Babies, babies...

Oh, where to start.... Nina and her Dave came over for dinner on Thursday night, where she announced that the baby was coming in the next few weeks- a bit sooner than her original due date. She was pleased, but not really feeling anything big on the horizon. Of course, on Friday morning at 8 am I get a text message that her water broke and she's on her way to the hospital. Her little boy, Luca, was born at 11:45 that evening (seems like a lot of pushing!), and he and Mom are doing great. We're going over tomorrow night to bring food. Since I don't know anything about babies, I show my love by making casseroles.... she seems to be pleased with that arrangement.

On to the next pregnant lady. We had Sarah's baby shower on Saturday in Lafayette, and it was a great time. Notable guests included friends-of-the-blog Grandma B, Mamas Charlee and Pam, and many more desireables. My sis-in-law Katie turned out to be my soulmate-in-party-planning. She really did a great job with invites, renting things, creating beautiful centerpieces and so much more. My job, which was tailored to my less organized skills, was to make food for the affair. I did soup, chicken salad and a couple desserts, and the food went over really well! I'm pleased that folks enjoyed it, plus I'm fairly certain I didn't poison anyone. Whew! Sarah made out like a bandit- she got lots of great gifts, so little Ukulele Whaley will be all set when he/she arrives.

Tonight I was so over cooking. I made frozen pizza and salad (although I'll admit that the salad was pretty fancy and required much chopping and dressing making), and after dinner we hit our favorite bar, Big Al's. This place is truly hillbilly, but we love the people there and they love us. We get a Cheers-like greeting whenever we enter and free beers from our peeps there, even though we don't go that often!

We're excited about the next several weekends. I'll give you a preview of our plans and update with longer posts later. This weekend, Bart and Mollie come in. Always a rockin' good time! Next weekend, we're off to Grandma B's. We never get quality time with just the three of us, so we're looking forward to hanging out with her. Following Thursday, we're going to see Bruce Springsteen with Mom and Dad Pip, plus Cara and Craig in Indy. After the show we're heading up to South Bend for our first weekend since early December. We're pumped. Four weekends in a row (counting last weekend!) with some of our favorite people.

People always say that it seems like we spend a ton of time away from the Lou. This is true, but what's a couple to do when almost all of their friends and family are out of town? We get in our Hondas and drive!