Getting closer...

Maybe it is just the hormones I am experiencing, but yesterday I was finding this very amusing.

Am I pregnant? Maybe, maybe not, kinda hard to say...

Wah-pow! There's the belly. Yep, definitely pregnant.

Baby Room Construction

I know, I know, we are not blogging often enough. Here's a sneak peek of the baby room, which right now is mostly a baby corner in the guest room (I will spare you the pictures of the futon still covered with things that need to be put away-but I was tempted).

In the interest of full disclosure, the room does not look cute all the time. This is how it usually looks:

I know, you are thinking what a lovely old towel they have on the dresser. This is because the cat loves his new soft changing pad/boppy perch better than life, and I am on fur patrol. Although he has yet to let me document it, he can be found here more often than we would like.

However, when we are pretending to have the room finished, it looks more like this:
Fantastic African animal prints on the wall.















And even a drawer that is slowly filling with clean and baby-ready clothes. I must insist the onesie on the top of the pile was not intentional. (You may have to click on the picture to make it large enough to see what I am talking about)


For those of you who are concerned with the safety hazard that is our changing pad, rest assured, we firmly bolted it to the back of the dresser before we set it up.

Monster Maple Bar

This morning upon waking, baby and I really wanted a donut. Andrew would try to tell you that baby takes after him and hates donuts, but I am quite sure he is wrong. So I drove to the friendly Yuba City donut shop (I think there is only one) and got a maple bar. But this wasn't an ordinary maple bar. It was the biggest one I have ever seen and well worth my 95 cents!


Please excuse the sketchy photography. I was in the car with my phone and really wanted to eat the donut and not wait to take it home to take a proper photo of it for documentation.

Grandpa

This post is mostly for the benefit of my mom and dad, so you may notice that it doesn't have pictures of me or Andrew in it at all.

My brother Ryan is visiting our family back in Ohio, and I thought this picture of him and my grandparents would be fun to post since my grandpa is looking a lot better than when I was back there. It is very good to see him up and around and we'd appreciate your continued prayers for his health.

Midnight musings

Lately I am up a lot at night, and not just at midnight (didn't want you to be confused by the title of this post), but at various times which would reasonably qualify as being middle of the night. I thought I would share a few of the interesting things which happen in our apartment during the night (besides sleeping-weird I know). After much research on the subject I find that they fall under two main categories.

1. General Crashing Occurrences:

Occurrence one- I am reading in the living room trying to be quiet so Andrew can stay asleep and get up at 5:45. From the back of the apartment comes a huge crash, a vaguely familiar sounding crash...I run (well waddle really) to see what it is before Andrew wakes up. I confirm yes, the cat has again gotten stuck behind the dryer. Dumb cat. I cannot get him out because my girth no longer allows me to reach behind dryers so I decide if he really wanted so much to be back there, he can just stay there. Cat gives "poor me" look, decides he does not want to stay there, and begins to "climb" the dryer, claws screeching against the sides, with general unhappy cat noises soon to follow. Andrew is no longer asleep, and comes to save cat. He goes back to bed.

Occurrence two- An hour later I am still up reading, being generally quiet. An even larger crash comes from the back of the apartment, and I hear blinds smacking together, so I go to see if someone has broken through our window. No intruder this time, just a husband who somehow managed to pull down his entire nightstand, lamp, and alarm clock in his sleep, and topple it onto the fan and whatever else is over there on that side of the bed. Luckily husband has not fallen out of bed, but is slightly disoriented and trying to pull said nightstand, lamp and alarm clock back up into their rightful places. Crisis averted, but not much sleep had this night by anybody.


2. Really cool things:

During the night the baby gets a little ornery, possibly from me lying on him, which is hard not to do, since he takes up a lot of room no matter which side I am lying on. Last week when I got up I was sure he had pushed through my belly and something was sticking out, because it felt like there was a broomstick poking out the right side of me. Since I am pretty blind, I put on my glasses and went into the bathroom to investigate. Luckily for me, he had not pushed all the way through, but when I looked in the mirror I could see the outline of his tiny foot on my belly. It had to be one of the coolest things I have ever seen and a good reminder that it is a tiny person in there who is not trying purposely to karate chop my ribs or keep me awake, just trying to grow nice and strong.

I really wish he had held it there for long enough for me to get a picture, but as we all know, babies are not predictable. People have posted pictures of this same thing online though, so try googling it. Ridiculously cool!

Chicken Rescue 101

Unfortunately this post is not going to have any pictures, so you will just have to use your imagination. I am posting simply for educational purposes should any of you find yourselves in the same situation Andrew and I faced Sunday morning.

We were up very early for church so as to make it to the sunrise service at Andrew's parents church (when I say very early this means we got up at 5:45). Why were we in Fresno you might ask? Because Sunday was also Doug and Shelley's 35th anniversary, so Andrew (a very loving son) and I (a very loving and very pregnant daughter in law) drove down to surprise them.

This is where the story gets dicey. Somebody (who again will remain nameless) refilled the water bottle for Heidi's little tiny chicks that are currently living in the Halverson's kitchen in a cardboard box, and the box got taken outside into the garage so it was out of the way for frantic getting ready for church Easter morning. Not long after, the chicks were discovered in perilous danger of drowning in the overturned water bottle, made frigid by the arctic temperatures of their garage (cue dramatic music)!

So while his parents loaded up a million kids into the car to leave, Andrew and I broke out the blowdryers (which any expert can tell you is the best way to reheat a chicken). One poor guy was a little stiff so he got a nice massage with his blow dry as well. Picture if you can, and man and his hugely pregnant wife bending over a stinky box of chickens giving them the double barreled blow-dry of life.

Fortunately this story has a happy ending, we made it to the sunrise service sort of on time (sneaking in during the handshaking) and returned later to find all chickens alive and well, though looking a little worse for wear. And the little stiff one, hereafter called Lazarus, made it too.

Happy Easter to us indeed!

Be warned: Belly shots approaching

Last weekend Andrew and I had some fun taking pictures of my big belly. Well fun for the most part, except that my vision is just now recovering from his atomic flash. Some of the pictures can't be revealed yet without giving away baby name information, so those of you brave enough to look upon the belly will have to settle for 3.