For those of you keeping score

My Google gadget counting down to the due date crossed into single digits today.   -J

*gulp

More Nursery Pics

Sorry, I left two photos out on that last post...

Fantastic Commercial

I just saw this on TV and was so glad to find it on YouTube so I could share it with everyone. Beth and I have been laughing hysterically at it for the past 10 minutes. It's totally Keller...

Nursery Pics

I took some photos of the nursery today now that it's more or less put together.  -J

37 weeks

Well -- here I am at 37 weeks:

A lot of people have been asking me how I'm feeling so I thought I'd address it here: I am not feeling well and am ready for Keller to come. :) No, I'm sure I'm doing a lot better than a lot of preggos at this point, but wow. Everything hurts. My last doctor appointment was this past Friday. I am not progressing at all -- Keller is not ready to come any time soon apparently. Also, he's measuring a little small. I am completely fine with this as I'm sure he'll be packing on the weight in the next week or two.

I'm on maternity leave now and really concentrating on getting things done around the house in preparation for his arrival. It's weird to not be working for the first time in 6 years. Times...they are a changin'....

~Beth

Last Baby Shower

My last shower was this past Saturday. It was thrown by good friends of mine and my mom's: Maureen, Lorrie Ann and Cathy. The group was mostly the "older" women in my life who I've either known for years or who have prayed for me for years. Most of these women prayed for me throughout my sickness and throughout our time trying to conceive. It was such a special time and so much fun!

The food of course was amazing (Lorrie Ann is a chef) and the view was beautiful. Maureen's house sits on a lake and all 21 of us were able to site on her back patio to enjoy brunch. Here are some pictures:

What made the day even more special is that one of my mom's best friends and a woman who is like a mother to me flew in all the way from Oregon to surprise me and come to the shower! It was so wonderful to have her there and it was such a surprise! This is a picture of her, my mom and me:

Here I am with the three hostesses (Cathy, Lorrie Ann, Maureen):

Some more pictures:

New Ultrasound Pics

So we had another ultrasound today (actually, it was mostly Beth getting the ultrasound) just to make sure that everything is still going well with his development. I was very pleased to find that the hospital had heeded my advice on the temperature of the Fetal Development wing. It was much more manageable this time around.

We were of the mindset that we'd be able to see Keller in much more detail with this one, since he's had 3 more months to develop since the last. But unfortunately, the opposite was true. Because he so stuffed in there now, it was hard for the technician to get an "overall" shot of him. Here are some pictures...

I know. I know what you're thinking. "Justin, take away the medical details and it just looks like a typical Florida thunderstorm rolling over the horizon at sunset." And you'd be wrong. If it were a Florida thunderstorm, there would be some idiot redneck in the foreground driving his truck at a reckless speed with his dog in the bed trying to outrun the rain so he can get home in time to set out the kiddy pool.

But neither here nor there... it is actually our baby boy's face. I know this because the technician was kind enough to type F-A-C-E at the bottom of the screen.

And here we have a 3D image very reminiscent of a painting I did back at Taylor using coffee and Qtips. But if you look closely, you can see where the tech put "Foot" and "Leg". Good glory, is this what it's gonna be like when Keller brings home a painting after school and asks us to tell him what it is and we look at each other and say "Oh, buddy that's a great picture of our family camping!"  And he says "Are you crazy, we can't camp in Florida. We'd never make it through the night with the snakes, scopions, spidos, citwus wats, and galigators." And I'd say, "You know son, you're right. Daddy promises never to take you camping in Florida if it scares you that much. By the way, you forgot the cockroaches the size of footballs."

Where was... oh yeah. If you look closely past his leg and foot, you can see a teeny bit of his profile. And you did just read that right. He has managed to put his left foot all the way back over his head, blocking our view of his face. And honestly, I don't know if it's his left foot. For all I know it could have been Beth's finger getting under the ultrasound monitor. This is where we take the professional's word on faith.

