happy mother's day.

(Thanks, Beth, for being our photographer!)

on leave.

(I was thinking about titling this post "poke me with a fork -- I'm done" in honor of my mother-in-law's version of a common phrase, but I'm definitely not ready to be done with pregnancy yet so figured I shouldn't jinx myself!)

Today was my last day of work. At my before-school meeting this morning, all of my students came in to present me with a basket of baby books they had signed with funny little messages to the baby, such as "Without your mom, I'd probably be in 9th grade for the next 10 years." It was very sweet -- I'm definitely ready to be at home with my feet up, but I will miss those little monsters and their antics. My fingers and toes are crossed that they make it through their spring final exams relatively unscathed.

Here's a "last day of school" picture of me (with the basket of books beside me):

Hoping baby stays put for a while longer so I have time to do some massive cleaning, cooking (and freezing for later), and relaxing before our lives get turned upside down!

baby pool.

We're in the home stretch -- just about a month until Baby Hanna's official due date on June 2nd, 2011! To make things interesting, we've decided to sponsor a "guess the birthday" baby pool for anyone who is interested. Here's the scoop: choose a day and time when you think the baby will be born. Submit your guess as a comment here, or email us at courtneyhmc@gmail.com. We'll update the pool calendar as votes come in, but May 6th (this Friday!) will be the last day for accepting new submissions. If you choose the day + time closest to the actual birth, you will earn massive bragging rights and a surprise gift!

Start submitting your votes now -- we'll update the calendar as guesses come in so you can see your competition!

nursery.

85% done at this point -- we're still waiting on a wall decal to arrive, which you can see here (ours will be a dark brown tree with teal birds and eggs). Also, the framed picture above the changing tray looks like this in reality, but with the name of the baby -- I obscured it with a piece of construction paper to keep the surprise until the big day!)

(this is the view from the doorway looking slightly left; the framed poster above the rocker is from the Kathe Kollwitz museum in Berlin, which Jason visited in February of 2002 -- we've been waiting for the right time and place to hang it, and now we have one!)

(view from the doorway looking head on; you can see our whale tub and activity gym peeking out from under the crib in this one -- we have to get creative with storage in such a tiny room and house!)

(this is the view from in front of the closet; the dresser is pressed up against the left wall, which will eventually have the decal on it -- pictures to come once it arrives!)

good friday.

A much needed day off of work today -- have been mostly lounging around, but also tried to tidy up the house from the tornado of baby things that have hit this week. I had a baby shower at work on Tuesday, which was lovely: we received our activity gym and bouncy chair, as well as some darling little outfits, a great diaper bag, and some other wonderful baby gear accessories. The trunk of our new car was perfect for hauling it all home in!

Life continues to be rather full. I finally have my maternity leave sub in place, thank goodness -- she shadowed me on Thursday and will be back again on May 2nd-3rd to transition into the job. Monday night was the only time I didn't have something going on; Tuesday was the shower and a Passover seder, Wednesday was a meet-and-greet with our back-up doula at the DeKalb Library followed by choir practice, and last night was Maundy Thursday service, but I had to leave after the choir rehearsal to head over to the hospital for our new baby care class. And tonight is a Good Friday service -- never really been to one before, but we're performing a great choral piece. Busy, busy, busy! Baby has been busy, too, with lots of wiggling and poking me at all times of the day and night.

Hoping we'll be able to hang up some pictures and the mobile this weekend, as well as attach the changing tray to the dresser -- we'll post the results here if we're successful. Happy Easter and Gut Yontiff and Pesach to all!

goodbye to the old life.

Yesterday was a momentous day -- after 15 long, happy years together, Jason said a tearful goodbye to his old friend, the Green Monster. In some ways, it was a ceremonious end to an era. We went for the tried-and-true bandaid removal method: get the painful part over as quickly as possible. 5 hours of car test-driving and shopping later, and it was done -- with a little goodbye kiss, we said farewell to Jason's trusty truck.

Oh the places they had been and the things they had seen! Learning to drive in the Twin Cities, accidents near the MN State Fair, trips to the cabin, tooling around Appleton during college, back and forth from the midwest to Boulder CO and up into the mountains during grad school, not to mention infestations by a variety of rodents, being packed to the gills with wedding gifts and household items during cross-country and cross-town moves -- Jason and his truck had been through many life changes together.

But 125K miles later, Jason's truck had definitely seen better days, and it just didn't seem safe for toting and carrying our new precious cargo. Don't be mistaken, however: our new car is certainly not an upgrade -- you can't get any better than the 2-door SUV wonder that was the 1996 forest green Ford Explorer that brought us back and forth to so many of our best memories. Thanks for the good times, beloved car. We'll never forget you.

worn out.

It's been a little while since I've updated our blog -- and it's not because we haven't had much to share. On the contrary: I'm exhausted with everything that's happened in the past few weeks! A fun weekend in Chicago with uncle-to-be Ross, officially joined my church, taught several guest/model lessons in English classes at my school, did more work on the nursery, picked up some after-school responsibilities for a little extra cash before the baby comes, attended our breastfeeding class...and Jason's been busy too, judging a business ethics competition and doing some guest lecturing of his own in addition to his normal schedule. To top it all off, Jason caught my cold, and then my cold turned into a sinus infection. If you couldn't figure it out already, I'm totally wiped out -- being extra busy and sick added to the normal fatigue of the third trimester is really taking its toll. But in only 3 weeks from today, I'll officially be on maternity leave. Counting down the days and minutes until I can (maybe) get some rest before baby makes that impossible!