Self cleaning house

As part of getting ready for going out of town at the end of the week, I need to clean our house. We keep our house picked up/mostly clutter free, but it still becomes necessary to dust and mop and scrub down surfaces that develop pink rings around them. Although I have now entered my second semester of pregnancy, I have not experienced a resurgence of energy. I still desire a daily nap and get tired with what feels like menial amounts of work. The problem is my son and husband have allergies and it begins to be a sneeze fest around here if I wait two or three months between dusting sessions. I am finding that I could really use a self cleaning house. Since we don't have one of those, I guess I am just going to have to break my tasks down into smaller more manageable parts and take a few days to get the house sparkling and fresh.

Returnin' From a Jet Plane

A quick post-trip update: I've been back for a few days now, but I wanted to make sure I said to everyone, "thanks for the support." To answer Mr. Rex10's question in the comments to the original post, I went to Memphis, which was a very short little jaunt. In fact, the trip over was more like riding in a flying bus than a bike - I'm pretty sure there were a total of 53 seats on the plane, including the pilot and co-pilot's seats and the bathroom. I did mention to the flight staff on the first one that I hadn't flown since 1988, and they tried their best to be accommodating. I also had some "less-drowsy" formula Dramamine, which I took about an hour before each flight, and I guess it worked like a charm. I sat by the window on both flights. What an amazing experience! I loved watching the clouds and landscape from above, and coming back over the big city at night was just beautiful! I will definitely not be anxious about flying in the future, should the situation arise again. It was a very good experience, except for when I forgot to take my laptop out of my bag before running it through the scanner on the way back, and the shocked security lady yelled out, "Who has a laptop in a BAG?" as if this was the most ridiculous place to keep a laptop she'd ever heard of, and only a colossal moron would leave one there at a security checkpoint. Oh, and while that was going on, security on the other end was running the cable tester through a full-scale bomb detection process (according to the inspector: "the machine can be setup to check for drugs as well, but we don't care about drugs; you can keep your drugs"). Those were embarrassing, but the rest of the trip I wouldn't mind going through again.


P.S. to Mr. Rex10: You need to know about this.

Beach preview

In preparation for our upcoming beach trip we decided to take the kids to our local man-made lake beach. Despite the greenish-brown water and little fish that swim in the water we had a great time. Maggie loves that she can touch the bottom and practiced swimming a lot. Daniel likes to dive under the water with his mask on and try to catch the fish or pick up rocks. One unfortunate thing that happened while we were at the beach was that I stepped on a bee. Boy was that uncomfortable. The last time I got stung by a bee I was in kindergarten living in Ft. Campbell, KY. I was playing bare foot at the park and stepped on a bee that was on a flower. Thankfully I am not allergic to bees, but I forgot just how uncomfortable a bee sting can be. I am just glad that it was me instead of one of the kids that got stung. Let's hope the bee sting is not a preview of our time at the real beach. We are getting really excited. Less than a week before we leave!

Leavin' On a Jet Plane

Tomorrow morning, I head out on a big ol' jet airliner for the first time in over 20 years. I believe this is the only experience in my life about which I can say, "I've done that before, but not in over 20 years." This is a big deal for me, although I have friends who seem to be on planes as much as they are in cars. The last time I was on a plane was, I think, June of '88. I was coming back from a trip to Ireland, the last leg of which was from New York to Atlanta. For the trip overseas, I had some sort of Dramamine patch to install behind my ear, and I used the last one on the trip back from Dublin to New York. On the NY to ATL leg, I was sick almost from the moment of takeoff to landing and even in the car on the ride back to Columbus. I was also exhausted, so I'd fall asleep on the plane being sick, and I'd wake up to be sick again. Not pleasant.
All this to say, if you're a Christian, and you're awake between 7:30 AM and 8:45 AM EDT this Tuesday, please say a little prayer for me, and for the passengers seated near me. I know we'd appreciate it. Thank you.

We're going to the beach!

