Claire Bear Arrives

She's here. We love her. I'll post much more later; right now, I'm recovering from a fairly traumatic birth story, so it'll be a little while before I have my blogging hat back on. I'll try to get some pictures soon.. There are none of me currently because of the stress of the past few days, but I will get some. Promise.

Lots of love.

Life: Doesn't always go as planned, does it?

I know I mentioned in this post that my doctor was running some tests and keeping an eye on me last week. It's still nothing to panic about, but it has changed our schedule a little bit. 

I had my regularly-scheduled check up last Wednesday, and very completely unusually for me, I had very high blood pressure. Enough that my doctor's face registered complete shock and she started questioning me about headaches and swelling (and symptoms that I knew were associated with preeclampsia). I tried to keep calm and not panic, because of course, I'm well-versed in my Downton Abbey and knew what happened in the 1920's when preeclampsia wasn't dealt with. Yikes.

She continued my check up and explained to me the tests she wanted to run and- best part- that she was going to be out of town all weekend.

Awesome. 

Still keeping calm. Although, I should mention, my mom was with me, but Brad actually wasn't (for the first time ever). They had actually overlooked me at my scheduled appointment time, and I didn't get called back until an hour later. Brad, with my blessing, had ducked out early to head to class. I didn't think he had to be there, since I'd had no major issues throughout my pregnancy (of extreme medical significance...just extreme inconvenience and discomfort) and wasn't expecting any news out of the ordinary. So, obviously, the day I tell him to go ahead and go to class, I get this great news.

I spent the next few days following orders: 
*lab work with barely-competent phlebotomist: check
*24-hour urine specimen: check
*bedrest on my left side: check (for the most part)

This morning (Monday, February 25), I had an ultrasound that the doctor scheduled (just to check and make sure the baby is still getting enough blood flow). Things looked fine with the baby (thank goodness), though the radiologist didn't say anything for. so. long. while staring at her heart. It was really unnerving. She did say, "Looks like it's time for you to have a baby. You're 38 weeks- there's no reason to be pregnant any more. Go see your doctor."

While I was at the ultrasound (which, by the way, someone should remind me to blog about- it was an experience in and of itself), I got a phone call and voicemail from my doctor's office. Because of the results of my urine test, they wanted me to come to my afternoon appointment with a bag packed.

Which I did. My blood pressure was still elevated, and I got sent over to Labor and Delivery to be admitted.

And now, I'm writing this from my hospital bed, where I'm hooked up to my i.v. and have been given step 1 in the induction process. Because of the preeclampsia, I'll be on magnesium off and on. Not sure when I'll update again, but we should have a baby by tomorrow. Yay!

OMG girl strikes again.

Sorry for getting behind again; it's been an unexpected kind of week. I'll try to catch up a bit soon.

Does anyone remember this girl from my glucose test? If not, take a second and refresh your memory on how my glucose test ended up being a little more involved and far less professionally-handled than anticipated.

I'll wait.

Remember her now? Good. Fast forward to Wednesday of this week. I had a doctor's appointment/weekly check up. My doctor wanted to run a few tests (nobody panic...things are under observation and I'm being taken good care of) and sent me down to the lab. I was going down to have blood taken and be given supplies to take home for a 24-hour urine collection (I realize that's not very glamorous or ladylike, but it's necessary to the story. I really don't try to overshare the medical stuff).

I gave the phlebotomist my orders, and she took my blood without incident (that I know of...), had me sign the paperwork, and told me I could go. Here's the conversation that ensued*:

Me: Oh, my doctor also mentioned I would need supplies for a 24-hour urine collection.

OMGGirl: (blank stare) Uh...well, I have four different kinds of jugs for that. Which one do you need?

Me: (thinking: I don't know! Isn't that what they pay you for?) Um, I'm not sure. She wants to check for protein.

OMGGirl: (picks up a couple different kinds of the collection jugs and holds them out to me) Well, we have this one that has thus-in-so in it and this one that has such-and-such chemical in it and this other one with this-other-substance and this one that's plain. Which one do you want?

Me: (thinking: um, I don't particularly WANT any of them, and I definitely don't KNOW which I need. Seriously...that's YOUR job!) I have no idea. Is it not on my orders? 

