Chabo Stew

Tales of a Naughty Blogger, part 2

2011-08-29T14:28:00.000-04:00

This is what we've been up to more recently.

The girls and I took a trip to northern Virginia to visit my parents. We stayed for a few days. We shopped till we very literally dropped and had a great time relaxing with 'Nana and Papaw'.

Lunch time!

Alice with food hanging out of her mouth. She loved Nana's ginger bread cookies.

Lucy-loo.

Then Lucy, Alice, Penny, and I left for Hershey, PA to meet up with Travis at an anesthesia conference being held at the Hershey Lodge, while Sophia and Holly stayed for their first ever Nana Camp. Upon check-in at the Lodge they handed Travis a huge stack of Hershey's chocolate bars. Delicious!

The sheets we decorated with Hershey kisses.

And so was the bathroom wallpaper!

The hotel was HUGE and had a bunch of wings that were named after their different candies. They must have known my proclivity for chocolate and peanut butter because we were on the Reese's peanut butter cup wing.

Ordered room service for our breakfast. So pretty. And it came with MORE candy. Bonus!

The next morning (after our ~~chocolatety~~ healthy breakfast) We went to The Hershey Museum to learn about how Milton Hershey made the company. (Basically, he started with other candies, moved into chocolate, encouraged ideas from all the workers, gave away his entire fortune twice, started a school for disadvantaged youth that's still there today, and lots of other good stuff.)

Lucy was b-o-r-e-d. Luckily they had a little hands on exhibit for kids about Mayans and chocolate.

She got to learn about how they separated, roasted, and pounded out the cocoa beans; dig for puzzle pieces (that would eventually show a Mayan hieroglyph depicting a cocoa bean); grind cocoa; spin it into a froth; and eventually decorate a burlap bag with chocolate in it. She was happy.

Outside, on the main drag of Hershey, PA the street lights are all huge Hershey kisses. Cute!

Also outside was a group of Hershey workers protesting. This was all over the news while we were there and apparently these are college students from other countries who are hired for the summer by a third party company to come to America (paid for), stay in apartments with other college kids (paid for), and work at the Hershey factory for about $8/hour for the summer. They were protesting because they felt they were being treated like slaves. Can you tell I don't feel bad for these people?

Then we ate lunch at a yummy Japanese restaurant where our kind server made Lucy some 'chompsticks'.

Alice chowed on the sticky rice.

After that we went to Hershey Gardens. Beautiful place! They had this adorable butterfly chair that Lucy thought was just for her.

The gardens had some great views of the town.

They also had a Children's Garden section full of lots of fun, beautiful, and good smelling stuff.

Everybody had fun.

At this statue, Lucy said, "MEAN TURKEY!" :)

The following day, our friends the Allred's, who live a couple of hours away, came to visit us. We went to Hershey's Chocolate World. There's lot of stuff to do there as long as you want to spend money for them, don't need a stroller, and love buying Hershey's brand stuff. We were a little disappointed. Mostly because it was super packed and between our 2 families we had 4 kids under the age of 2 and REALLY missed having a stroller to cart them around in (they're not allowed in most areas). Plus, we're not really Hershey collectors or anything, I'm not much of a shopper and most of the building is a giant store. One of the attractions that they have there that's free is a Hershey kisses packaging area for kids. They take your picture and put it on a tag (which you can buy for a small fee), put on a workers hat, give the kids a kiss shaped container and let them fill it up. You can keep the container, also for a small fee.

We decided to splurge for the adults and the Allred's oldest son to 'Make your own candy bar!' That was actually pretty fun and interesting, but they didn't explain that the other kids over 2 couldn't come into the 'lab', too, so Ryan Allred nobly gave his ticket to their next oldest kid, and he took the other one over 2 out and bought her cupcakes. We got to pick our flavor of chocolate (white or milk), 3 'drop-ins' from a list of 6, and whether or not we wanted sprinkles on top. They had signs up that were quite informative that talked about the candy bar making process. We educated ourselves while we watched our candy bars get made. You also get to design the packaging for your bar, which was unexpected and fun. Mine was milk chocolate with pretzels, toffee, and raspberry bits. It was pretty good.

Then we looked around in the stores and I bought a 1 lb Reese's Peanut Butter Cup. Yes. You read that right. We also did the other free thing, a 'ride' that talks about how they make chocolate. Think 'it's a small world' but with cows and slightly less singing. Our friends the Allred's bought us a giant candy bar that had a picture of all of us on it. We love them and miss them!

We also had a good time just hanging out in the hotel. It was unbelievable. There were 3 or 4 pools, a playground, tennis courts, game room, wii room, 'character' sightings, biggest splash contests, and kids craft areas. Lucy even got to meet some of the 'characters' in the lobby during breakfast one day.

The next day, my parents brought Sophia and Holly up to Hershey and we decided to head to Hershey Amusement Park. They had a fantastic time.

After that, we were all pretty exhausted and it was time to go back home.

A couple of days later, Sophia had her first day of school. 1st grade!

The next day, Travis took us to a place that had these.

And we got this one.

And this guy?

Well, it's time to find him a different home. He just needs more attention then this mom of 5 can give. Anybody looking for an obnoxious dog? Just message me! :)

Tales of a Naughty Blogger, part 1

2011-08-24T11:55:00.000-04:00

I admit it. I have been extremely lax in posting our summer funness. So now I'll have to do it in 2 parts.
In July we went to Colorado, Wyoming, and Montana to visit some of Travis's extended family and had a fabulous time! First, we went to Montana where his Aunt Linda and Uncle Butch invited the other Aunts, Uncles and Cousins over for a Sunday afternoon cookout.

Then we went down to Buffalo, Wyoming to see his Grandpa Chabo. The girls had a fun time snuggling together in the queen guest bed at his house, then it was up into the Big Horn Mountains to the cabin for some serious fishin

We also too long naps, took sink baths, snuggled, and saw some wildlife. (That's a moose.)

We basked in the beauty around us and played on the shore.

And generally, just had a fantastic time.

Thanks, Grandpa, for letting us stay with you! We had a great time at the cabin!

Then, we came back home and the good times rolled.

Alice and Penny started teething, we got a dog, and Sophia and Holly went to soccer camp.

And now that all of my children are literally crying for my attention I'll let that be the end of part 1. More to come!

It's not brain surgery....oh, wait.

2011-06-12T16:47:00.000-04:00

It's been a few months so, let me catch you up on the things we've learned lately.
In April we went to NC over an extended Easter weekend where we learned that candy is delicious.

And that taking a family picture is really hard.

We also discovered that Alice and Aunt Bea look more like twins then Alice and Penny.

And that Grandma and Papa make an adorable couple.

We were very pleased to learn that if you put cousin Lily and Lucy together long enough they will turn from frienemies into besties.

And amazed to see cousin Claire walking around like a pro (and by 'pro' we mean a little Frankensteinish... but in a toddler, that's adorable! :))

We learned that a fourth brain surgery is no big deal to a seasoned veteran like my mother-in-law!

