Many Things

Isn't that the most precious little girl you've EVER seen in your whole life?

This is one thing Joanna LOVES to do when getting settled for bed. She'll get ALL her babies and put them in bed with her.

Joanna eating at Fuddrucker's -- what a big girl! I took this picture because it reminded me of the first time we took Joanna to Fudd's. She was little bitty, not eating food yet. It stands out to me because she slept in her carseat the ENTIRE time Matt and I had dinner. This was unusual because she usually cried like she was being tortured when riding in the carseat. On this occasion, however, she fell asleep and stayed that way. I guess she knew her Momma and Daddy needed a date. :)
On our last trip to Kroger for some final Thanksgiving-y things, I let Joanna ride in the car cart. I think I've been a little nervous to let her -- like she's going to get into some kind of trouble up there. She LOVED it, of course! She is her father's daughter.

For Thanksgiving this year, we did our usual rounds. I really love not cooking a whole Thanksgiving meal. I'm sure I'll get around to it some day, but I'm happy being fed for now! Our first stop was Matt's brother's house. We ate at 2:00, and Joanna had had just a light lunch in preparation. She'd also had NO NAP -- you'll see the repercussions of that in a moment. She's a BIG fan of Thanksgiving food, especially mashed potatoes... and pie... and fruitcake.

This is Joanna with no nap:

Story behind the mooning streak picture: She had on a very cute pink dress until she pulled a spoonful of dip onto herself. I got her stripped, but she was just too wired for me to dress -- literally: bing-bing-bing! She's just started wanting to pull down her diaper -- nobody talk to me about potty training. We are soooo not there yet!

After a wonderful meal at Uncle Mark's house, we went to my grandmother's house for more family, and yes, more food! I was really sad that my stomach wasn't any bigger than it is. Oh well, I did the best I could. :)

On Friday we all went down my my Aunt Kalli's house in Houston for more family time (more food!) and a little video project.

First, Matt and Joanna enjoying the meal outside.

Yup, that's my Aunt's backyard -- or a small part of it, anyway. Oh, Joanna wanted to swim in that water and climb on those rocks.

Here's the video part: Kalli's living room got all set up for some family story-telling. My grandmother is one of three children, one of whom has passed. I think the main goal of this video time was to get stories of their childhood and the childhood of their children (my mom's generation) on tape for generations to come. Present in my grandmother's generation were my grandmother, my great-uncle Val (her brother) and my great-aunt Pat (his wife). They've been married for a gazillion years. It's cool. Present in my mom's generation were my mom, her brothers John and Mark, her cousins Kim and Kalli (Pat and Val's children), and her cousins Robert, Carl, and Merri (Great-Uncle Brad and Aunt BettiAnne's children. I think the only ones missing of my mom's generation were her two sisters and her cousin Jim. I think that's pretty good, although I know they were missed. My wonderful husband corralled sweet Joanna (again no nap) out in the clubhouse/gameroom thing so I could be inside and watch a lot of the taping. It was really fantastic to listen to the stories. Much of it I'd heard before, but some things were new. For a time when the kids (mom's generation) were growing up, all three families (Brad and Bettianne/Pat and Val/Aurice and Homer) lived on the SAME STREET. Isn't that amazing?! Combined they had 11 kids. I'm not completely sure they were all born at that point, though. (Hey Home Group -- talk about a compound!)

I must say that I truly feel I may have turned the economic situation in this country around with all the shopping I did this weekend. Obviously, I'm kidding, but we did pick up quite a few things we've been meaning to. A lot of my favorite stores had some pretty amazing specials going on. Matt and I have talked about getting a wagon for a while. I've had my eye out on Kingwood Yard Sales, but hadn't found the one for us yet. We broke down and bought one NEW (but on sale, of course!). Joanna thinks it is wonderful, and keeps asking "push."

This next pic is Joanna and Matt on the way into church this morning with her newest thing that she really perhaps doesn't actually need. She LOVES it, though. And she'll actually roll it, meaning Mommy doesn't have to carry it.