OMGGirl: Um, no. Do you think your doctor will put it in the computer?

Me: I don't know...

OMGGirl: Hmm...(mutters to herself, weighing different jugs in her hands)...I'll just give you this one. 

*If I hadn't been rather shaken by the information my doctor had just given me and if my mom hadn't been on the phone with my dad, explaining the situation, one of us would have said, "Why don't you call my doctor or check with a lab supervisor about the proper container?" Unfortunately, I was sort of shocked and wasn't thinking as clearly as hindsight later allowed. 

Later that night, Brad and I ended up in Labor and Delivery to have a few additional tests done, and before sending me home, the nurse asked me if I'd been given the proper equipment for my urine test. I told her my story about the lab experience. She rolled her eyes, made a few choice comments about people who don't know what they're doing, and gave me the proper equipment, including a hat, which had not been given to me previously. Not sure how OMGGirl was planning on my accuracy of collection without the hat...I had no idea I was supposed to have one.

Here's hoping any future lab visits are on her day off.

Reflecting on the Challenge

Warning: Yet another lengthy post.

Short version: We finished the Challenge. It was great.

Long version:

I realize that we're a month and a half into 2013, so reflecting on my 2012 challenge is basically old news. I'm just taking my time in the blogging sphere, apparently.

However, I do want to write a little on Amiee's and my clothing challenge from last year. Here's the original post from last January, where I explained our rules. Over the past year, we successfully accomplished most of our goals (although we're a bit slow in finishing up posting the completed projects. Oops.). 

In essence, our primary goals were to learn gratitude for what we have, practice frugality, and make decisions about what is essential to our wardrobes and what can be repurposed. This whole project originally started with me; Brad was in the middle of applying for graduate schools, and I knew, based on all the places to which he was applying, that I would need to start thinking about how we could downsize a bit. Most of the schools are located in larger cities where we would probably be living in apartments with far less storage than our awesome house in Jackson (how correct was I??). So, the idea of spending a year of not buying anything new started percolating in my mind. I figured it would only be beneficial. 

I mentioned it to Amiee, and she was very supportive of my decision. You know...for me. That would be crazy for her. Except for the fact that once I'd mentioned it, it started percolating in her mind, too. Right near the end of 2011, she sent me a text saying that she wanted to join me in not buying anything for 2012 (We called it "No Buy 2012" among ourselves. We actually did a mini-version of this challenge in July 2011, and we called it "No Buy July," which sounds cooler than "No Buy 2012." We just weren't creative enough to come up with another moniker to rhyme with 2012.) 

I was super excited. I knew it would be easier to stick to my guns if I had someone else in on it with me. However, I did start thinking about our personality differences; I'm much more inclined to walk past the cute $5 t-shirts at Target while Amiee is magnetically pulled into their force field. I realized really quickly that this plan had the potential to be almost physically painful for Amiee when a good deal crossed her path. I started scratching my head to come up with a way to make the whole process more interesting. That's when I stumbled across Disneybound boards on Pinterest. I knew Amiee would love it.

So, I pulled up some of the boards and showed them to her. Of course, she adored them. I suggested that we set ourselves a weekly challenge of using what we have to create our own character outfits. She was sold. She immediately started putting outfits together and had about 18 before I had even one. Thus, the challenge was born. 

Some weeks were much easier than others. Some character outfits had us itching with excitement to wear them and others were just sort of "meh...gotta have an outfit, so I guess this will do." We actually ended 2011 by sorting through our clothes and accessories, making piles of things we knew we were going to get rid of anyway. We went through each other's discard piles to see if there was anything we wanted/needed for specific characters and then donated the rest to a local charity thrift store. Mom got in on the Challenge, too, giving us some awesome accessories for Christmas that we could use throughout the year (some might call her an enabler...we call her awesome.).

The Challenge changed a bit for me when I found out that I was pregnant. Obviously, I was going to have to acquire some new clothing before the year was up. Side note: that's actually how I broke the news to Amiee. I told her that I had bad news: I wasn't going to be able to finish the Challenge...because I'd need maternity clothes (which was good news)! She bounced around the house. Literally bounced. I know...all of y'all who know her are so shocked, right? Anyway, I did try to stick to the spirit of the Challenge when adding maternity clothes to my closet. I have exactly three pairs of maternity pants: casual jeans, dressier jeans, and a pair of black pants. I have a black maternity skirt and 3 pairs of yoga pants (which I don't wear out of the house- they're mostly pajama bottoms for me). Those are all of the bottoms I have.

