New Year = New Look

I've been bored with the way our blog looks for a little while now but haven't been motivated to make it look different. After spending 3 days cleaning, organizing, and rearranging some stuff in our house to make room for a baby I decided to update the look of our blog too. Plus I don't want to mess anything up in our house so I've confined myself to the computer. So if you're a google reader person check out our actual blog sometime. I changed the background just a bit and made a new pregnancy ticker. If you visit the actual blog I hope you enjoy the look. And I hope Matt doesn't think its too girly but if he wants more say in it he needs to blog more often:)

I also decided to post some of my goals for this year too.

My New Year's Resolutions...
1. Gain 15 pounds
2. Switch careers from high school teacher to stay at home mom
3. Survive childbirth

I think that's enough to think about for now.

24 Weeks

I can't believe how quickly things are moving in this pregnancy. Now that Christmas is over I can officially get into baby mode. I can start organizing more, thinking about and actually putting together our nursery and just preparing my life in general for having a little one around. One of the more serious things I need to do is spend more time with God. I've already noticed that the highs and lows (more oftens lows) of this pregnancy have bitten away some of my normal quality time with Him. But the thing is, I(we) want to raise our children in a way that is honoring to God and teach them how to love God too. To do that I need to be depending on God and committed to spending my time with God. I have a feeling motherhood is going to be a lot more distracting than pregnancy so I need to be keeping good habits now:)

Here are a couple pictures from today.

My Grandma picked out this cute music jewelry box for me for Christmas with a picture frame on top. I decided to make it a box for the baby's room. (This is officially my first piece for the nursery.)

Here is my 24 week belly shot and me modeling my new pillow. I have 4 pillows that I sleep with every night and I really wanted one of these cool pregnancy pillows, but I didn't want to spend the cash to get one. So I dug out some fabric that I got on sale for Matt a while ago and my mom made the pillow for me for about 20% of the cost of buying one.

My Pedometer

One of my favorite presents this Christmas was my pedometer from Matt. I've been wanting one so I can keep track of how much I walk everyday. I am not doing very good at exercising during pregnancy so I thought counting my steps might help motivate me. So here are the results so far. Don't worry I won't post them all the time but I thought Christmas season was amusing.

12/24: 2462 steps = 1.08 miles
12/25: 1148 steps = 0.50 miles
12/26: 1085 steps = 0.47 miles
12/27: 2797 steps = 1.23 miles
12:28: 1037 steps = 0.45 miles
12/29: 7584 = 3.35 miles

I did a lot better today than the last few days but my feet hurt like crazy now. I think the baby weight is starting to get to my feet. And I'm still going to get a lot bigger:)

5 Days of Christmas

We had a wonderful Christmas holiday and spent 5 days in 5 places celebrating with friends and family. I'll give a quick rundown with a few pictures.


Christmas Eve, Day 1: We woke up in the morning and opened our gifts to each other. Later that night we went to Christmas Eve church service in a barn. It was really cold but a really neat experience. We went to dinner at a delicious Chinese restaurant with some of our church friends after that.

Our friend from church enjoying Chinese food. It was soo good:)

Christmas Day, Day 2: We drove to Matt's aunt's house and spent the day with extended family eating delicious Christmas Ham.

Day 3: Woke up at Matt's parents' house to eggs benedict and opened presents with his family. Then we had Christmas ham again for lunch and lazed around all afternoon.

Me, Matt, Rachel, Joshua, Jared and Yvonne after opening all our presents.

Day 4: Woke up at my parents' house opened presents and then had monkey bread and egg casserole for breakfast. Then we had spare ribs that my dad grilled for lunch. Yummy.

My sister Laura and her husband Brett wearing their new hats.

Day 5: Woke up at my parents house and went to church with them. Then we drove to my grandparents had steak for lunch and opened presents.

Basically we ate, laid around and opened presents for 5 days straight. Not bad.

Merry Christmas

"For to us a child is born,
to us a son is given,
and the government will be on his shoulders.
And he will be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

 Of the increase of his government and peace
there will be no end.
He will reign on David's throne
and over his kingdom,
establishing and upholding it
with justice and righteousness
from that time on and forever.
The zeal of the LORD Almighty
will accomplish this." -- Isaiah 9:6-7

A manger.  A freakin' manger.  Of all the places to show up in this world, that's where God decides to make His "grand entrance."  And to think that thirty-some years later, He makes His most memorable mark on a wooden cross at His own execution.  It's not what I would have picked out for the plans for God coming down to earth.  I would have given him a golden crib at birth and a millionaire mansion as a retirement home.  

Thankfully, God doesn't fit into my feeble plans or follow an expected path; God's ways are higher than my ways (Isaiah 55:9).  Finally, after enough frustration and attempts of controlling my life, I'm learning that at times when things seem the most unexpected or the most out-of-place (like in a manger in a stable), it is there when I can see God most clearly.  I'm tired of looking for God in the ways I want to see Him -- in my plans, on my time schedule.  Now I'm starting to look for Him in the ways that He wants to show Himself (Isaiah 17:7-8), even if it's inconvenient or if I'm not in control.

