Noah is 1 month old (almost a month ago)....

I'm so totally behind on blogging. Mainly due to the whole moving thing.

Despite the fact that I had surgery 2 days before I made sure that we took pictures of Noah at 1 month. I wanted to make sure I posted them before he's 2 months old (a week from now) so you can see how much he's changing.

Check out those skinny chicken legs!!

He was so patient and sweet sitting up in the big chair. I wanted to put something near him so we could compare growth from month to month. So, here he is with his Pooh bear.
Eventually he grew tired of his photo shoot but I couldn't resist just one more picture. He's cute even when fussing.

Boxes, boxes, boxes...

The movers came. The stuff was loaded. Then it was unloaded....in the rain. It hasn't rained in weeks in Texas but of course it poured on our moving day. No harm done though.

Now begins the task of unpacking all the boxes. Of course the unpacking has to happen on Noah's schedule....which means that it happens in short bursts between feedings, changings and play time.

My mom is of course super helpful. Thanks to her help our 150+ boxes are now down to about 60 or so left to be unpacked. Next on the to-do list...pick some paint colors and get some paint on these new walls.

Our last night on Wren....

Well, I'm sitting in a house full of boxes. Everything is packed and ready to go except for a few last minute baby items we need to throw in the car and the clothes we'll wear tomorrow. The movers arrive at 8am.


We've been in here for 6+ years and we're definitely tearing out some deep roots to move our lives to a new place. We've had so much fun and we're sad to go. We'll miss Fort Worth and our friends here so much. We love y'all. Thanks for everything.

July 5, 2003

Five years ago I married my best friend.
It was a great day and a wonderful beginning to our life together.

Guess what we did for the 4th?!?!?

Most people watch fireworks and picnic on the 4th. Some people watch baseball games. Josh and I decided to do something a little different this year. But first a little back story....

So, during my pregnancy I would sometimes get intense pains in the middle of my upper back (between my shoulder blades) and/or across the top of my rib cage mainly on the right side. Now when I say intense I mean that it hurt to sit, stand or lay down and it hurt to breathe. The pain would last anywhere from 30 minutes to several hours and made it impossible to function. These "episodes" sometimes occurred at work but usually hit later at night once I was home. One episode started while I was driving to my grad school class final. I finished the test in record time (do they keep records like that?) due to the fact that I couldn't focus and it hurt to sit there. Josh and I often debated whether or not I should go to the emergency room during these bouts of pain. Josh represented the "let's go" side and I camped out on the "I can get through this without the emergency room" side of the fence. I was resistant to going to the emergency room because I thought the pain was caused by gas and it is embarrassing to go to the ER because you have gas.

Eventually I described these pains to my doctor and she thought that I might have stones in my gall bladder. She told me that she could run some blood tests and that if I needed to that I could have surgery to remove my gall bladder. She assurred me that gall bladder surgery while pregnant was totally safe. I explained to her that between work, grad school, job and house hunting that I didn't have time to have surgery whether I was pregnant or not.

I'm sure by now you are starting to wonder what this has to do with Independence Day.
Wednesday my mom came over to help me pack some boxes. Wednesday at 3am after I fed Noah I noticed that my back was starting to hurt again. An "episode" was coming on so I took some advil and went back to sleep. The pain persisted when I woke up. And persisted. And persisted. My mom finally convinced me that maybe I should go to the ER around 4pm because I was hurting so badly that I couldn't function which included being totally unable to take care of Noah. I would describe the pain of these episodes as worse then my labor experience. So, I gave in and up to the ER we went.

At the ER they did some blood work and a sonogram of my gall bladder. I not only had gall stones but some of the stones were stuck in the ducts connecting my liver and some other organs. This was causing all sorts of havoc on my system. The ER doc asked if I'd had pains like this in the past. I explained that I had them throughout my pregnancy as well as 3 other "episodes" in the past week. She then admitted me to the hospital for a procedure to remove the stones in the ducts and a surgery to remove my gall bladder. I asked if they could do both at once but I was told that wasn't possible.

So, we spent Wednesday night at the hospital. Thursday was spent in misery because my procedure was at 3:30 and I couldn't have anything to eat or drink after 7am. Due to the fact that the stones were causing blockages my bilirubin count had gone pretty high and I was totally jaundiced. We should've taken a picture to commemorate how yellow I was.... Anyway, I got to have full anestesia and go to sleep while they removed the stones from my ducts. Afterwards I was starving but was on a "clear liquid diet" due to the surgery I was having the next day. At this point it has been about 36 hours since I had eaten anything solid.

Friday morning at 6:30am another anestesiologist woke me up to have me sign consent forms for my surgery. They rolled me down at 7am and I had surgery to remove my gall bladder. Happy Birthday America!! I have four small incisions in my abdomen that they actually put back together with glue instead of stitches. I was ready for a chipotle burrito, pepperoni pizza and a cheeseburger at this point but they insisted I start slowly with more clear liquids and eventually a turkey sandwich. They sent me home Friday night around 7pm. My mom made chicken, rice and salad and I promptly ate everything in sight. We just watched fireworks on TV since I wasn't in much of a mood to get out and about at that point.

It was definitely a 4th of July that I won't forget for quite a while.

I'm a little sore still today. I would describe the pain as kind of like having a stitch in your side after you've been running. I have great pain meds though! :) And of course I now get to play the "I had surgery" card in order to avoid all things move related!!

Hope your 4th was hospital free!!!

Noah loves to sleep. He sleeps so much that I had to call and check with the doctor about waking him up to eat. He is usually wide awake between the hours of 4-6am though...so if you're in the neighborhood and want to hang out please stop by....we're up and ready for fun....well, at least Noah is.

Noah's been busy...

They say that newborns eat, sleep, poop and repeat. Noah is eating well. He sleeps like a champ. And well, let's just say the child has no problems pooping either. But he does tons of other stuff too....

He's been to the doctor for weight checks. Today he weighed in at 8 lbs 2 oz. Like I said the kid eats well. You can probably guess from the expression on his face that laying on the scale is not his favorite thing to do.

He loves hanging out with visitors. He spent Father's Day with Daddy, Poppy and Uncle Mark. Daddy and Uncle Mark were both celebrating their first Father's Day. It was Poppy's 30th Father's Day but his first time to celebrate Father's Day with his grandkids. Here's a picture of the new dads and the Poppy.

