Things that scare me:

Topping the list right now (other than GIVING BIRTH) is this lovely little map right here:



All of my hopes and dreams for having a baby this week or next weekend have been rapidly pushed aside by the Category 3 hurricane that may be headed our way. Holy smokes. While I have only been aware of this storm for about 20 minutes now, I have already visualized the following sequences of events.
-laboring as the walls of our beautiful, brand-new hospital cave in around us
-giving birth on the highway, assisted by random strangers who may or may not have medical knowledge
-bringing BabyGirl home to a wrecked house
etc., etc.
So let's start praying here people!

Nursery Sneak Peek!

Here is a quick glimpse of what has quickly become one of my favorite rooms in the house. We have a few more small projects to do in there, but otherwise we are officially ready for the Baby Girl! Well, at least as far as the nursery goes...
I will be 37 weeks this weekend, which means that she is officially "cooked," though I would love for her to stay put for a few more weeks so she can put on a little more weight. Key word there is little.
Sullivan P. also loves the nursery. We've had to relocate some of the stuffed animals away from our giraffe dog's schnoz level. I think our Baby Girl is in for a lifetime of slobbery toys.

A Brief Snippet

One thing that Thomas and I do exceptionally well as dog parents is to ensure that Sullivan gets lots of exercise. He gets two walks per day, plus some "run around in the backyard like a crazy man time with Dad" if he is feeling frisky. This probably means that baby girl will also go on lots of walks since a)we love to get out in the neighborhood and b)Sullivan is much better behaved when he gets his crazies out.
Here is a brief snippet of conversation from our morning walk the other day.

Ashley: (walking along peacefully, trying not to waddle or sweat to death): "Look, there's a lizard on that mailbox!"

Thomas:(wrestling the dog who is trying to eat goose poop and turning around to look): "Oh yeah! But better be careful..."

Ashley: (confused, as we have these little lizard guys all over the place and they seem sweet and harmless): " What? You think it's dangerous?"

Thomas: "Nope. But it might try and sell you car insurance."

And that, my friends, is a verbal snapshot of Team Grooms in action. We made sure to give the tiny reptile a wide berth because who wants to think about car insurance at 7:30 a.m.?

Pregnancy Update

I've seen these on a number of different blogs, so I thought I'd give it a shot. Sorry there is not an accompanying picture. You should know by this point that we rarely photograph anything other than Sullivan and scenery.

How Far Along: 34 Weeks

Size of baby: About 4 and 3/4 pounds; almost 18 inches long. This means that she is almost done growing length wise, and just needs to pack on a few more pounds (please, not more than a few) before birth!

Maternity Clothes: Oh yeah. I can get away with a lot of summery, flowy-type dresses, but otherwise it's pretty much all maternity.

Gender: Girl! Although I do have recurring visions of hearing "it's a boy!" when she is born...

Movement: Homegirl is super squirmy pretty much all the time. She is especially active in the morning and at night. She is head down and I can typically tell where her back/butt are and where her legs are. Pretty stinkin' cool.

Sleep: I am wearing a tread in the carpet between our bed and the bathroom, but other than that, sleep is pretty good.

Cravings: It depends on the day, but on the whole, I crave ice water, chocolate, potatoes and citrus.

Symptoms: Rapidly expanding belly, check. Teensy tiny bladder, check. Lots of Braxton Hicks contractions, check.

Milestone: I think we have decided on a name! We still have part of the baby name book to go through, but I am 90% sure that we are set on a name. And I love it! I had been wondering throughout the pregnancy if there would be a magical "AHA" moment when we stumbled across THE name, and I am happy to report that there was one. Mwhaha but I'm not telling what it is! Stay tuned.

Appointment update: I am having more contractions than is considered normal, so the doc checked me out last week. Everything is still closed up nice and tight, which is good. We want you to cook for at least three more weeks baby girl! This week is my last "every two weeks appointment" and from here on out, I will be logging a lot of doctor's office time.

Twice in one week

Shazzam! 2 blog posts in a month!
Okay, that's not really "shooting for the stars," but I'll take what I can get around here.
Anyone who has read this blog or spent .2 seconds talking to me in real life knows that I love my dog. Possibly to a ridiculous level. But there are definitely things--essential dog skills, maybe--that he is lacking, one of which concerns me today.
Yesterday I was home by myself, doing my thing, in the middle of the day. In fact, I was cleaning dishes in the kitchen like the Stay at Home Housewife that I am right now. Sullivan was lying by the front door, as per usual. We have a glass hurricane door (I think that is the proper terminology, although I'm not sure what good that wimpy door would do you in the midst of a hurricane) and he likes to gaze outside and keep apprised of the neighborhood happenings. Watching our across the street neighbors back their cars in and out of the driveway is of especial enjoyment to him. Anyways, I happen to look up from the kitchen and notice out the dining room windows that someone is walking away from the house. I get a little jumpy when I'm home alone--I'm not exactly built for self defense these days--so after my heart started beating again I realized that it was a)just the mail woman and b)she had left a package on the porch.
Wait a minute.
She dropped a package on the porch, three inches or so from Sullivan's big nose, and HE DIDN'T MAKE A SOUND?? What kind of worthless guard animal is this? He did make the effort of sitting up, but good grief dog?! How about some of that barking that you like to do at your food bowl or when we aren't johnny on the spot at the back door to let you in?
I will say this for Sullivan though, he is consistent. The exact same scenario happened today--only this time with a completely random, door to door windshield replacing salesman who scared the junk out of me when I looked up and saw him standing in the doorway, again inches from my ferocious beast of a dog.
All of you blog reader (s) will be glad to know that the wooden door is now securely shut and locked, and Sullivan is resting up on the couch from an exhausting few days of observing strangers coming up to our home.
Gone are my visions of being protected while at home with the baby, unless we can somehow figure out how to trick Sullivan into equating strangers with the strange things he actually does bark at...

