Five Hours might be a bit too long

on friday morning i left for my first childfree overnight trip since benjamin was born 14 1/2 months ago. now that he is weaned, there is a bit more leeway for these types of getaways. though i'm painfully aware that in 2 months, i'll be back where i started. still, it was nice to be in a car and not be on the edge of my seat, anxious about the crying or about-to-wake-and-cry child in the backseat. i actually got to listen to old music i haven't dug out in awhile (rather than kid's cds) and go by my own schedule. yippee! i went to iowa city and saw the dissertation defense of a colleague who shares the same adviser. it wasn't unnerving, thankfully, and i left feeling like i can definitely do that. once i get there. i got to see my friend sarah who had just the night before moved from LA to Iowa City for her new job (sarah, you LIVE THERE) and stay in the hough house with her and her mother, thanks to carrie and rob's gracious offer to lend out their home while they were out of town (thanks carrie!!) it was great to hang out with old friends and reacquaint myself with a world i haven't yet left no matter how much i mentally check out from it. friday evening might have been a bit better as we lost electricity due to a storm, and i managed to get some sort of food poisoning. so i found myself puking by flashlight in someone else's bathroom at 12:30am, and melting due to the heat. it was the least lovely part of the weekend. saturday was exhausting, as i kicked it off with a 5 hour meeting with my adviser/committee chair. it was probably necessary and left me feeling confident, but still exhausting. i got home at 7pm on saturday evening, so it was a nice day and a half of childfree time :)

sunday mike and i left the kids with a neighbor and went on a date night. the proposal is very sweet, and quite funny. i adore ryan renolds. going out on sunday night meant there weren't too many local restaurant options since most are closed sun and mon, but PF Changs did not disappoint. mike was extremely happy to find that they had an entirely gluten-free menu for him and gluten-free soy sauce, as he's been trying out the gluten-free thing for a couple weeks to see if it helps his so far undiagnosed gastrointestinal issues over the past several months. so not only did i get nearly 2 days off from full-time parenting, but i got a night out with my husband, too! score.

i have officially hit the 30 week mark in my pregnancy. it scares me a little to think that i'm that close. 10 weeks left to get as much of my dissertation done as possible. i said to mike last night, "holy crapy, we're going to have a BABY in 2 months." i have accepted the pregnancy, clearly, but it's still a little hard to get it through my head that soon a baby will come with it.

here is the 30-week belly shot for samantha (stretch marks are still all from benjamin--no new ones from this guy yet):


And we are pretty much (98%) set on Gavin for the name, barring any unforseen changes of heart at the delivery. middle name is still in the works.

yesterday we took the boys down to the clarke county fair to see mike's parents and look at some animals. benj was fearless with the animals; jack was a bit leery of benjamin touching them. we heard of lot of squeals of "no! get benjamin away! he's going to get hurt!"