Ode to a Special Lady

This post is both overdue and underdue. There is one very special lady in my life without whom I wonder how I could function.

My mom and I have always been buddies, and I never outgrew needing to talk to her and get help from her. Does anyone, really? I feel blessed that she's in my life and that we live so close to each other.

In the past year alone, she's helped me organize my house after moving in, she helped me remove wallpaper and paint several rooms. She helped immensely when Lily was born with household chores and baby-holding so I could take showers and feel human. Her house has been available for me to be a little lazy when I need a break. She feeds me and takes me shopping. She watches Lily whenever I ask.

She's a peaceful mediator when Lily and I are getting on each other's nerves. She's a sounding board for me and my scattered thoughts. She puts my baby to sleep. She even helped with bedtime tonight. She never asks for anything in return.


My mom is the bomb. I know Lily will have a pretty great mom in her adulthood some day because I learned from the best. A thousand thank yous are not enough. Even so, THANK YOU, MOM!!!

We're All Clean

Today was the family baby shower for my sister, Anne. I think it was a pretty fun party!

Okay, enough about the party. What's so cool about this whole pregnant-sister thing right now is that Anne's baby (girl, of course) is due, depending on how you calculate, on January 11/13 of next year. Lily was due January 11/13 this year. She made her appearance on January 8.*

What does this mean? It means for me observing Anne, this year is memories of last year and for Anne observing Lily, this year is prediction for next year. Of course, every baby, every mama, and every experience is different, but being that we're sisters who share the same parents and similar body types, our experiences are indeed quite similar. And did I mention she also had two losses prior to this current pregnancy, the first being a late first trimester loss and the second being very early? Just like me! Not exactly the same, but very similar.

So often I look at her and say something like, "Oh yes, I remember starting to feel more sure I was really having a baby by late summer," or "I think I was unable to wear my rings by this point too," or "I know I was wearing Crocs pretty much exclusively by this point in the year." I can't really describe why this is so thrilling, but it is.

And one thing I remember about this time last year was starting to get pretty excited! The excitement was tempered a bit by being overwhelmed about what still needed to be done. But the only emotion that carries over to this year is pure excitement. I love all my nieces and I can't wait to meet the newest one.


*Footnotes are handy. I MEAN, it's still hard for me to say "was born." Yes, she was, in the technical sense that in one moment she was in and the next she was out. I promise I'm not going to open this can of worms right now, but to me, a cesarean "birth" is only technical. Or, to put it another way, Lily was born, but I didn't give birth. I'll shut up now.

Correctnesses

Don't listen to my husband.

When your baby's tummy is exposed, and you place your mouth on the soft expanse and proceed to blow air so as to create the sound of flatulence, that is known as a poost. If you do the same, on a smaller scale, perhaps to someone's cheek, with lips puckered (not wide open), such an act is termed zerbet.

Poost and zerbet can coexist, and, indeed, they are related. There is an important distinction, however, and we must never call a zerbet what is most clearly a poost.

The cardboard tube found giving shape to your paper towels or wrapping paper is known as a do-do. That is "do" pronounced "doe." For when one places one's mouth in one end of the tube and makes sounds like a trumpet, one says "do-do."

One most certainly does NOT say "doo-doo," for such a scatological reference is loathsome and most undesirable.

Do not listen to my husband.

Post that is Not a Post

No exciting blog today. The hubs, the BIL, the Baby and I are going to southern Indiana, and coming back the same day.


We're crazy, but we wouldn't miss youngest BIL as the Beast in Beauty and the Beast for anything. Break a leg, Andrew!

Trick or Treat

Halloween was Sunday dinner at my parents' house. We went for a brief walk and called it trick-or-treating.

Lily was a ladybug.

All three of us.

(I apologize for my appearance. I probably should keep my mouth shut and stop seeing things that no one else does, but I find it hard to believe that I'm that fat. The sweater and pants are both way too big, so let's blame the clothes. I keep meaning to shop for myself, and it keeps not happening.)

Alice! This kid is a champion smiler.

The three cousins. Alayna actually was trick-or-treating.

