Two milestones

Well, at least one of them is. I am officially halfway through being pregnant today (theoretically). Yep, 20 weeks. Crazy.

Yesterday I found out that we got into daycare. I didn't think Iwas that worried about it, but when I found out we got in, I was very relieved. It's at the church that our friends go to, and their daughter has been going there since she was 6 weeks old (she's now 1 1/2). So I feel good about it. Plus of the other lists I was on, one told me I definitely had no chance, on another I was on page 5, on a third they said there would only be 4 openings and I was more than 20 down on the list, so I didn't have much hope, and the last place didn't really give me numbers. So I'm in. Hooray.

Who needs a kidney?

Jon's dad (Keith) is donating a kidney to his sister (Joyce) on Tuesday, and the family would definitely appreciate your prayers. Although I'm sure it's considered pretty routine, it's still a little scary.

Sour Cream Enchiladas

I would like to thank Aunt Joyce for the amazing recipe book--Jon and I had the best enchiladas this weekend.

Scrubs

Have I mentioned how much I love the show "Scrubs"? Jon bought me the second season on DVD for Valentine's Day, and I was more than thrilled. This afternoon we watched quite a bit of the episodes, and they are stinking hilarious. So if anyone would like to buy me season one, you're more than welcome to do so :).

Movement

So I'm pleased to announce that I'm finally really feeling the baby move. And yes, it's just like everyone said--feels like gas bubbles or light poking or butterflies. And yes, now that I'm feeling it more, I realize that I've been feeling it for a little while (oh, that's what that was).

So close

Literally five exact minutes before the bell rang at the end of the day, I turned to see one of my more...challenging...students hunched over my trash can, puking his guts out. He couldn't have waited five minutes? I guess I should be thankful that most of it made it into the trash can. Yuck.

Shopping sales

My friend Leighann and I went to dinner and then shopping last night, and I think I found some pretty good deals. This cute denim dress was $6.60 (regular $22, on the 70% off rack), and I think it's pretty versatile--I can throw on a long-sleeved shirt and tights or a short-sleeved shirt and sandals.
This combo was $7, and the hilarious part was when she announced, "You saved...$26 today." I love it! I was also introduced to all of the websites that will mail you coupons for clothes, diapers, etc. I used a 20% off coupon on this one (from the Oshkosh store), plus it was on the 75% off rack.

Saying goodbye

I forgot to post this picture earlier--this is my dogs saying goodbye to my mom.

Stroller/carseat

My parents bought us an awesome stroller/carseat this weekend when they were here. I absolutely love it, because it's cute and functional. I even think it passes all of Sarah's tests :).

Finished curtains

These are the finished curtains--I think they look really cute and am very happy with how they turned out. In the corner of the picture you can kind of see the crib that was given to us (I love free things).

Ice storm

My parents brought the cold weather and the ice storm with them. Last night they closed all of the bridges in the area thanks to some freezing rain. It wasn't very impressive considering our experiences in Oregon, but it was something. These are icicles next door and the frozed dog dish.

Curtains

Although it's a girl, we're going to do a puppy dog nursery. The room is already yellow, and this is the material we picked out for curtains. I think I'll do her crib in reds, to balance out the blue.

Second ultrasound pics

Since I had to come back in, the tech gave me some more pictures--hooray! If you are good at looking at ultrasounds, you can see the she is on her back, grabbing her foot with her hand.
Upper right--hand & face, upper leff--confirming it's a girl, lower left--profile, lower right, the hand/foot picture.
It's hard to see, but she's on her side and you can see her five fingers by her face waving at us.

Ultrasound video

Here's a link to the ultrasound video. She definately has chompers!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g1aQWzDEccY

Ultrasound picture

Our little Skeletor...

Flowers

These are my gorgeous Valentine's Day flowers. Yes, I'm one of "those" girls who loves to get flowers.

A few seconds of panic

Yesterday at the end of school, I discovered that I had a voicemail. I listened to it, and it was the lady who did my ultrasound. Those people should be required to start their calls with, "Hello, everything is fine. This is ---, your ultrasound tech..." They should never ramble on, telling you that you need to come back in, etc., and never tell you why. So for nearly a minute I was panicked, until she told me that she had been too caught up in our conversation and had forgotten to get a picture of the baby's stomach. Phew! If that's all, I have no problem coming in!

