Simply Complicated

2012-01-25T20:55:00.001-05:00

Week 27

I think I have crossed over from “pregnant” into “very pregnant.” I feel good most days, but I do get tired easily. Letting other people do things for me is not something that comes easily for me, but I find myself acquiescing more often these days.

We spent most of the past week in Fort Lauderdale for a business-related trade show. Eating away from home always means not eating as healthy, and looking at my picture from this week I can tell that I had more salt that I’m used to. I’ve heard that it’s common for old injuries to re-appear during pregnancy, and this week an old foot injury threatened to crop up again. Luckily last week’s cold has gone away!

Yep. Bloat.

After the trade show we took a day to explore the Everglades. We love the Anhinga Trail because you can get really close to the wildlife – and there is a lot! I made a new friend!

2012-01-14T21:18:00.001-05:00

Week 26

I spent the better part of this week trying to recover from the same head cold I had last week. Usually when I have a cold I feel like I can’t function for about 3 days, then start to feel better and am able to function somewhat normally with the help of cold medicine – the good kind that they keep behind the counter and make you hand over your driver’s license, dental records, mother’s maiden name, and the name of your favorite Chinese restaurant in order to buy. Unfortunately, being pregnant I don’t have the option of taking meds like that, so I was stuck just resting until I felt all the way better. At least I am lucky enough to be able to rest when I need to! It was more than a week later until I started to feel human again.

27 Weeks!

The end of my 26^th week marks the start of the 3^rd trimester, wow! We’ve been busy moving things around in the house, cleaning everything out of the guest room and turning it into a nursery!

Bonus shots with our photogenic cats:

It’s Ravenclaw! She LOVES to sleep with me at night, particularly on top of my belly. She has an especially loud purr, and I know the baby can hear it. I wonder if they will recognize each other when the baby comes…

I like this picture because you can see how she has NO fur on her belly. We thought that when she became an inside cat she would grow some, but nope!

Miss Morgan tends to be slightly more wiggly and harder to catch with a camera!

2012-01-11T16:58:00.001-05:00

Week 25

I had a check-up this week, and everything looked great. My caregiver measured my uterus (25 inches – wow) and listened to the baby’s heartbeat. It was so nice to hear that everything appears to be moving along normally. She also felt around my belly, and since she knows what she’s feeling much better than me, was able to identify the baby’s backbone and shoulder. Then she helped me feel it too! It was so cool! It made it seem even more real. Definitely one my favorite moments so far. I will go back in 3 weeks for a glucose test and a few other bloodwork checks.

I was lucky enough to get a massage as part of my Christmas present from Mike; then I went straight to the chiropractor after that. Because the massage loosened me up so nicely, I was able to be adjusted really well and that REALLY helped with my ongoing sciatic nerve pain.

Toward the end of the week I woke up with a full-blown head cold. I’m not sure if it hit me harder than usual because I’m pregnant, or if I’m just used to being able to take cold medicine, but it has been a real doozy. The kind that makes your arms feel heavy and makes you want to sleep for 18 hours straight, if you could just breathe!

26 weeks!

We were able to find a brand-new, never-opened Pack-n-Play at Goodwill – what a great find!

Once we got home Mike put it together so we could make sure there was nothing wrong with it. I guess putting things together is a traditional “dad” duty!

Didn’t he do a great job? This one comes with all the bell and whistles – in the top you can see a bassinet-type thing that newborns can sleep in. It’s nice because you can put the whole thing right next to your bed if you’re so inclined; then you don’t have to go far for nighttime feedings when they’re really small. The other thing is a changing table attachment – convenient for travel! When the baby is bigger you take both of those things out and use it for a portable crib or play yard to keep them contained. That is, until they can climb out of it!

2012-01-04T16:23:00.001-05:00

Week 24

Everything is going great, my energy is good. I have some sciatic nerve pain in my back but I am being careful to stretch and not over-do it. I also have taken to wearing a pregnancy support belt when I am working around the house so my every-growing belly doesn’t throw my alignment out of whack.

25 weeks!

As the New Year approached, I found myself thinking about the upcoming year in very certain terms – I find myself thinking things like “this is the last time we’ll have Christmas with just two of us” or if someone mentions something that will happen during the upcoming year, I immediately file it in my brain in terms of whether or not the baby will be here yet! The big one will be Easter – it is 6 days before my due date, so I will be either caring for a newborn or be VERY pregnant!

It’s fun to wonder what the baby will be like when he comes – I find myself wondering for the first time who the baby will look like. He will most likely be TALL, but will he look more like one of us or a mix? Will he closely resemble someone else, like a grandparent? I remember when my little cousin was born, she was found out to look exactly like our grandfather looked as a baby – funny how things work out like that! I am getting so excited and eager to find out what our little man will look like and what kind of person he will be!

2011-12-28T11:20:00.000-05:00

23 Weeks

Big news this week is, Mike was finally in the right place at the right time and felt the baby kick! He has been trying in vain for about 2 weeks now, but the baby never felt like moving much when his daddy was around! Then Mike decided to just rest his hand on my belly while we were watching TV and I was doing my usual “Did you feel that one? How about that one?” Finally there came a really strong one, and Mike’s face immediately lit up. He had this huge smile on his face, it was so cute! He was also able to feel a big kick when we went to a movie later in the week – apparently the baby is a fan of Sherlock Holmes, because he was the most active he’s been so far!

This week I have a story that I like to file under “Sometimes kids know how to act better than adults.” I was waiting to see the chiropractor (this baby will NOT get off my sciatic nerve!) and I was sitting near a little girl who looked to be about 8 years old and her mom. I took a brief phone call in which of course I talked about baby-related things, and when I got off the phone the mother kindly asked me when I was due. The little girl’s face immediately lit up, and she said, “Oh, I was wondering if you were….ya know…but I didn’t want to be rude and ask you!” I ended up having a lovely conversation with her – it’s always nice to meet a well-mannered child!

Contrast that with this story: I was standing in the driveway talking to Mike and my dad, and a lady that we don’t really know who lives in our neighborhood walks by with her dog. She abruptly asks me “Are you pregnant?!?” She sounded more accusatory than curious. I put on my best smile and said yes, and she said……….[get ready]…….”Oh, I thought it might be the way you were standing.” Well then WHY would you even ask??? Some people just don’t USE the BRAIN in their SKULL!

2011-12-19T13:49:00.002-05:00

22 Weeks

I had a strange dizzy spell on Tuesday that came on very suddenly and left me feeling weird for the rest of the day, but luckily it seems to just be a one-time thing. One comment I have been getting a lot lately it “you look very healthy” which I love to hear – it’s certainly preferable to “OH MY GOSH YOU’RE HUGE!”

We have been very blessed to be given a lot of baby boy clothes, maternity clothes, and baby toys/gear this week, so I’ve been spending a lot of time going through all that. I love that parents are so willing to pass along things they can’t use anymore. Now I just need to get started on the nursery so I have some place to put all this great stuff!

The kicks are getting ever stronger – once I was sitting on the couch with my computer on my lap/belly, and one kick was strong enough to make the computer jump a little!

2011-12-15T22:27:00.000-05:00

Recent pictures

Here are some pictures from last week, when my brother and his family visited. We DID manage to get some pictures in between all the sickness that went around!

My niece is a rock star.

And my brother is a great dad.

I won that dinosaur in a coloring contest at the local Pizza Hut when I was about 4 years old. My brother was so mad that I won because he was the one that spent hours making his look as realistic as possible, while I spent about 5 minutes giving mine rainbow stripes.

My sister-in-law is pregnant too! What a difference a month makes, though, because I felt huge next to her and her cuteness!

There are NINE of us in this picture, two in "the ovens"! Next time we are all together we will have a lot of introductions to make!

2011-12-15T22:17:00.003-05:00

21 Weeks

The movement has really increased this week! It’s gotten a little stronger, and much more frequent. Also for the first time I would feel it in one place, then almost immediately in another place, like it was a hand and then a foot. Towards the end of the week I started to be able to feel it from the outside, but so far Mike has not been in the right place at the right time to feel it. Hopefully next week!

Cute story of the week: one night this week I woke up and Ravenclaw the cat was sleeping on my stomach. This is a pretty common occurrence, but this time she REALLY had her motor going! She was way down low, where the baby usually hangs out, and they were purring and kicking in sync with each other! It was like purrrrrrrrKICK purrrrrrrrrrKICK purrrrrrrrrrrrrKICK! It was so darn cute.

