friday, august 30 entry well this is it – my last entry before our journey home for the holiday weekend. i am working only until 11AM today. it feels like forever since i’ve been here since before 7AM, but as soon as 11AM hits, i am out of here! i got keith and myself packed last night, except for last minute items – i.e., toothbrushes, deodorant, etc. we are ready to roll as soon as he gets home at noon(ish). i am hoping that we will make good time, but i have to admit that i know my bladder very well, which means that i know my limitations – i’ve been utilizing the restroom at least once an hour all week at work. we will see how goes it on the road. at least owen has moved off of my bladder. last week he was directly on it, and would kick or hit it, and i would sprint to the bathroom. it was awful. but he has shifted – i swear it’s down, although my doctor said it isn’t time for him to drop for another three weeks or so. i don’t think he has dropped all the way, but i do know that he is lower – my ‘shelf’ is gone, where i could rest bowls or glasses. monday will begin week 34 of our pregnancy. that means only 6 more weeks until EDD! and only another 2 weeks until we’re out of the red zone. he will be completely cooked at 36 weeks. and then out! out! out! i haven’t actually given that much thought to the labor and delivery yet. i am anticipating pain, but this being my first pregnancy, i don’t exactly understand how much pain. i am more excited than nervous or scared. that will probably change when the contractions start coming. i did ask my doctor about going past my due date – she said she only lets patients go 10 days over. i told her that i didn’t want to go that long, because i didn’t want to have owen on halloween. she said okay, we won’t go over the 28th. so hell or high water, he’ll be here by the 29th of october. no fears of a november baby for us! it’s nice to have an ending date for it all, even though he may come before then. i went for my haircut yesterday. that stylist, she really went to town. i wasn’t anticipating losing so much hair. but really, it’s a nice change. definitely older, more mommy-ish. and easier to fix. the jury is still out on how much keith likes it – he’s the gentle kind of husband who wants me to think that i always look beautiful to him. so he doesn’t really give me a direct answer when i say, “does this look bad?” or “do i look like a man in this haircut?” i think it looks fine, just a shock when i put on my glasses and saw how much she had cut. anyway, it will be totally grown out in two weeks, thanks to my prenatal vitamins. i have become a chocolate milk person. lately that seems to be the only thing i want to drink! i am forcing down the water, but i love my chocolate milk (not the stir-in chocolate kind, but the thick stuff)! i am keeping it to a minimum, one glass when i get home from work as a snack to tide me over until dinner. i haven’t craved that before, but i am now entering the chocolate milk stage of my pregnancy. i am doing well with my cravings – nothing too strange yet. i still have an aversion to seafood of any sort, and i could eat ice cream for every meal of the day, but that’s about it. oh wait, i’m still on kind of a hotdog thing. and now i’m signing off until next week! in the meanwhile, i will be appearing live and in person in bentonville, arkansas. wednesday, august 28 entry it's official, i have that exhausted pregnant woman look. i don't even think i look like myself anymore. i am all puffy. my skin looks bad, my hair is a disgrace, and i am so full of fluid that every little bump or nudge leaves a mark on my skin. i am pretty much grossed out by myself. i hope my haircut tomorrow will do something for me. like a miracle. i went shopping today. i decided that since keith wasn't going to be home, i would treat myself to a trip to the mall. bad mistake. about an hour into it, i was hurting so bad that i had a mini break-down in dillards. i thought i wouldn't make it to the car. anytime i'm on my feet for more than a half hour or so anymore, i start getting back contractions. no more malls for me for a while, at least, not without keith there to carry bags and help me to the car. i have become so feeble. i have said it before, and i will say it again, after 36 weeks, the eviction notice is in the mail to owen. keith put together owen's swing and his exer-saucer. i can't believe how much room they take up. our house is no longer our own! baby stuff is taking over. it's exciting, though; it looks like progress! i am refraining from wheeling the bassinet into our bedroom - it's a little early yet. but we're out of room in his nursery. so it won't be much longer until we move it out of necessity. i think the coolest thing to happen lately is that i've come home twice to packages on our front porch addressed to owen foster. that is so exciting! keith's grandma ross hand-made a terrific and intricate quilt for owen, and sent him a stuffed lamb that is currently residing in the crib until owen arrives. and keith's grandpa foster and gloria sent owen three of the cutest outfits, two blankets, a "daddy's boy" bib set, and lullaby cd's. i love everything