Visits and Picnics

Grandma Mil and Leify at the Church Picnic.  Leif is holding (and pointing) to his balloon which flew out of the picture.  This is my new favorite picture!

Whew!  These are busy days!  What happend to the lazy hazy days of Summer?

My parents were in town this week, so Leif and I spent the whole time cavorting with them.  And by cavorting, I mean getting lost because between my GPS Helga (that's her name) which has 6 or 7 year old maps on it (so they're all wrong), and the iPhone which doesn't give vocal directions or update when you make the wrong turn, we spent hours driving around in the hot hot weather.  To make matters worse, the AC in ye olde Sweet Ride only works at high speeds - when you're stopped at a traffic light (or say, in heinous rush hour traffic for 3 hours), it doesn't work.  So, yeah, the very next day we took Leify's car into the shop for repair.  Of course, they wanted our first and second-born to fix the AC, so we're taking it to another place this week.  So next time my Momma is driving around with me all week, I'll be sure to have a working GPS and a working AC!  My poor Momma.  And she hardly even whined.  ;)

We went to a colonial farm nearby (we tried to get to a park, but ended up lost and at this colonial farm) which was fun.  Then we made it back in time to Papa and picked him up from his meeting.  From there, we went to lunch (@ Mixt Greens, which is a really yummy place if you've never been there, but be warned, it's like Chipotle in that is is loud, crowded, and not a good place to talk, but the food is awesome!)

We still had time to go to a little island to take a hike, so we did.   

Leif at part of the (under construction) monument on the island hike.  His pose makes me laugh - what if we all posed like that for pictures?

All too soon, it was time to take Nana and Papa to the airport.  We had time enough to get a drink, sit and chat in the airport before they had to go.  Leif was so sad when he saw them walking away, he kept wanting to run after them ("I didn't get enough hugs and kisses!") and later when we were in the car, he started to cry and said, "It sure is a shame to say Bye-bye to Nana and Papa!"  Yes, yes it is, my Leify.

The trail was full of logs with hollow middles like this one, which all needed exploring, of course.

In baby news, I have gotten a clean bill of health from the endocrinologist (thyroid), the cardiologist (I had heart palpitations, but she gave me magnesium supplements, saying that palpitations can be caused by electrolyte imbalances, and as soon as I started the magnesium supplements, the palpitations stopped), and the midwife (so far, baby is doing well, Momma is doing well, and Momma has yet to gain any weight, over halfway through - yay!  Baby is getting chubby at 13 oz, though!) ;)

I must say, I feel like my care is sooo much better this time.  I love the midwives, I love the cardiologist, and I'm so thankful that I found good helpful people to help me through this and any future problems I may have (or anyone else in the family - everyone has a heart!)  It is really such a relief to talk to a Dr. that doesn't throw random pharmaceuticals at you at your first complaint of something {possibly} amiss.  The cardiologist (a very sweet lady) told me she doesn't prescribe drugs until it is absolutely necessary - changes in diet and lifestyle come first unless drugs are needed to save a life.  Hallelujah, Doc!  Of course, the midwives only prescribe vitamins. :)

Oh!  Silly me - the top picture of Mildred and Leify is at a church picnic where Mildred was married...a long time ago (forget the exact year - '44, maybe?)  Jason had the nice idea (he's always good for a fun adventure!) of taking her to church there since she doesn't go there that often.  So, up we went, and the priest was great - normally homilies can make you snore, but this one was very engaging :)  He also announced that there was a picnic in the afternoon and we were all invited.  Then he mentioned that there would be homemade Korean BBQ.  And it was FREE.  I'm sorry - did someone say free homemade Korean BBQ? We are SO THERE!

The picnic didn't start until 1, and church let out at noon, so we had an hour to use before the picnic started.  Preggo me wasn't much interested in standing around in a hot parking lot for an hour, so we loaded up in the car to go look at a house that I'd wanted to see.  We only meant to drive by it, but when we got there, a sign said there would be an open house at 1 that day!  Sweet!  We did our standard walk around the vacant house (and even found a door open into the house, but we didn't go in) and shortly, a realtor arrived and we got to go into the house (legally!)

The house was beautiful - and the laundry room was the thing fantasies are made of...well, mine at least.  I won't go into what most people fantasize about because this is a family blog, but this laundry room was beyond beautiful - space to fold, iron, clean, store - all while watching the kids in play in the back yard - swoon!  Fantasies of an modern housewife - Am I weird or what?!  Anyway, that house and another house we're interested in go up for auction this week, so we'll be attending those.  If we get either house, great, if not...onto the next!  Say some prayers for us, please!

After that house, we went back to the church picnic and snarfled down piles of Korean BBQ.   Leif ate a cupcake.  The food was really really good - a little unusual for church picnics, IMHO.  It was bliss - and after we ate - the picture of a happy Mil and Leify! :)

Nana, Papa and Leify on a bridge on our little island hike!  Go me for not putting the pictures in any kind of order on this post!

That is all for now - I've got loads of paperwork to do for the house hunt!

Happy Days!