"The New Normal"

Things have clearly changed.          I know that.       It's just harder than I thought it would be.

I love Ruby Kate so much that I don't have words to describe it, but I'm not used to having a baby sister. I know....Sadie has been my little sister for the past 2 and a half years. The difference is that now I am used to things. When you are little, you can adapt well to everything. I seem to not be able to deal with little things.

There have been a few new things that I did this year like going Christmas caroling at the nursing home, and going to a 4-H Christmas party. Sometimes I guess you have to replace the old traditions with the new ones. I've just got to get used to "The New Normal".

NEW BABY

On December 3rd, 7:05 p.m. Ruby Katherine Lord was born.

It had been a pretty exhausting day. I have found that standing still can be the most tiring. We got there around 10:10 a.m. We all went to visit mama, and get settled in at the waiting room. After chilling in the waiting room for a while, we decided to go ahead and eat lunch. We went to Wendy's, and we picked up daddy something to eat. When we got back, we quickly found a parking spot. A lady driving a golf cart offered us a ride to the building where mom was staying. She kept on laughing at us. We might have been pretty excited. When we got to the building, Tim and I took the stairs and the rest of them took the elevator. When Sadie was being born at this place I was nine years old. I had brought a big green bouncy ball, and I would bounce it on the staircase. The waiting room at the time was awful, but when we got there, there was a nice, new waiting room near the old. When I was bored I watched a show on my ipad, or I took a ride on the elevator. We were on the second floor. There were three floors. What I would do is go to the top, bottom, and then back to the middle. Later Aunt Laura stopped by to see mama. Things were going slow. I was so bored that I watched a cheesy

documentary. Things got turnt when Aunt Lori, Sara, Jarrett, and Gracie stopped by. We all made predictions about when the baby would be born, and how much she would weigh. I guessed 8 1/2 lb. Ruby Kate was really 8 pounds 10.9 ounces. I was close. Well, shortly things started to pick up the pace. Aunt Laura had gone shopping, and she came to the hospital with chicken sandwiches and waffle fries!! Thank goodness because we were so hungry. Dad called and said that she was born!!!!!!!! First Grandma went to see her, and later Tim, Ericka, Sadie, and I got to see her. We didn't get to hold her or anything though. The next morning we went up there and got to hold her!!!
Grandma had spent the night up there and daddy stayed at the house with us. Grandma brought Sadie to Wendy's, and they got some balloons. Daddy took the rest of us to Pizza Hut. Poor Benny had to be somewhere, so he didn't get to meet Ruby Kate until later that day. After that Grandma brought us to Aunt Beth's house to spend the night. The next day was Saturday. We visited mama again for a little while. Mama had to stay in the hospital for a longer time because she ran a little bit of a fever. She was probably just running a fever because she was tired, but they still kept her. The next day we went to church with Grandma, and when they finally did get released from the hospital they dropped by the church and picked up all of the girls. When we got home we got to hold her for a while. Grandma and the boys got home a little later. It felt so good to have all of the family back at home. It feels like things will never slow down. Maybe it will someday, but for now we will just have to get used to this fast pace.