A Mormon Holiday

Pioneer day is all about the mormons. Out here in Idaho and Utah it's a real holiday, and celebrated like the Fourth of July. This year we decided to check out the parade in St. Anthony and enjoy the day outside. It was a beautiful day, as usual - thank you Idaho, and this parade was by far the best I've seen in ages.

The rest is just gonna be pictures, since I took so many.

Playing peek-a-boo

Getting excited for the candy!

The parade started with a few cops and an ambulance leading out. They had their lights on a used the siren a couple times. Ivan thought that was much too loud. 

Ah, learning how to grab candy from parades. We sat next to some really nice people with teenage kids and they let Ivan have first dibs on all the candy.  Charlotte just loved this cow, she mooed the whole time she could see it. 

Cowgirls riding with a leg on each horse. 

Talk about cool floats! I was so impressed by the dozens of amazing floats we saw. Most parades just have big trucks or tractors driving in them. That's not a real parade if you ask me!

Fully enjoying the bag full of candy we got. And maybe a nutragrain bar as well. They also threw out some otter pops, that was cool!

This was Ivan's favorite float. 

Moving in

While moving can be not so exciting, I have to say this is the most exciting move I've ever done. I just drove across the country, signed a lease, and now I'm moving into my new apartment without having seen it prior to today. How exciting! I did have someone check the place out in person before we signed or even agreed to rent the place. And I did see lots of pictures of it. But it's still weird to just move in to somewhere I don't really know that well. Also, fun fact, this is the second time I've moved this pregnancy. I also moved twice while I was pregnant with Ivan and none at all when I was pregnant with Charlotte. Must be a boy thing.

I asked for lots of help. I don't normally ask for help, but this time I did. How else was I gonna get our entire storage unit emptied and into my house without someone, at least one person, to help me. One of the teachers I worked for, my favorite teacher and now Ivan and Charlotte's adopted grandpa, offered his muscle and the use of his trailer. Thank goodness, now I didn't have to shell out extra money for a moving truck and have to drive the dang thing across town. Michael put out a call for help too. I managed to have about a dozen people tell me they would be there to help me. So ten o'clock rolls around and here I am at the storage unit unloading all by myself. Zeph, my old boss, showed up a couple minutes later and we immediately started unloading. Twenty minutes later someone else shows up. Then my phone is buzzing off the hook (can I say that?) from people who can't find the storage unit or they're asking if I still need help or whatever. Finally I got about 4 people there to help me. That's not twelve. We loaded the trailer and took it back to my place. It was then that I decided to slow down. The contractions were a little distracting and I didn't want to fall down the stairs with a box in my hand. So I had people unloaded and played traffic director. I also started unpacking.

And this is how we moved the furniture in. Turns out it's too sharp of a corner to get the couches, bed, and dressers in through the door. After a little elbow grease, the windows came out and we found out why it didn't have a screen in it. Thank goodness for strong men. 

I had the most help for that first load. Then people started to dwindle. I had a second wave of volunteers show up, just 2 more people, but it was just what I needed. The second load from the trailer was much smaller and didn't take as long to unload. I got pizza for everyone and most people left. I had a couple people stay and some more show up late, back to 4 helpers now. So I put them to work distracting the kids and helping me set up my bed and put the big furniture in its place. We also put together the kids beds and a couple toys that had been taken apart for moving. Then that was all that could be done by other people. It was now all up to me to get the rest of the boxes unpacked. Luckily that would only take me a couple more days.

I had long debated how I would handle this move. We will only be living here for about 8 or 9 months before Michael graduates from college. Then, hopefully, we'll be off to bigger and better places with a job offer for Michael. That means moving again. And in a short amount of time. I had thought I would just take out the essentials and keep most of the stuff packed away to make things easier for the next move. Turns out I didn't actually pack that way and it meant a lot more work now. And I've been living on the bare essentials for 4 months and it really sucks! So I unpacked everything. I even unpacked all Michael's stuff, stuff that wouldn't be used for another month and a half.

