Caroline’s Nursery

We have been working for weeks on Caroline’s nursery.  Between teaching, coaching, families, traveling, social lives, and sleeping – we don’t have huge chunks of time to designate to a single project.  But, we are both anal retentive and like to have things the right way.  As soon as we found out we were having a girl, we ordered the bedding.  We had had the crib and the dresser since earlier in the year when we got pregnant the first time.  They have been in their boxes in the garage and calling to me every single day to get them out and put them together.  So instead of writing this whole long story, I’m going to let the pictures tell you what we’ve been through over these past weeks!

 

We started out with a beige room (ceiling and walls) with a huge eye sore of a fake attic entrance in the ceiling.  It had crown molding around it and it was all I saw when I walked into the room.  We knew that had to go away if we wanted to have the room we really had in mind.

So Ja pulled off the crown molding, bought some sheet rock and plastered that hole up.  He did such a good job and you can’t even tell there was something there!  We also did away with that heinous light fixture!

Documented proof that we did enjoy ourselves in between trying to rip each other’s head off.  We knew if we could make it through the nursery remodel…we would be just fine!

Once we got the ceiling patched, it was time to paint.  The ceilings got a fresh coat of bright white paint and the walls are a bright teal.  In the bedding we got there were all sorts of colors, including baby pink and hot pink, but since I can’t really get into the whole baby pink thing, we figured this teal would be something bright, fun, and different.  I LOVED it instantly.

We painted the whole room, but left a little bit at the top because Ja was going to attempt to put crown molding up around the room. 

Ja working away!

And he did a GREAT job!  The crown molding and the white contrasted to the teal looks amazing!  Exactly what we had in mind!

We got rid of the light fixture that was in there and got a new white fan.  It will help keep in cool in the summer time and helps to hide the spot on the ceiling.

These poor dogs have no idea what is about to happen to them.  They can’t stand to not be in the room with us and helping us with EVERYTHING that we do.  They are going to be great big brothers, though, and I can’t wait to see them with Caroline.

This is our dresser.  It is Baby Cache and it was different than a lot of cribs and dressers we had found.  We thought we’d go espresso like our bedroom furniture, but for some reason, we both instantly loved this.  It is extremely well made and very sturdy and well worth every penny.  This will soon house the changing pad and supplies, as well as a Diaper Genie, once we get closer!

Ja has been so excited about getting this room together and has had some GREAT ideas that have just added so much color and personality to the room.  He got these letters and the dragonfly as plain wooden figures at Michael’s for about $1.  He then used the wall color and our hot pink accent paint to make those match the room.  Her initials and the dragonfly are on the door to her room.

We knew we wanted to put her name up in the room somehow.  We had thought about getting letters and hanging them with ribbon like we had seen before.  We started talking about different ideas and eventually came up with this.  We got the letters at Michael’s for about $2 each and Ja painted each one with our hot pink paint.  We then bought a picture frame that was bright white.  We mounted just the frame to the wall and then put the letters inside attached to the wall.  And, voila!, Caroline has a home!

This is our crib and bedding and I LOVE LOVE it.  We looked and looked and looked and just didn’t love any of the girl bedding.  Some of it is absolutely HEINOUS and someone thinks that it is beautiful.  Since I’m not into girly, pinky, princessy stuff, it made it a little difficult.  But when we saw this, it was very simple and perfect.  It is from Pottery Barn Kids, which we had to justify spending that much money, but we figured this is our first child and if we want to splurge a little bit, Merry Christmas, Happy Birthday, and Happy Anniversary for the next year or so.  That is for the bedding and all the other stuff we got for the room!

This is the crib side of the room in all it’s lovely goodness!

Another crib view.  At Target we found this beanbag chair.  It has floppy antennae and feet and is the cutest thing!  We have names her Lucy the Ladybug and we’re sure we’ll have more than a few pictures of Caroline sitting on that beanbag chair when she is a little thing!

This is one of my favorite things that we have found at Target.  We have named him Scooter.  He is a night light and he is covered with soft baby clue silicone and to turn him on and off you just tap him on the head!

Another piece of Target goodness.  This is an alphabet print for above the book shelf.  We loved the selection for all the letters and it will be fun to use that to teach Caroline her ABCs!

We also got this bookshelf at Target.  It is a Closet Maid cube and the baskets are Closet Maid, also.  We used stuffed animals that we had from our childhood and a few things that we have already been given as gifts.  I’m sure we’ll add a lot of books to that collection!  The teddy bear on top we got at Cracker Barrel for $10!  Love that place!  And that’s Scooter glowing on top of the shelf!

We knew we wanted a rocker/glider of some sort, but we just couldn’t pay the prices that people were asking for them.  So we went to American Furniture Warehouse in Greensboro and got this chocolate brown recliner for a steal.  The bedding quilt is on it, as well as a pillow we got from my Aunt JoAnn.  The side table is another Closet Maid cube and the lamp we got at Target. 

Ja taking a break and enjoying his hard work.  He is also catching up on some What To Expect!  We feel pretty good about where the nursery is right now, but I’m sure we’ll have PLENTY of additions by the time Caroline gets here!  I hope she loves it as much as we do!!

