Where were you 32 years ago?

Thirty two years ago today, I was having my first child. Courtney Lynn entered the world at 12:15 A.M. weighing 6 lb. 14 oz. and measuring 19 inches long. She was born at Lakeland Hospital in Elkhorn, WI. I think our story would have been a very interesting one on A Baby Story. I think I said the same thing about my birth experience with Alissa which, too, was a story in itself. Maybe all moms feel like their stories are good enough for TV but I know, for a fact, after watching hundreds of episodes that my birth stories would be of interest to viewers.

We went to the hospital in the morning on Monday, Feb. 27. By that evening I was bored with the whole ordeal but after seeing Ma Ingalls give birth to Grace on national TV, I was anxious to get on with the process. I am proud to say that I didn't have one drug during the whole labor and delivery. I remember begging for something during the transition time, but it was too late for any drugs so I just pressed on. It wasn't all that bad and the final product was well worth the few pains there were. They don't call it Labor for nothing. I feel sorry for women now a days who get induced and have to have all those aritificial means to just get labor started and then the epidurals which make it impossible to even feel the pushing process! Anyway, I had both my babies, naturally!

We brought our little Courtney home two days later and just starred at her, not knowing what to do next. Two college grads and we didn't have a clue. Luckily, Courtney was a good baby and was very patient with us as we learned and muddled along.
Courtney has always been patient with us as we ventured into all the different stages of parenthood. She tried all the activities that we wanted her to particitpate in even if she wasn't really all that interested in them. She smiled her way through T-ball, soccer, ballet, summer school, play groups, until we finally found swimming. Courtney dove into that full force and we enjoyed over ten years of competive swimming with her.
She gave us many happy, proud moments in High School as she cheered, swam, soccered, forensiced, and studied her way through. She went to all the dances and I enjoyed living my High School all over again through her experiences.
We were never prouder than when we sent her off to college, it was also scary and sad for us as parents, but in true Courtney fashion she made us proud with all her achievments on that level, too.
Now at age 32, she is a stay at home mom to sweet little Tizita sharing her life with our wonderful son in law, Paul who is a professor at Oshkosh. They love their big old house, love gardening, and spending time as a family. I could not have imagined a more perfect life as I looked at her on her birthday 32 years ago!

This weekend we celebrated Courtney and Paul's birthdays. On Friday night, the two of them headed over to Velvet Lips for a nice dinner and drinks, they stayed at the Super 8 and we got to watch Tizita for them. It was a perfect weekend.

Here they are before they left for their night out.
John and I took Tizita out on her skis. She is amazing on them. Here she is explaining to Grandpa how she wants to go down the little hill again. There was not much snow on our little hill, but she was stil able to ski down.

After skiing we came in and mixed up some more concoctions at the counter. Here she is mixing up soap and water.

Alissa and Nathan arrived on Saturday and Tiz and Alissa rocked out to some Bon Jovi. Tiz is already a big fan.

Papa got some pickles in his goody box. Here Tiz is enjoying one of the pickles while Paul drinks some of the pickle juice. Don't they just make quite the pair?

We played Pin the nose on the snowman because our parties are never complete without a "pin the something on something" game.

And the best part of the weekend for Tizita was getting this green wig from Gigi. Tiz loves pretending she has long, flowing hair often by wearing a towel on her head, so this wig was perfect for her. Just look at that smile!

We ended our day with a game of Candy Land! The lady in the green wig was the winner.

We will keep Tizita until Monday and then drive her home to Oshkosh. It has been a great way to celebrate the perfect birth of our awesome first born!

Sorry Courtney, this is all I had for you today!