today is the day that i gave birth to dahlia. as you can see i look pretty much the same as i did last time. i feel like i am carrying him slightly different but you cant really tell in the picture. i was getting really antsy for him to come this past week, but after talking to the doctor on friday, i am a little more at peace. she was very encouraging. she also said that premature boys dont do as well as girls, so he is better off staying in there a little longer. so when i heard that i decided to not try to rush him and be content with waiting a couple more weeks. and since my last birth went so fast and smooth i shouldnt be too concerned with this one. unless he is past the 40 week mark... dont worry we arent going to let that happen... we will take matters into our own hands by that point!! (=

i had a few contractions the other night, nothing painful or anything. i think he thinks he is in a pin ball machine.... he is bouncing off the walls non stop!!! it is fun to watch but pretty uncomfortable!

I made an oath a couple months ago.... to never go to great clips ever again. well specifically the one by my house. it is literally one block away. But the thing is that i am so cheap that spending 25 or 30 dollars on a good hair cut seems nuts to me, even if i am much happier with it than the cheap salons. So i am always going back and forth.

so today i am desperate for a quick fix and what do i get in the mail..... a coupon for great clips for a 6.99 hair cut. now honestly their haircuts arent worth a penny more so i certainly wouldnt have gone there this time if it werent for that coupon. so i brace myself and prepare for the worst. i walk in and there are 3 ladies working... two of them are asians and i recognize one of them as being the one who butchered me last time and could not understand one word of english. so i will let you guess who called my name.... yep the lady who doesnt speak english. ok now first of all, how can you be a stylist if you cant understand what people are saying? it really is mind boggling that she has that job. and of course i have nothing against foreigners at all! but when i am paying for something i expect to be able to communicate with them. anyways, so my mind is going crazy thinking that i should let someone else go ahead of me and take the next stylist, but then i didnt want to look snobby or something and hurt her feelings.... but then again it is my hair and if i am not going to leave happy then i am just going to leave now..... or maybe i will just explain it really well to her and everything will be fine.....

so i start to tell her what i want and she looked at me funny, kinda confused and stuttered... then she looked at the stylist next to her and she briefly explained what i was saying... but not very well either. so i kept gesturing how i wanted it to look hoping that was a language she understood, and she seemed to understand. but when she started cutting i could tell it wasnt going to look like i wanted. but i thought ya know, i have had so many hair cuts that have been terrible that one more wont kill me, i really just want it off my neck anyways, so whatever... but then i got annoyed at myself thinking, why would i even let her cut my hair at all... that is silly. i should have waited for someone who was more experienced. furthermore i should have just paid the extra money and gone somewhere nice.

why do i keep doing this to myself???? i know it is just hair, but it seems a little insane to keep going back if i am always unhappy! the definition of insanity is "doing something over and over again expecting different results"

Yikes I am 35 weeks! i feel like I am 40 weeks pregnant, but i am sure I wouldn't be saying that if I knew what 40 weeks felt like. I am just very uncomfortable and itchy! my belly itches so much! especially around my belly button! Ok so i know that this next thing that I am going to say is going to make you crazy....... I got a stretch mark )= I managed to make it all the way through my last pregnancy without any, but this time I am stretching further i guess and my skin just can't take it. I know that most women get them, but i was just hoping i could be one of the few chosen ones (= but seriously no one besides my husband will ever see them, so it really doesn't matter at all. It is in my belly button so i am interested to see how that will look once my belly isnt stretched so much.

This is our latest name we have thought of..... Valin Jude.... any thoughts? do you think that the meaning of a name is really important? i mean of course if something meant death, i wouldnt want my child to be named that, but how important is the meaning when picking out a name to you? if you have any thoughts i would like to know. (=

By the way Valin means "monkey king" (= if you spell it Valen it means "strong" ....justin was pretty excited about the monkey king thing (=

Dahlia isn't feeling very good today, but has been really sweet still. mostly wanting to snuggle with me and read in the recliner. so about 1:00 today she brought me some books and we were reading... after reading the same book about 6 times, i decided to turn the pages for her. the next thing i knew she was snoring!!! it was so precious!!! she has never done that, i have only hoped she would! well she has but only after a bottle. so i thought, as nice as this would be to snuggle for an hour in the recliner, i really should try to lay her down. (ya right) so i take her in her room and she flips out!! for about 30 minutes. so i finally go get her. if she doesnt go to sleep within 30 minutes she isnt going to. so anyways a few hours later we were in the recliner again, this time i was singing to her..... and rocking... she started snoring again! i couldnt believe it. so i thought, i need a nap too.... so we just stayed there for about 45 minutes. it was wonderful! except for the fact i was roasting!! did i mention she woke up at 7 am today... which is not normal... so that is probably why she was so tired.

this last weekend my best friend Shekinah (who is pregnant also! ) and i went on a retreat with the ladies from her church. i was hoping to get away for a weekend before giving birth and this happened to be at just the right time. the retreat was out in the woods past silverton oregon. it was so pretty and i wanted to get some cool pictures of me out in the trees and stuff but it was soooo cold when we were leaving that we decided to take only a few really quick ones. so bummed though, there was some amazing spots that would have been nice to have pictures of. anyways, the retreat was so refreshing. i was able to sit through a worship service and not worry about my nursery number popping up on the screen. it was a great uninterupted time and i am so glad i was able to go!