Pictures!

I've got pictures to post...so here they are!



Here's the Dylan monkey with my dad...he's such an awesome Grandpa!

He has the most amazing eyes...

He really likes the new blocks I bought for him...apparently they taste great!

We put Fox's crib together Friday night...man, it is weird having a crib in the house. The X-tra parts are for converting the crib to a toddler bed and then a full size one day.


The Conrads dropped in earlier tonight. They tested Fox's crib for it's jumpworthiness...(I made that word up...) based on the amount of fun they had, I think it will work out nicely for the little man.

Conrad boys...chillin' in the crib...

That's all for now...time to practice our Hypnobirthing exercises!

Hey Hey, We're the Monkees

I spent last weekend in Orlando, to visit my family and attend the wedding of a childhood friend.
The last of our group of Monkees, Jesse, got married. We grew up in a wonderful, close neighborhood, and there was a family with three boys that lived across the street from us. It was great, Shannon and I got to kind of know what it was like to have brothers, and the guys kind of got to know what it was like to have sisters. Here's a picture of the 5 Monkees (not 4 like the TV show) all growed up:

Left to Right: Nate Kline, Me, Jess Kline, Shannon, and Aaron Kline.

It's so funny to think that we are all married now, Aaron and Shannon and I (almost) are parents, and we still can hang out just like we used to.
Okay, so the Monkees reference. (I'm planning on linking to a wikipedia article, but I can't get wikipedia to load...)
When we were little (elementary age) the Monkees came on Nickelodeon every day after school. The boys would come over and we would watch the show together. Eventually, we decided that we wanted to be the Monkees. Never mind the fact that the Monkees were a band of 4 guys, the 5 of us we determined. We sang along in the garage ('cuz that's where all bands practice) to our LPs and later, cassettes, and pretended to play the instruments we built out of cardboard boxes. Aaron was Davy Jones, I was the invented twin sister of Aaron/Davy, Nate was Mike "Wool Hat" Nesmith, Shannon was a girl Peter Tork, and Jess was Mickey Dolenz.

We played a lot of different things in our garage. Mom always kept the freezer stocked with popsicles, and we played marathons of Monopoly and Clue. We built forts with all the boxes Mom's work stuff was delivered in, and worked on the tree fort in the big tree behind the boys' house. As we got older, we moved indoors when our NES came home, and worked collaboratively to beat Super Mario 3 one summer.

Anyway, I'll add more photos as soon as Blogger cooperates with me. My sister emailed me pictures from the wedding and more of the cutest Jr. Monkee, my nephew Dylan.

"I Get By With A Little Help..."

Vance and I are so blessed with such wonderful friends. Barb Theobald and her teenaged daughter Jordan came over tonight to help me out.
I've been feeling a little (hah!) overwhelmed this week. When I went out of town last weekend, I left the kitchen a disaster, and stuff all over Fox's room. Guess what? When I came back, it was all exactly as I had left it.
Sooo...my hormones are a total mess (I'll leave out the gory details for our sensitive male readers) and I have apparently gotten into this funk where I spend most of my time looking at everything that needs to be done in the next 9 1/2 weeks and I can't figure out where to start.
I was really struggling on Monday and in a moment of desperation called Barb. We talked about our schedules and she offered to come over on Wednesday (tonight) and help me do anything I wanted help with. Apparently what she meant by help was for she and Jordan to come over and clean my kitchen while I sat on my butt and told them where to put things. As all of you are aware, that is a tough thing for me to do. But I did, for the most part.
I'm supposed to make a list of the things I need to get done and then she'll come over every few days and help me get it all done. It is so hard for me to admit that I can't get it all done by myself, when I'm so used to being able to, and having the energy to spare to go over and help my friends get their stuff done too. I know I really have to slow down and get enough rest for Fox and I, but instead of slowing down everything seems to be speeding up. Kinda like that silly quote about life seeming to get faster toward the end, like the end of the roll of toilet paper, except this is life getting faster at the end of my pregnancy.
I'll have to finish this later...and I'll post pictures of Dylan from this weekend.

Titles are so cliche'

We had a great checkup with the midwife this morning. Fox has decided that head-down is his direction of choice. Honestly, it kinda took me by surprise. I guess I thought I had another month or so before we got to that point. I know, it's a positive move, but yet another example of how time is just flying by!

Vance wrote a great post on his blog last night regarding the saga of naming our son. Check it out here.

I read a really thought-provoking post on a website this morning. Warning-the language is not rated PG. However, I felt the author made some excellent points. It made me thankful for my community of friends, and all the more cognizant of our need to be a friend.

The Hypnobirthing self-training we're doing is going well. I do get a little tired of some 'well-meaning' folks who look at me like I'm so naive when I talk about planning to give birth without pain medications or medical interventions. I don't want to make this blog a gripe page about pregnancy issues, but sometimes that's really what's on my mind.

I had my annual review at work this morning. It went very well, I earned an "Excellent" rating in all areas assessed. Now I just have to get my leave plan worked out. I'm planning on taking the full 6 months FSU will allow me. We'll see what happens after that. ; )