Home again

It is hard to believe that Christmas, as well as our time in Topeka, is already over. We made the ~9 hour trip back yesterday and got home around 4 pm. I'll try to remember all that happened last week, as it is a blur to me now.

Monday night we went to my cousins' house and had a delicious lasagna dinner. It was fun catching up with them and eating great food (something I did a lot of during our trip home!). My cousin Bryan has an adorable son named Miles who just turned 5- unfortunately he is in a very shy stage and barely talked to us while we were there... he spent most of the time hiding. Hopefully next time we see him he'll come around a bit more, because I always enjoy spending time with him- he's hilarious! I guess kids go through stages, though.

After dinner, we headed back out to the Hetricks, where we basically went right to sleep. We ended up going to Lawrence on Tuesday morning and meeting up with Aaron Brumley, his girlfriend Laura, and our friend Jon Tipton who we haven't seen since our wedding! It was fun catching up with him and trying to recap all that's happened in the last 6 years. :) Jon had to go to work after breakfast, so we walked around downtown Lawrence with Aaron & Laura. Then we went out to the Hetricks again and tried to pack up things to take to my parents house for a few days. Casey spent the afternoon with Aaron playing video games, and I hung out with my mom at the mall for awhile. (Had to replace those undershirts I had outgrown in less than a week!) We had dinner at my parents house that evening. I passed out early, something that seemed to happen quite a bit last week! All that eating really wore me out, apparently!

Wednesday, we hung out at my parents house in the morning, then ended up meeting my KSU roomie Chelsea and her husband Jonathan at the coffee shop in the afternoon. It was great catching up with them again, as it's been FOREVER since we last saw them! Chelsea is one month behind me in her pregnancy, so we compared notes while the boys talked about work/video games/etc. :) Time flew by, and before we knew it, it was time for them to leave and for us to run a few errands. We rented a movie, then went back to my parents house for dinner. We ended up doing our Christmas Eve festivities that evening because we found out that the weather was going to start getting pretty bad on Thursday, and my parents wanted us to make it back safely to the Hetricks. So we spent part of Wednesday night opening presents. Charley dove face-first into his goodie bag that Mom had made him... what a spoiled brat!! He really enjoyed his time at my parents house, mainly following my mom around and begging for food. :) We got several things we needed for the house, and Peanut got some cute clothes, toys, and books. I'm excited to bust out my cookie press and new baking sheets sometime this week!

Thursday, the weather started getting bad pretty early in the morning. Keith decided that he wanted us to leave Casey's truck at my parents house, and he would come pick us up in his Dodge Ram when he left work. He came to get us around 3 pm or so, and by that point, the streets were ridiculous. Luckily we were in a vehicle that could plow through just about anything, so we weren't as affected by the weather as the majority of crazy people that were out on the streets at that point. Keith needed to get a last-minute Christmas gift for De, so we went to the mall (Charley and I stayed in the car). Then Casey's sisters, who were stuck at home, sent us a list of things to get at the store, so we stopped there before going home. I was really happy to get to the Hetricks... the weather conditions and frightened dog in my lap made the trip pretty nerve-wracking, so I was happy to get my blood pressure back to a normal range. We vegged out that night, baking and decorating cookies, eating spaghetti, and watching It's a Wonderful Life. (Good movie.. I had never sat through the whole thing before, but I'm happy I did!) We opened our Christmas Eve gifts (love my maternity pajamas!!) and passed out.

Christmas morning, we woke up and opened our gifts. I got a robe (which I'm wearing as I type this... love it!!), a CHI hair straightener, and some very cute things for the baby. I'll include pictures (if they aren't too scary of me w/o make-up...) I laid around a lot that day and pretty much did nothing until we got ready to leave for Lawrence for the Hetrick Christmas at Lloyd & Jeanie's. The Hetrick grandparents got snowed into their house, so we piled into the Honda Pilot and went to bail them out. We somehow managed to get 8 people, 3-4 crock pots of food, and a LOAD of presents into the vehicle and make it to Lawrence... it took 2 hours to actually get there between shoveling snow and packing the car. There were a ton of stranded people out on the streets, and luckily we never found ourselves in that situation. We made it to Lloyd & Jeanie's, and spent time catching up with everyone, eating dinner, and opening presents. I think we finally got home around 10:30 or so, and everyone was pretty much exhausted at that point and went to bed.

Saturday Casey and I got up and attempted to pack everything to take to my parents house. Keith came home and the boys spent time packing the truck. The roads were still really bad out North and we were supposed to have the annual dinner with my friends that evening, but it turned out that everyone else couldn't make it because they were snowed in. I was pretty bummed, mainly because it was the only other time during the week that I could have seen them (other than the baby shower), and I won't see them again until after the baby is born. It was a strange reality to me that this is the last year I would have to do the traditional things before everything totally changes. I know that the change will be a good one, and I'm extremely excited about the baby! I just got sad knowing that this was the last year that we'd probably have a tradition like that. I guess that's just how it goes sometimes, though. The Hetricks (minus Val) made it out, though, so all that food didn't go to waste. After they left, Casey and my dad worked on getting things packed up for the trip home on Sunday morning.

We woke up early... I was pretty out of it as I didn't sleep well at ALL the night before. Casey and my dad got the truck packed and ready, and I got Charley around and all of our stuff together. We hit the road around 6:30 am. We only stopped 3 times for bathroom/food, and made it back to Plainfield around 4:00 pm. All things considered, we did pretty well. Missouri and Iowa were hit pretty hard by the winter storm, but I have to praise the Illinois DOT for clearing off the majority of the highway, as we didn't have any problems at all once we hit the state line.

Side note: Somewhere in Iowa, I REALLY had to go to the bathroom, so we stopped to get gas and I ran inside. There were 3 ladies in front of me in line, and 2 that were behind me shortly after I got there. Peanut was doing the tango on my bladder, and I was having a really hard time standing there waiting on the people in front of me. The guys bathroom was empty, so I looked at the ladies behind me, said, "I've got a kid dancing on my bladder... I'm just going to go in here" (and was relieved when one of them said, "No judgment!")... the bad part was when I came out and saw 2 guys standing there waiting on me. All I could say was, "Sorry guys, I'm 7 months pregnant and couldn't wait anymore!" Hopefully they were fine with it but I didn't stick around to find out!

So that's our trip home, the short version. Chuck is happy to be back home now, although he had a blast getting tons of attention (and treats!) and playing with the Hetricks 9 month old Great Dane, Harley. He slept pretty much all day in the truck yesterday, and barely woke up last night when we were going to bed. I'm glad he had a good Christmas this year. I can safely say we did, too. Just hard to believe it's already over!

This morning I went for my 31 week doctor's appointment- I start going every 2 weeks now. Everything is on track and looking good. I gained 2 lbs since I went last, and the baby's heartbeat was 146. Overall, I have gained 13 lbs! They think I will probably gain 25 total. All in all, a good and short appointment. Now I'm home and going to attempt to get some energy and make sense of all of our Christmas/baby shower gifts. I've got my work cut out for me!

Love,

Ash

PS: I'm going to post some pictures in a separate blog entry as this one is pretty freaking long. :)