A Summary

So the arrival of the baby is very close! For those of you that don't know...37 weeks is full term, so the baby could come anytime after two weeks from now, to two weeks after the due date. I would expect to hear a lot less out of me after he's born, but I'll try to still do quick updates, or summarize every once in awhile like I'm about to do here.

I've gotten behind on the blogging recently, but kept notes about what's been going on, so here's a summary:

• Birthday/Reunion: Going back to August - I'm sure nobody remembers but I said I would say how my birthday was :-) Since I've "grown-up" I don't expect anyone to make a fuss over me, and so I just make a fuss over myself. If anyone else acknowledges it, or gives gifts or cards or whatever, it's a bonus! I was going to make one of my favorite cakes (strawberry, chocolate), but my kitchen is just too cluttered, and I was too busy anyway. So I treated myself with a manicure and pedicure and eyebrow wax. Which worked out well because my 10-year high school reunion was also on my birthday, so I looked extra spiffy, and being 30 weeks pregnant then, it was a nice treat! So that was my birthday in a nut-shell. I did have some family and friends give a some gifts and cards, and that is always really fun. The reunion was good too, not awkward and horrible like you see on movies. I think the next one will be better because I think a lot of people had a good time so maybe we'll all be less nervous next time. Okay, so this is supposed to be a summary, and already with the first topic I'm getting long-winded. I'm trying to prevent breaking this up into a bunch of posts to make it more readable like I did when I was catching up in June...so, let's see if I can get more concise from here on out.........
• Pregnancy related: September - pretty much in denial that it was so close as I was so unprepared. And when I wasn't in denial I was in panic-mode. I still had a lot of annoyances like the sciatica problem, or headaches. Didn't have leg cramps, but had leg aches instead which were almost worse because instead of pain that came and went, they just ached and kept me awake. Also, this may not be pregnancy related, but I think it is because I don't usually have problems with my teeth when I'm not pregnant and I think the calcium is leached from my teeth while I'm pregnant weakening them (doc and dentist also thought this could be a possibility, so not just my own crazy theory) - So, after all that work I had done in April and thinking I was all squared away - my tooth farthest back on the top right broke. UGH.... October: Not as many headaches and back issues, I actually feel pretty good except for it being hard to get up and down from couches, beds, etc. I went to the dentist this week and luckily the tooth can wait until January (when I'll have insurance money again, used it all up early on this year and that's why I'd gone to Mexico for all the rest. We had to pay ourselves for the appointment this week.), so that's good news, and it can be filled for now, but will need a crown later - so good news about being able to wait for the crown. But, not so good news about the work done in Mexico. Apparently my dentist thinks the crowns are too big and making my gums a little swollen and is suggesting the four crowns be replaced. They're going to check them out again after the pregnancy too, because the swelling could be related to that. Either way, it isn't urgent and so I can do one a year or something. I don't regret getting the work done in Mexico though because the crowns were $1000 for the 4 of them. If I had them done here I would have paid $1000 for each because our insurance was out and would have had to pay the full price - so $4000. Now I can do one a year with half the cost covered by insurance, so $500 - if you include the $250 I paid for each in Mexico, that's $750 for each and still less than the $1000 I would have had to pay to do them here earlier this year when they were an emergency. So yeah, still no regrets, but maybe I should take back my referral to that dentist. So this started out as pregnancy-related, but I went off on dental-related :-) Plus this isn't very concise. So to finish up about pregnancy-related for this month so far - So I said I was in denial and panic mode last month - Well I'm not that much more prepared this month than last month, but I'm feeling less worried and know it's all going to work out. I just can't wait to meet this little person! ..............So really, I'll be quicker from now on :-)................
• House-progress: I'll put up pictures tomorrow. The roofing is almost done. This month should bring a lot of progress - siding, plumbing, electrical, and HVAC. My dad working on siding with some help from Mike, Mike doing HVAC, and we're hiring out the plumbing and electrical. We're estimating to be done by the New Year, so that would be great. Worst case scenario is late February when the lock on our loan expires. The biggest factor effecting when we finish may not be how quickly people work, but with the financing. With all the turmoil in the market lately, it's causing the bank to be really stingy with getting us our money. We've been using credit cards to get by and will pay them back when the draws finally go through, but if this keeps up it can really start to hold us up. One fun thing has been taking advantage of craigslist and other deals - since the carpet and tub, we've also saved a bundle on - siding, doors, base & case, range, dishwasher, roofing materials, and roofing labor.
  
• Route-related: So part of the reason I got behind on the blogging was because of route issues. We're going to need to come up with some more income once the house is done so I thought it would be a good idea to take on some more routes. I tried some out for about a month from mid-August to mid-September and it SUCKED. My count was up to 1800 (up from 1400), won't go into it, but that extra 400 papers added almost 3 hours to my already 5-6 and it was just TOO MUCH (more than just delivery time there was time spent going to the dump,more stops for picking up papers and gas, etc.). Besides having more papers that time I was doing the new routes was horrible because the papers were late on a regular basis and so instead of finishing at 1:00-2:00 a.m. on Tuesday nights I'd be up until 4:30 a.m. AND have to go back out and finish in the morning. Then on Saturdays I'd be delivering till 12:00-1:00 p.m.(instead of 10:00-11:00 a.m.) and going out again Saturday night to finish. Couple cool things I saw while on route recently though - I saw a fox - I stopped right in front of it and it stared at me, so I'm sure it was a fox. The cool thing was it was all black, except for a white tipped tail, and white eyebrows. Also, the same night I saw a shooting star that was really bright and wide, and BLUE. It was so pretty. (Just looked up "black fox" on google, found some pics - see this link)
  
• MISC-sort of route and house related? In one week we had two tires go flat - one on the van while Mike was driving it, one on the CRX while I was doing route (sucky). We know the CRX one was caused by two nails in the tire, and don't know but suspect the van had a nail in it too. We have some large magnets on a stick that are sold for the purpose of picking nails and other metal objects on job sites, so it had been too long since I'd gone out and swept the area with those - will have to do that again very soon (Mike went over real quick). Luckily the CRX tire was patchable (thank you to Les Schwab for patching it for free!), so that's good, and the van needed new tires anyway, so that just sped that along - will be going back this week to get the other three.
  
• School-related: Weird how quickly we adjust. I thought I was going to hate getting up early, but like I thought it would, it's brought more structure to my schedule and it's been a good thing. There's already been a day off from school (last Friday) and after only a month it felt weird for there not to be school - how quickly we adapt! Adrienne still loves it and can't wait to go to bed at night, hope this keeps up! I mentioned in a previous post that she's just recently been riding the bus. It had rained a lot at first, but since it's been nicer Colette and I are taking advantage of every sunny day and walking to pick her up. It's 1/4 mile each way, so a good walk for my pregnant self - not too long, but long enough to feel like I got a little exercise! (especially going up the driveway) We've walked 3 times now (would have been 4 if I weren't late one day), and I plan to go every sunny day and if I can find my big huge umbrella we'll go on slightly rainy days as well. I learned after the first day that I need to allow five extra minutes to put my shoes on...the way I'm carrying this baby I feel like I have a piece of wood strapped around my abodomen, it's so hard to bend. The girls I carried more in my pelvis and they sort of folded in at the hip.
  
• MISC- I saw a documentary on TLC about the Duggar Family - I thought it was pretty amazing learning about them and found their family very inspirational (there's hope for me if they can do it with 17 kids!) - if interested, here's a link to their site.