2011-12-08T13:58:00.000-05:00

28 Reasons Why I Love My Husband.

Today is my husband's 28th birthday. Here is an itemized list containing 28 reasons why I love him:

He made me a his own personalized ringtone for my phone. Now whenever he calls me, my phone plays "You're a Mean One, Mr. Grinch" because he knows that song makes me laugh.
He learned to like country music for my sake.
He laughs at my jokes, even when they're probably not funny.
He tolerates my need for Christmas music after November 1st.
He listens.
He understands.
He gives great shoulder rubs.
He's really good in a crisis.
He's a hard worker and a good provider.
He's made a concentrated effort to learn to like new foods since we've been married. He's learned to like carrots, peas, and salad.
He's so darn cute.
He didn't complain in the early parts of this pregnancy when he would come home hungry after working all day and I would say "today I managed to eat a bite of applesauce and comb half of my hair." He would just make something for himself to eat and keep it far, far away from my nose.
He is slow to anger.
He will stick up for me.
He never once complained when I first started to cut his hair and he looked like something from a horror movie.
He compliments my cooking.
He does more around the house than most guys.
He supported me staying at home this year - a major life change for both of us - because he knew how important it was to me.
He introduced me to the wonder that is Chinese food.
He's a good dad. Already.
What's important to me is important to him.
He will forsake all others for me.
He helps me see the humor in situations. Like when I was in a super-hormonal stage around week 16 where I was crying at literally everything. And we went to see Real Steel, a movie that I thought would contain absolutely nothing that would even remotely make me want to cry. But I didn't think about the previews, and sat there all misty during a stupid Steven Spielberg movie about a horse or something. And he didn't mind when I punched him in the arm for laughing at me.
He is respectful. He treats me and everyone else with dignity.
He's generous.
He doesn't look at other women. If an attractive woman were to walk past him with a skimpy dress on, he would look away. You have NO IDEA how much that means to me, especially now when I feel like a whale some days.
He doesn't let little things bother him. We are definitely "yin and yang" on this one :)
He will patiently pose for a picture because I decide I hate the one we already took, even though I know he's thinking in his head that there was absolutely nothing wrong with the last one. Case in point:

Is this the face of a guy who's exasperated at all the picture taking? I don't think so!

Happy birthday, my love.

2011-12-03T17:17:00.001-05:00

20 Weeks

Aaaaaaand we’re halfway there, folks! This week has been full of highs and lows.

Highs:

Getting to celebrate Mike’s birthday a few days early with Mike’s parents. We also got a few baby items that belonged to Mike – I can’t believe he was ever that tiny!

My brother, his wife, and their daughter Sarah came to town to visit! It is always so good to see them, since we don’t get to do it as often as we would like to. They are also expecting another baby, just a few weeks after our due date, so this was the first “get together” of all the cousins, even if some of them are in utero! We got some cute pictures which I hope to share soon.

Lows:

We had a bit of a pandemic run its course through the family. On Wednesday my mom and Mike got sick with stomach flu symptoms. Over the next few days, the following people got sick too: my dad, my brother, my sister-in-law, both my grandmothers, 2 of my cousins, my uncle, and my mother-in-law. I ended up getting only a very mild version of it, thank goodness. It was kind of scary to see how quickly and completely it made its way through the family!

21 weeks. A good picture of both of us!

I added a super-cool slideshow on my sidebar so you can see the progression of baby growth if you're so inclined....and the growth of my hair!

2011-12-01T21:23:00.000-05:00

It's Okay For Your Holidays to Just be Happy

**Warning** if you are here to follow my weekly pregnancy postings, this is NOT one of those. This is going to be a non-PC posting about a personal pet peeve that is completely my opinion. Take it or leave it.

First, a story: We were at a restaurant a few years ago in December and the table next to us was getting ready to leave. The waitress told them "Happy Holidays" and the guy was livid about it. Apparently he thought that she should have said "Merry Christmas" and made no bones about informing her of this. He was very rude and you could just see that poor waitress shrink into herself. I felt so bad for her. It made me think....if Jesus were at that restaurant, would he REALLY get onto someone like that for not saying Merry Christmas? *I* don't think so.

So here's the thing about the month of December: it doesn't belong to one particular religion. Christmas is not the only holiday celebrated during this time of year. I just don't understand why someone would get upset about being told "Happy Holidays." There is nothing inherently rude about saying the words "Happy" and "Holidays" put together. If I don't know you, why would I assume that you celebrate Christmas, and not Hanukkah, Kwanzaa....or NO holiday at all? What gets me is the implication that a complete stranger is being rude by being general in their well-wishes instead offering a specific greeting, when they don't even know you. And besides that, I've always taken "Happy Holidays" to include New Year's Eve and New Year's Day, in which case that greeting is plural and grammatically correct. Facebook only exacerbates this problem because those individuals that are upset about this (instead of being upset about IMPORTANT things, like world hunger, AIDS, or a number of real problems) now have an outlet to be very vocal about their misplaced outrage. And I'm even seeing postings now about this belief that it's not okay to say the word "Christmas" anymore - this general belief that schoolchildren are getting in trouble for saying that word, or that adults are looked down upon by their peers for using the word. I want to hear about a single instance that this ACTUALLY happened, not a cartoon approximating what someone thinks is happening. It kinda reminds me of those chain posts and emails you see every once in awhile about how it's all the sudden not okay to say the Pledge of Allegiance anymore - WHO is saying it's not okay? WHO?? But I digress.

In conclusion: Don't act like your religion is the only one that exists. If someone DARES to say "Happy Holidays" to you, just be glad that they are wishing you well and leave it at that.

Just relax, people.

2011-11-27T17:00:00.001-05:00

19 weeks

Boy, am I glad I was completely over morning sickness in time for Thanksgiving! How much would it have stunk to have a poultry aversion and not feel like eating anything on Thanksgiving?? This week I’ve started to feel like I could eat everything in sight…I don’t think I eat more than usual, and I still get full easily, but when I first sit down to eat I always think to myself “I could literally eat everything on this table!” Mike and I went to Cracker Barrel recently and I was tempted to tell the server “Just bring me everything on the left side of the menu.”

Happenings this week:

We took a picture of my bump. Oh, haven’t you heard? We do that every so often :)

We had a lovely Thanksgiving with family, and we both stuffed ourselves like a true American should. Mike took these pictures of me at the beach on Thanksgiving Eve:

I kinda look like I’m striking a casual pose, but really I was jumping up and down because the water washed up on my feet and it was COLD!

Um, wow! When I first looked at this picture I couldn’t believe how big my bump looked!

I think this one is my favorite!

We took some group pictures, but unfortunately they did not turn out well; hopefully some of the ones that were taken with other people’s cameras will find their way to me.

I started to have sciatic-related pain again, on Thanksgiving Day. It is NO FUN, and this time it was shooting down my leg with every step. Luckily this time I was able to be proactive about it, and we headed home a day early so we could sleep in our own bed, and we were able to head off the worst of it with that and lots of stretching and taking it easy.

I had a four-year old tell me that I didn’t look like I was having a baby. Made my day. I don’t normally mind when people comment on my bump, but lately it’s been all I’ve heard about. Like literally, at church that was the ONLY thing people said to me. If I’m keepin’ it real, I gotta admit that gets a little old when I hear OH MY GOSH YOU’RE HUGE more than once a day or so. I actually DO like the way I look right now, and I LOVE maternity fashion – I could never pull off leggings before!

We went to a Christmas tree farm in Ocala and cut our own tree! We’ve had a fake tree every year since we’ve been married but this year we decided we missed the smell of a real tree and wanted to support a local farmer. It was really fun – I hope this is a tradition we can carry on!

They gave us a pole to measure with so we could find one that was the right height. We walked all around the farm and debated the merits of just about every tree, and ended up picking one of the trees that was furthest away from the check-out stand. Luckily I had a husband to cut it down and haul it all that way :)

Nope not quite…

Found it!!

Cutting it down…

Success!

Mike showed that tree who’s the boss!

We cut off the bottom two branches, and I’m going to try to make a garland. TRY being the key verb.

The tree is now up, but not decorated yet. Having a super-elevated sense of smell due to this pregnancy means I can enjoy the pine smell throughout the house! And Morgan the cat is eyeing the tree ambitiously, planning her ascent. Dumb cat makes a game out of climbing the tree every year!

“What, isn’t that why you put the tree up?!?”

2011-11-26T18:04:00.000-05:00

Heeeeeeelp!!

