Trimester Three, Showers, A Nursery and the State of the Union

Oh golly it's hard to imagine after all the posting over the past several months that we haven't blogged in a while. Sorry, I don't know what it is about the second trimester, but it's time consuming, stressing, exciting, joyful, a relief, and well, just overall an awesome feeling that we are in this somewhat safe place.  And, to boot, this past Sunday marked the first day of our THIRD trimester -- that means less than 90 days to go!  That also means we have our first shower in LA with some close friends, followed by another at the end of March and another the first week of April, both here in Hawaii.  We are so incredibly happy that we have so much support and love for our little girl.  Here's the hilariously funny shower invite our friends Terrance, James, Scott and Asher put together for the LA shower:

The nursery is coming along.  Bill has been working like a crazy man getting things prepared.  Shower gifts have already been arriving...so he's spackling and painting and hustling to ready our former guest room and transform it in to a nursery for our little one.  As a matter of fact, it's after 10 pm and he's still working while I document the journey.  For some reason I think this is an easier job...

Poor guy looks tired. Thanks honey for doing all the hard work!!! xo

I guess the latest and most interesting news is that Bill and I had a civil union here in the State of Hawaii.

It was a bit of a last-minute decision, because it dawned on us just recently that it would be perfect if we performed the ceremony on our 16th year anniversary -- February 17th.  It worked out wonderfully.  It was very low-key, and included one of my brothers and several of our friends. And then a close friend was gracious enough to have a very small, intimate gathering at her home.  It was exactly what we wanted. With all the hoopla around the baby, what was important to us was to be joined together before the arrival of our daughter. And it all worked out super well with our anniversary and all.  And so the State of Hawaii has officially recognized our union.  Albeit not marriage.  There's hope that we could join others such as Massachusetts, Connecticut, Iowa, Vermont, New Hampshire, New York and the District of Columbia so we can officially say we are married.  But ultimately, for me, marriage is about the commitment that has evolved over the past 16 years since we first met.  Of course we'd love to make it uber official...but when it comes down to it, I really love this man.  And now that we have a daughter to take care of for a good part of the rest of our lives, he's stuck with me and I'm stuck with him.

I couldn't imagine a better place to be stuck!