The latest...

If Tim were home right now, I'd have him take another baby belly picture, since I may not have my belly much longer! Aahhh! It's scary to think about. We're less than three weeks from the due date, and baby can come at any time as far as the doctor is concerned. She gave me permission to resume normal activities at 35 weeks and now we're at 37 weeks. Now when baby comes it will be considered full term. Hooray! Let's just all pray that baby hangs around inside of me until December 1 for a number of reasons!

1. Tim and I want to go to Yuma for Thanksgiving with his sister and her family. He has another sister who is going to be there for the holiday as well, so it sounds like a super-fun time and we hate missing super-fun times!

2. Tim and I want to attend his niece's baptism on Saturday - also in Yuma!

3. Benefits at work don't kick in unless baby stays in until December 1. We need benefits!

Based on the exam at my doctor appointment today I am dilated to 3 cm and 50% effaced. Lots of people have been skeptical Squirt is going to hang out until December 1. But we've been having little heart-to-heart talks, Squirt and I, and I've been telling him/her that he/she just needs to wait a little longer to make his/her debut for a lot of good reasons. I'm not 100% sure he/she has been listening, but there hasn't been any back-talking. That's a good sign, right?

Baby update and a rug.

So the baby news is that there is no baby news! Which is a good thing at 34 weeks. I went to my doctor appointment last Tuesday and my doctor was quite pleased that I am still pregnant. So am I. (Mostly. But it's starting to be quite uncomfortable to be pregnant, so it's good I'm close to the end!)The doc was also quite pleased that I'm still only dilated to 1.5 cm and thought she was being quite generous by telling me I'm allowed to do light stuff around the house like cooking dinner and making short trips to the grocery store. Still no vacuuming or sweeping and mopping though. Sorry Tim! Anyway, I'm thinking that if that is all she is allowing me to do, she and the PA I saw last Thursday (who said I can go back to work if I take it easy) haven't really gotten together to compare notes, etc. about my "condition" and what I'm allowed or not allowed to do. So I didn't mention to my doctor that I'm back at work this week, and she didn't tell me I can't go to work and we're both happy. What she doesn't know, won't hurt her and I haven't gone into labor yet from being at work, so I think I'm okay.

On a different note, here are a few pictures of the area rug Tim and I bought a few weeks ago, for a screaming deal!





A couple of things:

1. I know they are practically the same photo. The photos from the other angles don't show the rug as well though.

2. I probably should have tidied up a bit before taking these pictures to post to my blog, but I had just done so the previous day and I was too annoyed at how the hot chocolate table had exploded overnight to tidy up again. And besides, I'm supposed to be "taking it easy"!

3. I also know the rug doesn't so much match the furniture, which I am really okay with for a number of reasons: I want new furniture anyway; in order to prolong the life of the current furniture, before we obtain said new furniture, we're going to get a new slip cover for the Ikea couch, and Project! We're going to refinish the hot chocolate table! I'm making Tim wait to start that project until after I'm done being pregnant so I can participate! Oh the possibilites this new rug has opened up in our lives! It's ridiculous how excited it makes me!

I don't know where to begin...

So I suppose I'll begin with an update on the baby status. I went to the doctor on Thursday and I'm not any more dilated than I was over a week ago, so they said I can go back to work as long as I take it easy. "Modified bed rest" if you will. Whatever! Hopefully they don't change their minds when I go in again on Tuesday. I suppose when I go to work on Monday I'll just have to make sure to scan plenty of stuff that I can work on from home the rest of the week if need be.

Now on to Halloween...

Once again we had zero Trick-or-Treaters. I fell asleep on the couch at 9:00 p.m. while Tim was experimenting with the surround sound speaker locations, and Tim didn't feel like waking me up when he finished at 9:30ish so we could go have Blizzards like we planned. That was pretty sad. But, Tim did carve our first Jack-O-Lantern of our married lives! Here are some pictures of his handiwork.
He's got some serious skills, huh? Oh, wait... That was a picture of Howie standing right in the way when I was trying to get a photo of Jack.

Here's Jack.


Such a good-looking pumpkin, but still not enough to woo the Trick-or-Treaters to our house.

This last week has been a cool one for this time of year in the Valley of the Sun. The temperatures have only been up into the seventies during the day and have dipped down into the fifties at night. Tim and I finally had to put a blanket on the bed for the first time since March or April. While the cooler weather has made Howie somewhat more frisky than he is in the summer months, I don't think he particularly enjoys the cool mornings and evenings. One day this past week I emptied the warm clothes from the dryer onto the bed and walked away for a minute, and when I came back, this is what I found.


He's nuts! And I sure like it!