Most of our pictures hang on the wall! They might even stay there for a while! We finally have the internet! Much to my relief. Only by miracle did I catch up on the hefty assignments from my students, some almost three weeks old. They were calling the office and complaining; goodness! Usually I turn over their work in less than 48 hours. Granted, there were some crises in their situations. In short: phew! We’re settling in happily.

We live not far from the hospital (hurrah for living close to stuff!). This means that we hear ambulances, fire trucks, and police cars at least once a day and the boys dash to the window or the door with an urgent expression, “Fire truck!” Levi informs me that he’ll be a fireman when he grows up as well as a garbage man (both the man who drives and the man who dumps the can into the truck, depending on the day). Lincoln prefers the fire trucks and front loaders, particularly when there’s a dump truck nearby. They both excel at organizing and making piles.

Yesterday the stake hosted a service project around Lake Pflugerville (the “p” is silent). Wesley joined one of the crews of 30 people down in the muck pulling out cattails and lake weeds. His white socks still look dingy black. I tell him we can let them go, he thinks they’re probably still useable. The boys and I tried to be useful without getting in the way. This can be a slightly difficult task eight months pregnant, age three, and age nineteen months surrounded by busy, hard workers. We did our best. For a while we gathered some of the smaller weeds and cattails and threw them in the pile. They loved it and stayed pretty close to me. Both watched the others fascinated. “Wet! Swimming pool!” said Lincoln. “He has a red shirt on too!” said Levi. (Our bishop requested our ward members wear a little red so we could identify each other). Eventually, though, the boys and I vacated the excitement in search of the trash crew, but they’d already finished. We walked half-way around the lake and back searching so hard we missed the closing prayer. At least we had the chance to talk about why we serve, how Jesus served, and how Heavenly Father loves us and His creations. Good stuff.

We celebrated Labor Day by working on our compost piles, preparing our garden (planted Wednesday. Will our broccoli survive?), and cleaning up the yard in general. What a party! We’re covered in bug bites and extremely happy. We love our yard. The boys ran in the sprinklers, played in the mud, planted flowers, rode the little bike, and threw everything they could find. So fun.

I met with Dr. Loar on Thursday. Oh, I’m glad to come back to her! I’m glad she’ll be delivering this baby. She’s so unflustered, unhurried, and kind—and she’s always pulling out information from recent articles which comforts me. I like that she’s on top of stuff. She looked over my records of the last three months and said that there is nothing to worry about as far as size or anything else goes. Joule’s a little on the small side, but he’s been progressing consistently and we’re not really big people. Every baby is different. If there are issues to address, we’ll do it—but no need to panic. I love this approach. As far as contractions go, I’m almost in the safety zone (another week or so and we’ll be just fine). This is nice to know since my body is gearing up for delivery. In two weeks I go back for an ultrasound to check his progress and position. He dropped last Sunday; not even my pregnancy pants will fit anymore! For being a “small” baby, I don’t know where we’ll put the rest of him. There is no more room! He’s everywhere. I’m almost surprised he doesn’t figure out how to swim all the way around my back. At the library story time he moved enough that Lincoln on my “lap” bounced up and down and all around. Both thoroughly enjoyed themselves.

Also at story time we learned about dinosaurs and received dinosaur stamps, which delighted both boys. Even Levi who generally takes issue with a pen mark on his hand for longer than a few seconds. We returned loaded with dinosaur and fire truck books along with some Caldecott. We love libraries!

Levi determines to help, we stand back in awe. This week he actually helped Wes dig out the AC filter and replace it, put the crib and swing together, and screw in child protection locks “For to keep us safe from dangerous.” Lincoln surprised us by counting to six (today he counted to ten with Levi’s help). He surprised himself by climbing on the top of the piano—but thankfully not up to the mantle!—then getting mad because he couldn’t figure out how to get down. For personal study, Wesley showed them pictures and scriptures of Christ coming to the Nephites. We’ve heard a lot about “Jesus holes.” Levi told us that Jesus should come to our house instead of us going to His. When Wesley asked what Jesus would do at our house: “probably talk to Mom and Dad.” We’re looking forward to that conversation.

Wesley jumped back into the flurry of academic life. He doesn’t have any classes this semester. Amazing what one can do with a whole day of dedicated research time! This month and semester are full of presentations and other good stuff. He busily prepares for those, comes home with ideas and plans, and then restarts the next day. For the class he TAs, he’s reading The Quest by a Pulitzer Prize winning author. He recommends it thus far.

Happy week!