Pregnancy Pics!

Yay, finally took my first baby-belly pics..........only 26 weeks late. Oh well, at least this way I don't know how skinny I used to be! That should make it less depressing trying to reach my pre-baby bod, right? Yeah, right. :)

I'm excited to be over half-way through my pregnancy. So far, so good, and I'm so anxious to have our little girl here! :) We registered for some stuff at Babies R Us and at Target. It's so hard to know what you'll need! :) How do you buy toys for a baby when you don't know what they'll like?

And, I must say, the kindest compliment someone can say to a pregnant woman is "wow, you don't even look pregnant" or "you can't even tell that you're pregnant from behind". So, if you see me, remember those 2 key phrases. They brighten any pregnant woman's day. (especially when you feel as big as a bus and have no clothes that fit "just right"!)

So, here are my 26-week pregnancy pics. If you're grossed out by pregger bellies, don't look at the 2nd pic below! :)

And if you must.............look away!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Don't scroll down!!! :)

My Dad

As most of you have heard by now, my dad was in a bad accident at work last week. He was fixing some machine with another worker and was suspended in the air in a safety cage. Well, the cable that was suspending him snapped and he fell about 10 feet. As if that wasn't awful enough, a heavy steel ball (about 200-300 lbs) fell on his legs, crushing them. He was rushed to Port Huron Hospital and then transferred to Beaumont in Royal Oak because of the severity of the bone injuries. Sadly, our Thanksgiving plans were pretty much ruined and it was very hard to be "thankful" this year. We all kind of did our own thing for Thanksgiving which was actually really sad because we always celebrate holidays together. I'm pretty shaken up about my dad and it is really hard for me to talk about right now because we aren't entirely sure how he'll recover. He's been at Beaumont for almost 2 weeks now, having surgeries every other day to repair his legs. It's going to be a long, slow recovery for for him and it's really a scary time for us right now.
We've all been at the hospital as much as we can be. It's really the only thing we can do.

Last week Sara came home for the holiday but just ended up staying near the hospital all week. To help her out a bit I took Matt home with me for two days. I was a bit nervous how he'd be with me, but I think he had a great time! Jake was a huge help to me with Matt and Matt simply adores Jake. They were so cute together and it was so heartwarming to watch Jake be such a great big-brother figure. When Matt was gone the next time Jake came over he was pretty bummed. It was cute. But when I had Matt by myself without Jake's help, I was soooo exhausted! Aunt Jenny is soooo not used to running after a 2-year old! And the kicker is that Matt is just so cute that it's hard to say no to him on anything. :) Good thing I'm his aunt....that means I don't have to say no! :)

This weekend I think we may go see my dad Sunday. Saturday he has another surgery so that won't be a good day to visit. He usually isn't a happy patient on surgery days because he can't eat all day & is uncomfortable and gets tired of waiting.
His most recent surgery on Wednesday at 2:00 went well. The surgeon turned the rod more and a plastic surgeon watched because he is going to be doing some muscle and skin graphs to close up that leg on Thursday. The surgeon was also able to repair dad's ankle bone in his other leg which he originally wasn't sure he'd be able to do. So we actually had some good news this time! It makes it seem like the end may be in sight for his surgeries.
Oh, and as if all of this wasn't bad enough, my Grandma Zech fell on Thursday and broke her femur. She's at Mercy in PH. Trouble usually comes in 3s for my family so we are a bit anxious to see what the 3rd tragedy will be! Grandma is doing fine and will hopefully be home soon.
Well this post is a world-record length so I'm going to end it now.
Please keep my dad in your prayers!

Last Piece of Nursery Furniture!!!

My worst pregnancy symptom is fatigue. I guess I should be counting my lucky stars considering how awful some women's pregnancies are. I just pray every night and day that my little girl is born healthy and happy. I hope that she is safe in my womb and that she comes to greet the world when she is healthy enough to survive it. I get nervous at times thinking about it because my mom lost two babies and a close friend lost a baby at almost full-term. I hope that God allows us to keep this little miracle child. She is already so loved and wanted. I can't imagine that any other child has ever been loved or wanted as much.
I just can't wait to actually have her here with us!
Oh and I ordered the last piece to the nursery today.....a glider rocker & ottoman. I can't wait to get it and set it up. That will mean that the nursery is done entirely!
The other thing I want to get is a new camera. I like mine but the shutter speed is so slow I know I will miss many of my baby's adorable moments. Does anyone have any affordable yet good quality suggestions???

Baby Update

So Nick & I found out on November 4th that we are having a baby girl. The ultrsound was one of the most exciting days of my life. Being able to see our little girl in there was, simply put, miraculous. She was so active in there, it was so cute!
Originally, we planned to keep it a secret, but I think we were both so excited that we couldn't keep it to ourselves. I actually got teary eyed when I saw her in there. She was just so adorable.
The first thing Nick said when we found out it was a girl was ''she is going to be so spoiled!''. He's referring, of course, to the fact that my parents have 5 grandsons & his have 2. Our families won't know what to do with a girl!
Now we just have to think of a name.....it literally took me about a month to name my dog, so heaven help me name my daughter! If ou have any cute ideas, let me know. Two names we are throwing around are Ali and Cameron. But, who knows!
Alrighty, all for now!

Testing!

Just trying to post a blog by using my cell. Let's see if it works!!!

