The baby's room in progress

I've been working on getting the baby's room decorated and organized, and there are pictures at the bottom of this post, but first, let's travel back to 2007, shall we? The above picture is what the room looked like when we bought the house. Below is after we did our first remodel with the room, and later we ripped out the nasty carpet. Just wanted to show the phases that the room has gone through since we've moved in to the house. And below are the newest pictures of the room.

I am all about hand-me-downs. This little guy gets a new crib and a new glider (which is more for Chad and me), but all the other big furniture in the room is a hand-me-down, and mostly from Erin. She has supplied her little nephew with the swing, bookcase, changing table, exersaucer (not pictured), a bouncy seat, and a brand new high chair, not to mention a bunch of baby clothes that Kellen once wore. How awesome is that!? Thanks Erin. And the chest of drawers is my old one...maybe one of these days I'll get some new furniture for myself! The walls are very bare right now, but eventually I will hang the quilt above the changing table and chest of drawers, and the two paintings below will go above the crib, with another painting with Baby M's name in the middle that Emma is still working on because we are being stubborn and not coming up with a for-sure name. I looooove how the paintings turned out, and in the 2nd picture below you can see the frog and helicopter in the quilt and what a good job Emma did of replicating them. The colors in the painting look a little more subdued in real life (right now on my computer screen the helicopter background is looking very bright purple, but it's not actually that color). I am really loving how the room is coming together.
And since some people are interested in stuff like this, here is the stroller that I picked out (carseat is the same design) and this is what Barbara gave us for the shower. Thanks, Barbara!So there you have it, the latest nursery pictures. Eventually I'll get the stuff put up on the walls and the room will look a lot more put together, but just in the last few days it's really started to look like a baby's room. Makes everything even more exciting!

Helpless, helpless, helpless

I think I know what it's like to get old. One day, you're doing your thing, driving, going to the store, running errands with ease, and then one day, BOOM. You can't do those things anymore. I had this discovery today about myself. I ran a few errands this morning before going to the grocery store for what I thought was a typical grocery trip. About halfway through the store, the cart became unbearably difficult to push and every turn required a huge amount of effort. Of course I chose to go to Wal-Mart today where they are huge proponents of American Individualism (YOU unload your groceries onto the belt, YOU load the grocery sacks back into the cart, YOU load your car). I usually shop at the United a few blocks away where they do all that for you. Well, 5-or-6 month pregnant Lesley wouldn't have thought anything of loading a few groceries into my cart and bringing them into the house, but 7+ month pregnant Lesley realized today that she can't do that anymore.

By the time I had come home and unloaded the car I had only enough energy to put the cold stuff away. Everything else is still just sitting on the counters, waiting for me to get a second wind. So, lesson(s) learned: 1. Plan grocery trips around when Chad is not working or sleeping, and take him with me next time. 2. Don't go to Wal-Mart, where the lady still charged me $3.86/lb for tomatillos even though the sign above them clearly said $2/lb. (and do you think I had the energy at that point to argue or talk to customer service? Nope.) It's totally worth it to pay a few extra bucks to get someone to load your car for you and take the cart back in, because even 7+ month pregnant Lesley is not willing to leave her cart in between two cars instead of putting it in the cart return. That's just rude, people. 3. Don't buy groceries during the summer. Too hot.

So, there are my lessons learned for the day. I wonder what's in store for me tomorrow.