Being Pregnant

People very sweetly ask me all the time how I am feeling.  The best thing I can say is that being pregnant is the easiest thing I do all day.  Between teaching, working at school, working at home, being a wife, being a mom to two mammoth four legged animals, and being pregnant – pregnancy is by far the easiest.  Sure I’m tired a lot and I have some new things going on with my body, but nothing I can’t handle and didn’t know I was signing up for when we got into this whole mess!  Caroline is just growing in my growing belly and it just kind of happens whether I think about it or not.  Don’t take this like I don’t care – I LOVE being pregnant.  It just feels really natural and like something I was meant to do.  I love feeling her karate chop my innards and watching Jason feel her move around.  This has been such a great time in our lives.  I just am not completely consumed with it.  I am still me and I still have lots of jobs to do…Caroline is just along for the ride!

22 Weeks

23 Weeks

Bixing Stuff

When I was growing up, my Deddy could bix anything (yes, I know that says bix instead of fix.  That's how I said it for a long time and we still say that Deddy has 'bixed' something!).  He could bix cars, the house, the yard, toys, appliances and anything else that can break - sometimes to my mom's dismay.  Usually when things break, that means that you have to get a new thing to replace it with.  In my mom's case, when something would break or stop working and there would be the possibility of getting something new, my dad would come in and bix it right up!!  He still bixes anything that goes wrong with the house and we call him Collins Garage because we take our cars to him for our big tune ups.  He still changes his own oil and brake pads and does a lot of the maintenance on both of their cars.

He is very handy around the house due to his years of working construction and having an engineering brain, but when he doesn't know how to do something, he researches it and figures it out.  He has had a lot of 'All You Gotta Do' projects through the years.  That phrase comes from saying, 'Well, all you gotta do is just replace that part.'  Then 12 hours and several 'damn its' later you have the entire thing disassembled on the floor and the part is still yet to be replaced. 

Now that we have begun to work on the nursery, Jason has been introduced to the 'All You Gotta Do' projects.  He hasn't had a lot of work in construction and those types of jobs, so he is having to learn as he goes.  He has removed crown molding and an absolutely absurd fake attic entrance from the ceiling in the nursery and replaced it with sheet rock and orange peel.  He has installed crown molding all the way around the ceiling.  He has laid plywood in the attic to give us some more storage space.  He will soon be assembling the crib and furniture we bought a while ago.  I love the fact that he is willing to tackle those jobs and even if he doesn't know what he is doing when he starts, he has done a great job and is becoming quite the handy man himself.  I'm very proud of the work he has done and what we have been able to make the nursery become.

One day, Caroline will be running around asking her Daddy if he can bix some of her stuff!  And I'm sure there will be plenty more projects in Papa's future with all of these youngins running around!!

Free to Breathe 2010


On March 14, 2006, my best childhood friend, Maggie, lost her dad to lung cancer.  Their family was an incredible close family and it was a very hard thing to watch and be a part of.  They still miss him every day and so do the rest of us.

On November 6th in Raleigh, I met up with Maggie and her family and friends to walk a 5k around the NC State campus to raise money for lung cancer research.  Since we are all spread out over the state (and soon the world), I don't get to see the Austins as much as I would like to, so it was a great, great morning.  We got to honor CW and his battle and also go to spend time and enjoy those that we have with us now.  Free to Breathe is a relatively new organization and I look forward to being a part of the walk for many years to come!!  I'll post pictures once I get some!!

Baby Girl

Now that we are in full nursery mode (more on that later) I have ideas flowing out of my dome.  One thing I definitely want to incorporate is the song 'Baby Girl' by Will Hoge.  It is the song that my dad and I danced to at Jason and my wedding and since we're having our own baby girl, I think it is appropriate.  This song brings tears to my eyes every time I hear it.  It is exactly what any parent could want for a child and certainly what I want for my little baby girl.

May the sunlight find your face

Even when the rain does fall

And get back on your feet again

Every time you slip and fall

Keep your heart wide open

And always taking in

And even when it's broken

Be strong enough to fix it up again

Oh little baby girl

Sweet little baby girl

I wish I could hold your hand in this great big world

Oh little baby girl

And I hope your hands are steady

And never need to make a fist

And I hope that when you're ready

You get one never ending kiss

And I hope that deep inside of you

There's a sweet eternal song

And I hope the words are pretty

And that you'll always sing along

And I hope your friends are many

And your laughter's always loud

To help you when you're lonely

And pick you up when you're down

I hope your eyes shine bright love

And learn to see the light

Take the time to listen

Decide yourself what's wrong or right

Oh little baby girl

Sweet little baby girl

Be strong in this great big world

Oh little baby girl

It's A Girl!

We went to the doctor on October 11th and we saw a hoo-ha!!  Caroline Grace - coming in March 2011!!



You Can Touch My Belly, If I Can Punch Your Face

Anyone that has known me for any length of time knows that I am not a touchy-feely person.  I have huge personal space issues and I just don't like for people to touch me.  This is the case even more so since I have been a teacher and if you breath wrong around a kid they can say that you touched them inappropriately.  So I resort to not touching a single one of them at all.  I don't mind hugging my family and friends I haven't seen in a while and of course cuddling up to my husband, but that's about it.  That's where the buck stops.  And I always thought when I got pregnant and got a big belly that I would NOT be ok with everyone touching it.  I thought I'd own this t-shirt:

Well come to find out, I don't mind it at all!  Even though I don't have much of a belly yet, I've got enough that people that know I'm pregnant can tell.  I have had 3 or 4 people ask to touch the belly and I get kind of excited about it.  People just love babies and pregnant ladies and it's hard to be mad about that.  They just want to get in on some of the action and up to this point, I'm loving it.  I may not be when I get much bigger and much bitchier, but for the time being, step on up!

