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well, I was hoping to be typing about how well my ultrasound went this morning but, long and frustrating story short, it got cancelled and is now rescheduled for friday. too bad I didn't know it was cancelled and woke up and went to blake's dentist appt w/ him all early this morning because it was right before the ultrasound and only a few blocks away and then ... no ultrasound. I was less than thrilled, but I'll spare you my venting.

anyways, it's been a while since I blogged but here's the summary.

Wednesday afternoon we left to start driving to CA for my baby shower and made it to portland that night. All was well until we woke up to my mom's cell phone ringing the next morning. We learned that my cousin Katherine, age 20, had suddenly and unexpectedly died early that morning of a pulmonary embolism. Obviously this was really upsetting and part of the upset was that there was nothing we could do about it. A lot of people get sick, and then you can try to make them feel better or send flowers or pray or this or that. But this was over before we knew it had started, so we decided the only thing to do was to keep driving towards CA to at least be there with other family, many of whom were closer to Katherine and grieving significantly more than we were.

So, we made it to CA Friday night and did end up having the shower Saturday morning (we had considered cancelling it under the circumstances). The shower was great, lots of fun, and I think it was really good to have a temporary break from focusing on grief. We had excellent salads and strawberries w/ whipped cream (yum!) and it was just so much fun. it was weird to see "it's a boy" and "it's a girl" banners and feel like, wow, this is really for me, I'm really, actually having a boy and a girl. how crazy! and there were little pink and blue m&ms that said "Blana Babies" and fun things and we played some good games. including a candy game, which I won thank you very much! I also received a lot of awesome presents including cribs (plural!), mattresses, a high chair, activity gym, blankets, toys, tons of very cute outfits and on and on. Still working on the thank you cards - but I promise, they're coming! (oh, plus - there was ice cream cake. YES!)

The rest of the week was a whirlwind. We extended our stay so that we could be there for the funeral and we saw more family than we anticipated as they flew in from all over the world (literally). It was such a heart-wrencher to see so many great people, but under such terrible circumstances. Blake and Dad flew down for the funeral as well and so we ended up having Mom and Dad fly back Friday morning and Blake and I began the drive back. We made it to Ashland on Friday and then we pushed through all the way home on Saturday so that we were able to see both mothers on mothers' day back at home in WA.

So much more reflection could happen about the last week plus, but I think I'll leave it at that.

Thank you to Aunt Kate and Grandma for a great, great shower. Yuhas family, we're still thinking of you and missing Katherine.