Almost parents

Aron and I in Oz Park after breakfast this morning--we are counting down the days to bebe M's due date now--Dec. 2 is fast approaching. However, given that only 5% of babies arrive on their due date, we aren't holding our breath for the 2nd (though it would be nice!)

Great shots by Matt

Matt and Rachel walked around downtown for several hours on Saturday while Aron and I attended a class at the hospital. These are some of the creative shots Matt took of downtown and I just had to post some.





























Throngs of people shopping on Michigan Ave (would you want to shop in this crowd?!).

Happy Thanksgiving

For the holiday weekend, we have company here from Dallas, our good friends Matt and Rachel. They flew in on Friday morning and we headed for Whole Foods where we bought food for our planned Thanksgiving meal that night. We spent the better part of the day cooking. Shel and Randall (on the right) joined us (and brought a bounty of food themselves) and here we all are (minus my hubby who is taking the picture), albeit candidly, enjoying our feast.
Our menu consisted of:

Ramaki (water chestnuts wrapped in bacon)
Spiced pecans
Holiday salad
Turkey and gravy
Cornbread dressing
Homemade cranberry sauce
Angel biscuits (Shel's famous recipe--delish!)
Mashed potatoes
Sweet potato casserole
Green beans with gouda and bacon
Chocolate pecan pie
Pumpkin chiffon pie
Christmas chex
Homemade ginger snaps

We stuffed ourselves silly and have continued to eat leftovers for the days following. It was much fun to host our first guests over a spectacular spread. Good times had by all.

The rest of this weekend has been filled with just hanging out with Matt and Rachel. We went and saw a movie last night, today we went to eat at a fantastic breakfast spot called Toast (if you come and visit, we'll be going there), and later went to Grace Chicago Church (Shel & Randall's church). The afternoon has been filled with hours of playing Rook (a fun and addictive card game) and a trip to Oberwiess for the best ice cream around. We are now settled in for the night and watching the Bears vs. Patriots game.

New belly shot

Taken tonight, a few days into week 37...less than

3 weeks until bebe M's due date! Of course, she could come any time, but we are hoping she'll arrive sooner than later. A few reflections at this point:

*My appetite has increased more in the last 3 weeks than in the entire pregnancy. I have especially been craving baked goods. Yum!

*Tops are not fitting as well, so note the layering tank. Hands down, it is the single best investment in maternity clothes I have made. It's from Gap Maternity, oh-so-soft-and-comfy, and I recommend all pregnant mothers invest in one (I have worn it every day for 3 weeks; I feel no shame in admitting that; I do laundry). I refuse to buy new clothes at this point.

*Sleep is growing more and more uncomfortable; I wake up at least 5 times each night.

*We had an ultrasound with our new OB last Tuesday and the bebe still looks fantastic. The technician even pointed out several dots on her head and said, "She has some hair!" How cool is that?!

*My urge to nest had grown exponentially; I like the smell of cleaning products. Aron cleared out the baby room and while we wait for the furniture to arrive from California (hopefully, Thanksgiving week), we have the Pack N Play set up, so if she arrives early, she'll have a bed. We are ordering a dresser this week.

*Lastly, Aron says I am more "gooey." This is our word for when one of us is happy, giddy, sappy, cuddley, you name it.

View from our downtown apartment

This is our view when we were residing in downtown. It was lovely!! Now, I just need to get some new pics of our flat, all organized and such, which it isn't...yet. We hope to have it all done by this coming weekend. We are adjusting to life in Chi-town. The most important aspect will be finding a new church and close knit community of friends. We are still on the search, but hope to chose a home church in the coming weeks.

Weekend update

The movers arrived before noon on Friday and had finished unpacking the truck by 6pm. We have a TON of stuff, I can’t even tell you. Aron walked in yesterday as we were unpacking and said in a rather irritated voice, “You have 12 childhood boxes, and I have 1.” I began to feverishly clean out and throw away, but it was very good overall. I really do clean out a lot, I so love it, but at this point, with our storage so limited, I cleaned out even more thoroughly. Aron set up our bed, I cleaned and semi-organized the bathroom, we unpacked and began putting kitchen stuff away, Aron moved and unpacked tons of other items; he’s an animal, seriously. I feel so blessed. He even helped the movers move our stuff; one guy was like, "You are the first customer to ever help us unload.” The flat is coming along nicely; we hope to move in tomorrow night or by Tuesday for sure.

