Catching Up and Counting Down

Well, today is July 8th and we're exactly 5 weeks and 2 days from our official due date (whatever that means, right?). We're officially on the count down.

It's been a month since my last posting, so it's time to catch up. Here are a few photos from the latest activities and some of our "lasts" before baby.

This is mom and baby bear at 34 weeks (last week). We missed taking our 32 weeks photo because we were scrambling to get packed and out of town for vacation.
While I was in California at the beginning of June, Tony and Erik (one of our graduating seniors) put a two-toned, gender neutral green coat of paint on the nursery walls.
Then a few weeks later Tony added the border. We've made even further progress since then, but I'll wait to post photos until we get our furniture... hopefully soon. I will confess though that since we put up our new wood blinds, I go in every morning and open the blinds and say good morning to baby (or at least baby's room). The decorating makes it more and more real and very exciting.
We celebrated Tony's first Father's Day a few weeks ago. I know, some may say he's only a dad-to-be, but we're celebrating these firsts. Life is already changing because of our coming little one. Tony graciously agreed to wear the shirt to church on Father's Day... According to this photo I'd say he's pretty proud to be a dad (or dad-to-be, whichever you prefer). I turned 30! That's right. On June 21st I closed the chapter on my 20s. Don't worry, no mourning here. As far as I'm concerned, life gets better and better each year. But it still is a little bit weird to call myself 30. This photo we took at the Twisp River Pub in Twisp, Washington. (The beginning of our vacation, see below.)

My 30th birthday fell at the beginning of our week of vacation-- our last vacation before baby! We headed over to Wenatchee (Eastern Washington) to meet up with Tony's brother and family and then headed a bit further North to their cabin in Mazama. Cabin--yes. Roughin' it--no. They have a beautiful house amidst lots of pine trees and adjacent to an irrigation canal, far from the hustle and bustle of normal life. The weather was great-- sunshine and high 70s. We enjoyed family time --with Andrew, Connie, Ethan, Ellie, Alex and Connie's parents-- and then relaxed a couple of days by ourselves.

The week flew by and then we were back home to normal life. Well, mostly. Tony is on his summer schedule, preaching two weeks in a row and camps scheduled for two different weeks this month. I am slowly peeling myself away from work and it's wonderful. I don't have to report to work at any given time, but I'm following up on a few orders and proposals to make sure things go smoothly. Two more weeks or so and I hope to be pretty well done.

Many people ask if I'm "ready" to have the baby. At this point, I see that the 9 month (40 week) gestation is a great design on God's part. With each passing week I feel more and more ready, but not anxious or in a hurry. I have several things left on my to do list and I'm fairly sure that as I cross each item off I'll be that much closer to ready. Not to mention that since Tony will be out of town for two separate weeks this month I'm hoping and praying that baby will wait until he returns.

That's all for now. Happy Summer to each of you.