Ohhhhh homeownership

Here are some pictures of some things going on around our house lately. The two photos below are of our garden. Chad recently had a new irrigation system installed that is hooked up to our sprinkler system but has its own timer. Then he ran irrigation hoses throughout the bed and since it's a raised bed, now he's in the process of filling it with dirt. We borrowed a truck & trailer from our friends Talin & Amanda, and they brought us a trailer full of dirt from Talin's mom's farm. That got us a little way, and Chad brought two more yards of dirt to fill the rest of the garden. He'll finish filling it up using potting soil, fertilizer, and all that stuff to prep the soil for planting.
Our next little "project" has not been quite as fun. About a week ago I was turning on the hot water faucet in the guest bath and the handle just came right off in my hand. So today was the first day Chad has been able to look at it, and when he started looking at it to see what kind of replacement faucet we'd need to buy, the water came on, and even with using the pliers he wasn't able to turn the water back off--it just kept coming out of the faucet. So the first priority was to turn off the water coming in to the house, which has now been off since about 8:30 this morning (it is now 4:30). We also noticed that the job wouldn't be as simple as going to Home Depot and buying a faucet to repair it, because as you can see the pipes for the faucet itself are behind the tile in the wall (the fixtures are so old that we couldn't just buy handles to screw in to the existing pipes). I had some stuff to take care of to finish up at school and at the district office, so Chad and I left the house for a while to get that done. We picked up a new faucet and handles on the way home, and soon realized when we got home that this was a job for a plumber, mostly because Chad has to work tonight and he needed to rest up instead of spending a frustrating afternoon with our plumbing. So the plumber finally got here about a half hour ago, and as you can see he quickly went to work getting in the cabinet that is behind the shower to check it out. Luckily to get to the fixture pipes, we didn't have to bust through the tile. Apparently a previous owner needed to access the plumbing as well, so there was already a piece of drywall cut out behind the plumbing and duct taped into place in the cabinet. So I emptied out the cabinet, and the plumber got to work. By the way, I took the picture below while the plumber was out in his truck getting tools. Even I'm not desperate enough to get a picture for the blog to ask a plumber to move for a second so I can take a picture. So 45 minutes and $180 later, we have a brand-spankin' new shower faucet and handles. It couldn't have happened much later either--we're expecting multiple guests this next weekend, so we needed the guest shower to be available! (Not to mention I needed the water to the house to be turned back on STAT). Speaking of homeownership, from what I hear our cabin is ready for occupancy. The well pump is working and the pipes are running to the house. The electricity is up and running. Our builder said he turned on the water to make sure everything is working and that the water pressure is GOOD. Can you believe it? We actually have a cabin at Blue Haven!!!! It makes me so happy that just thinking about it right now almost makes me cry.

And so begins the great furniture migration of 2009. This weekend Shawn, Paul and Chad are making a trek up to the cabin to move in most of the major furniture that we will need. Shawn is bringing a refrigerator from Georgetown. Paul is bringing multiple pieces of furniture from Tyler. They're picking up pretty much a UHaul's worth of furniture from mom's house in Weatherford, and then they'll stop off in Lubbock to get a sleeper sofa, twin trundle bed, queen mattress & box springs, etc etc. It's going to be a long weekend of driving and loading and unloading furniture. Have I mentioned how glad I am that I'm over 7 months pregnant and literally CAN'T help? Selfish, I know, but I'm pretty sure the guys would just as soon have me out of the way to get this done faster. Then, hopefully in a couple weeks, Chad and I can take another trip up to the cabin after the guys have so graciously gotten it ready, and we can spend a couple days getting it MORE ready for people to stay there, and also just to be able to enjoy it after spending most of last year getting this place built. I am excited that we now have this little place to go to and enjoy anytime we want to get away. More pictures to come, I'm sure! Although I'm not going to ask Chad to take pictures this weekend...I think they'll have their hands full with all the manual labor, probably won't be much in the mood to be the historian. Anyway, I'm excited, and we will let everyone know when it's ready for habitation (we are still lacking flooring and painted walls, so it's really dependent on how much you want to "rough it.")

And that's about it. Did I mention I'm done with school? I know I posted after the last day of school on Thursday, but I still had a work day and had to empty out my classroom and do all of that other end-of-the-year checkout stuff. Well, I finished that today. I turned in my keys to the office and officially gave up my rights to the classroom. On to a new, very different, chapter in my life. And on that note, I will be 33 weeks pregnant on Thursday. 7 weeks sounds like not very much time. It also sounds like a short amount of time when I say that it is now June and the baby is due in July. I am excited and can't wait to meet our baby boy.

**EDIT: Much more excitement has happened since I posted this afternoon! After the plumber left, the hot water would not come back on. Also, there was the issue of the natural gas smell in our house. I thought I had smelled it earlier in the day but Chad didn't smell anything, so I thought I was just being paranoid or smelling the some excess gas from the stove not lighting right away earlier in the day. But after a few hours, the smell really began permeating the house, mostly when the A/C would kick on. Wonderful. I walked out to the garage, where our water heater and furnace are, and I could smell the gas the strongest in our laundry room (which is connected by a wall to the closet with the water heater and furnace). So I called the gas company and they came out around 6:30, and the source of the gas was the furnace in the garage closet, and the pilot light on the furnace had gone out, but the gas was still turned on. So the guy turned that off and the gas smell has gone away. The water heater was a separate problem. The pilot light had gone out on that too (the gas company guy was kind enough to check it and re-light it for me since Chad is at work).

