This time last year...

This time last year:

-I got a countertop dishwasher for Christmas and was crazy excited. Still have it and it still works!

-Dan and I took our vacation right after Christmas up to Philadelphia where we had an awesome time visiting various museums and eating cheesesteaks.

-There was still tons of snow on the ground from the storm in mid-December. We hadn't had Snomageddon yet.

-Dan and I were both working two jobs. Each of us only had one we actually liked.

-The promise of the new year was as exciting as it always is, but not for any particular reason.

This year:

-I'm 5 months pregnant and will officially be 20 weeks (halfway!) in a few days.

-Dan's still job hunting but gets more hours at the job he actually likes.

-I love my new Big Girl Job, working with kids of all ages keeps me on my toes! Plus I got paid for this whole week off after Christmas!

-Instead of new appliances, we're looking at getting a house--something that seemed so far away last year. We'll have a house before the baby comes and that makes me so happy!

-Sadly we did not manage to take a vacation this year, due to finances and then the baby news (we're now saving for the baby). I'm hoping we can take a babymoon before May but I have a feeling we'll have a lot tied up in the house once we get one.

The promise of the new year this time is exciting because we'll be moving into our first house, having our first baby, and that's all within the first five months of the year! Because school will be off, I'll have all summer to play with the baby before I have to go back to work, so much better than maternity leave anywhere else ;)

The picture above is me meeting my nephew Jimmy for the first time ever! He's such a sweetie and totally laid back about whoever's holding him. Andy and Jackie are out here for a visit (their Christmas present from my parents) but I'm totally only visiting with them to snuggle with the baby! More pictures of their visit to come since today Sarah is taking the four of us out to lunch (her present to Andy) and all the girls (and probably Jimmy) are going for pedicures before my mom gets HER FIRST TATTOO later tonight! It's going to be a rocking New Year's Day and I won't even have to drink ;)

House Hunting

This is the house we are in love with! It's the one Dan had already seen and I wanted to see in person (pictures on the internet are simply not enough for a purchase of this magnitude). I love it! It's been well maintained, unlike some of the others we saw, and it's actually able to be moved into! There is work that needs to be done, but it's all stuff that can wait until the spring and it's also stuff we can take our time with and do in stages. It's also mostly pretty easy stuff that we can do ourselves or bribe family members to help with (beer works well as a bribe). We're going over to the realtor's tomorrow morning to talk contracts, as of today there wasn't another offer on the house. Our realtor wasn't overly, unrealistically optimistic about us getting the house. She said things that made sense (it's an estate sale, they'll want to settle ASAP, it's the holidays and there aren't many people looking at houses this week, etc.) and I'm really hoping and praying that this is our house because we could be living in it as soon as January--well before the baby comes!

Because it's an estate sale (which means the owner died and family members are the ones selling it) there's still a lot of furniture in the house. Some things had sticky notes with names on them, so I figure kids and grandkids will be coming to pick those up, but we mentioned to our realtor that if they wanted to leave anything we would be fine with that! Since we're coming from an apartment and first time buyers, we don't have that much furniture and anything we don't have to buy right away would be awesome. The realtor said that the seller would probably really like that because it's one less thing they'd have to do or pay for before settling the house. I'm hoping the couch stays at least (we still have my parents old futon) and maybe some dishes so we can have more than 2 guests over at a time ;)

What a day!

It feels like I only manage to muster up a picture/post every other day, but yesterday was a lot of sitting around doing nothing except laundry. Today was much better! We got to see our baby again today AND go house-hunting! We found out that we are having a BOY! I'm only slightly disappointed about not buying girly things, but we went to Babies R Us after the appointment to buy HIM something and there are tons of fun boy clothes too! I really am happy with a boy because now all our subsequent children will have a big brother to look out for them :)