Baby Smith’s First Book!

My mom sent me an email to let me know that the UPS man would have something for me last week.  I thought a few times about what it could be, but had no idea.  When I opened it, I about died!

Anna has a Hello, Rameses! book that takes you on a tour through the Carolina campus.  Well some lovely young lady decided that UNCW deserved to have one too!

So now Baby Smith will get a tour through UNCW’s campus where Mommy and Daddy went!  Thanks, Mimi!!

A vineyard wedding!

Tonight Jason and I got all snazzed up and headed to Shadow Springs Vineyards.  This place was such an amazing back drop for a beautiful wedding for Erin + Lee!  There is a lake with vineyards in the background and a precious gazebo where the ceremony was performed.

To give some background on how we know Erin and Lee - after your freshman year in the Teaching Fellows program across the state you have to go on the Discovery bus trip.  I hated it!  You have to wear closed toe shoes, panty hose, long skirts, and be on a bus for hours in 100 degree weather.  It was awful.  My nerdy husband LOVED that trip, so much so that he went four more times as a facilitator.  One of the few cool things about it was that you get to meet people from different colleges around the state.  Erin and Jason both ended up on Bus #3 the year they went and began a beautiful friendship and have stayed in touch over the years!  Since moving to Winston last year we have hung out with Erin and her boyfriend, then fiance, and now husband!, Lee.  He is such a great guy and they make such a great pair! 

The wedding was so beautiful and we were so glad we could be there to witness it all.

We also got to hang out with our good friend, Sally Gupton, who was the photographer at our wedding and is my brother, Jeffro’s girlfriend’s sister.  You got all that?

The lovely couple!!  I love this picture because they got engaged at a Winston Salem Dash baseball game, so it is only fitting that their engagement pics were taken there, also!

Congrats, Erin and Lee!!

Fall is FINALLY here!

There are some people in this world that have Seasonal Affective Disorder, where they are fine during summer and spring, but the colder darker months make them really depressed.  I feel so bad for them because I am the opposite of that.  I love every season for different reasons - I love the spring because it’s all the newness and bright colors and everyone warming up from being so cold.  I love the summer time because that means no school and the beach!  I love the fall because it is starting to get cooler and you can go to football games all bundled up with hot chocolate!  I love the winter time because I love being bundled up with Jason and the boys and having snow on the ground and Christmas time!

So now that it has finally started to cool down, I am SO excited about it being fall!!!  I love wearing long sleeves and needing to.  I love sitting on our back porch in the morning with the boys and needing to be bundled up a bit.

Jason was telling me about how his women at work were talking about how they were ‘falling up’ their houses.  So while we were out today doing a little shopping, we came across some fall time gems and Jason created an awesome center piece for our table.

Doesn’t that just make you want to grab some hot chocolate and a blanket!  I love it and the whole thing costed us $18!  Not too shabby, huh!  Happy Fall, y’all!!

Waynesvegas 2010!

One of my very best friends and roommates in college, Kelly, was raised in Waynesville, NC.  She has an amazing group of friends that she has been friends with for years and we were lucky enough to become good friends with a lot of them, also.  This past weekend one of Kelly’s best friends and our roommate for a summer, Alison, got married to a very lucky man, Nick. 

Their wedding was ABSOLUTELY beautiful!  They got married at the chapel at Lake Junaluska and had the reception at the Waynesville Country Club.  They looked so happy and so in love and I am so glad that we were able to be a part of it!

Congratulations, Mr. and Mrs. Arnold!

Luckily for all of us, we got to attend this fantastic event, which was also a reason for all of us to get together!!!  Our friend Jenna’s mom and stepdad were nice enough to host us for the weekend and they were FANTASTIC hosts!  Jenna’s stepdad, Butch, made chocolate chip pancake (banging!!) and amazing southern breakfasts!

So Friday afternoon I took a half day and came home to relax before Brian + Michelle came and picked me up.  Jason had a game that night and stayed in Winston and then joined us on Saturday.  We met up with our friend Katie and her boyfriend, Matthew, at Jenna’s house.  We headed to the Waynesville Country Club for dinner and some dranking (don’t worry…I was the DD)!  After the rehearsal dinner was over we were able to meet up with everyone!  It was so great to see our long lost friends!

 

My girls – Kelly, Katie, and Michelle

 

Katie backing it up in the ridiculously large football helmet.  Definitely the prop of the weekend for lots of ridiculous pictures!

Brian and Michelle playing hostesses with the mostesses!  Might have been believable, but the beer threw some people off.

 Katie and Matthew getting their dance on!  Nobody puts baby in a corner!

After we all got home that night, we were delighted with the pleasure of Michelle reading us children’s books until the wee hours of the morning.  HILARIOUS.

The next morning we all got to sleep in and eat an awesome breakfast.  Then we decided to bop around the cute downtown of Waynesville until we needed to start getting ready for the wedding.  These are some awesome sculptures downtown.

 

 

After we took this picture we saw this sign:

Oopsy!!

Then we got ready and headed out for the wedding.  By this point Jason had made it up and we were all coupled up and ready to go!

