More of the usual...

The last week and a half or so have been pretty uneventful. I think. I'll try to remember what has happened since I last blogged, we'll see how the memory is holding up this week. (I NEVER could have imagined that one day I would be using the word "blog" as a verb! I know what it stands for but it still sounds stupid...)

Last week we did the usual stuff, and enjoyed some awesome weather. When it starts getting warm for real is when I start getting camp fever. This is the time of year during college when I would have real trouble focusing on work and would daydream about camp starting. Not much has changed there. And it's not just because I won't have to cook all summer. :) We're golf carting everywhere these days, which is a terrific way to travel with four little kids. Unless you're in a hurry. Or hate pollen. It's not much good on Highway 129 here in front of camp either, since it's top speed is about 10 1/2 miles per hour. I guess since about half the people in White County drive that speed maybe it wouldn't be so bad...

Warm weather requires putting away one wardrobe and getting out another one (or buying it, in the case of the oldest kids). Shannon cracked me up this week. He was wearing flip flops and looked down at his feet, back at me seriously, and said, "Which one's flop?"

Let's see if I can drum up anything exciting from last week. (*Thinking* Ow.) Nope. Monday we stayed home. Tuesday we had a fun playgroup at Sarah's house. Wednesday morning I got to ride, then we took Macy home and went to the grocery store. Gymnastics has moved to Thursdays at 3:30. Not the best for naps, but we're nearly done with gymnastics for awhile anyway.

Wednesday afternoon Amelia had to be at church at 4:00 for choir practice. Her kids' choir is doing a musical this Sunday and she has a starring role as a clam puppet. Well, it's not really starring...and tecnically it's just her hand. It's a beach themed musical, and it promises to be really cute. All the muscials the kids choir have done in the past have been terrific. This is the first year she has been in this choir, and I see lead roles and solos in her future. For now she's pretty excited about being a clam for her debut. Usually 4:00 is when the little ones are getting up from naps, so that was a little tricky, but after dropping her off we headed to Alison's until it was time for church to start.

Thursday we (oh dreaded thought) stayed at home ALL MORNING again. I wonder if every kid likes to go places like ours do. They always get up each morning asking where we're going. We headed to gymnastics in the afternoon, then went to the Knott's house for dinner. We got a freak thunder/hail storm, and Shannon planted himself by my side until it was over. I remember the feeling of security I used to get by being near my parents. When you're a kid you think adults, especially your parents, have it all together and can protect you from anything. I'm happy to continue the illusion for as long as possible.

Over the weekend we had two retreats at camp, so James was tied up taking care of them. We did get to eat a few meals in the dining hall, which is always nice. Friday I had a vet out to take care of our horses' vaccinations and Coggins tests (a yearly test for Equine Infectious Anemia...like AIDS in horses), and had a mare with an ulcer on her eye looked at. It's the same unfortunate one that's bald with rain rot, and now I'm having to finagle a way to put medicine in her eye FOUR times a day. No easy feat with all these kids. Just loading them up in the car is a process. Thankfully they're really good and patient.

Here are some photo highlights from our week:

Thursday we took a hike. The leaves have finally shown up just this week, and so many things are blooming. The azaleas, dogwoods, and wild azaleas in the woods are beautiful right now.

You can't hike without a walking stick. Or a jogging stroller, if you have a heavy baby.



This has been week-o-tattoos. (That's Spiderman on his arm.) They were in the boys' Easter baskets.

You shouldn't take a hike without your goggles either. You might need to repair something, or build a house while you're out.

Look at my toes!

Fishing without hooks, line, bait...or fish, since this lake isn't stocked.

Winston, who belongs to Daniel, our fellow camp director. He loves sticks.

Even if he has to steal them from little boys.

Siblings to the rescue!

Self-portraits taken from arm's length are never very good.

The kids ask daily when it's going to be warm enough to swim. They settled for washing the golf cart instead.









Elizabeth found her way out onto the porch while the kids were spraying each other. She's still not actually crawling but she can scoot pretty good while sitting up. She reaches forward and gets in a half-crawling position, then scoots a little, then sits back up straight. She's now saying, "Mama, Dada, uh-oh," and is tries to copy what we say. She's been consistently saying the same sound for "thank you," whenever we say it.