Hurrican Katrina Rant

Most of the boys that I know are currently ranting about Valentine's Day, so I'll take this time to rant about something else. This past week was the deadline/cutoff for the free housing for hurricane victims from FEMA. Many evacuees have been staying in hotels for free for the past 4ish months. Well, now they're complaining and whining that they have to move again (they've reopened a few shelters) and that their free housing has ended. This aggravates me to no end. I mean, in 4 months, you couldn't find a job and an apartment? The Papa John's that delivers to my house is currently hiring. As is my local Wal-Mart. One of my coworkers stopped by Backyard Burgers the other day and saw a girl walking in with a Backyard Burgers uniform draped over one arm, yet she was wearing a Taco Bell uniform. If this girl can work her tail off at two fast food establishments to make ends meet, then why can't some of these people do the same? I just don't understand. Maybe I'm not being very compassionate, or maybe I compare too many people to Eddie from the National Lampoon videos (he's holding out for management). Either way, I think they need to stop sucking up our money, stop whining about having to move to another FREE place to live, and get on with their lives.

Oh dear

It's happening.

In class my students were writing in their journal to the prompt, "For Valentine's Day, I wish I could..." Most of them wanted to skip school and go shopping or play video games. Then one of my students asked me what I wanted. And before I could stop myself, out it came. "I'd love for someone to come over and clean my house and cook for me and then do all of the dishes." For a minute I couldn't believe that was actually escaping my lips. I guess you really do become your mother/grandmother/female person older than you. I guess I just thought I'd be a little older when it hit.

Abba-Zabas

Why do Abba-Zabas only exist in California and at Cost Plus? I remember discovering in Oregon that none of my friends had enjoyed one, but Sunday I learned that my husband hadn't, either. Needless to say, we immediately bought two from Cost Plus (at over $1 each!!! That's worse that the snack shack at AYSO games). I remember getting these for a few simple Awana bucks...

Well-wishers???

Just as I was starting to get used to the unsolicited advice, a new wave has hit. Now that people know it's a girl, I'm having more and more people tell me stories about their "girls" that were boys at birth, and vice versa. And these are not old women--one has an 8-month-old (although she found out two months before he was born). So now there's a tiny part of me that doesn't want to take the tags off of anything.

Jeff's response

"Do you think she'll be teased because her name is Jeff?"

It's a girl!!

It's a girl! We had a wonderful ultrasound today, and it looks like everything is great. Just so you know now, we won't be revealing her name until she's born (assuming we come up with one by then). We'll post pictures/video later.

Dreams

One of the weirdest things about pregnancy so far has got to be the dreams. I have never had such vivid, realistic dreams in my entire life. And some of them are terrifying. I dreamt that Jon was driving me to a place where I had to marry some other guy, and I was bawling my head off. Needless to say, I was very nice to him the next few days so that he wouldn't make me marry anyone else. In another dream, Wendy Budd and I were having these deep discussions about pregnancy and sharing secrets and woes and she was showing me her nursery and it was completely insane. Maybe I've looked at her float pictures too many times.

Cold

It's been cold here. I guess I shouldn't really complain, seeing as it was warmer earlier in the week, but the last two mornings it's been about 30. And I should be happy that my commute is so short, but by the time my car is warm enough to turn the heat on, I'm at school.

Computer

We had a computer meltdown yesterday. We switched the office and the guestroom after painting the bookshelf, and the computer made it 12 hours and died. It was very weird. We think it was the motherboard??? Anyway, everything was saved, we just had to buy new parts that Jon can elaborate on. The only annoying part was that it took nearly all day to get fixed--not the way Jon envisioned spending his Sunday. We'll post pictures of the room switch later.

New look

We chose a new background and deleted the videos in attempt to get our template back to normal. Hooray, it worked!

Painting

So painting a bookcase takes much longer than you might think. I mean, you look at it, and it doesn't seem so bad, but then when you have to do the top, bottom, and sides of each shelf, it's nearly overwhelming. And my advice--if there are two of you painting, always choose the brush over the roller. There are far fewer corners to paint than there are flat spaces.

Bookcase

We spent most of our Saturday building this bookcase for our office. We're in the process of swapping our office & guest bedroom (soon to be baby's room). And yes, this is how we prepare for baby--by making cool things for ourselves :). The shelf will actually allow us to empty the baby's closet of all of our books & binders.

It's made of 3/4" MDF, so we will be painting it white. It measures 4'x 7', and I challenge you to come move it.