Welcome 2007!

Had a great New Year party this year, but all our guests left at 11:30! So, Jason and Laurel finished off the bottle of champagne and welcomed in the new year out on the front porch with sparklers and by banging on pots and pans. This is a Philadelphia tradition passed down to Laurel by her Philly-born parents and it will live on as long as she is alive. Violet woke up around 10pm and stayed up to help us open the champagne bottle and to welcome in 2007. As soon as we got in bed, she went right to sleep!

Autumn's Wedding Dress

Ray and Autumng got engaged a few weeks ago and will get married on June 30, 2007! She came down for a visit during the Thanksgiving break and we went dress shopping in Richmond. She found her dress and purchased it, but you will all just have to wait for the wedding to see it! Here she is looking through the many racks of dresses to find the perfect one.

Baby Burke Shower

We had a nice baby shower for Nicole Burke on Sunday afternoon. She isn't due until March, but since her parents were in town for Thanksgiving, it seemed like a good time to do the shower. We had a short devotional and we sang "Children of the Heavenly Father" from the Trinity Hymnal to celebrate God and his provision. One of the "games" we did was to take various photos of Jason and Nicole and cut out the different features like the eyes, ears, etc. Each of us then combined the best features onto one face to show what we thought Baby Burke would look like. The results were a bit alarming, but funny! When the boys came back from wine-tasting, there was a dramatic sunset in progress, so we snapped a few photos. The sunset only lasted a few minutes, so it's good we had cameras on hand.

Diet Coke and Mentos

So what's with the Diet Coke and Mentos? Hmmm....check out www.eepybird.com to see what the fizz is all about. For any of you who wonder what we stay-at-home moms and kids do while our husbands are at work, this might let you in on our goings on. (At least Violet's and my goings on!)

Return of the EMT

I, Laurel, have been on leave of absence from the Volunteer Rescue Squad since early May due to Violet's birth. For those of you who don't know, I am a volunteer ambulance driver and have now become certified as an Emergency Medical Technician - Basic. Now that Violet is able to drink pumped breast milk from a bottle, I'm able to get back into running with the squad if Jason can care for her while I'm on duty. I'm not back to my Thursday full shift, but I'm subbing for someone who is in a class from 6-10 PM on Thursdays. It's so nice to be back to "work!" The squad house is very comfortable, equipped with a full kitchen and living room along with bunk rooms. There is cable TV in the living room (a luxury we do not have at home), so we get to watch all sorts of shows whenever I'm not on a call. ESPN is pretty good bait to keep Jason interested in bringing Violet to the squad while he cares for her.

Western Albemarle Rescue Squad website: http://avenue.org/wars/

Watermelon Story: Part 2

We harvested the watermelon crop (weighing in at 15.5, 25.5, and 27 lbs respectively) on Saturday night and had a lot of fun chopping them up with Jason's Belizian machete. We now have more watermelon that we know what to do with! We shared some with neigbors, but we haven't made it all the way around the neighborhood yet. Saturday night turned into an ad hoc watermelon margarita party with just the three of us. Jason played some funky Colombian music and danced all over the livingroom and kitchen with Violet, thus passing down secret dance tecniques and moves which are held sacred in the House of Chruma.

Note: Just for clarification from the first Watermelon Story (as if any were needed), I did not actually vomit into the compost bin while in labor at 1 AM. The seeds and rinds had been placed in there earlier that day when my mom had cut up the edible portion of the fruit. I merely vomited up the fruit while laboring inside the house before leaving for the hospital.

Watermelon Story

Here's Violet hovering over one of the watermelons that grew unexpectedly out of our compost pile. Jason attempted to grow some other types of watermelon from seeds sent to us by a friend, but they didn't do very well even though we tended to them and made sure they were watered. Instead, we had a crop of wild watermelons that grew without any help from us! The last few days I was pregnant, my mom kept us well supplied with watermelon. The seeds and rinds all got mixed into the compost bin and not too much later, some runners shot out from underneath the bin. We let it go and it is now taking up a significant portion of the yard out back. WARNING: DO NOT CONTINUE READING THIS IF YOU GET QUEASY EASILY! I went into labor at 1 in the morning on June 6 and between contractions, I ate some of the melon my mom had cut up. I wanted something light, but energizing for the long hours ahead. Long story short....I vomited up the watermelon after a really big contraction. Jason said it was the sweetest-smelling vomit he'd ever smelled and we believe the melons we have growing right now are the offspring of the watermelon I puked up the night Violet was born! Isn't that a heart-warming story?