We were very excited to learn that Sophia LOVES reading (at a 4th grade level!) almost as much as she loves finishing Kindergarten and starting summer break, even though she'll miss her BFF, Kendall.

We learned that we need a more powerful zoom on our camera if we plan on sitting that far back at a dance recital. But, they were SUPER adorable. (Can you spot the Chabo's? :))

We learned that even little kids are into 'Twilight'.
(Just kidding!! Of course, they know nothing about it. But they have heard about Dracula/vampires and licked the beaters after we made a red velvet cake...)

We found out recently that babies who are snuggling, sleeping, smiling, or naked are REALLY cute. (Who knew?!)

And lastly, we learned that our church activities are really fun! (mostly because the people are so great!)

Mom, Dad. I'm Gaelic.

2011-03-16T16:36:00.000-04:00

Happy St. Patricks Day, everyone! This year our family will celebrate the holiday in the traditional way that everyone (who doesn't drink) celebrates St. Patricks Day. By eating! And to make it even more joyous, this year Holly can really EAT! She just had her 4th annual allergy testing and this year all her food allergies were GONE. I could not believe it! After being forced to choke down bread made from tapioca starch and rice flour for the past 4 years, she's finally able to eat like every other kid. Chocolate chip cookies! Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches! Pizza! Chicken nuggets! Reese's peanut butter cups! Grilled cheese sandwiches! Brownies! Pretzels! Corn dogs! Scrambled eggs! Waffles! Mayonnaise! Real bread! I won't to have butter her 'toast' with a separate knife, or make a special Holly-ized version of nearly every meal, or terrify the babysitter by showing her how to use an epipen in case Holly stops breathing, or take away half her Halloween candy! She can even eat her own birthday cake! The list could literally go on and on... I'm just so proud of Holly for always being so sweet through the gross and different food she's had to eat these last few years. When we got in the car after the momentous visit to the allergist, Holly pumped both her fists in the air and said, "I DID it!" That sweet exclamation brought tears to my eyes. Forget St. Patrick, this year I'll celebrate my Holly. Because she deserves it.

How to Devastate a Dental Hygienist.

2011-02-27T18:52:00.000-05:00

that's how.

Not that I'm opposed to children's baby teeth falling out, in general. In fact, I consider myself PRO in all things children-having-fun-with-teeth related. (and everyone knows that wiggling/loosing teeth and being visited by the tooth fairy are SUPER fun!) At least that's how this girl sees it.
But I AM against loosing your teeth before their prime. I mean, that tooth wasn't even 4 years old! My little Holly-Bolly just had her 4th birthday last month! That tooth should have had at least 2 more good years to it! *sigh* Sadly, Holly has always been careless where her mouth was concerned. Always smashing it into things. The concrete floor at Walmart...her cousin Lily's head... That poor tooth finally succumbed tonight to an innocent bowl of white chicken chili. And I, her dental hygienist mom, am devastated. Holly, however, couldn't be more excited. She has been running around looking into every available reflective surface for the last 30 minutes. She LOVES it. She is blissfully unaware that she'll have that lovely hole in her face for 3 more years. Or that loosing that little tiny tooth so early will cause her permanent tooth to be delayed coming into that spot. It will most likely cause crowding and general crazy-lookin-teethness for several years. Until she gets braces. *sigh* Well, at least someone's happy about it.

For Unto Us (the chabo's) A Child (or two) Is Born!

2010-12-20T15:16:00.000-05:00

I apologize for the tardiness of this post. All I can say in my defense is that I have been very busy. :)

Welcome Alice Robin Chabo. 18 inches, 4 lbs, 15 oz. November 30th, 12:22 pm. Adorable.

And...

Welcome Penelope Anne Chabo. 18 1/2 inches, 5 lbs, 3 oz. November 30th, 12:23 pm. Cute as a button.

Late Monday evening, Nov. 29th, I felt a strange pain and wondered if my water had broken. So I told the hubby and scooted to the bathroom. A few hours later I was still very unsure. My honey is a natural worrier when it comes to me being in labor (which isn't really his fault considering he had to deliver our last one in the kitchen when we didn't get to the hospital in time. Plus, as a nurse anesthetist, he sees lots of births and knows all the things that can go wrong, while I am blissfully ignorant.) so he stayed up cleaning the house (his stress relief) while trying every tactic to get me to wake up the kids (at 1 am!) and drag them to the hospital so they could check and see if my water really broke. I flatly refused. I was having no contractions, no leakage, I was exhausted, and had a migraine. I was going to bed. He only accepted when I promised to go to the doctor the next day and have the 'i-think-my-water-broke' test done. Well rested the next morning, I got the kids up and ready, took Sophia to school, took Holly to get her hair cut, and finally dropped both Holly and Lucy at my girlfriend Elisa's house while I just whipped over to the hospital so they could confirm that my water hadn't, in fact, broken. I was mistaken. My water had, in fact, broken and I hadn't even brought the packed hospital bag. I had walked into the hospital with no more then my jacket and purse. And of course because of my speedy labors in the past and the baby on the bottom (Alice) being breech, they were all mad at me for not coming in sooner. (whatever OB people! I wasn't having any contractions and this isn't my first trip around the Birthing Center! At least I'm well rested!!) So they threw me in the OR and prepped me for a c-section.
The next 30 minutes was a miracle. Everything went great. Both my OB dr's happen to be there so they both helped deliver our 2 girls. The bassinettes were positioned such that I could see my babies when they came out, which I loved. Alice came out first and screaming. Penny was next and came out not so much screaming as grunting. (c-section babies often have goop in their lungs, and this was Penny. She coughed it out soon enough.) They were perfect. I was numb. It was heaven.
When I was still pregnant and moping about the baby being breech and needing a c-section, one girlfriend of mine commented that this way I will have experienced it all. Hospital birth, epidural, induction, home birth, natural labor/birth, and c-section. I have to say in my experience, natural childbirth is a 10 on the pain scale, and both induction without epidural and post surgery c-section pain are an 11. Holy cow. That recovery is some business. But, now 2 weeks out, I feel really great, my girls are gorgeous, and we're all happy. Hooray for babies!

Where the heck have you been?!

2010-11-12T15:48:00.001-05:00

Well, I will tell you where the heck I've been. Mostly laying glassy-eyed on the couch, occasionally barfing, and even less often, doing something else. So here's a photo version of the past 6ish months of the latter.

Nana came to stay with us to take care of Laura and the kiddos for 2 whole months (Thanks, Nana!!) . Sophia graduated from preschool with a real degree and everything, and Sophia and Holly had their dance recital and performed like pro's.

Travis's Mom had 6 aneurysms and a stroke or 2 at the end of May (and as you can see that did not stop her from being the social butterfly that she is :)). Travis took Sophia and Holly with him down to NC to visit and they got to see Grandma, Papa, and cousins Vivi and CJ as well as cousins Lily, Abby, and Claire and their Aunts and Uncles that live there. We also went swimming at the pool and feed the animals in Amish country when Papaw came up to see Nana and us during July 4th.