My mommy lets me play with filthy shoes! How great to be a fourth kid...

I'm still not sure how we ended up with a baby with so much hair.

I like how small she looks in the doorway.

Pseudo-crawling.



On Sunday we had a family dinner. My dad's parents are from Cleveland, so I have a lot of extended family here. My Granny was one of eleven, and they still get together several times a year. Sunday after church was one of those.

While we were there my dad's first cousin Travis showed up in an ambulance. He is White County's only paid fireman. Guess he's a pretty busy guy, a superhero of sorts. Actually we do have a volunteer fire department, so he has some help. He's a great guy, and LOVES his job. He went over and above to show the kids the ambulance.



They had lots of questions. The boys wanted to know what every switch and button did, and he patiently answered all of their questions.





Avery even got a look under the hood.

This was a great day for big rigs. They also begged for a tour of Uncle Danny and Aunt Lynn's camper. Avery said it was "awesome," and when he got to the back bedroom asked Aunt Lynn, "Is this your bed?," then told her it was pretty.



We had another fun playgroup today at the Knott's house. Tomorrow morning I'll go riding (yeah!) and Amelia will have an early rehearsal at church again.

Right now I'm taking myself to bed. I should have done it a long time ago. I'm stuck in a stay up too late, get up too late rut. (Late around here is 7:30, but still...the stuff I could accomplish if I could just get up at 6:00! Or so I think.)

Farewell!

Storms, and egghunts, and missing photos, oh my!

I've been wanting to sit down and work on another blog entry for days, it's just sometimes hard for me to justify spending the time it takes when there are so many other things that can, should, or must be done in a day. I sometimes wonder if God is looking down on the humanity He created, watching everybody scurry around like busy ants doing things that don't mean anything in light of eternity. (Or even in light of tomorrow, in some cases!)

I took some great pictures this week of Easter festivities and was highly bummmed to have lost some of the best ones somehow. Yesterday I looked through the pictures on my camera and was looking forward to loading them on my computer. Last night it loaded some of them and the rest apparently poofed into nonexistence. The card has been trying to come apart, but I haven't had any trouble with it so I haven't replaced it. (I believe my thriftiness has been mentioned in a previous post or three.) I'm guessing the pictures must have fallen out the crack. If this isn't possible, is there a nice, techinically minded type person out there that can tell me if my pictures are still on the card somewhere?

As for this week's fun, Good Friday was NOT a beautiful weather day. It was much like what I imagine the original Good Friday must have been like.

LOTS of nasty rain, for one thing.

But, we made the most of it at home anyway. Nothing like being confined to the house for an entire day!

Puzzle fun.

I found this in Amelia's room. Apparently Barbie and friends didn't mind braving the weather for a little parade action.

Cousin It makes a guest appearance at the house.

Avery's "baby chick," a baby toy shaped like a key whose battery has been in a slow death for days. It makes a cheeping sound like a chick and he's been petting it and carrying it around.

We did dye some eggs, which is always fun. I'm not sure what malfunction occured, but usually we color on the shells with crayons so the dye won't settle in the colored marks, but it didn't work worth a darn this time. But we tried anyway.





"Whatchoo talkin' bout, Willis?"

When an egg cracks you have to eat it. Taking the shell off requires a lot of concentration.



Got another little piece off....

It always helps to stick your tongue out.

Elizabeth enjoyed watching from her favorite seat in the house, her high chair. She got two more teeth this week, for a grand total of six now.

The final product. You can always substitute stickers for actual artistry. Besides, it makes the eggs look happy.

And for the weather grand finale....

Hail!

Lots of hail! It hurt my feelings to see and hear it pinging off of my car. I imagined all sorts of damage. Turns out it actually served to sandblast some of the grime off of the paint. I swear the car was a lot cleaner after the hailstorm. You should try your own vehicle exfoilating treatment sometime.

