Lake Bullshoals Vacation June 24th-28th

Steve kissing the bass for luck

1st fish for Christopher

I don't know what the middle monkey was doing

Bass catching mama

He looks so stoic in this pic

Unlike his silly father who always has some goofy expression

Scrawny boys, notice Steve with yet another confused expression

Hmmm...where do we start? The boys and I headed off to Lake Bullshoals on Weds for a little family vacation. There was the usual grunting and groaning about early morning packing. Of course we would have to take at least one wrong turn but that was quickly remedied as well. We followed our google maps instructions which seemed perfect until the last 15 miles of the trip.

The last 15 miles were all on county roads...in Arkansas. I found the entire 35 minutes utterly amusing while my husband on the other hand caused himself at least 20 more gray hairs. We crossed 3 creeks, all with low water bridges and all with water running OVER the low water bridges. Had we been in the truck this wouldn't have been such a problem. However, imagine our Impala loaded down with gear like we were headed off for a cross country move and you can see why this might be a small issue. I don't know how many times Steve said something along the lines of, "This Impala is NOT four-wheel drive" or "Where did you get these directions?" But Christopher and I were laughing so hard we were about to pee our pants by the time we got there.

The lake was beautiful but Lord was it hot! However, since it's hot everywhere right now I wasn't expecting any different. The water was so clear. They had huge storms last year and this year the Lake was still up about 25 feet from what the norm is. The guy that owned the "resort" we stayed at showed us how much the water was up last year and it's no wonder that the fishing was not the best. The depth was about 194 ft. at the deepest spot we crossed over on the boat but didn't go anywhere near the dam which I'm sure is much deeper and the water temp was anywhere from 91-94 degrees...not real refreshing but at least it was wet.

The "resort" as it was called was located about 3/4 mile off the shore. I guess since it's maintained by the Corps of engineers you can't actually build on the lake. This was a change from last year when we were spoiled as heck and stayed practically on the water. Our room was a mobile home. I could complain about the ammenities but considering it had running water AND air conditioning I'm not about to start! Just a different experience for us.

We all caught fish so we can't complain too much but the fat lazy bass were definitely not going to come after our lures in the heat. We did however do a little research on "sunfish" identification...a.k.a. perch for all you Kansans and now Christopher can tell you the four different types we caught and how to identify them. Some of the other people at our resort had about 6 different names and I swear each time they called a perch something else we all looked at each other like "What kind of idiots do they think we are, these are PERCH!"

The car ride home was a bit rough but we made it. Steve had a bad headache and was sick in the morning. Thank God we were able to pull the car over each time he needed to puke otherwise I'm pretty sure all three of us would have been at it! If you had seen the roads we were on you would know what I meant. I don't think the car agot above 50 MPH for the first hour and a half. Enough about that...The dogs caused quite the chaos at the kennel and were ready to come home when I went to pick them up. I had Dr. appt. Tuesday before we left. Everything seems fine but I am still measuring a little large for 28 weeks so Thursday I will have another sonogram. I'll post more then!

June 16th 2009

What is with all the carzy KS weather? We were without electricity again for the majority of last night due to the storms that moved through in the mid-evening. Thankfully we were not sucked up by some crazy tornado. Wait, was that I heard? That would be the TV weather lab going off with more warnings for tonight. Storms are building again. When will it end?

I found a really cool blog that I could spend hours reading and catching up on called Bring the Rain-the story of audrey caroline. Some people have ways of expressing themselves in words that bring tears to my eyes. I'm not gifted in this way, the Lord gave me the gift of being able to say it like it is! Sometimes this is good...sometimes, well, you know.

Anyway, check it out and have your Kleenex ready. By far one of my favorite posts is from June 5th and entitled, "Her, Here." I'm not sure why this particular blog has reached out and touched me so much. Just God's way of reminding me that he's still there I guess. I usually get that reminder when I least expect it.

We're very busy at work...still. My myspace status for the weekend was "My soul needs a break from all the sick babies." Somehow when I'm home though I find myself wishing I was there(this is after I catch up on my beauty sleep of course). Maybe I just love to hold babies, can't wait for mine to be here. Or maybe I just crave interaction from someone who needs somebody. My family always needs me but it's a different everyday sort of need. When I get emotional like this I just want to know that what I do makes a difference for SOMEONE...even one person. I got that reminder tonight when I came home to find an email from a parent whose child I had taken care of. The baby did not survive. How wonderful though that they still think of me and how wonderful to come home to an email that simply says, "You are a great nurse." That's all for tonight folks, I'm exhausted. I pray the storms die down and give everyone a reprieve. It would be nice to wake up on my own in the a.m. and not to a tranformer being struck by lighting!

June 9th, 2009

We tried to get a the 4D sono at BabyWaves this week. We went on two seperate days and the baby would NOT cooperate. He had his hands up in front of his face both days.

Hands to face

One clear shot, of one side of the face

There's that hand again

Baby's stats as of todays sono

Yep it's still a boy

Waving to the world

Okay, so next time(if there is a next time) we will most likely not waste $150 on this sono. Our child refused to cooperate in the least. He either had his hands directly in front of his face or was wedged so far up against my uterine wall that a clear shot was impossible. Oh well, it was worth a try. Steve says he just isn't ready to meet the family. On a good note, the doctor said everything still looked great at my appt today. Next week will mark the beginning of the third trimester. Yay! I think it's gonna be a long hot summer though.

I will now start seeing the doctor every two weeks instead of monthly and they will be checking me for gestational diabetes at my next appt. Things are getting really busy with work needing extra help and our family vacation fast approaching. We're excited though and I am just fine with time flying.

Big Day of Nothing!

We went to Baby Waves today to have our 4D sono done. Little did we know that the baby had other plans. We could not get even one decent shot of his face. He had both arms up in his face plus two lengths of umbilical cord. They didn't even send the pics home with us they were so horrible. So they scheduled me in to try again on Tuesday. I'll be Wichita for a checkup with the Dr. anyhow that day so maybe the child will cooperate. Of course, I'll be by myself so no one else will get to actually be there with me so let's hope the pics turn out good! The staff at Baby Waves was very nice though and we did get a good family picture outside the building. Mom and Kate went with us as well. Afterwards we hit a few garage sales...you know that made our day!