The wedding was so much fun!  We got to see a lot of friends we hadn’t seen in a long time, which is definitely the best part about weddings.  We ate some FANTASTIC food and danced the night away!  The party continued, but since I had kicked it so late the night before I was finished.  So Jason + I were the old couple that left at 11:30 and headed to bed!

On Sunday we lounged around for a bit and then headed to Asheville.  Kelly and her boyfriend, Dr. Drew, just moved into a precious house that we needed to check out and we were able to go out to lunch for Kelly’s birthday!  Papa’s and Beer is probably my favorite mexican place of all time – don’t tell the peeps at El Maguey!!

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We were able to get the waiters attention and let him know it was Kelly’s birthday.  So they all came over with their maracas and singing their song.  They also had some fried ice cream and the whole time a guy had a spoonful that he was trying to give to Kelly.  Every time Kelly would learn forward, he’d pull it away.  It was ridiculously funny.  Then he finally got it all over her face!!

After seeing Kelly and Drew’s place it was time to head back to life, back to reality!  I miss everyone already and we need someone else to get married soon so we can get back together – hint, hint!

Wild Child

Apparently Jason + I have already created a little wild child.

Today I went to the doctor for my 16 week check up.  It was one of the short ones where all they do is listen to the heart beat.  He was asking me if I had any questions and he was letting me know that I should be having pains in my hips for the next little bit and that I should feel the baby soon.  I told him that I'm pretty sure I had been feeling the baby since last Thursday and he said that was very possible.  Then he got out the doppler, plopped some goo on the gut, and started trying to find the heartbeat.  It was hilarious.  He would find mine and then he'd find the babies for a second and then he'd lose it.  Then there would be a loud noise and he'd say, 'Oo, that's the baby kicking' and 'Ok, that's the baby punching something'.  It took him a solid 5 minutes to get a good hold on the heartbeat.  He told me that I had quite a little mover. 

Bless our hearts.

Pet Peeve

I have many pet peeves since I have undiagnosed OCD, but since getting knocked up, everything seems to annoy me - more than usual.

One thing that I really can't handle is when kids staple their own papers.  You would think high school kids would know the proper way to staple their paper together for maximum usage.  I was astounded at the number of kids that would walk up to my desk, throw the stapler into the multiple pages (without lining them up) and then just staple them.  It didn't matter if the stapler was in the middle of the page or on one of the edges.  It was stapled.

So, now when I give multiple page assignments, I collect them unstapled.  The kids think I'm crazy, but I just find it easier to do it myself then to have to go back and restaple all the papers.  One day I'll have a course on this and show them exactly how and where they need to put the staple in order to satisfy my ridiculousness.

Chicco, why did you do this to me?

I am having a very tough time with something I know is not that important in the grand scheme of things, but in my world right now it SUCKS ROYALY.

Ever since I got pregnant the first time I have been looking at all the baby crap you need to get and getting an idea of what I wanted so when it came time to register, I would have a game plan.  So I have looked and look and read review after review and I have a pretty good idea of what I want to get.

The first thing I picked out was the travel system I wanted.  We read Consumer Reports and found the safest and discussed the 22 lb. infant seat versus the 30lb. one.  The trouble was, you get more for your money with the 30 lb. seat, but the pretty pattern I wanted was in the 22 lb. version.  So Jason and I talked and talked.  He was the rational one that wanted more for his money.  Luckily, though, at a party I sat around with a bunch of moms and we were talking about it and they convinced me that I could get the 30 lb. infant seat all I wanted, but good luck lugging around a 30 lb. baby in a bucket.  Awesome...I had my selling point!!  Look how pretty it is!

Regardless of it is for a boy or a girl, I love the blue, orange, and grey.  Very us.  So the next day I was looking online at my beautiful pattern...and THEY DON'T MAKE IT ANYMORE.  The day after I freaking had everything planned out...they stopped making the damn pattern.  The stroller is still available and the high chair is still available, but the infant seat and the pack 'n play are both discontinued.  And every single one that has already been made has disappeared.  The car seat itself has not been discontinued, so it is not a safety recall or anything, it's just the pattern itself.  Someone somewhere had an issue with it and I'd like to get my hands on them!

So now I'm in limbo.  I want everything I can get in that pattern, but I can't have it.  So I'm trying to pick between the Chicco Keyfit in some fugly pattern or the Graco Snugride 35 which just came out and has not been tested but has all the same features as the Keyfit, but of course they don't have a pattern I like in that either.  Am I ruined?  Will I ever be able to pick a pattern I like and that I'm proud to put my sweet little peanut in?  (How is that for dramatic?)

Mrs. Tons-of-No-Fun

If you walk into the door of my classroom, you will see the name Mrs. Smith proudly displayed on the door.  If you ask a kid walking out of my classroom I'm pretty sure that is not the name they'd use.  I'm thinking more along the lines of Mrs. Tons-of-No-Fun or worse.

My classes before this year will tell you that I'm usually pretty fun.  I joke around and mess around and can hand any kid back what they are dishing out (while still giving them every bit of math knowledge they need to have!).  This year, I'm still pretty awesome, just not as much fun as I used to be.  It's the lack of patience that is making me more irritable.  I'm not doing as good a job handling rude comments or dealing with apathy.  I get irritated early in the day and it sticks around.