Noah has also enjoyed tons of snuggles and kisses from his Nanny and GiGi.

Noah has also been on two outings to Target (he slept the entire trip both times) and over to Plano to look for a preschool.

Of course most days we hang out at the house and feel totally busy just eating and hanging out....after all this is my summer break and it wouldn't be summer without some lazy days of doing nothing.

Another big check...

No, not the kind of check you cash. But another big check off our to-do list. I found a daycare for Noah yesterday!! Woohoo! Actually, it isn't a "daycare" but a "school." Whatever. It is clean, cute and the ladies were so so so nice. It is also in our price range and has an opening in the infant room in August. Double Woohoo!! It is also located nicely between work and home.
I know that come August it will tear me up to leave Noah there but of all the places we looked it
seemed like the place that will tear me up the least....or at least I think so.

Now all I need to do is find some spare time between Noah's meals to pack up some boxes. 20 days until the moving truck comes. Speaking of moving truck I need to find movers!! One more thing to add to the to-do list.

I know it is totally disappointing that there are no pictures of Noah in this post. I'll try to take care of that tomorrow during one of Noah's naps....uploading pictures sounds way more fun then packing!!

Obviously Noah was the coolest kid in the nursery. Sic Em Bears!

Labor Day...

Thursday, June 5th was my last day of work. I finished up at Kerr and came home around 3:30pm. I felt sick to my stomach so I laid down and took a 3 hour nap. I woke up around around 8pm and Josh and I were just hanging out watching the Celtics.
Around 10:30pm I went to the bathroom and my water broke. We gathered our stuff together and called Josh's parents in Houston so they could start driving. We also called my parents and our siblings.
Then we headed to the hospital....knowing that our lives were about to totally change.


We arrived at the hospital around 11:30pm and had to hang out in the L&D hallway for about 20 minutes because there weren't any laboring rooms available. We finally got settled in a room and my sister arrived. My parents, Jason and Hailey quickly followed.
And I was in labor.....
Long story short, my in laws arrived around 4am. I got my epidural around 5am. I felt instant pain relief and never felt uncomfortable again.
I started pushing around 10:30am. Noah's heartrate kept dipping down and we were close to having an emergency c-section but all that was avoided and Noah came into the world at 11:55am!!
It was one of the greatest moments to hear him cry and hear the doctor announce that our IVF miracle baby was a boy!! They put him on my chest and Josh cut the cord. We spent some time together as a family and then Josh went to announce Noah's arrival to our waiting family!!




Noah has a head full of thick dark hair and looks just like Josh.
Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift. 2 Corinthians 9:15

The baby's here....

...and it's a boy!!!

We're proud to annouce the arrival of

NOAH GREGORY

June 6 at 11:55am

Weight: 7 lbs 7 1/2 ounces

Length: 20 inches

He's perfect and we're so in love with him!!

I'll post pics later.

Big week...

It's a big week for us. Here's part of our to-do list:

1) Sign a contract on the house we're planning on buying.
2) Finish up work at KMS. I've been there 6 years and I can't believe that I'll be done on Thursday.
3) Have a baby.

We'll keep you posted on how it goes.

No house for us....

We made an offer on a house. It was low. You're suppose to start low, right?
The seller's counter offer was pretty much "the list price is the price of our house." So we went back with a slightly higher offer and again their response was "the list price is the price of our house."
So obviously they aren't interested in selling their house to us....although we're not sure they are all that interested in selling it to anyone.

Back to the search process....

Time to seek shelter....

So, Josh and I are looking for a house. We have a contract on our current one and are scheduled to move out July 14th. The only hitch in our plan is that we currently have no where to move. We've been looking. We've searched a bunch online and been out twice with our realtor and seen about two dozen houses in person.
The main problem I'm running into is that I currently live in a house that I adore. And I haven't adored most (translate to all but 2) of the stuff we've seen.
So last night we went to look at our top two houses back to back to really compare them and see if one of them was the house for us. We met up with our realtor who let us know that house #2 was under contract so we would only be looking at house #1. We were okay with this since house #1 was the front runner anyway.
We looked....
We made an offer....
We're waiting to see what they come back with....

It would certainly be one more major decision checked off the list.

By the way, Baby Weems' arrival date is looming in the near future. We're looking forward to tricking you into visiting us so that you can see our baby and then asking you to help us pack. :)
But don't worry....we're hiring movers so you won't have to help us move because we like you and we want to be still be friends.

And the winner is....

Sorry to keep you waiting in suspense about the job offers. I accepted a job on Monday but there were people I had to tell in real life before I could blog about it. There are just certain things that certain people shouldn't find out via the blog world. Blogs are a wonderful way to keep up with folks but they kind of create a barrier in a way too. That is an entirely different post though.

Anyway, I've decided to become the Campus Intervention Specialist at Boyd Elementary in Allen. I'm excited and nervous at the same time. I'm just nervous in general about starting a new job with new people, a new boss, etc etc. Plus, I've never worked at an elementary school before and I know it will be different then middle school---the children are so small!! Hopefully we can get some good internventions in place with the little ones and teach them to read before they get to middle school. :) Of course, any job is going to be a huge adjustment due to the fact that I've been at my current school for the past 6 years.
Hopefully this job will also give me some insight into what it might be like to be an elementary school assistant principal someday since I'll be finishing my master's next summer (hopefully) and then I'll have to decide what exactly I'm going to do with that.

Anyway, thanks for the encouragement so many of y'all have given me as I went through this whole job search, interview, decision process.

Our next big decision---where should we live?? Where should Peanut go to day care??

Job offers....

Well, I had three interviews last week. It would've been exhausting but I took those days off of work....so three days off was pretty nice. Two of those interviews have turned into job offers. I was really hoping for just one job offer.....because then things would be easy. Now I need to decide. The offers are with different districts but the schools are about 15 minutes apart. Salary is about the same in both districts as well. The main difference is the jobs I've been offered.

Job #1--Campus Intervention Specialist. This is pretty much what I do right now except it would be at an elementary school instead of a middle school. I would be in charge of working with teachers and other staff members to develop interventions for struggling students. I would meet with parents to discuss the intervention plans. I would also be the campus testing coordinator...which is kind of a drag but I've done it before so at least I know what to expect. It is definitely more of an administrator job than a teaching job since it will involve a lot more work with adults than with kids. All the people I've met at this school are really nice.