owen has received! big thanks to all the grandparents! owen is going to have a big family. if i remember correctly, when i was born, i had only one great-grandpa. owen has three, plus five great-grandmas, three grandmas, a grandpa, two uncles, an aunt, and a billion other extended family members who feel much closer than extended. what a lucky, loved little guy he is already! all the more incentive for him to come on out! tuesday, august 27 entry could it be that we have picked a middle name for owen? i offered keith a list of names as my final gesture for peace, and he "kind of" likes one of them! now this is progress! i am really pushing him to make a decision, because we are getting close to d-day. as soon as he decides, we will make it official and announce owen's name to the world. how exciting. it will be the grand unveiling. sometime in the next three weeks, we need to pack our hospital bags. they are supposed to be packed by 36 weeks. we haven't had our childbirthing classes yet, so i'm not exactly sure what needs to be packed, but i have a general idea. i need to buy a gown somewhere, and maybe a robe to wear around the hospital. oh, and slippers! i need to buy some slippers. i need to pack a bag of owen's things, too. we already have his homecoming outfit, so that much is done. yesterday we picked up our car from the mechanic. i think it will pass the emissions test now. we'll find out this afternoon when i take it back. it wasn't too terribly expensive. and, because we only had one car until 5PM, keith couldn't get to the studio. this worked out well for me, because i got an evening at home with the husband! we cleaned out the garage. actually, we just rearranged the boxes to make room for a car. during the course of the cleaning, i managed to get six bug bites and a wasp sting. i don't understand. why me? keith said maybe the bugs were thirsty, and by biting me, they get a nice drink, seeing as how i am swollen up like a water balloon. i am getting a haircut thursday. it is amazing how fast my hair grows since i've been on the prenatal vitamin. i want to get it cut and looking good for our big trip home to see everyone! sunday, august 25 entry a shout-out to kyle for designing the new tennessee logo above. thanks, bub! keith was home yesterday, and we finished some much-needed errand-running, including finally adding him to our bank account here. we had to wait on that until he got his tennessee driver's license. i have to wait one more week to order checks, and then hopefully the bank account mess will be straightened out. now if we could only get his car tagged, we'd be in business. speaking of which, i must retract my earlier statements toward the state of tennessee. upon further evaluation of the code given to us at the emissions test, it seems that the circuit that is causing the engine light to stay on is the one that regulates the flow of gas fumes out of the car. if it isn't working properly, when you remove the gas tank lid, the fumes will come out. i don't know why no one in florida or bentonville was able to tell us this when we took the car to them, but the mechanic here verified it quickly and will have it fixed by monday evening. my apologies to the good state of tennessee. yesterday keith woke up with the idea in his head of the shoney's breakfast bar. i have been to shoney's only a few times in my life, and was never much impressed, but he has been wanting to go since we moved here only minutes from the town's shoney's. so we got around and went. it wasn't that bad. but i saw keith eat more food than i have ever seen in my life. five plates of food. FIVE. i didn't think it was humanly possible. five heaping plates of biscuits, gravy, eggs, sausage, bacon, chicken strips, french toast sticks, sponge cake, fruit, grits, hash browns... i was sick just watching him! i guess he got shoney's out of his system. we also spent a couple of hours yesterday going through baby name books and discussing middle names for owen. much to my surprise (note the sarcasm), we didn't find anything that we agreed on. let me rephrase that - keith hated every name. i'm not sure what he is looking for, but every name i like, he hates. so the search continues. this week will hopefully pass quickly because of our trip home next weekend. it is always nice to have something to look forward to. we will be leaving here on friday around 1PM. we should get into bentonville around 9PM, if we make good time. keith hasn't been home since christmas, so he is really looking forward to it. friday, august 23 entry is it friday already? where has the week gone? i haven’t done much updating this week. i can’t really say that i’ve been busy, just not much going on, i guess. yesterday was my biweekly ob check-up. keith got to come with me, which i always enjoy. i don’t think he understands why i enjoy it, but i think it’s a nice thing for him to do. yesterday’s appointment was much better than the last one (i.e. the 10-pound weight gain thing). i have only gained 2 pounds in the last two weeks, and the doctor thinks (and i tend to agree) that’s the fluid sitting in my feet. no kidding, they are huge marshmallows. i should take