We are here, we are here!

I’ve been taking it real easy the last few months, which translates into I’ve been even lazier than usual. The biggest change is that John was laid off on Feb 1, and has therefore been home all day almost every day. Since before, we were lucky to see him two times a week, this has been an adjustment we were happy to make. After the initial shock and stress, we have really been enjoying our time together. I think if I were not pregnant, I would be even less stressed and not worry at all. But we’re taking full advantage of John being around all the time: we were able to take time to go visit my parents in St. George, UT and John has done a million projects around the house. He has spent hours and hours in searching, applying, and interviewing for new jobs. We have some promising ones, but I don’t want to count my chickens before they’re hatched, so I’m not going to say anything until we have some firm offers in our hands. John has been really hands-on with the kids, playing with them and helping them with homework and projects. SO NICE FOR ME, since I’m pretty tired of explaining fractions and gluing things.

My Mom and Dad are doing pretty well--we put my dad in a home in January and he has been fine there. My mom can't drive or hear very well (brain damage from tumors)but is happy to be living at home and has help come in 3 times a week to take her places and help her clean. She misses Dad, but is a lot less stressed now that the burden of his care is mostly on other people. She complains that they aren't taking as good care of him as she would like (they don't shave him everyday, and lose his socks), but they are mostly doing as good a job as you can expect from people not related to him.

I'm doing well physically and emotionally. I feel huge and my mom even said I already looked 9 months pregnant and a man at church asked if I was having twins. But I try not to take it too much to heart, especially since I've only gained 14 pounds so far with 6 weeks to go. The kids love to feel when the baby is kicking, and especially when he has hiccups. Hannah has reconciled herself to having yet another brother, but she also keeps telling me "they could be wrong and it's a girl." So I told her if it is, we'll name her Hope because Hannah has never lost hope.

John is getting ready to graduate with his MBA from Notre Dame and he is so excited! So are we! He has worked really hard and has earned great grades. I'm really proud of him. His whole family is coming for the graduation on May 15th. Anyone else who wants to drop in would be welcome. It's a beautiful time of year in Chicago.

The first 3 pictures are from Sunny St. George (you can see how huge I am--can I get any bigger?), and the last two are the before and after pictures from our kitchen.