I've had this feeling over the past week or two that I really needed to get going getting ready for Baby Sister. I really like the idea of the house being in order before the baby comes. I don't want to be digging through stuff buried in Joanna's closet while caring for a newborn and a toddler. And I want her little nursery corner baby-ready before she comes. It's an obsessive compulsive/anal-retentive/right brain kind of thing. It's the same part of me that finished Christmas shopping by the beginning of October. Ooooohhh, I do need to get some things in the mail, though. And it's the part of me that just might strap the base to the infant carseat into the car this week. Maybe if I make all these preparations, she'll hold off until January! I know I still have a lot of childbirth reading to do. I mean, I remember how it basically works, but a refresher wouldn't be a bad idea.

Here is Baby Sister's nursery corner in our bedroom. I still have a little work to do in there -- but isn't it cute?!

We still have a glider chair to get. I used a rocking chair with Joanna. It belonged to my Aunt Gail and I LOVE IT, but it's in Joanna's room, and a glider really works best for my purposes. Sometimes I like to rock pretty strongly, and the rocker sort of slides across the room until it hits a wall. I may also pick up a few more warm newborn and 0-3 month clothes. I went through all of Joanna's hand-me-downs this weekend. Joanna was born on the cusp of spring, and has quite a few warmer things, but this baby will be here in full-on (Texas style) winter. And our room is a little bit colder than the rest of the house. I actually didn't shop much (or at all) for Joanna's tiny baby clothes, we were given a lot of wonderful things. I think it will be fun to pick out a few tiny outfits! I'm not going to go overboard or anything; we don't know how big she'll be -- she may not even need newborn things!

Tonight we went to the Hanging of the Greens service at church. Joanna did SO WELL sitting with us in church. It's a good thing Rev. Judy was across the aisle from us; she kept Joanna entertained for about the last 15 or so minutes of the service! At one point it was time to pray, and Joanna bowed her head like Judy and put her hands together and closed her eyes. She is so amazing, that girl. I love being a Momma.

Finally, two very cute new Joanna things.

• I've discovered that I can get her to smile by asking her to "say cheese!" I don't know if someone taught her that or if it's an innate reflex we all have, but if I time it just right hitting the shutter button on the camera, we have some cute pics!
• I was singing "Jesus Loves Me" to Joanna the other day before nap when she started to sign to it. I just about lost it; it was so precious. I'm tearing up now just thinking about it. I LOVE Mother's Day Out! Joanna is a much more well-rounded individual than she would be if she was stuck with me all the time.

34 weeks and Happy Thanksgiving!

I'm 34 weeks today. With Joanna, I started dialating at 34 1/2 weeks and was put on "bed rest" until 36 weeks. My appointment isn't until Monday; I guess Thanksgiving and the day after aren't days the docs like to have appointments. Huh. My first pregnancy I was already having exams at this point for something else; I'm not sure they even start at 34 weeks normally -- I'm thinking it's 36. Anybody been there recently and know? Joanna was born at 38 weeks + 2 days. This time around, 38 weeks is Christmas day. Yikes!

I had another one of my all too frequent rough nights last night. I woke up at midnight and couldn't get back to sleep. I was awake most of the hours between 12 and 5am! Yuck. Double Yuck. I looked at the insides of my eyelids for a while, then I watched some things in my DVR. Around 5 I finally got sleepy and drifted off on the couch. I moved back into the bed and was able to sleep until about 7:15 when Continental called looking for my mother. If her phone doesn't ring through for whatever reason, they call me right away. Normally I don't mind. This morning I was really tired, though! Joanna woke up soon after that, and I couldn't get back to sleep anyway. It's 8:15pm now, and I'm seriously considering going to bed. My only hesitation is due to the complete disaster of my house. Maybe I'll compromise by laying on the couch and looking at the complete disaster of my house. :)

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving Day; I took a few pics and will post them soon, probably when I post all the other pics I keep saying I will!

Cute Things

• Joanna is obsessed with saying grace. It's really wonderful -- she reminds us most of the time! She usually likes to say it a few times during the meal.
• Joanna says "thank you" these days -- it is soooo precious. Just yesterday I started hearing "thank you Mommy." Melts my heart!!
• She has started to say "I sorry" with the exact inflection Matt and I say it to her. Sometimes Matt will get water in her eyes at bath time or I'll bump into her or something, and we always say "I'm sorry" to her. She's picked it up, but doesn't quite have the concept yet. She usually says it when she's hurt or sad instead of when someone else is. It's precious.
• After we put her to bed at night, she often gets up and gets ALL her baby dolls and puts them in bed with her. It is very cute to see her surrounded by all those babies when we go in to check on her. I have a picture which I'll upload at post at some point. :)

