The Rothnie Family Chronicles

August 25th 2009

2009-08-25T22:38:00.003-04:00

Dear Gwennan,
Tonight you were such an imp. I knew you were tired and not feeling well, and I thought for sure you would drop right off when we put you to bed. But instead, half an hour later, you were up and in your doorway, calling for Daddy to come see the moon. Daddy was downstairs, so I came instead. You brought me in to your room, pulled aside the curtain and blinds and said, "See the moon?" I did see it. It was "beeliful" as you like to say. You said, "I'm sure that moon is gonna come down soon." I coaxed you back into your bed and you told me how the moon was gonna come down in three minutes. And then you told me the sun was gonna come down too. And then you told me on your birthday you were going to get moon and sun toy presents.
I loved listening to you. I did the good mom thing and convinced you to close your eyes and go to sleep, but in truth I wanted to stay up and listen to you. Listen to stories about moons and suns and birthday presents.
You are so precious to me. Three has been a difficult age in some regards - at least from my point of view - but it has also been amazing entering into your world as you learn to express yourself more and more. You see things so wonderfully and you tell us about them in your own amazing way. I love you so much. You're my girl.
Mommy

Ah, parenthood.

2009-01-05T20:15:00.002-05:00

So Mark comes home from work feeling a bit grumpy, and I'm here waiting for him, also feeling a bit grumpy from my day. We grumpily go about our routine, getting dinner ready in the kitchen, when Mark stops a minute to hug me and give me a kiss. We stand there, holding each other, kissing each other, enjoying just a moment. Then we feel little hands trying to pry us apart and a little body trying to squeeze in between us. We choose to ignore this. Then we hear, announced with glee, "I have a poopy diaper!"

Tender moment over.

Pictures

2008-12-29T15:58:00.003-05:00

Well, I've been horribly neglectful of my blog. I've become addicted to Facebook and if you want to find out what's going on with me more often, that would be the place to go. Altho I do still plan to update here whenever I can get around to it.
I've been uploading a lot of pics to Facebook, and the links below will allow you to go look at them.
Enjoy!!

From two months ago:
Early November
Catri Visit - Firepit in the backyard
Taking Gwennan to the Georgia Aquarium

And
Christmas

I plan to upload Thanksgiving and other pics from November and early December soon, so check back!

Camping with Friends

2008-11-07T14:13:00.007-05:00

Last month we went camping at Lake Conasauga in North Georgia with our friends Bevin and Zellyn Hunter and Nathaniel and Shauna Sims (and Gwennan's buddy, their son Ian.) We had fun, although it was cold. The week after we returned Will got diagnosed as having severe Eczema, which probably explains his fussiness while we were there. I think the cold air was drying out his already dry skin and making it itchy, the poor guy.
Anyway, Gwennan had a blast, and although the sinus infection I had just kicked came right back during this trip, I really enjoyed myself too. It was nice just to get away.
Pics below ...

Pics of the Family

2008-09-24T14:37:00.005-04:00

Here are a few pictures of the family lately. Make sure to go to the post after this one to see some really cute ones of Will.

Father and son

Gwennan, after getting into Mommy's makeup bag.

Gwennan, after getting into her closet and dressing herself.

Will Smiles

2008-09-24T14:29:00.003-04:00

Will smiles a lot now. Usually he has this big, open-mouth, squenched-eye smile that looks more like a nice hearty laugh, only there's no sound, but I wasn't able to capture that with my camera - yet. I'll keep trying. Anyway, here's a series of pictures of him smiling and just generally being cute.

Sorry ...

2008-08-19T11:07:00.003-04:00

It's just not so easy to blog these days.

Things are going well in the Rothnie household. Will is giving me an overnight feeding schedule that is liveable. I'm only getting up to nurse him twice a night now, instead of three times. And he's gotten quick about it, so I'm usually back in bed in about a half hour. Of course, I can't stay up past 9 for the schedule to work and give me enough sleep, but that's okay. Mark doesn't mind going to bed that early either, since he gets up at 5 every morning.

Gwennan is getting used to having a baby brother around. She gives him a kiss before bed every night and likes to check him out when he's awake. "He's got eyes open!"

Gwennan is in the throes of two-year-old-dom and challenging Mommy and Daddy as often as possible. At the same time, she still does some super cute, funny, and sometimes sweet things.
This morning she was playing with her Elmo doll and her "baby" Elmo doll. (The second one is about 3 inches tall.) She put them in my glider rocker chair and put baby Elmo up to "mama" Elmo and said, "He eating the boob!" She's pretty observant, I guess.

Gwennan is also getting better and better at talking. Lately she's been working on her present progressive verb tense:
"I running!"
"I dancing!"
But my favorite is "having":
"She having a pink shirt on!"
"I no having a pink shirt on!"

And if you hear her say, "I don't watch a movie," what she's actually saying is "I'm going to watch a movie." She hasn't mastered her "g" sound yet. It usually comes out "d", thus if you ask her name, she'll tell you it's "Dennan."

Finally, here's a couple of videos for your viewing pleasure.

The first is a video of Will for those who haven't seen him in person yet. He's pretty cute, if you ask me.

Next is a video of Gwennan and Will. Elmo and Cookie Monster wanted to see him.

William Wyatt Rothnie

2008-07-13T17:32:00.004-04:00

Born July 9, 2008, 3:15 PM. 8 lbs, 5 oz. 19 inches.
All photos by Mark Rothnie.

Dead Dogs and Cats

2008-07-02T18:23:00.002-04:00

So, being the history buff/geek that I am, I am currently reading through Page Smith's A New Age Now Begins: A People's History of the American Revolution. It's an excellent read, but I came across a strange excerpt the other day that continues to capture my attention. It's about the everyday common Englishman's reaction to the resolution of the First Continental Congress:

When the hangman and two sheriffs appeared in the Royal Exchange to burn publicly copies of the journal called Crisis, which espoused, among other things, the cause of the colonists, the fire was immediately extinguished by the crowd, and the officers were pelted with dead dogs and cats.

So here's my question: Were there just dead dogs and cats randomly lying about, or, when someone's dog or cat died, did they hold on to them, say in a box by the front door, just in case they needed to pelt someone with them? This has me in a quandary.

A conversation with Gwennan

2008-06-03T09:03:00.002-04:00

Okay, this video is kinda slow, but I'm trying to make sure I have a record of Gwennan talking at this stage. It's so adorable, and she's talking so much these days! She'll repeat nearly anything you say. So be careful when you're around her! ;o)

Scroll down to see more videos from the past few weeks ...

Gwennan and the "Birthday Cake"

2008-06-03T08:16:00.002-04:00

Gwennan brought me a "birthday cake" the other morning. She even sang the song!

What a Ham

2008-06-02T22:29:00.004-04:00

This is Gwennan and her buddy Ian after church on Sunday, when most everyone had left and they took over the stage.

The Latest

2008-05-01T08:09:00.002-04:00

Last week Gwennan developed an icky rash on her face and body. She was red, blotchy, and a little pimply. A trip to the doctor diagnosed her as having Fifth Disease - which is not actually a disease, in the classic sense, but just a virus. It was supposed to have gone away by the weekend, but it didn't. We went back to the doctor yesterday, and now we're treating her for allergies, with daily Zyrtec and hydrocortisone cream. Hopefully she'll be better soon. Poor thing hasn't looked like herself in some time.

BUT, she's certainly behaved like herself. Yesterday she had taken off her shorts and diaper while she was helping her dolls and animals each go to potty. (We've been potty training G and have had one successful potty episode with her so far). I decided just to let her run around that way for a while, and when I went into her room a little later to check on her, she had climbed up onto her changing table with a clean diaper, and was in the middle of applying diaper cream. I guess she had decided she was ready for a new diaper and she would just take care of it herself. Too funny.

The baby in my belly now has a name. We have decided on the first name William, and will call him Will. To make this decision official, Mark and I went on a date Saturday night to Art & Soul and painted a "W" to go on Will's door. Gwennan has a "G" on her door, so I wanted one for Will too. No progress on the middle name yet. Mark and I have been tossing around a few ideas, but haven't decided on anything yet.

When we went on our date, we left Gwennan with Mom & Wayne to spend the night. She stayed with them while we went to church the next day, and when we came to pick her up, she looked different. I asked Mom, "Did you cut her hair?" and sure enough, she had!! I was so furious. Mom complained that G's hair was hanging in her face and she decided to cut her bangs. Only she cut them unevenly and too far back (slightly resembling a mullet haircut.)
Let it be known to all grandparents out there that there are BOUNDARIES and PARENTAL RIGHTS that must be respected. Cutting a child's hair without a parent's permission is overstepping a boundary.
Mom's response to my scolding? "I knew if I'd asked you first, you would have said no."
Grrrrr ....

Finally, Mark and I have been slavishly working away on our downstairs family room. We primed over the navy blue paint below the chair railing and the horrible duck border that ran around the whole room. Then we started painting all the wood trim glossy white, which is a slow and tedious process - not to mention frustrating, as Mark and I are far from pro painters. BUT it's almost all done now and soon all that will be left to do is paint the walls a light green. The room already looks so much brighter and more cheerful. There are two windows down there, but the room still does not get much light, so I wanted to paint it something light and happy. Once we get this room done, we'll get working on our bedroom (no trim to paint there, thank God), and then we'll be done with painting for a while!

After all the painting's done, we'll be kicking back and simply waiting for the arrival of Will.

Gwennan's 2nd Birthday Cake

2008-04-23T13:37:00.002-04:00

Like her mama, Gwennan gets into her sweets ...

Baby Boy

2008-04-09T16:17:00.003-04:00

If you're interested, I've created a baby registry at Target. A lot of the items are only available online, although I think a few may be available in-store. We really don't need a lot of stuff. Mainly we need to convert the nursery from pink bedding to blue, and then there are a few things that I suffered without when Gwennan was a baby that I don't want to do without this time around - mainly a nursing stool, nursing bib, and a baby sling.

Anyway, if you're interested you can look at the registry online.
:o)

AT&T's secret offer

2008-04-09T14:29:00.005-04:00

You know, I'm not a super-liberal person, really. I vote Republican mostly, but sometimes I'm not so sure I should be, especially as pro-corporation and anti-consumer as Republicans can be.
Witness the following article:

AT&T quietly rolls out reasonably-priced unbundled DSL

I've been ticked off for some time that we were forced to pay for a phone line in order to get the internet too - I mean, Mark and I both have cell phones, so we don't really need a "land line" - but I never thought I had an option. Then the other night our friend Nathaniel told us about "naked DSL" - a service AT&T was forced to offer by the FCC, but that they definitely don't advertise or hardly even admit to.

