Seventh Child of the Seventh Child

Rachel Irene North was born to our family on Saturday, June 22, 2002 (the day after Lindsey's 6th birthday!)

I love this funny picture! Rachel is doing this thing that all my babies did, but she is the only one I caught a good picture of. She's making a kind of "sh-shing" sound through her little wrinkled-up nose.

On that Saturday in June, I'd been having some pretty good, strong (although not terribly painful) labor--contractions about 5 minutes apart--for an hour or so that morning, so around 11:00 I told Bruce that we should probably go to the hospital soon. But first I had to make sure we had food in the house for the other kids, so I ran to the grocery store. It was a "try this" day, and everyone there had something for me to sample, and I would say, "Sorry--in labor--gotta hurry." I know, you are wondering why I didn't send Bruce to the store. I don't know. I probably told him to fix the swamp cooler or something. Anyway, one sample lady finally caught on and hurried me to the cash register; the sample lady, the cashier and the lady in line ahead of me were all amazed that I was shopping while I was in labor.

Bruce and I drove up to the hospital and, as always with me, the half hour drive made the labor stop. But I was not about to let them send me home. I told them this (true) story: "All my babies come fast--in a couple hours; and this is my seventh." And they checked me and I was dilated to 5 so they were not about to send me home either. But since the labor had stopped and they had to call my doctor, they sent me for a walk. Bruce and I walked around for about an hour before they gave me my own room. Then they put me on pitocin to get the labor going again and left us alone. And then I got really scared. Labor and delivery are really terrifying to me; yes, even though I'd done it six times before, I was scared to the point of tears. [above: 4 years old]

2 months old

But it all went just fine. The pitocin did it's job; the epidural did not. Delivering Rachel was like delivering a basketball. But she was such a cute little girl!

When we were choosing names I had considered giving her the middle name of Irene, for my dad's mother, but Rachel Irene sounded so old-fashioned and we decided to call her Rachel Marie. But Marie just didn't sit right with me, and within a few weeks I just had to change it from Marie to Irene after all. It was kind of a hassle, but we are happy with her name. And it turns out that Irene is the name of Bruce's great-grandma too!

Rachel has been an artist ever since she could hold a crayon. And she has practiced writing her name ever since she learned to spell it: on my closet door; on a table cloth; on Bruce's dresser . . .

Rachel's most recent piece of artwork; she gave this to me last Saturday.

Rachel is a very smart girl; she was the top of her class in reading, writing and math both in Kindergarten and in first grade, and started second grade reading 120 words per minute. She is kind of a tease, and can be very silly. She loves cats, and she loves playing with her brothers and sisters.

We are very happy to have Rachel in our family!

Hmmm. What to Say?

I keep thinking it's about time I said something to y'all here. But, what?

Got any ideas?

I just don't get it

What is the deal with facebook?


After months of prompting from my two oldest sons, I decided to join facebook. At first it was really cool . . .
. . . because about two days after I joined, my sister-in-law had her baby and so I got up-to-the-minute (well, almost) updates on the baby's arrival. That was really cool!

But everything else has been, for the most part, pretty darn boring. I suddenly have all these messages from "friends" that I only just barely (the barest of barely's) know. People who know my name from school, whose names I remember, but that I was never more than aquaintances with. But I am their "friend" now--like a new charm on their bracelet. And I've heard about all their daily stuff--from having to go to the doctor several times in a week (although I don't know why) to being so sick with a stomach bug that the bathroom can't stay clean, to how angry they are with their husband, to which type of dog they like the best. And not only that, but I get to hear from their friends too, through comments on their one-line posts.

Then there's all these quizzes (how sexy is your name), and games (food-fight!) that are, basically, phenomenal time-wasters. I already waste enough time on the computer without the help of facebook.

I do have to admit, I kind of like the "Kidnap" game. Mostly because I play that one with my family--my kids, my cousin, my in-laws. And I don't mind hearing from my relatives--kind of like it, in fact. But even from them you rarely get much information. I guess mostly you get to see that people are still alive.

The whole thing is only marginally interesting.

I suppose I am just too self-centered for facebook, because I find my life far more interesting than learning that the girl who moved out of my ward four years ago has been having diarrhea and throwing up all weekend.

Go figure.

Rub-a-Dub-Dub . . .

. . . FOUR girls in a tub!

Uh-oh! Sounds potentially bad, but this isn't that kind of website!

When I went to school at Utah State University I shared a dorm room with four other girls. We got along pretty well, on the whole.

One evening, when I was tired but not ready for bed, I announced that I would be taking a bath before bedtime (since the five of us shared the bathroom, the announcement really was necessary). Stacey said that she wanted a bath before she went to bed, and since she had an earlier class than I did the next morning, she should go first. We bantered back and forth a little, and somehow it evolved into: "Wouldn't it be funny if we all got in the bathtub together?" So Stacey, Jessi, Regina and I put on our swimsuits, put our hair up, grabbed some bubble-bath and hopped in; Lisa said she'd forego the bath and take our pictures.

Stacey, Me, Regina and Jessi

Well we didn't have enough bubble bath to make a good, foamy tub full of bubbles, so we started pouring in our shampoo. Then the dish-soap. Finally I remembered a big, family-size box of generic-brand laundry detergent that I'd just gotten. So we poured some in and it foamed up very nicely. During the next two hours we used up all of the detergent, except for maybe about four to five cups.

After our goofy photo session was done we drained the tub and then all took turns showering off. Ironically Stacey and I, who wanted the baths in the first place, ended up being the last to shower--first Stacey and then me. (I ended up going to bed past midnight.)

Oh dear! We both got a rash, and then had dry, itchy skin for weeks!

Moral of the story: Never take a bath in laundry detergent.

Needing a Change

Do you ever feel restless? Tired of the way your life is? Do you ever just really, really want a change? I've been feeling this way for a while. But I have gritted my teeth and been still about it out of love for my husband, who likes things the way they are.

Yes, I am getting tired of my hair.

Now, I like the curly-girl stuff. In fact I love my curly hair. But I think it's time for a new do. I've had my hair short, long, and in-between; curly, straightened, wavy; red, dark brown, blond highlights. This is what I do when I get restless--I change my hair.

So, here are the ghosts of hairstyles past:

And here are some things I think are cute:

I like this, but it might be too styled for my lazy hair habits.

This is kind of a "wild thing" look,
but I know my hair would do it.

I love the shape of this in the back, but how much work would it take to make my hair do this?

And I really like this one, and I think my hair would do it, too.

I have an appointment to get my hair done on September 30--Wendy is out of commission until then. But when I go, what should I do with my hair?