Soon after this we retreated to the basement to wait out a tornado warning. But not before Avery took a head first spill out of a chair right into the high chair. James said he got his very own egg, just in time for Easter. A week later it's still healing, but much better. James was watching the weather from the office computer and advised us to go to the basement, so I grabbed Elizabeth and an ice pack on the way out of the kitchen so I could hold it on Avery's head.

Poor Shannon must have inherited a storm freak gene from me. He was right under me pretty much all day, and actually headed into slight panic mode when he heard the word tornado. He said, "I wish our house was made out of bricks!" None of the kids have really had very much experience with bad weather, but he has always hated thunderstorms. I myself have a hate/hate relationship with potentially dangerous weather, but I've gone out of my way not to project it onto the kids. Maybe it really is a bad gene. Perhaps one day I will share the story that kicked my storm-o-phobia into high gear.

Needless to say, we survived.

Saturday was a much nicer day. I got to go to the barn, though I ended up not riding. A couple of our horses have developed a skin condition called rain rot (nice, eh?), where they lose hair in painful patches when there's lot of rainy weather, and can develop bacterial infections if it gets bad enough. One poor mare has hair missing from her neck to her tail on both sides, so I took time Saturday to give medicated baths and to try to get the healing started. She looks kind of mangy and pathetic right now.

Sunday we headed to the early service. We got one okay picture of the family. I didn't exactly go all out with the Easter duds this year. It can be fun, but it's not what's important.

Our one family shot, not such a great one, but it'll do. The fake tree in the preschool area helps to give it that jungle feel. That and the monkey hanging around James' neck.

We headed off to McDonough (for the second weekend in a row) for a family get together at my Uncle Danny and Aunt Lynn's house. I attemped to get a few shots of the kids before everyone changed.

This was the best I could do. It probably doesn't help that the sun is blinding them.

The boys showing some brotherly love.

The princesses.

Uncle Danny is my Dad's younger brother by two years. He and Aunt Lynn have a great place in McDonough on several acres with a pond. The weather was beautiful and we enjoyed most of the day outdoors, after a rather large potluck lunch. The kids went on a hayride while the adults hid 1,782,453 eggs, filled with candy, coins, dollars, and assorted dollar store goodies. After that we fished, hung out with family, attempted to fly kites (the wind was stop and go- no one actually got a kite in the air), and the kids had a blast with bubbles, jump ropes, chalk, and more. In between activities we snuck in for additional sustenance. Well, okay, it was key lime pie, mostly. I put Elizabeth down for a nap in the Pack N Play and she slept for nearly three hours! It was nice to get to enjoy the day playing with the kids without a 20+ pound weight attached to me.

This is the day from which I lost all of the pictures I really wanted. But I did get a few.

Hmmm, I didn't think about asking Avery if I could see what was on his camera's card.

Some of my cousins fishing. Here comes the hay ride.

Uncle Danny must have shown them every square inch of the property. They were gone at least 20 minutes.

My cousins Ashley and Brooke, Uncle Danny's daughters. Ashley and Michael's first baby is due at the beginning of June.

Getting ready to hunt for eggs.

You gotta shake em when you find em, to see what kind of loot is in there.



Avery loves candy (shocking), but was more excited about finding eggs with coins than candy filled ones. I've never seen a kid who loves coins so much. He fills his pockets with them, carries them around all day, and begs to sleep with them. I'd let him except for the choking hazard thing. I would worry about him growing up with money as an idol except that he doesn't really care for dollars. Guess it's just the shiny object factor right now.

Amelia, Shannon, and Mom.

Amelia with my niece Jordan, who is now 21 months old. In the background is my other niece (in Lisa's belly), who is yet nameless and should make an appearance around the middle of June.

And here is where you should see more cute pictures of my niece, the kids hunting eggs and showing off their ridiculously large piles of loot, more cousins, a great one of my Granny and PaPa, James with the boys, the kids fishing, Amelia holding bait (a wiggly worm), a rare picture of JUST James and I, and a fun one of my brother looking tough wielding James' VERY LARGE PISTOL. (This would be a neat place for a link back to the post where there were pictures of the VERY LARGE PISTOL, but I'm not talented enough to pull that off. Actually I'm just not going to research how to do it. Anyone know how?) At any rate, there would have been lots of great pictures but my evil card stole them. The fact that I have now spent at entire paragraph on this topic should be a clue to the depths of my despair over this particular subject. I will now shut up.