Well, I read up on it on the internet and today signed up for it. It was more expensive than everything I'd read - $32 instead of $25 - plus state taxes and a $5 "service fee" (funny, I thought the $32 WAS the service fee), but still it's cheaper than what we've been paying.

There are many other things in the article linked above that tick me off, but instead of ranting about it, I'll just let you read it and get ticked off for yourself.

In the meantime, let it be known that as of today we no longer have a "home" phone number. If you need to reach us, our cell phones will be the only way.

Beautiful

2008-04-02T16:39:00.003-04:00

Tickle Me Gwennan

2008-04-01T15:33:00.005-04:00

There's nothing like the laugh of a little kid. We love making Gwennan laugh. Sometimes she gets this really big belly laugh and it just cracks us up.
And then sometimes she gets this fake laugh - a "social" laugh, if you will - like when she babbles something totally incoherent to us, but then laughs and laughs at her own wittiness. We have no idea what she just said, but it was evidently quite funny. Cracks us up.

By the way, in this video you hear her say something about "blurs". This is her word for slippers, which she is noticing and commenting on as I tickle her.
BTW, this video is from early February.

Hop! Hop! Hop!

2008-03-28T16:06:00.003-04:00

God bless her, Granny tried to teach Gwennan hopscotch, but alas, all she got was the hop part. And the counting, "One, Two, Six, Nine ..."
Check out the cool pigtails.

Another Reason to Hate Wal-Mart

2008-03-25T16:02:00.003-04:00

As if getting the creeps when I walk in the store isn't enough ...

Brain-damaged woman at center of Wal-Mart suit

Non-napper

2008-03-24T16:29:00.002-04:00

Well, unfortunately I think Gwennan has reached that point in her life where she no longer sees a daily nap as a necessity. Unfortunately, it IS still a necessity for Mommy. So we're calling it "solitude time" and sticking her in her room for an hour anyway. She doesn't mind too much. She plays with her toys and talks to them and does who knows what else. How I'll survive as a sleep-deprived, nursing mom come July-ish, I have no idea. I think mainly Gwennan will be spending a lot of time with Granny and Paw Paw. At least until baby brother is sleeping through the night.

Cough Cough

2008-02-25T12:24:00.003-05:00

Catri was here this past week. We had nine days with her, which was truly wonderful. We watched movies, played games, and in the middle of the week she and Mark went to Maggie Valley, North Carolina to do some snowboarding.
Unfortunately I started feeling bad and coughing before Catri even got here, and then when she and Mark got back from NC on Thursday, Mark started feeling bad and within 15 minutes or so had a fever of 102. So the last part of Catri's visit was spent around the house, with either Mark or me in bed trying to get rest, or nearly catatonic on the couch. Not much fun, but at least we were all together.
It's hard when Catri leaves. We all miss her, but at least Mark and I understand that she'll be back in 6 weeks, and hopefully living full-time in Marietta again by summertime. But for Gwennan, she just doesn't understand, and it breaks my heart. At the airport we said goodbye to Catri at the security line, and, as always, watched as she wound her way through it, waving to her until she was finally out of sight. Gwennan watched too, and she didn't cry, but when we got back to the car she started saying, "Find Catri? Find Catri. Find Catri?" That's when I broke down in tears. Mark tried telling her that Catri was in an airplane going home, but she still kept asking us to go find Catri.
This morning she asked me again, thinking Catri was in her room downstairs and we should go find her. It sucks, it really does. Gwennan loves her Catri, and Catri loves her Gwennan, and I hate that they're apart so much.

Anyway, in other news ...

I can feel Junior (his de facto name for now) kicking and flipping around in my belly now. I've started trying to explain to Gwennan that there's a baby boy in mommy's tummy, but she just looks at me weird. One time she pointed to her own belly and said, "Baby!" So, no, she doesn't get it just yet.

Also, my brother got married last weekend. I'll post pics of the bride and groom as soon as I get my act together. Which, in all honesty, may be never.

It's a ...

2008-02-14T19:19:00.000-05:00

BOY!!
I knew it I knew it I knew it!!

Sorry it took me so long to post this, but Gwennan's been sick for the past two days, occupying most of my time and attention.

Showing

2008-02-07T15:48:00.000-05:00

Whilst at Target with G today, the lady behind me at the checkout asked, "When is your second one due?"
So I guess I'm showing. I figured since I'm still wearing sweaters and bulky clothes in the cool weather, that people would just assume I was fat, not pregnant. But I guess you actually can tell.

We find out the sex of the baby on Wednesday. I'm still inclined to say it's a boy. We'll see if I'm right!

Gwennan Serves Tea

2008-01-24T14:38:00.000-05:00

Pardon the noise from the our loud, depressed dishwasher in the background.

Gwennan the Monkey

2008-01-19T10:19:00.000-05:00

What I found when I went in to get Gwennan after her non-napping period yesterday afternoon:

Okay, already!

2008-01-14T16:19:00.001-05:00

I wanted to wait until I had some photos to post before I updated my blog, but I had trouble uploading pics this past weekend, then I left the camera on and the battery died, so I decided to just post a "word-oriented" entry this time to save all 3 of you who read my blog from checking in only to see that darn Britney post STILL. I know you're probably disgusted that I even MENTIONED her on my blog, but what can I say, I'm concerned for the girl. She's the proverbial train wreck - tragic and horrible, but you just can't look away.

Now, on to the update:

We had a fun, relaxing Christmas break with Catri with us most of the time. We didn't really plan anything other than for Catri to hang out with her BFF Isabel some of the time, and to watch some movies. We went to a matinee to see "I Am Legend" (which I recommend doing, rather than seeing it at night, where you'll come out of the theater looking over your shoulder for vampire zombies), and we watched "The Simpsons Movie", "Blades of Glory", "Transformers", and "Live Free or Die Hard" at home. We really enjoyed the time at home. Of course, I'm home all the time, but I loved having the whole family together. It was wonderful.

On New Year's Eve, Catri was in New Orleans with her mom, so Mark and I made a night of it: dinner at home, bathing Gwennan & putting her to bed, then going to bed ourselves by 11. At midnight our neighbors' firecrackers announced the new year, Mark rolled over, kissed me, mumbled, "Happy New Year" and we went back to sleep. I know many of you are concerned about our crazy, party lifestyle, but you only live once, you know?

And I guess in further news (although most of you probably already know), Mark and I are expecting again. I just finished up my first trimester this past Friday. Mark's been so sweet since all this started, making dinner most nights because the very thought of touching raw meat makes me green, giving G her bath most nights because I'm too exhausted. In a typical pregnancy the nausea and exhaustion are supposed to abate after the first trimester, so I'm praying like crazy this pregnancy will be "typical".

Oh, and for those of you who keep track, the due date is July 18th. (Yay, I get to go through a Georgia summer pregnant.) We will find out the sex (hopefully) at my 18 week ultrasound on February 13. We'll let you know when we know. I'm guessing boy. But then, I thought G was a boy too.

Speaking of Gwennan, she is growing up fast. She's 21 months now, and has a full vocabulary:
Mommy, Daddy, Catri ("Tachi"), Charles, Dawn, hold, up, broccoli ("bolopoly"), orange, rice, milk ("mich"), apple juice, kitty kitty, airplane ("ahpolane"), truck ("chuch"), and on and on. To the chagrin of my mother, she still does not say Granny. Says Paw Paw just fine, though, and when I say, "Granny's coming to see you today!" she looks at me and says "Paw Paw?"

Mark and I are going to focus the next few months on moving Gwennan to Catri's old room and a "big girl bed". (We gave Catri the downstairs room.) We figure we better do it before she starts climbing out of her crib. Today I was in our room folding laundry, with Gwennan running between our room and hers, doing her thing (taking stuff out of drawers, carrying her plush animals around). Suddenly I realized I hadn't seen her in a few minutes and went to see what she was up to. I walked into her room and my jaw dropped. There she sat, on top of her changing table. How did she get up there? She smiled at me and put out her arms like, "Help me get down," which I did, but I was still in shock. She had to climb up two shelves to get on top of that table. I had left one of her (formerly Catri's) purses up there, and I guess she wanted it. Time to transition her to the big girl world.

We'll also begin potty-training her soon. Come July, I don't want to have to change two kids' diapers.

Hope you're all well. I'll post photos soon.

Britney

2007-12-13T17:32:00.001-05:00

I don't care if she's doing drugs, is a bad mama, is frittering away her fortune, I still feel sorry for her. I couldn't imagine having to live her life, being hounded like this all the time. Some say she likes it. At least, that's what the paps say.
Britney and the Paparazzi

Ahh, global warming. Ya gotta love it.

2007-12-12T14:01:00.000-05:00

So, I'm sitting here writing this in a t-shirt and jeans, windows open, letting in the warm breeze. You'd think it was April, but no, it's December, and for the past 5 days or so the high temperature has been in the mid 70's with lots of sunshine. It's freakish, but I don't mind. It's amazing how much weather affects my mood. Last week I was feeling down, starting to get that hankerin' to go to Jamaica that I usually get this time of year, suffering from lack of sunlight as I was. Then the first day of 70 degree weather hits and I'm ENERGIZED! I'm HAPPY! I'm WARM!!

Funny how down I get in the winter, when, after all, I live in GEORGIA. That's the first state directly north of Florida - how bad can the winter get? And actually, it really doesn't get that bad. Winters here are usually pretty mild. So I can only imagine what a big ball of human misery I would be if I lived farther north.

Of course, the trade off is the misery of summer in GEORGIA. Especially July, August, September. It's like walking around in warm soup, breathing it in, getting it in your clothes. Even going to a swimming pool or lake is no relief, since the water has warmed to the same temperature as the air. Icky. Me, I just keep inside my air conditioned bubble (house, car, Target) and leave the rest of the world to sweat it out.

What I need is a land where the temps never go above 75 and never fall below 65, and where the humidity stays just right. I think they call this land Hawaii, but I'm not sure.

Looks like the weather will be returning to "normal" (i.e. highs in the 50's) in the next few days.
Winter returns. And so do my blues.

Gwennan the Swinger

2007-11-21T09:09:00.000-05:00

Gratuitous Cute Kid Pics - November Edition

2007-11-20T20:45:00.001-05:00

I wish I had time to actually write something, but there's never enough time for everything you want to do, you know? Anyway, here are some pics of the girls ...