We had smores in the backyard fire pit, had a girls 'spa and beauty day', danced at our friend Elisa's wedding, and Sophia and Holly took swimming lessons (they are fabulous swimmers, naturally!)

Aunt Susy came to stay with us and brought cousins Lily and Claire with her. As you can see, we were all very excited. :) We chilled at the pool, snuggled and played, and rode the pony's at Hersberger's Farm.

Sophia had her very first day of Kindergarten. Holy Cow. See how happy she is? The third photo is Sophia's face as she gets ready to go into her classroom. The fourth photo is my face when I broke down in the car. The last photo is the junk food I bought at the store to pork out on at home cause I missed her. Hey, I still weigh less then I did when I got pregnant, so I'm allowed.

Travis and I had our 8th anniversary (awwww...). Sophia and Holly started dance lessons back up. Mommy turned 27 again and Lucy learned how to make a grumpy face.

We went to the Coshocton County Fair and rode LOTS of kiddie rides. Then we went down to NC to visit and got to go to the NC State Fair to hold ducks, get our faces painted, and see amazing crafts (yes, that IS the Tardis from Dr. Who done in beadwork. Fabulous!)

Halloween came and the girls dressed up as Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, and Mulan. I had a costume, too. Then Travis ran a half marathon! It was freezing outside but he did great!

And finally, Lucy turned 2! She's so cute. If you look in the last picture you'll notice a dog. His name is Petey. We found him and thought we were going to keep him, but alas, after a month his owners have finally come forward. We will miss him. (But truth be told, a certain mommy who is pregnant with twins really can't handle a new dog on top of everything else right now, so even though he is a sweet little dog, it worked out for the best in her humble opinion. :))

So, there you have it. A shortened version of the last 6 1/2 months. Hopefully I'll be posting again shortly because I have given birth! I'm scheduled for a c-section on Dec. 14th (baby on the bottom is breech). So, maybe my next post will be shorter but infinitely cuter. :)

Laura got sick of the pump and just tore it off.

2010-08-03T13:20:00.000-04:00

So I've been hooked up to this pump for the last 11 weeks that slowly pushes Zofran (an anti-nausea medication) into my leg. It does some wonderful things like make me not so barfy, makes it easier for me to eat and drink, and also to keep those food and liquids inside my body rather then having them just use my mouth as a revolving door. It also does some things I'm not so crazy about. For example, in order for the medicine to go into my leg, everyday I stab myself with what looks like the biggest thumb tack you could imagine (and then add 2 inches to that) and it's attached to a small tube that stays a few inches under the skin and the meds run into my leg and pool underneath the fat and muscle tissues there. It leaves a very large, red, swollen area (a little bigger then a computer mouse, but a little smaller then a bagel) that hurts a LOT. So much so, that you're willing to stab yourself in the other leg just to give the first one a break. As with any other owwie, they don't heal instantly, it takes about a week for them to be completely gone, so what you really end up with are 2 legs covered with varying degrees of healing welts with knots, bruises with knots, and knots. Eventually you run out of real estate. So yesterday afternoon I was trying to move that thing to a new spot, but the needle just WOULDN'T go in. I tried 8 times with 2 different needles all to no avail. I had noticed that it had been getting progressively more difficult to get that thing down into my leg for a while now, but I could always get it eventually.(according to my nurse husband, it's most likely due to the increased amount of scar tissue I have under the skin from having done this 78 different times.) So, I just turned the pump off and set it on the counter. I'm free. Probably. With the pump, I also get a home health nurse who calls every other day to make sure I'm gaining weight and don't have too many keytones (which if you don't know what that is let's just say it measures if your body is digesting your muscles for fuel). So I've discussed with my nurse what the process is for getting me off the pump and she definately didn't say 'just rip it off when you can't take it anymore'. It was more like turning the pump down by degrees till I'm off it completely. Although my nurse, Louise, is the best and she did say that a lot of girls do just turn it off one day and there's technically nothing wrong with that. So I'm free. For right now. I've been off it now almost 24 hours and I feel pretty ok. More nauseous and tired, but I haven't thrown up, and I've been eating and drinking. So far, so good. :) I'm happy. I don't have to sling on my 'medicine purse' (as my girls call it) everytime I stand up. And by the way, that picture at the top is the pump itself and some model with the 'site' in her abdomen. (you can put it there too, and I did a few times, but it hurts a lot more there on me for some reason.)

It's Twosies!!

2010-05-30T13:44:00.000-04:00

Yep. I'm pregnant again. And it's twins. :) They're due Christmas day, but we don't expect me to make it that far, so it'll probably be closer to Thanksgiving. I'm only 10 weeks along, so I wouldn't normally we telling yet, but I'm so stinkin sick that my mom has graciously moved from her home near DC to our house to take care of me and our 3 monkeys. I'm hooked to a Zofran pump (it's antinausea medicine) and still taking other meds to help with the hyperemisis, too. I'll probably be like this (I'm basicly on bedrest and I've still lost about 9 lbs so far) till about October. So you might not hear much from me for a while. Just thought I'd let you know. Also, to any of my girlfriends who have twins, any websites, groups, etc... that you found helpful, send my way! Because eventually I'm going to get beyond needing to focus on just breathing and I'll be able to digest the fact that I'll be the mother of TWINS! Ok, so love you!

Goin' to Carolina in my mind...

2010-04-18T19:27:00.001-04:00

Hey Ya'll. So a few weeks ago we took a fabulous (though entirely too short) trip to NC, and here's a musical version of what happened. Enjoy.
Miss Susy had a baby. She named her baby Claire.

Butterfly in the sky. I can fly twice as high... (at the NC Museum of Life and Science!)

Everybody do the dinosaur.

Ridin' that train. High on... life and science!

I scream, you scream, we all scream for Sunni Sky's ice cream!

Lying in the (grass) you found me, you found me...

We are family!

The End. (applause.)

Holly enters a Yevgeny Plushenko look-a-like contest

2010-03-08T16:11:00.000-05:00

Ok, she didn't really. But she could. She would totally win. She cut her hair and now looks unfortunately like a certain spoiled Russian male figure skater. I am devistated. I let Holly have some safety scissors to cut up a piece of paper and I stupidly went upstairs to fold clothes. When I came downstairs I found this.
If you hadn't noticed her hair use to be cut into an ADORABLE bob cut. Now....well, it's not. See for yourself.

So, I accidentally stole a dog...

