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 ;)