Ramblings . . .

Tiny Dancer?

2011-07-11T21:22:00.003-04:00

Today, while teaching a dance camp at our local studio-- I found out that there will be a "Tippy Two Toes" dance class! A class for two-year-olds???? I have an *almost* two-year-old that would looooooove to dance!!! At $60.00/month I'm not too sure about the cost, but I think this little chica needs to dance!!!

Pregnancy Update...

2011-07-10T10:04:00.003-04:00

Well-- somehow, I have made it to 20 weeks (20 weeks and 2 days, actually) without documenting almost anything besides a camera phone snapshot of my belly at 15 weeks!!! So, just for my personal memory, I am going to post a few facts about this pregnancy;

March 13, 2011-- First positive pregnancy test (so VERY faint!)

March 17, 2011-- Told family we were expecting #2!

March 29, 2011-- First Doctor visit, pregnancy confirmed

April 2011-- Nausea, but no throwing up

May 20, 2011-- Hit second trimester-- feel AMAZING!!!

End of Mayish-- started feeling baby move!!!

June 13, 2011-- Doctor visit-- heart rate: 169

June 28, 2011-- BIG ultrasound! Everything looked great!

July 2011-- Nesting hit...HARD.

So here we are--This baby is a banshee, practicing kickboxing on the daily in my belly, JUST like big sister Haddie! I started feeling her around 14 weeks and she hasn't stopped moving since! The ultrasound was a little tough, but I am still amazed (and impressed!) that we didn't find out the sex of the baby. All along I have said that I only really every wanted a girl, so anything else would just be bonus! So, hopefully in November, we will be blessed with a big fat surprise! I have also been nesting like crazy, something I never experienced with Haddie. I get something in my head about cleaning and I have to do it immediately-- I have been up until 1am the past few nights organizing or straightening up! We are loving it because I am not normally such a good housewife, haha! I go back to the doctor this week for a 20 week check up and I am hoping this pregnancy progresses without any drama, but knowing what I know about my previous pregnancy, I have it in the back of my head that something could pop up-- praying for a smooth 4 months!!!

Now, even though we didn't find out the gender of the baby doesn't mean I don't think about it very second of every day--so some fun (and not factual!) gender quiz results!!!

Chinese Gender Chart: Girl!

http://www.babyzone.com/pregnancy/genderpredictor/default.asp

Baby's Heart rate: Girl! (which I TOTALLY don't believe heart rate has to do with it!)

http://www.babygenderprediction.com/babys-heart-rate.html

Old Wives' Tales: 60% boy, 40% girl!

http://www.babygenderprediction.com/old-wives-tales/index.phtml

If I had to guess I would say it is a boy...but tomorrow, I may feel like it's another girl! Either way I'll be so excited, but honestly, I feel like its a boy right now!!!

Well...

2011-06-30T17:25:00.002-04:00

It's been a while. I understand that nobody probably looks at this blog anymore except for the random spam comment I get every once in a while...but after some persuasion from the hubs and my sister, I have decided to take up blogging again. At least, for today.

It's been over a year since I last blogged so the next few posts will probably be just to catch up on what has been going on. I want to update on Haddie's life while I can still remember it, and document baby #2's upcoming life as well!

While I understand that nobody is reading this, for the most part, if I happen to have a rogue reader out there that would like to continue reading, leave a comment because I believe I will make the blog private since I will be sharing pictures of family events, etc.

Have a wonderful evening and 4th weekend!!!

Breastfeeding

2010-04-25T13:20:00.004-04:00

Since I have decided to begin posting again, I think I will post about our breastfeeding journey.

Being a preemie, Haddie was taken promptly to the nursery for evaluation and then admitted into the NICU for closer observation. I did not have the chance to feel my brand new baby placed on my belly, I didn't have the chance for that first feed, letting her route around and find my breast herself, and I did not ever get to have her "room in" with me throughout my hospital stay. I held her once in our labor and delivery room for a moment, and then a brief moment before they admitted her into the NICU. Hubs was not able to hold her until her second day of life. After crying to the lactation consultant and the nurse practioner, I was finally able to attempt breastfeeding, even though the NICU staff acted like I was an idiot for wanting to try. They kept telling me that she could recieve formula and would be fine, but that isn't what I wanted. I called my sister, who also had a NICU baby 3 years prior, and she reassured me I was doing the right thing by fighting for the RIGHT to breastfeed, something that I shouldn't have had to do!

Needless to say, she didn't want to breastfeed. She was tired, had leads all over her, and unable to latch effectively. I knew that breastfeeding was something I wanted to do, no matter how hard it would be. I pumped and bottle fed for the first couple weeks, putting her to breast to almost no avail. We met with a WONDERFUL lactation consultant that was 100% sure we could get Haddie breastfeeding and thriving with some work. And magically, right around 4 weeks, she started breastfeeding, and by about 7 weeks old, she was no longer getting expressed breast milk. We finally hit our stride.

At this point, 7 months and counting, I can't imagine stopping. I am very fortunate to work at a job where I can feed Haddie on demand and I am very much looking forward to summer when she no longer has to spend any of her time in day care. I started her on solid foods around 6 months and she has enjoyed applesauce, bananas, avacados, sweet potatoes, peas, green beans, carrots, peaches, and she even liked the prunes she had to have when she was a little, eh hum, stopped up.

While our journey in breastfeeding wasn't the easiest road, I am so happy I stuck with it and I am proud of myself for being Haddie's sole source of nutrition for her first six months of life. There is no way I could have done it without the support of my lactation consultant, sister, and hubs with me every step of the way. Whenever I thought it was too much I always had someone that could encourage me I was doing the right thing. I know as a parent I won't do everything right, but I feel confident that I made the best decision with breastfeeding my sweet little baby.

Yoooooo-k...

2010-04-23T20:25:00.002-04:00

So it looks like I haven't even finished posting my birth story. Yikes. I also now have a seven-month-old that pulls herself up to stand. Seriously, I just want to push on the brakes as hard as I can and slow life down!!!

So, before I forget-- This will most likely be the abridged version of the story.
We went to the hospital and I went to triage before being admitted. It didn't take much time at all to be admitted since my water had broken, but from the time I arrived in triage to the time I was placed in my labor and delivery room my cervix had dilated 4 1/2 cm. . . which was pretty major progress in about 30 minutes. Then, a nurse came in and let me know that if I wanted an epidural, I needed to get it quickly because I may pass the point of no return, so, even though I initially thought I wanted to do it au naturel-- I chickened out. And boy, oh boy, was that epidural AMAZING! I could finally relax! It was the first time I felt good in over a week. I kept dilating pretty steadily, until I was 8 1/2 cm. I got stuck. We decided to wait it out a little and a monitor was placed on Hadleigh's head to keep better track of her heart rate.

I was still "stuck" when they decided on giving me pitocin, much to my dismay, but it didn't seem to do the job. The on call doctor was ready to give me a c-section, but luckily he had to do an emergency one so that gave me 45 more minutes to dilate to 10! By the time he came back in to check on me, it was about 10 minutes before my OB was in the hospital to do rounds. He told me I could hang on and wait for him. This was 7am...mind you, on call dr. said he would have already taken me to have a c-section. I was relieved when MY doctor showed up at the door, he is very calm and would never pressure anyone into anything that wasn't absolutely necessary. He said as long as her heart rate wasn't dropping and I wasn't developing a fever, I could keep her in and try to deliver vaginally. FINALLY, at about 10:40am I was ready to push. I pushed a few times, and I refused to take a break even though the nurse kept asking me if I wanted to "sit out a contraction" NO WAY- at that point, I wanted my baby OUT OF ME! At 11:03am my sweet little baby was welcomed into the world.

She looked perfect, but sounded like a goat when she breathed. I can laugh about it now, but at the time it was pretty scary. She ended up being admitted into the NICU for further care. That was hard, I don't think I was emotionally prepared for that. She didn't get a chance to breastfeed until she was almost 2 days old and she never got to stay in the room with me. Her breathing problem cleared up on its own and she had the "all clear" on Wednesday around noon, we were discharged together around 6pm. Talk about scary, but that is another post entirely.

Birth Story-- Part One

2009-10-19T20:51:00.004-04:00

Let's see here, I wanted to document my birth story so just FYI-- this may not be for the faint of heart...I am SURE this contains WAY too much information for the general public!!!

It all started on Wednesday. . . .

Wednesday: September 16

I was having a pretty "normal" day at work until the end of my morning when I began feeling a little light-headed. I was also feeling about as swollen as ever so I called the hubs to see what he thought I should do. He thought I should go to my Ob's office incase I was light-headed because of elevated blood pressure. So, I called my Ob's office, got down there and they sent me to Triage because my OB doesn't work in his office on Wednesdays because that is when he has his surgeries...soooo, long story short-- I went to triage where we found out I was severely swollen, had low potassium in my blood, was 1 cm dilated, and was 80% effaced. My Ob decided to keep me over night for a 24 hour urinalysis and to watch my swelling. While in the hospital I was steadily having contractions about 5-7 minutes apart. I needed to have an ultrasound to see how big the baby was measuring and to see what my amniotic fluid was measuring. At about 35 1/2 weeks the baby was about 7lbs 11oz and my amniotic fluid was borderline too high. My Ob told me that we would not stop my labor if it happened naturally. Knowing that I had an appointment the following Tuesday he said to me that "I could have the baby on Tuesday if I wanted to..." but I knew this wasn't up to me!! After spending the night in the hospital, I was released to go home on bed rest.

Friday-Saturday: September 18-19

I still felt pretty miserable, having contractions all day and all night. I couldn't sleep, I couldn't enjoy eating, I was miserable. My sister kept assuring me that "I would *KNOW* when I was in true labor" and I kept thinking, this haaaaaaas to be some sort of labor! On Saturday night we went over to my sister's house to watch a football game and I continued to complain about my pain...we went home and went to bed.

Sunday: September 20

I woke up in the morning on Sunday in extreme pain, contracting about every 3 minutes. I went back to triage to be checked again and I was still only 1 cm dilated but now 100% effaced. The nurse was a total butthole and tried to give me medicine to stop my labor-- the exact medicine that my Ob said he didn't want me to have because he didn't want to stop my labor-- however, he wasn't the Ob on call so she said she had to take orders from the on call Dr. I refused the meds and continued to contract. Luckily for me (NOT my Ob!!!) my mom tracked down my Dr. @ church and asked him about the meds. He said I did the right thing refusing the drugs and to just try to wait it out. The nurse turned out to be nice in the long run and even told me to take a hot bath when I got home because it was probably the only way to ease my painful contractions. I was given the option to stay for the day in the hospital or go home and wait it out-- I chose going home and waiting it out. I think I ended up taking about three baths that day. Around 8:00pm I realized I couldn't pee-- I felt like I needed to pee, but I couldn't get anything to come out...soooo frustrating.

Monday: September 21

Around midnight I got out of bed to walk out some of my contractions. I had taken one tylenol pm to try to get some rest and I decided that I needed to take another one. I tried to pee again, to no avail, took another tylenol, and then tried to lay down in bed and get comfortable. I tossed and turned for about 5 minutes and then I felt something like gas bubbles in my belly...I thought I was going to have to pass gas until I felt the warm gush of water that now filled my bed-- my water had just broken.

Where has the time gone?

2009-10-06T20:44:00.002-04:00

Well...sweet little Haddie-Girl came 4 WEEKS EARLY!!!

Even though she was early, she was still 8lbs!!! One day I will post my labor story, but for now, a picture of my angel will have to do.

Photo by Emily Porter

My, my, my...

2009-09-19T12:01:00.002-04:00

How life gets in the way of blogging.

I'm not quite sure where to begin since it has been so long, so I'll give a brief recap of the past few days.

I am on bed rest. Boo. It all started when I was leaving work on Wednesday and felt a little dizzy. Being the supportive hubs that I have, he suggested I stop by my OB's office in case it happened to be high blood pressure. Well, my Dr. wasn't there because he was in surgeries all day so some of the nurses that work for him made me go ahead up to triage because it would be possible for me to have more tests done way more quickly there than what they could do in his office. By the way, at this point of the day my legs were so swollen they resembled tree trunks more than actual legs. Boo again. So I get to triage, they put a fetal monitor on the baby and a contraction monitor onto me and of course the baby is perfect, me-- not so much.

My Dr. ended up keeping me over night for a 24-hour urinalysis to check for preeclampsia and to watch my swelling. After 24 hours, and an additional 3 hours for the results to come back in I was discharged to strict bed rest, meaning I can only get out of bed to go to the bathroom and or to go to my Dr.'s appointments. When meeting with my Dr. throughout this experience, he informed me (from my ultrasound) that sweet little Haddie girl is already 7lbs11oz so if I don't deliver her soon (i.e. before 37 weeks) she will not be able to be delivered vaginally and therefore I must have a c-section which I hope to avoid at ALL COSTS.

So, here I am, writing from my recliner and trying to talk this little baby into coming into the world on Tuesday because that would work with every one's schedule, including my Dr.'s--haha...so now it is just a waiting game.

PS- from the ultrasound, this little chunk in my belly has the chubbiest cheeks and the pouty-est lips...I am so in love!

Update.

2009-08-26T23:20:00.003-04:00

Well, I haven't posted in a very long time YET again...I promised myself I wouldn't do this, but here I am again. Once again I am going to post a brief recap of what has been going on since my last post.