That is my voice coming from under the piles of junk in my house. Now that I'm not working full time I have more time to realize stuff. Like the fact that when we moved in to this house four years ago, I had no idea how to organize a household. Ergo, it was never really organized. Now before you imagine a scene from hoarders, it's not THAT BAD - I just can't ever find stuff. I have also come to realize that I am married to a wonderful man, but he is a packrat. He has the "we might need it someday" mentality, and when I was teaching full-time I didn't have the energy to argue. But now that I've started to try to clear things out, I've come to the root of the problem - I have no clue when it comes to organization. My poor Momma tried, but I must not have listened (stop laughing, mom!) So in the past, when I've gone through a closet or drawer, it quickly becomes messy again because I had no system in place to KEEP it organized. But now the question becomes...HOW??

These are the things that drive me crazy: I bought some felt circles to stick under the dining room chairs to keep them from scratching the floor. Now I have some left over, but where do I put them so I can find them again? What category do sticky felt circles fall under? They're not cleaning supplies; they're not hardware....what else can I store them with?

So I turn to you, interwebs.....any suggestions? Help my solve my sticky felt circle crisis!

2011-11-23T12:11:00.001-05:00

18 weeks

Last week was big because we found out we’re having a little BOY….this week we hit another milestone when I started feeling movement! For a few weeks now I’ve been in that in-between stage, where it’s impossible to tell if it’s the baby or just a tummy rumble, but this week they gradually got more defined. By the middle of the week I was pretty sure it was baby, and towards the end of the week I finally had one where I was confident that it was indeed our little guy. That one felt exactly like a little tiny nudge from the inside, but most of them don’t feel like what I was expecting at all! Sometimes they feel like bubbles popping in my stomach, sometimes it’s more like my stomach does a flip-flop. But really they are a feeling like no other, I don’t feel like I can accurately describe what they feel like to someone who’s never felt it! I am still learning to recognize what they are, so they can be a little disconcerting at first – like WHOA what was THAT? It sometimes takes me a second to realize that it must be the little guy practicing his dance moves! I have a feeling that this is going to be one active baby! My mom tells me that I was much more active than my brother during this time, so I guess I shouldn’t be surprised! The ultrasound techs have told us that he is also very active too.

19 week belly. Hair is growing too!

2011-11-14T20:31:00.000-05:00

Week 17

I woke up on Monday of week 17 and WOW! The belly popped! I’m starting to get a blocked view of my feet!

The big news this week is…it’s a BOY! Mollie and Amanda got to reveal the big news on Facebook after we let family know.

I posted this picture with the caption “We are wearing BLUE because we're excited to be getting a little brother in April! That's right, it's a BOY!!” And yes, behind the camera I am holding up a treat to get them to sit STILL – I’m not above bribery!

We went for our ultrasound one day shy of the 18 week mark. We were lucky and grateful that Mike got to come, too, although they made him sit in the waiting room for the first part! They got all the diagnostic stuff out of the way, then Mike got to come back while we tried to get the baby to show off the goods :) I was getting a little worried after a few minutes, but then the tech said that he already knew what it was and he just wanted us to see it for ourselves. Almost immediately after, baby Wolfe finally gave in and let us see! I knew right away, and the tech said “As you can see, little girls don’t have a third leg, so it’s a BOY!”

We’ve been asked a lot whether we were hoping for a boy or a girl, and I’ve always felt that we waited a long time for this baby, and were hoping more for it to be healthy than for one sex or the other. But it is nice to finally know! I can’t wait to start decorating the nursery! Since we’ve found out I’ve found myself having moments where I get excited out of the blue and feel like jumping up and down (if my stupid back would let me, that is!) I keep repeating over and over in my head “It’saBOYit’saBOYit’saBOY!!”

18 week belly shot

Here is Miss Mollie and I spending some quality time together. She is not usually very cuddly, and is the only animal that seems to be pretty much oblivious to how her world is going to change around the middle of April!

2011-11-09T21:30:00.000-05:00

Week 16

This week will go down in history as The Week of the Stomach Bug. I’ll spare you the details, but it was not pretty.

So that took up pretty much the whole week, but we DID go to the Gator game on Saturday….AND they won…AND I was got to wear a new Gator maternity shirt that says “Future Gator” on it, courtesy of my mother-in-law!

Picture time!

I noticed this week that the belly is getting harder – not quite as soft as it used to be! I’m sure after the baby comes that will change :)

I got a pregnancy belt to support my back and hopefully keep it from going awry again. It’s basically a wide band of elastic that you wear under the belly, but after looking at this picture I will never have my picture taken in it again! It makes my bump look like a ROLL!

It’s been interesting to observe how the animals act around me since my pregnancy. This is what Amanda has started doing:

It’s cute until she starts snoring!

Miss Morgan just enjoys the challenge of trying to balance on my ever-growing bump!

Finally found a comfy position! She fell asleep with her chin resting on me, but we didn’t get a picture of that.

But we’ve seen the most change in Raven. As soon as I lie down she makes a beeline for me! She positions herself right on top of the bump and starts purring like crazy! I sometimes wonder if she hears or feels the baby in there. Since I can’t lie on my back anymore this is her new favorite way to sleep – I had to crop out most of my rear end because I am horrified at how big it’s gotten! Just keepin’ it real, folks!

2011-10-31T10:50:00.000-05:00

Week 15

My ever-trusty What to Expect When You’re Expecting book has this to say about the fourth month of pregnancy:

“[You may have] a feeling you’re not quite together - you’re scattered, forgetful, drop things, have trouble concentrating.”

Oh boy, do I know what that’s all about! For the past several weeks I’ve been feeling like my brain is wrapped in fog, but last week I finally started to feel that lift a little.

This week has mainly been about trying to manage an old back injury that has come back to haunt me. Late last week I started to feel a lot of tightness in my lower back but chalked it up to pregnancy aches. I wasn’t too worried when my chiropractor was unable to adjust that area, since he is a little limited in what he can do. We went camping that weekend, however, and I think setting up the tent was probably not a good thing for me to do….well, ACTUALLY we had to set up the tent twice, since our site neighbors decided that the hours of 9am-4am are a great time to act like complete idiots and we decided to move, but that’s another story. Anyway, after coming back from that disaster of a camping trip, I was in quite a bit of pain – I could tell that I was way out of alignment, but another visit to the chiropractor proved to be unfruitful once again.

By Tuesday I was in so much pain that I was unable to walk (or even recline in a chair) without a lot of discomfort, but for some reason I was still hesitant to call my caregiver. I think I had gotten into a mindset that being pregnant meant being uncomfortable, and I missed the fact that I had moved from being uncomfortable into being in severe pain. I sat there for about 20 minutes with the phone in my hand, going back and forth on whether or not I should call (“they’re going to tell me there’s nothing I can do about it,” etc.) but finally the pain won out and I called. They were concerned and told me that this was more than just pregnancy-related aches and pains, and after discussing my options, we decided that acupuncture might be the best way to get me back on track. It was something that I would never have thought to try on my own, and I have to admit I was a little hesitant at first, but I’m so glad I tried it. I went for a session on Thursday and immediately felt a BIG difference. I could WALK!! Over the next few days, I would still feel stiff at times, but my pain levels were so much improved I could alleviate the stiffness I felt (usually after sitting for more than a few minutes) by stretching and strength-building yoga. I really felt like the acupuncture got me to a point where I could work out the rest of the problem on my own, and for that I was so grateful! I have to admit that this week I had several moments where my mind went off the “What-If Cliff” and started playing games with me…what if I have to deal with this kind of pain for the rest of the pregnancy? What if it gets worse? What if my back is permanently out of whack? What if the baby goes all Twilight on me and tries to eat me from the inside?? Okay, maybe not the last one!

Other pregnancy updates:

The only thing I found myself craving this week was eggs. I made a lot of egg salad. J They say that when you crave something it’s usually because your body needs a certain nutrient, so that was one craving I was happy to indulge. I can’t say that my cravings are any different than they were before I was pregnant – I mean, doesn’t EVERYONE have those moments when they think, “Dang, I could go for some ice cream right now.”?? I don’t see that part as being any different than before – I guess I was expecting cravings during pregnancy to be strong and uncontrollable. I remember being a teenager and having our youth director drive 20 minutes to get his wife some mozzarella sticks at 8:30 at night…Mike has not had to do anything like that yet! Although he is so supportive and wonderful that he probably would.

The poor guy hasn’t gotten much airtime on this blog as of late – here we are at a family wedding this month. The sunset that night was one of the most beautiful I’ve ever seen, doesn’t it look almost fake??

Aaaaaaand here I am! I’ve noticed that it’s also kind of cool to see my hair grow out too!

