Another Baby Shower!

My sweetie customers at Yavapai County Library District in Prescott gave me a surprise Baby Shower last week! Cheryl, Barbara, Ann, Priscilla, and Mary spent part of their afternoon showering me with gifts and cake and ice cream--yum! Other people also sent gifts--Arminta who used to work at Yavapai County and the Sedona Public Library people, Pam, Amy, and Carla. It was such a special treat, and our babies got the most wonderful gifts!

Thank you!!!

Love, j&c

Our weekend and 33-week check-up

We had a really busy weekend. Saturday we finished getting our Glendale apartment cleaned and ready for the new tenants. It looks really good--brand new tub/surround, paint, and carpet. One of our other tenants did all the repair work and painting and did a great job. I forgot to bring my camera to take pictures before the new people moved in, darn it!

Then, we had a basic gun safety training class. Chris bought a Glock 40-caliber for protection. In Arizona, it's fairly easy to buy a gun, and he can carry it now as long as it's viewable. He's going to take another class that will allow him to carry concealed. That'll be next weekend. At the basic class, he got to practice shooting at the shooting range. I was nearby watching, and each time the gun went off, the babies jumped!!! I was worried that the noise would damage their hearing, so I opted out of shooting and sat in the car while Chris practiced. He did great and has a very accurate shot.

Sunday, Chris spent the day over at our Sunnyslope "estates." He worked on our vacant unit and cleaning up/weeding around the property. He's happy because it's starting to get hot--88 degrees already! He really likes the heat and being outdoors. Meanwhile, I worked on our Litchfield Park condo. We are getting it ready to rent it as an executive/vacation home. I had already purchased a lot of kitchen stuff, as well as bath/bedding for the other condo we still have under contract that has not yet closed. So, I washed everything and put things away. It looks really nice. We still need to buy a bed, a dining table and chairs, a dresser, a patio table and chairs, and some other necessities to have it totally ready. Take a look at the new link to see where it is posted for rent. I'll also put some pictures here.

Speaking of the other condo that we have under contract . . . I had put money down on it back in October 2006 and it was supposed to be constructed and ready by May of 2007. Then, the date became August 2007, then October, and then I couldn't get in touch with anyone there! The housing market was coming to a standstill, and construction was basically stopped. We had hoped to have it available for Super Bowl, which was in February 2008, but that didn't happen. At this point, we are a little nervous about going forward with purchasing it, with the babies coming, and the state of the housing market. The only way to get out of the contract and get our money back, is if they don't deliver within 18 months of the original contract--that happens to be next week! So, at this point, we're going to wait until the 18 months runs out and talk to the sales agent about either reducing the price to entice us to follow through with our purchase, or canceling and get our money back.

With all we had to do over the weekend, we didn't celebrate Easter at all. It just came so early!!!

Yesterday, I had my 33-week check-up. They did an ultrasound to check the heartrates--Matthew was at 135 and Thomas was at 137--both are just fine. All is going well, and now I will have to start seeing the doctor twice a week. They'll be monitoring the babies at each visit to make sure they're doing OK. They want the babies to wait until at least 36-37 weeks to be born, so they have time to develop as much as possible. They should arrive in just 3-4 weeks now! I'm getting very ready for them to be here. Moving around and sleeping are difficult, but really everything is going well and I can't complain too much! We are so blessed to be having these little guys!

That's all for now! xo, j&c

31-week check-up and the house is coming together!

Chris and I went to the doctor on Monday, March 10, for my 31-week check-up and ultrasound. The babies are doing great! Baby A, AKA Matthew James, is 4 lbs, 2 oz, and Baby B, AKA Thomas Joseph, is 3 lbs, 15 oz. Matthew should arrive first, and he's the slightly bigger baby, which is good. They are also both head-down, so they're doing what they're supposed to do! Thomas was not in the mood for the paparazzi, so only Matthew has his picture here this time.

I'm doing much better; I think I have almost recovered from the flu. I'm still congested, but that's most likely from being pregnant. Chris and I both have a lingering cough, but it's much less frequent now.

Yesterday we both got so much done. Chris spent the morning over at our Glendale apartments, collecting some late rents and working with our handyman, Matt, on tearing out and re-doing the bath/shower in one of the apartments. It's vacant right now, but new people will be moving in next Saturday. Once the bathroom's done, Ron, one of our other tenants, is going to paint it, and then the carpet is getting installed on Friday. He also collected rents over at our Sunnyslope "Estates."

Meanwhile, I was home finishing the painting in the nursery and washing all the new baby clothes. When Chris got home, he re-hung the blinds and put together the crib. The crib is nice; I bought it used through Craigs List, but it is in great shape. It is quite large--big enough for both babies for many months, at least, and it has a changing table and drawers and shelves attached. Then, Chris brought in all the bookcases, which had been sitting in the hallway for weeks now. He attached them to the wall and to each other, so that they are nice and sturdy and can't be tipped over. I brought in all the books, that had been piled up in the guest room, and loaded them onto the bookcases. They look really cute! I also moved all the condo stuff (dishes, linens, etc.) out of the guest room, and it's all ready to be loaded into Chris's truck and taken to the Litchfield condo today. So, the guest room is now back to being a guest room, and we can walk in the hallway! The living room is also almost back to normal, though it still has the stroller and baby stuff that I haven't yet gone through. Today I will do that and finish writing my thank-you notes!

The pictures are of my newly moved office (it used to be in the room that is now the nursery) and the still-a-work-in-progress nursery. I need to hang the border, and we're going to bring Alicia's dresser over from the condo. Otherwise, it's pretty much done. There is also a picture of their first shoes! Jill, Babs, and Shannon and Craig all gave us the most adorable shoes. They're different sizes, so they'll have shoes for a while.

That's all for now. xo, j&c