I had to drink a bunch of water before the appointment so my bladder would be full, they have you do that if you're under 24/25 weeks pregnant because of the size of the baby. The tech was nice though and let me go halfway through the exam to see if the baby would turn around more. She was pretty sure he was a boy before I went, but the placenta was in the way and it was difficult to tell, after I went it was pretty dang clear! Not as clear as some of the pictures I've seen online, but he's definitely not a girl! Baby's weight is 12oz (average weight for 19 weeks is 8.5oz, he's even big for 20 weeks which is 10oz), heart was beating at 125bpm (which is good), we could see all his bones and hands and feet and everything looked good. She said as big as the baby is now, she's guessing the due date to actually be May 18th instead of the 23rd, but I think he's just a big baby. He starts "bulking up" this week anyway, adding layers of fat to help keep him warm after he's born, although I don't think that has much to do with length. Again, I think he's just going to be a big baby. Dan was 10 pounds when he was born and 22 inches! If my due date changes, that makes me 20 weeks instead of 19, which makes me halfway through! I'll stick with 19 though, I made a chart to put on my board at school and I don't feel like re-doing it. Although, the new due date could get on maternity leave sooner, hmm...

House hunting was fun, I like our realtor. She's known Dan's family for years through St. Jane's and that's awesome. She gave us a huge stack of listings to look through and we have more houses to look at tomorrow morning. The houses in our price range aren't going to be huge, top-of-the-line houses, but there are definitely some nice places in good shape that we can afford. There are some scary places too! One of the ones we're looking at tomorrow Dan has already seen, we're going so I can see it in person too. It's less than a 1/4 mile from where we're living now, which would make moving pretty easy!

Today has been pretty amazing. Life is so good right now :)

Belated Present

I've been working on this scarf for my mom since summer time. Theo and I went on a yarn crawl and I bought the yarn from the store we went to. It's a wool blend and it's knit in a tube, so when it's finished, I will block it to lay it flat and that way it will have essentially two layers. I'm using a size 6 circular needle, which is why it's taking so long to knit. Technically, I'm stopping two stripes sooner than the pattern calls for, but I want to make sure that I finish and give it to my mom while we're still in the throws of winter so she can wear it and enjoy it longer. Initially, I didn't know if I would have enough yarn left over to make the fringe that the pattern calls for, but since I'm stopping early, I'll be able to have plenty of leftover yarn and am looking forward to my first dabble in fringe.

Happy Christmas

Despite everything that's been going on with work and stuff, Dan and I had a very blessed Christmas this year. I managed to surprise him with a present that he absolutely loves (a Steelers winter coat/jacket) and through creative gift card use and extra money earned on the side, we ordered me a new iPod Nano as my present (super excited to have another pink iPod). But it wasn't just a blessed Christmas because of the gifts. We got to see both our families and this year we had all four of my uncles on my mom's side in town for Christmas and that was awesome. My mom's been great with the pregnancy stuff and she got "Orson" (Baby's nickname) some great books (above) and even got a stocking to stuff for the baby. We also got a good amount of gift cards, some for fun (Best Buy!) and some practical (Motherhood and Babies R Us) but all will definitely be happily used!

Some of the things my mom put in Orson's stocking ;)

We're also looking at houses! I'm so excited to be finally looking for houses. I've gotten more into putting things on our baby registry because I know that when the baby's born we will actually have space for all this stuff. We're looking at places we can grow into and that is in our price range, which there is plenty to find in our area. The challenge at this point is finding a place in our price range that only has cosmetic things needed (I do not want to have to replace a roof a year into owning a house) that is the right size. There's plenty of tiny houses that need tons of work that are well within our range, but being pregnant there's not much work I'll be able to help with (painting for instance) and when we have a newborn, there's not much we'll have time for or feel like doing being sleep deprived. We also want multiple kids so having something that we can stay in for years and years is a big must. We also both desperately want to adopt a dog and we need a place with yard so we can have a place for the baby to play and for the dog to run :)

Typical

Yeah, this is me and my sister and this is how we show each other love.