We ended up spending an improptu night at my folks' house after finding out Jonathan and Lisa would be staying the night and we could hang out with them some more. It was time well spent, and as a bonus we discovered that there is indeed a free application you can download for Blackberries, semi-equivalent to the iPhone one called "Fart." This one is "Cippie the Farting Chipmunk," but the idea is the same. What could be better than having nine realistic gas sounds right at your disposal, including the ability to set a timer so you can make others victims? It was late, that's all the explanation I can offer. And the kids were in bed, the perfect opportunity to revert back to middle school days. Or to yesterday, if you're a guy.

It had been planned for Amelia to stay a few days with Grandmommy and Grandad, so when we headed out Monday morning we left her in McDonough. The original date to get her back was to be Wednesday, but it turned into Friday, so she got to be Only Child Princess For the Week.

We had an uneventful week at home, aside from a mild fever that hit me Wednesday night and Thursday. Apparently it served to usher in the worst cold I've had for as long as I can remember. The boys missed Amelia. They stayed under my feet nearly the entire week. Apparently Amelia dictates play a lot more than I realized, and they were lost. It was a good week though, and Shannon was a terrific oldest kid stand-in.

Friday we met Amelia and Mom at INK in Gainesville for some play time and the kid exchange. Amelia was less than thrilled to be going home when it was time, but considering the way she crashed in the car the fuss was probably mostly to blame on post grandparents' house fatigue syndrome. (Bet my mom did the same thing when she got home!)

A few shots from INK.









Well, that concludes another nearly two weeks in the life of us. We'll head off to church early in the morning, without James (who is taking care of a mens' group here at camp), and barring rain I'm supposed to help 10 little girls have a terrific horseback riding birthday party at the barn for the afternoon.

I'm taking my sneezy self off to bed. Wish my nose had a spigot I could turn off. Any suggestions on how to install one?

Ahh-ahhh-ahhhhhhhccchhhhooooooooo and goodnight.

Another installment of Life With the Himstedts

It's been nearly two weeks since I've posted a new blog entry. It's been busy around here, though I don't have a lot of photos this time to prove it. Maybe that's why I don't have many photos. I've been too busy to take them.

I always like to recap what's happened in a week, probably mostly blah blah blah drivel to everyone but me, but here goes anyway. Uh...let's see. I'm trying to recall it....two weeks WAS such a long time ago for someone as memory challenged as me. (My friend Abby and I always talk about how mommies and memories are non-compatible. She says her sister-in-law says she's in the Doily Brain Forgetter's Club, and that she's the president. Seems I may be challenging her position as president, entirely against my will.)

Oh yeah, we had Open House here at camp Sunday before last. The week leading up to it was very rainy and yucky weather-wise, but it wasn't raining for Open House, thankfully. It was cloudy, blustery, and cold, but not raining. March is always an iffy time to have a mostly outdoor event like that, but it's the best timing-wise for camp. We had several camp activities open for folks to try out, and Daniel and I gave tours. We had a decent turnout, and had a few sign up for camp.

**This would be a great place for some pictures of Open House**
(Too bad I didn't take any.)

From Monday to Thursday pretty much run together after that, so I guess nothing significant happened. Except for more rain, including for the second Wednesday in a row on my morning to ride at the barn. I had Macy come anyway, and enjoyed some alone time with the horses. A lady who is sending her kids to camp this summer had a dressage saddle she was trying to sell, and had spoken to me previously about it and brought it along for me to try out. Every horse-related thing I ever personally owned, including horses, brushes, saddles, bridles, etc. have ended up as camp items. I've been interested in (re)purchasing some things for myself, NOT to be engulfed by the camp stuff, so I was looking forward to trying the saddle out. So I got my favorite wet, muddy horse out of the pasture, knocked some grime off with a brush, and saddled him up. I didn't get a real ride in the saddle, but I did like it and ended up buying it from her. From everything I found online I got it for significantly less than it's value, which appeals to the (miserly/penny pinching/thrifty) economically-friendly side of me. One day I'll get to ride in it! Hope I still like it...

