Here's a short one.

Sunday was awesome. It started with Eleanor, sneaking to my bedside like she does every morning, and then saying, "I love you." like she's never done. It was so wonderful. I floated on that moment for most of the day. Then the Saints won the Superbowl. Life is awesome. (:

long overdue. (not me, this post)

Hey everybody. Just wanted to give a short update, complete with pictures. We're settling into our house rather comfortably. The closer we get it to how we want it the more I just simply love it. We still have a lot of unpacking and purging to do, but we're starting to get somewhere. I'm going to feel like a different person I think when we get the nursery cleared of moving boxes. I actually fantasize about that day.. *sigh* I've been feeling pretty good, though I'm already starting to feel cramped inside myself. I'm about 25 weeks along, and it just seems so soon to feel so big. We're naming her Lillian Margaret Miller, and she is a little athlete in here. Always moving, busy busy busy. So here is my pregnant self:

And pictures of our living room, dining room, and kitchen, which are in an 'L' shape, complete with Nathan at the computer:




(Isn't this table awesome??? It's new! It has 4 whole chairs that don't roll everywhere of their own accord!)

And of course, pictures of my beautiful ham of a child, complete with Nathan at story time:




And just for fun, pictures of Eleanor about a year ago if she were a Keebler Elf.. lush? Anyway, they're really cute:

Joey didn't read my last post.

Welp, despite my best efforts, December strikes again. Joey David, someone whom I love very much and is indistinguishable from family to me, died last night or this morning from unknown causes. I think he had some drug problems in the past, but as far as I know there was nothing indicating drugs as a direct cause of death. He was around 21 years old and living in an apartment with his mother. His mother is a nurse, and when she came home this morning from a long night shift he was dead and cold in a chair. They are performing an autopsy, so maybe we'll get some answers, but will we really care?

He apparently had expressed a wish to be cremated and his ashes spread at the family fishing camp in Hackberry. Generally, I prefer open caskets, but in this case it's comforting to know that he valued his time in the company of his family so much that that's where he wanted to be laid to rest.

He was the sweetest little boy you would ever know, once upon a time. Then in adolescence he developed an all too familiar habit of making bad choices. He never got a chance to outgrow, and gain distance from, that phase in his life and fully become the wonderful young man we were promised in his boyhood. But he was beginning to.

The Davids have had a horrible year, and I hope this is the last of it. My father's generation has lost their step-mother, their father, a brother, and now a son. All in less than a year. While the David's and my father's family are not family by blood, we are all family by choice, and frankly we're tired of losing them.

Joey always held a special place in my heart. I can't exactly pin down why. Maybe it was even just because I could tell that he thought I was something special too. Damn it, I miss him.

Belated obligatory December post

So, have you been driving safely and taking your vitamins? It's December again and has been for some time, so congratulations for making it this far through without kicking the bucket, but we're not done yet! This is a public service reminder that December is typically the deadliest month of the year for most people, and for us Murrays, the ONLY month worth dying in. So look both ways and keep an eye on your very old and very young!

(I know I'm supposed to be posting pictures of the house and my baby belly, and probably a few of Eleanor and what not, but not right now, I don't have time!! Maybe just after Christmas, then I can try to include some of those pictures too. Someday I won't be lame, I promise!)

I want to wedge more time in my life with a mallet.

Sorry about the lack of pictures and updates and things. I have great plans for them. Actually, I'm secretly waiting until I'm 17 weeks along to do pictures, because I want to do a comparative analysis between this pregnancy and last pregnancy, since that's when I posted my first baby belly pics for the last one. But I'm not telling you when that is just in case I fail, and then I can still fudge it, maybe.

If I did manage to fit more time in, I would totally plan on using it for sleep, or cleaning, but then end up just staring at a wall. That's what happens to the time I do have. I get home from work with Eleanor at about 5:00 to 5:30ish, Eleanor goes to bed at about 8:30, and then Nathan comes home at 10:00 to 10:30ish. By the time Nathan is home I'm ready to pass out, but that window before he does and after Ellie is in bed is the only time I have to unwind, so I don't really want to clean. Then weekends are the only time we have together, so we don't want to clean, but we really should. That and we take weekend mornings in shifts. Eleanor wakes up at around 6:45, and hangs out in our bed for an undetermined period not to exceed 30 minutes (her rule, not ours). Then Nathan gets up and lets me sleep (the dear man), and then when I'm done, I get up and let him take a nap. So by the time the house is awake all at the same time, it's lunch time, we have 4 responsible things planned, and maybe a fun thing, and we usually do the fun thing, and have time for half a responsible thing. Either that or we do one whole responsible thing. And then decide the rest will wait until next weekend. Which is why when the baby comes it will just have to sleep in one of the boxes in the room we currently use for storage.

Nathan's home, so I'm going to go eat the food he brought, tell him how much I love him, take a shower (I don't like doing that alone at night), and then complain that I'm getting in bed too late again. Sometimes I try to blame him for that, since I want to see him and this is about the only time we have, but in general, it's my own fault.

Finally!

Nathan, Eleanor and I have lived in our house for about I week now.. I think. Anyway we FINALLY have internet access. I'm loving my house and will send pictures when it's tidier. So maybe next year. d: I'm tired and catching up on a LOT of email, so I will have more to say later.

Happy Birthday Eleanor. (:

So.. I kind of owe you an apology. We closed on our house yesterday. (: We love our new house and can't wait to paint it and move in!!

Today was Eleanor's 2nd birthday, so we had the pleasure of throwing her a big ol' party at OUR HOUSE. That was nice. She had a great time. She got cranky a couple of times, but moments later she was always running gleefully around with her cousins or doing something terribly fun. She got fat lootz. She actually blew out one of her own candles. Her uncle Zack said, "She's cool. Other two year olds aren't like that." I was so proud. Here's some birthday funtime pics.






But, really I have to tell you the present that really was the show stopper. Nathan and I didn't have time to wrap it, but we wanted it to be a surprise for everyone, so we just hid it in the laundry room. It was very exciting. Wanna see?