1. I am huge. No two ways about it, everybody says I look like I am "going to pop" even though I keep assuring them I have about 7 1/2 weeks left.

2. I left my job at a year round school to pursue a career in half-day head start. I am very much looking forward to this job, but I don't get students until September 1.

3. I am taking a huuuuuuuge pay cut to be able to stay at home with Haddie for half the day, something that I think is totally worth it, even if I did shed more than 5,287,362 tears over it.

4. My sister is going back to work tomorrow (2 days a week) for the first time since her oldest was born and I am pretty sure my mom and I may feel almost as nervous as her.

5. I will be keeping one of my nephews in the afternoons while my sister is at said job, even though I will be 7-8-9 months pregnant and then on maternity leave, I would have it no other way. I would keep him (and the older one too!) all day every day if it meant somebody they knew would be with them, but things don't work out that way so 1/2 day will be good enough until the little one gets potty-trained!

6. I am slowly beginning to realize I am terrified about giving birth so I have been avoiding the topic at all costs.

7. I am hoping *at all costs* that I will go full term with this baby. I keep reminding her that 37 weeks is ok with me, but I really don't want her to come out before that unless she ABSOLUTELY has to. My oldest nephew was 7 weeks early and luckily he was healthy as a horse, but still had to stay in the NICU for a week...I really don't want to have to go through that.

8. I just want a healthy baby. Whenever she gets here, however she gets here, as long as she is safe and happy!

9. I am beginning to feel "first-trimester sleepy" again so goodnight all.

ps- I will try to post a "belly pic" soon so you can see just how huge I am getting!!!

In Case You Were Wondering...

2009-07-26T21:22:00.003-04:00

1. I am still alive and well.

2. Hadleigh is still doing great.

3. I didn't mean to take a blogging hiatus.

4. I finished the school year, went to the beach, and am already back at work again.

Now that that clears up a few things, onto the more important stuff...

We have gotten Haddie's room pretty much in order, we cleaned, painted, put up new baseboards, and assembled her crib. Now we just have to make the bedding, wait on the *unfinished* dresser that we have to finish, figure out if we want a rocker/glider in her room, and then wait for her arrival.

In terms of me, I have probably gained way too much weight, started feeling uncomfortable when I sleep and when I am on my feet, and have begun showing signs of preeclampsia. I am waiting to get my test results back from the blood work at the end of the week and hoping for the best, but I will just have to wait and see. I have my blood glucose test tomorrow morning so I am also hoping for good news on that front. So, if you have a second and think about it, I would appreciate your prayers on the preeclampsia thing, I don't think I would be diagnosed without further testing, but I am really hoping to hear good news tomorrow. That is all for now...anything I can pray about for you?

Bestfeeding...

2009-06-19T08:14:00.002-04:00

As I have mentioned before, one thing I am really looking forward to is being able to breastfeed Hadleigh. Throughout the first trimester, everyone I would meet would ask me what books I am reading in order to prepare for our tiny baby. I would always casually respond, "Hubs and I do everything by the seat of our pants, we probably aren't going to start reading parenting books now!!!" But recently I have become obsessed with knowledge about birth and breastfeeding. I began reading the book, "Bestfeeding" after borrowing it from our library and it has only made my passion to nurse that much stronger. I must admit, however, that I do not have unrealistic expectations about breastfeeding. I watched my sister feed my nephew for what seemed non-stop until he was weaned. I am certainly scared that I will give up and say it's too hard, opting for formula, but I honestly believe with a strong support system I will be able to endure the physical and emotional demands of breastfeeding. In order to strengthen this support system, I am going to attend my first La Leche League meeting today. I know I have about four months left in this pregnancy, but this will be the only meeting I am able to attend until the month before sweet baby is born.

I have also become obsessed with learning more about having a natural childbirth. Now this is where I think I am losing my mind. After watching my sister labor for hours on end and the pain that she was in WITH an epidural, I begin to think I am crazy to even consider going natural an option-- I just want to see what is out there and learn about whatever is best for the baby...but I'm sure I'll be posting more on this later...Now, off to shower and off to my meeting!!

FINALLY, a belly pic.

2009-06-04T22:49:00.008-04:00

I know I have said I would post a pic of my belly for some time now...actually, I think I was planning on posting when I was 14 weeks pregnant...and here I am, 20 weeks and 3 days pregnant. Crazy how time flies...

These are a couple pics from a lil while ago; I think I was almost 16 weeks in the first pic and I thought I was big then...sheesh.

This pic is when I was almost 17 weeks pregnant...I think there was a big jump from 17-20 weeks!
Here I am tonight...20 weeks and 3 days pregnant. I can't believe it has flown by so quickly...I also can't believe I am going to be approximately double this size. And here is a pic where hubs had to help me up off the ground after it was taken because it's clearly getting too hard to move from the ground to standing on my own...

:::le sigh:::

I am still feeling her move all over the place and I absolutely love it, I am pretty sure there isn't a better pregnancy feeling than movement! And, if I haven't mentioned it before, her name is Hadleigh Ann and we can't wait to meet her!

Weekend Plans

2009-05-21T09:18:00.001-04:00

I can't wait to get out of town!!! We have been having our statewide standardized testing ALL.WEEK.LONG. and I am MUCH more than over it! I have been looking forward to this camping trip long before I was pregnant, so we will see how much I enjoy it toting a couple extra lbs now... Hopefully it will be no big deal, but we will see how comfortable I am while sleeping.

Mostly everyone will be arriving tomorrow during the day, but hubs and I are going up early today to scope out the scene. We will go ahead and set up our tent and canopy, etc. and wait anxiously for everyone else to get there! Hubs and I have already toyed with the idea of taking sweet baby girl next year when she is merely 8 months, but we will obviously see about that later.

I am unfortunately missing a talent show at my school and one of my students asked me if I could reschedule the the camping trip for another time so I didn't miss their dance. As politely as possible, I told her that I would miss almost anything, except for H.A.'s birth to go camping. Maybe next year we can talk my sister and parents into going too...We will see, be back on Tuesday!!! I hope y'all have a wonderful Memorial Day Weekend!!!

Nursery.

2009-05-13T09:55:00.005-04:00

As you can probably imagine, I am so very eager to get our sweet baby girl's nursery set up. Actually, I can't stinkin' wait!

I could possibly be the hardest person in the world to please so I have been having an impossible time picking out the bedding. I think little girls (and boys!) are so special and individual, so I can't imagine grabbing a bed-in-a-bag that could truly match everything I feel about this tiny baby.

My criteria for the bedding was this;
1. LOTS of colors! I wanted to be able to match solid color crib sheets with whatever we chose
2. NO CHARACTERS! END OF STORY!
3. No butterflies, bugs, animals, etc.
4. Flowers were ok if they were abstract and not strategically placed in rows and or columns
See? I'm a freak. I found some that I liked, and some that I looooooved, but they were either in only brown and pink or $500 for a 4 piece bedding set.

Solution? Ask these incredible people that I am lucky enough to be related to and or friends with to make it for me!!! Yaaaaaaaay!!!

Luckily, my sister is friends with (so I, in turn, am friends with...) the very talented Stephanie of Providence Handmade and she has graciously agreed to work with us and create our own bedding for our sweet little H.A. (I am not sure I am 100% ready to reveal our name...)!

I asked her yesterday if she would maybe consider helping us out...my sister is amazing behind the sewing machine, me...not so much, but she said she would definitely help us out! Sa-Weet!!! Not only is she doing this pro bono, she also put together this LOVELY collage of everything we should include in the room, aahh, the benefits of having an interior designer friend!!! Check out this bad boy--

(Sorry! I can't figure out how to make this bigger!!! )
Needless to say, we can't WAIT to get started!!!

Seriously...

2009-05-10T22:50:00.003-04:00

This little girl in my belly likes to move it-move it, she likes to....MOVE IT!

I am feeling her all over the place and it is NUTSO, but 'nutso' in a fab way! Both of the ultrasound techs that saw me recently told me that my sweet little girl is a wild woman in the womb...my mom, obvi knowing me, said, "well, what did you expect??" I guess my mom is saying something along the lines that I was always busy and on the move...God help up all if this baby is just like me!!!

This was, by far, the best mother's day I have ever had, but I am certain it won't be the best ever.

And the baby is...

2009-05-08T22:43:00.005-04:00

A GIRL!!!! We are oh so very excited! We had an ultrasound today and it was confirmed, I have no penises growing inside of me. I can't even begin to tell you how much I loved watching that little girl on the us. We have a dvd of the whole thing so we can watch it whenever we want.

At first she was a little stubborn with us, sitting with her legs "Indian style" and hiding her goods, but after emptying my bladder and jiggling my stomach, she finally gave up the goods. The best part, besides finding out what she was, was watching her move. She was crazy active. I have known that I have been feeling her for a while now, but it is no wonder after watching her on the monitor. She rolled over while we were watching her, from back to tummy, then she flipped end to end. I told the homegirl she better enjoy it while she can because soon she won't have all that space to take advantage of!

So here is the lil munchkin, my sweet, sweet, little angel!!!

So, here you can see her brain, spine, heart, and her profile. I may be biased, but she is absolutely perfect and I can't wait until October to meet her!

Still Kickin...

2009-05-08T08:18:00.002-04:00

Well, I have officially felt the baby move. I was pretty sure I was feeling it for the past week or so, but yesterday I was sure.

I went to my 16 week check-up, which, turns out, everyone at the Dr.'s office says I am 16 1/2 weeks, not 16 weeks exactly (as I thought). This was a pretty routine meeting, heard the heartbeat (160!), talked with my Ob, asked some questions, etc.

However, when I was leaving, the ultrasound tech (who is a family friend) asked if I wanted to hurry back and "peek" to see if we could find out what the baby was. Did she need to ask?!?!? A FREE ultrasound?!?! OF COURSE! So, we hurried back into the room and turned out the lights and tried our hardest to get that baby to stay still. I realized I was feeling the kicks/hits/flutters or whatever when we saw him/her moving on the screen and the nurse said, did you feel that? It was a big one! So I have officially figured out what a baby kick feels like and let me tell you, it's phenomenal!

So, I bet you may be wondering just what it is aren't you? Well, I am not going to tell yet. And, if you know me IRL, don't tell either. I am going to another place today for an ultrasound and I am hoping I can get a definitive answer. We were in a hurry at my Dr.'s office so we couldn't say for absolute sure, but the tech was pretty sure it was one way and not the other...

I'll post answers as soon as I have a proof positive ultrasound pic...and until then, I am trying not to get too excited one way or the other!!!

Spring Clean: Day 1

2009-05-06T11:35:00.010-04:00

I am embarrassed. That is basically all I can say right now. I am looking at my "before" pictures and they make me want to hurl something across the room. Let's look at the facts;

Hubs and I have never been the neatest people. When it comes to us, we are always well groomed -- showered, clean clothes, hair done, nice nails, etc. Our house is a different story.
We are also the exact same person split into two different bodies, so we are both basically the most stubborn person in the world at any given moment.
We would rather do whatever we wanted when we wanted to do it rather than clean any time of the day.
We are having a baby in October, I believe I have started this "nesting" thing.
My sister is cleaning her house following simplemom.net and I am not one to turn down a challenge.

So there you have some simple facts. Our "before" pictures have our living room/dining room looking the absolute worst it ever has, this is mainly because I decided to clean out what will be our baby's room which was chock full of crap. A lot, and I mean ALMOST 99% of the junk in the pictures was moved from our bedrooms to the living room over the weekend. But, as my sister pointed out, these pictures should "keep it real" so I didn't lift a S.I.N.G.L.E. thing, so trust me, while our house is seldom ever clean, it is always, always, ALWAYS better than my before pictures.
Hubs seems to think we would win a competition from worst to decent. After looking at my "after" pics I can't believe how much more I love my house when it's clean. It is so nice and relaxing to sit on the couch and not have anything to complain about (at least in terms of cleaning--), and what was even better was waking up and walking into a pristine living room and dining room. We even ate our breakfast at the dining room table together, something that we have never done.

Today is living room: part 2, so we may tackle our living area in our basement, but it is not a very pretty space...we will see.

Keep your eyes posted for a couple important posts coming up in the next couple of days!!!

Obsessed?

2009-04-23T15:23:00.003-04:00

Um. I can't stop thinking about what is growing in my belly.

Actually, I am currently obsessed with finding out what is inside.

Thing is, I won't have another ultrasound (the BIG ultrasound) until I am 20 weeks pregnant. That is exactly six weeks away. Now, I know that doesn't sound like a big deal, but I am dying inside knowing that this munchkin's little genitalia is fully formed and I don't know what it is. My fire was only fueled by the fact that Blair posted this gem today...

So, in true "copy cat" form, I decided to try the methods listed on her blog...

Labor of Love: Girl

Just Mommies: Girl

Bump.com: Girl

Babyman: Girl

Sexratio: 55% Boy, 45% Girl

Tvoy Baby: Girl

And of course there are innumerable old wives tales that I could look at to determine, but I'm not really far enough into this to decide if I am carrying low or high and I am craving everything; sweets, sours, meats, cheeses, blah blah blah...so I can't find a pattern there either. Maybe I will try the wedding ring test sometime...

The thing is, I could technically find out the baby's sex tomorrow. There is this place in town that specializes in determining the sex of your baby. You lay back in a lazy boy and the ultrasound tech goes to town finding the goods. It is only open on Fridays and you have to call and schedule an appointment through the lady's cell phone. She is an ultrasound tech that has Fridays off so she bought an ultrasound machine and determines the sex for $50, a fair trade in my opinion.

