The End of an August

Hello there everyone! Hard to believe summer is nearly at an end and we're heading into September...except for the continued high temperatures and humidity in this part of Kentucky. I'm excited for September since that should bring lots of cooler nights and moving adventures! I'll try to catch you up on our month-the Cliffs' Notes version.
First, an update on Baby Crist. We went to Florence KY today for our 9 week ultrasound. All went well, I've been pretty sick feeling lately but nothing too terribly dramatic....the baby's heartbeat is strong on the ultrasound and we could see his little arm and leg buds-he has a head half the size of his body...but that's normal for this stage of development. He will be growing toe and fingernails this week as well as hair follicles-and he may look enormous on film but he's barely over an inch in length! Dr. S_____ talked with us about our upcoming move the first of October and suggested that we see the Fort Knox OB/GYN before we leave, but for now our visits to Cincinnati/Florence are at an end. It was a little bit of a emotional moment for us as we thanked him and the staff there for everything done. They are so very kind and I'll miss the friendly openness of their office, plus the fact that we never sat in the waiting room for an appointment longer than 10 minutes! Efficiency-amazing!

Our new due date is April 3,2013...but who worries about them anyways? I read a statistic quoting that only 5% of babies that are born on their due date. I told Lou he'll probably be born on April 1st....just to start off with a bang! Florence has a Red Robin, one of Lou's favorite restaurants, so of course we headed there afterwards to celebrate...then on to the Goodwill to stock up on Ebay inventory. :) Our traveling activities are sounding very similar by now to our long term readers!
Speaking of due dates-with our move coming up, we were hashing out what to do with our two outdoor kitties, Missy and Jasper.

 Being the kind of cats we lovingly named "our welfare cats", we worried about leaving them to fend on their own with a rental family or if the house was vacant. Their favorite activity is lying on the back deck sunning themselves and waiting for moment from the house that suggests a possible food bowl filling! My sister in law Betsy agreed to keep them while we're in AZ and last Friday I made the 8 hour trip to Rock Hill, SC to deliver them, spend a few days with family, and hopefully be there for my sister Debbie's delivery.
First, the cats. Yikes. A friend loaned me a medium dog crate for the journey-as I hated to keep them in the tiny cat carriers I had on hand for the entire trip. I lined the back of my Escape with a waterproof tarp, set the carrier in it, set up the litter pan in one corner (with minimal litter), a puppy pad in the other and put water and food dishes on that side. All that done, Friday morning when I left I located Missy and put her in first, then went back inside to bring out Jasper-my high spirited fight loving male cat. When I managed to put them both in the cage and lock it...what ensued looked like a living reenactment of a tornado? hurricane? tornadocane?......Cats, fur, litter, water and food all blurred together in a flash of sheer "we must escape somehow from this" production that ended in the cats meowing and yowling for the first hour of our drive down the interstate! Forget that cats normally are clean animals who disdain water and dirty fur. These ones looked like abused asylum inmates by the time I got to SC! They managed to mix litter and water together and dip random pieces of fur into it....when I stopped for breakfast I opened the hatch to give them a piece of sausage to placate them...they stared past me like zombies-no interest whatsoever-just sheer psychosis. Happy ending though, after spending two days hiding out on Betsy's lawn away from sight once we arrived, they discovered her back patio and began showing up for their feeding as normal. Whew, I was really so worried for those couple of days! Did I mention that we have Gus and Teddy, our friends' cats living with us until the 15th of September? So, we are not cat-less but Gus and Teddy are cats of a different stripe than our bums! They live inside exclusively, love to kill flies, and jump up to the sky on all 4s when Lou startles them. :)
My visit to Rock Hill was a fun one, as I was able to see my brothers John and Daniel, sister Debbie, brother T and sister in law Betsy. John and Daniel are both starting work at different local area Walmart stores in the management department. They will be living in the area for a while so at this point I think South Carolina is the new state of Messer-dom, now that most of us have moved from Virginia. :) We had breakfast out at Cracker Barrel Saturday morning and then spent the entire day (8 hours' worth) walking in town as Debbie attempted to put herself into labor. No go....Wes (their soon to be born son) stubbornly would not cooperate! :) Debbie's husband Ryan is deployed to Afghanistan this year  so she moved temporarily from Fort Lewis, WA to be with family while he's gone.
We girls had a terribly lazy weekend, Grandma Austin (Betsy's mom) had taken all Betsy's and Debbie's kids for a mini Mom vacation until Tuesday, so the house was strangely quiet and things we normally do, like fixing food, bottles and baths all stopped for several days! Instead we took walks, shopped, ate, watched NCIS re-runs and reminisced about old times! Mom, Lee and Melissa were able to stop for a night's stay on their way home from the annual beach trip-so we had our "puzzle" time together-one of Mom's, Debbie's and my favorite slow time hobbies. We also squeezed in a fun shopping night out with my sister in law Christie at the Charlotte mall. It was a nice time for relaxing. Tuesday Betsy and I drove back to Virginia to pick up most of the kids (these are T and Betsy's 6 beautiful little munchkins below). We had a trip full of memories as we passed the college we attended nursing school at, the hospital where we worked, the gas station we always stopped at since it was the cheapest place in the county! Driving up I-81 always fills me with nostalgia and who better to share it with than Betsy, my dear friend and sister! :)

We left 3 of Betsy's girls: Kate, Ashlynne and Bekah with Grandma Austin as Debbie still hadn't gone into labor and made the 3 hour drive back to Rock Hill. On the way we had good news from Debbie, she had her doctor's appointment that afternoon and was able to get an induction time for the next morning-hoorah! I had to leave that morning to head back to Kentucky and Lou but she went to the hospital, started labor and had Wes by the time I was halfway home! The best part was that Ryan was not on a mission, so he was able to watch via Skype during the entire labor and delivery-such an answer to prayers!

Wes is a beautiful little boy, he weighed 7lbs, 6 oz. Betsy guessed his weight exactly, I was 2oz off, rats! :)

Baby Wes looks a bit miffed in this photo but I'm sure there will be many more smiling ones to come if he's anything like his older sister Lily and brother TJ! The photo below was taken before Ryan deployed in April-but they haven't changed much!

It was wonderful to see family and visit, but also good to come home to Kentucky with my little house and big husband waiting for me. :) I feel somewhat as though I haven't stopped driving for the past week, since I was in the car 8 hours Friday, 7 on Tuesday, 9 yesterday and then 6 again today with our trip to the specialist! Whew, I'm ready to stay home for a while. :) Lou was a trooper while I was gone, cleaning, feeding and entertaining cats, working and just being the all around sweetie that he is. This morning he got up and spent the morning cleaning and washing my car after its long journey, checking all the fluid levels, etc. before driving to Florence. :) I love seeing friends and family during travels but its hard to be separated from my Lou for any amount of time after our year apart!
In closing, I know April was a while ago, but this just came out recently and I wanted to share it with you all! I was so thrilled to be a part of my friend Whitney's wedding this spring, she and her husband Frank are now living in El Paso, TX and we hope to see them very soon! El Paso is "just" 5 hours from our new fort in AZ and when it comes to the southwest and Texas, 5 hours' travel is an afternoon jaunt! :) This movie was produced by the Hedrick Brothers Productions as a memory of their wedding day. They are located in southwestern Virginia and have a Facebook page as well if you want to check out more of their work! Frank + Whitney from Hedrick Brothers Productions on Vimeo.
I think that's all the news around here for now, but if we have any excitement I'll be sure to update you all! God bless!