Yikes.......where have I been?!

Well, now that summer is winding down & I'm back to work, I've been totally swamped with little - no time to blog. I've also neglected my scrapbooking website which is a total bummer to me. I am planning some scrapping time for myself this weekend while Nick's away with his guy friends on a fishing trip.

Last weekend we went to visit my sister Sara in Zeeland. It was a jam-packed weekend and we all had tons of fun!!! :) We met up with Sara and my little nephew Matt at the Binder Park Zoo in Battle Creek. We spent lots of time there; it was a beautiful zoo! From there we went to Sara's house for dinner: spare ribs in a crock pot, mashed potatoes, and home made guacamole. Yum! Then we went to the boys' favorite part of the vacation....Crazy Bounce. This is an incredible place with huge inflatable slides & jumping things for kids to play on. All three of the boys had a great time. Saturday we went to Grand Haven and walked through some sidewalk sales near the art fair. Jake got his face painted like the Incredible Hulk. We grabbed lunch at a little pizza place that makes wood-fire pizzas. It tasted sooo good. Then we went on Sara's friend's boat for the afternoon and pulled up to the beach. We got off, swam through the FREEZING water, made it to the beach, and relaxed there for over an hour. FUN! Getting back out to the boat was a bit of a fiasco, but we all made it back safely thanks to Uncle Nick rescuing poor little Matt from the huge waves crashing over him! Once on the boat, the rough waves were making me super-nauseous so I had to lay down for a bit. There was a point where I seriously thought I was going to vomit over the side of the boat, but I held it together, thank goodness! :) After the boat ride, we went to eat a Logan's Steakhouse which the boys loved because they could eat peanuts and throw the shells on the floor. It was a great day. We got back to Sara's, bathed the sandy boys, & relaxed for the rest of the night. We were all pretty tired out! Sunday morning we woke up, gathered our things, and headed out around 9:30. We always like to get home early so that we can unwind a bit from our long travels. When we got home, Nick & I got some groceries and just relaxed around the house. It was such a fun trip. Jake had a blast. A good way to end the summer! :)

Yay, The Hills!!!!

So I'm a total Hills junkie. And I was super-bummed that the hotel I'm staying in for a conference in East Lansing didn't have cable, until I stumbled across MTV's website & discovered that they have full episodes of the Hills on there. YAY! :) I was saved. I watched it this morning before my conference. It was a goodie! :) If you want to see it, I posted it here for you!!!

It's True!!!

So thanks to everyone for not judging me & my crazy baby preparedness posts!!!! :)

As it turns out, I had every right to be so crazy..........it must have been mommy intuition or something!!! :)

Yes, it's true...........we're pregnant!!!!!!!! I took some home tests on Friday, July 25th and they were positive!:) Went to the dr. for bloodwork on Monday, the 28th & it was confirmed!!!!!! Yesterday I went to Northpointe & was set up with a doctor and everything. I get to hear the heartbeat September 8th at 3:00! :) I'm so excited!!!!! I am currently 5 weeks & 5 days along. Very new, I know, but still SOOOOOOO exciting!!!

Here are some pics of how we told our parents!

We took Nick's parents out to dinner & had the chef write this message on a dessert platter!!!!!! It worked perfectly!!!!!



On Sunday, at my nephew's baptism, we told my family. :) We got everyone together to get a family photo. Nick was behind the camera & instead of saying "cheese", he said "everyone say: Jen's Pregnant!!!" It was awesome! Here are pics of the big announcement! :)




Look how surprised & happy everyone is! :)




So, needless to say, we're very excited & happy! :)

And, this is why I haven't posted in a bit.......I didn't want to post this news until my family knew!!! :)

I Hate Comcast!

Ok, this is a venting post.....

Can I just tell you how much I HATE Comcast?!

So, hubs & I have digital cable. Have had it for about 3 years now. Sporadically works. In fact, for the past 3 weeks, it's not really been working at all. Can't access TV guide or On Demand features (you know, where they claim to have hundreds of free movies?!). Yeah. So, I call on a Sunday to voice my complaint. I get told to "wait it out" and that the area is out. I'm not too pleased to be told to "wait it out", but since the person on the other end was less than helpful, I took that and hung up. Called again a week later. I was told again that the whole area was out & that if I just called when it came back on they'd re-imburse me for any lost services. They had no idea why it was out or when it'd be back on. Lovely! :) So, we call again this Saturday because it's still out & at this point, we're tired of "waiting it out". So, she sends "a signal" to our box. These "signals" never work. They stink! She wants us to unplug the tv for 30 seconds....can we do that? We sure can, but we're not going to because we've tried that 300,000,000 times already. Oh, ok, well it must be a problem with your digital box then. We'll send someone over to replace it.....how's Monday between 9-12:30? Lovely! :) And no, there was no outage in your area, I'm not sure what the other operator was talking about. Your area has been working fine. And no, I'm not sure if we can re-imburse you because there is no record of you calling. So I doubt you'll be reimbursed. LOVELY! (grrrrr!)
So, Monday, 9:30 on the dot (surprisingly!) the guy comes out to my house. He dinks around for, oh over 2 HOURS! Changes all sorts of cables & end clamps and splitters and blah blah claiming those are the problem. But when we go back upstairs.......Shocker, it STILL doesn't work! I'm so surprised. (Not). So, then he gives me a new box. Voila! Magically all of the menus and options I've paid for for the past 3 weeks come back and work properly. Hmm.......that outage in the area must have magically been fixed at the exact same moment that he plugged in the new box. Man am I glad that I "waited it out" for 3 weeks. Comcast, I'd like to thank you for providing me with incredibly sucky service for the past three years. I would also like to thank you for monopolizing the cable industry here so that, even though you have terrible customer service & outrageous prices, I have no other cable option other than to stick with your awful company. If there was a better option out there, I'd switch in a heartbeat!