As for tops, I straight-up purchased a few (but all were bought using a coupon or coupon code, gotten off the "as-is" rack in Maine, were gifts, or were bought with a Belk gift card left over from our wedding), but I don't have just tons of them. I have 4 long-sleeved solid-colored shirts, 4 short sleeved, 4 sweaters, 2 camisoles, and a pajama top. Thankfully, for a really long time (until about months 5 and 6), I was still able to wear a lot of my regular tops, too. I also already had a lot of cardigans and such that I can layer over the maternity tops that I do have. So helpful.

Despite having that additional hurdle, I think we did pretty well with our goals. Amiee was definitely the winner, though. Her outfits were far more stellar, and she was actually able to complete the Challenge in its entirety. Hopefully, she'll have time to blog her thoughts on it sometime soon; she has some great things to say about it. And, we had a good time with it. Doing it together and having the added "character" element did a lot to make it interesting and fun. I got tickled the other day when Amiee called me to "confess" that she'd made a clothing purchase at Target (to replace a pair of older pants that she'd discarded at the end of the Challenge). We've definitely changed in our mindset to buying things. We deliberate more and really evaluate the necessity of something before going for it. I count that as a positive outcome, though. We end up with clothes we really love and keep money in our pockets by not making purchases on a whim.

It's not a challenge that's sustainable year after year, but we have talked about doing it again in a year or two. Just to make sure we keep our perspectives in place. I'll probably keep you posted. :)

To wrap it up, I thought I'd post some of my favorite outfits, just for fun. You'll probably be seeing a lot less of my sartorial choices from here on out. 

Beast. When I wore this to work, the ladies in my office just went on and on about how cute I was and that I should be a character every day. It made me wonder what I looked like to them on a regular basis...

Gaston. Not sure why I liked this one so much, but I did.

Fawkes (from Harry Potter). I loved the colors in this one. I also just love Fawkes. He's such a good phoenix. Dumbledore is lucky to have him.

Siamese cats. I liked doing this one with Amiee. So fun.

Meg. I liked this one because I got to wear shiny, sparkly gold things. Also, given the fact that I'm currently 8 months pregnant, I like being reminded that I used to fit in regular clothes.

Eloise. I just love Eloise. I definitely wore this to church.

Snow White. I liked this one because several of my students came in and immediately knew who I was. It was so fun.

And, Rapunzel. I loved this one, not because of what I wore, but because of what Brad and Amiee wore to humor me:

Flynn Rider, Rapunzel, and Pascal. They love me. They really do.

I hope you've enjoyed my musings on clothing over the past year. I'm not really much of a fashionista, so I find it funny that I wrote about clothing at least once a week. I'm so glad Amiee and I did it; we learned so much and had a great time. Perhaps I'll do a baby version soon. We'll see...

Lent.

Warning: Lengthy post ahead. 

Short version: Happy Valentine's Day! Lent starts today. I like observing Lent. You should listen to the song I link to at the bottom of this post.

Long version:

Happy Valentine's Day! I've always loved Valentine's Day...even those years when I didn't have a Brad. My parents always made it so fun that it never bothered me not to have a fella (thanks, parents!). However, I do really love Brad, so I like Valentine's Day even more now. My flowers from him came yesterday, so I can enjoy them all day today. Also, we had a restaurants.com gift certificate and were able to go out on a DATE yesterday. Woo hoo!

After dinner (which, incidentally, was really decent Mexican food), we walked over to our church for the Ash Wednesday service. I should blog about this part of our life sometime soon, but for the time being, know that we're currently part of an Anglican fellowship, meaning that our worship is very liturgical and adheres to the Church calendar. Our church in Jackson also followed the Church calendar, so this isn't new to us (or those of you who've been reading this blog for the past few years). I have to say, a very concentrated focus on Lent in preparation for Easter has been such an important part of my life the past couple of Easter seasons, and I have loved it. Don't hear me saying that I love the fasting, exactly...that would probably defeat the point if I did (and, for anyone concerned, I'm not fasting from any foods that would negatively affect the rest of this pregnancy. No worries.). However, I do love the careful intentionality and the communion that believers experience with one another and with God as we all participate together.

