Daddy arrived on Friday morning, and his little grandson was delighted to see him. Gram and I seemed to melt into the woodwork, and in the evening it was Boppa who was elected to get him ready for bed (not that that requires that much these days other than brushing teeth). Boppa was treated to a fascinating bit of information that Gram reported on their blog. Certainly made Dale's & my mouths fall open!
Since then things have been reasonably uneventful. Boppa & Jonathan went off to the hardware store together to get a new dimmer switch for the light fixture over the breakfast table; Jonathan helped Boppa find the right circuit breaker by letting him know when the lights went out. Apparently he has the makings of a master electrician.
On Saturday there was an episode of Thunderbirds that is the same as a book that his Nanny & Grandad sent to him--Desperate Intruder. Jonathan was thrilled to see it acted out. I don't recall what else happened that day . . . except that Dale not only mowed the front and side garden but also edged it and renewed the trench against our neighbor's St. Augustine. This was necessary because my flaky cousin said he would come mow on Monday, didn't show up, and didn't even call. Finally on Tuesday night I sent an e-mail asking if all was okay, and he said he'd slept until 6 p.m. on Monday and maybe I'd better ask someone else. Which makes me wonder--if I hadn't sent the e-mail, would he ever have let me know he wasn't coming? Guess college kids aren't as hard up for money these days as they used to be.
The reason Dale hasn't been mowing the lawn is because of his degenerative disk & joint problems he's having in his back; we were worried that the vibration of the mower and the push/pull would not be a good thing for him. Unfortunately, we were right--he mowed on Saturday, and Sunday he woke up and basically couldn't move his head left or right. So Daddy & I took Jonathan to play miniature golf & ride the kiddie train, then we had lunch, and finally we stopped by Jason & Kathy's (Kathy was my maid of honor) to pick up my breastfeeding pillow that I had loaned them when their son was born two years ago. In the evening my sweet father mowed the back garden and sacrificed a little bit of his blood to the mosquitoes in the process. At least it's mowed--it had been four weeks and the grass was about up to my knees in the back.
Monday saw Mom taking Jonathan to CAPS and picking him up; it gave me a nice break, although Jonathan was mildly disappointed--not because it wasn't me taking him but because he wasn't getting to ride in the new Odyssey. Until we sell the Civic, Mom is using that as her car (she's scared of her son-in-law's wrath should anything happen to the Pathfinder while it's in her care!). It's working out quite well having one car per driver at the moment, what with our three cars and the truck. Mom also had her first visit to P.F. Chang's, as she, Daddy, and I went there for lunch on Monday. And the maids came again! Such a glorious thing, having someone else clean your bathroom and your floors. I could get used to this.
Daddy has discovered Kerbey Lane for breakfast (he took himself off there for a bite to eat Monday morning), and I bet he'll go back again before this is all over. He came back with quite a good review of it. I had suggested it over IHOP, and I think he was pleased he took my advice.
I decided to do something nice for myself in the afternoon and went to see Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind at the Arbor theater. Nearly choked on the ticket price--$5.75 for a matinee! I'm becoming an old fogey. It was very pleasant to sit in the theatre and watch a movie. I did enjoy it, although there were a couple of times that I thought the point had been made and was getting belabored a little bit, but I like Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet, and I also liked Being John Malkovich by the same writer (Charlie Kaufman), so I was prepared for the strangeness of it and had gone to see it with an open mind.
Today I took Jonathan for a haircut, then we met Dale at the birthing center for our appointment with the midwife, and then I got him off to lunch bunch. I came home for lunch myself (found Mom having a go at the pot roast leftovers from the other night) and then took a very pleasant nap. I'm having to keep my feet elevated as the pitting edema had gotten much worse over the last few days. I had this terribly with Jonathan but it hadn't popped up in this pregnancy until the last couple of weeks; in hindsight it seems that standing up for so long at the mini-golf course, in the hot sun, was possibly not the best thing for me to have done! But having my feet elevated has helped greatly, and I slept with my feet up on couch pillows last night and saw good results this morning because of it. Of course, my hip that I'd been lying on was pretty achy and my knees complained a bit, but that's the trade-off, I guess. Anyway, after I got up I went to collect my child, and on our way back home we got to wave at Mom, who was heading out to do the shopping.