BTW, have I mentioned that I HATE Comcast?

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

On today's docket..........the lovely re-imbursement phone call that I will be making to get my money back for the past 3 weeks of lousy service. Yippee. I'll bet anyone $300,000,000 that they will be "experiencing higher than normal call volume & longer than normal wait time". Yippee!

Flooring DONE! :)

I will admit when I'm wrong. So..........yes, the flooring was harder than I imagined it would be. BUT it is done now & I will also admit that it looks AMAZING! :) I'm so proud of myself! :) My mom & I picked out flooring from Lowes last week. I started putting it down on Tuesday by myself. That was a huge mistake! At one point I had a big, gluey wad of vinyl flooring in a mound and was ready to cry. But, I sucked it up & fixed it & not it looks amazing. I'm so happy with how it turned out. I had the entire upstairs floor done and when my mom came on Friday, we spent the time together finishing the stairwell & landings. It didn't look like it would take us long, but it did! We cut new stair edge mouldings and boy does it look nice. I'm so proud of us! :) I'm going to post some pics here, but I didn't take a "before" stairs pic. I'm so bummed!

The plan was to move our furniture to the new room, but since we weren't able to get the windows put in like wanted to last weekend, we have to wait a bit longer. Nick's thinking this Sunday, when we get back from our trip, he might be able to get them put in. I hope so so badly! :) I really want to set the crib up! :)

So, as of right now, the upstairs is in a bit of disarray, but hopefully not for much longer! :)

Here are the before pics:

Before:








AFTER!!!:) :

I might be insane.......

Yeah, so this might be crazy but Nick & I just bought a crib & changing table!!!

I don't know why I'm so set on having this room done so early. I'm not even pregnant yet! I just really want to have it all ready!

So here's what we have for the room:
- white bookcases
- white night stand
- white crib
- white changing table
- white dresser that we painted
- walls are dark green with white trim

Here's what the crib looks like:

The changing table matches the crib, too. It's very cute.

Here's what else we plan to do:
- white rocker of some sort
- small rug / carpet
- wallpaper border (possibly)
- sheet set for crib & changing table
We're thinking of a jungle theme because the room is green & white. Get maybe a jungle print carpet (or maybe I can make one???) and matching sheet sets.

We also want to get one of these wall quotes seen here at this ebay store:
Option #1
Option #2
Option #3
Option #4
Let's take a poll...........which one would you choose? I'm partial to #4 & #1 personally.
So exciting! :)

Now, seriously, I might be insane to be setting up this stuff. I just figure I want to be prepared ahead of time and that it's better to kind of space-out these purchases than to get it all at once! :)

Painting DONE!

So, my mom came over Monday and helped me finish some odd painting jobs around the house. We got everything done, believe it or not! :) We even had time for a lunch together and a trip to Lowes to pick out some flooring for my upstairs bedroom. The flooring is our project for Friday. Never tried to put that stuff down before. We'll see how it goes! :)

Weekend Update

I had a fun weekend.
4th of July we had Jake & went up to my parents' house for a BBQ. It was fun and lots of yummy food. We played with the nephews, talked with Gma, Jackie, sisters, brothers-in-law, and my parents. It was a beautiful day & I enjoyed myself. Mary gave me a big tub of her old maternity clothes & some good books on babies. Can't wait to read them & wear the clothes! :)

Saturday we cleaned the whole house, it's spotless right now! :) We went to Gibraltor Trade Center which was pretty terrible......it gets more white-trashy every time we go, I swear. This time some people had gotten into some kind of fight & the security (an older, white guy with a belly & an american flag shirt on) had to come "take care of the situation". I felt so safe. (NOT!) After Gibraltor, we came home & relaxed for a bit. Then our friends Cheryle & Craig came over to watch a UFC fight. Craig & Nick watched the fight while Cheryle & I scrapbooked. I got a lot done. I worked on Jake's album. It's cute so far! :)

Sunday we woke up too late to go to church. I hate rushing to get ready, so if I don't have enough time to get ready at my own pace, I don't like to get ready. We hung around the house. Nick mowed lawn while I made a huge lunch of pancakes (some chocolate chip and some blueberry & strawberry! YUM!) with bacon and scrambled eggs. DEEEEELISH! Not the most healthy, but I don't do that all the time! :) Then Nick took Jake to his mom's and we went for a motorcycle ride with Nick's friends Barb & Al. We went all the way up to Harbor Beach. It was a long ride, but a really nice one. On the way home, we stopped and ate at the Dorsey House. Nick & I have been wanting to try it since neither of us had ever been there. It was pretty good. I'd go again! :)

What a fun weekend. The weather was warm & sunny. Felt like summer had finally arrived!!!