Job #2--Teaching. I know, crazy, right? I've been offered a teaching job....oh wait, I have an education degree and I'm a teacher. The principal said in the interview that they were interested in hiring me and that he is looking for math and science teachers. Cool. It would be a middle school job at an exemplary middle school. For those of you outside the education bubble, exemplary means that all their kids pass TAKS....and I do mean all....99-100%. It is a great school--excellent reputation, brand new building, very nice principal and assistant principal. I'm not sure about going back in the classroom but this might be a great professional opportunity since it is with one of the top school districts in Texas. Also, my friend Melissa who student taught in the classroom next to me 6 years ago is a 7th grade teacher at this school.

So, now I have decisions to make. What do I want to do next year???
I'm suppose to let the principal from Job #1 know by tomorrow afternoon.....Josh and I have talked circles around this situation all weekend. Where is a flashing neon sign when you need one??? :)

36 weeks....

Oh my goodness. I've made it to 36 weeks. Honestly this pregnancy has flown by. It seems like just a few weeks ago we got a call from the doctor's office that we were indeed finally pregnant. And last week at the doctor's office I set up all my appointments for the rest of this pregnancy...the crazy part was there were only 4 and one of them is after my due date. I made a joke about not wanting to make it to the June 11th appointment and Josh says, "Heck we might not even make it to the May 29th one." I immediately told him not to say that again.

Grad school is over for the semester! Woohoo!! I'm taking the summer off and planning on taking online classes in the fall so I won't be actually in class again until next January. It will be weird not driving out to Arlington once a week (or more) for a while but I won't miss it too much.

The job search is still in progress. I have three interviews this week so hopefully one of them will work out. The house is still on the market although we've gotten lots of good feedback and there are potential buyers on the horizon. Josh and I have gotten really good at keeping the house picked up at all times in case someone wants to show it. I wonder if that will continue after the baby arrives..... :) I'm leaning toward probably not.

It is crazy to me that I have about 15 work days left at KMS. I've been there for 6 years. I told someone tonight that the end of my time in Burleson seems kind of anticlimatic....but then I realized that really giving birth will be the end of my time in Burleson so probably not so anticlimatic after all....just a little scary. But I can't wait to meet this little one!!!

Hometown shower....

On May 3rd we had my "Hometown Shower" at my sister's house. The hostesses with the mostestes....Chris, Jaimie, Jessica, Sharee, Marcy, Carole and Hailey....threw a great party. It was so fun to have so many friends in one place.

I love this pic with my mom, sister and Ava. It looks like Ava is patting my belly. I can't wait for Baby Weems to be big enough to chase after Ava. They are going to have so much fun together.

Granny, GiGi (Josh's mom), Great Aunt Kim and Josh's cousins, Charlie and Katherine all came into town for the shower. Charlie and Katerine are such cute and sweet girls. They touched my belly too....but very very lightly and I could tell they were totally uncertain about the whole situation. It was pretty hilarious.

If you're a blog reader who went to Baylor then you know it is nearly impossible to find Baylor stuff (not to mention cute Baylor stuff) outside of the Waco bubble...but my mom found this cute cute Baylor quilt. I know we will use it a bunch....and I'm sure Baby Weems will be snuggled up in it at the Homecoming Parade. (Saturday, Nov 1st vs. Missouri....mark your calendars...we'll be in front of the sub as usual.)

Here are some of my sweet Baylor friends...Jaimie, Emily, Hailey, Kristi and Jessica.

My hostesses did a great job. They even added little touches to make the day special....like little petit fors for Baby Weems (or as I like to call them "baby cakes") and M&M favors. These baby food jars were filled with pink and blue M&Ms that said things like "It's a surprise!" and "Find out in June."

Overall it was just a perfect day.

I'm spoiled....

My friend from work, Jennifer, threw my first shower. At KMS we always do a little cake and punch in the teacher's lounge for weddings and babies but she wanted to host a little special get together at her house. I felt so spoiled by my school house girls. They are so excited about Baby Weems....they keep saying they are going to be at the hospital with us....but I think I'm drawing the line about who gets to see the actual birth....

Mom and me at the shower. I was really glad she came out to meet my work friends. I can't believe I won't hang out with these girls everyday next year. They've been such good friends through our entire journey to parenthood.


Hostess Jennifer with crazy Heather.

Jennifer's mom knitted this precious yellow blanket for Baby Weems. It is unbelievably soft and just perfect!!


This cute little outfit is totally girly. All of the work girls insist that Baby Weems is a girl. In fact, they gave me girl's clothing with gift receipts because they refuse to buy anything neutral.

The belly grows....

Both of these pictures were taken during my 32nd week. I thought the patterned shirt just made me look big all over so I made Josh take another picture the next day when I was wearing black. I know it is a big shocker to see me in a black tshirt since I only own about a billion of them. Anyway, this black tshirt is special because it says "Due in June" on it. It is always amazing to me how many people talk to me when I'm out and about wearing it....sales people, random little girls, all sorts of people. Of course their 1st question is "Is it a boy or a girl?" And then they look at me like I'm crazy when I tell them I don't know.

Where have I been???

Well, shortly after I wrote that last post about updating my computer died. And I mean it died. The official word from the tech department was "Critical Hard Drive Malfunction" although the tech actually said, "Girl, your computer is MESSED up."
So it has taken me a little longer to update than anticipated....but here's what we've been doing....

40 days....

The ticker officially says only 40 days to go!! I really can't believe that....although sometimes I can't believe it is getting so close and other times I can't believe that I still have that many days as things are starting to get a bit uncomfortable.

We of course still have tons of things left to do--finding a new job is probably the top thing on the list. I am finishing up the semester in grad school this week which is a huge relief....and hopefully once I wrap that up I'll have some time to update the blog with pictures of my baby belly and the wonderful shower my work friends threw for me. Aren't you on the edge of your seat now??

Interuppting Regularly Scheduled Programming...

I was tagged by Rebecca....so here is my list of 4's....

