Since we only wanted to take one car down the mountain, the day before we left for Humboldt, we loaded up the Fit and Steve, Ramsey, Tippy, and I went to drop Steve off for his evening shift. With all our gear and two big dogs, it was a bit cramped, but still managable. Poor Ramsey loves the car, but he gets horribly carsick. He threw up a couple of times going down the mountain, even though we were going slow and trying to take the turns easy. The third time he threw up, we were almost at Steve's office, and Tippy had decided she had had enough of trying to keep her paws out of Ramsey's messes. She managed to climb up into the front seat with us, and refused to move. I kept telling her to get into the back because she was leaning on Steve (who was driving), but she would not budge. Her foot kept hitting my seat belt release and I'd put it back in, only to have her step on it again. I couldn't really have her sit on my lap because of my belly, and Steve kept trying to push her off so he could drive. She leaned into the console and took the car out of gear (we have a manual) and undid my seat belt. By this point, Steve and I were laughing so hard he could barely keep the car on the road and I just about peed my pants. Ramsey was in the back licking up his vomit, oblivious to the shinanigans of his sister. About a minute later, we pulled into Steve's office parking lot. He couldn't set the emergency brake because Tippy was sitting right on it. She still would not move into the back. I actually had to get out of the car so she could have my seat and he could park the car. She stayed in the front the rest of the drive to Tami and Ira's. It's amazing how much more room there was with one less person. I think that was the most exciting thing for the dogs that whole trip, but I'm not sure since they stayed with Tami and Ira.

    Early the next morning, Steve and I snuck out of the house (so as not to upset the dogs) and hit the road. We had stayed the night with Steve's parents so we had a little less of a drive. We drove straight to Eureka, which is about 13 hours from Oceanside. Needless to say, we were pretty happy to get there by the end. It wasn't as difficult for me as I thought it might be, though. I really didn't have any problems on the drive, and that alone felt like much cause for celebration. We had a great time in Humboldt, visiting with Harry and Christa. They took us all over, showing us all the best places, nice little hikes, good restaurants, and the all important places of work. Steve and I really gave Harry a hard time because he kept telling us what to expect about certain things, and they were never what he said. "All the hippies and potheads congregate in Arcata and Eureka, there's hundreds of 'em; it's always overcast and cloudy here; we see a lot of elk all the time, no matter where we go; there are two deer who live in this little field, I see them everyday on my way home." Guess what? It was sunny and clear pretty much the whole time we were there. Arcata and Eureka really didn't have a population unlike anywhere else. We had to go out of our way to see just a couple of elk. We never saw hide nor hair of the two deer. But nevertheless, we did have a great time.

   Will is doing well. I'm pretty sure he went through a growth spurt last week. I was starving all the time and ate just about anything in front of me. By the way, Harry, if you're missing a fish or two.... sorry. They just looked so tempting. :D Just kidding. I put on six pounds since my last doctors visit two weeks ago, and it all went to my belly. I finally look like I'm in my third trimester. He's become a lot more active. He kicks and punches more often, and shifts around a lot. I guess I'm used to it by now, because I don't even notice it when he's really active and I'm asleep. Steve had his arm around my belly the other night, and Will kept kicking him away. "No, my mommy!" I snored happily through the whole thing. Some thing new that's been a little less than fun lately is I've been having some really mild cramping low in my belly early each morning. It's consistant, lasting for about 20 minutes, then it's totally done. I'm pretty sure it's just Will pressing on my nerves, but it makes me a bit nervous every time it happens. I just keep thinking "I'm so not ready to have him yet! Don't let this be contractions!" We're now 30 weeks, so he could survive on his own more than likely if we did have him early, but I'd rather he wait a bit longer. I know I said I really wanted him to be born this year, but I was thinking more like December. I have a lot to do between now and then! I guess I better get off my butt and get to it, then, right? :D

Stevie and I are heading up to Humboldt county this week to visit Harry and Christa, so I thought I'd get in one last entry before we go. Both the dogs are going to be staying with Tami and Ira. We feel like we've been asking Robert to watch Ramsey a lot lately, so we wanted to try something a little different this time. We're just really hoping Ramsey doesn't do anything to get himself disbarred from the grandparents house, like try to mark all the furniture. I don't think that'll really happen, but I guess anything is a possibliity. We're all staying down in Oceanside tonight so Steve and I can get an early start in the morning and minimize our drive time, since we're still going to be in the car for 12 hours. Yea. Who knew the state of California was so long? It only takes 11 hours to drive from San Diego to Salt Lake. We have been doing a lot of yard work to prepare for winter, planting three of our new trees and our three Wisteria plants. We still have three more trees to plant in the backyard, we need to stain and install some latticing for the Wisteria, paint and install a new exterior door for our bedroom, create a new plumbing path for the washer water so it drains into the septic tank. Right now it drains into the creek. Not good. So we definitely have our work cut out for us when we get back next week. Nothing wrong with that. Of course, we still have a lot of indoor projects on our plate as well. But that's okay, too. Everybody knows we're doing a lot, so it's all good. And I like to stay busy.

