School...

Really? Is my little baby old enough for SCHOOL?!

Yup. It was a bittersweet day today as I took Rory down to the primary school to enroll him for Kindergarten in the public school system.

After his assessment test, and meeting the teachers, he was excited about going. I'm glad one of us is excited about it, lol. I'm glad he is looking forward to it. He is so eager to learn.

I found a few things interesting, and disturbing all in one.

#1. I had to request PERMISSION not to give his SSN to the school.
~What? Really? Since when does a 5-year-old have a job where social security has to be with-held from his paycheck? Needless to say, we aren't giving it. (Yeah, we are weird like that).

#2. In order for them not to require him to have MILK with the school lunch, (which is one of his 3 food allergies) I have to get a doctor's note excusing it, and telling the school what to replace it with.
~Since when is it the duty of a public school to dictate what is or is not appropriate for a child to eat? Not to mention, how is it not the job of a parent to say "My child can't have X food"? Why is a doctor, who sees a child once a year, more qualified to say what is or isn't ok for their diet? Rory is allergic to dairy, wheat, and yeast. No, not lactose intolerant, but ALLERGIC. We know this b/c we took it on ourselves to figure it out, not the doctor who barley knows my kid... It just kind of bugs me, I mean, my kids/ my decisions, right? I know what is best for my family, and make the decisions accordingly.

#3. Vaccine waivers...
~Umm... yeah. That wasn't too bad, but still.

#4. Wow, I was amazed at the education level of incoming children.
~Rory has not attended school yet, not preschool or a daycare... but he knows his basics. Children entering the schools don't have to know colors, shapes, letters, or numbers. Let alone how to read, count, write their names, etc... Rory is reading some, and will be reading a LOT over the next month or two... will this hold him back? There is a high number of ESL children that speak no English there too... and they are in the same classes... (and I mean NO English). The whole language thing is a debate on it's own, but I want my child to flurish, and I worry that he won't be able to in this circumstance. Only time will tell.

So, yup. My baby is getting ready to go to school! When did he grow up? And how is this going to go???

On an unrelated note... He learned how to wet exit from a kayak tonight at roll session, and was really comfortable doing it! YEY!

Swim Lessons...

For Rory and Arden!!! Can you believe it?!

What is really cool is that a few friends of ours are in the classes too!

Here are a few pics... Boy are they having a blast!

Just a Funny...

This might not be funny to you all, but it was to me, and I want to remember it, so here it is:

We are driving in the car and I smelled something, so I asked the kids who it was... of course I get the "not me" answer from everyone.

Then out of the silence, I hear the passing of gas and smell it... it is Canyon. No doubt this time.

Arden (who mind you has very limited speech) says "Canyon POOP!"

To which I reply, "I know honey, I can smell him..."

About 20 seconds later Arden says (as clear as day) "Me can smell him too mama. He pooped."

All of us were cracking up. How is that for one of your first complete sentences?

UpDate to Bummed...

It appears that Jenn passed away this morning.

I will still be fasting tomorrow, in hopes that her family finds peace in this horrible time.

Bummed...

How is it that the internet can connect people who have never met, and make differences in their lives?

For over a year now, I have been following the blog of a mom who has been fighting breast cancer since 2003/2004. http://jennjewkes.blogspot.com/ A local mom posted her link on a chat group and I happened to click it.

I have never met this woman, but her story, her strength, and her life have effected me. I now do monthly breast exams... I have fasted for her and all of those effected by breast cancer at least once a month since I started following her story.

What is even worse is that her story is not uncommon. I cannot imagine the pain of knowing I was going to be leaving my children in that way, and knowing what they were going to see.

She is amazing.

Her brother updated her blog last night, and it looks like she is not going to win this fight. Her body is shutting down.

I will be praying and fasting for her tomorrow, I would love for you all to as well.

Please pray that she passes in peace and that her husband, children, family and friends find peace with their pain too.

I'm sending as much love and strength to her as I can.

International Day of the Midwife

NC Home Birth Families to Advocate for Licensing Midwives at State Legis on Int'l Day of the Midwife

CONTACT: Russ Fawcett, (910) 471-5187, spigget@aol.com

IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Monday, May 4, 2009

North Carolina Home Birth Families to Advocate for Licensing Midwives at the State Legislature on ‘International Day of the Midwife’

Legislation Would Let NC Join 25 Other States in Advancing Healthcare Options for Families Who Choose Midwife-led Care in Out-of-Hospital Settings.

RALEIGH, NC (May 4, 2009)—Families from across the state will convene at the statehouse on May 5, 2009 to honor “International Day of the Midwife” and to advocate to members of the legislature for safe and legal access to out-of-hospital maternity care providers. They again will draw attention to the NC House Select Committee on Licensing Midwives release in December 2008 of a study committee report, which calls on the state to license and regulate Certified Professional Midwives (CPMs), who are specifically trained in out-of-hospital deliveries.