4 Jobs I have had in my life:
1. Counter Girl at Sweet Temptations
2. Attorney's assistant at a title company (I didn't even know what a title company did the first three months I worked there)
3. 6th grade teacher
4. Student Advocate

4 Movies I’ve Watched More Than Once:
1. Waiting for Guffman
2. Drop Dead Gorgeous
3. Madagascar (thanks Amanda)
4. Casino Royale--it's been on cable lately so it is always on

4 Places I’ve Lived:
1. Georgia
2. Garland, TX
3. Waco, TX
4. Fort Worth, TX

4 TV Show I Watch/Watched: Only 4????
1. The Office
2. Grey's Anatomy
3. Desperate Housewives
4. Current network reality show--the Bachelor or survior or big brother, etc

4 Places I have Been:
1. St Lucia
2. Belize
3. Turkey
4. London

4People who email me regularly
1. Josh
2. Jennifer P.
3. My mom--she recently sends me weekly updates about job openings in Garland
4. Tie between Pottery Barn and J. Crew

4 of my favorite foods
1. Sushi
2. All Mexican food
3. Profiterol--sounds like medication but I promise it is awesome
4. a great steak

4 Places I Would Like to Visit
1. Greece
2. New Zealand
3. Bora Bora
4. I'd love to go to NYC with Josh

4 Things I am Looking Forward to in the Coming Year
1. Meeting Baby Weems :)
2. Setting up a nursery for Baby Weems in our new house
3. Drinking margaritas after the arrival of Baby Weems
4. Seeing my feet again :)

4 Friends who I’m Tagging
1. Sharee
2. Jessica
3. Diana--because you haven't updated in FOREVER
4. Kelli K

Sabotage update...

Well, I contacted our real estate agent to let him know about the terrible showing....and he emailed the showing agent to apologize.
It turns out that the potential buyer doesn't like dogs and that they could hear Monty barking so they never even opened the door to the laundry room!! They didn't know about the sabotage attempt and they'd like some more info about our house!!!

WOOHOO!!

SABOTAGE!!!

We think that Monty doesn't want to move. He loves his house with the big back yard. He's probably worried that if we move the squirrels and birdies will start to think they own the place. So, he's trying to sabotage real estate showings....

Take today for example. I received a call at 5pm that said they'd like to show the house from 5:30-6:30. I was still at work but we've gotten really good about leaving the house "ready to show" so I said sure. When I left work I stopped by Old Navy to look through their very picked over maternity section for a few minutes just in case the people were at our house.

I came home and noticed that there were some random lights on which is pretty typical when someone looks at the house. I opened the door to the laundry room where we keep Monty's kennel and the smell hit me!! Monty had pooped in his kennel. And I won't go into detail except to say that Monty and the kennel both immediately went to the back yard for a good hose down....after I fashioned my own gas mask from a dish cloth.
We haven't heard any feedback from the potential buyers....I'm sure their real estate agent is trying to figure out how to word "This house smells like dog poop" in a nice way. I want to call the agent and tell him it isn't always like that and to bring his people back or at least bring other people by.....

We have another showing tomorrow. Hopefully Monty will stick to just growling and barking when they are in the house and will keep the intestinal fireworks to a minimum.

Most Smartest....

Well, it's official. We've finished all our baby classes. We went to parenting, childbirth and breastfeeding. It made for two VERY long weekends but we learned a lot. I'm not sure if we feel more prepared for the baby to arrive or if only now we are able to realize how unprepared we truly are.

We took parenting first. The best part was that we got to learn infant CPR which we will hopefully never use. We also learned a lot about infant car seats. The worst part was some really awkward videos we watched about the importance of skin to skin contact. After all, we didn't really need a video explanation of what "skin to skin" meant.

Then this weekend we took childbirth on Friday night and Saturday. The first video we saw was about laboring. The instructor forgot to warn us that it would show a live birth at the end.....let's just say that it wasn't like on "A Baby Story" and nothing was blurred out. The second video was even more frightening. I looked at Josh several times and said, "I don't think I can do this." One of the videos said something about massage and how even household items could be used as massagers....it showed a rolling pin and I told Josh he could hit me over the head with that if things got too tough. Our childbirth class was very small and there were some fun people....so we got to make lots of jokes and comments such as when the instructor asked about the stages of labor being able to say loudly "Transition: that's when the yelling REALLY begins."

And then today we took our breastfeeding class. The lady was really positive and informative. She wasn't near the "la leche nazi" that I envisioned or had been warned about. I'm still not 100% sure how all that is going to work out but I feel better about it then I did before we went to the class. And strangely enough the videos in the breastfeeding class weren't nearly as awkward as the ones from parenting....go figure!

So, now I'm officially 32 weeks and despite the fact that we've finished our classes we're not really any closer to being "ready" for the baby to get here....I still have a TON of things on the to-do list such as 1) Finish grad school projects 2) Find job 3) Buy carseat....although I'm not sure those three things are the top three things....except maybe for the grad school project because it is due on Tuesday night and I'm blogging instead of working on it. Since it is already late Sunday night, I'd better get my "most smartest" self back to work on the project.

**Bonus points for you if you can name the movie that the quote "most smartest" comes from!! I'll give you a hint: "Amber is the best tapper, the most smartest"

Reality again...this time on TV

Okay, I admit it. I watch reality TV. Some people (like my husband) might even say I watch a lot of reality TV. Currently I'm into four reality shows--Big Brother 9, the Bachelor: London Calling, Survivor and Dancing with the Stars. I'm not really sure if Dancing with the Stars counts as reality TV though. Is it just a game show? Oh well.

I usually only watch shows that I've DVR'd. Ever since Jason bought us TIVO a couple Christmases ago it has become impossible to watch actual live television. So, tonight I finally watched this week's episode of The Bachelor. Now, if you've never seen the Bachelor you might think that it is about a guy dating a ton of women and trying to find the one. This is what ABC wants you to believe the show is about. The show is actually just about the drama of a bunch of girls living together and dating the same guy....it isn't about love and it doesn't matter who he picks in the end since it never works out anyway. I mainly watch to make sure that the drama queen I like makes it through to the next week to create more drama. Most of these girls are so detached from real reality that sometimes I'm not sure if the Bachelor qualifies as reality TV either.

