Becky

Extra Extra photos and prizes

March 22, 2012 2 Comments

Ready for the 1940 census release in only… 11 days?!?

My brother-in-law and his wife showed up at Meri’s baby blessing dressed to the nines. Couldn’t resist getting some shots of this beautiful couple.

We decided… the hats make it! 🙂

The 1940 census blog is having an indexing practice contest. The prizes are (2) $50 Visa gift cards and one $100 Visa gift card – to be given to three random qualifying people that enter. You could definitely buy a dapper hat with a card like that. Here’s the info copied straight across (so I don’t mess up any details). :):

First, visit the Games and Prizes page of the 1940 Blog to register for all project contests. Then, follow the additional steps below to qualify for this week’s prizes!

Gear Up To Index Game (March 19-30)

To qualify for this week’s drawing, you must download the indexing software.
Complete a 1940 U.S. Census simulation batch before 11:59pm MT March 30, 2012.
To complete a practice batch, launch the indexing application from your desktop and log in. Click “Download Batch” and look for *SIMULATION* 1940 U.S. Census.

That’s it! If you have already completed a 1940 simulation batch in the last 60 days you already qualify. All you have to do is opt in using the form on the Games and Prizes page and you are eligible to win this week’s prize.

The full post can be read here: Weekly Contest: March 19 and more information about indexing can be found here on the 1940 census website. Come get signed up as an indexer and join in the excitement.

{As part of the1940census.com ambassador program this blog post enters me into a drawing for an Amazon Kindle Fire.}

Filed Under: {1940 census}

Meri’s Day

March 22, 2012 4 Comments

Meri was blessed on March 4th by her daddy. She was blessed with strength and the gift of charity. She was blessed to reach out to those in need, to learn and grow and eventually marry in the temple. She was blessed that she would be raised in the gospel and healthy throughout her life. Such beautiful blessings for a mama to hear.

My favorite photo from the day:

Here she is after, making happy eyes at her daddy.

That’s her pre-smile. If you see that face, you know you will soon be graced with this one.

Sunflower cake made by Mom Pipes

…and devoured by all.

Except Meri, poor girl.

It was her day after all.

Filed Under: {happy times}, {holidays and celebrations}

Meri’s arrival

March 21, 2012 5 Comments

{Meri – having her range of motion checked just a short while after birth.}

When it’s time to arrive our babies like to come fast. This we know. It is a huge blessing in some ways and a little crazy in others. We have discussed the idea of a home birth before, but never felt it was right for our family until this last birth. There are risks that need to be calculated. We have always had low-risk pregnancies. Labor and delivery have never been complicated. We had our doctor do all the blood work and was on board if we needed to suddenly – or not-so-suddenly – have a hospital birth. We decided on two mid-wives we love and trust. Ones that insist on proper care and will transport at the first signs of need – no egos there. We consciously made the decision to have a home birth and there were so many ways our family was blessed by this decision.

A few reasons I loved a home birth:

We had a fairly relaxed atmosphere. We were not rushing to hospital (it is a 20 minute drive – quite a bit less when Katey was about to be born).

We felt prepared and learned so much along the way. I learned which vitamins and supplements would help with a lot of my symptoms. (flavinoids and cayenne for varicose veins; calcium and magnesium for charley horse cramps in my legs; overall better nutrition and exercise for arthritis; water, protein and walking for swelling; & bland diet and papaya enzymes for heartburn} I loved learning about more natural ways to provide relief.

I took better care of myself. Especially towards the end I reported weekly on my water intake, exercise (yoga and walking) and sleep. It was my best pregnancy yet, in huge part to taking responsibility for my care. I loved the personal care from my mid-wives. Texts and phone calls to check in were common.