Prenatal Yoga :)

I am 18 weeks this week and since school is out and I won't be walking around the mall regularly with my mom, I got a prenatal yoga DVD from Netflix. So far, I like it. It's an hour long, with standing poses, floor work, stretches, and a nice cool down at the end. They have 3 different people in the DVD so you have examples of modifications for all three trimesters and I like that they give you the options. I felt really good after doing it the first time and it definitely feels like it will keep my hip pain at bay if I can work out to it regularly. My pre-baby yoga pants still fit ok (love that elastic waist) and the pink shirt is on that my friend gave me because pink is not her color. It's not meant as a maternity or yoga shirt, but works out very well for both! I love how long the shirt is and even though it's close-fitting, it's not tight or uncomfortable. I also love how my belly looks in it ;)

More?

I really like Christmas. Really, really like Christmas. I received even more gifts from students today (including some very warm and sincere hugs and "Merry Christmas"s). I'm so happy that I decided to take this job, it's been such a blessing and joy to be working with kids and adults alike who are happy, kind, and generous (in more ways than one!). I can't even begin to describe how different this is compared to jobs I've had in the past. It's like I'm living in a dimension parallel to two years ago, almost so exactly that it's scary. Sure there have been ups and downs, things that were stressful or things I wasn't thrilled with doing, but that's true of any job and any situation. The difference now is that there are faaaaaaar more good days than bad, I love the work I'm doing AND my coworkers. I haven't always had both. What I'm really thankful for this year is to be able to see the way God has been working in my life. Dan and I both need kicks in the pants to get us moving and we've gotten a couple of those this year, but thankfully we've been able to stay true to our faith and to each other. I've been able to let go and let God more and more over the past year and I'm glad I have every time. I still worry about what's to come, but I also know that we will be taken care of and that I don't have to worry too much ;)

For me?

My mom said that around Christmas time the students start giving their teachers gifts. Since I'm a specialist and they only see me once a week (instead of every day like homeroom teachers), I wasn't expecting much if anything. I sure was surprised at the generosity of the students, I got all kinds of delicious goodies, both edible and non-edible. I think my favorite was the deck of penguin shaped playing cards, those will definitely be used! Lots of chocolate, which usually I have to re-gift because they have nuts, but everything except one gift was nut-free so I get to *enjoy* nearly all of it! My biggest surprise was regular size bottles of shower gel and hand lotion from Bath & Body Works, I love that store and I know what those things cost, I definitely made sure to thank the student who gave them to me!

Button Up Your Cup

I made this for my grandmother for Christmas. She drinks tea and last year I got her a teabag caddy that she loves, this year I wanted to knit her something and being in the middle of several projects already (one of which is also for Christmas), I needed something I could do quickly. This was the perfect patter, it was fun, interesting, and took me almost no time at all, just a few hours. I'll be making more for other people, it was that fast to knit.



*Update* It is now after Christmas and I have since given my grandmother her mug and cozy and she loved them! I gave them to her Christmas Eve and when I saw her on Christmas, she had already used it 3 times! She is one who likes her tea very, very hot so this was definitely something she will enjoy a lot.

Epic

I just finished my design for the next Mount 2000! The above picture is going on the back. The one below is for the front:

Hack & Slash

Tonight was our 4th Hack & Slash Christmas Special and they mixed things up this year by performing a completely new show! Usually it's their own musical version of A Christmas Carol, which is always good, they get different acts from Renn Fest to come be the different ghosts and it's always hilarious. This year, they did the show as if it were a 1950's Christmas Special, with "commercial breaks", "a word from our sponsor", and they kept mentioning how it was "in color!" lol. Acts from Renn Fest were there, including two of my favorites London Broil (a juggling group) and Hey Nunnie Nunnie (a comedy duo) and some new ones I had never see before. Everyone was so funny, I was in stitches the whole night! I can't wait to see what they have in store for us next year!

Moar Snow!

Got to sleep in two extra hours today because of the snow, school had a delayed opening. My mom says it's usually just an hour but this morning it was two full, glorious hours that I got to sleep in, hang around the house, and enjoy a shortened school day. We had rehearsal for the Christmas pageant so I didn't get to see my knitting class (which would have been our last class of 2010, but turns out the first class was our last class), but I did get to sit with the kindergarten kids and help watch them. They are easily one of my favorite classes, so eager to learn, loving, and they really want to please you. There also only 11 of them, which makes them one of the smaller classes and that helps too.