Pop quiz!

Sad to say it, but I am a fairly worthless blog post. Forgive me, faithful blog reader (s). I think my mom and my husband read this, so there are at least two of you. :P
Now that school is out, I hope to be a more diligent poster. Plus, soon there will be a cute baby girl to post pictures of! eek preposition at the end of a sentence.

Let's see, what have the Grooms' been up to lately? Here is a multiple choice quiz.

1. In the month of May, which of the following exciting things happened to the Grooms'?
a. Thomas got a long overdue haircut and observed his 28 1/6 birthday. He also continued to be the best husband and dog daddy ever.
b. Sullivan was nominated by Ashley and Thomas as "most likely to be a cat in a dog suit."
c. Ashley finished the school year with a bang (and a surprise baby shower!) and began a new season of life, currently known as "I feel lazy right now but know that not working will make sense when the baby arrives."
d. Started working on the nursery and loaded up the baby girl's closet with gifts from two lovely baby showers.
e. Enjoyed hosting several of Ashley's college friends (yay for Audrey, Jess, Alli, Katie and Gavin!) on three different weekends.


Have your answer ready?









Congratulations, if you picked "all of the above" (which was tricksily not an answer choice), then you are correct!
Here is question #2, the final question. It's going to be harder.


Which of the following things happened to Thomas and Ashley in June?
a. We joined a hair band and began touring the country. Rock on, man.
b. We traveled to Colorado and enjoyed 10 days of blissful, child free traveling while trying to calmly envision how our lives will change. "HA!" says everyone who already has children.
c. We gave Sullivan away and bought 10 cats instead.
d. Thomas celebrated six years at Blackbaud.


Okay, how did you fare?








Yep, b and d it is! We would no sooner give away Sullivan than we would our baby girl, so option c is clearly out. Not to mention the cats.
And since it is only halfway through June, more excitement is to come. And more blog posts, methinks.
Stay tuned for a pregnancy update, pictures from Colorado and in process pictures of the nursery!

By the way, the picture is of Sullivan stalking our day lilies in the backyard.

Miscellany Monday

Okay, so I am attempting something new today...a link-up with another blog. Hurray for Miscellany Monday! Particularly since all of my posts tend to be miscellaneous anyways...perhaps this makes them more legitimate?

I'm going with a numbers theme today, enjoy!

1. The number of baby GIRLS currently residing in my belly (belly being the technical term of course). Sparkle Moonbeam, we can't wait to meet you in a few more months! Finding out this week if babyG was Sparkle Moonbeam or Abraham Lincoln Log and seeing her (her!) on the ultrasound was pretty stinking cool. We are so thankful that she is healthy. Not surprisingly for a Francis baby, one of her nicknames could be "baby bighead" since her head was measuring 1.5 weeks ahead. yowzers.


2. The number of disco balls Thomas parted with as we worked on cleaning out the future nursery and some of the attic this weekend. Dear Goodwill customers, please enjoy them as I rejoice over their departure.

3. The number of times I cried while cleaning out boxes and boxes of life memorabilia over the weekend. While it could have been over some awkward outfit choices and strange hairstyles, I think that my sentimental side was showing big time. Or maybe just the pregnancy hormones.

4. The number of times I went to the regional spelling bee in elementary and middle school. Also, it's the number of times I have used spell check since starting this blog post. Sad, isn't it?

5. The number of days off I have this week. Three cheers for spring break! Amusingly enough, we only have five weeks left of school when we return. Holy time warp Batman, where did this year go?

6. The number of cups of food Sullivan has eaten in the past twelve hours. He has very strange eating habits. I'm going to bring two poop bags on our walk later this morning...

7. The number of pears currently in our fruit basket. Thomas and I both love fruit, ensuring that our daughter will not be able to stand it.

8. The number of brushfuls of fur that I removed from Sullivan yesterday. I'm pretty sure he's the hairiest dog on the planet. My house is also evidence of this. Oy.

9. The number of things on my to-do list at home this week. You know you're an adult when you're super excited to clean out closets and organize bookcases.

10. The number of times baby girl has kicked as I've written this post. Feeling her (yay, no more "it!") move is definitely by favorite part of pregnancy so far. I know that these gentle movements will later become painful and uncomfortable, but hey, let's live in the moment.

11. The number of beavers visible from my bed. I counted them yesterday out of sheer curiosity. No, this is not some sort of weird fetish. Thomas has been collecting beavers since 3rd grade and it is one collection he could not part with when we got married. Most of them are pretty cute.

Look for a more serious post later this week about Easter and its glorious meaning for the world.