Almost 34 Weeks!

I keep thinking I'll get around to posting a picture, but both of our camera batteries are dead and we can't find the charger. We should probably find it before we have the baby! Instead, I'll post a picture of Bo painting the nursery. His phone takes great pictures!

We, really Bo, started this last night. We've been ready to start for a few weeks now, but we were both avoiding it because we were afraid it wouldn't turn out well. I think we both completely underestimated Bo's ability for fine detail. It looks awesome! I think we have something like three gray stripes left to paint, so I hope we're able to get those done within the next couple of weeks. It took about two hours to do this one, so I don't want him to completely burn out trying to do them all at one time.

Bo has been working on the VW Westfalia Van a lot. We got the van shortly after we moved to Austin, but when I went into my internship we had zero money for working on it (or anything, really). It's been registered, inspected and insured for a couple of weeks now, and now that Bo can drive it around we're finding out what other stuff needs to be fixed. We're currently waiting on some sort of part for the gear shifting mechanism. The new tent for the pop up came yesterday...I really can't wait to see how great it looks! The current tent is pretty gross.

We had another check-up yesterday. All went well! The midwife we had this time was the same one we had for our first appointment. I really like her! I have to say that I have so far enjoyed my prenatal care at this practice. I chose the practice when moved here, specifically for their support of natural childbirth, so I'm glad it's lived up to the reputation.

I'm doing well. Allergy season is in full-force so that's not been fun for neither of us. I'm sleeping pretty well, every now and then I'll have a night when I don't sleep much, but the third trimester insomnia hasn't hit yet. The Braxton Hicks are definitely becoming more intense. I started taking papaya enzymes again with my meals because the heart burn/indigestion was getting really bad. It felt like knives in my throat sometimes. Baby seems really comfortable up by my ribs. I hope she enjoys it because I do not. Sometimes it's just a dull soreness and other times it's a quick stabbing feeling. It's quite painful, especially when I drive. For some reason, that angle really encourages her to move into my ribs. As long as she stays head down, I don't care where she is...haha.

I can't believe we're only 6-weeks out! I feel like I have too much to do and not enough time to do it in, but I think I'm just being paranoid. I have a few house projects that need finishing up, namely: take one final load of "giveaways" to Saver's Thrift Store, Organize the new office/library space, hang up pictures in the hallway (this project came out of nowhere - ha!), and finish up the nursery the best we can. The nursery needs: painting to be finished, clothes need to be hung (thanks to my wonderful friend Krista for the hand me downs!), cloth diapering system ready to go (diaper pail, wet bags, diaper sprayer, etc) and lastly a mattress. I imagine the decorating of the nursery won't happen before she gets here. We'll see. Maybe I'll get super-nesty there at the end! Oh and I need to pack our hospital bag...that's probably one of the most important things that needs to get done!

I'm looking forward to seeing everyone in a couple of weeks! Some of you haven't seen me since Christmas (or at all!) so I imagine I'm going to be pretty huge compared to then! Lot's of love to you all!

Our Vanagon

I've been quite busy the past week and a half, so of course I didn't feel like posting. This past weekend we went to the Christ Church Retreat out at Genesis Ranch in Fischer, Tx. I think we both had a great time and are looking forward to next year's retreat.

This November 18 will not only mark 25 years of life for me, but will mark 2 years of us being the proud owners of our 1985 Volkswagen Vanagon Westfalia. We acquired this big fella from my great uncle, Tom, who graciously gave us a steal of a deal.

This is us picking the van up in Houston. U-Haul said that our truck wouldn't be able to tow the van, so we had to not only rent the tow-dolly, but rent a U-haul truck as well. The Westfalia is a camper, complete with two (small) beds, a stove, refrigerator, sink, and a ton of storage space.

After sitting in my uncle's driveway for a few years, never being cranked, the van didn't run. Bo and I helplessly tried to push the van down the driveway and up onto the tow dolly. A neighbor saw us and felt sorry for us, so he offered to help. We're not stupid, so we accepted his offer. I'm pretty sure we would have been out-of-luck had he not helped us out.

Once we got to our house we realized even more how gross the "the thing" looked. Swamp thing would have been an appropriate name for the van, instead of Westfalia. Houston is really humid so it had moldy stuff all over the outside and the inside too. We decided it would be in our best interest to wash it up a bit so that the neighbors wouldn't hate us. At this point we'd only been in the neighborhood for 6 months, so we were still in the getting-to-know-you phase. All cleaned up with the side door open. Not bad looking, eh?

Bo started working on the van when we got it, but we had to stop while I was gone for my internship, for financial reasons. Now that we're not having to pay rent and all of the gas bills from traveling back and forth, we've started back to fixing it up. Progress will continue to be slow until I find a job and we have two incomes again. I'm excited about this and hope we'll be able to go on vacation in our little camper someday.




The camper with the "tent" popped up. This is how you access one of the beds. I think this looks really bizarre, but I like it!









This is the refrigerator. Above you can see the stove on the left and the sink on the right. How funny is that?



Bo's first goal is getting the van "inspectable." At least this way, we can legally drive it to get something fixed if Bo is unable to do it himself. Otherwise, I think we would have to tow it there. One of the more costly items will be tires. Apparently it needs special, heavy-duty tires. Hopefully that will be the most expensive thing it needs! Of course, I'm not going to leave it all to Bo. My plans are to clean up the curtains and carpeting. The seats are in exceptional condition, thankfully! The carpeting needs some TLC and at least this way I have a valid excuse to purchase a little steam cleaner :)