Anyway, this week's episode of course contained the "Most dramatic rose ceremony yet" just like every other week. And the Rose Ceremony was indeed the best part....although not because of the girls. Here's what happens:

Our Bachelor, Matt, (pictured above) has 5 women to choose from but only 3 roses. He hands out rose #1 and rose #2. The host, Chris Harrison, steps in to say his famous line, "Ladies, Matt, this is the final rose this evening." As Chris is saying this we notice that Matt looks down at his hand. He's studying the palm of his hand. He looks at it for several seconds. And I wonder "Does he have the names written on his hand?" I rewind the DVR. I play it again. I call Josh into the room. "Does it look like he's reading his palm?" Josh agrees!!

And that ladies is true love right there. He's picking 3 out of 5 women to continue in a contest to maybe be his wife and he can't even remember the names of the three chicks he wants to pick!! Awesome. Truly awesome. I love reality TV.

Reality sets in....

Today I officially resigned from my job in Burleson.
Tomorrow the for sale sign is going in our front yard.
Saturday I'm going to a job fair to look for a new job.

This whole moving thing is starting to become VERY VERY real.

Need to do? Nesting? or Just Procrastination?

I feel this crazy need to do stuff around our house all the time. I'm talking about cleaning stuff out, rearranging, getting organized type stuff. Things that have been in a certain place since we moved in suddenly need to be moved. Closets that I never open suddenly need to be purged of whatever is in there anyway.

Now honestly, most of the stuff needs to get done so that we can put our house on the market next week. But some of it is kind of irrational....for example, we got our baby furniture last week. We didn't buy bedding yet because 1) we don't know the baby's gender and 2) now that we're moving I'm not going to create a cute neutral nursery for just a few weeks. So, Josh and I decided that it would be best to just not create a nursery until we get to the new placce. The baby has an awesome bassinet that it will sleep in for the first few months. But, I really want to go get something to put in that crib!! Part of my brain says that a crib with a mattress, sheet and dust ruffle will look nicer to potential buyers but the other part of my brain questions why I would spend money on something that is just for show at this point?? I'm not sure if this is motivated by the need to have the house look nice or if it is the fact that I'm almost 30 weeks pregnant so I could be starting into that whole nesting phase.

I also have a 20 minute presentation about compensatory education looming and need to work on another presentation and paper about effective staff development as well. Plus, I need to go to the bookstore and get the book I'm suppose to read for class next Wednesday. So, it could totally be procrastination. In the past I've been so good about putting stuff off until the last minute but I'm not sure how many minutes I'm going to have free with working my current job and trying to find a new job in the midst of all these grad school projects.

Well, whether it is moving pressure, nesting or procrastination I'd better stop blogging and get a move on since that book store closes at 2pm and it's in Arlington.

So long Explorer....

Well, we traded in the explorer last night. It was exciting and sad at the same time. I bought the explorer over Easter weekend my senior year in college. It replaced the teal cavalier which was awesome....oh wait, not so much. The explorer was a luxury car compared to the cavalier and I've loved driving it for the past 5+ years. Yes, it has problems--a dent in the side we never got fixed, a leaky transmission, no cruise control, a smoking stearing column (we did get that fixed)--but it was mine and I loved it.
Josh did not feel the same way about it though.

We've known for a while that we had to get rid of the explorer. It is a two door and trying to get a baby carrier car seat in the back would've been ridiculous. Honestly there were a few tears and I was a little sad....

Until I drove my new car home! It's the first new car I've ever owned and I love it. More pics of the mom ride (it has 4 doors!) to come....

Sad puppy...

Monty had to have a little cyst removed from his side last week. He's fine now but he had to wear the E-collar for two days....and he was so sad about it. He would just stand still most of the time...and when he did try to run around he'd hit the walls and furniture. It was so so sad.

I thought this pic pretty much summed up how Monty felt about the whole situation.

He was pretty happy though when he got to take his medicine wrapped in cheese.

3 trips to Lowes equals 1 productive Sunday

Josh and I made 3 trips to Lowe's this weekend. Well, we made one trip together and then each made a trip solo.

And here's what we got:
Trip #1: We went to Lowe's on Saturday night (because we're cool and romantic like that!). We picked up two quarts of white paint....different whites though...one for the kitchen cabinets and one for the ceiling in the hallway. We got some special cleaner for the deck around our hot tub and a pump thing to spray it on with. We also got some samples of deck stain to try out on our deck as well.

Trip #2: After church on Sunday I ran to back to Lowe's to pick up a gallon of the deck stain that seemed to match best.

Trip #3: Josh went back to Lowe's to pick up some stuff to fix the light in his closet.

So, what did we do with all this stuff???

Well, Sunday my parents came over to spend the day and we put them to work. We prepped the deck around the hot tub to be restained. We didn't stain it because of impending rain (but my mom and dad promised to come back later this week). My dad touched up some of the areas of our cabinets that were missing paint in spots. He also used the ceiling paint to touch up the hallway where I managed to get brown paint on the ceiling while attempting to paint the walls last summer. Dad and Josh worked together to replace the light in Josh's closet. We cleaned off all the patio furniture and made it look nice and spiffy for Spring.

Originally the plan was for my parents to come over for Spring Break and help get the nursery ready. The furniture comes tomorrow!! But we've decided to not paint the nursery at all....instead we've decided to put our house on the market and move to the other side of the metroplex due to Josh's job. He's currently driving over an hour each way to work and that stinks.
So, if you know anyone who wants to buy a 4 bedroom, 3 bathroom ranch style home in Fort Worth let me know!!

Thanks so much to my mom and dad for coming over to help us. We had fun and things look great.

We also hung up a painting Josh's parents gave us for Christmas and it is unbelievable how great it looks. Gwen, I can't wait for you to come up and see it in the dining room. It is perfect!!

**I would post some pics but it is a yucky day today....maybe once the deck is totally finished and the nursery furniture arrives.

Baby bump....

So we got the digital camera...so I guess we should put it to good use. Here's me and Baby Weems at 27 weeks. Maybe for our next picture I'll throw on some make-up :)

Wedding Weekend...