Let the driving commence

In case you haven't noticed, I've been back dating all my blog posts. It's been a long time since all this stuff happened and here I am months later finally updating the blog. Part of that is because Michael had the computer while he was still in Florida and I was so far behind that it just puts me even farther behind when I do blog. One day my life will be calm and I won't have anything to blog about and maybe, just maybe, I'll be caught up by then. 

There's really only so many 'in the car' stories to be told, so it's all getting condensed right here. 

Leg 1: St. Cloud, Florida to Clarksville, Tennessee with a pitstop in Atlanta, Georgia. 13 hours driving, 800 miles - Wednesday

This leg went pretty well, once it actually got started. I was pretty anxious Tuesday night and didn't sleep well, go figure. I was up before my alarm and busy getting things ready. Michael and I had packed most of the car up the night before and only had a few last minute things to put in. I'm kinda glad he didn't come with me because I used his entire seat so that I could see out the back window of the car. We got the kids in the car, still in pajamas, and I was on my way. I put Chris and Laura's address into my phone and nothing happened. I tried google maps as well as the standard maps on my phone and still, nothing happened. I started driving, hoping that would kick things into gear. Still nothing was happening. Thirty minutes into my drive and I need to know where to turn. Now I'm getting really upset. I had all this anticipation built up for how the drive was gonna go and here I am not being able to even start! Grr! We have a GPS, but we only decided that I would move back on Sunday night. Which means I only started packing on Sunday night. I just wanted to make sure I brought back everything I needed to and didn't really put things in the most sensible places. I was absolutely sure that either one of my map apps would get me where I needed and that I wouldn't need to use the GPS. So I had no idea where it was. And here come the tears. Thirty minutes into my drive and I'm already crying. Great. I ended up moving some things in the passenger seat to get Charlotte a bottle and I found the GPS in the process. It was a miracle, the first of many that I would witness on this drive. Now we were getting somewhere. We stopped in at a play place for lunch, of course and made it to Atlanta around 3. We met up with Laura at the park then back to her house for dinner. I was adamant about avoiding rush hour in Atlanta as well as in Nashville. Even more so with Nashville, since my last experience left me in tears. It was fun to see Laura and her family again, especially since this is the most we've seen of each other, even when they lived just 3 and a half hours away in Utah. Funny how that works. We left just after dinner, no traffic in Atlanta (miracle) and got in to Clarksville around 11:30. When we got there, my mom was asleep (miracle) and we got some quality time with my dad before the kids passed out. 

Proof that the kids literally passed out. And they took up the whole bed. 

Singing Papa happy birthday. 

Thursday we spent time with friends and just hung out. My dad had to work, so we spent time with him in the morning, then headed out with plans for the zoo. My mom was still asleep when we left (miracle) and she had to work that night. So we just stayed with friends until my mom was gone (miracle) and came back when my dad got off work. Ivan loves his Papa so much. And my kids always have so much fun at his house. There's so much space to explore and so many animals to play with. We were at the store earlier getting some drinks to take to the zoo with us and Ivan said we should get a special treat for Papa. He chose cupcakes and we got to sing him Happy Birthday and have a fun treat. Then we all got to bed on time and were up and ready to leave at 6 Friday morning. We were hoping to leave before my mom got home from work, but just as we were about to pull out of the driveway, she came home. Luckily we were all buckled in and ready to go, so Nana gave hugs to Ivan and Charlotte and we were on our way (miracle). 

Leg 2: Clarksville, Tennessee to Lincoln, Nebraska. 14 hours driving, 700 miles - Friday

How does driving 100 miles less take me an hour more you ask? Two words: St. Louis. Seriously. There was a ton of traffic on the road that day. And even though I drove through 6 states, pretty cool, I felt like I was going nowhere. The scenery was all very similar, especially the view of all the semi trucks. Now lets talk about my kids. We've been in the car for a long time. 13 hours on Wednesday, 14 hours on Friday. The kids were angels (miracle!). I cannot explain just how good they were. It was incredible. Ivan hasn't thrown a single fit. Charlotte has been content with a bottle. We have watched 2 movies. That's right, 2 movies over the space of 2 days. You're probably thinking I'm lying, but let me make this clear, we watched 1 movie (over and over and over) all day Wednesday and a different one all day Friday. I kept asking Ivan if he wanted to watch something else and he would say no every time. The only reason we changed movies from Wednesday to Friday was because I was sick of listening to the same one! This made my drive that much easier. I could just wait til the credit were over and push play again instead of pulling over and switching out movies. Seriously, they were angels! 

