Strawberries

Brad's family had a garden most of  his growing up years, and he was often enlisted to help his Grandma with weeding, picking, etc.  I, on the other hand, have zero memories of ever having a garden.  I had tried a couple of times to have a house plant (usually when little potted flowers were given to women at church on Mother's Day), but ALWAYS managed to kill them. ALWAYS. I've even killed one of those ferns that's advertised to not need watering because it survives on moisture from the air, and I've killed a cactus.  Two plants most people agree kind of need effort to kill.  I managed it anyway.

Needless to say, I had ZERO confidence I could ever manage to grow a plant to maturity; and ZERO intention of ever trying to do so. Until we bought our home.  I started having this almost nagging memory of talks given at church advising us to be self-reliant. Hearing stories of people growing and then canning their own food. Having fun picking rasberries and blueberries at Brad's parents' home.  How delicious Grandma's asparagus from the garden tasted. And started having this impossible wish that I could grow a plant that would bear fruit and survive long enough for us to eat it.

It helped that when we bought out house, there was already a decently large strawberry patch in the yard. I was terrified to touch it, lest I would kill every last strawberry plant in the garden.  But miraculously, come spring, the strawberries bloomed.  And one day in late May, I saw it... little strawberries!  Growing happily among a tangle of weeds from a garden left untended for almost 2 years.

Strawberries.  At my home.  And I wasn't killing them!

So, it made me brave.  I spent oodles of possibly unnecessary hours researching how to tend strawberries and not kill them and help them grow and flourish.  Eventually, I nervously ventured into the world of WEEDING.  I pulled out everything that did not look like the millions of strawberry plants I saw in pictures on the internet, all the while praying that I wouldn't kill EVERYthing I touched or breathed on.  Some strawberry plants experienced casualties, but for the most part, it was a successful venture.

Our first strawberry harvest!

Oh they were so yummy!  I officially decided that I don't like store bought strawberries anymore.  Not since I've tasted my very own organic (?) strawberries.  (Not sure if they would be "organic."  I didn't put a drop of fertilizer or pesticide or anything on them.  I just let nature do her thing and tried to limit the weeds. This also means at least half the strawberries became food for a bunny living in my neighbors bushes and a chipmunk and the neighborhood birds. They aren't as cute when they eat my strawberries!)

So *check* that off my bucket list: Successfully refrain from killing a plant, AND grow something I can eat and enjoy.

Oh it feels so good!  This experience also gave me some late season confidence to try my hand a few other plants.  So far, the results are mostly a success.  :-)  More details to come in a later post.

What's in a name?: Samson Alexander Edition

The name we've chosen for our little guy is Samson Alexander Neeley.

Samson: Sun or Service (Hebrew)
Alexander: Defender of the people (Greek)

Alexander is after daddy (Brad's middle name), and because I love the name and have always wanted to name my boy Xander... Alexander is pretty close, right?

Samson.... well, it's a long story...
Brad and I were one day on a road trip and (this was probably while pregnant with Ruthe before we found out we were having a girl) trying to think of a boy name.  We had a list of boy and girl names that we made while engaged, but decided we didn't really love any of the boy names anymore and wanted a new one. (the girl names have all survived.) We wanted a perfect boy name, since we have this strange superstition that we'll only get one boy. (My parents have 3 girls and 1 boy, Brad's parents had 1 boy and 1 girl, one uncle had 8 girls and 1 boy, and another uncle had 4 girls and 1 boy... see the pattern?  Everyone only gets 1 boy!)  Anyways... we always wanted Alexander, but we couldn't come up with names that sounded good as a middle name after Alexander.  But, Alexander sounded GREAT as a middle name, so we started throwing out names... after an hour (or more) we had digressed to ridiculous names and were throwing things out loud that we had no intention of ever using.  Like:
Alexander the Great Neeley
Evgeni Alexander
Crosby Alexander
Sidney Alexander (notice the Penguins hockey theme???)
Alexander Ovechkin Neeley (or just a hockey theme?  we love our hockey!)
Alec Zander
others obscure Bible names, random names of food (mocking some pop celebrities), over-the-top Mormon sounding names, or trying to make dumb acronyms with the initials.

Well, among the Bible names we threw out was Samson Alexander Neeley.  We both laughed and continued on our mockery of names, but after a few more hours of ridiculous, we-are-sick-of-driving chatter, we both looked at one another and said something like, "Ok, this sounds crazy, but the name Samson is kinda starting to grow on me.  I don't like it, but ... maybe I do?" And we laughed and tried to forget it.  But a few days later, we both started talking boy names again, and we still kept thinking about the name Samson Alexander and couldn't get it out of our heads.  Eventually, we decided that we actually love the name, despite how little thought we gave it at first. Samuel and Samantha are family names, too, so another Sam would fit right in, but Samson is distinctive enough to be unique.

So, there... Samson Alexander Neeley.


Now the question is: Will we cut his hair?  ;-)

And: when did we become the kind of people whose kids all have Old Testament names?  This was never our intention, but... we like it.

Mixing Things Up!

We had the anatomy ultrasound for Baby Neeley #3 this morning!  I always love getting to see my baby on the ultrasound, and getting the assurance that baby is healthy and growing as expected.

All indications say baby is physically perfect!  So that just leaves one other bit of exciting news:  the gender!

Let's just say that Baby was NOT even a teeny bit shy.  HE kept shaking HIS booty and wiggling around so we'd get a nice big view of his bum. It was the first thing we saw, and the last.  The ultrasound tech kept trying to get a better shot of the vital organs (spine, head, kidneys, heart, stomach, etc.) but he'd keep moving to give us a butt shot.  Thanks, Samson... I can tell you're going to be a fun little boy already!

The booty shot: clearly a proud little boy

Face: on the rare occassion we got a face shot, his hands were moving the entire time! He kept reaching down and then putting his hands to his face.  At one point, we caught him with both hands balled into fists and he was resting his chin on them.  Another time, he was sucking his thumb. Another time he waved while opening and closing his hands and then hid his face... then moved to show us his rump!

 This little guy loves to move!  Though I wouldn't know it if I hadn't seen him so active during the ultrasound.  Apparently the placenta is at the very front, so I feel little movement inside since the placenta tends to act like a "shock absorber" of sorts. I have felt him move, but it's only been a handful of times when I'm laying on my stomach in bed reading, and the movement is towards my back and hardly noticable.  Yesterday, I laid on my back and tried to feel him with my hands, and could up high, but not so much in the front.  Munchkin was able to feel him for a short time, too.  She was super excited and started asking when the baby will come out of my tummy so she can hold him. She is a great big sister!  Ruthe doesn't really seem interested, or she doesn't understand.  I hope she understands come little guy's birthday...

With Naomi, the placenta was towards my back, so I felt every little move, and could see it from outside easily.  With Ruthe, the placenta was up high, and I felt most of her movement very low.  Makes sense.  Also makes sense, I think, as to why I "showed" so early with both Naomi and Ruthe: they both grow outwards from my tummy because that's where the most room was located.  With little Samson, the placanta is towards the front, so it's easiest for him to grow up and towards my back first, so I haven't looked pregnant for much longer.  Also may be why I'm already feeling pressure up into my ribs, when that didn't happen with the girls until much later in my pregnancy.

Left foot, toes of the right foot

We are so excited for our little Samson Alexander Neeley!  Now, just to convince him that he wants to join the family on the outside before the New Year.