   I actually lost a pound as of my last doctor's visit. So my net gain of weight for this pregnancy is only ten pounds. Not bad for being six and a half months. I FINALLY had a talk with my doc about my delivery  and the fact that she's pregnant. She's actually due in 3 weeks, so she'll be back at work by the time I'm due, and when I told her I wanted to have a natural childbirth, she said there was no problem with that and to bring in a "wishlist" of what I want and don't want to happen at the birth. I feel pretty good about the whole situation, so I'm not going to bother looking for a new doctor. I had considered the notion of a midwife, and liked what they had to say when I talked to a couple, but it had some big financial flags. They can't bill the insurance until the baby is actually born, so they have you pay up front and then reimburse you when they get the insurance money. We just don't have $3900 lying around to spend on that. It's something we can keep in mind for our next baby, when we'll have time to save up for it. Maybe. Who knows. We'll see, but at least now we know what to expect if we want to go that direction.

   We'll see ya'll when we get back!

I had my ultrasound earlier this week. The placenta is well out of the way now, and Will is a very good size. Especially his feet. The technician said, "Whoa! Those are some feet!" when we were taking the picture of his little kick-pads. The average baby weight right now is about two pounds. Will weighs just over 2 1/2 pounds. Based on his measurements (head, belly, femur), he's at a gestational state of 28 1/2 weeks. Considering I was barely 27 weeks when the ultrasound was done, I'd say we're gonna have a big boy on our hands! Please, please let him be born this year!!! If he's born this year, we'll get the tax deduction and that means I don't have to go back to work. We can use that to pay our property tax, which is the only concern for us just living on Steve's income. I really, really want to be a stay at home mom if it's possible. If the economy keeps sliding the way it has been, I'd be hard pressed to find a job at all, if I had to.

   Steve gave me a pressure cooker for our anniversary, so I can start canning and preserving. I'm really excited about that. I want to have a big garden next year, and preserve a lot of the surplus from that, but I can also buy things in bulk that are in season and preserve them. I'd like to know at least the basics of what I'm doing by the time the garden is producing and I'll be doing a lot of canning.

   Lil' Will has been really active since we got back from Seattle. He hardly made a peep the whole time we were there, but as soon as we landed in San Diego, he's been practicing his soccer kicks every day. It used to be that he'd have active days and inactive ones, but now he's got active hours and inactive ones. That's okay; it just takes a little getting used to. Sleeping is getting more and more interesting all the time. The past several nights, I'll wake up after about six hours sleeping on my side, and my ribs are killing me. They're so painful that if I keep trying to sleep in the bed (in ANY position) it'll make me cry. So I have to get up and sleep in the easy chair the rest of the night. I've got an ottoman and make good use of some extra pillows to be nice and comfy. It's just weird to sleep sitting up. But, hey, it's the only way I'm comfy, so who cares? I'm sure things are only going to get more interesting from here on out.

I had been anticipating that once I started maternity leave, I'd have time to update the site more often than I've been doing (since I've been terribly lax about it of late). So far that just has not been the case. Of course, it hasn't even been two weeks since I started, but still. Last weekend Steve and I (and Will of course) were up in Seattle for my sister Corinne's wedding. That was a really wonderful trip all around and we had a great time. There's nothing quite like getting together with family you don't live close to and all hanging out. It makes you remember why you love them so much, and on occasion, it makes you remember why you're glad you live so far away from them. :D But that was not the case this time. We had a lot of fun talking with and hanging out with my fam and new brother-in-law. I went from having one sister to a sister, two sisters-in-law, and three brothers-in-law in less than two years! That's pretty fast work all around, I must say. But the more the marrier! Ha ha. We're going to Steve's sister Kathryn's wedding re-enactment today. They got married on the sly in June, but they're doing a full shin-dig today. Poor Steve has been run off his feet this week and is bemoaning the fact we have ANOTHER wedding to go to and shoot already. Since every day off this week he's had, he's been doing wedding stuff, I can sympathize. Especially since he's been working so much, has had to deal with getting in his application for an opening in the San Diego office, getting the house ready for the abrupt fall weather we're going to be experiencing soon (like right now; it's 58 degrees at one o'clock in the afternoon), and trying to last minute scramble to get my present ordered for our anniversary next Tuesday. Since the internet at our house has been out the better part of this whole week, that makes things a lot more difficult. But never fear, it is back after much bitching and moaning and cursing of AT&T. We're definitely going to be looking around for a different provider if we can find one that doesn't cost an arm and a leg. It's actually pretty hard up here to get service on a variety of things. San Diego just hasn't caught on to the fact that some of us (crazy though we may be) actually want to live in the mountains but don't want to have to do without basic amenities such as phone, internet, indoor plumbing, and appliance repair.