The only bad part of this day, other than the out of control traffic, was finding a place to stay. I was going to make a reservation in Lincoln before we started out drive and decided against it. I thought it would be better to have some flexibility if maybe I could make it farther or if I couldn't make it that far. Turns out I could make it exactly that far. I stopped into town and drove by looking for places. Then we decided we were hungry so we got food and went back to look for a place to sleep. The first place we tried was booked. I called the next place and they were booked too. A couple more calls and they were all booked. Then I called in for backup. Michael helped me find a place. I called and made a reservation, just my name and that I'd be there soon. I show up and they can't find my reservation. Turns out there's two locations and I had called in to the other place. Oh well, I was already here, just get me a room. I'm thinking the girl was new cuz she had no idea how to handle my situation. About 10 minutes into her asking me who I made my reservation with "was it through booking?" What does that even mean?! And she kept going back and forth between the two computers she had and couldn't find anything. Now I'm really frustrated. I've been driving all day, it's 8 pm and I started at 6 am. I've got 2 crazy kids I'm trying to contain and I'm just really effing tired! Get me a room and be done with it. It's not like they were full, she just couldn't get over that I'd made a reservation and it wasn't showing up. Then I got short with her. I said "I don't care about the reservation, just get me a room." Her response, rather unprofessional, was "Ok ma'am, calm down, you don't have to yell at me." And here's where I gained some real pride in myself. I had not yelled, only spoken firmly and rather irritatedly (real word?) and decided to hold my tongue at this point. Boy was I ready to show her what yelling was. She obviously doesn't have any kids. And after a really fun phone call in the morning to the manager, I'm sure she got quite the reprimand. I mean, who makes it harder for someone to rent a room at a hotel, really? We had fun having a hotel room, but there was no bathtub. Who does that? And as many channels the TV had, none of them had cartoons on. Who does that?? So we ate chicken nuggets and jumped on the beds. Lights out at 9, even though the kids wouldn't sleep. It was so dark in the room that they were afraid to get off the bed. Works for me. I set an alarm for 5 hoping to be on the road by 5:30. Ha. Who am I kidding? I was really losing steam and need that extra hour of sleep. At 6 we got up, had breakfast, spilled a bunch of milk and juice on the table and had the nicest grandma come help me. I was really grateful for a kind spirit at that point. And at 7 we started again. 

This is Ivan crying at the first hotel we tried. He thought for sure we were going to stay there, so did I, and he was rather put out that we had to look somewhere else. He was very done in the car and I'm sure he thought we'd be sleeping there instead of at a fun hotel. And this is the second time I cried during my trip. 

Leg 3: Lincoln, Nebraska to Green River, Wyoming. 12 hours driving time, 700 miles - Saturday

Did you know there's parts of Wyoming that have 80 mph speed limits? Awesome. It's Saturday now and I'm about done driving. Like my body can't handle much more. I've had as many contractions in a day as the highest speed I drove. I've only endured one meltdown from the kids while in the car. Charlotte was very done with the whole carseat thing and she screamed and screamed for about 20 minutes. I'll admit I didn't do much to try and console her. I was driving after all. And since it was only about 10 in the morning, 2 hours into our drive for the day, I was not ready to stop. So she cried. Then she stopped (miracle). And suddenly we were in blissful napland. Oh heaven is here. Have I mentioned that Ivan likes to pee on things other than the toilet? This really helped during our drive. I would stop to get gas, ask if he had to pee and usually get a no answer. Then ten minutes later he would freak out and yell "I gotta pee" as loud as he could. So we pulled over, opened the door (to block prying eyes), and he would pee on the tire. Perfect. Now we're back on the road and I didn't even have to wrestle Charlotte in and out of the car again. What fun boys are! I can't count how many times that happened. And who knows, Ivan probably likes that better and figured out the perfect system to get what he wanted. I wouldn't put it past him. Another perfect day of driving was unfolding before me and I could not be more grateful for what wonderful children I have. Do you know that Charlotte hates the car? She would cry the entire drive from our Florida house to town, about 30 minutes. He composure and sheer contentment was a miracle all by itself. She was perfect. What's even better is we managed to keep away any diaper rash! Thank you Butt Paste, you are my favorite.