Mom has been marvelous doing things like grocery shopping while I nap at home, fixing wonderful meals, doing dishes, playing about ten thousand games of Sorry! with Jonathan, etc. And keeping me company! She likes sitting in the rocking chair by the piano for reading and listening to her German tapes, and I'm starting to think of that as her chair now. It's nice having company that I can sit companionably with while we read in the evenings; Dale doesn't read much as he's generally too busy with the studio.
Now then, this is all I'm going to say. My membranes released (some of you may know this by the phrase "my waters broke") about 45 minutes ago, but NOTHING HAS HAPPENED YET. This is not like in the movies where everything goes all dramatic; it could still be a few days before the baby comes. So please, please, please, don't call and ask how things are going or if the baby's come yet, because I am most heartily sick of that (you can ask my dad for details if you feel the need). When something happens, you'll hear about it, I promise! In the meantime, you can send me, Dale, Jonathan, and the baby happy thoughts for a peaceful birth.
I've been messing around with various options in the Second Site program that I use to create the KarlFamilyHistory web site, and this evening I've finally gotten a new site up there. Feel free to comment on the changes--next time I'll probably try something else again. If you can, please send comments via the e-mail listed on the site so that they all go in one place, which makes it easier for me to review them and keep track of what I need to do for the next update. And as always, if you notice errors, please bring them to my attention so that I can fix them. There are too many people for me to proofread every single one, so the more eyes looking at it the better!
This version does include some of the birth/baptism/marriage/burial information that Daddy has been raking in over the last few weeks. There are links to the original entries in the Catholic Church books as well as transcriptions (the microfilms are hard to read) and translations (they're in Latin). On the main page I included an "Update" section, which tells you a little bit about what's new and also points out the "Recent Changes" list of people (it lists only the people who've had any changes made--it doesn't tell you what the changes are).
Daddy wrote the following to our cousin in Florida, who's a priest and also interested in researching our genealogy (his mother is a Karl): "Note that the earliest entry I have found for any Karl in the Wuerzweiler area (actually in the Rockenhausen church register) is the 1799 wedding of Jacob Karl, Johann's father, to Katherin Stollhofer. In this entry, it is stated that Jacob came from Boerrstadt, which . . . is located some 12-15 km southeast of Wuerzweiler. Boerrstadt is apparently outside the area served by the Rockenhausen parish church. I have ordered a microfilm which contains data from the Boerrstadt area." So who knows--if we're lucky, perhaps there will be more Karl information yet to come in the weeks ahead.
No baby yet, although I am having lots of "warm-up" surges (that's Hypnobirthing for "contractions") the last 36 hours or so. Maybe this weekend . . .
It's quite strange to feel my belly--my uterus, really, heaven knows where my stomach has disappeared to, or any of my other organs as well--get as hard as a rock, if not harder. Those muscles are powerful! I guess they have to be to push that baby out of there. Pretty impressive what the female body is made to do.
It was great to pick up Mom from the airport on Friday afternoon. Jonathan was most pleased to see her and immediately took over pulling her suitcase. On Saturday she & Jonathan got to spend lots of time together so that Dale & I could go to the Cleo Bay dealership in Killeen and buy our new Honda Odyssey (the vanilla EX model). We love it! It is so comfortable for me to get in and out of, and it is going to be so easy for me with two kiddoes to look after in parking lots, etc. Plus it will be a heck of a lot cooler in the Texas summer than my Civic was. I am pleased beyond words. Now we just need to sell our Civic--any takers?
Tomorrow morning is another appointment at the birthing center (today I'm 39 weeks and 3 days), then Mom, Jonathan, and I will go pick up Jfer in our fancy new car to go out to lunch. Daddy is supposed to arrive on Friday after spending Thursday evening with his mom and sister in Fort Worth. Jonathan is quite looking forward to his arrival, and he seems to be especially anticipating his behavior--he keeps saying that "Boppa will do silly things to the baby to make it laugh", and he's started saying that Boppa will do silly things to him too. Also, he's declared his intention to take Boppa's hat off (a game they've played for a long time), so be warned, Boppa.
Goodness, the last few days have been just miserable with allergies. Whatever is blooming here in Austin is quite vicious. Last night the only way I could stop my eyes streaming was to use an eye wash, which did the trick long enough for me to go to bed (although not to sleep, since my husband is back in the big bed and snoring away).
