september!

My favorite month is here! Not only is my birthday next week (on a Monday… how crappy) but my due date is at the end of the month! Fall starts this month! I’m so ready for the weather to start cooling off (although it seems like that happens more in October now rather than September), the leaves to start changing, the pumpkin patches to open… I’m ready for jeans and sweaters (even if I have to buy some new jeans temporarily). I don't even care what size I have to buy as long as I get to wear jeans and my Chucks and any non-maternity shirt/hoodie/etc.

We had the most relaxing long weekend ever – we literally did nothing except lounge around the house and go out to eat. We went out with our friend Jen and her husband which was great because Jen’s five months pregnant and she wanted me to fill her in… there’s a lot of information that isn’t in any of those pregnancy books. Hopefully I didn't scare her when I talked about labor and delivery, but that's where my mind's at! Our nephew turned one so we of course went to his birthday party… we packed our hospital bag (!) and learned how to install the car seat (!!)… and we took the dogs on an adventure in the woods yesterday afternoon. We’re trying to spoil them rotten before the baby is born because there won’t be many day trips (if any) revolving around keeping the dogs entertained (the dog beach, for example) once Ryan joins us. Luke saw his first real life deer (up close and personal) and I don’t even think he could comprehend that it was an animal – it was too much for his little head. He’s still acting super clingy and thinks it’s his duty to escort me wherever I go… really cute.

I ordered the new titanium Voyager – so excited. It was time for an upgrade so I’m treating myself to a cool new cell phone as an early birthday present to myself. Steve is also really awesome and is treating me to the digital SLR I’ve been wanting to get for months… and just in time for baby photos. :) Yay, birthdays!

Political news is overwhelming. Although I truly believe that children (and other family issues, for the most part) shouldn't be a part of the election discussion, the news of Sarah Palin's pregnant daughter is everywhere... and it is really making a mockery of the abstinence-only approach to sex education that her mother is so supportive of. Honestly, I don't care that her daughter is a pregnant teen... but when you preach abstinence-only and can't even implement it in your own home, how can you expect to implement it in the U.S.? How would teaching abstinence-only in public schools do anything except raise a generation of kids who are ignorant of birth control (and in the same boat as her daughter)? All politics aside, I think it's kind of a shame that she took the nomination at all - she knowingly allowed her daughter to be subjected to such press and scrutiny. Clearly she (and McCain) knew this would become such a hot issue... assuming he did his research on her at all.