Hmm... what's going on?

Well... last time I promised great things and I have not delivered. Thanks Ashley for calling me out, so I'm gonna update again. As far as life goes it's been pretty quiet around these parts. How about I answer some frequently asked questions.

How far along are you?

Well I am officially as of this day 28 weeks along. I can't believe I've only got about 2 months left. My doctor tells me I will probably be induced... because diabetics have big babies... so I don't actually anticipate making it all the way to my due date.

When is your due date?

Officially it March 14th, but as I said before I don't expect to get all the way to that day. I will fight tooth and nail to make sure it doesn't happen before March 1st, unless this child makes up her own mind.

Have you picked a name yet?

Yes, actually I picked a name a couple of years ago. We are going to call her Peyton Layne. I chose Peyton because I like the name and how it sounds with Fanning. And I chose Layne because it my mom's middle name. I wanted to keep part of it in the family. Had she been a boy the middle name would have been James, which is Sean's dad's first name... although he is called by his middle name Mark. Fortunately for me Sean didn't have any arguments with my name choice. Piece of cake.

Have you done the nursery?

HA! If you know me, then you most likely know I am the biggest procrastinator in the world. Actually when I thought she was going to be a boy I had it all planned out. When I was told she was a girl it kind of threw a kink in my thought process. Don't get me wrong, I am ecstatic that she's a girl, but knowing Sean's side of the family I was just sure she was going to be a boy. I mean on his dad's side of the family it is Mark and his sister, then 5 boys, and then 3 of those boys have each had a boy. I just knew we were going to follow the trend. So anyway... I did finally decide on a nursery. So here is a picture of what it looks like so far.

Isn't it great? Ok, but seriously this is what I'm hoping it will look like...

How are you feeling?

I really feel pretty good. I don't have to remind myself that I'm pregnant anymore. My growing belly and her frequent kicking are reminders enough. I am a little tired now though. It takes quite a bit more energy to do things like walking, climbing stairs, sleeping, etc. I did start shifting furniture in my classroom so that I can do less moving around and less up and down off the floor. Here are the long awaited baby bump pictures just to show you how we're growing. My grandmother did tell my father after we saw her at Thanksgiving that I look good as a pregnant woman. Otherwise I and my sisters are too thin and I look good more filled out. I am having flashes of my earliest years when I was really rolly-polly and had the chipmunk cheeks, but thanks for the compliment Mamaw.

18 weeks

At Thanksgiving... about 24 weeks

Christmas week... 28 weeks

As far as the rest of life is going. My job is slowly killing me :), not really, but man it's wearing me out. My grandmother fell and broke her arm fairly badly so we're going to Dallas over the holidays to see her and the rest of the fam. I am working diligently on the office/nursery because I have furniture coming in the middle of January and have to have a place to put it. The week of Halloween I was rear-ended and I finally got my car back from the body shop in the middle of November. That was quite an experience. More on that later I guess. Sean has been very sweet and he can't wait for Peyton to be here. I'm looking forward to my weekly doctor visits starting January 4th. Gotta love high risk pregnancies. :) I think that about covers things for now. I'll be back soon to let you know how Christmas goes. Hope you all are enjoying some time off and are excited for a fabulous Christmas and a stupendous New Year.

The Baby Bump Update

Well life has been very busy...and I know I promised baby bump pictures...but, somewhere along the way I have misplaced my camera cord so I am having difficulty getting pictures onto the computer. So they'll get here as soon as I can find that silly cord.

I have determined that this child has a very interesting personality. This past Monday I went in for a fetal echo cardiogram and got to see "blueberry's" heart. It was pretty cool. The funniest part about it was that during the ultrasound to look at the heart, they also stopped to record that heartbeat and measure the rhythms. Well when the technician stopped she just left the little device sitting on my stomach. Apparently blueberry found that to be entertaining because her kicks stopped happening in my side and all of a sudden there was a rapid movement right where the device was. It was like she was using it as a punching bag...you know the kind that hangs like a bubble and boxers hit it rapidly. Even the technician could feel it.

So later that evening when Sean got home I was telling him about what had happened. We also decided that since I had reached my third trimester we would try the fetal heart monitor that Sean bought several months ago. It has this quarter size microphone that you press on your stomach and listen for a heartbeat. Well blueberry decided that this was a game too and she would hit it and then I would move it and she would follow it and hit it again...I would move it, she would hit it...I would move it, she would hit it. We decided to try it with Sean's thumb and sure enough she hauled off and hit his thumb too.

People keep saying that it isn't surprising for her to do this, knowing who her mother is. I don't really get it. :)

Oh Blueberry what will you be?

