New Arrival

Here are a few photos from the hospital. I see in the email replies that Jared told the world she was partly born in the car, I'll share the story in a few days when I get a second and of course post some more photos. As for now we are all home and doing well.

Big Zinnias

Check out my wild flowers

Rainy Days

This is the fourth day in a row it has poured. We haven't mowed our lawn in a month and now I think we officially win the neighborhood award for the gnarleyest yard. I'm patiently waiting for the snooty letter from the homeowners assoc, but could frankly care less what the old snag with the clipboard has to say.

I am now officially 26 years old. Jared and I went out to this great little Thai restaurant and then went out to see Oceans Thirteen, which was good. It was my first experience with Thai food and I really enjoyed it, although I think it was a fairly americanized restaurant.

Still no baby. Last night Jared, Brittany and I were shopping at Sam's club the baby was extremely active. All at once I got this searing pain that made me go numb from my hip to my ankle for about 30-45 seconds. Jared starting freaking out asking if I was in labor but I think she was just hitting my sciatic nerve. It happened three or four times, talk about a crazy feeling. After that any ill thoughts I still had about labor fleeted, now I am just ready :)

Here is a new Erin clip. Erin took a nasty fall off the couch onto her head. After the sobbing and kisses she proceeded with this song....

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Long time no post

All right, no baby yet. I keep getting emails asking if I had the baby as it's been ages since our last post. Jared is working the Shuttle Mission this weekend so he and Eliza had a little chat and I was forbidden to have a kid before 5 pm tonight when his assent shift ends (NASA controls our life :)

Jared and Erin were back in Iowa for 10 days in late May for a wedding and his brothers graduation. They had a great time and I got so much done around the house while they were gone. In the first three days I pretty much got all the necessary things checked off the list, which was good because our AC was out for four days.

I had some time left over to take a stab at a baby quilt for a fellow Iowan (who thought you could find pink John Deer fabric in Houston?) We were only a few weeks apart in our pregnancy and their baby was delivered 12 weeks early due to lack of growth, She weighed a little over 1.5 pounds, but is gaining weight and doing excellent.

Jared and Erin arrived home just in time for me to leave to spend three days at Youth Conference with 200 teenagers. Friday night of Youth conference we were toilet papered, always a tradition in our ward to "wrap" (The southern term for t.p.) the leadership houses. They really did a poor job on our house, but Erin was very intrigued and kept asking why the trees were growing toilet paper. She then told me "bad people did it".

As always YC was fun, but with two nights of staying up after 2 am, doing a door-to-door food drive in 90 degree heat and being extremely active (not that I was helping wrap houses or anything), by Saturday night I was so tired I didn't think I would make it to my front door. I figured Jared would find a large pregnant woman passed out like a drunken sailor on the front lawn with a too small t-shirt that read "Virtue - is it in you?"

I woke up Sunday morning still not in labor (if Youth Conference didn't put me in labor, this kid is not coming) and Brittany and Jared's dad pulled into town as we were leaving for church. Brittany will be attending Baylor College of Medicine in downtown Houston for the next 4-6 years for her PHD, so naturally we are excited to have a family member down here. She is staying with us a few weeks until she finds an apartment and furniture.
Erin sporting her pool outfit..... or lack thereof

Yesterday Britt and I FINALLY finished the nursery, although she is bunking in it for the time being. I started painting over a month ago and all that is left is Jared needs to paint one more coat of oil on the doors. The paint was "honeydew" and was not nearly as bright on the sample. I did three walls green and the wall with the window white. We had to tone it down a bit so my kid doesn't develop ADD from the overwhelming color. I am really happy with how it turned out. I also decided it was time to dig out the cloths and start to get things ready.

I am now 38 weeks and am starting to feel the icky side of pregnancy. Last weeks I gained 6 pounds in a week - mostly water retention. We've had a heat index of over 100 part of this week and I feel like a balloon. My feet are so swollen the only thing I can wear are my adjustable chaco sport sandals. Jared kindly calls them my hobbit feet.