An Un-exciting Update

I feel like we've been up to a lot and not a lot at the same time over these past few weeks. I guess the last time I really blogged about our lives was our camping trip, over a month ago. So what have I been doing? We spend most weekends doing chores around the house and doing small things here and there to get the nursery ready. There is still a bunch of small things left to do, but I'll include some unfinished pictures of the room so far...

Jeremy put the crib together...then realized he didn't have the mattress set on the highest level, so shimmied under it to fix it. Very Hamblen-esque. Baby H, this is your future, son.

Walking into the room, you see the rocker (it's been upgraded to a nicer, upholstered one) and the crib. The wall color stays but the art above the crib is changing.

Thank goodness we're having a boy - we are inundated with UT stuff! We love it though!

The dresser came assembled, but we unpacked a bunch of things in it and also set up the diaper genie and bouncy chair in the left corner.

We have a lot more organizing to do, and a few small things left to buy, but worst case we could have the baby now and be ready enough (with the help of some generous grandmas, I'm sure!). And that's the un-exciting update on the nursery.

Baby H was spoiled rotten at a lovely couples shower thrown by our friends, Justin and Emily. But I refuse to blog about it until I can steal pictures from the hosts. So that's another unexciting update.

Last week we went to the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo with some friends to see Darius Rucker. We saw him last year and he's great! He closed his show with Purple Rain...I mean where else could you hear the former lead singer of Hootie and the Blowfish cover a Prince song at his country concert? The boys went all out in their western gear and we had a lot of fun watching the rodeo and eating junk food. In all honesty I ate at least some of all of the following: a foot-long hot dog, a turkey leg, a fried Moon Pie, a caramel apple, a strawberry lemonade and an Icee. Guess who woke up at 3am with a horrible stomach ache? We walked all over the fair afterwards and I paid dearly for it the next day, but it was worth it. I had a blast!

Boys in their Wranglers and fancy western shirts. Don't be jealous ladies - the guys on the right and left are taken!

I'm tired and swollen but I sure am enjoying the heck out of this turkey leg, y'all!

Last Friday started my weekly appointments with my OB, which is really exciting and hard to believe I'm already at that point! For the record...the exam was very painful and I swear I thought it would put me into labor right then. Apparently I'm "thinned out" and might be 1cm dilated. I know that doesn't mean much but it's progress! Saturday I had an ultrasound at 37 weeks. There wasn't a medical need for one, but I really wanted one last one, so I went anyway. It was exciting to see all his parts were present and working - he was making sucking movements with his mouth, and I got to see his heart beating and lungs breathing. I got 2 pictures of his adorable little face that won't scan well, but trust me, he is cuuuuuuuuuuute. He weights about 6 lbs 3 oz right now, so hopefully I won't be delivering a monster baby or anything. My doctor also lets you schedule an induction for pretty much whenever you want, so my choices were the Wednesday before my due date or the Wednesday after. I'm a little indecisive but I'm thinking I'll schedule an induction for the Wednesday after my due date so worst case I'll be 4 days late and best case he'll come early on his own. Definitely hoping for the latter!

Unfortunately last week we also received some sad news - my sister and I got an email from my dad about our grandma, Nanny. She moved up to Longview to live with my aunt's family about 11 years ago and unfortunately her health just deteriorated over the years. I guess recently my aunt and my dad made the decision to keep her in minimal pain and discomfort but to stop giving her all the medications to keep her symptoms at bay. To let nature takes its course, I guess. I was making plans and trying to decide if I could make it up to Longview to say goodbye when we received another email from my dad that Nanny went on up to be with Jesus that afternoon. I was mostly sad for myself, that I didn't know how bad she was and that I wasn't able to say goodbye one last time (shamefully the last time I saw her was almost exactly 3 years ago when my cousin got married). Mostly I was sad for my dad, to see him sad and to have to let go of his last parent. But really, you can't be too upset. Her health was so bad and her body was so wrecked with illness that she couldn't live well anymore. Now she's up dancing around in Heaven, not tethered here with a sickly body anymore. And her husband died way back in 1978, so hopefully they're finally reunited! We had a visitation on Thursday and her funeral was on Friday in Conroe, so I was happy to be able to attend. It's not necessarily the best circumstances, but I sure had fun catching up with my aunt and uncle and all my cousins and other friends and family of my grandma's. And hopefully that's what she would have wanted anyway!

Over the weekend, Jeremy participated in a regatta on Buffalo Bayou. He kayaked down the Bayou 15 miles, from the Memorial area into downtown. He'd never kayaked before and hadn't even practiced, but he finished and with minimal soreness, surprisingly. I'm so proud! He keeps telling me he thinks I'd like it and we could do it next year...but we'll see about that...

So about 2.5 weeks until our life changes majorly...hopefully I can post a few exciting updates before then (like a finished nursery or that our taxes finally got filed). And we'll obviously have a really exciting update hopefully no later than April 7!