A Nightmare

Yesterday I dreamed that I went to the doctor again (it was the future, so in my dream it was this coming Friday) and the doctor checked me and said, "You're still not dilated at all-- so we still can't set an induction date." And then I went back in another week and the same thing happened. And meanwhile Jared's parents had left and Megan and Taylie had to leave. And by the time the baby finally came, I was on my own. I am so scared that this is going to happen. So everyone out there reading this, please pray that Micah will come this weekend.

And Mom? If my nightmare comes true, would you come rescue me again?

Just Dress Me in Sweats

And call me Balboa!

Poor Luke woke up today looking like this-- well a little worse actually. This picture was taken after one dose of medicine. I noticed a bug bite next to his eye yesterday morning, but during the night it blossomed into this. I took one look this morning and (slightly) freaked out. After a trip to the doctor, we purchased some Benadryl and are taking it easy today.

Texas, Our Texas

Okay, I won't really sing the state song. But I feel like it!

Jared and I are VERY HAPPY that he was offered an internship at K&L Gates in Dallas for the first half of next summer and an internship at Cox Smith in San Antonio for the second half of next summer.

It was a long and grueling process of TONS of interviews, several days of missed classes for callbacks, intense interviews, and immeasurable number of prayers. In the end Jared was so excited to get the 2 offers he most wanted. And we are so excited to be going to Texas next summer.

As a random extra fact, Jared is soon to be published again. He wrote an article on mining for a public policy class that will be published in The University of Botswana Law Journal. So crazy! Botswana! Who would have ever thought that Jared would be published in AFRICA?

Luke's New Love

Nutella!!!

Unfortunately he didn't want to look at the camera for the picture. He was watching Blue's Clues at the time. It's a morning tradition.

Answered Prayers and Moment of Panic

Our family has been very blessed lately, and it has been absolutely clear that our prayers are being answered. Here are 3 examples:

1. We've been praying for months that Jared would be blessed in the job search for next summer internships-- that we would be guided where to apply, that interviews would go well, etc. And we have definitely been blessed with his search in Texas and are so grateful to Heavenly Father for guiding us.

2. Since Jared has been out of town a lot lately on job interviews I've been worried that the baby will come early and Jared would miss it. So we've also been praying for the baby to just stay put. I went to the doctor yesterday and haven't started dilating at all-- which is great considering that with Luke I was dilated to a 2 by this time and that I was on my way to giving birth just 4 days from now. At this point it seems that Jared's travels are done and it would be okay for the baby to come anytime, but we're hoping to hold out to the due date (Oct. 1) anyway. If I wasn't so uncomfortable I'd even wish to go 2 weeks late. I'm not feeling nearly so ready this time.

3. This is the moment of panic. On Thursday morning we went to New Quarter Park and met up with some friends there. I was sitting over by the sand pit in the shade, and Luke was playing on the jungle gym with a few other kids. There were 3 moms by the gym, and so I stopped watching Luke and started chatting. A little later I saw the other moms looking around and then peering in my direction. It didn't take more than a second to realize what had happened. Luke had wandered off! I scanned the most likely spots-- not by the garbage cans or the hose spools. That left the woods, and there are lots of woods. Panic! Total panic in my chest and then the chanting prayer, "Please God, help me find him!" The other moms and I started looking, and we took different directions. I ran down one path yelling Luke's name and heard a screech in response. It was hard to tell where it was coming from, so another chanted prayer was begun. "Please God, where should I go?" Luckily I was lead down the right path and found him standing on the path way out in the woods. He looked scared until he saw me. Then he just looked down to the stick in his hand and held it up to show me. Well I was so relieved I started to cry and ran to pick him up. Luke looked right at me and said, "You need to listen." Well I told him that was darn right-- he needed to listen and he needed to stay close. You can bet that another prayer followed-- this one full of gratitude. I can say that I learned my lesson. Luke is too fast to let him out of my sight for a second. And I also learned (once again and not for the last time, I'm sure) that we are truly being guided.

I am so thankful for prayer!

Copy Cat

Anyone who knows Luke well will know that he LOVES Blue's Clues. He sings the songs, does the dances, and just recently started quoting and copying the kids on the show who show up in the letter segments.

One of his favorite episodes shows kids making newspaper hats. When the grocery ads come in the mail, Luke crumples them up, holds them over his head, takes a bow, and yells "Bye, Steve!" That's what the kids do in the segment. Well, they don't crumple up newspaper. They put on their newspaper hats, bow, and say good-bye. So the other day, when the ads showed up in our mailbox, Luke and I made a newspaper hat. He loved it! He stood in front of the t.v. watching himself bow for quite a long time.

37 weeks

I am so sick of hearing people say, "Any day now!" Mostly because I've been hearing it for nearly 2 months. I realize that my tummy is HUGE, but why can't people just say, "You look great," and leave it at that.

Oh, right. It's because I don't look so great. And I don't fit into any of my clothes. Even my maternity clothes no longer cover my belly all the way. To illustrate this better I should have had Jared take the picture 1) when I had first gotten ready for the day and had fresh hair and make-up (just to look better) and 2) in a tighter shirt that shows the ball shape and lowness of my belly. Maybe I'll post another one in a few days.

Yesterday I was getting ready for church and looked down at my belly and sighed. With Luke I had one dark line that extended all the way down the middle of my stomach. This time I don't have the dark line but lots of red stretch marks. I was moaning to Jared about the marks and saying that I don't think they were nearly so bad with Luke. I didn't think I had any red marks with Luke at all. Jared's response: "No way. It was way worse with Luke!" Thanks, Babe. You always know how to make me feel better. But since I didn't know about them with Luke I guess that means they faded. So at least there's something to hope for.