Pics soon...

I will hopefully be posting some pictures this weekend. I'm still crazy frustrated at Blogger. I got some text messages a couple days ago that my pictures couldn't be delivered to the address (the one I send them to for Blogger to post to my blog) after having waited 4 days. The messages didn't say what the problem was and I'm still not happy that I have to use the old uploader AND can't use my phone anymore. I've been knitting like crazy (ok, a small project that I almost finished in two hours last night) so there will be pictures of that posted and I'd like to post some more belly pictures. We'll see what happens. Stupid Blogger.

First Yearbook Picture

It's little things I find amusing. Like how my first ever yearbook picture is taken almost 3 full years after I graduate college and while I'm pregnant. One of the perks (or downsides) to being homeschooled is your yearbooks are your family photo albums...hmm, definitely think that might be more of a downside...

I love surprises

A secret someone at school has been leaving little gifts in the new teachers' mailboxes. Today, I got some awesome hand lotion. It doesn't have too heavy a scent to it, it supposedly lasts after hand washing, and it's hypoallergenic which means I can wear it around the kids with even the most severe allergies. I was quite happy to receive a surprise in my mailbox, much less some hand lotion (which I am addicted to this winter, my hands have been so dry). So whoever you are, Guerilla Love Monkey, thanks!

Open Heart Surgery...

Say hello to the most annoying piece of printing technology ever. This particular HP Laserjet has been giving us problems since I started, and it always seems to get worse when we have something going on. This time, there was a paper jam underneath the toner cartridge, which I managed to take out and remove the paper. Once I attempted to put the cartridge back in, it wouldn't go. No idea what possessed it to decide to be nasty today, no idea why it wouldn't go back in, it just wouldn't. I even looked at the direction on the cartridge itself. The only thing I can make out for sure is not to leave it in direct sunlight. You can interpret the rest for yourself...

Uber Frustrated.

I have no idea what is going on with Blogger or my phone. First the only way I could upload pictures was via my phone, which I got over because I've been leaving my camera at home and my phone is pretty easy to whip out, snap the picture, then send it off. Now, the only way I can add pictures is via Old Blogger (which is not nearly as easy to use, very bulky and annoying) because whenever I try to send pictures from my phone, they disappear into a mysterious vortex of space and time and never show up on the blog. The only thing that made me happy was the snow we saw at school today. The kids went nuts as I'm sure they always do the first time (or any time) it snows. I'm kind of glad that my two classes were cancelled because I probably wouldn't have gotten any concentration out of them.

The kids had a half day because of parent teacher conferences. Classes were held in the morning as usual but then dismissal started at 12:30pm. My only two classes on Fridays are after lunch, so that meant that I didn't get any classes today, and they were my favorites too :(

New Clothes :)

I got paid yesterday, it was also St. Nicholas Day and my mom had bought me some maternity clothes at the thrift store (from Motherhood and Old Navy!). Because it was payday, I splurged a little bit and got myself some more maternity shirts that I can wear to work. I'm getting to the point where regular shirts are too short, not too tight. I am loving how long maternity shirts are. I have a long torso, so normally finding shirts that are my preferred length is difficult. Maternity shirts are the perfect length! I've got a little bit of a bump going, but not so big yet and I still think it's mostly "McDonald's" that I was working off pre-pregnancy. From what I've read, some of it is definitely baby, but I think the stomach is showing more than it would have without the McDonald's...

I think they figured it out ;-)

Had a sweet surprise on my board when I walked into my classroom this morning. Last Friday, the 8th graders offered babysitting after school so parents could go Christmas shopping. I was not needed to supervise so I left at my usual time, a couple of students must have put this on my board after I left. Last week my mom started telling the students and I'm glad it's out now, I don't have to worry about not talking baby stuff while they're around and everything. Today in class they were asking me different things like if we'll find out the sex and when we would find that out, how far along I am, etc. Initially one of the conversations was a short side conversation as the girls trickled in (I have only girl classes Monday mornings), but as soon as everyone realized we were talking about baby stuff, the room got quiet as they tried to listen in. I took their silence as the perfect time to open class with a prayer, it was totally a rockin' morning ;)

The little things.