a picture. about the only shoes that fit are flip-flops, and even then the straps leave indentations on my feet, like pressing something into silly putty. it’s kind of gross. at least it doesn’t hurt. my blood pressure was 120/80, which is perfectly normal. because i was having some mild contractions on wednesday, my doctor went ahead and did a cervical exam (my first "official" one). no dilation at all, and she was able to feel the baby’s head, which means that he is, in fact, turned correctly. i really thought he was breech, with the movements i was feeling, but she said, “oh, i feel a little head,” so there you go. after our trip to the doctor’s office, we went upstairs to the birthing wing and registered for our childbirth class and our breastfeeding class. we are taking a two-day childbirth course instead of the 6-week, one night a week one. keith is going to take the last weekend in september off from the studio, and we are going to learn all we need to know about childbirth. at least, all you can learn without actually doing it. the breastfeeding class is only one evening in early october. we also hit target on the way home to finish up with the baby registering. i had registered online with babies-r-us because i figured i couldn’t find some of the big stuff we needed at target or wal-mart, but target had some really nice things. they had a super nice pack-n-play, and a stroller/carseat combo, both of which i couldn’t find at wal-mart. who needs babies-r-us when there’s a target nearby! i was impressed. so that is done. we are officially registered. i guess that’s been the extent of the fun this week. we were in bed last night by 9PM, after staying up until midnight or 1AM all week. with keith home, i can sleep! poor keith is so exhausted. his eyes were all red and puffy yesterday, and he kept dozing at the doctor’s office. so he took a nap yesterday afternoon, and slept a good 8 hours last night, and he can sleep in tomorrow morning, too! tonight we are taking the ford to the mechanic, tomorrow we are going to the bank, and that is it! we are going to stay home and play with the dogs and rest. i love the weekends. tuesday, august 20 entry this shower talk has me in dithers! everyone asking what owen needs - i think the best way is for me to just register. i have registered online with babies'r'us for the bigger things that wal-mart or target won't carry - i.e. the stroller, carseat, etc. to see our online registration, go to the babies'r'us webpage, and enter our registration number, which is 73052161. or you can search by my or keith's name. outside of the few items on the online registry, i am going to register at wal-mart and target. i believe that folks all over the country can access those registries even if i do the actual registering here in tennessee. sounds a little gift-hungry to post this info, i know, but i've had a lot of questions, and this is the best way i know to get the information out there. any more questions, let me know. other than that, i am looking so forward to coming home to see the family and my friends. it's fun to be with people who are as excited about owen as i am! tuesday, august 20 entry talk about your tuesday blues. could i be any more exhausted (that was my chandler impression, by the way)? it is yucky and rainy and muggy here, and i am so tired! and it is only tuesday. i feel like all of my internal organs are being smashed into oblivion. every now and then, i just get that "get this baby out of me" feeling. today is one of those days. i think all of my internal wires are crossed because of owen's co-habitation. nothing really works right anymore. for instance, when i sneeze, my heart hurts. what's that about? and yawning makes me nauseated. my feet have offically swollen out of my shoes - yes, it's true, i can't get them back on - and it's only 1PM. i lost count at four trips to the bathroom this morning, and i had only been at work for three hours! ACK! i still have eight more weeks! and with that out of my system, i feel infinitely better. it's just that pregnant women are supposed to be able to complain and moan and groan, but with keith always gone, i have no outlet. so there is it. and i've also decided that it's all worth it, and a hundred times more. it would have been worth it if i had morning sickness for the entire 40 weeks, and had gained 100 pounds and all my hair had fallen out. it would still be worth it. so there's the upside. i guess owen weighs about four pounds right now. i can't believe with the monstrosity of my stomach that he still will gain another three or four pounds! my friends at work informed me today, as keith did two nights ago, that i am "sticking out" farther now. not bigger, but rounder. so he's definitely doing his thing in there. i am just so over the pregnant part, and ready to meet him and kiss him and hold him. changing subjects, i guess keith will get a few nights off this week from the studio. he had to give up his day off last saturday, so as a reward, he gets thursday and friday evening off (we'll see). that means he gets to go to my check-up with me on thursday. i know he loves those. and then friday night we will take the