HEB, brussel sprouts, and the changing table

A friend had commented on my last post that the gDiapers were available at the Atascocita HEB -- thank you, Shaun! We'd already figured out we could buy them online, too since driving to Whole Foods (like 40 miles or something) everytime we need refills isn't exactly very green which is basically the whole point of this diaper adventure. Anyway, I thought I'd check out the selection at HEB as well as the store since I'd never been. I'd been told it was better than our little 'ol HEB here in Kingwood, and boy is that right. I'm in love! I'm almost sad I've already done my grocery shopping this week. I was like a kid in the candy store -- not quite Whole Foods, of course, but IT'S JUST UP THE ROAD FROM MY HOUSE! I've decided I want to go back sans Joanna and just wander around and get the lay of the land.

Other miscellaneous recent things:

I don't know what it is about brussel sprouts, but Joanna WILL eat them. She puts her nose up and spits out any other vegetable (unless you count ketchup or pizza sauce), but last night she at almost 2 brussel sprouts. And that's the second time!

We've been planning to move the changing table out of Joanna's room and into ours when it's closer to baby time. We figure Baby Sister will need her diaper changed A LOT more than Joanna, and often when Joanna is in there asleep. Well, we had to go ahead and move it out yesterday. I knew that Joanna could climb up there, but as far as I knew, she really wasn't climbing up there. Well yesterday wonderful Mamma came over to watch Joanna while I worked a bit, and Joanna decided to show off her trick! She climbed up there (and scared her poor Mamma!) and was pulling out all the diapers, pads, etc. from the hanging thing beside the table. Yeesh. I sort of thought it was an isolated event, and it would be fine in there at least the rest of the day. I didn't relish moving the thing. Braxton Hicks, anyone? So, to make a short story long, I put Joanna down for a nap that afternoon. My mom was home then and we could really tell that child didn't want to go down. She'd cry, then sound like she was playing, then cry, then cry, then be quiet, etc. My mom offered to go get her and "snap." Well, it turns out she'd climbed up on the changing table and couldn't get down! She'd pulled out all the stuff again. I'm thinking she may have been trying to change her own diaper, because she was stinky, too! Poor kid. She's been having a rough week. She's got some congestion and I believe she is also working on some teeth. It's hard to tell with all those sharp ones already in there.

The changing table is currently in our bedroom.

Make sure you scroll down...

I just put up 3 new posts -- don't want you to miss anything!

G is for...

Green! And sometimes Gross and Great big and all kinds of other things.

I decided I really wanted to try out these diapers that I've read about and seen at Whole Foods. They're called gDiapers, and they're kind of a disposable/cloth hybrid diaper. I just picked up a "starter kit" on Wednesday, and Joanna's gotten to wear a few the last few days as I discover whether I like 'em or not. They've got a website if you're interested; I'm sure I won't give super-informative information. They are fitted outer pants (small, medium, large) with a liner and a "disposable" insert. The insert is actually totally biodegradable and can even be flushed (or composted!). I'm assuming they're comfortable -- Joanna hasn't said otherwise, and they stay on very well. The insert sort of bunches up in the liner, but that doesn't seem to affect it's performance. Pee diapers are very easy to take care of, the other kind is less fun. The poop gets on the plastic liner, but not on the outer pants. The liner is very easy to rinse out (but of course you have to rinse it out), and the pants are totally machine washable if something does get on them. Or like me, your child wears them as pants and gets food and stuff on them. :) So you can really flush the insert -- you just rip it open, dump it, throw in the rest, and flush. They're of course a gazillion times better for the earth than regular diapers, but they're pretty pricey, too. The inserts cost more than diapers, but I figure we'll end up using both. I probably won't send Joanna to school in them and we'll use Pampers in the diaper bag. These are my thoughts anyway. I figure I'll start small and see what happens. I think I'm going to go ahead and order more inserts for Joanna as well as a couple more outer pants. I have two, which will actually get you through a day, but it'll be tough on "poop days." I think I'll go ahead and get the little sizes for Baby Sister, too. I think they'll be a little tougher on tiny ones, especially in the very beginning, but we'll see -- it's a learning experience!

Joanna modeling her new fashion: Another random Preggo shot -- almost 33 weeks. Matt and I got to go out to dinner Wednesday evening on a date -- thanks, Mommy!

