Ch-ch-changes

I do realize that by putting two or three weeks between posts that I'm losing a vast majority of my blog readers (not that I'm entirely sure I had that many to begin with!). My excuse? We've simply had a lot going on in our household during the past couple of weeks. Our biggest piece of news is that we're moving!! It's not a permanent move, but we're excited nonetheless. We're actually moving in with my parents until we figure out where we want to live next. Seeing as how we pretty much live in the ghetto now, and our lease is up, Will preferred for his wife, son and daughter to live in a place with less of a chance of the following:

* A break-in

* A shooting

* A death (Seriously, they found a dead guy about a mile from our apartment)

* General "shady" people wandering about at all hours of the day and night

My parents are gracious enough to let us stay with them, which is a huge blessing and means we don't have to sign another lease here. So now, we're in the throws of packing and getting ready to move. With Will working full-time now and sometimes into the evenings (It's after 7 and he's not home yet), this move has fallen basically to me, the 27-week pregnant woman. And I, of course, enlisted the help of my mom and Paula (the 30-week pregnant woman). Needless to say, we're an amazing team. We take breaks often and there's lots of grunting when one of us has done too much bending over. Plus, add in the Everett factor and I hope I've painted a pretty accurate picture for you. My goal is for us to be completely packed by Friday morning, with moving day being Saturday. Here's a look at our progress/diaster area (whichever way you want to look at it):

Everett finding a creative use for the as-yet-unused boxes.

Um, yep these two photos should give you a pretty darn accurate look at the mess we're dealing with. Honestly though, we made a lot of progress today and I'm hoping tomorrow is even better.

And for a bit of fun, check out the quiz below. I have to give Heidi props for this one, since she put it on her blog first. For all of you Jane Austen fans out there, definitely give it a whirl!

Weee!!!

On our trip to Texas last week, we got to visit Ty in San Antonio. After lunch we walked around the outdoor mall, La Cantera. In the middle of the mall was this great playground that Everett simply LOVED. Check out that grin:

He could not get enough of this slide and, much to my surprise, he enjoyed sliding the traditional way, as well as head first, on his belly.

It was a good trip, even considering the 18-hour car ride both ways. We saw Grandma, who will turn 89 this November, as well as the other big sites of Eldorado (ie, the water tower, the snow cone lady, the library, the gas station, the cemetary AND the big FLDS compound that Warren Jeffs' followers have set up just outside of town. Exciting times, I tell ya!).

In other Giddens family news, Will is really enjoying his job at MassMutual. He's as excited as can be and is super busy following leads and drumming up business. It's actually pretty inspiring to see him so satisfied by his career choice. Of my very brief stint in the working world, I was never half as content and excited about my job as Will is about being a financial professional.

I'm doing great too. I'm 25 weeks pregnant and I feel like September 24th will be here in the blink of an eye. We've officially decided to name our little gal Juliana Brooks (pronounced AWNA, not ANNA). Brooks is actually a family name on my paternal side and on Will's materal side, so we feel good about knocking out just about every limb of the family tree with her name.

And the little guy is too cute. He has so much personality and although he doesn't actually say much (at least not much that's decipherable), he definitely communicates. His latest loves are the movie "Shrek 2" and spaghetti. He's also a sucker for peppermint candies and my old baby blanket. Go figure.