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?

They call me Aunt Yo-yo!!!!

The beautiful and amazing Ava joined our family yesterday afternoon. She has a head full of dark hair and big blue eyes. We are all over the moon in love with her....I think my sister summed it up best last night with, "How can I be so in love with someone I didn't know existed a few days ago?"

Adoption is a beautiful thing. Ava's birthday is August 16th which is also the anniversary of when my sister was diagnosed with cancer 6 years ago.

We spent yesterday evening oohhing and ahhing over everything she did (which was mainly sleeping although there was a bath involved that didn't seem like much fun for Ava) and I miss her already. I'm so sad that I can't go back over there tonight because I have to work.

I can't wait to see her again!! Needless to say, Ava already has her Aunt Yo-yo and her Uncle Josh wrapped around her little finger.....

FYI....

Josh and I have season tickets to the Bears.....so if you're in Waco let me know and we'll meet up at the game. Or maybe we can eat at the Elite Cafe (did you know they redid it??) if the game isn't good. Next week I am dragging Josh to Spice beforehand because I love that place. :)

Sic Em Bears!!

Josh and I are headed to our first Baylor game of the season this weekend. We are now season ticket holders so we will probably attend 5-7 games this year. Obviously we love the Bears since we are going to trek out in the hot afternoon sun on Saturday to see them play TCU....the Bears are 26 point underdogs and attend other games where there will be various degrees of slaughter.

Josh and I are hoping that a miracle will occur and Baylor will beat TCU on Saturday. Being a Baylor grad and living in Fort Worth is tough because TCU people LOVE to talk about how they deserve to be in the Big 12 and Baylor doesn't. Grrrrr!

I'm excited about this weekend because our good friends, Brian and Amanda Toogood, are coming as well as Jason and Hailey and Josh's aunt Beth and his cousins Margaret and Peyton. I'm excited about hanging out....although it also means that I'm going to have to clean the house.

Sic Em Bears!!

The First Days of School

The school year is officially underway. Kids are back. They are in the classrooms and I'm.....well, I'm not.

I had a first day of school but I wasn't in my classroom playing my two favorite back to school games or explaining some basic procedures including what to do if you need to throw up.***
I was in my office working on schedules and going over TAKS scores to identify at-risk kids. It was kind of weird but wonderful at the same time. It is weird because I am realizing that I'm not going to have relationships with kids the way I use to. But wonderful because I like what I'm doing, I'm not stressed and I'm not too terribly jaded yet. Plus, I'm working on my administrative internship for grad school....and about half of what I do for my job will count. Woohoo!!

***About the throwing up thing: I get grossed out easily and would never want a kid to throw up in my class. All good teachers know that at the beginning of the year you go over your procedures and have the kids practice them multiple times. Well, I always spend the first day practicing the throwing up procedure. 1) Jump up out of your chair. 2) Run across the room. 3) Grab the trash can 4) Step into the hallway and vomit. It is silly and fun and helps the nervous little 6th graders relax. And when a new kid arrives later in the year someone is always eager to show them the other procedures (getting their folders, where the bathroom passes are, etc) because they know they'll get to demonstrate the vomitting procedure. Plus, it is pretty memorable when your teacher talks about throwing up on the first day of school. I'm not sure if this is what Harry Wong had in mind but it is fun and I've only had one kid throw up in my class in 5 years.....and that was a complicated issue.

Last Day of Summer. What a bummer!

Today is my last day of summer. I officially go back to work tomorrow. Although I have been at school on and off all summer it is different once it is "official." I have inservice the rest of the week and orientation for the kids on Saturday. Then we'll start the school year off with a bang on Monday, August 27th. It is weird because this is my first school year to not have a classroom of kids to prepare for. There is still a ton of work to do but it is a different type of work. In fact, I have more to prepare for inservice week then for the first few days of school.