I did not grow up participating in Ash Wednesday services, especially not the kind complete with actual ashes. I know I've written about this in the past, but I truly love the emphasis on the beginning of Lent, including the imposition of ashes. I find a lot of value in reflecting on our mortality and the sacrifice that Jesus made on our behalf. The 40 days of Lent, the focus on repentance and self-denial, the breaking of the fast on Sundays, all of that has been, for me, a huge part of reminding me of the overwhelmingly great joy and assurance that comes with Easter. Love it. 

Having grown up outside of the liturgical tradition (and thereby having lots of friends and family who also aren't as familiar with the practices of the Church calendar), I thought you might find it interesting to see what an Ash Wednesday service looks like for us. (If not, you can just skip this part, but be sure to check out the last paragraph of this post!)

The service begins with all participants entering the sanctuary in silence and remaining silent in order to pray and prepare their hearts before the service. The collective part of the service begins with an invitation to join in Lenten worship, as well as a responsive prayer for the season of Lent. (sidenote: As a younger Erin, I always kind of felt that "group" prayers took away the meaning of a prayer. As I've gotten older and taught myself to pay more attention to the actual words of the prayers and not just how awkward people can be when trying to read out loud together, I've learned that there's a lot for me to take away from responsive prayers. For Lent, in particular, I find it very helpful to have specific requests brought up that I probably would not have thought to include for myself.)

Following that prayer, we prayed the Lord's prayer and sang a few songs of worship. The first scripture reading was Isaiah 40:1-11, which we followed with a responsive reading of Psalm 103, leading into our New Testament reading, 2 Corinthians 1:8-10. This passage was then the basis for a brief sermon.

After the sermon, which was a call to reflect on our complete and utter dependence on God, we were invited forward (whenever we were ready) to receive ashes. This is the part of the service that is pretty out of sync with my evangelical upbringing. However, I really love it. We kneel at the front, and the pastor literally marks our foreheads with ashes in the shape of a cross. There's really something about the gravity of being exhorted to remember that we "come from dust and to dust we will return" while being marked in a time-honored tradition of the church. (Although, I do wonder where the ashes come from...).

We then responsively read Psalm 51, David's beloved psalm of repentance. We spent time in confession (not aloud...silently), were reminded of the forgiveness found in Jesus, greeted one another with the peace of Christ, and left in silence.

If you're interested in reading a little more about what our observance of Lent will look like, here is our church's blog, which includes our Lenten devotional guide. The devotional guide lists the suggestions for our weekly fasts (note: we're not required to do anything in particular, but the church leadership made suggestions of common fasts we could all participate in together if we want), as well as daily scripture readings to help focus our fasts. We start today. 

On a different note, a guy and a gal that I went to college with (who later married each other) are back working at Union currently, and Amiee (my sister) has been asked to work on some musical projects with them. They work at Union AND have a music ministry writing worship songs. Their site is http://www.psallos.com/ (no, they didn't ask me to promote them or anything...they don't even know I'm writing this. I just wanted to tell you about them.). What I most wanted to tell you about, though, is the most recent song that Amiee did with them. She sings the backup soprano part (the wife of the duo is doing the primary soprano part), and 3 of her friends are also part of the song. I think this song is a great one to ponder as we enter into the Lenten season, preparing for Easter. It's called "If Christ is Not Risen," and you can listen to it/read the lyrics here. It's about 3 minutes long; take a second and give it a listen! Also, bonus points if you can pick out Amiee's voice. :)

Little Snippets

1. As a follow-up to the cloth diaper discussion, we've had several people ask a couple questions that I didn't address.
a) How are you planning to deal with the dirty ones? Answer: We have a wet bag (versus the pail system). It's washable, too, so the plan is to throw it in the washer with the diapers when laundry days roll around.
b) Have you seen the sprayers that attach to the toilet tank so that you can spray the dirty diapers down before washing them? Answer: Oh, yes. We think those sprayers are awesome. However, they are on our "want, don't need" list. Until we have everything that is absolutely essential (i.e. the crib, all of the actual diapers, the baby herself) and then find ourselves with a discretionary baby-stuff fund, we'll just rinse the old-fashioned way.

