38 and counting.

Well, here it is, August 12, the date that was my guess to have the baby.

The end is not in sight. I went to the doctor this morning, who informed me - unsurprisingly - that there has been no change in the past 2 weeks. The way I have been feeling, I expect the baby to make his grand appearance around Halloween - I feel the same as I did a month ago, except even fewer of my clothes fit! The other day I didn't update my Facebook status all day, so my sister took that to mean I was in the hospital! No such luck...

What is nice is that, since I got everything done that I wanted to before our Nashville trip, I have been enjoying relaxing and reading these past couple weeks!

Ah yes, Nashville. I suppose that's something non-baby I could talk about. The Army, in its ever infinite wisdom, realized a few years ago that - surprise - the military doesn't exactly make marriage easy. And since, in most cases, happy marriage = happy Soldier = good Soldier, they decided to do something about it. Hence the inception of Strong Bonds.

Strong Bonds is a Marriage Enrichment Retreat program run by Chaplains. Two weeks ago, Jon and I, along with 19 other couples from Redstone, went to the Opryland Hotel in Nashville for a few days for this retreat. Aside from a few minor hiccups, all went well! Jon taught on, among other things, The Five Love Languages and healthy conflict resolution. He is a really great teacher - of all the hats he wears as a Chaplain, that's probably his favorite! The couples seemed to interact with the material and respond well to it. Though these events take a ton of work on Jon's part, it is great knowing that these marriages are better off because of it.

We were planning on staying an extra night, but I thought I was in labor. Silly me. I think all the walking around made me go into false labor, and being 2 1/2 hours from home, I didn't want to risk it... It was a beautiful hotel, albeit a little ostentatious. The photo is of us at the garden. INSIDE the hotel.