The only thing stopping me; well, the only two things stopping me are the fact that I know and really like the ultrasound tech @ my obgyn's office. She is a family friend and I pictured her telling me what my baby would be. Secondly, even though I am pretty sure this wouldn't happen, I am nervous that they may tell me the wrong thing. What if they tell me girl and I invest in tons money in girly things, and then find out from my ultrasound with my obgyn that it is a boy!?!?! Or vice-versa!?!? My sister's sister-in-law reeeeeeally wants me to go find out, and I kinda want to too...oooooh, decisions, decisions!!!

My gut tells me that it's a girl, I have had girl dreams and as you can see, most of the tests online point to "girl"...which reeeeeally leads me to believe it is a boy because I am thinking I am just getting my hopes up for a girl and should be more realistic when I see that penis on the screen!!!

Don't get me wrong, we would love a boy oh so much; I love my nephews and I even like our boy name more than any girl name we have ever come up with. But a girl would be so much fun, unless she turns out like me in middle school, then, not so much-- but that is a different post entirely!

Ok, I am off to go home and get some rest before a date with hubs! I promise I'll post a belly pic later tonight...maybe after my belly is full of dinner and sticking out extra far!!!

2nd Tri??

2009-04-20T21:41:00.002-04:00

Well, I still don't really know where I am in this whole pregnancy game, but I am thinking that I'm in the second trimester now...I am 13 weeks and 5 days (tomorrow) pregnant and I believe that means I am technically in the second tri, but who knows. . .

I am still loving being pregnant, even though I KNOW I am gaining weight too quickly, but I am really beginning to enjoy being pregnant. I spent so much time in the beginning worrying about what could possibly go wrong and now I think I am finally getting comfortable with the idea that I am only in control of what I can control; what I eat, if I exercise, etc...

My mom got me a couple pacifiers, some undershirts, and a bib for the baby for Easter but I just bought the first couple things for our baby yesterday...A few weeks back Hubs bought our stroller and car seat when he was out of town because we didn't have it in our town, but I hadn't bought anything for the munchkin...Well, yesterday I bought two pajama/lounge wear type outfits. They both have birds on them and very cute little hats. One is very definitely "girl" and the other one could be for a boy or a girl. I understand if we have a boy he will not be able to wear the pink one, but it was very inexpensive and I will find somebody to use it if I am not having a girl...but I still have a slight "gut" feeling that it may just be a girl, but who knows...I'd be totally psyched either way!!

And on the belly front, it definitely is getting bigger by the day and I can no longer "suck in" my belly anymore and my tummy is getting harder, it's strange, but I am loving it!!! And I promise, later this week I will post a belly pic, even though it's not so pretty in pictures!!!

Well Well Well...

2009-04-15T11:41:00.002-04:00

Here I sit, 12 weeks and 6 days pregnant, watching my students watch a movie for indoor recess. Something happened this morning, something I couldn't really believe until one of my students pointed it out to me.

See, I teach an all girls class in an inner-city area...so they are pretty wise to the ways of the pregnant woman. When I finally "announced" my pregnancy to them, I got some mixed reviews;
"I thought you just gettin pudgy..."
"I can't believe you did what it takes to get pregnant"
"you could have just rolled over in the bed and said not tonight"
But all of them were very happy. I actually have some students who have relatives that I will share due dates with...I have, however, not become exempt from their pregnancy stories, scrutiny, and "what if" scenarios.

Today, when I was teaching a lesson on the interactive whiteboard (computer plugged into a digital projector) one of my girls raised her hand, I thought to answer a question, and when I called on her, she said, "You know what? Your belly is sticking out further than your boobs!" I pretended to cry and they pretended to console me, but it was a funny observation. Ever since I have had boobs, my belly has been much flatter than my boobies, so this is a welcome little change...remind me in 5 months about the day I enjoyed getting a baby bump, because I am sure it is going to be out of control one day soon!!!

Fast Little Baby...

2009-04-11T02:24:00.002-04:00

No news from the appt. yet, but I did get to hear the baby's heartbeat with the Doppler again...

179 beats per minute....that little whooshing is seriously my new favorite sound. . .

12 Weeks...

2009-04-09T11:39:00.003-04:00

I thought I would feel miraculously better once I hit the 12 week marker, but to tell you the truth, I can't really tell a difference. I still don't "feel" pregnant, except for the excessive hunger and sleepiness and now the protruding gut I am sporting...but other than that, it has been such "smooth sailing" I have no idea what to expect next.
Going to the Ob today for my 12 week check up, but I think its just a pap for cultures and stuff so I won't be able to see the baby...other than that, I can't wait for the weekend!!!

Out of the 200's....

2009-04-06T11:36:00.004-04:00

Well, I don't reeeeeally know how it happened, but I checked my other blog (just something where I write to the future little munchkin) and I realized that I am out of the 200's....then, I opened my google reader and realized that Danse shared the same revelation today! I have officially 199 days left to go in a full term pregnancy! We have the same due date.. weird right? I read her before I was even pregnant...hmmm...cosmic? I think so.

Anyway, I have recently decided that I just have to "let go". Actually, at the urging from some of the women in my Bible study, "let go and let God". It hasn't been easy, but I am trying and doing better. I used to worry about every strange feeling or any terrible thing I heard that could happen to our baby, but I am learning to let go. I am realizing that there really is nothing I can control any more. As long as I keep my end of the deal, eating right, sleeping, exercising, etc...it is totally out of my hands what happens to this sweet little baby. I am just trying my hardest to do everything "right" and we will just see what happens in October. . .

Draaaaaaaaaagging.

2009-03-31T11:48:00.003-04:00

How do pregnant people contribute to the workforce?? I was FINE yesterday, but today, I can't think straight and aaaaaaaall I am thinking about is taking a nap. It wouldn't be so bad for me if I didn't have to tutor after school...I could *normally* be out of here by 2:50 and on my way to dreamland, but since I tutor I don't leave school until about 4:45...

So far I love being pregnant and I have not been sick at all, but this lack of energy thing is wearing me out! I hope everybody is right about that whole "more energy in the second trimester" thing because I will fall asleep in the middle of class if I have to continue like this! I have NO idea how my sister did it with an eight-month-old in tow...hats off to you!

And on another note, I have recently become obsessed with breastfeeding. I certainly hope everything goes to plan because I can't wait til October to cradle that little baby while nursing...*heavenly*

13 for Thursday...

2009-03-26T16:14:00.003-04:00

I have decided to do a sort of "random" post about 13 confessions that have been on my mind in the past week....here it goes;

1. I haven't gone a day in the past four weeks without a nap: I have always loved my sleep, but this is a whole new level. I have no clue how I am going to go back into the work-world without my daily 1:00 nap time.

2. I had my first pregnancy melt-down last night: Hubs called me "stupid" for giving the dog my jelly-covered crusts (he thought it was the whole sandwich that he just made for me...) so I got off the couch, punched him, and then went into the kitchen where I put my hands on the sink and cried like a baby. He felt so terrible, he just kept saying he was sorry-- then he rubbed my feet and back...pretty sweet deal since I was the one that punched him.

3. I have been wearing maternity pants for the past 3 weeks: Yes, it's true. Getting pregnant when you just so happen to be at your heaviest and your regular pants are already too tight is not necessarily advisable. However, I have some adorable maternity pants that you would never know were maternity pants unless you pulled up my shirt and looked at my belly. BTW- if you pull up my shirt and look at my belly I will probably kick you in the crotch and or throat punch you.

4. I have gained weight in the first trimester: All this bull about not gaining weight in the first tri...yeah, I suppose in an ideal world. I quit drinking all my diet mt. dews and water just doesn't fill that void. I have been drinking juice which packs all kinds of calories and non-caffeinated sodas that are also chocked full of calories. Not to mention the very cold things that quench my real thirst, like chocolate milkshakes...yuuuum. I think I have spent a whole 2 years of pseudo-watching what I eat so I just threw caution to the wind and ate whatever I wanted...I have to get back into a better routine now that I am going back to work. ALSO-- (not that I am complaining ooooooone bit--) I have never had a day of morning sickness or throughout the day sickness. Not one episode of vomiting so that means I have kept e.v.e.r.y.t.h.i.n.g. down that I have eaten...and don't get me started on the constipation...it looks like I am just trying to rationalize the fact that I have gained 1.6lbs...I'll stop now.

5. I don't want to go back to work: I don't need to explain that...I reeeeeeally don't want to go back to work.

6. If we could live on one income, I wouldn't go back to work: Another fact. I have always worked...even when I was in high school, cheering 3 nights a week during basketball season and dancing the other 4 days a week...I always had a job. If we could live comfortable on hub's salary, and he was into it too, I wouldn't go back to work. I would spend my days playing with my nephews and taking naps...awwww, that would be the life.

7. I haven't taken a bath in 6 weeks: Somewhere along the pregnancy line I read/heard that it was unsafe to take baths...well, the steaming hot baths that leave your legs red and almost welted like I love. So, I switched exclusively to showers...can somebody let me know if this is a real or rumor type thing? Something about elevating the baby's body temp? Anybody have thoughts on that??? My mom always took baths when she was pregnant, so what's up??

8. I haven't cleaned my house in probably 10 weeks: It would be cool if I could blame that on pregnancy, but it's just the fact that I don't really enjoy cleaning. Never have. Hopefully this whole "nesting" thing will kick in somewhere down the line and I will like it...until then, I'm lucky hubs knows how to clean.

9. I have cooked about 3 dinners in the past 6 weeks: The thought of preparing food makes me nauseous. And, for some reason, my fridge stinks but I am the only person that can smell it. Hubs and his sister have cleaned my kitchen, thrown out anything that can smell in my fridge, but I still smell it. Also, we have some leftover green salsa in our fridge and the thought of that and or sour cream makes me gag-- which is odd since we ate chicken quesadillas about 4 times last month and none of those things bothered me before...I haven't been able to eat Mexican since I found out I was pregnant...

10. I have made my bank account go up in the past 6 weeks: Since I have been soooooo sleepy, hubs and I haven't been going out after our day at work. We would normally go to wal-mart, or sam's club...or shopping someplace else and I would drop $20/$30 a day...it doesn't seem like much, but it adds up. The other day I checked my balance and I was like HOLY CRAP...not like we have millions by ANY MEANS...but I was surprised at how much my little trips add up to!

11. I have been lifting my nephews even though they are above the "safe" limit of 15-20 lbs: I just can't help it. My sister and my mom tell me not to (because the nurse told me it wasn't safe...) but when it is raining and you know your poor, sweet, almost three-year-old nephew hates the rain, how can I make him walk in it? Or when your sweet baby nephew toddles over to you and raises his arms in the air for you to pick him up...how can you deny that??? But I have been trying to be more careful.

12. I a terrified something is going to go wrong with this pregnancy: I have absolutely z-e-r-o reason to think something is going to go wrong, but I a terrified that something will. Every blog I read,k book I pick up, sad story I hear, I am terrified that is going to happen to me. I know I basically have no control over what is going to happen but it is sometimes mind-numbing how scared I get. When I went to the ob for my first ultrasound I was almost SHOCKED when the tech said, there's your baby, here's the heartbeat because I had just read about a blighted ovum and was certain that is what was going to happen to me...I am trying to know that God is in control and that I should just enjoy where I am...but it is very hard not to be scared.

13. I have turned into a sympathy crier: I have always had a tender heart. I mean, something bad happens to someone I know, I break down and cry...but lately, it's like perfect strangers will start crying about something I have no clue about and I cry with them. I know it is partially the hormones, but part of me is just a crier. I can't help it. I joined a new ladies Bible study at church and cried my first night in there...sheesh, sweet first impression Ames...

Well, now you know some of my dirty little secrets...now, I think I need a milkshake!!!

Prego...

2009-03-23T15:42:00.004-04:00

I guess the spaghetti sauce says it best...

"It's in there"

Because apparently, it is in there...

Yes my faithful readers, that is the bun that is cooking in my oven. Hubs and I are over the moon excited, but I have been very cautiously optimistic. I didn't want to post anything about the baby until after my first ultrasound, then I thought I would wait until the first trimester was over, then I pretty much realized that you are never really out of the clear so I should just get over it and enjoy what I have.

So, this is my munchkin at 9 weeks exactly...I am now, uuummm...9 weeks and 4 days I believe...anyway, much more to come later, but what an amazing sound that tiny little heart made. That tiny little fast heart @ 188 bpm!!! Ok, off to napping now. I'll post more at a later date...

By far...

2009-03-09T20:49:00.001-04:00

the best part about teaching at a year-round school is the three-week break I get every nine weeks.

I'm officially on my spring break and loving being a lady of leisure for the next three weeks...if I get into anything fun I'll be sure to let you know!!!

Z is for Zumba!!

2009-03-01T21:52:00.002-05:00

Here we are at the end...I have made it to Z!!!!

Let me just say that I love... L o V e ZUMBA!!!

but, unfortunately, due to recent developments, I have not been going to class. :(

I'm too tired and I have noticed my pulse being a little higher than usual...I went to my doctor and he thought I should just take it easy for a little bit and see what happens...

Soon, very soon, I will be back at it tearing up the floor, but until then, I will miss it from the couch.

Y is for Yawn.

