Her first photos

Here she is! I couldn't get the scanner to work so these are not the best photos (since I used my camera to just take a photo of the photo!). Here is her profile, her nose is pointing to the upper right:
Her tiny arm and hand:

Christmas 2009

Waiting with anticipation for Uncle Derek to open that Bitty Baby box!
Interested in the paper or the Duplos inside or just that finger in her mouth?
In the background: LOVING that Bitty Baby :)
Highlight of the night: a John Deere that the kids can drive! It's a gift for "all" the grandkids to play with at Grandpa and Grandma's house. Someday our little girl will like tractors too. :)
Note: She's STILL loving that Bitty Baby!
Awww... Sibling love!
A great Christmas: a nice cozy fire, and both sisters home from school!
Everyone received Calvin gear from Elizabeth, even Baby Wright!

It's a ...

... girl! I'll post the ultrasound pics soon, but I need to go to bed instead of scanning and uploading pictures right now. :)

I hope everyone had a great Christmas!!

Baby Links

I have had a fun time looking for ways to be crafty and use my sewing machine a little more. I have to still MAKE these things myself, but here are a few projects that I've found already:

baby wrap:

cloth diaper:
How to video 1 and video 2
I actually made one of these already! I'll have to show you mine and how I made it in another post. :)

baby booties:

stuffed giraffe, so cute!
(no picture here - sorry - click the link)

crinkly taggie square:

nursing cover:

diaper clutch:

wet bag:

travel baby wipes:

Other ideas that I've seen but never bookmarked: cloth wipes, changing pad, burp cloth, bibs, and diaper bag/purse. I'm sure I can just search for it and there are always lots of pages that show up!

Not just your ordinary Ceiling Fan

Last week, I was shopping around online to get some ideas before we headed out on our big "date" to get gifts and I searched for ceiling fans at Lowes for my mom. You can buy one for $20. Or you can buy one for $800. At Lowes. And it doesn't come with the blades! It's not even Energy Star certified. But at least it has a lifetime warranty. Wow. I guess if I just had money to throw away, I'd buy it. I mean, everyone wants a ceiling fan without blades, right?

Oh. By the way. This is my blog. I don't have to follow correct grammatical rules if I. don't. want to. I know that my career usually makes me obligated to correct to and too and there and their and its and it's and place commas correctly with conjunctions and use semi-colons if I'd rather connect two independent clauses. But. I dont haf too hear. :)

Welcome to Trimester Two

I am feeling sooo much better. I'm not gagging at the thought or smell of things. I eat more that mac and cheese and crackers. I never thought I'd feel "normal" again, but it is oh so good. I knew I'd turned the corner when I decided to make tacos Monday night and since Derek had just shot and processed a buck last week (Congrats, honey) I made it with venison. He was very surprised to see I had:

• made a meal period
  
• a meal where we would both eat the same thing
  
• a meal that we would eat together at the same TIME
  
• something spicy
• something greasy (kinda, venison is pretty lean)
• something with "deer meat"! :)

Then on Wednesday, I went to our staff Christmas social and there were the typical holiday goodies and punch. There were also meatballs. Now, this was supposed to just be snacks, Hors D'oeuvres (sp?). I took 3 meatballs and sat down. Mmmmm. So good! A little while later one of my colleagues brought a whole plate over FULL of meatballs because the table had dared her to fill a plate up and bring it back for everyone. I grabbed another one and ate it! 5 minutes later, there was still one lone meatball left on the plate down the table getting cold, wishing someone would eat it. You bet. I had them pass it down and snatched it up!

I think I have my appetite back.

Our Gingerbread House

Our first snow day this year was a freebie. The forecast looked bad but the storm ended up coming a day later giving us a second snow day. Since the roads were clear and my niece lives just down the road now I had my sister-in-law drop her off and we had a little Christmas time with just the two of us. She's at such a great age where we can start doing crafts together and I think it's fun for her to do "big kid" stuff and not have her little brother and sister underfoot! I had to quickly assemble it before she came so the icing could set a little before we started decorating. It's really a multi-step process! Here's how our house started out:

Extreme concentration... I love the little tongue sticking out. ;)
We "showcased" our gingerbread house the next weekend when we had a cookie exchange:

Derek's First Buck!

Derek and his friend Jon went hunting with muzzleloaders. Derek hasn't been hunting in a few years now and I think he was just glad to have a gun to borrow, a friend to go with and a chance to use his camouflage again.
I'm glad I snapped a photo of the guys before I headed off to girls' movie night because I came home to one happy hunter! He only sat out there for an hour and a half, that Lucky Dog!
He has 40 pounds of venison in our freezer, a 4 pt. set of antlers on our wall, and just a small scar left over from his "scope bite". Congratulations Derek!

The secret is out!

