Back in the swing of things

School is starting again soon.

In some ways it is too soon -  I love spending time with the kids and I will probably be very teary the first day without Aiden and Carly. Thank goodness it will be an inservice day.

In some ways it is going to be glorious - I am NOT the stay-at-home-mom type.

Back up, did she just say "thank goodness for an inservice day?"

Yeah, I did, I would much rather cry in front of other moms that get it, than in front of my students on the first day of school.

Who am I kidding, my students all know I am ubber emotional.

So while I am getting back in the swing of things. My kids are too. Here are a couple pictures of Carly, Aiden and I swinging together. Finding myself on this side of the camera is strange.

 

 

Almost Done

Baby T's room is almost done! As I type I am at home waiting on the carpet guys, then off to a doctor appointment and when I return Cody will be home and we will begin putting everything in her room. He and so many of our friends have worked so hard to get it all done. Cody was up until 11:30 last night painting the trim so we would be ready for the carpet guys. Pictures of the room together and all the trim painted will be up soon.

Again - Thank you Drew for your construction skills. This is the ceiling after he textured it.



And the walls after he patched them as well as the closet ready for it's new door.



Good bye icky blue!


Thank you Nicole for painting!


THE DOOR! Thank you to Seth for help with the door.


And since there aren't any parts I can do to help with the room...I decorated for Christmas!

School nesting

Apparently nesting is a part of pregnancy...one that my husband has long awaited. However, with Baby T's room in a state of construction and all of the shower gifts and office paraphernalia in the kitchen and living room there is little incentive to nest there. So I have been nesting at school...which drives the students crazy.

They like the old me. The " It'll be okay until tomorrow...." "A little dirt never hurt anybody...." "Don't worry about it, cooking is messy, we'll clean it up when we're done...." kind of teacher I am.

The "nesting" me sounds more like this "If I see one more spec of anything on the floor we will not cook the rest of the semester...." " Today we are not taking notes (insert cheers and applause) we are reorganizing the cabinets (insert groans)..." "Clean the flour up please...I know you will probably get more on the floor in a minute but clean it up now..." "Who wants extra credit? Pull out the refrigerator and stoves and clean them...."

It's getting a little ridiculous when the custodian sweeps and there isn't anything there! Hope there is some of this energy left when Baby T's room is done!

Baby Room Part 1

So we have begun our first big house project together - Remodel Baby T's room. It has mostly been one of Cody's projects because I am not much help these days and there are some things I'm not good at or at least not up to his standards and that is okay because we both want it done right.

It began like this, with my piles of "stuff" everywhere.








Then there was the demolition, he is ripping the framing from the closet.



Yes, he is putting the trash through the window....better than tracking it through my nice clean house.



So manly when he's ripping out sheetrock



Thanks for mudding the sheetrock Drew!!



There are some things my husband is better at supervising than doing.




Part 2 is soon to come.

Angry legs

My legs are angry with me...too much standing *cramp*, too much sitting *cramp*, too much sleep all curled up warm and cozy next to my husband with out Baby T kicking hard enough to wake me up *Charlie Horse cramp*

Bananas, water, Tylenol, plenty of iron, extra vitamin, alternating walking and sitting in 15-30 minute rotations during the day. Nothing helps, suggestions??

Oh well, if the most horrible thing I go through until "Labor Day" is leg cramps I can totally deal!

At least the toes at the ends of my angry legs look really great. (Thanks to my awesome hubby...he did a fabulous job!)

Pump it up!

This is my "milking machine" as Grandpa Cope so lovingly puts it. The best part...it's from him! He's also pleased that I'm already "leaking"...not that we have had a sit down conversation about this or anything, but I talked to Mom about it and she told the Aunts and well, now the whole family knows, so why not THE INTERNETS too?!?!

"Why is he pleased," you may ask? Because Grandpa Cope always likes to compare things to farming and what is better on a farm than a good ole momma cow with plenty of milk? I personally think there are lots of things better, but it is nice to know that I should be able to feed Baby T right from the beginning.

I couldn't handle bed rest

Went to the doctor yesterday because I work up with a sore throat and pesky cough...usually I would have waited a couple of days but due to the ridiculous amounts of Strep at school and the babyness, I thought it might be best to just make an appointment. Oh yeah...AND the fact that the day before I was in Topeka visiting a friend with a newborn!!

Thankfully it is not Strep and I am not contagious. Doctor told me to stay home today from school so that I am fully recovered. I am so glad that bed rest is not in my foreseeable future because two days on the couch (sick or not!) is driving me crazy.

All I can think about are the things at school I could be doing as well as the mountain of stuff in the spare room I need to sort and organize.

