A lot has happened since my last blog post. I have been wanting to write something creative but I just haven't been able to focus on one specific thing. Who needs focus? Why write about just one thing? Screw it. Here's a quick recap of what's been happening around here.
Family:
My mom is engaged! Congratulations! Her and Ken are getting married on Oct. 1st which means that our family is continuing to grow! I am really excited for them and I am excited for the path this will take all of us down and especially for what this means to my mom. Fingers crossed I can lose some baby weight by the time I need to squeeze into a dress! The Army has relocated my brother Steven and his family from Ft. Rucker, Alabama to Ft. Campbell, Tennessee. Although Ft. Campbell is almost exactly the same distance from California as Ft. Rucker, for travel purposes it is much easier to get to which is going to be very nice for all of us. Especially since they are expecting their 3rd baby this August! She (yes, I will have another niece!YAY!) is due on Aug. 7th, only 4 days after my estimated due date.
Vacation:
Brett and I went to Cancun in March and spent 6 days relaxing on the beach. The trip was dual purpose and was a combination vacation/babymoon and a wedding celebration for Nicole and Lou. We were looking forward to this trip and we were not at all disappointed. The weather was perfect and the wedding was beautiful. The wedding was a little bittersweet for me since I was watching my once sister-in-law get remarried but I am extremely happy for them. The uniqueness of our situation and the fact that I was there to witness this union, never one time crossed my mind as being strange or odd or abnormal. Bittersweet, yes. Strange, no. I realize that this was the union of two families that are not technically mine and I'm not sure if other people find it as 'normal' as I do that Brett and I were there to celebrate it with them. BUT to me (and to my family) they are our family, regardless of the details on how it all came about. My brother has been dead for 6 years, Nicole and Lou are in love and Lou is an amazing father to my niece. What more do you need? I couldn't be happier for them and I am thrilled that we were able to be there to celebrate such a happy moment with them.
Work:
Blah! KIDDING. Sort of. Work is crazy. I'm exhausted. I know how lucky I am to have a great job and as crazy and hairy as it is on most days, I enjoy it. I also enjoy my co-workers which makes it so much easier to deal with the ambiguity that so often surrounds me everyday. We are in the middle of our busy time so let's just say that the vacation I mentioned above couldn't have come at a better time. The next 'vacation' I will get from work is when this baby is born!
House Remodel:
Somehow we thought it was a good idea to start remodeling parts of the house in the midst of the pregnancy. Naturally it all started with the need to convert our office into the nursery but instead of cleaning the carpets and slapping some fresh paint on the walls, we decided that we would gut the entire room (floors, baseboards, door trim, window trim, etc) and start fresh. Go big or go home right? Apparently that wasn't quite big enough so we also decided that if we were going to replace the floors and baseboards in the babies room then we should do the same thing in our bedroom and the family room so they all match. Now if you are going to rip out the floors then it would be stupid not to paint while you're at it and if you're going to replace baseboards in 3 of the main areas of the downstairs then you also have to replace the baseboards in the connecting hallway, adjoining bathroom and laundry room. AND if you're going to all that trouble and already have barren rooms, then you might as well do a little upgrading and do all new window and door casings and add a touch of wainscoting right? RIGHT?!? This IS the natural progression of a home remodel right?? Well apparently it is in my house. I just thank goodness that the layout of my house allows for a logical stopping point in the floorplan so the madness ends somewhere and I'm not living in construction dust for the next 2 years! We (just Brett) have started on the babies room and are kicking ass so far. I feel like we (him again) just started and he's almost done! I can't wait to see the finished room and to start on the other rooms! Let's just hope that he can keep up this momentum through the rest of the project! My goal is to have everything 100% complete by June 1st. I do not want to deal with a construction disaster in the middle of a hot summer while 9 months pregnant! No thank you!
Baby:
She is doing great! We had our 20 week ultrasound before we left for Cancun and our 45 minute appointment turned into 2 hours. The tech wasn't able to get all of the necessary measurements because the baby was bouncing off the walls! By the end of the appointment, I had peed at least twice and my back was killing me from lying on the table for so long but we walked away with a ton of new pictures and it felt good to spend so much time watching her move around in there. I had started feeling her move about a week before the appointment and to see her kick and wave so much was awesome. Since then, I can feel her moving almost constantly and I am starting to know when she is most active. I officially look pregnant instead of like I need to cut back on the beer and ice cream, although I should definitely cut back on the ice cream I'm eating, and I've noticed that my once cavernous belly button is filling in and and it might be an outie before I know it. Overall I've only gained about 5lbs which is great but my sudden need to have dessert every night might increase that significantly if I'm not careful. As much as I should tell Brett to stop surprising me with It's It ice cream sandwiches, I just don't think I can do it yet. They're just so damn good!