Gwennan, post-bath

Catri was here a few weekends ago. We hate how short our visits are with her, but we relish every moment.

Here are the girls at the park together.

Catri, trying to recapture her toddler days in a bucket swing. Looks uncomfortable, doesn't it? She's having a good time, though.

Catri - self portrait.

Random

2007-10-31T14:15:00.000-04:00

Nice one, Gwennan!

Highly dissatisfied ...

Whilst peeling apples today, remembered I had to go to Target.

The fire on Mark's camping trip

Camping in the Cohuttas

2007-10-15T15:07:00.000-04:00

I almost changed the name of this post to "Green and Blue" due to the dominance of those colors in the photos attached. Mark and I went camping with Bevin and Zellyn at Lake Conasauga in the Cohutta Wilderness a few weekends ago, and all of our photos are green trees and blue lake. It's so zen.

We drove up Friday afternoon, stayed through Saturday night, and drove back Sunday. It was entirely too short. It was so relaxing, even with our noisy campground neighbors listening to college football.

We were afraid the weather would be too warm, but it was actually quite nice. While it was about 85 in Atlanta, it was more like 75 up in the mountains. And it cooled down quite nice at night.

Gwennan came with us and she had a blast. She explored all over the campsite, collecting rocks. We took her down to the lake and showed her how to throw rocks in the water. Once, while she and I were quietly sitting on the grass by the lake, she pointed at the lake and said, "Joos!" (Juice.) Everything liquid is juice to Gwennan.

We hiked on the path around the lake and played hide and seek with her. I would run ahead and hide behind a tree waiting for her and Mark and then jump out to surprise her. Sometimes she and I would go hide behind a tree together and then jump out and surprise Mark.

Lake Conasauga is not a big lake, and only electric motor boats and canoes/kayaks are allowed. We rented a canoe for the weekend and had fun paddling around. Bevin and I went out Saturday morning and explored the whole lake. Bevin is so much fun. At one point she said, "Let's paddle as fast as we can and see how long it takes to get to the other
side of the lake. It'll be like we're Indians."

That night Mark and I paddled out and marveled at the stars. I even saw a shooting star - finally. Bevin had seen like three of them on Friday night and I was jealous. One thing I love about camping is actually being able to see the stars. Light pollution sucks.

On Saturday we went for a hike up a nearby mountain. There was an old fire tower at the top of it, and you could climb up the stairs and get a beautiful view of the Cohuttas. Unfortunately you couldn't actually go onto the platform at the top of the stairs. The door was locked.
So we sat on the stairs and enjoyed the view from there.

On Sunday we went for one last hike with Gwennan before leaving and she fell asleep in my arms before we got back. I had wanted to take her into the water before we left. Mark and I had taken swims in the water after we went hiking on Saturday and it was so cool and refreshing, I wanted Gwennan to experience it too. But she had fallen asleep and we debated whether to just put her in the car and head home or wake her up. We decided to wake her up, which seems mean, but you should have seen her when we stuck her in that water. She loved it. I waded in with her and we looked at rocks and little fish and all sorts of stuff.

I'm so glad she's learning to love nature. She'll be a little granola girl yet.

Art in the Family

2007-10-09T14:42:00.000-04:00

My dad just launched his website touting his artwork if you'd like to go see it:
http://www.simplifiedinternetdesign.com/shafranskiart/
Here's a sample of what you'll find:

For the past several years my dad has been finding his artistic self again, mainly doing pen and ink illustrations of Native American culture. (No, he's no Indian - he's as Polish-American as they come.) He's finally making a go of actually selling his work, which is very cool.

He and my mom met at art college, so they're both artistic. My mom taught art for years at the college level and still does a lot of painting, although for many years after retiring she didn't do much art at all. I think she was a little burned out, a little disillusioned. She's been picking up the paint brush a lot more in the past few years, and she too is beginning to sell her work more.

It excites me to see both of them getting back into their art and putting themselves out there - especially at their age. It encourages me and lights a little fire in me to do the same. My brother and I both inherited a lot of artistic talent from our parents. I can draw better than most folk and Marc (my brother) - well he's just plain talented. He too works in pen and ink - a really unforgiving medium - and he does some really intricate stuff, mainly focusing on "fantasy art". You should see some of his "other-worldly" landscapes. Maybe I'll scan and post a sample of it for you sometime.

My dad turned me on to photography when I was a wee lass and that has been my main artistic medium for years, although I've always wanted to pursue painting more. It's just hard to do when you have a toddler around. Right now my focus in life is on Gwennan and on Future Baby #2 that we hope to have next year. But what my heart wants is to open my own art gallery one day, focusing on photography, but also exhibiting other media.

I love art so much. To me, being creative is the heart of all human beings. So many people have that part of them quashed when young, when they're forced to focus on more "practical" things, but I believe it's still there in them. I believe we were all "made in the image of God", and who is more creative than the Creator? And if we're like him, then we too are creators of a sort.

I look forward to heaven, when that part of us that is like God will be expressed fully, without the hindrances of this world. Think how creative we all will be then!

Gratuitous Cute Toddler Photos – Late Summer Edition

2007-10-02T13:29:00.000-04:00

Gwennan is growing up fast. She's developing a personality that has some striking similarities to mine and Mark's. This worries us.

She's learning new words all the time. She says "thank you" (more like "tan too") a lot, but she hasn't quite grasped what it means. When I give her something, and request she say "thank you," she looks at me like, "whatever" and walks away. But when she wants something from you, she says, "tan too" in a way that's more suggestive of "gimme." I'm trying to teach her the word for this is "please," but we're still working on that.

Another word she picked up is "shoe". She knows what shoes are, and she'll bring her shoes to you to put on her, saying "shoe!" But for some reason, she also calls the phone "shoe". Not sure where that came from.

She also says "off", but she doesn't really know what that means either. We taught her how to work light switches, holding her while she turns the lights off and on, which fascinates her. As she's doing it, we say, "Off! On! Off! On!" The word she grasped is "off" and now that's what she thinks lights are. Whether they're on or off, she points at lamps and ceiling lights and street lights and says, "Off!"

She has started climbing things more and has learned how to make her way up onto the dining chairs.

We sometimes throw a phone book under her and let her eat her meals this way, if they're not too messy.

She's learning how to feed herself ...

as well as her toy, "Creepy Cat" (called thus by Mark and me because its eyes to seem to follow you. Uhhhhhh.)

She's taken to sticking things in her ears, which is worrisome ...

and she's also learned to multi-task, taking important calls on her cell phone while eating lunch.

Finally, a few shots that just show how gorgeous she is. I've never seen a kid so beautiful.

Videos

2007-09-27T14:12:00.000-04:00

It’s been a while since I uploaded any video for your viewing pleasure. Below are three videos from the past few months – all of them of Gwennan, of course. I was tempted to upload the video snippet I made of Catri and Mark conversing about cheese as we were driving back from Florida in August, but I decided to spare you all. I thought it was pretty funny – the two of them going on and on about different cheeses they like or don’t like – but I realize not everyone shares my love for the absurd.

First up is Gwennan the Scavenger. If you open the refrigerator door and Gwennan is in the kitchen, she makes a b-line for the vegetable drawer or whatever she can get her hands on. You see, the refrigerator is a box of TREASURES. She’ll usually grab whatever she can get and take off with it. In this case, it was a partially eaten bag of Romaine lettuce. She squatted on the kitchen floor eating it like a little scavenger monkey. Only, she really wasn’t eating it …

Next is Gwennan the Silly Banana. I’m not really sure what she’s doing here, other than being a nut. She demonstrates some of the new skills she’s learned lately: spinning in a circle and dancing. The walking backwards thing she does in the end is a mystery. No idea where that came from.

Finally we have Gwennan and Ian: the Clean-up Crew. While our Life Group was enjoying a meal together in the dining room, Gwennan and Ian found the broom and mop in the kitchen. Earlier that evening they had conspired together to put as many toys in the trash can as possible before getting caught. We fished out about a dozen magnets and various other toys and put the trash can on the counter.
(Sorry for the length of the video. One day I will either learn A: when to hit the stop button, or B: how to edit video.)

Roses and Babies

2007-09-20T17:43:00.000-04:00

Mark and I have the most amazing friends. Calling them friends doesn't seem like enough, though. It's like that word just doesn't do them justice - it's not special enough. We sometimes say that they're more like family, but that doesn't work either, because the word "family" (for us) has painful associations that go along with it. They're more like co-sojourners, wandering through life alongside us. They laugh with us, they cry with us, and they pray with and for us. When Mark and I are going through difficult times, they are the ones who carry us through. They're not "superpeople", and they're not perfect, but that's part of what makes us love them so much - we don't feel any expectations to be "super" or perfect ourselves.

In the past three months, Mark and I have experienced two miscarriages. It has been horribly sad, painfully disappointing, and has left us feeling a bit confused, a bit angry. We don't understand why I suddenly can't keep a baby in my womb. I'll be going to the doctor about it in October, but we're having to put off trying to conceive again for now, which means our plans to have babies about two years apart are simply not going to work out.

Our friends have mourned our losses with us. They have prayed for us, listened to us, and simply gone through the experience with us. Last week, Bevin and Zellyn sent roses (a flower I adore) with the following note:

"We love you guys so much! We've been thinking of you tons this week. We're sorry for this loss. We're glad we can be your friends in shitty stuff as well as fabulous stuff."

So are we. Mark and I often say how wonderful it is to walk through life with such amazing people. We thank our God for them every day.

Rothnie Girls

2007-08-30T10:02:00.001-04:00

Last month Dawn had the idea of doing a photo shoot of the main "women" in Mark's life - Catri, Gwennan, and myself - as a gift for his birthday. Most of the shoot was spent trying to get that squirmy worm of a baby to smile, sit still, get her fingers out of her mouth or ears, while at the same time looking at the camera and smiling ourselves. Witness the following shots:

We did finally get a few "winners" out of the shoot:

So now Mark has a framed picture of the three of us on his desk at work, which hopefully won't get buried in papers and files ...

TRAVIS

2007-08-02T14:00:00.000-04:00

Two Sunday nights ago, Bevin and I went to see Travis. No, we didn't go see Travis Tritt, the country music star who is native to these parts. Seems like every time I mention Travis, people get a confused look, because they could have sworn I didn’t like country music.

