It took Avery a few minutes to figure out what the egg hunt was all about, but it didn't take long for him to start snatching eggs up, including some that little Madi was on her way to get!
Olivia was Avery's little helper.
Ashlie was quick to point out that she only had all these eggs because she and Olivia were sharing a bucket.
Alex LOVES candy!
Avery (18 months) and Madi (26 months) were the first kids let loose to hunt for eggs. Needless to say, they didn't have to search very far before locating many.
Look how cute these two are (Avery, above, and Madi, below). They are at such adorable ages!
Madi's naturally curly, strawberry-blonde hair is so beautiful! She also has striking blue eyes. We have missed her and her sister, Liz, while they've been in South Carolina (almost a year now).
Adam always welcomes Avery with excited tones and open arms! Avery gets excited to see his buddy, Adam.
Emma helped Madi get her shoes on before the Easter egg hunt.
Noah was engrossed in a book and apparently had an itch...or something.
The Gory Details
My poor little Olivia is sick. Sunday night she woke Rob and I up just after 1:00 a.m. and said she hadn't gone to sleep yet. Her stomach was "killing" her and she was hunched over in terrible pain. We let her crawl into bed with us, but after about 30 seconds we realized that wasn't going to work. I set up a bed for her on the couch instead and she lay down, clutching her stomach, moaning, groaning and almost wailing in pain. Soon thereafter she said she thought we was going to throw up, so I gave her the trash can - just in case. Sure enough, within a couple of minutes she threw up and had a serious nosebleed. Her nose bled so much that I was worried she had vomited blood, but fortunately it originated in her nose. Olivia proceeded to throw up every 15 minutes for the next hour and a half. I spent the next few hours cleaning up after her, rinsing out her throw up bucket, helping her take sips of water and rinsing out her wash cloth. She asked me to rub her back because it helped her keep her mind off the pain. My poor little Viva was in constant pain; along with the vomiting - which is awful enough - she had stomach cramping too. It was so sad! By 4:00, I was completely exhausted and told Rob it was his turn. He diligently helped Olivia the rest of the night, even though he had to work the next day! He is the best!!! Olivia only threw up one more time, but didn't sleep much because of the pain. Rob said she moaned a lot and begged for him to rub her back during his "shift".
Diagnosis
Yesterday (Tuesday) I took her to the doctor's to see if there was something that could be done or if this was something that just needed to run its course. After examining her, she did a strep test, which came back positive. I was relieved to find out it was something that could be cured quickly with antibiotics! Thank the Lord for antibiotics!!
Recovery
Olivia spent the rest of Monday pretty miserable, resting on the couch with stomach pain (but no more vomiting, thank goodness). By this morning she was back to her old self, but unable to return to school because she was still contagious. Although she acted like she wanted to be at school, I know better - she enjoyed her day at home with me today!
Lessons learned:
1. Strep can manifest itself in stomach cramping and vomiting. The doctor said something about the glands that control the throat being the same ones that control the lining of the intestines.
2. I'm so grateful I'm married to my wonderful Rob so I don't have to be up the entire night with sick kids! I wonder if he knows how much I appreciate him.
P.S. Pray, cross your fingers and knock on wood to prevent Olivia's strep from being passed from person to person in our home!
Grand Turk is one of 40 islands that make up the Turks and Caicos Islands. Grand Turk is the second to the smallest of the 40 islands, but is one of only 8 of the islands that are inhabited by people. The island is about 7 miles long and 3 miles wide at the widest point. We heard multiple estimates of the number of people living on Grand Turk, all between 3200 and 5000. This was the view as we walked down the pier from the ship to the island:
This one shows how clear the water was. The water was probably about 6 feet deep and you can easily see the sand below.
Rob and I walked along the beach after touring the Turks and Caicos National Museum. It started to rain just as we left the museum and poured on us before it was done. It was perfectly warm, though, so it didn't bother us at all and we chose to walk rather than take a taxi because we wanted to see more of the island up close. We would have completely missed seeing these tiny beaches from the back seat of a taxi.
I like the phrase on their license plates because it was so fitting: Beautiful By Nature
This is the Turks and Caicos National Museum. It is in a house that is over 200 years old (and felt even older!).
The main reason I wanted to see this museum was because it holds the contents of a shipwreck that was discovered in the 1980s. The shipwreck was dated to before 1513! That is just after Columbus arrived! It fascinated me to see the things that were found and explanations about how they were used. The anchor pictured below was the last of 7 or 8 anchors that would have been carried on a ship this size way back then. I don't remember exactly what it's called, but basically it was the "if all else fails try this" anchor. None of the other anchors were found, which led archeologists and scientists to believe that the sailors tried using all the other anchors along their journey. This last anchor was either the final one used prior to the shipwreck or the ship wrecked while it was still on board, resulting in it being found near the other debris.