“We applaud the Committee for recommending a much-needed and long-overdue reform in current law and policy,” said Russ Fawcett, Legislative Chair for North Carolina Friends of Midwives. “Homebirths have more than doubled in North Carolina in the past few years. Each year, more North Carolina families choose out-of-hospital birth for religious, cultural, philosophical or financial reasons. These families deserve safe and affordable maternity care, and the midwives who provide it deserve legal recognition.”

Currently, there are no laws in North Carolina to regulate CPMs, who deliver babies in private homes and freestanding birth centers. Studies show that low-risk women who plan home births under the care of CPMs have outcomes equal to low-risk women who deliver in the hospital, but with far fewer costly and preventable interventions. A study commissioned by the Washington legislature found that during the last five years alone, the state’s licensed midwives saved taxpayers and private insurers more than $10 million.

“From both a cost and a safety standpoint, licensing midwives is an important public health issue,” said Henry Dorn, MD, a board-certified OBGYN who practices in High Point. “The CPM credential is the gold standard for midwives who specialize in out-of-hospital birth, and it is critical that we do all we can to ensure that women in our state have access to the safest care possible, including collaborative care with other providers when it becomes necessary.”

North Carolina Friends of Midwives, a grassroots organization of midwife advocates dedicated to promoting, supporting, and protecting midwifery in North Carolina. North Carolina is a priority of The Big Push for Midwives Campaign a nationally coordinated campaign to advocate for regulation and licensure of Certified Professional Midwives (CPMs) in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, and to push back against the attempts of the American Medical Association Scope of Practice Partnership to deny American families access to legal midwifery care. Through its work with state-level advocates, the Big Push is helping to build a new model of U.S. maternity care built on expanding access to out-of-hospital maternity care and CPMs, who provide affordable, quality, community-based care that is proven to reduce costly and preventable interventions as well as the rate of low-birth weight and premature births.

Media inquiries about North Carolina Friends of Midwives should be directed to Russ Fawcett at (910) 471-5187, spigget@aol.com. Media inquiries about the Big Push should be directed to Steff Hedenkamp at (816) 506-4630, Steff@TheBigPushForMidwive

s.org.

#####

North Carolina Friends of Midwives | 5990 Beaman Old Creek Road | Walstonburg, NC 27888 | (252) 747-7785 | NCFOM@aol.com | www.ncfom.org

Rain Drops on Roses...

Ok, well maybe not a rose, but other flowers are starting to bloom! I can't wait for my roses to come out! Here are a few of my azaleas. I have white, pink, purple, and red.

Our New Summer Home...

Today we spent the day at our new summer home... what do you think? Of course we have opened it up to the public for tours and such...

Today was beautiful!

And we spent it outside! (And we took Rory to swim lessons.)

Here are a few photos...

Seedlings Update

Lots more are popping through the dirt!

This morning's progress:

Radishes:


Lettuce:

Zucchini and Squash:

Radishes!

YEY! They are looking great! Here they are today, I think I see a few lettuce heads poking up too.



Today I finished the buildups, planted potatoes, some leftover carrots from last year, and started filling the ditch in the front yard... boy am I sore!

What in the world!?

Today I spent the morning moving dirt, compost, and stuff around getting one of my build-ups ready to plant potatoes in. We are going to have a frost tonight, so I am going to do it tomorrow after the frost clears...

But while I was turning the compost, I found something... a worm. Big deal right?

This worm is 12 inches long and as fat as my THUMB!!!! We ended up finding 4 of them total in the compost pile (along with a bunch of little ones). It is so big, Rory is calling it a snake!

Seedlings are up!

The seeds sprouted already! Well, some of them anyway... before the boys went to bed last night Rory yelled for me to come to the dining room. I came running, assuming something was wrong. He was so excited! I love it!

Without further delay, here are the radish plants that took 24hours to germinate!

My baby is a model....

Sonya Stone submitted some photos for the Association for Prenatal & Perinatal Psychology & Health's newest brochure. You can read more at her blog. How cool is that? Here are the photos she took of us when he was 5 days old.



Canyon is also on the home page for the Asheville Area Birth Network... AND he has an interview for a photoshoot with another local company this month! He is one popular little kid!

Every mom thinks their baby is cute, but it is a nice stroke to my ego to realize people aren't just being nice when they say it! I actually have cute babies!

Waiting for the last frost...

We are starting our garden this year inside, in hopes that we have more luck than we did last year.

Carl and our neighbor, Dab, cut some logs and laid them our for me to make garden build-ups. I have 4 right now (4ft by 6ft), and will be making one more for strawberries next week. I have to sift the dirt (LOTS of rock) and get the build-ups ready for plants.

