Busy, busy, busy...

It's been a crazy few weeks. I'm sick (What?) at the moment so my brain is a little fuzzy, but I'll try to fill you in. Justin's Grandma passed away, which I think I already said, and I posted a picture of little Oliver in the last entry, add several family Christmas celebrations/dramas, a handful of doctor visits for me and the kids, our basement flooded with every drop of water from our well by freak chance, van windshield got smashed, dog chewed all the hair off his paw for some reason, studio track lighting mysteriously went on fire, business meetings to finalize our hostile takeover of the South Royalton House. Just kidding about the hostile part. It's hopefully going to be a wonderful thing for us. But speaking of hostile, I was terrified to learn that Marc was on that plane back from Amsterdam last week. Thank goodness he's safe. We DID have a great Christmas though. I was all upset for a bit because the thing the boys wanted the most, a huge wooden castle with drawbridges, dungeons, knights and dragons, etc, arrived from the company two days before Christmas and when I opened it, it was the wrong one. A hot pink, princess castle, with unicorns and canopy beds. Not that we have anything against hot pink or unicorns around here, but still... So I was grumped out that I couldn't return it and get a replacement in time, AND it was insanely expensive. Later that afternoon, I popped into a thrift store to see if they had any kids snow boots (after I ditched the last pair we bought for Eli because they had a dead rat inside.) and I literally stumbled over the same wooden castle that I ordered, in perfect condition for FIVE BUCKS! So see, sometimes I am pretty lucky! The other awesome thing is: we ran out of wood COMPLETELY yesterday, like Justin had started chopping up random woodworking projects in the basement to burn, and the Wood Guy, who is totally unreliable and never even delivered the wood we ordered LAST winter, pulled in with a load of wood and dumped it in our yard. Also, I went to the hospital yesterday for surgery to remove a cyst that has kept me on antibiotics for a few weeks. (That's right, I talk about icky things you don't need to hear. Over-sharers Anonymous, here I come.) When I got there, the doctor said it looked like it had shrunk and surgery was no longer necessary. She'll check again in a week, but yay! Anyhow, so that's the good and the bad from the last couple weeks. Looking forward to one more family gathering in Amherst this weekend. Hope everyone else had a fabulous holiday! Love, me

Welcome Baby Hudson!

Oliver Hudson was born this afternoon at around 2:45, weighing 5 pounds, 15 ounces, and measuring 20 inches long. It was a pretty smooth delivery and he is healthy and beautiful! (More pictures on flickr.)

Some Pictures

I'm NOT superstitious, but this was just a wee bit...odd.

OK, I'm completely tired, and rather out of it, but here's something really weird: (I just cut & pasted this story from an e-mail I sent Tamera because I'm too sleepy to rewrite it.) Justin and I decided to watch a movie last night after we got the kids to bed since it wasn't too late. Eli woke up as the movie was ending and couldn't get back to sleep until around five in the morning, which was right about when Ira was waking up. (So, there was no sleep for me until Justin took Ira downstairs and I got a couple of hours this morning.) Anyway, I thought maybe Eli had a nightmare, because all last night he kept talking about ships and "What happens to the people if boats break into pieces?" I tried to reassure him about lifeboats/life vests/radios/etc, but it didn't seem to help. He obsessed and asked about it the entire night. As far as I know, he's never really seen or heard anything too awful in the way of shipwrecks and I sort of chalked it up to his whole pirate thing. The only thing he's seen, I think, was a photo of a sunken submarine in the National Geographics he pours over, but I felt like he was describing the Titanic, and children drowning or something. He was really upset wanting to know that people were safe. So, then this morning, I turn on the computer, and the headline is a story about a family with two little kids that were sailing around the world, when their sailboat was rammed by a South Korean Cargo ship, smashed into pieces and they all drowned, except the mother. The little boy, right away, but then a wave took the little girl, while they were clinging to debris, and the father drowned too, going after her. The mother had broken her back and fractured her skull and had to just lay, paralyzed, watching it all happen. (Sorry it was a very graphic story.) The Cargo ship left them for dead even though they could hear the family screaming for help. (They aren't being prosecuted because of some obscure law about international waters.) The mother spent days floating on a partially inflated raft and was so grief stricken that she actually tried to drown herself several times, but wasn't able to because she couldn't move. She eventually washed up on shore somewhere in Australia and was spotted by a plane. It happened 14 or 15 years ago at this time of year, and she is finally able to talk about it. The story, by itself was unbelievably horrific, and so incredibly sad that I would have been crying anyway, but the fact that Eli spent all night thinking about the exact same thing really freaked me out. I'm sure it's just one of those things, and simply coincidental, but still, how very strange.

In other strange news, Facebook sent me a message today saying that "abusive behavior" had been coming from my IP address, at the risk of my mom saying "I told you so", I'm worried that someone hacked into my account. I mean, it's not really that dangerous for me, since there is no money involved or much personal info, but I, obviously, don't want someone making it look like I've done something wrong. It may be a fluke since they are updating all their security systems. I certainly hope so! They are looking into it. Anyway, excuse this creepy blog entry...We got a foot of snow yesterday. The boys went sledding and got delightfully rosy cheeked. We got our Christmas tree last weekend and will visit Santa at the library on Saturday. I'd upload pictures but I'm on the wrong computer, so later! Hope everyone is well! -Emily


(About two hours later) I just got a call that Justin's Grandma has passed away. Heart attack in her sleep. We will miss her so very much. She was a prickly, sarcastic, funny, sweet, sweet lady, if that makes sense. I think she was 93. Her life was not easy, and life will not be easy without her. She had a very strong connection to the sea. Her ashes will be spread there. Again, I am NOT superstitious, but Eli's sleepless night seems rather well timed.