I also remember making a trip to Blairsville (north from here, up and over a big, curvy mountain road) with the kids on Thursday. I failed to renew my driver's license by my birthday- February 18- so it was slightly expired, and Blairsville was the nearest renewal location from here. Apparently no one knows about it either, because I was in and out of there with a new license in less than 10 minutes. That has to be some kind of government agency record. I was just glad they didn't ask me how I got myself there. I had James ready to pick me and the kids up from the Blairsville jail, just in case.

Friday I parted with some money at Wal-Mart. It's impossible to go Wal-Marting without spending at least $50. Cleveland is getting a Wal-Mart, set to open late summer. I have mixed feelings about it, as I now only Wal-Mart about every three weeks. (I believe this really is a verb. If not, it should be.) Once it's close to home, who knows how crazy it might get. Run in for one thing, see 18 more things you didn't know you needed until you saw them. The kids LOVE going. Since we don't have TV and commercials they don't know what exists out there until Wal-Mart shows them the way. Thankfully each kid has a thing called "The Birthday List" or "The Christmas List," depending on which event is closer. Anything any of them "have been wanting for my whole life" (as Shannon says), can be written on the list. It works great, and keeps me from being the mean mommy who says no all the time.

Friday night we had a bonfire at Rebecca's house, in honor of her brother and his family who will be leaving soon for the mission field. Rebecca also had some brush and wood scraps left over from the construction of her house to burn, but I'm sure that was just a coincidence. I did make good efforts to take pictures, since it was our kids' first offical roasting of food items over an open fire, but I got just three before the camera battery died. My camera battery lasts for 8 hours which is prectically forever, so I didn't check it before leaving the house. That was a bummer.

Avery works on cooking dinner with Jenny's help.

Elizabeth sits, watches, and inhales smoke. We all smelled like a fire when we left, and Amelia vowed to never smoke again, since it made her throat sore and her breath smell bad. (That's really what she said!) That's what a parent wants to hear regarding smoking.

"Huh? I gotta cook my own dinner? You crazy!"

Shannon was a bit under the weather Friday into Saturday, and ran a fever off and on. Actually we were all under the weather. I've yet to figure out a way to float above it. (That's always been a weird phrase to me. But I digress.) He was the only one who wasn't feeling good, anyway.

Saturday we kissed James goodbye and headed to McDonough. James had to stay at camp, yet again, and work a group that was here. My Granny and Pa Pa's 60th wedding anniversary celebration was Sunday, so we went down for that. Jonathan, Lisa, and Jordan came to mom and dad's on Saturday as well, so we had fun enjoying some time with family. Lisa is looking really cute with baby number two due June 21st. It's another girl, and I'm excited about being an aunt again. Jordan is now 20 months, and is talking up a storm. She even knows her colors already.

Sunday morning Amelia woke up with a fever, but we had stuff to do all day, so I gave her some Ibuprofen and she trucked on. The entire family (including all my aunts and uncles and cousins) went to church with Granny and Pa Pa Sunday morning. Ten of them participated in the church's orchestra, which sounded terrific. I come from a very muscial family. We had lunch at my cousin Gary's house, and the baby got a nap, then we went back to the church for an anniversary party. There was a great turn out. I got to see some folks from the church I grew up in who now attended that church in McDonough. It was fun catching up with childhood friends. I got an invitation from my friend Jennifer to do dinner at her house the following night.

Here are the pictures from the anniversary celebration:

Oh wait, I was too busy gabbing and chasing children to get my camera out of the car! I regret that now. Hopefully a kind family member will send me some pictures.

By Sunday night Amelia was truly miserable, and had developed a cough to go with the fever. By Monday morning Elizabeth started with the cough too, but thankfully no fever. Avery's nose started running. Shannon was just grumpy, still trying to shake the last of his whatever-it-was from the weekend. I applied my life motto: "It's always something." (Particularly when you decide to go out of town.)