My cousin, Nathan, wife Anna, and baby Jacob were there! Jacob was the cutest pumpkin ever.

No Credit Taken

Erich and I are very much the parents of one child. Fortunately, we know it and are pretty self-conscious about it. As such, we take absolutely no credit for Lily's many wonderful traits. Conveniently, this frees us from taking credit for her many less-than-desirable traits.

Lily is what many would call a "good" baby. She only cries if she is physically hurt, she loves people, she plays with toys the way they're meant to be played with, and she generally has a very even temperament. Our mothers tell us that Erich and I were the same way as babies, so it's not very shocking that we have such an agreeable child.

Tonight, because Erich is out of town, I took my overtired baby to an election party because I needed a break. She was a complete doll. I could tell she was extremely tired: The staring eyes, the yawns, they give her away. Yet people expect a baby to turn fussy and become a terror when she's getting close to bedtime. So when they know she's super tired and THIS is what she's like when she's sleep deficient, people start laying on the compliments. I acknowledge my luck and move on.

Absolutely nothing I do as a mother makes her this way. And you know what? She challenges me. I struggle. The reason she was so overtired in the first place was that she only napped for one hour this morning and utterly refused an afternoon nap. She did act super tired for about three hours, but for whatever reason, she never would sleep. And I confess I lost my temper.

So no matter how "good" my baby is, I don't have the easiest time in the world. And that makes us normal! If I survive till she's two, she'll probably be quite terrible by then. And I will not be surprised. And I will not accept any blame!

And the Winner is...

Erich. He got off to a slow start this morning by being absent (I guess he likes to catch up on Saturdays too???), but he made up for it later by:

1. Doing a bunch of laundry (Be still my heart. I mean, I'm actually starting to really like laundry. But there was more to do than I had time to do before it needed to be done. As in, Baby was going to have to go naked or something.)

2. Making brinner. Including fresh green onions from the garden. It was sooooo good, especially since I forgot to eat for about seven hours in there and I got HONGRY.

3. Helping deal with the crazy baby.

Crazy baby. Seriously, what's gotten in to her?

Sadly, I don't ever get much of a break, since she won't ever stop crying till I swoop in for the (always temporary) save. Having a nine-month-old is hard. :(

Anyway, thanks, Mr. Man. You win.

Lesson Learned, or Capsaicin is Evil

I really should have known. But I really did not expect the horror!

Rewind: we have a vegetable garden. Erich has really done a fantastic job with it. He grows several types of peppers, including jalapenos. Erich's dad, a chile aficionado, and his brother were visiting last night en route to moving bro into the dorm for his second year of college.

Erich was making homemade pizza for dinner. He also had a hankering for fresh salsa, so I volunteered to chop and assemble said salsa. I particularly enjoy dicing onions. I started with those, then moved on to the six fresh jalapenos the recipe called for. Erich offered me gloves, but I declined as I thought I would just get it done quickly, wash my hands, and that would be that. I halved them, seeded them and chopped them up. I used the same knife and cutting board and chopped up tomatoes and other ingredients and mixed it all together.

I started to feel a tingle under my ring. I felt a little burning here and there on my knuckles. I used soap and water to wash off the chile juices. Rinse and repeat.... "Wow, my hands are like, on fire," I said, extremely wittily and eloquently. The men of the house all agreed that was weird. Erich asked FIL what he does to get the capsaicin off his hands. Soap and water was the prescribed remedy. "Okay, I'll try that...for the fifth time!" I started to whimper.

And I could no longer use warm water. The burning started to get pretty intense, spreading to all ten fingers, especially concentrated on my knuckles and nail beds. This was pain. Then I couldn't carry anything moderately heavy because the pressure intensified the burning. It truly felt like I had started up a gas burner on the stove and lightly seared my fingers.

Well, I was really feeling bad for myself. I hadn't held Lily in well over an hour and I knew she was going to need to eat eventually, but I was afraid to touch anything. So I did what any Millenial would do in this situation: I asked Dr. Google for help. I was not alone among internet users who had carelessly burned their fingers slicing hot peppers without gloves. What to do, though?