2009-12-06T20:10:00.000-05:00

We live out in the country and as we were driving home from dropping Sophia off at preschool, Holly and I noticed a dog running around all over the place. He was running across a field, then down a side road, and finally through someones yard. I decided to stop because I always feel bad for strays and this one was obviously someones pet at one point. I pulled over, got out, and called to the dog. He ran back across the yard to me and jumped up all excited. The little guy had a collar but no tag and was pretty dirty. So we decided to take him with us, clean him up, and give him some food. I went to the store and bought some dog food and dog shampoo. Brought him in and gave him a bath, then made him a doggie bed in the garage with some fuzzy blankets. We took some pictures and made up a flier that we planned to post around in the countryside near where we found him. He was a really sweet dog and Holly was having a BLAST taking care of him, even though she's allergic. I just kept making her come inside and wash her hands and that seemed to help her not get a rash. Eventually we went and picked up Sophia from preschool who was equally excited about taking care of her new dog, Gabriella (no amount of saying, "but this is a boy, not a girl" could change her mind on the name). Then that evening after dinner we drove down the road and decided to stop at the houses near where we found him to ask if anyone recognized him. Our first stop was the house that was in the yard that we picked him up from. Yeah, he was theirs and, no, I didn't tell the people that we "saved" him from their front yard. Shhh... it'll be our secret! :)

Also, here's the picture we took of the girls with Santa. We're pretty sure Lucy's freakin out about the guys eyebrows. Enjoy!

New pictures, New paint, and Pneumonia

2009-11-01T18:26:00.000-05:00

Ok, so it's been forever since I've blog. Thus, I have about a zillion things I need to put up here. We'll start with the girls new photos. We had these taken in September and just got them. I LOVE them!!! Here there are.

There are a few others, but I couldn't get them in here right side up instead of sideways. Not sure what that's about. Anyways, yes we LOVE them!!!
That same week we got to see my little brother, John, and his wife, Amanda, and their daughter, Abby, while they were on their move from Idaho to North Carolina. We had a great visit and are so glad to have them back east of the Mississippi!

A few weeks later I got to go down to NC with the girls to visit our family and friends there. We had a great time! We got to visit some old friends at a baby shower, attend the Relief Society General Broadcast with my mom, my 2 sisters, and one of my sister in laws, watch all the sessions of General Conference, and visit with other good friends during that week. In case you didn't know, my sister Heather is a fabulous seamstress and whipped up these cute little bags for Sophia and Holly while we were there. She sells lots of her bags and things on Etsy and I follow her blog, too. Super cute! All in all it was a much needed southern soaking.

One of the perks, however, of living above the Mason-Dixon line are the beautiful colors you see on the trees everywhere you go. These are the trees in our front yard. Beautiful! I love it!!

So, it was Halloween this past week! We had several days of celebration with preschool party's, church trunk or treating, trick or treating in town, and a MOPS playgroup party. Here are a few pictures of the girls eating the banana "ghosts" we made for the playgroup party (allergy free! just bananas, raisins, and popsicle sticks!), and dressed up for trick or treating as Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, and a baby fairy. And just in case you ever wonder what Halloween is like for a kid with food allergies, I took a picture of all of Holly's Halloween loot and then another one with it divided into "allergic" and "not allergic" piles. :( You'll notice most of the really yummy stuff is on the left/allergic side. (Also, remember that she's not allergic to dairy anymore or the pile would be even smaller and contain no chocolate.) :(

And lastly, I am currently recoving from a fabulous case of pneumonia, which is pretty much just as awesome as it sounds. I'd never had pneumonia before. It was freaky. It felt like a carnival worker was sitting on my chest and everyday he got fatter and fatter and I could breath less and less. It sucks. Literally. One of the reasons I think I kept getting worse instead of better for so long is that I didn't know what was wrong with me and decided just to keep going like nothing was wrong. So I painted our front door red. It didn't help the pneumonia, but I think it definately helped our homes aesthetic. Here are before and after photos. Likey or no likey? Should I paint the 2 side thingys, too? Let me know what you think.

Big day of firsts

2009-09-08T22:39:00.000-04:00

A few weeks ago as I was filling out the necessary forms for Sophia to start preschool I got really teary-eyed. I can't believe she's going to school. Not that she isn't ready (She's more then ready.) I can't believe she's gotten so big. I know she's as tall as a 6 year old, but she's still only 4 1/2! But now a days (I say that like I'm 100) all the kids start sooner than that. There's a little girl just her age in her class who's been there for 2 years already.
We're only sending her for 3 hours on 3 days a week and I still feel weird about having her gone from me for such a long time during the day. Crazy. But the ladies at her school are vigilant about keeping the kids safe and know that only Travis or I are allowed to pick her up. So that makes me feel better.
Well, she loved every minute of it and can't wait to go back.

Here she is posing before we left this morning. (she picked the clothes out herself the night before.)

Walking hand in hand with Daddy up to school.

Hanging up her school bag on the hook for the first time.

Her smile just before she walks into her classroom.

Holly's face when she realizes (even though we explained it many times!) that only Sophia was going to school and she couldn't stay too.

Holly, later on, before going to her first tumbling class.

So we had a busy day! A big day of firsts. And ready to do it all over again tomorrow. :)

Hams

2009-07-28T21:24:00.000-04:00

Here are some recent pictures from our trips to St. Louis (Wade reunion and the Magic House), North Carolina, and just hanging around the house.
ps- yes, those ARE deep fried pickles. And they were freakin AWESOME!!!

Adventures in Babysitters

2009-06-27T10:09:00.000-04:00

Last night Travis and I were able to go to the temple together in Columbus, so we got a 16 year old babysitter who is in the branch and had come highly recommended by several people. This was her first time babysitting for us, so I got her a little early so I could show her around and run through our bedtime routine (since we'd be gone from 6 pm-12 pm). I was very specific that our kids aren't great sleepers unless you follow the routine and I showed her exactly where everything is, what time to begin, and what order to go in. I had also just cooked up some taco meat and cut up/shredded the toppings and put them on the counter so they could eat right after we left, so I showed her all of that, too. She and the girls all seemed excited and we left confident that thing would go great. The temple was wonderful as usual, and when I came in I didn't hear any crying and noticed that the young lady was sitting on the couch texting, so I thought "hooray! everyone really did go to sleep!" However, I then noticed that ALL the food was still out on the counter. Taco meat, cheese, sour cream...all just sitting there for the last 6 hours. "hmmm..." I thought, "Not good. I had cooked up a bunch of extras because we love leftovers. Tacos for lunch, taco salads... So now I'm just going to have to pitch all that meat and cheese, thanks kid." So then I asked her how it went and she was just a little too slow when she said, "It went great!" So I probed further.
"Everyone went to sleep just fine...no crying?"
Again a little too slow to answer. "Well, the baby cried a little."
I wanted details. "How much 'a little'. When did she go to sleep?"
"Umm..." she said, "at 10:20"
Our kids go to bed at 8. "So she cried for 2 1/2 hours?!"
"Just on and off." she said.
Then I noticed as I'm writing her the check for her 'services' I notice that the bottle and premeasured formula that I had set in the middle of the counter and shown her and given instructions on how to use it, especially if she's having a hard time sleeping she likes an extra bottle, I had told her all of that before we left, was never used. I started to swell up. I had to just get her home. It was already past midnight, and she lives far enough away that it would be an hour before I'd be back home.
An hour later I find that Travis has pitched/put away the food and is not any happier with the situation then I am. So I check on all three kids because if she never even gave the baby a bottle, who knows what all happened while we were gone! The older 2 were sleeping soundly, had on pajamas and were in their beds with covers on, so I guess they were alright. When I check on Lucy I notice that she did at least change her diaper before she 'put her to bed'. But didn't give her any blanket, after I took pains to make sure she understood that Lucy still likes to be swaddled when going to bed. No wonder she didn't go to sleep and just cried and cried!! Did she even listen to a word I said!? I was under the impression that she was a frequent babysitter! We've asked her to babysit before and she's always been busy babysitting for others!
So the next morning when I started to change Lucy's diaper and was feeling grateful that at least she HAD changed it before putting her to bed, I find that she put the diaper on... backwards.
I will never call that girl again!!!