2009-02-26T14:22:00.002-05:00

All of my students seemed to be dragging today so I offered up an idea. I put on some relaxing "soundscapes" type music and told them they could put their heads on their tables or read a book. After the initial whispers, they really settled down. I even had one student fall asleep. It was about the last 20 minutes of our afternoon before my planning periods, so I figured, what the heck, they need a little rest and relaxation. Some chose to read but I just sat in my chair watching them all with envy. See, I am exhausted. Actually, I'm not really sure if that even defines what I feel-- all I want in the world is a nap.

Well -- I did it.

I think I sunk to a new level.

I took a nap at school. After I escorted my students to their related arts class, I came back up the three flights of stairs even more tired than when I went down...found a blanket they I have kept in a closet...laid it on the floor...set a cute timer that I have to check their reading fluency...and fell asleep on my floor. It was only about 13 minutes and if anybody needed me they could have buzzed my room...but I think it was the most relaxing 13 minutes I have had in for-ev-er. Now I am feeling refreshed and ready to tutor my kids after school...

THEN I'm getting a massage...saaaaaaa-weet.

X is for (copy cat) XOXO

2009-02-25T15:14:00.001-05:00

Ok, I am a cheater. I am a big, fat, nasty cheater.

See, sweet SarahBeth posted this exact same post yesterday...but she did get me thinking about *good karma* which I of course always need. . . soooo....

Here I am-- sending out hugs and kisses to all of my dear friends, IRL and in blogland. I hope your hump day is treating you nicely!!!

W is for Waiting....

2009-02-17T22:24:00.001-05:00

Tom Petty is right...the waiting IS the hardest part.

V is for Valentine's Day

2009-02-12T14:32:00.005-05:00

Hello my long lost friends in blogland.
I had to go out of town for work this week, and while I kept myself updated on my readings, I slacked off on my own posting. So, without further adieu, V is for Valentine's Day.

I have a confession.

My name is Amy, and I love Valentine's Day. I know it is a ridiculous holiday, I know it is commercialized to the nth degree...but I can't help but love it. Maybe it is because I am a teacher, maybe it is because of my stellar valentine, maybe it's because I'm wack. Whatever it is, I love it.

Even though the hubs and I have been together for a couple Valentine's Days in the past, I still think my favorite V-day ever was probably the one time I didn't have a significant other. I honestly think I had boyfriends for every single Valentine's Day except one, my senior year of college.

My roommate Laura and I decided we were going to have a little dinner party, my friends Mary and Jen came over and we made steak (my roommate didn't eat because she was a vegan), salad, potatoes, chocolate cake, the works! It was fabulous. We didn't talk about boys, we weren't depressed because we didn't have anybody to share Valentine's Day with, we were just happy being with people we loved.

I think too many people look at V-day as a four letter word; thinking that it is miserable for anyone who is not in a fantastic relationship. I disagree. I think it is nice to have a day to celebrate someone, anyone, that you love.

I don't think hubs and I even have plans for the big day this year...I did get him a nice little book of my boudoir photos that he will hopefully enjoy, but as for dinner? Maybe I will look into whipping up something nice at home. I would much rather eat at home than going out this year. . .

Whatever you do, wherever you are, I hope you enjoy your Valentine's Day with someone you love, platonic or not!

U is for Unprepared

2009-02-05T14:31:00.005-05:00

And THAT could be the understatement of the century.

Our county had a two hour delay today which is always a delight! My principal has been getting on the staff about being there on time; unfortunately, just because students have a 2-hour delay doesn't mean teachers do too. We are supposed to be there on regular time, or at least by 8:00, which is most of the time fine because normal time is 7:20. Maybe to prove a point or maybe because it had to be done, he called a staff meeting at 8:45. A surprise staff meeting? On a two-hour delay? He had already revealed the fact that he was leaving effecting March 1, so what could this meeting be about?

You guessed it (but you probably didn’t guess it unless you know me IRL)—staffing.

Staffing is based on the number of students in your school and the projected enrollment. Our school is very small and about to consolidate with another school with very similar demographics, so it is always a fear that we will lose teachers. This year I could breathe a sigh of relief because I was no longer the lowest on the totem pole. There were two other teachers that had less seniority in the county than I did. Bad news for them -- good news for me. Our school had to let two teachers go! This is TERRIBLE news, but I also received some startling news. As matter-of-fact-ly as humanly possible, my principal said, “ We have to lose two teachers, second grade teacher Ms. Red and first grade teacher Ms. Blue. Amy E. will be teaching first grade”.

::::awkward silence::::

Then he goes on to tell everyone in the building the insane amount of students each teacher will have in their classes because of the cut teachers. The students will all be back to regular classes (no more split gender and no more split grade level) and there will only be one class of each grade level, except kindergarten and first grade.

While this is HUGE in my little world, I am very, very, VERY ~~terrified~~ excited to try something new. I was planning to look for new jobs at the year if I had to stay in a fourth-fifth all girls’ class. They have really worn me out this year. Of course I love them, but my patience is running thin and I can’t subject myself to this year after year. So, as of now, I only have roughly 65 more days as an all-girls, fourth/fifth grade split teacher. I better live it up while I can!

T is for Taking...

2009-02-04T14:27:00.004-05:00

Taking it easy that is. We had another snow day today so that of course meant more time with the boys.

Sam and I were enjoying a little cuddling sesh in "Crap-paw's" recliner, when Joelie decided to join the bunch.

Yay for snow and taking it easy!

S is for Superbowl.

2009-02-02T14:44:00.005-05:00

How dumb and predictable, I know. But, it just so happens that it fell at the right time for an “S” post.

Hubs and I got back yesterday pretty tired and sad from our visit to my brother’s house. We had a couple superbowl parties that we could have attended, but we decided that we would MUCH rather spend a quiet evening at home watching ~~Troy Polamalu~~ the Steelers play. With my ever-so-apparent love of food, I KNEW we couldn’t watch the game without a couple snacks, but we had been out of town for the past four days and had NOTHING in the house. . .

So, at approximately 5:00pm, I went to the grocery store (after a brief detour to my sister’s house where I sliced open my ankle on her screen door). Yikes. I knew everything would be sold out, but I tried my hardest to be creative.

I picked up stuff to make buffalo chicken dip, a pepperoni, cheese, olives, pickles, and of course, fritos and dip.

Buffalo Chicken Dip Recipe : I did however substitute some of the Frank's Red Hot for melted butter because Hubs doesn't like the dip to be too spicy.

I am ~~pretending~~ hoping that is Frank's Red Hot coming out the side of my pile of dip, but my gut (literally) is telling me it's grease from the butter. . . Maybe that's why it taste's so good. . .

R is for Recap. . .

2009-02-01T19:41:00.010-05:00

I have been MIA for the past few days, so I thought I would recap with lots of pictures from my weekend with my brother and sister-in-law!

We went up to see one of my favorite bands, Old Crow Medicine Show. They were fab.

My sister-in-law Jessica and me enjoying the music.

Husband almost always looks surprised in pics.

My brother and Jessica enjoying the show. Nicholas almost always looks like this in pics.

We had to walk through massive amounts of snow, while looking Romanian, says my sister-in-law.

As Nicholas and Jessica walked on the beaten path, hubs ran through the snow like a 5-year-old.

We made wings, rings, and things...here we are breading the onions. It looks like we forgot our makeup, but we didn't, it just came off after our 4 hour naps.

Par for the course, we had a freestyle dance party while we were deep frying our food.

Our finished products-- wings!!!

Our finished homemade onion rings.

Showing just exactly how tasty our wings were.

We sang duets while ~~my husband~~ someone who will remain nameless flipped off the camera.

We went to my brother's office where we did really important stuff with the 3D printer.

We ate 1/2 lb. meatballs @ Buca Di Beppo.

And we hated it when we had to leave. It's always nice to get back home, but it does make me sad living away from my brother and sister-in-law. I wish Jessica could go with me, my mom, and my sister when we go shopping every Saturday, I wish Nicholas could go shoot guns with the boys, or go shopping with us, or even just eat Sunday dinner with us. But their life is there and ours is here, so we have to make the best of it while we can, and we have been known to have some good times when we are together!

Q is for Quick

2009-01-28T17:06:00.003-05:00

Since these have been circling facebook, I knew it was inevitable that I would eventually be tagged.

So, here you have it. Straight from my facebook notes; 25, well, 28, quick and random facts about me.

1. My initials spell my name phonetically. When I got married I dropped Leigh (even though I loved it) to make my maiden name my middle name. My initials went from ALM to AME

2. I have had a pet turtle, Mr. Peepers, for at least five years.

3. I have always been looked at as the “wild child” of my family but it’s just because I tell all of my business. I think my sister or brother could have given me a run for my money but they are much more secretive about their meanderings.

4. I can flip my eyelids inside out.

5. My dream job would be working in a salon doing hair and nails aaaaall day long. I never even mentioned going to cosmetology school to my parents because I was afraid they would think I was crazy for not wanting to go college.

6. I loved every minute of undergrad and I am pretty sure I wouldn’t change anything I did if I had to do it over again.

7. Graduate school kinda sucked.

8. The only thing I ever wanted to do with my life, besides hair and nails, was to be a mom. Unfortunately there is not an undergraduate degree for Mommy-ship, so I went into teaching.

9. One reason why I wanted to get married was because I was surrounded with the strong marriages of my mom and dad, sister and Nathan, and brother and Jessica.

10. More than anything in the world I would love to be a mom. I am terrified of this because I don’t think there is any way possible I could be as good of a mom as my mother or my sister.

11. Even though I know it probably will eventually happen; I can’t imagine loving any child more than I love my nephews Sam and Joel.

12. I think the US should think more like Sweden on maternity leave--16 mos. paid leave per child. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maternity_leave

13. I once sprained my ankle because I was excited about eating a sausage sandwich, and it was a very bad sprain.

14. I broke my nose in dance class after my girl Joanie asked me to skip it so we could hang out.

15. We have had all our baby names picked out since before Tyler and I were married. Who knows if we will ever use them. . .

16. I have never had a speeding ticket, or even been pulled over ::::knocks on wood::::

17. I never went camping or would have considered myself “outdoorsy” until I started hanging out with Tyler…Now I can’t imagine my life without camping, fishing, peeing in the woods, swimming in rivers, etc.

18. I think homeschooling could be either the best/worst-service/disservice you could ever do for your child.

19. I believe in public education and it’s not just because our kids will go to the school where “Grandma” is the principal.

20. I have only passed out once in my life. It was while I was checking out at the gyno’s office…I told the clerk that I thought I was going to be sick. I passed out and hit my head on the wall. My gyno made me go get a CT scan to make sure I was ok. They still use the wicker trashcan I smashed when I landed. They also still joke about it when I come in.

21. I could live anywhere in the world with Tyler…as long as my parents and sister moved there too.

22. I have four tattoos. My most recent is on my back and has rhododendrons and says “Montani Semper Liberi”. Said tattoo is still unfinished. When Kevin (tattoo artist) finished the lettering, he said, “Hey, what is the ‘Montani Sepmer LIBRARY’ anyway?” I panicked for a hot sec, but then I realized he was just messin’ with me.

23. I think that going to “Lick Run Tavern” with Melissa was a defining moment in my life.

24. Tyler and I have lots of nicknames for eachother, but most of the time I call him Borg and he calls me Sasquatch.

25. I met my husband through facebook by clicking on five random people I didn’t know in my college's network, Tyler was the sixth. At the time, we had no mutual friends.

26. I have two "pretend" sisters-in-law, Sarah and Erin. They are pretend because we aren't really related but we act like we are. Sarah is my bil Nathan's little sister and Erin is my sil Jessica's little sister.

27. When I need sisterly advice without the tattling to my mom, I go to Sarah for everything. Mary Ann and I have a very hard time keeping secrets from each other and our mom...Sarah can keep a secret from both of them. . . MA and MOMMY, don't you dare push Sarah for info about my secrets!!! Haha...

28. When I was in 7th grade I was at a sleepover and a girl there was being mean to me, I called Sarah crying and she put the fear of God in that poor girl's heart.

There you have it. 28 quick random factoids about yours truly. Thanks for reading!

P is for Play Day

2009-01-27T20:48:00.009-05:00

Well, in my sweet little county, we had a snow day today!!! So, knowing that I was on P for my alphabet blogging...so I set out to have a day full of P's. But not peas, I don't like peas.

First...I started my morning by pretending.

I woke up at my normal time; about 5:35 to start my morning. The weather people were calling for snow, so I went to my laptop to see if my county had a delay or if they were closed. Lo and behold, we were closed!!! Halle-freaking-lujah! I tried to climb back in bed with the boy, but I couldn't sleep and I was squirmy and coughy, and he wakes up about an hour and a half after me, so I decided to get out of bed. I thought it would be fun to pretend to be a stay-at-home-wife so I tidied the house a little, washed dishes from the night before, and made hubs cheesy eggs and ham, bacon, and toast. It was fun pretending, then he went to work and I was bored.

Next, I decided to give myself a little pedicure. I soaked my feet, trimmed my cuticles, buffed my nails, the whole nine yards. Finally, I painted my pigs OPI's French Chambord-Tini. I won this nail polish at the same WWW where I won my massage gift certificate!

Around 10AM I decided to go to my Mama's house...I think that's one of the good things about living in a one mile radius from your mom and sister; even on snow days you can still hang out with the girls, and boys! My dad drove up to pick up my sister and her boys to bring them down because of the crappy roads. I walked over to my mom's house and began my play day.