I found a remedy: make a solution, one part bleach, five parts water. Occasionally dip fingers in the solution, which will neutralize the non-water-soluble capsaicin into a salt, which is water-soluble. It didn't seem to help at first, so I poured a bowl of milk to soak my hands. That felt good, I think mainly due to the cool temperature. After a while, I think the bleach solution did work because I could start to function without terrible pain as long as I wasn't gripping anything too tightly.

After testing my still-burning hands on Erich's skin (and determining that my burning was not contagious), I collected my baby, who was ready for bed. I was relieved that my hands weren't going to burn her skin. The worst part of this ordeal was being barred from even holding her until we knew I wouldn't hurt her. (And I won't even get into the issue of an unexpected poop, more solid than it used to be, the pain and yuck-factor in swishing it in the toilet and I'm definitely going to get one of those diaper sprayers... oh, looks like I got into it, sorry.)

The rest of the evening, I was distracted from my pain. As long as my fingers still smelled like the lobby of a hotel with a pool, I could function. They were STILL throbbing when I went to sleep as the bleach faded. I woke up and they seemed okay, except when any significant pressure was placed on them. After my warm shower today, it was as though they were freshly burned for at least half an hour. Even now, about 30 hours later, a slight tingle remains.

I will never, ever, ever even think about handling any combination of knife and hot pepper without gloves on ever again. EVER.

Posterity

Hello, blog! I've taken a three-month maternity leave from you. I'm back, but as always, I can't make promises as to my future commitment to this blog.

Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia! That means Holy Week is over, and boy am I ready for a break.

Our Easter Lily baby will be three months old this Thursday. She's more like a baby and less like a newborn every day, and that's just delightful. I had to play single mom last week. Erich was out of town from Monday morning to Thursday afternoon. Unfortunately, this trip coincided with a bad virus I was fighting, so that made the single parenthood that much harder.

Lily is totally breastfed, so every time I knew I was going to be away from her, I had to pump some milk for her. Monday morning I pumped, and Monday evening I left her with my sister-in-law/next door neighbor while I rehearsed the bell choir at church. I returned to her crying for food--the milk I left was only just enough.

Tuesday I decided to hang out at my parents' house. That usually happens about once a week. Getting out of the house to get extra help with Lily is essential to my sanity. My mom and I went to Target to get some necessary items, but we couldn't get them all because my malaise required rest. Oh, and Lily absolutely refused to nap. She wasn't particularly fussy, just wakeful.

And see, at this point, I was only trying to get to Thursday when Erich would be home! Wednesday brought new challenges. I had to make sure I had enough milk to leave with SIL/neighbor for choir rehearsal that night--the Holy Week Mega-Rehearsal. My mom was nice enough to come over beforehand to make dinner, and we ate with brother, SIL, and niece. Then we were off to the rehearsal scheduled from 7-9, but for me actually went till a little after 10. Hey, it's Holy Week! I rushed home to my baby, who, unaware of my exhaustion, continued to stay awake until 2ish, as is her habit.

I really don't know how single moms do it.

Thursday I counted down the hours and Erich finally came home about 3pm. I got some laundry and cleaning done and then we went to church. I was the official director of the choir, the women of the church adult choir. We warmed up then had a little bit of time before the service so I could pump. I helped wrangle the baby as much as I could in between leading the liturgy. After church back at home, I had to practice organ. Luckily, we happen to be housing a pretty nice electronic organ at our house until the church can use it. Erich watched Lily and TV while I practiced for Good Friday.

On Friday, I had to practice at church. I took Lily with me and got there around noon. All that listening to organ music in the womb must have done her well because even though she was awake, she listened patiently while I practiced. She was done about the time I was done, so I took her to my parents' house. I watched her there until it was time to go play for the 4:00 service. I pumped during the sermon. I met Erich back at my parents' house afterward and ate my dad's fried shrimp in between feeding the baby. It was back to church at 6:30 to warm up with the choir for the Tenebrae service. Lily did pretty well. My mom held her while Erich and I led the litany. When the lights went out at the sanctuary was all dark, Lily started squawking. Such a baby, afraid of the dark! So Erich took her out and all was well.