EMILY and MATT got married. We had so much fun this weekend attending Matt and Emily's wedding. Matt and I have know each other since the 6th grade and Emily was a Chi Omega with me at Baylor. It is so fun to see these two worlds come together. Matt is one of the greatest and funniest guys I know and if you've ever met Emily then you know she is one of a kind as well. I'm so happy these two found each other...thanks to Carole's matchmaking skills!!!



This is Carole (who's been my friend since we were 14) and she was listed in Matt and Emily's wedding program as "Matchmaker." (She was also singing at the wedding.) Anyway, a few years ago Carole set up a group "hang out" time so that Matt and Emily could meet. Who knew that all of us hanging out at Snuffer's would eventually turn into a perfect match!!
I forgot to tell Josh to take a picture of all the Chi Omegas who were there but here are some of the high school friends: (Marcy, we missed y'all!)



And here are Mr. and Mrs. Matt Mulkey right before they took off for a fun filled honeymoon and a new life together...

Let it Snow...

This was the house we came home to this evening after work. Gotta love Texas in March. I'm sure my neighbors thought I was crazy as I crept carefully across the street to get this pic....I was being very cautious because it was damp and icy...and well I've already fallen and broken my tooth once :)

Blame it on the squirrel....

So, I got home from work and Josh mentioned that there had been a power outage and we couldn't drink the water....a quick google search explained:


FORT WORTH, Texas — A squirrel is blamed for an electrical outage in Fort Worth that affected thousands of customers and prompted a boil-water advisory for parts of the city.

Oncor spokeswoman Carol Peters says the rodent Friday got into a substation and made a connection between two high-voltage points, causing an arc.

Peters told The Associated Press that the transformer sensed the surge, caused by the now-deceased squirrel, and shut down.

Service was interrupted to about 10,000 customers and two Fort Worth water department pumping stations. Electricity was restored within one hour.

Residents of southwest Fort Worth, mainly south of Interstate 20, were advised to boil their water before drinking it, or using it to cook or make ice, until likely early Saturday.
___

Am I a bad person because the now-deceased squirrel sentence cracked me up?? I guess you could say he went out in a blaze of glory.

6 months already....

So, suddenly I look up and find that I'm six months pregnant. The image that best describes my life right now is plate spinning. My plate isn't just full....there are several of them spinning in motion and I must keep them all spinning. (Thanks Carol S for providing me with this image weeks ago in reference to a totally different situation. I want to give credit where credit is due.)

Anyway, so suddenly I'm six months pregnant and I realize all the things I "need" to do before this baby gets here....and while I still have three months I also know those months will be filled with work and grad school and other things too. During the two years we tried to get pregnant I thought a lot about making a baby scrapbook. So many of my friends have these cute pregnancy scrapbooks instead of traditional baby books. I love them. I've thought and thought about how I want to do one.....but I have yet to do anything. This really shouldn't shock anyone though since the last scrapbook I did was for my senior year in high school--and I didn't even finish out the whole year...I think it stops in about March or April.

I want to make a cute, simple scrapbook that details this time in our lives though.....from the first picture:

to the pics of how we told my parents, the ultrasounds, a page about me (the mommy) and Josh (the daddy), pics of my growing belly, baby showers and of course the hospital pics for once this little miracle arrives.

The truth is that I don't even really know where to begin scrapbooking though. I guess I need to get a scrapbook and some paper.....but otherwise I have no idea how to attach all the stuff or what the current trends in scrapbooking are...

If you are a scrapbook queen and would allow me to come and peer at your creations and learn how to do this then that would be awesome. Let me know and I'll clear a place on a plate...I mean, a place in my schedule and come be inspired.

Slight delay on the pics....

Something got messed up with my camera order online so the delivery of the camera will be displayed until next week....keep holding that breath!!

Guess what I did today???

Well, several times I've posted about my lack of pictures on this blog...or I've been really excited when I've been able to post pictures of something. But today we FINALLY took the leap and ordered a new digital camera. It has been a year and a half since ours stopped working. It just quit on me shortly after I came home from our Florida vacation and makes a weird noise when you rattle it. I wasn't really committed to having it fixed because I got it 5+ years ago and obviously digital camera technology has improved a lot since then.

I'm so excited. It should be here within a week of so. It is just a small Canon that a friend recommended but should meet our photography needs. In the meantime I need to develop our kodak disposable camera and get those pics put on CD so I can upload them. I've been using the same kodak camera since September so who knows what will be on there. My number 1 goal with my new camera is to take pictures more often. I've gotten out of the habit since our digital broke and I've let other people take over the picture taking duties because having to wind the camera up was just annoying.

So here is a list of some things I'll be taking pics of in the next few weeks:
1) Before shots of the nursery
2)My growing belly. Suddenly I'm looking pretty pregnant.
3) Matt and Emily's wedding. I'm so excited about this because one of my good friends from high school (Matt) is marrying one of the funnest girls I knew at Baylor (Emily)! It should be a great evening. (Yes, I know funnest isn't really a word but it is the best word to describe Emily Parker.)
4) Ava. Ava and more Ava. Did I mention that she turned six months old on Saturday? Did I mention that she's crawling everywhere?? Or that she almost gave my sister a heart attack by pulling up in her crib the other day???

I know you're on the edge of your seats now ;) Stay tuned.

Good as new, sort of....

Well, I went to the dentist today and he fixed the tooth. It looks good as new. The only problem is that the fix is really just temporary. He told me that when I come back for my next cleaning (which will be after the baby since I just went in January) that we'll discuss more permanent solutions such as a veneer.
For now I'm super happy though because I felt like the chip was just glaring out at people everytime I opened my mouth. Some people didn't notice at all of course but others asked me right away, "What did you do to your tooth?"
So now it is fixed and I can smile again without feeling like the world is looking at my tooth. YIPPEEE!!!

Fall down, Go Boom!!

So, last night our neighbors called and needed some help moving a couch. Josh and I headed over so I could chat while Josh helped move the couch. After quite a while chatting we walked back over to our house.
Our neighbors' driveway is raised up higher than ours. Since it was dark I misjudged the distance between the step I was on and the ground. I stepped off and lost my balance. I started the stumble forward and completely ate it. I imagine that I looked like a baseball player sliding into second...except I was sliding across the pavement of our driveway. My hands weren't very successful at breaking my fall but I did catch most of my weight with my front tooth.

