A post with pictures!

So much has been going on in December and January that I have forgotten to post some of the pictures that we actually remembered to take. Chad's graduation was on Friday. Too bad we couldn't go...Excelsior College is in New York. Anyway, he received his diploma in the mail today.

Yes, I already have a baby bump (that phrase was for you mom). This picture was taken of me today, 2 days shy of 14 weeks. Is this normal?!?! I am still in my work clothes here and had already unbuttoned the top button before I even got home. Time for more of the stretchy clothes. Apparently the baby is now the size of a clenched fist. I still haven't gained any weight...apparently everything is just "redistributing." Now that I am getting bigger I will try to get pictures and post them on a regular basis...I always love looking at pictures of people and their pregnant tummies.

This picture is old, but I have started a little tradition of taking a picture of the Christmas tree and posting it to the blog. This year I added the star on top, which I was really glad I bought, even though Emma & I had to stand in line for about 45 minutes behind these two ladies at Hobby Lobby who were buying about 254 things that were all breakable and had to be wrapped individually.

And here are some pictures of Chad painting the trim in the living room. This job was monumental...he painted the living room, kitchen, hallway, entryway, all the kitchen cabinets, and all the trim. Not only that but when he did the hallway and entryway he first had to put joint compound on the walls and then sand them because the previous owners used that sand texture that you dump in the paint and feels like sandpaper on the walls. Ugh. This was one of my Christmas presents, which I was so happy to get...and not have to do it. We had planned on repainting these rooms for a long time, but had never gotten around to it, so once we found out I was pregnant Chad decided it was probably time to get it done.

Look how happy he is to be painting! (What a faker)

Busy, busy

We have been really busy around here lately. I am working on the same old thing (yearbook deadlines, of which I just completed the second--only 3 more to go!), and Chad has had a lot going on too. I don't think I ever mentioned that Chad finally got his NCLEX date, which is January 26 (one week from today!), so he has been studying for that test. He also spoke at a youth retreat this weekend, which preparing for took up quite a bit of his time. He also just officially started his new job last week, so Chad's plate has been pretty full. He is at work all day every day this week for orientation, and I am assuming that I will be helping him study for the NCLEX at night.

That's about it. I am still going on UIL meets every once in a while, but they haven't happened as often this year. I think we have two more out of town meets before district, and of course the one at Coronado which I have to run the journalism events for. This meet last year was right after the holidays were over, and I was completely stressed out about it. This year, it isn't until February, so I have a bit more time to prepare, and I am just not as stressed about it. I know it will be fine. That's it for now.

Tagged

I was tagged by my friend Emily to do a post of 10 honest things about myself. Why do these always make people look super weird and OCD?

1. I am obsessed with names and why people name their children, pets, etc. what they do. I used to read phone books and directories, just for fun. This is why I think it will be quite hard to choose names for my own children (not to mention there's another person that has to be consulted...how inconvenient!), which brings me to #2...

2. I am about 12.5 weeks pregnant. That's probably a cop-out honest thing since I just posted about it and most of you already know, but just in case you didn't read the previous post, you may like to know!

3. I have this weird thing where my sandwiches/hamburgers must be in the correct proportion. I will take off meat if there is too much, I will tear off bread if extends beyond the sandwich fillings, and I don't really like to eat the last bite of sandwiches. The ratio is off. Chad says I must stop doing this so I don't give our kids some weird eating thing. That, I guess, brings me to the next one...

4. One of my big fears about rearing children (of the petty fears, not the serious ones) is that my children will be picky eaters. I know I am jinxing myself. They will probably have bad grammar too, and that will drive me crazy. I have observed multiple children with the same parents who have completely different eating habits, so I am sure there's not much I can do about it...is there? Someone whose kids eat well help me please.

5. I hate confrontation. As a teacher I have to confront people quite a bit, mostly students and parents, and mostly with negative information (i.e. your kid stole a camera and you have to pay for it).

6. I don't like for people to be mad at me or think I'm incompetent. I guess I am a people-pleaser. Sometimes I think when people say they don't care what other people think about them, that's not really true.

7. Ever since I was a cook in 2001 at CBH, I have hated the smell and taste of scrambled eggs.

8. I am a bit obsessive about checking my email. I hate having emails stay in my inbox, so I either reply right away or move it to a different folder so I don't have stuff just hanging out in there.

