Excuse me, where's the nearest Big & Normal?

Before getting into our weekend, I got two pieces of great news . . .

1 . . . We now have home phones, so our friends and family can call either of our Atlanta numbers and it will ring on our house phone -- free of charge! (well, free for you, anyway, and really cheap for us) Keith ported our numbers using VoIP, which sounds complicated and fancy to me, but he assures me it's not that hard to do. Regardless, I am totally impressed and happy that I can pick up my phone, call a friend (without using country codes or anything!), and not be charged with international fees. So feel free to call us anytime! (but check the time zone first : )

2 . . . I woke up this morning to find out that my dad has booked his flight to come see us after Liam is born. I am really excited about this and looking forward to having him here for a week! Though when I tell Dutch people about visitors coming for a week, they look surprised and say, "Only a week??" Everyone here vacations for weeks at a time, and most locals are actually gone now on summer holiday for anywhere from 3-6 weeks! Anyway, I would be happy at this point for a day with my dad, and am thrilled at the thought of a whole week. I can't wait!

Ok, back to our regularly scheduled blog . . .

Last time I wrote we were headed out for a bunch of errands, which always fall on Saturdays because of the early closing times during the week. Incredibly, it was a cool, beautiful day, and I was in boots and a sweater -- much different than my Georgia friends who are sweating it out in a heat wave right now. Our first stop was the Philips My Shop, where we were able to get good deals on several things we needed: a baby monitor, phones for the house, a night light for Liam's room, among other things. Of course we also looked at TVs and other fun stuff. :)

The My Shop also had cool things like this . . .

. . . and deals on TVs, like this!

We also found this awesome cafe on the same floor as the My Shop that has an outdoor patio where you can watch futbol games and other stadium events! We talked about coming to a PSV game at some point (PSV = the Philips sponsored futbol team, which is actually a pretty good club around here), and hopefully bringing our friend Pete next year, who is a big soccer player and fan.

The cafe that connects to the Philips Stadiom

PSV trophies and memorabilia 

The awesome view from the cafe patio - we're
definitely coming back here for a game!

Geddes & Gilmore = Dutch Abercrombie & Fitch

We then headed to the Centrum to go order curtains for Liam's room at the V&D, and made stops along the way because Keith was in desperate need of some shoes. This was a task in itself because his shoe size was a little hard to come by. In the states he wears a size 12, so here it is a size 45 or 46. You would think that with how tall these Dutch men are, that size shoe wouldn't be hard to come by, but they top out at size 46, and it was just really difficult to find the style he wanted in his size. Keith suggested we find the Dutch Big & Tall (here it's probably just called a Big & Normal), but no luck. We did finally find one pair he liked, but still are on the lookout for more in the coming weeks.

Sunday was a rainy, cold day, so we spent it in the house, cleaning, organizing, and putting a few more things up in the nursery (it's almost ready for pictures, I swear!). We did make some new friends, Meredith and Mike, and were invited to their house last night for coffee (and delicious homemade chocolate chip cookies!), and spent the evening with them. They even invited Murphy over because they have a Goldendoodle named Lacey and we thought it would be a great time to introduce them. The dogs got along great, and Keith and Mike even took them for a nice walk around the neighborhood (where they got to meet some friendly cows!). I meant to get a picture of Murphy and Lacey (who look like brother and sister, or at least cousins), but I will make sure to get one next time. I'm looking forward to seeing them again soon!

So today marks me 37 weeks pregnant, and Liam is officially full-term! I got an email update today that said he is the size of a watermelon! He is still growing, moving wonderfully around my belly, and making me laugh throughout the day. I'm loving dreaming about him, and am starting to wonder each morning, "Is today the day?" : )

~Jessi

PS - So it's time for us to watch Entourage and True Blood, but I wanted to include a quick picture from Keith's latest bike trip to the store, taken from our bedroom window today. He likes any excuse to get on there and ride :)