So, it has been quite a day filled with numerous, all unrelated, house maintenance issues. I had plans to continue checking other things off my list like cleaning, de-junking the house, and grocery shopping, but that will have to wait until tomorrow. Which is okay, because I don't have anything else going on. :)

I just had to share two of the three paintings that my sister-in-law Emma has done for the baby's room. Aren't they adorable and isn't she talented?

So long, farewell

Well, I made it. I am officially not a teacher anymore. It has been a great year and I have had a wonderful experience during my two years at Coronado. I will miss certain aspects of my job, like the students, but students come and go so they would leave eventually anyway if they weren't already graduating this year. I will really miss a few of my co-workers, especially my across-the-hall neighbor, Cecilee, who became a good friend and my daily lunch buddy. She was even the first person I told (after Chad) that I was pregnant. So it goes without saying that I will think back about my relatively short time here with mostly positive memories (except for this. Oh, and this. And a few other things that I chose not to blog about because of the very public nature of blogs). Now, it's time for the next thing.

Speaking of the next thing...I have been pondering my new profession a lot lately, thinking about how I will be using my time differently and what my new purpose will be. Obviously, my main job will be to make sure our child stays fed and dressed and loved, but what else is involved in my new job description? Well, one thing that I have started focusing a lot on lately is how we will be spending our money. We've had a few good months as DINKs (that's Double Income No Kids to you acronymally-challenged), but now we're about to be SIKs (I reeeeeally wanted to think of something that started with "C," so it could spell a word, but anyway, I've already wasted too much time on this AND I took out the "W" cause that wouldn't work). Enter the new Montandon family budget! We've budgeted before, but it's always been more of a self-imposed thing, since both of us have usually had some source of income. So, June starts our first month on our new, much more limiting, budget. I also subscribed to the Sunday paper so I can start clipping coupons. And for those of you who like to make suggestions and give advice, please feel free to leave comments about what else has helped you save money. Other things that will be higher on my priority list when I am a stay-at-home mom are being better about cooking at home and doing weekly menus and keeping the house clean (Chad keeps saying that he is waiting for my "nesting instinct" to kick in because our house is a mess). I also plan to spend much less time on the computer and more time studying my Bible. I have been thinking a lot lately about how much time I spend on the computer and what a waste it is, and I know it will only become worse if I don't make a conscious effort to minimize my computer time. So, there you have it.

Still reading, not wordy enough for you yet? Well, in baby news, I am 32 weeks today and I start my "every two weeks" dr. appointments tomorrow. My church friends are throwing a baby shower for me next Saturday, so that will be fun to ooh and ahh at all the cute little baby things. It seems like the closer we get to a due date the further we get from a name we both love. So, that's all the news on that.

I guess that's it! Time to go home and take a nap.

Two months and counting...but who's counting?

Well, my loyal blog readers, yesterday marked exactly TWO months until my "official" due date. To you, that means yet another tiny little infant to look at pictures of and hold every once in a while. To me, it means that in two months or less or a little more, mine and Chad's lives will be completely and forever changed. I don't know what it is about the two month mark that has made it so real for me and has kicked me into high gear about needing to be ready...maybe it is the fact that I personally know several people who have had their babies 1-2 months early, so it's the realization that he could literally come at any time and I really DON'T have two months left.

Aside from the fact that we won't be able to teach at Blue Haven this summer which still makes me sad to think about, I feel like this pregnancy has been perfect timing with my job. At 7 months pregnant, I'm just getting to the point where things are getting pretty difficult to do. By the end of the day at work, I'm tired from lugging around the extra 30-or-so pounds, and it seems like every day I have to figure out what outfit still fits that is appropriate to wear to work and what will go with the two pairs of comfortable shoes that I have left. Unfortunately, my knit yoga capri pants and tank tops do not fit into this category...and this is my go-to outfit every day when I come home. I am really happy that for the "homestretch" I don't have to lug myself around school every day and I'll really only have to try to look somewhat presentable a few more times in the pregnancy...all other times I'll be at home concentrating on staying cool. I think I will probably take Emma's lead and buy myself a little pool to lay around in in the backyard.

