Getting Back to "Normal"

I want to start by thanking each of you that took the time to leave me a comment with your condolences and prayers after the death of my Grandmother. Grandma was an absolute amazing woman and I already miss her dearly. I think I cried after reading each and every comment and I really appreciate the support from my sweet readers. I truly believe God has a plan and although I may not understand his plan and his timing, I know it is perfect. At this point, it looks like baby J and I will get to attend my Grandmother's funeral and he will get to meet his 5 great uncles and aunts and some of his 2nd cousins. The service is set for the first week of April in Palm Springs, CA. While it is strange to not have a service right now, it is what worked for my Mom's large family and I know it is going to be a perfect service. Grandma planned it all out--down to the each song and prayer, so how could it not be perfect? She did a lot of other planning as well. She set aside money for her Priest and her good friend Sister Eileen to each go on special surprise trips. They don't even know this yet, but Father will be sent to Assisi and Sister will be sent to Ireland complements of my Grandmother. She also requested her home in Palm Springs not be sold for two years (good thing with the market), but she wants her family to be able to gather there for a few more vacations if they chose. She truly left no stone unturned. I am so lucky to have had her in my life.

In other news....as of yesterday, I am 9 months pregnant!!! I feel like a whale about 1/2 the time and I'm amazed at my body the other 1/2. Who knew it could do this? I'm not going to lie, I'm pretty uncomfortable. I'm VERY ready for baby J to make his big entrance. I start my weekly appointments on Wednesday. I'm really looking forward to our appointment this week, maybe the doc will have an update for me!

The nursery is almost done, I'm waiting on some boxes my Mom is shipping and I promise I will post pictures. I'm trying to get all of my last minute errands done and checking things off my list left and right. I feel like I'm getting close. A and I went to a nice dinner here on Friday night. It was a fabulous date with my wonderful husband after a long week! The chocolate souffle we shared was to die for! We picked out baby announcements from The Paper Cafe. I'll share soon. We put together the baby swing this weekend. A's had two failed attempts at installing the chandelier, but insists "he can do it." I'm just going to let that one slide for now. We are ordering our Bugaboo tonight. (It only takes a couple days to get here so we held out until the last minute.) Our rug came in and looks really cute! I haven't packed my bags yet because I feel like that might jinx me and I'll have to be pregnant longer. But, I'm going to start laying out the things I'm going to pack. Any suggestions of things I should not forget?

On Saturday, a few of my NYC friends hosted a baby shower for me. It was absolutely perfect and I had a blast visiting with the girls! I broke down on Friday night and went to Destination Maternity for a new dress. I promised myself since I would probably only wear it once, I would buy something cheap...but something that actually fit and flattered my large bump. I lucked out and found this brown dress from Motherhood. I wore some brown maternity tights (yuck) and then dressed it up with my gold Tory Burch flats and some gold pearls. Solid colors really do look best at 9 months. =) Baby J and I were spoiled with generous gifts. I will post some pictures as soon as my friend sends them to me. We had great food including red velvet cupcakes and yummy spinach/artichoke dip. It was a really fun day. Tomorrow, at lunch, my coworkers are having a small shower for me as well. I am overwhelmed with the love and support of all my new NYC friends. I can't wait to share baby J with them.

I hope each of you is doing well and had a great weekend.