Greg has a sty (not contagious) NOT pink eye (contagious). Have a good night. I know I will.

Healthy Birth Coach

Requirements: Must NOT have mono. Must NOT have Strep throat. Must NOT have pink eye or any other infectious disease that would prevent delivery room access. Current birth coach (husband) unable to meet any of the listed requirements. Coaching would begin at induction on Thursday (3 days) with compensation being the satisfaction of helping a very distressed and irritable pregnant woman...and maybe some free hospital juice.

Please contact me if you are interested. Also looking for in room photographer and someone to update family and friends. Must be proficient in blogger.

Heidi

Most of you know that I like to play guitar and that once upon a time I wrote songs as well (life is too busy now, although for Heidi's b-day wrote my first song in 4 years).

In the past week I've made two discoveries. First, I realized that Heidi's Macbook has a program called Garage Band with a built-in mic that allows me to record songs. I think I knew that when we bought it, then completely forgot and never experimented with it. A friend in the ward showed me how to use it and now I'm ready to make a killer record (or at least make a killer cover of The Wiggles "Big Red Car"). What a find!

As soon as I have a spare 2-3 hours continuously to sit down and record, I'll post something. Keep your eyes out for that song to appear sometime between now and the Summer Olympics (not Beijing, but wherever they're hosting the 2012 games). :)

Second, that same friend showed me how I could host my own songs online through myspace. While I hate myspace and think it's kind of trashy, I created a page this afternoon so I can periodically add my own songs. I posted a song called "Make Your Tomorrow Today" that I wrote and recorded almost 5 years ago now, but it's probably my best work (for what that's worth!).

If you're so inclined, you can listen to it here

I have been looking for the past few days to invest in a baby sling. I have a front carrier (similar to a baby bjorn) that I used for Jackson, but I felt like it didn't adjust to the right height and made the baby feel SO far away.

So in looking for a sling, I've just been overwhelmed by the number of options! I had no idea there were so many different styles. Does anyone have one that they love or that they would recommend? I want the baby (as an infant) to feel snug and really close to my body, but I don't want it to be a hassle every time I put it on. It would also be nice if it could transition into a sitting sling as the baby got older.

Thank you all!

I just have to confess that I have the best friends here in Oregon. Stacy and Kristi* were nice enough to throw me a shower before the arrival of the new baby. The best part was that it was a frozen meal shower! Heres how it worked:

Stacy brought me the "Dream Dinners" cookbook and told me to choose 6 meals that I thought my family would enjoy. She then purchased the ingredients, and all those invited contributed to the cost of food (in lieu of a gift). Everyone gathered for the shower to assemble the meals in foil pans so I could freeze them and eat them after the baby is born. The timing couldn't have been better since we are moving 12 days after the baby is born and would be trying to get rid of as much food as possible at that point.

We had a blast with everyone! We got snack on food as the dinners were assembled. I would have enjoyed just the company if nothing else so having 12 frozen dinners was a HUGE bonus! A big thank you to Stacy and Kristi, I had so much fun and think this is just the most awesome idea.

Here are a few pictures from the extravaganza (although I realized since I was the photographer, there aren't any pictures of me! sorry!)

*also thank you to Kristi's husband Matt for watching Jackson so the ladies could party in peace even with their move to Miami next week!
Jessica and Kellena
Kristi, Kate and Heather, the designated choppers
Carly, I know you are going to hate me for this one.
The snack spread
Everyone preparing away.
Yummy
The finished product

For those of you who saw the title of this blog and thought it would be a post about my wife Heidi, well, that's sweet. And I agree she is a prize.

However, this post is dedicated to my after-midnight adventure last night. We've been computer shopping for about 2 months since I need a laptop for school. I've vacillated between PC and Mac about 10 times, and ultimately decided on PC because I really resonate with the PC guy character on the commercials. He's cooler than people give him credit for.

