Promises Promises~!
Nope, no baby yet. In fact, the contractions stopped for at least 12 hours yesterday/last night, and they are slow today. Hard, but far apart. A far cry from the 5 minute contractions I had last week, and the hopes of this baby coming real soon are diminishing (at least for me, because I had gotten my hopes up so much that she’d be here last week!) I’m so anxious to hold this baby (and to be able to move again!! ha ha ha). Why oh why can’t delivering a baby be more precise? Why couldn’t we just have a more accurate date that the baby will come. Oh the waiting is the hard part!! I thought for sure with all the early contractions she’d be here. I was hoping she’d come today. Still am.
So, I’m home from church yet again, I can’t sit comfortably in service at all, so I just stay home and listen to the podcast. Sam and Vienna are at church without me. It’s very hot here… not quite noon and it’s already over 81 degrees (that’s 27.5 for my European friends). Thankfully we were able to purchase a window a/c unit when I was expecting Vienna, so I have that cranked and am quite comfortable at the moment, but if I go outside I’m sure I’ll melt!!
Hummm… this isn’t feeling as funny and light hearted as I had hoped. I guess I’m a little more down than I thought I was. I can’t find anything I want to cook for lunch/dinner. We have a ton of food, don’t get me wrong, its just trying to figure out what to make…. nothing sounds right, or if it does I’m missing this or that to put in it… humm… well, we’ll see what I come up with… there’s always burgers and fries :)
Anyway, just waiting for my baby to decide she’s ready to come out and play ;) Have a good day all 
HAPPY FATHER’S DAY—Baby Moon
Glorious Glorious Glorious!! What a wonderful Father’s Day and “Baby-moon” weekend for Sam and me. Just what we needed to prepare for the new baby’s arrival! Sam and I both have been so tired as of late. Sam’s been working overtime (many nights until midnight) working in a bunch of new projects, and I’m just worn out from they typical pregnancy issues that you have when you also have a nearly 2-year old :)
Saturday morning at 9a.m. my parents and my brother & his wife Joan (and We had a lovely family visit!
After the family left,
The hour and a half drive to the beach stretched to 2 hours for a detour, we got BURNED! It was so nice!
We stayed at a new little place called the Inn At Arch Rock(more expensive than we usually stay at, but oh it was worth it!) 
(here’s a photo of the Inn across the way at the restaurant we ate lunch at. Our room is the one clear to the left next to the gray house.)
Checked in at 3pm, went into town for early dinner, and I started napping/sleeping at 6pm!! Slept in until 8a.m. Apparently our room had brand new matrices and boy were they comfortable!! In the morning Sam was still sleeping I went and sat in the hotel yard (at the edge of a cliff overlooking the ocean) and had some quiet time. It was sooooo beautiful!
(This is the view looking back towards shore from our room, the white chair their out on the clif is where I sat in the monring, and behind that and to the right is the restaurant we had lunch at–Tidal Raves! soooo yummy!)
The wind was very low if present at all (unusual for the Oregon Coast) The whole hour I sat there reading, looking, listening and taking photo’s of course, the birds were calling back and forth to each other. Just glorious! Sam got up at 9a.m. when I went back to the room and we had a yummy continental breakfast sitting in the window, overlooking the bluff talking about family. We sure miss you guys over there in Ukraine and back there in Ohio! Why can’t the Concord carry us back and forth in an inexpensive manner!?!?!? :) After breakfast we pulled the other chair up and Sam and I sat there and just basked in the sun on the edge of the cliff for a while. As we were leaving we helped another couple take photo’s there in the yard and found out they were from just up the road in Aurora! that was fun. They were such a nice couple, they took photo’s for us too (and she was a good photographer too!! which is always nice!)
After our photo op, we were off to the Devils Punch Bowl, The Look Out at Cape Foul Weather and then back to Tidal Raves for lunch. We will go back to Tidal Raves again!!! Oh man, they have this YUMMY appetizer called Seahawk Bread… let me tell you, it’s a little bit of heaven on a baguette! It’s not cheap, but its soo worth it! It’s a toasted sourdough baguette with cream cheese, Havarti cheese, just the right amount of smoked salmon and baby shrimp!! It was so good I thought I was going to go into labor! ha ha… We couldn’t decide what we wanted, so we ordered two things we both thought sounded good and shared :) I love to share :) We had this Thai BBQ’d Shrimp and the Special of the day which was this pasta and Muscles in roasted red pepper cream sause… neither of us had had muscles before… we decided that we like them and the dishes were both soooo delicious! (Yes, I do love my food!) Just the most lovely view in this restaurant too from every table, so it was a very nice Father’s Day Lunch (only sad thing is Vienna wasn’t with us, but she was having a grand time with Mimi & Poppie… humm…. wonder how late they slept in today!! ha ha ha)
Lunch finished we went back into Taft and saw some family friends at their antique store then took a walk along the beach there at Mo’s in Taft. It was sooo beautiful, but the wind was flowing through there and it got rather chilli on your hands and face! There were tons of people there, and tons of crab pots out in the water. Across the waterway to the bay there were a bunch of seals (if you’ve been there you know that it’s not that far of a distance across the water there). It was amazing to see them out there sunning themselves so close to people, and I think Sam’s first time to see them on the Oregon Coast like that.
