July Already???

I was horrified to see that my last post was literally two months ago. Boy has time sped by! As a quick summary we returned to our home here in Washington safely after a long road trip home from Texas via Montana. It gave us a chance to see relatives that we haven't seen for a long time though, as well as to spend some time with M's grandparents, so in the end the trip was tiring but satisfying. Upon our arrival here we were met with piles of boxes that had yet to be unpacked, not to mention literally waist-high weeds in all of the expansive gardens. I managed to get the vegetable garden weeded and planted before M and I left for Augie's graduation in mechanical engineering from Cal Poly. The picture above is M and her cousin Jayden enjoying the ocean in Morro Bay. M was truly in heaven with unlimited sand AND water all in one place, not to mention the added bonus of SHEASHELLS MOMMY! to find in the sand. I have to laugh when I think of the beautiful photos Gutsy Mom has of her daughter at the beach, then I think of these ones (and I managed to get this one BEFORE M decided to "wash" her hair with sand, not to mention ingesting enough to make her diaper gritty the next day. Not that Jills is prissy, but M has a certain talent when it comes to dirt. Nana made a sand castle with her (ie pile of sand) on which they placed a tiny crab shell that M found, and ever since our return here to WA she insists on piling dirt up and making a "crab house".
Unfortunately AdventureDad couldn't join us on this trip, as his EMPA program was just starting when we had to leave. The program is going well so far (actually this eve is his first "real" stint in the ER, although it is mostly gauged towards learning the ropes at this point), and the intensity is slowly heating up. It sounds as though our expectations of long days AND long nights are sadly going to be met, but he is certainly excited to be practicing medicine again, so hopefully that will provide enough inspiration and motivation for the next 18 months.
The pregnancy is progressing well. I'm slowly building up the courage to post a pic or two of the "belly" for those who have been asking. We found out a couple of weeks ago that she's a girl, so the name game has officially started, atlhough we already have some pretty good ideas. I'm feeling good if a bit ungainly, and definitely am enjoying feeling the kicks and hiccups that come along with this stage. Some days October seems an awful long ways away, but others it seems like time is just going way too fast.
Jimmy has spent the majority of his free time during the last several weeks putting up a shed for the horses to shelter in... they should be coming home in a week or two from their "foster home" where they have been since we left for Germany. I am soooooo excited to have the horses back in our lives, not to mention to see M's reaction when she realizes they're her very own (she is constantly commenting on the horses across the road and wanting to wander over to see them).
As for myself, I am currently in a bit of a holding pattern, trying to find the daily patterns that will allow me to keep up with the house and yard and a 2-year-old. I think things are slowly coming around (for instance I finally caught up on the last of the weeding this week), but there is not much time left in the day for the extras I want to do (blogging, organizing our stuff, crafting, scrapping, reading, you know!), so I still have a bit of figuring out to do. I love where we are living, although after the close supportive community we had in Germany this area feels very isolated (we have one set of close neighbors with kids, but they have ignored all of my attempts at introduction. sad.). I'm looking forward to some visits from my Auerbachian friends over the course of the summer, not to mention catching up with all of my friends from "way back".
I'm sure there is much more that I haven't commented on, but this is a pretty good start. Now that I'm back on the wagon, I should be posting a bit more.
PS: The strawberries on top were one harvest from a fairly small strawberry patch... I'm not even close to keeping up with the harvest, and now the raspberries are ripening too. Yay and AAAaaah!!!!