oakland

Oakland is nice
...it's sunny
...the people are so friendly
...the view from our apartment is so pretty... trees and a view of the bay in the far distance. And we have lots of space. Don did a good job picking it out!
...the people at Beezwax (Don's work) are so cool. They are all so sweet. They helped us move in and ask curious questions, and are generally helpful and so kind. One family wants to give us some of their baby stuff that they are done with, nice! We shared a ride to Cupertino with another guy yesterday and he told us all about moving to the States from Guam and falling in love. So special!

I do miss friends and family. I miss good espresso. I miss my family's puppies and their mischief. I kinda miss the pleasure of working hard and getting a paycheck, even though I struggled every day at work and resented a lot of the structure of the work environment and the restriction it put on my work as a therapist. The vast difference between that and the unstructured life I live now is so strange. It reminds me of the summer after grad school when I went from full speed to relatively nothing to do.

I do have things to do though. We need to tie up several loose ends that we haven't finished up in Portland... taxes, selling our car, switching insurance, paying off some bills, changing our addresses on everything, etc, etc. But my brain seems to be easily distracted and overwhelmed and I feel like there are long moments where nothing at all gets done. For some reason when you're on the clock at work that's ok, that unproductive, spin your wheels feeling. But at home it can just be so ... I don't know... sad.

Seven more weeks til baby comes. The baby room is a mess and we haven't taken one course for parenting or birthing prep. In addition Kaiser hasn't called back with appointment info and my doula is going to be out of town around mid June unexpectedly. I do think that resolving these things and getting a few major items (ie diapers, a stroller, and a mattress) will make me feel more settled and ready. I feel like such a bad first time mom for even saying how unprepared I am. But it's true, we still live the lives of transient 20 somethings and I think it will take the baby being out of the womb for us to truly change and be somewhere.

In the last week I have attempted to reorganize my life so I at least know what I'm not getting done yet. I've moved in the majority of our stuff into it's place in our new apartment. I've met a few people from Beezwax and given my hubby some TLC after a long break apart from each other. If you think of me this week, pray that there is hope in my heart, that my efforts are fruitful, that my life finds some rhythm, and that God is in our midst. In addition Don needs a ton of prayer, for finishing up his Master's degree work in the next two weeks, for settling into his work and finding a way to schedule things so he gets compensated fully for his time, and for his stress in general. Good sleep is a big part of this for him, as many of you know.

Eventually when we come home from our celebrations in LA for his graduation we want to explore Oakland and San Francisco for the few weeks we will have before baby comes. There are some shops and a few places in the city that we would like to see... there is so much of this area that we need to explore, really. We will have to post more as we find fun new things! And then have you each down and show you them in person.

Well, here's to life in Oakland!

pregnancy

I took a video of my belly tonight. The baby was doing some crazy things in there. I thought I would send it to Donovan so he could see it. Since our internet is very slow here it is not yet sent to him, but I hope by the morning it's finished going through. It kinds looks like an alien lives in there. Or it's some kind of weird joke I'm playing on the camera, although I don't really know how I would make that happen. There's a rolling look across my belly a few times. And then there's a crazy shake. I'm glad I finally caught it all on tape, it will be nice to look back on it. And no, I'm not posting it for the world to see. It's a little too weird to show my bare belly to all on the internet, and I'd like to keep this blog public so it isn't a hassle to view it. You'll have to use your imagination. Or come see me :)