Administrative Business

I take it if you are reading this post, then you are accessing our blog just fine. I'm not sure what happens when your 30 day trial ends. Let me know if I need to re-invite you or if you switch to a gmail account, I may need to add your email address to the list. Also, if you know of anyone else that wants access to our blog, I'm happy to add them after a quick background check.

Next item of business- I have officially told all important administrators that I am pregnant and want to take a leave of absence for the 2011-2012 school year. It is pretty surreal to think after 8 years of teaching I will not be returning in the fall. I'm looking forward to staying at home for at least a year and seeing what the next few years have in store for our family. Getting rid of the stress of teaching will be a blessing. Losing my salary, however, doesn't make me feel warm and fuzzy. The beauty of being a math teacher, besides it's easy to get a teaching job, is the ability to make a good bit of money tutoring.

15 weeks down! Please vote for boy or girl at some point. We are not finding out the sex. Guess along with us!

Peace of Mind

I had some concerns this morning that led to a last minute midwife appointment. Luckily she found the heartbeat quickly and said everything looked fine to her. She asked if I wanted a sonogram for extra reassurance. Uh, YES! What crazy pregnant woman would turn down a chance to see what's really going on inside?

I waited for 1 hour, but the result was well worth the wait. It was all good news- the nugget is growing, good heartbeat, and better yet, the placenta moved! (if you don't know the back story, don't worry about it. The placenta moving is really good!) I feel so much better even though I didn't get an answer why I had some issues this morning. Oh well, I'm so thankful to see our nugget again before 20 weeks. Unfortunately, Jason was not with me on this visit, so he missed the fun stuff. We are really excited about our newest shot of the nugget.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

14 weeks

My Fan Club

There are many differences between being a public school teacher and a private school teacher. One aspect of my job as a private school teacher that is foreign to me is being an advisor. I still don't think I fully understand this role that is 20% of my job. I have 9 girls that picked me as rising sophomores and I follow them through senior year. I taught many of my advisees as freshmen in Intro, our lowest math class. These girls think highly of me and I've formed strong relationships with at least half of them.

Sometimes I feel like some of my advisees and students are my best friends. They love to hear about my life and tell me about their families, boyfriends, and struggles with adolescent issues. I quickly realized being a private school teacher is very special; I never felt this close to any of my public school kids. They play funny April Fools Jokes on me, they laugh at my corny jokes, and pretty much make my job enjoyable. I think we're a pretty good looking group. Here was prom last year.



This year's senior class holds a special place in my heart. Not only are my advisees now seniors, but I've watched this group grow up over the last 4 years and have taught a good majority of them. As much as I want to leave Baltimore at times, I wanted to stay long enough to see my girls graduate. And of course our baby is due 2 weeks before graduation. Sigh.

I really wanted to tell my advisees before they started to wonder based on my growing midsection. As I was going over announcements today, I emphasized that May 24th is important because my baby was due that day. Tears of joy and loud screams followed. The girls were elated. There was way more excitement than I expected. One girl had her mouth open the entire time, another could not stop crying (I confided in her about my miscarriage. We are that close), others couldn't stop smiling, others clutched their hearts with happiness. It was a touching moment for me.

I expect the news to spread like wildfire. As one of my favorite ex-students walked in a period later, I fully expected her to know. Surprisingly she didn't. More screaming, more hugs. She said she was going to plan my shower during her upcoming class.

Working at an all girls school has been such a rewarding experience for me. I like being complimented, I like when people tell me how great I am. Doesn't everyone though? As I walk through the hallway with flowers from Jason, they ooh and ahh for days. I'm going to live up this pregnancy thing at school. I know these girls are sincerely happy for me and they will keep this pregnancy real and exciting for me.

Still Cooking!

We had our every 2 week reassurance appointment with a midwife today. She found the nugget's hearbeat immediately with the doppler and quickly indicated we are having a boy. She said girls don't cooperate, so it must be a boy. She answered our questions, shared some changes that might happen in the next few weeks, and told us that she has a 50% of being right about us having a boy.

We figure we are out of the woods, so we're giving it 5 weeks before we go back. Yikes!


...How about the Eagles!?!

Weekend in Philly

We had an eventful weekend in the Philadelphia area. We had four main tasks:

1. My college roommate Jackie's baby shower
2. Spend some time with my mother in law (MIL)
3. Tell Jason's dad in person our news
4. Meet Luke, Todd & Lisa's baby

Jackie's baby shower was very PINK! It's amazing how much pink stuff you receive when you tell people you are having a girl. It was fun to see Jackie's growing belly and spend the afternoon with 2 of my 3 college roommates.

The one thing I've learned quickly about my MIL is she has mad shopping skills. This woman has one strict policy- she doesn't buy anything full price. She also has no problem buying 4 mirrors and 3 rod iron wall hangings with the intention of returning 5 of the items. We debated, hung, returned, bought and debated again over the wall decorations in 3 rooms this weekend. Jason's reaction to his mom's buy/return/debate method was enough to keep us all laughing. Most decorations are up. I think we made great decisions!

We met Jason's dad and Paula for dinner on Saturday night. Suddenly in week 13, nausea is making an appearance. I was waiting for Jason to break the news so I could share I wasn't feeling well and nothing was sounding good on the menu. Finally, he shared that we were busy going around telling people they were going to be aunts and grandparents. I think Jason's dad said at least 10 times that our "news was fantastic". It was very cute and it gave us a lot to talk about over dinner.