escort to the mechanic to get the stupid engine light fixed so we can tag the car. that makes me angry. anyway, i hope to get to bed before midnight on those nights, since he will be there. i stayed up and waited on him last night, and it was midnight easy before he got home (he was in on a session). after last week's near-death experience, i have decided against turning off lights or sleeping until he comes home. we will see how long i can last! sunday, august 18 entry good sunday morning to you. i always kind of start to get sad on sundays, because it means i have to work tomorrow. i am so against working right now. i am convinced i should be at home cleaning or washing baby clothes or just resting. something wifey or motherly. but no, off to the grind every monday morning. i have had plenty of time to rest and clean this weekend, though. keith called friday night from the studio, and apparently they needed him this weekend, so he had to go in saturday after all, and he is there all day today. i swear, every other intern there is a waste of flesh. yesterday one other intern came in for a few hours, left by 3PM, and didn't even get her stuff done that she was supposed to do. so keith was there from 8AM to after 10PM, and he is pulling the same today. i was super disappointed that he wasn't around yesterday, but what can you do? around 6:30PM, he called and asked if i wanted to come out to the studio. they have a lounge area with tons of movies and snacks and stuff, and so i picked up some fast food and went out. it took a while to get there, but we ate together and watched television for a couple of hours. then when the guy who was recording was finished, we locked up and came home. a lot of keith's time there is down time, where someone is recording, and he just has to wait for them to finish. the same people are back today, and say they are going to finish early - we'll see. tomorrow starts week 32. all of my books say that because my organs are so cramped, i will be short of breath. and how! i feel like i'm gasping for air half the day when i'm just sitting down! every now and then i just can't catch my breath - i don't know if it's a foot in the lungs or what, but i feel like i've been running uphill! i have my 32-week ob appointment this thursday. i wish the doctor would tell me if she thinks baby owen is breech or positioned head-down. i have a sneaky suspicion that he is breech, because i have so much more movement down low - feels like little feet kicking around! but he still has plenty of time to turn, even though it will be harder on him now that he is so squished. if i remember, i will ask the doctor about that on thursday. i guess it is official, keith and i are going home over the labor day weekend. we will get into bentonville on friday evening and leave monday afternoon sometime. and it looks like i may be having a baby shower while i'm there! i can't wait for that! getting things for owen is my favorite thing to do. so that should be a lot of fun. otherwise, i'm just hoping that keith will get some rest. i mentioned bringing my swimsuit and using my parent's pool while i was there, but my brother about laughed me off the phone. after seeing me a few weeks ago, he thinks i won't be able to fit into my swimsuit. i hate to admit it, but he's probably right. i haven't worn it since may, when i was at 18 weeks - and it was kind of snug then! friday, august 16 entry yesterday when keith finished at ups, we spend the rest of the day getting cars tagged and getting his tennessee license. what a drag. it took many hours, but it is almost done! tennessee has the most ridiculous emissions test that your vehicle has to pass before you can get your tags. my car passed with flying colors, even though it is older. keith’s car, sadly, failed. any car newer than 1994 is hooked up to a computer that checks all of the circuits and wires, etc. keith’s car has a “service engine soon” light that stays on, and has for a year now. we’ve had it checked out at a couple of different mechanics, and it’s nothing – but his car failed because of that light. so we have to have it fixed (even though there’s nothing wrong) before we can tag his car. and of course, his tags expire this month. so that was aggravating. i don’t understand what that little light in the dashboard has to do with emissions – the car isn’t emitting anything! but my car is tagged now, and we both have our tennessee licenses, so at least that is finished. moving is such a hassle. we now have three checking accounts in three states, with money going into each of them. what a pain. because of the whole tag/license thing, keith was off from the studio yesterday, and was home last evening. i was excited. i am slowly realizing that i can’t handle another two months of staying at home by myself. i want my marriage back! plus i am scared being at home by myself at night. i know it is unreasonable – we live in smyrna, which might as well be mayberry, for crying out loud, in the middle of tons of neighbors with tons of barking dogs and several deadbolts between me and the outside world, not to mention the two guard dogs that i live with, and the gun in my