     It's very surreal to me that I'm now in my third trimester. I guess I just thought that the third trimester was all about being huge the whole time and hardly being able to get around much because of the condition I had one pregnancy book affectionately call being an "overstuffed, lumbering mammoth." I'm just not that big. As of my last doctor's appointment on Wednesday, I had gained eight pounds this last month, so that makes my total weight gain this pregnancy eleven pounds. I'm really interested in what the next ultrasound (on Monday) will say about Will's size and weight since he's been ahead of the curve. We'll also find out if the placenta has moved. Dollars to doughnuts it has. I'm not expecting there to be a problem by the time Will decides to get a good look at us, face to face. His room is slowly coming together. I put his crib together yesterday. I'm going to let Steve do the bassinet so he doesn't start feeling left out. He likes to be very involved with this pregnancy, which I can really appreciate.

Okay, so I knew it had been a little while since we'd done a belly shot, but I didn't realize it'd been 4 weeks! What the heck? I thought we'd only missed two. Oh, well. It'll just give ya'll a little better perspective on how big I am now, I guess. Things are going quite well right now. I'm done with work after next Monday, which I find very exciting. That is a bit earlier than we'd originally planned, but I've been having a lot of low back pain that massage specifically aggravates. So, it makes sense to not do it anymore, right? Right. We've shot a couple of weddings since my last entry, and they both went really well. Or as well as can be expected. Take your pick. :D We got good shots out of each, and that's all that really matters in the end. Isn't it? The next wedding is in about two weeks, so we have a little breathing room. The last wedding really gave us some good perspective on what it'd be like to be professionals. We realized we are not big fans of shooting the receptions. It ends up being a lot of time waiting around for a few special moments with the camera. Cake cutting, first dance, Daddy/daughter/Mother/son dance(s), bouquet toss/garter toss. Just those shots are the important ones out of usually four hours of reception. The lighting is very difficult and it's hard to make shots with the flash look like anything but. So, we'll have to factor in our dislike of shooting receptions into our pricing. We're thinking we might just break up the ceremony/family/couple shots from the reception, so the reception would be extra. That would also be a good way for people to try and keep their costs down. But we'll see. That's certainly a while away from here.

   I've started doing a lot more cooking lately. I think everyone in the house likes it. It costs us less money, usually turns out better than store products, and we know exactly what is in our food. And, sometimes, I drop things on the floor, so the dogs like it a lot. The last time I was at the grocery store looking at bread, it just about made my eyes pop out of my head that a single good loaf of whole grain bread is about five bucks! Okay, I can make two loaves for about two bucks. No brainer there. And since I have the time (or will shortly), why not? I want to work on perfecting some of my recipes now because I really want to plant a big garden next year and do canning and preserving. If I already have awesome recipes for soup/stew/chili/spaghetti sauce/salsa/jams/whathaveyou then it makes things easier.

  Will is getting stronger every day. It's already at the point where if I'm sitting with an arm across my belly, he can kick hard enough to push my arm off. It's so strange to have that happen! He'll go through really active days where he's moving around all day long, kicking, pushing, stretching, flipping. Then he'll have days he barely moves at all. Like he finds a comfy spot and chills. Can't we have a happy medium? It's really distracting when he's constantly moving, and I start worrying if he's okay when he's in his zen meditation zone. For the most part, though, I think he's a pretty good baby. We'll see if he keeps this up when he's born!!

