Full Circle

Wow, what a school year (or at least 3/4 of one). I can't believe that today is my last day of teaching high schoolers for hopefully a long time. It's funny thinking about how at the beginning of the year for a few days before school started I cried a ton. I was feeling miserable already and not sure I could handle teaching. I was sick a lot, exhausted and completely unsure of my ability to teach and be pregnant. But, by of the grace and strength of God I actually handled it. It hasn't been easy waking up every morning and throwing up, giving patience to my students, and believing God knows what is best for me. But it has been good. I by no means think my discomforts are worse or unique to anyone else. But, God used them to teach me some lessons this year. I better understand what it means to have God by my side supporting me. I also thank God everyday for the wonderful husband he has given me. Matt has served me with much enthusiasm and joy over these last several months. And now, here we are one month before our first child is born. I'm feeling blessed, emotional, excited about my new career and grieving the end of an era. I cannot wait to stay home with my baby. I am 100% sure that God has called me to this place, but today is a day of closure too. Things have gone full circle and now I keep fighting back tears and will probably cry a lot this weekend. I am so thankful for how God has molded me and used me as a teacher and because of this great experience I will shed some tears. But I'm ready and I'm excited to move on to the next great adventure!

March Madness

The craziness of the college basketball march madness has begun.  Of the 10 brackets I did, I've already lost my chance at a perfect bracket on all of them.  Oh well.

Here is my bracket entry in Yahoo! Sports: http://tournament.fantasysports.yahoo.com/t1/1062963.

And here is Anne's bracket: http://tournament.fantasysports.yahoo.com/t1/207080.

You'll notice that Anne is currently doing better than me.  She is smart.

The Bathroom

As my pregnancy and days as a high school teacher are winding down I've been thinking a lot about the plethora of time I've spent in the bathroom lately. I really don't mind going to the bathroom a lot unless I'm at work or sometimes when I'm sleeping. Most nights I get up at least 4 times and half the time I feel like I'm stuck so it just takes me a while to maneuver my body our of bed. Other than that I wander aimlessly to the toilet, go, and wander back to bed where I usually quickly fall back asleep. But its the times spent in my school bathroom that I just want to curse the fact that my baby is sitting on, kicking, and sometimes I'm convinced somehow squeezing my bladder. The 5 main reasons I hate my school bathroom are...

1. It is dirty (even dirtier than the bathroom at my house that I keep putting off cleaning).

2. It smells like sewage thanks to the not so wonderful system at my school.

3. I can't help but fart when I pee these days so when students are in there I admit I'm a little embarrassed.

4. If I have to go twosies, I have to go right then. Because with pregnancy also comes constipation so I work hard and take a little more time than usual in my stall. This can also lead to more embarrassing moments.

5. High school girls love to put on make-up, gossip, text message (against school rules), and look in the mirror for very very long periods of time in the bathroom. That is just plain annoying.

On a positive note though, I have been privileged to witness several pre-schoolers doing funny things in the bathroom lately. One of the classes at our school is the high schoolers run a preschool for area kids. Today one of said preschoolers was in the bathroom and wandered out of the stall with his pants down (pretty normal). The high school girl accompanying him said, "pull your pants up." Then he proceeded to say very loudly with a laugh, "you pull up your pants." You gotta love preschool humor.

35 Weeks

I have lots to report this week. I'm so excited because our nursery is finally ready to go. Now we just need a baby and that's going to be here sooner than I think. Only 5 weeks left!!

This Saturday we went to an all day class at our hospital about childbirth and it was pretty good. I was really really anxious about it going into it. Somehow I was under the impression that we would be spending 6 hours learning about everything that could go wrong and watching gross videos. That was totally not it. We learned about what labor could/would be like, breathing methods, epidurals, IV's and the like. Although, I didn't really watch the videos they weren't that disgusting. I have watched a lot worse ones on the internet to prepare myself for the ones they would make us watch at our class. I'm really glad that we went and I feel a little more prepared. I've pretty much decided not to think about childbirth again until I'm in labor though:)

My parents came over on Sunday and set up the crib and we got the nursery all ready to go. I feel like we could have our baby anytime and we'd be ready. She needs to stay inside me for just a little while longer though.

Today was the first day of my last week of teaching. I actually almost cried once but after leaving the basement with no windows and seeing how nice it was out today I didn't really feel sad about spending my spring not teaching. I hope to be able to get outside and walk a lot before and soon after Grace is born.

The dresser/changing table with the shelf my Grandpa made for me when I was little.

Close up of the shelf. It's so perfect for this room.

Me with the beautiful crib my Dad made. I can't wait to use it. I know we might have to move it away from the window when Grace can reach the drapes but I like it here for now.

New Niece and Last Shower

Matt and our niece Jenna

We started our weekend on Saturday by hearing from Matt's brother and his wife that their new baby was born at 6:25 in the morning. Since we were already going to visit Matt's family this weekend it was perfect timing to meet our new niece on the day she was born. She is so beautiful and it was fun to hold and see a brand new baby. It was a little bit of a reality check for us and made me think a lot more about the day Grace will be born. We can't wait for Grace and our neice Jenna to spend time together and become friends over the years:)

Matt's mom and us at the shower

Sunday afternoon some women from Matt's home church threw a shower for us. It was wonderful. So many people that Matt has know since he was little were able to attend and blessed us with too much stuff. This was our last shower and it is amazing to think about how much people were willing to give to help us prepare for Grace. We do not have to buy much ourselves and we really appreciate it.

A Place for Grace

I totally stole the title for this post from my mom's blog with the same picture:) I also stole the picture off of her blog too. O well, I'm just so excited to show off the new crib that my Dad made for Grace. I love it!! I can't wait until they can bring it over sometime next week.

33 Weeks

Headless 33 weeks shot:)

Only 7 weeks to go! I'm so excited to meet Grace and so scared of giving birth to her. I just sit and look at people and remind myself that we were all born. Every time I see a baby I think that baby was born and I can do this. Grace has been moving around a lot these days and it's fun to feel her strong movements. Although I do get up a lot to pee, she has yet to wake me up at night. I'm either really tired at night or Grace is already getting into her routine so she can start sleeping through that night as soon as the doctor says she won't starve. Also, I just read that she is over 4 pounds now!

I'm also dealing with winding down at school. I can't believe how soon I will start my maternity leave. I am officially done on March 20th. It worked out nicely that is when our spring break starts and then when its time to go back I'll be 37 weeks so I just decided to start my leave. I'll take a little time without pay but I think my feet will thank me. I also just told my principal that I am not coming back next year. I almost cried but it was nice to let him know my plans and just communicate to him why I'm not coming back. I guess his wife stayed home with their kids for a while too so he was very receptive of the decision. So, I only have 12 days left in my high school teaching career (at least for a while). I calculated I've probably spent over 1000 days teaching. I'm very excited to be moving on to the next stage but I will have to greive the end of something that God lead me too for the past 5 years and despite some of the low times I have truly enjoyed and been blessed by.

Some of our family friends threw a shower for me this past weekend and it was so fun. Most of the women there have known me since I was in my mother's womb. It was neat to be able to celebrate with them. My sister and 2 other friends were the only other ones from our generation who were able to make it to the shower. Grace got tons of adorable clothes, blankets, and a very useful high chair! I can't wait for her to join us at the dinner table. My sister made a quilt as did my mom so those were both really fun to receive. Check out pictures and how my mom made the quilt here.

Enjoy the pics from the last week...

Teresa and me at my shower.

The crib my dad is building in pieces. It is getting really close to done!!!