Three more days of school! :)

Baby's room

One of the questions I get asked a lot nowadays is what the "theme" of our baby's room is going to be. I don't feel like we really have a theme; in fact, we are not even painting his room a different color. It is a khaki color that we painted two years ago when we moved to our house, and with the recent painting Chad has done in the rest of the house, no one really felt like painting that room again. I'm totally fine with that though; I like the color or else I wouldn't have chosen it in the first place. We also already had a deep red area rug and red curtains in the room, so I wanted to use the color red so we wouldn't have to redo everything. When I first started looking at bedding, before we knew whether we were having a boy or girl, I didn't really get too excited about anything I saw. I'm not a fan of all the pastel baby stuff that's out there, and I wanted some of the bedding to "grow" with our child so we wouldn't have to buy new stuff when the baby wasn't a baby anymore. So, I found the perfect bedding:

I ended up getting the quilt, the sheet, and the bedskirt, all a gift from my mom. I am using a bumper that my sister gave me that is just a blue denim color. Although I love the bumper that comes with the bedding, I felt like it was a lot to spend on a bumper, and it turns out they're not selling the bumper anymore so it's just as well I didn't want it. The thing I love about this bedding is all the different colors that are in it...not too "primary" and not too pastel. Also, we think we'll probably keep this room as the nursery, which means whenever we have another child, this little boy will move to the green room (those of you who have been to our house know what I'm talking about), and I think the quilt will still work in there. I will be stealing Pottery Barn's idea of hanging the quilt on the wall, probably opposite the crib. Above the crib, my sister-in-law Emma, who just happens to be a very talented artist, is doing some paintings from images on the bedding. She will paint one square as the frog, one as the helicopter, and then the middle painting will be rectangular and will have our child's name (using the letter styles from the quilt, once we pick a name!) in the middle with more of the little objects around the border. I can't wait...I think it is going to turn out so cute. I had the bedding shipped directly to Emma and she says that it's even cuter in person than in the pictures, so that got me even more excited.

Coming soon...Chad has been working hard on a below-ground irrigation system for our garden, which he plans on doing as a raised bed this year. I'll get some pictures soon to show the progress.

31 weeks and ultrasound pictures

Today marks the end of my 31st week, so it's time for more pictures. Also, we went for another ultrasound today (probably the last) and they said everything looked good, and it's still a boy. The baby weighs approximately 3 lbs. right now, which according to them is in the 26th percentire. He was being a little uncooperative about showing us his face, but we got a couple of okay pictures. He is breech right now but just a couple weeks ago at the dr. he was in the head-down position, so we'll just have to wait and see what happens when the time comes. He has a few more weeks to swim around in there.
We did the 3-d ultrasound just because I asked the lady if we could, and it was pretty cool. The first one is of his TOTALLY ADORABLE little foot. Seriously, baby's feet might be the cutest thing ever. And I might be mistaken, but he MAY have his mom's long 2nd toe. Ahh, the legacy lives on. The second and third are of his totally adorable face with his forearm and hand covering up his mouth and chin. Anyone want to start speculating as to who he looks like? And finally, me at 31 weeks.

It's a huge blessing to know that everything is as it should be as far as our child's health and my health are concerned, and I know it has everything to do with God's grace and him taking care of us, and the many prayers being offered up for us. I am so thankful and humbled to think about the many blessings in our lives.

That's it for now.

A breakthrough

Well, the official countdown is 11 more school days until the year is over. So, I have once again begun to start packing up my stuff in my classroom. The last time I did this it was different. I was moving to another teaching position, so naturally, I needed to take all of my teaching stuff (turn-in trays, posters with "inspirational" sayings, etc.) with me so I would have them at my new job. But now, I am not going to another teaching job. In fact, I'm not going to any job at all except to my house. So everything has become this big dilemma of whether I should keep it or not. I realize I don't need my turn-in trays or inspirational posters, but what about if/when I go back to teaching? Where will I be? What will I be teaching? Where am I going to put all this stuff until then? Do I really want to start all over again collecting materials if I decide to leave everything here for the next person?

So in the past, when I packed up my belongings, I've just thrown everything into a box to be dealt with later, because I'm sure I'll need it eventually. This time, I'm not so sure. Everything is a big WHAT IF????? I think, WHAT IF, 8 or so years from now, I think back to this handout I threw away instead of keeping?

I had no idea when I came to work today and decided to start cleaning out my stuff that my day would be full of so many decisions. So far, I've packed three tubes of hand lotion, three books, and some yarn. I did finally throw away two lesson plan units I wrote my senior year in college. Forgot I had those.

