December 2010, What a month!

So the Collins have been quite crazy and frantic over the past couple of weeks. Honestly just the past 10 days.

On December 2nd Josh was flown out to Minnesota for a job interview as a director for summer camp. He stayed less than 24 hours with 10 of those hours being interviewed time.

On Tuesday the 14th he accepted the job and the packing began. With on sight housing and the job starting on the 28th the rush to pack up our lives took precedence over Christmas cards, friends and pregnancy.

Poor Abby did not take the news very well.

I did finally get a picture of her in the bouncy seat, even if it was filled with Josh's clothes

The moving experience was quite an adventure in North Carolina, and I bet it will continue in Minnesota. All of our items were supposed to be picked up on the 23rd, but due to some complications from the movers we did not get taken care of until the 24th. Abby stayed at Pink Street as long as she could take it before the two of us took off to Newton to start our Christmas, leaving Josh to handle the rest of the moving. Before we left, Abby made sure to tell her Ray good-bye. He will always be her favorite neighbor.

On Christmas Day we were woken up to a wonderful snowfall. Mike and Beth had already left to fly across country to see the rest of their family. Josh and I took time for ourselves to just be. Abby got to experience the beginning of a long road of snow.

When we went to bed around midnight last night it was still snowing. Thankfully when we woke up this morning at 3:30 the snow had stopped. Josh, Abby and Shovel all got in J's truck and headed out for their long day on the road.

I am going to stay in North Carolina and finish up the school year. Mike and Beth have been gracious enough to let me steal a bedroom and bathroom for the next six months. Josh will return for Cyprus' birth and a couple more times before June.

After super sad goodbyes Shelby and I went back to sleep. Church had been cancelled due to the weather so we decided to take advantage of the perfect snow and have a little fun.

I love fresh snow!

Merry Christmas!

Old Friends

Time has really gotten away from me! Not only am I amazed that it is mid December, but our adventure with the Weant family was weeks ago.

Josh and I headed to Boone with Abby for a weekend. Abby reconnected with Gracie. At first they seemed to not know each other, but I think they were shy.

We were on a mission to ask Laura and Jonathan to be the God parents of Cyprus Virginia. They said yes and we celebrated with a nice supper fixed by Josh and then played cards. Abby however was on a different mission.


The picture below seems like a calm pasture filled with nice docile horses, just wanting to eat and enjoy life. However the picture was taken before Abby and Gracie (well, not really Gracie) got the best of them. Laura took us into the pasture to get a closer look of the horses. We were still many many yards away until Abby noticed them as well. After chasing after a couple of horses and getting them all riled up the stampede started. Yes, seven stampeding horses coming our way! If you have never experienced it, watching a very pregnant woman run through a field dodging horse poop, while screaming is quite an experience. While Laura and I did not find this adventure exciting, Josh found the entire experience quite humorous.



Abby didn't stop there, the five of us decided to climb a mountain. The girls, of course being the rule breakers that they are decided to climb without leashes. Gracie took it one step further and did not even wear a collar.

We made it a third of the way up and were caught by a park ranger. Of course the girls played dumb while we apologized. I was worried that I would have to fake labor to get us out of the mess, I think Laura and Josh were more concerned that I might go into labor.

We decided to make our stopping point here before the top of the mountain. I personally was fine with the decision.

We had a wonderful time with the Weants and won't forget our adventures anytime soon. We hope the next time we visit, Jonathan will be able to play more instead of leading a funeral.

For Christmas Josh and I bought a new camera. At the moment Abby is my model. She absolutely hates it and has hidden behind Josh in almost every shot. However I cornered her in the bathroom where she finally looked at me. I think we all know from her eyes exactly what she is thinking..... We made up later.

And of course here is the 30 week picture that I know you have all been waiting for. My kids at school have finally realized that I am pregnant. Last week one of my favorites told me that I was going to have a pop star baby, "You know Mrs. Collins, like Hannah Montana" He later told me that he hopes she will be as beautiful as I am. (Can you see why he is a favorite?) I did however ignore the fact that Hannah Montana and I are in the same category in his mind.

One Step Closer

Four weeks ago Cyprus' Room looked like this...

As of today her room still needs a little more work, but we are getting closer.

We have even caught Abby curled up in the bouncy seat, but have been unable to get a picture of her cute little Jack Russel self curled up with the giraffe.

Abby has been super cuddly with me the past couple of weeks. Any opportunity that she gets Abby is curled up with her body around my stomach. Cyprus has been known to kick her in the face once in a while. We are pretty sure that Abby believes I am carrying a puppy.

A couple of weeks of fun

Josh's sister Hannah came all the way from California to take pictures of my belly. Well, I guess she also came to the east coast to take her final exams for grad school at UT. Either way we are glad that she was here.

After church I got mistaken for Hannah. Once I explained that she was the one living in CA, the poor woman asked which one of us was pregnant. I personally took that as a compliment.

Last week we went to the Renaissance Festival with our neighbors. It was quite an amazing adventure. Our first show that we got to see was a man who swallowed swords. Granted the picture below was of him swallowing a giant pink balloon, I promise there were swards involved.

Josh fit in prefect with the locals.

After attending our first pirate show, Josh was invited back to help Bonnie Lass walk a rope on stage. His only job was to make sure that she did not fall and hurt herself.

He had some difficulty after all the drinking with the other pirates during the jousting match.

Of course the second time, they both got the hang of it. By the end of the rope walking mission, Bonnie Lass was amazed at my patience in the matter of being Josh's wife, and dealing with him for more than a 45 minute show.

All in all the festival was fun. We cannot wait for next year.

Week 23

Six weeks has flown by. We have started getting ready for baby girl by stocking up on a few items. We sold our couch and put our futon in the living room, making more room in Cyprus' room. We have had many different families provide us with their used baby supplies.


