I got a new toy :)

My birthday is still a week or so away but James got me an early birthday present! I've been quite envious of some of my friends' cute little Flipcams. While we have a perfectly good video camera, it's just so hard to get those videos onto my computer. The Flipcam is SO easy! I've been trying for a couple of days now (pretty much ever since I got the Flipcam) to capture little Henry's hiccups on film. It seems like whenever I run for the camera, he stops. Well I kind of got him tonight. It's pretty hard to see unless you know what you're looking for. There is a tiny rhythmic thumping on the right side of my belly if you look closely.

The other video I thought was cute is of Daisy, our other baby ;) We had left her alone ALL day to go to Phoenix for a Diamondbacks game. She was lonely and neglected so James was giving her some attention and she was eating it up!

Be prepared to be inundated with videos from now on ;) Enjoy!!!

I love my husband!

I am so lucky and blessed to have found James. He is an amazing husband and I know he is going to make an amazing dad. Don't get me wrong, there are days when I feel like smacking him but all in all, he is awesome! There are days went I just don't think I'll be able to handle being pregnant for one more second, James is there is get to me through. The last few days have been kinda rough and right now, I appreciate James more than ever. Here are just a few reasons why I love my husband sooooooo much!

* He has been so supportive of me throughout the entire pregnancy. No matter what I needed, food cravings, new shoes, fat clothes, he has not complained once!

* He goes with me to all my Dr appointments, baby classes, etc... Not all men would be willing to sit in a room with stirrups!!!

* He loves his baby boy. He talks to him every night and loves to feel him move. Even though we have been able to feel him move for about 20 weeks or so now, James gets just as excited to feel him today as he did the first time he felt him.

* He paints my toenails and rubs my feet for me. Since my giant belly has gotten in the way of me doing my normal girlie routine, James has stepped up to the plate. My pet peeve is girls in open-toe shoes with no nail polish so I couldn't very well go through the last two months without nail polish and pedicures are SO expensive. Plus my feet have been hurting so much that I need a foot rub occasionally to keep me going. James very willingly obliges :)

* Last week, I mentioned that I might want to go to a Diamondbacks game just once before the baby comes. I really enjoy going to the games and this weekend the Phillies were in town! It was kind of short notice to get tickets but James was on the case. He spent DAYS scoring the internet for a good deal for the game on Saturday. He found an awesome deal and we ended up getting to go to the game and sit in the fifth row for a total of about twenty bucks! Score! Now it would have been even better had the D-backs actually won, but James has nothing to do with that ;)

* Today I woke up feeling pretty crappy. I was hoping it was just allergies from the baseball game but when I woke up and my throat hurt and my nose was runny etc... I knew I had caught another damn cold. James went to the store and got me everything I needed. He even started the laundry for me!

* James prepared our nursery beautifully! It is perfect for our little boy :) He's also been very proactive in making sure that we have everything we need for the baby. It's amazing the amount of stuff one little baby needs! On top of that, we have my baby sister coming to live with us (yippee!!) to help us take care of the baby. So that means we need to get another room ready! A newborn and a teenager in one fell swoop! Should be fun :) So James has spent the last few weeks, cleaning out the back bedroom and re-organizing the garage so we can store a bunch of the stuff that was in that room in the garage. Whew!

* He has the uncanny ability to put up with all my crazy pregnancy hormones and not go crazy himself! We all know what a roller-coaster ride pregnancy can be. I've gone from organizing junkie to total bitch to clingy and weepy within the span of a few hours. James handles it all like a pro and has not blown up at me once, even though I've blown up on him countless times! He's a saint! Let's just hope he can keep this up through the delivery and post-partum craziness too!! Good luck babe!

I love you very many bunches and a lot times ten plus four babe!!! I could never do this without you!!!

You know you're pregnant when...

My fellow mom-bloggers Nicole and Ami recently did a blog where they list all the things they do or say that only moms would do. Nicole blogged about her two little angels and Ami wrote about being a mom of triplets! Now I'm not "officially" a mom... yet, but I felt it would be fun to share some of the things that happen to me before the baby pops out and calls me mommy. So please read in your best Jeff Foxworthy Redneck voice ;)

You know you are pregnant when...

* You plan your errands around meal-times. No one likes a hungry pregnant lady!

* You also plan your outings based on where you can find clean restrooms! I know where the best bathrooms are in all parts of the city!

* All above errands and outings have to do with what we still need to get the baby, clothes that will fit my giant belly, shoes that I can wear on my big swollen feet, things I need to take with me to the hospital, etc...

* You think, as you are running these errands about how different all this will be in just five short weeks!

* You get so excited when the Dr describes the huge number on the scale as "good weight gain." Although, it's still no fun to see that number get quite so big ;)

* You talk to your belly! This is so fun! I love my late night conversations with my little baby boy.

* A rockin' night out is now replaced with a rockin' night in. Dinner and a movie is now take out and On Demand! Dinner and dancing has been replaced with pizza and a foot rub!

