Thanks for all of the encouraging mom responses! I wrote that in the heat of the moment, forgot about it, and then when people started calling me about it, I was having a serious moment of regret for venting on the internet. But it was so good to hear from all of you, so thank you. I couldn't be more excited, especially since she is due in THREE WEEKS AND ONE DAY!

So, last night I finally finished the seventh Harry Potter book. It was RIVETING and I'm so sad I'm done now. I've been reading the series since Christmas. What am I going to do with my life now?! You know, besides wait super-anxiously until the first installment of the seventh movie comes out this fall...

A friend and fellow blogger made her "summer bucket list" recently and it inspired me to do the same today.

There will also be a mini-birthday party for my friend, Abby, that includes turquoise-frosted dark chocolate raspberry cupcakes (in my red cupcake stand that was 50% off the day after Christmas, because it was "Christmas-y," but really it's just red- what a steal!) AND delicious coffee punch- thanks, Lynn!

I will also be fixing all of the things that have been bugging me about my wedding album (scrapbook) today.

AND I decided to make the baby a family photo book, so she'll know who her aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandparents are... so I think I'll be working on that today as well.

I am getting so sick of camp pizza and am going to cook myself dinner this Friday when it is served. Any summer-y suggestions?

I am SO SICK of people telling me about how awful it's going to be to be a new mom. How I'm NEVER going to sleep again. And how sick I'll be of sitting in her room. How expensive babies are. How sick I'll be of changing diapers. How busy I'll be (magically, somehow, 24 hours a day, it seems...). And then it seems, especially if after much of this depressing-ness I finally admit, okay, yes, maybe I might be nervous for it to be difficult, they come out swinging with, "Ohhhh, but you'll be fiiiiiine. It's soooo wonderfuuuuul."

Oh, well, yes, you certainly make it sound wonderful, don't you?

And could we admit, for a second, that I might possibly have a different experience than you? That maybe my baby will be a good sleeper? Or that I'll love everything about being a new mom? Or that I have a wonderful husband who will help me do everything? Hm? Could we?

I'm just already soooo siiiiiick of the advice and telling me how my life is going to be. Mmmm, could I maybe just figure it out for myself?

Whew. Complain-y pants just wants to have her baby, already, please.

Long-awaited pictures of the baby's room. It is so cozy and cute in there, I just want to sit in the glider and look around all of the time. (I realize this may be disorienting, but these pictures are in order from what you see right when you walk in the door, moving clockwise around the room):

This little red rocking chair was my Grandma Duckhorn's when she was little. It might be hard to tell here, but it is SO TINY.

We are so ready to take care of this little girl's butt.

Woodland animals. My favorite. You'll see more of those in a moment.

She has so many accessories!

More woodland animals on her mobile. It was hard to get a good picture of them, but there is a fox, a racoon, an owl, and a red squirrel.

Her closet is still under construction. I need Kyle to rearrange some of the shelves. (Although when he wasn't around, I DID move the twin bed on my own and assemble the bookcase- which I paid dearly for later, don't worry- so maybe I should just do it on my own...)

All of her little dresses and cardigans!

A really cute book that was assembled at my church shower. It's a book of "Parenting Pointers" from all of the women that were there.

These are the pictures that are on display around the room:
from Matilda

Charlotte's Web

Curious George Goes to the Library

The Sneetches

Olivia

Where the Wild Things Are

Fox in Socks
(My Grandma Duck used to read this to me)

The Giving Tree

She's slowly taking over the kitchen...

... and the bathroom, but we LOVE it!

The other night, Kyle set up our hammock with our pretty paper lanterns and some fresh fruit. It was so wonderful! I love him!!!!

Such a DAD.

This past weekend, Kyle and I spent Saturday readying our house for our little girl. We had to clear out space for her in the bathroom, kitchen, and garage. Who knew she would take up so much room in every room of the house? Kyle took some time to figure out our stroller, the car seat, and the car seat attachment for our stroller- which by the way is AWESOME. I couldn't be happier with the BOB!