Okay, I thought of two more since the last time...why do these make me sound so crazy? Don't answer that.

9. When I fly, I am obsessed with getting to the airport really early because I hate the idea of missing a flight or being stressed out about getting to the gate on time. When we lived in Arizona it was especially bad, because we lived 2 hours away from the Phoenix airport, and I would insist on leaving really early. Plus, the Phoenix airport is one of the worst to just hang out in. I received this trait directly from my mom. Now even in Lubbock, I usually arrive at the airport (which is just 15 minutes away from our house) way too early. This little quirk about me just happens to drive my husband crazy.

10. Although my parents are both scientists, they never helped me with my science projects in elementary school. I'm pretty sure my mom thought the idea of kids doing science projects was stupid. Anyway, because the little kid had to come up with her own project ideas, I did things like "What will my cat eat?" (not much, since I just gave her a grape, some cheese, and a piece of iceberg lettuce) and "Are childproof bottles really childproof?" (They weren't.)

The cat's outta the bag

Well, now that our immediate family and friends we see face-to-face have been clued in, it's time to tell everyone else...we are having a baby!

I am just shy of 13 weeks along, so this week I will have finished my first trimester! I know, it went fast, didn't it?

People have been asking me questions, so I guess I will answer them for everyone:
1. I have been feeling pretty great, compared to what I hear from other pregnant people. I had some queasiness but no real sickness. I was tired at first in the afternoons, but it's hard to differentiate that from just the normal level of tiredness I usually have from working all day.
2. I have lost a pound since the first time I went to the Dr. My last check-up was yesterday and I got to hear the heartbeat which was AWESOME! The nurse counted the heartbeat as 150. The first time we saw it, it was 120 (for those of you who like to make predictions of sex based on heartbeat).
3. Yes, we will find out the sex, in about 8 weeks. And yes, we will tell you. No, we don't have a preference whether it's a boy or a girl.
4. No, we will not decide on a name way ahead of time, and no, we will not tell you what the decided-on name is until after the baby is born. That way we don't have a bunch of stuff with the name on it and then change our minds at the last minute.
5. The front guest bedroom will probably be the nursery.
6. Yes, Chad is excited. (And of course I am too!)
7. Almost forgot...the baby is due July 24th, which means no 4th session @ CBH in 2009 :(

Feel free to ask other questions in the comments section...I just thought I would answer the FAQs here.

Grandmother

Most of you who read this blog know that my grandmother, Connie Marie Howard, passed away last Monday. She was 87 years old.

Losing grandmother has been a little odd for me. It seems like I was just writing a post about my granddad dying, but that was two years ago. It was hard. He died suddenly of an aortic aneurism, and seeing how sad grandmother was after he was gone was pretty unbearable. With grandmother it almost seemed different. She was very sick for a long time. We knew this time was coming. When the time actually came, I was sad to lose her, but at the same time thankful that God had relieved her the pain and indignity of what her earthly life had become. We spent most of last week just spending time with family, looking through old photo albums and slides. It was a good time spent together, and the funeral was really nice with a lot of nice things said about her.

I have a lot of memories of my grandmother, as she is the only one I have ever known. Growing up, we spent a lot of time at their farm. I can't think about her without thinking about her two favorite things: cooking and fishing. We went fishing a lot together, and I ate a lot of her food. A few years ago, when she could still see and write, my sister gave her a journal to write all of her favorite recipes in for us. I am so glad she did that, not only because we have her recipes now, but because in reading that cookbook you can also see how much grandmother loved her family. She would write comments like, "Make sure that if you are making this potato salad and Denise is eating it, that you leave out the eggs." She was so thoughtful, always thinking of others before herself.

I will miss grandmother, but I am so thankful that I have so many great memories of her. I loved her a lot.

5 year anniversary

5 years ago today our adventure as a married couple started...Exchanging our vows with a very young Shawn Montandon officiating...

Whatever Joey is doing in this picture is hilarious to me...I'm sure the instructions were to be "crazy"...good job Erin and Sara...Still the best cake I've ever had...It was at least 70 degrees outside that blustery winter day.

