ICLW, 31 wks, Familia & a Baby Shower!

MAN! The past 5 days have been a blur! Here's a recap on the familia visit, the doctor visit, the baby shower and ICLW!

• Family came and went. It was a good visit.
• Wednesday we went to JCP for some family photographs. That was a hoot. The photographer was a young (newly pregnant) girl who was funny and being that D and Josh were acting their usual selves, we all got along quite nicely. We took some family shots, some D and grandkid, some D and kids and a couple of funny ones. I haven't checked my hotmail lately, but supposedly they email all of the poses to you, even the ones you don't purchase.
• Thursday morning was my OB appt...more on that at another bullet....After I got home, we took them to NASA for a tour and for C (Grandkid) to play with all the kid stuff...what am I saying...for D to play too. Then we drove to Kemah to visit the Kemah Boardwalk and for dinner. Most of the rides are still closed to Ike, as were most of the restaurants. They are slowly coming back though. We had dinner at Joe's.Crab.Shack and eventually made it back home. I was B.E.A.T. Too much walking!
• Friday we all slept late, had breakfast and decided to see a movie. C picked Hotel for Dogs. It was really cute. I cried! At a Nick.olodeon movie! Must have been the hormones....that plus the fact that I'm a sucker for animal movies. Hell I BAWL at Old Yeller! Then we went to the Children's Museum. It was lots of fun. C had a blast. We finally got home around 5:30...just in time to make dinner for 13 people at 7:00. I was expecting we would be really busy on Friday and not have time to prepare dinner so last Tuesday I spent 3.5 hours preparing everything and froze it for Friday. Since the familia was flying out Saturday morning, the rest of the family (including my parents who have never met the daughter, husband or C) wouldn't have a chance to see them at the shower on Saturday. So we arranged this dinner instead. We had chicken broccoli casserole (?? the website I found this posted on didn't have a name for it, so I made one up), seussgirl's homemade mac n' cheese, salad, and chocolate elegance for dessert. Everything was a hit! I made a double batch of the chicken and the mac so we would have enough. There was still some leftover that I hope to partake in tonight!
• Saturday morning, we got up EARLY and got ready for the day. We had to have the fam at the airport around 9AM. Then we waited in the "cell phone lot" (isn't that a good idea to wait for arriving passengers?) for my friend L to arrive from CO. They had to de-ice the plane before taking off from CO, so it was a little late. We finally left the airport with L around 11. Had lunch at Gringo's. Made a couple of stops and then it was finally time for us to "arrive" at the shower around 2:15 (started at 3) so we could get ready. The girls had been there since 11'ish setting things up and we were prohibited from being at the house.
• Before starting in on the shower, let me give the OB update first. The baby's hb was 144....boy or girl? I still can't tell from just the hb. My BP was high - 140/80 so she had me
  lie down for "10 minutes" to recheck again. Well they were running behind as usual, so I had me a good little 35 minute nap. After Thursday, I damn well needed it. When she came back, it was 114/80. She said there is a little concern since it seems to be high, but after resting comes back down. Wants to watch me carefully for possible pre-eclampsia. Belly measuring 33 weeks...
• The shower was A.W.E.S.O.M.E. We wanted it to be coed/mixed/family friendly so that D could participate too. We think there were over 40 people there at one time! We have such awesome friends and family. We got so much stuff that we needed. We are so grateful for everything! Especially all the washcloths and towels - WINK, WINK! (Apparently since the gender is unknown and people don't want to buy neutral clothes, the next best thing is bathing essentials. I seriously think we have at least 40 washcloths and 12 towels!! But we love them all!) We got the car seat, walker, bouncer, bouncy seat, pack-n-play, clothes, toys, diapers, wipes, pacifiers, bottles....I think we might have enough "baby gear" to get this party started!!! Special shout out to the BS Team - S, S, L, M - for throwing the best shower ever - the decorations, food, and the baby love were awesome! Much love to T for helping last minute and Mom for making a super yummy cake too!
• Pics on all of the above TBD
• And finally - after a long winded post as it is....ICLW for February 2009 started last Saturday. I am already behind and will definitely not be an Iron Commenter this month, but I will do my best to catch up...Even if you didn't "sign up" for ICLW, click on over to Mel's blog and click on some bloggys who are participating. You'll be glad you did. There are some great writers/bloggers out there!