2. The snow is getting ugly and inconvenient now. Most Southerners who haven't lived/visited other places that get massive amounts of snow probably aren't terribly familiar with the brown/black mountains that the snow morphs into really quickly. Once it gets plowed, shoveled, and pushed to the sides of the roads and walkways, it solidifies into rock-hard ice mountains (glaciers?) and turns a gross browny-black color as it gets dirtier. It's really unattractive. Also, parking is a straight-up nightmare. On a good day (i.e. a regular day that doesn't involve snow), Brad can easily circle a mile or more radius for close to an hour, searching for parking (I've timed it on several occasions. Two weeks ago, it was literally 57 minutes. He walked into the house as the Downton Abbey theme song was coming on. I didn't think he would make it in time!). Now, we're pretty confident that we're not moving the car for anything short of a medical emergency. We did learn that during snow emergencies (which we're currently experiencing), you're allowed to use a space holder for up to 48 hours. Apparently, people will put large items (like coffee tables, trashcans, patio tables with umbrellas, strollers) in the spots that they've dug their cars out of so that they'll have a guaranteed place to park when they return. Cultural differences, y'all.

3. Last night at our church small group, I had a cute interaction with another gal. She's (surprisingly) a Massachusetts native (in this very student-heavy part of town, you don't run into tons of natives) who did her master's degree at Wake Forest. She loved living in North Carolina and had a really great experience. We've talked before about how she really enjoyed the food and had several favorite brands of sweet tea. Last night, another girl in our group was asking me if I've been drinking caffeine while pregnant. The answer is yes (and if you feel strongly that I'm damaging my baby, please don't talk to me about it until she's born. I'm way too emotional these days to handle criticism.). I drink caffeine very moderately, but I do drink it and usually in sweet tea form. Well, Wake Forest friend heard me say that, and she piped in with, "Oh, where have you found good sweet tea here??" I was a taddy bit confused at first. Confused because I just make it at home. So, my first thought was, "well, I just buy a box of Lipton..." I think she realized from the look on my face that I wasn't referencing purchasing sweet tea and seemed rather impressed that I make it at home. Maybe I should make her a pitcher next week. :)

4. Today is Ash Wednesday. We'll be participating in the Ash Wednesday service at church tonight. I'm sure I'll write about it soon; I've tended to do that for the past few years. Also, no worries- I won't be fasting from food during Lent. Don't want anyone thinking that I'm not getting proper nutrition.

Just some snippets from our life right now. Nothing too terribly exciting going on, but we like to think it's interesting nonetheless. Happy Wednesday.

Undercover Boston

I'm guessing y'all have probably seen or read something about our little storm this past weekend. We've gotten so many sweet calls, texts, emails, and Facebook messages/comments over the past few days. In case you were concerned and aren't friends with us on Facebook, please know that we are safe and well, have electricity and water, and like the good Southerners that we are, had eggs, milk, and bread in our refrigerator during the storm (although, that fridge situation was completely coincidental). 

The move to Boston has been interesting to me in one way in particular: gobs of people commented to me before we moved about how they hoped I'd be able to survive New England winters. My mom and I laughed about this just today, actually. Some people who worried about the Alabamian v. New England Winters didn't know I had lived in Ukraine, and some people just forgot, I guess. That being a part of my personal history, I came to Boston fully stocked in the wardrobe department (although that needed a little tweaking after we found out about Claire Bear) and was pretty mentally prepared for what winter would be like.

While in Ukraine, I blogged on more than a few occasions about the weather. The winter in Ukraine lasts for a loooooooong time. It's miserably cold (like, the negative 20's on the regular). And gray (one January, I literally counted one (1) day out of thirty (30) that the sun shone...and it was the coldest day of the month). And icy. And ridiculously inconvenient. I had people comment on blogs and leave me messages on Facebook about how it sounded like I was rather bitter about the winter weather and about how much they like snow and thought it would be neat to have so much. I remember thinking, "well, you would be a tiny bit bitter, too, if you lived here in this severity of winter for months on end." 

