You know, sometimes God works in totally obvious ways... David had a 6:15am flight booked to Albany, New York today. He accidentally set his alarm for 3:30PM, instead of 3:30AM, so he overslept and missed that flight. The 9:36AM flight was oversold, and 10:55AM flight was delayed and had a 5 hour layover in Atlanta. I told him God just thought he should go to my doctor's appointment with me at 1PM!

The doctor's news at our appointment was really no surprise. I am still dilated 1cm, but I am now 70% effaced. Dr. Marks was glad I hadn't dilated more, but was concerned about effacement. Right now he wants me to continue the Brethine and the bed rest. He hopes we'll make it to 34 weeks (August 6), but I am still shooting for September 1st! As much as I love my brother-in-law, Chris, I don't want the baby to come on his birthday (August 5). Little Jack needs to cook a little longer!

I think I must be a control freak. David is trying so hard to be helpful by packing a hospital bag for me, but it's driving me crazy! He and I are polar opposites when it comes to, well, pretty much everything! I have a certain way that I pack my bags, clean the house, clothe the kids... He has a certain way that he does things, too, but they're just different than my ways. Why can't I just let it go?

David is leaving to go back to work in Albany before the sun comes up tomorrow. I have a doctor's appointment at 1pm tomorrow, and I secretly wish he could just blow off work and come with me. I know that's not an option, but I'm a little scared of what the doctor is going to say. What if I have to be admitted to the hospital to control these contractions? I would love to think that nothing has happened since my doctor's visit last Thursday, but I'm not really optimistic. I've had a LOT of contractions since then!

On a positive note, my friend Rhonda came to see me yesterday. It was so nice to see a new face! I can tell already that this bed rest thing is for the birds! One thing that has helped has been listening to my Hypnobabies scripts. I hope I have time to finish the course before I go into active labor! I am on week one right now, but I did manage to find an accelerated schedule for women who order the course too late to do the whole schedule. I think I'll try that. So far I have loved listening to the scripts! They are so relaxing that I just cannot stay awake! The website says that they work even if you're sleeping. Let's hope so!

I went back to the doctor today, but the news was not good! I was still dilated 1 cm, but I had effaced another 20%, up to 60% effaced. Dr. Marks put me on total bed rest, which pretty much only allows trips to the bathroom. Ugh! I have to say, though, that my husband, Mr. Organized, has it all worked out. He has drawn up a schedule to arrange for someone to be with me 24/7. On the days that my mom is working, my 16 year old cousin, Raleigh Jo, will be staying here to help take care of the girls. I think that's going to be a lot of fun. I love that girl, and my kids do, too! On the other hand, I an not at all happy about being confined to the bed. I am a mover and a shaker, and I don't know what I am going to do with myself! Oh well, the goal is to stay pregnant until at least September 1st. My due date is September 17th, but both of my girls came 17 days early. Maybe my little man will, too!

Holy PRETERM LABOR Batman!!!

Well, we made it home last night after a very long trip, and went to see Dr. Marks early this morning. I contracted through the night, so when he came in to talk to me I asked him to check me and let me know that the baby was OK. I was NOT prepared for the news he gave me! I was dilated 1cm, 40% effaced. Gotta stay off my feet and take Breathine 4-8x per day to stop contractions. I'm only 31 weeks!!! Eeeeekkk! Stay in baby boy! Stay in!!!!!

I thought after talking with the doc we'd go straight home, but today is David's birthday, too. We went to a movie and then to Doe's for steaks. By the time we got home I was exhausted. I know it wasn't an ideal birthday for David. I hate that...

I started the Brethine while we were in Little Rock, but the full effect of it didn't hit me until tonight. I literally feel like bugs are crawling all over me! It is INSANE! It is crazy to think I have nine more weeks of this...

2010 Summer Road Trip - Day 50, 51, 52

We spent our last day in New Orleans just being lazy. After we got up we headed to Hattiesburg, Mississippi, to go see Queenie and Papa. David was supposed to fly into New Orleans and drive up with us, but work obligations kept him in New York. We were really excited to visit with my godmother (Queenie), and Nana came down to meet us at her house! The girls, especially Reese, were SOOOO excited! She actually stayed at Queenie's house with Nana both Friday and Saturday nights instead of staying at the hotel with us.

David arrived Saturday afternoon at the HUGE Hattiesburg-Laurel Regional Airport. Hahaha! I've never seen an airport so small! His flight was crazy! He had two connections, and got delayed in Atlanta. It turned out that he had to spend the night in Memphis. What a pain!

