I feel like we have had so much going on that I'm not even sure where to start! So, this may be the most disjointed post ever. Forgive me -- it's hot, and I'm tired. :-)

I mean, it's really hot. Remember that monologue from "Good Morning, Vietnam" about how hot it is? I can't help but hear that in my head. All day, every day. It's really, really hot. All those times that I envied my friends who got to wear the cute summer maternity outfits? I was wrong. Wrong, wrong, wrong.

But anyway. Let's see, last week was mostly consumed with NI Week. Tommy got to engage in witty banter with our VP of R&D in front of 5,000 strangers. I did not manage to see it in person, but I did get to listen to the video online. Yep, listen. Because of all the keynote segments, his was the only one where the video didn't make it online. (I'm certain that it doesn't have anything to do with the beard.)

If you would like to listen for yourself, here's a link. Select Tuesday, Aug 7th and scroll through til you see his name. (He's also in the segment listed below his -- and that one DOES have video.) This is as close as I got to seeing and hearing my husband all last week. I love NI Week, but I'm glad it's over!

On Wednesday, we got to enjoy a visit from Uncle Dash, Aunt Shae, and the fabulously funny other Ruth from Clear Lake while they were in route to New Braunfels for Family Camp. They brought BBQ and left with all kinds of projects for Sister's room. Those are the kinds of visitors I'll take any day.

And we swam a lot. When it's hotter than the surface of the sun and you're roughly the size of a beach ball, the only comfortable place is the wading pool at the YMCA or the Round Rock water park. Worth every penny of admission, trust me -- especially when John commanded me to "sit in water there, Mama". Yes, sir.

Speaking of the bug (yes, the real reason that you're here) ...

Yesterday, we reached new limits in stubbornness. While frolicking at Ready Set Play with Dawn and Victor, John became very upset when I pulled him off a bounce house. You know, in all my meanness, I was preventing him from getting clobbered by the big kids flying down the slide. John was not impressed with this safety precaution, and after crying for a few minutes, he decided that he liked hanging out with Dawn better. He turned around, pushed me away, and said, "No, Mama." Followed shortly by "Mama, sit over THERE", pointing to a chair about 10 yards from the bouncy house he was going into. That's right -- I was grounded by my 2 year old.

He's cracking us up more and more every day. He's added new car names to his repertoire -- in addition to Dodge and a very enthusiastic Toyota, he also now calls out "red square" for Saturn and "red light" for GMC.

All of this car talk may come in handy, after our Friday evening, when as John likes to say, "Mama's silver car got hurt." We went down to New Braunfels on Friday night to have dinner with G and Grandpa for Family Camp's date night. The Grist Mill was of course delicious, even if it was 180 degrees outside. We headed for home, but got into an accident on I-35 in downtown Austin. Now, as far as accidents on I-35 go, we were pretty fortunate -- we stopped, the car behind us stopped, but the car behind her didn't. Everyone was fine, though I did have the memorable experience of climbing into an ambulance to be checked out before leaving the scene, and then having the ambulance escort me down to 6th Street where the cops were filling out the accident report.

It looks like it might be a while before the silver car gets fixed, since we understand from the cops that the other two drivers were uninsured. So if you see me driving around -- yes, I know my trunk is open. But I can't do anything about it.

And for an update on Sister -- everything is fine, nothing to report. Except that the pumpkins at Jo-Ann are already marked down, and I've realized that we are 9 weeks away from the 38 week point, which is when John arrived. That's single digits, people. But her room is painted, and as Dawn pointed out, all I have to do is remember how to get to Seton and everything will be fine.

Looking forward to a visit from Aunt Natalie this weekend! We are going to relax and talk and eat and look at girly things for Sister's room. I am so glad to have friends with incredible decorating skills -- Sister will appreciate it, too, I'm sure. :-)

Have a good week, everyone!