catching up.

it's been a while....school was a bit chaotic over the past month. it was all i could do to stay on top of the busy-work and exams associated with finishing up a semester.
{WARNING: this post may end up as random and chaotic as the past month has been as i attempt to catch up on all the experiences, pictures, thoughts, etc. i'm posting mostly for my own good - i want to be able to jog my memory of the past month.}

i am pleased to report that as of wednesday i am done with school for a few months. i was granted a leave of absence for the spring semester and will jump back in for levels four and five over the summer and fall of 2011. i feel incredibly blessed to be able to take all that time to be with baby j!

need a belly pic fix? i've done an okay job of updating my facebook album.

ok, let's start with thanksgiving...
matt, paisley, toffee, babyj and i drove to CA for thanksgiving to be with my family. the trip was a bit long on my 34 week pregnant body ~ mostly because it's difficult to get comfortable at all at that point, so sitting in a car for long periods of time is tiresome. i slept most of the way and matt was an awesome driver :) we had an exciting, jam-packed weekend in dinuba. we enjoyed a traditional thanksgiving meal at my parents house on thanksgiving with extended family; spent black friday relaxing and transforming the house from thanksgiving to baby shower; saturday had a spectacular nautical baby shower then attended the sandoval ladies' ornament exchange; sunday woke up had some breakfast and were headed back to AZ. it was far too short a time, but i was blessed to visit with so many family members.

sidenote: the shower my mom and vickee threw was seriously amazing. my parents house was full of ladies blessing matt, babyj and i with their generosity and love. i can't even begin to describe how loved i felt.

the morning after we returned from thanksgiving, we were up early for school and work. the week following thanksgiving i had a group project, a simulation experience an exam, a clinical day plus the regular ol' life stuff. thankfully, we survived that week. actually...thursday of that week, matt's coworkers threw him a daddy baby shower!! i had such a great time getting to know all the ladies {and many of the guys} who are involved in matt's work life. so many of them have been supportive of matt and i through the second miscarriage and through the experience of this pregnancy. it was such a blessing to celebrate babyj with people who know and love matt :) i was astonished by the generosity and kindness shown to us! the following saturday, i attended my third baby shower hosted by a sweet friend from church. it was a perfect saturday brunch with many of my friends from arizona. again, i was amazed by the generosity of people loving on us. i was particularly blessed as two women, who i respect and admire tremendously prayed for babyj, matt and i. it was awesome.

last week began with the submission of a 50+ page paper. one that i had intended to start and finish before thanksgiving, but instead put off til the last minute. oops. the rest of the week included last minute assignments, clinicals, church stuff and the beginning of my once a week OB appointments! like i've been saying for months...i'm not really sure what the purpose of the close-together appointments are - they last maybe 10 mins?! i suppose if there were issues with me or babyj we would be addressing them at the appointments. praise God we are both healthy! {will post a strictly pregnancy update next}

this week was my last pediatrics lecture and our final exam. we're still waiting to hear what our final grades are...but i'm not too concerned. i checked out a little too soon ~ but can you blame me with all the excitement of christmas and babyj's arrival!? also this week, matt began a new full-time position at maricopa. {you may recall he has had a "contract" with them for a while, but would have needed to find a new contract, possibly one with travel required if he hadn't landed this blessing of a job} the past two days have consisted of some casual christmas shopping, decorating for christmas, cleaning babyj's closet out {it used to be our office closet}, making plans for christmas, prepping for babyj's arrival.....

we are one week away from hosting 20ish people in our home for christmas. we are super excited to have matt's extended family in town :D {we still have MUCH to do to be ready for them....but i know that the biggest, most important thing is that we get to be together....so if my windows aren't clean or my carpets have spots, i'm going to try and look past that!}

on my list for today: pack our hospital bag, clean off one of our desks, organize my closet, blog (check!) and enjoy my day as i accomplish these tasks.