Week 17 (Take 2 - I just deleted this when almost finished - damn pregnant brain!!!!). I think I will title weeks 16 & 17 "The weeks when I pretty much push myself to absolute exhaustion with a vacation at the end." Not good for a book title, but it is a pretty accurate description.

Week 17 belly - note belly is now bigger than boobs

Last weekend I took a trip to my brother's in Vegas. It was a lot of fun, but a looong drive. It should have been 5 hours each way - it took up 7 to get there, and 6 to get back. I had to pee. A lot. I was thinking this would be good practice for the two longer car trip I need to make in August & December. It's not looking good. I am considering a catheter. Anyway, we had a blast- my brother & his fiance have a great pool in their yard, that I could barely get the boys out of. Gabe was in the pool until literally 10 minutes before we left to drive home. Actually that's not entirely true, as the extreme heat (113 degrees) was causing my car to mal-function and not stay in gear - we had to park it in the garage to cool it down and leave about 1.5 hours later than planned. But he was in the pool until 10 minutes before that first attempt to leave. We also went to Tournament of Kings on Saturday night - just me & my boys eating food with our hands, watching horses & stuntmen. It was pretty cool (though I wouldn't have enjoyed it without my kids). I got home and crawled into bed about midnight on Sunday.

Only to wake up at 7am on Monday. This week is our "Summer Camp" week at Sego Lily School, which I am staffing with Rebecca. It's a ton of fun - 17 kids (they are all at the pool right now, which is why I have time to even think about this week's blog post!), ages 5-12. It's been awhile since I have had a normal staff day at Sego that didn't involve me being locked in the office and/or school meeting room. Doing puzzles, reading books, and having great conversations is way more exciting. And, 9-4 is a pretty reasonable work schedule, until you throw in 1.5 hours of commute (damn traffic), morning prep, and a pregnancy.

The 'good' news is I will be leaving Saturday morning for a trip to Texas, where I plan to let my mother & aunt take care of me for the week. the big plans include relaxing on the beach, eating, relaxing on the beach, sleeping in, reading, and relaxing on the beach. I hope it is going to make these long days worth it! I don't want to come home exhausted.

The onion & I (yes, this week's fruit comparison is a vegetable) are feeling good, though tired. No problems to speak of. My midwife is currently in Africa, working with local midwives, and learning as much as she is teaching, I am sure! Gabe has decided he is OK with a boy or a girl, so long as it likes BMX'ing and soccer. I'm still convinced it is a she - and also convinced that I am totally unreliable, due to my high level of wishful thinking. At some point, I will start a pool, for gender, date, and time of day. Winner gets half the $ put in, and the first birth announcement call. Start thinking of your guesses now.