The top level of the museum consists of artifacts and important historical objects from throughout the history of the Turks and Caicos Islands. This is what most interested me: a chair which is estimated to have been made over 1000 years ago! They said the gargoil-looking thing represented a God and that it is likely that this chair would have been reserved for a tribe's chief. I think the chief should get padding, at least!
The museum also had the light from a lighthouse, stamp- and coin collections for the islands, a tiny hymnal from colonial times, and many more interesting items.
Below is a picture of the public library - a small, one-room library. Most of the public buildings had shutters over the windows, attached on hinges. Unfortunately, a couple of hurricanes in 1998 destroyed much of Grand Turk's architecture and a lot of it still hasn't been rebuilt.
Some school girls selecting some books to take home.
This is the view from the front steps of the library. Kind of makes you want to pick out a book and read, doesn't it?
These kids were leaving the library as we approached it. The girl bounded out of the library excitedly and when I asked her if I could take her picture she delightedly agreed. The boy looked at us hesitantly, but didn't resist.
After walking along Front Street, which has the beach on one side and the things I've pictured above on the other, Rob and I got lost. We ended up walking and walking and walking. When we found a taxi to take us back to the ship, he said we had probably walked 2 miles from start to finish (but it seemed further because I was developing blisters from the shoes I had on). Generally speaking I would say I hate being lost, but it wasn't bad because we knew we had plenty of time to make it back to the ship, the islanders seemed friendly, and we got to see a good stretch of the island, including neighborhoods, up close.
Below are some pictures of a few of the colorful houses we found on our walk. There were far more homes in disrepair than homes that were well cared for, but it turns out I only photographed the ones that were most striking. Most were made of cement, were small, and had very few windows.
While we were lost, this three-legged dog followed us for a while. There seemed to be a lot of dogs on this island. Oh yes, we also saw stray cattle, goats, and horses.
Just one more ocean shot because the water was so darn beautiful!
While on the cruise, we toured the spa. I decided to get acupuncture to see if it would help with headaches, neck tension, trouble sleeping, and motion sickness.
About half of the needles hurt going in, and most of them hurt before she was finished pushing them in deep enough. Before we signed up for the procedure, the accupuncturist said that it wouldn't hurt. She even put a needle into Rob's arm and he said he didn't feel it at all, so I was surprised when I arrived at my appointment and it did! I guess I should have known better. Me + Needles = Pain. Duh!
There were a total of 20 needles sticking out of me! They stayed in for 30 minutes while I relaxed - sort of. It was a very strange sensation. It took probably 10 minutes for me to really relax, but once I did it was amazing. It seriously felt like there was liquid flowing through my body, going up my left side then down the right. I tried to change the direction of this "fluid" in my head, thinking it was just my mind playing tricks on me or something but I couldn't change the direction! It was really, really strange. Then (simultaneously) it felt like my head was liquifying, pooling into the headrest. It was so strange. When she came back into the room to take the needles out I just wanted her to go away because I was so relaxed!
Are all my problems solved? Not hardly. If anything, my headaches, motion sickness and neck tension got worse for the next 24 hours, and it seems like since then everything is pretty much the same as before the acupuncture. The acupuncturist said multiple sessions were recommended, but that would have cost too much. The one session was worth a try, though, and I don't regret doing it!
I don't have time to blog much right now, but wanted to say we had a wonderful vacation with the perfect combination of relaxation and activity, of adventure and knowing what to expect, of time alone and with other people. It was absolutely perfect.
I missed my kids like CRAZY, but they were in the hands of competent and loving caregivers and we all appreciate each other a little more after being apart.
Today is Tuesday. We leave super early Saturday morning. That is less than 4 days away! I have a ton to get done before then, but I wanted to jot down how excited I am that our cruise is almost here - finally! We're going on Princess cruise lines on their Eastern Caribbean 7-day cruise. We're going on this cruise with Rob's parents and his sister, Christine, and her husband, Scott. We went on Royal Caribbean's Western Caribbean cruise with them 5 years ago and had a blast. A couple of years before that, I went on a cruise to Mexico with my mom on Carnival. I enjoyed the places we went and being with my mom, but Carnival cruise line isn't really for me. Cruising is a wonderful way to vacation, especially when you're with people you enjoy being with and especially when you go long enough that you have plenty of time to relax and see fun places!