And soon there will be a new little guy here who will make this all worth it.

Last Trip From the Ortons

Over labor day weekend Nathan, Sarah, and Skyler came down for their last visit. We were so excited to see them again but bummed that it would be the last time. I wish we lived close enough to hang out all the time because Luke and Skyler have so much fun together, and I really like being with family. I wish we were closer to family.

But anyway... what we did.

On Friday night we went to Yankee Candle to throw pennies in the fountain. On Saturday morning we walked around CW for a bit and later that evening went to our favorite park, New Quarter Park, for a cookout.

Jared and Luke spent a lot of time playing ball. True male bonding.

Luke has gotten pretty good at throwing, but he still has a hard time catching. That's probably pretty normal, right?

Nathan was our hot dog chef.

I didn't ever get a belly shot of me during the weekend they were here, but I'm about the same size as Sarah. We hiked up our shirts one night and started comparing tummies. My belly is a little more ball shaped-- all out in the front, but I think we stick out about the same. Oh, and I think I'm carrying a little bit lower than Sarah.

We hardly ever get family shots, so I made Sarah snap one. It's too bad that Jared looks stoned, Luke looks bored, and I look fat. But I promise that we're a happy family.

Skyler found this sifter and thought it looked like a steering wheel. He ran around the sand pit "steering" his car. In this picture Nathan is his passenger. Notice that Skyler is wearing Luke's crocs. He insisted on wearing Luke's shoes all weekend. Glad to know my kid is somebody's role model. Luke also got Skyler hooked on Blue's Clues. Too bad Skyler wasn't able to get Luke hooked on big boy underwear and using the potty.

Sunday after church we went to Kiwanis park right near our house.

They were happy to swing right next to each other, but they got the most excited once we had their swings in sync and they could look at each other the whole time. They are definitely good buds!

Loving the swing

I can't remember now who ended up in the tree first, but since Luke wanted to do what Skyler was doing, and Skyler wanted to do what Luke was doing the whole weekend, it was inevitable that they both ended up there.

Luke is obviously not the brave one. He was happy to climb the tree while for awhile (while Jared was holding right on to him), but once he was more on his own, he didn't find it quite so exciting.

On Monday morning we went to the pool where Luke spent most of the time looking at the bugs in the pool drains or trying to take the tops off the cigarette disposal/ trash cans. What are those things called? So Luke and I went back early.

Wish we'd had more time.

ABC's

Baby Shower

The Hosts:

Last Thursday Hayley Bean and Heather Allison threw me a beautiful baby shower. I had a shower with Luke but with no decorations and hoop-la, so it was fun to have a true party shower-- with a theme and everything. How do you like our outfits?

This is us trying to look serious and solemn like the people posed outside their log cabins. We wished we had pitchforks. I think instead of looking serious I just look like I need to use the bathroom.

These girls are awesome!!!

The Guests:

Left to right: Laurel, Nancy, Sara, Kristi

Down below and around the circle starting from the left: Rachelle, Melissa, Kristi, Sara, Nancy, Laurel, and Keegan.

Somehow Amber, Brooke, Kim, Stacy N. and a few others didn't make it into any shots. Thanks for coming, y'all.

The Decor:

As you can see Hayley and Heather went with an adorable western/ cowboy theme. It was so cute...and so me!

The guest favors made very cute decorations for most of the party. Hayley and Heather had made caramel popcorn and placed in Mason jars. I'm telling you-- they were so creative!

Close up shot

Originally these lights were strung across the room, but they kept falling down. Despite Greg's (Hayley's husband's) greatest efforts the tape just wasn't going to hold them up. Some of the earliest guests got beaned in the head when one of the strands fell, so hanging them against the wall became plan B. I think it looks just as good. They were such a unique and attractive idea.

This is Greg valiantly trying to salvage Hayley's vision of the lights before the party began.

Bonus: Hayley let me keep all the bandanas. I want to turn the read ones into hoody towel trim for my cowboy bathroom and the blue ones into burp cloth trim. I've had one sewing lesson (made my own nursing cover!) and it's put me on a want-to-learn-how-to-REALLY-sew kick. Obviously by speaking of towels and burp cloths I plan to start slow.

The room at the clubhouse where the shower was held was bigger than the hosts wanted, so they had the most fun idea to split the room in two. They lined the middle of the rooms with tables and then put hay bales and lights on the bales. There were also hay bales around the room for seats.

Hay bales and lights separating the room

The food:

They served yummy taco soup and chips for starters and then later we had homemade peach cobbler with ice cream. The cobbler was sooooo delicious. I've got to learn how to make that.

The Gifts:

A shower isn't a shower without fun baby presents, and I was spoiled rotten. It's probably silly to give a shower for someone who's having a baby of the same sex in the same season. But it was fun to celebrate with friends and fun to get cutesy things anyway.

Baby clothes-- so tiny!

This book is totally adorable. It goes on the top shelf for books that boys only read with mommy.

I did not forget the lovely monkey blanket and EXTREMELY useful diapers that I got, and I thank my friends who gave them to me. But I looked fat (ter) and ugly (ier) in those pictures and refuse to blog them.

And for the group gift:

I got the baby swing that I really wanted.

This swing can be plugged in which is the main reason I wanted it. Luke was confused about day and night for awhile and there were a few nights that he spent practically the whole of it in the swing while I slept on the couch. Needless to say we went through a lot of batteries, so when I saw a plug I went wild. This swing can also go side to side or front to back.