Travis is a band from Scotland with a very thoughtful alterna-brit-rock sound. A little Radiohead, slightly Coldplay (with better lyrics), and yet not like either of those bands at all. I own two of their CDs: The Man Who, and The Invisible Band, and they're both delightfully mellow and slightly depressing. So when we went to the concert, I was completely expecting to leave feeling very serious and heavy.

Boy was I surprised. They were all sorts of rockin' fun instead. I liked their songs better performed live than I do listening to the CDs, which I think is saying something. Most bands struggle to sound as good as their over-produced albums. After seeing Travis, I realized their problem was replicating on their albums the energy and sound of their live performance. It was one of the best rock concerts I've seen. Definitely better than Coldplay.

Plus, they were just plain fun. During their encore, they did their own rendition of Britney Spears’ “Hit Me Baby One More Time”. It was hilarious. And their very last song? A rockin’ cover of AC/DC’s “Back in Black”. AWESOME.

Oh, and I really liked the Tabernacle as a venue. I've only been there once before, in my single days, to see Avril Lavigne, an "artist" I would not have voluntarily chosen to see if I had not been asked to go to her concert by a boy I liked. The things we'll do for the opposite sex. I also confess to seeing Metallica in concert just because a boy asked me to go.

Anyway, I did not like the Tabernacle when I went there for the Avril concert. We were in the "standing room only" section on the main floor, and it was too crowded, and we were stuck at the back, near the bar and all the annoying drunk people. I swore I would never go to the Tabernacle again. But I really really wanted to see Travis, and Bevin said they had reserved seats available. I didn't know they had reserved seating at all, but what do you know! There's a balcony at the Tab! Two of them actually. So we had GREAT seats and didn't have to deal with the masses at all!

Below are a couple of videos. One is a snippet of their song “Sing”, and the other is the aforementioned song by Ms. Spears.

Red-Tailed Hawks in the Backyard

2007-07-25T16:36:00.000-04:00

So I was lying in bed the first morning we were back from Seattle and kept hearing this bird outside crying like a kitten. At first I thought it was a kitten. Then I decided, "that's a really loud kitten." It was so close, and went on for like a half hour, that I finally got up and turned the blinds to find a red-tailed hawk sitting on the railing of the deck off our bedroom.

It was so beautiful and I just froze because I didn't want to scare it off. I backed away from the window and grabbed our camera, which luckily was in our bedroom. When I got back to the window, it was gone, but because I had heard it off and on so much that morning, I decided to pull the blinds up and sit and wait. Sure enough, in just a minute it was back.

I think it realized I was there and jumped from the railing to the nearby tree. My eyes were still blurry from having just woken up, so I had a hard time focusing the camera, but I did manage to get a few shots before it flew away. I came closer to the window and realized it had left its breakfast - some sort of bloody, furry lump - on our railing.

The next day the hawk was back. Only this time it had another hawk with him. They were hanging out in our backyard, mainly on the swing set, but sometimes just playing around in the yard, kind of chasing each other. One was larger than the other, and after I'd done some reading up, I realized the larger was a female, and most likely the mama to the other one. The smaller one kept spreading his wings slightly. At one point they both just lay down in the grass next to each other.

I don't really know anything about hawk behavior, but I'm guessing the mom was trying to teach her offspring to hunt.

I haven't seen the hawks behave the way they did that day, but they are still around. I hear them and see them all the time. They come swooping across our backyard into the trees. One day I saw three of them all on our swingset. Another day, I watched one of them shred a robin and eat him for lunch.

I really like wildlife stuff, (see post below with video from our Costa Rica honeymoon) so this has been very cool for me. I have the binoculars hanging in our kitchen, waiting for my next chance to catch a glimpse of them. Unfortunately I haven't been able to get any more photos, but I've borrowed Charles & Dawn's telephoto lens and I'm ready.

What I Did on My Summer Vacation - by Donna-Marie Rothnie

2007-07-17T13:07:00.000-04:00

A long post, but with pictures!!

Mark, Gwennan and I took off for the great Northwest a few weeks ago to visit the fam. Most of Mark's siblings and his mom and stepdad (as well as Catri) live in the Seattle area, and we hadn't been up to see anyone in two years. Which means that most of them had not yet met Gwennan. So we took Gwennan on her first Big Trip - cross country, at that! - and she did amazingly well. Catri was finishing up her last coupla days of school and then she joined us for the rest of our stay, which meant we were with her on her 15th birthday. Happy Birthday, Catri!!

Our trip was broken up into three segments: the first with Mark's brother John and his family, the second with Mark's mom, Kathy, and her husband, Don (with whom we went to Whistler, BC), and the third with Mark's sister, Kristi and her family.

While we were staying at John & Shirley's house, Mark and I took a day and drove down to Mount Saint Helens National Volcanic Monument. I was 10 years old and living in Atlanta when Mount Saint Helens blew in 1980, and I have vague memories of it being on the news, but when you're 10, you don't really get the significance of the big news stories of the day. Mark was 18/19 and living in Seattle and he remembers where he was, what he was doing, and he remembers hearing the "boom!"

Anyway, Mt Saint Helens was one of the coolest things I've ever seen. Ever. It's been 27 years since it blew, and it's still quite an active volcano and the landscape around it is still surreal. Following are some images (click on them to make them bigger) ...

Mark and Gwennan on the Johnston Ridge trail.

The ridge and the observatory there are named after David Johnston, a volcanologist whose last words were "Vancouver, Vancouver, this is it!" just before he was incinerated by the blast. All the geologists, including himself, thought the mountain would blow vertically, but instead it blew laterally, killing over 50 people.

It was really overcast and rainy the day we were there, but it cleared enough to get this really cool shot:

As you walk up to the observatory, you see dead, weathered trees, still lying where they were blown over:

It's just all pretty amazing when you consider that the landscape at Mt Saint Helens used to look more like this picture Mark took on a hike with his brother and nephews a few days later:

Anyhow, moving on to Whistler ...

Mom & Don have a time-share condo in Whistler, British Columbia, a ski resort in the Canadian mountains, about an hour east of Vancouver. We rented a second condo and went up for several days of mountain biking, kayaking, hiking, and other activities.

We went with Mom & Don,

Catri,

and Catri's cousin, Marta.

Note Catri's cool new haircut.

Here's Gwennan with her "I'm too cool for you" look.

Whistler was really beautiful with mountains and lakes and streams and the occasional bear crossing the path THREE FEET IN FRONT OF YOU while you're biking around. But I have to say, I really got annoyed with how religious everyone was. Their religion, of course, being environmentalism. It gets shoved down your throat up there. Commercials on the tv urging everyone to help curb global warming by turning off lights. Gimme a break. You wanna curb global warming, talk to Corporate America and Corporate World about their tendency to build oil refineries and other various facilities in countries with lax environmental regulations just so they don't have to go to the expense of NOT polluting the environment. Don't nag me about my lights.

Sorry, I digress ...

Mark and I went kayaking one day on the "River of Golden Dreams". (Yes, that's really what they call it.) It's a small river that flows from Alta Lake to Green Lake, and although it wasn't white water by any means, it was a quick flowing river with lots of sharp turns. At first Mark and I kept getting forced into the bushes on the banks of the river, but finally we got a hang of it and navigated just fine.

Here we are about to start out:

We had to paddle to the end of Alta Lake to get to the river, and the water was placid and lovely.

Here's Mark, looking all river-guideish.

One day Mark and I went to the top of Whistler Mountain and went on a glacier hike. It had been really warm and sunny in Whistler for a few days, so the snow was mushy and we didn't need to wear crampons on our shoes, which disappointed me a little. Still, we had to rope in to our guide and each other to hike up the glacier.

Here's Mark and the rest of our group, consisting of a couple from England and a guy from Australia. Our guide was also Australian.

This is the view once we got to the top. The rock formation in the distance is called Black Tusk, but I thought it should have been called Middle Finger.

And now moving on to the greater Seattle area once again. Chris and Kristi were kind enough to take a few days off and indulge our interest in Seattle's main tourist attractions.

We went to the Seattle Aquarium ...

where Gwennan got to touch starfish ...

and I got my fill of the heebie-jeebies by looking at octopus. Those of you who know me are aware of my extreme dislike of the octopus. Nevertheless, I did take this picture:

This one was only about as big as your fist. They had much, much larger ones, which we watched them feed. Uuuuhhhh. Gives me the shivers just thinking about it. Evidently there are large octopi all in Puget Sound. Kristi said she caught one while fishing with her dad and brothers when she was little.

Charles and Dawn, this one's for you:

They like to mock my octopus aversion.

After the aquarium, we went up to Pike Place Market. One of these days I'm going to spend an entire day at the Market, instead of just an hour. The place is such a feast for the senses, with lots of interesting characters around and some of the yummiest clam chowder I've ever eaten.

The next day, we left Gwennan with her Aunt Kristi and Mark, Catri, and I went to Seattle Center (home to the Space Needle) to tour the Experience Music Project and Science Fiction Museum. We ate lunch before we got there in a trendy little area of Seattle with lots of used record stores. We went to a couple of them and felt very cool hanging out, looking at CDs. It was all very Hi Fidelity. Except I couldn't escape the self-consciousness of being a mom and carrying my mom purse. I mean, I don't have any piercings anywhere other than my ears, you know? Nevertheless, I did make a CD purchase. Crosby Stills and Nash Greatest Hits. Plus a t-shirt with one of the stores' logo on it. There. NOW I'm cool.

Here are Catri and Mark, looking ultra-cool. The tilted angle of the shot makes them even cooler.

And here's a nearby street sign I thought I'd share with you:

Look at those school kids RUN!

The Experience Music Project's building was designed by Frank Gehry and is an interesting mish-mash of metal. From the sky it's supposed to resemble a mashed up guitar.

Here's a detail of it:

I did not take this picture. Some other chick whose photographic prowess far exceeds my own took it. If you want to see more, go here.

They didn't allow photos in the Experience Music Project, and now that I think about it, they were probably verboten in the Science Fiction Museum as well, but that seems to have slipped my mind. The SFM was doing an exibit of costumes, mainly from Star Trek, Star Wars, and Blade Runner, with a few others thrown in. In touring this exibit, I totally geeked out.

Check out the Darth Vader costume:

I was 7 years old when Star Wars came out, and Darth Vader totally spooked me. Those old spooked-out feelings came back when I stood in front of this costume. I totally expected him to extend his finger toward me and for my trachea to suddenly close up.

And check this out:

Luke Skywalker's severed hand. Cool.

Here are Mark and Catri outside the museum, standing amongst some art by the car park.