Yes, Christmas is a great day because of great food, family, and sometimes great presents; but more than that, it is a great day because it reminds me that God always has a plan, even if it happens to be different than my own.  And as I'm figuring out, God's plans are always better than mine anyway.  In math terms: God's plans > my plans. 

Merry Christmas!!!!

P.S.  If you're looking for something to do on Christmas Day at 4pm, please tune in to ABC to watch world-class basketball as the Lakers take on the Celtics.  You will thank me later.

22 Weeks

Here are a couple pictures of my belly progress in the last week and a half. I really don't feel like I'm growing but when I look at pictures I'm convinced otherwise. Nothing really new to report in the pregnancy. Everything seems the same, I'm gaining weight and I'm feeling hungry:)

I decided I needed a Christmas tree belly picture so here I am in front of the tree.

My friend Kortny (due April 5th) and I. She is also expecting a girl so we are super excited to let our little ones play together and force best friendship upon them:)

Final Exams

Ah, the last 2 days before break in complete silence. What a treat. I always love that we have finals right before Christmas break and I have to force the kids to be quiet. They are generally pretty burnt out too so they're subdued. Anyway, I always let the kids fill out a notecard for the final with important formulas and such. The best notecard I've ever seen is one I got today...

"You will do good on this test. Focus. Stop tapping your pencil. This is your last final of the first day. Your going to pass. Your going to pass. Your going to pass. Oh yea tie your shoes.

10x^3-40x
10x(x+2)(x-2)"

This notecard was not edited for spelling errors. The kid will do fine on the test and is doing fine in the class overall, but I loved the pep talk he gave himself.

Competition

A few of my students have been having a friendly competition playing the game Brickbreaker on their cellphones. I guess all Blackberry cellphones have this game so when my students found out I was a proud owner of a Blackberry (just the phone and not the fancy Blackberry services) they convinced me to try out the game. So, I tried it a couple times and thought it was ok. I'm not really into playing electronic games so I'm not very good at it but it wasted some time. Anyway, my students decided to keep track of high scores on my chalkboard. Here are the results so far....

BRICKBREAK HIGH SCORES*

1. Ethan - 30,170

2. Austin - 27,090

3. Aaron - 25,980

4. Mrs. Ahrens - 910

Ummmm, I have a long way to go! Yikes!

*I never let the students play Brickbreaker in class. It is just a place to record their high scores.

21 Weeks

Well last week we reached the halfway point in pregnancy. I can't believe how quickly things are flying by. It seems like every week there is something new to think about and learn about how our baby is developing. I'm amazed at how God grows these tiny little people. I am really excited about Christmas this year and can't help but think ahead to having Christmas with a baby next year. But then I get overwhelmed with all that has to be done to prepare for a baby to arrive in our house so I decide to just enjoy the stage I'm in now:)

Time for the FAQ section...

1. Have you decided on a name?

We feel very emotionally attached to the name Grace . The middle name that we are strongly leaning towards is Elizabeth but I'm not sure that we've made a final decision on that yet. I feel pretty confident we'll sitck with Grace as we've been calling my stomach that for at least a week now. So feel free to call my belly Grace. We love the meaning of the word grace - unmerited favor and love of God.

2. Have you had any new or weird pregnancy symptoms?

Not really. I still get sick some mornings and feel ok the rest of the time. I'm just convinced I will get sick in the mornings off and on throughout the whole pregnancy. O well. I've also had a little bit of heartburn which is annoying but nothing compared to how I felt before.

3. Have you registered yet?

I'm feeling at a loss regarding this topic. We are planning on registering because we know that it is helpful for people who want to buy us gifts. And we really really appreciate that people want to do that for us. But I just don't know where to start. I checked out a book from the library called Baby Bargains and have talked with a couple people who have recently gone through the process but it is confusing. Most of the time I think stuff is uneccessary but that's because I don't have a baby right now and it would be silly to have a high chair for Matt or me. I have to wrap my brain around what I need for a baby. If you have any suggestions as to what NOT to register for let me know. I just don't want excess junk around my house.

Stack The Memory

Welcome to my world.

Cost of Living

If you're interested in moving or you just are curious how much you'd need to make in your current profession in another town to maintain your current standard of living check out this website...

http://www.payscale.com/cost-of-living-calculator

It's kind of fun to see the differences in cost of living in different cities around the country.

Thank You IDOT

After the gloomy day with not so favorable driving conditions yesterday I was thrilled to drive to school on clear roads this morning. I just want to say thank you to the Illinois Department of Transportation for working hard to clean my roads. What a great use of tax dollars.

My favorite website during the winter is IDOT - Winter Road Conditions. It is a great source concerning the state of county roads and interstates.