Warm Vanilla Sugar is one of my favorite B&B Works scents, it never fails to make my happy when I use it. I keep it by the bed since my hands are still acting crazy, they're almost better, but with the coming of the super cold air, they're healing slower than they were. I am happy that my zombie finger is almost completely better and that's in part due to my favorite lotion :)

It's so tough being me

I found Brissa like this when I got home from work. Normally she faces the inside of her playpen with the bars on her back, this was a particularly funny way to find her sleeping lol.

A teacher's best friend

This copier/printer is amazing! Not only can you make single-page copies and print pages with lightning speed, but it will make two-sided, stapled handouts out of one-sided single pages! It was awesome to be able to take four, one-sided pages and turn them into a two-page, two-sided, self-stapled handout for a class of 15!

Knitting class met for the first time today. I was super excited because it's my first elective and it's teaching something I enjoy doing. I wasn't expecting 15 kids to sign up, but that's more hats for preemies by the end of the trimester. I even had four boys sign up for the class, not just girls. Their other choice for the time slot was journalism, and our suspicion is that they signed up for knitting so they wouldn't have to write anything. Either way, they're making hats, whether they like it or not ;) What surprised me was that two of the boys actually followed me around the classroom as I attempted to make my way around to the different groups so I could help them get started. The boys were determined to get the hang of casting on before class was over and it made me happy that they actually wanted to learn and do it for themselves. They were particularly chatty to start off, it being last period on Friday, but once we got down to business, everybody was putting effort into what they were doing. I wish I had pictures, but I was so busy trying to get to everyone that I didn't even have a chance to take a single shot. Thankfully, a couple of the girls caught on quickly and were able to help their neighbors. I had also left a laptop hooked up to a projector and a group that I hadn't been able to see replayed a video on Youtube to check out how to cast on. I'm going to have to adjust my original outline for the class, probably take out a practice project, in order to make sure that we have enough time to get basic skills down before we start on the hats. I want the kids to be able to be proud of the hats they send to St. Agnes and not be thinking, "This hat sucks."

I am amazing.

Stroke of genius today at school: assigned seats + setting computers out ahead of time. Worked like a charm, the 25 9 and 10 year-olds didn't know what hit 'em. They are no match for me. I made one sit in the hallway for ten minutes when he sassed me. I straight up told him I don't tolerate disrespect from anyone in my classroom.

Thanksgiving dinner?

It's hard to tell, but this Rav-4 has a buck strapped to their roof. Always an interesting drive when you're in Howard Co. The funniest part about it was that the deer's tongue was hanging out of it's mouth, it almost looked like it was a fake deer--except if it was fake it would be on the inside of the car rather than on the roof ;)

I need a stiff drink...

This would be the only "stiff" drink I'm allowed to have. After dealing with report cards several hours a day for what is now almost a month, I really could go for a really, really tall glass of wine...

Belly Timeline... (also Blogger is pissing me off with this picture crap)

12 Weeks

13 Weeks

14 Weeks.

The Gibsons: 1 - Jack Frost: 0

 

Our house is 100 years old. Well, the downstairs is anyway, the upstairs where we live was added in the 1940's during the war and was literally a "Mother-in-law Suite." As with many old houses, the windows can be a bit drafty. That's where Frost King comes in. I have distinct memories of my dad putting these up in our old house in the wintertime. Turns out it was a good thing I remembered that because Dan's never used the stuff before and wouldn't have thought about it. It's pretty simple, the box has sheets of plastic and double-sided tape. You line the window frames with the double-sided tape, spread the plastic over the window, seal, then using a hair-dryer you heat the plastic until it becomes taut over the window (until all the wrinkles go away). This gives you a inexpensive weatherproofing that your drafty windows wouldn't normally have.

