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.