Cute story I’ve been meaning to tell: we were at church one day, soon after I was really beginning to show, and one of our friends asked her little girls “Do you know what Miss Jacki has in her belly?” The oldest girl, whom I think just turned five, said “A baby?” “Yes, that’s right, a baby!” said mom. Well, her little inquisitive eyes shot straight to my belly, then to my face, then to my belly, then back to my face…I could tell that she wanted to see what it felt like but didn’t know how to ask, so I told her that she could touch it if she wanted. I wish I could have gotten video of what she did for the next minute or so – she was like a scientist, examining every inch of my belly! And gently poking it in different places to see what it felt like, too! It was so freaking adorable. Although I’m pretty sure mom got some interesting questions later that day about how the baby got in there, lol!

Mollie and Amanda wanted some bloggy love too! Here they are, as squirrelly as ever.

2011-10-24T19:31:00.001-05:00

Week 14

I reached the point where I can no longer sleep comfortably on my back – apparently as the baby grows it puts pressure on a vein in your back and prevents proper circulation, causing the blood pressure to drop and making sleep impossible. I was trying to find out when I should stop sleeping on my back, and I read online that it was usually around 4 months, but the body usually lets you know because you won’t be comfortable on your back anymore. Well, that very night, it happened! I am usually a side sleeper, but unfortunately round ligament pain in my hips has been making that rather difficult. Late in the week I was also having lower back pain that was unlike anything I had experienced before – it was very sharp and would hit me suddenly, always in the same two spots on either side of my spine. My chiropractor said it was called sacrum pain, and that it was very common. Between the hip pain and the sacrum pain, this week has been not-so-fun for me; there have been a few times where the pain has radiated down my legs and I am not able to lift my feet off the ground. So I’m shuffling around like an old lady! I really, really, REALLY hope this clears up soon…I just want to be able to do regular, normal, human activities, like laundry and loading the dishwasher!

Another new symptom that has cropped up lately has been a very sensitive gag reflex. If I even THINK about brushing my teeth or swallowing a pill, I retch! I am glad that this particular symptom comes and goes, so I get a break from it once in awhile. Thankfully, the chicken aversion has also calmed down somewhat – I’ve been slowly trying foods that weren’t possible for me, just to see what happened, with some success. The only true aversion I have right now is to fish – the other things I can’t eat right now are related to texture, like cooked broccoli, bananas, and casseroles.

Seems to be smaller than last week....I must have been sucking it in!

Several weeks ago, I did a major clean-out of my closet. I had several goals in mind while I was doing this:

· Put away things I won’t be able to wear until after the baby comes.

· Give away some clothes I know I will never fit into again (just keepin’ it real, folks!)

· Give away work clothes I don’t need anymore, especially shirts with my old school logo on them.

· Make room for maternity clothes in my drawers, so I can move them out of the storage tub I was keeping them in. I was lucky enough to have a dear friend lend me some of the clothes she wore with her recent pregnancy, and I got a lot of good stuff! Plus my mom is a champion sewer, and she’s made me some things as well. One thing I really hope to get my paws on is some Gator-themed maternity clothes….I’ve seen some really cute ones out there!

· Keep any non-maternity shirts out for now and put them into storage as I’m no longer able to wear them.

Well, this week I had to put away several non-maternity shirts because they no longer cover the belly! It was kind of a cool moment :)

This week I also sat down and wrote out a rough cleaning schedule, and that has been the best thing I could have done for my sanity – if I know that I will be sweeping on Wednesday, I can walk on my crunchy floors on Tuesday and not feel so bad about it! While I am still limited in what I can do physically, it’s been a really nice way to put my mind at ease. Just another part of the transition to becoming a full-time homemaker!

2011-10-16T20:22:00.001-05:00

Week 13

On Tuesday we went to our second appointment at the place where we’ll be delivering, and it went really well. We were able to hear the baby’s heartbeat this time, if only for a moment – I think we have a stubborn child on our hands! He/she kept running away from the Doppler! I find these appointments very reassuring above all things – yes, it’s normal to be experiencing fatigue and muscle weakness, it’s the result of hormonal changes. Yes, it’s normal to feel uncomfortably full after meals; the baby is moving up closer to the stomach cavity. Yes, we’ll gather around you to chant and sing if something goes wrong (kidding on that last one).

Before I got pregnant, the thought in my head was that I wanted to be as “normal” as possible throughout my pregnancy. I didn’t want it to slow me down or keep me from doing things I would normally do, and I didn’t want to have to depend on other people to do things for little ol’ helpless me. Since then, I’ve had to re-define what “normal” means for me. And I’ve had to be okay with that. For right now, “normal” means having to ask for help carrying my groceries from to the car because lifting the 10-pound bag of sugar from the bottom shelf almost did me in. For awhile, “normal” meant Mike having to throw a frozen pizza in the oven for his dinner because I couldn’t go anywhere near food, and now I make dinner regularly, so I know that the symptoms I’m experiencing are temporary. While I *do* get frustrated (like I’ve said before, slowing down is not in my nature), it’s for a good cause! But I AM looking forward to starting to feel more “normal” by “normal” standards!

Here I am! I was on a message board where many women were expressing angst over being between 18-20 weeks and not showing at all – I definitely do not have that problem! I am really dreading the first time someone I don’t know wants to feel all up on my belly, because I fear I won’t be nice! :)

Here are some answers to questions we’ve been getting lately:

When are you due?

~Still April 14^th!

Are you going to find out what you’re having?

~We already know what we’re having, it’s a……………….baby! Tee hee :) But yes, we’re going to find out what we’re having, hopefully by the middle of November. I honestly don’t see why anyone would NOT find out what they’re having if they have the option – my thought is, it’s still a SURPRISE when you find out, it’s just a few months earlier, so you have time to plan!

Are you hoping for a boy or a girl?

~Really, (and I can say this honestly) we waited so long for this baby that I don’t have a preference - I’m just thrilled it’s on the way! On one hand, we’ve seen how precious little girls can be with our sweet niece Sarah. BUT, both of us came from families where the boy is the oldest, which is also fun. In some ways, boys are easier, and in some ways, girls are easier. What we really want is a healthy baby!

What names do you like?

~We’re keeping our lips sealed on this one! Sorry everyone, but we’ve seen friends and family put up with having to hear unwelcome opinions on their chosen name for their baby, and it’s harder to analyze/criticize a name in the face of a sweet newborn! We’re both making a list separately, and we plan on exchanging our lists once we find out what we’re having. We’ll each be allowed to cross off names we HATE off the other person’s list, and we’ll use the leftovers to build our short list. I really don’t see myself deciding for sure until I actually see the baby – I reserve the right to change my mind! I’m having fun making my list :) SOMEONE else needs to start his, however….

I’m really enjoying writing this blog – already I look back on some of the very first posts and am reminded on things I had forgotten. It’s also a good way to keep friends and family updated! Sometimes I think I sound like I am complaining an awful lot when I enumerate my (sometimes long) list of symptoms, but hey, anyone who’s been through it can tell you that pregnancy can be tough! I am still so very excited and thrilled for this baby! I cannot WAIT to meet him/her, and every day it becomes a little more real!

2011-10-09T14:27:00.002-05:00

Week 12

Aversions: My appetite has been pretty good, but still no chicken for me!

Symptoms: I still have occasional bouts of nausea, oddly enough it’s usually in the late afternoon or evening, which sometimes makes getting dinner on the table a bit of a challenge. My main symptom this week has been fatigue. As a teacher, I became a champ at getting through tiredness, but this is different. If I start to feel tired and I don’t lie down, the room starts to spin. I’ve found that the most I can be on my feet at one time is about 30 minutes, then I have to at least sit down for short rest. As a person who hates (HATES) not feeling productive, that can be a little annoying. Late in the week I started having trouble sleeping, which I know is related to the daytime fatigue. It’s a bit of a conundrum, because I know that when I don’t exercise, I don’t sleep as well, but my stamina is not such that I can really exert myself. This being the last week of my first trimester, I’m hoping all this will be temporary!

Cravings: I have been craving’s my mom’s pot roast. Weird, I know.

Bump check:

There it is! Looking good…unlike my hair that day!

This week I got to visit and share a meal with some family, including this little ball of precious. He’s the brand-new baby of my cousin and his lovely wife, who were kind enough to let me steal him, sit in a chair, and breathe in the cuteness. I can’t wait until our kids can play together! My cousin and I are only a few months apart and always played well together (apart from that time he started calling me Jack-O-Lantern in the second grade and coerced the rest of the class into doing the same - thanks for that, Nick!)