That pretty much sums up our trip, I guess. We got to see and visit with all the family and do a bunch of cool stuff. Gwennan was pretty happy having the Catri around. She looks at her picture now and says, "Da-ti!" which sounds a lot like Daddy, but is slightly different. It makes me sad that G's not able to see Catri as often now, but I'm glad for the time she does get to see her. There's a real bond between the two of them, despite their 14 year age difference.

For Jessie

2007-07-12T14:32:00.000-04:00

Jessie and Mark -
This is one of my fave videos from our honeymoon in Costa Rica. (Turn up your volume.)
Ditch the California idea. Go to Costa Rica.
Oh, and I asked Mark what he thought, and he says doing the California coast thing IS a really fun vaca, but for a honeymoon, he would still choose Costa Rica because it was more exciting and romantic.

Gwennan the Toddler

2007-06-13T14:10:00.001-04:00

Gwennan has learned to walk. She's getting to be a pro at it now. The following video is from about a week ago.

Gwennan and the Laundry

2007-06-04T09:31:00.000-04:00

Gwennan's taken to pulling things over her head lately. Any kind of clothing that she finds - mine, Mark's, Catri's - she looks for the head or arm or leg hole and pulls it over her head, then takes it back off. She can spend a half hour at this endeavor, because it's just so darn fascinating.
She's also learning how to pull her own clothes over her head and attempts to take off her shirt sometimes.

If you want to witness the process, check out this video:
(Note: these are all clean clothes.)

Gratuitous Cute Baby Photos - May Edition

2007-05-29T18:46:00.000-04:00

The warm days of summer have arrived, with the blazing hot days of summer soon to follow. We broke out the inflatable pool and gave Gwennan her first taste of summer.

Outfit by Wee Waves, courtesy of Catri.

She had an unexpected face-plant in the water, which scared her a bit:

Here's Dad showing her the ins and outs of pool toys:

Mark left his CamelBak hydration pack hanging on the banister post. Gwennan found it, and like she does with all new discoveries, put it in her mouth. She chewed on it, and discovered WHOA! There's WATER in this thing! Now we have to keep her away from the CamelBak, along with a long list of other things.

Here she is with Granny, trying to fit square pegs in round holes:

And here's Mark in the shower:

"What the ...?"

"Hey!"

"HEY!!"

Atlanta Botanical Gardens

2007-05-28T16:45:00.001-04:00

We went to the Atlanta Botanical Gardens on Sunday with Charles, Dawn, and Charles' mom, Mari Ann. It was pretty much a photography day, which was bad news for Catri, who was in town for the weekend. Fortunately Mark was able to spend some quality time with her during our day, though, since the battery was dead on our N80 and I was hogging the other camera. Mark did get a few shots in, though, and I'll post those a little later. Following are the ones I took:

Babies & Critters

2007-05-15T10:09:00.000-04:00

A few weeks ago Dawn, Bevin, Shauna, and I gathered up the chirn* and went to the Yellow River Game Ranch in Stone Mountain. I had heard about this place from my mom, who had taken my niece there a few times. At the YRGR they take in animals that are sick, injured, or abandoned and would otherwise not make it on their own. They nurse them back to health, stick 'em in a cage or let 'em roam free and then charge people $8 apiece to come feed them. They had deer, goats, sheep, bison, donkeys, various fowl, a cougar, several black bears, 3 kinds of foxes, lots of noisy peacocks, owls, raccoons, and on and on ... The appeal of the place is that you can pet deer and rabbits and chipmunks and such very easily - although we quickly saw when we got there that you wouldn't actually want to touch some of these critters. Mangey is the word I believe I would use here.
Nevertheless, I figured Gwennan and Ian would get a kick out of it. They did.
Herewith, the photo essay:

Gwennan at the beginning of our day:

Dawn took most of the photos you see here. I was too busy with Gwennan to bother with the camera.

So you see, the deer would come right up to you. Mainly because they assumed you had food. Which we did.

The squirrels were the boldest. They would run right up to you and sniff around your feet, looking for a handout.

I thought, "Cool, Gwennan will love this!" So I put her on the ground to get a close encounter with the squirrels. As you can see, however, she was more fascinated with the GROUND! Oh boy, DIRT! and ROCKS! and STICKS!

This here is what we call in the South a mess o' raccoons. You got your gaggle of geese, your herd of cattle, and your mess o' raccoons. I have no idea how many raccoons are here. They were all crammed in together and fast asleep.

If you don't know this about Dawn, she has a rabbit. A rabbit named Gordy. He's pretty much her baby until she and Charles produce an offspring of their own. So when we got to the "Bunnies Gone Wild" section of the park, she was pretty happy.

And here's beautiful, serious, sensitive Ian:

And here's Shauna and Ian with a goat:

Gwennan with a donkey:

And finally, the picture that pretty much sums up the YRGR:

*Chirn [churn] - n. Children. (In the South South South Georgia dialect.)
ex: "You chirn quit messin' around and git in this house!"

Gratuitous Cute Baby Photos - April Edition

2007-05-08T09:07:00.000-04:00

Gee, time sure does fly by.

Several weeks ago Gwennan and I went walking up Kennesaw Mountain with Charles, Dawn, Bevin, Shauna, and Ian. Of course, Gwennan and Ian didn't so much walk as relax and enjoy the ride. Note Ian's kicked-back pose here:

Yep, babies have got it rough, I tell ya.
Ian and Gwennan are becoming good buds, despite the vast 6 month difference between them. We strolled them next to each other for a while and went "aww" when they did this:

Of course, this photo will probably cause heaps of humiliation and embarrassment for them when they get older.
I can't wait. ;o)

Also several weeks ago, our niece Lindsey came through Atlanta on her way back to Seattle from her missions trip to Mississippi/Louisiana. We met her at the airport and had dinner, and she got to meet her newest cousin:

Gwennan's personality is changing. It's like she turned 1 year and suddenly, she's got a 'tude. It's not horribly bad, but I'm beginning to see a bit of impishness growing in her. Most of the time it cracks me up. Sometimes it gives me pause as I realize she may yet turn into a challenging child. What happened to my laid-back, easy-going baby? Suddenly she wants things HER way! I don't know where she gets that from.
No, really, I don't.
No, I mean, it couldn't come from me or Mark.
NO it couldn't!!

Anyway, witness this expression:

She may not be walking just yet, but already I see plans for world domination in her eyes.

Here she is in the church nursery. Lately she's taken to climbing into anything that she thinks she can get into. Even a shoebox sized plastic container. She's a nut.

Thanks to Bevin by the way for the oh-so-cute dress and sweater for Gwennan's birthday. Makes her look like a little doll.

Again, plans for world domination as she tortures her dolls by hanging them by their toes:

And finally, a shot of Gwennan and Granny. Note the matching hair clips. Granny's looking over at Grandpa, but Gwennan's a little more interested in my cellphone. She's a pretty busy baby, really. People think it's a breeze being a baby, but it actually takes a lot of work trying to figure out the world. Especially when you have plans to dominate it.

Gwennan's Birthday Party

2007-05-06T15:46:00.000-04:00

Three weeks after the fact, I am finally posting about Gwennan's 1st Birthday Party. She got a ton of presents - toys and clothes - from her adoring fans.
Enjoy the pics ...

Sister Catri decorated the cake. No, Catri hasn't gone Goth. She's just gone ever so slightly skater punk. Note the Volcom hat and the black nails with pink pinkie.

Gwennan getting dressed in her birthday outfit.

Gwennan and cousin Brenna.

Yay!

The cake. It's no professional bakery cake, but it's made with more love.

So we blew out the candles for her ...

But she got a little scared by the crowd of people standing around her loudly singing "Happy Birthday" ...

A little cake cured her fear pretty quickly, though.

Self Portraits by Gwennan

2007-04-17T11:20:00.000-04:00

Gwennan turned a year old this past Friday. One year. It's amazing. She's gone from being a tiny baby to a little person. She's crawling like crazy and standing on her own more and more. It won't be long till she's walking. And she's already talking a little. It's hard to discern, but she says Hi, and what sounds like "How are you?" and Ee-I-Ee-I (from the Old MacDonald song). She sways a little to music, and tries to comb her hair and talk on anything that may vaguely resemble a phone.
I'll post photos from the birthday party we had on Saturday as soon as I get them together.
In the meantime I thought I'd show you some self-portraits. This is done by handing her our old Sony digital camera, pressing the timer while she's playing with it, and seeing what photos turn up. They're pretty darn funny. The first one below is from December. The rest are from about a month ago.

I love this next one. She had her finger on the lens, which caused the camera to over-expose to compensate. You can see Gwennan to the right of her finger.

Gratuitous Cute Baby Photos - Feb/March Edition

2007-03-09T20:19:00.000-05:00

April edition (including G's birthday) coming soon.

Pine Mountain

2007-03-09T20:16:00.000-05:00

Mark and I threw Gwennan in the backpack and hiked up Pine Mountain two Saturdays ago. It was a sunny day, not too cold, but it was a little windy, so we bundled up anyway. Gwennan was a little grumpy as we hiked, and we decided once we got to the top we would take her out and give her a break to crawl around a little. She LOVED it. She was on the GROUND! Not carpet- or linoleum- or Pergo- covered ground, but DIRT ground! She scratched at the dirt and crawled around a little, then found a stick and scratched the ground with that. She was so cute. And every time the cold wind would blow in her face, she would blink her eyes and smile, like someone had just tickled her.
I love having that baby around. She makes everything so much more fun.

Sweet Water

2007-03-09T11:00:00.000-05:00

Catri came to visit back in February for a few days. She gets both a winter break and a spring break at her school in Seattle, so that's cool. While she was here we took some photos of her and Gwennan together. It was really hard to get a decent shot. Whenever Catri looked good, Gwennan was making some weird face, and vice versa. So here I present one of the two or three decent shots. We'll probably try again when Catri's here in April.

Also while Catri was here we went hiking at Sweet Water Creek State Park. It was a lot of fun and such a beautiful day. I took a lot of photos of the trees, the water, etc, but most of them did not come out very well. I'm not much of a landscape photographer. I just don't know how people get those amazing shots. I think it has something to do with getting out there at like 6 AM, when the light is soft and translucent.

Self-portrait

Mark, on the "Thinking Rock"

Pretty Catri

Daughter & Dad

"You see that land mass over there? That's called a 'stick out' because of the way it sticks out into the water."