I LOVE long shirts and leggings for maternity wear!
The orange juice I just bought -- wow!

Twilight!!

For those of you who have been living in a hole in the ground, Friday was the premier of Twilight, the movie! I have several girlfriends who have read these books as well, and a few of us decided to go out Friday night to check out the movie. Even though Kathryn hasn't read the books, we let her come because we like her and she was in town. Here are Kathryn and me at the theatre:Me with a couple of my crazy Twilight friends, Shaun and Amy. Amy's shirt says, "Peace, love, and Twilight." We thought we might be but we were not the oldest people there (it's a bit of a teen pheonomenon). The theatre was full -- we got our tickets online this week and got there plenty early for good seats!
Part of the excitement of going to see a movie like this is audience involvement. Everytime something exciting would happen (or someone cute would be introduced), all the teenage girls (and probably some of the older ones, too!) would let out this squeal/yell thing. It was hilarious! The movie was fine (I'll see it again when it's out on video), but of course our expectations were very high from the books. I think it was well done and it captured the essence of Twilight. I approve.
Before leaving...

We are so cute! I had fun ladies!!

Baby Shower!!

This afternoon my wonderful friends threw a baby shower for me and little Baby Sister. Here's a preggo shot before leaving the house. I do believe the bump is getting bigger every day! Joanna even has a little seat up there! You can't tell, but her shirt says, "Big sisters rock!"

The BEAUTIFUL table at Amy's house for the shower. It was a fall/Thanksgiving theme with yummy Thanksgiving-ish food. It was soooooooo fabulous! There was even cider -- I love cider!
A cookie cake! I love cookie cake!! A sweet message for us!I gotta tell you: I really liked going to my baby shower pregnant. For those of you who weren't around, let me tell you why that's significant. :) The shower for Joanna was huge, up at the church, and scheduled for February 25th. Joanna was born February 22nd. So, for a fun twist, she actually got to come (live and in person). That part was very cool, as was seeing everybody. However, I was 3 days postpartum, my temperature was fluxuating weirdly, my emotions were fluxuating weirdly, and my body was just weird. I don't think it was a typical baby shower experience.

It was so nice to sit around and chat (mostly about our babies and nursing and all kinds of other mommy things). The food was FABULOUSLY WONDERFUL. I may forget something, but we had this pumpkin sausage soup with bread, cookie cake, candied almonds, these peanut butter marshmellow cheerios things, pumpkin choc chip muffins, and apple cider. I think I remembered it all. Oh, how I wished my stomach was bigger!

Anyway, then I got to open gifts -- I love tiny baby girl presents!!

Me with our loot:The blanket and cap my mom made:I didn't get pictures of everything (I think someone was slacking...) but we also got the bedding for Baby Sister -- it's so beautiful! I'll post pics of it eventually, but right now that would require me getting up from this chair. There were little tiny booties and little tiny outfits and bottle nipples and a food mill and bibs (yea!) and other fabulous things. Also, my wonderful hostesses got together and gave us a gift certificate to Portrait Innovations. I can't wait (okay, really I can) to have a family picture made of all of us!!

Here we are -- aren't we a good looking bunch?! We missed you, Amanda -- hope your trip went well, and thank you!

Thank you all, wonderful hostesses and friends. We sure are lucky to have you guys!

So much to blog, so little time...

Make sure to check back soon for updates on all our recent fun things, including:

Kathryn coming into town

Twilight, the movie!

Baby Shower

Van updates

Random stuff, no pics

First up, a few recap-ish things from the past few days.

Sunday after Church, we DID clean out the garage! I was so determined to get it done, and I knew we were running out of time fast. So we ate lunch and put Miss Joanna down for a nap, then headed outside in our work clothes. I love cool weather -- LOVE IT!! Matt helped me move everything out of the garage and onto the driveway -- I was pulling a "clean sweep." We opened up the van to throw all the stuff we've been meaning to donate but haven't yet. Now that it's in my NEW VAN, I'll be dropping it off very soon. (or really Matt will) I organized everything into like groups and threw out what was junk. I went through all my mom's stuff and organized it and labeled it for her. Fortunately, we were on our own out there for a while. My mom was home that afternoon, and when Joanna woke up, she took a Gran-snap. Then she got to come help us. That child LOVED wandering around all the piles and gathering "treasures" to carry with her. There were a fair amount of toys I stumbled on that came inside. They're awaiting cleaning and organizing in my front entry right now. I also found a tub of old pictures and stuff, a lot of which was from my childhood. I pulled out a couple of things I'm going to scan into the computer. I held up a picture of me at around Joanna's age, and asked Joanna, "who's this?" She said, "Anna!" which is what she's calling herself these days. Yup, I look like my daughter, that's for sure. We had to work a little in the dark, but we were completely finished and back inside by 7:30pm. Not too bad, I think. It got pretty chilly after the sun went down, so I gave Joanna some sock mittens for her cold hands. She thought they were pretty great, until she wanted her fingers out to push buttons on things. She told me, "off, off."

