Far Up In The Hills...

Far up in the hills of Georgia stands,

Old Berry tried and true

The Shrine of many a memory of 

The Silver and the Blue.

Our loyalty and love we pledge, 

God keep thee without fail,

Be thou the light that shines for right, 

Alma Mater, Hail, All Hail!

Early today I had some time and tried to sit down and post these pictures to the blog of some of the on-going clean-up efforts at our beloved Alma Mater. For whatever reason the internet wouldn't let me upload them at the time. Anyways, Andy came home and brought in the mail and when he did there was an envelope from Berry addressed to us with the writing,"At 8:32 a.m. on April 27, intense winds blasted through the Berry Campus...". Guess it was a sign I should try and post my pictures again. 

In a previous post I commented about how the trees on campus are one of the things that makes Berry so special. Over 500 trees fell that day. The reality is that when you are the worlds largest college campus, in acres, there is no way to know how many trees actually fell that day. Most likely thousands across the 26,000+ acres that make up Berry. I am so very thankful that they've decided to create a fund to be able to help restore the campus. One of the most beloved trees on campus fell, the Graduation Tree, which has presided over countless spring commencement exercises. Thankfully, far up in the hills Old Berry still stands. It's one of the reasons why I'm so grateful that we still live in Rome because we get to spend as much time on campus as we want. Two years ago, in a previous post, I wrote the following, "I love the fact that we live so close to Berry. I love the fact that when I’ve had a long day I can retreat to the campus that I’ve loved since I was a little girl because somewhere in those 26,000 acres my soul finds rest. " That statement continues to ring true. It is my hope and prayer that our children would have a special bond with the campus that I so dearly love. 

Here are some pictures I took a few weeks back of the clean-up efforts around campus:

Some of the damage at the tennis courts...I can't get over the poles in a wave pattern.

Where the big patch of dirt is in the middle of the picture is where the graduation tree use to reside. It was a massive Willow Oak that was over 80 years old. That building is the Greene Building and it is home to the Campbell School of Business. Andy spent the bulk of his time in this building.

This is the service entrance to Berry and during the week it is open for people to drive up and down. As you drive down it, away from campus, the President's House faces you. In this picture there are still so many trees down you can't even see President Briggs' house. The service entrance is a favorite spot among students, faculty, and alumni. It use to be completely tree lined and had the most gorgeous fall foliage you've ever seen. It was my favorite way to enter/leave campus in the fall. I need to dig through my college photos to pull out a picture of it in all its glory. I had specifically not taken any pictures of AG at this site yet because I was hoping for us to do some this fall as a family with our photographer. Sadly, that won't happen now....at least not at this particular spot.

Since these photos were taken they've cleared out even more of the trees on the service entrance.

This use to be Dorothy Cottage. The cottage area on campus is a century old and these are some of the first buildings on campus built by students. The cottage area is also home to Barnwell Chapel and the Child Development Center.

This is Julia Cottage and it was cut in half by multiple trees. It is used as faculty housing. 

Old, old trees waiting to be picked up.

After World War 1 Martha Berry had an allee created to memorialize the 11 Berry boys that died in the war. This road is known as Memorial Drive and it was planted with oaks. Over the years disease and drought had taken out about 1/3 of the trees. During this last year they had begun to replace these trees with new ones, Willow Oaks, and then they would take down the old ones every so often. Well the storm helped them with this project as you can see by this picture.

If you want to see more pictures taken immediately after click here and here.

Wordless Wednesday...'AG Helping' Edition

Sweet Baby Toes...

...can't wait to see them in person.

Andy informed me yesterday while we were looking at the ultrasound that she has my toes. Which if this picture is an indication that is most likely true. My toes and AG's, for that matter, both have the second toe being as long as the big toe. Mine actually have my first three toes being the same length. So, I guess we'll just have to wait and see. :) Either way there is something sweet about little baby feet. And I can't wait to put Avi-Kate's sweet little feet in her knit slippers from Ginny...they are pink and brown with a pink ribbon laced around the top. Perfection.

Hip, Hip, Hooray...

...Avi-Kate is not breech!