Well as of this week I am 17 weeks pregnant. Next Wednesday, as long as Blueberry cooperates we get to find out what it is. I think the closer this day gets, the more excited I get. Up until now, it's just been weird. I think knowing what the baby will be will make it a little more real. Not to mention the fact that the bump has just recently appeared. (Pictures to come Amanda.)

I know a lot of moms have a gut feeling about what their baby will be, but I can honestly say I have no clue. I don't have a preference one way or the other. I bounce back and forth on how much fun one or the other could be. Frilly tutus and hair bows or planes, trains, and automobiles.

Anyway, we want to know what you think. Answer the survey to the right and we'll see how good you all really are. ;) Invite your friends to guess too.

Lego my Prego

Well yep, it has officially happened. Mom and dad and Mark and Sarah will have their first grandchild. Yea for you guys! Now I, on the other hand, am a little more anxious about this whole thing. I mean, Sean and I decided that "if it happens it happens", but we expected it to be a little more difficult than this. So as of this moment I sit at about 14 weeks pregnant...I think. The due date is estimated at March 14th. Wahoo for Spring Break. I guess it will be nice not to have to really go through the summer being preggers, but the thought of writing 6 weeks of lesson plans is rather daunting at the moment.

I think we may have just about killed our parents because we told them at about 8 weeks and then told them they would have to wait another 4 before they could tell anyone. Sorry about that, but thanks for keeping the secret. :) Finally, everyone can know about blueberry. Blueberry was the code name we used so we could talk about it without actually talking about it. Why blueberry? Well this website that I've been getting information on said at about the time we told the immediate family, that blueberry was about the size of a.... you guessed it... a blueberry. And the name stuck. As of right now the website says that blueberry is about the size of an apple. Not really sure why they only refer to it as food, but whatever.

I've been very fortunate not to have terrible morning sickness. It was not always fun, but I can't really complain about it in comparison to what I know other women have gone through. I am exhausted though. And working with my first graders can be really tiresome. Sometimes those hormones get taken out on those little guys...I'm sure they'll forgive me though. Anyway.... more info later. And yes I'll include a baby bump picture at some point.

Blueberry say hello...

So I'm not sure how many of you have had the privilege of living in a new neighborhood development, but Sean and I have been so lucky. Or at least I thought we were lucky until they started springing up houses behind us. Today was nice and rainy and rather peaceful...until it stopped raining and the lunatic construction workers came out to put a roof on a house. Literally since about lunch time today they have been up there with their silly little hammers banging nails into sheets of plywood and now they're hammering all those little nails into the black paper stuff that goes under the shingles. I am this close to walking over there with Sean's FatMax (his really heavy duty hammer) and showing them a thing or two about hammering....all....day....long. I truly believe I may lose my mind. The saddest part about the whole thing is that there are 2 empty lots on each side of our house with SOLD signs in the grass. That means I have the blessing of 4 brand spanking new homes to be built in the near future right by my eardrums. Thank you Jesus that school should be back in session and will have the opportunity to miss the hammering for the most part. But then wait... what's better?...hammering?....or a class full of loud first graders? I think I'm screwed either way.

Wal-Mart

Ok so the other evening Sean and I decided to go to Wal-Mart and buy Rumikub. It's a game I recently learned how to play and we really needed some entertainment. So off to the Porter WalMart we went. As we pulled into the parking lot at about 8:30, Sean made a comment like "Creepy". He was speaking of the unusual concoction of guests that were moving about the parking lot and heading through the doors. Ehhh, no big deal I thought. We start strolling around, Sean heads off to look at fish stuff on one side of the aisle and I go to the other side where the colorful new school supplies were proudly on display. I found a great lunch box hanging on the wall.

Well as I passed that fabulous lunch box for about the 4th time, contemplating whether a $9 lunch box, as fabulous as it may be, would really get that much use, I hear a small commotion. Three full grown men come around the corner speaking gruffly and kind of shoving each other around. So I'm down the aisle from them thinking... "seriously, you are full grown, quit it with the rough housing." Only in the following few seconds I realize, these guys aren't playing this is real. One has another in a headlock and the third is throwing punches.

Now I'm beginning to hear yelling and 3 more people come up on the ordeal. Only one of these guys is BIG, like hulk hogan-ish, and he's yelling at them to stop, we've called the cops, get to the font of the store. (I think he may have been an off duty cop.) Somebody else is kind of trying to break it up. And then I hear one of the guys in the fight go, "He's my little brother." Now I don't really know who were the brothers, but I think that the guy in the headlock and the guy administering the headlock were the brothers. Holy cow...so surreal. By now a crowd is gathering going "what happened", "what's going on." And I'm thinking to myself, I watched the whole thing go down and I have no clue.

