From Meredith:
Okay, Joanne, I'll go first. :) If you had had boys instead of two girls, what boy names would you have chosen? And one more--how/when did you learn to sew?
Hmm...Well, I just knew that Audrey was going to be a girl from the very start. And Toben and I both knew that she was Audrey. We didn't really talk about names very much--just one conversation the night I told Toben I was pregnant.
Audrey was a little bit of a surprise, and I found out I was pregnant because I had a bladder infection. The nurse at the doctor's office said, "Oh by the way, did you know you're pregnant?" Well, I didn't! Toben was out of town in New York on a business trip, and we'd already planned for me to meet him. So I kept it a total secret for four or five days, and then flew to New York.
We got totally lost leaving the airport, got stuck in awful traffic, then drove down to Spring Lake, New Jersey, in a bad snowstorm. By the time we arrived, we were late for dinner at some friends' house. "When are you going to have kids?" my friend Ann asked us at dinner. I kept my mouth shut.
Finally, we got back to our hotel (a great Victorian place called The Chateau if you're ever there and need a place to stay) and I handed Toben a "Happy I Love You Day" present. He opened it to find binkies. And that's how I told him.
We stayed up for hours talking and dreaming and I think that's the night we decided she would be Audrey.
Now with Emma, I had a boy feeling. Not sure why, but I did. So Emma was going to be Charles (Charley, for short) after my dad. Until we went in for the ultrasound. There in the room we discovered she was Emma. Again, no other names, she was just Emma.
So I don't have another boy name. Or even another girl name that we almost chose. Though we said if we ever had a third girl, she'd be Jane. People often ask Toben if he ever wanted a boy, and the answer's no every time. And a third? Once Emma arrived, our family just felt complete.
***
So sewing.
I learned to sew when I was a little girl. My mom taught me on her Singer Featherweight machine that she took to college. My mother majored in home economics and is a wonderful seamstress. She always made her clothes, and our clothes too.
I made my first outfit when I was about seven years old--a skirt and blouse from a lovely pale green fabric. I was so proud of it! I continued to sew and can remember spending spring breaks in high school sewing for the entire week and starting school with a new wardrobe.
Dad always told Mom that she could spend as much as she wanted at the fabric store--because it used to be so much cheaper than buying our clothes. (Unfortunately, that's not true anymore so Toben's never given me that carte blanche!)
I do still sew clothes--for the girls and sometimes for myself. But I only choose patterns that have clean lines and are very simple. It's too heartbreaking when something doesn't fit or look right after all that time and money.
But mostly, I like to sew for the home--curtains, bags, pillows--stuff I can make without a pattern. I like to make it up as I go--that way there's no picture to compare it to and it usually turns out right!
When my third child, a boy, was born, I remember crying that night at the hospital. I had this overwhelming feeling that there was an Emma in me somewhere, and my husband didn't want any more children, so I would never get to meet her.
I gave birth to my Emma about 2 1/2 years later. That night, I felt complete.
Posted by: Raising Country Kids | March 12, 2008 at 07:55 AM