cute husband & fun weekend

This past weekend was a welcome respite from all the packing and moving. Mojo was in a wedding so it forced us to put down the boxes and enjoy our friends and each other.
Then on Sunday some sweet friends threw me a shower. It was a good reminder that indeed a baby was coming soon! Maggie is adjusting to Mimi and Papa Joe's house and loving their backyard and all the new toys, the dog, and the kitty cats.
She is playing in the play room right now...she is becoming very good at playing pretend and even makes eating noises when she is playing with her little kitchen. she also is saying sentences now (short ones) like: Bye Daddy! Thank you Mimi! and her favorite that shes been saying for a while- "where did it go?"

"Our House is Gone"

On the way home from my parents house today Mojo was encouraging me that we should just go ahead and move in with them now and not wait two more weeks- our house is filled with boxes and isnt that fun to be in right now. (perhaps a tivoed Laker game had something to do with him wanting to hurry back to my parents?)...I am not ready to leave our house, I replied.
And he said, "Sharon, Our house is gone."

I was never that emotionally attached to this house, as glamorous and beautiful as I thought it was. I always knew this was just a stopping place along the way and we weren't going to be here for a very long time. But nonetheless, his statement made me sad.

Once we got home and he presented me with my Mother's Day gift of Versace Sunglasses (how cool is he?), he took the babe to church and I took my hormone filled body into the oatmeal, lavender bath. I began think about the memories of this house. How we've spent most of our marriage in this place, How I labored long and hard in that bath tub with Maggie, putting up our first Christmas tree in front of the huge front stainglassed window, bringing Maggie home and making a safe and cozy resting place for her, all the neighborhood group meetings, all the parties, the bottles of wine that we shared together over pizza and watching movies (a favorite Sunday night after church ritual).
I thought about our neighbors and missing them, the conversations and the frustrations. The weekly walks to bongo and Marche. Maggie's first steps along those paths. The playdates, the dinner parties, the friends that have graced the doorway and all the laughter that filled this place.

But he was right, our house is gone. Not b/c it's filled with boxes and there is no place to sit but because our time here is done. Our season in East Nashville is coming to a close. And thats what we have to say goodbye to (our church, our family, our friends, our neighbors). There will be other houses.... or for that matter, huts or flats or duplexes-who knows? But our calling makes our home.
St. Louis-be ready.

give it all away

Packing and moving makes me crazy. Mainly because it makes me want to just give all my sh** away and move to Africa. I have a hard time balancing what i really need and thinking i'll someday need that random potato peeler. I feel like once you begin to accumulate you just cant stop. I mean really, half our stuff is in storage right now anyway and we havent even known its gone. part of me just wants to pretend it doesnt exist so that I wont worry that I need it.
One of my favorite parts of living in China is that the chinese wear the same outfit for a week at a time usually. Let me tell you how freeing that is! I do wish it was culturally acceptable here cause i would quickly embrace that. i'm selling 70% of my clothes- we are having a garage sale saturday and if i keep feeling this way, I'm sure most of our belongings will be in our front yard. come buy so I can be free!

past the cute point

i feel like in every pregnancy there is a threshold you cross from being cute and pregnant to being just pregnant. I think months 5, 6, & 7 are months when pregnant woman shine above other women all over the world. They are glowing and happy and still feeling great. Months 8 &9, for me at least, is when you start to slow down, the aches set in, you dont sleep very well and so cant tie your shoes. after a while,especially for short people the only place to for babies to grow is straight OUT.
so i believe i've recently passed that point. my clues are when people i dont know very well start asking when my due date is, but really they want to know if i'm due in the next couple days.
and then of course, the comments about "youre bigger every time i see you!" i still dont know why a) people think thats okay to say and b) why its surprising...since thats the point, right?
to be fair, i do the same thing, cause a woman being pregnant is pretty cool and its kinda wierd when your friends all of the sudden have a big belly right? but considering how common pregnancy is (obviously), its a bit strange how much attention it gets-have you ever thought about that?
The largest clue lately, came from my 15 yr old boy neighbor. He said the other day, "why is your baby so fat?" "you mean, Maggie?" I said incredulously (i'm she's chubby, but would we say fat?) and he said, "No, the one in your belly." With a raised eyebrow i replied, "I guess because he's growing." And then to save him from a slap from a wife/girlfriend down the road, I said, " Just for future reference, you probably dont want to use the word fat in any sentence with a pregnant lady." He nodded but seemed confused... he'll learn.

so 4 or 5 more weeks. i can deal with that. here are some recent pictures of my clothed belly to redeem the budda belly pic. i figured if you arent staring at the clothes-less belly everyday it may come as a shock, so dont worry. no more naked belly pics.
Note:my legs are still skinny. its the only thing i've got left:)

morning curls

until we unpack...

We inadvertently packed away our camera charger. so that is why there has been a lack of pictures these days. so here are a few recent pics of Maggie taken via cell phone and computer. Maggie has taken to reading to her Eddie and baby doll. Our little book worm. We've read her that book soooo many times that she knows it by heart (and so do we) and so she'll flip pages and say things like, Head! Toes! Wiggle!. Genius I tell you.