An aside story: last night we put Joanna in socks to sleep. When I checked on her around midnight, she had one sock on a foot and the other on a hand. So cute!

Anyway, we got everything (minus some junk) back into the garage with just a couple of little projects left. We have a hanging system to put up for rakes, the blower, etc. We also have some "heavy trash" that has to wait for heavy trash day, as well has a plethora of regular trash to wait for Thursday. And, it turns out Matt had a bunch of stuff in there that he snuck in a some point from an old storage room or something. It has to be gone through and put in it's place. We also will put the desk that's in our bedroom (future baby's corner) into the garage for while she's bunking with us. Hopefully these things will get done this weekend. We'll see!

That was supposed to be a shorter story, but oh well.

We got our new van checked out by our mechanic yesterday, and they couldn't find anything wrong with it. Yea! Joanna and I will drive to CarMax tomorrow to get the (hopefully) last few little issues taken care of with their service dept, and get my clicker made. I'm optimistic they'll work fast and Joanna and I will have time to run our errands after they finish. While we're there, we'll be stuck! Very fortunately they have that kids' room there that Joanna likes to play in. Maybe I can manage to get some reading in...

Yesterday I picked up some orange juice at the grocery store with this date on it: January 8, 2009. Whoa. If you're not catching on, that's Baby Sister's due date!!! The orange juice makes it seem so close!

Now to the not fun part of my week thus far. The stomach bug finally hunted me down and got me yesterday. :( I think I got about 4 hours of sleep last night. It was awful, really really awful. Being sick is no fun; being 8 months pregnant is hard work, and both together is seriously the pits. So far Matt and Joanna are fine, but we'll see! Matt is so good about taking care of me. I spent most of the night out on the couch because, like I've mentioned before, Matt was just enjoying sleep too much and I was jealous, and I got to read and watch TV out here without disturbing anyone. I asked Matt to stay home this morning and get Joanna ready and off to MDO. I know he really enjoyed taking her to school and visiting with everybody up at the church. Here is the other theory to my stomach issues: it's hormonal/pregnancy related. This is how we've come up with that theory: I got super stomach sick when I was 34 weeks pg with Joanna. Maybe it's just something my body does when I'm close-ish to giving birth. Hey, I said it was a theory. Since it's going around, I pretty sure it's the bug. I'm feeling tons better now and luckily, fortunately have the day to rest. Joanna is at school, I skipped all my work meetings, I canceled my dentist appointment. That last one was the hardest -- their next available appt is at the end of January! I'm on the call list for anything that comes up this year. I'd much rather go pregnant than nursing to the dentist.

More on 32 weeks and the Nutcracker Market!

So looking at these most recent pictures of myself, I can really see that I've put on some weight. My face looks fuller, I think. Anyway so at my appt Friday morning, it was discovered that I had gained 7 POUNDS in two weeks!!! Oops. My doctor walked in, looked at my chart, and her jaw nearly fell off her face. I immediately said "It wasn't me, I think it's these heavy pants!" She laughed, which is good -- I didn't feel like I was in so much trouble that way. :)

I had been doing really well, but I think I fell off the wagon with all the Halloween candy. I'm a chocolate JUNKIE! I'm not too worried, and I know it will all even out in the end.

