This is Landa with writer's block. Jonathan caught her deep in thought but unable to pick up the pencil and start jotting things down. This describes us lately as well...lots going on in the minds, but just don't seem to be able to get it down on paper (aka, on the blog).

a few things:

1) The baby is a hyper one...I feel like I have constant digestion issues or something with all its' rumbling around. Jonathan has felt it kick now, and when it's really kicking strongly there are obvious little "blips" visible under my shirt. It's bizarre. This thing isn't even sizable yet...I can't imagine it being a full-size baby. That's like...shoving one of our cats (well, Jaya, as I believe she is the smallest) inside me! Ug this feels like real life science fiction...though that's contradictory to itself, yes.

2) We officially sold our house in Philadelphia today. Settlement went well and we're so glad to be passing the house along to someone we know, trust and respect. We're excited to see what all it is used for, as so far it looks like there are plans to potentially house summer ministry teams, give temporary housing to whomever may need it, who knows. It will surely be used for great things, and it's awesome to feel like the "investments" we've made into the house are being used to serve others.

3) I have 12 more full days of work left! Unless you've heard stories about work from me consistently, you can't possibly understand how exciting it is to imagine being done with Monarch. Just...yea. I love to work-to do meaningful, challenging work, that is. It's not that I want a summer off (though I'm super excited about that as well, it's something I never really imagined having), it's moving on from a hmmm...dysfunctional? No, that doesn't even work, all work environments are dysfunctional in some way...I don't know how to describe it anymore. I've had some amazing experiences and learned from some wonderfully skilled and bright people, but also had some of the most confusing and unethical experiences. So it goes. I'm just ready for a break from the drama.

Hmm...I'm not sure that there is much else at this point. We're so caught up in moving and what not. Free time has been spent relaxing, reading, watching 24 of course, and getting out to enjoy the city a bit before we head out. Last weekend, we "miscalculated" the date of Jonathan's friend's wedding and wound up having some unexpected free time-which was fantastic. Feels like we barely see eachother on weekends anymore because we're generaly on separate floors of the house accomplishing our own separate projects. SO...we went to the zoo, and I'll post some of those pics to make this long entry more interesting.


Flamingos. Obviously....


Sloth Bear... we think Marvelea is related to this species somehow...which will not make sense to you unless you've met Marvelea, but trust me, there's a resemblance both in appearance and in personality.

Penguin, again...obvious. Oh and a dead fish. Appetizing.


Me watching penguins. WOW. so this is not a maternity dress...it's just a chill summer dress I got last year but turns out it's nice and stretchy and fits-for now-though isn't quite as flattering. I will never get used to these pictures...

This is the story of our lives at home right now. If you're wondering what a random snap shot from our weeknights would look like, this is it. Packing packing. I'm proud to say that this room (the study) is now very empty and clean. And running shorts are super comfortable because they sit so low, beneath the baby.

So..hopefully that's a semi-entertaining update for now. We have to take some more pics of the house this weekend, as it is slowly coming together. Then unclog our writer's block and post them next week.

something to talk about...

You would think I had something to talk about. I have been trying to think of various happenings, but there haven't been many going on.
In case you didn't know (but you probably do), if it's a girl the name will be Amaris and if it is a boy his name will be Onyn (Oh-nin).

I know they are both such great names.

You may be asking, "Jon and Jocelyn, how did you think of such great names?"

Our answer: "You would think many hours of discussion and reading various baby name books and thinking about the names we don't like. You would be wrong."

"If it wasn't that, then what was it?"

"The girl's name we thought up of ourselves. We literally made it up. We are that good."

"That's pretty ama--"

"We know."

"As I was saying, that is amazing. So how did you think of the boy's name?"

"Well first we thought let's pick out a normal name, like Matthew, Jonathan (Jr.), Paul, or even popular names like Wyatt, Caden, Sawyer, or something along that nature."

"All good names."

"Yeah so we thought. So we had pretty much decided to name is Austin Jordan in honor of Jocelyn's brothers, but then we realized that if we did name it that then Jordan would be jealous of Austin's name being first and vice versa."

"True."

"Finally we decided to go with Sawyer because it is popular and cool."

"So is that going to be the boy's name?"

"No."

"This suspense is too much"

"You should have been in our shoes, it was crazy. Finally, after a long discussion one day, Mom Rd (aka Nonni) said NO. No normal names, you must think of ORIGINAL names. I have the perfect name. We waited."

"Are you serious?"

"Yeah we waited for multiple days."

"No, I mean are you serious you are going to make me/us wait any longer for this ridiculously drawn out story."

"Yes, just a little bit...................................................................."

"Are you enjoying yourself?"

"Yes, we are. Finally, Nonni suggested only names with vowels, and we found the name ONYN (oh-nin)"

"Wow that is a strong name. It was worth the wait."

"Told you it would be."

"What does Onyn mean?"

