Dog Miracles! (Need I say more?)

There's this moment of absolute terror when you let your dogs out into the rain (temporarily not pouring as much as it was earlier) to relieve themselves and instead of simply doing their business and coming back to you, they both hop into "play bows" and start sprinting through the muddy, watery, "not-really-grassy-at-all" yard. You can see the mud flinging off the ground and you get this image of two very large dogs soaked with mud and water, and you, poor pregnant "I-can-barely-bend-over" you, trying to figure out how to rinse and dry these two crazy dogs without the help of the ever-capable, not-pregnant husband. But then, God looks upon you with love and mercy and sends a miracle! The crazy dogs chasing each other through the mud suddenly return to the dry garage, only slightly wet and oddly (miraculously!!) not muddy at all. You give them a quick drying with the towel you brought and they willingly go back inside the house, knowing that they will probably be stuck inside for the remainder of the night. God is good, my friends. He is very good indeed. :) (And I'm super proud of my dogs for coming back to me, even though I ruined their fun.)

Despite how it looks if you walk into this house right now, we are officially moving (unless something absolutely crazy happens) in a matter of weeks. God has a ridiculous sense of humor when it comes to my need to plan and be over-the-top prepared for big life changes (like moving and babies and the like), so He decided to test the limits of my faith by prolonging the home-buying process to the point where our estimated closing date is May 30th instead of the "hoped-and-planned-for" beginning to middle of April date we really liked. So now we have about eleven days after closing (unless God sends another miracle and we close early!) to fix up the few things in our new home that desperately need fixing and move out of our current house. All the while staying prepared for the arrival of Baby Boy at any time in the next five weeks or so. Since I am only capable of packing and cleaning (for the most part...ceiling fans and baseboards don't seem very feasible at this point...or any later point that involves me still being pregnant), poor Travis is going to be doing a lot of stuff on his own. It was actually a year ago, almost to the day, that we moved out of our cozy little apartment into my grandparents' house to house-sit for two weeks, all the while wondering when Travis would hear back about a job and how long we'd be, essentially, homeless. But as I've shared before (or at least, I think I have), God provided a great job and a house with landlords that didn't balk at the idea of us bringing our two GSDs. And I must say, even though buying a house, moving, cleaning, and having a baby all at the same time sounds daunting at times, it's nowhere near as terrifying as our situation a year ago, and God brought us through that in a way only He could do. So when it seems like we've lost our minds, I just remind myself that God's got it. Always.

Baby is getting bigger and bigger. My bladder is getting smaller and smaller. My pain-free practice contractions are becoming more and more frequent. Sleeping isn't as easy as it once was, though I still do pretty well for myself considering. On the positive side of things, I have no feet/hands/face swelling or (ahem) colostrum leakage. My leg cramps have subsided and, over all, I haven't had too many aches and pains. (Though my husband may disagree with that last statement based on my endless complaining... OK, on second thought, the aches and pains may be more of an issue than I like to admit. But mostly when it involves standing up. And I mean the actual "getting up off the couch/bed/floor/etc. part. Once I'm up, I'm good. Mostly.) I've discovered that it's rather uncomfortable to drive with a baby jabbing into your side. It's hard to explain. But it's a tad distracting and makes me feel like I probably shouldn't be driving. Baby has the hiccups at the moment. Those are fun. ;)

We have two nests of newly hatched baby birds outside our front door. They're noisy little guys.

I no longer care (this month) about my weight gain. I just love chocolate.