We closed on the house on Friday. It’s done and no longer ours. VERY huge relief. It was an incredibly easy selling process; we feel so fortunate, truly.

Today, we took an all-day birthing class at Northwestern, the hospital we will deliver at. It’s about ½ a mile from our apartment downtown, so we just walked there and back. It was lovely today, in the mid-50s. We learned some helpful and insightful details, got to tour the hospital, etc. It was well worth the time and money and I feel better about the impending labor.

I had my first OB appointment on Friday with Shelley’s OB. She is a great lady, I really liked her. I start to see her every week now and she says everything looks great.

Week 1

I have adventured out the past two days and I am slowly learning my way around. I went to Trader Joe's and got a few items, then to the local grocerry store for the rest of my list. I found some fun streets with some great shopping, of which I hope to return to this weekend with Aron and get a few things for bebe M. After 3 trips from the garage, up the elevator, and into our apartment to unload grocerries, I decided that I will wait for Aron's help in the future.

Today, I drove Aron to work, then walked from the apartment to Michigan Ave. I spent some time in Borders, bought a few books to read (though it pains me to pay full price; I'm a lover of the discount book stores!), and popped in a few other shops. I found a cute beanie for the baby from Baby Gap. It'll be so fun to dress her in warm clothes!

Aron called me later this afternoon to say there is a VERY good chance we may get all our furniture this weekend; how cool is that!!? I'll keep you posted.

Mindless fun

Or, with all my spare time, I could play this game for hours...

What is YOUR high score?

Chi-town

How long to you have to be a resident to call a city by its nickname? I don't want to seem like a poser, but we have been calling Chicago this for several weeks now. Any insight?

After Patti graciously drove us to the airport on Friday night, we checked our bags and boarded our plane. Aron attempted to carry-on his Taylor guitar, but because it was a full flight, the flight attendant made him check it, much to his dismay. Fortunately, the guitar seems unharmed by its 2 hour flight in the cargo hold. We picked up our rental car and headed to our furnished apartment in downtown (all thanks to James Hardie). Aron's company is so amazing. Because our household items may not arrive until the second week of November, they have put us up in this apartment until we can comfortably live in our flat. Aron flies back to Dallas on Wednesday to oversee the movers packing up our stuff and will return Thursday morning.

We have sold most of the furniture we hoped to sell which is a huge blessing. And another blessing is that Hardie is going to pay for the shipment of all the baby items (crib, glider, car seat, tons of clothes, toys, etc) Aron's mother has been saving for our orginal arrival to OC. We couldn't be more pleased.

Today, Sunday, was the famous Chicago marathon; we actually got to see part of the race in person on our walk to church. The weather is about 40 degrees, so we bundled up and walked the mile to Grace Chicago (a Presbyterian congregation), Shel and Randall's church. We enjoyed the casual atmosphere, liturgy, music, and message of the morning. This church community is fairly small, but has many young people and several young families (with 3 expecting babies in the next 4 months). This excites us. We have a few other places we want to check out, but overall, we dug our experience at GC.

Aron begins his work week tomorrow and I, well, I'm not entirely sure what I'm going to do with my time over the next 2-3 weeks. It's a bit frustrating to think about the impending birth of bebe M (less than 6 weeks to go) and not being able to get into our place and get it organized and ready. I have books to read, knitting to do, and places to explore, but that's about it. I think it's all going to get pretty old, pretty fast. But, I'm trying to be optimistic and just be patient with what God wants to teach me at this time.

Pictures: This is the view of the city from our 5th story apartment (ok, well, the pics aren't uploading for some reason, so I'll have to try again later...)

Bugs I will not miss

In Texas, we have our fair share of awful insects: fire ants and spiders, big and small (especially the barn spider, 3 inches in diameter, though not pictured here). I will not miss these creatures once we move to Chicago, though, yes there will be new ones. Here is a spider in a more peaceful moment outside our home.