2011-10-01T14:13:00.000-05:00

Vivacious Vandas

These Vanda Orchids hang under the oak tree in our front yard, and both of them are blooming at the same time! They only bloom about once a year for me, but the blooms last at least a month. This is the first bloom for the pink one, and the second for the red.

Orchids Sept 2011 - picture slideshow

Also please check out the adorable maternity dress that I got at the Animal League thrift shop for one dollar - score!

2011-10-01T13:58:00.000-05:00

Week 11

Aversions: pretty much everything.

Symptoms: Let’s just say it’s been a rough week and leave it at that. My goal has been to just keep going and not let it stop me as much as possible.

Bump Check:

I really like my bump. I haven’t been comfortable in anything but loose shirts up until now, but it’s prominent enough to start showing it off a little now! I’m wearing nothing but maternity bottoms now, which I didn’t expect this early.

We had our first appointment on Monday at the place where we’ll be delivering. They tried to listen to the heartbeat with a Doppler machine, but unfortunately the baby was stubborn (already!) and wasn’t going to make an appearance. Even though I had already read that being unable to find the heartbeat with a Doppler is very common at this stage, of course it was still worrisome! They sent me for an ultrasound the next day, and while I tried not to worry, it was such a relief to see this picture!

It was amazing to see the movement! I swear I saw a Gator chomp at one point. We also got to hear the heartbeat. The way he/she measured that day put the EDD at April 17^th – my birthday! But my health practitioner prefers to stick with the original due date (the 14^th) because it tends to be the most accurate.

2011-09-23T15:47:00.002-05:00

Week 10:

Aversions: I haven’t been brave enough to try much chicken yet to see if that aversion still holds. Generally I just have times where the thought of anything but very bland foods makes me queasy.

Symptoms: A normal day me for is feeling tired pretty much all day and occasionally nauseated. Funny what seems “normal” to me now! But thankfully I can generally keep up the house and cook dinner. A refreshing change!

Bump check: Last Saturday (first day of week 10) I had a stranger comment on my bump for the first time. I don’t know the person, but she was probably not a very discreet person, because the shirt I was wearing would have made it hard to tell whether I’m pregnant or just fat!

Week 10! You can tell a little bit when I wear certain clothes.

Cravings: I occasionally crave sugary candy. Anything gummy.

This week we said goodbye to my first vehicle. This ’95 Ford Ranger has been with me for 10 years, and it’s been a good little truck. It was bittersweet saying goodbye to the old gal, but she went to a guy who bought it for his teenager…circle of life!

2011-09-20T16:49:00.001-05:00

Week 9

Aversions: Yep, still chicken. I thought that chicken was a really weird thing to not be able to tolerate, but apparently it’s very common – I’ve been told by several women that they had the same thing!

Symptoms: I am sleeping a little better, at least when I sleep it is somewhat restful. I’ve found that the hip pain I’ve been having is called Round Ligament Pain and it’s very common, although miserable! It’s usually what wakes me up at night….that and the ever-constant bathroom visits! Nausea is still there. I’ve had some really bad days as of late, but some good days too. The one symptom that seems to be my constant companion is tiredness!

Bump check: I hate to admit that I actually started to wear maternity clothes this week! It’s not so much a matter of the bump growing THAT much yet, it’s just that my abdomen is doing a lot of changing and does not appreciate any sort of pressure or constriction.

9 weeks picture. Definitely a little something there!

Cravings – I always expected pregnancy cravings to be impossible to control, gotta-have-it-now kinda cravings, and I haven’t had those as of yet. On the days I can actually tolerate food, I sometimes think,
“ya know what would be good right now?” but I did that before I was pregnant!

One the first day of week 9 we went to the Gator football game in Gainesville. We didn’t last the whole game (okay, *I* didn’t last the whole game!) but it was so much fun to be back in the Swamp!

2011-09-17T07:58:00.004-05:00

Tuesday, September 12, 2011

I seem to be in the midst of a nausea cycle – I feel better for a few days, then I will have a really bad day. Yesterday was a pretty bad day – I usually just keep trying to go on with my day when I feel bad, but I had to give in yesterday when the room started spinning.

It’s funny in a way to think about how I was already pregnant when I made the decision to stay home from school this year, I just didn’t know it yet. If I had already known, I would have probably gone back for at least part of the school year. BUT, everything happens for a reason, and I am so grateful that I don’t have to push through feeling so unwell while teaching, and that I will have the time to really enjoy this pregnancy and relish the journey.

2011-09-16T19:07:00.003-05:00

Saturday, September 10, 2011

Today I am officially nine weeks, hooray! The best new development so far has been that I am feeling a LOT better. I woke up this morning and instead of feeling nausea I just felt…hungry! What a great feeling! The worrier in me, of course, worries that if I don’t feel sick, maybe the baby isn’t thriving.

2011-09-15T07:26:00.001-05:00

Week 8:

Aversions – still chicken. Also, I have an aversion to the word “preggers.”

Symptoms – Still sleepless nights (it’s getting a little ridiculous!) Also waking up with hip pain for some reason. When I do sleep, I have really vivid dreams. So not very restful nights for now, hoping that changes soon! Nausea seems to be getting better – for now I seem to be on a cycle of having a few good days followed by 1 or 2 not so good ones. Still thirsty all the time.

Bump check – now I just look fat! I look like I’ve gained 10 pounds…which is funny, because I’ve only gained about 3. Certain clothes are getting uncomfortable, elastic is my friend.

Here’s me at eight weeks. Nothing much to see yet! Can I just tell you how much I hate this haircut? It was a huge disaster involving my regular stylist taking an unplanned vacation and me really needing a haircut. I wound up with a cut that I HATE and will take a long time to grow out because the underneath layer in shorter than the rest of it. Sigh.

Cravings – I crave absolutely nothing about food right now! One day this week I got out pork chops from the freezer, defrosted them, browned them on the stove, baked them in the oven, and got the rest of dinner ready with NO problems, but when I sat down to eat, I couldn’t even look at the food!

Pregnancy brain story of the week: It’s definitely started. I had to go to the orthodontist on Wednesday for a retainer check, about 25 minutes away. I got over halfway there and realized that I had forgotten my retainer! Oops! I had to hightail it back home and was definitely going to be late, so I had to eat crow and call on the way to tell them I would be late (the German in me has an aversion to lateness…)

I am gaining a little confidence with every day that goes by. When we first found out that we were expecting, I constantly feared losing the baby. Every trip to the bathroom was filled with trepidation for me, and every little cramp or weird feeling was worrisome. I wish that we got some sort of “free pass” since we waited so long for this pregnancy, but the fact is, it just doesn’t work like that. Something could go wrong at any time during the pregnancy, and after the baby is born the worrying certainly doesn’t end! Yes, I could still lose this baby. And I would be absolutely devastated. But I would feel that way regardless of how I feel about it now. So right now I might as well be happy about it, and grateful for this chance to be a parent!

It’s been fun telling people – we’ve worked our way down the hierarchy, starting with parents, then branching out to other family members. My side of the family got together on Labor Day to celebrate my cousin and grandmother’s birthday, and I signed my grandma’s card “From Baby Wolfe” and let her figure it out J

Mike told the members of the church praise team at practice on Thursday, and we’ll probably tell anyone else who hasn’t already heard on Sunday.

The only thing I dislike about telling people our big news is when they say unhelpful things without thinking about how the words sound when they come out. The one we get most often is, “See, you just relaxed and look what happened!?!” In fact, nothing could be farther from the truth! We got some gems like that in the form of unhelpful advice when we started sharing with select people that we were struggling with infertility – I received advice about everything from doing headstands to the ever-helpful “just relax and it will happen.” I’m glad that didn’t happen very often, because it was very difficult for me to hold my tongue! I just feel that saying things like that cheapen my feelings. If it REALLY was simply a matter of relaxing, things would be a lot less complicated for many, many couples out there. Rant over.

2011-09-14T13:12:00.001-05:00

Pregnancy Journal, entry #2

…Only this time it very quickly turned positive. I kept thinking that I must be reading the test wrong, there must be some reason this is a false positive. It took me almost 10 minutes to realize that there was a possibility that I was actually pregnant! Mike was still asleep. I knew that he would need to be fully awake for this news, because he tends to be a little groggy when he first wakes up. Well, he was fully awake in about a nanosecond after I told him! We both managed to get ready for church, all the while saying things to each other like “How can this be? Can this possibly be for real?” On the way to church, I called the on-call nurse and recounted the whole story for her, and she kindly affirmed for us that we were indeed pregnant. It’s still a mystery how we managed to get through church and act somewhat normal!