Preggo shot: 32 weeks. This is a totally random shot, but just too cute not to post: Joanna's turkey handprint is above her head just to the right.
After my doctor's appointment, Mom, Joanna, and I headed into Houston for the Nutcracker Market. If you've never been, picture the Reliant Center (or a really huge room) full of hundreds of vendors selling all kinds of fabulous things. Now we didn't actually have any money to spend, and I'm totally finished Christmas shopping, but neither Mom or I have been, and we keep meaning to go. It was Thursday-Saturday, and it was really neat. Things that are annoying about it: It costs 8 bucks to park and you have to park far away and ride a tram; it costs $11 just to get in; you can't bring a stroller in; all the food is priced like "event" food -- you know, $8 for a potato, etc. So, before you even get to shop, you've already spent $25+. Silly. Things that are very cool about it: The food is very yummy; there's great music playing; you can find anything you're looking for; it's fun to shop; you get to ride a tram. Things I will do differently if I get to go again next year: I will leave sweet Joanna (and her sister!) at home with Daddy or Grandma or something; I'll carry a backpack instead of a handbag; I'll investigate parking somewhere else and riding the train. Unfortunately, Joanna didn't have huge amounts of fun -- it was very crowded and a bit difficult for her to walk without getting tripped over. Also unfortunately I am 8 months pregnant and the day was very hard on my back.
Here's a bit of our day:
We decided to be green and ride a bike cab from our car to the Market. It was fun! This is the back of our driver -- he's pedaling with his very strong legs.
Joanna in Gran's lap, enjoying the ride and the wind in her face.
Walking in -- Joanna was very glad to carry around the shopping bag -- what a big girl!

We saw some very cute tents and teepees; Joanna had to check one out.

We ate yummy baked potatoes for lunch, ran into gobs of people we know, and tried to shop as fast as we could!

Joanna tuckered out after lunch. I LOVE carrying my babies around, but I will say that my back was screaming in agony at the end of this day.

So, did I buy anything? Yup. But I was pretty good. I found a giraffe charm for my charm bracelet, which I'd been looking for -- yea! I also got a nap mat for Joanna. Yes, I know she already has a nap mat. I couldn't help myself. This one is one I would've gotten her if I'd found it before I needed it. It's very cushy and it has a blanket and pillow and it rolls up and has a carrying strap. And it was a good price. So now Joanna has two nap mats. (But you know, we're going to have two in nap mats before too long.)

Joanna woke up and was kind of a basket case so we abandoned our mission of seeing everything to come home. Plus, I was seriously starting to feel the burn of being on my feet and holding a 25lb toddler.

We rode the tram back to our car. That was very fun, too. She's not actually asleep -- just trying it out. Isn't she so cute!!

I haven't taken a proper picture yet, but if you look in the above pic, you can see the cord and a tiny corner of OUR NEW VACUUM!! We finally broke down and bought one -- we've really been needing to. It's a Kenmore, and it was on sale, and it comes recommended by friends who also have it. I already like it a lot -- it's very easy to push and seems to clean well. It's not super loud (although it will still take some time for Miss Joanna to get used to it). My standard vacuuming posture is either Matt holds Joanna while I vacuum or Joanna rides in sling while I vacuum. We're making progress, though. Anyway, it picks up our hard floors really well, which is important since that's what we have a lot of.

So, if any of our bosses are reading this, we just bought a vacuum and a new car -- we need a raise!!

I mentioned in my last post that I had a really rough night Friday night -- here's the scoop. I'm sure it was a combination of things that led to my pretty intense pain -- I almost called the doctor in the middle of the night. I know I've posted that I'm having Braxton Hicks contractions. I've been having them for 6 or 7 weeks now. Mostly they're annoying, but not really painful. For me, it's a tightening of my whole belly (imagine baby becomes bowling ball). If I'm sitting down, it's not bad -- not even that noticeable. If I'm standing though, it makes it hard to walk, I usually need to visit the ladies' room pronto, and I have a little back pain/tightening that accompanies it. Some days I'll go nearly the whole day without them being a problem; other days I feel like they're happening constantly, especially in the afternoon/evening. So yesterday was admittedly rough day physically for me, plus I think I did something that evening that I shouldn't have. So about 10:30pm, my regular ol' Braxton Hicks were happening, but now they were accompanied by intense lower back pain -- the pain came and went with the contractions. It was reminiscent of labor, which is why I almost called the doctor. IT WAS AWFUL! I managed to sleep a little on and off for a few hours, but come about 1:30ish, I was up and couldn't sleep or get comfortable. I decided about 2:15 to get away from my deeply sleeping husband whom I was jealous of and go into the living room. I had a snack and watched a few things in my DVR. Slowly, gradually, the back pain got better, and after an old episode of Designing Women where the Sugarbakers buy a van, I got sleepy. Finally about 4am I fell asleep on the couch. Matt woke up about 4:30, and sent me to my room. I said, "I need a really huge favor -- let me sleep 'till 8?" So he closed the bedroom door (what a treat!), and was on Joanna duty when she woke up a little after 7:00. I was SO GLAD I was able to go back to sleep this morning. I woke up 7:30 or 8:00 and felt fine -- no more crazy back cramps. So I've vowed to be more careful. I really really do not want to go into preterm labor. I want to give Baby Sister the chance to grow as much as possible. And I have lots of "getting ready" stuff I'm not planning to do until next weekend! And she doesn't have a name!!

