Happy Meow-lloween: Top 8 Hilarious and Adorable Cat Pictures to Illustrate my Week

I haven't been sleeping well this week. Actually, that's an understatement. I can't seem to stay asleep between the hours of 4 am and 6:30 am, no matter how hard I try. I'm sure it's nature's way of preparing me for 2 am, 4 am, and 6 am feedings. But it still bites.

I decided to illustrate my week with cat pictures. Well, actually, I found a bunch of great pictures at www.cuteoverload.com and decided to use this as a flimsy excuse to post them.

1.) Trying to hide from the sad reality of Monday morning.





















2.) How I felt while trying to get out of bed when the alarm went off.
























3.) Seemed like a handy solution when I couldn't go back to sleep EVERY morning this week. (Not really--Guinness smells way too gross to ever consider drinking any, pregnant or not. But isn't the little drunkard adorable?)
























4.) Are you trying to tell me I have four more days of this this week?

















5.) I give up. I wanna go home!













6.) I've been trying to keep my head above water all week. (But I'm not nearly as cute doing it.)



















7.) Looking forward to a nice long soak once we get to the coast.



















8.) How I'd feel if someone told me I couldn't go on vacation this weekend.

Happy Meow-lloween, everyone!

Showered with Affection

A friend I've known for almost 20 years called me last night to ask if some of the ladies from the church (Vancouver) I attended during my teen and young adult years could throw me a baby shower when we're in town next weekend.

Wow.

I haven't been a member at Vancouver since sometime in 2000 when I got a job in/moved to Beaverton and started attending Southwest. I haven't even seen the friend who's hosting the shower since my wedding four years ago. I can't begin to tell you how touched I am that they still consider me part of the family and love me enough to want to throw a party for me and our baby. Seriously, it's so touching. That kind of loyalty and unconditional love and kindness is the way our Christian family ought to be, but sadly, the last few years have shown me that it's so rare. I can't even tell you how encouraging it is--especially after four years of living in this friendless wasteland and the last few months of constant strife at church. Those are some good people right there. And they've proved to me once again where my home really is.

So anyway, my sweet friends are throwing me a baby shower on Sunday afternoon after TLC. I'm pretty sure the hostess (Christina Hill, PT and Karen Barnum's daughter) lives in Vancouver, and I think the party starts around 3 pm. And I know that any of you who would like/are able to come are SOOOOO welcome. So are the ladies at Renovatus who don't read this (like Brenda and Kay and Angela and whoever else cares), so please let them know if you think of it. You don't need to bring anything but yourselves--I've got lots of baby clothes, but far too few chances to hang out with my friends. If you want directions, you can leave your email or phone number in the comments section and I'll get them to you when I get them. Or you can just wait and catch up to me or my mom or Chris Fields or Rachel Holcombe at TLC.

If you can't make it to the party, I hope we at least get to hug each others' necks at the Convention Center on Sunday morning!