Now that I've experienced this weekend in the U.S., I have a new perspective on others' perspectives of my Ukrainian winter experience. It boils down to this: media. This storm in Boston was definitely not a regular day in the neighborhood, but it was also not terribly different from weather that I lived with in Ukraine. The difference in all my Southern connections' responses was that the media covered this Boston weather. People saw pictures and video and heard commentary about it, so they were concerned and impressed. Nobody here really pays that much attention to Ukrainian weather (seriously, Ukrainians don't pay that much attention to it), so my dwelling on it through my blog in Ukraine baffled folks, I guess. So enlightening this weekend has been.

Being in Boston for this kind of weather, though, has been much nicer than in Ukraine. Here are a few reasons:
1. There are plows that run regularly.
2. The government makes decisions like the travel ban (cuts down on accidents and stranded travelers), public transportation shut down, and parking bans were instituted (again, to cut down on vehicle-related issues).
3. The sidewalks get shoveled and salted.
4. Businesses shut down early so that everyone would have time to get home before things got serious.

These are not things that happen in Ukraine. Snow just keeps getting packed down over and over so that everything is super icy all the time, and nothing shuts down for snow. Like, ever. I trudged many a kilometer in deep snow or on super slick surfaces to get to classes or church or other events. No one even batted an eyelash.

So, overall, this weekend's weather has been far more enjoyable for me than I expected. Brad thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience. He's never been in weather like this before, so it was really exciting for him to watch the progress. We watched a movie Friday night, and about every 20 minutes, Brad would pause it so he could go watch the snow. We did our best to document things photographically. I think the most impressive part of the storm was how quickly so much snow collected. We had two feet in 24 hours, which is rather staggering. 

Mom reminded me that I should be taking pictures, so Friday afternoon, I grabbed this one. It had been snowing for a few hours. I took this while standing inside our front door. Note: our car is not out here. We had to park her around the corner.

This is the same shot as the one above...probably four or so hours later. Maybe less.

Around 10:00 pm-ish, we decided to bundle up and venture out for a few minutes. Excuse the blurry shot. We were in a hurry.

Look how bundle-y Brad is.

That's my rainboot-clad leg. The snow came *almost* to the top of my boot.

Here's my car. She was parked on more of a main thoroughfare.

This is the back end; we were really entertained at what the wind did to the snow on the back.

This is the same shot out of our front door...the next morning. Remember how we used to be able to see the tires on this black car in the foreground?

The window above our kitchen sink is ground-level, so we had snow all piled up against it.

Our street (that red brick building in the foreground on the right is our building).

My car, Saturday morning.

This is the reservoir that's near our house. It was frozen over and snowy.

More reservoir.

And then, we ended up in Narnia.

Later Saturday night, I discovered that Brad had never had snow cream. Obviously, we had to make some. Here are our supplies.

Brad's excitement about snow cream.

Finished product. Tasted a lot better than it looks. Promise.

That's a little taste of our snowy weekend. We had some friends over during the day on Saturday; they trekked through all the snow just to eat homemade pizza and play games with us. Good folks. Sunday, church was canceled. What with the parking ban still in effect and public transportation shut down, there wasn't really a way for any of the congregation to get there. Today, Brad dug the car out of her snowy coat. We didn't take her anywhere, but he thought he might as well get on it. The snow is starting to melt, get slushy, and turn browny-gray, so it's not as nice anymore. I guess we're back to real life. 

We are just so very thankful that the baby didn't decide that she wanted to come about a month early; not entirely sure how we would have gotten to the hospital... Good girl, Claire! Now, let's all pray that we don't have anymore crazy snow storms between now and then, ok?

Cloth Diapers for Claire

You may know this, but if you don't: Boston College is a private Jesuit (Society of Jesus/ Catholic monastic order) university.

Bet ya didn't see that first sentence coming after reading the title of this post, did ya?

Seriously, though, it does tie in with the cloth diapering thing.

Brad is in classes and is friends with quite a few men who are part of the Jesuit brotherhood. We've gotten to know several of them over the past few months; they're really nice guys and have invited us over for meals, given us free tickets to sporting events at BC, and even gave us a ride to the airport at Christmas. So, last week, we had two of them over for dinner at our house (two different nights). Funnily enough, with both guys, we somehow ended up talking about our diapering plans (they introduced the topic...we don't just offer it up as prime chatting fodder on a regular basis. Unless you're related to us or close enough to have that conversation.). 

