Good gracious, it really has been awhile. Wonder if anyone even checks anymore... sigh. Where in the world to start? Crazy to think that the summer is winding down already. Dave is off at his first day of teaching. We've been frantically trying to get all ready for baby before he has to go back to work, but as usual, there's still things to do. July flew by, as I knew it would. We packed it full of wonderful time visiting family and friends. I've been meaning to put pics on FB for weeks now and it hasn't happened. But anyway, we went to upstate NY to be with Dave's mom side of the family and celebrate his grandfather's 90th birthday. The whole family was together and it was great to be able to make the trip. Aleah struggled with some car sickness and throwing up, which didn't exactly shorten our travel time. We were already stopping a lot to allow for preggo lady to walk and such, so anyway, we traveled like old foggies, but eventually got to where we wanted to be. We were able to spend some time with my wonderful friend from college, who also lives right by my aunt and uncle and family. Was good to see where she lives and teaches school. And spend time with family I hadn't seen in a long time. Dave's grandpa seemed to enjoy all the celebrations and it was wonderful being with all of them as well. Aleah got sick while there, just had a fever for 2 days and then that was that. We were home for about 2 days, did laundry, got all packed up again, and headed for Red Lake. Dave finally got to see it in the summer which was very fun. We had our family camp out the first weekend, then spend the week in Red Lake. Always wonderful to be with family, but never enough time to really see everyone and spend enough time with them. It was great to be out on the lake, go out in the boat, etc. We were able to take in the annual Norseman Festival, which has decreased in size and excitement since I was a teenager, but oh well. :) It was still fun. We arrived home, again, setting no speed records, but did make it. I'm so glad we went. At times I questioned our sanity, but the time with family was worth it. As for what's been going on since we got home, hard to know. haha. Obviously getting ready for baby and doing lots of rearranging has been going on. Aleah is now sleeping in a big girl bed and it was the smoothest transition in the history of humanity. sigh of relief. She likes going to bed, and stays in bed till we come get her out - hasn't occurred to her yet that she could conceivably crawl out on her own, and I'm just fine with that. It's not like we told her there's alligators on the floor or anything. So we're trying to make her room into a big girl room, and trying to fix up a space for baby wherever she'll fit. :) I have to keep reminding myself that having a beautifully decorated nursery is more for the parents than the baby anyway, and she doesn't really care where she sleeps. She'll start out in our room and we'll go from there, and she has some hallway space as well that we'll try to make sort of cute (not really hall, but not a room either, hard to explain...). More important is trying to agree on a name for small human. gracious. We might just wait till she's 5 and let her name herself. Whenever we ask Aleah what we should name baby sister, she either says "Aleah!" or "Come out Baby!" hmmmm.... "Kummoute" - that could be pretty. Um, what else. July was miserably HOT, even in Canada. I said to Dave - "I'm going to pray for a cool August." He laughed and said that I wasn't going to get a cool August in the midwest. ha! And wouldn't you know, it has been GORGEOUS for weeks. We've had many days in the 70s and very few if any in the 90s. SO nice! Well, I'm feeling as though this is all pretty boring. Just wanted to say hey and I guess I've done that, so maybe I'll go now. It's a lovely day and we really should be outside enjoying it, not on the computer. :)