9...

Hello! :)

RANDAL IS COMING HOME IN *NINE* DAYS!!! Nine! That's like... barely over a week. A quite tolerable amount, comparatively. Randal comes home at 10:11am (not that I'm counting minutes or anything) on Wednesday the 5th for an unknown amount of time (5-12 days) and Ray & Linda will be here the evening of the 6th. Then I'll have a nice and full house. :) (Especially if I've had the baby!)

Speaking of which- I'm aiming at the 5th. That is the soonest Randal will be here, making it the soonest I want to have the baby, so the 5th it is! I'm going to pick him up, then start taking some herbs and stuff my midwife reccomended. They even said (depending on how favorable my body looks) they could break my water to see if that helps. Of course, if I don't go into labor and my waterbag is no longer intact, that means it's off to the hospital for Pitocin (HHISSSSSSSSS) and whatever follows. I'm not even sure how to articulate how much I would LOATHE being in labor in a stinky ol' hospital with that stupid butt-flap gown on with needles all up in my business. NO THANK YOU. I know, I know... all you mommies did it- but I am not all you mommies, and it IS that bad for me.

The pictures are ones Randal recently sent me from his trip...1) a beach in Costa Rica, 2) a beer-chugging monkey rescued from a bar (poor little dude! He only chugs water now, though) 3) Randal (see arrow) on a drug boat with the boarding team... somwhere, 4) a really cool cloud wall, and finally, 5) Randal (on the right- and as a sidenote, look at those buff forearms! Ahh... they'll be around me soon enough :) with his friend and part of 1500lbs. of pure cocaine. DAMN. I bet there are some druggies out there who are *pretty* unhappy about that one. Oh well.

Tobin is sleeping at the moment, and doing well overall. We had SO much fun at Grandma's on Saturday. I think everyone did. It was SO great to have all the kids -and ALL of them got presents- there was a bit of chaos, but how can there not be with 7 kids, mostly around 2 & 3 years old? I was riiiiiiight at home, though pretty hot. It's been in the mid-90s for days, now. I WANT MY AUTUMN WEATHER! Stinkin' California... being sunny all the time... better than FREEZING Maryland! I had on nine layers of clothing when I was there and it was STILL cold. I was told that was unusually cold even for them when I was there, but I think they were just trying to ensure that I would come back and bring the kids :)