Fall Photos

This is my favorite season for the amazing colors! Sadly, much of the fall in St. Louis so far has been shrouded in grey, rainy days that are just depressing. But when the sun comes back out like it did yesterday, it's absolutely wonderful. Please come back, sun. Please come back.

One big happy family

All we need is for that baby to come out!

Full-Term

Just wanted to take a moment and document on this site that BF is 37 weeks, which means I am officially full term. Eeek! Of course we all know that this doesn't really mean anything; after all, it could still be 3 or even 4 weeks before kiddo decides to make its appearance. But there is something about hearing myself say the words "full term" and seeing them written down that is absolutely thrilling.

Sometime soon I hope to post photos of me and my belly...my full-term belly. Yay!

All Quiet For Now

I realize I haven't posted much lately. The reason is fairly simple - I only have one thing on my mind: getting ready for this kiddo to come!

This one-track mind makes blogging difficult for two reasons:

1. I have nothing of consequence to say that isn't baby related, and what I do have to say about the baby isn't too interesting. It's growing. I'm growing. No problems, and we're thankful for that. Less than 4 weeks (we hope!!) until we get to meet this little one. That's pretty much it.

2. Getting ready for BF is so time-consuming and exhausting that I don't have any extra energy to devote to things like blogging. It seems like I spend every free second sorting, cleaning, and organizing baby stuff. Seriously. We spent Friday night doing baby laundry and organizing the nursery/office, and Saturday morning we boiled bottles. We did go apple picking in the afternoon, which was great, but otherwise this baby seems to be already consuming our lives.

That's why there haven' t been more posts in September and October and why I haven't posted many photos. Frankly, there's not much to say, though I am sure that we will make up for this drought with a flurry of photos in November. For now, I will leave you with a photo of a new pair of boot I got last week. They are my present to myself for being pregnant, and I love them. This is also a photo of my 35-week belly, which seems huge. But it's only getting bigger. More to come soon!

A Storyteller's Delight

Storytellers do more than simply tell stories. They sift through the tidal wave of information that constantly beats against the shore of our existence, tap into the cultural psyche, and articulate the hard questions that hijack one's thoughts in the middle of the night.

Is this it? Should I dare hope for more? What's the point?

The Best American Short Stories 2009 has just been released, and it seems as though this collection is filled to the brim with hard, probing, unsettling questions. Linda McCullough Moore's review is here, and her analysis is great.

Having not read the stories, I can't say too much about them. But they sound depressing. Typically depressing stories deter me because I don't like to be sad. But Moore makes me wonder if I should embrace the sadness of these stories, lingering over them to consider the questions being asked.

And to ask myself if I have an answer.