Busy Week Already

Monday
Let's see... Monday I had very light contractions through the whole day and through that night. I was able to sleep, though, for which I'm very glad! No further progress in that area since then, except for regular strange pains that I hope are contributing to some cervical development or something similar. :) So, I'm still preggie! I'm ready to have this baby whenever s/he is ready to come out and greet us!

Jess was working through the day and I was in bed for most of it on top of that. The girls were VERY good and checked on me frequently. They even bickered far fewer times than normal!

Tuesday
Tuesday morning my friends Sage and Ozlem came over to visit with me. I know I've mentioned how lonely I've been... well, I was an advocate for myself (which is SUPER difficult for me to do, believe it or not!) and invited them to come over just to spend time with me. Of course, they brought their children and our kids had lots of fun playing together. But it was more for me (to me) than for my kids this time. I'm glad. I felt much better having spent time with girlfriends... and these two are two of the few I trust not to be like that meanie beanie lady.

I took a nap from around 1:15pm, soon after my friends left, until around 5pm! Jess has been really encouraging me to sleep, which I totally appreciate.

In the evening we all went to Jessie's Food Storage Preparation class. He's been doing them monthly with this being the 3rd month. This class was how to use Rice and Powdered Milk. Thus far he's covered some basics with the items one can purchase from the church in the basic supply kit (the one you could buy monthly for under $40). I'm really glad he went that route. His next class is going to be "Soup; It's What's for Dinner" because it's a special request from a regular class attendee. It's really good timing, too, considering we're entering Fall and the next class will be at the end of October! He loves teaching this class so much. And he's quite good at it, to boot!

Wednesday October 1, 2008
Piano class day! Mary Kay and I are actually planning to move it to Thursday, starting next week, but it was Wed this week. It took a while for me to get organized to depart today because I was brining a few things along. I actually wore a hiking pack because I couldn't put all the things I was bringing on top of my humongo stroller (too much weight causes sagging and causes me fear of ruining my special and VERY useful tool for child transpot). In all my preparations I totally put my eyes on the music book and notebook at LEAST 3 times and thought, "I have to bring those!" But I didn't put them in the bag for fear that something would leak and ruin them! Don't ya know, I forgot 'em!?? ARGH! I was almost a block and a half away when I realized it, running late already, in my super slow preggie walk... *sigh* So, I went home and picked them up. We were probably 30 minutes late, which now makes it TWO times I've been late for something with Mary Kay. I'm so TOTALLY not a late runner. It aggravates the daylights out of me when I run late. I honestly don't mind when others do... I'm kinder to them than to myself, I suppose. ahwell She was very kind about my tardiness!

I messed things up for piano class today by having Ria practice a couple hours before class. She was REALLY inattentive and fidgety for Mary Kay. Well, I certainly won't do THAT again! Good to know, right? This week we'll be working on maintaining good finger position, trying to get the whole timing thing down (as in counting and holding for 2 beats with half notes), and integrating those things together as she plays two little songs she has that she's been working on (on the black keys surrounding middle C).

I brought a few things over to Mary Kay and Tim in hopes of helping Mary Kay have an easier time with teaching Ria to play piano combined with her first year teaching. I remember THOSE days! I feel obligated to mention that I brought the food stuffs for a slightly selfish reason as well: I wanted to help myself feel a little better about the fact that I haven't yet done either of the things Mary Kay has mentioned she would like as "payment" for the lessons. She was so super sweet about it, which felt really good! So, I'm hopeful that a few weeks of the month we can do something similar for her, to ease her burdens as she enriches our Ria's life!

Soon after we got home my friend Kelly came over with her neice so we could have Family Home Evening (FHE) together. Jess was home Monday night, so we have FHE with him, too. Ria has often asked for FHE through the week, so she was SUPER delighted to have an older girl come over AND get to have FHE again! It was really nice! Kelly brought chocolate chip cookie bars that were REALLY wonderful. It was completely obvious that they were a hit because Kat at hers, asked for more, and then fussed up a storm to try to get another serving! Kelly admited that she was nervous about preparing something to bring to a Chef's home. If only people knew Jess (AND me!) better, they would know there's NOTHING to fear. We just love generosity and thoughtfulness... and when it tastes good it's icing!

The Countdown
Can you believe I'm SO close to my due date?!? I'm excited and hopeful that I won't have much longer to wait to meet this new addition to our family!