For 9 sheets of plastic we paid around $13 at Home Depot. It helps to have the brand name when you ask for it, and it also helps if you ask someone with gray hair--we learned that the hard way, the young guy we asked first sent us to the window aisle where they keep sun-blocking film. Usually it's near weatherproofing or winterizing stuff though. We did the three windows in our living room, the two in our bedroom (including the one with the AC unit in it, I'm particularly proud of that one), and had to use two sheets on the door in our bedroom that leads to the outside (let's more air in on nice days when opened, but is almost more drafty than the windows!). For a couple of first-timers, I'd say we did pretty good. I've been keeping an eye on the curtains to see if they move with the wind since we put the plastic up and I'm proud to say that they haven't moved an inch, even with the high winds we've been having today. This is totally a step up for us from last year, where we didn't even think about it until it was too late, then we just had blankets up over the windows to help keep the air out, which didn't help much.

I also cleaned today which makes me feel a whole lot better! I hate clutter and both of us have been letting it pile up a lot lately. Me with being so tired all the time and Dan with, well, never wanting to clean ever ;) There's still a lot that needs to be done, but I'm satisfied for now. The living room looks better and the dinning room table has been cleared off to the point where if we had guests over for dinner, we could probably eat there again XD I also tidied up the bathroom. I didn't so much clean it as I dusted and swept. I'm still unsure about cleaning products vs. fetus so I only used a tiny bit to help get the hard water stains in the sink up. The shower is a never-ending battle with the hard water so I'm not even going there unless it gets super gross. Even then, baking soda and vinegar work just fine. All the dust is off the floor and the sink is shiny again, which are the two things I need to fool myself into thinking that the bathroom is cleaner than it is. Tomorrow I have a photography gig, which is awesome, but that's in the morning and I'm hoping I'll be able to motivate myself into putting clothes away. They were piled up in front of the door in the bedroom to help with the draft (and because I was lazy) but now that the draft isn't an issue, I really have no excuse not to put them away.

And finally, a couple pictures from my pre-Thanksgiving playdate with the coolest kid in the world ;) The bearded guy is a friend from church who was back from college for the holiday.

Reading. He wanted the book read 3 or 4 times, but only the first couple of pages, lol.

Jam session. David on the odd cat piano (it meows randomly when you don't play with it) and the two of us on maracas.

Luke's usual spot. (Thanksgiving 2010)

This is Luke's favorite begging spot. When he's not there, he's got his head in your lap if you're still at the table begging for scraps. He got some ham this year and I think some turkey. Sarah and I did not have our yearly "when did we get Luke" argument because earlier this year we found some old vet paperwork in the shed with his DOB on them. Luke turned 13 this past May, he's getting up there in years. I still remember the day we got him like it was yesterday and he still acts like the puppy he was back then. He's a bit slower and a little less playful, but he's still got that sparkle in his eyes and that smile on his face when you walk in the door. We couldn't have asked for a better first dog. He came housebroken and trained to sit and heel, he had some initial separation anxiety when we would leave the house to go on errands, but after a year or two, he finally figured out we were coming back and calmed down. I'm thankful for a lot of things this year, a lot of things, but on the top of my list is that Luke is still Luke and he was with us another year. I make sure and pet and hug him a lot when I'm back at my parents, with a dog this old, things can get bad real fast and I want to make sure that nothing happens without him knowing how much I still love him. Aaaand now that the pregnancy hormones have kicked in (along with the waterworks), I'm off to bed.

Happy Thanksgiving.

I got your back!

