House For Sale

Chris left last Tuesday morning, for what felt like the millionth time. In reality it was only the 4th and I even went with him one time so I will quit whining now. He went to a conference in MN and then flew to UT for some family events including his brother's endowment and his sister's sealing.

I was sad to not be able to go. Consolation came in the form of my mom. I pleaded with her and offered to help with a ticket if she would just come help me for the week that Chris would be gone. Lucky for me she was able to swing it!

She was fun, companionship, kick in the pants, therapist, idea maker, motivator, grandma, energy, sleep, and counselor all rolled into one. I felt like I had a partner and cheerleader for completing my house-to-do-list instead of having to do it all on my own when my growing belly seemed to be draining my energy and desire more each day.

We ran around from store to store and worked hard for days and while the list is not quite complete we made such significant progress that I feel motivated and capable of finishing the last few things-something I was not feeling prior to her visit! It was really tempting to lock her up and keep her till the baby comes. It would save her a trip anyway, right? Sadly, reality and responsibility and bills beckon and off she went this morning.

But lest ye think we didn't do anything enjoyable (although really we do enjoy working together!) we did take some time to enjoy each other and Noah and Ian.

Noah's birthday was Wednesday and while he had already had his 'party' we took cookies to school and they celebrated him there for the day. He wore his crown around all day!
That evening before bed we also got out the scrapbooks so that I could show him pictures of when he was born. They enjoyed it so much we had to do it again!

He was also happy to get a couple of more presents. Grandma Leslie got him a flashlight. He loves to take a flashlight to bed so he was super pleased and has been every night since!Mimi (great-grandmother) got him a popsicle mold that we had to try out right away and he has been enjoying daily ever since-
even if they are really cold.
I think I will enjoy it more after the weather is hot and the kiddie pool is out and full and I am not sitting on the floor beside them wiping up all the drips that might stain my floor:)

We also enjoyed a picnic and playing at the park. Noah really wanted to climb up this hill and Grandma was happy to help.
And, in case your weren't aware, no visit to our house would be complete without some Peter Rabbit.

One of our accomplishments was taking pictures. Others include wall decor, sanding, spackling, sanding, painting, cleaning, sorting, and packing away.

Behold the fruits of our labors:








I picked Chris up from the airport yesterday after driving through the driving rain (and trying not to fall asleep!). It was a special treat to be able to visit and rehash our time apart without the interruptions that come with kids in the back seat.

We enjoyed a pleasant evening trying to find names for babies. The needle-thread-sharpened pencil method of predicting gender and number of kids indicated that this baby is a girl (with two more boys to follow!). I had a dream about a month ago about a baby girl. If it does turn out to be a girl I will have to tell you more and if it is a boy we will chalk it up to crazy pregnant dreams.

My dream baby girl told me her name so we were mostly looking for boy names. But, as boy names seem to be especially hard for us, we had a few detours and found a few more girl names we liked as well.

All good things must come to an end and since I had resolved not to lock Grandma in the closet, morning meant goodbyes.

Consolation this time comes in the form of Chris-home for the next month, hopefully!-and Grandma's promise to return when the baby is born.

Thank you, thank you, thank you, Mom, for coming and doing and being. It really meant the world to me.