BaBy-Q!

Oh. My. Gosh.

I am so lucky.

Even "lucky" doesn't begin to describe how incredibly blessed I am. Last Saturday, Peanut and I were treated to the most amazing BaBy-Q baby shower ever. My two besties hosted a fabulous party with even fabulous-er food (YUM!!!) and so many of my favorite ladies came to celebrate Peanut.

I'm already starting to get emotional about leaving Sheppard and Wichita Falls, but Saturday may have put me over the edge. The women I've befriended here are AMAZING and have made the "ENJJPT experience" the awesome ride that it's been. Even as I write this, I know that my words are failing to really express just how grateful I am for each and every one of these women. As I looked around the room on Saturday, I was immediately reminded of a fond (and usually funny) memory for each face.

I love these girls.

I will miss them all terribly.

So for those of you reading who fall into this group, don't let me down! Keep in touch once I'm gone, and keep me in the loop on your lives. I promise to hold up my end of the friendship bargain, so please, please, do the same. I will Skype in for Drop Nights and send flowers for graduation. I'll assure you that there's a bigger plan at play when he doesn't get the plane he was hoping for, or it feels like he may never make it to the end of the program. I'll tell you a joke if you need it. We've got a good thing going here, you and me. Let's keep it up.

With that said, let's share some photos from the BaBy-Q!!!!

Cake Ball & Diaper center-pieces!

Decorations!

Gifts!

Delicious food!

Girlfriends! L to R: Tiffany, Victoria, Shelby, & Lisa.

Opening gifts

Canvas art sister made for Peanut's nursery. The quote is from Shakespear's A Midsummer Night's Dream

Friends!

Another shot of my beautiful pregnant friends!

My amazing hostesses, Tiffany and Maggie.

Little Sister made the trip! Wahhhooo!

23 Weeks & Still No Pic!

I'm sorry friends (and family!) I have really been slacking on my chalkboard this week. The problem is, it's been SUPER sunshiny outside, and this Oregon kid would much rather be outside soaking up some Vitamin D than inside doing anything else. I will try my very hardest to get it done and posted today or tomorrow.

But really, would you choose being inside over this???

I get that it's just a view of my neighborhood from my driveway, but there wasn't a cloud in the sky, the grass is (slowly) starting to green up, and it was a beautiful day. I think more than that though is all the people that this view can see. At least three of my friends' houses are in this actual picture, and so many more live just beyond the frame.

Now that we're really getting close to our departure date, I'm really trying to take advantage of everything Sheppard and Wichita Falls have to offer us. The sunshine, the good friends, the tasty food, all of it. All the things I'll miss dearly. I've got just three weeks left, and I'm trying to make the most of it.

I realize so far this post hasn't really been Peanut-related, but there isn't too much to update. She's still kicking away, and I've felt her kicks quite a bit more on the outside of my belly. It seems more believable if I can feel her with my hands than just feeling movement inside my belly, so I always try to feel for her when she's kicking. Still nothing violent or painful, but I'm sure those are coming from my lazy little baby.

We have our last appointment here at Sheppard on April 22, and I'll be due for another appointment right after we (hopefully) move into a house in Klamath, so I've been doing some research on doctors there. Luckily another girl from the ENJJPT program just had her baby there, so she's been great pointing me in the right direction. I just need to figure out what I need to do to make sure all my records and such make it to our next location.

We still haven't found a house in Klamath Falls (which is stressing both Jeff and I out a bit at this point), but we think we're closing in. We inquired about a SUPER cute one the other night, so we're waiting to hear back from the realtor about it. Fingers crossed it works out, that'll be one less thing on our worry list. It sounds like the Travel Management Office (TMO) has arranged a moving company for us, so hopefully they can accommodate our requested dates and we can get our things packed and loaded before the end of the month. Then its a few days crashing with our life-partner couple, the Lackeys, before separately heading west. Lucky me gets to fly, my trip will only take a few hours (okay, probably more than a few, but still), while poor Jeff's trip will take days. He'll get to spend a few days in Vegas when he stops there, so I'm sure he'll be fine. He and my dad seem to relish the opportunity to hang out on the open road. Weirdos.

That's probably about all the updates I have for right now. I need to get some breakfast, but after that maybe I'll work on my chalkboard so I can take my picture today (although I promise the bump hasn't changed much, haha).

Toodle-oo!

Halfway There!

Yesterday marked the end of our 20th week of pregnancy, roughly the halfway point. It feels like its drug on and flown by at the same time. Part of me can't imagine that in about 4 1/2 months, we'll get to hold our little Peanut. Another part of me, though, knows how much will happen between now and then, and that makes me a little anxious. I don't think anyone ever feels completely ready, but we're a long way from even being close to ready. It's mostly a conscious decision not to collect a bunch of stuff we're just going to have to move with us in a little over a month, and I think we're also waiting until we know Peanut is a he or a she to move forward with purchasing a lot of stuff. So it's been minimal nesting for me, so far. I'm sure next week I'll go buy a few little things for Peanut. He/she doesn't have much right now, and I feel kind of bad, haha.

Anyway, here's the 20-week pic. I really should try to start taking these earlier in the day when I don't look so darn worn out, but it's tricky when Jeff leaves the house at 5:00 am. So just don't judge my laziness, at least I put real clothes on, haha.

Also probably never wearing that shirt again...haha.

Not much else is new, we're just anxiously awaiting our gender sonogram on Monday. Our plan is not to find out at the actual appointment, but rather wait until later in the day when Jeff and I's reactions can be captured on video. I feel like there's something anti-climactic about sitting in the dark in the ultrasound room and having the tech just tell you what your baby is. So I've put my bestie Maggie Mae in charge of delivering the good news.

I'll inflate two black balloons, one filled with pink confetti, and one filled with blue confetti. Both will be labeled and delivered to Maggie with a note from the doctor about Peanut's gender. She'll return later to our house with the correct balloon, and will record Jeff and I's reaction as the balloon is popped. I'm sure I'll be anxious all day, especially knowing that Maggie knows and I don't. It'll be fun to see our reactions live though, for the first time, and to be able to share that with our friends will be so fun too.

So unfortunately, you probably won't hear anything from me here until Tuesday. You can wait another day, I promise. If I have a chance I'll put something on Facebook Monday night, but I've yet to come up with a clever way to announce it.
"IT'S A ______!" 
just doesn't seem to do it justice. We'll see if my creative brain can come up with something between now and then.

Also in the meantime: spending today and tomorrow preparing for Tiffany's baby shower, staying up way too late on Friday night to go see DIVERGENT (I'm seriously so stoked about this) and then co-hosting Tiff's shower on Saturday. I suppose I'll need to spend Sunday resting and recuperating from such a busy few days, and then bright and early Monday morning we head out to see the doctor!

Eeeeeeee I can't wait!!




COUNTDOWN TO THE GENDER SONO: 3 days, 23 hours, 37 minutes...