Monday Shannon and I got to spend some time shoe shopping and Targeting. (Like Wal-Marting, only...need I explain?) I feel like Shannon is the kid I get to spend the least one-on-one time with, so we enjoyed our outing very much. And we found shoes. Mission accomplished.

Monday evening Amelia opted out of going to Jennifer and Craig's with me for dinner, and went to bed early. I took the rest of the crew and enjoyed a very nice evening catching up with an old friend. Jennifer and I grew up together at church and were buddies through high school, even though we didn't go to the same one. She was also a bridesmaid in my wedding.

It's fun hanging out with someone who it feels like you've seen not extremely sporadically but often over the 17 (Ack! Cough! Wheeze!) years since graduation. DANG that's a long time.

Jennifer and Craig have a two year old son named Gabriel.

Craig attacks the boys.

Tuesday we headed home around nap time, and were glad to see Daddy. My extended family kids me when I come to family events without him, but since they're always on weekends he's usually busy with groups at camp. My cousin Gary wanted to know where I hid the body.

There's nothing else significant to report about our week. Grocery shopping Wednesday, church Wednesday night...and now it's Thursday. This is spring break for the entire state of Georgia, so we skipped Thursday night dinner due to everyone being busy or out of town. James and I took the kids to the Sunflower chinese restaurant. We've been doing Thursday nights with friends for so long I didn't remember how to put together a Thursday night dinner without contributions from at least four other people. And I didn't feel like cooking.

I did snap a few pictures today. The boys got their hair cut this morning, so I thought that was picture worthy. We go to my friend Susan's salon in Cleveland.

I'm glad I don't have the job of chasing a two year old's wiggly head around while trying to cut a straight line...

Avery thinks haircuts are fun.

Here's Susan, my hairdresser, friend, and riding instructor. The hairdo you see before you was what she did to a lady who had to be every bit of 70 while she waited for her color to set. And I let this lady cut my hair.

Shannon likes haircuts too.

In spite of the tickly clippers, which he has a hard time sitting still for.

Today the weather was beautiful, so we met Alison and her boys at the park for a picnic after haircuts. The weather people have scheduled another nasty thunderstormy day for tomorrow, so we thought we should take advantage of the nice weather. Alison's boys have had the same type of mystery crud my kids had this week. Perhaps it's a virus. There's a small chance it could be.

Climbing a wall.

Yep, I climbed a wall.

Looking cute.

Being a monkey.

Driving a car. He kept asking where the pedals were, so I installed a wood chip accelerator and brake. That made him happy.

Avery's imagination has been quite active lately. Yesterday he was crying because Shannon took his bullets. They were invisible. So I took a couple of them from him, ate them, then spit them out at him. I convinced Shannon to eat and spit his out too, and Avery was laughing in just a few seconds. Today he was Robin Hood at the park, and showed us his arrows in the quiver on his back. (I think he looks more like Little John myself.) He asked where the bad guys were, and when I pointed "over there," he spent about 30 seconds looking hard and saying, "Where?"

Several things the kids have said lately have cracked me up. Last week Amelia turned her nose up at something on her plate and I told her she wasn't going to be rude, and that she would try it because I wasn't going to raise a picky eater. She looked at me seriously and said, "Then who's going to raise me if you aren't going to do it?"

While doing school this week we were talking about senses, and she said, "There are nerds everywhere on you. They bring noise to your brain." Nerds, nerves, whatever.

I was helping Shannon brush his teeth last week and when I was done he put his hands on my belly and said, "We should have another baby. Then there would be FIVE kids!" I thought that was a good one.

I'll try to do better taking pictures this week. I want to get some of Elizabeth who is trying to learn to crawl. She's scooting around on her rear to get to things she wants to chew, and can get up and rock on all fours. She just hasn't figured out forward yet.

It's a shade past late now, so I'll sign off. And so ends another (long/wordy) chapter in the life of Corie and family.

Goodnight!