point also. Have a great weekend!!

My tree story lives on......

I can't believe I still have a story to tell, but I guess I do. We put the fake tree up last night after Randy got home from Jackson. It was late but I want a tree up before Christmas gets here!!! The tree came in 3 parts. Can you believe the lights wouldn't work??? I tried every kind of connection possible but nothing worked. The very very bottom part worked and that was it. Second of all this tree looked really weird. I can't believe this tree was too big for Christy's mother's house. The top of the tree is eye level with me. It's short and squatty. I called Christy and asked her if there was a piece missing because it looks funny and the lights won't work either. I hated to sound ungrateful and tried not too, but I was kind of sad about the whole thing. When you are used to having a 10 foot tree that fills up the corner and now I can see over the top of the tree.....well, it was kind of depressing. She said it was only 3 parts and for me to just string some lights on it. So that's what I did. I put lights on top of lights that don't work. The tree is full of wires and bulbs.

We haven't decorated our little tree yet. We are going to set it on top of a bench to give it more height and put a blanket or something around the bench to disquise it. I officially dedicated this year as our "Charlie Brown Christmas."

I bought Hannah a cute little 3 foot tree for her room for $8.00. I bought some bright shiny turqoise material to put on the bottom for her tree skirt. It's decorated with all her Nutcracker ornmanets and hot pink ornaments. I made a gold bow for the top and wrapped the gold ribbon around it also. It is absolutely BEAUTIFUL!!!! She is so happy!! It is sitting proudly in the corner in front of her fireplace. On the mantel above the tree is her framed picture of her as Clara with nutcracker dolls next to the picture.

That part of my day has been good.

Tonight we will get the fake tree on the bench and get it all decorated. I'm using Brooke's black and white paper that we used for the reception tables to wrap all my presents with. I bought some maroon and gold ribbon to tie on all the packages. I think it's going to be so pretty. We have 3 different designs of the black and white paper. My favorite is the polka dot paper. We will have a memory of her wedding also - and this will be Brooke and Chad's first Christmas. It will make it more special that I'm using the paper in her wedding.

Report on Aaron's arm. It's not broken. He has a pretty big brace on it. He has to go to physical therapy 3 times a week. Absolutely no baseball for 4 weeks. I think I will kind of miss washing his hair for him in the sink - it was our bonding moment!!!

Hopefully this is the end of my tree story. I can't imagine anything else going wrong. This has certainly been a memorable Christmas.

Update to last update

In my last post I mentioned that our crooked tree was up but not decorated because it was....well.....crooked. We always get a very large tree - usually about 10 foot. It takes 3 people up on ladders to decorate it. We finally got it decorated Friday night. It took us 5 hours!!!!! It was so pretty when we finished it and we got to enjoy it for about 20 minutes before going to bed. The next morning we heard a crash.....and then a bunch of wailing from Benjamin. Our tree had fallen over and lots of my ornaments had busted in a million of pieces. Benjamin cried, "Christmas has been cancelled!!!" Because our tree was gone, he thought he wouldn't get any presents either. Randy came home from his deer camp to pick it back up and see if he could get it supported better. It was hopeless. We had to take everything off of it and drug the tree outside to our "burn pile". So now, here we are...about 10 days until Christmas....and we still don't have a tree. My sister-in-law gave me an aritifical tree to borrow but forgot the stand. Hopefully we can get the stand tomorrow and I can get a Christmas tree back up. I still haven't wrapped a single present either.

Update on Aaron's arm: he came home from school Thursday begging me to take him to the Doctor because his arm was hurting so bad. It really hadn't hurt much until that day. I took him to the After Hours Clinic and they did x-rays. Ends up his arm was cracked in 2 different places. They put a splint on it and we have an appointment in Jackson tomorrow to get it looked at.

Exams are this week for the kids and then it's Christmas break - yea!!!

I just noticed that Brooke changed by background scenary - I like it - Thanks Brooke!!

Shalom (that's for you Brooke)