Update

2007-03-09T09:16:00.000-05:00

As always, I do have new, unbelievably cute photos of Gwennan to share, but I haven't compressed them yet to upload, so they'll have to wait for a little while. Instead, I thought today I would write a little bit. Novel idea, eh?

I've been struggling a lot lately with various health issues. I average 4 to 6 sinus infections a year, each of them lasting anywhere from two weeks to two months, so I finally went to an ENT (Ear Nose Throat doctor) to be evaluated. After a CT scan we've discovered that due to some structural issues in my sinuses I have teensy-tiny drainage passageways, that will swell closed altogether during an infection. This afternoon I'm going back in for allergy testing to see if that's a factor as well. I won't bore you with more details, because I can see you're dropping off to sleep already. Instead, we'll move on to the next health issue that has me going to multiple doctor appointments lately ...

I've been experiencing pain in my knees since we moved into this house. It has stairs, and I haven't lived somewhere with stairs in years. I thought I would just get used to it and the pain would go away, but instead it's become much worse. It's a bizarre kind of pain though - it doesn't hurt to walk or move around at all. Dawn and I just walked up Kennesaw Mountain yesterday, pushing the Gwennan in a stroller even, and I did just fine. The pain comes when I'm still for too long. My knees get sore and stiff, and when I do finally move them, it's really painful. It also hurts to crouch down or get up from the floor - which I'm down there a lot with Gwennan. My doc thinks I may have rheumatoid arthritis, and so I'm off to yet another specialist - a rheumatologist - to see what they think.

Are you still there??
Wake up!!

In other news, I'm taking on a new challenge starting a couple of Tuesdays from now: teaching French. At Lockheed (where Mark works) they offer different classes to their employees - accounting, foreign languages, basket-weaving - and I'm going to be teaching an 8 week conversational French course. I feel a little nervous about it, since I haven't taught or even tutored French in so long. Except maybe when I help Catri with her homework. Anyway, two Tuesdays from now the class starts.

And finally, this coming Monday, I go to the offices of the Cobb County School System for a half-day training course to become a substitute teacher. Yes, I'm well on my way to becoming Peggy Hill. Look out, Cobb County!!

Mark has been working a lot of overtime lately. We're saving up for a trip to Seattle this summer to see his family. Other than his mom and stepdad, none of them have met the Gwennan yet. Look out, Seattle!! ;o)

Speaking of Gwennan, I've got to go take care of a diaper situation ...

Mmm, coffee ...

2007-03-05T20:31:00.000-05:00

I snapped this shot at the corner of Concord and South Cobb in Smyrna.
They're pretty honest, I think. I mean, when I drink coffee, that's what usually happens to me ...

For Mom & Don

2007-02-18T11:16:00.000-05:00

Mom - you wanted to know if Gwennan is crawling yet. Boy is she ever! The following two videos are for you - to show you what a big girl she's growing into!

Happy Valentine's Day!

2007-02-14T10:17:00.000-05:00

Bad Valentine's Day Gift Ideas

My favorites are this one and this one.

You say it's my birthday

2007-02-13T14:58:00.000-05:00

At 2:05 AM last night I officially completed 37 years of being on earth. My stepdad Wayne told me I'm really only 29 - with 8 years of experience. Inside I still feel like I'm 18 - which is to say that I still care a lot about what's going on with Britney Spears and what the latest, hottest band is. I guess you could say I don't feel very "mature". I'm nearly 40 years old, with a husband and a kid and a mortgage, but it feels like I'm just "playing grown-up" still. Which is not to say that I don't take being a wife and mother seriously, I just don't feel like I'm very good at it. I wonder if that sensation ever goes away. Probly not.

Tonight Mark and I are dressing up and going on a birthday date at our fave restaurant, Simpatico on Marietta Square. We're living a pretty financially tight lifestyle these days, so we only go to Simpatico on special occasions, but we just love that place. Never had a bad meal there. I highly recommend it if you're looking for someplace nice like Houston's without the 2-hour Houston's wait for a table.

Poor Mark, he gets hit with the double-whammy every February - my birthday and then Valentine's the very next day. I always tell him he doesn't have to make a big deal out of either, but he always does. I guess he loves me. :o)

Happy Valentine's Day to you all!

Catrionics - or "Gratuitous Cute Catri Photos"

2007-02-02T09:24:00.000-05:00

Well, we're missing Catri a lot here in Georgia. She's out in Seattle, getting used to her new school schedule and doing 22 hours of gymnastics a week. (!!!)
I was browsing through some of the thoughtful self-portraits she took in November and decided to share them with you all. I think you'll find them moving in their subtlety and grace.
I've grouped them into categories as follows:
- Stone/Inebriated
- Rock Star/Diva
- Nasal Cavities
- Open Mouth
and
- Family

Hope you enjoy them as much as I did ...

STONED/INEBRIATED

ROCK STAR/DIVA

NASAL CAVITIES

OPEN MOUTH

FAMILY

And these really defy categorization ...

Gratuitous Cute Baby Photos - Winter Edition

2007-02-01T11:19:00.000-05:00

These are from the past 3 months, including a visit from Mom & Don at Thanksgiving, Christmas, and various other photos.

Rolling around on the floor with sister Catri ...

With buddy Ian, who sometimes doesn't know what to think of the "pink thing" ...

Trying on Granny's sunglasses ...

With Grandma Kathy ...

Clapping hands with Daddy ...

She's finally warmed up to "Uncle" Charles ...

A kiss from Gwennan

2007-01-23T14:53:00.000-05:00

Gwennan's latest thing is the big, open-mouth kiss. It goes like this: she leans forward with mouth open, and once she touches your forehead, nose, or an inanimate object, she slimes you. Recently she discovered her own reflection in the dishwasher and has been quite enamored with that.

Catching Up

2007-01-22T09:36:00.000-05:00

Last October Mark and I went mountain biking with Bevin and Zellyn. We went up to the mountains and biked among the brilliant fall colors. It was a lot of fun, despite various bike issues we experienced along the way.

The intrepid bikers:

Bevin coming down a hill - notice the gritted teeth and white-knuckle grasp on the handle bars:

Post-biking relaxation at the lake:

The view:

Sigh ...

2007-01-18T08:14:00.000-05:00

The last two months have been hell. Mark and I have been stressed and angry and depressed as we have gone through the last bitter wranglings with lawyers and courts over Catri's child support and visitation. The whole thing has seemed so ridiculous, and most of it has not actually seemed to be about Catri. Just when we thought it was all over, it was announced that Catri's mom was moving to Seattle for a 6 month contract job and taking Catri with her. We gave Catri the option of staying with us, at the very least until she had finished out the semester she had started at school, but she has chosen to go. It feels like the last kick in the stomach in all of this.
Anyway, I'm dealing now with a lot of anger. I've never had so much anger and rage in my life. I was once told that I have a "strong sense of justice", and when I feel like things are unjust, the anger is consuming. It's hard to know what to do with it. I could let it eat me up, consume me, and live my life complaining to everyone who will listen about how horribly we've been treated and what victims we are (as some people appear to do), or I can deal with it and move on.
I'm going to choose the latter. I'm going to go get some counseling from Barry (our marriage counselor and the guy who performed our wedding ceremony). I need help to re-focus on the good things in life - my amazing husband and precious baby girl, Catri and the truly good person that she is, the wonderful friends and family we have who know us and are for us (and who always counter with the truth all the lying accusations that have been thrown our way in the past year). Mostly I need help re-focusing on the goodness of God. In the past few months, it's been hard to remember that he is good - that he loves us, that we are his children and that he has not forsaken us.
I know that a big part of the counseling process will include letting go and forgiving. It's not a process I look forward to going through, but in my heart of hearts, I know I absolutely have to do it. I don't want to waste any more precious time and emotional energy on things and people who aren't important. If I don't choose to go through this process I will end up bitter, stuck in the past, living in a "victim" mentality, and enslaved to my emotions. I don't want to be enslaved. I want to be free.

Gwennan Laughs

2006-11-28T09:57:00.000-05:00

"You see, Wendy, when the first baby laughed for the very first time, the laugh broke up into a thousand pieces of light, and they all went skipping about, and that was the beginning of fairies."

- Peter Pan

Absolute Cuteness

2006-11-15T16:28:00.000-05:00

LOOK at the cuteness! She's the most beautiful thing EVER! (Okay, I'm a proud mama.)

Thanks to Dawn for the photo. We had a fun photo session with Gwennan last week and this is one of the many wonderful photos that came from it.

Gwennan had her check-up this week: 27 1/2 inches long, 16 lbs, 1 oz. That puts her at 90th percentile for height, 25th percentile for weight. So we have a tall and skinny child, kind of what I was expecting, since Mark and I both were tall and skinny. Until we got to about 30 and it all fell apart.

Gratuitous Cute Baby Photos - October Edition

2006-11-06T08:21:00.000-05:00

Sigh ...
It's hard to keep up with the blog nowadays. I wish I actually had time to write on here, but it's hard with a 6-month old in the house who can actually roll around to where she wants to go now.
And it's too bad, too, because sometimes I have very meaningful and profound things to say. Anyway, for now, you'll just have to join me as I look at these photos and say, "Awwww!"

Charles and Dawn persuaded us to purchase a Nikon D70s digital SLR, and I'm glad we did. We're still learning how to work it, but here are some first photos:

Gwennan in her jumper at Granny's house:

Mommy and Baby in the morning:

Gwennan and Catri swinging in the backyard:

Catri and Gwennan again:

Do you see the resemblance?

We bought a backpack so we could take Gwennan out for walks in the woods. She really likes it:

Altho the rocking motion tends to give this result:

And she's become a really good eater in the past few weeks:

And, TA-DA!! She can sit up now!!!

Gratuitous Cute Baby Videos

2006-10-06T07:49:00.000-04:00

So Granny and Paw Paw got Gwennan one of those doorway jumper thingies, and boy does she love it! Turn up your volume so you can hear her running commentary as she jumps ...

This one is funny. You can see the process Gwennan is going through to learn how to roll. She rolls a lot now, but every now and then she gets stuck as she tries to figure out what to do with her other arm.

Gwennan and Ian

2006-09-15T11:26:00.000-04:00

My friend Shauna has a 10 month old boy named Ian who is ALL BOY. The kid has boundless energy and can't stop moving and shrieking. He's so much fun and such a happy baby. Recently Gwennan and I got together with Shauna and Ian for a while, and it was hilarious to watch them interact. Gwennan can't roll on her own just yet (altho she's very close), but Ian can crawl and all he wanted to do was grab at Gwennan. Shauna had to hold his hands the whole time they were near each other to keep him from clawing Gwennan to death. Gwennan was totally oblivious to her danger, however, and simply squealed in delight at having another baby to interact with.