underwear drawer (no bullets in the house, don’t worry, but the bad guys don’t know that). but i hate it. we had an “incident” wednesday night – without going into detail, let me just say that it landed me at keith’s studio at midnight with gun and phone in hand, no shoes or purse, nothing, just me in hysterics because somebody was trying to get into the house. whether someone actually was or not is still a mystery – the dogs and i say yes, keith says no. easy to say no in the daylight! there is no evidence either way, to show that a person was there, or that it was a door banging or a chair falling over. all i know is that i thought i was going to die in that house! all rational thought says it was nothing, but i’ve been alone by myself a lot in the past year or so, and i have investigated a lot of noises that i thought were potential murderers or burglars, that have turned out to be nothing. but i have never heard noise like i did wednesday night. anyway - all that to say that i don’t want to stay home alone anymore. but we all already knew that, didn’t we? keith is off again tomorrow. we have to run stinking errands, to the bank and to wal-mart, etc. then tomorrow night we are going to a church service at a big baptist church here in town. supposedly it is a very charismatic sort of baptist church, we will see. we figured we better go on saturday night, because keith is scheduled at the studio on sundays for a while. hopefully he can get that straightened out. no new developments with owen, except that monday will begin week 32. we are back to the playing the name game. we try to forget about it for a little while, then go back with a fresh start, but we’re still at a loss. the last few days it has been raining here. that is great news, considering that my poor little lawn and bushes were dying of thirst. it is keeping the heat down, too. tuesday, august 13 entry i have added the 30-week belly shots. i have kind of a funky neck thing going on in one of them. i have also added a page of pictures showing owen's homecoming outfit. click here to see. monday, august 12 entry what a nice weekend. a lot of time for snoozing and relaxing. saturday keith was home for the whole day, so we slept in until almost 10AM. then we got around and went to the mall to buy him some clothes. he found some good sales, and was actually able to find some clothes... he is so picky, especially about pants. but he found four pair of shorts and several shirts. we also bought owen a few things at a sale at the children's place. and we got his homecoming outfit! i have been looking for something just right to bring him home in, something soft and small and good for taking pictures. i found a cute little classic pooh gown at dillard's, but keith found a little blue sleeper outfit that he liked better. it is a very light blue with a green embroidered dog on it. it came with a matching blanket, bib, and beret. i have never seen a baby beret before. i don't know if we will make owen wear the beret, but the rest of the outfit is really cute. i have taken pictures of it, and i will try to upload them tonight. i also took a 30-week belly shot. i tried to upload all of the pictures yesterday, but the angelfire server was down. so tonight it is. back to our weekend recap - after the mall, we watched a dvd that keith brought home from the studio. sunday he had to be at the studio at 8AM, and didn't get home until after 10PM, so i cleaned a lot of the house, and took a nap, and read a book. basically rested. i sleep a lot nowadays! i got up yesterday at 9AM, went down for a nap around 2PM, got up at 5PM, and was back in bed by 11PM! i'm a sleepyhead. when keith finally got home last night, i had a nice surprise waiting for him - our kitchen sink backed up while i was cooking dinner, and when i turned the garbage disposal on, dirty water and onion parts flew all over the kitchen. i cleaned most of it up, but it was leaking underneath and he had to drain it into a bucket. i am going to wal-mart tonight to buy a plunger, a drain snake, and some drano. i get the impression that somehow whatever is wrong with the sink is my fault. could it be the entire head of celery that i shoved down the garbage disposal? perhaps i should be more careful. i will remember the image of keith draining the sink and muttering under his breath at 11PM, and that will encourage me to not shove so much stuff down the disposal. i think i even put paper stuff down there sometimes. don't tell keith, though. i have learned my lesson. looks like 69 days left until owen is due, and counting! i can't believe it. yesterday while i was messing around on the computer, owen started doing the bunny hop or something, and my stomach was bouncing all around. i had to pull up my shirt to watch, it was so funny. sometimes i think he has trouble getting comfortable. you know how sometimes you flop around in bed side to side, tossing and turning and punching your pillow until you get comfy? i think owen does that sometimes. he rolls and turns and finally settles down. but man, did he put on a show for me yesterday! friday, august 09 entry yesterday was my 30-week ob appointment. it went just fine. my