Here he is with a stroller that is tall enough for him!

This is the stroller with the car seat attached to it. Because of this capability we can use our stroller right away! Although, I probably won't be running with all that extra weight on it just yet.

Once she is six months old and can hold her head up (which will be January...) the car seat attachment becomes a handy little tray to keep all of her accessories in.

And once she's old enough to be completely riveted by my sheer speed and agility on our runs, we will remove the tray and she will just sit back and enjoy the wind (or gentle breeze...) in her hair :)

And finally, the most "DAD" moment of all...

Kyle LOVES to wear this RIDICULOUS hat while mowing the lawn. In case you can't see it, it is definitely a forest green bucket hat. That also happens to be too small for his head.
I tried to put it in the furnace last winter, but he found and rescued it.

I. ABSOLUTELY. HATE. IT.

For Grandma Jan.



My mom had this airplane when Amy and I were babies and she used to put it on her belly when she was pregnant with us. It's playing Fly Me to the Moon. The music box was broken when she gave it to me, but we replaced it and it's working perfectly now!

My hours at work have gradually been cut back. I am just training the new cooks now, so I'm only in there for a few hours in the morning. I spend the rest of my time reading The Baby Whisperer and The Half-Blood Prince, putting my feet up, making delicious fresh summery food at home, drawing for the baby's room, standing in and staring around the baby's room, suntanning (for brief periods of time- my body can't really take the heat- although, it's like my mom always says, "Tan fat is better than pasty white fat," I rather agree) with a fan blowing on me, playing with my camera, and avoiding the bees that are infesting camp and our house. All of this rest has very positively been affecting my sleep. Because my back isn't so achy from standing all day, I fall asleep in a snap. It's been pretty wonderful.

We're a little less than six weeks out! We can not wait to meet this little summer girl! Since I read in my email updates yesterday that babies born as early as 34 weeks can definitely make it and can do pretty well, I keep having fantasies that she'll come early (maybe not this early, but in a few weeks). Just humor me, everyone!

Here is what we have been up to lately:

I discovered, when I picked up my friend, Abby, in Wheaton to drive her up to camp, that Starbuck's makes re-usable travel cold cups now! When I was trying to buy a travel hot-cup this spring, I found one in Lake Geneva and decided to wait to buy it and then couldn't find it again FOREVER. So, as soon as I saw this I knew I had to buy it right away. It has not disappointed. I drank all of my beverages out of it yesterday and felt like I was at Starbuck's all day long. The only thing missing was Megan.

This is strawberry-hibiscus tea-lemonade. It sounds better than it turned out.

I have been dreaming about making homemade lemonade once it got summery enough and since it has been so summery the past few days (I'll get to that in a minute), I tried out a Martha Stewart recipe. I added less than half of the sugar that the recipe called for and tasted it and it was soooooo sugary that it was burning my throat. Not good. So, I decided to turn it into strawberry lemonade popsicles instead. Much better.

It has been so stinking warm here the past few days. Yesterday it was almost 90 degrees! I tried to suntan in the backyard for a little while, but I got so hot that I started to feel sick and had to go take a nap in the basement!

We've celebrated the warm weather by moving our armchairs on the front porch (and by we, I mean Kyle) and eating lunch out there in the afternoon. We also play Set and Boggle out there at night, until it gets too dark to see.

It's officially summer. Kyle brought out the paper lanterns. One of my many fabulous birthday presents from him last year.

The fresh summery food, of which I spoke earlier. On the left, we have lowfat chicken salad on a bed of fresh spinach and on the right we have whole-wheat macaroni salad, made with olive oil mayo, tuna, and fresh veggies (including chives from our garden! [yes, it is the only thing growing in there right now, but we're working on that...])

I love my life right now. And I love summer. It might be my new favorite season.