I'd like to pretend that our lives have been oh-so-interesting as of late and that is responsible for the lack of updates. But that is not the case. What is the case is that life has been oh-so-busy, and oh-so-tiring. I have a feeling that this is a trend that will continue until we decide we are done having children and our youngest is around the 2 or 3-year old mark. Add the wild card of a long trip to America every 3-4 years into the craziness of having young children and living overseas, and I predict that this blog will resume normal posting in approximately 3.5 years. But I could be wrong.
Let's recap a bit of the past three months for those who are still around.
1) Birthdays! We've celebrated eight, I think, since being stateside. Noel's, Jesus', mine, my step-mom's, Lane's, my niece Denali's, my brother's, and then a joint party for my dad, sister, and aunt, who all have birthdays in the next few weeks. Oops, that makes ten birthdays. Add in my other brother's upcoming birthday and you get 11. Add in the addition to our family due to appear four weeks from today and you get 12. I love me some May, when birthday season is over until October!
Celebrating my youngest brother's 21st birthday.
2) Traveling. As of Monday we have visited seven states in three months. We've put just under 7000 miles on our temporary vehicle. We've spent about $1300 in gas. While living in North Carolina we traveled as a family to: Virginia, Charlotte, Asheville (2x), RDU (2x), Greensboro (2x), and Boone. Shannon traveled to Ohio (make that eight states for him), Virginia, and Atlanta alone. Shannon and I traveled to Virginia and RDU once each without the girls, and we took a trip to Knoxville before Christmas without the girls. Next weekend we'll head to Nashville for a marriage retreat. And this week we're in Florida on "vacation" (meaning we're all here with no plans but Lane has been puking off and on for four days, so we're not getting to enjoy the beach much. Don't expect many pictures of our fun times lying around on the couch watching March Madness). After next weekend we have no plans to travel outside of Alabama, other than a family trip to Gatlinburg in late May. I am so excited to not go anywhere.
The girls at the Virginia Aquarium, what we had planned to be a short detour on our way home from a conference. Instead we ended up lost in Virginia Beach on our way home. East coast roads are so confusing for those of us without iPhones or a GPS, and mapquest does not give good directions these days!
3) Snow. Dear goodness has there been some snow in North Carolina this winter! And when you're driving a rear-wheel van, and your driveway is sloped, any time it snows it means you are definitely stuck at home. We had many plans get canceled due to the snow. Shannon jokes that it snowed more in the 11 weeks we were living in North Carolina this year than it did in the five years he lived there while in grad school. Seriously. So. much. snow.
The only really good thing about the snow and cold is that it completely justified in my mind the fact that we brought the girls' snow gear and boots with us to America.
4) Doctor's appointments. Well, obviously I'm quite pregnant. I've been to the doctor three times in America…once for an ultrasound at 23 weeks in Alabama with the doctor who will deliver this baby. And twice in North Carolina, once because I needed that lovely glucose screening test, and the second time because I figured that since I'd already gone to all the work to get myself in the system for the glucose test that I might as well go for the following monthly appointment. I'll have my second appointment with the doctor who will deliver this baby in about ten days, when I'll be 37.5 weeks. I think then we'll tell her that we caved and opened the envelope in which the ultrasound tech had written this baby's gender.
I think this officially makes me a girlie mom!
Also, Shannon injured his shoulder back in August when he was on his way home after his 3.5-week trip to America. It's been bothering him for months, so he saw a doctor, started some physical therapy, got an MRI, and continued the therapy. Three times a week for the whole time we were in North Carolina. While we're glad he didn't need surgery, driving 40 minutes round-trip to go to therapy for an hour three times a week gets old really quickly. So thankful he can continue the exercises at home and not have to leave so often!