Part of me wants to feel bad that they don't get to experience the full me, but the other part knows that it's part of the deal and something we all have to live with.  I'm learning day to day how to deal with it and they will too.  So what if I don't win the Most Awesome Teacher of the Year Award for one year...I'm still getting my job done and they are still learning whether they want to or not!!

What's in a name?

Leslie + Will talked about the names they wanted to use for their kids when they started dating 10 years ago and they have kept the same names the whole time.  Some people pick out a name when they are kids and use those names 20 years later.  Since Jason and I started dating, we have talked about what we wanted to name our children.  It has changed 9 GABILLION times!!!  I'm not even going to begin to list some of the options because they are ridiculous!!  It doesn't help that we are both teachers and have massive name aversion from all of our combined years.  So we'll come up with something and love it and then remember that awful kid we had with that name and nix it.  Or we'll talk about it with people and they'll give us a reason to hate it.

So in order to keep from driving ourselves (and every one else) crazy we have decided to keep the name on lock down until the day we find out.  That way we can let everyone know by saying that we are having Orangejello Lemonjello Smith or Sacajewea Smith to announce the sex and the name we've picked.  Stay tuned!

Boy vs. Girl

We are in the stage of getting near the anatomy scan and trying to guess what it is. 

If you ask Jason, it is a boy no doubt.  He wants a boy that he can groom into the world’s most awesome football player.  The boy name we end up with happen because it will sound good over the loud speaker - ‘And that was So-and-So Smith with the sack!’  Leslie + Will found out that they are having a little boy and so it would be fun to have boy cousins that are that close together.

My mom thinks we are having a little girl.  Not sure why she has that inkling, but we’ll see.

My cousin in Minnesota is 34/34 (or something like that) when it comes to picking the sex correctly.  She picked Leslie’s correctly from half way across the country and only conversing over Skype!  You best believe we are going to have a Skype date soon so I can get her vibe!

I am seriously in the middle.  On one hand I do want a boy because I am not girly – AT ALL!  I was a sports player and I think it would be awesome to have a little boy to teach sports to and watch Jason be able to spend time with him over sports. 

On the other hand, I would be ok with a girl.  I am not a huge fan of all the princess stuff and I’m not sure how I would handle all of that.  I’m doing ok with Anna and the Disney Princess stuff, but I’m not ok with a little girl believing she is a princess.  There is a sense of entitlement there that I am not down with.  I am the Momma and what I say goes no matter your political status.  Now that I have hopped off my soapbox, let me continue!  I have watched Anna grow up and that has been so fun.  Girls are so smart and pick stuff up so quickly and really develop into little women.  My little girl is going to pay me back big time for my sass and I’m going to love every second of it.

If you would have asked me 3 weeks ago what I wanted I would have said a boy, hands down.  I want a little curly blond thing running all over the place.  Then, I went to Jason’s football game with Mom, Deddy, + Anna.  On my right hand side were three boys under the age of 4.  They were ALL OVER THE PLACE.  They were running on the field, running on the big sink hole behind us, wrestling over the football, slamming each other into the fence, and NEVER SAT DOWN.  On my left hand side was Anna.  She sat in her seat, asked me questions about the band, asked me if we were winning, asked me where Jason was, ate a little bit, drank a little bit (still sitting down the whole time), and eventually got up and played a little football with JP. 

So after that night I am perfectly ok with having a little girl.  Little girls are not going to be ALL princess.  It is a phase.  I do love little girl clothes and I can teach a girl to play sports just like I can a boy.  She can be sassy as hell and better than any boy at anything she wants to do.

At the end of the day, I do not have a preference.  People always say they want a healthy baby and I always thought that was a cliché answer, but I am truly at that place.  What ever this little rapidly developing thing is, I am honored to be his/her mommy.

So October 11th is the big day.  I will be sure to keep you posted.  But just for fun, let’s lay down some bets.  What do you think it is going to be?

Baby Smith Update

I am currently in my 14th week of pregnancy.  I made it to the second trimester and I can’t tell you how good that feels.  I am able to relax and things are starting to get really good!

Throughout my whole pregnancy I have not been very bad off at all.  I don’t know if that’s because after the miscarriage I would have taken just about anything in stride or because it wasn’t that bad.  I did have TERRIBLE heartburn and am still battling it a little bit, but nearly as bad.  I seriously felt like I had a fire breathing dragon in my gut.  I was up to 18 – 20 Tums a day and my doctor told me I could take Zantac if it was bad enough.  I had to sleep sitting up every night and I would instantly get heartburn no matter what I ate.  I know that means that my little bean is going to have lots of hair and I can only hope so!  Jason was born with a head full of blond curls and I am hoping and praying that is the case for our little one!!  Once I hit 12 weeks the heartburn has been scaled back a good bit, but it has still stuck around and I’m sure it will rear it's ugly head later in pregnancy.

At around 10 weeks I started not being able to wear my pants anymore.  I could still button them, but it was very uncomfortable and the pressure right on the baby almost hurt.  So I went through a few days of trying to avoid the stretchy clothes, but then I just said screw it.  I didn’t care that the books said I should be wearing maternity clothes at this time or people around me started wearing it at this time.  I was not able to comfortably wear my pants anymore and my boobs were getting too big already for a lot of my shirts, so I made the switch.  The Monday we had off for Labor Day I cleared my closet of the things I couldn’t wear and put in the maternity clothes I borrowed from my good friend Alexis and the new clothes that Mom got me for my birthday.  I sucked it up and I am so glad I did.  There is no shame in wearing super comfortable clothes.  I may hang on to these and once little bean is off the boob I’ll sport these on drinking nights.  Why the hell not?

