from venice

Heyo! We're in Florida. This was our first wedding-less weekend since August, and Southwest had a deal so we flew down on the cheap. 

I highly recommend talking your parents into moving somewhere with a beach. Between that and my mom's dishwasher and in-home laundry machines, it's going to be a teensy bit hard going back to Chicago.

This is me with my mom. She's a full time nurse and a part time professor and a part time student finishing up her Master's degree. She also clears her whole schedule when her kids come home to visit. She's completely awesome.

Add in Dad. He can't keep any secrets ever and really loves to make jokes. I was afraid that he might make a joke about my big pregnant belly when he picked us up at the airport and I was also afraid I might be hungry after getting off the plane where they only feed people peanuts on four hour long flights and I was afraid I might kill him if those two potential circumstances came to pass, so I warned him ahead of time to zip it and provide me food lest I become hangry (= hungry + angry), and he did both very well. So he's awesome too. 

What a hunk. Tim has been working so hard since March. Much harder than me, that's for sure, because he carried my work load when I was busy being sick for five months (which is over now, thank God!). He's had so many weeks packed with shoots (read: weeks with little time to catch up on editing) that have necessitated more than a few all-nighters lately. We've been looking forward to this trip as the light at the end of the tunnel of wedding season and it makes me very glad to see him with his relaxed vacation face on. I love that face.

Our work is our bread and butter, and it's damn good work to have. We are blessed and thankful and so happy. We wake up in love every day and relish spending all of our minutes together, toiling our little business, lifting each other to high places and carrying each other through the low spots. I'm still in awe of the goodness of God because none of these things that I have in my life is fair or deserved. I just found it, like a pearl in a field. I gave up everything I had for it, and got back so much more than I surrendered.

Here's the 31 week belly, you guys. I'm ready for it to stop growing, but we have a ways to go. New Tab's been rolling around like crazy and I'm trying so hard to get to know this baby inside me. Is that a foot or an elbow? A hick-up or a kick? Am I carrying a boy or a girl?
Some of my mom's friends threw me a shower this week. They gave me some precious books and yellow ducky baby sized towels and obscure advice from the other side, like "drink in every minute!", "you'll have all you need when you need it", "your birth will be your birth",  and "just take it one day at a time". But I also got some literal pointers too, like "order your diapers off amazon", "expect to wear your maternity clothes for a few months after the birth", and "don't compare yourself to anyone else". I'm very grateful for those ladies and this vacation. It's nice to feel rested and surrounded at a time like this.