Saturday: Wake up practically in the middle of the night so we can be at the airport by 6:30 a.m.! Fly out of SLC to Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, with a brief stop in Cincinnati, Ohio. (Tons of time to read, listen to my ipod and relax without kids interrupting.) Check in at hotel, dinner out, stay overnight in Florida. Sunday: Get on the Emerald Princess (pictured above) some time between 1:00 and 4:00. It departs at 5:00 p.m. Bon voyage! Monday: Arrive at Princess' "private island" in the Bahamas. Hang out there from 9-4. We have a "Clam shell" reserved for Rob and I - lounge chairs with shade on the beach for the whole day. Read, nap, repeat. Tuesday: Day at sea. Sleep in, enjoy ship activities. EAT like there's no tomorrow! Wednesday: Day at St. Maarten, Netherlands Antilles. Arrive at 10:00, depart at 6:00. We're planning to do the "Fly Zone" zip lines here, but they don't take reservations in advance, so it's possible we won't get in. Thursday: Day at St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands. Arrive at 7:00, depart at 4:00. We're going to Snuba on this island (see photo below). Snuba is a combination of snorkeling and scuba diving. You go underwater with a mask that give you air, but you're attached to a 25-foot hose that runs to an air tank floating above you. This will be a completely new experience for me. After Snuba-ing, we'll be shopping. Friday: Dat at Grand Turk, Caicos Islands. Arrive at 1:00, depart at 7:00. We don't know what we're going to do here. I am excited to see the historic sites, with its 18th- and 19th-century architecture, but apparently no one else in my group shares this interest, so who knows? Saturday: Day at sea. (repeat Tuesday's activities) Sunday: Arrive at Ft. Lauderdale at 7:00. Disembark, head to airport, arrive in SLC around 5:00 p.m.
Monday: Try to return to "real" life.
Note: If you're thinking of robbing me while I'm gone, think again! People are staying at my house!
You don't want to know. But I'm going to tell you anyway because I am so excited about it! I have been boiling clothes and dish cloths and my cleaning rags. Why? Because it cleans them miraculously! You know how dish rags and hand towels get kind of stiff after a while? Well, apparently it's because there is still a TON of dirt in them.
I pulled the dish cloths out of my drawer where I keep the clean ones (which I change every day, by the way) and put them into a stock pot with some Oxi-clean and some Borax powder. I boiled them for a few hours and this is what the water looked like when I got ready to dump it out:
Isn't that disgusting? These are my dish cloths we're talking about! The ones I use to wipe the counters and table and wash the dishes that we eat off of. (Okay, that's not exactly true: my dishwasher washer 99.9% of our dishes.) It made me want to throw out all my dish cloths and buy new ones. But we're going on a cruise so I need to be extra frugal. Instead I got fresh water and did it again with the same dish cloths. I then threw them in the washing machine on a normal cycle with normal laundry detergent and they came out softer and more pliable than ever! Now I feel like they are clean (boy do I wish there was some kind of home testing kit that I could buy to measure bacteria) and I am so excited about this. I want to boil everything! I want to boil my favorite robe (it's white) that I just can't part with because I love it so much, but has too many stains on the front from doing dishes to actually wear. I'm going to have to get me one of those big, giant pots people use for canning.
I also did a pot of whites and my favorite pajama shirt that has turned grayish and was no longer soft is now softer than I remember it ever being and the gray is gone! The deoderant stains came almost completely out of our white shirts, then I rubbed some Fels-Naptha soap on them and threw them in the washing machine and guess what -- they came out beautifully! It also worked on the ring around the collar of Rob's shirts.
Note: When checking to see if the stains are gone, use some kitchen tongs. I held them over the sink with the kitchen tongs, then sprayed them with my faucet sprayer to get the soap and excess dirt out before repeating the boiling or throwing them into the wash. I know this seems like a lot of work, but mostly you just need to be around in case the pot boils over. Need some inspiration to get you started: when I finished with my dish cloths, there was a really gross, thick layer of white on the bottom of my pot. It took some serious scrubbing with a harsh green scrubby sponge thing to get it to come off. Just think - that was in my dish cloths!
Warning: My son's off-white shirt is no longer off-white. It worked a little too well.
Anyway, I am excited about this and thought I would share. I got the idea from one of my favorite blogs: The Lazy Organizer. She uses Biz laundry detergent instead of Borax and Oxi-Clean. She's been able to get nail polish and ink out of clothing and wrote about it on her blog.
At Ashlie's last swim meet - She's the one on the right, eating an apple, while waiting for her next race.
Swim meets go a lot faster for Olivia and Alex if I let them play games on my tiny computer while they wait. A typical meet is about 2 hours long.
2 hours is a long time for baby Avery to be in a confined area, but he is usually pretty darn good considering the circumstances.
Avery LOVES my phone. I wish there was a stronger word that could explain just how much he loves it. Tip for new moms and dads: NEVER let your baby play with your phone. You let them once and then they whine and cry and complain every other time you say "no". Seriously, just make it known that it is OFF LIMITS. I so regret that I let him play with it because now he is unbearable when I tell him he can't play with it!
I just love this picture of Olivia!
A side view of my new hair cut. Unfortunately, my hair grows really fast and I already need another hair cut. It's only been 2 and a half weeks and it's already touching my shoulders! Yet another reason I haven't kept a short hair cut for very long.
Remember Chinese jump-ropes? At an activity at Ashlie's school last week my kids learned to play with a Chinese jump-rope. They had a great time and made their own jump-ropes out of elastic when we got home.
Adam always welcomes Avery with excited tones and open arms! Avery gets excited to see his buddy, Adam. 
Emma helped Madi get her shoes on before the Easter egg hunt. 
Noah was engrossed in a book and apparently had an itch...or something.