I barely slept that night – I kept wracking my brain for any reason why this could be not real. I kept thinking I would wake up from this dream…the next morning I called the doctor’s office first thing, recounting the story again to a different nurse. She ordered a blood test for me to confirm the results of the home test, and that’s about when it sunk it for real. When the results came back, the doctor was just as surprised as the rest of us, but she said that stranger things have happened. But I was indeed pregnant….7 and a half weeks along, at that point. In fact, we had to go in right away for an ultrasound, because my pregnancy hormone levels were so high that they wanted to check for multiples! So we got to see our little one early (and yes, there’s only ONE!)

So that’s where we are. We’re so very grateful for this little “fluke”!

Some stats:

Week 7:

Aversions – Chicken, for some strange reason.

Symptoms – Definitely having the sleepless nights that often plague women at this stage. I have to get up a lot for bathroom trips during the night, and after that I can never seem to get back to sleep easily. The nausea has been pretty bad, I’ve struggled to find things I can eat. My mom took me to Whole Foods and enjoyed watching me walk through the bulk section, whiffing different things and saying yea or nay. Really relying on crackers and toast to keep me going. Always seem to be thirsty.

Bump check – finding out I was pregnant sure explained a lot…like, for example, why my waist seemed to be disappearing. I can tell that I look different, and Mike says he can too, but it’s not yet obvious to other people.

2011-09-13T13:25:00.000-05:00

Pregnancy Journal, entry #1

Part of me is almost hesitant to talk about my pregnancy openly and online. I know that once I start documenting the journey, I acknowledge it in a new way. If something were to go wrong, I would have to write about that, too, and that's something I definitely would not relish. But I find it therapeutic to write about what's going on. It's happening, and as of now we have a baby coming, so I might as well enjoy the experience! Here is the first installment of my pregnancy journal:

Friday, September 09, 2011

Although this is my first time journaling about this pregnancy, I am almost 9 weeks along! It took me awhile to get started because I’ve been pretty sick, and the idea of staring at a computer screen was a little repulsive to me for a few weeks! I think I also was afraid to “jinx” things; that if I started chronicling this journey, something would go wrong. But now that I’m feeling a little better (most days!) I’m starting to realize that I will forget things soon if I don’t write them down! But before I get too far I’d better start at the beginning…

We had been hoping to start a family for a long time, and after many doctor’s appointments, chronic pain, and an endometriosis diagnosis, I underwent abdominal surgery on May 10^th, 2011. I missed almost two weeks of teaching school while recovering and had very high hopes that we would finally be able to start a family soon. Two months later, still nothing. Time was ticking, because the endometriosis starts growing back right after surgery, so we decided to undergo a round of Clomid to hopefully speed things along. My first round of Clomid was taken during our vacation in the middle of July, and it was rough. They warned me that taking the drug could cause emotional and physical side effects, and that they could be strong in some women, but I really had no idea just how hard it was going to be for Mike and I. It left me wondering how I was going to be able to go back to school, get a new school year started with 18-plus first graders, and undergo another round of this stuff. But I pushed that thought out of my mind, telling myself that the drugs would work.

A few weeks later, we got the call – the blood test showed that the drugs weren’t working. The nurse told me that the next time around, they would have to double the dosage of the Clomid. When I look back on that time, I can tell that I was in denial. I somehow thought that I could do it all; endure the side effects of the drugs while starting a new school year. Then a few days later I woke up in the middle of the night in tears. For the first time, I forced myself to realistically look at how the next few months would be for me. And it became exceedingly clear to me that I had a choice to make: start a new school year and take a break from the drugs, OR take a break from teaching. It was very hard admitting to myself that I couldn’t do both, but it was my reality. As much as I loved teaching, it was time to put our family first. One day and two freak-outs later, Mike and I pretty much had it figured out: we could make it work. I could do private tutoring and make some extra money that way. We’d have to make some sacrifices, but if things had gone the way we had hoped, I would already be a stay-at-home mom, so if this was the only way we could keep trying to have a baby, we would be able to swing it. Telling my principal and teaching team was not fun, but they were very supportive of our decision. Most people at this point didn’t know that we were struggling with infertility. Of course, we had to tell other people as well – everyone wanted to know why I wasn’t going back to school, and some people even made the very painful assumption that we were already pregnant. But again, most people were wonderfully supportive. When you start telling people what you’re dealing with, other people come out of the woodwork with their own infertility stories, and it was nice to learn that we weren’t as alone as I thought we were.

So school started without me – that week was a little depressing! But I was determined to keep busy. I looked for more tutoring students and discovered areas of my house that hadn’t been touched since I started teaching 3 years ago, so I did a lot of organizing and cleaning out. All this time, I was waiting for my next cycle to start. My doctor had prescribed me some progesterone to hopefully speed that up, but I was warned that it took longer in some women than others. I was starting to worry when several weeks passed, and still nothing. It never really entered my mind that I might actually be pregnant, because I had been told that it wasn’t possible for this cycle – I thought that something was wrong with me. On Sunday, August 27^th, I woke up early in the morning and decided to take a pregnancy test. I planned on calling my doctor the next day and telling her that I was still waiting for my next cycle to start, and the first thing they always want you to do is take a pregnancy test, just to be safe. So I took it, fully expecting it to be negative, just like countless times before. Taking those little tests had become a pretty depressing monthly routine for me. I sat there like I had so many times before, waiting for the same old negative result...

To Be Continued...

2011-09-12T12:00:00.000-05:00

I'm baaaaaack!

After a long hiatus from blogging, I've decided to take it up again because I finally have something to blog about....we are expecting our first child in April of 2012! I hope to use this blog to document our journey as we become a family, both for family members/friends and for myself, to look back on as time goes on. I am working on getting the whole story written down as it's happened so far and hope to have it up soon! Good to be back!

2010-10-05T13:38:00.002-05:00

I've come to the point in my life where I can either live my life or write about it. I can't do both right now. Maybe when my life gets more interesting I will pick up blogwriting again, but until then, catch me on facebook!

2010-06-26T12:20:00.000-05:00

Father's Day 2010

I am way late on this, but that's another post. Mike and I took Molly to visit my mom and dad last weekend to celebrate Father's Day, and pictures were taken:

I love my expression in this picture: "really, dude?!? I'm not ready yet!"

I love my dad. He's always saying something goofy to make me laugh.

I get lots and LOTS of comments that I look like my mom (and I do....creepily so). But I think that I get some things from my dad, too. You can see in this picture that I hold my head the same way he does. Most of what I get from my dad lies in the form of life lessons, though...things that aren't passed down through genetics but by example. Work ethic. Respect for nature. Those sort of things.

My parents recently celebrated 33 years of marriage. How awesome is that?!?

And yes, I got some Mollie pictures:

On her "grandparents" dock.

Soaking wet. I love the tongue in this shot.

Whenever I see this picture I always think that if she could talk she would be saying "HAR HAR HAR!"

Mollie with one of her BFFs, neighbor dog Roxie.

Invisible Roller Coaster?

And lastly, my new favorite picture of my mom.

2010-06-04T19:51:00.002-05:00

A Year in Review

When I think about my second year of teaching compared to my first year, I think the main difference is that I was a lot more organized. As a teacher you have to deal with an immense amount of information coming in, and you are responsible for getting it out on time. It takes a lot of practice and trial-and-error to get that right. But the great thing is, when you're not scrambling around trying to find things, you can spend more time developing your teaching skills and enjoying the students.

Teaching is such a crazy, beautiful thing. It is so easy to get bogged down with the politics and bureaucracy of the profession. This year I reached a point where I let that happen, and to be honest I wasn't entirely sure that I could continue with my chosen career. It is very difficult when you put not only long hours, but your heart and soul into something and you feel like the Way High-Ups who have never met you send messages that tell you that they don't value what you put in. But what I learned is that you because you pour yourself into your kids, you have to draw your strength from them, too. I am learning how to tune out all that negativity and zone in on what really matters...the reason why I got into teaching in the first place.

Today I invited the parents in to view a slide show I had put together with pictures from the school year. I made it through the slide show without crying, but I wasn't so lucky when it came to passing out the class awards. There are a few students I am especially proud of for having come so far and overcoming obstacles that can bring full-grown adults to their knees.

But there is one kid that I just wasn't sure about, until today. I get a lot of hugs as a first grade teacher, but there are some kids who just aren't touchy-feely like that, and this kid is one of them. He will flinch if I touch his shoulder. He's just not the most expressive kid in the world, and as much as I tried, I never felt like I did my best with him.

