April 9, 2009

  • Long awaited update - the second part

    So Saturday was going to be a busy day. It was the day of the shower. I know I posted a short blog already, but I'll do my best to give you more detail here. We were all up relatively early that morning. Casie and Chuck headed over to Maw-Maw's to start getting things going, they were meeting Daniele. Pops went that way before too long to help out as well. I am sure things were all a buzz over at Maw-Maw's house. At Mom and Dad's it was fairly quiet. We played with Marlie and had coffee. We just visited and hung out. Mom had to go get the fruit and veggie tray and then took them over to Maw-Maws and then headed back home. By that time I decided to take a shower... I stayed in my pajamas till after lunch! There was no need to hurry to get ready, we didn't have to be there till around 2:00 (in the Devall family means 1:30 at the latest). I think we were all ready by 1:00 and at Maw-Maws for 1:30. There were people already there and others arriving fast. Everyone had done a great job with all the decorations. There were big mylar fish ballons (nemo's, dolphins, etc.) there were little chocolate fish suckers, there were blow up fish toys in a net inside over Maw-Maw's fire place, there were hand painted ceramic fish and turtles placed here and there, there were the underwater bath toys strategically placed as well. Not to mention the cake which was water colored with star fish and underwater creatures as decorations.

    Casie and Daniele had gotten some white onesies and decorated one each. They also had some on the table with markers for others to decorate. I loved that idea. It got a little carried away with OSU bashing... but it was all in good fun. Uncle Pete grilled up hamburgers and hot dogs. There were chips and dip and fruit and veggies and all the fixins. They did a fantastic job of organizing and decorating. It looked great and my heart was full with the love they had put into it. Casie had also made a baby book for Lillie with letters from family members and pictures of everyone. There was a song that Tancy's Nan used to sing to her in there as well. It was incredibly sweet, very well done and just wonderful. People showed up that I hadn't seen in years. Some people from school and one of my co-workers from Shaw. I had anticipated a few other people that I used to work with or had gone to school with, but no show... oh well. We were so happy to have the people there who were there and felt so loved... how could anyone complain about that?! Everyone ate and enjoyed the burgers and dogs. It's my understanding that Uncle Pete did a great job. I ate two tomatoe sandwiches (I love a good tomatoe sandwich)!

    We opened presents not long after eating. It was overwhelming. I don't know what I expected... I've never really had a shower before... it's always strange to me to have something like that for me and that people come and bring gifts. It was very nice of everyone (the Thank You notes are already in the mail) and we got some really nice things. Lots of clothes, teethers, toys, bath toys, bath tub, socks, woobie, shoes, handprint kit, diaper/bath gift set, OSU stuff, LSU stuff, money, sterlizer, "sign dog", positioner, bank, diaper bag, plates, bowls, spoons, books, blankets, diapers, activity gym, gift cards, cross necklace, horsey, wash tub (that we played in as kids), breast pads, breast cream, desitin, and lotion. I think that is a good overview of everything (listed items on my "gift list" for my Thank You notes). All the awww's and ooohh's and how cute's... it truly has to be something chemical or soemthing that a bunch of grown women get together and coo and carry on about all the baby stuff... even us and we aren't prone to that. It was emotional, but in a good way, in a heart full of love kinda way. Casie also had created a page, for the baby book, for everyone to sign at the shower. So she encouraged everyone to write something on it. We had cake and headed back outside to visit more with the men folk. LOL. (We don't do traditional showers exactly, we just get the whole famn-damily together and make a party of it.) We all hung out and visited for a while and before too long everyone was picking up the tables and chairs and cleaning up. I wasn't allowed to do anything... that was strange for me even more than any of the rest of it. Not that I was complaining exactly, just strange not to be helping with the work to be done.

    We headed home and Uncle Paul came over for a bit to visit some more. I enjoyed that. Then they all left and we plundered through all the gifts, condensing where we could, organizing the clothes together so I could just throw a whole bag of stuff into the washer instead of having to go through it again. Pulling out cards for safe keeping and gushing, once again, over everything. I already was planning what would go where and what I would need to do once we got it all home. It was exciting and made it feel even more real that we are in fact having a baby and she will indeed be here soon. It also is an outward expression of how much my family loves us and our baby... not just because of the gifts, but because they showed up to celebrate with us more than anything. I could go on an on about how appreciative we are, but hopefully I did a good enough job of that in my Thank You cards. Ya'll let me know when you get them. I think we ate left over hot dogs for dinner, I honestly don't remember. It was another early night. I was exhausted and Sunday would be another full day more than likely.

    Sunday we got up and had breakfast. Chuck had felt terrible on Saturday and said that he was feeling some better that morning. Casie and Marlie didn't sleep much at all. I know this because poor Marlie (and poor Casie) would scream her head off every few hours. I got up to see if I could help Casie in any way. I knew I probably couldn't, but I wanted to offer anyway. I didn't offer again because I didn't want to bother her... I can only imagine (though I'll know soon enough) how upsetting having a screaming child must be, especially when you can't seem to help her feel better for very long. It had been such a full day on Saturday and I knew Casie was exhausted. Marlie was too. I felt bad for both of them to be honest. So we were all a bit sluggish and quiet right off the bat. We were going to get crawfish for lunch so Mom, Dad, Tancy and me headed out. Hoping that with the house quiet Marlie could sleep some and Casie could either rest or just have the break for a bit. Chuck didn't seem up to snuff either. We were all hopeful that they could rest some while we were gone and the house was quiet. Chuck was heading home later and it was just going to be a full day.

    We got back from getting crawfish and running around and everyone seemed a bit better. Casie was going through pictures when we got back and Marlie was happy to see her Nana J and Popa. They had good times together on the chuck wagon and out in the yard. We headed out to the shop to eat some crawfish. Man, they were so good! Chuck came out before too long, Casie was a bit behind, finishing up what she was doing. What we didn't eat we peeled to either eat later or freeze. They peeled easy and had a good flavor. Hit the spot for sure! We also made short order of the clean up. Before long at all Chuck was loading up (he was taking our shower gifts with him and we were bringing Casie and Marlie home on our way) and heading out. Seemed weird for him to be leaving. We all rested and relaxed for a bit and then got showers to get ready for dinner.

    Casie, Tancy and I were meeting up with the girls (Daniele, Mickey, Kelly, Mallory and Morgan) for dinner at Chilli's to spend some time. Casie left Marlie with Mom and Dad, they were absolutely beside themselves with joy over that! We got there a bit early, but weren't the first to get there. We had a great time! We laughed and cut up and just enjoyed being together. I can't remember when it was just us girls (the cousins) together like that. It was wonderful and I hope we can try to do that when we are home. That needs to be a priority for me. I have a few people that I always try to see before leaving Louisiana, I can add several more people if we all get together at once like that. We all enjoyed ourselves so much that we met back up at Mom and Dad's house to continue our visit for a while. Marlie was already in bed asleep, Mom and Dad said she was wonderful and they had a great time playing with her. Mom and Dad stayed up for a bit to visit with all of us and then headed to bed themselves. I know how funny my cousins are, but you forget when there's been so much time between visits, I laughed so hard I cried at some points. We were entertained by Mallory (Kelly's daughter) and each other. We did the whole "do you remember"?! Which is always fun. We talked about present things and childhood things. I guess it was 9:00 when everyone headed home. They all had work the next day. We sat up a while and talked about how good it was to spend that time and that we should really do it more often and then Tancy and I headed to bed.

    To be continued...