Almost to term!

So, here I sit at 35 1/2 weeks along...almost to term! We've just been extremely blessed to have survived such a hard hit from Hurricane Ike. Schools have been closed for six days and half of Houston is still without power over a week later. Our family has been very blessed, though, because we had very little damage done to our house or yard (just some tree limbs down, bushes blown over and a few shingles on our roof beat up) and we were fortunate enough to have power restored the next day. We were also fortunate enough to have a place to stay with power for the one day we were without (thanks mom & dad). Riley, being the tough girl that I feel she already is, hung in through all of the drama that came with the hurricane and didn't cause me any troubles, contractions or false labor alarms (whew!). I know that Michael was oh so worried about my welfare and the baby's through this trying and stressful time, but we both made it through just fine and even had the best possible conditions with which to stick it out!

All of this has got me reflecting back on what neat and unique events baby Riley has experienced while in the womb...and while I can't sleep during the wee hours of the morning very well these days due to back pain and frequent trips to the bathroom, I figured I would list some of what's happened in our lives during the last eight months:

• Traveled to Boston, MA in March - rode the subways, ate at the Union Oyster House, went to a Boston Celtics game at the Gah-den (Celtics vs. Hornets...#1 vs. #1 at the time...Celtics went on to win the NBA Championship), stayed at the Lizzie Borden bed & breakfast (slept in Lizzie and her sister's bedroom), toured the Newport Mansion in Rhode Island
• Went to see Bruce Springsteen in concert
• Went to two Rockets playoff games at the Toyota Center (Rockets vs. Utah Jazz...Rockets lost the first one and won the second)
• Went to see the Cure in concert
• Voted for the first woman presidential candidate in our country's history in the Democratic primaries, Hillary Clinton. Stood outside and campaigned for over three hours in the cold to vote for her in the state's caucus that night as well.
• Went to see Robert Earl Keen, Jr. in concert
• Went to see Stone Temple Pilots in concert
• Went to see George Michael in concert
• Stayed for a weekend in Galveston, TX which will probably never be the same again after Hurricane Ike
• Sang karaoke so many times I can't count (many times at Michael's karaoke show at the 6th Street Bar & Grill and once at a semi-gay, drug bar we stumbled into in Galveston called Cocktails)
• Went to see Slaughter, Ratt, Sammy Hagar & Skid Row in concert at the Rock the Bayou Music Festival (Riley either loved the guitar solos or absolutely hated them...everytime an extended solo would occur, she would kick me SO hard! Some of those kicks were even hard enough to hurt, but as soon as the solo was over, she stopped!)
• Saw the greatest plummet in the stock market since the Great Depression
• Survived Hurricane Ike, a category 2 hurricane which hit Galveston and Houston, TX directly and caused about $27 billion in damage to the gulf coast. This storm ranks right up there with the likes of Hurricane Alicia and Hurricane Carla.

Whew! I had no idea it had been such a busy year for Riley! We'll see if she remembers any of the above once she can talk... :)