A Big Mess and the Miracle of the Brownies and Ties

2009-06-21T19:04:00.000-04:00

Today at church our little branch celebrated both Fathers Day and the sending off of a missionary. So after the 3 hour block we all had a potluck lunch for JR Webber (who's headed to the Frankfurt, Germany mission) and I had prepared a big crockpot full of BBQ chicken breasts (along with other sundries). However, I realized during the opening exercises that I brought in everything except the crock pot full of BBQ chicken. So without letting my honey know where I was going I dash out into the parking lot to bring in the crock pot and plug it in. (afterall, how long could that take? 2 minutes tops, right?) As I'm trying to reenter the church by openning the outer door and holding onto the crockpot at the same time, the entire crock pot of BBQ slips from my hands and crashes first into the door (spilling sauce all over it) and finally onto the cement where it breaks the crockery into a bunch of pieces and spills the chicken onto the ground. And of course the sauce goes EVERYWHERE. Up the door, into the cracks of the cement, and splashes across my shoes (which thankfully where some cheapies that I don't really care about). After picking up the largest of the broken pieces and the chicken, I figure I need some paper towels to get the rest of the mess. So, I carefully go in and take the paper towel roll out of the womens bathroom and head back outside where the ants have already discovered the feast. In my first swipe with the paper towel my finger accidently comes in contact with an exceedingly sharp bit of broken lid or crock and slices it open pretty deep. So then I had to grab a new unBBQed section of paper towel to try and keep the blood from staining the church doorway, too! Now with my left hand clenched in a ball to stem the bleeding, my right hand continues (gingerly) to scoop up the mess. When I'm almost done, one of the sisters that I don't know opens the door and of course says "Oh My! Let me go get someone!" To which I reply "No!! Please don't! Really I'm almost done, I just need a bucket of water to wash all this off the sidewalk!" (But really I'm thinking "I am mortified! And I want to keep this a secret, PLEASE don't go get anyone else!! If I ask you to do something else, maybe you'll be too busy to tell anyone!") So I finish scooping and go inside to return the paper towels to the bathroom. When I walk back past the door headed for some water in the kitchen, I notice that the dear sister had gotten her husband and they had both already sloshed 2 big pots full of water down the door and across the entryway, and were wiping the door down with paper towels to dry it. They were so sweet! They said "oh, don't worry about it honey!" and then gave me some ideas about where to check online to see if I can just buy a new crock insert instead of having to buy a whole new pot. Coshocton definately has some great people. :)
Then, after sacrament meeting we experienced a miracle that I'm calling the Miracle of the Brownies and Ties. The RS pres, her other counselor, and myself were responsible for gifts for all the dads today. And here it's tradition to give the dads brownies. So we each made some brownies along with some cardstock 'ties' that we colored and put a little dad poem on the back and laminated for a bookmark. Then we tied it to a zip lock baggie full of brownies for each of the dads and prospective dads. Since it's a really tiny branch, we counted up and figured that 20 would be MORE then enough since the brethren count is usually more like 14, on a good day. Unfortunately, we didn't think to take into account all the extra people a missionary going away brings in. There were 25 brethern in sacrament meeting. So immediately after the closing prayer I trot my BBQ scented sandals back to the kitchen to ask the other counselor, who was giving the baggies to the youth to had out, what we should do. She said "Well, we'll just let the chips fall where they may."

We ended up with 5 EXTRA Brownie bags and ties.

And I checked. No one had left, and everyone had gotten one.
Hallelujia. Just like the loaves and the fishes. :) The Lord loves our hard working dads!! And so do I. Happy Fathers Day!!

Everybody digs a swingin cat

2009-06-08T13:29:00.000-04:00

Sophia had her first ever dance recital on Saturday. It was so stinkin cute!! We laughed, we cried, it was the best! Mostly we laughed as little girls got bored with the choreography and just sat down, or walked off the stage. Or sometimes they were so overzealous that the class helpers (who are teenage girls that assist in class and stand at the sides and do the routine so the little girls can follow along) have to intervene lest the preschooler twirl herself off the edge of the stage. It was funny and adorable stuff! And we both cried a bit during the 'daddy daughter dance'. Oh, man. A bunch of 20-30 something dads up there dancing with their little girls in tutu's to some country song about how fast they grow up. I'm seriously tearing up just thinking about it. So here are a few photos of her in her two routines. The first is a ballet routine to the song "Everybody wants to be a cat" from The Arisocats movie. The second routine is with her beginning tumbling class to "My boyfriends back". Eventually we'll find the cd that came with our video camera so I can put the video on here. Since we got a new computer we have to install the software on here. But until we find it, here are the stills.
Also, Aunt Heather and Uncle Mark came out for a visit for almost a week over memorial day weekend and it was a blast!! It went by way too fast! If you don't already read my sister Heather's blog, you really should. It's Hi-freakin-larious!! She has a true talent and she wrote up the experience. You can find the link to the right here, Ballad of the McKeons.

My invisible 4th child

2009-06-03T19:01:00.000-04:00

Many things have changed since having a third child. One of them is that I now have an invisible 4th child. And it's not the kind you'd think. It's not the one that ate all the marshmallows after she was told to stay out of them, or hits her sister with a barbie doll, or shoved 4 DVD's into the DVD player all at once. (I think my kids are still too young to blame it on someone invisible. They just say, 'not me!') This one is a phantom anxiety that bursts forth from the back of my mind occasionally. I feel like one of my kids is 'too' quite and must be up to something, so I start to look around only to notice that all 3 of my kids are in the room with me and are simply playing quitely. I also hear her (I know it's a girl, cause that's what I have) crying somewhere in the house and when I stop and focus, I realize that....nope. Everyone's in the room with me and they're fine. Sometimes I even try to heard my I4C into the minivan after visits to the library, etc... only to look around and remember, 'oh, yeah, it's just the 3'. Very weird. Or I'm just going crazy.
ps-our computer broke about 6 weeks ago and Travis forbade me to go buy one without him because he wanted to pick it out. So I waited patiently for what seemed like an eternity!!! (because all of you who know my husband, know that he plans more for himself to do everyday then anyone could ever possibly accomplish, so he would never have time to go to the store with me and pick out a computer!!) He was off work all of last week and it was still the last day of his vacation before I could get him to go with me on threat of 'if you don't go with me today, I'll go by myself tomorrow and pick it out without you!!' that he finally did it. So we're back online! Hoo-ray!!

