It's been over a month since I wrote and quite a bit has happened.
First off - Meghan's belly is huge. Don't have photo's here to share, but trust me. Anyone that knows how small she is can just envision a basketball under her shirt. It's great! All in all she has had an "easy" pregnancy. No morning sickness, no nasty heartburn, no weird food cravings, nothing. I think a lot of it has to do with her continued running - but I don't care, as long as she's feeling good.
One thing of note - baby has already got some serious muscle in her legs and arms. Still a couple months out and she can knock my head off of Meghan's belly as I'm laying there talking to her, or listening. Of course, all actions where she is being a brat to her Father cause a simplistic reaction - me giving her a two finger belly spank.
On to other news.
Flew out to the West coast to see the family. Spent a couple of days down in the Phoenix area for work then headed to Sacramento for a few days to stay with my Mom. Got a chance to hang out with her, my youngest sister, neice and a couple of wild eyed & crazy nephews. Spent some days in the pool and got the neice to swim the freestyle much more effectively. This is her first year in swim - and she is already beating girls that have been swimming for years. As long as I can remember she has always loved the water - so this is a great sport for her. <
got confirmation that the practice with me paid off - she beat her previous freestyle time by 8 seconds, does an Uncle proud>
After a few days in Sac town, got to visit with a very dear friend of mine (Stephanie) that lives up in the mountains, East of Sacramento, for a day. One thing I truly miss about living on the West coast is the friends of old. There may not be many, really - 4 or 5 - but they are very special to me and I wish that I could see them more than once every other year or so. Anyway, Steph and her husband are just amazing people. I'm not just saying that either, they geniunely are amazing people and you would understand why people gravitate to them if you spent just a few minutes in their presence. Their daughter is absolutely adorable as well.
From there went on up to Oregon where I spent the evening with Heidi, Lee, her son Griffin and Lee's daughter Amber/April/..... can't remember at this moment. Heidi and I have been friends for a long time and to see her son so grown up is amazing. They took me to my first ever rodeo and I have to be honest here, it was pretty cool. The power that these things, especially the bulls, produce is unbelieveable. I was kind of looking for a bull to run over, or stab, a poor sap but that didn't happen. :-) Had a few beers, a bunch of laughs and a great time hanging out with them. I'm always sorry that it can't be for longer.
Next morning I pop up and head over to my other friends place - Tiffany. I have mentioned her before - her fiancee passed away a few months ago. This is the first opportunity that the two of us have really had a chance to just sit and talk and hang out in our adulthood. I mean, we talk quite often but face to face with no real rush on anything was very very cool. My heart just breaks for her and I truly wish there was more that I could do for her but she knows how much I love her and that I'll always be a phone call away. Well I got to hang out for two days over there and one night we went to this new Jazz bar in downtown Eugene. That was really cool and it made me miss Eugene quite a bit. I wish that I could hang out with her more often as she really does make me laugh like very few do(when craptacular subjects don't get in the way). Her three kids are, well, kids. It's amazing to see how very different they are. I know, I shouldn't be surprised - as we are all different - but it's odd that siblings can be so opposite. eh.
Then I headed over to Florence for the weekend to go camping with my family. Mom and youngest sister (and family) head up from Cali. The other sister, roughly 15 months younger than me, comes down from Vancouver, Wa. with her two kids. Yeeeeehaaaa. It's been a while since I've been camping so I'm pretty excited about it. I mean, it's not like we are out backpacking for miles and miles and have to find our own food - but it's still being out camping and enjoying the fresh air.
First day was rough - TONS of wind, ruined the canopy tarp, made for an interesting unpacking event. Once all the kids are there (adult and children) we settle into a groove of chasing two youngest boys from running into the road - and that game is played about 2,449,109 times through the weekend. By this time I've been away from home for a little over two weeks and I'm calling and texting Meghan all the time. I miss her. I'm sure that the family got a little annoyed with it - but their family was there ........... so I don't care.
After camping for a couple of days I needed to drive back down to Sacramento to catch my flight the next morning. Weeeee - fun. I stopped back by Tiff's to get a shower, as I hadn't taken one in a couple of days. As soon as I walked in her youngest, Grace, says "you need to take a shower - you stink". Quite funny from a five year old. Spent a couple hours hanging out there again and then started my journey. Non-stop driving, insert gas station break, it would usually be a ~7 hour drive. For me, as usual, you deal with construction and accidents and it turns into a 9 hour drive. By the time I finally got back to my Mom's place I was just exhausted beyond belief.
Get home and a couple days later is Meghan's Grandfather's funeral. I go from hanging out with a bunch of my family to hanging out with a bunch of hers. Don't get me wrong, I like 99% of them, but I was just beat and the last thing I needed was more emotional stuff. Grandfather was buried at the National cemetary and that was awesome. I've never been before and especially not for a military funeral. Wow - talk about absolute respect and honor. One of the neatest things I've ever experienced.
Weekend goes by with me getting extremely sick - like a full fledged, kick you're butt, flu. I was knocked out Saturday and most of Sunday. My body just couldn't keep up.
And here we are ......... Monday marks the 1 year point of my friend Cordell passing away. It's going to be a sad day for me.