I also learned a lot about the birthing process. I learned how to tuck my chin to my chest to help curve the spine and help the baby along. We planned on a water birth and were able to have that at the end of labor and delivery. Barely. Labor is fast for us. By the time the pool was full Meri was almost here. The warm water totally muted my contractions and I was able to focus for the delivery. Huge blessings. I breathed through contractions and gave gentle pushes between contractions to allow time to stretch. Every other delivery I have torn – partly because of the speed of delivery. This time we were able to slow the process a little by breathing and waiting and the outcome was much better. A little nick, nothing more – and it healed up on it’s own.

It was wonderful to have Jim Bob deliver Meri. After the head and shoulders were through (the tricky part 🙂 ) Jim Bob took over and was able to place Meri in my arms. She was then wrapped in a towel and we enjoyed meeting each other face to face.

Pure happiness.

My home is a wonderful place to recover. Jim Bob made sure we were stocked up on Cottonelle toilet paper, a variety of cranberry and grape juices, and crushed ice from Fred’s.

There were a few things I missed about having a baby at the hospital. I missed the baby heart monitor. I love hearing the sound throughout labor. A baby’s heartbeat can be checked often at home, but it wasn’t quite the same for me. The nurses. I miss the nurses in our small hospital fawning over our new baby – often the only one there at the time. Our little ones would get three baths in the day we were there. It was always fun to watch the sweet, excited nurses.

I know not all women would be able… or would even want to have a baby at home, but it was wonderful for us. We loved our experience and packed up our pool (minus the liner) for future use.

Meri a few days later:

Filed Under: {happy times}, {holidays and celebrations}, {Ta-Da! accomplishments}

exercising with a three-year-old

March 20, 2012 Leave a Comment

It’s fun having an exercise buddy that doubles as a personal trainer. We’ve been doing a yoga/pilates routine lately, Katey and I.

Having a little one attempt reverse warrior, dolphin pose and cracking me up makes exercising at least seven fold more enjoyable.

“You can have a big piece of cake… after you exercise. It’s called exercise treats” she says.

Brilliant! Too bad the cake is pretend.

“It was fun doing that exercise. At least we’re done” she sighs.

My thoughts exactly.

{Photos to come – I believe my computer is overworked from the intense whining whirl of the fan. Time to rest us both.}

Filed Under: {bonne buche}, {tickles and smiles}

Love Stories, con.

March 19, 2012 Leave a Comment

Dear you,

Here are four love stories from the files (photos from a few years back) and one recent one.

{credits: here}

Evidence of a perfect day.

Fishing lessons from daddy. Nachos on the shore. Mini-adventures for all – exploring and discovering. Snuggles and photography for mama. The perfect day? For us – yes! Case closed.

{credits: here}

Drewby was so concerned when he would wake up and his favorite car was on the floor. He knew he had gone to sleep holding it! Here’s his solution – a little kite string and a lot of winding – silly guy. We did not let him sleep like this – just took a whole bunch of photos and then carefully unwound.

{credits: here}

Decorated bag, cute love notes, and a “sugary snack”. Lunch essentials. 🙂

{credits: here}

Perfect for me. My sweet 3-year-old LOVES her baby sister. I hear her whispering and talking to her all the time. This phrase is one of my favorites – “You are the perfect sister for me.” *sigh* Recording this moment so she can remember what it’s all about.

{credits: here}

“Daddy, graham crackers and a book… simple joys are truly the best.” Okay – that’s what I wished I put on there – left off the truly part, but we can pretend. 🙂 Also lovin’ on my hunny – who later told me that he tried to angle the Baby Haiku book just right while I was snapping photos – he wanted that light on her face. love.

Did you find a heart on each layout? The lunch one is a teeny bit tricky. <3

Hope your day is a perfectly snuggly one.

Much love, Becky

Filed Under: {digital happiness}, {happy times}, {Jessica Sprague}, {tickles and smiles}

Spotlight: Caleb

March 19, 2012 Leave a Comment

Daddy: Caleb, I love you because you are such a good talker. You talk really, really good and say cute things. You are fun to listen to.

Who wants to go next? Caleb: ME!!!

Andrew: I like Caleb because he is so cute.