It really feels like just yesterday that we got married, but at the same time it feels so long ago. And 3 college degrees, 3 moves, and five years later, I still pray that we are just at the beginning of our journey together and that God will give us lots of years to come.

My Christmas break has officially started. Well, it officially started Friday afternoon when I came home from work, and I guess now I'm well into it. Erin & the kids came on Thursday afternoon and Josh flew in yesterday so they could have Christmas with his family, so it was good to spend some time with the Joneses for a couple days (everyone except Josh, that is...he managed to avoid us...for some reason he'd rather hang out with his family than his in-laws when he comes to Lubbock). Anyway, I hadn't seen Noelle much since I visited Liberty when she was just a few weeks old, and boy was she fun to hold and smile at. She is such a happy, content baby and will just sit in your lap and watch everything around her until she gets hungry. Kellen and Bonnie had fun jumping in dead leaves (we have a lot of those) and riding around in the wheelbarrow in the back yard with Uncle Chad as the driver.

It's cold here. The high here today is 34, and I see that it is cold pretty much everywhere in the state. Part of me wishes it was snowy too, but considering we have to drive to Tyler in the next few days, I am glad for the sunshine. If we were staying home I would be more open to some wintry weather.

Good news...Excelsior College finally processed Chad's school stuff and mailed his completion paperwork to the state board. So, Chad should be getting a letter soon from the state board saying he is eligible to test. This is great...it means he can start his job in January! He had been checking the EC website every day to see if it said "Degree completed" instead of "pursuing degree," and finally at the end of the week it did! So that is one more hoop that we are glad he has jumped through.

Yesterday we spent all day taping and priming the paneling and trim in the hallways, living room and kitchen. Chad hopes to be finished with that by Christmas. It is looking good...I will post pictures when it's all done.

That's about it from here. Life is good, and we are blessed. Happy holidays everyone!

Congratulations Josh!

Today, my brother-in-law graduates with his Master's degree from ACU. I just wanted to say congratulations to him. We will be heading to Abilene this afternoon for the ceremony.

Lots of words, no pictures

I have been a pretty bad blogger lately. I guess I just haven't felt much like writing about what's going on. The main time-consumer in my life lately has been work, specifically the yearbook. After I administered the SAT at school last Saturday my editors came up to work, and we were here until after 6 p.m. But we got our first deadline done, so that is a plus! Things are actually going really well at work, just super busy.

I don't remember if I have posted officially about Chad's new job, although most of you who read this blog probably already know about it. So this is for all you stalkers I guess. Everyone knows that Chad passed his clinicals and is officially done with nursing school, so he will be starting as a graduate nurse at UMC. This is basically a job for people who are finished with nursing school and have a test date to get their RN license, just haven't taken the test yet. The best part(s) about it is it's full-time, Chad gets paid regular nurse's pay plus one year of experience because of his paramedic experience, he gets a sign-on bonus, they are reimbursing him for his nursing school, when he passes his NCLEX they are reimbursing him for the test and the review (which is about $1000 total), and full benefits. A few things have to happen before Chad can start his job though (which is January 19, I believe). First off, Excelsior College needs to kick it into high gear and put Chad in the system to show that he is finished instead of still working on his degree (I think they give the typical "4-6 week" timeframe for this to happen). Then, the dean of the college signs something and sends it to the state board of nursing. Then, after they get that, they can give Chad the go-ahead to register for his NCLEX. Then, Chad will have a test date. Then, he has to register with the state boards to get his graduate nurse license. From what I understand, all this has to happen before either January 19, his official GN start date, or the 12, which is when he starts his processing. So pleeeeeease keep this in your prayers that everything goes through and all the ducks are in a row so he can start a full-time, with benefits job in January. As most of you know it is highly frustrating and annoying to have to wait on someone else to get your paperwork through, especially if the wait is long and indefinite, and you are in a time crunch. Chad will probably have to read this paragraph and make corrections, because even though he's explained it to me a bunch, it's still a little confusing to me.

