I had a great b-day yesterday! The best part was dinner and a movie with Adam. Aside from the nausea that seems to hang over my head at the most inopportune times, it was very nice. Yay for me!
Earlier, before my date, I had gone to a party at my friend Kelli's house and I gave her a nativity that I had made from Russian nesting dolls.
Okay, so by the ticker on the right, you can see that we are expecting baby number 4. We are very excited, and I have been waiting for the 12 week mark so that I would be comfortable enough to share the news. But we have a long way to go still. May 20 to be exact, which happens to be the day after Erick's birthday. You never know though. This baby could come early- I'm not opting for later :)
Yesterday I had an Ob appointment and heard some sad news. Everything is okay with the baby so far, and we even got to see baby in an ultrasound, because we couldn't pick up his heartbeat with the little doo-hicky. I figured it was because of all the extra necessary padding that my body has been placing in the appropriate, yet not so desirable, places. The sad news was that my doctor... my sweet, great doctor is resigning from obstetrics. She's still working with the same practice as a gynecologist, but she regretfully informed me that she would not be able to deliver my baby. It's for a far more better reason that she is setting this aside and focusing her attention on more important things- like her own family, etc. But still, I'm going to miss her. She was more of a friend than a doctor. And we're going to definitely keep in touch and I'm going to finally give her the pictures of her holding baby Tripp and baby Chrissy that I should have already given her. Here is the story of how I first met Dr. Moeling and I will miss her terribly. She was more like family, because she helped me make mine. I hope that everything she wants in her life happens, and I know that the sacrifices that she makes in order to have these things happens are seen by the Lord and that He will bless her all the more for it. She is a great woman, and now a greater example to me.
Halloween was so much fun this year. Erick was a dragon for his pre-k party and Mr. Incredible/Dash for the church Trunk or Treat. It was funny when he called himself Mr. "Credible", ha ha. Tripp was Spiderman and very cute at it. I drew a little bit of a mask on his face and Erick's too to go with their costumes. Chrissy was a ballerina. She had some tights that had little ballet slippers knitted into the pattern, and it was so cute. She had her little pink tutu skirt on and then she pranced around! I made this adorable little owl hat for her and she loves to wear it. Bekah is visiting for a little while, and Ben is having a good time hanging out with his cousins. He was dressed as a skunk and was so cool! We happened to have an extra little friend hanging out with us that night. His name is Hayden and he was dressed as Mr. T! It was so cute and perfect!! I'll post some pictures later!
Vincent Van Gogh, Starry Night
She is so sweet and cute and funny! She has a huge personality and totally wears it all on her sleeve. When she's happy, you know it. When she's sad, you know that too- girl's got a set of lungs! She'll give you kisses, great snugly hugs, and high fives and if you give her a choice of what to wear, she'll pick out a skirt. Isn't that funny? My sweet little tomboy of a girl, who tries to keep up with her two very active older brothers, likes to be girly every now and then. She makes our home a happy one.
They are beautiful creatures, wouldn't you agree? Smart and social, these animals are extraordinary. When I was a kid, and I would play the game "If I were a sea animal, I would be...", I always picked dolphin (You know you played it too). Basically cause I thought it was cool that they could kill sharks by hitting them in the gills with their noses, but also because they are so majestic. It's tranquil when you see them swim and you hear wonderful stories about how they have saved human lives:
There are so many babies about to be born or will be soon! Two of those babies are related to me and are floating around inside my sister Bekah.Yes, she is having twins!! They are fraternal.
Identical twins fascinate me. I have always been interested in the fact that identical twins share the same DNA, faces, and other things that should be solely unique to one person. There is even a Twin Day festival that is held in Twinsburg, Ohio...
A festival for the mere celebration of being a twin?! How cool is that! I always wanted to be a twin. Maybe I'll have twins.
Also something that happened in August is that Erick started Pre-K. He goes all day from 8-2:30 and he really likes it. He has two great teachers that know how to keep him straight and one of his best friends is in his class with him- Bobbie. It's a she, not a he, and he probably likes her a tad more than she likes him, but that's to be understood. There's only so much a 4 yr old girl can like about a 4 yr old boy, right? :)
I've missed a few very important things that happen in August.
8-13
One being my 5 anniversary with Adam. We share a love for sushi- don't like it? Well, let me tell you, it is sooooo yummy! Most of the sushi I eat is actually cooked anyway, but I got Adam hooked on it and it's something we go do on special occasions. When I was in Utah in April, Michael took me to an all-you-can-eat sushi restaurant, where you are only allowed to dine for an hour! Well we were ordering left and right and pretty soon, I was nice and full... but it kept coming! Michael and I were doing our best, Velvet too, but everything started to taste like glue and I had a thought of going to the bathroom to throw up some, so that I could come back and help Michael finish, ha ha. If we had left any sushi uneaten, they would have charged us for it. So there's a tip for you!