Caleb: I kiss Jacob. I want to kiss you.

Joshua: He is so creative with drawing. I remember once coming home and seeing one of Caleb’s paintings. It had a line of green and a squiggle of yellow and a blotch of blue – it was so creative.

Jacob: I love Caleb because he is so playful.

Caleb: I burped! (I think he likes being the center of attention.)

Katey: I love him because he is always drawing and playing with me and Andrew. That’s all I love about him.

Caleb: Everyone loves me. It’s good. And Autumn.

Autumn: Caleb is so cute and has sparkly eyes.

Caleb: I have eyes. I have two eyes. Katey has two eyes. And Duke! Duke has eyes.

Mommy: Caleb is so sweet and a good explorer. He loves Meri and calls her “Meri Jane”. He even corrects people when they don’t. He is also very good at giving high fives (Big Fives he calls them and they have to be dead on or they must be done again) and knuckles and booms.

Meri: Uh, Uh, Uh (fuss, fuss – “my tummy doesn’t feel right”) *yawn* (“I’m tired.”)

Caleb: I’m awake! I not go to sleep.

Filed Under: {*spotlights*}, {tickles and smiles}

March Forth…

March 19, 2012 3 Comments

I’ve been crushing on this site: Purdue Avenue

What’s not to love about a site that features crafty goodness, photography tips and inspiration about life? As promised, it is a site that leads to all things fabulous. See?

{Click on any of the photos to go straight to that project.}

The tutorials are thorough – complete with pictures and ooze creativity. I would not mind taking up permanent residence on Purdue Avenue.

One of the contributors is my very good friend Mandi. I *adore* her. She posts sweet and fun weekly layouts of her family. Weekly! She also makes adorable stuff like this:

and this:

And inspiring things like these:

Cards can be downloaded here.

Mandi does all the research and lets you know the best products and process. Even those photos turn out cute.

Mandi made my blog header – I’m so blessed. Have you noticed that my puddle splashes change each time you visit… or refresh? Try it out. 🙂 Love! And she sent me the cutest package when Meri was born. Mandi found things I had pinned on Pinterest and made them for me. All in my color I chose for last year. Who does that? Mandi. She’s amazing.

I love her idea of setting goals on March 4th. I always need a refresher by then.

Here is my first week in March goal:

My comments on the blog: “I have spent a full day contemplating. Then I realized there is more than one week in March and that took some of the pressure off. 🙂 So I decided. This week I will not let my perfectionism keep me from starting. Yes, there are things that I put off doing because I know they won’t be perfect in the near future. I’m going to start anyway. Starting with a newsletter I volunteered to make… over a month ago.”

Almost week later – “I did pretty good on my goal – it wasn’t everyday though. 🙁 And there my perfectionism peeks out again. So – I’m gonna celebrate what I did accomplish! ready? * Newsletter for the Humanitarian Center? started, finished and delivered. hurray! * a guest blog post for the 1940 census blog? sweet. fun photo shoot for said post? can do. Except not a 1940s radio in site. Instead I sketched a radio for a backdrop and let my little ones dance in front. It worked and I think it turned out even cuter than my first idea – love. And my final one? I haven’t hung anything on one of my bedroom walls because I’d love to re-paint it sometime. So here’s a beautiful wall needing a little color with no holes at all. I decided it’s okay to put a few holes in it while it waits to get painted. It’s right by where Meri sleeps and I put up the most beautiful yellow cloth banner EVER. And it makes me smile.

Thanks for getting me started Mandi!”

Here’s my goal for this week:

Some posts from my draft folder, some formulating in my brain… consider yourself warned. 🙂

Filed Under: {digital happiness}, {happy times}, {one little word}, {Ta-Da! accomplishments}, {tickles and smiles}

Licorice Sticks and Motorized Freckles

March 15, 2012 4 Comments

Hi-de-ho!

According to the North Carolina Museum of History that fun phrase was slang for “hello” in the 1940s.