I guess something else new is that part of my Christmas present from Chad is a re-painting of the living room, entryway, hallway, and kitchen, plus repainting all the paneling and cabinets. This has been going on for about a week and a half now, and Chad has been working really hard. This Christmas present is awesome because I hate to paint and I'm not very good at it (I end up getting it all over the place), and Chad is an excellent painter--just ask Shawn & Emma, or Erin & Josh, and probably Joey & Emily too...I know he has at least helped 2 out of our 3 siblings repaint at one point or another. Anyway, we have been planning to redo these rooms for a long time, but just ran out of steam and money after we did a bunch of other stuff to the house right after we moved in last year. So, it's finally getting done, and I couldn't be happier about it. Luckily I have been really busy and spending a lot of time at work, so I'm not just being completely lazy while Chad is doing all the work. I will post pictures after it's all done, and since we are having Erin's family at our house next weekend, Chad's goal is to get much of it done before then.

Well, that's about it for now. Sorry about the lack of pictures.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Well, this post is not so much about Thanksgiving as it is about our last trip to camp. We went up there one last time last weekend to check out the progress, and it is looking good. The electrician is done (the lights turn on!) and the plumber was supposed to finish up a couple days ago, although I haven't heard how that went and if he actually came. A few pictures...(and these will be the last ones of the cabin for a while, and hopefully no more until we get the flooring in and maybe walls painted, which will be next spring and summer. So enjoy!

There are ranches around the camp area and some men were moving their cattle. This is on the unpaved road to camp.

East view of the cabin

South view with deck (you can see right now the railing is open, which we will need to fix when spring comes so little kids don't fall off)

North view

Another view of deck, looking in

Inside view with light fixtures

Loft

Bedroom

Looking at loft

Looking at kitchenChad hammering up our sign on the turnoff to the cabinAnd pointing to the sign

This week we had a nice break. Shawn, Emma & the fam came to spend Thanksgiving with us and Emma and I cooked the feast. It was yummy if I do say so myself. After the third time eating it though, we were ready for something different. We enjoyed the time we got to spend with them, and we also got to see some extended family on Chad's side, so it was good to catch up with them as well.

I hope everyone else had a good Thanksgiving. It's kind of overwhelming to think about how much I have to be thankful for.

Since Monday is the beginning of December, I am already counting down to Christmas break, which is only three weeks away. It's kind of nice to have my breaks so close together!

New update

Chad passed! He is now officially finished with the Excelsior College nursing program. Now, all he has to do is take the NCLEX and he will be a Registered Nurse.

Thanks for the calls and prayers supporting Chad throughout this hectic time. We are very excited.

Update

It is very late and I just got back from the UIL tournament in Mansfield. I am here to update you on Chad's progress. He passed all his skills stations on the first try. He had two patients today that he cared for, and passed with both of those patients. He has one more patient tomorrow to care for, and if he passes, he will come home and be DONE!!! If he doesn't pass that patient he will have one more try. So, he is doing a great job!

On another happy note, our team took first place sweepstakes at the Mansfield tournament (38 schools competed) and my journalism team took first place by one point...hey, we'll take it! I am so proud of them, considering only 2 of my 7 team members have competed in journalism UIL before.

Time for bed...I am still a little sick from earlier this week and the Nyquil is kicking in.

Eeeek!

The day(s) we have been waiting for are here...Chad goes to Amarillo today for his CPNE, or Clinical Performance in Nursing Examination. He has 5 skills stations tonight, and takes care of 3 patients over the course of tomorrow and Sunday. Please say a little prayer for him. We both have full confidence in his abilities, but are also aware of the importance of these few days. They are very picky about how everything is done, so all Chad has to do is remember everything he has studied over the past eight months.

I know that Chad will be glad when this is all over, so I can stop blogging about it.

New pictures

Here are the latest pictures of the place. What do you think?

Our builder is basically done. We are just waiting for the electrician to finish up whatever it is that he needs to finish (can't remember what that is) and for the plumber to show up and install the shut-offs and then our builder will install the faucets and p-traps since there was an issue with our counter tops and those can't be installed yet (countertop was damaged at pick-up, so another one had to be ordered).

So basically this is the finished product. We are over budget already by quite a bit, so everything else will have to be done little by little as time goes along. At least we know that we have a roof over our heads, running water and electricity when we visit our favorite place on earth.

Please keep Chad in your prayers. He is finishing up the last week of studying for clinicals, and he is working hard. He also found out on Monday after having an MRI that he has a hairline fracture in his leg. He has been having problems with his leg since the spring so we are hoping it will start healing up soon, and we're also glad to know what the problem is.