Saturday I got to practice organ at church sans Lily, but not before I fed her! We were back at church again at 6:30 so I could warm up the bell choir, assign percussion parts for The Song of the Three Young Men, and rehearse other liturgical enhancements. After The First Song of Isaiah as the Vigil started, Lily was hungry and I had a long stretch of time when I wasn't directly needed, so I fed her. I snuck back into church in time for "All You Works of God, Bless the Lord." After the baptisms and confirmations, I played organ for the rest of the service. We were done around 9, and I was hungry! We wanted to stop for Mexican, so we got Lily in the carseat and left. She got hungry and very distressed in the car, however, so we had to stop on the way so I could feed her in a parking lot. It was Mexican or bust, so we continued on our way and I was able to eat at home before she needed my attention again. We got to bed late, as usual.

I opted out of the sunrise service. It's just too hard. Erich left at six to play trumpet. I got up, got Lily up around seven (ouch. It goes against the grain to wake up a baby who would have easily slept two more hours.) and got to church at 7:45. I grabbed a quick youth group-sponsored breakfast then left Lily with Erich while I went to warm up with the choir. I had to leave that early to make sure Erich was properly outfitted with baby supplies. Then I discovered I had ten minutes before the 8:30 service started, so I went to discreetly pump in the sacristy. Thankfully the pastor didn't mind. ("Everyone needs their Easter breakfast!") Lily slept through that service, which ended at 9:50. I changed her diaper before the 10:00 service then handed her off to SIL, who gave her the bottle I had pumped earlier.

The choir sang the preservice music and had a prelude after the confession and absolution. Lily quickly finished her bottle and squawked for more. I looked in the bulletin and saw that after the prelude, there was the processional hymn, Kyrie, festival canticle, collect of the day, Old Testament reading... and THEN the big 6-part choral gradual that I couldn't miss. I decided to skip the prelude and whisked Lily to the nursery. She fed in an unhurried manner and was happy. I got her back into church, casually slipped my choir robe back on and was zipping it up as the choir moved into position for the gradual. Smooth!

The choir was done before the sermon, so I took two trips in and out of church to take out the baby and her accompanying supplies. And after that whirlwind weekend, I was done and home by 11am. Erich, who had finished out the rest of the service on trumpet, joined me soon afterward. We were at my parents' house and relaxing by 1pm. And then, I stopped living one hour at a time and realized I worked my tail off in a totally different way from most years. Erich and I couldn't have done it without help, particularly from mom and SIL.

So this post may not be that interesting, but some day I'm going to forget what it was like to tackle Holy Week as a church musician and nursing mother to an almost three-month-old. And then I'll reread this and be like, "Oh yeah. I don't remember that."

New Year's Survey

I did this post last year, and it's interesting to go back and see how much has changed (or in some cases, not changed at all or been eerily similar). So here it is again, updated for 2009!

1. What did you do in 2009 that you'd never done before?
Purchased real estate. We're homeowners now!

2. Did you keep your New Year's resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
I weakly resolved to lose weight last year, but what I really wanted was to get pregnant and stay that way, which is directly contradictory. The latter happened and instead of losing ANY weight, I've gained about 40 pounds. On the plus side, I do intend to get into shape for real this year, and I'm fairly confident I can lose at least 20 pounds in the first month.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
My SIL. (This is UNCHANGED from last year. She had another baby, bless her heart.)

4. Did anyone close to you die?
No one already born and close to me has died, but the tragedy of miscarriage struck our family again.

5. What countries did you visit?
Alas, no travels abroad this year. But we did go to Portland, which was a completely new part of this country for me. And the UP is pretty darn close to Canada, so we got around.

6. What would you like to have in 2010 that you lacked in 2009?
I got what I wanted from last year! Well, the baby is still technically on the way, but her presence is obvious. We also have a house. I'm looking forward to peace and stability in 2010. More materially, I wish for good and affordable home improvements.

