Hello, Last Trimester!

Ok, so this isn't the promised account of our Germany trip... yet. I'm planning on wrapping it up this Sunday.

I thought this was note-worthy, though: I've started my last trimester!

This week I hit 27 weeks. When I went to my regular appointment, the doctor caught me off-guard when she told me to make an appointment for 2 weeks from then. I didn't think that would start for another month! All of a sudden it seems a little fast... let's hope that perspective endures to the end :P

Here's me lounging on our comfy couch, the cat lounging on me.

When the Juice Runs Out...

So, last week we had a small crisis- ALL the juice and milk in our house had been consumed. Weather conditions had kept me from running to the store.

My kids MUST be German because they won't drink water until they are parched and on the brink of dehydration. Charla demonstrated this by scavenging through the fridge until she found something she though would have to at least be better than water.

Taco Bell hot sauce.

Face Painting for a Good Cause

I had the pleasure of helping out at Wright Patterson's Pre-Deployment fair this weekend. Fred and I helped with one in the fall. Every few months the Family Readiness Center hosts this huge information fair for the families of servicemen and women deploying soon. It really is an awesome experience.

Probably the highlight for the kids is the free Build-a-Bear each child receives. The parent who is deploying is given a recording device to record a message to their child which it then put inside the child's bear. They go all out with the kids, even filling out the bear's "birth certificate". I overheard one of the volunteers from Build-a-Bear say that 100 children were signed up to receive bears.

There's also crafts for the kids. In one corner they took pictures of the children with their deploying parent. The photos will be transferred to pillow cases for the kids (that's what Fred and I did last year). There were all kinds of other free-be's, like hats and little toys.

I was painting faces with another volunteer. It was so fun! RIGHT behind us was the Chick-Fil-A cow with a game the kids could play for little toys and free food coupons. The cow was so close to me, I felt like I had a body guard. Chick-Fil-A also donated most of the food for the event. They're REALLY supportive of the military out here. In fact, once a month they give free food to service members.

Of course there were also countless tables and displays for different support groups, resources, and information centers. The Base Commander and base Command Chief were also both there. I hope the delpoyees felt that their service is appreciated and that their families will be in good hands. It was just neat to be a part of it all. I love the Air Force :)

Gregory the Fitness Instructor

As long as I can remember, my dad faithfully does his sit-up's, push-up's, stretches and runs at least several times a week... well, except shortly after his appendicitis. When we briefly lived with them during Fred's last semester at the UofA, Gregory enjoyed watching my dad exercising. You might say it inspired him.

Every once in a while Gregory gets all motivated and will invent different types of exercises. It can be pretty entertaining watching him, hearing his explanations for what he's doing.

This past Christmas all 3 Olsen boys (Fred and his 2 brothers) got ab rollers. I guess someone was trying to say something :P Well, it hasn't gone un-used. Here's a video of Gregory demonstrating the "best" ways to keep your abs in shape. He actually does have a pretty firm little tummy, so maybe he's on to something...