This brings me to our actual diapering plans. We decided a while back to give cloth diapers a whirl. We live in Boston, which is a very green/environmentally-aware locale, but that's not our primary motivation (although, what a nice perk, right?). We literally sat down with a calculator and projected time tables for Claire's diapering needs. We based all of our numbers on how long we're anticipating being here (currently: through Brad's graduation in May 2014...plus a few summer months), an average of how many disposables we would go through a week, how many times a week we'd pay (in quarters) to do loads of diaper laundry, plus start-up costs of acquiring the diapers...you know. The usual.

Our final cost calculations pretty much made the decision for us. It was a massive number. And, since we're on a graduate school budget and living in a rather pricey city, we like the look of discounts.

After the calculations, we narrowed down our choices of brands and styles. The winner was/is Bum Genius Freetime All-In-One One Size Snap Closure (what a mouthful). Our reasoning?

* I read about one zillion reviews of various brands, and this one seemed to fit our preferences best overall.

* We really like the idea of "all-in-one," which means that Claire's diapers won't have inserts to put in or take out. When there's a dirty diaper, we'll rinse it out and put the entire diaper in the washing machine. We like our laundry straightforward like that.

* According to all the reviews I read, the snap closures are more durable that the velcro options. I'm all about durability.

* This particular diaper's snap system is designed to be a one-size-fits-all, meaning that she'll grow into them. That part of the equation tends to confuse people at first; there is a fairly extensive system of snaps that will allow us to adjust the size of the diaper based on Claire's size. The snaps will enable us to expand them in width and length as she grows.

We do love efficiency around here. Theoretically, if there are future Boswell babies, we can reuse the same diapers (I read quite a few reviews by people who've successfully done that, too). So far, we have 3 of our diapers (pink, yellow, and white). We'll most definitely be upping that number very shortly. By a lot. The Jesuit friends got quite a kick out of checking out the diapers and figuring out how they work. One of the guys even texted his mom a picture. How funny is that?

We're definitely going into this diapering scene with a flexible mindset. For instance, we realize she'll probably be too small for her cloth diapers for quite a few weeks after she's born. We're cool with that and will have plenty of disposables on hand until she fits. We're also practical in the sense that we know traveling will be easier with disposables, and if anyone is watching Claire and isn't comfortable with the cloth diapers, we'll be sure to have a ready supply of normal diapers for them. We definitely like to consider ourselves reasonable. 

I'll probably keep you posted on our adventure (you know, minus any graphic details). And, if you're in the area and haven't played with the crazy nuances of cloth diapers, you are more than welcome to drop by and figure it out. Or, we could direct you to the Jesuit community and they can explain it to you. :)

Five years ago today...

I've made a habit of writing about the tornado on the "anniversary" each year. I know we all have our locations from September 11, 2001 emblazoned on our memories (and will for life), and some of us who hang around this blog (Kat...Molly...Kirby...Mom) will have February 5, 2008 engraved in there for always, as well.

In past years, I've written about various memories I have from that evening...the bad, the worse, the good, the funny, the amazing. One day, I'll write out the entire story for posterity, but that would be completely too long to post here. With that in mind, and in the vein of last year's little memory, I'll leave you with another semi-funny little story:

The protocol for tornadoes at Union was (and is) to get into the bathrooms on the bottom floors of the dormitories. Because of the way the dorms were designed, you usually ended up with about 8 people in a bathroom (4 folks from the second floor room along with the 4 who live on the bottom floor). It's a great reason to keep your bathroom clean during tornado season. The night of our tornado (February 5, 2008), we were sort of taking our time getting in there; we were watching the news/gathering up cards to keep us entertained/getting snacks/rounding up pillows/fetching flashlights/putting on tennis shoes (cough...Kirby...cough)/etc. Thanks, Dan Satterfield and North Alabama, for prepping me well. 