7. What date from 2009 will remain etched upon your memory?
I really can't think of any. I tried not to focus too much on specific dates and milestones but simply celebrate each day of being pregnant with a healthy baby as a gift.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Besides remaining somewhat sane during early pregnancy and keeping a healthy attitude throughout, I had some moments of personal growth in the professional arena. I feel more and more mature and confident in my church music and piano teaching with each passing year. I'm also proud of our little work-in-progress house.

9. What was your biggest failure?
Sometimes I feel like losing so many students from Spring to Fall was a bit of a failure, but I realize I can't blame myself. My failures usually involve not getting around to something I was hoping to get done and there was PLENTY of that to go around.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
Back in March, I had the kind of virus that put me in bed for a week with a fever. A FEVER. I haven't had a fever or an illness that bad since I was kid, if even then. It was just a virus, though, and I did indeed survive. Then I had a nasty cold in May when I was about five weeks pregnant and too nervous to take any effective cold medicine, so that made it less bearable than it would have been. I was healthy as a horse for the following 33 weeks, and now I'm trying to get over a moderate cold before my birthing.

11. What was the best thing you bought?
Well, the house probably has to win this one. I have a lot of allowance money saved up since I'm not a natural spender, and I'm trying to figure out how best to spend it. Books? Movies? Games? Clothes/shoes? I'm stumped.

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?
As always, my family rocks and Erich rocks the absolute most.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?
The United States Congress wins this distinction.

14. Where did most of your money go?
HOUSE. The house. Our domicile. To every professional who helped us obtain this house. And then more went into the house.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
Getting pregnant and each and every time I heard that beautiful heartbeat.

16. What song will always remind you of 2009?
Um. Probably something by Lady Gaga. That chick is everywhere.

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
i. happier or sadder? much, much happier
ii. thinner or fatter? pregnant-er by far (so, fatter)
iii. richer or poorer? more assets, less cash

18. What do you wish you'd done more of?
Exercise.

19. What do you wish you'd done less of?
Procrastination. That has always been true.

20. How did you spend Christmas?
Christmas Eve: two church services where Erich played trumpet and sang in the choir and I simply sat in the pew (weird and amazing), then we had a sleepover at my parents' to try to avoid last year's loneliness. Turns out, our Christmas this year could not possibly have been as bad as last year. Anyway, Christmas Day: church in the morning, back to the parents', big spread of party food for lunch and dinner and relaxing with Christmas movies the rest of the day. We were going to go home but stayed another night because the weather outside was frightful.

Day After Christmas: saw Avatar on IMAX 3-D with some family, which was totally awesome but set me on a pattern of nausea and pre-labor contractions for the rest of the day. Then the whole family met at the parents' for gift exchange and scrumptious dinner.

And just when we thought Christmas was pretty much over, we decided to go see some of the Keller family in Indiana, which turned into a 36-hour succession of meals and fellowship.

22. Did you fall in love in 2009?
Again and again with my husband. (Aaaawwwwww....) <--Keeping this piece of sap from last year.

23. How many one-night stands?
I really could just delete this question. But I don't feel like renumbering everything.

24. What was your favorite TV program?
The Office has sadly slipped down the ladder. That show has a shelf life and I think it was achieved sometime last year. Our current favorites are Community (hilarious), 30Rock, Lost, and Mythbusters.

25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?
No, hate's not worth the energy.

26. What was the best book you read?
The best non-fiction was The Narcissism Epidemic. The most epic book I read was House of Leaves, which I'm happy that I actually started and finished in 2009 as it required vacations from reading. I re-read the Harry Potter series and still love it. I finally read Animal Farm and 1984, which everyone should read. And I read lots of books on birth and infant care in order to educate myself as much as possible before Lily does all the educating around here.

27. What was your greatest musical discovery?
Can't think of any. I'd like to make some musical discoveries in 2010, whatever that means.

28. What did you want and get?
Rehashing here, but: full-term pregnancy, new house, etc.

30. What was your favorite film of this year?
Avatar is fresh in my mind since I saw it so recently and it was one of the only movies that I saw in the theater this year. But I really liked it despite a few one-dimensional characters. The overtly environmentalist message I had been warned about didn't end up being too bothersome.

31. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?
I turned 26 last year. We didn't do much that I can recall, but Erich got me a Nintendo Wii, which left my jaw on the floor for days.

32. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
I'm pleased and blessed to be able to say I can't think of anything. There was an obvious answer last year, but I think it's much better to not feel the absence of something that deeply.

33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2009?
Hide the fat, then try to look pregnant and not just fat, then try to cover everything that needs to be covered. Pretty simple.

34. What kept you sane?
Family, vacations, projects, and hearing fetal heartbeats.

35. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
Meh.

36. What political issue stirred you the most?
Wasteful spending that most of the country doesn't even want. Ahem, congress. *eye roll*

37. Who did you miss?
Sometimes it gets hard to live so far away from Erich's immediate family. We spend too much time missing them.

38. Who was the best new person you met?
Got another new niece this year, Olivia. She's very chill.

39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2009:
When you're a homeowner, your priorities for improvements can change at the drop of a hat.

40. Quote a song lyric that sums up your whole year:
I couldn't possibly. This has been a pivotal year that defies summary.

Wegan Wanderings: Obey the Signs

I really want to get to blogging about our recent trip to Portland, but I simply must finish Wegan first.

After we drove through Starve Hollow, we continued on to Seymour, hometown of John Mellencamp, and the largest town in the area. Andrew goes to the Lutheran high school in Seymour, and it's the home of the Walmart, so we went to do a little shopping. All loaded into the family van, FIL drove us past Andrew's school then decided to find an alternate way home through areas they hadn't discovered yet. I always love an adventure full of discovery, so I was all for this plan.

Unfortunately, Jackson county had experienced record rainfall and flooding the week before, so this tampered with the plan. We were northeast and needed to be southwest, and we went westward from the school. We could never get more than a block south before encountering a "Road Closed" sign. Hoping to pass the flood zone, FIL continued west.

As the minutes ticked past and the younger brothers got more and more disgruntled, FIL turned around and headed back east, hoping to take the first available street south in an effort to get back into Seymour and main roads. Each one was closed. Finally, getting fed up, he drove around a sign to try our luck at the puddles. The first attempt took us through manageable puddles until we got to one that looked far too deep. So we gave up and went back north.

The adventure was starting to get a little too long for ALL of our tastes.

We came upon another road with a car coming northward past a Road Closed sign. If he made it through, so might we! We drove over a few puddles: no problem. When we came upon one of indeterminate depth, FIL got out to test the depth. We had come too far to give up now! The water went just above his feet, so he drove through. The van made quite the wake, and we all held our breath, hoping we wouldn't stall out in the middle of the puddle. Oh, did I mention we were almost out of gas?

Success! That is, until we came to the big mama of all puddles. FIL got out to test again, and I finally did the smart thing and pulled out my camera:




Hmm. Almost knee-deep and not quite at the halfway point. No thanks!

We eventually ended up exactly where we started and took the highway bridge over the river and the flooding and took the main route back home. So much for the adventure. But we did get to see a lot of Jackson County farmland, complete with flooding and ruined soybean crops! It became an extremely hilarious joke after a while to point out where the water level had been on the corn. Heh heh.

When the parents came up a few weeks ago to drop Michael off at college, FIL informed us that he had eventually learned that even if we had gotten past all the huge puddles, we would have had to have turned around anyway, since there's only one way over the river: the highway bridge we did indeed end up taking.

What should have been a 30 minute drive took closer to three hours. I was hungry for food and the van was in need of gas, so it was hard to laugh about it at the time. But within a few hours and days we could well appreciate the humor.

Wegan Wanderings: Starve Hollow

A few weeks ago, Erich and I finally had a chance to travel down to Jackson County, Indiana, where his father has been installed as pastor of a small congregation. It was a beautiful weekend in a beautiful area. We drove up to a state park, Starve Hollow, which affords gorgeous views of the surrounding areas.

Somewhere around here is Wegan, which is basically a spot on the map with a church and a parsonage--the in-laws' new abode.

And here we are standing in front of it. Erich looks great as always, and it's a good face picture for me. But I was 17 weeks pregnant at the time, which makes me look just generically big in my frontal region. Awkward!

