For all those followers out there...

this is for you. Not really a whole lot going on here on the baby front. He seems to be resting up from his big triple pow on Monday. It takes a lot of energy to flutter like that. We have our next appointment this coming Wednesday, so we should have a bunch of news and pictures from that, so don't change the channel.

So, I know that a lot of people like to keep the names a secret until the big reveal, but we're not very secretive people. Jared and I have settled on a boy's name and a girl's name, so we should be set either way. So, with the roll of the drum...

Israel Emil

or

Ryann Serena

And no, there really aren't any backgrounds on the names, except Serena. I'm named after my great-grandma, and her daughter is my grandma, Serena. So, there you go. The circle of life. On a side note - did you know that when I was a kid I always wanted to be named after someone? It seemed so cool. It didn't hit me until I was about 12 that I am named after someone. Wow. Blonde moment. Or childhood.

Our fridge died again. Luckily I think we were able to save most everything. However, today for lunch, Jared discovered that our jams were not very good anymore. We had four delicious jars of local jam; peach, raspberry, blackberry, and blueberry. But they smelled a bit like wine jelly. A bit too sharp for their own good. How very sad. Guess we'll have to toss those. I think Jared is in mourning. He is a jammy boy.

Last night we had a friend from Eugene, OR stay over. It was really great to see her, but I hope she was very asleep last night. First of all you must know that Jared and I let the cats out onto the roof most of the time. When it's nice out, which it was last night, we just leave the window open all night. In the middle of the night, I woke up to cats yowling outside our window, cat fight. I woke up and in my bleary state decided that one of our cats must have fallen off the roof and was now terrorizing the neighborhood. Actually, it's more likely that they would be the terrorizee than the terrorizer. So I jumped out of bed, smashed on my glasses and ran out into the living room. Our guest, meanwhile is sleeping in the middle of the living room on our little crib mattress. So I whisper/yell in her direction, 'I don't have any pants on!' and proceed in search of the cats. Molly jumps right in the window, but her tail is enormous, which only strengthens my fear that it was Noreen getting bullied outside. So I run and get a sweater, and yes, I put on pants, and run down the stairs to get Noreen. Outside, there is no sign of a cat, though there is an abundance of orange hair scattered around our steps. After I've been wandering around for a while calling Noreen and worrying the neighbors, I go back in to see if I missed him there. Of course, when I shake the food, he jumps in the window. I think the scaredy-cat hid under the eaves when the fight broke out and wouldn't budge except for food. I closed the window and went to bed. But the cats aren't used to Jared and I having our door pulled shut, and it apparently disturbed them greatly. I next awoke to desperate clawing at the door. I think Noreen wanted in, but then realized that our guest was right behind him. Instead of giving up on the door and finding sanctuary elsewhere, it simply instilled in him a sense of urgency and desperation that required me to once again leap out of bed and appease him. None of this did Jared hear. I hope the baby takes after his daddy.