A Letter

Dear washing machine,
I don't appreciate you deciding to go on the fritz all of a sudden. Did you think it would be funny to wait until a few weeks after the warranty expired? I certainly do not find it amusing.
And do you realize I have a baby girl coming in a few weeks? I don't know how much you know about babies, but they require your services. Frequently.
This is a most inopportune time for us, washing machine. I hope this letter has conveyed my dissatisfaction and that you will respond accordingly.
Sincerely,
Janette

38 Weeks

I have 11 days until my due date (July 6).
Check me out.

I wrote a list of "Things to do before baby comes" because I'm OCD and I thought I would do a bunch of it during these last few weeks.
Yeah. Not happening.
I'm not lazy though. I am growing a human being, and it is hard work.
At least that's what I tell myself as I'm taking my second nap of the day.

Anyway. Tonight Seth and I sat down and made guesses. See?
Me: 
    Date: July 8
    Weight:  8 lbs 5oz
    Height: 20 inches
Seth:
   Date: July 3
   Weight: 7 lbs 5 oz
   Height: 19 inches

You can guess too if you'd like to.
I'll name the baby after the winner.
Just kidding. Winner gets the satisfaction of winning.

Happy Birthday Bryce!

Dear Bryce,

Seth and I miss living by you. Please move to North Carolina soon.

Also, Seth picked out this picture. So you should blame him and not me.

Happy Birthday!

-Your favorite brother and sister-in-law

Week o' Fun

Last week I went to Buena Vista to visit my twin sister Amanda for a few days. Seth was gone on a Young Men's camping trip and Amanda's husband was gone for a Marines something-or-other, so we decided to get together. My brother David decided he would come along, since he was very bored at my Dad's house in Richmond.

Why he thought hanging out with his two pregnant sisters for the week would be better, I'm not sure.

What we did was sit on the couch a lot and play video games:

I took pictures.

Also we ate a lot, as evidenced by this lovely Facebook status David wrote:

David Toolson

chillin with my two sisters in BV (buena vista)! with two pregnant women and an teenage boy in the house ill be surprised if theres any food left by tommorow night haha

June 13 at 10:41pm ·  · 

I'll be honest, there wasn't much food left.
The most exciting thing we did was the haunted tour of Lexington, which I really did enjoy. But it was two hours of walking up and down the streets of Lexington, and I am 37 weeks pregnant. I was about to die.

I'm sad this picture is blurry. This is our tour guide. He's supposed to be a confederate soldier from the War of Northern Aggression, as he termed it (aka the Civil War). He was nicer than he looks.

Then Amanda and David came down to Raleigh with me for a few days, where we did pretty much exactly the same things. Except instead of a haunted tour, David attempted to play frisbee with us:

He quickly figured out that it was faster for him to run and pick up the frisbee himself when Amanda or I didn't catch it. Which turned out to be quite often (it was so hot and humid out and we are both so pregnant) so it ended up being more like David playing frisbee with himself for about 15 minutes before we all gave up on the idea.

All in all it was a good week. Being lazy is much more fun when you have other people to be lazy with.

I'm very pregnant.

I'm 36 weeks today.
I feel humongous.

Don't be fooled by that happy smile.
I am done with being pregnant.
The girl, unfortunately, is not done.
So I wait. And complain.

I just want to sleep on my back again, all right?
I also want to be able to sleep through the night again, but we all know that's just going to get a whole lot worse. I suppose I will take getting up twice a night for now.
What did I get myself into?

A clip of Seth

The scene: The bathroom. Sunday morning. Getting ready for church.
Seth is combing his hair. Janette is putting on make-up.

Janette: chattering on and on about how she should fix her hair this morning.

Then: *silence*





Seth: "They're taking the hobbits to Isengard."




Aaaaaand cut!

Strawberry Picking

Seth and I went strawberry picking last week. Because we are really good decision-makers and carefully think things through beforehand, we waited until
1. the very end of strawberry picking season here when there were hardly any good strawberries left.
2. the temperature had reached into the 90s.
3. I was 8 months pregnant.

I suppose the pregnancy thing can't be helped, though I still think 7-months versus 8-months would have made a difference.

I just can't bend over and squat down like I used to be able to.
A skill I didn't realize could be taken for granted.

We spent about an hour there before I decided we had enough for my purposes - homemade strawberry jam.
Actually the last ten minutes were spent telling Seth to hurry up and let's go. He just couldn't resist picking a few last strawberries to pile on top of his bucket.

He takes his ability to bend over and squat down for granted.

I don't have any pictures of the strawberry jam-making process or the finished results, but Seth and I have almost gone through a whole jar already.

The back pains were so worth it.