April showers bring May flowers--and babies! I'm 34weeks now, so only 6 more weeks to go in theory. I secretly hope for a little Taurus babe, though I feel it wrong to try to sway anything in a certain direction. So we'll see! That'll be the way of it if she comes early.
March brought a lot of action and change. In the final days of February we were able to move into our new place, which we adore. I left on leap year day to the Illinois Vipassana Center for a 10-day meditation sit in Pecatonica, Illiniois. This was a much needed retreat from the huge hustle and bustle of daily life, which had felt like a continual grasp for grounding. For 10 days, I was more or less in complete silence, took naps, meditated of course, and didn't have to cook or clean. Ahhh it was great! Then back to reality. I returned March 11th and continued nesting into our new place and prepared for house guests.
My sister Kristen and her husband Dave had plans to come into town for business, and so Justin and I decided to go ahead and rather secretly wed. Yep, you read that right. This was something we had been talking about doing, and the idea of planning a big wedding for my huge families and so many friends who I'd want to include was more than daunting. Ideally, we would have had a barnyard party on the fall solstice with live music, a puppet show, dancing, a feast of local food, and our closest 400 friends and family members :) But who has the time to plan (or pay) for that?! Soooo our friend Kristin became a minister online. Justin's mom and aunt drove up from Texas. My parents and bro came from Des Moines for the afternoon. And basically right after Justin got off work on a Tuesday afternoon, we walked through Oakland Cemetary to Hickory Hills Park, climbed up on a rock, and said our vows. We then walked back to our house, ate some chocolate cake, the ladies casted my belly in plaster while the men turned in the marriage license to the county recorder's office and had a beer, and then we went for dinner.
So we three are now the Cornett-Olssons :)
And so now, I am continuing to nest and get our home ready. I am still doing some low-key midwifery work, mostly chart work and organizing for the midwives with whom I will be working full-time starting in July/August. I hope to attend a couple births as well before Cricket comes in May. Justin is starting to work a ton now as the farm work is picking up and he just got his bees hived. He's working 30hrs a week at the Montessori school still and then going up to Salt Fork farms in Solon in the afternoons/evenings, where he's starting planting and caring for little chicks, and of course keeping his bees, which we are both so excited for! When the school closes for the summer he'll be working full-time on the farm.
Well that's enough excitement for now! Love! Rachel and Cricket Cornett-Olsson
ceremony
our home
belly cast!
muah!