My mom and sister made me drive out to pick up the pizza and Sam was excited for his pizza. Joelie ate tons and TONS of pizza, but somehow, I didn't have many picture of him and then he was onto his nap.

Later, Sam and I decided to make peanut-butter kiss cookies! He is starting to be a help in the kitchen! He even unwrapped the kisses for the cookies. Here is a picture of Sam eating another cookie while we were making the other cookies...he has quite the sweet tooth.
Later, Sam wanted to get in bed to "play". I pretended to be asleep and he laid down beside me...then he was concerned about where my feet went. He went under the covers to find my feet and decided he wanted to stay under the sheets. He looked up at me and said, "Amy. AMY. This is so fun!"
After Joelie woke up from his nap, he of course had to have a cookie, but not the peanut butter kind, apparently babies shouldn't eat peanut butter until they are two. It's such a good thing my sister knows everything to know about pregnancy, being a mom, what kids can eat because I am sure I will be totally clueless when it comes to that stuff. My mom was making pinto beans for dinner and Sam said he wanted some. She set some out on a plate so they could cool down for him, he never got to those pinto beans because Joel ate them. Joel who doesn't like to eat anything if it isn't sweet or pizza.
Joel and Sam ended our play day by playing the piano together. I promise they are not really dirty, they just had ~~about fifty~~ a couple Hershey kisses. The temperature has warmed up a little here but it is still icy. I am hoping for another snow day tomorrow, but I am not quite sure I could come up with a day full of "q" activities. Oh well!

O is for Old and Older

2009-01-23T12:56:00.008-05:00

Well, not really just Old, but Old Crow Medicine Show. And older is for me.

On January 13, 2009, I turned a quarter-century old. Bleh. It's not that I feel like that is old, but it is older and I really enjoyed 24. We celebrated our one-year anniversary, bought our first home, bought a new car and had many other mini-milestones thrown in here and there. I guess it's just an unavoidable part of life, but I did get a little bit older this year.

So, for my birthday, my brother called and asked if I would like to come up for a visit to see one of my favorite bands!!! Well, there is no better way to celebrate getting older than having a little fun with my family! I love my brother and sister-in-law so much and we hardly get to see them, so this was the perfect opportunity.

My college roommate Laura turned me onto OCMS, I turned my brother onto them, then I met hubs and turned him onto them, I am sure my brother turned my sil onto them too..so this has been a long time coming. This is what I looked like when I saw them over three years ago.

Not much has changed except that I have stopped wearing cut-up and tied together tee shirts; well, for the most part. We just happened to meet those two boys at the show and I still talk to Jason. . . guess there are some cosmic connections that will just go unbroken.

Anyway, we are very excited to see them and hopefully I will have a new pic to post!

N is for Nosebleed

2009-01-22T11:31:00.003-05:00

Seriously, what is going on with all these nosebleeds in Lost???

Luckily lostpedia.com has some insight here...

and for those of you that don't watch lost...sorry, I ~~am obsessed with~~ enjoy it.

M is for Massage

2009-01-21T15:34:00.006-05:00

Um. Massage. Oh, how I love thee.

Unfortunately, I did not have a fabulous experience two nights ago.

I had a massage Monday night, my first professional one in at least a year and it was less than stellar to say the least. I have decided to outline the high and low points of this massage;

word to ya mother;
1. it was relaxing
2. it was quiet
3. it was dark
4. I could sum up numbers 1-3 by saying the atmosphere was perfect, but I am trying to give him a little more help than he deserved.
5. It was warm, nice and cozy while it was about 17 degrees outside

bites a big one;
1. he spoke very softly, I could barely hear him talk
2. the music was too loud. I mean, it may be relaxing to lay in a rain forest while fairies dance around playing the pan flute, but not when they are playing the pan flute and ungodly decibels.
3. he gave me for-ev-er to get undressed. as he could probably see, I was only wearing jeans and a long-sleeved shirt, I already took off my jacket, scarf, and mittens...I was left alone long enough to take off a lace-up wedding gown with a full corset, garter belt, and thigh-highs. . .
4. when I asked him what he would prefer I do with my hair he said he would like me to put it up...he asked if I had a hair thing, I told him I did, he left for another 5 minutes so I could put my hair in a ponytail.
5. he rubbed me with the intensity of an 82-year-old lady, and not a strong 82-year-old lady; the frail kind.
6. he only rubbed my legs to about 5 inches above my knees
7. he tickled my feet when he rubbed them. and not in a good way.

I guess it wasn't all that bad, I had a gift certificate I won from a Working Women's Wednesday so I didn't pay much for the massage and it was relaxing, for the most part. I would have expected it if I went to a student, not a massage therapist at a pretty upscale salon in my town.

But I have ridiculously high standards due to my previous massage therapist that righted all the wrongs in my world when I saw him. He worked out every single knot, kink, any little thing, he fixed. And, he didn't tickle my feet when he did my reflexology. But he has moved onto bigger and better things and no longer massages, even though now, after a craptastic massage, all I can think about is how good I felt when he worked on my back. Ugh. Maybe I can get him to come out of 'retirement'?

On my way out, Mr. Craptastic informed me of all the knots that I had in my body. I wanted to ask him why he didn't get them out, but instead I just simply said, "uh huh". He then wondered why I had so many knots, I let him know that I am a teacher that only teaches girls between the ages of 10-12. He thought that could be the source of stress on my body...ya think?!?!

After paying and begrudgingly giving him a nice tip he asked if I wanted to go ahead and schedule my next massage...

"no thanks ~~you suck~~, I'll just call when I'm ready..."

L is for Lingerie

2009-01-20T16:59:00.001-05:00

Main Entry: lin·ge·rie
Pronunciation: \ˌlän-jə-ˈrā, ˌläⁿ-zhə-, -ˈrē; ˈlaⁿ-zhə-(ˌ)rē, ˈlän-jə-, ˈläⁿ-zhə-, -ˌrā\
Function: noun
Etymology:
French, from Middle French, from linge linen, from Latin lineus made of linen — more at line
Date: 1835

1 : linen articles or garments

2: women's intimate apparel

Remember, it's that stuff you got at your bachelorette party but stuffed in the back of your drawer or traded out for your husband's over-sized tee?

Wait?! You didn't do that?

Oh, well, it's that stuff I gave up on a long time ago.

It's not that I didn't appreciate my gifts, because I did, and they were beautiful. It's not even that it doesn't fit me anymore, because it does, probably better now than when I was married. . . but I just get so dag-on cold when I put it on.

Needless to say, husband loves it. He is a boy and what boy wouldn't love to see the wife they love and adore in something beautiful? Ok, I added the love and adore part . . .

So the solution? Enter my best friend. It just so happens that she is also the world's best photographer. Maybe she hasn't won that particular award yet, but if there was one, she would definitely be in the running. Anyway, she takes all sorts of lovely pictures, she took my sister's family pictures and she took my girlfriend's headshots, and another friend's engagement pictures. She has weddings booked all throughout next summer, SOMEBODY IS EVEN PAYING TO TAKE HER TO MEXICO FOR A DESTINATION WEDDING!!! Homegirl is up and coming!

But she has never taken boudoir shots. Well, unless you count those risque photos from 11th grade. . . Needless to say, in her quest for all things perfect, she needed to tackle the bedroom. Me, being an incredibly spunky, more comfortable sans clothing, kinda girl, I jumped at the chance. And of course, I felt it was my civic duty to help my friend. Emily got four of our friends, rented a hotel room, and got to shootin! We all came at separate times to make us comfortable and it was just like I was hanging out with a friend. Now, I must say, Emily is one of my nearest and dearests so I would be comfortable with her in clothes, out of clothes, standing on my head...you get the picture. However, I talked to another boudoir chica that was not really great friends with Emily and all she could say was how comfortable she made her feel , blah blah blah...If you haven't gotten the moral of this message...it's that Emily takes great pictures and makes people feel great about themselves while doing it. The only stipulation I gave Em was that she used PhotoShop liberally on my cellulite and any other nasty area of my body.

Yesterday she sent me three "teaser" photos via facebook to let me know how they turned out. . . They looked great but my sister freaked me out about having a pic up here so I took it down. . . maybe one day I'll put one up.

K is for King

2009-01-19T00:01:00.001-05:00

"I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: 'We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal.' "

Happy Martin Luther King, Jr. Day

I think he would be proud of our progress.

J is for Jump on it. . .

2009-01-18T18:12:00.002-05:00

This past weekend, husband and I were able to see one of our favorite bands play at a local bar here. We always love to see them whenever we can, but especially when they play so close to home. I became familiar with them when I was living in my college town through my best friend Melissa.

One of their songs is entitled "Jump On It" and is basically about a redneck family spending their money on a trampoline instead of something more useful. They are incredibly high-energy and it pumps us up anytime we can see them.

I couldn't find a video of "Jump On It" so this is their biggest hit so far, "Big City Hillbilly". This was recorded @ Sunshine Daydreams, the first place I ever saw them. Enjoy!

I is for Inauguration

2009-01-16T09:58:00.005-05:00

Well, well, well, I can't believe it, but it's time for a new president!

I am not going to spend my time bashing GWB because I am sure you could find about 1,000,000 other blogs that are doing that at this time.

I am however excited to ring in the new year with a new president!

I have now, officially voted in two presidential elections and I tell ya, I just get so stinkin excited.

I used to work for our county here and elections were always a ton of fun...some people hated them but I loved em! We would be up until well after midnight sorting out ballot boxes and being all kinds of official. . .

Anyway, I always love elections, I don't think I have ever missed an voting in my county, even while I was away at college. . . ahh, the benefits of having an INCREDIBLY political grandmother. . .

This election is different for me now though because of my current employment. I teach at a predominately black school (yes, we call them black because that's what they call themselves, many of them didn't come from Africa, and that's what they told me to call them!) and we as a school are amazed at the progress our country has made in the past 100 years. I am looking forward to celebrating the inauguration, not only for me, but with my students as well. We are looking forward to a new era and even more progress.

So as jenny would say. . . Obamanos!!!

H is for Happy Place

2009-01-15T22:08:00.007-05:00

If there is one place in the world I am the happiest,

it's when I'm cooking on a propane stove,

eating breakfast with some of my closest friends and family,

Making the world's best pizza sandwiches over a campfire,

Or on top of a mountain peeking over the edge.

My happy place is on the river or in the mountains, but away from society with hubs and my nearest and dearests; I wish my mom and sister would come with us.

Negative degree weather is making me not so happy. I want my happy place back.

G is for Girls

2009-01-14T23:46:00.002-05:00

As some of you know, I am a teacher. I love my job even though it is far out of my comfort zone.

I teach at an inner-city school where I share the title of "token white girl" with only one other student. It is a year-round school that utilizes split-gender teaching in the upper elementary grades, I teach 10-12 year old girls.

I also tutor some of my girls after school. Today when they were getting ready to go home, one of my students bundled up in a white scarf, toboggan (that's what we call beanies here...), and gloves. This is the conversation between the students; Initials used to protect anonymity.

S: You look white.

N: What's that supposed to mean?

Me: Yeah, what IS that supposed to mean? Are you racist? (jokingly, of course)

S: No, I just mean cuz she wearin all white stuff.

Me: Good, I was hoping you wouldn't say things like that.

Z: (S's twin sister) Nah, Mrs. E, you black.

Me: do what???

Z: I mean, you're one of us. you black.

Sometimes these girls make me crazier than I don't know what, sometimes they make me laugh so hard I wanna pee my pants, but all the time I love em!!!

We have a program we get on in school that is like a mini-myspace. It's private and only my classroom can chat with each-other and nobody can see their profile unless they have a login from me. One of my students once posted the words, "I gotta donk" on her page...not quite sure what she meant by "donk" I asked her about it...

Here is a convo from earlier in the year;

Me: Uhem, what does that page say?

Student: 'I gotta donk'

Me: Yes, I can read that, I mean, what do you mean by that?

Student: Oh, ya know, badonkadonk, liiiiike, a bootie.

Me: Oh, I see.

Student: You could put that on your page ya know

Me: I could what?

Student: You gotta donk too, you gotta a black girl bootie.

Me: Um, am I supposed to say thanks?

Student: Well, it is a compliment for a white girl to have a black girl's bootie.

Me: Thanks, then.

Like I said, they may not always be the most appropriate, but I love those crazy ladies!!!

F is for Floor

2009-01-14T23:31:00.005-05:00

Look what hubs did on Saturday!!!

He took our ~~hainus~~ faux brick kitchen floor from this. . .

To this. . .

Thanks hubs, you rox it on the realz.

E is for Excited

2009-01-13T15:38:00.002-05:00

I'm excited.

It's my birthday.

Fancy dinner w. hubs.

Presents from family.

Cookie Cake with the gang.

I do what I want.

D is for DEALS!!!

2009-01-12T20:41:00.006-05:00

Ok. Here it goes.

My name is Amy and I am addicted to deals.

I can't help it. I think I am missing the gene that allows people to pay retail for things.

Anyway, as I posted before here, we have a new bed. This bed was a small source of controversy in our marriage for a hot sec. See, husband didn't think we needed a new bed; we didn't have any king-sized bed linens, ok, he didn't supply that reason, but I think it goes along with my post. Anyway, I found this superb deal. Like, the biggest deal EVER.

