Free Patterns

I've been busy lately, crafting like mad and trying to get gifts ready for Christmas. Starting next week, I'll be posting some of my projects, but I just wanted to make a quick comment about a site that I found today: "HomeSpun Threads". She has some adorable patterns, like the ones above, available on her site for free right now, and has some great ideas for games and activities to do with your kids. I'm really glad that I found it. I just downloaded a bunch of patterns and I'm planning to start making them in the new year.

The Journey West

We began our journey west on Friday, August 13. First stop was Great Grandma and Grandpa's house in Hudsonville. We made a quick stop there to feed a crying baby and to say good-bye one more time. Friday's destination was Petosky, where we stayed with friends, Paul and Jenni, Samuel and Joshua, and spent Sabbath with them. Sunday we got a very late start as we still had paper work that needed attention before we could cross the border and some loads of laundry to care for. A friend's house was the best location to take care of all those items. Sunday, we traveled across Michigan's Upper Peninsula and wound up in Duluth, MN very early Monday morning. We tried getting in touch with friends, Dan and Anita, who live in Duluth, only to find out that Anita were traveling home from a family reunion out west. Monday night, our original aim was Max, ND, but we revised that and stayed in Devil's Lake, instead. My cousin Monika drove down from Brandon Manitoba to meet up with us briefly. Tuesday found us traveling across ND as we headed to Bismark to visit with other friends. Lucky for us, our friends from Duluth happened to be in Bismark at the same time, so we got to visit with them in the parking lot of Cracker Barrel, before heading on to the zoo to visit with Jason and Lori. After the zoo, we returned to Jason and Lori's home for a lovely dinner and then continued on to Dave's Uncle Robin and Aunt Susan's home in Max. We visited with Dave's Grandma and Grandpa Plesuk on Wednesday, then headed off to the border in the evening. We needed to wait until Wednesday evening because the paper work that we needed to pick up from the US border people for our vehicles was not ready until later in the evening. Immigration took forever...another family had come in just before us, and we needed to wait around for them. Then, we needed to declare the value of all of our possessions and fill out more paper work. All told, I think we spent around 3 hours at the border crossing. After that, we tried to find someplace to stay as soon as we could, and everything was filled up. Finally, someone thought about a little out of the way town that had some rooms connected to their bar, and there was a room available and we headed out there to a clean room, but no real amenities. And on Thursday, we finally reached our destination of Cochrane.

Birthday Breakfast

Cousin Monika

Ashley and Antonin

Anita, Kristen, Ashley and Keri

Jason, Derek, Lori and Braden (behind Dave's leg

Antonin and Braden

Saying Good-bye to Our Home

Moving involves so much more than just packing. There are a million loose ends to tie up in household business. And there is "saying good-bye." We really enjoyed the 2+ years that we lived in SW Michigan. We had family nearby. We developed some wonderful friendships. And we had some awesome places to play near or on the beach so close to our home. And it was the only home that Antonin had known. On Tuesday, after our things were all gone, we took Antonin back to the house for him to say good-bye. It was a tough thing. He still talks of his old home. Everyday on our journey north and west he asked to go to his home. He now refers to our current home as "Antonin's New Home."

Our last few days in Michigan after loading our truck were spent trying to catch up on a little rest before we started out on our cross country journey with a baby and a toddler and two vehicles. We stayed with Dave's aunt and uncle and enjoyed their wonderful hospitality. We met with a few friends to say good-bye. We took care of what business that we could. And we played near the lake one last time.

 

Moving

Moving...who likes moving. I mean yes, there are some benefits to starting fresh in a new house, and you do end up purging a lot of things in the process. But moving is a lot of work, and it takes for ever to get ready to go, and then even longer to get settled in at the other end. Moving Day 2010 was scheduled on Monday, August 9.  The truck and workers showed up at 8 am to start loading. And of course, I was still packing.

Before Titus was born, I did some packing, but it was hard to get into it. Then, Titus was born and I wasn't at home much for a week...hospital, graduation, and then more hospital. I finally was able to focus my energy on packing on August 5. So, my mother and mother-in-law packed the majority of our house. They did a wonderful job, and labeled the boxes well so that we knew what we were getting at the end of our journey. We also had some wonderful distant relatives of Jim's offer to help us out for a few hours on Sunday, and they made quick work of the kitchen. But still, Dave and I had a lot of things to gather and to pack. We needed to take care of the office, making sure that we had all our necessary documentation. I needed to pack our laundry and our bathroom and our bedroom. Most importantly, I needed to figure out what I would need to live for the next month...what clothes, what supplies, everything. Thankfully, I had already put together Antonin's clothes, so that was one less thing to do.

I stayed up nearly all night Sunday night. Continued to work and pack on Monday, transitioning into cleaning as the day progressed. And we stayed up nearly all night Monday night cleaning the house. On Tuesday we continued to clean and pack the remaining things into our vehicles, and then turned our house over to our tenants in the early afternoon. Antonin spent his days playing with Dave's cousins and wondering where his Mama and Daddy went. Tuesday afternoon we headed off to the doctor for another check-up on Titus. And Tuesday night, I crashed!

Summer Lows...

At home, August 1...Using the Bili-Blanket

The high point of our summer definitely was the birth of Titus, although Dave's graduation was pretty high up there too. Immediately after these wonderful highlights, we came crashing down. Titus was readmitted into the hospital two days after he was discharged home. His bilirubin levels kept climbing rapidly, even with the use of the bili-blanket and nursing him as much as I could. When we arrived at the hospital, we were sent up to the PICU and they drew another sample of blood, got him started on IV fluids immediately and everything started happening. I don't know the scale that they use in the US, or the exact amounts of bilirubin that a newborn should have. But, by 4 days old, the levels should be decreasing, not increasing, and anything over 20 is considered dangerous. On Monday morning, in an outpatient clinic, his bilirubin levels were 26.1, by the time we got to the hospital, after seeing the pediatrician and sorting logistics out, his levels were 28.4. The doctor said that if his levels reached 30, our only option for treatment would be for him to have a blood transfer transfusion. But thankfully, that did not happen. They gave him a lot of IV fluids, and encouraged a lot of feeding. They had him set up under lights and lying on lights. They got wires and cords and everything all hooked up to him. They took some of his blood, and gave him a treatment of IgG, which is a blood product. And then we waited. And waited.

August 2...All hooked up

In the meantime, Gramma and Grampa Kartik drove home to Alberta. And Grandpa Hamstra did some car shopping. And Grandma Hamstra took care of Antonin and continued to pack up our belongings. We got the details for loading our belongings up ironed out. And Dave drove to Ohio with his dad to buy a van for us.

August 3...Doing so much better

Titus responded well to the treatments. On Tuesday they were able to discontinue the IV and that night they stopped the lights. His levels dropped below their target level, and though they rebounded some after the lights were stopped, they remained below the target, so we were discharged home on Wednesday evening. He continued to need follow-up every couple of days, but at least we could manage at home.