enter to win!

Rory is celebrating the 10 year anniversary of his company Swift Weather this month. It's a pretty big deal and we're excited about hitting such a landmark.

To celebrate, he has put together a month of weekly giveaways on the Weather Defender Blog. All you have to do to enter is leave a comment answering the question that pertains to the giveaway. The giveaway for this first week is awesome...and I really want it myself. But Rory told me that I can't enter because it would look bad if his wife took the loot. Point taken, but this thing is cool... and it retails at $99:

That said, I would LOVE for YOU to enter to win. It would please me to no end to see someone I know take some of these great prizes for themselves.

Just click over to The Weather Defender Blog and answer this question: Have you ever had a close encounter with Severe Weather? A winner will be picked on Sunday, so bop over now, and drop Weather Defender a line. :)

can you imagine?!!

Mom Groves just sent me an email filled with pictures of Holland in May. She said the pictures reminded her of the rainbow cake. Just look at this picture! Hello Life List...I must go here some day. I can't imagine seeing these tulips first hand.

Actually, I know that Washington grows a lot of Tulips too..and that might be more realistic than Holland and could easily be done as a trip to see my brother and his family. Hmmm...I think Rory is going to hear about this idea at lunch time.

36 weeks

Monday marked our "one month countdown" (give or take...can't make a paper chain for a due date I'll have you know.). Went to the doctor and was told, "the baby has dropped!" I have no idea when this happened, but I do know that in the last week or so I have started walking with a bit of a waddle, and I'm thinking this might be why (?!!)

We went to our birthing class that night and toured the hospital. A whole new reality came into focus and Rory and I had a really good talk about beginning to feel how this is going to change our lives forever, while still not sure what that means. But we're excited about this change and starting to actually feel a bit more mentally prepared.

We finished our baby registry at Target and Babies R Us as well that day. Let's be honest: I have no idea what I'm scanning and for what reasons. There are parents out there with spreadsheets and consumer reports...and that's great. But Rory and I operate a bit differently. Prices were either reasonable or offensive and decisions were made accordingly. Mostly we just wandered each aisle saying things like, "I like these colors together." "Okay, good, scan it."

Last night we went to my cousin Mark and Kathy's for dinner. They are our neighbors now! Just 15 blocks away and it is a dream come true. Mark made the most amazing supper for us (the lasagna had SEVEN cheeses in it and he broiled the pears for the salad!) Then I whipped out my LeSporte Sac with crayola markers from sixth grade and made Kathy draw on my belly.

Deliverance.

On Sunday we were all set to put up the crib. We've had it in the box for a while now, and Sunday was the agreed day to assemble the thing, since this project has been burning on my heart for weeks now.

But then I started to second guess the crib we got. It's adorable with a curved back, but suddenly I wasn't so sure I wanted a curved back. Maybe I wanted a flat back. You know, how would pictures look hung over a curved back. Wouldn't the lines be nicer if it were a flat back? I hemmed and hawed over such life-changing decisions aloud to Rory and he said he really didn't care. He was fine either way. I continued to lay out my case to him some more and then Rory grabbed the electric hedge trimmer and went in the backyard and took out three bushes. When I went out to check on him an hour later, he was breaking a sweat, digging the roots up with a shovel and had filled five yard bags with bush parts from all over the backyard.

I had a conversation with a Groves family friend, Joanne, at church on Sunday all about how crazy it is to live with raging hormones. I don't usually deal with such mood swings and extreme indecisiveness in my not-pregnant state, and so I am very aware of how crazy-short my fuse is, and how crazy-unpredictable my actions are in this last month of pregnancy.

Joanne told me there is a reason they call it labor and delivery.

Ah, yes, deliverance. That surely must be Rory's daily prayer: ...and deliver me from this crazy lady. For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory...

In the end, we still have the crib I like the best nicely boxed in the nursery. I missed my window to get the thing built on Sunday. But on the other hand, we also have a nicely manicured back yard. Give the boy one more month with me, and we may not have a single bush left back there.

happy weekend!

I'm spending the weekend with my high school bff, Heidi. I called her about a month ago with a dream in my heart and knew she'd be the one to jump on board. You see, Heidi is also pregnant, due with her third, and I just kept imagining us spending the day at Water Park of America, not going down the slides, but instead floating our enlarged selves down the lazy river and riding the tides in the wave pool.

So that will be us today, stuffing our pregger bodies into inner tubes, ready to float round and round and round on the lazy river.