5) Sickness. Shannon caught a cold in early February. Then Lane got it. Then Noel. Then me. Then Shannon again. Then me again. I don't think the girls have ever really kicked it, as they're still congested and coughing. I know that I was so relieved when I finally got a whole night's sleep in the midst of our travels and sicknesses during the month of February. Between my being sick, the girls being sick, all the traveling, and my being quite pregnant, a whole night's sleep hasn't happened much in the past three months. I am oh so grateful when it does happen!
6) Family time. Most of my family lives in North Carolina at this point in time. We were 25 minutes from my sister, brother-in-law, and their kids. My mom was 5 minutes from them. My brother was about an hour down the road. My dad and step-mom were in Asheville, a 2-3 hour drive away. And my other brother was up in Virginia, so he trekked down to see us for Lane's birthday. We may not have gotten to see each other a whole lot, due to various work and school schedules, but it was certainly more than we've seen each other over the past four years!
All the cousins on my side of the family.
My mom, doing crafts with the grandkids.
My sister, with her oldest and my oldest on a hay ride at Lazy 5 Ranch.
7) Fun stuff. We went to the Greensboro Science Center, where Lane pet a skink (and a snake) and we saw tigers and got to pet goats. My sister and brother-in-law took us to Lazy 5 Ranch, where we got to ride in a wagon and feed llamas from our hands, emus and ostriches and giraffes from a bucket of feed, and see pot-bellied pigs, zebras, Texas Longhorns, and camels wandering around the ranch. Lane finally got to get an ice-cream cone at McDonald's and play in the play-place, only to have another kid drop her drawers and poop at the top of the slide, forcing us to leave after playing for less than five minutes. We've eaten at Chic-fil-a numerous times, had some good barbecue, and taken the girls for hot chocolate at Starbucks. We went to the Winston-Salem Children's Museum and let the girls make Krispy Kreme doughnuts, milk a cow, catch flying scarves, go shopping at Food Lion, and climb a giant beanstalk. We've been trying to take advantage of all the fun, kid-friendly things that America has to offer!
This girl would not let go of that bucket of feed at Lazy 5!
And there you have it. The past 2.5 months, in a nutshell. It's been a good, although very tiring and hard, couple of months. Here's hoping for a bit of "normalcy" over the next three months!
Let's recap a bit of the past three months for those who are still around.
1) Birthdays! We've celebrated eight, I think, since being stateside. Noel's, Jesus', mine, my step-mom's, Lane's, my niece Denali's, my brother's, and then a joint party for my dad, sister, and aunt, who all have birthdays in the next few weeks. Oops, that makes ten birthdays. Add in my other brother's upcoming birthday and you get 11. Add in the addition to our family due to appear four weeks from today and you get 12. I love me some May, when birthday season is over until October!
Celebrating my youngest brother's 21st birthday.
2) Traveling. As of Monday we have visited seven states in three months. We've put just under 7000 miles on our temporary vehicle. We've spent about $1300 in gas. While living in North Carolina we traveled as a family to: Virginia, Charlotte, Asheville (2x), RDU (2x), Greensboro (2x), and Boone. Shannon traveled to Ohio (make that eight states for him), Virginia, and Atlanta alone. Shannon and I traveled to Virginia and RDU once each without the girls, and we took a trip to Knoxville before Christmas without the girls. Next weekend we'll head to Nashville for a marriage retreat. And this week we're in Florida on "vacation" (meaning we're all here with no plans but Lane has been puking off and on for four days, so we're not getting to enjoy the beach much. Don't expect many pictures of our fun times lying around on the couch watching March Madness). After next weekend we have no plans to travel outside of Alabama, other than a family trip to Gatlinburg in late May. I am so excited to not go anywhere.
The girls at the Virginia Aquarium, what we had planned to be a short detour on our way home from a conference. Instead we ended up lost in Virginia Beach on our way home. East coast roads are so confusing for those of us without iPhones or a GPS, and mapquest does not give good directions these days!