Last week was full of drama on Tuesday--at our midwife's appointment, we found out that unless I can come up negative on a test next week, I'll have to get antibiotics while in labor b/c my Group B strep test came back positive. Luckily I don't mind needles. Then our midwife (I think she was having a bit of an off morning) wasn't confident about her ability to say what position the baby was in and was concerned it had turned breech, which tends to unsettle medical personnel at 38 wks in a pregnancy. With the help of my husband, we managed to avoid an internal exam and got an ultrasound scheduled for the next day (much less invasive technique and one with absolutely no chance of premature stripping of the membranes or introducing bacteria that might cause an infection). Sure enough, the baby was in the same lovely head-down position it's been in for over a month now. But we did have that 24 hours to practice not being stressed about the possible outcome. We also learned about moxibustion.
Then in the afternoon of that same day (Tuesday), I found out we are getting screwed for yet another year on our homeowner's insurance. I find it hard to believe that the CLUE database is legal. The industry must pay a lot of money into political campaign coffers. And I'm sure the people responsible for this have a special circle of hell reserved for them by Dante.
Monday was a red-letter day here--our house got cleaned! Thank you Mom! She gave us a maid (actually a team of 3 from Molly Maid) for two months, coming every two weeks. Our house has probably never been so clean. No more dust bunnies in the bathroom, the kitchen floor is actually clean, the blinds got dusted . . . it was like Mary Poppins coming in and waving a wand, because I didn't have to do a thing except lay out fresh sheets on all the beds, and someone else put them on! I could get used to this. Dale too was most impressed and rather disbelieving to find out it was going to be only two weeks until our house got cleaned again. We won't know what to do living somewhere without dust all over everything.
Regarding baby preparations, I think we are in very good shape. My bag is actually packed and has been for a few days now. All the baby items have been procured (diapers, wipes, etc.), and the clothes have been retrieved from the attic, washed, and put away. Only thing remaining is to secure the infant car seat in a car. We are creatively investigating the purchase of a minivan (the creative part is the financing), which would make us feel much better about the safety of the car seat as well as its occupants. Should have a decision by the weekend. Dale actually drove the little car (i.e., the Civic) to work today as he's visiting a Toyota dealership and this way they can give us a definite trade-in appraisal on it; this means he'll probably come home grumpy from not being in his armchair (i.e., the Pathfinder), which will equal out the day since he left grumpy too
A couple of days ago we went to the registration roundup for the elementary school where Jonathan is slated to go in August (kindergarten already--doesn't seem possible!). It was a little mind-numbing, as these things usually are, and the PTA president was a little too perky for my tastes (although at least she wasn't wearing any makeup), but all in all it was all right. Jonathan liked seeing the classrooms. Dale and I got even more worried, though, that he's going to be just desperately bored. Looking at the schedule for the day and going over the evaluation form (can your child count to ten? does he know his colors? how many letter sounds does he know?), I think we could accomplish at home in less than an hour what it will take them seven to do. One teacher was speaking to her class of kindergarteners (and since it's May, most are six and will be in first grade in August) in the kind of sing-song, high-pitched voice that is usually used for toddlers, by those prone to the unfortunate habit in the first place. So now we are looking around again at other options. All the private schools that look good are on the south side of town, for some reason. We might see if Round Rock is still accepting transfers, as they have a program in place for kindergarteners who are advanced/accelerated, and AISD doesn't. Too many things to worry about!
On the plus side, Mom arrives tomorrow. Yay! We are all looking forward to her company and help. Jonathan hopped up on the big bed this morning and said, "Gram comes tomorrow. That means she's driving to Wichita Falls today." (I had prepped him for Gram & Boppa coming together, which was the original plan, in which case they'd drive to WF to stay a night or two with Grama Karl before coming on to Austin--now Mom flies in on Friday and Daddy will drive down when he gets word that the baby's on its way.) So I reprogrammed him with the information that Gram would be flying in. He said that's good since it doesn't take too long to fly. I feel that once Mom is here and I know that Jonathan will have someone to take him to CAPS, lunch bunch, out for mini golf and ice cream, etc., that I can relax and let this baby come. Of course, the baby may have its own ideas . . .