Josh helped me up and we went inside. My jeans weren't torn but my knees were bruised. My hands were scraped up but not bleeding. My lip was swollen and my tooth is jaggedly chipped....but of course our real concern was about the baby. Sliding across cement on your belly isn't the best idea when you're 22 weeks pregnant.
We called the on call doctor and she told me I was probably fine but that I could come in and get checked out if I wanted. So, we headed down to the hospital. The main doors were locked so we had to enter through the emergency room....which is always interesting at 10pm on a Friday night. Due to construction the hospital is kind of crazy right now and it was quite a maze making our way up to labor and delivery. They put us in a room and asked me to put on a gown. The gown had these weird sleeves that had to be snapped and it took both Josh and I working together to figure out how to even put the dang thing on.

The nurse came in and set up the monitor....it seemed to take forever for her to find the baby's heartbeat. It probably took less than a minute but it felt like 20. I don't think I took a breath the entire time she was looking. Finally we heard that sweet sweet sound. The baby was really active and kept kicking the monitor. So, I got to lay in the comfortable hospital bed and listen to my baby for a while.
Then the doctor came in and said, "Everything is looking good but I thought we'd go ahead and check the baby out." And in rolled the portable sonogram machine. By now I was relieved that the baby was fine but it was exciting to be able to see our little one again. She got a great shot of the face and it was so clear. The baby was moving his/her hands and kicking his/her feet. The doctor seemed to be enjoying the sonogram just as much as Josh and I were so we got to watch the baby for quite a while. It was a pretty happy ending to a bad night.

So, despite my "flying leap" nothing was hurt but my pride....and my tooth. I am now banned from walking around in the dark which is probably for the best since I hear that clumsiness will only increase as my belly gets bigger.

It's a.....

SURPRISE!!!!
That's right. We didn't find out the gender. Yes, we didn't find out on purpose. We had discussed not finding with the first one if it was only one....and indeed the 7 week sonogram showed only 1 heart beating so it was settled.

At our 20 week sonogram we stayed strong and didn't find out. I thought we might crack from the suspense but by that point we'd told so many people we weren't finding out that we couldn't go back on our word. So, now we need to pick a girl name and a boy name. And find some cute neutral bedding. Is it sad that I think picking the names is actually going to be easier than picking the bedding and planning a neutral nursery??

Of course, with the sex of the baby a mystery we have all sorts guesses and wagers being made.....so, check out the pic from the sonogram below. Feel free to make your own predictions although my mom won't start gathering formal poll data for a few more weeks.

Time flies....

Time flies when you're having fun.....and working and going to grad school and just living life day in day out. I can't believe we're already 20 weeks along. Tomorrow I have a day off and another doctor's appointment. It's a big one with an ultrasound and everything!!! So, I'll have more pics to post tomorrow but for now here is one of my niece, Ava:

She is gumming this awesome wooden toy that was her favorite Christmas gift of all....and of course it was from her Aunt Yo-yo and Uncle Josh. She's five months old now and wants to crawl more than anything. We think she is amazing and the cutest baby ever.

Grad school again...

Grad school starts up again tomorrow night. I just finished my winter session last week and it was actually REALLY interesting. Seriously. It kind of shocked me how much I enjoyed the class, the professor, the other people, etc. Most important the stuff we learned seems like it will actually be stuff I use on the job if I ever become an assistant prinicpal.

The last night of winter session a guy in my class asked me if I'd looked for the books for the class I'm taking on Tuesday night. I replied, "No. That class doesn't start until 5 o'clock next Tuesday so I won't be thinking about it at all until 4 o'clock next Tuesday when I leave work to come to school." Geez. My life doesn't revolve around school....it didn't in undergrad and it doesn't in graduate school either. I do at least attend all the class meetings of my grad school classes. They are all at night so I don't have to worry about those pesky 8am or 9am classes like in undergrad.

How to win over your Mother in law....

Want to know how to win over your in-laws in one fail swoop?? Just bring your aggressive little schnauzer to their house and have him attack their four month old yorkie puppy.
That's right. Don't let that cute face fool you. If you've ever met Monty, then you knew it was only a matter of time before our little schnauzer ruined Christmas.

We brought Monty to Houston with us for Christmas. Monty has always gotten along well with my in law's dogs, Jackson (a huge lab) and Maggie (a schnoodle type mut). This year though my mother in law got a new dog. A sweet little yorkie puppy named Chester. Chester is about four months old and weighs less than 5 pounds. He is SO SO cute.

Well, during the initial dog "hellos"...which means the sniffing of rear ends and what not.....Chester batted Monty in the face with his little paw. Monty didn't like that at all and aggressively growled at Chester. Poor little Chester just ran away and tried to hide.

For the next day or so this is how things went....Monty would see Chester and growl and Chester would try to hide. We started trying to keep Monty contained to parts of the house away from Chester but alas....

Eventually Monty charged Chester and scared little Chester half to death....as he tried to run away either Monty or Jackson the lab stepped on Chester's leg and he let out the most awful scream. A trip to the emergency vet confirmed that Chester's leg was broken.


MY DOG BROKE MY MOTHER-IN-LAW'S DOG!!!!! THE DAY BEFORE CHRISTMAS EVE!!!!


I'm not sure if I've ever been so mortified in my entire life. His little leg was broken and he had to stay at the vet until he could have surgery on Wednesday. Now it is all wrapped up and he can't run around and play. It is so sad. Josh and I felt (and still feel) terrible.

I know if you've visited our house than the idea of Monty barking and growling at someone or something isn't really surprising. Josh is now making plans for Monty to endure some puppy boot camp training type of thing so that this aggressive streak can be fixed before Baby Weems arrives in June.

I think Monty keeps wondering why Santa Schnauzer didn't come visit him this year....and we keep telling him it is because he is nothing but naughty. He just gives us a confused look.

My mother-in-law while heartbroken was actually very gracious and calm about the whole situation. But I'm sure her feelings about Monty have changed and Jason and Hailey will get to be the favorite kids now (at least until June!!).

**Note: The picture in this post was actually taken last Christmas when we still thought Monty was sweet.

Did I forget to mention??

Oh yeah, by the way, I'm pregnant!!

We're so excited. We're so blessed. It was quite a journey to get here and Josh and I both have learned so much about the goodness of God in the good times and bad times. We can't wait to meet our sweet baby in June!

