This is me a couple days ago...

a few minutes before I went in for my scheduled induction. I look ready to have a baby right? Well, I was admitted to Labor and Delivery, had my gown and monitors on, my doctor did an amniocentisis just to be absolutely sure the baby's lungs were developed and and hour later they sent me home. The test came back and said Jacob's lungs weren't ready. So the doctor said that he would give me a steriod shot to boost things a bit and he'd "see me back in a week". The tricky part is the doctor is going on vacation this weekend so I should find out Friday what the actual plan is.

Poor me. I have to join the ranks of every other woman on the planet and not know exactly when I am going to have my baby. It kind of stinks. Good thing is Jacob is getting the best chance at coming into this world a healthy kid. Yay for that.

My new pull down shelf

Thanks to my fantastic sister in law Victoria, I get to actually use one of my upper cupboards!

The challenge I faced when I thought about filling this precious space was how to use the space effectively. I went to tupperware.com where I saw PERFECT systems for holding common bulk items like wheat bran, corn meal, flax seed, spices, rice... all the stuff I have in half opened bags in my pantry. But tupperware was WAY out of my price range. Sorry, tupperware. I know you would last my whole lifetime and my children's lifetime, but I can't shell out hundreds of dollars right now. So instead I went to this local place called the Creation Station where they sell reusable items that people have donated. This is where I found 5 Nestle Quick boxes and 12 playdough containers. It cost a couple dollars and I know that I can now save my incoming nestle quick and playdoh containers and have a uniform use for them.

I never get tired of this...

Dads taking naps with sons.

3 kids and a wheelchair in a Subaru Outback

I posted this video on youtube tonight to demonstrate something I thought was impossible: fitting 3 car seats and my wheelchair in our Outback.

Hopefully, for paralyzed moms like me searching for accessible answers online, they will see that you can not only get a chair in the car 9 months pregnant, but you can do it with 3 car seats.

Thank goodness Michigan law states that you can have a child over the age of 4 in a booster in the front seat. (which they say is safer than using a booster with a lap belt only.) Needless to say, Alex is thrilled with the new "co-pilot" status.

Lemonade Stand, Face Painting, Sprinklers...

The essence of summer. It has felt like summer here in Michigan with the temps getting up into the 90s. Alex and Aaron are happy and loving the summer life. We bought a set of face paints and have had tons of fun with them.

The lemonade stand is something that Alex has been planning in his little entrepreneurial mind for months. He has been waiting for weather warm enough and he got it last week. He did everything for this stand. He even made the sign 100% by himself. I gave him 8 sheets of paper and told how to spell lemonade and off he went. I was totally impressed at his bubble letter skills. He is only 5 after all. He kept watch of the stand a couple hours in the morning and an hour in the evening. Only 9 customers, but it was all worth it. He has his next one planned for Labor Day weekend.

As you can see from the pictures, my belly is growing huge. Even though I'm only 35 weeks along according to the calendar, my belly is measuring 40 weeks. Its due to the fact that the baby is measuring big on the ultrasounds and I have a ton of amniotic fluid. Combine those two factors and you have a very uncomfortable mommy. The plan is to induce at 37 weeks, so we'll see if I make it that far.

Lake Michigan Camping and Michigan's Adventure

We spent 3 days at Lake Michigan camping and going to Michigan's Adventure. It was such a fun trip. It will be our last outing before the baby comes and we certainly made the most of it. The first day we went to Chuck E. Cheeses before we checked in to our cabin at Muskegon State Park. The boys had been looking forward to Chuck E. Cheeses for a full year. At the camp ground, the boys rode their bikes, played on the swings, and we all walked over to the Michigan Winter Sports Complex where they have 2 luge tracks. One for the winter and a wheeled luge track for the summer. Sadly, the boys had to be 8 years old to go.

The next day we spent all afternoon at the lake. Seriously, I sat on this beach towel for 4 hours. The boys played in the sand and water. Then Chris took them for an hike on some huge boulders to get closer to the light houses.

Wednesday was the last day of camping, so after we checked out of our cabin, we went to Michigan's Adventure. It is a amusement park/water park combined and we had so much fun! The weather was super dreary in the morning, so we just went on rides - and never waited in one line! Then after lunch we spent the afternoon at the water park and the boys loved it! Aaron's favorite was the wave pool. Alex's favorite was this tunnel slide called the snake pit which was totally dark inside. We spent every moment, from when the park opened to when it closed, doing stuff. It was a very fun day.

Climbing the dunes

Alex being cheesy while Aaron was moping about getting his picture taken.

On the Lazy River

Running from the waves

Alex went down this slide 30 times

New Dining Room Table

After scanning Craigslist for months, I finally found a great dining room table $80. Its fits perfectly in our house, color and size wise. Plus, it has two large leaves. So we can now seat up to 10 without having to pull out the folding craft table. I am a happy girl.

I feel this is blog worthy. Seriously, it was months of daily scanning on Craigslist. The post was listed with no picture, but she said it came with two large leaves and a pad. It also turned out her house was wheelchair accessible. (totally uncommon) And so I felt really lucky. She also gave me a sweet padded leather piano bench for free.