We didn't clean out the garage today.

Here's why: I can't remember exactly how much of our car saga I've posted, so here is a basic recap. We applied for and got a voucher from the Air Check Texas program, which gave us $3000 for our broken-down old trade-in. Well the voucher came a couple of weeks ago, but then we had to actually put the van in my name. We got V'ger from my mom a couple of years ago, but we'd never actually gotten around to transferring the title (lazy). So mom and I (and Joanna) went up to the courthouse to do that. It was easy, but then we had to wait for the title to actually be mailed to me. The lady said it would take 3-4 weeks, which would put it at the end of November. The voucher was good until December 22nd, so we had a cushion of time. For whatever reason, though, I started haunting the mailbox on Monday of this week. I just knew it was coming soon. And it came yesterday! We'd done our car homework and discovered that CarMax was actually the best place for us to find a van. We just couldn't find them in our price range other places. I'd seen this one (above) a couple of weeks ago, but didn't get my hopes too high knowing it might be gone before our title came in and we could actually go and buy a van. CarMax gets vans in frequently so I wasn't worried. So yesterday when my title came in and we finally had everything we needed to buy a van, we made an appointment to see this one down at the store on the Southwest Fwy today (Saturday). I wasn't positive we'd be buying a car today, but I knew if I liked this one, we'd probably be coming home with it.

Here is the story:

First thing this morning we had to get our old van (V'ger) cleaned out and the back seat put back in. Joanna enjoyed getting to drive it and explore the buttons before we said goodbye.

Matt and mom put the backseat in.
Our farewell picture -- V'ger, you served us well!

Now the car doesn't actually drive so we left it at home and took my mom's suburban to CarMax.

We got the most fabulous, patient, and helpful sales lady, LaDonya. We got there about 10:00 this morning. (We were aiming for 9:30, but I had a seriously bad bad bad bad bad night -- more on that in another post.)

They have a great kids' area with a climb-y gym and some trucks, blocks, and push toys. Best of all is that it's totally kid-friendly -- no way to get out or mess with stuff. Unfortunately it's not where the offices are, so she had to be with us for the boring paperwork stuff. But when we were doing the waiting around thing, we got to play!

When we'd decided to get our new van, we had to arrange transport for V'ger from our house to the southwest fwy CarMax (40 miles!). I was pretty pleased with the tow rate we got -- not too scary.

The last time I ever saw V'ger:

Waiting some more:

Finally all tuckered out (about 10 minutes before we headed home, I might add). She was a basket-case when we were signing the papers. It was a little before 4:00, I think, and she hadn't napped and we were making her stay with us instead of run around. I think she needed a meltdown.

I am SO PROUD of Joanna for today! We were at CarMax from 10:00am until almost 5:00pm (minus a lunch break at McDonald's). What a long day for a toddler!

It was getting darkish when we got home so no photo shoot yet, but here it is in our driveway!!

Our "new" 2006 Dodge Grand Caravan. It's silver, and I love it.

Unfortunately we have a couple of loose ends to tie up, so I'll have to drive down there again in the next couple of weeks. The van didn't have a clicker remote (which is a complete MUST for me with kiddos) or an owner's manual. I can probably either download or purchase the manual online, and CarMax will reimburse me the cost. They also have a guy who programs those remotes, but he only works during the week. I'll call next week, and if for whatever reason he can't program one, they'll send me to the dealer for one and reimburse that expense, too. And, just as we were about to drive off, Matt noticed something a little funny about the back door of the van -- so they wrote a note up on it, and we'll get it checked out when we head back down for the remote/owner's manual. If I get all my ducks in a row, I'll just have to make one trip down there, and I figure I'll combine it with a trip to Whole Foods and A Woman's Work. If I can just manage to do it all by myself, I'll really enjoy it.

