End of February, what?!

No, despite what you may think, I did not drop off the face of the earth. Apparently I have been quite busy the last couple of weeks though, since I've completely neglected the whole blog thing! So, quick summary. The 14th was my family baby shower, so I headed up to my parents, got some good fun time in with my ADORABLE nephews (have I mentioned how much I LOVE them? SO much, they are the best) and had an amazing shower. This one was thrown by my sister and my sister in law (brother's wife) and they did such a great job! I didn't take any pictures (too busy mingling, eating, opening gifts, etc.) but I know my mom and my best friend did...unfortunately I haven't seen the pics from either of them yet. If I can get them though, I'll be sure to post. The food was amazing, the company was wonderful and people were SO generous. Its unbelievable. Oh, and each of my five nephews got an outfit for the baby. How sweet is that?! They are all so excited about their new cousin! And of course all hoping its another boy cousin too. All in all, a great time. I did discover that a 4 hr car trip...a bit exhausting and hard on the back at 32 weeks pregnant. Glad I don't have to go anywhere else before baby arrives!

In other news (oh yeah, I actually DO have other things going on in my life besides this baby thing, hard to believe from the way I talk, huh?)...our neighbor passed away earlier this month :(. We weren't very close, but she did sell us our farm, and her house is pretty much smack dab in the middle of the farm. She was always a good neighbor, keeping an eye on the cattle when they were in a pasture near her house, calling us if she thought one looked sick or if they got out, and never complaining about any smell, mess, dust, etc from the farm (that alone makes for a good neighbor in our book!). She was a widow, and sold the farm to us 3 years ago mostly b/c it had been her husband's baby and she didn't feel like she could take care of it the way he did, but she was adamant that it continue to be farmed b/c that's what he would have wanted. You could tell she missed him so much, even though he'd already been gone probably 3 or 4 years before we even met her. In that respect, I'm sure she's happier now that she is with him again. But of course, its still sad. She was relatively young (60 something I think) but was diagnosed with lung cancer last summer, and had a stroke at the end of January. Just about every evening since we've lived in our house, I have been able to look over towards her house and see lights on inside. I always felt a little bad for her, knowing she was all alone in her little house at the top of the hill...but now its so strange to look in that direction and see nothing but pitch black reminding me that the house is sitting empty. The issue now will be...what will be done with the house and the surrounding 10 acres that go with it. When she was alive, she let us farm the portions of her acreage that weren't yard...that included a decently sized field and a chunk of pasture. We have the first right of refusal on the house, but its just not in our budget right now. So of course we're a bit nervous about who may buy the house, since it is literally in the middle of our farm. Its not on the market yet, and I would imagine it will be a while before they get everything sorted out in order to sell it. Hopefully whoever does buy it realizes that they're buying a house in the middle of a working farm and will be an understanding neighbor in that regard (even better if they let us continue to use part of the land, but we won't hold our breath on that part) but I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

More farming related items...the dry cows...GONE! YAY! They left early this week, back to their own farms to have their calves and go back to being milk cows. And we are left with only 18 bulls who are out on pasture (no, I don't like having 18 bulls around, but what can ya do?), our own 16 steers that we're raising to sell for freezer beef, and our one little heifer that we have...um, yeah, why do we have her? Good question. You'd have to ask Kelly, I'm sure there's a reason. But she's awfully cute anyway. So, what does that all mean? It means I have a husband again! And just in time, since we have SO much to do in the next 6 weeks. Even before the cows left though, I have to say, my husband has been so amazing. Now, normally, he's not much for helping around the house. Its not that he's a "caveman" type and believes I should be doing it all in addition to my own full-time job, its just that well, he's a guy and just plain doesn't notice a lot of things I do, and he works 7 days a week, often 10-12 hrs a day and well, can you blame a guy for not wanting to cook or clean after doing all that? But lately, I have been reminded of just how lucky I am. Example, last week, he made dinner on two separate nights...AND helped with the dishes afterwards. Awesome. And he's been doing little things just to help, picking up after himself (and even after me sometimes!), and just generally taking good care of me. I had always worried a bit how things would be after we had a baby...and whether or not I'd be stuck doing all the household chores plus taking care of the baby, but in the last few weeks I've stopped worrying about that. I know he's going to be a huge help to me and an amazing dad. :)