We got tired, me more than the kids, of being in the car. I was starting to swell and really just needed some fresh air. And we stopped in Cheyenne. We drove by this cute little park while trying to find a playplace. Turns out that particular McDonald's didn't have a playplace so we ate some food and headed back to the park(miracle). There was a birthday party going on and a bunch of kids were there too. Ivan thought that was the coolest. He even made good friends with one of the little girls and the girl's mom pushed them on the big tire swing. I even caught them holding hands while hiding from Charlotte. Haha. Ivan said he was an airplane and kept spinning in the swing til his feet were off the ground. 

And of course Charlotte had a good time playing too. There were a couple dogs at the park that she ran after a couple times. She's hard to keep up with when she's that determined. And the funniest thing happened while I was laying on the picnic bench, you know for the swelling. Well, these two little pug dogs came sniffing around me, unbeknownst to me. Then I moved and they barked like crazy. I literally screamed! HAHAHAHA! Then I couldn't stop laughing. The couple that owned them felt so bad. I had to explain I was a vet tech and really actually loved dogs, for the sake of my pride. But I've never been scared that successfully before in my life. Michael, this is one for the record books. 

Oh Charlotte. She would not let go of that soda. It was Hi-C, which is at least better than something caffeinated, but she must have drank at least half that thing. And she carried it everywhere. Whatever makes you happy I suppose. 

The end of this drive put us at Cindy and Tom's around 6:45 or 7 o'clock. Pretty good time if you ask me. We made it just in time for grilled pork, baked beans, and salad. Oh it was delicious not to have fast food. And the food itself was good (miracle), not just because it was homemade. Cindy had set up separate rooms for me and the kids to sleep in, but Ivan wouldn't go to sleep without me. I went downstairs to lay with him til he fell asleep, with the full intention of returning upstairs to have some ice cream. And ten minutes later I was fast asleep. Guess I needed it. We were in Matthew's old room and he loves wolves. Ivan was absolutely fascinated with all the wolf decorations. In fact, that's what I woke up to. Ivan was saying, "mom, look at the woofs." Then he would howl. It was cute. We hung out there until we were ready to go to Evanston for the baby blessing. 

Leg 4: Green River, Wyoming to Orem, Utah with a pitstop in Evanston, Wyoming. 3 hours driving time, 145 miles - Sunday

It was a little over an hour drive from Green River to Evanston. Not long at all. The drive was uneventful (miracle) and the kids got a tiny nap (miracle) in before we got out to go to church. I hadn't thought far enough into the future to realize I needed a church bag, so we borrowed some things from Cindy. The kids were so good and completely occupied during sacrament meeting (miracle). The blessing was beautiful and I had lots of help watching Charlotte during the rest of church. Then we had delicious chicken salad sandwiches. And we were on our way to Orem/ Provo/ it's all the same thing to me. The drive from Evanston to Orem was a little more crazy. There was some wicked rain. Like real rain. And it came while we were in the mountains. Of course there's some student driver clogging up the fast lane and semis piled a mile high in the slow lane. We slowed to 30 mph a couple times just because of the rain. At least the views were beautiful, when you could see it between the down pours. That only lasted 30 minutes or so. 

Once we got to Orem, we got nice and comfy. We planned on staying there til Tuesday or Wednesday.