8-mid of the month
Tripp busted his head on a toy and had to get a staple! Yeah, all was peaceful and Tripp and Chrissy were taking a nap- hence the peace- and suddenly there was this loud bang! So I sent Adam upstairs to check on Chrissy in case she happened to crawl out of her crib and fell to the floor. Next thing I hear is, "Eve! Eve!" Adam came out of the boys' room with Tripp in his arms, blood dripping from the back of his little head. We go to the bathroom and try to clean it up, but Tripp wouldn't let me touch it. My mom and I decided to go and take him to the ER, just to make sure he was alright and to see if he would need stitches. He was totally fine in the waiting room, in fact, he threw the biggest tantrum. When the doctor was checking him out, he asked me what happened and I told him that I really didn't know! One minute he was sleeping, the next bleeding! My mom had found a toy on the floor that had a little blood on it, the only toy in the room and it was not sharp at all. We figured he must have stood or sat up and fell backwards off his bed and his head landed on the toy? Yeah, it does sound crazy. The doctor said he would need just one staple and Tripp got it taken out a week later. The staple is now taped to a page in his baby book :)
8-28
Chrissy's 1st birthday!! She is is taking steps and blowing kisses. And is as cute as can be!!
She mooched a little off of her cousin Sarah's birthday party that we went to that day.
Then we had a little party at Grandma and Grandpa Olsen's house!
I'm doing this for a friend of a friend, because he asked for the help and also because it really touched me. I don't know this woman, but I can't imagine the grief that she's suffering and will suffer in the future. You can read more about her situation here, and my friend is asking for any type of donation. Don't feel obligated to help, just help if you can. It would devastate me to have my house burn down, but to have not just one, but two of my children die in the fire would nearly kill me. Clay is a very trustworthy friend, and I know that he will make sure that the family gets anything that is donated. It's unfortunate, and it's situations like these that chastise me back into the reality that I have nothing in my life to complain about, so I need to thank Heavenly Father for the blessings that I know he is giving me. He's taking care of her babies now, but she's sure going to miss them, as would I. She must be a strong woman, and has to be for her other children. God usually blesses his children through us, so if you can give something, then click on this, it's the same as the link above, and my friend will tell you how.
Yes, all of the above play an interesting part of my weekend vacation. It was the 3rd annual family vacation of the Olsen/Dotson/Yontz/Knox/Vancour + Tingen/Woolverton/Cook -Vancour this year. We made our plans way back in March and we all put our two cents in on likely places to camp. We hit the beach last year, so we decided on the mountains(which we'll prolly alternate every year). I knew of a few different places in Helen, GA and someone suggested The Squirrel's Nest at Unicoi State Park. She had been there several years back for girl's camp with church, so we all came to an agreement and decided that it would be the place. We would reserve as many as possible so that we could have the site exclusively to us. She informed us that The Squirrel's Nest was made up of covered platforms that were open on two sides with railings on the third, and that you couldn't park right there, that you would have a short hike from the car. I went home and looked it up and thinking it might be a challenge, I thought that it looked interesting. I had come up with a sleeping plan so that kids wouldn't roll off- Yes! Rolling off would be a problem, but not too bad. Or so I thought...
So we get checked in, and the flippant young man at the desk gave me a pamphlet about bears, along with my receipt. He said you need to read this, and I asked him, surely you are joking. He informed me that not just an hour ago they ran a bear out of the lodge parking lot and that they have been having quite a problem with bears this year. So for our protection, store all food items as well as soap/toothpaste inside our cars at night and prepare food away from where we are sleeping. My eyebrows are so high up on my head at this point! I hesitantly got the little blue papers to mark our two spots and got back to the car to tell Adam, as we set off to find the place. We parked in the designated parking and the boys and I skipped off to find our site. Then our skips turned into walking... then bewildered trudging... until we came upon the little "comfort station" which I soon found out was the halfway mark from camp to our car, not exact, but close enough. It was like a quarter of a mile up hill, both ways, to and from the car. I stopped and asked a nice retiree on a golf cart what was going on and if I was mistaken somehow in thinking that it was as bad as it seemed. He regretfully informed me that it was, but if I wanted to switch to a tent site, they had some available- well guess who didn't bring a tent because they aren't allowed on the platforms? Oh yes, he remembered, and he then asked me if I had a wagon. Well see, I try to be nice, especially to old, trying-to-be-helpful people, but what!? Really? Sorry, I forgot to pack my wagon, which of course we always bring camping just in case this type of circumstance arises! I told him no, we didn't have a wagon, and he then told me the location of the nearest Wal-Mart, a city away, and that maybe it would be worth it to buy a tent. I said thanks and goodbye, and secretly wished that he would give us a ride back to Adam,as we watched him drive away. What was done was done, so we trudged back up hill to Adam and told him the news. He wasn't too happy either, seeing as he would be a pack-mule this entire vacation. I did have Adam take us back to the lodge so that we could get a refund on one of the platforms, seeing as we couldn't use it to store any of our stuff.