I saw this beautiful king-sized 24 piece Martha Stewart bedroom set at Macy's and fell in love. When I called hubs to ask if he thought I should get it, he said OF COURSE NOT! WE DON'T EVEN HAVE A KING-SIZED bed yet!!! ok, he probably didn't yell that much...but for sake of argument. . . So, being the fabulous wife I am, I consulted my mom and sister and bought it anyway.

Fast forward a week and we bought a king-sized bed! Then guess who was smiling when I put all the finishing touches on the bed??? That's right, Mr. Hubs.

So how much did this lovely bed set cost me? This bed set complete with a bed skirt, comforter, sheet set, four shams, two decorative pillows, curtains, valances, and something else that I can't remember right now....This particular package retailed for a measly $600.00, but how much did I pay for it???

a whopping $67.71!!! Can you believe it? It's beautiful and comfortable, and perfect!!

Another deal that I will share when I get to F is the beautiful kitchen floor hubs and I just put in for less than $100...oh, how I love a deal!

C is for Closet

2009-01-12T20:19:00.006-05:00

Yikes. It shouldn't be called closet, it should be called our top secret hiding place.

Behind the crappy, seldom working doors of my old closet was all of my dirty laundry. literally. We gave the term "skeletons in the closet" a whole new meaning. It was rough. Stuff was everywhere, unorganized, an overflowing mess. When company was coming over, just shove the clothes piled on our bedroom floor into the closet and PRAY that nobody opens it.

Anyway, stuff was outta hand and given the fact that we have a beautiful new bed, we needed a beautiful new closet. So, I bought one of those nifty organizers for about $100. @ our Lowe's.

We painted the inside of the closet Rosemary Green to match our bedspread.

Hubs installed it and I got to work organizing it. I picked up some baskets @ Homegoods and we are good to go...

Now, if only I can keep it looking this nice forever!

B is for Bed

2009-01-12T20:17:00.001-05:00

and what a bed it is.

After a few weeks of debating, harassing family members, begging husband, calculating costs...we are the proud owners of a new bed.

See, my old bed was fine. Actually, I love my old bed, but it was small...very small. It was a gift from my grandmother or aunt when I was moving into my first apartment. While I lived in my college town it served me very well. Plenty of space for one, comfortably firm, a bed of pillowy-top perfection...until we moved into our house. My seemingly comfortable full-sized bed transformed our happy home into a constant nighttime argument...Normally something like this;

husband: MOVE OVER TO YOUR SIDE OF THE BED!

me: if I move over anymore I will fall off the edge

husband: That's impossible because I am on the absolute edge of the bed and you
have at least two feet on the other side of you.

me: hmph.

husband: I will go sleep in another room if you don't scoot over.

And sometimes he would and sometimes he wouldn't. Anyway, we needed more space.

We found a mattress that we loved very quickly, but we wanted to be sure we loved this mattress so we shopped around. We had a lady look at us like we were crazy because we wanted to spend LESS than $1,000.00 and someone told us that we should spend as much money on it as we could because it would be a lifetime investment. We decided that our first mattress was the best bet, so we went to our local Sam's Club and picked it up! It was about $860.00 for the mattress, box spring, and the universal bed frame! And the best part is, it is the MOST comfortable bed I have ever slept on!

Sure it takes up most of the space in our bedroom...but what else do you REALLY need in a bedroom?? We still have our dresser, chest of drawers, and our nightstands, so I think it is a nice fit!

FYI

2009-01-11T20:34:00.002-05:00

FYI--

I haven't forgotten to post my ABC blogging...

but I can't find my camera cord...

I have about 3 posts stockpiled but I am waiting until I have pictures to go with them...

so stay tuned.

A is for At Work

2009-01-05T14:55:00.004-05:00

Well, since I am becoming a dedicated blogger...AND because I can already think of letters A-D; I am going to try yet another 26 days/26 letters type of postings. Now, I don't want you to get all excited and check in on me everyday, because fact of the matter is, I'm probably not going to be able to post every single day. But my loyal 2 or 3 readers out there will certainly understand.

Ok.

A is for AT work....
yes, I am back at work. As a school teacher there are a few breaks that I look forward to throughout the year. However, I have an added bonus. I teach at a year-round school. For those of you not in the educational world, that means we go to school for nine weeks and then have a 3 week break in between nine week sessions. Yes, that means I work over the summer, gasp, but it really is NBD.

Anyhoo...I had the best break ever. I will probably post more about it later, ya know, as the letters in the alphabet come up...but needless to say, I wasn't ready for my break to be over. I love my students, most of the time, and they are, for the most part, good kids, but they are not my family. I had such a good time hanging out with my family over break. Especially my sister and her boys. She always looks forward to my breaks so we can run around together and I totally miss it! I also really miss the fact that her boys take naps in the afternoon. I am finding myself increasingly more jealous of my little nephews because I am seriously draaaaaaaaaagging right now! We hung out in the morning Christmas shopping and stuff, the boys fell asleep in the car on the way home, we carried them to their beds, then I would go to my own house and take a nap as well!

I am however happy to be back at work because I will start eating better again. I mostly pack a lunch at work but got pretty used to eating fast food everyday during break! Let's see...only 44 more school days until spring break . . .

I wonder if I could talk my principal into letting fifth graders take naps after lunch???

resolutions.

2009-01-03T00:25:00.003-05:00

I suppose it would be easy for me to repeat the same resolutions I have had for years. I could be like eeeeeeeverybody else and say that I want to lose weight or work out more, but I will spare you the details. For some reason, recently I am less concerned with the number on the scale and more concerned about how my clothes fit or how I look in the mirror.

Fact is, I do want to lose weight, I do want to work out more (Zumba!), I do want to be healthier; but I don't want to work at it. Quite the predicament, huh? Oh well, I suppose I will try harder this year, and since I recently took up 'salads', I can try to eat healthier.

But what I really want, more than anything, is to get organized! I recently (December 31 to be exact) donated 5 bags of clothes to Goodwill and could probably donate about another 500. Husband and I have decided to get a bigger bed so we have cleaned and painted our current room, moved into another room in our house, but are only slowly working on getting a bigger bed. Today however, I decided that I want a new closet to go with my new bed. One of those cool metal wire organized closets. We will see, if I ever get around to purchasing one I will be sure to post before and afters.

Maybe I will stick to at least one resolution this year.

Crap, I better make one that will be easier to stick with...hmmmmm, I resolve to constantly think I have the best nephews in the world.

Sweet. Now I can check off one resolution that I can unconditionally keep the whole year long!!!

Letter Never Sent

2008-12-24T10:07:00.004-05:00

Dear Rain,

Before you jump to any conclusions, just hear me out. It's not you, it's me. We have been growing apart for some time now. Although I am struggling on the inside, this is the way it has to be.

I am over you.

You see, it probably started sometime in high school, you probably ruined something that I cared about in my mundane high school life; but college is where you really started mistreating me. It wasn't fair that I was good to you, occasionally splashing in your puddles while you were watching and you continued to dump on me every time a cloud appeared in the sky. I tried to put some distance between us, I graduated college and moved back home where it never rained as much as it did in my college town, but you followed me. You have not left me alone in weeks it seems. You have been haunting my every outing.

I do think this is in large part due to me. I have changed. We have grown apart. It is probably all my fault but I can take no more. You have been making my socks wet for years and I have casually turned the other cheek, pretending that the would dry by the time I sat through class or maybe I could just slip off my socks while they dried, but enough is enough. I haven't been able to wear my new favorite Merrell's because husband says they will get ruined with all the rain. Now you are threatening my Christmas with your rain? You have gone too far. I know we had a history and I hope we can be friends again one day, but this is too much for me to handle right now. I will always love you, even if it can only be from a distance. You are sometimes too beautiful to look at, but lately you have been ugly with your power, and I don't love ugly.

I am sorry it had to end this way, but you will see that it is for the best. I will always cherish what we had.

graciously yours,

amy e.

Three New Obsessions

2008-08-11T21:34:00.003-04:00

Well. I must admit. I have three new obsessions. Ok, not exactly all of them are obsessions, but I feel like I have to at least say one is a new obsession so maybe I will stick with it.

1. Running-- Ok,this OBVIOUSLY is the "obsession" I am not too zealous about. My sister and I have begun running in hopes of trying our first 5k this October. I have never, ever, EVER enjoyed running for sport but I am trying my hardest to get into it. Last year...actually, almost exactly one year ago, my brother-in-law ran in our local distance run. My sister and I went along to stand on the side of the road cheering him all the way to the finish line. Somewhere along the way there was this really hot chick running in a sports bra and spandex shorts. MA and I said that next year, that would be us. Well, at the time, MA was 9 months pregnant with Bertlebee and I was a MAJOR fatty. We haven't quite made it down into our spandex yet...but at least we are trying and we are shooting for on October run here in our hometown...We are trying to run as much as possible and we are following a couch to 5k program...hopefully more info on this later!

2. This new CD by the lead singer of Bright Eyes. I am obsessed with Bright Eyes mainly because husband and I shared our first dance to their song First Day of My Life played beautifully by my brother on the guitar. I have been finding this cd to be very calming in my mostly stressful job. I love my job, it is just VERY stressful right now...but that is a whole other post in and of itself. . .

3. ZUMBA ZUMBA ZUMBA!!! This is TOTALLY my MAJOR obsession in my life right now. I have jumped on the bandwagon and if getting off is wrong--- I don't wanna be right!!! My girlfriend recently got certified to teach Zumba in our area and started 2 classes per week at a school on the end of my road. She could honestly teach a class 7 days per week and I would be there EVERY SINGLE DAY!!! The best part about this for me is that I don't really feel like I am working out...it feels more like a dance party, and let's get real, who doesn't LOVE a dance party?!?! I have also seen a difference in my body since I began Zumba-ing...there are subtle changes I can see in my body just on a weekly basis, and, as I said before, I don't feel like I am working out so I don't hate it!!! Anyway...I hope this keeps up and if my body starts looking better I may even post some pics!

Anyway, that is all for now, I am sure I will have something to blog about soon when I get my students' state standardized test scores back. . . WISH ME LUCK!!!

MIA. . .

2008-07-18T19:58:00.007-04:00

Well Well Well...look what the cat dragged in....

Ok, I have been MIA once again. I have trouble with this whole blogging thing. I read multiple blogs a day and can check in on them every few hours, but as for me...I feel like I never have time to write...but I will start...and I will start now.

Since I have been on yet another temporary hiatus, I will reflect upon the past few months. . .

Let's see, my last post was on May 12th...a lot has happened since then...

I finished out my first year of teaching with a bang! It was great and I will dearly miss those girls (I teach an all-girls' class) but I was happy to see them move on to middle school at the same time. My first year of teaching brought on many trials and troubles that I did not ever imagine having in college, but more importantly, it also brought many more rewards than I ever thought possible. I will post more about teaching at a later date...

When I finished up the school year I only had a short 3 week break due to the fact I teach at a year-round school so we packed it with a lot of fun!

Over Memorial Day husband and I went camping with my brother, sister-in-law, and a BUNCH of their friends from OH. We had a great time so I decided I will try to recap wit pictures. . .

This is me at our campsite enjoying the fact that I do not have to wear makeup for the WHOLE weekend!!!

When we camp, our favorite part is the food!!! We eat so well when we are out in the wild!

Enjoying an evening by the bonfire.

Husband cooking his fresh trout on the campfire!

We had a great time and can't wait to get back there...we love being in the outdoors away from all of our normal routines.

We went to the beach during my break...but this post is getting a little long, so I will post more on that later...

I'll be back . . .

E is for Enough...

2008-05-12T19:35:00.002-04:00

Alright, enough is enough...my sister is right. I have decided that I am the official world's worst blogger...where's the bloggie for that one!?!?!

Since I have left you all out there in the world without me for a while now, I have decided to update you on what's going on in my life...

1. We are still in the middle of 10,000,000 little house projects in our new home...while we are living in the house and are even having people over (ok, ok...just family so far...) we still have tons and TONS of things to finish, but I do promise that I will finally post pictures very soon

2. I have also been overwhelmed with getting my students ready for our statewide standardized tests. There is a whole other post I would like to write about how unfair I think "high stakes tests" are, but that is for another time and place. My past 3 months have involved "cramming" for this test, I haven't felt like a teacher in FOREVER because we are so busy cramming and I don't really feel like we are learning...oh well, there I go again with that other post.

3. I am exactly T minus 10 days until I am camping with my brother and SIL...Last Memorial Day was my first camping trip and, contrary to popular belief...I LOVED IT!!! I can't wait to go back and I really, really, really love spending time with Nicholas and Jessica...and of course Erin and Matt as well...as well as 1,000 of their other friends!!! We will be headed out over Memorial Day weekend and I can't even begin to explain just how much I need this trip!!!

4. I am exactly T minus 30 days until my school year is over! I am excited, but I am super sad! These girls are my first class and I HATE to have to see some of them move on to middle school, but I know most of them are ready to get out...

5. I am not counting down the exact days until the beach, but it is getting closer...this is proving to be both good and bad. I can't wait to go to the beach, play in the ocean, feel the sand, just RELAX-- but the weight loss plan hasn't been going so well lately. I have been stuck at the same weight for about 8 weeks now and it is driving me crazy...I really need to step it up in the next couple days.

6. While at the beach, husband and I will celebrate our first year of marriage! I can't believe our very first year is coming to an end, it has certainly flown by!