Anna and Lee bought C her car seat and stroller. We are both super excited about the stroller, it is a compact jogger with three wheels which is able to maneuver through out stores as well.

Even though Josh has banned the color pink, he was willing to buy the winter essentials in this wonderful color.

Our sweet little girl will continue to participate in the Collins tradition of bears. All bears all the time. On Saturday we headed to Kolhs to pick up a few things, through our adventures we found corduroy overalls with a bear on it... and now they are in our house.

We went to the doctor today. Little girl is about the size of a papaya. Now I don't personally know exactly the size of this fruit, but she is about 10 inches and one pound. I am amazed at her movement. When we heard her heart beat Josh said it sounded like she was jumping rope.

I am learning her sleeping patterns. She is awake when my alarm goes off around 6 and when I come home around 4 she normally kicks hard enough to surprise me.

Week 17

The past three weeks four Kidney stones have controlled our world.

Josh has been out of work and in horrible pain.

School has consumed me and when I get home Josh is the only thing I can think about.

Two weekends ago the Pharr family had a reunion.

All of the cousins where there. Josh and I met his second cousin for the first time.

Elly, who at the time was 7 weeks enjoyed Josh the most.

On Monday we went to the doctor. Our little Sweet Potato is a girl potato. For someone who is not even four and a half months, I'm a little worried!

Week 15

Last night I felt baby move for the first time! It was simply amazing! Baby started out with bubbles (Josh's dad, Micheal thinks it was farting), then there were spurts of butterfly movement.

Today I went to the Dr. I told him about the movement, he said it was a little early. However, when he went to listen to the heartbeat the baby wouldn't stop moving enough for the Dr. to hear the heart beat. We could hear the little one swimming around, but no heart beat. Because my little Avocado was in the middle of it's work out, we had to do an ultra sound. Baby was defiantly break dancing! The Dr. printed off a picture so we have another one to add to our photo album.

**Note: Last weeks picture may seem larger than others due to the photographer laying on the couch. As you can see that might be the photographers angle of choice.

As you can see Josh is still being a crazy man. And now there are two of him!

A Busy Weekend

This was the second weekend in a row for baseball! On Friday we headed to Hickory to watch the crawdads play the Riverdogs of Charelston. We were fortunate enough to have Hannah, Zach, and Beth come with us. Since this was a family weekend Josh felt it necessary to remind Hannah what it is like to hang with him. During the third inning Hannah and Zach had a dance off on the first base dug out for a gift card. Why? Because Josh signed them up for it. Such a sweet guy!

Josh and I are expecting our first child around Valentines Day. That makes me 14 weeks pregnant. I have gotten over all of the sickness and for the most part I am staying away from the three hour naps, even though they are glorious.

School starts for teachers tomorrow so I am trying to get in the habit of getting nauseous at school instead of at home. So far I'm doing quite well.

It has been three years!

On Friday Josh and I headed to Atlanta to celebrate our 3rd year anniversary a little early. Since we both have to work on Thursday we decided to take some time to enjoy ourselves.

We met up with Lindsay and her boy Scott. They gave us a great air mattress to sleep on. While Josh slept like a baby I became sea sick and moved to the couch.

Saturday morning Lindsay decided that we needed to go shoot at something.... And so we did

Josh was the only one who had been skeet shooting before. He was amazing!

I on the other hand did the best I could. If I ever have to shoot something I hope it is super big and close.

The real present that we gave ourselves was the Braves game that night. We were both amazed at how tall Chipper Jones really is.

Our seats were six rows from the field. We watched the Braves beat the Giants 3-0. On our way back to Lindsay's apartment we accidentally took a little detour to the south side of Atlanta. After our little excitement Josh decided that he would take the initiative to drive anywhere in Atlanta.... Thanks Baby!

Some fun times this summer

Shelby spent the majority of the summer with us, which was wonderful. She decided to stay behind while her parents headed off to Washington and then drove across the country to California. There were a couple of moments when Shelby didn't think she made the right decision, but it all worked out. However she was very grateful to take the Journey back to Newton.

Josh decided to start the summer trimming up our neighbors tree that was looking a little rough. While Abby is trying to "help", Shelby is waiting for someone to play ball with her.


During Memorial Day we had a big block party, the set up was a little touch and go for a bit, while the weather decided what to do, but once everything was good to go we had a blast.

We even partook in a wonderful slip-n-slide. While Josh only went down a few times, I spent hours upon hours slipping and sliding!

We did take some time to go camping along the French Broad River and celebrate our relationship with one another. Josh surprised me with white water rafting. We played in the river and went next door and soaked in the hot springs. It was an unforgettable weekend!

Well it's official!

309 South Pinks St. is officially for sale. We have started looking at different houses and it will not be easy. There are plenty of houses in the Cherryville area, but at the same time the ones that we have seen have not been that great.

Both Josh and I have been busy over the past months. Honestly I have just forgotten about the Blog. Over the summer I have been working at Alexander Youth Network, which provides mental health services to children 5-21. In the fall I will be the lead teacher at AYN. Josh has been running the Y outdoor adventure camp this summer and tonight softball starts. He is continuously on the go.

Busy weekend

Saturday morning Josh and I helped out with a 5K run. Josh ran the sound while I blocked traffic. As I left the race to run to Cousins Sarie's baby shower in Black Mountain, Josh took off to the last day of T-ball. As the 3 and 4 year old children of Cherryville received metals and pizza, Beth and I headed up the mountain.

I got the privilege of feeling how active baby Eleanor is already.

I made a turtle blanket for baby Eleanor to enjoy


After our separate commitments we met up with Shovel and went camping. Of course it rained the entire time. We ended up sleeping in the Element. Even though it rained we played cards and had some great laughs.