Week 30: July 28th-August 3rd. Holy cow! We're down to 10 weeks!!

Whoa. Week 30. We have 10 weeks to go. How'd that happen?

It's been a crazy week, starting with Evan's first Tee Ball GAME on Tuesday. It was quite the experience, and I'll include lots of pictures in this post. It started out with practice and then they played two innings of "ball". Believe me when I say it, but this is more than enough. Evan was easily one of the best players on the team, and I'm not exaggerating. He hit the ball the furthest out of all the kids that got up to bat, and managed to throw the ball pretty darn close to home. During the first inning in the field, the goober followed this little girl named Chloe all around the bases FLIRTING with her. Then, when she was out on the field he proceeded to PROFESS his love to her all the way across the field-- "HEY CHLOE, I LOVE YOU!!!". I wish I could have gotten that on video, but it was so unexpected.

Wednesday, of course, was Evan day. We had a picnic in the park, played on the playground for a while and then went to a program that the library put on that evening about books and bugs. We didn't get to stay for the whole thing, but we still had fun.

Friday, we attending a wedding reception for someone from the Sentinel. It was the neatest reception-- very unique, and so much like something Lindsey Annie would do- They did a nature theme, and are huge fans of the national parks. All of the tables were names of national parks, and instead of placards, they had the wooden national park emblems with our names engraved on them. Very cool. Oh-- and they had a swing band.

Saturday, we (well, mostly Greg) worked all day. We (and yes, we) refinished the new (old) sideboard, then he and dad moved it to our house and moved the old one out. Greg did some fantastic carpentry work and added shelves to the sideboard, and also repaired a drawer all by himself. I was very proud of him. I took a nap, mostly to stay out of the way, and partially because I just didn't feel well (I blame it on the refinishing fumes) and Greg then proceeded to re-assemble the millions of cords that go to our electronics. That alone took more than two hours. It was crazy. Bless him for having the patience to do it and know how to figure it out. I sure as heck can't.

Sunday and Monday, well, I'm not going to say much in specifics, but there was a lesson that I learned, and I guess I feel like I need to share more to get it out of my system than anything else. I'm sure that parties that were involved will know what I am talking about and who they are.

You learn in life that sometimes, people are nasty and just not nice in general and never will be. They will always put on a fake front and stab you in the back when your guard is down. Sometimes, those people are friends, but sometimes, they're family. I guess I should have learned that almost two years ago, but i allowed a second chance and even let my guard down, allowing this person into my thoughts, and even into my home recently. I attempted to help a family member, and I got burned. Badly. I've learned in life that it is necessary to cut ties with certain people. I had to do it with some friends a few years ago, and now, I have to do it with a family member.

After many tears and even some contractions, and feeling like I could have taken some serious financial and professional losses because of this person, I've learned the hard way that sometimes, you can't even trust family. It was a tough lesson to learn, but with the support of my immediate family, as well as a very understanding boss, I got through today, even ending it with a smile on my face.

I know that with family, some interaction will be unavoidable, but as far as I'm concerned, this person doesn't deserve my respect nor will they receive it any longer.

I pride myself on being a very trusting person, who is extremely close to family and cares and loves people deeply and whole heartedly. Greg and I had a long talk yesterday about how I maybe care a little too much. Maybe he's right, but I hope he's wrong. I hope that this experience doesn't destroy my love of people and helping them. I don't want to be jaded. I hate people who are jaded. But I think I'll be a little more cautious from now on with family and friends who ask for or are offered assistance. I think I've probably learned to distance myself more in these types of situations.

ON a brighter note, and I'm sure I've alarmed a few people with that "C" word.. Baby is fine. I do have a doctor's appointment tomorrow just to make sure I'm not dilating or anything like that. They think that it's just braxton hicks and maaaaybe a contraction caused by stress over the past couple of days based on my description of what it felt like. But he has been kicking up a storm all day today giving me heartburn like you wouldn't believe. Baby is looking less wrinkled on the outside and his brain is gaining wrinkles!! His brain also can control all breathing and sucking. Oh, and he now has finger and toe nails!