We visited with Queenie all weekend, and the guys (David, Norton and Luke) went to the Mississippi Armed Forces Museum at Camp Shelby. While the guys were gone we just sat around in Queenie's living room and chatted. Reese was playing and took a flying leap onto my big, pregnant tummy. OUCH! I sat there and contracted all day after that. We decided to go on home Sunday instead of Monday so I could see the doctor. I felt awful the whole way home. It was bad enough that I actually let David drive!

Our Road Trip MAP!

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This map isn't 100% accurate since it measures "as the crow flies" instead of going by the roads, but as you can see, we covered a good part of the Eastern and Southern US this summer!

2010 Summer Road Trip - Days 46, 47, 48, 49

We went all over New Orleans in these four days! I had a ball running around with my buddy, Ellie, her daughter, Hannah, and her niece, Carissa. It was an awesome trip!

We met up Monday afternoon and went to check into our hotel, the Hilton Garden Inn New Orleans/French Quarter. It was a really nice place! We got a room with a king sized bed and a sleeper sofa. I mistakenly assumed that the sleeper sofa would be a queen, but I was wrong! It was a twin! Thank goodness the teenage girls were willing to be flexible! My girls just slept on the couch cushions on the floor and were happy with that.

We saw so many cool things in New Orleans while we were there. We strolled all over the downtown area and checked out the kitchy gift shops. Reese was particularily fascinated with an apron that had boobs on it. She thought it was SO cool, and cracked us up playing with it! Check out this video:



We also went to the New Orleans City Park. Honestly, I was amazed! It was 104 degrees the day we decided to go, so that kind of took away from the experience, but I would love to go back! It was a beautiful place! Serena and the kids came down and joined us on our adventure. We rode the streetcar from downtown out to the park, which was about a 30 minute ride. The kids liked that a lot. We walked up to the New Orleans Museum of Art hoping to find a bathroom and a little air conditioning in addition to a little culture, but it was closed. We were so disappointed! We were also interested in Story Land, but decided against that, too. We did go to one of the playgrounds and let the kids run wild, and also to the cafe to get ice cream. We had a very good time! Here are some of the pictures we took on our adventure:






Reese found a rock with the number four on it and claimed it as "hers" since she was four years old.



We also spent some time in the French Quarter. We visited the New Orleans Historic Voodoo Museum. I was a tad disappointed with that one, but we also went to Cafe Du Monde for beignets. Yummy!





We saw some WAY cool street performers at Jackson Square. The kids loved the "Silver Man", and the Transformers were awesome! Reese just had to touch the Silver Man to see if he was real (he wasn't).








We walked by the Lalaurie Mansion to see if we could spot any ghosts, and took tons of pictures to see if any orbs showed up, but nothing extraordinary happened. Dangit!







Visiting New Orleans with the Lamb family was an awesome trip. I would love to do it again sometime!

2010 Summer Road Trip - Day 45

Sunday morning we all got up and got ready to go to the Audubon Aquarium of the Americas in New Orleans, Louisiana. The kids were excited to see all of the amazing things in the water. Our friends, the Lambs, met us there to join in the fun. They got to pet stingrays, and surprisingly, even Reese, who is generally very cautious, joined in the fun!




The kids played on every toy and looked at almost every exhibit. It was really a great day!











After seeing the aquarium we went out and looked at the Mississippi River. These were some of my favorite pictures of David and Reese. Wish his eyes were open in the closeup!




We had to get David to the airport by 4pm, then the girls and I went back up to Mikel & Serena's house for one more night. We were driving through a blinding rainstorm when David called me. His flight was cancelled... We were almost back to Hammond, an hour away from the airport. He ended up just getting a hotel room in New Orleans so that he could leave first thing in the morning. I hated that we weren't with him, but I REALLY didn't want to drive back down there again, only to get up at 4am to get him to the airport!

We're all excited about tomorrow. We are headed to downtown New Orleans for a few days in a hotel with the Lamb family! I can't wait!

2010 Summer Road Trip - Day 43 & 44

We left Meridian for New Orleans early this afternoon. We had a bit of a humorous start to the day, though. When I went out to start loading up the car I realized that Katie had stuck her bubble game all over the back passenger door of my car. This, coupled with the 100 degree plus temperatures made quite a mess. I told her to go out and clean it up, only to be met with a screaming, crying fit. Since she was not willing to be reasonable, I took off my flip-flop and promptly swatted her butt a couple of times. She screamed like I'd killed her. I looked up and my cousin, Chris, was running up the driveway. Apparently he'd heard all of Katie's screaming and thought we'd run over her with the car or something. Scared him half to death! When he figured out what had happened he just told her that she'd better listen to her mama!



