My New Favorite Website

My sweet sister-in-law Arin has created a new blog, and it is already my new favorite! It is Easy Sewing Tips and features, what else... Easy Sewing Tips! She has made tons of cute bags, the most adorable dresses for Ella, matching shirts for Dusty and Anson, and she even made Ella's curtains and bedskirt in her nursery. She's magic with the sewing machine, folks!

So head on over and check out her blog. Lots of great tips for beginners and she'll feature some projects she's done with the how-to's. The tagline for the site is "For people who like simplicity!" Seriously, it doesn't get much better than that! She's even going to have some give-aways soon. Now that I think of it, don't go there. I want as few people to enter the give-aways so that I have a better chance to win. Head on over to her family blog and just tell her how cute her kids are instead. :)

Growing Like A Weed

I measured Charlotte on her growth chart yesterday, and could not believe that she has grown more than two inches in three months! Hopefully she'll be tall like her Daddy :)

And on an unrelated note, it started raining here just a few minutes ago and the noise of the rain hitting the roof scared Charlotte. It's been so long since it's rained, she's forgotten what it sounds like!

Happy Mother's Day

I'm such a blog slacker. I go in waves- have you noticed that? Nothing for a week or two, then I overload it with two or three posts in one day. I need to work on that!



Anyway, I had a wonderful Mother's Day. Charlotte's gift to me was a full day of "daddy sitting", where I can take a Saturday (or ask Jared to take a day off work during the week) and have the whole day to relax and enjoy myself without the usual responsibilities. And Jared gave me a gift certificate redeemable at the culinary or retail establishment of my choice... a.k.a. $cash$! Updating my wardrobe would be just about pointless since I'll only be able to wear whatever I bought for another month or two, and I could have a field day in Hobby Lobby, but there aren't any craft projects that I have in my mind right now. So I'm thinking of keeping the gift certificate in my pocket for a little bit, waiting until food is something I'm able to enjoy again, then going out and celebrating at the Melting Pot! Yummy!

So other than spoiling me rotten with my gifts and changing all diapers on Sunday, Jared also let me sleep in that morning and for our Sunday afternoon nap when Charlotte woke up before I was ready to. I took a 2 1/2 hour nap!! It was wonderful! We were all especially worn out from having half the church over on Saturday evening. Not really half, but we did have about 45 people show up. But don't worry, we invited them all :) Some good friends of ours in the church, Austin & Ashley, are moving to Tallahassee for Austin to attend med school at FSU. But before you look down on them for that, they are both UF grads and, therefore, huge Gator football fans. We took turns hosting some football parties with them this past fall and it just won't seem the same without them there singing "We Are The Boys" at the end of the 3rd quarter with us. (That's a whole 'nother story in itself. None of us can sing. It was not a pretty thing to hear.) It's not hard to find a guy who is obsessed with Gator football, but to find one with a wife who shares his obsession, and for them to live close to us... well that's just something special.

Pool Day

Jared took the day off today to recoop from the trip, and it was such a gorgeous day (we've been having lots of those in Florida lately!), so we took Charlotte to the neighborhood pool to swim for a bit. (Sidenote: I love our neighborhood pool. It's about a two minute walk from our house, we have unlimited access to it, and, my favorite part, we don't have to do any of the work to keep it clean!) Charlotte loved the water and had a great time climbing up and down the first three steps. I think I might try to find a cheap wading pool for our yard. I think she would have a blast with that and never want to come inside!

Rolling on the River

This past weekend we went on a houseboat trip with some of Jared's family down the St. John's river. We had such a great time! The boat was like a big RV on the water, with all the ammenities (AC, kitchen with a stove and fridge, bathroom and shower).

So without further ado, here is a recap of the trip...

Let's start with the cast...

Gilligan and Skipper, too

The millionaire and his wife

The movie star(s!)

Professor and Mary Anne

haha, I crack myself up :)

Okay, so here is where we docked the first night. It was right off the main river. The guys hopped off the boat and made a fire and did some exploring.


There were tons of gators. We saw them all over the place. Anson's excitement over seeing the alligators never dwindled :) We woke up on Saturday morning with a gator just a few feet from the boat.


For lunch on Saturday we went to the Blackwater Inn. On the way there, one of the props hit a sandbar or something of the like that knocked a few inches of it off. We called someone to fix it...


And it was taken care of in no time while we were eating, and then we were on our way again...


On Saturday afternoon we docked at a different location, again off the main river. It was in a little lake that we had all to ourselves. Very quiet and somewhat eerie, but a lot of fun. Arin was the only one to catch a fish Friday night, but the men redeemed themselves on Saturday and each caught several bream, many of which were large enough to eat for lunch on Sunday.


We counted as many as eight gators in the lake on Saturday night, when we could shine the flashlight and see their glowing eyes. One was quite "friendly" with us, and got very close to the boat. Jared had him hooked, but the gator spit out the bait. (I'm not sure what the plan would have been had the gator not spit it out). There were several times when he had his whole body floating on top of the water, and we think he was at least 6 feet long!


On Sunday, we went to Blue Springs and walked around the park there. The only ones crazy enough, I mean brave enough, to get in the water were Anson, Jared, and Gavin. In the picture below, Jared and Gavin are on the opposite side, very close to where a smaller gator was hiding out.


After lunch there, we headed back to the marina, unloaded and headed home. It really was a lot of fun, and thanks to some nausea medication from my doctor, I was able to get through the trip without any morning sickness. It does tend to make me drowsy though, so I ended up taking several naps!

Grandma Helen Rollins

Two weeks ago, we were able to make a trip up to Port Wentworth, GA (just north of Savannah) to visit Jared's grandmother. Earlier that week, we received news that she had stage four cancer all over her body, and was told she had between one and two weeks to live. We went up on a Sunday morning and were able to stay until Monday afternoon. The trip was to say what would likely be our last goodbyes to Grandma, but it was not the sad type of occassion that that would be for many people. Grandma has been ready to go home to the Lord for quite some time, and knowing that we will see her again one day eases the pain and sadness. She and Grandpa, who passed away in 2001, have left a strong heritage for Christ. It was neat to see all of the Rollins family, including all 6 of her children and all 23 of her grandchildren (along with most of the spouses), and many of her great-grandchildren there. There are few families who can say that everyone within it is a Christian and following the Lord, but Grandma and Grandpa raised their children to love the Lord, who have raised their children to love the Lord, and who are now raising their children to love the Lord. Grandma is still hanging on, but we know it won't be long before we can celebrate the life she has lived here on earth, and rejoice that she has a new life in Heaven!

Grandma's house isn't really much wider than what you see here, and it was packed with people who love her dearly. Someone counted and said that over the weekend, 50 people had come by to visit.


I'm not sure why, but we didn't get a good picture of Grandma that weekend. This is the only picture I can find that she's in (far right, sitting in her recliner). Like all good southern families, everyone is eating. The people of Grandma's church, Port Wentworth Christian & Missionary Alliance (one of the several that she and Grandpa planted), brought so much food over for us. Even with the multitudes of people there, we ate off of what they brought for several meals, and still had plenty left over.


Ella hugging Charlotte

Ella's hug turned into a tackle


Uncle Bennie loving on James

Happy Heartbeat

I had my first doctor's appointment on Wednesday and we received very comforting news. Baby Rollinski has a strong heartbeat and is measuring right on track for 8 weeks!