The Happiest Place on Earth

2009-04-03T20:57:00.000-04:00

We just got back from the BEST vacation! We drove through 10 states, visited family and friends in 4 cities, and played in Disney World for 3 days. We started off visiting Travis's sister Heather and her kids who now live near Atlanta and we were able to stay with them for 2 1/2 days, which was SO great. We hadn't seen them in a long time and we got to meet her new guy, Michael, and his 2 kids, Victoria and Ashley. Then we drove to Orlando where Travis had continuing education classes at the Hilton in Walt Disney World, while the girls and I shopped around Downtown Disney with my sister Susy, and her husband and daughter, and her friend from when she worked at Disney, Danielle. We had a blast and bought a lot. We ate at Rainforest cafe, and got up early the next morning to do Hollywood Studios with Susy, Todd, and Lily. We got to meet Micky, and Bolt, Mitten, and Rhino. We saw several shows, danced at the parade, and rode the big rides. The next day was Sunday, so we went to church in Orlando, then drove out to the Tampa area to visit Travis's aunt Bobby and uncle Don. We had a wonderful relaxing day and hated to go back, but Epcot was calling! We got up extra early the next day for a princess breakfast in the Norway pavillion and got to meet Cinderella, Belle, Ariel, Aurora, and Snow White! The girls were practically speechless! And guess who got all teary-eyed when the first princess approached our table. That's right. Travis. The look on his daughters faces staring up at Princess Aurora was almost to much for our big softy. He sure loves his girls. :) After that we turtle talked with crush, rode some rides, and walked around the world. We got to eat in Norway, Japan, and France, all in one day. (and you know, that's what I really liked :)) We met Mulan, who was REALLY nice!! She talked with the girls for a long time. You gotta love that. But we still had one more day, so we went to bed and slept for a few hours so we could get to Magic Kingdom at the opening. Which I must say is the best idea. For some reason, about an hour after opening, the population of Main St. USA doubles! That first hour we were able to do more things then the whole rest of the day combined! And we did a lot! Rode Dumbo, Space Mountain, Pirates of the Caribean, Small World (which wasn't nearly as annoying as I'd imagined), and a bunch of others. We had a wonderful time, but were thoroughly exausted by the end. So we were glad that the next day we could just relax and drive to NC. We visited with our family there for a day, then drove to our old haunt of Greenville where Travis was teaching a class at ECU, so I met up with some friends from church while he was doing that. It was so great to see them! I forget sometimes how much I miss having friends!! :) After that we headed back to Wake Co and visited our fam some more, then headed back to Ohio after church on Sunday. It was a fabulous 2 weeks!

Our Second Annual Food Allergy Testing Day!

2009-03-11T13:11:00.000-04:00

Yesterday was our second annual food allergy testing day! Holly and Lucy were both tested and the results were mostly good news. Lucy has NO food allergies!! Hooray!! Three of Holly's allergies are gone and she has two new ones. She use to be allergic to wheat, eggs, milk, soy, nuts, and fish. She's still allergic to wheat, eggs, and nuts, (and the nut, especially peanut, allergy is worse) and her new ones are dogs and mangos. I'll take those allergies to the ones she got rid of!! It's really hard to keep her away from milk, soy, and fish. Easier to steer clear of dogs and mangos! I'm so excited about this I could go dance naked in the street. But I won't. Cause it would probably scare the neighbors. Actually, our neighbors are all farm animals so they probably wouldn't care that much since they're always naked themselves. So, on third thought maybe I WILL dance naked in the street!! WOO-HOO!!!

The Cutest Room in the World!

2009-02-21T10:41:00.000-05:00

Even though Travis and I moved into our house six months ago, much of it is still a work in progress. We made a list in December of the things we want to accomplish in our house and it's environs in 2009, and even divided it by which of us was responsible for it and what month it need to be done. Not surprisingly, only one of the ten things on our Jan/Feb list has been finished. But it turned out SO cute!! I love my little haven.

Family Ties

2009-01-13T14:23:00.001-05:00

I love this picture! This is Holly's best buddy, her cousin Lily who got to stay (with her mom) for 2 weeks with us in early December. I imagine here she's trying to say, "Aunt Laura! It's been 2 months! Post something already!!"

Bob, Maria, and kids Ryan, Isabelle, and Bobby; Heather; Susy, Todd, and Lily; Travis, Me, Sophia, Holly, and Lucy!! This was taken the Sunday after Thanksgiving, after Lucy's blessing. It was GREAT to have so much family together for the holiday weekend. We had a BLAST!! Played games, hung out, roasted mallows over the fire pit outside, and ate a LOT. YUM!

I took a photo of our mailbox in the fall when the leaves were beginning to change, so I thought I'd take another in the snow yesterday. Since then it's snowed another 2 inches and is calling for more. I love it! Hot chocolate weather! :)

We drove down to Raleigh for a few days at Christmas. This was Christmas eve at Susy and Todds house opening gifts from Heather and Mark.

On Christmas day we went to Travis's parents house to open gifts. The girls LOVED their princess dress up clothes and baby and stroller. They played with those most of the day. And Sophia played a lot with her new camera till it broke about 10 minutes after we opened it. Yeah.

Happy Birthday to Holly! She turned 2 on Jan. 6th. I can't believe she's already 2! And Sophia's almost 4!! I can't believe it.

She obviously loves her wheat free, egg free, dairy free birthday cupcake!! Anyone else want some?! :)

This is pretty much what we've been up to since I blogged last. Thanksgiving was GREAT with everyone here that could come, then Susy and Lily stayed an extra week and a half. They left too soon! We drove down to NC on Christmas eve and spent time with the family there, and got to see my buddy Shelby and her son Griffin, too. So cute!! We also got to Skype my Mom and Dad in Australia on Christmas Eve. Mom had just gotten out of the hospital the day before so it was a wonderful Christmas present. New Years was pretty uneventful. Just hung out and watched movies. Lucy had her hearing test done, she passed. :) Then it was Holly's birthday. And pretty soon it'll be Sophia's birthday! Also in there Travis got a calling. He's the new Branch mission leader. I'm still the education couselor in Relief Society. Sophia still loves Dance and Tumbling classes and we're thinking about putting Holly in some next year. We're (hopefully) headed to Disney World at the end of March!!!!! I'm so excited! I think Sophia and Holly are at such cute ages for Disney. Next month we're driving to St. Louis for my cousin Marc's wedding. I'm so excited! He totally deserves it, he's a great guy. And I'll get to see so much of the extended family, too! Bonus!

