Introducing...

We finally got internet back at our house after 4

months of paying for non-existent service. I'm happy to say that I'll be able to stay in touch now! A lot has happened since the last time I posted. Most importantly, we became a family of 3!

Caroline joined us in the middle of June! We were truly surprised and thrilled to be blessed with a sweet little girl. I was absolutely, willing to bet money, positive that we were expecting a little boy. But we didn't find out before the birth so that we would be surprised in the delivery room, and boy were we ever surprised! I even asked Aaron to verify after the doctor announced "It's a girl!"

Life has been busy and amazing in the six weeks since Caroline arrived. I'm loving every minute of being a mommy and spending my days with her. I still have a few weeks, but I'm already dreading going back to school at the end of the month.

I will be filling in all the details slowly as I hope to be back in the blogging grove and posting every week day in August to catch up. There are so many unread posts in my reader that I'll never be able to catch up there! But I'll be popping in and commenting a whole lot more now! I'm so glad to be back!

Good to know the 5th graders have faith in me!

The very first thing my mother-in-law said to me when we saw her on Sunday was "I can see the baby!" as she touched, rubbed and patted my stomach. Maybe I wouldn't have minded it so much except that I'm actually not showing at all. I can still wear my regular pants to work even though I've had maternity pants since New Years Day! On Friday my boss commented that I could have still gotten away with not telling anyone, and there are still a few people who don't know. I want a little baby bump! I want to look pregnant! But when my MIL made her comment on Sunday I was a little offended and I'm not sure why!

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Saturday I had an all day competition with seven 5th graders. After they performed but before the scores were ready we had a lot of time to wait. One of the girls came up to me and said, "Faith and I were discussing it and we think you'll make a good mom." (They only found out I was pregnant on Saturday during the competition.) Then they turned to the other coach and said, "We didn't discuss you. Since you don't have a boyfriend or anything." Kids say the craziest things!!

crying over dirty dishes

When I get upset (especially with my hubby) the thing that can almost always calm me down is washing the dishes. This is STRANGE to me since dish washing is my absolute least favorite chore. But since I hate to do it and put it off at all costs, that means there are usually plenty of dishes for me to wash whenever I do get upset. So I get a clean sink and time to think & diffuse which saves a fight (which is good since my frustration is almost always due to my own over reaction).

At least all these crazy pregnancy hormones are having one positive effect - I've been getting my dishes washed a little more frequently.

Wanted : A New Memory Chip

We walked into the grocery store with one goal: I needed supplies for the 'fun Friday' craft I was in charge of coordinating for 80 Kindergartners the next day. I had a list in my pocket.

The main ingredient of the snack was apples. In order to accommodate 80 kids I was going to need 20 + apples. Trying to do the division, multiplication, and addition to figure that out almost did me in! But we went straight to the produce section and found the apples in bags and picked out 4 bags that would get the job done.

Hubby and I took our heavy apples and trekked clear across the store to get bread. As we walked back toward the check- out Aaron asked if I needed anything else. Cutting my eyes up to look at the ceiling (because that's where the answers always are!) I think for a minute and say "I don't think so" and we find a checkout with no line.

About the time I lay all the apples down on the conveyor belt and the cashier starts to talk to me the gears in my brain start turning. In hyper drive I think 'apples are the MAIN ingredient - NOT the ONLY ingredient!' but the cashier is talking to me too and I hear her say "do you have any coupons?" to which I think 'when are there ever coupons for bread and apples?' but I answer "No, no coupons."

About this time Aaron gives me a weird looks and leans over me to answer the cashier's real question with "Plastic."

As Aaron pays and we start walking away he's asking me all kinds of questions which equate to "What in the WORLD is the matter with YOU!?"

I, of course, respond by laughing hysterically. Which earns me a more worried look. We are almost to the car by the time I am able to catch my breath and wipe away the tears that the laughter have brought on. Aaron opens the door and I put the apples in the car then reach in my pocket and take out the list.

-apples
-frosting
-marshmallows

We went back in to get the missing ingredients, but I did NOT go back through the same checkout line!

*****
Then this morning I forgot the apple cutter at home, turned around 3/4 of the way to school to go back and get it. Got to work 30 minutes later than I wanted to. And STILL discovered that I had forgotten a gift for a co-worker.
*****
Where can I get a new memory card?!?!

Project Life Tuesday - Week 1

I'm joining Jessica Turner at The Mom Creative and Becky Higgins in 2010 by taking a picture every single day of the year - at least that's the plan on this, the 12th day of the year!

Becky is the creator of this amazing kit, Project Life, that makes documenting your every day life easy and fun. Simply (well simple if I remember!) take a picture of something every day and write a little something about it on some super cute journaling cards Becky designed. The pictures can be of anything... the shoes you wore that day, your hubby/kids/parents/pets, a landmark you pass on the way to work every day, what you ate for dinner, a birthday cake... ANYTHING! It will all be an important part of your history in 50 years when your grandkids are looking through the book. Print your pictures and slip them into the page protectors. I love scrapbooking and watching the memories of my life take shape on a creative page, but I don't have time or space to drag out all my supplies frequently, so I get super far behind (think 5 years behind... yeesh)! Becky's kit makes documenting my life soooo much easier for me, which means it is more likely to actually happen!

