Warm fuzzies on a fluffy snowflake day

Little Aiden Michael Hester was born 8:23 pm yesterday evening. A whopping seven pounds and four ounces, and a bundle of pure sweetness. His eyes are so bright, and at less than a day old, he's already trying to look around figure everyone and everything out. His mom's doing great, grandparents are smiling from ear to ear, and I'm caught up in all of my thoughts just trying to comprehend the entire situation.

When I was looking at him yesterday, touching his tiny little fingers and chubby little cheeks, I tried to fully comprehend how people choose not to believe in God when something so perfect and so pure can come into existence within nine months. Little button nose, a bit of peach fuzz on the top of his head, rosebud lips - each feature is distinctly his as well as distinctly linked to various members of our family.

And at the same time, as perfect and pure as that little creature is, it's amazing how just a little coo from him while he's curled up in your arms can strike a bit of fear into your heart. In a few short hours, I realized that my whole life is going to be completely different from this point on, in a lot of wonderful ways, and in a lot of ways that will cause plenty of frustration and tears. You can't help but wonder about all the ways that he'll succeed, and yet you're worried to see where the bumps (or even sinkholes) will appear on his path.

While all of these thoughts were racing through my head, I just held him close as he scrunched his tiny nose and yawned, and all I could tell him with conviction was "I'm Auntie Pammy - and I'm going to spoil you rotten."

...I think it's broken.

Tim and I were walking to a shoe place in downtown Rochester, when I noticed a faded yellow sign leaned up against the door that said "HOE REPAIR" in bold, black letters.

Here's a list of questions:

1. What factors determine a broken hoe?

2. How do we know if this hoe desires to be fixed?

3. Does the hoe have a choice in how it's repaired?

4. Who does the repairing of the hoe?

5. Is hoe repair something you can get a degree in, or is it a simple certification process?

6. In these horrible economic times, are there ample opportunities for hoe repairmen and women, or are there simply not enough hoes to go around?

7. Do hoe repairmen and women aim to change the face of the planet, one broken hoe at a time?

8. Is hoe repair an hourly position, salary position, or based solely on a hoe-by-hoe basis?

For all of you who are interested, these are the sorts of questions that political scientists should always be asking. That is why, in fact, I've chosen to finish this blog and go to bed as opposed to finishing my homework for my Communism course.

Discoveries

The retreat this weekend was unbelievable on so many levels. From Tom's impression of Grover, teaching us all the concept of the words "near" and "far," to misunderstandings during the game Catch Phrase ("He wrote the Peanuts" sure sounds an awful lot like "He rode the penis"), to simply reconnecting with friends ("You're the Mindy to my Mork") and with God (who is also a good friend) - I was smiling nonstop. I feel as if I've been so disconnected with humanity over the past couple of months, and this was exactly the jump start that I've been needing.

It's amazing how even when you're on the planning team, sometimes certain aspects of the retreat really hit you once your actually going through the motions on the planned weekend. I fully realized that I've been going through a mild form of depression for the past month. I really thought it was a bad case of the winter blues initially, considering how cold and gray it's been since freakin' October. But honestly, I've been sleeping more than usual (not just because of my bizarre work schedule), I've been separating myself more and more from friends because I felt so numb and I didn't want people to notice it, and I feel like I'm an outsider with my own family...and I know exactly what it is that's dragging me to the teary-eye mood level. It's not like the situation is going to go away any time soon, but even just in coming to the reality that I was down and not just persistently sleepy and numb helped me to feel loads better.

So, there's going to be lots of working out, crocheting, and drawing over the next couple of months in an attempt to heal. Look out, world :)

Tim and I spent an amazing day together. Starting off with visiting my family (it was my mommy's birthday on Friday), we then went to get a simple soup-and-salad dinner and watch the movie "Defiance" with his brother, Brian. Unbelievable movie, might I add. It was intense - not for the faint of heart by any means, but an incredible story that you really don't want to miss out on. It was just so wonderful to spend a day with the boy - it's incredible to me that even after a year of dating, I still get the butterflies in my stomach and serious sweaty-hand-syndrome when we're holding hands during a movie.

Alright, time to go to bed. 4 am comes early (believe it or not). More to come later.