I've probably mentioned before that I have never considered myself a "cool kid". And I'm ok with that. I spent weekends in high school playing bassoon and xylophone in the band and traveling the state performing in drama tournaments -- instead of... whatever it is that cool kids do. 

But today! Today I joined the rest of the cool kids! Well... if it counts to be almost 10 years behind...

I have an iPod. Well - to be clear - I've had an iPod since Christmas. Saatchi was lobbying for "Coolest Place to Work" votes and gave everyone an iPod video nano for Christmas last year. Very cool gift. Especially since the year before that, they gave us a book and a SSX-branded jacket... So I've had this --

-- in my possession since mid-December. And it has only been out of the package once... in mid-December. I've been telling myself for the last 6 months that I really should bust it out, put some music on it and join the rest of society. But I've been a little distracted and it never got done. But lucky for my iPod - I've had a furious urge to "nest" lately and "get things in order" -- and that included the iPod!

So today was the day. Well, actually it started a few days ago with the downloading (uploading?) of all my CDs onto iTunes (which I previously assumed was going to be impossibly hard to use). And today - in a matter of minutes - I had added over 500 songs to my iPod.

Maybe next I'll tackle my own reality show. Or whatever it is that cool kids do...

I know how disappointed you must be. But trust me - no one's more disappointed than us. Poor little guy probably can't handle the pressure -- Erika pointed out this weekend that there are people on at least 3 continents waiting for a "The Baby is Here!" phone call! He'll be here soon enough. I know all you vultures really care about is his name anyway!

In the meantime, my friend Andrew was in town this weekend from Dallas -- and it was really good to see him. Andrew, Jenni and I went to see Sex and the City on Saturday and met up with Jeff for some yummy Bonefish that night.  And Sunday afternoon we took a stroll around campus and found our names on Senior Walk.

And we took Toby to the fountain. It took him a minute to warm to the idea -- but once he figured out how nice and cool it was in there -- it was hard to get him out!

Hopefully I will have baby news soon. Stay tuned.   

I would really appreciate it if all of the utilities and appliances in our house would band together and simultaneously WORK APPROPRIATELY for 24 hours in a row!

You may remember the washer issues that we had recently. Turns out that was only the beginning... I have (in the last 10 days) been on the phone with repairmen for the following:

• Dryer: After a week of playing phone-tag, this marks the second time in 30 days for the dryer repairman. Oddly enough, the dryer started making the same God-awful metal grinding noise as the washer had been making. So Ray came out to fix it. Again. It seems to be ok - for now.
• Cable Internet: After waiting on hold for over 30 minutes - twice in 4 days - I scheduled a serviceman to come to the house. He was here approximately 10 minutes before informing me that the signal to our house was "too strong" and that he had adjusted it appropriately. "Too strong" you say? Hmm. This is SO not the first time we've had issues with Cox Cable - and if there were another viable option in town - we would switch in a heartbeat.
• Air Conditioning: This one was a little scary, but turned out to be the most convenient fix of all. Yesterday the air started freaking out while I was home in the afternoon. It would run for a few minutes - shut off - then immediately come back on. ALL AFTERNOON. It was making me crazy, but I thought it might be something I did to it or that there was a window open somewhere --- I don't know. But the repairman came that night - after 8:00 - to fix it. That's service.

Altogether - I think I've spent about 20 hours waiting on various repairmen at the house over the last few weeks. Ridiculous.

So. Bump is due to arrive today. TODAY! T minus zero. But still waiting...

I know I've mentioned that we've been going to the park to walk lately, and I wanted to share a few of the borderline-bizarre things that have happened while at the park in the last few days. I absolutely love people-watching and I never dreamed that Wilson Park in Fayetteville, Arkansas would be a prime place for such entertainment--

1. Monday afternoon. There were 4 boys (older than 18 and old enough to know better) taking turns jumping onto a rope they'd tied between a tree and a street lamp. First, I thought they were trying to jump over the rope -- but upon closer inspection, discovered they were indeed attempting to jump onto the rope and walk it like a tightrope. We watched this for several minutes on our way around the park -- and didn't see a single one of them perform what I would call satisfactorily. In fact, it looked pretty painful. They were barefoot, and most of them tried to "mount" the rope by running toward the tree, running up the tree, and landing on the rope. We decided they were fledgling acrobats as on our next lap around that corner of the park we noticed one of them walking around on his hands...

