Friday: Slept in till 8:30 because it was a day off!! Sucked in my lower abs for an hour while my friend Marisa taught her Friday Pilates class (I was very excited that I got to go), met with my awesome Pastor at church for an hour about some work that I’ll be doing for the next 6 months while our other pastor is on sabbatical, came home and ate, checked email, drove two friends to the BART station (they’re in MI right now for two weddings), knocked on Jenn and Craig’s door for our planned evening movie watching but Jenn was too tired, being pregnant and all, so I went home (two doors down the hallway) and watched “The 40 Year Old Virgin” all by myself and ate my popcorn. Grant called around 10pm and I burst into tears because he told me that he was on his way home- a day early, he arrived just after midnight.

Saturday: Got a phone call at 3:30am from Craig asking for some Mylanta and Benadryl for Jenn who was exhausted from not sleeping and thought she was having gas pains from the chili they ate for dinner. Woke up around 9am with Grant by my side (a change from the previous 5 mornings). Headed out to the farmer’s market and knocked on our neighbor’s door to see if they wanted anything, they were in labor, so their answer was no. As we stepped out of the building, tears beaded in my eyes. Today was my dad’s birthday, and now it will be someone else’s birthday and someone’s anniversary. We walked down to the farmer’s market, our favorite Saturday activity, and found that the pluots are in season, and so are the cherries… soooooo yummmmy. Sat on some grass and munched on the cherries while we listened to live music and people watched. Came back around 12:30 and the neighbor’s car was gone so we guessed they were at the hospital, giving birth. At 2pm we attended the wedding of our church’s music director, sat with a bunch of friends for church and had a blast. Came home, checked on our neighbor’s kitties and borrowed a movie from them to watch in the evening. At 10pm we got a call to tell us that the delivery went well and that the world had a new baby boy to take care of.

Sunday: Sung in the choir at church, it was a light service, I’m guessing because it was memorial day. Shared the news with our church community of the birth, came home and enjoyed my husband who had been gone for a week. We started planning our summer backpacking trip to Desolation Wilderness and started making some phone calls to see who else was interested. Are any of you interested? One person who was very interested was Rebecca. Who ended up calling Jenn and got us a visitation approval. We drove the 3 minutes to the hospital and within moments were holding a newborn. Yeah for miracles. Like a little kid, I looked at Jenn and said, “Wow, that thing was inside you,”

Monday: Memorial Day Meditation Retreat (1/2 day) in our home, where Grant and I woke at 6am and followed a strict schedule, with a Treo programmed to play a chime at the appropriate times.

6am: sun salutations (a series of yoga poses)

6:15: sitting meditation/centering prayer

6:45: walking meditation

7:00: breakfast (in silence)

7:30: cleaning activity (Grant did the bathroom… thank you, thank you!)

8:00: sitting meditation

8:30: walking meditation

8:45: reading scripture, book, and journaling

9:30: sitting meditation

10:00: snack on brownies made last night and debrief.