Leg 5: Orem, Utah to Rexburg, Idaho. 3 and a half hours driving time, 280 miles - Tuesday

Made it home! Sort of. I stayed with a friend Tuesday night and moved in to the new apartment on Wednesday. 

Nashville Zoo at Grassmere

While we were in Tennessee we made a fun day out of our day out of the car (this was Thursday the 17th). I had asked friends in the area if anyone wanted to get together and one of my favorite people said she'd love to go to the zoo with us. I was very excited for the chance to go since I hadn't been to that zoo since I was very little. Weird how all that time I lived so close to it and never actually went. And here I am going while pit stopping between living in Florida and living in Idaho. What's even better than a trip to the zoo was the chance to ride with my friend and not drive an extra hour there and back. My friend, Michele, invited her sister and we managed to fit all our kids (me with 2, Michele with 3, and Melissa with 3) in just 2 cars.

All of the kids that we brought. They all had so much fun together!

There wasn't really a line when we got there, but the parking lot was near full. I was expecting it to be packed but it was only pleasantly crowded. There was a lot of walking, a lot of animal looking, and very little sunburning.

Ivan (in the stripes) loved holding Bryce's hand. All of the people in this picture were part of our group. 

The zoo has this awesome play area, totally worth my $15 entrance fee alone. The toddler area is height controlled by an attendant actively bouncing out the big kids. And it was a good thing too. The entire area is covered in mats, like wrestling mats. The benches, parts of the walls, and all the floors were covered in it. So the kids went crazy jumping off of stuff and rolling around. I've never seen them so crazy before, and that's saying something! There was more to the playground, like this huge jungle gym, but I wanted to see both my cuties so we all stayed together. Ivan didn't mind even if he would have liked the other area too. Michele's youngest, Bradley, is right in the middle of age between Ivan and Charlotte and they both loved him! It was so fun to see Ivan and Bradley copying each other and following each other around.

See what I mean by crazy? He was flying all over the place. 

Just practicing her modelling. 

Ivan and Bradley. The only reason I got a picture of them standing still is because they were about to jump off the bench backwards. They had to set it up just right for the both of them to go at the same time. 

Then there's always the petting zoo. Some places have really figured it out and have real animals to pet, not just goats. This place hasn't caught on and all we got were goats. Charlotte wasn't quite sure what she was supposed to do with the goats at first. Then one bleated at her and she about jumped out of her skin she was so scared. Then she warmed up to them and we had to pull her away screaming just to leave. She settled down when she learned she got to wash her hands when we were done. This is a new thing that she just absolutely loves.

"You want me to do what?!"

"Oh, well I guess that's cool."

Ivan kept asking if he could ride it. He would say "Where's his backpack so I can ride him?" Backpack as in saddle, I'm guessing. He also thought having that brush on his hand was about the coolest thing ever. 

I've got to say I've definitely been to better zoos. But the company was amazing and it was so fun to be out and about and have some extra help with the kids while letting them do something they so love. Here are some of the exhibits I approve of, since I'm such an expert on zoos. Oh, I forgot a couple really neat things. There were a bunch of babies there. Baby pandas, 2 of them, baby lions, all picking on dad. And then there was the aquarium thing. It wasn't air conditioned, in the south, really? Who does that? And I didn't last long trying to chase after Ivan and it was getting to be closer to the end of the day and I was plain exhausted. Contractions quickly put me on a bench outside where I waited in the shade. What I did see of it was pretty awesome. I don't think I've seen an aquarium to that extent inside a zoo before. They had hundreds of fish, a water monitor, turtles, all sorts of cool stuff. And they had the usual giraffes, elephants, lions, etc. I just figure I've seen pictures of those, what I want to see are pictures with my kids in them.

The zoo had just finished this, apparently. It was a walk through with kangaroos! There aren't any fences between you and the kangaroos and they could walk right up to you, even if they didn't actually do that. 

I can't remember what kind of big cat this is, but I think it's one of the prettiest and coolest I've ever seen. He kept pacing back and forth along the fence there and we couldn't figure out why. Then we went on the other side and saw there was a fish pond with giant coy in it. I bet that cat could see the fish and just wanted to eat them all! Charlotte was laughing hysterically at something, who knows what. 

