Doing a little “housecleaning” online, and found that this somehow this never got posted. It was written some time in early June. I find it funny to read about a time that is so different from now. Man, that belly popping sure did change my world… anyway, here’s the post. And, now this is something that I can readily laugh at!

Pregnancy has been an interesting ride for me. I think that at some point or the other, I have had all of the less serious annoyances of pregnancy at one time or the other…. the swollen feet, the heart burn, and of course finicky sleeping habits interrupted by the need to use the bathroom every time I roll over. The sleeping is one of the worst for me – any one that knows me understands that I love to sleep, and get plenty of it. With pregnancy threatening to keep me awake, I have devised a vast system of pillows and other devices to get comfy for sleeping. This works pretty well most nights, and has helped me not have the insomnia problem that I was having at the 6 month mark.

Well, the other night I was up getting some house stuff done – actually unpacking for once – when I realized that Bob was no longer around. I found him in bed already (it was only 10:00) and I figured that I would just get a few more things done, then I would head to bed myself. Well, once I finished up and hopped into bed – Bob wakes for a moment. He looks at me with a steely, half asleep glare and then looks at my favorite pillow. He snatches it from me and says, “You don’t deserve it”. He throws it under his head, turns away and is right back to snoring in no time. All I could think was… what did I do?

I contemplated my moves from there – do I dare wake Grumpy to get my pillow back? Or do I just try to do with out for a night? Recalling that stare, I chose the latter, and spent the rest of the night trying to figure out what in the heck I did that was so wrong to deserve a punishment that would leave me sleepless half the night.

I can almost laugh about it now. Almost.

-Anna

Yesterday Bob was complaining of a headache after church. While massaging his temples, I was asking him if he had drank enough water, eaten recently enough, and other things that typically trigger the headaches. He said, “No… I think that I was doing too many things at once yesterday… like watching two games at once, playing a game on the XBox and doing work all at the same time. I guess my ADD has a limit.” Yeah – and I was reaching my limit just watching him do all that at the same time!

Both Bob and I feel like life has been put on fast forward now. Our once routine life has been changing this last month, and we are now busier than ever. Here’s some of the changes and excitement:

Bob bumped back up to the busy season hours. That has been an adventure, as usual. The good thing about that is that he has been in town more this last month. Aside from a very short jaunt out to Dallas and Salt Lake (doing both in one week!) he has been around, getting in my way and begging for dinner (I got used to not cooking at all).

Bob was made the Scoutmaster for the boys in Ward couple of weeks ago. He is excited to be working with the youth again, and I think I saw a Google search looking up how to tie a knot… but he is having fun with it.

I have been busy away with church activities too. As the secretary to a brand new Primary presidency, there have been some changes, and extra work heaped on for the time being. But it has been fun, and a good time to hang out with the ladies and find ways for the kids to learn more about the gospel.

My church bookbinding class is starting to wrap up, but I still have some directions and things to finish up for the ladies. I am thinking of setting up the instructions in a pamphlet so I can have it ready for the next time I run a class like that.

I finally found the Houston Book Arts Group, and it has added a great dimension to my life and craft. Aside from learning a new craft and meeting great people, I am now more aware of what the heck I need to do to get my books ready to sell. There is even a Book Fair coming up on Nov. 10th that I am going to have some books for sale at. Cool, eh? Also I am helping them out keeping tabs on membership files and stuff. It is tons of fun though, as we have some awesome people in the group.

All around, we are loving life and enjoying the ride.

A few weeks ago, something happened to me that I never thought would happen to me again–I was asked to fly up to Buffalo, NY and travel south to the Olean, NY for work.

Last year I spent five months in northern Pennsylvania for work. It was a long five months and most of the time; I would come home every other week. It took eight to ten hours to travel home: two and half hour drive from Pennsylvania to Buffalo, a flight to Cleveland, and a flight to Houston.

I still remember my last flight out of Buffalo– it was one of relief. The whole traveling thing to Buffalo and Pennsylvania was over. I thought, “Man, I’ll probably never see this airport again.” Statements like that come back to haunt you.

So my co-workers and I flew up to Buffalo on Super Bowl Sunday. We touched down in Buffalo and our plane stopped short of the jet way. Apparently, the jet way had frozen in place. So we had to walk off the plane into the cold: 0 degrees with a -20 wind chill. Oh yah that will wake up yup from a in-flight nap.

We grabbed one of three bags that arrived at the airport and made our way to our rental car (the other two were lost in Newark). The drive down to Olean was long and white. Snow covered the ground, it blew occasionally, and it completely covered the road. As we arrived into Olean, I just had that feeling–what am I doing here?

I’ve driven through many small towns in America and Olean was one of those towns I never thought I would ever see again. Yet, here I was at 1:30 in the morning and I was pulling into the hotel in the freezing cold. Thankfully, we completed our work and returned home to a much warmer Houston, Texas.

Sometimes life deals interesting cards. A return visit to Buffalo and Olean really turned out to be one of those interesting cards for me. It was one of those times, when you look down at what was dealt and say “huh?”

Christmas and New Years have come and gone and it is hard to believe we are in 2007. It always takes time to get used to writing a new year, but this year just seems to be weird. Are we really seven years into the millennium?

A few months ago, my aunt called telling me about a friend who had been called to a mission in Puerto Rico. I spoke with the newly called missionary and started to tell him about the island and the people. All of a sudden, I realized it had been five years since I returned home from the island. Has it really been that long? Really, the longer you are on earth the faster time goes.

Anna and I enjoyed spending Christmas in Seattle with friends and family and we enjoyed spending New Years in South Texas with the Bolster clan. So many highlights from the holidays we certainly need to make some more posts about them: no power for Anna in Seattle, Dead Sea Scrolls, Christmas, a Game Cube Christmas present, the Wiiiiii, hog hunting, and we always have stories about our crazy families. It certainly was a wonderful season. We are truly blessed and we look forward to another year together.