It's almost Friday! :)

Hi everyone! I know some of you are ready for it not to be "all cabin, all the time" on our blog, and I am happy to report that this time is coming. The cabinets are installed, countertops are about to be, the electrician is finished and the house now has electricity and light fixtures, our builder has finished the railings and staircases on the outside of the house and is finishing up the ones on the inside, and we are now waiting on the plumber for this thing to be finished. He hasn't shown up yet.

This past week was quite busy with coming back from San Antonio and working. Chad went for one more review in Dallas for his clinicals which are about a week and a half away. My job is to force him to go over his skills stations with me every day until his clinicals. He just bought some pretty awesome all-white scrubs and all-white shoes to wear, which remind me of the scene in Willy Wonka when the Oompa Loompas are in those outfits in that white room. Anyway, I am sure he will do great, but please pray for him as he finishes his preparations...I know he has got to be pretty nervous.

The weekend was good. We had some friends over for a non-Halloween Halloween party on Friday night (meaning no one dressed up, and we didn't do any theme games or anything), and then Saturday we watched the Tech-UT game along with the rest of the town, and then rushed home to avoid being hit by a drunk driver. It was a good game, but I was in turmoil the whole time about who to root for: I know Aggies are supposed to favor anyone who is playing UT, but I just couldn't bring myself to all-out cheer for the Raiders. Instead, I wore my A&M shirt and just enjoyed watching the game.

Well that's enough ramblings and putting off grading for today. Hope everyone has a good week!

Josh would be proud

On second thought, he probably would be embarrassed. This morning was the annual faculty vs. students basketball game, which is a fundraiser for United Way. Our assistant principal asked me probably three times to play before I finally said I would (only because he was really desperate for female faculty volunteers). The way it works is that the female teachers play the female students for two quarters and the male teachers play the male students. I think I was one of two, total, faculty members who was not a coach. But, I did score a total of two points during the two seasons I played private league basketball in 7th and 8th grade, so someone probably heard about my awesome skills and insisted that I be on the team. There were six women playing which means I had to play most of the time. It was tiring! Anyway, here is a picture of me playing some awesome defense. And just in case it doesn't LOOK awesome, I want everyone to know that the girl students didn't score on us once. And the faculty beat the students by over 20 points.

As much as I was dreading it, it was actually pretty fun, and News Channel 11 was there so for those of you who live here, watch for us on "I Beat Pete" on the 10 o'clock news either tonight or Friday.

Feel free to critique my form Coach Jones. I noticed in the picture this girl is looking at me like I'm a crazy person, but I think she's really just worried that she can't get the ball past me.

Still alive and a cabin update

We are back from San Antonio, and the trip went well. It seemed like the kids had fun, no one got in trouble, and maybe we all learned a thing or two that we didn't know before about something journalism-related.

For those of you who are still keeping up with cabin progress, the drywall is taped, bedded, and textured! Cabinets are being installed, along with countertops, sinks, etc. The place is almost liveable, as long as you don't mind walking around on a 3/4" wood subfloor until we scrounge up enough funds to put in some flooring. Personally, I think wood floors are the way to go. Maybe we will just leave it that way. Our builder also finished the staining of the log siding and he said it is "bold." I don't know what that means. I am scared. He said it looks good, definitely like a cabin in the woods.

So the plumber and electrician have their finishing touches to come do, and we are assuming they'll do that quick since they probably want the rest of their money. We are really going to try and make it out there for a weekend after all this is done just to see the place one more time.

That's it for now.

Goings on

This week has been super busy for me. I feel like I have been home, not doing anything, for a total of about two hours all week. Things have been kind of crazy around here. Chad has been working all week, and mom asked yesterday when a good time to come visit between now and Thanksgiving would be. I was looking through my calendar, and we pretty much don't have a free weekend at all until Thanksgiving, except this weekend. So mom is coming to visit, which I am looking forward to, but I just realized that we still haven't unpacked from our trip to NM last weekend. Yes, it has been that busy. Monday night I went to the choir concert to help photograph it for the yearbook. This was the first event of the year that I photographed along with a student, but since there are so few of these concerts before the yearbook deadline, I thought two cameras would be best. Same goes for tonight...I am going to the orchestra concert. Last night was church, but it was also time to get the first issue of the newspaper ready. After my design editor finishes the layout, I go back through and tweak everything and double-check the writing and grammar. This takes me, on average, about 6 hours. That's about what it took me last night, only we had church as well, so I was up until about midnight doing that. Needless to say I have been quite the zombie today.