Apple Shauce

2006-09-15T10:52:00.000-04:00

So here's Gwennan trying her first taste of apple sauce. Note how her face screws up at each bite. I think she finds it a bit tart.

Catching Up

2006-09-13T18:21:00.000-04:00

There's been a lot going on in the Rothnie household the past few weeks. To start with, Mark celebrated his 45th birthday on August 23rd.

Forty-five.
And not forty-six.
Which is what I said the day before his birthday when he said, "I can't believe I'm turning forty-five."
Me: "No, it's forty-six."
Mark: Stare of disbelief and anger.
Me: "Isn't it?"
Mark: "It's forty-five."
I had to stop a second and do the math.
Oops!

Anyway, I built him this cake:

Which he seemed pretty pleased with:

And here's our Catri. She got braces this year and started 9th grade. Our little Catri is growing up! Sniff, sniff ...
She's in band at school and has got a hectic schedule right now (with football season and all). She's staying with us for about 3 weeks and since we don't live in her school district, we're having to drive her to school every morning and pick her up every afternoon/evening. With band practice and gymnastics, it's a CRAZY schedule, but we're making it work.

Gwennan Grace started eating cereal (aka "solids") about a week ago. It's been a learning experience for us both. Here she is after one of her first meals. A little messy, but apparently still pretty happy.

On Labor Day weekend we went mountain biking with the Spoelstras, the Sims, and the Hunters up at Ft. Yargo State Park. We had a lot of fun, despite the fact that we hit UGA football traffic coming and going, and that my bike had a lot of problems.
Still, we biked, we picnicked and we swam in the lake and had a blast. We girls were all very proud of ourselves in our bike gear, out on the trails. We felt pretty tough.

The Biker Chicks:

Here are the guys, reviewing the map while the girls were busy talking about how pretty Bevin's bike was with the flowers and how cool Shauna's pink helmet was. We were TOUGH, I tell ya.

And here's my cute husband, trying to fix my bike:

Also on Labor Day weekend our good friend Roger was in town from Cali. It was good to see ol' Rogelio. He mixed up some mean margaritas for us that day. I think they were the meanest to him, though. Eh, Roger? How many fingers am I holding up?
Don't worry, he hadn't started drinking when he was holding Gwennan for this picture.

Last Friday night we went to one of Catri's high school football games, mainly to see her play in the marching band. We took Gwennan, although I was nervous how she would react to all the noise and such. She was pretty wide-eyed at all the excitement and people yelling, but she mainly just sat there and said, "Gaa gaa gaa" the whole time. (See previous post of Gwennan's old man imitation.)

On Saturday night Mark and I went on a date. Mark loves to listen to solopianoradio.com and so for his birthday I gave him tickets to a concert put on by some of the pianists he hears on that station. It was a really wonderful evening. We got dressed up, went to a nice dinner, and then listened to some beautiful music for a few hours. It's been quite a while since he and I did anything romantic like that and it was really good for us. It helped me remember why I fell in love with him in the first place.

Gwennan's Imitation of an Old Man Complaining About "These Kids Today" and/or his Bursitis.

2006-09-04T21:27:00.000-04:00

Your Help is Desperately Needed

2006-08-31T18:48:00.000-04:00

If you are visiting my home and happen to see Catri pick up either my camera phone or my digital camera, GET IT AWAY FROM HER IMMEDIATELY. Try distracting her with something shiny - like the latest full-color glossy brochure from PacSun. Or maybe try chocolate.

The following photos speak for themselves.
Please. Help me.

I don't even know what to say about her father's duplicity in her surreptitious photo sessions ...

Although he does seem to be an innocent (or maybe catatonic?) bystander in a way ...

I find it hard to believe he didn't fully participate in this one though ...

Let me close by warning you all: no camera is safe. Don't make the mistake of thinking this is just a family issue. All cameras are potential targets. Keep them close to you in Catri's presence.

Gratuitous Cute Baby Photos - August Edition

2006-08-14T17:50:00.000-04:00

Gwennan's a happy baby!

She plays hard and she sleeps hard ...

In her new highchair (thanks Granny and Paw Paw), contemplating her plan to take over the world ...

She's an absolute angel ...

Mark teaches Gwennan the basics of rolling

2006-08-14T17:35:00.000-04:00

Radio Free Gwennan

2006-08-14T14:04:00.000-04:00

Gwennan and Elephants Gerald

2006-08-14T14:01:00.000-04:00

MPC & the Crying Baby Parade

2006-07-07T21:30:00.000-04:00

Mark and I enjoy going to Marietta Pizza Company on Friday nights. It's a little pizza joint on Marietta Square, and they have outdoor seating along the sidewalk when the weather is good (and even when it's not so good.) This evening the weather was unusually mild and lovely, so we went to MPC and sat outside. Evidently a lot of people had the same idea, because people were waiting to get an outdoor table.

I've often noticed when we've gone to MPC in the past that a lot of families go there. Particularly families with infants and toddlers. I don't know what it is about the place that attracts families. It's just a pizza joint. They don't have any kind of children's special menu, they don't have crayons and coloring pages for children. They serve pizza and beer, mainly. Nevertheless, the families come in droves.

Tonight there were a lot of fussy babies, ours included. As we and all the other families sat there eating our pizzas, calzones, and salads, there was always a point during the meal where baby began fussing, dad would pick him (or her) up, and start walking up and down the sidewalk trying to calm him (or her). As soon as one baby would calm down, it seemed another one a few tables down would start up. After a while there was a steady stream of dads carrying fussy young 'uns up and down the sidewalk, trying to calm them down and give the moms a chance to eat. Our little family was no exception. Gwennan was fussy, and so Mark took her walking down to one corner, and then back up to the other. It was so funny to sit there and watch dad after dad pass by, bouncing and jiggling their crying babies, with Mark every now and then going by in the parade. Even though we didn't know each other, it created a bit of a community atmosphere there on the sidewalk outside MPC. When a baby would start cranking up, you could look over at the family and smile, and they would shrug, smile back, and the dad would pick up the baby and start walking.

This is what a tired baby looks/sounds like.

2006-07-01T21:14:00.000-04:00

Gratuitous Cute Baby Video

2006-07-01T20:43:00.000-04:00

Gratuitous Cute Baby Pictures

2006-07-01T20:32:00.000-04:00

This first one is my dad, "Grandpa Ski", holding Gwennan.

Frankie in Better Days Part II - Talking to the Birds

2006-06-30T13:02:00.000-04:00

Frankie in Better Days, Part I - Playing with a Bottle Top

2006-06-30T08:25:00.000-04:00

Rest in Peace, sweet Frank

2006-06-30T07:51:00.000-04:00

My cat Frankie died this morning. (Read post below to know what happened to him.) Mark and I woke up with Frank at about 4 AM this morning and he was yowling, in severe pain, and wouldn't take any water or anything. His breathing was rough and I knew he just wasn't going to make it. The trauma of the past few days was just too much for him. I was going to take him to the vet this morning to be put down, but he was dead by the time we got back up (around 7).
I feel so bad for the little guy. He suffered so badly. I'm kind of mad at the vet for not suggesting that he be put down in the first place. Instead he suggested stitching him up, which at the time I knew sounded futile, but I guess I was hoping he would make it. But I think Frankie's injuries were just too severe. Those dogs had really ripped him up all over. He should have been put down right away, but instead we stitched him up and prolonged his suffering another 3 days.

Oh, and the Animal Control officer came to my house yesterday to take a report. He said that it's against the law in Cobb County to have a cat loose outside. He didn't issue me a citation, but said that if I had known whose dogs attacked Frankie, that not only their owners would've received a citation, but me too. I thought that was ridiculous. Frankie was on our property, and what kind of idiot makes it against the law to let your cat outside?
All my neighbors let their cats out too. I'm sure they don't know it's illegal.

Anyway, we're down to one cat now - Olly. I'm tempted to just find a good home for Olly and live cat-free from now on. In the past few years I've lost 4 cats and it's just too hard to deal with anymore. Either I'll find a home for him or when we move (at the end of the month), I'll just convert him to an indoor cat. Not that that would prevent anything from happening to him, really, but maybe it would help a little.

Frankie

2006-06-29T09:07:00.000-04:00

Our cats, Frankie and Olly, like to go outside. They can be so annoying, crying at the door to go out, we just let them out whenever they want, which sometimes includes the middle of the night.

On Tuesday morning, around 4:00 AM, I woke up to what I thought was the baby making noise. I kept hearing a distant "eh, eh, eh" and thought it was her. After a minute of listening, though, I realized it wasn't her, but a dog. I thought, "Some neighbor's stupid dog won't stop barking." After another minute or so, I thought, "Gosh, that sounds really close" and got up to investigate. Once I got into our living room, I realized the sound was coming from right outside our front door. I flipped on the light, opened the door and started yelling. Three stray dogs had Frankie surrounded in the bushes by our front door. My yelling ran them off, and I could hear Frankie in the bushes, growling. I started calling to him to come in, and he slowly crept out from the bushes. He was limping pretty badly and trailing blood into our house. He went straight into Catri's bathroom and I put some old towels out for him to lie down on.

The dogs had ripped him open in several places, the worst of which was on his abdomen, down near his penis. I didn't think he would make it through what was left the night, but I knew I couldn't afford to take him to the 24 hour emergency vet. I really thought he would be dead by the time my vet opened at 8:30.

Luckily, he did survive, and the vet had to do surgery and sew him up in several places all over his body. He's recovering now, but I don't think he's out of the woods. He's not really moving much, except for his head and occasionally his front paws. The vet said his legs were not broken, but because of the location of the lacerations, it might be too painful for him to move his back legs much right now. He's not eating yet, and I'm using a syringe to force some water into him. I have to take him back to the vet today to see if they can get some nourishment in him.

Unfortunately there isn't much in the way of pain medicine that you can give a cat. Most pain medications are toxic to them. I'm giving him what the vet gave me for him, though, even though it may not make a big difference.

Poor little Frankie. He always kicked the crap out of any cats that came into our yard, but he didn't have a chance against three dogs.

Gwennan - Give it a coupla minutes to load.