So on Monday I'll have the van checked by our mechanic and add it to the insurance. I also need to go ahead and schedule the first payment with my online bill pay. Our first car payment is due Christmas Eve. Merry Christmas to us! I'd sure hate to be late with that payment due to labor and delivery!!

32 weeks!

Whoa! It's starting to really get close now. I have a doctor's appointment tomorrow, and I'll post an update after that if there's anything interesting to report. I'm going to try to remember to take a preggo shot today when I get home.

This weekend I've decided we're going to finally clean out the garage. (Poor Matt -- I can tell he doesn't really want to, but I need the help!) We've needed to get in there and clean, organize, hang up things, put away, purge, etc. for oh, 2 years or so. It seems that it's always too hot or we're too busy or too pregnant or have too small of a child. Now is the time!! Joanna can be out there with us, "helping" and wandering around. The weather should be BEAUTIFUL and coolish. I actually layed awake this morning thinking about it. I'm am SO excited to get in there!! Someone's nesting... can you tell?

Fun Weekend!!

As I may have mentioned before, my dad and step-mom flew in this weekend from Oklahoma to reclaim their van. They came in Friday and just left this afternoon. We had such a nice visit with them!

Here is Joanna on our last solo trip in the van! Nana and Popo's flight came in at 1:24, so it didn't take Joanna long to fall asleep on the way to pick them up. She took a proper Joanna nap, too, which was very nice. Nana and Popo were hungry (and Joanna and I can always eat!) so we stopped in Humble for a bite before going to the hotel. Mmmmm.... dessert!
Putting crayons in the box and dumping them out is much more fun than coloring!

There are lots of wonderful things to do in hotels when you are one.

Like being an ice bucket head.

And carrying a little make-up case as your overnight bag.

Playing in the cold wind is always enjoyable.

Friday we hung out at the hotel for a while, letting Joanna just explore the wonderness of a hotel room. Then we headed to our house and visited for a while.

On Saturday we decided to hit Old Town Spring. We haven't been since March -- the last time Dad and Renee were here. Joanna got to explore a bit more this time. Mostly we pushed the diaper bag around in the stroller, instead of Joanna.

Some family pics:

Aren't we precious?!

Matt's precious, too!

Here's a belly shot for everyone! I'm 31 1/2 weeks pregnant. Whoo hoo!

Daddies are SO MUCH FUN!!
It honest-to-goodness makes my whole body hurt to think of doing this. I'm so glad Joanna has Matt!
There was LOTS to climb on/around at Old Town Spring.

Such determination!
Sweet face!

We ate lunch at Wunche (I may have left out a couple of letters) Bros. restaurant. YUM! Joanna especially loved drinking her milk out of the big cup with a straw. Forget sippies!

Ah.... the ceilings are so lovely here.

The "old man" bench. Everybody's wives were inside, I guess. That's my dad on the left (obviously not an old man, right?)

Inside one cute little store I saw something I wanted to get for Baby Sister so much! However, I cannot justify paying $27 for a cap, even a really really cute one. I've decided I just need to make one (or convince someone else to make one for us!)

I don't know what exactly it is that I love SO MUCH about this little hat. I just think it's fabulous! I mean, when they're teeny tiny, they don't move around, and they need bling on their little bald heads. Since Baby Sister will be born in the winter, she's going to need some little hats -- they may as well have big purple butterflies on them!

Right outside the little store we parked by, there was a bubble machine going (snow, I think). A gaggle of kiddos had stopped to play, and Joanna joined in the fun!

Some Mommy and Joanna shots.

Another car nap! She fell asleep on the way back to Nana and Popo's hotel. Super Matt moved the carseat (and Joanna) over to our car and buckled her in without waking her up! Then he got her out of the car at home and she fell back asleep on him. She slept for 2+ hours!! Wow!

That evening, we went to J. Christophers for dinner -- yum! Joanna LOVES cheese pizza!

We're so glad Nana and Popo got to come see us! We wish they could've stayed longer, but we enjoyed the time we had together. Joanna LOVES all her grandparents. Nana and Popo and Mamma and Pop were over this afternoon for a couple of hours. We tried to put Joanna down for a nap while they were here, but that was really just cruel and unusual punishment, and it didn't work! So she stayed up and entertained everyone. They left around 3:00, and Joanna took a Mommy snap! Yea! I love holding my sweet girl when she sleeps.