We had an ultrasound this morning. There were some good points and some not so good points. The major good point being we found out, for sure, the sex of the baby. The bad being that I have a low lying placenta.  I understand that's not really a problem at this point. Only ten percent of women with low lying placentas in the second trimester still have them in that position when they're due. It's most likely that the placenta will move upward with the growth of the uterus, and won't be an issue. If it doesn't move, then it becomes a high-risk pregnancy. My chances of preterm labor, and labor being a c-section, are quite high. But I'm not going to worry yet. I'm scheduled for another ultrasound in six weeks to see where we stand. So that's the bad. The last ultrasound we had, the baby was being shy and not wanting to share the goods, but this time the baby was letting it all hang out and being very cooperative. We are having a son. No doubt. And we got pictures to prove it! :D 'Course, it's really hard to see what's what on these tiny little photos, but still. Sorry Harry. I know you really thought it was a girl. Although why you wanted a little girl cousin so bad is perhaps questionable.... :P Tippy and I are about to be outnumbered in the house. Oh well. We more than make up for in attitude. Right, girl? Good dog.

    I have a whole new wardrobe (or just about, it seems) courtesy of Tami and Ira. Thank you!!!! Tami really wanted to get me a nice maternity outfit to wear to all these nice weddings we're shooting, and then there's Thanksgiving and Christmas. Well, one nice outfit turned into four pairs of pants, two sweaters, a cardigan, and two shirts. So now I at least have some winter clothes and won't freeze my patooty off. Most, if not all, of my maternity clothes (new and old) will fit me right up 'til term. If I keep gaining weight at this rate, it won't be any issue at all. Probably some of my regular non-maternity clothes would still fit! I've only gained three pounds since my last doctor's visit, which means I've only gained three pounds from my original weight. Don't ask me where I'm getting this belly from, 'cause it's a mystery. Especially considering that Will weighs one pound three ounces. That may not sound like much, but the average baby weight at twenty-two weeks (which is where we are) is 15 ounces. So he's good and big. Obviously I'll be gaining weight a lot faster come the third trimester, but I think it'll be really interesting to see just how much I gain. It's really not like I'm starving myself or anything. I eat anything and everything that I want. It's just that the vast majority of what I want is very healthy, so I'm eating better now than I did pre-pregnancy. Which is great! And since I'm going to be breastfeeding, I'm going to need to continue to eat well after Will's born, so that'll help lose any of the weight I gain in the next 18 weeks. Not that I'm concerned about it. Honestly, I wish it was this easy to adjust my weight normally.

We've decided that October 13th will be my last day before maternity leave. That's sixteen more days of work (since I'm taking some time off between now and then for weddings). I can do sixteen more days, right? I think so. :D I think that will be just about right, because it's already getting difficult to do a full days worth of massage. Standing for that many hours, leaning over people, it kills my low back and hips. After four massages it hurts to stand. Not so bad that I can't do it, but enough that I'll complain about it. I have been trying to do stretching and I work my low back muscles so they aren't so tight, and that helps. I'll miss my coworkers, but it's not like I can never see them again or anything. And I have enough projects to keep me busy the rest of my pregnancy.

    If any of you ever check out our Flickr page, you know that our oaks are down. Steve's made a pretty good amount of progress on our log pile. As he's been splitting pieces, we find more and more things these trees were dealing with, and we start wondering how they managed to live so long in the first place. Massive ant infestation. Starting about head height to half way up the tree, the ants had bored out living space in the trunk. One piece is so bored out that the thickest piece of trunk is about two and a half inches. The rest is empty space. I think there's a picture of it on Flickr. It just makes you shake your head to look at it. There are a few bore holes from beetles, but not enough to kill the tree. There are some spots with dry rot. I'm SOOOOO happy we went ahead and had these trees cut down. The autumn winds are on their way, and I can just imagine what would have happened if we had left these structurally unsound dead trees standing right next to our house. Bye-bye bathroom and kitchen. Our house is a bit protected from wind because of the little valley we're in, but we could still be talking thirty mile an hour winds. We had that last year, but only during the Santa Annas that pushed the big fires all around. So, since we had so many ants in the trees, and now the trees have been cut apart and the nests are on the ground, guess what? We have so many ants EVERYWHERE that we had to put in a call today to a pest control service. Luckily, they're only outside, but I don't want to risk them finding ways into the house. Since we destroyed their homes, they're on the lookout for a new one. As long as I stay inside the house (with the windows closed, of course) for a few hours after they're done spraying, it's not a danger to the baby. We made sure to ask before we scheduled them to come out.

