Lightning, Libraries and Pictures Oh My!

Well... We've survived almost three weeks here in Eugene. Can't believe it's already been that long. It kinda feels like longer. Oh well, we're here and we're definitely staying. We're not on vacation. That reality has set in over the last week or so. My homesickness has been coming and going in waves, but I'm surviving. I have Emma to take care of and it's been keeping me from crying every time I talk to someone from home, lol. Nathan's job is going well. He really loves his new job and he's been having fun with the challenges he's facing. I don't mind it too bad because he's home at night and for most of the travelling, Emma and I get to go. Which reminds me - October 16-20 we will be in town. Nathan has college fairs up there in Washington, so we'll be around. It'll be nice to go home though.
I must say though, Eugene is nice, it's ridiculously hot sometimes, but today, it's nice and cool and rainy! We had quite the lightning show the other night also, it was wonderful! I tried to take pictures, but my reaction time is too slow. I tried to video it, but I wasn't holding the camera high enough apparently because when the lightning struck I discovered it wasn't on the camera. That's just how it goes sometimes. I haven't seen lightning across the sky like it was in awhile. I was amazing. I'm not a fan of thunder though, I don't know if I've mentioned the thunderstorm while Nathan was in Ecuador, another story for another time. Needless to say, I had the time of my life standing outside watching the lightning.
I have also ventured to the library a couple times. I believe I mentioned before how ginormous the library here is. The children's section alone is the size of the Mill Creek Library back home. They have movies and tv shows that I watched as a kid in their childrens section. I was looking for Winnie the Pooh movies and Baby Einstein stuff for Emma and found Pippi Longstocking. Anyone over the age of 20 had to have seen these old Pippi movies before. Do you know that I never knew they were dubbed over in English? I have thoroughly enjoyed watching the movies and laughing at how weird they were. Emma doesn't like the library, I think because she has to be quiet, she must be my child. :-) I've had to take a couple trips because she didn't cooperate long enough for me to get more than one or two books the first time. I do love the glares I get when Emma yells in the library. I've been in the "hood", I think I could take them. :-) But anyway, the library is three stories tall, it's amazing! The only downfall is that you have to pay to park EVERYWHERE downtown. The garage at the library also charges for parking. It's .75 cents for an hour, but I always take longer than I intend to and have to trek back downstairs and pay for more time. I can't wait til Emma is a little older and we can go to the library for storytime. Anyway, I think this is the biggest public library I've been in. I think that other than the fact that there are some mighty stinky people that are there, I love it.
We also took a trip to Olympia over the weekend. Yes, we trekked from Eugene to Olympia in the 90+ degree weather in Nathan's unairconditioned car. Thankfully, we had to make a stop at Nathan's parents house and were able to borrow one of their cars so we had AC from there to Olympia. Our trip to Olympia was to visit with my family and get our family pictures done. Those of you who know my family, we are a picture family. We take pictures every time we're together, and yet we always get the professional ones on top of it, but joking about it sometimes gets you whacked on the head. The men in our family hate this tradition. Between Dad, KC, Nathan and Uncle Mike, there's quite enough joking and complaining going on that I'm surprised we still go in public with them to get pictures done! Although, I can't complain, this year, despite my double chin and excess fat that is still very apparent on my once pregnant waist, I actually like the pictures. We did have a couple pictures done of just her, we're going to count them as her four month pictures. She smiled, finally, for her pictures! We had a nice trip to Olympia though, we ate well, as we always do when Grandma cooks.
So ends another blog. Don't you guys worry, we're doing just fine. Emma and I are having lots of fun together. She's growing so fast, I can hardly believe it's been four months. Four months ago I was yelling at my belly telling her to come out. :-) Or I was crying because I was so done with being pregnant. Man, maybe I shouldn't have more kids, I don't think the end of pregnancy was a good time for me... Looking back anyways... OH! Speaking of pregnancy, I am glad I am not pregnant here. I know you all know this is hippy central and I'm sorry if I offend some of you, but the people here need to practice better hygiene skills! Good glory they wreak!!! This is my library complaint, the stinky people keep getting into the elevator with me! I must say, if the smell gets me now, I'll probably vomit when I do get pregnant again. I'll need plenty of prayer then. Okay, tangent... I'm done.