The weather was beautiful today, and Firefly and I made the most of it. Well, after sleeping in. Hey, we’re not going to get to do much of that very soon here, so I don’t feel too guilty about it.

We went outside and cleaned things up in the carport, and then I went around and did some work in the yard while Firefly started cleaning her motorcycle up for the winter. It was only ridden once this year, for obvious reasons, but still needs the chrome and everything cleaned up before the cover goes on for the winter. I picked some things up and cut down saplings that had grown up where they shouldn’t have (and they probably should have been cut down months ago but we’ve been a little preoccupied). Firefly was starting to get stiff and having trouble bending over, so we switched up. She got the last of what I had cleaned up cut to length and in the cans to be picked up while I polished the chrome on the bike’s front wheel. It still needs some work, but the sun was starting to get lower and we were getting tired so we left it for now.

We spent the rest of the evening having dinner and relaxing together, and even managed to get a couple of loads of laundry done and put away. Oh, and yesterday I got the blinds put up in my office while Firefly napped, and we went to a hockey game. Hooray!

I think I might actually get into bed before midnight tonight. I don’t know when the last time that happened was!

Oh, and also for those following TheSaraProject, I realized I forgot to post Friday’s picture. Oops! It’s up now, and I’m up to 14.

She loves me a lot.

Know how I know?

Because when I got home from work yesterday there was a package waiting for me. She was out mowing and…well, it was addressed to me, so I opened it. And I found this:

Pretty cool, right? But what is it?

Ooooh! Neat! And just what I’ve been wanting without even realizing it! Look at the little dried flower on the cover:

And the ribbon binding:

They even sent little pins so that we can add, reorganize, or remove pages, and work with the book without having to keep re-tying the ribbon. How cool is that?

Inside it has lots of pages for the mommies to write things, or put pictures. Like this one, which has places to write how mom knew it was happening, and how she told mom:

Or this one, to talk about the nice man who helped us get pregnant (although we don’t know much about him, seeing as he was anonymous, but still, I’m sure we’ll have something we can write):

Mirrored pages for our family trees:

A page for his name and how we decided on it:

There are even some pocket pages to put things we’d like to be able to take in and out:

This one, though, is the one I’m looking forward to filling out the most:

I’m very much looking forward to sleeping in tomorrow. So much so that I just dozed off at my desk. So sad.

I got home from work today to find Firefly out on the mower mulching up all the leaves. While she finished up I came in and got my office light working again, along with a few other things. We had homemade chili for dinner and watched some TV, and talked a little bit about where to hang some things in the master bath, but other than that it was a pretty laid-back evening.

I’m good with laid-back evenings right now. We’ll have plenty to do tomorrow.

Well, the monkey is dropping a bit, and Firefly is a bit more effaced but still hasn’t started dilating–which really doesn’t mean that much. She’s officially off work from now until the baby comes, which is going to be nice. I can’t tell you how much I’m looking forward to being able to sleep next to my wife.

Also her belly is actually getting big now (which is very likely being caused by him dropping and shifting around), and very hard. It’s neat to see it changing so quickly and the hardness is a good sign that labor is around the corner.

I do have to say, though, that today has been a long one and I would be quite ready for bed if not for a few things I need to get done. And so I’m off. I’ll keep you posted!

Just 10 days left until we’re due to meet our little monkey. Tomorrow we move into a single-digit countdown.

We’re still slowly but surely making ready for him. Firefly met with the lawyer today to go over some final things for the co-parenting agreement so that we can protect ourselves as best we can to the extent the law allows us here. I feel pretty good about things on that front on the whole.

I’ve washed an outfit to bring him home in, along with a couple of blankets, clothes for each of us, the smallest diapers that we have even though he probably won’t be in them right away, the boppy covers, the changing pad cover, swaddling blankets, a hat that Bennder made for him, and the crib and play yard sheets. I’ve got things folded and stacked and ready to throw in a bag, and Firefly’s medical power of attorney is on the counter and ready to go. I’ve got some little electronic games, a deck of cards, and another game ready to go. My camera batteries and laptop are all fully charged. The car seat is installed and the crib is made and a list of people to contact is started.