Happy 4th of July! :)

Today we went to a BBQ at my parents' house. It was a lot of fun. We tried to get there in time for the annual Port Sanilac parade (you can only imagine how huge it must be, right?!) but we were a bit late & the roads were blocked off with no way for us to get to town. Bummer! So, we just went to my parents' house & relaxed until everyone else got there. It was a delicious day.........hot dogs, burgers, kielbasa (sp?), tuna salad, fruit salad, veggies, chips, desserts, YUMM-O! :)

I always enjoy going to my parents' house for these types of get-togethers. When all of my sisters, our husbands, and our children can come together and relax. I love how close our family is and how much we try to get together. It can get hectic, especially around nap-time when everyone (including the parents) gets cranky and impatient, but it's still a memory to keep close to my heart forever. :)

After the BBQ we went on our friend Jeff's boat to watch the fireworks in St. Clair. I've never taken a boat that far on the St. Clair river, so it was a lot of fun. Except that it was at night time which is kind of scary, I think. But, other than that, it was great fun. We got a great spot on the water, right in front of the barge that had the fireworks on it, so it was almost like the fireworks were right over top of us, it was incredible. The best firework show I've ever witnessed! :) The best part was that Jake was able to come with us. He played with their daughter, Hailey, a ton and they had a great time. The cutest part was when we were going really fast on the river & Jake huddled up next to me. He didn't want to admit that he was scared, but I'm pretty sure he was a bit nervous. (In fact, I was, too!)

Happy 4th of July everyone! :)

Projects & Stuff

So I've begun my projects for the summer. Here's what I've accomplished so far:
- Painted the bathroom (new coat of white KILZ to kill any mildew possibly growing),
- Re-Caulked the tub after ripping out old caulking & bleaching the heck out of the tub.
- Started painting stairwell to the upstairs.
- Measured floor upstairs to prepare for new vinyl flooring.

What I still need to do:
- Paint bathroom door
- Finish stairwell painting
- Purchase & install flooring upstairs

Nick thinks the flooring will be too difficult for me, but I want to give it a go. My theory is if MM can do it (and shittily at that), I can do it. I can at least do it as well as he did. It can't be that damn hard.

After we install the flooring, we are moving our furniture upstairs and turning our room into a prospective nursery.

And, in case you read a previous post of mine & was wondering what the heck was going on with the whole nursery thing, here it is.....

We have white bookshelves and tables from Nick's mom to put in there which will be cute because the room is an dark green with white trim. Then we'll just need to purchase a changing table, crib, and rocker of some sort. I plan to take the dresser from the upstairs & put it in Jake's room, taking his white dresser & putting it in the nursery. We'd also get a little rug for the nursery, too. It's kind of exciting.

Although I'm not pregnant or anything, I've always been a "plan ahead" type of girl. Nick & I are hoping to be pregnant by the end of the summer, which would work out perfectly with my job. I know it's completely out of my control if / when I will get pregnant, but I'd like to think that I won't have any problems. We'll see! :)

I've been reading lots of books on pregnancy and conception and they mainly just freak me out and make me think that this thing is darn near impossible to happen. It's crazy to think to actually WANT to be pregnant. For so long you try everything under your power to NOT be pregnant and then when you actually want to be, you find out that it's actually quite a difficult thing to do. It's a strange feeling.

I like thinking about being pregnant and hope I am a cute pregnant girl. I don't want to be some bohemith that looks like I'm just SUPER overweight & not pregnant at all. Again, I guess we'll just wait and see. And I still feel completely incompetent about the whole pregnancy thing. Yeah, I've read some books, but people I know that are pregnant seem to have way more knowledge about it than me. It freaks me out. I don't want to do tons of "wrong" things if I ever do get pregnant. But where do these people learn this stuff? I can't find it!

And, I am uber-excited at the prospect of wearing maternity clothes. My friend Colleen said they are like wearing pajamas all day & we all know how much I <3>

1st Day of Summer Vaca!

So, my first day of my summer vacation has been a busy one! Nick & I got up around 7, woke up Jake, got ourselves showered, ate some breakfast, and headed off to our first day of Vacation Bible School. Nick took a 4-day weekend from work so he was free Monday & I recruited him to help out with registration day for VBS because I had been warned how tough of a morning it was. Well, he agreed & came to help out. I'm in a classroom of 11 third & fourth graders (10 girls, 1 boy). I am just a helper this year, being my first year at Ross and all. So to start off, we learned a bible verse, met everyone, took attendance and then headed to the auditorium. In the auditorium they learned some fun songs with motions and had a bible lesson on creation vs. evolution. After the songs, we headed back to the classroom for snack time....cookies & punch. YUM! Next was craft time......today we made frogs that had a party blow-out for a tongue, eyes, and legs. I guess the frog is to represent one of the creatures God created..........actually I'm not really sure, that could be a complete stretch. After craft time, we reviewed the bible lesson from the auditorium and recited the bible verse some more. Finally, we headed back to the auditorium to practice the songs again, then came back to the room, & it was time for the parents to come pick them up. It was a busy morning, but it was fun. We took Jake out for lunch for being a good boy in VBS and then we took him back to his mom's. It all starts all over again for me tomorrow. Nick (lucky guy) gets to go back to work. It was a fun morning, but very tiring!

