I did it! A post about a very full week.

When we last saw our heroine, she was vigorously pumping in a valiant attempt to stash enough milk so her dashing husband wouldn't have to open the can of formula while she was at work. I'm proud to say that

I DID IT!

When all was said and done, I left for work Monday with 29 or so ounces in the freezer. When I came home Wednesday, there was still one lone 4oz. bag leftover after what I had pumped at work the previous days and what I had gotten over the weekend. Wednesday I did not pump at work as much as I normally get and that ended up being due to using my own pump (instead of the hospital grade pump) at the end of the day and also because I couldn't spend 20 minutes pumping because Dan had to get to work.

Thursday

Our little family got up early and headed for the airport. I was super excited to go to South Carolina to visit my Great Aunt Jane for several reasons. It's been just over 3 years since I've traveled anywhere on a plane and I definitely get a travel itch right around the 2 year mark, although this was my first time flying with a baby. I also was excited to see Aunt Jane because it's been many, many, many years since I've seen her (ETA: Mom said she was at our wedding so I last saw her 3 years ago). My mom and I traded suitcases so I could have only carry-on luggage, and let me tell you, that is the way to fly! No waiting around at baggage claim, no standing in line at the check-in/bag check counter. I was able to check in and print my boarding pass the night before and got to walk straight to security once Dan dropped us off. The controversy of the day is the TSA's full body scanners and their super-intensive pat downs. BWI is not currently making everyone choose one or the other. Joey and I walked through a metal detector and that was it. I saw one person get a pat down but it was a random choice and I didn't even see the full body scanners.

My parents had driven down to SC the day before so they picked us up at the airport down there with Joey's car seat all ready to go. Aunt Jane is doing chemo so we didn't go see her right away, we had to wait for her to get back from treatment. Downtown Greensville reminds me of Annapolis and historic Ellicott City, but if they were combined. It's got lots of shops and places to eat, a lot of them on Main St. We stopped and got something to eat at a brick oven place, my parents got pizzas and I got Alfredo--one of my all time favorite dishes. Eventually it was time to go visit Aunt Jane and her daughter (my cousin once removed, so Dad's first cousin) Yancy was there too.

We all went out to dinner at a really lovely place called Harry & Jean's. It's an American restaurant, but done really well. Our server was probably the best server I had ever had, part of that may have been because we beat the dinner rush and there weren't many other tables there but mostly because he was just an awesome server. I had chicken marsala and it was to die for! Everyone else enjoyed their food as well and overall the entire meal was wonderful for the company. We went back to the hotel and once Yancy dropped her mom off, she came back to the hotel to visit some more. I wasn't there for that part, in attempting to put Joey down for the night in the back bedroom (my parents got a suite with a bedroom and living-room type deal), I fell asleep with him and woke up after Yancy had left. The price of waking up at 0330.

Friday

My first and only full day in SC. Aunt Jane's treatment is every day so we had time to kill before visiting with her again. We went furniture shopping (for my parents who are looking for a kitchen table and couch) and then back to Main St. There's a park in the middle of downtown (Falls Park on the Reedy) with a cool waterfall and suspension bridge. We got some lunch and went back to the hotel to rest up for a bit before going over to see Aunt Jane again. We were in for a treat with this second visit because some Korean friends of Aunt Jane's had driven down from VA the day before just to see her and give her Anointing of the Sick. They're Episcopalian, but have a lot of the same sacraments that Catholics do. I really enjoyed their ceremony, especially because some of it was in Korean. I also liked seeing their Korean Bibles, very cool.

Aunt Jane in the center, Yancy far right, and Dad in the back.

I'm a little fuzzy on the details but here's what I can remember: The priest on the very left did part of his seminary at Jesus Abbey (where my Uncle Archer was for most of his missionary career) which is where he met Aunt Jane. I'm sure that's where the other priest met her as well. It came out in conversation how Uncle Archer came to be at Jesus Abbey. His parents were missionaries as well (my grandfather, Archer's brother, was actually born in China) though they were Anglican, not Episcopalian. Sometime in the 1950's, while they were at their beach house in Korea on a beach where a lot of foreigners and missionaries vacationed, they ran into a bishop they knew and invited him over for 4 o'clock tea (something they had picked up working with English missionaries). While the bishop was there having tea, he saw a picture of Uncle Archer in his collar and asked about him. Upon finding out that he was Episcopalian, and knowing Archer's parents' reputation as missionaries, the bishop thought it might be a good idea to invite him to help re-open a seminary that had closed during the war (WWII). The rest is really history because Uncle Archer and Aunt Jane moved out to Korea and have been there ever since (with the exception that Uncle Archer went home to Heaven a couple of years ago). Aunt Jane is anxious to get well and go back to the Abbey, she misses everyone there terribly and truly lives to serve others.

