31 Weeks

Tomorrow will mark exactly 2 months until my due date. We also have an ultrasound scheduled for tomorrow so I am very excited about seeing the little one for the first time since he/she was a tiny snowman with a spine back in week 13! We are not going to find out the sex but I'd love to find out how I'm measuring and the position of the baby so I can identify all the weird pokes and bumps he/she is creating in my belly!

Baby movement is still profound, but I'm happy as long as it hasn't discovered my ribs yet. I am getting slightly uncomfortable with my newfound girth and am always hungry, then immediately full after starting to eat. Don't worry, I'm finding the motivation to pack away brownies with mint chip ice cream and corn on the cob...sometimes in that order.

The nursery walls are painted, the curtains are hung, and the sheets are here, but I still have a few decorating decisions to make before posting pictures. I did end up registering at Walmart last Friday night. Fiascos (as there always are at Walmart on Friday night) included incompetent customer "service" who screwed up the scanner, a "friendly associate" who was not even aware of the fact that Walmart had registries, but thought the scanner I was asking about was "so cool", and the lady in front of us at the checkout presenting an invalid coupon, causing the cashier to have to wait for a manager to assist her, then individually void 40+ packets of Tide To-Go. No joke. I think I inherited the "Murphy's Law of Checkout Lanes gene" from my mother.

Anyway, back to more pleasant memories. This is the dress I wore to my friend C's wedding on July 11. It was a great time seeing some old HS friends. Has it really been 9 years since we graduated?

It Only Took 4 Years...

No, not to announce we were having a baby (that took 5).

BUT TO FINALLY HAVE KITCHEN CURTAINS!

We have lived here almost 4 years and have had the material for the curtains nearly as long. About 2 years ago we put up the curtain rod and I was satisfied with that progress for a while. Finally when we bought curtains for the nursery, DH decided it was time to get these UP. The problem/excuse had always been that I couldn't get the tension on my (inherited) sewing machine right and the fabric was so delicate I was sure I'd screw it up. (We bought one long curtain panel that needed to be cut in half and hemmed). Well, Grandma Boote came to the rescue and got the tricky things hemmed perfectly. I'm thinking about adding some tie-backs/hooks to each side, but otherwise I couldn't be happier with this new addition. Thanks, Grandma! Our backyard neighbors thank you too!

29 Weeks

The belly's making more of a profound statement these days. Thankfully I found some shirts and a dress shopping in Minneapolis earlier this month. Everything is still going well with the baby and we are excited for our second ultrasound in 2 weeks.

We did some baby shopping while on vacation and I fell in love with some curtains from Ikea. With the black background and olive, white, and brown leaf pattern, finding sheets has been a challenge. Since I had my heart set on orange accents in the room, I ordered some solid orange crib sheets and an orange changing table cover. Once the sheets arrive and the curtains are hemmed, I plan to do some painting--probably dark brown with some sort of leaf pattern.

Once we decided on the black curtains, I decided I really wanted a black glider-one with an ottoman and padded arms. There was a random garage sale in Hull this week and guess who scored the exact

glider I was looking for for only $50! (Normally over $150). I can't wait for Fall Rummages to fill in a few last pieces and a trip to Sioux Falls is probably unavoidable. But for now, at least we're moving forward with getting the nursery all ready for Baby Boone!

July 3 - Twins Game

"Better late than never," is my philosophy on posting about our semi-recent vacation to Minnesota. I'm cheating and posting them on their date so my life stays in chronological order (it needs to stay in some sort of order, right?).

July 3 I had the day off from work, so we took off for Minneapolis in the morning. I had promised DH we could stop for McDonald's breakfast, so we made our first stop no less than 20 minutes away from home. After a a quick emergency trip to the bathroom to throw up while DH waited in the drive-thru, I was ready to go! Morning sickness and morning travel wasn't a good combination, but nothing a greasy sausage biscuit and cafe mocha couldn't cure. We ate the lunch I had packed in the car (yes, my cheap ways even go on vacation with us) and checked into our hotel shortly after noon. We decided to get some shopping out of the way, none of which was very eventful except for a "quick" trip through Bed, Bath & Beyond that turned into a frustratingly long wait. We found the 2 gifts we were looking for right away and waited with about 8 other parties for the 2 checkout people to ring us up. About 6 lanes were closed. Since we had to give one gift yet that week while on vacation, we asked if they could quickly put it into a gift bag for us. She gave us a number and said she'd call us when it was ready. I was thinking, "Really? Take a number? You're going to forget who we are? There are no other gifts to wrap and it takes 2 seconds to throw this in a bag". Over 20 minutes later we were still waiting. After Adam started helping other people carry out their purchases because he was so bored, I finally asked the register clerk where the gift was because I was not waiting any longer. She went to the back of the store to retrieve them and returned with both gifts wrapped. I swear she just quick wrapped them when she went back there. I could have driven back to Target and bought a gift bag and tissue paper and wrapped them myself in the time it took!

Anyway, we just made it back in time to change for the Twins game, walk across the street to the Metro station and get our tickets for the night. We got on the train at 5:51 and joked that we hoped our 6-hour event pass tickets would be good for the return trip. Little did we know. The train got crowded quickly and DH gave up his seat to a sweet old lady who told me her grandson was taking her to the Twins game for her birthday (not the other way around). We got a Dome Dog and some drinks and settled into the Home Run Porch.

We spent much of the game overhearing the college girls behind us discussing parties, boys, and how hungry they were but how they didn't even have money for bus fare home, so they couldn't get anything to eat. As you can see, the one chick couldn't resist imposing on our picture. Oh well, it was funny, and reminded me why I'm glad to be done with college. But, I could have lived without her singing "Go-Go-Go-Gomez" every time she spotted the outfielder.

The Twins were playing less-than-stellar ball against the Tigers and six hours later, this was the scoreboard we stared at through bleary eyes.

Yes, we stayed through all 16 innings. The only thing that kept me going was the Dome Dog, a bottle of lemonade (pregame), some Skittles I had in my purse (5th inning) and a Twix I had also stashed in my purse (12th inning). Pregnant ladies are always prepared! We also repeated the 7th inning stretch in the 14th inning. DH was hopeful through the end, but the Twinkies ended up losing by 2. We ran out to catch the 12:22am Metro since we would have had to wait an hour for another train and were thankful they let us on with our event pass, even though our tickets said they expired at 11:51pm. The ride home can be summed up in this picture:

The combination of the late hour, the 7 Metro stops, and my less-than-admirable diet resulted in me ending the day much as it began, hugging the toilet and expelling the contents of my stomach (mostly through my nose).

I was looking forward to Saturday...