There's more to say (of course, I mean heck, I've been MIA for like 2 weeks!) but I'm sure you're tired of reading and frankly, I'm tired of typing for now! I would say I promise to follow up soon...but I keep falling down on those promises, so lets just say I'll try my best. :)

The good and the slightly scary

This weekend was good, but with an afternoon of "I have to do what?!" thrown in. We'll start with the good. Saturday was my first baby shower. My college roommates, who seem to be reproducing like mad, throw showers for everybody's first baby. Between our side of the house and the other side (we lived in a duplex), there were 6 girls and 7 guys, and since most of the wives of the guys either went to school with us or started dating their husbands when we were in school, we include everybody...that equals a lot of baby showers :) This one was actually a triple shower! Me, a girl due 2 wks before me, and a girl due 2 wks after me. Yep, mini-baby boom. It was really fun. I swear, I have the most amazing friends. They got us such great things and of course we had a fab time hanging out and catching up. I was exhausted by the time I got home Saturday night of course (shower was in Columbus which is 2 hrs away), but it was well worth it.

Sunday was such a gorgeous day! It felt like spring around here! I had to keep reminding myself that its only February and we have plenty more winter ahead of us! But visions of gardens and flowerbeds kept popping into my head :) So, I helped Kelly outside in the morning and enjoyed the warm fresh air, then we were off to town to run some errands and go to our "childbirth education" class. This is where the "I have to do WHAT?!" comes in. haha! It sort of pulled me out of my safe little bubble of denial that yes, this child actually has to come out, one way or another. It was actually educational and I'm glad we went, it was just a bit scary. I'm feeling better now...a couple of days later, partially b/c I've been able to slip back into denial land a bit and partially b/c I feel like I have a little bit of a plan worked out. Pretty sure epidural is in that plan. I just don't think I'm tough enough to go the natural route. Any readers experienced in the childbirth thing to give me advice/experiences? I like hearing from normal people who have actually been through it, to get an idea what I'm in for and just how bad it might or might not be.

Even with that "wake-up call", I find myself getting more and more excited. We have 8 weeks to go. WOW. That is practically no time at all! I'm getting so excited to meet our baby, see what he or she looks like...will they look like me or like Kelly? Whose eyes, whose nose? And of course, the obvious, boy or girl?! Baby has been bouncing around happily in there lately and I love it. Well, except the repeated jumps on my bladder. But if that's the worst I have to deal with, its not so bad. In the last week or so, baby's started getting hiccups. Such a funny feeling! For only having 2 months left, I'm happy to be feeling so good. Hopefully it continues this way for a while!

I'll try to do more than just boring "weekend updates" soon. I feel so behind on blogging and reading. There's so much more going on to talk about too!

Time flies when you're having fun!

Saturday was our five year anniversary. Five years!! Hard to believe. I remember being on our honeymoon, thinking how we should go on another "big trip" for our 5 year anniversary, thinking that gave us plenty of time to plan and save for something great. Um....where did the plenty of time go? haha! Well, we didn't do anything big and special, but that's okay. We had a nice weekend together at home. Friday night I picked up pizza after running some errands, Saturday we slept in, had a nice big breakfast, and Kelly surprised me with a necklace with my birthstone! I wasn't expecting anything, we've never gotten each other gifts for our anniversary before. Just never seemed necessary, especially since our anniversary is only one month after Christmas...so I didn't even think that maybe for this "milestone" year, we should get each other something. But that sweet husband of mine...he did! I feel bad that I didn't get him anything though :( He was pretty proud of himself for surprising me though. So the rest of the day, I helped him a little bit outside, did some miscellaneous things in the house and then we went to a local nice restaraunt for dinner. Followed by some relaxing at home, and dessert of a homemade milkshake for me (hey, calcium, right?? haha) and an ice cream cone for him. Yep, living the high life over here, that's us!!
Its been an amazing five years though. In some ways it feels like its flown by and wait, didn't we JUST get married? While at the same time, I feel like its been "us" forever. I can barely remember a time when he wasn't in my life. Which, I guess we have been a part of each others' lives in some fashion for 10 years now. Friends first for two years, dating for three, married for five. I wouldn't have wanted to spend that time with anyone else, and I look forward to many, many, MANY years more :) And now I'll leave you with a couple pictures...of January 31, 2004.And five years later...on our way to a family of 3! This is me on Saturday after our anniversary dinner. 30 1/2 weeks! Henry wanted to be in the picture too, doesn't he just look so excited? :)