Various Items

*So, this has been the week of a million random contractions.  Last Tuesday I was at 4 cm. and trucking along.  I have another appointment tomorrow.

*Brigham had an eye appointment with Dr. Hammond.  His right eye is now at 20/25 with his glasses on!!!!  You'll remember that he started at 20/80 and then we had a huge plateau of about 6-8 months where he was stuck at 20/40.  He's patching 4 hours a day and his eye is improving so dramatically.  Hooray!!! 
Because he'll be in school all day, he will have to wear his patch from the time he gets home till bedtime once school starts.  That's sort of cruddy for him, but we definitely don't want to stop the patching now that he's actually making real progress.  He's not thrilled, but he'll thank us one day...I hope.  :)

*Charlie has been pooping in our house all of a sudden lately.  He has one spot downstairs that he goes.  I am beyond frustrated about it.  I'm ready to kick him in the head.  I wonder if he is aware that a big change is about to come to our home?  At any rate, I'm going to have to get the gate out and keep him away from the basement.  Or shoot him. 

*The kids have swim lessons this week and next.  Aren't I brilliant for scheduling them for the week and a half before I'm due???  Seriously.  We have a carpool going with two other families that we're friends with.  It's kind of crazy in the mornings getting kids ready, dropping off, and picking up.  We'll get through it, though.  The kids all do so well in lessons.  I'm really proud of them. 

*We've really enjoyed the Oympics this past week.  It's incredible to see the speed of the track athletes (and oh, how I LOVE the long and triple jumpers!), the swimmers, the gymnasts, divers, volleyball players.  All of it.  Just incredible.  And I hope my children never aspire to such things.  Is that super weird?  I just think it takes over your life and I don't want my kids' lives defined by such things.  But wow am I ever thrilled to watch other people do it.  Amazing stuff.

*Oh, and my washing machine is broken.  When Stanton was in Las Vegas this weekend, it started to beep at me and smelled like an electrical burning smell.  I was stressed that our house was going to burn down!  Jimmy (Stanton's brother) came over and figured out that the smell was from plastic inside the tub that was melted (part of the rotating tub).  I called Sears this morning and they're sending out a technician to check it out on Thursday.  I was feeling kind of sorry for myself about the whole thing (what with the timing of it all), but then I had to slap myself because I have a second washer and dryer downstairs that we bought from some friends before they moved.  I mean, can I really complain that my HE washer isn't working when I have a perfectly good older washer right downstairs???  Sure it's not as convenient, but honestly, I would be the biggest whiner on the planet if I really thought that I had it rough in any possible way.  So now I'm just very thankful that I can keep up on laundry until my good one upstairs is fixed.  Remarkable.

*We get to go to Pickleville Playhouse tonight for the Juanito Bandito show.  The kids are jumping out of their skin.  It's going to be really fun.