Out of all the flamingos I've seen in zoos in the south, these ones were by far the coolest. There were a ton of them! And they were all really active. The one on the left here is almost as tall as me. It was way cool to see them sifting through the water. Did you know flamingos eat with their heads upside down? And they use their noses to help filter the water out of their mouths. 

This is at the meerkat exhibit. They thought they were pirates looking through that thing. 

Such a fun trip! We stopped at Burger King afterwards and got a little bit to eat. And an Icee of course.

It's decided

We found a sweet basement apartment in Rexburg. It's way under budget and it's huge! We found it on the bulletin board through BYU-I and it's been for rent for a while, so I'm thinking we need to pounce on it! It's about 1200 sq ft, has a washer and dryer, 2 bedrooms, all utilities included (even cable!), and it has a garage. And this is all for $600 a month. We were budgeting for about $700 and trying to find a place that was less than that so we could just be spending $700 once the utilities were added in was quite a challenge. Turns out this place has everything we need, except a dishwasher. Aw shucks. I think that's something I can live with, we'll see.

In the meantime, I've got to be practical about how getting back to Rexburg is going to work. The people renting this apartment live in Provo and we told them we could meet there to sign the lease. We figure that way we get first dibs since it'll take a week to get to them. We discussed having Michael drive with me and fly back to Florida. I think that's gonna be more work than it's worth. So I'm going on my own. I've got to get everything packed and loaded, and hopefully leave on Wednesday.

My plan is to leave early on Wednesday, about 5 am, and drive to Atlanta. I'll stop there, have lunch and let the kids play for a bit. Then we'll get back in the car and drive to Tennessee where we'll stay with my parents for a couple days.
Thursday we'll just hang out in Clarksville, see some friends we didn't get to last time and just have a day out of the car.
Friday we'll leave Tennessee early in the morning and drive to Lincoln, Nebraska where we will stay the night.
Saturday we'll drive through Nebraska and most of Wyoming and stop in Green River and stay with Michael's aunt Cindy.
Sunday we'll drive from Green River to Evanston where Michael's oldest brother will be blessing his first baby. Then we'll keep driving to Provo where we'll stay a couple days with Michael's grandparents (and parents who are staying there for the summer).
Then by Wednesday we'll make it to Rexburg.

Here's to hoping things can go as smoothly as possible. I'll have a DVD player, pacifiers, mountain dew, and lots of time with no little hands touching me. That's everything I need, right?

So here's a wrap up of our time in Florida.

Playing at the swimming hole. Of course eating peanut butter and jelly while walking on the table was way more fun than swimming. 

Practicing our squishy faces. 

Our last visit to the beach. The kids had a blast playing in the water. So fun!

Headed to the park. You just gotta have sunglasses in the sunshine state!

I hate this place

It's official. I can't stand living here anymore. I had really hoped that my trip to my parents would set me free. That somehow it would lighten my burden or bring peace to my soul. Instead I had a rough time. Instead I placed more stress on myself. I can't count the number of contractions I have in a day. What I can count is the number of hours I sleep each night... on one hand. And all I feel all day is that my life is completely out of my control. I feel like I don't have a support group, that no one really knows how I feel. I read something the other day that said something like 'depression is like a noose around my neck. The harder I fight for my life, the tighter the noose gets.' That rings so true with me right now. It's unbearable. 

And so we watch TV all day. And when Michael gets home, I have to do something. Either we go to the park or to town or I disappear. I seriously count down the time that he has til he gets home. There have been a few times that I've taken refuge in the bathroom and just let the kids be away from me for a while. I don't know who that was for. I never felt better when I came out, usually because the kids were screaming and crying. I now know what that scripture reference of crying and wailing and gnashing of teeth (or whatever it is) means. 