7. In order to prepare for the beach...meaning: in order to not have my butt burned off the first week of the beach, I have started tanning in a tanning bed here in town. Spare me the drama, I KNOW they are terrible, I KNOW I should never, ever, under no circumstances lay in a tanning bed, but lets get real...I just look so much better with a lil color on my body!!! I have only been once and I can already feel my skin burning away...maybe I won't lay so long next time. . .

8. I have started eating salads....Yes-sir-ee-bob...you heard it hear first. I have started eating salads! The "no thank you, I do not eat anything green or healthy" stage is beginning to give way and husband could not be happier. He, along with every member of my family before finally giving up on me, have been trying to get me to try new things for as long as I can remember. For me, it was always a texture thing, but I am really getting into salads now! Of course they still have some sort of meat in them and some form of cheese and of course, full-calorie ranch dressing, but I'm trying. Stop judging me-- I have to take baby steps.

9. I have decided to stay at the same job next year...It's not that I was every really considering a move, but the thought did cross my mind. My job is hard, our school is hard to work at, but at the end of the day, I love our schedule and I love my girls, so I could never leave them...not yet at least.

10. I am not sure if I really have anything else to write about, but I thought it was a good idea to wrap this post up at 10...hmmm...maybe 10 lbs. I would love, love, LOVE to lose 1o more lbs before summer got into full swing...that would make my weight loss grand total right around 25 lbs and I would just really enjoy that! I guess I better get going on that goal!!!

Well folks, that is it in a nutshell...what has been happening for the past, well, however long it has been since my last post. Now sister, sister-in-law, sister's sister-in-law, mom, dad, brother-in-law, and brother-in-law's mama will know what is going on in my life...It sure is nice to have abut 7 readers...maybe one day I will up my game...aaaaahh, one day. . .

D is for Dang baby, you look good and Dodge. . .

2008-04-08T10:24:00.001-04:00

*DISCLAIMER*
Just so you know, I wrote this post quite some time ago...I have been overwhelmed with work/buying a house/life/procrastination, etc...I could go on and on...that I haven't been blogging like I promised...Soooo, I am posting without pictures. I needed to resize the pics, and I never go around to it...so this post is minus the pics...I promise I will put them in sometime soon b/c you won't understand why I like it unless you see the pics!!! So, without further adieu...

There is something to be said about a working man. I do love it when my hubby wakes up early with me and dresses nicely to head on to his office job, but I love it even more when he puts on his grubby clothes and gets ready to do manly things around the house or on his car. Well, I had the privilege to wake up from a nice Saturday afternoon nap and find this in our garage…

*I have to load this pic...*

Yes, it is my husband and my papa, my two favorite men working on my husband’s car. This is, of course, after they already worked on my Daddy’s car. They are putting on rear brakes. Don’t let my husband know this, but, as much as I complain about that stupid car, I really do love it…and we could only get about $1000 for it, so we might as well drive it into the ground!!!

*and this one...*

So, do you want to know the best part about my husband putting new brakes his car???

They ACTUALLY work!!! So now we are driving in a relatively safe, hot little car…I must admit, when I am driving behind him, I really do like the way he looks at me in his rear view mirror with those Oakley shades. . . .mmmmm….

Temporary . . .

2008-03-20T08:22:00.002-04:00

ok my faithful readers, all three of you, hear me out. . .

I have only been taking a temporary hiatus, not like the last one where I was AWOL for months on end. . .

You see, husband and I FINALLY closed on our house so I have been spending numerous hours updating and unpacking . . .

I promise, and I mean PROMISE to update my blog soon, I'll even give you some pictures of the house, and THEN I will get back to my alphabet update!!!

But for right now, I have to get back to Mr. Joel who is smiling at me from the exersaucer. . . That is what else I have been doing, unpacking, organizing, and spending lots of time with the nephews...Mommy had to get a physical this morning and Joel and I are waiting for Sam to wake up . . .

More to come later :)

C is for Concerts

2008-02-21T11:43:00.008-05:00

This is Little Big Town singing at our local concert spot...It's really far away and a pretty lousy picture, but oh well...They sang on all four corners of the stage so there really weren't any "bad" seats!

Like most young ladies, nothing thrills me more than some good music. Imagine my surprise as my sister's sister-in-law called me and asked if I wanted to go to a FREE concert with her?!?! Free was the key word there...I wanted to go to this concert anyway, but the tickets wer far too expensive for my lifestyle. But luckily for me, her husband has connections AND had to work that night, so that left Sarah with a free ticket! I was so pumped to see George Strait...but especially LITTLE BIG TOWN who I also saw at Mountain Stage with The Davisson Brothers' Band! Nothing says "country concert" like my favorite three things...tight jeans, big hair, and cowboy boots. All day I was dreaming about my evening. *Random sidenote: I have been friends with Sarah since I was in 7th grade and she was in 9th. I have always known just how wild this lady could be, but I though that marriage and two children may have tamed her wild urges..but boy, was I wrong...*

The concert was great, first of all, how could a free concert not be good? And secondly, Little Big Town and George Strait were phenomenal...Everything was smooth sailing until the concert was almost over and my sweet little Sarah, married, mother of two, decided it was necessary for us to sneak onto an elevator leading backstage. I was, to say the very least, extremely hesitant of getting on said elevator. Finally, after some gentle persuasion, by gentle I mean Sarah grabbing my arm and forcibly pulling me onto the elevator, we were riding down to backstage. We quickly enacted a plan, we would simply pretend that we were trying to get to our car in the parking garage and we must have taken a wrong turn. The doors opened and here we were, no cops, no visible security, just a girl at a table. When she asked if she could help us we told her that we couldn't find our car and she sweetly pointed us in the "right" direction, upon which we turned left and waited for George Strait to come off stage. We stood there, waited for about 1 minute and there he was, about six feet from us. He then went back on stage to sing an encore and we hung out with the light crew and pretended like we were supposed to be there...The light crew was privy to certain information, such as "the security guards will take your camera if you try to get a picture of GS" etc. So, me being the rational school teacher says that we shouldn't try to get a picture, just the experience will be enough...but no, Sarah decides she needs a picture and continues to hold my camera in hopes of getting another picture. Well, long story short: he comes back off stage, Sarah gets excited and snaps the picture a little too early, we leave backstage, and then make our way to the car.

Maybe she is a little crazy, my sister would have killed her 10 times over at this point. But that's the Sarah we all know and love. . .

Now, I just hope her husband gets another set of free tickets and has to work the night of Keith Urban and Carrie Underwood!!!

B is for Bye Bye Belly and Bottom...

2008-02-17T15:00:00.009-05:00

Before: Here I am as a fat cow...I think Tyler looks particularly skinny compared to my face and upper arms that are taking up all of the space in this picture.

Well folks, it's true...I have officially lost some of my belly and bottom...don't worry, it's nothing drastic, but it is 15 lbs, 15.5 to be exact; and on a short person's frame, that's kind of a big deal. Way back in October, I began my weight loss voyage. My loyal readers can also remember my New Year's Resolution to battle the bulge...I have been on, what some may call, a weight loss crusade. I have fluctuated throughout the 4 months on this program, but overall I am excited to see my results; smaller pants sizes, less fat rolls, cheek bones...Some may think that 15.5 lbs is not a lot of weight to lose in 4 months, I may agree to an extent, but it has been hard. I have had to deal with Thanksgiving, Christmas, 5 birthdays, New Year's, the SuperBowl...you name it, I ate during it. I have been trying to follow my weight watcher plan, but it is necessary to cheat sometimes. My sister and I have been using the Wendy method...I think I spelled it right...which is an unsanctioned version of the points system. We basically eat whatever, and I mean WHATEVER we want on Saturdays. We blow our points out of the water and then we "diet" throughout the rest of the week. I placed " " around diet, because I do not feel that WW is actually a diet. I tried the low/no carb thing and I did lose A LOT of weight, but I missed all the food I was cutting out and my roommate, the health conscience dietitian, was in constant disapproval of my diet, which she should be...it was CRAZY! BUT, I gained all that weight back and then some. I guess I finally decided enough was enough and I couldn't handle gaining one more ounce. So today, I may toot my horn just a little because I am proud of me and I am proud of my smaller bum.

Here I am after I lost about 16 lbs...I know the picture looks a little strange, but my arms kept getting in the way...

I know this is a picture of my bottom...but if you knew me before, you would be amazed at how much smaller I look from the back now!!!

A is for Addiction...

2008-02-11T08:11:00.001-05:00

The first step in addiction is realizing that you have a problem.
My name is Amy, and I am an addict.
Caffeine is my drug of choice.
I realize that I have a problem and I am trying to resolve this problem.
I noticed the other day that I consume WAY too much caffeine for a young lady my size! I have decided to quit drinking 3 diet mountain dews a day…Not an easy task considering my first one would almost be finished by the time I got to school. So, I am trying something new. I have completely cut out all the caffeine in my life, except for the tiny m&m’s I sneak when I get home from work. The REAL reason this all started was because Wal-Mart was COMPLETELY out of Diet Mt. Dew when it was 2/$5.00, so this experiment was started out of desperation, not really choice. Now I am just seeing if I can avoid drinking the rest of the day. When someone asked me why I looked so tired I told her I quit drinking caffeine. Her immediate response; “oh, are you pregnant?” she had a slight look of delight thinking about the prospect, however I had to pick my jaw up off the floor to tell her no. Then she wanted to know if we were “trying”…then I told her that we were not and I had to assure her that we were not going to “try” as they say until a while later…I have two nephews that keep me busy enough to lose my mind.
So, I can’t really quit the sauce just yet…but I am getting closer and closer, at least I am down to one caffeinated drink a day. We will see what tomorrow brings. . .

New Topic...

2008-02-04T21:54:00.001-05:00

I can't think of anything to write. I can't believe I am about to suggest this to myself, but I am thinking about starting the 26 letters for 26 days thing again. I know, I know...this was the precursor to my blogging demise, but I think it might be wise to get back on that horse.

Then again, if anyone could come up with another idea for me to write about on a daily basis, let me know...I need all the help I can get. I know about Wordless Wednesdays and Thirteen for Thursday, but I just need to get into some kind of schedule to keep my blogging up.

I really hope somebody comes up with a great idea for me to post about because I am already dreading the alphabet thing, but I do love a challenge....so looks like we will just have to wait and see...

I really do mean well...

2008-02-03T22:59:00.002-05:00

Last year I received a special birthday present from my girlfriend Melissa. I opened a small gift bag filled with jewelry from Express, The Limited, NY and Co, etc. They were all very impressive pieces but I couldn't understand why she gave me all this stuff, everything would have totaled well over $100! She let me in on her secret. Living in Morgantown, the Gabriel Brothers headquarters, we had the inside track on some certain sales. Melis told me that every so often, there were boxes and boxes of broken jewelry delivered to Gabe's and people sifted through it to find matching pieces, individual beads, necklaces, earrings, etc. Well, needless to say, I had to get a piece of this action. I went to Gabe's the following morning and filled up a bag as big as my torso for $10!!! That is when I began bead working in the hopes of simply creating some jewelry to give away to my pals as presents.

I ended up making all my of bridesmaids' earrings and bracelets from random pieces of old necklaces that looked like green shells. (I will post a pic if I can round one up soon...) Anyway, the real reason for this post is to explain my next goal. I am in the process of buying my first home. A big selling point for me and husband was the large portion of the basement that remained unfinished. Some people may have walked into the house and thought, "hmmm, what a GREAT storage space!" but as soon as Tyler and I both saw it we knew it was perfect for our workshops. Husband loves any kind of work with his hands/tools. He is such a crafty handyman, I really should take a picture of this shoe rack he made me, but all he could envision was having all of his Craftsman tools lined up neatly in his tool box and his nice "man space" until his wife, sounding just annoying enough to come across cute, asked for her own workshop. I wanted him to have his space, but there is a lot of space down there and I think we could share it and I could get my bead business up and running just like it should be. No more beads hiding in Victoria's Secret boxes under my bed, now I will have a place for everything and everything will be in it's very own place. The idea of having all of my beads and tools neatly organized sends a shiver down my spine. But the very best part of all is that while husband is setting up my "workshop" he will be able to use his tools to build me tables....ohhh, maybe I will ask for cabinets. I better not get too carried away, he may banish me from the basement. Oh well, if my plan comes into fruition, I will most definitely post pictures of my new workspace. Until then, I will stick with my boxes under my bed....hmmmmph.

Adaptation.

2008-01-28T22:36:00.003-05:00

PFFD. It the grand scheme of things...it's probably not that big of a deal, but, in my little corner of the world, it's something we know well. PFFD stands for Proximal Femoral Focal Deficiency. Or, I like to refer to this as "Stumpy McStumperson".

Let's go back a little ways. Not very long ago I ran across this boy that I thought seemed pretty cute, cool, arrogant, whatever you may call him. I really liked him and I wanted to get to know him better until my friend Weslie said, "isn't it crazy when Tyler takes off his leg to go swimming?" Well, imagine my surprise to hear the words "Tyler" and "TAKE OFF HIS LEG" used in the same sentence?!?! What could she POSSIBLY be talking about? After learning about his physical disability, I thought I would just call it quits. I didn't know him that well, we hadn't been out on a date yet, it would be easy for me to make a clean break, or, so I thought. At that point in my life, I honestly thought I was too shallow to date someone with a physical disability. I suppose I was just trying to see me for who I thought I really was, not someone I wanted to be. Nonetheless, I quieted my inner voice and decided to give Tyler a chance--and look where we are now...just a couple years later and we are happier now than we have ever been.

