Procrastination

Ah, my strong suit... procrastination. I guess you could say I procrastinated blogging (has it really been that long since I stopped by last?), but what I'm talking about is writing thank-you notes. I'm going to blame my mother and Justin for this one - both guilted me this week, maybe even on the same day, about the lack of blog updates. So, rather than working on thank-you notes, I'm doing this.

So for those of you waiting for a note, I will say thank you so very much to each of you for your generosity and the note is coming!!!

Moving on...

Some of you might be scratching your heads, wondering why I'm talking about thank you notes. Well, I was invited back to the good ol' Coast Guard Academy to speak to the Oceanography and Fisheries Management students again. The talk was on the 13th, so since I had a trip out to CT anyway, Mom planned a baby "party" (couldn't call it a shower, right, Dad?) for us while I was out. We had a night time party, technically a Jack and Jill, and got the chance to see everyone and see how much everyone could spoil Green!

Luckily, Mt. Redoubt decided to quiet down for a while around the time of the trip. That, of course, did not stop me from having a hormone-induced break down two nights before we were supposed to leave, completely convinced that we weren't going to make it out. God bless Jason for putting up with me these days, I swear. If you need someone to cry on cue, I'm your girl!

After a slight delay getting out of Kodiak due to "mechanical" problems (which we found later is code for "no flight crew"), we made it to Seattle on the first day of travel and then to Boston the second day. As we got closer to Anchorage on the way out of Kodiak, we were fortunate enough to catch a glimpse of our local trouble-maker... Mt. Redoubt. This isn't the greatest picture, but you can see it steaming away!

About 10 minutes out of Anchorage, on the way to Seattle, I turned to Jason and asked, "Can I get excited now?" since I was so afraid of getting my hopes up for the trip, and then not making it. He said he figured the coast was clear in terms of the volcano, and I couldn't help but smile and, of course, tear up a little!

Once in Boston, we braved the Rt3 traffic to head south to Plymouth to go to the Maundy Thursday service at Christ Church. It was so wonderful to be back there - it felt like coming home! It was great to see everyone, and well-worth the crazy traffic (which I don't miss!)! From there, we headed to CT for a trip that seemed to be over before it even started.

Of course, it being Easter weekend, one of the first orders of business was to color eggs on Friday afternoon. Why we had to color 2 dozen eggs, I couldn't tell you. But, Mom insists they taste better when they're dyed, so we got to work. Oh, and by "we" I mean me and Heather because Mom was suddenly busy and Jason mysteriously disappeared to go get some Dunkin' coffee. Weird.

Saturday was all about the shower. It was a busy day around the house and a wonderful night at the shower. It was so good to see everyone, even if it was for such a short period of time! And everyone was just too good to us and Green. She is already spoiled and she's not even here yet! Here are a couple shots of the gift opening... that's my baby book in the first one, and the second one is Green's first softball glove. Her Grandpa Jeff started her off early, and even included an autographed (by him) baseball, carrying on a Waitt family tradition. *sigh*

Finally, on the last day we were there, it turned into Spring (we totally got cheated out of it the rest of the trip since it felt like Kodiak in Connecticut), and I made Jason take a quick picture of me and Mom together. I never thought I'd say this, but it's been hard to be pregnant this far away from my mom, and I wanted to make sure we had the chance to capture a memory. It even came out pretty good (after a bazillion tries....)!

So, we're back in Kodiak now, and getting ready to head out again this week for a long weekend over in Anchorage. It's a babymoon, I guess, and probably my last trip off the Rock until sometime after the baby is born. I'm trying not to dwell on the 6-ish months of being "stuck" here, but instead on the fancy dinner out, the afternoon at the spa, and the tickets to Spamalot we have for Friday night! After this trip, we'll really get down to the business of getting the baby's room ready and figuring out what stuff we still need. I just want to know how such a small child can need so much stuff - already!! I can see Green very quickly taking over our house and that's before she's here. Could be interesting when there's actually a baby around to start using all that stuff!

On a final note, I, of course, have the latest installment of

BUMP WATCH 2009

For this installment, I actually have two pictures since it's been so long (plus the one above with Mom). The first is at 26weeks and 2days, and the second is from this morning at 28 weeks. Green is definitely very active in there, though she doesn't like to let her Daddy (or anyone else) feel her kick. She'll be kicking the poo out of me, and as soon as Jason puts his hand on my belly, she stops. I think it's funny, but I think Jason's getting tired of it!

That's it for now! I'll try to make sure I get back here sooner than another month from now. I'm sure I'll have stories to share from Anchorage this weekend!

And, again, it's not my fault that my thank-you notes aren't done. If it weren't for people asking for an update, I might've gotten them done tonight.... (that's my story and I'm sticking to it!!)