Jessica is an amazing scrapbooker and I wish I had even a fraction of the creativity that she has. She firmly believes in telling your story. Since I already love scrapbooking and journaling, this is a great way to combine the two in an easy-to-keep-up-with project.

I'm going to be sharring my pictures for the week on Tuesday's (as will Jessica & many more! click over to Jessica's blog to be inspired by lots of creative people). The kit is very open ended and easy to adjust to your own likes & dislikes. I decided that I wanted to keep my weekends together so in my weekly layouts I consider my weeks to be Monday - Sunday. This isn't the same for everyone, but it works for me.

I started on December 31st with the first layout having 4 pictures (Thursday - Sunday) then the first full week layout started on January 4th.

~~~My computer would NOT cooperate and upload more than one picture, so I'm including only a picture of my entire first week layout instead of individual pictures. Sunday is missing because I haven't developed that picture yet, but amazingly - ok, so it's only the 12th day of the year - I'm caught up through TODAY on my journaling! Hoping I can keep it up for another 353 days!~~~

Mon., Jan. 4th, First day back to work after almost 2 weeks off :(

Tues., Jan. 5th, My Barnes & Noble deals - Christmas books for 60% off!

Wed., Jan. 6th, My 16 week prenatal appointment

Thurs., Jan 7th, Krispy Kreme free donut cupons - great for the wallet, terrible for the waist!

Fri., Jan 8th, Alllll the snow we got last night - and I was expecting a 2 hour school delay - HA!

Sat., Jan 9th, Dinner with my mom & pop

Sun., Jan 10th, 1st grocery shopping trip since Christmas - whoa!

*Since the weeks of my pregnancy change on Sunday, I also took a "belly" picture (nothing has really changed yet), printed it wallet size, and used it in the extra journaling card slot of the layout . This is the week 17 picture.*

It's catch-up time!

*Thanksgiving was low key this year and I loved it! We went to a Virginia Tech football game and had my side's Thanksgiving celebration the weekend before. That was also when we told my family that we are pregnant. That meant on the actually day of Thanksgiving we could relax and then make only one stop at Aaron's family's celebration. That's also when his family found out.

*Christmas was fabulous! I love being a teacher and having a week & a half off around the holiday. My sister & brother-in-law were able to come into town which was nice since we don't see them nearly as often as I'd like to.

*For New Years we went to Atlanta for the Chick-Fil-A college football bowl. The trip was so much fun, but way too short. We drove from VA down through Charlotte, NC and then into GA.
- We stayed a super ritzy hotel. I felt famous for a few minutes!
-The city was fun to explore for the very short time we were there.
- There was Chick-Fil-A food everywhere!!
-Virginia Tech won the football game!!!! :)
-The game was played inside which was a blessing since the weather was cold and drizzly.
-We missed getting back to the hotel lobby to see the ball drop by about 30 seconds. BUMMER! But I have it on good authority that the new year did indeed start that night.

*Back to school and work this week has been hard! I'm having a tough time getting back in the routine of things. Everything in the morning is taking me twice as long as it did before we went on Christmas break. My body just really liked an 8 am wake up much better than a 5 am wake up I think!

*There's a teeny-tiny chance that it could snow (about an inch) here on Thursday night. That would be BIG time snow for this area. hahaha so I'm hoping for atleast a delay in school on Friday morning. Don't really want to cancel since we'd have to make that up. But a delay is right up my alley!

*I'm on a decluttering, reorganizing kick lately. Just sitting in my living room I can look around and see about 14 projects I'd love to tackle to re-do the room. Maybe we'll start with some paint and curtains.

*I am seriously missing the Christmas tree and all the warm cozy feelings it gives me. At first I didn't even really care if we set up the tree this year, but I'm SO glad we did. Now I just wish we hadn't taken it down yet!

*The Biggest Loser is on and making me cry!

Now off I go to get some things done for school tomorrow. It feels good to be back!

looking ahead in 2010

It's been almost 2 months, but my internet service is FINALLY cooperating! Looks like we're going to eventually have to switch providers because I absolutely can not stand to pay for the internet every month if it's not even going to work!

I've missed keeping up with everyone and I'm going to do my best to go through my 1,000+ unread posts in my reader. It'll probably take a while, and I can't promise to comment on all (or more realistically - any) of them, but at least I'll be caught up on your lives. Now that the internet is kinda back, I'll be much better about reading and commenting in a timely manner!

With that little bit of housekeeping out of the way, there's been something I've been dying to get back here and tell you!

In June I'm going to be a mommy!

I'm terribly sorry for shouting, but we could not be more excited! I'm being seen by my regular OB and a high risk doctor and have a more appointments than an average pregnant woman would, and so far everything looks great. Being seen so often provides a lot of reassurance that I've very thankful for!

There will obviously be some baby talk to come, but I do not intend to turn my blog into a one track ramble. I am very sensitive to my friends who are struggling and wanting so badly to make the same announcement. I pray every night for you!

I hope everyone had a lovely Christmas and that you are already enjoying the New Year! I can't believe that it is already 2010. Wasn't it just a minute ago that everyone was worrying about what would happen in 2000?

I'll be back soon with more catch-up-updates, probably in a long bullet style post. For now, I'm off to enjoy the last 24 hours of this lovely break before heading back to work on Monday.