3) Snow. Dear goodness has there been some snow in North Carolina this winter! And when you're driving a rear-wheel van, and your driveway is sloped, any time it snows it means you are definitely stuck at home. We had many plans get canceled due to the snow. Shannon jokes that it snowed more in the 11 weeks we were living in North Carolina this year than it did in the five years he lived there while in grad school. Seriously. So. much. snow.
The only really good thing about the snow and cold is that it completely justified in my mind the fact that we brought the girls' snow gear and boots with us to America.
4) Doctor's appointments. Well, obviously I'm quite pregnant. I've been to the doctor three times in America…once for an ultrasound at 23 weeks in Alabama with the doctor who will deliver this baby. And twice in North Carolina, once because I needed that lovely glucose screening test, and the second time because I figured that since I'd already gone to all the work to get myself in the system for the glucose test that I might as well go for the following monthly appointment. I'll have my second appointment with the doctor who will deliver this baby in about ten days, when I'll be 37.5 weeks. I think then we'll tell her that we caved and opened the envelope in which the ultrasound tech had written this baby's gender.
I think this officially makes me a girlie mom!
Also, Shannon injured his shoulder back in August when he was on his way home after his 3.5-week trip to America. It's been bothering him for months, so he saw a doctor, started some physical therapy, got an MRI, and continued the therapy. Three times a week for the whole time we were in North Carolina. While we're glad he didn't need surgery, driving 40 minutes round-trip to go to therapy for an hour three times a week gets old really quickly. So thankful he can continue the exercises at home and not have to leave so often!
5) Sickness. Shannon caught a cold in early February. Then Lane got it. Then Noel. Then me. Then Shannon again. Then me again. I don't think the girls have ever really kicked it, as they're still congested and coughing. I know that I was so relieved when I finally got a whole night's sleep in the midst of our travels and sicknesses during the month of February. Between my being sick, the girls being sick, all the traveling, and my being quite pregnant, a whole night's sleep hasn't happened much in the past three months. I am oh so grateful when it does happen!
6) Family time. Most of my family lives in North Carolina at this point in time. We were 25 minutes from my sister, brother-in-law, and their kids. My mom was 5 minutes from them. My brother was about an hour down the road. My dad and step-mom were in Asheville, a 2-3 hour drive away. And my other brother was up in Virginia, so he trekked down to see us for Lane's birthday. We may not have gotten to see each other a whole lot, due to various work and school schedules, but it was certainly more than we've seen each other over the past four years!
All the cousins on my side of the family.
My mom, doing crafts with the grandkids.
My sister, with her oldest and my oldest on a hay ride at Lazy 5 Ranch.
7) Fun stuff. We went to the Greensboro Science Center, where Lane pet a skink (and a snake) and we saw tigers and got to pet goats. My sister and brother-in-law took us to Lazy 5 Ranch, where we got to ride in a wagon and feed llamas from our hands, emus and ostriches and giraffes from a bucket of feed, and see pot-bellied pigs, zebras, Texas Longhorns, and camels wandering around the ranch. Lane finally got to get an ice-cream cone at McDonald's and play in the play-place, only to have another kid drop her drawers and poop at the top of the slide, forcing us to leave after playing for less than five minutes. We've eaten at Chic-fil-a numerous times, had some good barbecue, and taken the girls for hot chocolate at Starbucks. We went to the Winston-Salem Children's Museum and let the girls make Krispy Kreme doughnuts, milk a cow, catch flying scarves, go shopping at Food Lion, and climb a giant beanstalk. We've been trying to take advantage of all the fun, kid-friendly things that America has to offer!
This girl would not let go of that bucket of feed at Lazy 5!
And there you have it. The past 2.5 months, in a nutshell. It's been a good, although very tiring and hard, couple of months. Here's hoping for a bit of "normalcy" over the next three months!
Yay! Congrats on your third girl! Just think how much fun it will be for them growing up with sisters! That is a lot of birthdays. Ours are mostly concentrated during the last half of the year and end in January. :)
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