In the meantime, while it is raining, I started our plants today. If all goes well, we should have quite the assortment of foods. I'm really excited about it and am doing a good bit of edible landscaping to go with it. Today I planted 150 seeds or so, while the boys helped me.


We have about 100 strawberry plants, 35 in front of the house in the flower garden (which obviously is now edible landscaping) and the rest I need to dig up, and make a build-up box for in the back of the yard. I got very lucky with berries. I was walking the yard and found them in the yard! Not wild berries, but cultivated ones! I'm hoping by next year, I have enough for jelly or jam! I am also going to plant all of our squash and zucchini along the back and side of the house. This will save room in the gardens for other plants.

I am really excited about teaching the boys about sustainable living and the value of raising your own food. So far, they are having fun helping me move dirt, and planting the seeds today.
I'm also hoping to have enough to trade some other local moms for their veggies and eggs.

I'm hoping to post photos as soon as things start progressing!

6 years have passed...

6 years?! How in the world have six years passed since that day?

Even as I sit here typing this and remembering, I break into tears and have to explain to my 5 year old what happened and why I'm sad...

Carl came up to Ohio to visit me that day. We joined a big group of friends and went kayaking on the Slippery Rock. It was a great day. Sun shining, birds chirping, warm... unusually beautiful for so early in the season...

As we took off the river, Carl's phone rang... which was weird given the lack of cell reception you get in the gorge there... we tried calling back, it was the hospital... but we didn't know anyone who was there, and we kept dropping the call. After calling our family, to make sure it wasn't any of them, I told Carl to call Jason and Jeff, that if something was wrong, they would have called us from there... we tried Jason, we tried Jeff... no answer. We dismissed the call as a wrong number and headed out to dinner with our friends.

This little irking feeling kept coming over me, and I kept having Carl call Jason's cell phone. We never did get an answer... but about 10 minutes later we got the phone call that changed everything.

A friend of ours, who didn't know our connection to Jeff, called us and told us there was a fatality at Splat. Ironically it had happened at the same time we got the call from the hospital... I was in the middle of eating and Carl was talking to him, I looked up at Carl, smiling... and then saw his face. I still remember the feeling when he told me. I remember having to tell the other 12 people we were eating with... I remember trying to call my professors at the University, trying to explain through my tears, that I wouldn't be there that week, that I was going to assist in a body recovery and to support my friends in our loss.

Carl and I drove back to my house, grabbed what we needed, and drove home. Driving up to our house, we passed the house Jen and Jeff were living in, we passed the house 2 doors down from us that was Jeff's, and we parked at our house... the house we only had because of Jeff.

It wasn't true, there was no way he died. I was convinced he was just stuck somewhere, injured, but safe. That we would find him in the morning. I held to that hope for almost an entire week...

The next morning we got up early, packed food for everyone who was on the Rock, and headed in. Carl boated in, I ran the trail. I actually beat Carl there.

The next 2 weeks were a blur for me. I spent them in tears, still praying that he wasn't dead. I was in complete denial. The only things that are clear to me are the unusually beautiful 2 weeks of weather, the support and love from everyone that came out, and the cross Jeff S. planted at splat.

Exactly 2 weeks after the accident we went to his memorial. We were singing Amazing Grace, and through my tears, I saw Jason take a phone call. It was the call alerting him that tomorrow was the day Jeff would be found.

My life has changed so much since the accident. My oldest son was born exactly 9 months after that fateful day. I have such mixed feelings this time of year when I look at him. Jeff changed our lives in every way possible.

Jeff's death scared me. It is the reason I have given up kayaking as much as I had been, I scarcely get out, and I haven't been an anything over class III since then. I think that has been a mistake. After reading Julie's post, I realize... Jeff wouldn't want that. We need to keep his memory alive, and to live life the same way he did.

I am going kayaking today.

To those on the Rock, I wish we could be there, and in some way, we are.

Jen, I love you hon. I miss you too. Please come to visit us soon.

Jeffrey Allen Mayfield, I love you. I miss you. I thank you for the gift of my son.

Easter Sunday, Easter Funday!

We had a great day! Today we got up, checked out the Easter Goodies that the Bunny left, headed to church, and then to Finn's party! Here are some photos from the day:

First Egg Hunt...

Canyon had his first Easter Egg hunt! I didn't get many photos (too busy trying to keep an eye on all 3 kiddos) but here is one shot! I hope to get a few tomorrow!

Eggs, Eggs, and more Eggs...

Yup, lots-o-eggs here at the Gittings House.

The boys dyed eggs, and had a blast! Even Canyon got in on the action... which is why we are short a few eggs now ;)