He knows how to get on my nerves...one of those that makes me subconsciously clench my teeth.

Very strong willed.

You get the idea.

Well, today I finished giving the awards, and I was schmoozing with the parents, waiting for the bell to ring, when I felt a pair of arms around my waist.

And it was him.

And I realized that I had spent so much time trying to figure out this kid....trying to find something to motivate him to grow...that I really had done my best.

2010-05-17T19:20:00.000-05:00

Mother's Day Part II

My mom and her mom

My dad and his mom

A mom-less picture....me and the cake I made, which was delicious. The generous amount of filling is supposed to make it look kinda like an Oreo, and it's a standby for me - a great example of those recipes that take a boxed cake mix and make it outstanding. Click here for recipe.

Favorite picture of the day, and possibly so far this year. My mom and I are two halves of the same whole. I love her.

2010-05-13T19:29:00.000-05:00

It's Like Herding Chickens!

...or getting a 7-year old to sit still during the last 4 weeks of school*....that's how hard it is to get a good picture of Mollie!

*not that I would know anything about that!

We *tried* to get a good picture of the three of us over Mother's Day weekend, and my mom got some action shots. These were all taken over the course of about 30 seconds:

(I love her facial expression on this one)

Is it possible to Photoshop out her tongue??

Oy Vey! More Mother's Day pictures to come :)

2010-05-10T18:45:00.002-05:00

Living in the Land of Old People

A few days ago Mike and I went to a restaurant in town, and I just had to share a few of the gems I overheard at dinner. Now, you must understand that since we live in Florida, the average age of a person in our town is approximately 186. Seriously, when I walk into Publix, I am usually the youngest shopper in there by 40 years or so. Anyhoo, old people can be cranky and hilarious, and these two gents were both. They reminded me a lot of another dynamic duo:

Here's a little snippet of their conversation, whom I will call Statler and Waldorf:

Statler: WHEN CAROL AND I WANTED TO GET MARRIED, THAT PREACHER TOLD US HE WANTED US TO GO TO PRE-MARITAL COUNSELING. I TOLD HIM, "WHY WOULD WE NEED THAT?? WE'VE BOTH BEEN MARRIED TWICE BEFORE, WE KNOW EVERYTHING ABOUT BEING MARRIED!
[note: this guy is ever-so-slightly deaf]

Waldorf: So did you have to get a notary public?

Statler: A NON-REPUBLICAN? OF COURSE NOT, I VOTED FOR McCAIN! IN FACT, I ASKED THAT NOTARY PUBLIC IF HE WAS A REPUBLICAN BEFORE HE MARRIED US!

-----------------------------------------------

You can't make this stuff up!!

2010-04-27T19:49:00.001-05:00

Good Dog, Sophie.

One year ago today I lost one of the best friends I ever had.

Sophie was like my right hand; the closest a dog can get to being your soul mate. She knew what I was thinking and could read and react to my emotions with eerie accuracy.

When we lost her, the grief process was very hard and very long for me, and I am just now getting to the point where I can think of her and feel less pain for the loss and more happiness for the time I had with her.

I still miss her a lot, though. Not a day goes by when I don't think of her.

Good dog, Sophie.

2010-04-25T13:39:00.000-05:00

Ugh! A Bug!

Not really, actually. We bought some Praying Mantis egg sacs offline a few months ago and have been waiting for the weather to warm up enough for the dormant eggs to hatch.

Our porch is now hopping with baby manti! They are so much fun to watch.

Last season our garden was overrun with aphids, so we are hoping that these little guys will snack on them and help us out in the process.

Here you can see how tiny they still are in proportion to Mike's hands. Grow little buggies, grow!

I randomly snapped this picture of Ms. Mollie on the porch, and I LOVE it!

2010-04-12T19:42:00.000-05:00

More Camping Pictures

May I just take a moment to comment on my husband's outfit? Let's start with the Outback Cowboy hat, shall we? Actually, we can stop there, too. The rest of the outfit is not entirely offensive, but the hat with the shorts and sandals makes me smile.

Our fishin' spot. Nothing was caught, unfortunately. We have really bad fishing juju when we get together.

I heart this picture.

Mike snapped this picture of me on a whim because he said I thought I looked "cute" holding the fishing poles. Reason #3,508 why I love my husband - he thinks I'm cute when I really need a shower!

Other adventures included a very windy canoeing trip (arms are still sore) and several trips to Wal-mart to buy more blankets in a futile attempt to stay warm at night. Seriously, I did NOT think the temperature would drop that much at night, but we had nearly 30-degree differences between night and daytime temperatures...brrr! But I absolutely love camping with my husband...he knows more than I could ever possibly hope to know about camping and surviving in the wilderness, and I benefit from it by making him do all the work!

Not really.

But close.

2010-04-12T19:15:00.000-05:00

Spring Break 2010

This was home for us over our Spring Break getaway. Someday we will own a nice camper, but for now it's fun to stay in a tent. Except for when you have to pee in the middle of the night and have to actually put on pants to walk to the bathroom. What hardship.

We camped at Tomoka State Park in Ormond Beach, Florida. It's near Daytona Beach, and even Mike the Eagle Scout, self-professing camping expert, was impressed with the campground.

We had a boatload of fun, but I think Mike needs to start taking a fiber supplement...

2010-04-09T13:07:00.001-05:00

Ya Gotta Love Living in Florida.

I am busy squeezing every moment of enjoyment out of my last few days of Spring Break, and when I came home from eating lunch with some family, I saw a very statuesque Morgan awaiting my arrival:

She was gazing intently at something.

Then she made this face. I think this is my new favorite picture of her. No, my new favorite picture ever. I laughed a lot.

She was not amused.

Then I realized WHAT she was looking at:

Hoo Boy - a Brown Recluse? Maybe? I couldn't decide. So I turned to the handy dandy Interwebs to do some quick research.

You can see a web in this picture, and that confused me further, because I didn't think that brown recluses spun webs. Turns out they DO, but they're used more for "dens" than for catching prey [ain't the Internet great?] So then I had to decide if that looked more like a den then a web. After looking more at the body shape, I decided I had better put away the camera and get out the insect spray. I hate unnecessarily killing any creature, but when I did an image search for the Brown Recluse, I got a bunch of results of Brown Recluse BITE WOUNDS...wowee wow wow I want to avoid that!

I'm just glad this little goofball didn't get ahold of it! Now I just need to think of a funny caption so she can make another appearance on ICanHasCheezburger!

2010-04-08T14:12:00.001-05:00

Some Advice for your Birthday

Yesterday was my big brother David's birthday, and since he is all the way in Kentucky, I thought I would do the same thing for him that I do for my students. We have a shelf of special "birthday books" in our classroom, and when a student is celebrating a birthday, he or she gets to choose a book off the shelf for Mrs. Wolfe to read. This book is one of the most popular, and it features some good advice, so here ya go, Dave:

Happy birthday man. I wish I could give you a birthday hug along with your birthday story.

2010-03-18T20:09:00.000-05:00

Other Stuff

We did do other stuff last weekend....non-Randy Travis stuff. And I mananged to pay attention during most of it. We visited Gainesville (where we lived before we moved to our current digs) and Devil's Milhopper State Park, which is basically a huge sinkhole. It's a lot more interesting than it sounds!

This was our best attempt at using the delay function on the camera...I'll spare you the reject shots this time!

Taking a break from all the stairs...we felt the effects of all that stepping the next day!

The closer you get to the sinkhole, the more humid it gets...which it why my carefully styled hair has turned into a big hot mess. You'd be devastated too if you knew how rarely I actually style my hair!

One cool thing about Devil's Milhopper is that it's full of plants you can't find elsewhere in North Central Florida. A lot of the trees there are typically only found in South Florida. But oddly enough, the landscape reminds me of the Appalachians!

There were stairs....lots and lots of stairs...

And, oh the humidity! I am a Florida native, but even I could feel the weight of all the suspended water in the air!

With humidity comes moss and lichens!

We walked around Silver Springs for a few minutes before claiming our VIP seats for the concert. We've had season passes in the past, so we've seen it all, but we still like to walk around!

Mr. Flamingo! I sometimes wonder if captive flamingos are given something to color their feathers artificially through their food...it just doesn't seem like they would be that brightly colored in the wild!

These Sandhill Cranes weren't captive...just freeloaders.

Oh no!

I love the expression on Mike's face!

At least it wasn't the real thing!