To make all of this better, I get to go to my doctor's appointments with my kids. The only place that would take me on, since I'm so far along without previous medical care, is the health department. Not that I have anything against the health department, especially since I'm receiving free medical care, but I have absolutely no choice who I see. There are so many people that work there that I don't ever feel like I know anybody. And you know what? A woman's body is kind of a personal thing. And when it comes to having babies I need a doctor I know, someone I can trust, and someone I feel comfortable with. I like to compare it to when the baby was conceived. Who else was there for that intimate moment? Just me and Michael, shouldn't it be that way when we have the baby? While I realize that's a little overboard and I don't actually want to have a baby without a doctor there (even though that's already happened!), I'm just trying to convey how personal this whole baby business is. Too many places run obstetrics like a business and not enough like a care facility. And I had a truly amazing relationship with my previous doctor in Rexburg. She  was awesome. Great sense of humor, really made me feel comfortable talking to her, and I always saw her, just her. I was never seen by another doctor. I didn't rotate amongst the staff like a lazy susan. And I always saw the same nurse. The same receptionist checked me in every visit and the same billings lady checked me out every visit. Heck, I could walk through the entire medical center with my eyes closed and manage to check my weight, pee, and go to the exam room. This doctor also did an ultrasound at every visit. I got to see my baby every time I got to see my doctor. Now imagine how I could gain some love for this lady and not be willing to see anyone else. And here I am at the health department. I've got to wrangle my two littles while I try to keep my blood pressure down and whatnot.

This particular visit really sucked. I waited forever, even though I scheduled an appointment at 8 am which is when they open. This is why I schedule appointments in the morning. They shouldn't be behind if they just opened! After finally getting back to see the doctor, an hour later, she tried to give me another pap smear. The same doctor I saw a month ago tried to give me another pap smear. That would have made 3 within 15 months. Did you know they changed the guidelines and now they (doctors and whoever controls that stuff) say that one every 3 years is enough. I had a pap smear done at my checkup after Charlotte was born and if the health dept. had any kind of organization, they would have received the fax of my proof when it was done, thus exempting me from another one while in Florida. So the one I got a month ago shouldn't have happened and here she is saying I need another one. Crazy lady. Then she said she needed to do a breast exam. No thanks. She did a complete exam at my last visit, including that part. Then she got to my blood results. She told me all the things I already knew, since the nurse that just left the room took about 20 minutes explaining to me what a blood type means. I know I look young, but do you have to treat me like a child? After this the doctor told me about all the things that would be happening during this time in my pregnancy. Uh, thanks, but I've done this twice before, hence the two children impatiently waiting in the room with me. 

Then comes the talk. She checks the babies heart, which Ivan just loves, then she tells me I shouldn't have anymore kids. Not because it's medically necessary that I stop having babies, but because I've already got enough. She pushed and pushed about tubal ligation (getting your tubes tied). Then she said that it's not uncommon for women with as many kids as me to have a hysterectomy, just to be sure I didn't have anymore kids. Then she proceeded to trap me in the room, although she said our visit was over, so that she could tell me to tell any young girls that get pregnant that they can go to the health department and have an abortion at the first signs of pregnancy. What?! Pretty sure there are other options. 

So that was about the worst doctor's visit I've ever had. 

And today I've decided I should go back to Rexburg. Soon. When we find a place to live I will be going and Michael will be staying here until his internship is finished. I need my doctor back. I need familiar. I need friends. I need cool Idaho nights. I need my stuff, my clothes, the kids' toys, I need home.  

Chris and Laura come to visit

Chris and Laura (and Brenda too!) came to visit us. It was super fun. Except for the 10 people in a one bedroom house thing. We did lots of things outside of the house, like go to the beach, go to the rodeo, go to the swimming hole, go to the park, and of course, go out to eat.

We had a little birthday celebration for Ben, and this was the treat we had. It was very yummy. Thank you Fourth of July!