2. Tuesday afternoon. We were finishing up our last lap and almost back to the car, when (for the 4th or 5th time that day) a kind little old lady caught up to us and - making the common assumption that pregnant women are public property - struck up a conversation with me about the baby. I am fairly used to fielding questions such as: "When are you due? Is it a boy or a girl? Do you have a name picked out?" After that, the conversation usually fizzles out, because - afterall - we are strangers and what else do you really say?? But people are very friendly, and I don't really mind it. So this poor, unassuming lady catches up to us and is working her way through the usual questions. She was very sweet -- telling us that she was sure we would have a beautiful baby as we were both "lovely people" and telling me to be sure and take care of myself "in this heat" -- all harmless, all nonsense. Well, apparently someone had had enough of our chitchat as right about then - a huge, hot pile of bird poop landed on me from above. 100% of it landed on me - hair, neck, arm, back - but I think my sweet new friend was more startled than I was! She immediately got all flustered and started frantically going through her empty pockets for a napkin or a towel or something that I could use to clean off the poop - with no luck. After that, she didn't really know what to say. It was a really awkward and abrupt end to our baby conversation -- but she kept up the same pace as us, all the way to the car! We just kept walking, side-by-side -- perfect strangers, one of us covered in bird poop.

3. Wednesday afternoon. I walked by myself because the boys went to a concert at Bud Walton for Shareholders. The same people typically walk at the park around the same time everyday so we are starting to see a lot of familiar faces on the path. There are several older people who walk (almost) as slow as we do - and yesterday one of them decided that I looked lonely and needed a conversation. He was walking the opposite direction than me, so I'd passed by him a few times. The third time, he stopped me and told me how much he admired me for "hoofing it around the park", but warned me (while pointing at my belly) that "all this walking's not gonna do anything for that gut of yours!" -- everybody's a comedian.  

So despite the (almost) 3 miles a day we've been walking and the sheer will I've been attempting to exert on the baby to make an appearance – still pregnant. It is getting increasingly equal parts exciting and nerve-wracking. 

I feel a little like I’m cramming for a big test.  I’ve had months and months to get everything ready, read all the books, learn everything that I’m supposed to do (and NOT do) and now that it’s literally DAYS away – I feel like I know nothing. I swing back and forth between being totally confident that I’m ready – and jumping up and down on the Panic Button, not knowing the first thing about having/raising a child. Sadly enough, I find comfort knowing that millions of people do “this” everyday – and there must be some nature involved or more people would fail at it. Right?

I also realize that there's been a serious lack of worthy content here lately -- sorry about that.  My brain is seriously sleep-deprived and a little one-tracked these days. So hopefully, I'll be back to normal soon -- whatever that is. It's more likely you'll all be subject to torture by way of stories and photos and videos of my brilliant child doing brilliant things like smiling and rolling over and teething.... Get ready!

If you haven’t been following Laura’s African adventures, you should definitely check it out. If nothing else, it’s fascinating to me the differences in cultures. We don’t eat chicken feet for dinner, for example…   

One such American cultural point-of-interest struck me this weekend while we sat in the crowded theatre waiting for Indiana Jones to start. The show we intended to see (at 1:20) had sold out, so we waited around for the next one at 1:40. The ticket girl helpfully suggested we go ahead and get seats – so we wandered in to the theatre around 1:10 to find it already nearly full. We found 2 seats on a row that kind of stuck out in the aisle enough that they weren’t behind other seats, but WERE behind a little bar I could put my feet on – perfect! We soon began to notice there was somewhat of a commotion behind us. There were 2 people attempting to save 11 seats in the row directly behind us. 11! That is almost an entire row in the movie theatre – and for a movie that was likely sold out! That’s gumption. 

So it’s one thing to attempt to save 11 seats in a movie theatre during opening weekend of the 20-years-in-the-making fourth installment of Indiana Jones. But what blows my mind is that people respect the idea of “saving seats”. What is that?? What is it in a person that makes them heed the phrase “These seats are saved.”??

We sat by and watched poor sap after poor sap spot the mirage of empty seats from the floor of the theatre – only to climb the stairs to engage in the following:

Seat Saver: Sorry – these are saved.

Poor Sap: All of them?

Seat Saver: Yeah, sorry.

Poor Sap: (Walks away - defeated - to find a less desirable seat.)

No argument. No protest. Crazy! I decided right then and there that I would not have tolerated this nonsense. There is no movie theatre rule about saving seats and if I didn’t already have a seat and needed one in that row – you better believe I would have sat there. I almost wish I had had the opportunity to prove this to myself.

There are 3 parts to this update - as I realize it's been "forever" since I've posted an update. If anyone is still out there... and still reading... enjoy!

1. Bump is officially fully cooked! We are 37 weeks and counting - and are open to any and all suggestions/secrets/old-wive's-tales for "naturally" inducing labor. Bring them on! I'm going to the doctor every week now and hope to find out tomorrow morning that I've made some sort of progress. I was crossing my fingers yesterday since it was both the official 37-week-mark AND a full moon. But alas... still pregnant.