So Sean and I walk away, go get our game, keep an eye out for any repeat performances, and get the heck out of the twilight zone. After that ordeal we need some comfort food, so we head over to Burger King and with the lovely information we received from Beep and Amanda about the Oreo shakes with the ginormous straws, we make our decision and head back home.

Just because Sean deserves bragging rights, he beat me at Rumikub.

Okay so here are the long awaited Cabo pictures. The waves were huge... The service was spectacular... The sites were amazing...a beach in the desert. Thanks so much Mark and Sarah. It was better than I imagined. Now aren't all the rest of you jealous? I will say though, if things don't start looking up around here I just might think about moving there asap. Sean can teach scuba and I'll just hang out. Maybe there are some kids I can teach in Cabo. What do you think?

Cabo Wabo Sunday

I am so very proud of myself for blogging to you on my vacation. This one goes out to the new baby mama and baby daddy in our lives (Beep & Amanda), congrats on your new lil man Kingston.

Just wanted to show you a few pictures of the beach in Cabo. We got here on Friday and the surf has gotten more and more rough as the week has gone by. Check out these waves.

A Tough Day for Sean

Poor Sean had a hard day today.  Nothing went right, people are not very bright, and he hasn't had enough sleep.  Sounds like a very bad combination to me.

So because of his difficult day he decided to take a load off this evening with a drink and dessert. (Notice the margarita glass and the spoon.)  He really didn't want me to post this, but I figure he's already had a bad day, this really wouldn't do that much damage. :)  Sorry babe.  Hope you feel better now anyway.

Memorial Day Weekend

So we are coming down to the end of the school year.  Kids are crazy, I'm exhausted, and the mountain of paperwork is growing.  I can't wait for summer.  Fortunately it's only 7 more days.  The best part about it is that we have plans to keep kids moving and out of our hair while we finish re-packing our classrooms. 

I'm not really sure why re-packing has to occur.  I mean I know it all has to be straightened up so that a good cleaning can happen (if that's what they want to call it), but do I really have to try and cram everything into the closets and clear off any piece of furniture without wheels?  What a pain, surely there is a better option than that.

I have to get myself into minimalist mode right now so that I can clear out all that stuff that doesn't have to be there.  So with that in mind that's all for now.

Technology is cool

The Lip Gloss

This tube of lip gloss can be viewed in a number of different ways.  Sean sees my gloss as both a science experiment (does it really have a taste) and a way to rehydrate his parched lips (yes bubblicious is very manly).  As we were watching T.V. Thursday night he made a comment about how "this one tastes" (which is unlike his grape scented one).  I thought nothing of it, as it is a fairly normal kind of statement for him, and I really didn't care to question it and find out more.  At least, that is, until I began getting ready for bed and gave him his goodnight kiss...

Which leads us to yet another way to view the tube of lip gloss.  I do not really car for the fruity festive flavored glosses due to the face that I don't like the taste they leave in my mouth.  So why, you ask, do you even have that cute fruity tube of lip gloss?  The answer is elementary, my dear Watson... literally.  You see, I view this flavorful tube of lip gloss as a classroom management technique.  It is a way to entice young, gullible children into doing what I want.  Although in my first grade world, we do not refer to this tube as lip gloss, but we call it a "smelly".  What is a "smelly" you say?  A smelly is used to put a pleasant smell/scent on a child's hand to compliment and encourage good behavior.  In fact, Thursday was the first time in a long time that I fully utilized the power of the "smelly".  I busted that sucker out and blessed the hands of approximately 45-50 students between the ages of 5 & 7 for good behavior in the cafeteria.

Now in case you haven't put 2 and 2 together yet, let me spell it out for you.  The hands of 50 children were touch by this tube of lip gloss today, as were my husband's lips, and consequently mine as well.  Yes, ewwww, my sentiments exactly.

Moral of the story---if you are married to a teacher, make no assumptions as to the purpose and use of any colorful, flavored, common object.

Teacher Trouble

Well this past week proved to be full of kiddo drama.  I can't even comment on some of the behaviors that have been exhibited in my classroom.  Let's just say I had a girl get felt up, some over exposure, and some inappropriate moaning noises and gyrating motions.  Ughh and then I had to call and talk to parents about them.  I was as red as a beet on the phone.  I hope I didn't cost myself my job either 'cuz I kinda made the Assistant Principal's son spend 10-15 min. walking, sitting, standing, repeat.  I guess if the pink slip isn't in my box in the next few days, no permanent damage was done.  Ummm...anybody got a job opening for me just in case?