After lunch, we folded a ton of laundry that Nick & I have been ignoring as it gathers dust around our house. Nick was good & put his away directly, but mine is still sitting in a mountain on my dresser top and in my closet upstairs. I have a massive "put-away-or-hang-up-clothes" day coming up..........I just can't motivate myself to want to stay up there and do it! :)

After that, I worked on my masters stuff......sort of........I've been very unmotivated to do any of the work I'm supposed to be doing. These 2 classes are boring the tar out of me! I'm almost done, though. I just have 3 more classes of each left. This week & next week, then I'm done. YAY!

While I worked on my masters work, Nick went to Home Depot to order some windows for the upstairs rooms. The windows up there are so terrible that the upstairs can't hold heat worth a darn and so, before we relocate our room to the upstairs, we wanted to fix that problem with some new, lovely, windows. Nick's friends are going to come over and help him put them in one of these weekends. I'm excited!

Well, this is all for now. I'm trying to waste time in my boring M/W class, but it's only 5:30 & I have to stick it out here until 7:20. Ugh!

End of the School Year!

So, I'm done with school for another year.
The end this year flew by.
It was hectic & unorganized. (not my style at all)
I'm glad to be finished for a while.
I'll have 5 weeks to myself....
Things I plan to do:
- 1 more masters class
- housework (paint inside, bathroom, move bedroom to upstairs, make a nursery....maybe???)
- scrapbook.........ah, I love it.
- relax & recharge
- celebrate my 1-year anniversary with my hubby
- help out at VBS with my step-son
- TAN
Looks like these 5 weeks will fly by.

Happy Summer Everyone! :)

Spring Semester.....Yay.

Yay for Spring Semester at SVSU. .... .... ... NOT!
(I'm channeling Borat here.)

One professor seems laid-back and easy-going, although he's pretty long-winded.
The other professor seems very picky, OCD, and anal-retentive.

For example:
- the class is from 5-7:20 and we are not allowed to have food in class
- we have to dress professionally when presenting (PUH-LEEZE!)
- absences are not allowed (not even 1!)

Grrrrrrr. I dislike power-tripping profs!

My spring Semester is going to be a killer.............M, W nice, but boring prof, 4:45-7:20. T, Th is the anal, crabby prof with NO food.

Essentially M-Th 4:45-7:20 = LONG days for Jenny.

Yucky.

At least it's only 6 weeks long.

Ciao, I'm going to lose my mind!

M.I.A.

Warning............
This may be an exceptionally long, blabbery post. I'm feeling RAMBLEY!
So, yeah, big surprise. I slacked on my blog. I'm notorious for that. But, I've been feeling the need to write in here & I've logged in a few times to read other people's stuff, but haven't had the ambition to actually write for my own. Today I will just so I can procrastinate a little longer. (I've been on spring break all week, but do you think I did any homework? Of course not!)

Here's what I've been up to:
- The end of February was pretty uneventful. It went by really quickly, though. I can't believe it's already the middle of April. While I'm excited that the end of the school year is here, as well as warmer weather, it just seems like life flies by so quickly that sometimes I can't keep up. Unfortunately, this spring is going to be one of the worst of my life, I fear!

- March was a fun month this year. I did a scrapbooking day on the 8th with a friend from work, her sister, and my sister, Amanda. I love scrap days. It actually forces me to sit & be creative. Usually I find any excuse under the sun not to scrap.....yet another thing I procrastinate on! :) Surprise, Surprise.

Another weekend my sister Amanda & I got together again & scrapped for a few hours. It was fun. The hubbys entertained themselves with guy things.....playing guitar & stuff, so we had fun.

Then came Easter........we had Easter lunch at my mom & dad's after we went to our church. It was packed there, of course. Had to accommodate the holiday-only Christians. (Sorry, that's a pet-peeve of mine.)

The other big thing March had going for it was that I went to an all-expense paid trip to Boston, MA for the National Science Teacher's Association's (NSTA) annual conference. While some of you may think that an NSTA conference is a big geek-fest, I actually had a lot of fun. I met some great people from all over the globe, learned a lot of cool new things to try in my classroom, and I even got to take a walking tour of the Freedom Trail with a girl I met there. It was lots of fun.

I left Tuesday, March 25th at about 7:30 from Detroit and got to Boston around 9:30. I was exhausted after teaching all day, the flight, and the anxiety of trying to find my hotel and get checked in. Each day I was there, Wed-Sat., I was up earlier than normal, so that I could catch the shuttle bus to the conference centers. So I would be downstairs for the shuttle by 7:00 am, to the conf. center by 7:30 and go to conferences all day until about 4:30-5:30. LONG DAYS! Then I'd head back, go to dinner with someone I'd met that day, & then SLEEP. It was an EXHAUSTING trip!

Saturday morning, rather than go to a conference, a great person I met, Beth, and I went on a walking tour of the Boston Freedom Trail. It was amazing. However, it was also FREEZING cold. I never knew there was so much history in Boston (I blame my lack of knowledge on Mr. Rowley!). Everything was so historic & beautiful. Including the "Cheers" replica bar we found! :)

I headed home Saturday afternoon & had THE WORST flight of my life. The plane was super-old & really small. It was packed full, no empty seats to be found. Which meant, of course, that I got stuck sitting right next to someone. The someone I happened to be sitting next to was a smelly, British lesbian (her "partner" sat the row ahead of me) who kept leaning over into my area to look out the window. Alright, so I already have personal space issues, but then sit me insanely close to someone who smells really bad & keeps breathing in my direction and I seriously thought I was going to need the vomit bag. I was crammed against the window the entire flight, trying to smell my own body scent so that I didn't throw up. I literally had to keep turning on those little personal fan thingys because I was trying to get fresh air on me. YUCK! Definitely the WORST part of my trip!

