stuff

1. Well I've officially started having contractions. Seriously though, I don't know if they're REAL contractions or Braxton Hicks. I do know that the few I've had have put me on the couch having lost my breath and needing a glass of water....I don't really remember that happening much with Gabe. It seems that the contractions are associated with working too hard around the house (which really just means normal everyday stuff - laundry, cleaning, nothing heavy) and the fact that I haven't had enough water to drink. So I'm working on taking it slow, and drinking an obscene amount of water. (Which for a pregnant woman means an obscene number of trips to the potty...) Since I'm not even 27 weeks yet it worries me a little. I was about 28 weeks with Gabe when I ended up at the hospital with pre-term labor (due to dehydration) - so we'll hope I can avoid that again. When I was pregnant with him we took care of the problem and got the contractions to stop, and I just had to keep hydrated and take it easy. So I'm following that advice again.
2. Gabe is currently obsessed with the movies CARS. He loves McQueen "Keen", and all the other characters. He'll even sit through most of the movie as often as I'll let him. He has to play with the toy cars, read the books, eat out of his Cars plate/bowl/cup etc. I actually saw some really cute "Lightening McQueen" pajamas this weekend, but decided that I wasn't ready for him insisting to wear the same pair of pj's for the next several months - so I left them at the store.
3. Last weekend we took a quick trip to Boise. Cory had a meeting up there on Friday with one of his window coverings manufactures and so he took me with him. We dropped Gabe off at Grandma and Grandpa Ellis' house on the way, so it was just time for the 2 of us. It was really nice (although a VERY long drive!) We stayed at the Ameritel Hotel - which I would highly recommend to anyone. The company we were up visiting for covered our room, which lucky for us had been upgraded to a king suite. It was super nice - a jacuzzi tub and all. While Cory was at his meeting I read a great book and relaxed - it was heavenly. Then we did a bunch of fun shopping, getting stuff for the baby and for Gabe when the baby comes (new bedding and stuff for his "big boy room", and a double stroller). It was nice. We even found a Cheesecake Factory restaurant in the mall - so those of you who know me well know I was in heaven! We got to spend some time with the family back in Logan Saturday evening and we headed home on Sunday. I was totally exhausted from the drive, but we enjoyed time together.
4. Did you see American Idol last Wednesday? They did a special called "Idol Gives Back". It was SO touching! I cried a good part of the show, having to pause it from time to time to stop sobbing. If you can get ahold of a copy of it - it would be worth watching. It made me grateful for the place I am in in this universe, if not feel a little guilty for all the blessings I have in my life. It made me want to run over to Africa and adopt 100's of children.
5. Yesterday Gabe and I had to go run errands while our carpets were being cleaned (while we were gone our poor dog Daisy got sick all over the floor. The kid who was house sitting for us tried cleaning it all up, but used all the wrong cleaning stuff and pretty much ruined our carpets...so we had an emergency visit by our carpet cleaner to help us out - which he did a pretty good job. Still can see things, but it's mostly clean). Anyway, we were at a local craft store - that Gabe thinks is a balloon store. (I tend to bribe him to be good with a balloon at the end of our trip). Yesterday we were buying some pink girl stuff for a project I'm working on and Gabe kept saying, "GINK" for the color pink. He'd point to other colors every once in a while, and got a lot of them right too - but he was fascinated with the pink stuff I was getting. So when we were leaving he wanted a balloon, and had been really good so I agreed. But he wanted a pink balloon. I knew his dad wouldn't be thrilled if he came home with a pink balloon (his manly-ness on the line I guess.....) so I pulled out 5 different colored balloons to see if maybe he would be intersted in a red, or orange one instead. He looked at me and said, "Gink Ba-woon!" So I told him that would be fine, and told him to pick which one in the pile was pink (hiding it under the other colors) and he picked it right out! He was pretty proud of his purchase. I had to laugh. I could care less if he wanted a pink balloon, and teased Cory about it when we got home.
6. Last night I was exhausted and for some reason I couldn't go to sleep until I scrapbooked. It seems like I've had a lot of ideas buzzing around in my head lately, with no time (or energy) to get them done. I didn't have any particular idea in mind - but I was just really wanting to scrap. So I did a quick digital layout (which looks like all the other digital layouts I've done lately....) Here ya go!