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.