It was a Double

Look out Martha...

You haven't met Melissa

(Or Jessica, Cat, Shellie, Elise, Dene, Stephanie, Jo, Aubrie, or Brooke)

My amazingly talented friends

who last week threw the baby shower of the year

for me and one of my best buddies

Carly

(due five weeks ahead of me).

It was a Gourmet affair

absolutely Delicious

and stunningly Beautiful

And did I mention all the laughter???

I'm one lucky girl.

Spoiled Rotten actually.

Thanks girls, from the bottom of my heart!

I love you all

It was definitely

An Affair to Remember

Post Script

Did I forget to mention that temper of mine, whose current status seems to be

"fire-at-will"?

A lovely side effect of all those previously mentioned

"temporarys."

I assure you, my family is hoping (and praying) that this too, is

just temporary.

Myself included.

Just Temporary

The pregnancy induced insanity

including but not limited to:

forgetfulness

inability to focus

poor decision making skills

and lapses in judgement

examples?

like this evening, when I opened my microwave to find a bowl of melted butter, now hardened over. the butter that should have gone into the frosting that went on the cake that we served to our company last night.

or last week, when we tried to go to the pool but had to turn around three, yes three, times to retrieve necessary items that I had forgotten. and then got to the pool only to realize I didn't have my cell phone.

That covers inability to focus and forgetfulness.

But what about poor decision making skills and lapses in judgement?

how about last week when Paul and I suddenly decided to stop at Petsmart on our way home from a date night - and decided to buy a pet, right then and there, to take home and surprise the kids? And I got my heart set on a RAT (of all things). A RAT. Until I saw that long, pink, thick, wiry tail. Then it was all over - at least for the rat. Luckily Paul came to his senses and we did not buy a pet that night - although he practically had to drag me out of the store. The next morning the first emotion I experienced upon waking was immense relief that there were no rodents scampering about in my kids bedroom.

Like I said...Temporary Insanity.

Lets hope the clumsiness is temporary too. I've had 3 bad falls in the last few weeks (the stairs, the shower, and...the laundry room? At least it hasn't happened at the gym...yet. Cross your fingers). Not to worry though - it is VERY apparent to me that this baby is alive and well.

The tiredness, laziness, and lack of motivation however might be around for more than the next 8 weeks.

Last week all we did was...

Have some fun with photo booth,

which the kids thought was absolutely hilarious,

Got my haircut

started the project of re-upholstering my glider (thanks to my girl, Elise!)

and, the highlight of the week,

got a steal of a deal on this gigantic love sac

which has provided hours of entertainment for the kids and is where you can find me most of the time. Including the middle of the night. It's back and forth between my bed and the love sac, trying to get some sleep and minimize the pain I am feeling everywhere now. That too is temporary. But in 8 weeks I get to trade it for new aches and pains : )

Is there no end in sight???

To this summer or this pregnancy?

Temporary.

They are both just temporary.

2 1/2 weeks until school starts

8 (and 1/2 if I'm honest) until my due date

Pretty much feels like no end in sight.

And yet, with as much free time as we had on our hands last week (compared to the past couple jam-packed months of summer) I did not

clean my house

or

set foot in the gym.

SIGH...

Summertime

Can you tell where we've spent most of our time the past couple of months???

Besides swimming at the pool, we've been

at the park

having playdates with friends

riding bikes

golfing (just Noah and Daddy)

playing outside

going to the free kids movies

the farmers market

and a few other things.

Like...

Strawberry Picking

and making strawberry pie,

Campfires and smores

and generally just being outside.

And being busy.

And eating yummy food.

And it wouldn't be summertime in Rochester without some memorable GNO's.

But mostly we've been swimming.

Did I mention that I'm exhausted?

It's been a great summer, full of friends food and fun.

But could school please start already?!?!

Before I keel over?!?

3 more weeks...

[And I'm out of ideas (the pool closed last week) and out of energy.]

Hope your summer has been as wonderful as ours : )

30 Weeks

Well...29 weeks and 6 days

(at least for another 6 minutes)

But who's counting???

This is the one and only belly pic I have of this pregnancy.

And Paul was making me feel dumb about taking it, hence the funny/laughing look on my face.

And as much as I hate pictures of me pregnant, it's gotta be documented.

For the sake of the kid.

Right???

But I'm thinking one's enough.

P.S. I have insomnia...and back pain, and braxton hicks contractions, and I pee every hour, and I feel like I can't breathe...and we'll just leave it at that.

You know, in case you were wondering why the 7-months pregnant lady was blogging at 11:54pm

May 17th (what - it's august you say?)

Then

(2002)

And Now

(2009)

7 years later and I've no doubt I made the best decision of my life.

I love you hon - and I wouldn't change a thing.

About 3 months ago

We really DID got to Chicago

Where we met up with our great friends from Cleveland

DJ and Jen

And proceeded to ride our bikes all over the city.

The weather was crap - for some reason it always works out that we're traveling in may, and the weather is always crap - but that didn't stop us from having an amazing time!

Neither did my plantar fasciitis.

Ok, maybe the first night, when it was raining and we went exploring on foot, armed with an umbrella. I barely made it back to the hotel room alive.

But after that we stuck to our bikes

(and a wheelchair for the Art Institute of Chicago)

Which turned out to be the best and most fun way to see the city!

(The bikes, not the wheelchair)

We covered a lot of ground:

Navy Pier

Millenium Park

Hyde Park

Lincoln Park

Buckingham Fountain

The Lakefront

Art Institute

History Museum

The Second City

Greek Town

Old Town

just to name a few...

Some other highlights?

THE FOOD (of course)

good friends

NO KIDS

time alone with Paul

and falling asleep to HGTV every night in our hotel room

Seriously one of the best trips we've ever done.

(Minus the part where I almost got hit by a bus while trying to outrun it on my bike. Just picture a pregnant lady on a big heavy orange beach cruiser pedaling her little heart out and the bus driver not seeing or not caring and you've pretty much got the picture)

Thanks for coming Harveys!

It was perfect - and wouldn't have been the same without you : )

P.S. Um yeah, I'm wearing the same thing in every picture, due to the fact that I only packed ONE jacket and ONE pair of jeans. It was supposed to be warm and sunny...