Hallelujah! Yesterday, Andy went with me and to my appointment since we had to have an ultrasound to determine her position. AG was quite the ham at the office and was ecstatic to see "SHANNON!", my midwife. Everything looks great and I'm progressing right along. I'm now 37 weeks and 2 days. I'm already at 2cm dilated and she swept my membranes while she was checking me. To quote her if I'm ready for labor it'll kick start it if not no worries. So, far I've had some cramping, nausea, and inconsistent contractions but nothing major. We'll see. She also said that she doesn't think I'll make it to my induction date but if I do I'm well on my way to having an easy induction.

We are feeling much better about things. If she doesn't come this week that's okay. We are still wrapping up some projects around the house and rearranging some things. Next week Andy's office is closed for the week so if she came that'd be great but if not I'm sure we'll enjoy soaking up the last few days with AG as an only child.

Speaking of AG he is quite taken with babies. We went last week with some friends to Jandy's Yogurt and they brought their baby, Caroline. He was quite smitten with her and has been asking since then where she is, can she come over, etc. We keep telling him in a few days he'll have his own baby and to hang on. Ha. We'll see how he does but we are very optimistic.

Around the house this weekend Andy finished the touchups on his desk and he finally finished his chest of drawers. (He started on the chest 2 years ago and never finished it till this weekend. It looks fabulous!) I've been doing lots of laundry and washing of baby clothes. I need to start packing stuff for the hospital but I'm waiting for my Amazon order to come in. I know I've said it before but I love, love, love Amazon Prime. Ordered some baby stuff yesterday after my appointment and it'll all be here tomorrow. :) If Avi-Kate stays put these next few days then Andy is going to go ahead and paint her room this weekend. We'll see. We've been throwing out and GoodWill-ing stuf left and right. On Saturday morning we purged a ton of stuff from the attic...while I hunted for a box of infant towels/washcloths/burpcloths...which I still haven't located and I'm sure I'll discover them months from now when I don't need them! There were a ton of boxes/crap up there that was left from previous owners that we tossed. Andy took an entire load of cardboard in the bed of his truck to the recycling center. I'm currently working on my second load of stuff to take to GoodWill in the back of my trunk. So we are making some major progress around the house on stuff I've wanted to do for awhile.

The blog has been sorely neglected and for that I'm sorry...hopefully, I'll have a night to play catch-up before we become a family of four. :)

So, here's where we are at...

...on multiple things:

Parasite Take Two:
   After spending almost all day Friday on the phone trying to locate AG's medicine we finally found some the only problem is it would not arrive in Rome till Monday morning. This was what Aunt Meg, the pharmacist, was afraid would happen because the drug we needed is not used often and we were trying to find it on a Friday. And she said it didn't matter if we were in Rome or ATL trying to locate this drug the outcome would have been the same. We did the only thing we could do...put AG on a limited diet and prayed for no more episodes to get us thru the weekend. This morning after my OB appointment I drove across town to our new pharmacy to pick up the very important medicine. And yes, this whole thing required me to switch pharmacies but that story is best told in person...feel free to ask I don't mind sharing but I am not going take up entire post explaining how this isn't the first time this particular pharmacy/pharmacist has screwed up. Anyways, AG has already had his first dose of medicine and will get his next dose in a bit. I'm praying that we are over the worst of it and this does the trick.

Our Sweet Daughter's Pending Arrival:
    Well, I went this morning and my midwife did not want to check me...she wants to wait until next week which is fine. The kicker from the appointment was that she suspects that Avi-Kate is breech! Which I've suspected for weeks but due to the chaos that has been life this spring didn't vocalize it. Granted, I know every pregnancy is different but  her movement patterns haven't been similar to AG's at all. At this stage in the game I could watch AG's appendages stick "out" and "move" across my abdomen. That has not be the case at all this time. So, while I feel daily movement it's very different. To quote my midwife, "where her hiney should be is very, very round. Now, she could have a very round bottom but I suspect it's her head." Next Monday, I'll go for my next appointment and I will have an ultrasound to determine her placement and then we'll go from there. I hope I can deliver vaginally and that she is flipped/will flip for me to do so. If not, a C-section is not the end of the world. The goal is for us to have a healthy baby and I'm okay with whatever way that happens. God is in control and he has known from the beginning how she would be born...there is no need for me to be worried about that. I take comfort in knowing that.