So with PC's there are a bagillion options of brands, models, specs, etc. and it can be a bit overwhelming. That is, until you find the perfect computer smiling at you from the pages of a WalMart ad.

Meet my perfect computer...http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=9864595. Webcam for talking to my kids while I'm at school, enough ram and memory for my purposes, HD screen, XP operating system so I don't have endless Vista headaches (and nightmares), and all this for $500!

I've been shopping long enough to recognize a steal, so when we saw this WalMart mailer last night at about 11:50 p.m., we called to see how many they had left. They had one.

So I jumped in the car, sped the 15 miles down the freeway and began to dream about all the marriage problems that would be solved once we're no longer sharing one computer (it's only been 4 days since I turned in my work laptop).

I went to electronics and asked the lady where the Dell laptops were and she said "Oooh, did you just call in? We just sold our last one literally 2 minutes ago." The last one! Argh. Back to the computer hunt, back to online browsing, back to asking Heidi "Hey, uh, you done with what you're doing there?"

But then with a stroke of inspiration hit the lady and she said "I could call the one in Salem." Salem is about 35-40 miles from my house. Do it I told her.

They had one, I drove the extra distance down south, grabbed my prize, and snuck in to bed at 2:00 a.m. Some things, like Heidi and good computer deals, are worth sacrificing for.

So if you're in the market for a laptop, get to your nearest WalMart soon. Or furthest.

Tonight Jackson lay down to go to bed complete with his "baseball hat" (a beanie) and his gloves (red mittens-he often likes to wear these things to bed, but they are usually off by the time I check on him an hour later). He folded his mittened hands to say our nightly prayers.

I say prayers with him each night and usually he has little to say, and even getting him to fold his arms is a triumph to be celebrated. I guess tonight he was especially attentive because he stopped me mid prayer to remind me to be thankful for two things: fire trucks, and parks.

Last week he made us re-start a prayer because he reminded us (with a very concerned look) that we forgot to pray for Grandma.

At least he's understanding the purpose. And if I were Jackson, I can't think of anything I would more thankful for, except maybe airplanes.

With three and a half weeks to go I am feeling huger than ever. I can't even bear to look at my reflection in the car (our apartment is conveniently equipped with mirrors only chest up) without thinking "how can people even look at me? I'm huge!"

So here I am in all my gigantic glory. Also for your viewing pleasure, I included a picture of me from my last pregnancy (taken about the same time along). How do they compare? (Besides the fact I look like a zombie in the older picture, I blame the lighting)





I am currently feeling great. Besides the occasional heartburn (a problem solved by my new best friend Zantac) and some back pain, I haven't had it too bad this go around. I have my last 2 week appointment on Wednesday, and then it's down to every week. My induction is scheduled for July 3rd (after being 10 days over with Jackson we couldn't afford for me to go over again, since we are moving out 12 days after the birth) and I couldn't be more excited/nervous/totally unprepared!

Heidi and I are lucky enough to get the chance to go out on a date once a week. We have a group of friends that we rotate babysitting with, so that gives three nights a month. Usually we have the same routine and it’s easy to stick with what you know.

But this week, I said to Heidi “we’re breaking free!”



We work our tails off every day, why not have a really fun night with High School Musical, the Broadway show? When we came through the doors, I have to admit feeling somewhat out of place because it appeared that the only adults in attendance were either accompanied by little girls (ages 4-10) or by pre-teen girls. That’s when I realized this was definitely the start of something new.



But I thought to myself, “Hey it’s cool, we’re all in this together…just here to have some fun.”

How was the play you ask? It was, in a word, fabulous. At first I had my doubts, but as I threw away my inhibitions I really got into it. I mean, anything can happen if you take a chance. So even though personally I don’t dance, I can appreciate those who do. After all, everyone loves a good jazz square.

After our great evening together, I’ve learned that it’s boring to stick to the status quo. I think I finally found what I’ve been looking for, and everyday from right now I’ve decided to plan more exciting dates.