2010-03-14T19:49:00.000-05:00

I Have a Job for You...

Last year Mike and I had the vacation of a lifetime when we went to Germany. There is just no way we could ever plan to top that, but we still would like to go somewhere this summer...but WHERE?!? We're already planning a trip to Kentucky meet a certain little niece of mine once she arrives, but if you have any suggestions for our summer vacation, please feel free to leave a comment. Just keep these criteria in mind:

It must be somewhere in North America, but out of the Southeastern U.S.
It must be a city where we can get by without renting a car, except to make a day trip outside the city.
It must not be hotter than Florida in July.
It must be awesome.

2010-03-14T19:19:00.001-05:00

Forever and Ever, Amen...

That is how long I have been a fan of Randy Travis. Literally as long as I can remember. When I was little my family went camping in the Smokies and he was giving a concert in an outdoor arena close to our campground. We sat outside the arena and listened to the concert, and ever since then I have wanted to go to a Randy Travis concert for real. So yesterday when we went to his concert at Silver Springs, I was more than a little excited. And I wasn't disappointed - what a great concert!

He really was an excellent performer. And I am happy to report that his jokes have improved over the last 20 years....marginally.

His band was awesome, too - he seems to have a great relationship with all of them. The shortest amount of time he had worked with any of them was 7 years!

As great as the band was, the songs he played all by himself were amazing.

Probably my favorite picture.

What a great day! I really am so blessed to have been able to share such a special day with my husband!

2010-03-11T22:55:00.000-05:00

Musings - Life in 2010 So Far

These last few months have been weird. I feel like I've been determined to just live a normal life - get a decent night's sleep, go to work, make dinner, keep the house relatively clean, and wake up the next day and do it all over again. I've been doing a pretty good job of just living, but I don't feel like I'm doing much more than that. Countless times I've sat down at the computer to update my blog, only to stare at the blank screen and eventually give up. But then again living a normal life can be a blessing! Since Terri passed away I've been walking around in a cloud and the reality of what happened hits me all over again sometimes - last week at church I just could not hold it together when the first worship song came on. But while life is returning to a somewhat normal state for me, I am so saddened when I think about how the Fordham family's new journey is just beginning.

Lent is going pretty good. It's not as hard as I thought it would be to eat at restaurants, and I don't miss meat as much as I thought I would. The family has been very supportive, especially Mike. I feel bad sometimes because this was my decision, not theirs, but it affects them too because they love me and want to accomodate me. But what I love is the feeling I get when I leave a restaurant and I have stuck to what I believe in. I've also noticed that I very rarely overeat now, whether at home or out. Maybe it's because I pay that much more attention to what I'm eating now.

Mike and I are going to a Randy Travis concert this weekend at Silver Spring, and I am way more excited than any adult should be. I told my family at dinner tonight that if I get to meet him, I will wet my pants. I got the concert tickets for Christmas and the VIP passes for Valentine's Day, so it's safe to say that I've been looking forward to this for awhile! I'm determined that I will get a picture of myself out of this weekend, thought, whether or not Randy Travis is in it with me. I was going through my pictures taken so far this year, and I noticed that I have taken all of maybe 20 pictures in 2010, and I am in NONE of them. Photographer syndrome strikes again! So hopefully after this weekend I will be posting some pictures of myself...from the waist-up, so the wet spot on my pants won't show!

2010-03-05T21:56:00.000-05:00

On February 28th, our pastor's wife, Terri, passed away unexpectedly. She was a beautiful, vibrant woman - a mother to four children, a much-loved wife, a teacher to special needs kids, and passionate worshiper. Mike and I attended her service this evening, and I wrote this as soon as we came home. To say that Terri will be missed is the understatement of the year.

Dear Terri,

I went to your funeral tonight. I’ve been dreading it all week. I’m ashamed to say that I’ve been trying to pretend that it wasn’t going to happen. I’ve been walking around in a daze, forgetting where I was going in the car, in disbelief that this has happened. Whenever I stop long enough to think, all I can think is, “this sucks.” Church last Sunday was awful. People walking around with bloated faces, repeating over and over, “did you hear?” The collective exhale when Reverend Charlotte told us the news. The 8-year old boy wiping his eyes after church, communicating what the rest of us were too stunned to express. I don’t ever want to live through that again, yet I would not have rather been anywhere else.

I will always remember you, in a church full of white folks, keeping us all on the beat with your clapping. We are going to be so off without you! I will always remember you seeking me out to ask me how school was going, and listening as someone who has been there when I poured out way more information than you needed to know. I hate the idea of you not being in church this Sunday. I promise that I will help take care of your family and surround them with love and support. You are part of my cloud of witnesses now, and I hope that I will make you proud.

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. -Hebrews 12:1

2010-02-19T21:54:00.000-05:00

Lent

I didn't do much for Lent last year - I am ashamed to say that I didn't even realize it was the season of Lent until it was almost halfway over. I've never been one to participate in a ritual just for the sake of participating in a ritual, but in the past I've found that giving up something for Lent has been a great help for me in my spiritual walk, and I knew I wanted to participate this year. As soon as I decided to do it and started to ponder what I should give up, the answer came to me in a flash. Unfortunately, explaining myself might take a little longer :) Just stick with my, okay?

About two years ago, I really began to think about my food choices, especially when it came to animal flesh. I have always been a little sensitive to animal cruelty - I am told that when I was four I got very upset during The Wizard of Oz when the Wicked Witch said, "I'll get you my pretty...you and your little dog, too!" Not because she threatened Dorothy, but because Toto might be in trouble! Anyhoo, like I said, a few years back I started to really pay attention at the supermarket. I found myself wandering through the meat section, picking up packages of the weekly special and wondering what the real price of the 30 cents per pound savings really was. I could prepare a cheaper meal for my family, which was important for me, but what was the life of that animal like? For awhile, I was able to push those thoughts aside for the sake of saving money - I'd casually walk by the tiny section of "natural" meats and quickly flit away after I saw the prices. It was easy to separate the neatly wrapped packages of skinless, boneless meat from an actual animal. But the thought kept niggling at my brain, and it got to the point where I couldn't deny that I had some real issues with the corporate side of raising animals in our country.

I personally believe that God has created some animals for consumption, but I also believe that those animals are His creation, and He wants us to be good stewards of what He gives to us. We have a responsibility to treat everything that God created with more than just the bottom line in mind. So I made the decision to only bring humanely-raised meats into my home. Since then, I've been able to adhere to it pretty well in my own home, since I do all the grocery shopping and plan the meals. I've become quite the expert at package reading and crap detection. The problem has been restaurants and other people's homes. But for Lent this year (and beyond), I have decided to go all the way. I have made it all of three days without eating any sort of meat from questionable sources, and it hasn't been nearly as hard as I thought it would be. I basically have to be a vegetarian outside of the home, but really I'm only concerned at being a guest in other people's homes. I certainly don't want to be rude to someone. My plan is to rave so much about the side dishes that they don't notice that I didn't take a pork chop :)

There have been many, many times that I have contemplated writing about this subject on my blog, but something has always given me pause. Part of me feared judgment from both sides - accusations of not doing enough, or being perceived as uppity, snobbish, overly sensitive, crunchy, or worse. Plus, coming to a conclusion about what I eat has been a part of my spiritual journey over the last several years, but it's not something that is really talked about in churches, so I've come to a lot of conclusions about this from my own scriptural interpretations, and I am NOT the theological expert in the family. I've written about my need to please people in previous posts, and I am hoping and praying that part of my spiritual growth during the season of Lent will be letting go of that for good. This is part of who I am now. I sleep better at night and I feel that I am following God's plan for me more closely. God wants us to give EVERY part of our lives to him! It has been much harder than I thought to write out my thoughts about this in what I hope is a succinct manner - my backspace button has gotten quite a workout!

2010-02-15T14:04:00.000-05:00

Happy Valentine's Day

Hope you had a wonderful Valentine's Day with the people you love - romantically or otherwise!

2010-02-15T14:01:00.000-05:00

What's the Definition of Irony?

I drove past a certain national pharmacy today and saw a large mobile van parked outside. There were no signs out yet, but it had the name of the pharmacy emblazoned on the side. When I drove past again about 20 minutes later, there were signs advertising that you could get a free "health check" - they could tell you all about your blood pressure, bone density, cholesterol levels, and much more. Not a bad idea. But the kicker was the small signs on the lawn:

Sodas 50 cents
Hot Dogs $1.00
Chips 50 cents
FREE ICEES!!

Say WHAT?!?

Actually, maybe this is more of an oxymoron.