Off Topic

Well, no big "topics" are coming to mind so I thought that in the interest of trying to post somewhat regularly, I'd just put out a good old fashioned update...

First of all, this week has gotten off to a pretty great start. Yesterday, my wonderful husband came home a couple hours early to stay with JD while I went to the Y for a prenatal yoga class. Yessss! (The Y does have childcare, but so far JD has not been too fond of being left. ) Unfortunately, when I got there (in what I thought was "just in the nick of time!") the door to the studio was locked and several other ladies were sitting outside waiting on the instructor. After about 15 minutes, someone came up to unlock the door and told us the class had already begun and that the door was unintentionally locked. So we all went in. It was nice and relaxing but also kind of a bummer to miss 15 mins of a 45 minute class.  Oh well, I wasn't complaining. After the Y, I stopped by the library and leisurely picked out a couple books -something that I have not done in quite awhile. A novel by Isabelle Allende and a biography about Christopher Columbus. Have been lacking a good downtime book and without a functioning tv, books are really a must. Facebook and online tv can only fill so much of an evening... So, a great afternoon. I came home to find that Daddy and JD had been on an adventure to a little old fashioned drugstore nearby to get ice cream and then came home and washed the car. Nice. We ate a cool summery dinner of Greek Quinoa Salad with Spinach and Avocados. Yummy!

Today was just as fabulous. This morning I did laundry (which reminds me I still need to get it out of the dryer and fold it...) while sipping my half decaf coffee and playing with JD. We were just hanging out waiting for an electrician to come fix the lights in our bathroom and laundry room. (And as a side note, after owning two houses and neither Jonathan nor I being very handy, well it's been nice to just be renting for now. We have a great landlady and when something breaks or needs attention, we tell her and she sends someone out right away. A nice handyman shows up at our doorstep, fixes our problem and goes away sending the bill to our landlady. It's quite nice, actually.) After the lovely fix-it man left, we ate lunch and then JD took a nice long nap, made extra nice by the fact that he has not been able to nap due to a slight sickness/fever the last 3 out of 4 days - not cool. Anyway, I always consider it a great nap when I have time to workout with my good friend Jillian (Michaels, that is), spend some quality time with God, and take a shower and dry my hair. When JD got up, I was able to sit back and enjoy watching Dora with him, then we went and did some fun errands (yes, I consider Target and Buy Buy Baby fun these days...) and ended the night at ChickFilA (JD's new favorite hangout which I am trying to limit to a once every other week maximum!) since Jonathan had a late meeting and won't be home til later.

Bath time was followed by a lengthy and peaceful story time (as opposed to the kind where he runs naked around his bedroom pulling out toys, resisting the donning of pjs, climbing on top of his toy box, throwing all his books onto the floor under the guise of "choosing one", smearing the Vaseline, etc...). That's my week so far. Nothing too exciting. But very good nonetheless.

And in other random news...

1. I had a fabulous baby shower last Saturday thrown by three of my best friends here in Austin. The whole thing from the invitations to decorations to food to non-cheesy games was exactly my taste! I left feeling very blessed to be raising my kiddos in such a loving community of friends where I know there are several families we could call on at any given moment for support!

Jayme, Ashly (hostess), Alissa, and me (blaming my extra large look on the pattern of that dress!)

2. As a challenge to myself, I have committed to using a good chunk of JD's nap time each day to spend quality time with God. Reading the Word, praying for specific things and doing my best to just listen (not my strongest ability when it comes to my relationship with God). Since today is May 1, I decided to commit to this for the month of May. Gulp. This is a big commitment for me, b/c I am a "doer" and honestly when I am spending time with God, I don't really feel like I am getting anything "done." I would rather use the time to workout, prep dinner, pay bills, write emails, blog, clean the house, fold laundry without "help", tackle a project, etc. But, in my heart, I know that this is so much more important and will be more rewarding than any of those things. I've heard it takes 21 days to form a habit, so I'm hoping that 31 will really seal it! And once June hits, all schedule and routine may be out the window for awhile so I think I'd better try this now. 

3. Pregnancy is moving along nicely. Emily Claire is certainly making her presence known these days - right now she has the hiccups. I have a nurse visit on Friday morning, and then two weeks after that I start going in for my weekly checkups. This pregnancy has gone by way faster than JD's did and I keep having to remind myself that this time next month, I'll be in the final few days!! My doctor and all the nurses have seemed pretty supportive of my desire to do a VBAC (or "Back to the V" as Jonathan calls it), which I am thankful for. God has answered my prayers for peace about going this route in some very specific ways so as crazy as it sounds, I am actually looking forward to (hopefully) being able to deliver vaginally this time. Not even worried about the dreaded uterine rupture (or "uterus explosion" as Jonathan so reassuringly calls it - yeah, he really needs to stop with the lingo). Sorry if that is too much information, but I'm guessing most of my readers are ladies. =) And what lady doesn't love to talk about pregnancy, childbirth and child rearing?

And now, I am off to fold that last load of laundry, eat some ice cream, and watch last night's episode of Dancing With the Stars online. Not necessarily in that order.