Thirteen on Thursday

In lieu of a lengthy update trying to recall all we've done since I last blogged, we'll do bullets...

1.  Preggo update:  34 weeks and counting.  Total weight gain so far:  23 pounds.  The boy is head down, face up.  Praying he turns before delivery...remembering Lucan's difficult delivery almost makes me want to schedule a C-section!  I do NOT want to go through that again!

2.  Swollen ankles, lots of pokes and jabs, multiple night time trips to the bathroom...yes.  We are ready to have this baby.  I'm praying for an early birth date.

3.  Hot.  Very hot.  And humid.  But I suppose I'm describing a good portion of the country when I say that, not just our little corner of the world.  See last sentence of #2.

4.  Community garage sale this week.  Yes, the hottest week of the summer!  We were "open" for business from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. and made $160.  Not bad, considering we didn't really have much "big" stuff for sale!  I plan to open up tomorrow morning only and close before lunch.  A friend came over with a table and some stuff and her girls, and it was great to have company and help.  The kids sold water bottles and snow cones and made a bit of money that way.  But mostly they stayed in the house keeping cool and watching the little ones!

5.  Got another family (military) pass to the Boonshoft Discovery Museum.  We had one 2009-2010 and let it lapse, but I decided it would be a good option for getting out of the house and doing something educational.  The day we went (a couple of Fridays ago) we took along 3 kids from a family who are friends of ours.  It was cuh-RAZY, with tons of kids in buses showing up the same day!  But on the plus side, we got to watch the launch of the space shuttle Atlantis while seated in the planetarium--very cool!

6.  My good friend Jennifer T, whom I met in Idaho, came to visit for a few days last week.  I loved having a friend come to visit!  The kids loved it, too.  We played lots of games of Bananagrams and set, took the kids to see Kung Fu Panda 2, and Jen and I got to go out for lunch and the Harry Potter movie.  Good times, good conversations and prayers together.

7.  Just finished reading the second book of the Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place series, The Hidden Gallery.  GREAT books!  The kids wanted me to finish tonight, so they got to bed late.  (I wanted to know what would happen, too.  Darn it, though, there will apparently be another book after this.  Guess we'll have to wait a few months.)

8.  After MONTHS of sleeping on the top bunk, with no incidents or issues whatsoever, Kenna rolled out of her bed and landed on the (carpeted) floor at 12:30 a.m. last night.  She cried hard for a few minutes, resisted my efforts to comfort her, climbed back up to her bed, and promptly fell asleep.  She seemed none the worse for the wear today, and when I asked, she said she only had "a little tiny spot about this big" on her back that was hurting.  ???  I guess she's OK???!

9.  Lucan can officially climb in and out of his crib.  One afternoon this week during nap time, we checked on him and discovered he had thrown all of his stuffed animals out to make room for the doll stroller, which was in bed with him.  He was asleep under/beside it.  This evening, he had crawled out of bed and was playing happily when Tobin went to check on him after we heard some thumps.  He let me put him back to bed, but he was still awake when I checked on him at 9:45!  (Still in the crib, though.)  It may be time to make the transition to the big boy bed that is already in his room.  Sigh.  My baby's not a baby anymore!!

10.  Saturday marks 2 months down of our deployment.  This month has absolutely dragged as far as marking deployment time goes.  Our weeks seem to fly by, but it seems we've been close but not quite there (to the 2-month point) for ages now.  Strange, this time warp.

11.  We are finishing week 7 of our Bible Bee studies.  Charis is in week 4 of her memory verses.  I've managed to keep up with the Primary National Track memory work, thanks to my morning walks.  Charis has a lot more verses than I do to learn (500 vs. 250)...I'm praying she doesn't get discouraged.  It's not that she hasn't had time, but she has chosen to spent the majority of her days reading her stacks of library books...

12.  I have not given a single thought to school, although I suppose I should seriously look at the Sonlight catalog and start preparing our order.  Hoping that Baby arrives in mid-August, I'd like us to try to stick with our usual Labor Day start to the new school year.  We'll see if that ends up being a realistic plan or not.

13.  Looking forward to having my parents come soon--still working on the dates, as it depends on my dad's work schedule, but hopefully they'll be out here the first week in August or so.  Then Mom will stay here to help me get through the final days before Baby arrives and help with our transition.  I could cry I'm so happy to have her come!!!  Having Jennifer here for a few days reminded me of how nice it is to have another adult in the house...someone else to talk with and pray with, someone else to help keep kids entertained/occupied, just another responsible grown-up...I guess I hadn't realized really what a burden it can be to be the ONLY one responsible for so many other people.  If it weren't for God's sustaining grace, there is no way I could even face a tomorrow, let alone a whole year's worth of them.