A Weekend Full of Friends - But Not Labor!

Last night, as I heaved my humongous belly from the left side to the right side so that I could get up and haul myself to the bathroom, it dawned on me that there are some words in our vocabulary that just inherently work for pregnancy. For example, heave. When you are 9+ months pregnant, there is no other way to describe how you get from lying on one side, to lying on the other. Gravity is completely working against you. Here are two others:

haul - You may associate this word with expediency - like, haul **s. However, when you've got 30 extra pounds on you, this word refers to the need to actually put a wheel barrow in front of you, drop your belly in, and go.

pop - As in, "I'm about to...". While this word can typically be used along with "pizazz" and "sparkle", when your belly protrudes and your skin stretches to the point where you can see the outline of the baby inside, this word can only be used as a verb. I've always thought the phrase "You look like you're about to pop!" was crass, but you know what? I feel like I'm about to pop. Or at the very least, like my skin won't stretch any more.

I swore up and down I was going into labor on Saturday. After waking up with a cramp in my back in the middle of the night, I spent the whole day feeling crampy - which is exactly how I felt for three days before my water broke with Kirby. It's amazing how much we pregnant girls can allow ourselves to get our hopes up in the last couple of weeks. I think it's actually a tactic we use to help the time pass more quickly. Regardless, I woke up feeling as fine as a woman in my delicate condition can feel. It's probably for the best, since I still have quite a list of things to accomplish before I can feel good about leaving others with the household and Christmas duties.

This weekend I was blessed to spend some quality time with a few good friends. Friday night I found myself cracking up in Village Inn with my first two Denver friends. We followed the pie and laughs by spending an hour praying together in front of the Blessed Sacrament. What a gift - this Catholic Faith - and how blessed I am to have friends to share it with! We joked on the way home about our rockin' night out - pie followed by church...I do truly love my life! Saturday I attended a ladies' tea and Christmas bazaar at my neighbor's church. In five years of being neighbor-friends, it was our first ever trek out of the neighborhood together. I was thoroughly uplifted by the message of the speaker at the tea, who talked about what "Emmanuel - God with us" really means, and how we should prepare for the coming of Christ.

So, it is with a full heart and joy for the Advent season that I am now going to try to tackle something I don't enjoy - laundry.