Speaking of spare room it is beginning to become Baby T's room...we got a crib

It moved

So Baby T has been moving every day for about 5 days now which is good, I think. I am 20 weeks so it's about time for this. Felt Baby T at about 18 weeks for the first time and only spiratically since then.

Yesterday Baby T was moving LOTS, probably doing flips and somersaults and who knows what else but it was making me nauseous. First thought "Sit down and hold still for a little while!" Second Thought "Oh no!! I've turned into MY MOTHER!"

Cody is excited for Baby T to kick hard enough for him to feel...me not so much except that it will make him feel good. I think he feels left out.

Cody is also excited for when "nesting" kicks in because the house is a total wreck! Most of the summer has been spent napping, eating, mowing and gardening...not house cleaning.

More forgetful....

What is worse than being super forgetful? Being more forgetful. I am going to have to start up with the white board marker on the mirror again. Here is a list of the things I have forgotten in the past week alone.

1. Why I went in ________ room.
2. To pee when I was in the bathroom.
3. To feed the dog.
4. To feed myself (didn't forget this for long).
5. To go to my Grandma's house (had a melt down when I called her and apologized like a drunken sorority girl at the bar that just threw up on her self...she laughed at me.)
6. To schedule next doctor's appointment.
7. That my cousin was home from Iraq. (he walked in the door at my mom's to get his daughter and I had a "just saw a ghost" moment)
8. To take the clothes off the line. (they were there for 3 days)
9. Where I parked my car at the fair grounds. (The WOODSON COUNTY FAIR GROUNDS!)
10. Why the timer was going off. (Thank goodness Cody remembered supper was in there)

This is the most irritating part of pregnancy so far. I feel like a really emotionally unstable Alzheimer's patient....Cody thinks I'm crazy.

Gaining weight

So I was a little sick in the begining but more than that I just plain wasn't hungry...which is strange if you remember all the times I forgot we were having dinner at someone elses house and ate at Clovia, then ate again wherever we ended up.

Then I got sick (ill) which ended up working well for Tina's bachelorette party since no one expects a sick person to drink, but it was bad because I lost more weight.

Began my pregnancy at 135 and at my last appointment 2 weeks ago I was 126 which means I have finally started gaining some weight since I was hovering around 120-125ish, this is good because the baby is also begining to grow more rapidly. The doctor told me not to worry unless the weight loss continued after the morning sickness was gone.

Since the weight gain has began I hope the energy level starts to increase also...canning should begin this week!

Cloth Diapering

I love the earth. I love conserving the earth and all its wonderful resources so the grand idea was this: If I am home for almost 2 months with a newborn and then Baby T goes to daycare for 4ish months then I am home for a few more I could use cloth diapers for at least the first year then I am making an environmental impact, saving $, and setting a good example!

However there is a lot more to cloth diapering and I am not sure my ADD is up to the challenge, especially with my aversion to laundry.

Cloth diapers have changed A SHIT TON since even we were babies...my mom used them on me during the weekends and nights and then disposables were sent to daycare for daytime...this seems like a good compromise until I looked at the price of today's cloth diapers.

Diaper covers : $15 each, recommended to have 12-20. ($180 - $300)
Diaper inserts: $3 each, recommended to have 30. ($90)

These prices are for the "one size fits all" kind where they are adjustable so you can use them from newborn until potty training. However the single size ones are still around $10 each.

Plus there are a lot of no-no's: No regular diaper rash creams, no regular wash cycles with other types of clothing, must use special soap, some you have to "scotch guard", some you have to remove and change velcro every few months....uhhhhhh.

I am going with disposable...we will see about some cloth diapers next summer... nobody hold your breath.

How did it get there?

So there is a life inside of me....totally random to think about. "How did it get there?" one of my student's little brothers asked me. I simply said "It came in through my belly button" and smiled sweetly.

How did it really get there? Mexico.

As many of you know I went to Mexico on Spring Break with Mom, Sister, The Aunts and a cousin. We stayed with a couple who are snow birds and had a great time ( even after the locals stole our luggage and Mom broke her ankle)

Included in my luggage was that little item I take each and every day. After returning home neither I nor Cody thought much of it until after the deed was done...then a week and a half of wondering, 2 pee sticks later and VIOLA - the hour glass stopped blinking and settled on the word PREGNANT!

I am a Christian and I believe all things are done by the Lord with purpose...but did this have to be so dramatic and involve so many people? I have this image in my mind of Jesus and God looking down at us girls as we step off the plane and Jesus hollers over his shoulder in a comical way "Hey Peter, you better come watch this...she has no idea!"