My kids make me smile every day. Today, this was the lovely artwork of the 4th grade girls :-)

Baby Update: Went to my 2nd OB appointment today and got to hear the heartbeat! It was such a funny sound, it reminded me of train wheels going over a split in the tracks (where one rail meets another), but soooooo good to hear. I talked to my doctor about my dyshidrosis and she said that it was fine to use the cream I usually use (it's a steroid cream which is why I wanted to ask first) which is awesome and I can finally get rid of these zombie hands! I actually lost 3 pounds from my previous appointment, which is typical for people in their first trimester due to nausea and food aversions, but I need to try to avoid losing weight from here on out. Everything else looks so good that they don't need to see me again until January. My doctor was funny and as we said goodbye, she also said "Happy Thanksgiving, Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year!" lol.  January will be when I also have my 2nd ultra sound and it will be more high tech than what they had in the office (I have to go to a radiology place) to "rule out anomalies" and find out the sex if we want! I still haven't officially decided if I want to find out or not, but I have a feeling I'll get there and won't be able to resist ;)

My new hoodie!

The back has my name on it which is awesome! :-)

Bags are for bunnies.

At least, that's what Brissa thinks. She loves playing in them and tearing them to shreds. It's part of that burrowing thing, I'm sure, but it's also freaking adorable!

Blogger needs to get their picture server problems fixed pronto! I'm getting tired of only being able to upload pictures via my phone. My real camera takes so much better pictures and uploading the normal way forces me to actually sit down and write real posts. Granted I can send a bunch of text with the picture from my phone, but it's soooo much easier to type on a real keyboard than it is on a phone keyboard. My phone has the QWERTY keyboard, and that's definitely a step up from my last one, but it's not the same. I can touch-type, which means not look at the keyboard when I'm typing, I learned forever ago and I'm teaching my students to do it now, the phone keyboard is lame and I can't really touch type on it.

Baby updates: I'm officially in my second trimester, which means I'm in Month 4--a few more weeks and I'll be halfway there! My 2nd OB appointment is in 2 days and I'm hoping we'll be able to actually hear the baby's heartbeat (we only saw it on the sonogram last time, but it was going fast!). Morning sickness has pretty much vanished, aside from the rare days when I go to bed super early from being exhausted and forget to eat dinner, then I'm nauseated in the morning. My boobs are sore and I'm not really sure if I've had cravings or not. Generally I like food and I want food more often, fast food or restaurant food specifically. I did really want syrup for an entire week and so I asked Dan to get me some waffles. That was awesome because now I have something sweet to snack on in the mornings. I definitely craved Chipotle after having some earlier this week, so Dan and I had that for lunch yesterday and it was amazing. I think that may have sated the Chipotle craving for now. I would definitely eat another one of their steak burritos if someone put it in front of me or if I happened to be hungry somewhere a Chipotle was located, but I don't think I'll be sending Dan out for another burrito anytime soon.

Other than the food and the boobs, I've had almost no other symptoms and I'm not complaining! I've had cramps here and there as the baby gets bigger, but nothing like I get on my normal periods. I also get them if I move too fast after being in one position for too long, so now I get up slowly or roll over slowly and that pretty much takes care of that.

I can't remember if I've mentioned this or not, but I have this awesome thing called a BeBand (it's from Target, another popular name is BellaBand). It's an elastic band that you can wear at any point in your pregnancy to help hold your pants up. I've been using it to transform all my pre-pregnancy pants into maternity pants until my belly's big enough to need the real thing. What it does is allow you to un-button (and un-zip as necessary) your pants to allow room for your expanding belly, the band smoothes your pants and holds them snug against you so that you're the only one who knows your pants are undone. I've been wearing mine for a month and a half or two months now. My mom was in Target yesterday and asked me if I had seen them, she was surprised when I said I'd been wearing one for a while--she had no idea! Proof that they really are subtle. I would insert a picture of what it looks like, but as I've established, the photo feature is not working for me right now so you'll have to settle for the above link.

Best Q

Ignoring from my completely horrible drawing of the command button, this is the best Q I think I've ever written. I do not have the world's best handwriting, so when I get a letter or a word right, I admire it ;-)

The man your man could smell like.

Apparently my man does smell like that man.

I'm on a horse.

Creative Kids

One of my 7th Grade girls made this ad for her project. Part of the directions were that the ads be aimed at the people in the class, in this case, 7th and 8th grade girls. She wanted to do dirt bikes and I was intrigued. I told her if she could aim it for her target audience, I was all for dirt bikes. This is what she came up with and I totally dig it!