We've been watching Planet Earth, the documentary made for Blu-Ray. There are some ADORABLE polar and black bears that we have seen so far. Greg said I can adopt a bear cub, with stipulations and I quote: "For a week. And then they might kill you and that would suck. So after a week, he must go back." My search for an adopt-a-bearcub-for-a-week shall now begin. I'll keep you posted on that.

Anyway. That's about it!

-jenn & greg

Week 29: July 21-27 Opps, Somehow, I missed a week....

Hey everyone! Sorry for the long pause in between blogs! Somehow, I missed a week. Whoops! There are a TON of pictures that need to be uploaded, so those will happen over the next few days, I think.

I cannot believe that its only another week and then fair time starts here in Wood County. So much to do, so much to see, and my scrapbook is quickly getting further and further behind. I need to get into gear on that, along with several others that I haven't even started.

Things have been busy around here. We've got the kid's room (kid's! Weird!) almost completed, although I'm still trying to convince Greg that we should paint it. If that's the case, it won't be quite so complete. I need to do another coat on the multi-colored-with-poison-green-not-on-purpose-side-panels yet, and we need to move Evan's bookshelf into the living room. Other than that, we're close to done in there! Sweet! I've even got baby clothes put away! Next step, once we get the shelf put away is to bring the cradle and bassinet over. The cradle will go into the kid's room and the bassinet will go into our bedroom for the first couple of weeks, as well as on Evan's visits for the first few months.

The deck is unofficially completed! We're waiting for the watermeter to be installed so that we can powerwash the deck and sand it down. The yard is also unofficially complete. Grass seed is down, and growing in all spots except the gravel pit (a current argument between me and everyone else-- I say grass won't ever grow there-- at least not in the next 10 years, everyone else says that it will) and my flower container garden is in the landscaping around the deck, which will be ever-changing over the next year. The only other project left are the shed doors, which Rick started today!! So, we'll have that to mount and paint in the next couple of weeks, and then all major projects will be done outside.

We had our first of several planned summer parties this past weekend. My baby sister, Lindsey, and her super-excellent boyfriend, Aaaron, were here for a week-long, too short visit. We had most of my family over, including Aunt Judy, Uncle Richard, Cindy and the Peterson's over for a cookout and visiting. It was a fantastic time! I was exausted by around 10:30 and was ready to kick everyone who was left out so I could go to bed, but things didn't wrap up until 12:30. OH well. lol! Planned it just right, too-- had only 1 burger left, 2 brats and a couple hotdogs! Must have inherited that gene from my mom, eh??

We're planning on a couple more parties in the coming weeks, including inviting Greg's family over, as well as a certain 5-yr-old's birthday, which we'll probably do the last weekend in August.

We had pizza and spent the evening with Rick & Myra Saturday night. That was really nice! Then the next morning, we had breakfast with them too. It was quite a treat! Evan loves spending time with his grandparents! I wish it had been nicer out so we could have played outside some with them.

It was an extremely busy week for Evan. On Tuesday, he had swimming lessons, followed by his Karate test, and then finally, he had his FIRST EVER T-BALL PRACTICE. He loved every minute of the evening, though, despite being jam-packed with excitment and physical activities. Our little sports-star! We have lots of pictures of this, and I'll try to see if I can upload any video.

Another big deal for Evan! He earned enough baseballs to go to a MUDHEN'S GAME. He's so excited. We decided that the NEXT round, if he earns NINE balls (one for each man on the field), we'll take him to see a Tigers or Indian's game-- whichever works out better in the schedule, depending on how fast he earns them. After that, I think we'll have to move onto football-- I wonder if he'd settle for a high school football game. LOL. Somehow, I don't think we'll be able to score tickets to OSU football.

Work continues to be fantastic for me. I had my 90-day review, and I'm doing great, according to my boss. So that's good news. Greg has officially resigned from Movie Gallery! YEAH!!!!! I cannot begin to tell you how happy this makes me. Although he's going to have to be patient and understanding with the scrapbooking, so that I can get caught up! I always tried to do that before when he was at MG. Oh well. Only drawback is no more free movies. I think we're going to go the Netflix direction, though, which is fairly inexpensive. Sentinel seems to be fine for him. I think it'll be even better once he's not pulled in so many directions thanks to MG.