blood pressure was up slightly, but still within a normal range. since my last appointment two weeks ago, i have gained almost ten pounds. i about fell off the scale when the nurse told me that, but my doctor assured me it was perfectly normal at this stage in the game. still, that is really packing them on! i am at a 30-pound weight gain total. i can’t tell that i have gained extra weight anywhere except my thunder thighs. i think the rest of it is just baby, but my legs are really looking bad. my doctor told me that some of that could be water weight, because my feet and ankles were really swollen. let’s hope so! i also had a non-stress test. i was strapped to all the monitors to watch the baby’s movements and heartbeat. i was hooked up for about thirty minutes while the nurse watched the monitors. his heartbeat was strong, and he had plenty of movement. at one point he rolled completely from my right side to as far left as he could get when she was poking on him. i guess he was getting mad. his heartbeat was playing on the monitor, and then i heard another sound, thump-thump, louder than his heartbeat, and not as often. the nurse felt my belly and said he had the hiccups. and boy did he ever! he hiccuped for about twenty minutes, loud as can be! every few seconds on top of his heartbeat we heard a big hiccup! it was funny. i have never heard him hiccup before. i have felt it, but not heard it. poor guy, he had the worst case of them, too. keith has the day off tomorrow. i don’t know what got into the studio manager, but he scheduled him to have an entire saturday off. first on the agenda is sleeping in. then i am going to drag him to the mall. he needs some new clothes. he had a little accident the other day, and ruined everything he owns. he put a load of his own clothes into the washer, all of his work clothes and all of his good clothes, because everything he had was dirty. when he took everything out the dryer, he found that he had left an inkpen in the pocket of one of his shorts! everything is ruined. all of his t-shirts, his jean shorts, all of his khaki shorts, several of his collar shirts. he was so mad. i was just glad it wasn’t me who had done that load! so we are off to the mall tomorrow to get him some new things. and by new things, i mean a whole new wardrobe! keith got up this morning and fixed pancakes. i couldn’t believe it! we are usually lucky to have time to scarf down a bowl of cereal. we both get up at 5:25AM every morning, because we leave the house at 6:30AM sharp. so he must have felt chipper this morning, and he made wonderful pancakes. that should hold me for a few hours! i have been more hungry this week than ever, and more exhausted. i think the baby had/is having another growth spurt, because his movement has decreased, and my exhaustion has increased – not to mention that my stomach grew over the weekend. when i came to work monday, a few ladies were like, “what happened to you?!” apparently i expanded. i feel stretched to the limit, that’s for sure! i have had a really easy pregnancy so far, and i really have enjoyed it, but i am ready for it to be over. i had the worst leg cramp ever this morning, i couldn’t get rid of it. i woke keith up hopping around the room and hollering. i hate those things! wednesday, august 07 entry yesterday was our 3-year anniversary! i had no idea what we were going to do, but keith told me that “he had plans.” so all i had to do was be ready to go at 6PM. so i was, and he took me downtown to a restaurant called the melting pot. it was a fondue restaurant. i don’t think that i have ever had fondue in my life! but we got the house special, which is a four-course fondue meal. it started with cheddar fondue with four types of bread, carrots, celery, cauliflower and granny smith apples for dipping. then we had salads, then the main course. the main course was chunks of filet mignon, teriyaki steak, pork, chicken, sausage, and shrimp, and we cooked them ourselves with a fondue pot of vegetable bouillon. we also had broccoli, squash, mushrooms, and new potatoes. it was so good! we had six dipping sauces for everything. after that was the dessert course, and we had a fondue of chocolate, caramel, and pecans. it was called the flaming turtle, and our waiter set it on fire. we had pineapple, strawberries, bananas, brownies, marshmallows, poundcake, and cheesecake to dip in our chocolate fondue. it was the most fun meal ever! and it was a whole evening’s worth of experience – our reservations were at 7PM, and we didn’t leave until almost 10PM! keith had planned for us to go to a movie or something afterward, but we were so full and tired by the time it was almost 10PM that we decided to just go home! i had such a nice time, i loved it. he did a great job at picking a restaurant. it was the kind of place where you can just linger and talk and eat at your own pace. i enjoyed seeing him so much. happy anniversary to us! tomorrow is my regular OB appointment. we are at 30 weeks and counting. i finally got the results back from my glucose tolerance test, and my sugar levels are just fine. i am not anemic or diabetic. that’s good news. i was wondering why