After Boston, I came home & came down with Bronchitis. I blame it on the 3-hour, freezing cold walking tour Beth & I did. But, a small part of me thinks I really have kooties from the smelly British chick on the plane. Ew.

On to April............
Well, I had a nice week easing back into work. Traci (our ELA teacher) had a couple of lessons that took entire days, so 1 day I had to monitor kids while they watched a judge sentence people via distance learning. The other day the kids acted out a trial based on the novel Of Mice and Men. It was interesting to watch them get so into their characters. Monday I called in sick due to the bronchitis/kooties I mentioned earlier so that meant I really only had to teach 2 days that week. It's kind of nice when you're sick when you're a teacher because the students (or most of them) are really nice to you & try to behave really well. It's kind of cute. It makes me realize that they CAN be human beings, in fact, and that I have not been unrealistic in my expectations of their behavior all year. It's just nice to see them actually have some sympathy for someone else.........especially if that someone else is me! :)

So, this past week, the 7th - 11th was our spring break. I've had a good break, but, as always, it's gone by WAY too fast! :). The first couple of days of break I mainly spent scrapbooking. I'm proud to say that I got 2 projects finished and started another. Yay! :) I wish I could spend more time doing it, but I always feel guilty when I am down there b/c I get so engrossed in it that I'm there for hours!!!

Monday night my parents came down & looked at a van from Nick. They went to dinner afterwards so Jake & I met up with them & Jakey had some apple pie & chocolate milk.

Tuesday we just hung out here and did a little shopping. We got Heather a couple of gifts for Mother's Day and did some errands for me.

Wednesday Heather picked up Jake at 11. Before she came, we worked on painting the birdhouse Jake got for her for Mother's Day. It's looking good so far! I had class from 7:30-10, I hate this class, it's terrible.

Thursday: I didn't do much of anything. I went to sign some paperwork at the RESA for city taxes to be deducted and to buy my 5 years retirement for teachers. That way I can retire when I'm 50 (YAY!) with full benefits & $3000 a month. What a plan. I can't wait.

I also spent a TON of time looking at real estate. Not that Nick & I are moving soon, but I really WANT to move to our dream house. It seems like it's so impossible though, sometimes. If you're interested in seeing the houses we liked, you can check out this website where I compiled a bunch of listings.
http://www.google.com/notebook/public/13632285951541484305/BDSD6IgoQ577XxpMj?hl=en
The thing about a house right now is that we could get an AWESOME house + land (we'd love to have 5 acres or so) for so cheap. The downside is that we probably won't get what we paid out of our house. But I'm trying to convince myself that what we'd SAVE on the great deal of a bigger house outweighs what we might lose on this one. I just worry that if we have a baby (or babies) here, we'll be so crammed & have no space at all. I think that with the first baby, Nick & I will relocate to the upstairs & baby will get our room. That's my idea anyway. I don't know what Nick thinks! :)

Friday: I picked up Jakey from Heather at 11. We did some errands, including buying Shredded Wheat from Walgreens for my daddy (the only cereal the stubborn man will eat!!!), picking up a pizza for lunch, and going to the bank to deposit Nick's checks. After those errands, we headed up to Mary's house for the afternoon so Jake could play with Joseph & so we could see Mary's baby goats. She has 5 babies & they are sooooo cute! One they are actually keeping in the house, in a kennel because it was sooo tiny when she was born. It's the cutest thing, she like hops around & kicks her feet out, it's hilarious. After we left Mary's, we stopped at Amanda & Ryan's so Jake could see Oscar, their new puppy. Jake LOVED him, just like I thought he would & it was hard to pull Jake away from him. He wanted to take Oscar home with us! We got home & I'm worn out! :) It was a fun day, though. I enjoy hanging out with Mary & Jake & Joseph love to see each other, so I'm always happy when they can hang out, too.

Saturday (today): We met Amanda, Ryan, Eli, & Joseph at the mall for lunch. A&R are watching E&J while Mary & Joe are out of town for the weekend. (They are expecting their 3rd son in May & always try to take a weekend away together before the new baby comes.) We had lunch together then took the 3 boys to Chuck E Cheese's for a little bit to play. They had a blast. Eli was a cutey-patootie and I took him around most of the time. I even had to change a diaper..........wow, it's a been a while since I've done that! Poor kid was probably thinking, will this girl hurry up, I'm getting bored!
Jake & I just got back from feeding the animals at my school & watering the greenhouse. Now he's watching the Incredibles & I'm doing the homework I"ve put off all this week..............Actually, I'm blogging & NOT doing my homework. I'm so bad!

Tomorrow's plans are to go to church in the morning, drop off Jakey, and then I'm not sure what else. Tomorrow is my 26th birthday & for some reason I'm just really not feeling it at all. There isn't really anything that I want or need. I think maybe I"ll just try to go out to lunch/dinner to Red Lobster or something tomorrow with Nick. Other than that, there isn't much else I want to do. I'm kind of over my whole birthday this year. It snuck up too fast on me & I'm just not into it for some reason. Maybe because 26 isn't a spectacular age or something, I don't really know!

