In answer to the question �How�d the shower go� I would have to go with �OK�. I am sad to be far away from my friends all of whom are so very good at setting up and running these types of events. I, too, am quite good at it having assisted and/or chaired my fair share of bridal and baby showers over the years. My SILs, while certainly their hearts are in the right place, are not nearly as skilled at such events. It took all my self control to sit there and let them run the show. I wanted desperately to take over and do things right (it�s not that things were wrong per se it�s just that there is a way or running these things that is smooth and entertaining and then there are more awkward and less entertaining ways.) Of course the point of the shower was accomplished. My new friends here in MI and my Family were able to shower me with gifts for my impending birth. This makes the event a success by definition but oh how I missed my friends out west. It would have been such a very different party there. I�m not going to let it get to me of course. The party there would not have included my parents or My Darlings family and that would have been missed as well.

There were more people than I expected and there were tons of gifts to open, so many in fact, that I was actually tired halfway through the pile. Still I pushed on and tried hard to be gracious to all the people who bore the tedium of watching me open gifts on a lovely summer Sunday. Unsurprisingly the place cleared out almost immediately after the last gift was unwrapped and all but family had left before My Darling to show up (I called the moment I finished unwrapping and he was 2 minutes away to give you an idea of how fast the folks raced for the exit.) Hopefully all felt that I truly appreciated their sacrifice because I really did.

Tomorrow I am scheduled to visit the Doctor for my 32 week check up. The frequency has been upped to every two weeks and will soon transition over to every week as the due date draws closer. It feels so very far away but really it is right around the corner. I feel like a child again, on summer vacation, only not the fun, free lazy days of summer but the crowed, crazy too much to do kind. Summer still stretches out eternally from today, too long a wait for my bundle of joy but there is so much to fill the days, work, house stuff, sleep (I really don�t get enough of the sleep) that I fell both a rush and a drag.

No word on the house as of yet. My Realtor (who gave me a darling onesie with houses on it) says the assessment has been done but there is still no word from the bank. I called her today but she was just arriving home from personal stuff and sounded a little irritated and frazzled so I told her to go do what she had to and I would take to her later. Everyone has a life and just cause I want something doesn�t mean everyone needs to drop everything and jump. I often catch people by surprise when they are expecting more of an argument and instead I simply let them go to their life. I am only the center of my own world and I know this. I wish I could simply call the bank myself but I�m sure the response would be even less enthusiastic than the one my realtor received when she tried to push things along. It seems they will not be moved any faster than they are conditioned to move.

Thanks to everyone who sent me gifts, it is sweet of you especially considering the fact that I haven�t actually met some of you in person. It is still a bit amazing to me how close you can become to folks whom you only know through their words. I feel privileged to have been allowed to share this journey with you.

Thank you notes will have to wait until I find the energy to sit down and write them out. There are a few folks who have requested that I save a tree and forgo the notes and those folks have already been thanked.

Shower pictures will follow once I have received them from my SIL.

See ya!

I wish you Peace

~alison~

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