The beach was probably the best ever. Ivan and Charlotte actually got in the water, for one of the first times ever. Michael and I got to swim together for once. It was nice having extra adults to help look after the kids. And for being the Fourth of July, it really wasn't as packed as I thought it would be. The only down side to hanging out in the sun all day was the sunburns. Everyone got burned except for me, Charlotte, and Ivan. We had been working on our tans a lot longer. Michael got burned everywhere his farmer's tan wasn't. Even with sunscreen on.

Getting all sunscreened up!

Everybody in the Atlantic Ocean! 

Proof that I was there too. I actually really love being in the water, but pregnancy and ocean makes me seasick. Weird. 

Then there was the sleeping arrangements. We had all the kids in the bedroom. Charlotte and Ivan had their own beds. Jane and Megan slept on an air mattress on top of our box spring. Ben slept on a pile of blankets on the floor. All the adults slept in the living room. I got the couch, Brenda and Michael were on cots, and we moved our mattress from our bed to the floor and that's where Chris and Laura slept. It was cramped. We had to have a clear path to the bathroom for all the littles that would use the potty first thing in the morning, so we blocked off the front door. There was a cot in front of the couch, so between the couch and at the foot of the mattress. The mattress was between the kitchen table and the oven and pushed all the way up to the sink. Another cot was between the kitchen table and the wall, right in front of the door. There was very little walking room. At least there was a little more room in the bedroom.

Playing at the park. 

Peek-a-boo

Ivan and Ben have a love/ hate relationship. 

Michael touched the cover! I'm so proud. 

There really weren't even enough seats in the house for everyone to sit down. It was a little overwhelming. Well, a lot overwhelming for me. We eventually moved the toys into the bedroom and made the kids play with them in there, that way we at least had a little more space. And no matter how much room we made in the house by rearranging things, there was still only one bathroom. That was pretty difficult to work with since there were 3 pregnant ladies and 3 little kids that needed to potty often. Good thing Ivan is comfortable peeing outside!

Watching the Lego Movie. 

This visit was really a lot of fun for us, even if it was a lot more challenging than I thought it would be. You never quite know just how much of a neat freak you are until other people are staying at your house. It was hard to keep my cool sometimes, especially with all the little people spilling drinks (and the puddle of water we found under our couch 3 days after everybody left, PU!, certainly made me feel more justified in asking everyone to put the top on their drinks). It was so fun to see all the cousins playing together and for the once in a lifetime chance for 3 pregnant sisters-in-law to be together. Brenda is in her first trimester, me in my second, and Laura in her third. This is also the second time that Laura and I have been pregnant at the same time, both with boys again. Pretty cool if you ask me. And even cooler when we add in Shaya, Michael's oldest brother's wife, who just had a baby boy in June. I think that technically means we were all pregnant at the same time. And even now, Shaya is in the fourth trimester, haha!

The boys enjoying the swimming hole. We had the chance to go there on Thursday, right when Chris and Laura first arrived. We were waiting for Michael to get off work and for the festivities of the rodeo to start, so we killed some time here. It was very fun, at least until it started to storm. Lightning and water just don't mix, especially in Florida. 

We enjoyed some of the local fun by going out to eat at the Lone Cabbage. It's pretty much in the middle of nowhere, right on the river. We saw a couple gators while we were eating. Michael and Chris both got to try the gator there and the rest of us enjoyed our normal food, like chicken and corndogs.

This is actually at the Village Inn, but we went there too and it should be cataloged, right?

Ivan was having a blast blowing the paper off his straw, something only Dad could teach him. I'm so proud (tear). 

Another fun activity was playing in the ditch. It had rained so much, so hard, and for so long that all the ditches were full of water and it wasn't going anywhere. It was still raining a little bit while we played, but the kids loved it! Charlotte and Ivan just went head first playing in the water. Michael got his boogy board out and started pulling the kids around in it. It was very amusing. Even to the cows, who by the time we were done playing, had all lined up in front of our house and were watching us intently. Good to know we can be just as entertaining to them as they are to us.

See all the cows? They got more and more condensed on that fence the longer we were out there. 

All the preggers in the house. This is what pregnancy really looks like. 

How many pictures do I have of me and Brenda napping on the same couch? We're just meant to be sisters.