Church, birthdate updates, merging timetables

Church yesterday was good. It is a small church but we had four visitors and that along with Mama and me made the attendance right at thirty people. Mama and Maggie did not go to the evening service because both of them felt poorly but we had a good service anyway. The attendance was about twenty that evening. Four year old Abby – one of those little ones that had never met a stranger - picked up a Bible that was sitting on the front row and asked permission to look through it.

Once she did receive permission, she opened it to the very back of the Bible to the maps. She ambled up to the pastor’s son, Jeremy – who’s Bible it was – and put her finger on the map and asked, “Okay, where do we start.” He looked at her confused but told her that that map was not a map of Alaska so we could not start from it. She was terribly disappointed but quickly found another subject of interest.

This morning we went to Costco while Maggie went to the doctor for her appointment. The doctor stripped her membranes and told her she was 1.5 cm dilated. The baby has dropped and he could feel the head. She should be ready to go within the next 24 to 48 hours. We are all pretty excited about the news; Maggie most of all. I think Walter is feeling a little crowded in there right now.

Meanwhile, as I understand it, Cori went to the hospital this morning to get the meds to stop the contractions that started in earnest yesterday morning. She is supposedly at 32 weeks. Mama and I had planned on going south for her delivery sometime after we get back from Alaska – but the timetable seems to have advanced on us. There is no expectation that she will reach her due date with the baby seeming to have slid into position for her introduction to the family. Our guess is late July at best. A date I will not be able to make because of the time we are spending here.

Mama will probably go over ahead of Victoria and me. If I can get the time off in between the things that are happening at work I will drive over for a week but all that is up in the air at the moment. While I am out there are many things happening that I am keeping up with as best I can but at some point soon they will require my full attention. So rushing from one delivery to another in rapid succession may not work out.

Cathryn is pretty well adapted to Mama and me so caring for her should not be a problem when Maggie goes to the hospital. Maggie calls her Grammy’s little sidekick. That is pretty normal when little ones that age are around Mama.

Meanwhile back at the ranch, Victoria is juggling being back at work, making it to job interviews, settling in a new housemate and caring for all the animals at the farm. Yesterday she had to don gloves to move a setting her in order to get the eggs she was determined to keep beneath her. She was in conversation with Mama throughout the ordeal. Mama could hear the chicken squawking in the background throughout the call. I thought it was pretty funny.

It is good experience for Victoria.