Bug Encounter

So remember how I said Mississippi has big bugs? Ya, met another one the other day....

Olivia and I had been at  a mommy group that some women in our area put together (they do like 3 every week. I love it) and we got back home and parked in our driveway. I got Olivia and her car seat out of the car and we were walking up the front steps when I saw a big black dragonfly. Now, I'm not scared of dragonflies... so we walked a little closer... and realized it's "tail" was curving down and forward and was bright red and looked more like a stinger... o, that's not a dragonfly? right. back. it. up.

So, there we were, stranded on the driveway with this giant wasp thing hovering by my front door. 

(Side note, that car seat is kind of heavy, so I'm wanting to put it down, but that makes things much more difficult in the running away department, but so does holding it. You see this other dilemma? Hard day all around.)

Anyways, so sometimes the bug will fly a little off by the front window and I think we can run for the door, but as soon as I walk forward, it goes back to the door! It reminded me of those wasps on Donkey Kong- that go back and forth guarding stuff... except this wasn't a video game and I needed to get inside my house.

So I threw a rock at it. I missed, and we were back at square one.

So I called Clint. He always has answers. And he came through for me again. He had left the side gate open (it's big and if its locked there is no way I could open it from the front or climb over it, which is why I didn't think about this. But let's be honest, I was freaking out and probably wouldn't have thought of it anyways) So Olivia and I snuck around the wasp and got in the back door.

Then I googled the bug.
It was/is a Digger wasp.

ew. ew. ew.

So apparently they burrow into dry lawns and make nests and eat cicadas that live in trees around here. I also found out that cicadas also live underground, hence the burrowing nest, but that is beside the point. Cicadas are big bugs too. The biggest one I've seen are about as round as a quarter and an inch or so long with a hard body... so these wasps have quite the bug to capture and eat. A full grown digger wasp is 1 1/2 inches long and have wing span of 1 1/4 inches! Which is why I thought it was a dragonfly at first. They are HUGE!

that length should say one and a half inches... it did on the google search... and wiki-how...

of course I look at all the most reliable websites for my research.

I know you are all worried about the Prestwich family's safety, so let me also tell you that everything I read about these digger wasps said that they are basically harmless. They are really passive bugs and you would practically have to sit there digging up their nest for them to sting you. They use their size to intimidate though and will hover to scare things away (like me... well done wasp, you are good at what you do!)

So that's my story. I really hope that wasp doesn't have a nest in my lawn. But I guess its basically harmless right? So I shouldn't worry anyways... and look at how much smarter I am about digger wasps! I should thank the little critters for some real life learning.

Man, if I could just get rid of the bugs in Mississippi, these next four years would be so much easier...

Life in Mississippi

We moved to Mississippi! Clint is going to school in Memphis, Tennessee everyday (it's only a 15-20 minute commute) and we are loving the South!

Baseball game! We saw about 10 minutes of it before the rain storm came in...

Ten things we've learned about the South so far... 

1. Everyone is so nice. Really though. I believed Clint when he told me people were nice before I came out here, but I was pleasantly surprised. During Clint's family orientation at his school this nice man in the group with us held my diaper bag the whole 2 hour tour, and 3 older ladies in the group offered to hold Olivia. And, when there is a police officer around the corner and you're speeding down the street, people flash their brights at you to warn you about the police! I thought it was strange that someone flashed their brights at me in the middle of the day and Clint said someone told him about it when it happened to him too. How cool is that?! I think that should be a more commonly used practice... not that I speed a lot...

2. It is so green! The freeway is lined with huge trees and everywhere you look you see giant trees with southern mansions hiding behind them... GORGEOUS. Love the trees. 

3. The BBQ really is amazing. We've tried a few places, and as a welcoming present the relief society of our ward gave us a bottle of amazing bbq sauce from a local place. wow. really good.

4. There are bugs bigger than I thought possible in lived in areas. I mean, I heard Clint's stories about bugs in the Amazon in Brazil where he served his mission and I just thought thank heavens I live in modern civilization where I don't have to worry about that. O, I have to worry about that. The first week we were here there was a hole in the weather stripping of our back door. We watched as a huge spider and a blue lizard climbed through that hole and joined us in the dining room. EW EW EW! There may have been a point where I was standing on the chair... and also a few melt downs about Olivia's safety... 

5. It is so fun to have our own house. We bought a house when we moved down here and I have so much more motivation to decorate and it's been a lot of fun. There are also drawbacks- like we had to fix the hole in the back door that we found trying to replace the weather strip... turns out the door was rotted through and we needed to replace it. Luckily, we're in the south and the repairman said he had a door laying around his house and he'd give it to us for free! See? REALLY nice people around here.

Emily and I painting Olivia's room

Our Baby Girl

So, about 9 weeks ago our baby came! Sorry about the late notice, but she keeps us busy! Here's the story.

So on July 9th I was scheduled to be induced. Clint and I packed our bags and drove to the hospital. It was weird thinking as we drove that the next time I was outside, driving in a car, I would for sure, no doubt about it, have a baby. I think I had been pregnant for so long that I didn't really think it was going to actually end ya know? But boy, am I glad it did! 

So we checked into the hospital and Clint's cousin's sister in law was our nurse and she took very good care of us. She started me on Pitocin at 7:45 AM and every half hour or something like that she increased my dose and the contractions started coming. By 9:30 I was having pretty regular contractions, I was dialated to 3 cm and things were going well. Clint and I were just chatting and getting excited. Then Clint got a phone call. It was his cousin (who is an anesthesiologist at the hospital I delivered at). He said that the  anesthesiologist leaving his shift was slightly better at giving epidurals than the one coming onto his shift so I should get mine now. So I did. It was by far the scariest part for me. I didn't think I was nervous about getting an epidural but when he wheeled in his cart I was shaking and crying a little and freaking out a lot. Turned out that it hurt less than the IV did and I didn't really have anything to be scared of afterall. 

I fell asleep. Clint says this part was really boring for him and he drained the batteries on both our phones playing games... The doctor came in around 11 and broke me water and I went back to sleep. I woke up again at 1:30 and I was dilated to a 10!! I was ready to go but the doctor said because it had gone so quickly he would let the baby descend on her own for another hour. 

The doctor came around 2:25 and said the lady next door to me was also his patient and at the same point I was. He said he was going to try both of us pushing and whoever seemed to be more ready would get to go first. I pushed once and he said we should just go for it. I pushed through about 4 contractions, for about 15 minutes and we had our little girl! She came out wailing and I couldn't believe she was mine. 

Olivia Jane Prestwich was 19 inches long, 6 pounds 15 ounces, and was very healthy. We enjoyed being pampered at the hospital for two uneventful days and then we went home. Clint's family and my mom were able to come help me out for a week while we all got used to this baby business and things have been going pretty smoothly since. 

I told Clint that if I didn't have to be pregnant for 9 months, I could have babies all the time. It was such a great experience. I feel so blessed to have our little girl come so easily and that she was healthy. We love her so much. 

Welcome to the world sweet pea!