More Belly Pictures

32 weeks

33 weeks

34 weeks

35 Weeks (At Big Star!)

36 Weeks

Biggest Accomplishment of the week...

Graduating from baby class or Joel finishing his step 1 boards and feeling confident he passed? Huh. I wonder. haha.

No Creative Title for this Post

So, this past Thursday was my birthday. At work we can choose one of three days to take off--like a floating holiday. One day you can choose is your birthday. So, that's the day I took off. It was nice and relaxing. I did do a little packing in the morning, but other than that I relaxed and hung out with my friend AM. My birthday landed on our staff meeting day at work, which meant I didn't have to go! Whoohoo. That was one good birthday present. (Don't get me wrong I do see some value in staff meetings, but often they are too long and boring.)

One of the relaxing things I did on my birthday was get my hair cut! My hair was getting rather long. I was ready for a change, so I decided to get a new style. :) I decided to go for the A-line bob. I love it! It is so easy and I think it looks really good. I went to the Aveda Institute to get it cut, so I had a student cut it for me. It was way cheaper than going to a full fledged salon. I didn't know going there though that I also was going to get my head massaged. Before, she cut my hair she gave me a head, neck and shoulder massage. It was great. She then shampooed it and then it was time to cut. She did great. Here are some pictures of it. I don't have before shots.



Let's see I also went out to eat at Red Robin for my birthday with Joel and AM. I signed up to receive some offers in my email from them and they always send me a coupon for a free burger on your birthday! Good thing I like their food. :) Joel had to get back to studying, so I went to AM's house and hung out with her and Monique. By the time I got home, Joel was done studying and had made my favorite--Strawberry Shortcake. So, we had some birthday strawberry shortcake and I opened a gift from him. He got me a DMU hoodie. It is cool. He did a very good job picking it out. It is one of my favorite colors--orange. :)

That basically sums up what I did on my birthday. Not too extravagant, but just the way I like it.

Last night, Joel and I watched the Red Wings game. Unfortunately, they lost, which means the Penguins took the Stanley Cup to Pittsburgh. We are sad, but know that Hockey Town will see the cup again! There is always 2010 and the years after that. Again, we are sad, but want to hear some interesting tidbits about the Penguins that make it a little better that it was this team and not another. First, Joel's mom babysat the Penguin's head coach. Yup! The Penguins head coach is from West Michigan. Second, supposedly one of the players, Jordan Staal, is a member of the CRC church. :) Crazy! So, at least they have a good Dutch CRC boy on the team. haha. (If you wikipedia Christian Reformed Church in North America, it lists some notable members--the Staal brothers are listed. All 4 play hockey and Jordan is on the Penguin's team.)

By the way I am planning on posting about my trip to MI over Memorial Day, but I am waiting to get pictures from the weekend. I didn't take my camera along, so I am waiting for my sister-in-law to send some my way.

Also, if you could all remember Joel this week in your prayers! He has been so disciplined the last couple weeks and has studied very hard. (He studies anywhere from 9-12 hours a day...it is a full time job plus, because he doesn't take off on the weekends.) He takes Step 1 of the boards this Wednesday (June 17)! I am confident in him and know that all his hard work will pay off. But, remember to pray for him on June 17 as well as the next few days that he has the motivation and perseverance to study just a few more days. He is so ready for it to be done! (Me too--I'll get my husband back! Now, I can put him to work on packing and moving. haha :) ) I am proud of what he has already accomplished! So, just remember him this week. On Thursday, he plans on sleeping in and playing tennis with a friend. Then on Friday, we are driving to MI for vacation. Big Star Lake here we come. We know it will be a long drive due to having to stop every hour, but relaxing at the cottage and seeing family will be totally worth it! We will be here in a week:

Belly Update

Here are some pictures of the baby belly.

28 weeks

29 Weeks

30 weeks

31 weeks

Don't forget to vote in the poll and participate in our guessing game. :)

Preparing?

I know I haven't posted in a long time. I hope to put up new pictures this weekend and let you know all about my trip to MI over Memorial Day weekend. Right now, I just need to list for myself what I need to do in the next few weeks to get ready!

We have so much to get ready for: leaving a job, moving, and having a baby!

I need to find a pediatrician for Blueberry and a ob for me in Detroit. Any good recommendations from readers in that area? This is a very difficult thing for me to do, not because I don't know how. I know I should call different doctors up and interview them--especially the pediatrician. Here's the deal though, since I am leaving my work my insurance is going to change. I am thinking of applying for medicaid or MI child to save us some money. But, I don't know when I can do that since I am working yet and not in MI. So, what do I ask and tell doctors about our insurance?

Here is something small that I need to do: register our cars in MI. Now, our tags in IA expire in June, but we have until July 31 to put new tags on them. I don't want to pay for tags in IA and then pay to register our cars in MI. So, I just need to look up the Sectary of State and see if I can register for MI plates while still in IA. We do have an address in MI now, but since we aren't getting there until the end of July I need plates and tags sent to us in IA. Oh, the little things it takes to move.

I also need to clean the house we are house-sitting for. This couple has a ton of knick knacks, so cleaning will not be fun. I also want to put some things back that we put away for when they come back for a month in July.

I need to organize the things we have in this house to see what can be packed and what can't be. I need to separate out baby things that we will need for a week before we move and pack the rest away.

I need to sit down and look at our budget, especially look at what is going to be the best budget for us in the first few months we are in Detroit since I won't be working.