2. Happy Mother's Day! Mom and Dad ventured up to Arkansas last weekend (8-10 May) for the presentation of the first 1LT Tom Martin Memorial Scholarship at CHS. Becky and I drove down to Cabot to meet them. We really enjoyed meeting Jared and being part of the presentation.

We all drove back up to Fayetteville for the weekend - celebrating Becky's early BD, Mother's Day, and finally putting furniture in the baby's room!

(More pics in the "Baby" photo album.)

The nursery has truly been a labor of love - my sweet Mom made all of the bedding and curtains and accessories for Bump (note the pillow ) and recovered the rocker, my handy and patient Dad built the changing table shelf and refinished the crib for the little guy, and Dad/Jeff/Mom/Me (mostly Dad and Jeff) have spent endless puzzled moments poring over assembly instructions for things like highchairs, Pack'n'Plays, and strollers. The room is still in-progress, hopefully I'll be able to post some "officially done" pictures someday soon.

Laura: This terribly flattering picture of me is just for you. I am trying to lure Keebler out from under Becky's bed -- though Dad tells me it looks like I'm trying to lure the baby out! We eventually got him (Keebler not Bump) out by showing him a picture of you!

We had a great weekend together, but Mom and Dad had to get back in time to regroup for their trip to Alaska this week. They were able to attend the dedication of the memorial at Ft. Richardson in Anchorage. Pictures are HERE. Mom is in #5, Dad is in #48. I wish we all could have been there.

3. Happy Birthday Don!

Don turned the big 4-0 on Mother's Day and Keith threw a bash this weekend at the house. It was a Hat Party - so we all got gussied up to celebrate Don's big day. This collection of photos reminds me of Party Pics...

First, Second and Third place winners of the "Coolest Hat Contest".

And this is one of my favorites from the evening -- GK! When are you due??

Happy Birthday Don! (More pics in the albums.)

For those of you out-of-towners, Northwest Arkansas recently acquired a minor league baseball team - The Northwest Arkansas Naturals (formerly the Wichita Wranglers) - a AA farm team for the Kansas City Royals. We play in the same league as San Antonio's team - The San Antonio Missions!

Anyway. They played their first game here in early April - and it has quickly become THE thing to do on the weekends. So of course, we had to go. We watched them beat the Tulsa Drillers Saturday night with friends Nicholas and Angela.

It was a little colder than I anticipated, and Bump is used to going to bed around 9 -- so we skipped out during the 8th inning -- but it was a lot of fun. I'm sure we'll be back - especially when it warms up a little.

Instead of going home, we decided to drop by the soiree taking place at Keith's house.

Got to see a few folks we don't see that often - and visit "my" dog, Ace!

Jeff even managed to snap a picture of the elusive Toby. This picture makes me laugh - he looks absolutely terrified. Toby is Keith and Don's pomeranian - who is scared to death of people and spends most of his time and energy running away from people trying to pet him... but he's cute.

Good weekend - cleaned house on Sunday - getting ready for visitors this weekend. Mom and Dad are coming up - should be fun! We are NEARLY under 30 days to go until Baby Day!

... and every 30 seconds during the ceremony...

Jeff and I went to a wedding this weekend for a friend we both know from school and otherwise. Some of Kyle's extended family is from Smackover - and good friends with Jeff, and Kyle and I went to college together. So anyway - Kyle and Stephanie got married Saturday at St. Catherine's at Bell Gable in Fayetteville -- which I had literally never heard of but apparently is about 2 miles from our house! The ceremony was held at the cutest little stone chapel down a hill off the main road -- stone angels and benches and sculptures, several little gardens, and a waterfall. It was such a perfect place for a wedding - and it was a really pretty day. (And apparently there was some sort of farm nearby with a very curious rooster -- who tried his best to interrupt the ceremony. It was nice comic relief.) Congrats to Kyle and Steph -- of whom I managed to NOT snap a picture the whole time...

Cute flower girl.

In front of the chapel. The ceremony was held on the steps - with all of us sitting in little white chairs on the lawn. You can't really tell from this picture - but we're standing on a little bridge -- there's a little stream of water that flows underneath the walkway. The chapel itself would probably hold about 30 people. I didn't get any photos of the inside, but it was beautiful-- stained glass and chandeliers and beautiful old wooden pews. 

The last few pictures are at the reception -- there was a dance for "all married couples" but we didn't get to dance long as they were weeding out couples until they found the pair that had been married the longest-- Grandpa and Grandma had been married 49 years!

We stayed out way too late and I was completely worthless on Sunday - I'm still learning to pace myself...