The State of Our House:
Chaos! Pure and utter chaos as we do a mass purging and cleaning. In addition I've flipped the queen bedding from our room to Avi-Kate's and the bedding that was in there is now on our bed. AG's room is almost done. Done enough for right now...I need to frame a bunch of stuff and get a shadow box or two but I prefer to go to Hobby Lobby for those things...and in all that is going on I haven't made it down to Cartersville. So, it can wait for the time being.

My brain is fried...I'm sure there is more that needs to be in this post but I can't think at the moment. :)

Apparently one parasite isn't enough...

Yes, one parasite experience wasn't enough for AG and we get to do it all over again. Last August, we spent several weeks dealing with these violent attacks in the middle of the night that became daily occurrences. It was finally diagnosed as a parasite and we were given high dose antibiotics to clear it up. My child hadn't thrown up till two weeks ago.

Two weeks ago I posted, the night before the tornados ripped thru Northwest GA, about AG being sick. Well, I suspected it then but thought I was just being a paranoid, pregnant mom. I didn't think anything of it till we were awoken by AG crying in our room a few minutes before 2AM early Thursday morning. Within seconds the hacking cough that is the precursor to his throw up spells started and it was all down hill from there. We knew as soon as we smelled it what we were dealing with. We went to the doctor yesterday and she wanted to give it one more night to see if he had another episode before prescribing high dose antibiotics. At 3 AM this morning we were awoken to AG crying and coughing in his soon to be sister's room. (Her room is sandwiched between our room and AG's room...you can cut thru her room to get to ours.) AG had thrown up in his bed and then tried to get to us before his next attack but didn't make it. Thankfully, his room and his sister's room are in the original part of the house with hardwood floors because by the time we got to him he had thrown up all over the floor in Avi-Kate's room. I'll spare you the rest of the nasty details...needless to say we are a little sleep deprived over here and the laundry room has been busy.

We are now trying to find a pharmacy in town that has the medicine we need in liquid form. It's not common and we've been told by several places already that the earliest they could have it stocked for us is next Monday. Pray we find some. I can't keep this up along with contractions/nausea/cramping in addition Andy is leaving for a business trip Sunday night. At the most I now have three weeks left of being pregnant they've scheduled an induction for June 5th unless she shows up before then. At the moment I'm praying she stays put till we can get AG over this.

I'm suppose to go Monday for my next OB appointment and they are suppose to check me to see where I'm at. Needless to say I'm very curious...I'm off to re-clean what I cleaned yesterday. I'll update more when I know more.

Easter Egg Huntin'...

This was the first year that AG actually understood how to hunt eggs. Our church held their big egg hunt at the president of Berry's house. It was the perfect spot to hunt eggs under all of the old trees that surround the house.We had a great time of fellowship and hanging out. AG insisted on opening each egg before finding the next one. Which made his mother chuckle and his father a little nutty. :)

In some ways it's eerie to me to think back to that morning. While taking pictures I was struck about how beautiful everything was with the old trees and how sad it would be to lose them because the landscape would never be the same. You have to understand that I have grown up playing beneath the trees at Berry. From the time I was a little girl I have loved the landscape that makes Berry what it is. Every time we have severe storms I pray that Berry would lose little to no trees. Four days later straight line winds would whip through Berry changing the landscape that I love so dearly. The president's house suffered no structural damage but lost nearly all of the trees around the house. Campus won't look the same way in my lifetime and for that I am sad. Thankfully, I have many pictures from over the years and here are a few from the egg hunt...

Talking Egg Hunting Strategy with Daddy.

Opening eggs...

Priceless. I love the joy in that sweet face.

Egg hunting makes you hungry. Refueling afterwards with a cupcake.

Checking out the 'PUPPIES!' with his friends...

And someone...

...has discovered how to climb in to the baby swing. Andy and I tried to contain our laughter while explaining to AG that the swing was for babies...and he's a big boy...hence, the reason why he had on big boy underwear. 

Life with little boys is never, ever dull. Ha. :)