We had the baby! In the kitchen!

2008-11-16T21:19:00.000-05:00

Yes. I really did. And no, not on purpose!!
Here's the whole story...
On thursday I noticed my 'braxton-hicks' contractions were more painful then usual, but I didn't think much of it. I had an OB appt at 4 pm that day and was dialated to 3 cm, but, again, I was 3 cm for 3 weeks before I had Sophia so didn't think much of that either. After my appointment my contractions became even stronger, but not at all regular. I might have 1 an hour or 4 an hour. It wasn't until about 1 am that they became stong enough and regular enough (which was still only about every 3-10 minutes) that I thought maybe I'm in labor. I kept praying to know what to do, and wasn't getting any answer, except 'just relax'. So I took that to mean that I wasn't having the baby any time soon. Wrong. At 1:45 I decided to call the doctor and see what he said. He was already at the hospital with someone else in labor, so I spoke with an L&D nurse who told me that since my contractions weren't regular yet, to give it another hour and see. I told her that my first labor was 3 hours and my second was 2 hours so I was nervous and she said I could come in if I wanted to and they'd check me out. I decided to do that. But since it was the middle of the night, Travis and I thought of who we knew here that might be able to come over and stay with the girls who didn't have to work or take care of their own kids. There's a family in our branch, the Webbers, and we thought she didn't work, but we knew their son, JR, who's 19 and getting ready to leave on a mission only works in the afternoons and the kids love him, they're a great family, so we called them and by 2:30 both Sis. Webber and JR were going to come over (because she did have to work the next day, so he'd stay when she left). They live about 30 minutes from us, and to be fair, I don't think I warned her about my extremely speedy labors. Plus, I really believed at that time I had at least 2 or 3 hours. (I had been induced in the hospital with both my first 2 labors, so I didn't know what it felt like for me to go into labor on my own!) So I was sitting on the couch breathing through the contractions, waiting for the Webbers while Travis cleaned (I think he just didn't know what to do.) By 2:45 my contractions became regular (finally), every 2-3 minutes apart. And of course they were getting increasingly painful. I remember telling Travis and I was REALLY ready for my epidural now, and he said they don't make take home epidural kits, but he'd give me one the second we got to the hospital. At about 3:10 I felt like I had to pee, but I knew I couldn't get off the couch by myself and walk to our little bathroom off the kitchen, so I told Travis he had to come help me to the bathroom. This is when things got a little scary, but mostly for Travis, I think, because being a nurse anesthetist he knows everything that can go wrong. So he said, "Laura, women in labor don't have to pee. If you stand up you'll have the baby!" and I said "Just help me to the bathroom!!" (at this point my breathing was more like hyperventilating, and my upper lip had broken a sweat, which I've heard from people since means, yes, it's time to push!) So we walked through the kitchen to the bathroom and I'm in so much pain with this next contraction I can't sit down and then I can suddenly feel the baby's head! I told Travis "I have to push!" And he looked like a deer in headlights and said, "no! Get in the car!" And I said "I'M HAVING - THE BABY!" in my most strict mom voice. I said "get a blanket and pillow and put it on the floor!" He grabbed some and I crawled over a few feet and laid down while he went upstairs to get the bulb suction, towels, and a hemostat clamp (for the cord, why we have one I don't know). My water broke and her little head came out while I yelled like crazy (the girls slept through all of this somehow!) Travis came back downstairs and suctioned her mouth and then I squeezed out the rest of her. He rubbed her with towels to keep her warm and try to get her to cry. She was breathing, but not crying, so we were a little nervous. That took about 10 minutes. I just laid there shaking while Travis worked on her in a towel on my stomach. When we knew she was ok (she was just in shock, the same thing had happened with Holly) He clamped the cord with the hemostat and called EMS to come pick us up. Right after that Sis. Webber got there. I'm sure we gave her quite a shock! Luckily JR didn't come inside with her! I'm sure we'd have traumatized him! She got a few blankets to cover me up with. We didn't want me to deliver the placenta because that's when a woman can bleed to death. And Travis didn't cut the cord until EMS came and gave him a second clamp (you should only cut when both sides are closed off, apparently) They loaded Lucy and I into the ambulance and started her on some oxygen (it was just a little low) and kept a watch on her heart rate and such on the drive to the hospital. Adrenaline kept me pretty much pain free for a while, I just had those post labor shakes. At the hospital the OB delivered the placenta without problem and gave me 2 little stitches. And that's pretty much it. Travis stayed at the hospital with us for a few hours while we got settled, then about 6 am went back home to be with the girls when they got up since the Webbers had to leave. Crazy.
And apparently since she wasn't born in the hospital, we had to go around and get all these things signed to prove that I really was pregnant, and that she wasn't a stillbirth, and all of that. Travis will have to sign the actual birth certificate as the 'deliverer'. He's really proud of that fact. :) Her birth certificate will list the place of birth as "residence" and delivering health care professional as "Travis Chabo, father". Pretty exciting. Though I don't think I want to do it again. I did learn that natural labor is a lot less painful then being induced! And I really do want a working epidural sometime! I guess we'll have to see what happens next time. Hope this story didn't scare too many of you. I must also say that if your spouse isn't a health care worker, don't bother with much other then the calling 911 the second you know you won't make it to the hospital. I think a lot of husbands would faint and not make it to suctioning the mouth, etc... Thank goodness for my husband!

A funny thing happened on the way to the Temple...

