colevan

ashland

Experienced a few firsts this weekend, first time to Ashland’s Shakespeare Festival and first night away from Orrin. Both were great!

We made the family trip up to Redding and spent the evening in and  by the pool (as it was still in the 90s well into the evening). Had a great breakfast and said “adios” to the boys as we took our girls trip up to the Oregon border. 2.5 hours later, Hillary, Kayla, my mom and I arrived in Ashland for the festivities. We took our time window shopping and taking in the area – all the while Hillary just beamed with excitement about the town and prospects of performing in the festival at one point in her career.

Found a super cute dress for Kayla and a coordinating bow, and it was off to the hotel for a little R&R, ie. a competitive card game of Presidents & Janitors. (not to mention the milk machine need to pump before she exploded). With Lary as the reigning champ we dressed for the play and headed out to find us an inspiring dinner: a pleasant ristorante provided sustenance and libations a mere walking distance to the play.

The play,” Twelfth Night, or what you will,” was performed in an open-air setting. The stage was modeled after London’s Globe – or something like it. Simple but clever sets and action isles made for an unforgettable experience.

A leisurely breakfast and we were on the steep and winding road back to Redding to spell Daddy from taking care of the baby. All in all, a fun weekend with the girls. (Mack we missed you!)

wordle.net

here’s a summary of my blog as viewed by wordle.net.

due date

Ha, ha, very funny.

Just because I am rarely aware of the library book due date does not mean you can skip out too, Orrin. However, I did expect it.

That is why in recognition of the due date I am going out to lunch and a pedicure with a good friend. How do you like that?? I will like it very much, thank you!

So you have my permission to stay put for another 5-7 hours. Jeran really wants to have that my-wife’s-water-broke-while-we-were-in-the-middle-of-dinner moment so he can throw cash on the table and rush me out the door anyway…

come out, come out, where ever you are

T-4 days and counting.

You know you’ve gotten used to being hugely pregnant when peopple ask how you are doing and you say “great” without thinking about it. If they only knew, right? Well, I’ve been through worse than this, so the fact that it takes me 5-10 extra seconds to rise from a seated position has become “normal.”

Other things that are now normal? Planning errands based on bathroom locations. Walking at almost -1 MPH. Resting my hands, and/or plate on my large shelf, when it’s not moving…

Things I wish I could do: sweep the floor. Sounds silly, but after sweeping I am just done for, it totally whacks out my back and I can barely walk. Good thing the kids are pitching in. Ronnie is vacuuming the dog hair from the corners of the rooms as I type. What a great helper.

Whack-a-Mole

Sure, kick me when I’m down. Ha ha, very funny Orrin. Well you know what they say about payback.

You sure are doin’ a lot of moving in there for 4:03 am! Joke’s on you though cause I get to play my new favorite game, whack-a-mole. Simple premise: when you kick, I poke. It’s actually so amusing that I start cracking myself up, and then can’t tell who’s causing what discomfort anymore.

Only problem with this game is it is not silent, so, sorry for waking you up Jeran! 🙂 That’s from both of us.

“you could have your baby any day…in the next month”

Inspiring words from the latest midwife visit.

I’ll let you in on a little secret the medical community wants to hide from aspiring mothers. Pregnancy is not a 9-month thing, it’s 10. Think about it, the doc casually mentions a 40-week gestation period. Curious, because 40 divided by 4 (to simulate 4 weeks in a month) is 10! Ten months (+/- 2 weeks to be precise).

On our first visit, they measured the baby and predicted the “due date.” Then, they carefully explained that it’s really a birth MONTH, with your due date smack in the middle of it, like a bell curve. So anytime from now to 4 weeks from now I could pop. Not to mention that first babies tend to arrive several days beyond the “half-way-point” otherwise known as the due date.

Well, here’s to the unknown! At least Tawanda got the nursery corner of our bedroom set up. Much to Jeran’s dismay, to get it all to fit in there comfy, we are now sleeping on the Cal King the long way. (insert dramatic music here) (Explanation: we are short; we bought a bed for tall people. So we turned it sideways against the wall and sleep on a roomy, hugely-wide bed. With it turned it’s still big, just not as roomy — according to some.)

nesting

I’ve read about it but didn’t really believe in it until it happened to me.

It was the day, a few weeks ago, that I asked Jeran to help me move our bed over so I could set up the baby corner in our room. (We don’t have a spare room to put Orrin in so we will make due with a corner for now.) He looked at me like I was crazy, seeing as how the due date was over a month away, and we don’t really have any thing to put in the corner. So, I kind of got his point and conceded.

So, the plan? of course, GET things to put in the corner! I went to our fabulous Target with my sister and gift cards from my shower (thank you – you know who you are). So now we have storage bins and a makeshift dresser, and of course the cradle my dad built for his little girls to sleep in. My friend Kiah helped me organize all the gifts and hand-me-downs I’ve received thus far and, wow, we have STUFF! Additionally, her visit with her little boy prompted us to open the pack-n-play — which will also double as our diaper-changing station — so, that needs a home now too.

I never really understood what “nesting” was until now. I just want everything to be ready and organized before the arrival, because I know I’ll be soooo tired I wont be able to deal with it later. well, now that I have STUFF it should be easier to get the help I need to move the Cal King. If not, there’s always Tawanda.

to leave, or not to leave

Maternity leave came early for me. I had planned to work up until week 38 or beyond, but circumstances beyond my control (freakin bad economy) made leaving now the optimal choice.

I’m happy to say that I’m officially 1 hour and 22 minutes into my “freedom” and have only emailed the office twice — no, three times. whew! and I thought it would be a hard separation…

So how does a multitasking pro fill several empty days? I have it all scheduled of course. I figured I might as well have control over something even if it’s not my dog, kids or husband. Looks like I can control this blog, for now.

Day one: organization. My good friend is coming to help me sort through the gifts and hand-me-downs I’ve been stashing in the corner. Once that is complete, we can cross reference The List of things I should probably have in place for the little one. Then I have an undetermined amount of time to get that together 🙂 Go me.

keep your head down

Ok there little Orrin, just had our fun visit with the midwife. She says you are -3 (what ever that means) and head down so, good job! I suppose that explains the pain in my ribs, it would be your butt not quite fitting in there and then you kicking me everytime I eat. But hey, I get energized when I eat too, so who can blame you.

Hang in there for a few more weeks. Keep your head down, and it will all come out just fine… I hope.