After the drama of the gum encrusted door, the day was pretty smooth. We went to New Orleans to pick David up at the airport. After we got him, we headed to Hammond to see our friends Mikel and Serena M. They used to live in Searcy, but moved down to Hammond in February of this year. We have missed them terribly, and were excited to see them!

When we got to their house the kids were SO excited! We used to play with A & A, their kids, all the time. They immediately went outside to play on the cars.







Saturday we decided to take the M family to meet our friends, John and Wendra. John's family has a farm about twenty minutes north of Hammond, and they were planning to cook a big lunch and just hang out that afternoon. We loaded up all the kids and went up there to see them. It was such an awesome, laid back day! We all ate really good, and got to see Wendra and John's daughter, Willa, and John's parents, too. We let the kids play outside in the rain, and Wendra took them and let them pick blueberries. They just loved that!








After spending the whole day out at the farm, we headed back to Hammond. We went out to dinner that night at Don's Seafood. Yummy! I had the crabmeat au gratin. It's my favorite, and one of the few things I miss about living in Louisiana!

2010 Summer Road Trip - Days 40, 41, 42

We headed down to Mississippi today! My aunt Janice was waiting for us to come see her in Meridian, Mississippi. When we got there around 6pm several of my cousins were either there or on their way to come see us. My Aunt Janice and Uncle John have seven children, so I have lots of cousins from their family! It was so good to sit around and share a meal with so much family! I hadn't seen so many of them in such a long time!



We did lots of cool stuff while we were in Mississippi. Aunt Janice and I took the kids to Red Lobster for lunch, then we met her daughter, Sheri, at the movie theater and took the kids to see Toy Story 3. It was a great movie! The end of it was pretty sad, and I actually teared up a little, but we loved it! After the movie we found a geocache in the Bonita Lakes Mall parking lot, then went over to Sam's Club to pick up dinner and look for another geocache. We never found that one! It was hidden well! We also went bowling. Aunt Janice bowls on a league a couple of times a week, so we joined her at the bowling alley and played a few games ourselves. It was fun!





The kids had a great time telling ghost stories with Aunt Janice and playing with Uncle John. We got to go to our cousin, Glenn's, house and swim in his pool. The girls TOTALLY loved that!

Our time with family was far too short, but New Orleans was calling our names!

2010 Summer Road Trip - Day 39

Today is my mom and daddy's 41st wedding anniversary! Happy Anniversary you guys!

We slept in today and then headed down toward the Atlanta airport so that David could prepare for going back to work tomorrow. Since we were headed south, we decided to stop and visit with David's brother, Barry, and his wife, Deborah. We stopped along the way and picked up a couple of watermelons, then we went to visit! We had a good time talking with them, and got to see Deborah's mom, Joanne, and Deborah's son, Holden. It was so nice to visit, but we did head out for the airport after a short while.

We stayed at the Sheraton Gateway Hotel Atlanta Airport. It was a nice hotel, and they treated us great! David had to get up early to catch his flight, so we went down for bed pretty early.

2010 Summer Road Trip - Day 38

It's Independence Day! Yay! We discussed driving out to the lake to see some fireworks, but in the end decided to make our own good time at home. The girls wanted to go to a waterpark, but we decided to stay at Billy's house and have a water park "redneck style". It turned out to be a ton of fun! The guys took two big tarps and put them on the ground on a hill in Billy's front yard. They then covered the tarps with dishwashing liquid and water and let the girls GO! There are no words needed... Just look at the pics!









Of course, it's all fun and games until somebody gets hurt! I heard Billy say, "Mom, you need to come see this!". Well, when I saw what he was talking about I knew we'd be spending the rest of the afternoon in the emergency room. Katie slipped on Billy's front porch and loaded her foot up with splinters. I pulled out one that was over two inches long, but knew there was no way I'd ever get the rest out. We ended up at Northside Hospital and had the best and most efficient emergency room treatment we'd ever seen. The doctor numbed Katie's foot and then pulled over 25 splinters out. It was CRAZY! He had a white piece of gauze that he was putting the splinters on as he pulled them out. It was almost black with wood! Katie cried a little when they gave her the shots (there were several), but was a champ while he was working on her.



Needless to say, the rest of the night was pretty low key. Katie's foot had a hundred holes in it, and she complained a little about it hurting, but she was fine. We did shoot off some more fireworks before bed.