* You get up at LEAST three times at night to pee and have NO problems finding the bathroom in the dark and getting back to sleep, most of the time!

* The most exciting time of the day is when you get to put your feet up! Ahhhhh!

* You want to punch people who say... Look how huge you are! You're still here! You look like you're ready to pop! Look at your belly button, you look like a turkey, you are done! How much longer? Oh you're waddling! Etc... This might be applicable to other people besides just pregnant ladies, cuz no one likes to hear how huge they are!

* Your bedtime is 8:30 and even the smallest tasks leave you exhausted!

I'm sure there is more but another way you know you are pregnant is, you forget everything! I can't remember a damn thing these days.

In the meantime, please enjoy this video of my son using my belly as a punching bag :) I hope it works, it's my first video attempt! It's not the best quality but you can see just how much he still moves around. It's slightly alien-esque but fun nonetheless :)

Another first for me

So last night, I let James do something to me that I have NEVER let him do before. He's always wanted to but I could just never bring myself to let him. Yesterday, I finally caved and it was AWESOME! Now, drag your filthy heads out of the gutter! I let James give me a foot massage :) I've always had issues with my feet. I'm super ticklish and it just plain grosses me out when people touch my feet. James has never had a problem with my feet, he thinks they're cute :) A while back, James had to help me paint my toes because I could no longer reach them. Well now that I've added some extra weight to my frame, my poor feet are aching at the end of the day. So yesterday, after a long day of standing and walking, I mentioned to James how nice a foot massage might be. So he obliged and yes, it tickled at first but my feet hurt so much that eventually it just felt plain good! Who would have thought THAT would have ever happened??? Certainly not James! I think he enjoyed it as much as I did :)

Here are some updated belly pics from 34 weeks.

This picture actually makes my legs look semi-slim compared to the big belly :)

I haven't taken too many front-on pics for fear of how I would look, but I don't look TOO bad.

For weeks now, people have been telling me that I don't look pregnant from behind. I was curious so I had James take a pic from the back. It could be the baggy pants and maternity top, but I TOTALLY think I look pregnant from behind! At least my butt doesn't look too huge!

I have four full weeks of work left (after this week) and I'm hoping I can make it! One month to go!!! :)

Easter and baby flips

Last weekend, James and I drove down to SV to spend Easter with my family. Easter always begins with church. For some of my family, the Easter celebration began at sunrise with the Easter sunrise service. I've never been much of a morning person so I forgo the sunrise service and opt for sleep and the later service! Jesus will still have risen later in the morning ;) Anyway, after church we have some light brunch, which includes some of my all-time favorite foods: cinnamon pull-apart, kind of like cinnamon rolls but with the cinnamon on the outside, and fruit with fruit dip, cream cheese and marshmellow cream. We only get to have these foods on Easter so it's very exciting for me! I must have eaten four crates of strawberries this year! Yum!!! We've never done the whole Easter bunny, egg-coloring thing. My parents have always been more into celebrating the religious aspects of these holidays. Which I truly appreciate because it is the reason for the season! When we were kids, we always got Easter baskets but my parents made sure we knew the gifts and candy were from them. And I don't think I've ever ONCE colored eggs. I know I haven't missed much because anyone who knows me, knows I'm so NOT a crafty person. Plus, hard boiled eggs are soooo gross (in my humble opinion). I can remember a few times we actually did egg hunts but with plastic eggs full of candy or sometimes money! That's my kind of egg hunt! I am so excited for next year when we'll get to share all our special family traditions with our little boy. I'm already thinking about what kind of candy I could get away with giving him next year! After all, he'll be almost a year old, that's the perfect time to have your first marshmellow Peep!!! ;) Here are a couple of pics we managed to snap after church on Easter.

Me and James... and Henry :)

Me, Liz, Mom holding Matt's son Sean, and Emily

Cut to today, I had another Dr visit. It seems like I am ALWAYS at the Dr these days! Anyway, she wanted to check the position of the baby since the last ultrasound showed that he was breech. We were hoping that by this time he would have flipped head down because I really didn't want to have to do the external flipping procedure (I'm sure it has a more technical name but I have no idea what it is!) since it sounded like it hurt a lot! And let's face it, the prospect of a C-Section scared me! The second the Dr put the wand on my belly, we could very clearly see that the head was down! Yippee!! One less thing to worry about. Of course, now I have to worry about labor! We'll do one more ultrasound next week to check fluid levels, growth, etc... since by then I'll be almost full term! I can hardly believe that I'm almost done!! Somedays I feel like I could go on being pregnant forever, bring it on! Then other days, I can't wait to be done being pregnant! It alternates almost daily. Today, I'm feeling good. I'm happy the baby has flipped, my vitals were great, the Dr says my weight gain is good, the number on the scale still freaks me out but at this point, oh well! I'm doing just about as well as can be expected for 34 weeks! Go me!!! :)

Bling, bling!