We were the first of the families to arrive, and as they slowly trickled in throughout the day, the initial feelings were mutual. But we were all glad to be together and looking forward to all the plans that lay ahead.
We had a nice dinner and the Tingen's got the fire started for marshmallows.
That night proved to be terrible in referring to the sleep I had. That actually pretty much sums up the sleep I had for the whole trip. Not only did I wake up every time one of the kids moved, I couldn't go back to sleep for a while, thinking/listening/shining a flashlight for bears. Yes, I was that paranoid.
The next day we tried to do things together as a group:
Anna Ruby Falls
This was a nice hike for me, .5 miles up hill and pushing 20lbs of baby was a great workout. Lisa Cook's little boy, Ethan, soon buddied up with Erick and they became best friends. It was so cute! Adam and Tripp were hiking buddies as well. The falls were beautiful and I loved the roaring of the water. 
We also went to Charlemagne's Kingdom to check out model trains. It was awesome! This man had built to scale a city of... everything! It was patterned after northern Germany and included the Matterhorn. He had hot air balloons, a roller coaster, spaceships, much more, and of course... trains! He even had moving parts for the hot air balloons and even a little swimming figurine.
Ethan had a little birthday party complete with a Spider Man pinata.
Yes, my son is Spider Man.
That night, as Adam and I were getting ready to lay down, we had an infestation. A moth as big as my palm was flying around our little lamp. I was trying not to get hit by it, and as I moved to get away, Adam called for me to watch out! Right above my head was a huge spider, suspended on it's web. I think it was waiting for me! We called our friend Kevin to come and kill every thing, and Adam borrowed a broom to clear away anything else that might have been hiding. We got a little chuckle from the neighbor in front of us, but soon all was well again. Until... after I managed to fall asleep, I awoke to find Erick standing next to me. In my sleeping stupor... I tackled him! I thought he might of been sleep walking off the platform! It occurred to me later that he might've just been standing next to me calling my name, but... yeah. So I held him tight as he cried, and he asked why I scared him. HA! Turns out he needed water. Unfortunately though, throughout the rest of the night, he kept waking me up asking me "what's that noise" and "is the bear going to get me" type of stuff. Ughhh...
Saturday was the big tubing event! Three hours on the river. Wasn't that bad, didn't get burned. The babies slept on Adam while I maneuvered us around. My legs got quite the workout on this whole trip.
Finally it was time to leave, and although it had a ton of cons, the pros were better and we had a good time. Looking forward to next year!
I'm going camping in a couple of weeks with a group that we go on vacation with every year- this is the 3rd annual trip. The first time we went camping was up in north Georgia at Lake Carter. Last year we went to St. Andrew's in Panama City. This year we are camping in Helen. I love Helen! This is where we almost always went camping when I was growing up. And then I continued that tradition with my friend Rebeccah for a couple of years. That where Adam and I went on our honeymoon, and where we went for a little excursion of our own when Erick was little.
I love the little Swiss theme, and all the shops- the candle shop was my favorite.
I've rock climbed on the rock "face" of Mt. Yonah with neighboring campers, I was scared to death and did not get that far, and I've tubed down the Chattahoochee River countless times.
There is great history there and Anna Ruby Falls is really beautiful!
I'm wanting to learn some new guitar tab so that I can play the guitar around the campfire again. I've written some new songs of my own, but who doesn't like to sing "Kumbaya"? Just kidding, there will be no singing of that song, but definitely maybe some Beatles songs and maybe I'll ask for requests- Freebird? That's a tough one, I've already tried it, lol.
I love swimming and always have. I remember pretending to have fins like a fish at a family reunion at Jaybird when I was little. Then it became a mermaid tail when the movie Splash came out, and again when the movie The Little Mermaid came out. I remember being 10 and climbing up the high dive in Riverton, Utah and biting my tongue as I hit the water- I am so afraid of heights.