On our way back to MD, we met 2 week old Luke Patrick. He was very sweet and didn't scare me too much about having a baby. I am amazed how clean and organized Todd & Lisa's house has remained even after getting a dog and having a baby. I need to take a few lessons from them! I was pleased Parker was more interested in going through Shamrock's dog toy bin than sniffing Luke. He was curious, but better behaved than we thought.

We made it up and back in under 2 hours. We were due for an easy trip on I-95.

Our next doctor appointment is on Tuesday. We're anxious to hear a heartbeat.

The magic number TWELVE!!

I kept saying, "just make it until 12 weeks". Well, I'M HERE! It's kind of like your birthday or New Years. All this hype and then the day comes and you think you'll feel different, but you don't. This whole thing isn't real to me yet. Jason and I don't talk about it much because we are hesitant to get excited. I don't look pregnant and I don't feel pregnant. I'm glad my chances of a miscarriage have decreased drastically at this point. I'm ready for some other sign the nugget is still growing and healthy! I guess I'll have to wait until Dec 30th for our "big ultrasound"

I have been blessed with very few pregnancy symptoms. I kept telling Jason I wanted to feel something! I puked one day for 6 hours straight, which ended up being the 24 hour stomach bug. I decided to never wish for nausea again just to prove I was pregnant.

I have been extremely tired, but that could be a FUNction (sorry, that's what I write on the board every time I talk about FUNctions to my 11th and 12th graders. They love my attempt to make math FUN!) of getting up at dark thirty 5 days a week and dealing with needy teenagers all day. Recently I have more energy and can make it past 9pm in the evenings.

Not sure my body has changed much. I think my stomach is getting bigger, but again, that could be a FUNction of not working out anymore. Yes I know, I should be exercising to help with everything. I am enjoying a break from trying to keep a thin body for once in my life. Walking the dog is enough exercise for now.

I will blame my ever changing moods on pregnancy. Poor Jason for dealing with my barking orders and snotty comments. I will say that Jason has been much calmer with my attitude than normal. I guess he thinks I can't help it :)

No major cravings. I have been more willing to eat foods I would try to avoid in my pre-pregnancy life. Heluva Good Dip and chips is my snack of choice these days. I didn't think twice about eating a hot fudge sundae tonight. I still eat healthy- don't get your panties in a twist that I'm "letting myself go" completely. I've got this under control. The world is going to end in 2012, I'm going to enjoy my last two years... j/k :)

We didn't retake belly shots at the beginning since I didn't look much different than the ones we took in May. Here's the start of my growing belly. Bring it!

12 Weeks

The Joys of Home Ownership

When I was in elementary school, two events scarred me for life.

1. A house in a nearby neighborhood got struck my lightning and resulted in a fire. The family was not home at the time, but luckily a neighbor called the fire department before the house burned to the ground.

Result- I'm terrified of thunderstorms, mostly because I'm afraid my house will get struck by lightning and burn to the ground.

2. The episode of The Hogan Family where a lamp in the attic somehow starts a fire.

Result- After we put boxes in our attic, I ask Jason if he turned out the light. I do open the stairs from time to time just to make sure it is off.

Both of these stories show my fear of fire. As I fall asleep at night I will think about things, like did I turn off the stove? When I drive to school- did I turn off my straightener? I will tiptoe downstairs often to see if the stove is really off. It always is. I drive home to check my straightener. It's always off.

While a light in the attic or lightning have not sparked a fire, we have almost caught our house on fire twice.

We were having Jen & Matt for lunch on their drive back to NC. We decided to have burgers and other BBQ type food. I put eggs in a saucepan to use for deviled eggs. When the timer went off, I didn't believe the eggs were fully cooked, so I left the stove on but did not reset the timer. We left for church and after being away from the house for almost 2 hours, I realized I never turned off the stove. I know I say I am having a "panic attack" often. I really believe I was moments away from a serious panic attack. We quickly called our neighborhood to go into our house. We peeled out of the parking lot and raced home. I never felt so guilty in my life. Parker was in his crate. Did I just kill our sweet dog? Did I burn down our house?

The damage: Yes, the water completely evaporated and the eggs exploded over our kitchen. The house was filled with smoke. Our dog was alive, but VERY scared. And it smelled like burnt eggs in our house for days. Parker freaks out every time I cook something that sizzles or makes a little smoke/steam. I don't blame him. I also never leave eggs boiling if I don't plan on staying in the kitchen the entire time. We also bought 2 fire extinguishers

Fire hazard story 2. I have read numerous times that you should never run your dryer when you are not home. I abide by this rule. I don't even like going to bed with stuff in the dryer. This past Thursday I had jeans in the dryer and it was going to be a while until they were finished. I decided to go against my policy and go to bed.

Jason emails me the next morning to tell me the dryer was STILL running when he got up for the gym at 4:30. Environmentally friendly me could only think that we wasted electricity for at least 7 hours. Then it dawned on me. We could have burned our house down, AGAIN! AND my jeans are already a little tight, are they going to be midget size after being in the dryer for 8 hours?

The damage: Jeans are fine. Dryer is dead. We bought a new washer and dryer this weekend. To be delivered today during the Eagles game.

This means we have officially replaced almost every appliance in our house. 5 years, 7 appliances. The only thing left "to go" is the sump pump. Luckily the plumber that was over to check our new water heater that was leaking, said it looked fine. We keep joking that we can't move fast enough. What's next, the deck falls off the back of the house? Ah, the joys of home ownership.

The Most Important Thing

I'm hoping I am starting to get some readers and not just myself! Welcome!! I guess I left out one piece of key information- my due date. As of now, May 24th.