Anything else we’re missing?

Tonight Firefly is working her last shift before he arrives.

Tomorrow afternoon we go to the OB for our next-to-last currently scheduled appointment. We’ll find out then how much closer she’s getting I suppose.

When we get home from the appointment I’m going to put the blinds up in my office and make sure everything is cleaned up and ready for her parents to stay.

Now we just wait for him to be ready to meet us. I can’t wait!

I’m rather distracted tonight by the election. I’m hoping for good news in Maine and keep feeling a roller coaster as I watch the results go back and forth. I’m feeling a knot in the pit of my stomach, though, and I’m afraid I’m going to be very disappointed when the final results come in as I see them edging further from me. I will be very blue then, indeed.

I know this will happen. I believe it will happen in my lifetime. I just really, really want some good news now.

I forgot to tell you my funny story from last week!

So I came home from work and I went walking down the hall with Firefly following me to chat about nothing in particular…and then out of nowhere she says, “did you know you have a hole in your pants?”

“What?! No! Where!”

“Um. Right there. In your butt.”

“OH MY GOD! I have a hole in my butt? You mean I’ve been walking around showing my ass to everyone at work all day? How bad is it?!”

“Not too bad. It’s pretty small. I mean, I can tell that you’re wearing red and white striped undies, but…”

“WHAT?! You can see what color my panties are and it’s not too bad?  Aaaahhhhhh!” All while I’m trying to get them off to see just how bad the hole is.

Yeah. It was sooooo funny. Sigh.

Today is November 1st, and the official start of NaBloPoMo. I’ve decided to go for it and try to post at least once every day this month, even though the baby is due to arrive just two weeks from today. If I don’t make it, so be it. It’s good to have gals. Er…goals.

I would also like to say that I am rather proud of myself today. I had a secret that I managed to keep from Firefly for nearly two whole months–which if you know me is a huge feat. We went to what she thought was a nice lunch and games at Dawn and her partner’s house, but it was really a surprise visit by our friend from Amsterdam who is in town for the week. Firefly was so surprised she did a double take when the door opened!

Of course I did mess up a little bit, thinking that we were supposed to go over at 2 this afternoon when it was actually 12:30. We figured it out early enough that we were only 15 minutes late, so it wasn’t so bad. We were there into the evening, and then came home and crashed on the couch for a bit before she had to head off to work. She’s moderately regretting not having the doctor write her off of work this week, but hopefully it won’t be too bad for her. Just four more nights and she’ll be home.

Tomorrow I’m going to skip out on chorus rehearsal to go out to dinner with a bunch of folks including our visitor. It should be fun!

I can’t believe we’re only two weeks away from meeting our monkey, give or take a few days!

We got my office cleaned up and a lot of cleaning up and organizing done in the nursery, even after sleeping in very late and me sleeping for about an hour in the early evening. My sinuses are not happy right now. Hopefully they’ll be better tomorrow. Now I’m going to cuddle with my wife and watch some TV. And probably doze off until she wakes me and tells me it’s time to go to bed.

Man, it’s been windy over here in our neck of the woods. I can’t complain much, though, because it was nearly 80 degrees–and might even have broken into those 80s–at the end of October. The weird weather is wreaking havoc on my sinuses, but it was lovely to be out and about. I had to run downtown to drop off some papers, and I took advantage of the lovely weather, cruising around with the windows all the way down.

Firefly made the most of the afternoon and actually managed to get into one of the vax clinics in our area. They’ve been insane here, with people waiting for hours in line to be turned away. I’m still not able to get one because I’m not in the right group yet, and neither of us have been able to get the seasonal because everywhere is sold out.

We made another run to the baby store this evening, this time returning the things we got that were duplicates or not things we registered for and did not want, that sort of thing. We got a few more things, as well, and we think we’re pretty much ready now as far as supplies go. Tomorrow we’re planning to finish things up in my office and make it comfortable for Firefly’s parents to stay in, and then work on getting things really together in the monkey’s room.

And the car seat is safely and securely installed in my vehicle. Hooray!