In baby news, this baby is a-growin! He's SO active now, and even seems to play games with me. I'll rub my tummy, and he'll move along and follow my hand sometimes. He's also started getting hiccups, which are so strange to feel! I think he might have mommy's hiccups, too-- sometimes, they're hard!! Poor kid. I'm finding that I get exausted easily. I had to take several naps this weekend just to make it through the rest of the day! Holy cow! I just realized that my next doctor's appointment is this week already. How is that possible? Seems like we just had one. Soon, we'll be doing every-other week and then weekly visits! Hard to believe, isn't it?!?

This week, we move from an eggplant (month 6) to a squash-- SEVEN MONTHS PREGNANT. Oh my god. All five senses are fully functional (taste, touch, sound, smell, sight)! and all of his organs are fully developed, though not functioning at their best. His main task now is to continue gaining body fat and growing longer. Right now, he's about 12" long and weight a little over 2 lbs. He's got his own wake-sleep cycle, which seems right now to coinside with mine, although sometimes he's thumping around in the middle of the night.

It's hard to believe that there are only 81 days left until the due date. I'm still in shock! How are we supposed to get everything done in less than 81 days?!? Yikes

Anyway! Not much else is going on!!

Love y'all!!!
-jenn

Week 27: July 7-13th Where did the weekend go?!? continued...

Alrighty, so here we go with the rest of this last week's blog. If you haven't notice, there are now THREE entries for this week-- so start below and work your way up to this one.

Saturday, work on the deck and yard continued. Greg did most of this himself.

I had a minor disaster with Evan's new bed. When I spray painted it, the wind must have kicked up a little, but the plastic sheeting that it was laying on billowed up and around the posts, sticking to it, and making a mess out of the paint job. SO, we ended up putting the bed together outside, sanding off the offending paint and re-spraying it. It turned out much better. We left it outside to dry overnight. Evan was SO excited about that silly bed. He was climbing up and down the ladder, and wanted on the bed part so bad- we had to put our foot down with that, though. I really can't remember what all we did that day. I know I ended up taking a nap when Evan did. I think I got a little overheated. OH, I know. We made another trip to Home Depot for more supplies, and I got really dizzy in the store. It's funny how things can sneak up on you when you're pregnant.

We ended up setting up Evan's tent that he got from Grandma and Papa V at Christmas this last year, and he got to have a campout Saturday night since his bed was still outside. He was thrilled.

Mom & Dad got the '66 Mustang running and brought it over. I FINALLY got to drive it! Granted, it was just around the block, but still! I got to drive it! HAHA!!!! Dad was driving in front of me a few hours later in it, and he was pulling away from me. I was surprised. The pony has some serious get-up-and-go still!!

That evening, we went to Fauver's and Sharps for a little summer party. It was a ton of fun. We figured out that it's been 20 years this summer since the Great American Western Tour with the Fauver's and Bruns'. Crazy! We spent a while reminscing about that incredible trip. My cousin, Dawn, went with us. I remember how she always said "ain't" and I think by the end of the trip, Dad broke her of saying it.. at least for a little while. LOL. If I remember correctly, she still says it. I also remember going to the four corners, the Grand Canyon (along with Laura & Lindsey's balancing act on the edge at the age of 2 or so) and the chicken pox epidemic. OH, the memories. Oh, and we can't forget the fantastic nicknames of our illustrious leaders: "Short-Cut" and "Wrong Way". I beleive it was also on this trip that we took a "3-hour tour" of the great Needles highway in a full-sized van with 12 or so people loaded in it. Oh, those were the days. I hope that one day we can torture our children on such trips.

Sunday was breakfast as usual. We set up Evan's bed when we got home, and then around noon, Greg and his dad got down to business outside. Evan was super whiney for some reason (we think he's going thru a growth spurt), so he went down for a nap. I went to Home Depot and bought 4 quarts of paint- All primary colors. We've decided to do primary colors, using the quilt that Grandma made for Evan's room as the inspiration- Yellow, Blue and green, with red and orange thrown in for good measure even though those colors aren't in the quilt. I started painting the changing table. Let me tell you-- it's loud. I think they mixed my green wrong. Instead of being a nice happy green, it's Poison Green (yes, like the music group). Seriously. So, it's VERY loud. I'm not quite sure what to do.. Do I primer it and start over or just go with it?? OH, the agony. I spent most of the afternoon working on that. Grrr.

