This week...

We installed the tub, closed off the door to the kids' bedroom, insulated the walls, put up the ceiling joists, and wired in the lights and bathroom fan. (Well, David did most of it.)

My neighbors have an apple tree with 3 different kinds of apples on it. They had someone come who was supposed to have a great new system for spraying, but it wasn't nearly as fantastic as he claimed, because nearly every apple has a worm hole in it. They aren't going to use the apples, so they are going to let me have all the apples if I want them. Hooray! My kids love applesauce, so I am up to my elbows in apples for a while.

Bridget also took the opportunity to decorate herself with yogurt while I was distracted with the apples. What a girl! She also split her ear open while running recklessly through the house. She slipped and hit it on a corner. Thankfully, David had some leftover Dermabond (medical superglue) so we didn't have to sew her ear up. You can see the dark spot on top of her ear. This child has no fear in her, and most days I am sure it is going to be the end of me.

This week I also had my latest Ob appointment, and it turned out my blood pressure had shot up. Normally my pressures are fantastic during pregnancy, so it was a surprise to me. The doc is concerned that it may turn into preclampsia, so I am on an every 2 week appointment schedule now, and I've had to have a bunch of extra tests. So far everything is okay, and there's no serious concern. My blood pressure has been back down, and I've felt a lot better (hence the mad dash to make applesauce). We're really hoping this pregnancy will go well, and can go all the way to term without too many problems.

Goodbye Truckstop Bathroom

It's a very good day in our lives, the one where we tear down the family bathroom, which we fondly refer to as The Truckstop Bathroom. Yes, it's about that bad. For some reason the previous owners decided to use sticky linoleum tiles in there, and you can only imagine how that has gone...especially around the toilet when there is a little boy in the house. So we are now tearing out all the nastiness, and fixing it up nice.

Before demo

24 hours later...

The ceiling is also gone. We have to reinforce it because we want to use the attic space.

Yearly Parade

I love the parade our small town has every year. They still throw candy, which is one of my favorite memories as a child. This is the pre-parade happiness.

It's not every day you see someone carrying the flag while riding a long-horn bovine.

The candy grab.

As is tradition, the parade ended with police cars, fire trucks, and ambulances blaring their sirens. My kids covered their ears, but Bridget apparently didn't take the candy out of her hand first. It was very stuck, and we had to wait until we got home so I could ease it out with some warm water. Thank goodness I didn't have to cut her hair.

Tie-breaker

I had my ultrasound today, and it looks like we're having a girl! I won't post any pictures, because she was curled up in a little ball, and had her hand in front of her face. The kids really liked watching the ultrasound on the moniter and seeing the baby, and we can hardly wait to meet her. Am I strange for being just as excited for each baby as I was the first? I don't know if that's normal or not, but I sure love our kids and I'm really happy to have another one in our family.

A Few More Camping Pics

Holly brought their kitten camping (which is what Jacob is holding if you can't tell). It actually was a good little kitty and kind of fun. The kids couldn't get enough of it.

I don't remember what was happening in this picture, if I had just picked her up to give her some love, or if I had just caught her after another running away attempt. Either way, she was happy.

Camping

Believe it or not, this was the second day, and the kids were still happy. I love this picture.

XaraKali and Bridget got into some sort of face-painting game with the dirt.

Messy munchkins.

On our way out, we stopped to swim at the lake. Jacob was tired of the water, so he spent the time filling his pockets with rocks, which he told me was his collection.

Bridget is our little waterbug. We can't keep her out of it, so she was really excited to get in the water one more time before we went home.

Buckets of Fun

The kids wouldn't stay out of the bucket of water that David was using for tile cutting, so he finally gave them a bucket each. The picture is blurry because I was laughing, and wrestling with the camera.

We're back working on the Master Bath, trying to get it done in this next week. We installed the toilet, and David is working on tying in the new water lines today.

We finished tiling the shower yesterday, and will grout today or tomorrow. I love that we have so much shelf space, so that things aren't kicking around on the floor.

Close up of the decorative tiles. David and I have our system down. He cuts tile while I lay. Putting it on the diagonal like this involves a lot of tile cutting, so it works well. I have to say that I'm rather proud of myself for being able to do this at 5 months in the pregnancy, although I get worn out a lot faster than when I'm not pregnant. It's nice to stay active, which I've found really speeds up my recovery time after my C-sections. So hooray for getting my exercise and getting something done at the same time!