in the world it took them two weeks to call me; i figured something had to be wrong, but everything is fine. i can’t believe we’re into august already. this year is almost gone! it is almost christmas time! 2002 has been flying by. hard to believe that last christmas there was two of us, and this christmas, we will have a 2-month old! sunday, august 04 entry i didn't put an official entry on the page on thursday, but august 01 was dante's fourth birthday. i can't believe he is so old! his goatee is all white now, and has been for a while. i figure he's got at least seven good years left, but i feel sad that he isn't a puppy anymore. he still acts like one, though. and gabriel's birthday is coming up - september 06 he will turn 3! our big boys! what a weekend. i can only say that i am glad the library doesn't charge admission, because i would go broke. i have been gracing their doors almost daily since keith started at the studio. i spent a while there yesterday after i did some grocery shopping. i got some crochet books, and found some gardening books (vegetables and flowers both) that i will get next time i go. i am trying to find a hobby. it may take a while. keith had to be at the studio yesterday morning at 8AM, and got home this morning around 2AM. "so lonesome, i could die... he is at the studio right now, as a matter of fact. he had to be there this morning. we didn't go to church today, because if i had gotten him up for the new church we were going to try, he would have had less than four hours of sleep. when the alarm went off, and i looked over at him, i just couldn't wake him. he looks exhausted. so i let him sleep a few hours more, and then he got up and was back to the studio. there is a live-in intern who stays in an apartment at the studio, who usually handles weekends, but he is out of town this weekend. hopefully we won't have a weekend like this again, where keith is gone the whole time, and then we can get a schedule going with church. staying home today was an exception, but one i can live with as long as i know keith isn't driving off the road on the interstate home tonight. back to work tomorrow. i swear, every week i am pregnant is a harder monday. i REALLY want to stay in bed in the mornings, and then piddle around the house, clean, organize, just do wifey things, and not be at work. but it's a necessary evil. for now. tomorrow we will start week 30. only 10 more weeks to think of a middle name for this little guy! friday, august 02 entry forgive me for not updating much lately. i used to do all of my updates at work, but my new office doesn't allow internet usage during working hours. so i have to update late at night when i come home, after laundry and dinner and etcetera. not that a lot is going on to update about - still haven't seen my husband in the daylight for quite some time. he comes in late and leaves early. but i did get to spend some time with him today. my work had a party at the opry mills mall from 4PM - 8PM. they rented some bowling lanes and had tons of food and open bar (keith and i drank virgins, thank you very much), just for hanging out. there was a bowling tournament. keith took a few hours away from the studio to come. he bowled on my boss's team! i really enjoyed spending the time with him. he has to be at the studio by 8AM tomorrow, so i will spend saturday alone, too. i decided today that i am ready for him to quit his internship. not really, i want him to do well and enjoy what he does for a living, and the internship is the means to that end. but i am really missing him something awful. even the dogs aren't filling the hole this time. i blame it (as i blame everything) on the pregnancy. it's the nesting, really. i bought owen a few more things at old navy today - a couple of summer rompers and a little t-shirt. i also went to a consignment sale at a church the other night and got two pair of tiny jeans, one from old navy and the other from the children's place. total for both was $5. what a steal. i love buying baby clothes, have i mentioned that? we finally got the carpets cleaned yesterday. they do look a bit better. keith moved some of the furniture back late last night so that i can get into the kitchen to cook, and into the laundry room to wash some clothes. i didn't realize that i could ever miss doing laundry, but i was getting desperate! i am starting to get more of a feel for owen's sleep patterns, now that he is getting so big (approximately 3 pounds!) - he seems to really wake up around 8PM each night, and have about an hour of rousing exercise time. he also starts moving around 10AM each day, but not as active as the night. i wonder if we will have a day-sleeper on our hands. we start week 30 on monday - i just can't believe he will be full-term in six weeks! after that, he's safe to come anytime, and the sooner the better. i spend so much time daydreaming about what he will look like. when we were packing to move, i found a baby picture of keith that his grandpa sent us, and i have a feeling that owen will be the spitting image of his daddy. i don't know why i feel that way, since my genes are kind of 50/50, but i just do. i can't wait to see!