"Strong or something like that. We weren't sure if we were going to like it, but Nonni assured us, 'It will grow on you and you will like it'"

Chillaxed

I FINALLY got around to scanning our ultrasound pics. I only included the 2 most entertaining. The others you could probably use for an inkblot test and have everyone come up with what they think the image actually is. Well, they aren't quite that ambiguous, but the two below are certainly the best.

Our ultrasound went quite well. Walking into the room, I was more nervous than I thought possible. I never really think I am "immune" to anything. Not that I don't hope for the best, I'm just a realist and I know that there's always a chance that something could go differently than I expect. As a teenager, I don't think I suffered majorly from the "immortality" complex most teens have-they think they're untouchable, nothing would ever happen to THEM, etc. Guess bits of that have carried into adulthood and the world thinks I'm a terrible pessimist. O well.

These ultrasounds are rather involved-at least an hour in length. Bones are measured, cavities of the heart, kidneys, stomach, it's rather insane. During this time of measurement, the baby originally stayed in one position with its feet over its head, sleeping. At some point, it woke up, and was going nuts for awhile. Rather uncooperative. Of course, all this happens while she's trying to measure things and what not. Eventually, the baby settled into another position to sleep. This position, is rather unprecedented. I've never seen a picture of a baby in the womb laying like this. It's something I'd expect from a cartoon or something. Anyhow, the doc was trying in vain to get a measurement of the skull, and here's baby Ruiz, laying in the "hammock" of my uterus, hands behind his/her head, as relaxed as can possibly be. Unfortunately, this position did not allow the doc to easily get the measurement she was looking for. In effort to make the baby move, she jiggled my uterus around a bit by pushing on my lower abdomen (not cool, bladder was filling up), and this kid...go figure, shakes his head as if to display his annoyance, and goes right back to his chillaxed lounge position. Thank you, you're just o so cooperative. Mind of its own already.

Eventually she managed to get the measurement she wanted, and then took these fun 3-d pics.


I tried to stretch these out as much as possible but they're still kind of small. Essentially, you're looking at a semi-abstract clay sculpture of Baby Ruiz, laying in the womb with his/her hands behind the head. The second one is a bit more obvious, and you can even see a little hand with curled fingers near the left side of the head. Technology is nuts. Simply nuts. Robots will take over the world some day.

So that's the first glimpse of baby Ruiz, and since we had no problems at all, it should be the last glimpse until this baby enters the world. The doc said everything looks fantastic, and the baby is right on target growth wise for its due date of September 27. Only other notable details we laughed at were that the technician said Jonathan was an unusually calm father-I guess they often pace around the room or jiggle their keys out of nervousness, and at one point, the doc was pressing hard to find something or other, and scanned across my bladder and says" Whoa, looks like that's quite full, sorry about all the pressure...I'll try to let you go here in a minute." That sounds like the story of any pregnant woman-full bladder all the time, but it's pretty characteristic of my bladder my entire life. I always dreaded dealing with my bladder during pregnancy because I'm already prone to stopping for a pee break with a mere 1-2 hour drive if i'm not super careful about what I'm drinking. It's been slightly more annoying because it's a bit more uncomfortable when it's full, but all in all, I'm glad I've been "trained" well for such things.

Anyhow, that's the latest. We're headed to Atown tomorrow for a Mexican birthday party to celebrate all three of the Davco siblings-all the birthdays are within 2 weeks of eachother. Homemade pinata (gracias Austin) and all. No idea why we're generally obsessed with Mexican food and party activities. Otherwise, just a few things to do with the house on Saturday. Hopefully it will be a more relaxing weekend than not, we sure could use it. Oh-and thanks to those of you who sent FB well wishes and prayers. Whatever food poisoning or 36 hour bug I had was completely gone as of last evening. came home from work early and managed to get a few more solid hours of sleep in before dinner...woke up to feel essentially normal. Phew. It's amazing how wonderful it feels to wake up with energy and an overall sense of wellness after being sick...I have to keep that in mind, it's like an extra level of feeling great and set for the day, we just normally overlook it.

Peace.

weekend progress

The fam was out in full force this weekend helping to paint the new house. We 5 rooms to do, but since I have a thing for darker colors, some of those rooms were receiving 3 coats of paint...so, it was no small job.

Jonathan's parents came up with their van loaded with goodies and supplies on Friday morning and worked straight through the day, only to barely get sleep that night on an air mattress. Woke up Saturday morning and were at it again once coffee and breakfast sandwhiches were passed around.

My dad stayed for the afternoon to help out, which was great because he doesn't need a step stool to paint the high spots. With some classic rock in the background, he was quite content.

My mom continued to clean clean clean, floors, windows, doors...and we continued to make messes here and there.

Jonathan was a painting madman, picking up my slack due to trying to stay away from fumes, as well as helping his dad fix some of the basements steps, and doing other random things on the to-do list.

Saturday we went to pick up our new furniture near the Lehigh Valley Mall area...managed to fit the new couch and new chair/ottoman in the massive van Jonathan's parents brought up. Turns out we have a fascination with the color "Cheyanne Rock" (it's Behr paint) not only for our walls, but for our furniture. We didn't mean to pick a couch and wall color that were so close in color...I was getting tired of thinking of what color to paint the living room when Jonathan pointed to a color in a picture (on a Behr pamphlet) and said that one is nice. It happened to be a color I had circled hoping to use at some point in life, so we figured eh, this works. We love the color, we'll just have to spruce up the couch with some vibrant pillows or somethin so it isn't quite so camouflage.