Sometimes typing out my thoughts on a blog can be so therapeutic. I have realized through all this fretting, that there is no way I will ever be able to find a handout that I once used. I mean, I just threw away notes from a media writing class that I took in college that have been sitting on my classroom bookshelf for two years that I DIDN'T EVEN KNOW I HAD. So I guess the moral of the story is if I've forgotten by now that I have it, I'm not going to ever use it, so I should get rid of it.

Thanks for talking me through it, blog readers.

Random updates

What!? Another week is over?

This week has flown by. Maybe it's because I didn't go to work until Tuesday, and the yearbooks came in Wednesday, and we distributed them today, so I have been busy at school. We've gotten some really good feedback so far, and I haven't had any bad parent phone calls yet, so I would say it's been a successful yearbook distribution so far.

Chad officially started his graduate classes, including a business statistics class. I don't think he's going to have so much fun with that one.

I went to the doctor yesterday. He said that right now the baby weighs about 2.5 pounds and everything looks good. The baby's mother is gaining plenty of weight too. We went ahead and made all my appointments until the due date...only 7 more to go! And that is if I make it the full 40 weeks. We are getting really excited about how quickly the time is passing and how soon our little boy will be here. Also, the soft, comfy chenille glider armchair we ordered a couple months ago is finally in, so we get a new piece of furniture tomorrow. Woohoo!

I hope everyone has a good weekend. I for one will be sleeping late tomorrow and turning the air conditioner way down.

New York trip

Well, we are already back from our trip. We only got back a few hours ago but I figured I better post these pictures tonight or it wouldn't get done for a while. I would have taken more pictures but it rained a lot of the time and I didn't want to pull my camera out. I have tried to put them in order...

Friday evening we checked in our hotel in Manhattan. The original plan was to take the Staten Island Ferry Friday night, but the weather was rainy, so we decided to just walk around the city instead. We stumbled across a lot of things that were on our original "to see" list. Grand Central Station was just a few blocks from our hotel, and they had a bunch of places to eat in there, so we got some Chinese food...And then watched all the people as they commuted home for the weekend. We passed the New York Public Library, which was beautiful. I lost count of how many GAPs and Starbucks we passed, but I have never seen a GAP so big. Times Square.Radio City Music Hall. NBC. We came back to the hotel fairly early and crashed, since Chad had still not slept since the day before (we left for our trip less than 2 hours after Chad got off night shift at work. He had a blast traveling all day).

Saturday:
We got a bit of a late start on Saturday...slept in and had a nice, leisurely breakfast which I can't forget to mention. It was my favorite restaurant that we went to while in New York, and looking back I probably would have gone there for every meal had I known then what I know now (which is, that it was the best one). It's called the Comfort Diner and it was just a couple blocks from our hotel. I had the lemon blueberry ricotta pancakes and they were soooooooo good. I can't remember what Chad had. I was too busy enjoying my pancakes. All I remember was that I offered him a bite and he took it. Why did I DO that?! Just kidding...but it was really good.

Saturday morning it was really nice outside, so we did the Staten Island Ferry. Basically it's a free ferry that just goes back and forth from Manhattan to Staten Island and back, and you can see the Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, etc. Here's a photo I took of another ferry with the Statue of Liberty behind it. The rest of Saturday we came back to the hotel, changed clothes for the evening, and went to Joe Allen's which is a restaurant by the theater district. After Joe Allen's we went and saw "The Lion King" which was great, and the perfect length for a Broadway show. We were really close in the orchestra section and it was fun to be in the part of the audience that the characters came by in the aisles as they were performing. Saturday after the show we went to Serendipity, which is a famous little place that was actually in the movie of the same name. They are famous for their desserts and frozen hot chocolate, so I had to get one of those. It was good. We walked back to our hotel and called it a night (it was probably 1 or 2 am by this point).