   We signed up for a three week childbirth class. It starts December 3rd, so it'll be close enough to the due date that we don't have to worry about forgetting everything we learned by then. I was really frustrated by the childbirth classes offered around here. The free ones didn't really cover anything I wanted to know about, and the ones I was the most interested in were outrageously expensive. So we went with a series that isn't very expensive but covers the basics we want to know about, like lamaze and relaxation techniques, and I bought some books on the topics I wanted to know more about in detail. I want to do natural childbirth (if at all possible), so I wanted more in depth info on pain management techniques, how to avoid an episiotomy if possible, etc. I actually have a pretty high pain threshold, as long as it isn't something I just have to live with. That wears me down quickly. But short term intense pain I handle just fine. When I broke my arm in two places several years ago, I didn't take any pain medication until about seven hours later, and that was only so I could sleep. While I was at the hospital, the doctor was moving around one of my breaks to show a student he thought it was broken because of the amount of pain I was having there, even though they couldn't see it on the xray. The nurses thought I was out of my gourd when they asked if I wanted any pain meds and I said no. I just didn't think it was bad enough to warrant them. Of course, childbirth is on a different scale than breaking a bone (or two), but I really, honestly, think I can handle it. I guess we'll see in four months.

I'm feeling really good about having the baby's room as finished as it is. The furniture shown in the photo is everything that's in there right now. The dresser even has some clothes in it already thanks to Mike, Michelle, and my mom. We have mostly newborn sized clothes, so if anyone gets a wild hair up their butt about possibly getting us some baby clothes (like if you see something so cute in the store you think no one would be able to live without it and you absolutely, positively HAVE to buy it RIGHT NOW), go for a larger size. :D

Steve and I went to Goodwill last week, just to see if they had any baby stuff we might need. Yea, they didn't have bumpkiss. (is that how you spell that?) We did get a few kids books to read to the little one, and one for us called the Diaper Diaries: the real poop on a new mom's first year. There are lots of stories in there about what can (and probably will) happen that's negative. Most of these are really funny. It's mostly poking fun at what a new mom's life has turned into, but after reading it I'm just thinking there's got to be more positives, there's just got to be! I know full well that it's not going to be cake and roses. I'm not expecting that. But I am expecting that there will be (albeit brief) moments in time when the baby isn't crying and I'm not at the end of my rope, ready to bash the next person I see in the head with a frying pan. (Poor Steve.) And of course every baby is different with a unique temperment. Steve and I were both really easy babies, so I'm hoping we'll luck out there. But we'll see. It's certainly not a guarantee. We're just praying he won't be as difficult to deal with as Ramsey was as a puppy. We came incredibly close to giving him away. Obviously we didn't, and we're very happy with that decision. But it takes a lot to get either of us that riled.

We're thinking I might start my maternity leave as early as October (although we don't have a specific date in mind yet). I had been thinking October or November originally, just depending on how easy it was to continue working, etc. But we're leaning more and more towards October. We sat down and had a good look at our monthly budget and Steve's income, and figured out that we can afford to live on just his income, as long as it's a temporary thing. If any big expense came up, we'd have a really tuff time, but otherwise it'll be okay. That'll give me plenty of time to work on the things I really want/need to get done before the baby's born. I hope. Our dead trees are coming down this week, so we'll be able to start chopping wood. And we're just about done with the holder Steve designed for the firewood. It's all starting to come together, and hopefully things keep on this path.

I'm feeling good these days, which I appreciate daily! I have several little things that bother me from time to time, but compared to the nausea, I'm living on easy street. My feet are very prone to swelling the last few days, so I've taken to lying on the couch reading a book with my legs up against the wall. That seems to take care of it.

Both dogs have been really itchy lately, especially Ramsey, but they don't have fleas. We stopped using the monthly applications like Advantage because I'm not supposed to be around those chemicals, and they're freakin' expensive. So we bought some flea shampoo and special combs instead. Apparantly, fleas are not an issue up here anyway, but we want to be safe. We're not sure why they've been so itchy. It may be because they like to walk through poison oak (although it's never bothered them at all before). I brushed them both with the flea combs today and neither had any signs of fleas, but a lot of dry skin at the itchy sights. It hasn't been quite as humid lately as they're used to, so maybe it's that in addition to the flea shampoo or something that's just made their skin dry and itchy. I just don't know. We haven't been having any problems with the mosquitoes being bad this year (at least, not yet), but I guess that is a possibliity. The bugs do come out at night, and the dogs get evening as well as morning walks. (Talk about spoiled!) Anybody have any ideas?

Also, I want to post a new poll. Is there anything in particular anybody would like to see polled?