Brothers! It's so fun to walk behind the three of them walking in a line. They have the same walk! Brothers are funny like that.

MIL and FIL. I don't think I've ever seen them as happy as they have been in this new location. Can you blame them?

As we were standing around, Erich liked something about the way the wind was blowing my unkempt hair, so he wanted to do a little photo shoot:

I'll have to work on my modeling skills... or NOT.

As we drove through the park, this was the typical view off the side of the road. Unfortunately, it was difficult to capture just how steep it really is.

This is a view of Brownstown, the nearest town that's slightly more than a smudge on the map.

And here's a bird.

Vacation 2009: Day 3

Don't worry: we were all way more excited than Emily was in this picture to be at Seul Choix Pointe. Actually, she was okay with being the lighthouse, but I guess she doesn't really see herself as a sea captain.

On Wednesday, we headed to Seul Choix. In French, that's pronounced "sull shwah," but the Yoopers (people from the UP) pronounce it "sih-shwah." As I almost got a minor in French in college, I decided to pronounce it the French way and just drop the L-sound. Compromise.

Wednesday's weather was extremely refreshing after Monday and Tuesday's chills. Mid-70s and bright, sunny skies. A perfect day to go up in a lighthouse!

Here we are! The whole Keller Klan.

Another view of the building. It's been beautifully restored in the last 20 years. The house is really nice and fancy on the inside, which is rare for lighthouses. That's as expert as I'm going to pretend to be. My MIL is the true lighthouse expert!

The stairs that made my knees hurt "from here to here."

We're in the top of the lighthouse here.

See?

After touring the lighthouse, we walked along the rocky lakeshore. Of the entire vacation, there were several highlights, but I think this walk was my favorite.

I mean, for starters, look how clear and still and beautiful this water is! Just look!

Gorgeous!

And these are my feet in the water! You can't even tell except for the line around my ankles!

That water was SOOOO COLD but absolutely lovely and delightful.

Brother Rock. This was the first Keller UP trip in a long time that someone didn't have to pretend to put his arm around the brother who couldn't be there.


(I got this shot by hanging the camera from my neck and pressing the button. Otherwise I would have had to lay, stomach-down, on the the gravel.)

"Rock-jumping," a Keller-boy favorite activity.

King of the World!

Lexi the mermaid. With legs.

I learned something about Michael that week. That boy sure loves to wear sweatshirts in all but the hottest weather! I think that's what happens when you're roughly the width of a telephone pole, with no fat to keep you warm on a 78-degree day.

There was a toad on the picnic table!

Vacation 2009: Day 2, Part 2

After the first part of our day at Tahquamenon Falls, we trekked across the peninsula, stopping briefly to pick up some delicious smoked fish for dinner, and arrived at my favorite place: Kitchitikipi. Or, depending on what sign you read, Kitch-iti-kipi. Or Kitchi-ti-kipi.

But what IS this remarkable place? you may ask. Well, it's a big spring. It's about 40-feet deep and clear as glass. And it's really, really awesome. We got there late in the day, which was a cool time to see the trees' reflections on the water. I can't do it justice with any more words, so I'll just post a small sampling of the approximately 43,000 photos I took.

This is from the raft on the spring. It feeds into this river. The raft moves along a cable, propelled by a big, kid-friendly wheel.

The view straight down.

Unshaven Uncle Erich being daddy-ish with Emily, looking down into the spring.

This is where the water bubbles up.

And THIS is the spring in action. What's that sound in the background? That's Emily providing narration for what she saw, which was this:

It's a lot more fun than it looks.

All the BILs, and a glimpse of FIL, looking at this:

That's the best picture I could get of the gigantic trout swimming around. I hear there are usually a lot more (maybe earlier in the day?), but we just saw a handful.

I liked the way the light came through the trees.

Back at the house, this was a typical evening activity. Without TV or radio, the Cubs fans were reduced to "watching" the games via phone updates. At least Erich got good enough cell service up there for MLB Gameday!

This was Emily's favorite activity. She says "Boo!"; everyone else acts startled. In this particular game, the little princess learned how little she has to do to captivate an entire room of big people. Who needs TV when you have a toddler?