2006-06-28T21:12:00.000-04:00

Niki in the Gardens

2006-06-26T14:34:00.000-04:00

So the Atlanta Botanical Gardens has a new exhibit going on called Niki in the Garden, featuring the art of Niki de Saint Phalle. When I looked at the photos online, I thought the sculptures looked a little weird and that I wouldn't like them, but they are actually really beautiful and so full of JOY. We went a few weeks ago when Mark's mom and stepdad were in town. I highly recommend a trip to the ABG to see the exhibit. It's the largest exhibition of the artist's work ever, and pretty much all the sculptures are intended to be touched and climbed on, so kids love it.
Here are some photos:

Catri on one of two climbable lions:

An artsy shot:

This is Louis Armstrong:

I loved this one. I don't know what it was called, but I call it "Lactating Women" and I can totally relate:

A detail of one of the chair sculptures:

A kitty cat:

This was the most beautiful flower in the garden that day:

Catri under one of the sculptures:

Here we are under the same sculpture:

Mom and Don about to be eaten by a giant flower:

I never write down the names of the flowers, so I have no idea what this is called:

Another no-name flower. I liked how geometrical it was:

Mark flossing the teeth of the skull sculpture with Catri's arms:

The inside of the skull sculpture:

Lady riding a dolpin and holding a red ball:

Deep Breath ...

2006-06-26T13:01:00.000-04:00

Well, Gwennan is two months old now (10 weeks and 4 days, to be exact) and amazingly she's still alive. It's weird how scared you are the first 4 weeks or so that the baby is just going to die. That she's not going to eat enough, that she's just going to stop breathing, that something is going to happen. Add post partum depression and sleep deprivation to the mix and it's just a really high anxiety time.

Both baby and mother are doing a ton better now though. Gwennan pretty much sleeps through the night, and I've been sleeping like a log at night. I don't feel that tired when I go to bed, but I sleep pretty solidly through the night - much more so than before or during the pregnancy.

Gwennan is so cute now. She has started cooing and gooing and she smiles and gives us a little laugh every now and then. When I learn how to post videos on here, I'll share some with you all.

At her two month check-up last week these were her stats:
weight: 12 lbs 9 oz (90th percentile)
height: 24 1/4 inches (97th percentile)
She's a BIG baby!

Catri is such a good sister to Gwennan. She babysat her for about 3 hours last week while I went to look at houses, and she did a great job! She even got her to nap without a problem! It does my heart so much good to see how Catri is with Gwennan. She plays with her, talks to her, holds her, changes her. It's so cool. She's an awesome big sister.

Anyway, we are in process of finding a new house. We're putting an offer in on one today. I'll let you know how it goes later in the week!

House News

2006-06-23T13:27:00.000-04:00

In case you haven't heard, our house is now under contract. We close on July 28th and are searching for a new home now. And no, Zellyn, Bevin, Ash, Carrie, Ben, and Jen - we're not interested in moving to East Point!! ;o)

It's pretty cool how the whole thing happened. We had planned on putting the house on the market at the end of June, and I was seriously dreading trying to keep it "show-ready" (read: CLEAN) and having people come through while taking care of an infant at the same time.
Well, while Mark's parents were visiting we got a call from our agent, Julie, saying that another agent had called her with a client interested in looking at the house. The client had seen another home with the same floorplan in our neighborhood that she liked, but it was on a sloped lot and she didn't like that. We have a much nicer lot. The agent did his homework and saw that our house had been on the market but that we had pulled it off and called to see if we were still interested in selling. Long story short - the client came to see the house, liked it, and made an offer. We are now under contract and we don't even have to go through the listing/showing process! Yippee!

Now we just have to find a new home. We've already been out looking at some houses, and this weekend we're going to see a few more plus re-look at a few we've already seen. Hopefully we'll come to a decision this weekend, because we only have a little over a month. If we can't move into a new place by July 28th, we'll be rooming with the Spoelstras!!

2006-06-17T10:04:00.000-04:00

Mark's mom and stepfather, Kathy and Don, visited with us two weeks ago. We had such a wonderful visit with them. We went to the Atlanta Botanical Gardens (photos from that to come soon), the Georgia Aquarium, and Fernbank Museum. But mostly we just enjoyed having them in our home, where they spoiled us by making meals and doing the dishes all week.
They also got to know their new granddaughter, who was also spoiled by all the attention all week. But that's what grandparents do, I guess! :o)
Photos below ...

SHS

2006-06-14T14:58:00.000-04:00

You may have heard of Shaken Baby Syndrome, or SBS. It occurs when a mother, out of frustration with a baby's incessant crying, shakes him/her to the point that he/she has whiplash or even brain damage.

What you may not have heard of is the lesser known SHS, or Shaken Husband Syndrome. It occurs when a frustrated and sleep-deprived wife shakes her husband because he JUST WON'T STOP SNORING. It's a serious problem and one I've nearly succumbed to more than once.

2006-06-01T16:40:00.000-04:00

I don't seem to have much time nowadays for blogging, so a few photos will have to do for now ...

Catri "graduated" from middle school and is now on her way to 9th grade! Below is a photo of her with her friend Kristen, all decked out for the 8th grade formal dance.

And a few photos of the Gwennan ...

With crossed eyes

Looking at herself in the mirror ...

And just looking unbelievably cute ...

James Blunt, musician extraordinaire

2006-05-29T11:13:00.000-04:00

I wish I lived in England.

Better

2006-05-24T17:48:00.000-04:00

For those of you who got a little concerned/scared after reading my last post, I’m doing better now. What a strange journey it’s been so far. I’m learning a lot about letting go and I’m going through a new round of brokenness in my life. If I ever get some time that I can write about it, I will.

Thanks for your prayers and your love.

I’ll post more pics soon.

2006-05-20T16:24:00.000-04:00

Happy Birthday

2006-05-04T16:43:00.000-04:00

Gwennan is three weeks old today. It's been the roughest three weeks of my life. I have to admit that I really had no idea what I was getting myself into - no idea what having a newborn would entail. I've had such severe crying spells (some lasting all day) that I thought for sure I would have to go on anti-depressants. I've struggled (and am still struggling, though not as much) with breastfeeding. And of course, I'm horribly sleep-deprived. I feel isolated and disconnected from the world, and even worse, from my own husband. I miss Mark so much, even when he's right here with me.

I've had such anxiety about the baby - is she getting enough to eat? is she sleeping enough? is she overstimulated? - that I've swung over into total controlling flesh mode. I hover over everyone who does anything to/with her, to make sure they're not doing something "wrong". Then I suffer from so much guilt feeling like I'm doing everything wrong.

But, despite all this, I look at Gwennan's amazing little face and I just love her. She's so beautiful, and such a mellow baby. She doesn't really cry or fuss that much - usually only when she actually wants something (usually to eat). She has these extended alert periods that are so cool. She will sit quietly in your arms or in her bouncy seat and just observe her world, with wide-open eyes and a mouth usually in a little O shape. It's her "Little Bird" face.

I'm beginning to realize that she and I are both going to be okay. Things will be crazy for a while, but that's alright. We'll survive. I'll get to sleep through the night again one day. I'll get to spend time with my husband again doing something non-baby-related. In the mean time, I'm just going to love her.

Gwennan right after birth:
8 lbs, 11 oz.
21 inches
A head full of dark hair

Just after her first bath

About a week later - Gwennan sucking Catri's thumb. She's still a little yellow from the jaundice in this picture.

Quote for the Day

2006-05-01T20:00:00.000-04:00

I still haven't read The Da Vinci Code, but I plan to one day, just to see what all the hubbub is about. Today I read this article from the Associated Press about all the controversy surrounding the book/movie. I thought the observation from Witherington ("We are a Jesus-haunted culture that's biblically illiterate" and harbors general "disaffection from traditional answers") was really insightful and dead-on, given the number of conversations I've had with people who have definite, strong opinions about Jesus that are based on nothing but their own imaginations.

Oooh ... contrasty!

2006-04-30T15:18:00.000-04:00

Gwennan's bouncy seat has an arched pole over it holding toys, but it's the black and white pole itself that holds her attention. It's nice and contrasty.

A very contented Grandma

2006-04-28T17:11:00.000-04:00

Gwennan, by Dawn

2006-04-18T11:39:00.000-04:00

The Rothnie Family Chronicles

August 25th 2009

Ah, parenthood.

Pictures

Camping with Friends

Pics of the Family

Will Smiles

Sorry ...

William Wyatt Rothnie

Dead Dogs and Cats

More Gwennan Videos for your Entertainment

A conversation with Gwennan

Gwennan and the "Birthday Cake"

What a Ham

The Latest

Gwennan's 2nd Birthday Cake

Baby Boy

AT&T's secret offer

AT&T quietly rolls out reasonably-priced unbundled DSL

Beautiful

Tickle Me Gwennan

Hop! Hop! Hop!

Another Reason to Hate Wal-Mart

Brain-damaged woman at center of Wal-Mart suit

Non-napper

Cough Cough

It's a ...

Showing

Gwennan Serves Tea

Gwennan the Monkey

Okay, already!

Britney

Ahh, global warming. Ya gotta love it.

Gwennan the Swinger

Gratuitous Cute Kid Pics - November Edition

Random

Camping in the Cohuttas

Art in the Family

Gratuitous Cute Toddler Photos – Late Summer Edition

Videos

Roses and Babies

Rothnie Girls

TRAVIS

Red-Tailed Hawks in the Backyard

What I Did on My Summer Vacation - by Donna-Marie Rothnie

For Jessie

Gwennan the Toddler

Gwennan and the Laundry

Gratuitous Cute Baby Photos - May Edition

Atlanta Botanical Gardens

Babies & Critters

Gratuitous Cute Baby Photos - April Edition

Gwennan's Birthday Party

Self Portraits by Gwennan

Gratuitous Cute Baby Photos - Feb/March Edition

Pine Mountain

Sweet Water

Update

Mmm, coffee ...

For Mom & Don

Happy Valentine's Day!

You say it's my birthday

Catrionics - or "Gratuitous Cute Catri Photos"

Gratuitous Cute Baby Photos - Winter Edition

A kiss from Gwennan

Catching Up

Sigh ...

Gwennan Laughs

Absolute Cuteness

Gratuitous Cute Baby Photos - October Edition

Gratuitous Cute Baby Videos

Gwennan and Ian

Apple Shauce

Catching Up

Gwennan's Imitation of an Old Man Complaining About "These Kids Today" and/or his Bursitis.

Your Help is Desperately Needed

Gratuitous Cute Baby Photos - August Edition

Mark teaches Gwennan the basics of rolling

Radio Free Gwennan

Gwennan and Elephants Gerald