Sunday:
Sunday was rainy again alllll day long. It was fine, because first on our itinerary was to go to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. What an amazing place. We saw relics from every time period, and famous paintings from the likes of Picasso, Van Gogh, Matisse, Monet, Pollock, etc. They also some traveling exhibits that were really interesting as well. The suits of armor were cool too. After the Met, we took a bus further down 5th Avenue to FAO Schwartz. I am pretty sure we went to one of these once in Vegas, but I wanted to go to the one on 5th. I looked for a really cool toy to buy for our kiddo, but nothing really caught my eye. We had fun getting out of the rain for a bit and just exploring though. This was also the point when I decided I like taking the bus much better than taking the subway...mostly because it's more fun to see out, the bus is more clean, and I don't have to climb a bunch of stairs. :)After FAO we went to Maxie's, a deli on Times Square. Chad had seen something where they claimed to have the best cheesecake in New York or the world or something. Our meal started off with this...So I tried the cole slaw and it was pretty good, and then I took a bite of the pickle. It was the worst pickle I have ever had. It didn't taste like a regular pickle. It tasted...off. It was so bad I had to spit it out into a napkin. Classy, I know. So now I don't know if all pickles in New York delis taste different or if it was just that one. The cheesecake was good though. Whew! It is still Sunday and we are nowhere near finished! After lunch, we decided to go to the Empire State Building. I had already bought tickets (they advise you to pre-purchase your tickets so you don't have to wait as long), so we were going even if the weather was rainy. So here is a picture of Chad waiting for one of the many subways we took while we were in NY. We took the subway a lot b/c it was right by our hotel and so convenient. So here we are on our way up to the observatory at the ESB. This was after they had told us there was zero visibility at the top. This is what I get when I tell Chad to look enthusiastic for the camera. We are in the elevator and we took these so I could say that at least we saw the Empire State Building. I should add that we rode up and down in an elevator all by ourselves...there was literally NO ONE there. We walked through lines and lines of velvet rope, and it was at that point that I was extremely glad we didn't have to wait for two hours with a bunch of other people only to get to the top and be crowded out. No Chad, like THIS...It really wasn't that rainy when we got to the top, just a little chilly (maybe mid-50s). Enough to scare everyone else away. There were maybe 10 other people at the top. View to the top from the observatory deck. Zero visibility? I think not. He was keeping us company and eyeing me while we were up there. After the ESB, we were worn out. Probably a combination of sleep deprivation, walking around NYC all day, and the weather. So we went back to the hotel and rested for a couple hours before we ventured into Brooklyn for the evening. My friend from A&M, Brent, lives in Brooklyn and does freelance graphic/web design for a living, so we met up with him for dinner and to hang out for a little bit. We had read about this place or maybe seen it on Diners, Drive-ins and Dives: Tiny little place, line out the door, cash-only pizza that they make right in front of you. Yum. Then we walked a few feet over to the Brooklyn Ice Cream Factory right by the river, also yum. I had read in a guidebook that on a pretty, warm day, this place has lines out the door too. Once again we hit it at just the right time and even got one of the three tables inside.This was right outside the ice cream place and in front of the Brooklyn Bridge and Manhattan skyline. If you ever visit New York I highly recommend going to Brooklyn at night so you can take the bridge and skyline in. Chad and I agreed that it was definitely a highlight of our trip. Also, this is the only picture we got together the entire trip, so thanks Brent for taking it for us. Another view of the bridge (I probably took 30).Sorry for the blurriness of the next one, but that's what you get when you combine walking photographer+low light and no flash. After dinner, we walked back into Manhattan across the Brooklyn Bridge. Once again, it was the perfect night to do it...it had stopped raining and was just nice and cool outside, and we didn't have to fight crowds.

I also took a picture of a little I heart NY onesie and a statue of Liberty Christmas ornament which were the only two souvenirs I got, but I accidentally deleted it and I've been working on this blog post for a while now so I'm not going to try and re-post it. After our little mini-vacation, I can say that I am truly glad we did this. It was just the right amount of time (not too short that I feel like we missed out on anything), the perfect destination (lots to do--all close together), and the perfect time of year that we really enjoyed ourselves. I was glad we went when we did, because if I had been any bigger it would have been really hard for me to get around. I am not kidding when I say that my feet killed me by the end of the day and it was really tough to get up the flights of stairs when we were coming off the subway...so I am glad we went when we did and didn't wait any longer. It was a great way to spend a little time together traveling before we become a family of three.

I hope you enjoyed the pictures and I highly recommend going to New York if you've never been before.

28 weeks!

This pregnancy is just flying by. I am already at 28 weeks! In less than 3 months we will have a precious baby boy and we are getting very excited. We are still trying on names for size and I don't foresee having one picked out before he is born, but maybe. We'll see. And I just realized there are only 4 weeks left of school, one of which is a three-day week filled with final exams and early releases. This year is practically over!

Don't you love how the shadow from the flash makes me look even bigger than I actually am? I do.