Hmm...that's a basic update of the work and progress, with some pics below. Jonathan's mom has some great before (and after) pictures on her facebook, so check there to see the comparison.

We had a fun ultrasound Friday as well...but I will wait to post about that until I scan in the pictures tomorrow. The baby is doing well, growing perfectly, etc.

Time for bed. We're both rather wiped out after this weekend. Thank you SO MUCH to our families for your help this weekend-we enjoyed spending time with you, too!

view of our backyard through our dining room window. YES TREES!!!!! 7 of them in our yard actually.

this is our dining room. it's not quite as orange as it looks in this picture..it's called "mexican chile" and is sort of a reddish terricotta?

this is our bedroom. again, the pic doesn't quite do the color justice. this was our random leap of faith color.."garden view". we're happy with it. quite energetic for the mornings (and um, odd hours of the night to feed the baby)


and the living room. do not be mistaken, jordan is not exhausted from working hard on the house...he was out at a graduation party last night. actually, we made him lay on it to see if his whole body could fit (he's 6'3"). yay, our new couch is big enough. and this is the cheyanne rock color we're obsessed with. fantastic with the beautiful, shiny, clean hardwood floors (thank you mom!)

when he tells his mother no...

The ceremonial mowing went well. Cutting the grass is always nice because you often get time to think, as there is pretty much nothing else going on. So here are a few of my thoughts...

...I now say "cutting the grass" instead of "mowing the lawn", thanks lehigh valley.
...We need to do something about all these trees.
...I hope we have a boy first. Still working on names for the boy by the way, but if it is a girl it will be named Amaris.
...I had more thoughts then I am currently posting but I am just too excited about the last one...

...one day, if we have a little boy, or girl for that matter, he is going to tell Jocelyn, "No" to cutting the grass. So I thought about what a few of those scenarios would like...

"No" twice
Jocelyn asks son again, "You need to cut the grass (or mow the lawn)" and he responds "No" again. Jocelyn lets the son know their will be consequences such as no this or that and yadadada and he complies. Lawn mowed.

"Wait till Dad gets home"
Jocelyn lets him know that the consequences will be life threatening. He "understands". Lawn mowed.

Grandma's house
Son rides his bike to Nani's house because he is trying to avoid cutting the grass. Nani skillfully determines the reason for his arrival and not only sends him back to cut my grass, but her own as well. Nani is good. Lawn mowed.

"No" one too many times
Jocelyn gets sick of the "No's" and due to some extenuating circumstance decides she needs to mow the lawn because it is a must right then. I am coming home and notice Jocelyn is cutting the grass. I ask her to stop. She stops. Son hides when he sees dad come out of the car. I find son.
I say something along the lines of, "if I ever, ever, ever,ever,ever,ever,ever,ever,ever,ever,ever,ever,ever,ever,ever,ever,ever,ever,ever,ever,ever, see mom home cutting the grass while you are home, it will be the end of your life. I do not just mean your social life--the end of your life. And after setting him straight, I do go onto tell him the reasons Why he should never let his mom cut the grass. She is awesome, his mother, caring for her, being part "man" of the house, and so on. He develops a better understanding of "Why" as well as developing a healthy fear of the real man of the house and complies.

Grass is cut.

and it continues...

I was pretty disappointed today to learn that I either misunderstood something or my doc forgot to mention that I was supposed to schedule the level II ultrasound at the hospital-they don't do the ultrasound in the doc's office. So, I got there today, my mom came, etc...and we were ready for this, and then they let me know that OH, no no no...you'll have to call the Perinatal Center to schedule that, not happening today. Sheesh. SO we will have that on Friday at 1pm, and will continue to be slightly nervous for this week. Seeing the baby's heart chambers!? Intense, awesome, but yea...intense.

In other news, we've picked out nearly all the furniture for the new house and came in under the budget we had hoped to stick to, so that is exciting and we're relived to have those details settled. I think I have all the paint swatches picked out as well, so this coming weekend will be painting time extraordinaire. I will be gardening extraordinaire because of all the fumes, which is semi-heartbreaking because I LOVE painting, but so it goes. We'll save the detailed painting like woodwork and such until next year when I'm itching for something else to do.

Here are some pics from this weekend. the Moms were SO helpful...they have completely cleaned the baby's room, the guest room, and our bedroom. Superheros.


this one's a view from the living room into the dining room. powder room door on the left, basement door on the right. and a YARD out back!


picnic in the living room (YES nice hardwood floors!!!) after some cleaning)



jonathan in the living room, smiling that classic jonathan ruiz smile

So those are a few....I got caught up in cleaning and forgot to take more, though I think Mom Ruiz did. I need to remember next time so we have some good before and after shots. That's about all for today I think.