Slang can also be used to describe or “name” new objects. One such object created in the 1940s still holds mountains of fascination in our household. Our six-year-old asked for a set for his birthday. Instead of calling it a “portable, hand-held, two-way radio transceiver”, he called it by it’s slang term… walkie-talkie. He wanted them so he would be able to communicate to his brothers – one in the bunk bed above him and the other about 6 feet away in another bed. I can just imagine the conversations:

*Hey, psst… you sleeping yet?* *over*

*no… you?* *over*

*Do you want to take a ride in my popsicle’s bathtub tomorrow?* (Because they will, of course, be on top of all 1940s slang and will know that popsicle=motorcycle and bathtub=sidecar 😉 ) *over*

*Absolutely!*

*Roger.*

And something new I learned – Roger comes from the radio alphabet used at the time for military and civilian aviation. The radio alphabet was “…used to spell out words when speaking to someone not able to see the speaker.” Roger was used for the letter R and in transmitting R stood for received. Roger?

“The first radio receiver/transmitter to be widely nicknamed “Walkie-Talkie” was the backpacked Motorola SCR-300, created by an engineering team in 1940 at the Galvin Manufacturing Company (fore-runner of Motorola).”

It looked like this:

Try sleeping with that under your pillow.

“Motorola also produced the hand-held AM SCR-536 radio during World War II, and it was called the “Handie-Talkie” (HT).”

It looked like this:

And came with helpful instructions apparently.

“The terms are often confused today, but the original walkie talkie referred to the back mounted model, while the handie talkie was the device which could be held entirely in the hand (but had vastly reduced performance). Both devices ran on vacuum tubes and used high voltage dry cell batteries.”

Two others credited with working on the technology behind the walkie-talkie are radio engineer Alfred J. Gross and Canadian inventor Donald Hings. They each developed and tested a device in the late 1930s. Gross was recruited to help develop a “two-way, air-to-ground radio system for covert use by troops behind enemy lines during World War II” while Hings model was used in military service in 1942. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walkie-talkie)

Here is a photo of a walkie-talkie (technically a handie-talkie) being used by a US soldier- July 1944 in the Dutch New Guinea:

If I had a walkie-talkie and you did too… I would let you know there are only 18 days until the 1940 census is available. Can you feel the excitement? Head over to the 1940 Census Project website to sign up as an indexer and get in on this killer-diller (good stuff).

Those slang terms in the title? licorice stick = clarinet and motorized freckles = insects. If you got those right, then you should flip your wig because you’re cookin’ with gas!

** One of those disclosure statements: As part of the1940census.com ambassador program (theme this week: transportation, science and technology of the 1940s) this blog post enters me into a drawing for one of four $50 Amazon gift cards. That would buy a lot of presentation paper, a few books on my list, or handfuls of jelly beans. Maybe all three. Join me as an ambassador for a chance to win similar prizes. 🙂 Okay, so the last half wasn’t part of the disclosure description, but it’d fun, no?**

Filed Under: {1940 census}

behind the scenes…

March 13, 2012 4 Comments

Yesterday the post I wrote for the 1940 Census blog went live.

You swingin’?

The blog is all about generating interest for when the 1940 census is made public on April 2nd. More about that on this post here. 🙂 Have you indexed? It is basically transcribing handwritten or typed images into digital images so they are searchable. My favorites so far have been draft cards – there were some fascinating questions in Ohio. All types of records are being indexed so they can be searchable for family history. I’ve always been a people watcher. I love the time period of the 40s – and I’ve been indexing for a few years and love that too. It kinda just all came together for me to be a blog ambassador for the 1940 Census Project. 🙂

Here are a few back-stage photos behind the post.

My cast of characters:

By characters, I mean characters:

The fun backdrop:

I imagined a 1940s radio for my little ones to dance by, but wasn’t able to find one in real life. That’s when I sketched one on a roll of butcher paper and hung it in our treehouse.