Andy just wrote me an IM and said that he got us a canoe. A friend of his was giving it away, and apparently he has always wanted one. He says I knew this. As I am in "nesting mode" - my first thought was WHERE are we going to store it? He said that he will build a rack up in the carport for it. Then I pointed out that we'll need to buy life jackets, and oars, so it's not as free as he thinks. His excitement was not to be thwarted, though. He said, "now we can go canoeing ANYTIME we want to!" Because, you know, not HAVING a canoe is what was preventing us from going before. He is so funny. And we have a canoe.

Happy Birthday, Andy! He turns 34 today. What an old man! He commented this morning that he will be 50 when our oldest child gets their driver's license. That's what you get for settling down late in the game! I am glad he waited, though, so that I could find him. Andy claims that birthdays don't matter to him as much anymore now that he's so mature, but I still like to make a big deal of them if I can. He actually gets his birthday off work as a paid holiday, but where is he today? Work. Crazy boy. If anyone told me I could have a paid day off, EVER, I would take it. We are going to P.F. Chang's tonight for dinner to celebrate. Make sure you send him an e-mail with birthday wishes!

My appointment yesterday confirmed that everything is going along just as it should. Our baby has a strong heartbeat and continues to be very active, which is a huge entertainment to me. I have only gained 8 lbs so far, but I still have 3 months to go so I'm not rejoicing yet at my meager weight gain. I still have plenty of time to blow up. We went ahead and made two more appointments for me, because after the next one I start going every 2 weeks instead of 4. That means the time is approaching! We need to get things ready!

We are getting rid of our queen bed out of the guest bedroom next week, and then we will be able to start decorating the nursery. We picked out a really cool fabric that I am going to use to make curtains, a crib bumper, and dust ruffle. It has a lot of different colors of green in it. We are painting the nursery a light green on top and darker green on bottom, with a creme stripe in the middle. Andy might do something cool with a design in the stripe, too. We will probably take the carpet out of that room, too, since there are hardwood floors underneath and the carpet is blue. We'll see if we get around to it. Maybe next weekend we can go shopping for our nursery furniture.

We finally decided on names for the baby. If we have a girl, she will be called Noelle Jordan, and if we have a boy, we will call him Connor Everett. Noelle because the baby is due at Christmas, and Jordan we got from the show Crossing Jordan. It's only fitting that we choose a name from a tv show, as I was named after the Bionic Woman. Connor we just liked, and Everett was my Grandpa Wadsworth's middle name. I honestly thought for a while that we would never decide on names. But look at us - 3 months to go and we're all set!

I have just 48 days of work left until Thanksgiving, when I am going to start staying home to get things ready and rest. I am so excited for that day.

We're having a nephew! Jon and Mindy found out yesterday that they are having another boy. They had a great ultrasound that left no question about the gender of their baby. They also saw him sucking his thumb and playing with the cord. How exciting! His name will probably be Jeremiah. So, our baby has 2 boy cousins! And those cousins are my baby's only cousins. Knowing what Jon and Mindy are having definitely makes me a little more anxious to find out about our little one! I can handle it, though. Just 3 1/2 more months to go.

I have another appointment with my midwife tomorrow morning, so I'll try and write another update. These appointments aren't much, though. Listen to the heartbeat, measure me, ask me if I'm doing alright, and send me on my way. At my next appointment they will do another test for gestational diabetes, so I'll have to drink another "Glucola" before I go. Yum.