2008-10-23T14:16:00.000-04:00

So 2 weekends ago, my husband decided for my birthday and since we'd be having a baby in a month or so we should take a trip to our temple here in Columbus, Ohio on Friday October 10th. We got babysitters and everything lined up and ready to go the day before. Then that day Travis comes home from work with a surprise for me. He test drove home a new minivan for us! It was a beautiful silver 2008 Town and Country minivan. It was perfect for us. So we asked the dealership if we could test drive it again an hour and a half away in Columbus and they said sure. Everything for my birthday weekend was lining up great! I wasn't feeling that well on Friday, but anyone who knows me during pregnancy knows I never feel very well, so I chalked it up to Satan trying to dissuade me from going to the Temple. I was determined to win that fight! So off we drove to Columbus. About 20 minutes into the trip I started having contractions. But, as I was only a few days from being 9 months pregnant, again, I didn't think much of it...until I noticed that they were coming consistently 3 minutes apart...all the way to Columbus. I tried to eat something on the drive, but couldn't keep anything down. I was starting to get really worried. When we pulled up outside the Temple it was obvious to us that we wouldn't be able to go on the session. We called my doctor and explained what was going on. He encouraged us to get back to the hospital asap. We went inside and I was able to recieve a blessing. Inside the Temple I was able to recieve a blessing and felt like we'd get to Coshocton Hospital alright. I started to feel a little better (even though I still christened the waiting room toilet several times while we were there.) In fact the Temple workers were so nice, they gave us towels, blankets, and plastic bags to sit on since we were driving a car that wasn't even ours! All I wanted was for my water not to break in the dealerships minivan! I can't imagine having to explain that! So back we went to Coshocton at top speed. With Travis's hospital connections he called up to the nurse working overnight in L&D and let them know we were coming. It took about an hour and 40 minutes to get to the Temple and only about an hour and 10 minutes to get to the hospital from there, Travis drove that fast. We called the babysitter and asked if she could spend the night. (she did, and we found out later she was up all night with Sophia who had the same flu bug as me and threw up 4 times that night. I felt so bad!!) My contractions on the way back were about 2 minutes apart and a little stronger. Travis took me in a back door and straight up to L&D, no waiting around to check in downstairs for me! (it's really nice to have someone on the inside. :) ) We get up there and the nurse checks me. My water hasn't broken and I'm only 1 centimeter dialated. I was really surprised! I thought I'd surely be about 4 centimeters by then, but it eased my mind a bit. The contractions were still coming fast, but not too strongly. I was so dehydrated I couldn't even swallow. And of course all they'd give me were ice chips. But I couldn't even keep those down. They had hooked me up to an IV and were giving my fluids that way, but it was still the early morning hours before I was hydrated enough to swallow. But I did keep down the rest of my ice chips I ate all night. Then in the morning I kept down some toast and at lunch some mashed potatoes and grilled chicken and that's when the contractions finally stopped. I guess I had a bug and didn't realize it, and since I hadn't been able to keep anything down the baby decided she was leaving! But everything calmed down and in a few days I was back to normal. Crazy times. Now I'm 37 1/2 weeks pregnant. So I'm anxious for that trip to the hospital again! :) Hopefully this time we'll come home with a baby in that new car! (which Travis officially bought while I was eating breakfast in the hospital that next morning. And yes, I told him to go. Once I knew we weren't having the baby there was no reason for him to sit there and stare at me while I got rehydrated. :) ) So on my birthday weekend I got a couples stay in a private room at a place that costs about $1000 a night! And 'roomservice'! :) I'm a lucky girl. :)

I'm back!

2008-10-06T00:09:00.000-04:00

Hello Everyone. I'm finally back with internet access. We've moved outside of Coshocton Ohio a few months ago. It was a gradual move, really. Travis started working at the hospital here July 1st. He stayed with a family in the local branch, the Binks. We moved up here with them in mid-August when we closed on our house in Greenville. Then we moved into our new house at the beginning of September. We didn't get tv or internet service till a few weeks later... so here we are! It's been CRAZY!! So many weird things happening that Travis and I have wondered a few times if we're really suppose to be here. But with prayer we feel that it's more that Satan is trying to convince us to NOT be here. So we're persevering. Coshocton is a small town of about 10,000. But there is a surprising amount of things to do. A large parks and rec system, library, movie theater, ....... walmart. But still, there are about 4 larger towns of about 100,000 within 30 minutes of us, and Columbus is only 1 1/2 hours away. So that's easy. There's an IKEA in Pittsburgh, PA which is only 2 hours away... so we're set, I think. Plus we're on the southern edge of Amish country and there's lots of neat shops and such there, and we're in the heart of Longaberger basket company. 15 minutes from the Longaberger homestead and 30 from the office headquarters (if you've ever seen a picture of a building shaped like a basket, that's it. It's amazing.) Several people in our church branch work for them. I don't have a picture of the building yet. I never remember to bring my camera with me when I'm driving out that way. But when I get one I'll put it on here. Our house is still a work in progress as far as painting and unpacking is concerned. One room we've already painted 3 times. I'm not so good at looking at that little square and knowing how it's going to work on the whole wall... so it's trial and error. We've gotten things mostly unpacked. The house is livable, anyway. Our goal is to get it done by the time the baby comes in early November. I think it's definatly possible. Probably. Ok, so now I'll put some pictures on here and I'll come back later.

Our house...is a very, very, very fine house.

2008-10-05T22:30:00.001-04:00

Here are a few pictures of our house and our 'neighbors'.

2008-10-05T21:12:00.000-04:00

Here's a few pictures of the girls at the pool, and some of them with Sis. Binks feeding their horses.

Movin' on up...

2008-08-15T16:16:00.000-04:00

Well, we have officially moved out of our house in Greenville, NC and are temporarily homeless till Sept 1st, when we close on our house in Coshocton, Ohio. It has been an extremely busy and crazy few weeks. I'll post pictures of the inside of the house when we get some. Right now we're staying the weekend with family in the Raleigh area, then we're back to Ohio. Some friends at church are letting us crash with them till we can move into our new place. I can't wait!! It'll be nice to not be so transient anymore. (is that how you spell that? I guess so.) Anyway, I'll post more when I get a chance.

2008-07-19T12:23:00.000-04:00

Sophia and Holly LOVE their new cousin. They would fight over who got to hold her next. It scared Aunt Susy.

2008-07-19T12:21:00.000-04:00

Here's my babies with Susy and Todd's new baby, Lily. Uncle Todd is holding Sophia, Holly, and Lily. So cute!

Hello Everyone!

2008-07-17T12:39:00.000-04:00

I decided it was time. Since we're moving away it's finally time to start a blog. I can't make any promises about humor, timeliness, (is that how you spell that?), pictures, or pretty much anything else that the usual blogger has. I'll just do my best and see how it goes. Maybe I'll become addicted, maybe I'll never post another thing. We'll just have to see.
So what's been going on lately is my sister Susy had a baby on Tuesday, July 15th. Lily Jane Estes, 8lbs 6oz. She's so cute! We also finally sold our house in Greenville that day!! I was so excited I almost cried. Seriously, I teared up. It hasn't been on the market that long, just since the end of May, so that's pretty good. But I definetely want to get our family all together in Coshocton, Ohio (where we're moving to). I'll see if I can link a map on here. Travis has been up there since July 1st when he started his job. We went up for the second week of July and had a good time. I've already signed Sophia (our 3 1/2 year old) up for dance and tumbling classes with Miss Jennifer's Dance Studio this fall. We've checked out banks, hair dressers, OB's (I'm due with our third girl in mid-November :) ), new cell phones, new house, etc...Coshocton's different then what I'm use to, but I think it's gonna be great. They have this unbelievable pool with 6 huge twirly slides, 2 'mushroom' fountains, a huge beach type entrance for the little ones and an enormous playland that shoots water, has several water slides and fun things to do. I'll definately post a picture of that when I get it. It's unreal. It's in this park complex with a great big fancy kids park, campgrounds, trails, a stocked lake (that you don't need a license to fish in), a huge rentable pavillion, soccer fields, baseball fields... it's awesome. Greenville doesn't have anything like it. It's funny. I've moved from a place with 1,000,000 people (Raleigh), to a place with 100,000 (G-vegas), to a town of 10,000 (Coshocton). Travis and I have discussed it and that's as small as I think I can go. Alright, this is already seeming a bit wordy, so I think this is it for now.