This is a batik piece that I did in high school of that high dive memory, got a little banged up a few years ago in storage. The pool probably wasn't as big as it seemed to a little kid, but it definitely felt like I was 20 feet up in the air- and who knows? Maybe it was. But I can't for the life of me figure out why I went up there in the first place. I'm proud of myself for using a little courage though. Chalk it up to my love of swimming... I went swimming today, and it was fun.
I would say that my family is a musical bunch. I mean, maybe not in the traditional way that some families are. No one had actual lessons for any instruments, aside from band or chorus in school. But our love for music runs deeper than that. Now, I've mentioned that my dad was never around growing up, but he did play the bass, guitar, and piano. He was a natural at it. I'm sure that influenced Sam to pick up a guitar, which he is very good at. But that's not it. I think our love for music came from my mom. She always played classic rock in the car, and I can't speak for the older three, but I know that Michael, Rebekah, and I always sang along with our Mom to the radio. We would even sing parts. Remember that part in Wayne's World? The Queen sing-a-long? That was us, and in fact, we laughed so hard at that movie, because we knew somehow they got that from us. Music has always been a part of my soul, even when I couldn't play the guitar. I even ride around with my kids now, singing songs from the radio, church, or some I just make up to pass the car ride. Sometimes the kids would rather listen to the radio, but most of the time they give the substance for the songs. Today we were on our way to Erick's swim lessons and we passed several American flags and I remembered that growing up, whenever we saw an American flag, we would sing the song You're A Grand Ole Flag. My mom said that she and my dad and the older three would sing that a lot, but since it was kind of pre-me, I just remember it with Mom and us younger 3. It's a great song that instills patriotism and a love for freedom. I told Erick that whenever we saw a flag, we would sing the song. We happened to see quite a lot, which made me proud of my fellow Georgians, and it was really cool to see Erick so excited to see our country's flag. We happen to have one flying in our front yard, and I'm glad that I was brought up with a way to help me learn to love this country and what it really stands for. It made me a little sad to see so many houses without that wonderful symbol of freedom, and I hope that this Fourth of July will bring a sense of urgency to some people that freedom is a privilege and WE have to fight for it, not just a few people who hold positions. My family also sang the Pledge of Allegiance after some of us sang in a Fourth of July choir presentation to veterans several years back. I'm going to teach that song to my kids as well, so that they will also know it and be able to remember what America really stands for.
We're going to the water park today. Can't wait. No, I'm sure it will be fun, and I'm going to sit as close to the water without getting soaked. I think I'm going to bring a fold out chair instead of sharing the benches. That way I can sit in the shade and face any direction I choose. I remember before we had Newnan Utilities park, we had Water Works park. It was awesome! It had a little merry-go-round, and monkey bars, and water to play in. I remember feeling really upset when they closed it down, and by the time they had built Newnan Utilities, I no longer had the same desire to play in the water at a park that was any smaller then Six Flags or White Water. Bummer.
Okay, so you know those projects that you really want to work on, but something is keeping you from doing them. No you don't, you prolly get them all done. Yeah, I'm talking to you.
Did you think I meant you? Well, I didn't. It's just that I had to blow off a little steam. I'm sure I'll get all things done on my project wish list that I would like to do... someday. I have some portraits to do of my kids- FUN! But first I have to figure out what pictures and then where is space... it's a project just preparing for a project. Some of my projects are hindered by the fact that our dining room is a temporary storage room. Adam took everything our of the sunroom and turned it into our home gym. It's pretty awesome and I'm actually getting good use out of it too, but he put everything into the dining room and I have been ignoring it. I'm noticing more and more everyday that I could be practicing my piano skills, art, etc. if all these boxes weren't in here. I guess if I haven't used all this stuff in a few months, then I really don't need it? Maybe, but I'm just going to have to bite the bullet and go through it all... again. Maybe I should just trash it, and then when I need something that I might have gotten rid of, I'll just buy it or rethink if I really need it. I could even borrow the something that I might need. Yeah, that's actually sounding good. We'll see.
With tomato plants, and yellow squash, and carrots all in a row.
Actually, I picked most of the carrots on Sunday and sauteed them with olive oil and a little butter and brown sugar- they were awesome! They were also really neat looking. Erick said that the three-pronged carrot was a "Fire Nation" carrot because it looked like the Fire Nation symbol on Avatar:The Last Airbender. Yeah, my 4 year old is cool.
This is what my garden looked like two weeks ago: 
And this is what it looks like today:
I have a zucchini, finally, and more squash is coming. I have lots of tomatoes that I am trying to be patient with waiting for them to turn red. And the cucumbers are getting big!
Ahhh... gardening makes me happy.