The Virus...

It's been too long Exceed, much too long...

Arigga Bamboo

In camp we sung this song about Princess Pat who sailed the seven seas with something called "arigga bamboo". My bamboo came from Ikea--the best store EVER--and lives in my bathroom for color. It's better for me than a cactus because I don't have to worry about forgetting to water it, I just make sure there's always water in the vase!

Things that make me drool...

28 glorious MacBooks all in an awesome, rolling cart that charges them when not in use. It's pretty amazing to behold.

Mmm, Panera

 

Panera for dinner again. Another late meeting at work. I'm in the very back of the restaurant, and was by myself in this section for a while. But they must have filled up (there's a wall blocking my view of the rest of the tables) because people came back to sit in my section. Two old ladies sat at the table right next to mine talking about contractors who owe them money or something. I started off the evening by visiting Wal Mart in search of some cheap maternity clothes. What I found was that the Wal Mart near work doesn't even have a maternity section! I did find a sweater and some long sleeve T's that I can wear to work for a while, which was good because I need some more tops to wear to work. After that disappointing trip (and wandering through the baby section), I headed over to Panera where I've been hidden in the back surfing the internet. I would be grading projects, but I don't have a pen, and I would be watching Netflix or Hulu but I don't have headphones (or decent internet for streaming), so surfing and blogging is what I've been doing the last hour and a half.

My next OB appointment is two weeks from today, today also marks 12 Weeks, or as I like to call it "the last full week of the first trimester", but that's a little long. This time next week I will officially be in my second trimester! Time feels like it's passing slowly and quickly. The weekend always feels like it should arrive much sooner, but I'm always amazed that I've made it to another weekend already! I found out about the baby around week 5 or 6, and I'm now twice that far along! There are long periods of time in the day where I don't even realize I'm pregnant (that will change when I start to show), but I never go a full day without thinking about the baby. So each day can drag on and fly by at the same time (Monday sure flew) which is what each week does. I can't believe I'm almost in my second trimester already, I know I'll probably start showing soon. I get cramps every time the baby gets bigger (no movement that I can feel yet though), but that's just because my body is making space so Baby can grow.

I brought a pregnancy magazine with me to Panera (another thing the prenatal program sent me) but I didn't feel like whipping it out with people sitting next to me. It's not strangers' business that I'm pregnant and if I get unsolicited advice from people I don't know, I can't guarantee polite things will come out of my mouth. I already told Dan that if strangers touch my stomach when I get bigger, I'm touching theirs right back. If they ask first, I'll ask if I can touch theirs. I don't see what about being pregnant (or toting a baby around) makes it socially acceptable to invade someone's bubble and touch them (or ask to hold the baby). I will answer questions if they are general and polite, but if they get personal (will you be vaccinating, breastfeeding, etc.) I'm going to tell them that it's none of their business. I'll be polite the first time, and if I get people who feel like they need to tell me or need to find out, I'm not staying polite. Because sometimes people don't know they're being rude, and I don't have a problem letting them know if a question is rude or too personal. I think a lot of the time, we're too polite in that we don't let someone know if a behavior or comment is none of their business, how can people learn if they're not told? Someone has to tell them, and I'm totally ok with being that someone if the stranger starts it.

What to expect

I apologize for the super lameness that is today's picture. Blogger is being a butt and having server issues with uploading pictures from the computer so today's is brought to you by my phone.

I've skimmed through parts of the book and my initial opinion is: just about all of the information is on the internet. Most of what I read in the book, I had read one place or another online at some point in time. It's nice to have it all in one place, and for it to be available if the internet or power goes down, but overall, if you research like crazy about everything going on in your life like I do, most of this is not new information. I'm sure this book was fantastic a few years ago before the internet was as massive as it is now. I'm told that the "First Years" book is more helpful, but we'll see. I didn't have to buy this, which was a plus side. I signed up for a pre-natal program with my health insurance and they sent this to me as a complimentary gift thing.