We are going ahead with our plans to go to NYC tomorrow despite the nationwide media frenzy and panic regarding the swine flu. Oops, I mean influenza A, the WHO has decided not to refer to it as swine flu anymore because the pigs were getting their feelings hurt. It's supposed to rain all weekend in NYC, so maybe between that and the flu thing we will be the only ones out and about. One can hope, right?

I asked Chad what he was most excited about and he said "the food." I am most excited about seeing "Lion King," and on Broadway no less. Be on the lookout for pictures from our trip next week. I will have lots of time because Chad is working a lot.

NYC-ya!

What's new

Just thought I'd post an update. No pictures as of late...I've been meaning to take my "27 weeks pregnant" picture, but then I think, "Well, I'm about to be 28 weeks so I'll just wait till then, plus I don't have any make-up on, plus I'm wearing a t-shirt where you can't really tell I'm pregnant" etc. etc. So I'll take one soon. Moving on.

The weather has warmed up here and we went to the nursery to check out what they had, and I bought some more tomato seeds and some carrot seeds as well. I bought Celebrity seeds which were my favorite out of the 3 varieties we planted last summer. The carrots never took off last year because right after we planted them, our garden flooded from a big rain. Chad is in the process of devising an underground irrigation system for our garden...more to come on that later.

One week from today, we will be in New York. I took off Thursday to go to the Dr. to take that blood glucose test that tests for gestational diabetes, which takes a while, so I just took off the whole day. Anyway, the rest of the day I made our itinerary, complete with mapping out our route from place to place, which subways and buses to take, or which streets to walk on, etc. to get to where we want to go next. The one thing you can't do when you have a limited amount of time in a place like New York is fail to plan ahead...so I have everything planned out. We'll take lots of pictures and I'll tell you all about it when we get back.

Chad is now registered for his first semester of Master's classes, and I think the first day of classes is the week after next. He is taking business statistics and some other class that sounds very masters-like but he'll have to tell you what it is. In the course of all this grad degree talk, we decided that we "needed" a laptop so Chad could do his schoolwork. So we are now the proud owners of a new Macbook computer. Then dad told me about this thing called a Time Capsule that Apple makes that is basically a wireless router and universal hard drive in one. So we got this stuff yesterday, and I set up the Time Capsule as our wireless network, set up the Mac to connect to the internet with it, set up our printer to print wirelessly from the laptop, and set up the desktop to connect to the internet through the router as well. The Time Capsule backs up everything on the laptop and the desktop, and we should be able to access everything that's been backed up onto the hard drive from either computer (haven't tried that yet). Pretty cool technology. So now we don't have to be stuck in that back room in the uncomfortable chair when we want to use the computer...no, I am on our comfy couch blogging and catching up on DVR shows.

Well, today was the regional UIL competition and as far as I know, my two students who were in the news writing competition will be going to state...one won 1st place and the other one placed 4th and will compete as the alternate. I don't know how they did in the other competitions.

That's it for now. I am surprised you have read this far after my lengthy explanation about the Time Capsule. Have a good weekend.

First baby shower

Today my 7th period class put together a baby shower for me. It was so fun and they were so thoughtful to do it. They really went all out...got a cake, bought presents and food, and even decorated a little. These are little mini-cheesecakes with pacifiers made out of lifesavers and jelly beans. So cute. One of the little outfits that a student gave me. And another one. This is the baby's first Polo Ralph Lauren outfit. Boy is he going to be stylin'. This is my class. They are really good kids, and I was just completely touched with what they did for their journalism teacher today.

Start spreading the news...

We're leaving in two weeks for a little mini-vacation to New York!

I am so excited. I have been bugging Chad about going on a trip before I can't travel anymore, tiny new baby comes, etc...and that window is closing very quickly. So I am taking off a couple days in early May that Chad already has off and we are headed to New York for a long weekend. It was important to me to go to a place neither of us had been before, and I've wanted to go to New York for a really long time. Chad couldn't really care less where we go. Last night as we were looking over his schedule, we basically decided on the weekend that we'd go, and he told me I could pick (which means I get to plan the whole thing as well...it works for us!). I booked the entire trip before even telling Chad where we were going. We won't have much time there, but being the planner that I am, I will make sure we get the most out of the time we are spending there! Plane tickets, hotel, and tickets to "The Lion King" have already been purchased. I will be sure to take lots of pictures of our last vacation as a family of two.

Now, those of you who have been there, feel free to leave comments suggesting places to definitely go, and places we can skip. Keep in mind we only have a couple full days.

