I’m so proud of my brother that is two years younger then me. He’s a single Dad of four boys (talk about a wild house!) and for the past two years he was in school full time. We went to his graduation this past May.

That’s him with the W on his hat…next time I’m going to bead his cap and gown, the other Native graduates all had simple beadwork on theirs!

He’s so happy.

Baby Brother, Graduate, Me

I bought him a golf club for graduation, just one.

I don’t know if it’s a middle child thing or just a my brother thing, but over the years, when I’ve been able to see the family while on vacation or something, I come home to a picture my brother took of himself.

I’m pretty sure that for Christmas he is getting a scrapbook with all the pictures he’s taken of himself over the years. I have probably six or seven, at least.

When I moved out of my Mom’s house, I was 17 years old. And before anyone says wow you are lucky or wow that was really young, let me add that that I moved literally two houses away. Growing up in a really small town gave my Mom the chance to own more then just her house, so when it was time for me to move out I got to live in one of them. Next door to Mom’s house was my Grandma and one of my cousins and his family. On the other side of them, the houses my Mom owned.

In true teenager fashion, I moved out when I got mad. There was an argument about something, probably because my brothers got away with everything but as the oldest I didn’t, who knows (whoa, passive aggressive years later much?). So I grabbed the clothes from my closet, threw them in the trunk of my car and backed down the street (I remember doing this!). Obviously it wasn’t a huge family fight as my Mom didn’t stop me!

We got furniture on sale or clearance and picked up other things along the way. And my Grandma contributed to my house as well. One day when I stopped by she gave me a few things for the kitchen: a measuring cup, set of measuring spoons, an ice cream scoop and an egg slicer.

I’ve never used any of them. Once I got married, I started hanging them up in the kitchen wherever we lived. I like looking at them, they remind me that you don’t really need too many things to get started.

This is them hanging in the current house we are living in. The picture of the bridge is the Cooper River bridge in Charleston, SC. It’s a great picture because it’s the old bridge and the new one.

I got a laptop! Okay the hubs left his with me, as mine is still dead. I need to take it to the shop, but rarely go into town where said shop is located, so it sits on the kitchen table.

How has your summer been?

We went to Montana to see my brother graduate:

Then to Seattle where my Mom received an honorary PhD from Seattle U:

We went to a family reunion in Nevada:

And then JW turned 6 months old!

Lots of other stuff has being going on as well, but this is a nice start. 🙂

Last time we visited I was having contractions for days.

It’s been a while I know.

JW Conway

born Jan 18, 8 lbs 15 oz, 20 inches

On Jan 17 in the evening my contractions got regular and the dr told me take a  bath and see what happens. The bath didn’t speed anything up, and I managed to get some sleep. The contractions did wake me up at night, but it wasn’t anything really horrible. When I got up in the morning I told my Mom it was time, and we got to the hospital at about 9:30 or 10. When we got to the hospital, I told the nurse I was there to have my baby – she said “I never got a call about an induction for today, nothing is on the books.” I said “oh no, I mean I’m in labor now and am having him today.” She looked at me like I was crazy. Hahaha

I labored on my own for a handful of hours, until the nurse said we should do pitocin to get me over the hump, to get things kicked up a notch. Once I got the pit, things definitely moved along. I went from being dialated 2/3 to 5 really fast, then on to 9 shortly after that. He was born at 4:27PM, after just a few minutes of pushing. For some reason, I think the actual having him hurt more then with my other kids! I’m not sure why I feel that way.

JW – one month old

We had a rough start to having him here. He lost two pounds over two weeks due to my not producing enough milk, so we started supplementing with formula. He rebounded fast and at a month is almost at ten pounds. He’s doing good now and I’m finally moving on to trying different things to help with my milk. Nursing is important to me and while I still am, I’d like to not have to use formula.

With luck I’ll get better at updating here, this post took several hours due to a combination of my laptop not cooperating, the kids, JW, eating food, etc. 🙂