I'm sure I have said this before, but I have been VERY fortunate throughout my pregnancy. I won't tempt the fates by listing all the things I haven't had to deal with yet! But I have been lucky. However, one thing finally got the better of me this weekend and I had to deal with it. I've been dealing with swollen feet for the last week or so and now I'm dealing with swollen hands. My wedding rings have been slightly snug fitting lately but I did NOT want to take them off yet. There's just something about being pregnant without a wedding ring that just seems wrong to me. James and I were out shopping on Saturday and we stopped in to get my rings cleaned. The jewelry lady noticed when I went to put my rings back on that there was a significant dent on my finger and mentioned that it might be time to retire my rings. She scared me a bit too by telling me that if I didn't take them off soon, they may have to CUT the rings off my finger at the hospital!!! YIKES, REALLY?!?! That kicked my butt into gear and I found a chain the second we got home. I put the rings around my neck and found my old promise ring, that is one size bigger, and put that on my finger instead. I still don't like it but at least I won't have to worry about my rings getting cut off!

Here is my naked ring finger. You can see the dent my wedding ring left on my finger, ouch!

Here's my cute pink promise ring that lets my finger breathe easier ;)

My wedding rings safely around my neck. I'm glad I got them soldered together last year, they are easier to stick on a necklace when they are soldered!

Tomorrow (hopefully) I'll get Easter pics up. I would have done them today but James took the good camera with the Easter pics on it to the Diamondbacks opening day game today. Maybe I'll put a few baseball pics up too... if they win ;)

All before ten

I am forever copying other people. One of the reasons I even DO a blog is because first my friend Nicole started doing one, then my friend Ami followed and Anabelle continued soon after. So as soon as I announced my pregnancy, I decided to do my own blog to document the events leading up to the birth of our baby. Anyway, I was reading Nicole's blog today and the title of the post was All before ten, and she was listing all the things she did in her day as a stay at home mom before ten in the morning. It was pretty eye-opening since I am not a stay at home mom. It got me thinking about all the times that I have heard, oh you're a teacher, it must be fun to sit around and play with kids all day long! Soooo... I thought it might be an eye opening experience for some people all there to see just how much a teacher does, all before ten in the morning. I'm going to add my own personal stuff to this because I have the added challenge of not only being an elementary school teacher but also being 33 weeks pregnant. It ain't easy! Here we go:

6:00-6:45 - Wake up, shower, get dressed (which in and of itself is a challenge these days since NOTHING fits!)

6:45-6:55 - Heat up water for my hot chocolate (it's my calcium!), feed the dog and pack up my bag full of snacks to get me through the day.

6:55 - Try to be out of the house for my super long commute... ok it's five minutes, but sometimes it takes a long time to cross Rita ;)

7:00-7:15 - Prepare for the day, make sure bellwork and other copies for the day are ready.

7:15-7:30 - Duty. Ugh! I hate duty! Three days a week, I have to spend in the back parking lot, making sure drop offs go smoothly, kids behave themselves, etc...

7:30-7:45 - Bell rings, showtime! It doesn't matter how tired I am, how many times I had to get up to pee in the middle of the night and couldn't get back to sleep and thus am exhausted, it's time to put on a smile and say good morning to 21 smiling little seven year olds who are looking to me for a good day! Anyway, this is where I have to bring all the kids in, unpack, get notes, lunch money, homework etc... take attendance and get them settled to do bellwork. Easier said than done!

7:45-8:15 - Hard to explain this part of the day to non-Vail teachers. Long story short, we separate the kids based on math abilities and re-teach or enrich objectives based on test scores.

8:15-9:00 - Specials time! Thankfully in Vail, we get a plan period ALMOST everyday. Four days a week, I walk my kids over to Music, Computer Lab, Art or PE. During this time, I get my grading done and entered online, lesson plans for the week written or answer parent emails and phone calls.

9:00-9:30 - Recess! Sounds like it's time for a break right? Well, yes for the kids it is a break. Meanwhile, I have kids doing or re-doing classwork, sitting out for behavior issues and of course, kids tattling and generally being kids.

9:30-10:30 - Math! I know I'm going past ten at this point but math takes a long time. We have to do math fluency practice, math review and new math skills so math is a long period of the day. This is all in addition to the math we did before specials. Morning=math!

Now there is a TON more that goes on in the second half of the day but since I'm copying Nicole, I'll stop for now ;) Suffice to say, there is a lot of standing, walking, bending, squatting, etc... that puts a lot of strain on my feet, legs and back. It's also a challenge to find time in my day to utilize the facilities, which I need to do more and more during the day. THEN I still have to go home and cook dinner, do dishes, laundry, grade even more papers, and find some time to get ready for my next challenge... motherhood! I worry A LOT these days about whether I'll be able to handle teaching and being a mom. But I have some awesome super-mom examples to look up to: Jill, Jaymee, Jen, Ami, Anabelle, I know there are more, sorry if I forgot you. I blame the baby for sucking my brain out!

So there you have it. No finger-painting, no down-time, no short hours, no big money. Just lots of work! However, it's a great job, I have fun and I love it! I get presents, hugs, and the funniest stories you will ever hear! Let's just hope I can keep it up for the next six weeks!