The Laundry Escapades

It is not uncommon in our house for a pile of clean laundry to sit on the couch for a week (I know, I cringe reading it too). On most days I will get laundry out of the dryer and fold it immediately, but sometimes when I'm having a busy, rough week--I will still do the laundry, it just may not all get folded right away. While visiting my sister in Texas, I realized I am not the only one who does this on occasion and now I don't feel as guilty. Thanks sis!

So, today I spent part of my morning talking to Matt on Skype and the webcam, as I do most mornings, and decided I may just tackle the pile of clean clothes that has been staring at me in the face for a week. Most of the time I will clean everything around the couch of unfolded clothes, vacuum the floor, and de-clutter every corner, but the pile (like this particular one) will stay untouched for over 5 days. Today I figured there definitely has to be some sort of limit to how many days it can remain unfolded, so I sat down to do some serious folding.

But then something strange happened. I heard my tv talking to me. Really it was my dvr, telling me to erase the things that I would never watch or never have time to watch, and it was begging to be organized. Matt has also kindly asked me to clear some space on the dvr, and save the episodes of 24 so he can watch them upon his return. Being the dutiful wife that I am, I sat down on the laundry-free couch (trying to avoid eye-contact with the couch designated for clean clothes) and began deleting programs and figuring out which ones I needed to keep. During this time, Maya got bored with me but didn't want to go up to the play room and play with her toys. She was already dressed for the day, but within a few minutes began adding more and more shirts, pajama pants, shorts, and two different colored socks to her wardrobe from the clean pile of clothes. By the time she was done she was wearing a pair of jeans, pajama pants, shorts, and four shirts (all the while singing and talking to herself). She put on my heels from church and a coat and happily exclaimed, "I'm ready for the ball!" The moment was too sweet not to capture. If I had folded that pile a week ago like I should've, this moment would've never happened, so thank goodness I didn't. Yet another great reason not to feel guilty about it. Ah, and here I am blogging about the experience instead of folding that pile of laundry on the couch.

Home again, home again, jiggity jig

Well, we made it. We are finally home from our 3 1/2 week vacation visiting my sister, Leslie, in Sugar Land, Texas. We survived another 2 1/2 hour plane ride, and then a 6 hour and 45 min one directly after, and we are all still alive and in one piece (miraculously). It was the busiest, craziest, funnest, and most adventure filled 3 1/2 weeks I've had in quite some time. Leslie has a great husband and six little munchkins, so adding myself and my two girls to it all was beautifully chaotic and a lot of fun. A house of 11 people gets a little wild at times, but I definitely wouldn't trade it. Just the simple fact that I didn't have to be alone over the holidays made it easier to glide right through them.

In other news, we are still looking for a name for our little one. We had four perfect boy names picked out (of course), and now we are struggling to find the perfect fit for HER name. We are definitely open to suggestions. Anyone, oh anyone? I suppose we still have a few months left to stew over it.

I am now 22 weeks pregnant and my belly seems to be growing every day. This means sleep has started to become a bit impossible. With all the kicking and prodding to my belly every single time I lie down, the fact that I can no longer sleep on my stomach, and peeing about four times in a single night--it's a wonder I get any sleep at all. But, I absolutely love it--being pregnant that is. With my history of preterm labor I started my progesterone shots a few weeks ago in Texas (which are supposed to keep me from dilating too soon). I get one every week until 36 weeks--talk about a pain in my butt. Literally. Lucky for me Leslie's husband, Thomas, had become an expert on giving these particular shots during Leslie's previous pregnancies. He was able to give them to me (while Leslie posed as the nurse's assistant of course), but not without first pointing out that in some countries he would be shot for having seen his sister's naked behind. What can I say? We're a close family!

At my ultrasound yesterday, they confirmed that yes...indeed...we are still having a girl and she weighs a whopping 1 pound. She looked so perfect up on the screen, moving around and sucking on her fingers and kicking up a storm. It's weird going to all these appointments without Matt, but he may be home by April if everything falls into place. Perhaps even sooner if we can twist enough arms. I'm not really betting on anything right now, but I'm just glad he's safe and that there's a possibility he will make it home before our little girl arrives into this world.