Maybe I should've paid attention...

Freshman year at Baylor I had to take a computer programming course. It was part of my major--elementary education. Other education majors didn't have to take this class....just the girls who wanted to teach math. I'm not sure why this was part of the requirement but it was.

So, I would walk all the way out to the computer science and engineering building for class. If you went to Baylor then you know this building is on the other side of the world from Collins Hall in more ways than one. I went to my intro to C++ class every day. This is significant because attending class really wasn't my thing in college. There was an attendance policy at Baylor but let me tell I took EVERY absence I was allowed....except in programming. (I actually missed a math class 15 times--that's 5 weeks of class...but that's another story.)

The programming class was taught in a lecture hall without computers. The professor would talk and we would write notes. I think there was a book to read too. Then we would go in the computer lab on our own time and write programs for assignments. This was the toughest class I took at Baylor because learning programming language is like learning a foreign language and it was all taught on Macs....and at the time I'd never used a Mac before so there were lots of issues there. It was also the toughest because classes like "Music for educators" and "Jesus at the Movies" just didn't quite tax the brain.

It was a frustrating semester because you can type hundreds of lines of code, forget one comma and BAM! the whole thing won't work. I remember writing one program that wouldn't run and none of the computer science majors who were in the lab could figure out my mistake. I took the program to my professor and he couldn't find the mistake either. This is the beauty of C++ programming. (Yes, I admit I took advantage of the boys majoring in computer science and sweet talked them into helping me. There weren't very many girls in the lab and they spent A LOT of time there because like I said these classes were hard.)

Anyway, today I've decided that I probably should've paid more attention in the class or done more work independently instead of in groups or with the computer guys I mentioned before because I cannot figure out the dang blogger code sometimes! It is so frustrating. I accidently deleted the links to other blogs I read and I've been trying to add them back but to no avail. I did add a nifty ticker but it's presence seems to be preventing me from adding the other links. Not to mention that I spent a good 15 minutes trying to add the ticker into the title part of my blog before just deciding to stick it into the links because it was easier.
I do know enough about code that I realize I'm probably just missing a / or < somewhere but who has time to look for the details...I mean, after all I'm at work.

So, Dr. Vargas maybe you were right in giving my the B+ when I argued in your office for an A....because if I'd truly deserved the A I would be able to add things to my blog without tearing my hair out.

If I used to link to you, don't worry I'm still reading your blog. You are on my bloglines and I love seeing bold names on bloglines.....so update, update, update!!

TGIF!!!

Ever have one of those days when you want to just put your head down on your desk......I've felt that way all week.

Long awaited photo....

Well, today I finally tracked down a photo of the infamous float from the Homecoming parade. The girls look extremely bored but this was taken in the parking lot before the parade actually started....we were waiting for over an hour for the parade to begin.

Anyway, it is a great shot of the "poles." I do love my girls but I won't miss the parade one bit next year.

Ughh... Oprah

I'm not a big Oprah fan. I know it is almost like un-womanly or un-American or something to say that but for lots of different reasons I'm just not a big fan. I mean it isn't a personal thing. I don't hate her or anything. I just don't usually enjoy her show.

Oprah does however encourage reading and sometimes picks some good books.....and she's picked some classics that I love like Their Eyes Were Watching God and Night. But now she has gone and done it....she has picked one of my favorite books of all time. I've been trying to get Josh to read Pillars of Earth for a while and he just hasn't seemed interested....he even teased me about buying the newest Ken Follet book (a follow up to Pillars of Earth) because it is about 1000 pages long and he doesn't know when I'll have time to read it let alone finish it with grad school and what not....anyway, well how am I going to convince him now that it is going to have the big Oprah seal on the front of it??? I'm pretty sure he doesn't want to seen trecking through the airports of America (mainly DFW and Hobby though) with an Oprah book. Maybe I can order a copy quick off of amazon before they print those big O's on them. Despite the fact that I love the book I don't own a copy because I borrowed it from my dad....hmmm, maybe he still has it.

Anyway, if you haven't read Pillars of the Earth I highly recommend picking it up. In fact, all of this talk about it has made me determined to start the sequel this weekend.

Side note: The version with the O on the cover is $5 more than the book without.

I forgot my camera the night of the parade but I've asked the cheer moms to send me any pics they have of the float. There were indeed poles but no one danced on them.....although it might've made the parade a little more interesting.

Saturday we went to Waco for the Baylor vs. Texas game. The highlight of the game (besides the few minutes when Baylor was actually ahead) was when we scored and the Baylor Line ran the flags down the field.....they spelled out B-E-Y-L-O-R. So much for those increased admissions standards. It was hilarious and pathetic at the same time.

Two weeks....Baylor Homecoming. Who's going??

So about those stripper poles....

Well, I made the phone call and it turns out there aren't any stripper poles. There are large pipes that are 4 feet in diameter and 6 feet tall. They are on the ends of the floats and no one will be dancing on them. These moms are into this float like Baylor frat boys....but the Burleson Homecoming Parade isn't quite the big deal that the Baylor one is....although last year's float was featured on the front page of the Burleson Star---we're big time!!

The float is indeed "Cougar Cat Dolls" and it is somehow based on the first Pussycat dolls video---which of course I've never seen. So, say a little prayer that we don't look like a bunch of teenage hoochies.

I wonder if googling "stripper poles" will pull up this blog. HA!!!

I bet you wish you had my job...

So, I'm the 7th grade cheerleading sponsor at our school. 99% of the time I love it....but days like tomorrow make me so glad this is my last year.

Tonight at the football game some moms approached me about our homecoming parade float....this year's theme is "Cougar Cat Dolls." I was a little worried about this because the Pussycat Dolls are kind of skanky (maybe more than kinda) but I figured the moms had it under control. Well, it turns out there is a rumor that there are "poles" on the float.....of the "Pole dancing" variety. HOLY CRAP!!

So, tomorrow morning I get to call the mom in charge of the float and ask her if there are stripper poles on the float that my 12 and 13 year old girls will be riding in front of the entire town. I'm pretty sure this conversation is going to be completely awkward and uncomfortable. I mean how do you nicely say, "Hey, are there stripper poles on the float?"

I bet you wish you had my job, don't you?