Evan napped in his new bed-- for those of you who were worried about it, the rails are plenty high, and he LOVED it. Ground rules have been set, and we've been very clear that if he breaks the rules, the bed goes away. (God help us if he breaks the rules. i don't know what we'll end up doing with everything!

Let's see, what else. We still have a long way to go with Evan's room. But, we've started. So, that's something, right?

Speaking of beds, Guess what Greg's parents bought us as a wedding/birthday/birthday/Christmas gift?!? A new, queen-size bed. We are SO happy. It arrived on Thursday. Yeah! Thank you again for a fantastic gift.

In baby news, he moves ALL the time now. I don't think he took a break all day yesterday..... I hope that doesn't mean that he's going to be awake ALL the time. He certainly seems to have his days and nights straight, though. Let's keep our fingers crossed that the continues to sleep at night. Baby is about a foot in length and weighs just over 2 pounds. Baby still has a lot of growin to do over the next 13 weeks. Hard to believe that it's only another 92 days from today!! SO MUCH TO DO!!!!

Anyhoo!! I think that's about it. Attached are a few pictures from the weekend.

Week 27: July 7-13th Where did the weekend go?!? continued...

It was a fun and very, very busy weekend. We had so much going on! Friday morning, we hit the ground running at 8am. Greg got to work on the final preparations for re-building the deck, and I picked up Mom and we headed out to some garage sales (they were a bust). Our Dads showed up sometime between 8:30-9:00 and the three guys got started on the deck. Mom and I went out and bought everything we needed for lunch, and I grilled pork-a-leans for everyone.

By the time 4pm rolled around, the floor of the deck was done, as well as the steps to the backyard! I was QUITE impressed. Dad, Mom & I went over to Grandma's to visit cousin Erik, who was on a very, very short leave for the holiday weekend. We visited for a little while and then Mom, Grandma, Emily, Sami and I went out and picked raspberries. We ended up picking 7 quarts!!! Whew! Grandma said she had picked 11 quarts the day before. Having people to chat with makes fast work of it, though.

By the time we got back to BG, around 6:45, they'd moved the shed back 13 feet! Our yard is HUGE now! Apparently, they had quite a bit of excitement while moving it. They rolled it on pipes using some machine from the rental to push it, and as it was rolling back, two skunks ran out from underneith it! One even ran over our neighbor's foot!! Fortunately, they didn't spray. That would have been a disaster, for sure. I have no idea how we would have gotten that smell out of them.

That evening, Evan came up for the rest of the weekend. He helped them out for a few more hours, and then we all got ready for fireworks. We met up with Emily & the gang, as well and Mom and Dad. While waiting, the kids did the little snap-pops that you throw on the sidewalk and bangers or whatever they're called that shoot out confetti. They loved those. Little Devin was telling Evan how to use the snaps. It was great. He kept telling him "That's right, buddy, that's how you do it". Kevin set off these glorified sparklers on sticks. Evan was mesmerized by those. Finally, the fireworks started. He really enjoyed them. Afterwards, while waiting for traffic, Evan got to do his first sparklers. He loved them! Greg was paranoid, so stayed away and didn't watch. I wish he would have! Evan was VERY careful. I'm surprised he was able to hold onto the stick, his fingers were holding the very, very, VERY end of it. But he really seemed to enjoy them once he got started. I'm really glad Greg let him participate. It's something every child needs to do at least once in a while (with very, very close adult supervision, of course!)

Alright! I have to go to work! I'll continue this tonight.

love, jenn

Week 27: July 7-13th Where did the weekend go?!?

I hope everyone had a safe and fun holiday weekend!! We had an extremely busy, but fun one! It's already 10pm, Greg and I are just finishing up one of the many weekend projects. Everything is fine, but I'm going to bow out on the blog for tonight, but I promise to update you with all the week's happenings and updates regarding the baby's growth tomorrow night!!

love, jenn & greg