Saturday

My flight was fairly early again, but not nearly as early as the one on Thursday. Also, the Greensville airport is pretty small so I knew getting through security wasn't going to take very long. There was a little restaurant in the airport, so my dad and I got some breakfast while my mom held Joey (she wasn't hungry). I was glad that it was a small-town airport's security I was going through this time because I had pumped some milk (stored in the hotel fridge, I'm sure my dad loved that) because I knew I was going to have to re-build the stash, plus I didn't want to lose the bigger supply I had worked hard to increase. I knew that the TSA allowed breastmilk, formula, and other liquids on the plane with little-to-no issue, I just didn't know how they were going to handle my bag of ice. The fridge didn't have a freezer section, so I couldn't re-freeze my ice packs to keep the milk cool. Turns out they didn't really care too much about the bag of ice. Frozen things aren't much of a problem for them. Had the milk been frozen, they probably wouldn't have given it a second thought. Good to know for next time. They did do a vapor test over the milk and melted ice, but of course that came up negative and we were on our way.

Dan picked us up at the airport and after Joey woke up a little bit (he fell asleep halfway through the long flight), he was happy to see his daddy. I love my sling, it's probably the only reason I'd consider traveling with a baby by myself again. I used my backpack as a diaper bag (and on the way home my parents put the suitcase in their car so I didn't even have to fiddle with the overhead) and put that on after Joey in the sling. We were so mobile that I didn't take a single elevator in any of the airports we were in! We got lunch on our way home, I fed Joey and attempted to nap, though Joey only let me get about 20 minutes. Dan bought me Season 5 of Dexter and Pirates of The Caribbean: On Stranger Tides last week and I had not yet seen Pirates so we watched that. I didn't get to see it because it came out 3 days before my due date with Joey, and since he came 8 days early, he wasn't even a week old yet when it came out. Had I still been pregnant, I would have been in the theater for sure! It's the only Pirates movie that I didn't see in the theater and after watching it, I'm not so sad that I missed it. The first is the only really good one. The others are just built around Johnny Depp reprising one of the best roles of his career. Anyway...

The Men in Black game was also Saturday night! This year we actually went to the tailgate before the game and had a blast! Holy Trinity loves to party and the other youth groups in our cluster came to party with us! We're becoming a fusion youth group for some of the smaller churches so our group is getting bigger all the time. I didn't know many of the the kids but we still had a good time. Momma Marlene knew that the Chik-Fil-A cow would be coming to the game and bought Joey a cow costume so we could take his picture with the cow. We watched the game and cheered while we waited for the cow to show up. Friends from the church where we go to Mass (St. Jane's) also came and sat with us. They love Joey and he loves them :) I love Trinity, we had the biggest, loudest section again this year. The priests actually won this year's game! For the first time that I've seen, not only did the priests win, the STOMPED the youth! The final score was 43-32, yikes!

A cow holding a cow holding a cow. Oh yeah.

I'm not entirely sure why the Chik-fil-a cow was there, but we love Chik-fil-a so it doesn't matter ;) The person with the cow had a bag of goodies and they were throwing them to the crowd. When we went down for the picture, we got a stuffed cow for Joey to hold so that the Chik-fil-a cow is holding a baby cow, who is holding a baby Chik-fil-a cow. Awesome! My guess is that cows are black and white and priests wear black and white so that could be the connection or I'm just grasping. Either way, we got this awesome picture and the person with the cow got a picture for Chik-fil-a too so somewhere Joey is famous.

The Men in Black game is a basketball game between our area priests and guys from various youth groups. It's to help raise awareness for vocations and show the kids that just because you're called to religious life, doesn't mean you stop having fun.

Ben and Joey are best buddies :)

Eat mor...cow?