Well, I warned you that this would be a long one. But, now I'm finished. Hopefully next time I will post more frequently so that the posts are shorter! :)

Ahhhh, PD Days!

Today was a county-wide professional development day for my school.

I got a free breakfast & lunch.

That was just about the only positive thing of the day.

We were there to hear a speaker on Rick DuFour's "Whatever It Takes" philosophy.

Her ideas were helpful, but nothing that I haven't already read, heard, and studied.

She did give me some hand-out / form type papers that will be easy to fill in when we work on ideas at my school, so I guess that was also positive.

However, it's always so frustrating talking with people I work with about changing anything at our school. You'd think that with such a small staff (6 teachers, 2 support staff, 1 counselor, an intervention specialist, and a principal) that we'd be able to really come to an agreement on things and get stuff in motion, but that NEVER (or almost never) happens.

Some people participate and voice ideas. Some ideas other people like & we run with them. Other ideas people don't like & those ideas kind of get moved past.

Some people get super offended if their idea isn't LOVED when they first voice it. Other people, just shrug it off and listen openly to other ideas.

Some people get angry and refuse to participate any more. Other people continue to try to work through the struggles of improving a school that already has so much unfinished business.

No matter what the topic, it never seems to be re-visited or completed and it is a very frustrating process altogether.

Some people are new to the school & haven't yet seen how little follow-through actually does take place in our building.

Other people have been around for a few years & have kind of a "jaded" view of the process. It's sad to think that after only 3 years of teaching, after only 3 years of working in this building, I feel burnt out sometimes when I have to collaborate with some of the colleagues I am asked to work with.

My position on the whole process is that we're a small school and we should be able to incorporate change often & easily. If we were in a larger school, changes would NEVER be seen! Yet, when placed in this unique opportunity, no one seems to want to experiment with change. I also feel that since we are so small, we need to speak respectfully towards one another. I think you can voice an opinion without insulting someone or a group of someones. I think you should be able to feel comfortable enough with our small staff to share your true feelings, but that you should do that in a professional manner where your emotions (whether passionate, pissy, or other) are left out. No change will be accepted if you insult the people who would be implementing it.........

..............Just my soap box, I'll get off now! :)

New Names

1. YOUR ROCK STAR NAME:(first pet, current car)
Bear Nitro (that's pretty awesome!)

2.YOUR GANGSTA NAME: (fav ice cream flavor, favorite type of shoe)
Chocolate Nike

3. YOUR NATIVE AMERICAN NAME: (favorite color, favorite animal):
Blue Turtle

4. YOUR SOAP OPERA NAME: (middle name, city where you were born in)
Lynn Port Huron

5. YOUR STAR WARS NAME: (the first 3 letters of your last name, first 2 of your first name)
Ricje (WOAH!)

6. SUPERHERO NAME: (The 2nd favorite color, favorite drink)
Red Coffee

7. NASCAR NAME: (the first names of your grandfathers)
Joseph Ralph

8. STRIPPER NAME: ( the name of your favorite perfume/cologne/scent, favorite candy):
Cashmere Mist Chocolate (pretty sexy!!!)

10. TV WEATHER ANCHOR NAME: (5th grade teacher’s last name, a major city that starts with same letter):
Crowell Chicago

11. SPY NAME: (your favorite season/holiday, flower):
Fall Calla

12. CARTOON NAME: (favorite fruit, article of clothing you’re wearing right now)
Strawberry Fleece

BRRRRRRR!

It is DEFINITELY cold outside. As I sit at my computer and look out the window, I see Jack Frost's handiwork......a sure signal of two things: #1 that my windows upstairs are TERRIBLE and #2 that it's VERY cold outside! :)

A few minutes ago I read another person's blog on here. It was truly inspiring to me. If you have some time & feel like reading, click to this site & read through some of her posts. It's a very humbling blog. If you click on the link on the left hand side about how they lost their oldest daughter, you'll be hooked, too. It just really humbles me to read about the trials in someone else's life, especially after feeling as if my own life was not so wonderful. Today, after reading this woman's blog, I am brought back to the reality of how easy my life is right now.

On another note.........My brother-in-law's birthday was Wednesday! Happy Birthday Joe! We met up at the Carsonville Bar (the only bar in town!) and listened to a cd he & my other B-I-L, Ryan, put together, we ate food, and just hung out and had a nice, enjoyable, low-key evening. I really like these types of get-togethers. I'm kind of out of the loud, smoky, club phase. I really enjoy just hanging out with good food and good people in a comfy place. (Even if the C-Ville bar wasn't exactly comfy since they didn't turn on the heat until we got there, and then the waitress mistook the heat for the ac. Fun!)

Today Nick & I hung around the house with Jake until noon or so. We filled out his Valentines (Cars, of course!), brushed our dogs, did some laundry, played video games, and then we took him back to his mom's. Then Nick & I got some groceries and some taco bell for lunch. Right now, I'm supposed to be getting my stuff ready for school tomorrow, but I'm unmotivated. Just don't feel like doing it! This week will be a short week since we have Friday off for Mid-Winter break. We also have next Monday off & Tuesday is a Prof. Development day, so we won't have students, which is always nice. This is terrible, but I"m really looking forward to this school year being over. I have a long ways to go!

