166 (no, not the number of days since i last posted)

166.

it came clearly and quickly, much quicker than i'd anticipate. thwump-thwump. thwump-thwump. thwump-thwump. i was prepared to lay on my back with my shirt pulled up to my ribcage for several minutes before that beautiful sound came through the doppler. but, instead, i didn't have to wait even five seconds to hear the precious heartbeat of our second child. 166 beats per minute.

that's right, k2 is growing and preparing to join us toward the end of august. i'm 19 weeks pregnant, for those of you who like to count these things. we are ecstatic! but, perhaps you understand the reason for my bloggy hiatus.

i didn't intend to be gone for so long, really. i had planned to share our joy with the world wide web after we first heard the heartbeat six weeks ago. however, chasing a toddler has me far more tired than i realized possible. when luke sleeps, i usually take a nap as well. by the end of the day -- between working and taking care of our little man -- i'm worn out. and, well, blogging was put on hold temporarily.

but, since my fan is calling (thanks, cari), i figured i needed to get back into it.

we wanted our children to be closer than two years and luke will be just 22 months when this little one is born. as a not-very-verbal 17-month-old, he's starting to get the concept of a baby. he points to my tummy (or sometimes my leg or my chest) and says ba-bee! he regularly points at other babies, so even though he doesn't understand all the change that's coming, he is staring to understand baby.

in other family news, michael graduates in just five short weeks (or is it four, now?). i've been spending a lot of my online time helping him look for jobs. as his "secretary," i've even been sending his resume when i see a job i think might be a good fit. it's been fun because i like to dream of the possibilities.

currently, he's being considered at three dirfferent churches, though that means different things at different churches (for example, one church is considering 19 others as well). even if one of these panned out, it will probably be awhile before we know where we're moving. we hope to be moved (or moving) by the end of june. that would give us two months to settle as well as find another pre-natal care provider and get used to him or her before the baby is born.

so, we've definitely got a lot of change coming. i'll try to write about that here -- as well as continue how i met your father (for you, barb!). i've got some other things i've been thinking to write about or creative ideas to post. so, my plan is to be back for good.

ps. we don't currently plan to find out the gender of k2. that might change, but for now is the plan. so, you can be surprised with us.