Chad has about one month until his clinicals. He is scheduled to go to another review in Dallas in a couple weeks, right after the weekend we are chaperoning 16 of my students to San Antonio for a journalism convention. We are excited about our romantic getaway next weekend on a charter bus with my students. Just kidding...I am being sarcastic, but they are really good kids and it will be a fun trip.

So lots of things are happening right now...which stresses me out, but makes the time go by fast. Which I'm not sure is always a good thing. Anyway, I guess I better go.

What's that you said? You want more pictures of our unfinished cabin? Well, today's your lucky day.

We had a great weekend. I'm not sure there's such thing as a bad weekend when you are up in the mountains of New Mexico. It rained quite a bit, and I did not bring the correct gear, so after a talking-to from Chad about always being prepared, I now know not to make the same mistake again. Especially since this is the second time in a row that it has rained a lot when we were up there and the second time in a row I've forgotten my rain gear. Anyway...here are a few more pictures, and hopefully the next time we take pictures, the place will actually be finished. Hopefully.

This first one is our water heater. We decided to do a tankless water heater, which we are hoping saves electricity and water, is less likely to leak, and saves space in the closet. Now, we can use this closet for some extra storage instead of the whole thing being taken up by the water heater.
Our deck is great. I'm afraid right now though, the cabin is not usable for people with small children, because you can see how high it is off the ground. Hopefully our builder will build some stairs and a railing before he's finished with the place.
Another view of the outside of the house. I'm pretty sure I've already posted a picture like this. We still need to stain and seal the siding.

Here's a photo of the inside with the insulation in and the drywall being put up. The drywallers were there on Saturday when we showed up to look at the cabin. There were four of them, and this is what they got done in 6 hours. We thought they could have done more, but no use complaining about it. I'm just glad they finally showed up after the drywall had been delivered to the site for over a week.
Look how artsy I am, with my crooked picture.


That's it for now. The cabinets are sitting outside on the deck, covered up, waiting to be installed. We are on the downhill stretch. I imagine when it's all done, we will be making one last trip to camp to check out the finished product. Stay tuned!

Long time no blog

Hey guys, this post is mostly for our family to let everyone know we will be in NM this weekend. So if you try to call, that's where we are.

Pictures to come...probably of the same stuff you have already seen of the cabin, except with minor changes like outlets and plumbing put in. I know, fascinating stuff.

Hope everyone has a good weekend! I know I will...today is a half-day at school, and then we are outta here!

I love fall

Fall is in the air. I love this time of year. When I leave for work in the morning, the sun is just rising, and it is so pretty. The air is crisp and has been in the low 50s in the evenings and mornings for the past couple weeks. Yesterday, I started pulling out my fall decor, which includes a scarecrow, a pumpkin wreath, and some more little pumpkins to put around my house.

The first six weeks is over tomorrow, which means we are officially 1/6 of the way through the school year. It doesn't sound like much, but I know the fall semester will fly by and we will be halfway through the year before I know it.

Football has started, of course. We have been to one home CHS game, and will go to another one tomorrow night.

And the cabin is almost finished. Shawn and Emma went up there this weekend and took some pictures, and we are this close (holding thumb and forefinger about 1/2 inch apart) from it being liveable. The inside plumbing is done, the wiring is done, inspections have been passed, the cabinets have been delivered though not installed, and drywall and insulation should have been delivered yesterday or today. The trench has been dug and pipe has been laid for connection to the well. I am guessing we have about 1-2 more weeks before everything is finished that needs to be done by another person. Maybe you're ready for me to be finished with giving every little detail of what's been going on with the cabin, and to let you know that it is finally finished! All in good time. And when I say that, I mean don't hold your breath, because we probably won't finish it until next spring. We aren't putting any flooring in it right now, anyway. Chad and I will go up there next weekend to take one more look at it before saying goodbye until next spring, when the snow melts and we can get to it again. Then it will be work, work, work...painting, moving furniture in, putting flooring in, etc.

So anyway, I love fall. The end.