I have luckily not had a lot of morning (what a crock of shit) sickness.  I was nauseas when my stomach got empty and then I would feel sick when I ate something.  So I would just eat and hope it would make something feel better! 

Other than those couple of things I have just been abnormally exhausted.  One of my books said your body was doing the work of someone running a marathon and I believe it – not that I’ve ever run or will ever run a marathon!  Once I hit the second trimester, that is already starting to go away a bit.  I’m starting to regain a bit of my energy, which I am very glad about.

Eating has been kind of funny.  I craved really good food the first 12 weeks.  I craved strawberries, blueberries, salads, apples, peaches, and anything else nourishing I could get my hands on.  Then that 13th week hit and it was like I couldn’t stomach blueberries anymore, I just wanted lots of really good, carby, filling, soul-warming food.  I have tried to do my best to keep up with the good stuff and also give into a little bit of the not so good stuff.  I have no intention of gaining any more weight than I have to, but I am certainly not depriving myself.  This is a fun time and I am going to take advantage of it!!

So, the first trimester was pretty good to me.  I’m excited to be in the second to see what goodness is in front of me.  Even though I can feel a little bump and I can feel the pressure when I lay on my stomach to sleep, I’m excited about getting a real bump so that I can see the baby getting bigger!!

Surprise, surprise!

This year my parents celebrated their 35th wedding anniversary.  In honor of that, we wanted to do something as a family to help them celebrate such a big milestone.  In August Mom and Deddy took a trip to the midwest and visited Rocky Mountain National Park and Yellowstone.  They had the best time and we wanted to add to that.

In order to get everyone in Wilmington, Leslie + Will came up with having Anna’s birthday party this past Saturday in Wilmington.  Her birthday is on September 12th and so on September 11th we had a party down at the beach.  Some pizza, swimming, great cake, and some precious present opening!  Even though Anna’s birthday was a blast, it was all just a rouse to get us all in Wilmington without it being suspicious.  Then mom started talking about dinner Saturday night.  Leslie told her not to worry about making anything.  She and Deddy needed to be dressed in black up top and ready to go at 5:30 and that is all she needed to know.  Well then the wheels started spinning.  Her first questions was, ‘Is Jeff getting married?’  Even though this so sounds like something he would do, we assured her that was not happening.  What was happening was we all jumped in the car and headed down to the Oceanic, one of their favorite restaurants on Wrightsville Beach.  Waiting for us was Greg + Michelle and a dear family friend, Jack Upton, who also happens to be a fantastic photographer.  For mom’s 50th birthday we got all the siblings together and Jack took our picture to give to mom for a present.  Well this time, we had the entire family together, all 14 of us, and Jack was ready to snap a few pics.  We went on the Oceanic pier and hopefully got a really great shot of the entire family.  We then had a magnificent dinner and some delicious Apple Annie’s cake!

So all in all it was a great night.  We were able to surprise my parents for their anniversary, get a great picture of the entire family, and get to spend some good quality family time together.  Happy Anniversary you two crazy kids!!

Happy 3 – 0 Jason!!

Ja and I have birthdays that are 3 days apart.  Mine is Sept 2 and his is the 5th.  This year I turned 26 and Ja turned the big 3 – 0!!  He is such an old man!!  Not that four years is that much older, but it is fun to give him a hard time about it.

We were quite spoiled on our birthdays.  Leslie, Will, and Banana Pants took us out to dinner for our birthday.  Then I went to dinner with my friends Sherry, Dinah, and Brenda and I was not allowed to pay for that meal either.  Then Mom and Deddy came up to keep Anna while Leslie + Will were in Atlanta for the big Carolina football game and we had a big slumber party!!  Mom and Deddy loaded Anna and Miller up and headed over to our house and stayed Friday and Saturday night.  We had a great time at Jason’s game on Friday night and then Saturday we went shopping for maternity clothes while the boys played golf and then had a good dinner Saturday night.  It was fun to have lots of people and animals in our house!

Ja’s big party is coming up next weekend and I’m sure it will be a blast!!  A keg of Dos Equis, that I will have to smell all night in envy, and a low country boil with lots of great friends.  Not a bad way to start his big 30’s!!

Football Widow

Let me first say that I love my husband with all of my heart.  He is my best friend and most certainly the man I was supposed to marry and have babies with.

But…every year from July until November, I am a football widow.  Some women are widows to football on TV, but I am a widow to the actual real thing.  Every night they have practice until 8 o’clock.  They have games on Thursday and Friday.  They have discussions about the games on Saturday.  They have more discussions and planning for the next game on Sunday.  They have film watching at night when they do get home early.  When they aren’t planning, practicing, or watching, they are thinking about it and dwelling and plotting.  Then in addition to all of that, there is an entire college football season AND an NFL season.  It never ends!

