9 months

In keeping with my usual fashion, I am posting my 9 month picture over a week late. Now that I am in my 37 week I am technically full-term. At my last doctor's appointment, my doctor even told us that she would be surprised if I went much past 38 weeks. Obviously, we want the baby to stay in my belly as long as he needs to, but we fully trust our amazing doctor. Pretty exciting, but it definitely threw both me and Eric into a frenzy to prepare for the arrival of our little man. Thank God Eric is such an organized individual. These past few days I have felt like I wanted to do is take naps. Nighttime sleeping has become difficult, which leaves me groggy during the day.

We will do our best to keep you posted with updates during these final days/weeks. Stay tuned for pictures of our completed nursery!

Drinks and Diapers

Saturday night our good friends, Joseph and Rania, hosted a couples baby shower for us. To get into the "Drinks and Diapers" shower you had to bring a bottle of wine or six-pack of beer and a package of diapers. In attendance were the hilarious members of our supper club, a few of Eric's old co-workers, and a good buddy of ours from Texas Tech. The night was a blast, filled with good food, awesome friends, lots of diapers/gifts, and fierce competition in pool and shuffleboard.

For some reason my captions did not turn out on the slide show, but special thanks to Joseph and Rania for hosting us in their lovely home and for the great attention to detail they took in putting together the festivities. Joseph was especially proud of his contribution in assembling the diaper cake. And we are still thinking of Rania's chocolate chip cupcakes and Lebanese inspired cuisine. Whenever this group gets together, all bets are off. Thanks again!

Ladies Baby Shower

This past weekend, my two amazing friends, Deanna and Joannie, were kind enough to host a baby shower for me. I always kid Deanna that she is Martha Stewartesque, and she definitely went above and beyond! Despite the fact that she has only been in her new home for four months, she is completely unpacked and decorated. One of the fun projects for the shower was assigning each guest with a particular future birthday and having them make a birthday card for our little man. The idea is to have him open a card from each of these individuals for each year of his life so that the guests always play a part in his life. I love the idea behind that! I also received some amazing "new mommy advice cards." I will definitely take all the advice I received into great consideration.

Living so far away from family is always a challenge. However, having these amazing friends and co-workers in our lives makes life a lot easier. We are grateful for their love, support and generousity. We look forward to the role these individuals will continue to play in our lives and the life of our baby!

Albuquerque Trip

Eric and I just returned from a trip to our native Albuquerque. While in town we attended my best friend from high school, Stephanie's wedding. Despite some minor drama, it was truly a beautiful event.

Here is a picture of Stephanie's lovely bridesmaids at the rehearsal dinner. It is obvious how much they care for Steph and Gabe and each one went out of their way to make sure she was taken care of on her special day.

A picture of the happy couple shortly after the ceremony.

Here is a picture of me wearing what I fondly refer to as my bridesmaid tent.

This last weekend was also my first baby shower, hosted by my wonderful and generous family. My Aunt Lydia graciously opened up her lovely home, which we thank her for. The hardest thing about living in Texas is being away from my close-knit family. When I go home it is wonderful to catch up with everyone. My cousin Rachel and I are actually only about two weeks apart from each other on our due dates, so it is fun to have someone to commiserate with. Also, my cousin Debbie has a baby under a year old so I look to her and all of the other young mommies around me for guidance.

Many thanks to everyone who attended and made this shower so special for both me and Eric. I appreciate all of the great gifts and well wishes that came from our family and friends who were able to make it.

Here is a picture with my mother-in-law, Becky, and my mother, Gladys.

Every time we return from an out of town trip, I scold myself for not taking more pictures. This is one such instance! I meant to get lots of pictures with our families, but alas...

8 months

Getting bigger everyday!

Hello again...

Sorry it has been such a long time since we have written. The past few weeks have been a little crazy. For some reason February can be a busy month work-wise. I spent almost a week on retreat and have had to work several weekends. Needless to say, my energy has been pretty low!

As some of our family and friends may know, Eric was very recently laid off of work as a project manager. His employer, a major high-end retailer, had to let over 400 people go this last week. Previously they had let go of another 300-400 individuals. Eric's former job was founded in individuals spending disposable income and due to the economy, people are just not shopping like they used to. And while the shoppers who frequent this retailer have tended not to be affected by our struggling economy, they have chosen to be more careful at this time with where their money is going.

Here in North Texas many of our major employers have had to let literally thousands of individuals go. As a caseworker for a congressional office, I have dealt with countless phone calls and visits from individuals who have lost their jobs, homes, health care, etc. It is truly a humbling experience to see several houses in our neighborhood go through foreclosure proceedings. While we are ALL being affected by the current recession, we have to trust that this too will pass. For the time being, we will all hunker down and rely upon those lessons we were taught by our grandparents generation. They did not wait for someone to come help them through hard times. They lifted themselves up and did what they had to do to get by. I still remember my Nana and Grandpa Martinez who saved EVERYTHING. When they passed on several years ago I heard stories about the things that were found in their house. Old empty Quaker Oat containers, the plastic bags bread come in, clothes we would have considered "past their prime", etc. Everything had a use unlike today where we have filled our lives with "disposable goods." I think we can all take a page from their book, and I know we certainly intend to.

We thank all of you for your thoughts and prayers. Our God is a faithful one.

7 Months

Last week I had my 7 month appointment. Right now the baby is breech, but my doctor said that 15% of babies are breech at this stage in pregnancy. At 32-34 weeks only 5%of babies are still breech, so there is a chance that he will correct his position. I also had my glucose test, which came back fine. I am a little bit anemic right now, but the doctor recommended an iron supplement. Both the baby and I are getting bigger every day. He currently weighs in at 2lbs 8oz!