The House: befores & afters!

 The nursery

before: painted cement floors and sports wallpaper border

after: our little (green) woodland! thanks Carolyn & Angie for vinyl trees :)

The living room

Before: goodbye to old door and windows

goodbye dirty popcorn ceilings and damaged walls

(ok, the window to the dining/kitchen is great, we're keeping that)

Thanks Delauers & Tysons for the couches, Joneses for the ceiling fan :)

after

guest room (it will still be a work in progress)

Before: the brightest of pink and a tasteful rainbowy border

after (this was the blue paint I mixed myself :) )

And now for the big guns... the kitchen. 

Before: Take a good look, you won't recognize it...

taking down the soffit. The back door will also be moved towards the center.

at this point we began to wonder if it would ever look like a kitchen (or a functioning house) again... (yeah, bath & floor demolition at the same time didn't help)

Recessed fridge opening to give us more space (thanks Dad); can lighting, floor tiling, and door moving also by Dad; beautiful cabinets and clever redesign by the wonderful Jim at Northwoods Custom Cabinetry (he also hooked us up with a good deal on granite :) )

All demolition and destruction work provided by Killarney the cat

And the view from our dining room has stayed just as fabulous as ever.

"Any day now..."

I can't complain, but it's a very strange feeling... It's true, and has been for a week or so now, that our little one could healthily make his appearance any day now... but it doesn't always feel that true. Our pastors have joked that we now understand why childbirth is used as analogy for the coming of Christ... even if it doesn't feel so imminent, it really could be any time, and we're just waiting for that new life to start, wondering at the great mysteries it will hold, hardly knowing what to do until then... yep. pretty good analogy. I can see why the New Testament Christians had to be told to get on with their lives in the mean time! It's strange to go to bed each night not knowing whether you'll sleep through the night this time, or wake up to something crazy and new. What I plan to do the next day almost seems insignificant.

Anyway. That being said, I sure don't feel like as much of a ticking time bomb as maybe I should. I've been feeling like I'm just as likely to be weeks away as a day away, so I'm trying to be patient. I've been doing pretty well at that, too, until my doctor shocked me by offering (ok, scheduling) me an induction almost a week before my due date for no reason. What??! Needless to day I declined (I'll spare you the plethora of reasons I hope to avoid having labor induced).  But that was a bit discouraging and stressful to me for some reason. I don't want to feel like we're an expiring carton of milk! But I'm hopeful we won't have to deal with that issue again and my son will get some timeliness from the McDiffett side of the family. ;)

So here we are though, waiting. We suppose we're just about as ready as we'll ever be... ;)  The house is coming along quite nicely. Would you like to join me in looking at it to pass the time? I'll post some before and after pictures just for fun (and dramatic effect).

And here's what I think will be my last little survey-update.

How far along? 38 Weeks. For the record, "typical" gestations are between 38-42 (or even 37-42), so I'm really just toward the beginning of that window. So patience it is!
Total weight gain/loss: ~20 lb. hey that's more like it!

Best moment this month: seems like it's been so long, hm...I guess in general it's been good to feel like we're "coming along," both with house stuff and the closeness of baby's arrival. the house is a lot more tangible though. haha.
Miss Anything? sleeping without rib or hip pain? ;)
Food cravings: Artichokes are finally on sale at Save Mart! and this morning I baked my FAVORITE muffin mix (blueberry streusel, however it's spelled). and we had macaroni grill recently. Good food week.
Belly Button in or out? Out... and I'm starting to wonder if it will ever be the same again ;)
Wedding rings on or off? On still. blessed with no swelling.
Emotions:  ?  (hah)
Weekly Wisdom: I really don't know any better than you do how close we really are to baby... though I'm pretty sure I've asked that of my almost-due friends before ("any indications of how soon?") maybe soon I'll have a better answer than "who knows" ;) but then again...Who knows. :D

Weekly Confession: you already got that, up there ^
Looking forward to: Starting life with baby. (Scott and I are both really looking forward to his paternity leave!! haha)

(And here's a few baby shower pictures, at 36ish weeks)

such a cute woodlandy theme :)

kicking for Nana and Mema

The lovely hostess!!