In all of this, there are a few things I’ve learned.  The first few weeks are always an adjustment.  When you get used to having someone around and then all of a sudden they aren’t any more, it sucks!  But after a few weeks of being sad about it, I realize that the less we see each other, the less we have to argue about!  I am not one of those wives that is going to make him feel guilty about being devoted to football.  I don’t want him to half ass anything and if he would rather be on that football field than at home, I’d rather him be there.  I am very proud of his hard work and his dedication to his team.  So in response to me being so understanding about the whole thing, all of my requests get fulfilled.  Laundry gets done (sometimes without me even having to ask), trash gets taken out, etc.  Anything to let me know that he still loves me and thinks about me and appreciates me being supportive.  So it really is a winning situation for me even if I do miss my husband sometimes!  It just makes the times we do have that much better!

Freedom!

When I was in high school, I knew I wanted to either be a sports medicine doctor or a high school math teacher.  So I decided that I would try out for the North Carolina Teaching Fellow Scholarship and if I got it, that would mean that I would be a teacher.  So I went through all of the rounds of interviews and I was awarded the scholarship at UNCW.

For those of you not familiar with the scholarship, it is valued at $26,000 and is awarded to high school seniors that want to go into the teaching profession.  You get $6,500 a year to pay for everything you need to pay for college.  You then have to participate in the Teaching Fellows program at your school which was a class that met weekly and you had tutoring hours and observation hours that you had to fulfill.  You also had summer requirements you had to fulfill and all sorts of other things.  If you graduate and stick with teaching in North Carolina for four years, you don’t have to pay back any of the $26,000.  The program itself, especially at UNCW, is terrific and gives you a lot of opportunities that you don’t get in a regular education program.  There is a lot of pride in the Teaching Fellow program for preparing excellent teachers and I certainly feel like I had the best background to make me a great teacher.  I am very proud when I say that I am a Teaching Fellow.

I always said that I would teach for four years and pay my scholarship back and then I would move on and do something else.  Since I majored in mathematics with essentially a second major in secondary education I could very easily do anything math related.  I could go into accounting, banking, or anything else that has to do with numbers that will make more money.

Well last year I completed my four years.  And this year I started my fifth year.  And I can’t imagine doing anything else.  I have no desire to go back to school and I love where I am professionally.  I am getting better each year and I love my friends that I get to work with every day and the high school kids that constantly keep me on my toes and can handle anything I throw at them.

One of the big days we have been waiting for is when my payoff letter came and there was a big $0 balance for that huge $26,000 debt.  Well that day came and Deddy and I had the burning party that we always talked about having!!

 

  

 

 

Now I have the freedom to whatever it is that I please.  Right now it’s looking like I would be pleased to be a mom and a teacher.  I’ll probably be around until my 30th year when I can retire with some pretty sweet benefits when I’m 52!

 

Side Note:

One thing that does make me upset about this is that I had a few VERY deserving friends that did not get the Teaching Fellow Scholarship and should have and they are now dedicated teachers in their 5th year and should be burning their letter with me!!

Hello, again!

My blog has been very sparse lately and I have a really good reason.  The 2010 – 2011 school year coincided with being 11 weeks pregnant.  Talk about something knocking you on your ass.  Everyone is exhausted those first weeks of school trying to get your body used to 8 hours of consecutive anything after the summer, but throw a growing fruit in your gut in there and you will not win.  So my life consisted of going to work for 8 hours, coming home and instantly being asleep on the sofa, waking up to eat, and getting into bed to do it all over again.  I used to use the word exhausted and now I know the true definition.  And yes, all you Negative Nancys, it will only get worse.  I know this and I’ll discuss that and my new definition of exhausted at that time. 

We’re getting our baby!

I know that doesn’t look like much in there, but what we have is a kidney bean with a little flickering heart!  164 beats per minute to be exact!!

So how it all happened – without all the dirty stuff!
They tell you to wait until you’ve had two periods after a miscarriage before you start trying again.  Well after my first one we said, ‘You know what, I’m tired of thinking and worrying about it.  Let’s just stop thinking and worrying about it and see what happens.’  So we did.  Our summer was getting into full swing and we did what needed to be done and stopped worrying about it.  The week after my beach trip with my girls, it was time to check it out and see what was going on.  I was already a few days late, but I just wasn’t sure.  So I took a pregnancy test on Monday and got a faint line.  Maybe it was just too soon.  Took another test on Tuesday and got a faint line.  Maybe it needed to be in the morning.  Took another test on Wednesday and there was a faint line.  (That sounds obsessive and like I was worrying about it now that I write it, but it seemed totally rational at the time!)  So I figured if I wasn’t pregnant, I’d get my period.  It is now 8 weeks since my last period and no period yet!  There must be something going on in there.

Last time I made it to 6 weeks and 6 days.  You better bet your heart that on my 6 weeks and 6 days this time, I was nervous.  Every tweak and twinge I just knew was starting the badness.  I walked around all day squeezing my boobs and making sure they still hurt.  Sorry if that is TMI.  Yep, they still hurt. 

I made my appointment for 8 weeks and some change so that I would be able to hear a heartbeat and feel 1000 times better.  No need to go in any earlier when they can’t tell you anything.  So Saturday leading up to the appointment I had a complete freak out.  I wasn’t having heartburn as bad and my boobs didn’t hurt as bad as they had been.  That was it.  It was all over.  I sobbed and sobbed and my sweet, sweet husband was right there telling me I was crazy and that he was sure the extra stress would not be helpful on the BABY that was in there!  We finally got up and headed to dinner and I was back to myself in no time.

