Some Visuals

Click any picture to see a larger version.

Helping to paint the baby's room.  They were SO excited to be included in the task.  A good lesson for us as parents.  We normally would say nope, envisioning mess and disaster, when faced with the prospect of letting two little ones help us paint.  But the pay-off was WELL worth the small effort of planning to avoid disaster:

A seaside creation, envisioned by Jillson, engineered by the Gutsy Dad, and created by these three, as I sat by (blissfully observing):

All dressed up for the wedding in Boulder:

 

Water break during a hike in Chautauqua Park:

Our guide:

Father's Day in Savannah with a surprise visit from my aunt and uncle -- see, we were so busy in June I completely forgot to mention this fun visit in my post below!

One of many fountains to be explored:

Water play in the city!  Love it.

Scatterbrained, Settling In, Sort Of

I know, I know.  Over a month's hiatus.  Let's see.  The aforementioned road trip ended well with a fantastic Memorial Day weekend with Meme and Kiki on Hilton Head.  In June, we enjoyed visiting with friends from KS and Germany (both in the area, visiting, yippee!), traveling to Boulder, CO for a wedding, and a two-week family vacation in Maine. Phew.

Now that we're back home in Georgia, I can finally focus on settling in.  Unpacking is slow but underway, and my days seem filled with doctors' appointments (for me and kids), phone calls, and the tricky task of trying to use my limited energy wisely.  We are slowly figuring out the essentials -- hair stylist, babysitters, church, playgroups -- and I am just extremely eager to have my house up and running in some sort of normal and easy fashion. (Patience, patience, patience is my mantra on this front.)

I fear there are a million emails and comments and posts I have failed to respond to, phone calls I have ignored, and birthdays and other important events in the lives of loved ones I have let slip by completely.  I find it shameful on my part. I console myself by thinking that of course I can't do it all, no one expects me to, but--seriously--I should at least be able to do SOME of it.

Today I got a peek inside my belly via ultrasound to check in on Little Miss Gutsy #3.  Of course I had to endure a rather pointless "perinatal genetic counseling" session due to my--ahem--advanced maternal age, before said look-see, but it was worth it.  The baby looks adorable in there--all cheeks and lips and nose, just like her big sisters.  Only 9 more weeks or so until we get to meet face to face.

Today, I vow, I will at least finish unpacking the suitcases from our trip to Maine.  Tomorrow, a few boxes' worth of household items will be put away, I swear it.  (Oh yes, dear readers, the era of "how many boxes will I unpack today?" has returned.  I am sure you are as thrilled as I am.)

Pictures, perhaps, to follow.

Toto, I Have a Feeling...

...we're not in Kansas any more.

Nope.  We're road-tripping, baby.  Tomorrow will be our fourth and final day on the road, and boy am I looking forward to pulling into Meme and Kiki's house on Hilton Head Island.

We did the right thing by chopping what could have been two really long days on the road into four shorter days, but after 13 nights in various hotels in Kansas and on the road, I am ready to stop moving things in and out of our cars every night.

Days two and three of the road-trip were rather uneventful, but day one was terrible.  After a late, final night in Kansas (more on this later... it was seriously awesome!), tornado sirens made our "Dorothy" experience in Kansas complete.  (I arrived back to our hotel at roughly 11:45pm to find the Gutsy Dad and the kids down in the hotel basement along with all the other guests.)  We spent Sunday, after church (more on that later, too), driving to St. Louis under a certain amount of pressure to get away from the horrible weather that wreaked such havoc on Joplin, MO.  We had eerie skies, thunder, lighting, torrential downpours, and hail.

Obviously, we survived.  And as we watch the news of the devastation caused by those tornadoes, we are counting our many blessings.

Here we are on the last day, almost two weeks ago, that our Kansas house was normal:

And, because I am a dorky blogger, here we are in front of our Germany house, before we moved to Kansas, in 2009.  Look at itty-bitty Madelyn!

And here we are in 2006, in front of our Washington home, before we moved to Germany. Look at itty-bitty Jillson!