(There are two groups of seals sunning out there, and a flock of seagulls, later they were all joined by a flock of pelicans!! there must have been some good fishing right out there in the water! Right by that boat just up the sand there’s a group of people there, so they are pretty close to the animals).
After our walk we headed home… the drive home was just as beautiful, we felt so rested and so relaxed. It was so so nice to just be together without any other distractions and just enjoy life! It had been some time it felt since we’d been able to just be Sam & Melissa again :) We are so grateful that my parents live close and were willing to take Vienna for the weekend (and that we didn’t go into labor! This week has been full of some VERY hard contractions and got us a little worried for a while there!) In ten days we are “full term” and we are due in just 31 days! So in ten days time (when her lungs are fully developed and she’s ready) I hope she’ll come!! :) We are so ready to meet this little one (and I’m looking forward to being able to move again! ha ha ha).
We got back to pick up Vienna, boy did she have fun! You could tell by how trashed my parents house looked (they usually keep a pretty tidy ship!) and the tired looks on my parents faces! ha ha ha… She sure does keep you on your toes! Dad was trying to help her golf, she would ask for help, then want to do it herself ha ha.. a bit frustrating, but dad did well. We hung out for an hour to make an easier transition and then came home, read books and put her to bed and watched some t.v. The perfect end to a perfect Baby-Moon
Today it’s back to reality. Thankfully my house is clean except for the bedrooms, so if I do anything today it will be to work on our bedroom or the girls room. But I feel so rested I feel like I can tackle some of it and not be completely trashed afterwards, so thank you Mimi & Poppie and thank you Lord for giving us the resources to take this mini-vacation!!!
I hope you all had wonderful Father’s Day’s and celebrated the greatness that is a good dad!! (Sam’s one of the best, I just love him so much!!)
Golf Again, Mommy!
Yesterday Vienna (and Poppie as well) got a special treat! Poppie was golfing with Uncle Craig in a tournament and Vienna and I were at my parents house when they reached the Tee in front of their house! Poppie came and got Vienna and took her back to the tee since they had a long wait for the group in front of them to play through. So, Poppie took Vienna up to the tee and was teaching her how to swing! :) She had soooo much fun! She got to see Uncle Craig and Poppie both tee off and be on the golf course with them, and ride in a golf cart.
Eventually Poppie had to play on so they drove her back over to the house and I took her inside to get dressed (we raced over there in jammies so we could be at the house when the boys played by). For the rest of the day (until Poppie came home) she was asking “golf again!” “Poppie golfing, Vienna golf” “Uncle Craig golf, Vienna golf” “Again, mommy” :)
When Poppie got home he got out “Vienna’s clubs” and he took her in the back yard to practice, but they are still a little big for her… so he found an old club of his and customized one for her! It was hysterical!! this tiny shaft on a HUGE headed club!! But it helped her to be able to swing better. She’s still working it all out, but she sure enjoyed it (and the attention!!!)
PERFECT TEN!!
I’m so proud of my baby today :) For the first time she counted to ten, all by herself, without any prompting!!
My mom was over and they were looking at a tape measure and she just spouted them off! Not bad for a 22 month old. I know many kids do that at this time, but when it’s your baby it’s just different! :) So proud of her, so amazed at how much she can say and do and how articulate she already is. It just happens so fast. You don’t believe it when people tell you that… you know, all that advice and stuff you get the first few weeks of their lives… but that one is true, truer than I had realized it would be. We’re potty training, and have become quite independent (she no longer wants to be helped when she eats!!!)
The most fun thing right now is seeing her get excited about the baby! She will come sit on the couch with me, pull up my shirt and hug and kiss my tummy! Though much of the time she will jump on my belly, so it can be quite painful! But sooo worth it :) She lately has been asking me to take the baby “off” (She gets out and off confused a lot). But I keep telling her that God’s not finished cooking her (cooking she understands, making… not so much) :) She totally understands there is a baby in there (we have watched A Baby Story a lot to get her used to the idea that there is a baby and the baby will come home with us some day) (we do skip the labor part, just the pre-labor and post birth) But we spend much of our time now swaddling our baby doll and stuffies! (I’m running out of burp cloths and kitchen towels!!!!!) It will be so interesting to see how she does with the new baby when she comes. Vienna is so very good when we are holding baby’s and stuff, but I know it will be a whole new ball game when the baby is here to stay! I’m so anxious and ready for this baby to come (but strangely freaked about going through labor again!!! ha ha ha) Soon and very soon! (Only about 5 weeks left! Maybe less )
Growing Up Fast
How fast has my baby grown up!?!?! Wow, today we tried on our Good Will costume that I found for her the other day. Vienna LOVED IT! She didn’t want me to take it off of her, Daddin had to change her into her jammies and I had to give her french fries! ha ha ha… 
Here are “Imagine the Prince” and “The Flying Princess”
