18 Weeks!

18 weeks today! Woo-hoo! We go to the doc on Thursday for our big sonogram! Double woo-hoo!

H-U-N-G-R-Y!

Okay, folks the hunger has hit me again out of nowhere! It is currently 2:00 and here's what I've eaten so far today...

Toasted English muffin
Cantaloupe & Watermelon

2 pickle spears
Cantaloupe & Watermelon

1/2 a full-size Snickers bar

1/2 a ham and Swiss sandwich on wheat
1 pickle spear
1 cup country potato soup

other 1/2 of full-size Snickers bar

2 slices of Colby-Jack cheese

AND 32 oz. of water (I'm starting on my second 32 oz. now!)

Note the fruits and veggie (pickles count as a veggie, right?) so I'm not trying to eat crap all the time. I'm just soooo hungry. My snack bag in the fridge is dwindling. All I have left is my apple. I hope I can make it through the rest of the work day without hitting up the vending machine (again)!

Grow babies, grow!

"Craptastic"

“Craptastic” is one of the many words I’ve learned from my hubby over the past few years. It is a combination of “crappy” and “fantastic”. Things the past week have been completely “craptastic” so I thought that would be a perfect title for this post!

Fantastic: Last week (can’t even remember the day!) R sold his truck. We were able to get *almost* what we owed on it! Now we’re on a mad hunt for a minivan!

Fantastic: Last week (again, can’t even remember the day!) we sold our couch and love seat.

Crappy: We are now using one of C’s bean bag chairs as our living room furniture! We’ve rolled the computer chair in the living room as well so we can actually both sit in there at one time!

Fantastic: Last Wednesday, I did my last back-to-school staff development for the year! Talk about worn completely out! I don’t have another presentation until the end of September!!

Fantastic: The playroom conversion is complete!! C LOVES it in there and regularly asks to go in there. She would still prefer I come with her and “play” but I think she enjoys having some free-for-all space! We’re really pleased with how well it turned out! Thank goodness for IKEA!!

Fatastic: My “nephew” Leyton Michael was born last Thursday evening in Grapevine. My mom came through so we could ride down together. We made it to the hospital about 10 minutes before he was born. He’s a precious and handsome little guy with LONG eyelashes! Mom and baby are doing fine!

Crappy: The 1.5-2 hour trip home from Grapevine on Thursday night took us 3.5-4 hours because of traffic. Luckily, C wasn’t with us (which would have made the unpleasant trip home almost unbearable!) We finally made it to my house at about 1:15. Mom got up at 5:30 to drive home and go to work on Friday. What a champ!

Fantastic: To keep us awake, R texted us funny jokes beginning at about midnight. We laughed so hard! Unfortunately for y’all, none of the jokes are appropriate for this very public forum! But they sure were funny in the middle of the night!

Fantastic: I had my checkup on Friday morning. BP was good and I’ve only gained 5 pounds total. That worried me a little bit since I’m 17 weeks pregnant with twins, but Dr. M wasn’t concerned. The portable sonogram revealed that the babies have strong heartbeats and that they are fraternal twins—two placentas and two sacks. We go on September 3rd at 1:30 for our “big sonogram”! Start praying right now that the babes cooperate and show us their goods!

Fantastic: I was able to go furniture shopping ALONE on Saturday morning, and I purchased a sleeper-sofa, a love seat, and an ottoman for the living room. This is our first “adult” living room furniture since we’ve been married!

(Not a great picture, but the couch color is on the right and is called "Copper". The accent pillow color is on the left!)

Crappy: It will take 6-8 weeks for the new furniture to come in, so we’ll be using the bean bag and computer chairs in the living room a while longer!

Crappy: C is showing more and more that she is testing the waters and asserting her independence. R handles all of this very well, but I take all of her misbehavior personally. While changing her diaper this morning, she hit her daddy. He acted immediately and firmly and it was very obvious she knew she had done wrong. I’m glad she didn’t hit me because I know it would have hurt my feelings and I wouldn’t have been able to respond in the way he did. I’m such a perfectionist, and I want so badly to do a good job of raising and disciplining C. I know, I know. There is no perfect parent. I just want to do my best, because she deserves no less! (And as evidenced by the picture below, she is still constantly cracking us up! Notice that she’s decided night GOWNS are much better than pajamas! She insists on wearing her “soft gown” as often as possible!)

Fantastic: C and I were at my parents’ house this weekend, so I got some extra time for sleeping, resting and napping. My body needed it badly! We ate at some of my favorite places over the course of the weekend (Monument Café, Rudy’s BBQ, Pappasito’s) and of course, mom’s home cooking!

Fantastic: We are all well and blessed. We’ll be happy to see more fall-like weather in the coming months. Wishful thinking? Maybe!

The 10 Commandments

This is especially for any of my teacher friends who are starting back to school this week with dreaded staff development. I wrote these "10 Commandments for Staff Development Attendees" this afternoon and wanted to share them with you. Feel free to share them with any colleagues.

1. Thou shalt not take job, life, or general frustrations out on presenter(s).

2. Thou shalt not hold the presenter(s) in contempt for presenting what he/she was asked to present.

3. Thou shall realize that it was not the presenters choice or idea to schedule the session the same day as "Meet the Teacher" night.

4. If thou already knowest all things about all things, thou should still remain polite and professional.

5. If thou must text message or email during the session, thou shall attempt to be discreet.

6. If thou doesn't want to be in the session, thou should LEAVE.

7. If thou has ever attempted to teach a class of 200+ students, thou should feel free to offer suggestions or constructive criticism. If not, thou shall keep thy mouth SHUT.

8. If thou receives a phone call during the session that thou must answer, thou should leave the room before beginning a conversation.

