Week 8

Hello everyone!  Hope that life is treating everyone well and that Spring weather has come and not gone again wherever you are.

Just thought it would be a good time for a brief update.

Feeling much better these days, practically back to normal if you excuse the whole pregnant part.  My appendectomy seems to have been successful with no after effects of infection.  Come to find out that our surgeon is rated in the top 10 in Seattle, and I'm happy to say I have 3 small scars as his autograph.  The scars are far less scary than I'd feared....and it will be exciting to see what a stretching stomach does to them!  The funniest one is in my belly button.  My abs are still a little sore.  The doctor says this is because they cut them open and sewed them back together.  It's amazing how much information they are willing to give you after the fact.  I had no idea what I was getting myself into when I put the anesthesia mask on!

We have now begun our season of visitors.  This past weekend some friends from Chicago were in town.  We ran through Seattle with them - they all ate way too much seafood - and yesterday I fell asleep at 5:30pm!  Aside from a 9:30pm bowl of cheerios I was out until 7am this morning! 

This coming Saturday we are excited to pick up Joe's parents from the airport for a week stay!  It will be exciting to have more grandparents around and Sandy is excited to join us for our next doctor's appointment!

We officially have plane tickets to come to St. Louis and Illinois in mid-May.  We are thrilled to celebrate Dave's college graduation, occupy the Maier's houseboat, eat Imos Pizza, and see all of our family and friends.  I already know that the visit will be too short.  Coming back to Seatlle will be made easier because my Mom and Tom will be coming in June!  They are coming just in time to help us move!  We're not moving far, just to the apartment underneath our current one.  Joe is excited because we are upgrading to a small patio and additional dining room.  I'm excited because we can just start over with a second room as a baby room rather than trying to reconfigure our current second room/storage closet.  I also felt like it was necessary not to feed the baby at the coffee table where we eat our meals now!  It will be a fun change to get  us excited for a new addition!  Sadly, it's not less stairs.

My pants don't fit much anymore and while I'd like to attribute that to just the pregnancy, I think it might be some crazy combination of life.  Surgery surely didn't help, neither did the stress I've felt a bit of lately, or the nausea that causes me to eat carbohydrates constantly.  We're doing our best to embrace it and wondering why no one has come up with the "early maternity clothes" store yet.  Surely there is a market for people like me who are willing to by new things knowing full well they will only fit for a month or so.  I think I'm going to try to find a way to make Yoga pants look professional.  My bottom scar is directly where pants button - it is seriously inconvenient.

Joe is doing well.  He's as sweet as ever.  It is his main goal to ensure I'm drinking enough water everyday - something that doesn't come easy to me.  He's doing a great job and I'm trying to maintain a sense of humor about it.  We got to spend the day with our nephew Eli yesterday and seeing how Joe loves him (and how he loves Joe's beard makes me excited for this lucky kid to have such a cool dad.  And we're pretty lucky to have such a cool nephew.

I hope that you all are doing well and when you feel inspired, I'd love to hear the latest on your own rollercoaster of life!  And see pictures, I always love to see pictures!