Well, it's been awhile since I've done a journal entry. Ya'll are probably wondering what the heck is going on with us and when on Earth I'm going to get around to tell everyone! :D I've been pretty distracted the last several days; I was rereading the entire Harry Potter collection. I forget how engrossing that is! But I'm done with the last one now. I think I might watch all the movies while Steve's backpacking. Incidentally, does anyone know if they are still making the sixth and seventh movies?

    Okay, on to baby stuff. Obviously, or maybe not, we didn't have a weekly photo last week. If any of you are confused by the fact we still went from week 16 to 17, it's because the doctor told us that we were a week behind in development of where we thought we were, so we're just going to assume from now on that we are the least far along of what they tell us. They can't really seem to decide for themselves. So anyway. We were going to call last week's picture week 16-2, but we ended up not taking one (i.e. we procrastinated). The craving of the week last week was milk. Now, for anyone who knows me really well, they will appreciate how weird that was for me. First off, I'm mildly lactose intolerant and straight milk really hurts my stomach. Second, I HATE milk. I've never liked the taste. Ever. I dislike soymilk, ricemilk, etc., just as much. So when I need to use milk for something, like cooking or cereal, I buy lactose free milk. The taste is not so easy to remedy, however. Let's just say I ate plenty of cereal and a lot of oreos last week. I found if I dunked the oreos in the milk, took a bite and kept it in my mouth, I could drink a lot of milk and only really taste the oreo. So I'd only eat about three oreos to a full glass of milk. Just because I'm craving it doesn't make it taste any better. Bleeecch.

  The baby is gonna be a helluva dancer. When I'm lying on my back (which I don't do all that often anymore, 'cause it's getting a little uncomfortable) it's super easy to feel the baby moving all over my belly. Doing the conga, the merengae, a little salsa.... And he's started to kick harder too. Steve managed to feel him kick just last night. Our good friend Jane (who was also our realtor-if anybody's thinking of buying property up here, she's the one to talk to) brought me a little gift bag that had What to Expect the First Year and a little giraffe that plays Twinkle Twinkle. Ramsey thinks it's supposed to be his, and keeps looking at it in awe and expectation. Makes me a little nervous. I think we all know exactly what he'd do with it if he ever got hold of it.  Steve and I like to wind it up and put it against my belly so lil' Will can hear it.

    We bought paint for the nursery and I started painting last week. It's going to be three colors, three feet of green on the bottom, about five inches of brown, then the rest yellow. I did all the green, so I spent several hours sitting cross-legged on the floor. Normally that would not really bother me at all, but it did this time. I was so horribly sore the next day that I had a hard time walking, and every time I stood up straight, I'd have siatica shooting down my legs. Luckily for me, knowing how to get rid of, or at least ease, muscular siatica is part of my job discription. It's just hard to do it to yourself. I enlisted my ever able-bodied husband to help, and that took care of almost all of it. So that means I can tackle the rest of the room this week. Especially since I don't have to sit on the floor for any of it.  

I'd like to invite everyone to check out our new poll on the front page. And I want to give a quick shout out- Happy Birthday Mom!! Love you!