In less than two weeks we will be taking off for our first family vacation (with all four of us - five counting the one in utero). We have been on approximately three vacations, our first being our honeymoon to Savannah when we got married. A year later on our first anniversary we went to Missouri to visit a friend of mine in which we stayed at their home. We did stay in a hotel in Branson , MO for one night and spent the day taking in the tourist attractions. Then when Daniel was a year old, and I was pregnant with Maggie, we went to Ohio to visit my mom's side of the family. That is the last "vacation" we have had. Davis and I have had two weekend get aways since having our precious children. One of the main reasons that we have not had more vacations is that we have been trying to get out of debt most of our married years together, albeit not in any way that was focused (until we came across Dave Ramsey's The Total Money Makeover and went through Financial Peace University), but we knew we couldn't afford vacations. The only reason we get to enjoy this upcoming family vacation is because we have a wonderful connection (our sister-in-law) to a condo in Florida. Because it is a condo, we have the ability to cook food and store and reheat leftovers therefore keeping the cost of food down. And because we are on a budget we know exactly how much money we may take with us to spend. I know that we are going to have a ball. Maggie absolutely loves playing in the sand so she will be in heaven. Daniel and Maggie love to swim so we plan to wear them out. Maybe we will even come back with a little color in our normally transparent skin.

The Hunter

How greedily the predator eyes his prey, anxiously awaiting his chance to strike. Cautiously, he raises his head and, without warning, he pounces, easily devouring his unsuspecting quarry in mere seconds. The biscuit never even saw him coming.

Flight of the Narrator

Angie: "Maggie, please get your stuffed animals out of Mommy and Daddy's room."
Maggie (standing up and moving towards our bedroom): "And she got up and ran from the room, through the kitchen, and into the bedroom."

Our Maggie has taken to providing narration for her own life, and man, it is by far the best entertainment I get in my week. We still have the baby monitor in the children's room, and in the mornings we'll hear something like, "she dressed herself all by herself and headed to the kitchen for some breakfast." She doesn't do it all the time, and she often talks to herself while she's playing, so I'm worried that I might be missing some of the best lines. I think I might get a bunch of micro-cassette recorders and sew them into Maggie's clothes. Or maybe I should just head over to the local FBI office and ask for copies of the tapes from our house. At any rate, I hope this phase doesn't end anytime soon. As I alluded to earlier on Twitter, with as much attitude as she's been giving lately, sometime it feels like this powerful degree of cuteness is all that's keeping her with us.

A Blast!

For the past few years now our family has been privileged to spend the 4th of July with several of our dear friends. For reasons which will soon become apparent, I can only say that the event takes place at a private, undisclosed location that is probably not even IN Georgia on the multi-acre, privately-owned, family land of someone I'll refer to as Mickle Cowfman. The buffet is always abundant and incredibly delicious; there are always lots of things for the kids to do; and the finale of the event is an increasingly impressive fireworks display which would be of increasingly questionable legality, were it to take place in Georgia, but, as I mentioned before, it most likely does not. ;-) This year's event featured some of the world's most AWESOME barbecued pork cooked and served in the eastern North Carolina style provided by Mickle's father-in-law. There was a bouncy castle with slide, a toddler bouncy area, a trampoline, a swimming pool, and an industrial-strength snow cone machine. There was also some excellent live music, and Maggie made it through the whole fireworks display, which was a first for us! All in all, it was an outstanding celebration of our great nation's birthday!

Speaking of Exciting Developments

For those who may not know, the Hipps family is expecting a new addition on or around January 30, 2009! We've known for a couple of weeks now, but we wanted to make sure that all of our various pregnant friends that were due got their bundles unpacked before we made any official announcements. Angie is about 9 weeks along, and has already been through more nausea and exhaustion than she had with the first two combined! Here's a picture of the little peanut, as he or she looked in the photographer's studio this past Monday, June 23rd. It may go without saying, but just in case it doesn't, we're very excited about this! Woohoo! Ok, here' the picture. Sorry to keep you waiting. Here it is.