For the Record:

Today's goal was to tackle the office, our bedroom and the baby nook.

I got the office done.

(and somehow, miraculously cared for all the livestock and finished up all the homeschooling for the day.)

I COULD continue to work on into the wee morning hours (as I have the last few nights) to finish EVERYTHING I had hoped to get cleaned up but it turns out....when I woke up this morning, I looked something like this:

Positively green. Ironically, just a day after having laughed with my sister over the phone saying "I don't even FEEL pregnant-it is hard to believe I am. No nausea, no tiredness, no nothing."

har har har

I guess it doesn't help that I haven't gone to bed before 1 am all this week.

My eyeballs keep falling down as I peer at all the un-done's in my bedroom. I think I might actually just throw my to-do list to the wind (JUST tonight) and get a good nights' sleep so that I can be more.....rejuvenated and feel less like....throwing UP tomorrow.

Before I do, though I wanted to say a few things. You know, incredibly IMPORTANT things that really MUST be said right this very minute. Mind-boggling things that I know you will feel gypped if I don't go ahead right now and purge myself of them. (Sorry, it's on my mind.)

1# (and this is the MOST important one!)

No pickles were consumed in the making of that pregnancy announcement photo. That pickle/icecream photo was simply a photo opportunity. I would not, could not, will not eat pickles and chocolate peanut butter cup icecream. Eveeeeeeeeeeerrrrrr. (just to be clear)

#2 I wanted to thank you all for your wonderful enthusiasm and heartfelt congratulations on our big news. Not everyone is excited for us-some even are emphatically NOT excited for us, so to share our good news with people who indeed find it to BE good news is really.....well, wonderful. So THANK you.

#3 In regard to some questions in the comment section:

• No, I don't have a clue as to when I am due because I don't have a clue when my last cycle was. (I am REALLY bad at that-I never keep track.) I am guessing late August/early September. HOPING for AUGUST since we are shooting for our family to have one birthday in every month of the year and September is already taken. :-)
  
• I only found out this weekend, so any interpretated hints a while ago were just a fluke. Likely, me talking but not making very much sense. It happens. A lot.

#4: I have been *HAPPY* to see all sorts of new names delurking around here. Thank you for taking the time to write. Consider yourself properly welcomed, even if you have actually been visiting for awhile.

#5 Since we do not find out genders of children, we nickname our in-utero babies instead of just referring to him/her as "baby" or "that thing in there". Corynn was Boo. Andrew was Peanut. Adele' was Bunkin. And truth is, I keep calling this baby Bunkin too, just out of habit. But the wee thing needs a proper name and I am sorta at a loss. Have a few ideas, but none that knock my socks off. Maybe Fig. or Banana. Any suggestions?? Glad to hear 'em! This baby needs a name!

#6 Completely unrelated to "that thing in there":

Lest you (FALSELY) think I am superwoman or something by doing so much deep cleaning this week, I must share this. I am not. I think, in fact, it is actually quite miraculous that I have accomplished so much. Most of it has been accomplished late (or early, as it were) into the wee hours of darkness after the SANE world has gone to bed.

The reason?

Because Matt has a week long business trip that he is only just half-way through and has been missing from my life for three insanely long, ridiculously torturous days. And because WHEN he is gone, the bed is so cold and heartless I fight every instinct my body has to sleep because it seems so WRONG to go to cold sheets and lie there all alone. No legs to entangle. No arms wrapped around me. No Mattie smell. No giggling and chatting while Matt tries (in vain) to read a book. No last minute, breathy "I love you's" as the last thing I hear at night.

It's wrong I tell ya. A sin.

I knew the week would be torturous...it always is...so I decided I would *try* to make it speed quickly past by deep-cleaning the ENTIRE house before he arrives on Friday. (Yes, as a matter of fact, I AM stupid! Thanks for asking.)

So-that is my motivation for taking on such a laborous task and the reason I have gotten as far as I have gotten. No superwoman here~

Just a lonely, pining woman who only makes it through the cobwebs and dust each day by thinking about the look on Mattie's face when he returns home to a sweet smelling, clean as a whistle and perdy as a Sunday smile house with candles and flowers and lovely music floating in the air. If I had had a flirty vintage housewife dress, apron, pearls and heels I might have even worn them.

And then I think about how he will smile when he sees all the hard work I have done. A smile that I haven't seen in three days. And that gets me to thinking about how he will feel when I get myself right back where I belong, those strong arms that hold me so well. And then I think about deeply inhaling the scent that I have washed out of all the dirty clothes (major oversight, that). And then I think about how nice it will be to talk to him and listen to his voice...watch his lips move. watch his eyes grin, I wanna experience it ALL.

And then I close my eyes and ALMOST imagine him home.

And then.

THEN.

I look toward the bed that I was just heading to...and it disgusts me. I hate it. I hate it forever. (or atleast until Friday)

And then I go downstairs and get the broom and dustpan.

It's gonna be a long night.