9. Thou shalt not act in any way that would not be allowable in thou's own classroom.

10. Thou shall be appreciative (and know that things COULD be a whole lot worse!)

Weekend in Review

Good morning! We had a fun and full weekend, and I thought I'd share a few pics!

On Saturday morning, we got up and drove to Fossil Rim which is only about an hour away from where we live. It is a drive-through safari type thing full of all kinds of animals. I would recommend it to any of you locals who have kids that love animals! Each vehicle can purchase one bag of animal feed to use over the course of the safari. C and I were more interested in just looking at and talking to the animals, while our driver (R) was more interested in looking up and identifying each animal in the brochure!

Because we were driving no more than 15 mph through the whole tour, C got to get out of her car seat and come up front to look for animals. She loved jumping back and forth between me and R.

I had never been so close to a flock of zebras! There was a warning sign that said something about the zebras biting, so I tried to toss the food away from the truck. WELL, I was looking ahead as R watched a zebra sneak up on me from behind and stick his head into the window. SCARED the "you-know-what" out of me. R thought it was hilarious! After we made it past the zebras we got to feed giraffes from our hands! Even C did it! We were so proud of her (and surprised!) that she wasn't freaked out. It was super-cool!

[Then my camera battery died!]

Halfway through the drive, they had a rest area/gift shop/petting zoo place. There were several goats in the petting zoo, and of course, C loved them! Every time we see a goat, Ryan busts into a Mark Wahlberg SNL skit about goats. "Hey goat! I like your beard. We could do a movie together. Say hi to your mom for me!" He thinks it is so funny.

We found a local BBQ joint and ate a delicious lunch there followed by homemade chocolate pie for dessert! C napped on the way home while I rested and R drove. It was a super-fun family day!

Sunday, my mom and dad drove up to help R build our new storage shed in the backyard. The work began around 7:30 and didn't end until almost 5:00! While they worked, I played with C and tried to keep her occupied. Mom cooked and brought a delicious roast with all of the side dishes for lunch! Yummy-tummy! After lunch, here's what I found when I went to check on the sleeping beauty...

We spent a large part of the later afternoon playing in C's newly filled sandbox. The girl with the short attention span can play in the sandbox for LONG stretches of time. It is awesome! She didn't even fight me about wearing her hat or putting on "lotion" (sunscreen)!

And as we played, the schnauzers wrestled, played and tried to dig in the sand. Eventually Grace Ellen got sick of her sisters, so she just climbed herself right up the playground ladder! We laughed so hard! Funny thing was, C wouldn't get up there while Gracie was up there. We wonder how often she gets up there during the day when we're not there! When she was ready to come down, she just came down the slide. What a silly schnauzer!

And thus begins one of the busiest weeks of the year for me at work! I needed a good weekend full of fun and family to launch me into this week! Y'all take care!

Progress Report!

One of the CUTEST smiles captured in a while! Such a big girl! She even says, "Mommy, I big girl!"

Hello, friends! I wanted to give a progress report on “things” going on around here!

-First of all, I am SO THANKFUL to report that I’m feeling great! It was almost like when I crossed into the 2nd trimester I turned a corner. No more nausea and a ton more energy. Thank you, Lord, for that!

-I worked in the soon-to-be playroom all day last Friday and most of Saturday. I got tons of stuff boxed up for the attic and for Goodwill. Ryan has been swamped with class (finals, etc.) so the attic stuff hasn’t made it up there yet, but my friend Julia delivered all of the Goodwill stuff for me! Hooray!

-My mom is coming to my rescue to paint the playroom for me on Thursday. I can’t do any more until that is done, and obviously, I can’t do it myself. She offered to do anything she could to help me, and I am so thankful! We just picked out a color at lunch called Coastal Mist. It is a pale blue color that we think will look clean and crisp. I’ll post pictures when I can!

-Remember the storage shed that was part of our "plan" for making our current house work? Well, we went and looked at them today at lunch. I think we've decided on an 8x10 plastic shed. It doesn't have a concrete foundation or anything. BUT we just found out that we do have to get a PERMIT from this crazy city in which we live! $32 plus a drawing of our backyard showing property lines, where we want to put the shed, and distances from all property lines. We've decided we're going to do the drawing in crayon and also include the schnauzers in the drawing to make it more true-to-life. Sigh!

-Oh this is an odd (but cool!) story! A couple (about our age) walked from their house to our garage sale a few weekends ago. They had a 20-month old little boy with them in a stroller. We talked to them for a little while and just chit-chatted. They left. A few hours later the mom and the son came and knocked on our door. They said that they had just moved here from Oklahoma and hadn’t met anyone. They said we seemed nice (HA! Little do they know…) and they wanted to give us their contact information in case we ever wanted to get together. We were impressed by their boldness and willingness to go out on a limb! Well, they are coming over for fajitas tonight. I’m excited to meet them since we don’t know very many folks in our neighborhood either. Like R said, it could be really fun or REALLY awkward. I guess we’ll see!

-C spent last weekend with her Gammy and Pops! They had so much fun visiting friends in Marshal and going to the Caldwell Zoo! My baby girl sure has an expressive little face, huh? Not sure who she gets that from...

C's newest smocked dress made by her Gammy. I think it is one of my favorites EVER! She's doing her "cheeseburger" smile!

Feeding the birdies with Pop! She was so excited!

"Look, Gammy!" Here's one of those expressions I was talking about!

"Goat, what in the world are you doing?" I just love this picture for some reason. It captures a thoughtful, contemplative pose. It looks like she's trying to decide whether to run or go scratch the goat's back for him!

For the sake of comparrison...

Same shirt.

On the top: 14 weeks + 4 days pregnant with C. Sticking my belly out so I'll look like I'm showing.

On the bottom: 14 weeks + 1 day pregnant with twins. Not sticking my belly out any farther than it sticks out naturally.