Shoulda thought of that

Last night I had a startling revelation. I was watching "American Idol," and the baby started kicking. Only this time, for the first time, I could SEE him kicking. And then came my startling revelation. This kid is getting bigger...and he has to COME OUT. I know what you're thinking..."Duh, you idiot." Because that is what I was thinking too. But seriously. Does everyone who is pregnant have this revelation at some point and get kind of panicky?

Feel free to make fun of me, either in the comments section or behind my back. I don't care. The main point of this post is REALLY to document the first time I could see the baby move, not really to document the panic I felt after I saw him wiggling around in there.

Long time no blog

It seems like a while since I've posted to the blog. Lots of stuff has been going on lately. Here is some of it, and I will try to be as organized as possible with the topics:

1. We have decided that we won't be able to teach at all this summer at Blue Haven. The session we applied for, at the very beginning of the summer, didn't have any openings, and there were two other options...2nd and 5th. We can't go for two weeks because of Chad's job and because I don't think I'd have much fun being up there for that long, and 5th session is right when the baby is due. We are really sad, but we are hoping to get some cabin time at the beginning of the summer. And who knows, maybe the baby will come early and we'll feel up to taking him to camp to show him off. He'll need to meet with his doctor anyway, and that's where she'll be. We're extremely sad that we won't be able to be teachers this summer, but I am also a little relieved that no one is going to be depending on us since we will be in a most undependable situation.

2. Chad is going to start a Master's in nursing program through Excelsior. They don't require a Bachelor's in nursing before going to a Master's, just a bachelor's degree of some kind, so in total he will need 38 hours to complete his MSN. He plans on starting this pretty soon, with the hope that it will be out of the way while our son is still really little.

3. I finally met my new doctor. I like him a lot. My next appointment is at the beginning of May, which means I'll be 29 weeks or so, then I'll have one more ultrasound around 32 weeks. The next thing I have to do is take that test where you drink that stuff and they tell you if you have gestational diabetes.

4. I went shopping in Austin with mom and Erin this weekend and it was lots of fun. I had a blast finding cute little boy clothes for super cheap. I think the most fun thing about shopping for boys' clothes is that most of them aren't cute (unlike girls' clothes, which are pretty much all adorable and too much of a temptation for me), so when you find something that is, especially if it's cheap, it is even more exciting. My favorite boys' clothes are the ones that make them look like little men...sweaters, jeans, half-zip pullovers, etc. Erin passed along lots of hand-me-downs from Kellen, and I've just started to go through them. In a matter of a couple of days, the baby's room went from completely bare to this...

I love hand-me-downs! With both of us being youngest siblings whose brothers and sisters have had 8 children altogether, we are benefiting from everyone else's stuff, and they are being gracious enough to part with so much of it to help us out. Emily also sent us a care package with lots of goodies in it. Our favorite part had to be the card from Riley. It was so sweet and Emily said she did the whole thing herself, with no prompting with what to say in the card. I don't know if you can read it or not, but it says "I hope your baby feels good when it comes out." Hilarious and adorable. I plan on putting it in his baby book, but I'll probably have to put a caption under it that says, "You didn't."

5. While I was in Austin shopping, Chad went camping in New Mexico. I don't have much to say about that, but he took some pictures and I'll see if he wants to post those and do an update.

And last but not least, a photo of me @ 25 weeks pregnant, taken last Thursday.

I hope everyone has a good week.

I love Saturdays

I am really appreciating today. One reason is because the UIL district meet that was supposed to be last Saturday and got canceled because of the snow got moved to yesterday, which means we all still get a weekend. So, we got back last night, and my journalism team won 2nd place overall, and I have 2 on my team who will be competing in various events at regionals (which is in town...yay!). A little more explanation...there are 4 journalism events, and 10 5A schools per event, and each school can enter 3. So there were 30 kids per event, and 6 possible "places." If you place 1st through 3rd, you move on to regionals. In one event all 3 of my kids placed, in 2 others, 1 placed, and in one, 2 placed. So I'm pretty proud of them...they did well. AND I'm glad we came back yesterday, so we all still have a weekend.

Another reason I'm appreciating today is because Chad came home from his shift at 7 a.m., made cinnamon rolls, eggs & bacon for me and my friend Amanda who spent the night last night, and then went to sleep. What a thoughtful husband!

So, I'm already past the 24 week mark, and I will post a picture soon. Happy weekend everyone!