I never thought Monday at 2:10pm would get there.  Sunday drug on like nobody’s business and I didn’t sleep a wink Sunday night.  Monday morning I woke up and immediately called Leslie.  I headed over to her house and was able to be distracted by Anna and a great Skype with our cousin, Kristin, who lives in Minnesota and had been a little detective all the way up there!  Finally it was time for me to head home.
I took a shower and got ready to go.  I was so nervous I felt like I was going to throw up at any second.  I was ultra talkative and I think Jason knew to just keep on going and don’t stop and ask me about it.  Neither of us needed another freak out!

We got there and had to wait.  Dear God – how can you make us wait at a time like this!  After what felt like forever (but I'm sure it was 10 minutes) we finally went back there.  Our NP (Leslie’s favorite) was AWESOME.  She said everything felt good and looked like it needed to.  She knew we needed to hear that heartbeat to be able to get through the next 4 weeks, so she tried with the Doppler and nothing, which was not unusual this early.  She then told us that she was going to sneak us into the ultrasound room because there was a little bit of a break.  She warned me that once the tech heard something I had to get out quick!  So not even putting my underroos back on under my dress we quickly were whisked to the ultrasound room.  We were lucky enought to get the same tech that was with us the last time.  She popped me up on the table, squirted the lube on my belly and started a-searching.  And there it was.  The most beautiful tiny like kidney bean with a flickering heart.  164 beats a minute.  And with that, she cleaned me up, I put my roos back on and out we went.  We had what we came for.

Since we have made it to 8 weeks and saw a heart beat, there is a 95% change of this one making it.  The next hurdle is twelve weeks and after that the percentage goes up even more!

Through all of this I have learned several things -

#1 – Be sure you marry a man who is going to be willing to hold you when you are sobbing uncontrollably for a complete irrational reason.  They may ask you later to explain, but they know just to hold you no matter what.

#2 – As our NP said, ‘If you don’t get what you want, sometimes you just have to cheat!’

#3 – I had no idea that something that itty bitty and tiny could make me so happy!  I can’t wait to see what this watermelon does when it pops out of me!

#4 – Even after a miscarriage and me being so afraid that it would never be the same again – it is.  I am just as excited, if not more so because this one is sticking.  It was just as exciting when we called the whole world and Jason and I are just as excited about being parents to this little bean.  We know we are not out of the muck yet, but we are staying positive.  We are going to believe that the first one didn’t stick around for a reason and that this is ours.  Here’s to keeping your fingers crossed and praying with all you’ve got that this one sticks around until he’s ready to come out and meet us!

#5 – Doing everything right is apparently boring.  With this little bean I have ridden roller coasters in Disney World, drank with my college roommates for a week, been to the beach and body surfed in some pretty big surf, and hung out at a Tim McGraw concert.  This bean thinks he’s already at a party!

#6 – We are so not in control.  Everything does happen for a reason and everything ends up working out like it’s supposed to.  Now this bean is going to have a cousin in October (Jeffro and Johnna) and another one in February (Leslie + Will)!!!!  I could not be more excited to be pregnant with all of the fam and be apart of watching this family grow!  We knew once this family started growing, it wouldn’t stop!!

Sexy, sexy men in soaking wet t-shirts!

For the past couple of years, Leslie, Will, Jason, and I have all gone to a country music concert.  We saw Rascal Flatts a couple of times and this year we moved on to Love + Theft (we had no idea who they were, but they were good!), Dierks Bentley, and Tim McGraw. 

We loaded up in Will’s car and headed to Raleigh.  Will + Leslie were nice enough to use their hotel points and get us a suite so we didn’t have to worry about driving back late.  Leslie did some awesome driving and we pulled right up to the parking lot and were able to get an awesome parking spot right down for the entrance.  It kills me how people think it’s ok to get to a concert at 8:30 when it started at 7:00 and think they’re going to get a good seat.  People kill me.

Anyway, we all stood in line waiting for the gate to open.  We saw people sitting around the front of the line, but didn’t think much of it.  All of a sudden, when the line started moving, they stood up and started to move with it.  Leslie and I were not going to have that.  She screamed out ‘Cheaters’ a few times and I Bon Qui Qui’d their ass and ‘Rude’ed them.  We continued to yell for a little bit and got a few people to take a step back before they got their face busted in – by our burley husbands, not by us.  After we both calmed down we made our way into the amphitheater and managed to get great seats.  Once we sat down, the breeze was blowing and it ended up being a great night.  Once we all got a good coating of sweat on us, we were good to go!

The concert was amazing!  The songs were great, the people watching was fantastic (plenty of jorts for all to see), and those two sexy, sexy men in their sweat soaked t-shirts were worth every penny.  Don’t worry – the boys had plenty of skanks to look at.

Love and Theft

Will + Leslie

Dierks – no shot is ever going to do him justice.  He was so sincere in his thank you for all of us being there.  He said he fondly remembers the days of playing for tips – I can’t even imagine how wild it is to be him and remember those days and then to look out that night and see ALL of those people there. 

Timmy-Boys stage.

Faith is a lucky, lucky woman.  I wish I could have been the chick that got to grab his butt.  Scared the shit out of him, but I’m sure it made her life!

Will, Leslie, Ja, and me.  Thanks for a great time, guys!