"The Storm"

I said last week felt like the 'calm before the storm', so this week I'm getting ready to take cover! Here's a breakdown of my week:

Monday (today)... CLEAN the HOUSE. And whatever else I can do to make the rest of the week go smoothly, esp. since we leave early Friday morning to head to Kansas. OH, and I'm working on our holiday letter and Christmas cards, so I should probably get some of that done today as well. Ahhh!

Tuesday: Last Photoshop class... turn in my final project... yay! The Baird & Warner baby shower is from 2-4 pm, and I found out Casey can come, so I'm a little less nervous about it. :) Now we can start really preparing for Peanut to arrive!

Wednesday: Packing, cleaning, laundry, any last-minute shopping for Christmas... packing...

Thursday: Finish packing, get ready for the trip to Topeka on Friday. Work my last shift at Baird & Warner that evening. Let's hope I don't cry.

Friday: Drive all day and arrive in Topeka!

Saturday: Family/Friends baby shower

Sunday: Shrimplin Christmas at the Hetricks

I had to change my mind about Casey's Christmas gift so now I am scrambling to figure out what to do for him. I think I know, but I feel lame now that my Big Idea fell through. Oh well... maybe I'll work on it for next year since I'll have more time at home now... it was just getting too involved and expensive. I think we're keeping Christmas pretty low-key between us this year, since we'll have so much baby stuff going on. Plus, we need to get a new vehicle, so that will probably be our big gift to each other. I guess that's not really low-key... but it's a necessity! A lot is going to change around here in the very near future!

Speaking of changes, Casey and I decided to rearrange the living room this weekend. Now the couch is along the half-wall, and the TV is on the north side of the room instead of the west. It really opens up the house a lot more, and Charley enjoys having even more room to run now that the couch isn't in the way. Peanut will have a lot more room to play now, too. We also put up the Christmas tree yesterday. Now that the TV/Entertainment center is on the north side of the house, the windows on the west side are free, so we put the tree in front of one of those. Charley didn't seem to mind the tree (which was surprising!) and still manages to look out the window and spy on the neighbors, which is one of his favorite activities. In general, I think the arrangement is a good one. Casey seems to be happy with his hard work... as I was not able to be very helpful as far as moving furniture was concerned. I'll try to take pictures of the house this week and update, since I don't think I've actually done that since we moved in over a year ago. Oops!

I am starting to feel more of the effects of pregnancy the past few days, and it doesn't take much to wear me out. Having two holiday parties this weekend did the trick, and I found myself really run down during the day Saturday and Sunday. I'm definitely getting bigger now, and I'm sure my body is just trying to adjust to the extra weight. Only 11 weeks to go! I have a feeling by the end of this, I am going to be 110% ready to have Peanut join the world... probably sooner than later. Until then, I'm going to keep trying to do as much as I can, but still take it as easy as possible. I have a feeling I'll need to work in naps here and there over the next 2 weeks, just to get through all the holiday activities.

I should go now... writing about all the things I need to do is wearing me out, and I haven't even started yet! Ahhh!!

Love,

Ash