No one really knows what causes this birth defect; all we know is that it is environmental, meaning it is something that the mother has been exposed to during her pregnancy. I think, because he is my husband, that I sometimes take for granted the life he lives. I treat him just like I would anybody else in the world, but I sometimes forget that he is not anybody else in the world. Every time he wants to relax he has to take off his prosthesis, but if he wants to get up to get a drink, he has to put it back on. It malfunctions sometimes and currently is not working correctly which sometimes makes him a little anxious, as it should.

I guess the reason why I am talking about this is to say that my husband is a pretty amazing guy. I make fun of him A LOT, I am his toughest critic ALL THE TIME, but I love him more than anyone in this world ever could. He has done more in his 25 years than most will ever do in a lifetime. He has seen and photographed more of the world that I could ever imagine seeing. He is truly an amazing man that I am proud to be married to...most of the time, JUST KIDDING!!!

ANYWAY-- the REAL reason I am posting this is to tell you why he is so amazing...The other day, my students were reading a story about a little girl with CP (Cerebral Palsy). Our "essential question" for the week was; How do people with physical disabilities adapt to everyday life? Well, who better to talk about this than my husband?!?!? So, my husband came into my classroom full of starry-eyed young women to tell them what life is like without a leg. My girls had the BEST questions and thoughtful responses, one even asked if not having a leg ever made him want to cry...and I could answer that one, sometimes I want to cry. Sometimes he wants to cry. Sometimes, but only sometimes.

I wouldn't change one single thing about my husband. He is my love, my best friend, but most of all, my hero.

Neglectful.

2008-01-20T23:10:00.002-05:00

I must admit-- I am already feeling a tad neglectful on my resolution to post more on my blog. It seems as though I began reading Nate's blog I have been neglecting mine because I am simply concerned with what is going on with Tricia and Gwyneth. So- if you have not read thier amazing journey through these past few months you must take an hour and a box of kleenex to make it through his beautiful writing.

So, in my haste I suppose I have not told everyone about the home we are preparing to close on shortly. We found this great little home in a neighborhood that we both like, with a great elementary school in walking distance, 4 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms....and Tyler's favorite part-- the 1/2 of the basement that is unfinished that will soon become his workshop and my "laundry/craft spot"!!! We are SO looking forward to moving, but I am still a little nervous about planning a move becuase there are still many things that could fall through on either end of the sale. We are hoping for the best and I will keep you posted on whatever new developments come around.

We are SO excited to move into a home becuase we will have our own space to entertain. Last night we were so lucky to be able to hang out with some people Tyler works with. It was very nice because we still do not have many friends in Charleston. We are both looking forward to having people over to our home to play games-- especially guitar hero and dance dance revolution (my favorites!!!). Tyler and I are both extremely thankful for his new job because a) he absolutely LOVES it b) he has weekends off!!! (for the most part) and c) he works with AWESOME people! We had such a good time last night, even if neither of us were very helpful at trivial persuit!!!

A picture of the ladies and Phil.

Kelly and me totally enjoying our karoke!!!

Homegirl's goin back to school. . .

2008-01-14T21:57:00.001-05:00

Well, it's true. I am going back to school. Yes, I have only just graduated, yes, I am AMAZED at the amount of work I already have, and yes, we are about to buy a home...but, the class is free and what I will learn will definitely benefit my students.

I must say, even though it is a small community college close to home, I still felt a slight buzz inside my belly as I walked the six flights of stairs to the education chair's office to be signed into a class. There were students walking all around trying to get signed into classes and waiting on their classes to begin. I guess it just proves that I love school. Sure, I will probably end up complaining about the class, I will probably dread going some weeks, but the fact of the matter is, I love learning. I love everything about learning. I love the excitement of going into something that you know nothing about only to come out on the other end full of great things to try in your very own classroom.

Thinking back to the beginning of summer, the last thing I wanted to do was even think about school. I didn't even want to go down the path of teaching. The last 5 years leading up to my master's degree was just overkill. I was basically over teaching for a while. It wasn't until I was working in my "summer job" (which I greatly loved) that I realized how much I missed teaching or being in school. Towards the end of August I realized I wasn't going to have my own classroom this year, I wasn't going to welcome students into a new year, and more poignant for me-- I wasn't going to have a first day of school. For the first time in over 15 years, I wasn't going to have a first day of school. Thus began the search for a new job.

I had some interviews set up, I had different leads taking me down different paths. I could have gone to kindergarten, pre-school, third grade...all of these jobs were open, but none of them really felt like they fit. I was just about to settle as a job in a kindergarten classroom as an extra teacher to accommodate an overage of students when I drove past the school. My only goal was to go inside and tell the principal that I had applied for his job, but I thought I should take a job elsewhere...Until I heard the story of what seemed like it could be titled, the little school that could. This school seemed like it was on the up and up; teachers that really cared, high expectations for the students, technology integrated into many aspects of the classroom. I left the school that day feeling so whole and complete- like I had finally found my home. I went straight to my dad's office to tell him about my interview experience. As I was second guessing my feelings he said the most important thing to me that I could have ever heard. He said, "Amy, can you imagine how you would feel if you had a part in one of those girls going to college?" and this really did it for me. These students are incredibly underprivileged, I can't imagine that we only live across the river from them because it seems as though we are worlds apart. My father's words have stuck with me after he told me a similar story from his beginning teaching job. He reminded me that although we may get frustrated with our students, we, as teachers may be all the students really have. I try to remember this every day when I get what seems like 10,000 stories about what's going on in their lives. I try to patiently listen and respond because I may be the only person these girls have to talk to.

I began working shortly there after and to say it was an tough road may be the understatement of the century. I was COMPLETELY out of my element. I didn't have a lot of experience in split classrooms, NO experience in split-gender classrooms, and NO experience in 4th grade. The only thing that I really knew was that they were students in need of a teacher and I would figure out a way to be the person they needed.

It would be easy to fall in love with kindergartners, little helpless things running around all day...but for me, it was just as easy to fall in love with my girls. Who would think I could love these 16 girls that are just on the edge of becoming sassy tweens? We have found common ground to stand on and I look forward to everyday I have with them. I worry about them when they aren't at school, I rejoice when they FINALLY understand something I have been telling them for the past 9 weeks, and I love when they come to me and let me know how much I mean to them. We are a little family on the third floor, and for this family, I can go back to school.

Nothin special...

2008-01-14T19:03:00.000-05:00

I can't really think of anything to talk about...SO, I will share this bit of good news.

I was teaching today and I had a phone call-- with good news for ONCE! Our mortgage officer phoned me today to let me know that our interest rate has gone from a 5.88% fixed for 30 years to 5.58%!!! It may not end up being that much of a difference, buuuuut for us, every little bit counts!

I will try to think of something to post later...

13 for Thursday...

2008-01-10T21:48:00.000-05:00

Here is a list of 13 things I would like for my birthday...it's coming up...on Sunday...
Some are very expensive and are just things I want, not that I expect to get...some are little things that I probably don't need...and some are things to get my new home *hopefully* set up!!!

1. This lil jewelery case in "daisy daisy"

2. This workcenter for my soon-to-be new home

3. Basically anything vera bradley in daisy daisy

4. These great lil tongs that go with my kitchen scheme

5. I do enjoy pizza...so this would be pretty cool

6. I've never used one of these before, but they are super cool.

7. And I thoroughly believe in angled spatulas for icing cakes

8. I think these are snazzy--but who knows if I would ever use it...

9. I neeeeeed this in my life.

10. Some more of this from the mall.

11. Of course I wanted this...and my husband got it for my EARLY birthday!!!

12. Ahhhh....my dreeeeeam!

13. This would be good to help me keep track of one of my resolutions.

Wordless Wednesday

2008-01-09T22:50:00.000-05:00

Well, a couple words...this was on my way to tie the knot--I haven't written in so long I felt like I had to clue you all in...

OK, Here's To Another Resolution...

2008-01-09T22:23:00.000-05:00

Ok, Ok, Ok...I know, I know, I know. My blog sucks. There is no two ways about, I am not a blogger.

However, the New Year does bring new things, and I have made my students pledge to do at least three resolutions this new year and so far, I have only chosen one. A little hypocritical if you ask me. Many of my girls have chosen the resolution, "try something new" so I decided to follow in their footsteps. I am trying something new, I am trying harder at something I have been doing, and trying to turn over a new leaf.

Trying something new--
I am going to give blogging another go. The real reason I believe I couldn't stick it out before is because I didn't think people would care about what I had to say. But after looking at a few random blogs, I realize that the mundane things people write about on here are things that happen to me, people don't have to like it, and if they don't want to read it, they won't. Unless you are my brother-in-law. He could care less about what I have to write, but he will still sit at work and read every single word I post, so maybe, just maybe-- This blog is for you, Nathan.

Trying harder at something--
Well, you would think spending $12/week would encourage me to lose weight...and I have been trying...but I have been on Christmas break and spending SO much time with my sister and enjoying EVERYTHING the holiday had to offer...and I mean EVERYTHING-- if it wasn't tied down, I ate it. So, I am vowing to try harder in my losing weight process.

And finally, turning over a new leaf--
Believe it or not, I am the undisputed queen of dis-organization. You may think that is hard for a teacher to be dis-organized...and news flash...IT IS!!! Half the time I am at school I do not know if I am coming or going. ALL the time at home I am feeling this way. I am vowing to keep my home clean and get organized...We are trying to move into a new home *cross your fingers* in early February and I hope that is all the motivation I need to clean out my clutter and get organized. I also just got my county-issued laptop (about 12 weeks AFTER I was supposed to...) so I am hopefully getting all of my lesson plans in order and beginning to FINALLY get into the rhythm of teaching.

So, here you have my resolutions. I would never, EVER promise my dear readers that I will post everyday, or who knows??? After my current track record, I may not even post every six months...but I will try...I promise.

B is for....

2007-08-03T00:49:00.000-04:00

B is for Boo Blog, Boooo....

Well, I did have high hopes for this blog...but it turns out that there are not enough hours in the day for me to blog everyday...I am going to try to recharge myself this weekend and will come back on Monday better than ever. I am going camping tomorrow with my brother and sister-in-law so I will be without the computer for a couple days...I promise to come back and post C, D, and E on Monday or shortly thereafter...I have a sneaking suspicion that C may just be for camping...but we will see.

Currently, my husband is harassing me because I am blogging instead of packing for our trip or sleeping for my day at work tomorrow, so I suppose I should get off here...I will be better, promise.

A is for Almost...

2007-08-01T22:13:00.000-04:00

Well, I have decided to join my sister's 26 days 26 letters quest and since today is the first...I must start with the letter A...Hopefully this will be a better plan for me and hopefully I can FORCE myself to sit down and write every evening instead of falling asleep at 10!!!! So here it goes. . .

A is for almost;

When I got home from my evening activities today, I decided to sit down and work on my certification papers...These are papers that link me to my teaching profession that have been put on the back burner since I graduated in May. It is not that I do not want to teach, or that I do not love teaching...It has just been such a headache going through my program in college that I just wanted a little break! I have a great job at the county courthouse (doesn't pay that great though...) but I LOVE the ladies I work with and I LOVE the environment! I am slowly getting back into the idea of teaching, another profession that I love, it has just taken me a little time to get motivated...So, hopefully I will send these papers out soon and begin applying for teaching jobs in the area. So, today, A is for Almost, as in, almost a teacher...

I was right...

2007-07-05T22:16:00.000-04:00

Turns out, I was right...I didn't have time to blog. I am going to get this thing REALLY started now that the wedding is over and I can chronicle the adventures and *mis*adventures of being a being a newlywed! I promise I will start writing soon...my sister Mary Ann is really amazing at this whole blogging thing and I am just getting into it. I will try to see if I can make another post using her "13 Things on Thursday" idea...I will have to think of some random things to say though! More on this later!!!

wedding day blues...

2007-06-16T12:26:00.001-04:00

Well, so far, there is only a 10% chance of rain on my wedding day...we'll see what happens.

On this past Wednesday, I went to my "final" dress fitting before the wedding...and, lo and behold, my dress was hemmed too short!!! Hopefully it will be fixed and I am going to try it on again today...I just hope it covers my ankles!!!

After I try on my dress tonight...We will be going see the Huntington Symphony tonight to see my sister Mary Ann play! We will have a fun night with Nathan and Sam...can't wait to sit outside and watch her play!

More on the wedding dress later....

Like I really have time for this...

2007-06-15T17:42:00.001-04:00

Weeeell, I have decided that if people have time to listen to my sister's ramblings, they they may have time to read mine as well...

Let's see...I just finished my Master's degree in Elementary Education from WVU and FINALLY moved back home. I am adjusting quite nicely to living at home again, even keeping my room the same as before I left for college-- a mess with all my clothes thrown on the floor. I am currently working at the Kanawha County Courthouse in vital statistics as a summer intern and I LOVE MY JOB! I think I would honestly work there forever if they pay was good enough! I am about to marry my best friend Tyler, and by about to marry...I mean in 8 days; that's why I don't really have time for this blogging stuff...but we'll see. I still have to create an order of service, program, make all my favors, and I am sure about 1,000,000 other things!!!

I just thought I'd get the blog up and running before the wedding so I can post my wedding details, etc...I'll be sure to keep ya'll posted!!!