Harvest

With some recent good weather, harvest has officially begun and everyone is in high gear since it's practically November! I stopped by tonight to see Noah and Caleb in a field they were working in - and this is how Noah greeted me. What a dork! :) I made Noah and Caleb take a quick break (I bribed them with cookies from Palmers) so I could take their picture. Caleb typically drives the combine while Noah drives the grain cart and shuffles the grain from the field to the semi, and from the semi to the eleveator.

This is Noah by the semi filled with corn. He was heading to the elevator to unload.

This is one reason why you use a grain cart to take the corn from the field to the semi. Look at how much the semi can sink and tear up a field.
And then there's me...in my work clothes, standing in the middle of a corn field. Kind of comical, huh?

At Long Last: The Crib

I decided it was time to put the crib together. Since all the men in the family are busy with harvest, I called upon my sister and mom (and Max & Mollie) to help. Amy's memory served her well as she led the charge and put the crib together without instructions (it's been 9 years since she last put it together!).
This was Mollie's contrabution...putting a puzzle together on the crib mattress. Max was busy on the computer playing games at lego.com.

Here's the finished product. Kind of exciting...but also made me realize just how tiny the baby's room is!

And then here's me at 28 weeks. Kind of a blurry photo....but you get the jist.

Next up? Now that Orchard season is winding down, I'm in full-on baby mode. So I think this weekend I'm going to go register for baby stuff. Have a work baby shower on Dec. 5, and another baby shower on Dec. 6. So I need to get some of this stuff picked out. Again, since Noah is busy in the field, it'll be a girls' outing to register!

28 Week Appointment

Today was our 28 week appointment....with that came the glucose test. So I drank the orange flavored glucola 45 minutes prior and then they drew my blood. I also got a shot in the rear of the Rhogham since I'm O- blood type. Now that we're in the 3rd trimester, we begin appointments every 2 weeks.

Enough about me - our baby was great. Measuring right at 28 weeks, heart beat in the 150s. And still being very active - moving around lots. So that's been fun!

Max & Mollie were at our house the other night and Mollie said, "Have you named that baby yet??? Are you still reading that baby name book??" In the back of the book, I've been keeping track of names Noah and I both like...there's probalby 10 names for each sex. So I read those names to Max & Mollie and then let them vote on their favorites. Max's vote: Boy - Simon; Girl - Annie. Mollie's vote: Boy - Simon; Girl - Kya. And actually, Kya wasn't on our list - she thought of the name that night, and to be nice I put it on our list.

Noah and I are a LONG way from agreeing on a name. We just might be one of those people (Heather & Brandon) that don't name their baby until they leave the hospital! If you have any good names to add to our list - please share! :)

Hospital PR (Pregnant Relations) Team

So out of the 12 people on our PR team, 3 are/were pregnant. One of which is me (duh!). Below is Amy, me and Corey. Amy is due March 27, me January 17 and Corey was due September 27...but delivered baby Logan on October 2. The photos were taken about 2 weeks before Logan's arrival. Thankfully, our maternity leaves will not overlap except for about 2 weeks. I can only imagine how much our co-workers would hate us had we all been due around the same time.

Something else we all have in common....we're all Wartburg graduates! Yeah! Amy from the class of 2002, me from 2000 and Corey from 2003.

26 Weeks

Time is flying by! 26 weeks and the belly keeps growing...and the baby keeps moving. Tonight I had to pick up Noah and while I was sitting in my car waiting for him, the baby was all over the place...so much so I could see my stomach moving just by watching. Pretty neat.

Last week, we experienced something really quite disturbing. (Jodi & Bruce - I know you can relate.) Anyway, Noah's truck was stolen from our house overnight. They also stole the keys from my car. We didn't quite realize what was going on until the next morning when I went out to leave for work and I couldn't find my keys. I thought I was having a prego moment...so Noah came to help me look for them, and in the process realized his truck was missing. At first, we thought it was Caleb playing a prank on us. But after 2 calls to Caleb (with him denying both times), we called the Sherriff. Long story short, a neighbor found Noah's truck about 4 miles away just parked in the middle of the road. Very random things were stolen, but the truck itself was ok. No suspects at this time. Tomorrow I get new keys/cylinders/etc installed in my car so my old keys they stole will no longer work.

In farm news...harvest has begun but it's going slow. With all the re-planting and late planting this year due to the flooding, it's taking a while for the crops to dry out. Noah/Caleb/Dad have been able to combine some beans. I suspect any day now it'll all be ready and they will be working til midnight trying to get it all done.

All my spare time is being devoted to Orchard stuff. Steve has been having a great year. On Saturday, he had 2100 paid admissions to the Orchard. This does not include people who just come out to shop or pick apples. I've gotten quite good at making caramel apples.