In honor of this last day of summer I treated myself to a manicure/pedicure. The girl asked me if I wanted a flower put on my toe. I didn't really understand what she asked but said yes anyway. I look down from my magazine moments later and she is putting little white dots on my big toe. I figure "What the heck." It is summery and I know it will impress my cheerleaders at practice tomorrow. I'm all about being down with the 7th grade crowd. (Kidding!).

I also have a doctor's appointment today because I have to squeeze everything in before school starts. Actually I make a big list of "to do's" at the beginning of the summer.....and then try to get them all done during the last week.....so I also have a ton of errands to do that are probably not going to get completely.

I still need to pick out an outfit to wear tomorrow too.....the attire for inservice is "casual--no shorts" but I'm giving a presentation and I have a feeling that my boss will be wearing "professional attire." So, I guess I should dress for the job I want.

HAPPY LAST DAY OF SUMMER!!!

I have the best husband....

I am in love with my husband. He's awesome. He came home tonight after being away on business all week. So what did we do to celebrate his return???? We went to DSW and I got 3 pairs of shoes for work (good thing they sent me that $10 off coupon). Josh didn't watch me try on shoes most of the time....he went and looked in the men's section. But still, I took longer than he did and he was such a good sport.
Then we went out to eat Mexican food.
Shoe shopping and Mexican food.....what a perfect evening!!!

Disclaimer: I am totally in love with my husband for at least 1000 other reasons too!!

Pics not possible...

Well I would post a pic of my new hair but we don't have a camera. All the Simpsons pics were taken with my sister's camera and we had to borrow my parents' camera when we went to Belize. We actually needed a camera last Christmas when we were in Boston so we took one of the disposable ones from Josh's firm's Christmas party and used it as our personal camera.....there were some pics of people we didn't know at the beginning of the roll....but the rest was all us and the beautiful city of Boston.

I have a digital but it broke last summer while we were in Florida....something inside it is rattling and it won't turn on. I've been lazy and haven't taken it to be fixed. We keep discussing our need for a new one but we were waiting for the right time (right time translates to when we get pregnant) and who knows when that will be!!

Anyway, sometimes I think I just want a good digital camera that is small but then I see my friends (like Emily P and Meredith) with their nice cameras and I think about all the great pics Brittney took in college with her nice camera and I think maybe I need one of those.....for those you who don't know Em, Meredith and Brittney: a nice camera equals one with a big lens on the front that you turn to zoom and where you have to press the button half way down to focus and then all the way down to take the pic. (See, I was listening!!) I don't really know a ton about pictures so getting a fancy camera might do me more harm than good. Maybe I'll go spend some time at Wolf Camera asking the guys there about it.....or maybe I'll just run to CVS, get a disposable and get a picture CD when I get the pics developed.....yes, I still get pics "developed" because you can't just print from those $7 kodak throw away cameras.

So now here is the response part (if you got this far): If you have a camera that you like, tell me about it!!!

Fun times.

I taught another workshop this morning. It was fun....mainly because I had already done the workshop twice before so it required no preparation and I got paid. Woohoo!!

Tonight we are just hanging out. We'll go out to eat because I can't cook on Fridays (or Sunday afternoons or Wednesdays because of church or any night when I have football or a grad school class.....so basically one night a week tops....no wonder we're both gaining so much weight) and maybe we'll rent some movies. Josh has been out of town all week so it will be nice to just hang out at home.

Tomorrow we're going over to my mom's to go swimming. I love my parents' backyard. Basically last summer my parents' took a cue from "Pimp My Ride" and "pimped" their backyard. The pool is amazing....sometimes it makes me sad that it wasn't like that when we actually lived there....maybe I would've learned to swim. :)

I got my haircut yesterday and it is the shortest it has been in about 5 years....I'm still adjusting and trying to figure out how to fix it. Overall I like it but it won't go into a ponytail at all anymore so I'm not sure what I'm going to do when I go the gym...because I've commited to going to the gym on a regular basis now.

On a side note: Shannon, the girl who cuts my hair, does a great job and she's located in Frisco for all you friends who live over in the Dallas area. And don't say that Frisco is a trek from where you live.....I know. I live in Fort Worth.