This week I get to hang out with my friend, Lisa, whom I haven't seen since before Christmas! She recently got a new job, which I'm very excited for her about. She's been submitting applications EVERYWHERE imaginable for the past 2.5 years and she's FINALLY gotten a job that she deserves. Someone is finally lucky enough to be able to use her exceptional talents. I'm so happy for her! :)

Well, it's now almost 6:00 and I still haven't done my school work. I should really go be a good girl now. Bah! Maybe we'll have a "Cold" day tomorrow like we had last school year when the wind-chill was so cold! :) That would be lovely! :)

No Snow Day for Me! =(

There are only a few things I really dislike about the school I work for and today is a PRIME example of one of those things.......

The only way I ever get a snow day is if all of the school districts in my county cancel school for the day. If even ONE district is open, we have to report to my school. Even if that one district only sends my school 2 students for the ENTIRE day. EVEN THEN!

This is exactly what happened today. Please, Algonac, disregard the 10 inches of snow you see on the ground. Look the other way as you see multiple cars, buses, trucks, etc. slide into the ditch. Ignore the fact that almost 1/2 of your students didn't show up to your school today because their parents thought it was RIDICULOUS that you did not cancel school. And PLEASE, send my school 2 of your students so that I can provide them with some "quality" education on this snowy day. The quality education that I provided to these two students was to hang black paper from my windows to block out the incredibly bright light from the MOUNTAINS of snow outside. How very wonderful. I'm sure the lesson they learned today with me will forever remain engrained on their brains..................DO NOT COME TO THE ATA WHEN ALL OTHER DISTRICTS ARE CANCELLLED. MRS. RICHMOND MAKES YOU DO CRUMMY CHORES THAT NO ONE ELSE WILL DO FOR HER! :)


Ah, the "teachable moments" of life!

SuperBowl!

So some of you might hate me for this, but I'm actually happy that the Patriots didn't win the SuperBowl. I was kind of secretly rooting for the Giants just because they hadn't won since like 2000 & the Patriots had won more recently. Other than that reasoning in itself, I had no passion, one way or another, for who won the game. I hadn't been following any of the teams, so it wasn't a big deal to me. However, I did enjoy watching the game.

Nick & I went over to our friends' house: Steve & Melissa. They have a little boy, Carsyn, who was just the most adorable thing EVER when we were over there. He's a very cute little guy! My favorite part of the night was when I went out to the kitchen to get some chili & Carsyn followed me. I heard the cat, Zoe, make this weird sound and when I looked down, Carsyn had lifted the cat by its tail. It was insanse, funny, poor cat, silly boy, ouch!, and many more running through my head at the same time, but all I could do was laugh to myself & tell him he should put her down. Poor cat!

I didn't plan to stay for the entire game........I like to get my sleep!, but the food was yummy and I was having a lot of fun just hanging out with my hubby & our 2 friends, so we ended up staying through the end. We left right away afterwards, though, because I do need a DECENT amount of sleep before work!

One final thing before I close this post..........I have to say that the commercials were not as hilarious as in previous years and that the halftime show was rather disappointing. No wardrobe malfunctions or anything..........not that I want to see anything like that on Tom Petty, but you know, at least it's some drama! :) In fact, the halftime show was so disappointing, that we actually flipped to the "PUPPY BOWL" on Animal Planet and were more entertained by little dogs running around humping & fighting each other. (Now that should be an indication of how bad the 1/2-time show was!!!) My students are all geeked up about the SuperBowl today in school. They can't stop talking about it and a lot of them are agreeing that the commercials were mediocre, at best.

Well, I'm off for now. Gotta go teach those young minds! :) (But first, LUNCH!)

Back to school BOOOOOOOOOOOO!

So today was my first day back to work. It really sucked. I just kept thinking of all of the lovely things I didn't get time to do on my vacation.

Yes, I know it's greedy and selfish to be wishing that I had more than the 8 days off that I did have, but I do, nonetheless.

Over my vacation, I didn't get as much done as I had hoped. I did get a lot of lessons done for the next few weeks and I did a bunch of grading, & caught up on some educational reading material that I had, but I should have done more so that I was prepared ahead! :)

Also, I scrapped a little bit. Not as much as I had wanted to. My favorite part of being home all day was being able to have my house spick-and-span all the time! I'm a neat freak and I hate having the house a mess with clutter all over. It makes me anxious & drives me crazy! :) When I was home, I'd have the table cleared, the floors swept, the laundry done, the bed washed, the dishes washed, etc. I loved it! :) (How lame.....I'm excited at how clean I kept my house. Geesh!)

I had a fun NYE with my sisters & B-I-Ls. We played Catch Phrase and had some yummy food & drinks. Jake stayed at Nick's mom's for the night. He had a good time, too.

Tomorrow is another day of work. And then I get a weekend. YAY! Whoever thought of going back to school on a THURSDAY was not in a sane state of mind. The kids were terrible & they will be tomorrow too because it's Friday & that's just what they do on Fridays..............go C-R-A-Z-Y! :)

Well, I'm off to work out a bit since I'm home early and didn't work out at all on my days off (I shoveled snow a couple times, so I count that a work-out!). After that I'm going to scrap for a while. Unless I sit down in front of the tv and zonk out for the night. (Very likely, right baby???)

Happy New Year everyone!!!