Our R.A. came by to hurry us into the bathroom, just as our neighbor (not our upstairs neighbor, but our next door neighbor) came over to see if she could stay with us. We didn't know her; I think she was a freshman. Her roommates weren't at home, and she didn't want to be alone. That's fine. We get that storms are scary. Kirby's mom had just called from Memphis (an hour from Jackson, where the storm had moved through on its way to us) to let us know how bad it was there, so we were taking it seriously at this point.

Before we all crowded in the bathroom, though, Neighbor Girl (whose name I still don't know) wanted to use the bathroom. Fine. We get that, too. It's a necessary part of life. She went in and locked the door. I mean...no need to lock the door; we weren't planning on opening it or anything.

I say that we weren't planning on opening the door...but that changed a taddy bit while she was in there. All kinds of things started happening simultaneously in the couple of minutes or so that she was in there (with the door locked): the power went out, the infamous train noise roared through, and the window and front wall of our dorm room exploded. As soon as the lights went out, Amanda started banging on the door, yelling for Neighbor Girl to let us in (we could hear she was finishing up), but we didn't actually get in until the force of the wind blew the door open and threw us into a massive pile of girls in the tub. 

As dramatic as that part of the story sounds (and, it really was quite dramatic in real life, as well), we rolled our eyes for the next few months every time we recalled it because of how ridiculous it was that we almost didn't reach "shelter" because of a girl we didn't know who was supposed to be in her own bathroom and didn't trust us enough to leave the knob to OUR bathroom door unlocked. Freshmen. Sheesh. 

She earned herself the moniker, Bathroom Girl. From here until the end of time, that is what she shall remain.

In all seriousness, though: we are so grateful for God's hand of protection on a night that when the rescue workers arrived, they immediately called in for 200 body bags because they couldn't imagine needing fewer, based on the destruction they found. I'll never forget the images I saw that night and the stories that came out of our collective experience. We were so protected and so fortunate.

I will also never forget the girl who locked us out of our safe place. Gee whiz.

UPDATE: Molly filled me in on a piece of the puzzle that I didn't know. I was furthest away from the bathroom door when everything started happening, so I didn't realize that the door wasn't locked...Bathroom Girl was holding it closed! Molly told me that as the wall exploded, she (Molly) was saying, "Sorry if your pants aren't zipped" and pushing on the door. That makes the story THAT much funnier. And, it's a little bit true: zipped pants v. escaping tornado debris...escaping debris wins. Every time.

The Final Challenge

Well, I've finally gotten around to finishing up the very last bit of my 2012 Challenge. I really feel a bit sad typing that out. Amiee and I got way behind on posting there at the end of the year; so, I'm just now getting it all finished, and I know that Amiee is wrapping up picture editing/writing characters up, too. 

Before I get off on my thoughts throughout the Challenge and what's up next, I really should give this one its fair share of air time. Here's the last picture:

My goal was that musical, native American princess...

Pocahontas. Pocahontas, while never a particular favorite of mine, makes me think of three things immediately:
1. The summer that the move came out and all of the candy that Nestle made in a Pocahontas theme. Does anyone else remember the chocolate bars and sweet tarts? They came out the summer before my family moved overseas, so it's rather etched in my mind.
2. My bff, Kat. If she was forced to be a Disney princess, she would be Pocahontas. 
3. My friend/college roommate, Molly. There was this one day that we had gone to get dinner (Moe's, I think), and we were listening to Disney songs in her car on the way back (we're cool...we know). We got back to campus, but we weren't finished singing "The Colors of the Wind," so we just drove around campus until we finished the song. Do you even remember that, Mols?

Anyway, here's the breakdown:

Character: Pocahontas from Pocahontas

Outfit:
*Sweater was purchased with a leftover Belk gift card (leftover from our wedding) in 2012.
* White t-shirt is a maternity shirt that my aunt picked up for me for a couple of dollars at her local thrift store.
*Belt came from Francesca's in Huntsville...2011?
*Necklace was a gift from Kyleigh for my birthday last year.
*Jeans are one of my three pairs of maternity pants. I got them for almost nothing off the "as-is" rack at Motherhood Maternity in Kittery, ME.

Disneybound inspiration board:

Perhaps I'll be able to put together a coherent wrap-up post by the end of this week. We'll see how that pans out... I think I got pretty close to the inspiration board in this particular outfit. Thoughts?

Hope you all had a happy Monday.

Images from here and here.