In all seriousness though, the doctor came in and said that everything looks as good as it possibly could. So we are incredibly happy about that as you may imagine. He's 5lbs 13oz. currently, so just a few more to go, and then it's off to the races!

P.S. I kind of left everyone hanging with what the picture actually was that Keller brought home from school. He politely informs us that it is his kitty taking a bath at the Shiny Toy Guns concert.

Seriously. I wouldn't make that up. He's totally stickin' to it.

Babymoon and Update

We were so fortunate to take a "babymoon" this past weekend. We kept our cell phones off, left the computer at home and spent two nights at the JW Marriott in Orlando. I highly recommend it. We had such a nice time. The room was great and the pool was awesome. They had a lazy river that was so nice to just float my pregnant body around and around. :) The weather was beautiful - much more like July than May but we had the water to cool us off. Here are a few pics:

I love Justin in his robe :)

I'm at 36 weeks this week. Not feeling too bad - just the usual I guess. This is my last week of work before I begin maternity leave. It's a very surreal experience. Actually, the whole pregnancy has been surreal! I'm looking forward to taking some time and getting things done around the house. I move so slowly now that it's amazing how long it takes me to do things!

On Monday I'll be full term so we'll see how long the little guy takes to get here. We took family bets and the official due date guesses are:

Beth - May 29th
Justin - June 6th

Keller Family:
Mom - June 2nd
Dad - May 30th
Chris - June 4th
Ali - June 8th
Zoe - June 13th

Johnson Family:
Mom - June 2nd
Dad - June 3rd
Brandon - June 11th
Rachel - June 8th (she specified the morning)
Ryan - May 30th

Note the similarities between the Grandmas and sister-in-laws. Also, note that my dad and Ryan had the same guess. They were the only two in the family who thought it would be a boy. :)

~Beth

Communication within the Johnson Family

So after I just posted, I viewed our blog and realized Justin wrote something this morning. We need to work on our communication apparently.

Bear with us

I just learned this morning via Heidi (http://www.dekorne.blogspot.com/) that it really annoys Ryan Peterson when he clicks on a blog and sees the same old thing. The last person in the world I would want to annoy is Ryan so I thought I'd jump on and say that we've got a lot of stuff up in the air right now and we're waiting for some things to land before we share it with the "world" (otherwise known as the 40 of you that visit this blog). That and I'm four weeks from my due date so back off. :)

Justin and are fortunate enough to be able to get away this weekend - in town of course but at a hotel - and we're pumped about the quality time we'll be able to spend together before the kid comes. Photos will be coming....

Deep Thoughts @ 1:35am

•   I would take a stork dropping Keller off in a nice clean white sheet compared to what I saw on the Discovery Channel any day of the week and twice on Sunday.
•   If he is born on 06/07/08, where do we claim our cash prize for achieving that?
•   What is a "meconium cannon" and why does it not sound all that fun?
•   Either way you slice it, the kid's gonna have crazy thick hair... and for that I am sorry. 
•   Are child labor laws enforced for being on camera when it's your own child? He's already slated to be in 3 short films by August.
•   Wasn't my baby-countdown widget at 167 days last week? Why is it saying 32 now? Oh dear Lord....
•   Will Keller know a world pre or post the G3 iPhone which also comes out the second week of June?  *Sorry for using the phrase "also comes out" so literally.
•   I swear if this cat throws up on our carpet one more time...
•   How in the good name of God is the Florida summer heat going to not toast him into a Keller-tot the minute we walk him out of the hospital?
•   He better learn to work a standard size keyboard with a quickness. None of this "I can't help log those clips dad because I can't hold ctl+alt+shift+4 yet" nonsense.
•   Is the tiredness I feel right now really going pale in comparison to that which Beth will feel four weeks from now as she single handedly feeds, burps, rocks, and changes diapers all through the night - every night?
•   Am I off my rocker? Yes.