Winter and Construction

J - Rounding to the 8 month mark!

We have a joke here in Michigan... If you've ever lived here, you may remember. We only have 2 seasons here in the Grand Rapids Area. Winter and Construction. This year has proven to be no different, to be sure. Yet, it seems this joke is being taken to another side of the coin. We don't quite know where Spring went. We had a week, perhaps two?, of that glorious spring weather. Jeans and a t-shirts were all the clothing required. The air was cool at nights and 60 and dry in the days. The sky was blue. The lilacs tantilized us with their fragrant blooms for weeks. Not this year. I saw lilacs on our own bushes. And then they died. Fast. In the heat. Like the rest of us. It's May in Michigan and we've had 85-90 degree days as a rule lately! Remember that late July/August humidity. Oh yeah! Sticky, slick, and stanky. It's here with a force!

That being said, our pregnant j has recanted her statment of wanting to be pregnant in the summer instead of the winter. In the winter she struggled bending to put boots on. She tried to smoosh herself into her winter coat after layering pants, long johns, t-shirt, long sleeve shirt, and then sweater. She felt like an elephant in the wrong climate zone. Little did she know that with heat came swelling ankles and fingers. Walking created sweating which created work for the body to cool itself off, which created exhaustion from having 50% more blood volume to pump around, which created a constant and nagging passing out feeling.

But darn it! J got the garden in anyway!! Here she is with a bucket of compost.

Once we got to the tomato and pepper transplants, J was practically strapped to a camping chair by hubby Steve and he took over. In his words, "You sit there and order me around." Hmmm...

Life is good here at the Voller Estate. We are looking at our final month of pregnancy and man does it look good! We can not wait! Not only to meet this little gem that has been pushing back at your hand when you touch the belly, that stretches in the belly while mommy is stretching, but also the little one is beginning to create such discomfort with normal efforts like getting out of a chair, doing dishes or just laying down. She loves a rib on mommy's right side. Ouch!

J thought she could work up to the day Celia decides to come home, but that is becoming an impossibilty considering her work. She works one day at a farm and even weeding is a chore in this heat! She is also still massaging a few clients a week, and although she's been lucky to have hardly any back pain this pregnancy, it's all starting now as she expands even more. We didn't think it was possible!

Steve is doing well. He is spending much free time learning and searching sound healing while cleaning the basement, doing the lawn, the garden, and the house. He's a busy man. We are going to his mom's this weekend to get her tractor. Steve no longer has 3 hours to roam our lawn with our little push mower. He hates the idea of a tractor, but J convinced him it was a good idea since when she is an at home mom, she plans on taking over the mowing. Having had 3 older brothers and never being taught to mow, a tractor makes more sense for a recovering mother. Baby Celia will be in a sling and Mamma J will be mower extrodainaire!

There is a wonderful sound healing center in San Francisco we hope to visit within the next year along with a trip in October out east to see all our friends and introduce them to Celia. Steve is also planning a Rush concert get-a-way in September with his buddy Pierce in Toronto! He needs a break! Also, it looks like Crowded House is touring again, which he's excited for! He'll be going to Ann Arbor in August for their concert.

His next projects will be re-sealing the basement for humidity (again, it's Michigan, people!) and then busting up the crumbling concrete stairs and walkway to our back door and then redoing them. We are tentatively planning to get the house back on the market by September. Plus those stairs are not safe for not only a waddling jeannie, but also our mom's, and Celia when she decides walking sounds like fun.

That's the update. Here's our family: We'll let you all know if J explodes before the birth gets here:)