I need to start making some contacts about a job in Detroit. With that I need to evaluate what I want to do when I do go back to work. (I am thinking that being a consultant for non-profits would be awesome...help with program development and grant writing. Basically this would be a form of self-employment.)

I need to figure out what is happening with family around the birth of our baby and moving.

I need to take prenatal classes.

Wow, I know there are other little things. This isn't so much to say I am really busy, but I feel like I need to write this list somewhere so these items get marked off and done. The hardest things with some of these is that I don't know when some of these are very dependent on when the baby comes and that I can't just plan for. I like planning, although I know ultimately that my plan is not the right way. I have to trust God and know that in his time I will get these items done and he will provide for us.

Ok, I need to check if my ride for knitting club has come. Hurray for knitting club! It is a great time to make progress on my scarf and relax. I'll try not to think of what I need to do tonight and just enjoy socializing and knitting with friends.

Blueberry's Game plus Pictures

Joel and I were excited to get the travel system. Thanks Mom and Dad K! Joel is showing us all how he can use it has a cup holder for his Coke. :) Silly Joel!Me modeling with it. What can you say? I can't really get anything else ready for the baby since we are moving very soon after the birth!
One night when we were taking Blueberry's weekly picture. I told Joel we needed to do a family picture. That was a little difficult, especially since we didn't want to go look for the tripod. This is the best one that we got. A lot of laughing ensued while doing this activity.
So, I put a poll on the sidebar for all of you to play along on guessing the gender! But, I can't see who guesses what, so I also created a fun game on Expectnet. Here is the link: http://www.expectnet.com/game.php This way you can enter your guess with your name. When you click on the link you won't go directly to the "game." At the top left part of the page it will ask if you if your were invited to play a game and to enter the name. The name of the game is BabyBlueberry. Don't worry, you can still vote on the poll and I would love if you do. It is quite fun to see what the majority of people are thinking. I also decided to post some new pictures of the growing belly. I have one of 28 weeks, but I am a little too lazy to go upstairs to get the camera and get the picture taken off. (It will have to go in next time I do a picture post.) I did add a picture without the Jone's Ice Cream T-shirt and one that is a bit more fitted.

26 weeks

27 weeks

Iowa Bucket List

So, life hasn't been super blog worthy lately. Joel and I have just been doing the typical day to day living. Joel and I decided to make a bucket list for the next couple months before moving out of Iowa. Here is what we came up with awhile ago. Some of them we have already crossed off the list. (We actually found out that we have done a lot already while here.)

1. Go to Living History Farms
2. Go to Pizza Ranch (a few more times. :))
3. Hike at Lake Red Rock
4. Go up to Boone and ride the train.
5. Have a baby here--just long enough for Blueberry to have a Iowa birth certificate. :)

Joel also would love to explore more of Iowa, but I am not so sure that will happen, because of how busy he is going to be studying, moving and the whole having a baby thing. One of the places he wanted to go was to Elden, IA. What is in the small town of Eldon, IA? Well, have you ever heard of the painting: "American Gothic". Eldon, IA is where the house in the background of this painting is located. Well, since we don't think we will make it to the small town of Eldon--we instead opted to go to the Des Moines Art Center. From January to the end of March the real painting was at the art center. It was cool to see the real thing. Of course, we decided to go the last day it was in town. There was a line out the door almost to the road. We probably waited outside for about a half hour. We got inside and the curator told us we had two options. First, we could wait in line for at least another hour to see the painting close up or we could go around and see it from further away. He told us we'd be about 6-7 feet away, but we wouldn't have to wait. We decided since we had waited that long already we may as well wait a little longer and actually get to see it close up. We had made "friends" with the couple standing behind us and the guy decided to go around and see how far away we'd actually be if we did skip the line. He came back about 5 to 10 minutes later and told us to come with him. So, we bypassed the line and saw the real "American Gothic" painting close up. We maybe weren't in the first row of people looking at it, but we were able to get at least a foot away. We saw just as much detail as the people in front of us. :) It was fun. We felt very sneaky, but the curator did tell us that we could. So, Joel may not get to pose in front of the house that was in the background, but we can see that we saw the authentic painting. (As you can see from the picture that started this post, Joel likes to pose like the American Gothic farmer. Or shall we say pirate. We have a whole series of these pictures with a good friend from Calvin--love you Becky!)

So, what would you add to a bucket list if you were in IA and only had three months left?

I thought I would list some of the things we have already done in the past year and a lhalf. Gone to Neal Smith Wildlife Refugee (two-three times). Went to northwest IA to see life on the farm, Lifelight, and we ate ice cream at La Mars Blue Bunny Ice Cream Shoppe. Had milk shakes at Drake Diner. Saw the bridges of Madison County. Hiked Ledges State Park. Camped along the Mississippi River--survived a tornado during that same trip. (I really want to make a t-shirt that says "I survived a tornado in Muscatine, IA.) Survived serveral tornado warnings while living in a townhome with no basement. Gone to some other local restaurants: Red Rock Brewery, Granite City, Racoon River Brewery, Waveland Cafe, and Urbandale Cafe, Tasty Tacos, B-bops. (Why does so much of our list consist of food?!) We went to Pella for Tulip Time. Went ice skating at Brenton Plaza. Walked the skywalk. Walked Grey's Lake. Walked Racoon River trail. Went to a Bucs, Stars and Chops hockey game. Went to an Iowa Cubs game.