And what a fun holiday season it was! Some shocked, some not-so-much. :) Who was most surprised and excited?... probably my second graders! Now they remind me all the time: "You DO eat all the time, Mrs. Wright!" and "have you picked out any names yet?"

What a miracle!

That was so NEAT to hear the heart beat yesterday! We first heard my slower thump-a-thump-a-thump and then she found it, a miracle hiding inside of me, with a much faster heart beat thumpthumpthumpthumpthump. Wow. I didn't think a little thumping noise could bring so much joy and excitement (and relief!). It made Derek get right out of his seat and come over with wide eyes and a big smile too. So. Amazing.

We get to hear the heart beat today!

I'm excited. I know. This was how long we were going to wait until we wanted to tell people. (sigh) No more having to keep a secret anymore. Phew. I'm bad at keeping secrets! :)

Thanksgiving will be so fun this year:

"So, what are you thankful for, Julie?"

"Hmm... well, let's see. (giggle, giggle)".

Dear friend or family member,

I'm so sorry...

• that I slammed my laptop closed when you walked in, but I had my weekly pregnancy update on the screen!
• that I didn't want those teachers to observe in my room; I never know when morning sickness will hit and my students are used to me grabbing a chair and sitting down in the middle of a lesson :)
• that I barely helped rake the mountain of leaves at our house. The smell made me dry heave and I was so tired after the first load or two!
• that I made you all move the boxes into my house when I was just in charge of "directing everyone" to the correct room, my lower back hurt just looking at those boxes, baby!
  
• if I lied to you... I had no other way of explaining WHY I couldn't get that flu shot so I just lied and said I got it.
  
• that I had to get someone to cover my class twice, they only have their labs open at lunch and the obgyn is only in at certain times of the day!
  
• I couldn't finish that WONDERFUL meal you made me, I really don't eat big meals anymore due to the boating.
• I'm always eating when I'm talking to you on the phone... I'm just always hungry!
  
• I make you find every bathroom when we're shopping, I really do have to GO!
• I have not worked out with you at MVP in a long time, something about nausea and lack of energy just turns me off
  
• it took me 2 whole weeks to recover from the Swine Flu, I really was very sick... something about a weaker immune system... :) Man, I'm glad that's over!
  
• I never connected with you right away when you returned to the USA after 2 months... I KNEW you would ask me and I can't lie to you!
  
• I poured half the drink you gave me down the drain while you were out of the room, I knew you'd notice if I didn't drink it! (the other half was great to sip on though!)
• I looked like I didn't like that wine you served us. It was sooo good! Derek enjoyed drinking mine though. :)
  

Thank you for...

• not insisting on toasting with champagne right there when we got our new house
• carrying all those boxes into my house for me
• helping to rake the leaves and lending us the leaf blower!
• making homemade chicken soup when I was sick
• not complaining when I canceled on you for the birthday party and not asking why I don't call as often
• not asking where the baby's room would be, I would've blushed!
  
• saying you care but not pressing for more info when I did need to go to the doctor twice during school
• switching my glass in and out for yours and drinking twice as much when I was given a drink, I knew you could handle it, Honey.

I forgot what healthy felt like

Now I know I am feeling better because:

• I'm hungry every 2 hours
• I can laugh and smile again
• I can keep up with my students (their energy is back 100% too!)
• My morning sickness and lower back pain have returned in full force
• I actually vacuumed the other day
  
• I don't have to sit down and rest after just a quick shower
  
• The only reason I wake up in the middle of the night is to pee... no more coughing spells
• I lost 4 pounds while I was sick but it evens out my clothes due to the bloating :)
• I think I'm a wimpy pg lady...
  
• I'm excited to start unpacking boxes in our new house!
  

I Caught the Bug...

The doctor's office told me not to come in. I think everyone just passes it to each other when they go into their doctor. My temperature was 101 at the highest. The nurse said if it goes over 101 I need to go to the Emergency Room because that high of a temp could be dangerous to the baby. Yikes! I took my Tylenol religiously every 4 hours to try and keep my temp down but it persisted for 3 and a half days! I sat home Sunday through Wednesday. I had sooo much fun:

I'm sure it was the H1N1 Swine Flu. I heard a third of my class was out along with me. When I went back to school on Thursday, I was only a ghost of myself... soooo tired! I did make it through Thursday and Friday though, AND I finished report cards. If you ever choose a week to be sick, don't choose report card week because it is no fun! You sleep 18 hours of the day and work on report cards and sub plans the other 6 hours:

Derek was so understanding and helpful. He put up with all my moaning, coughing, chills, and even slept on the floor the whole week! (it was probably better that way, I wouldn't want him to catch this one!) He said he was only testing out his new camping air mattress... I'm definitely not back to 100% but it's good to be up and walking around again.

One thing that did make me chuckle though: when I called my principal Sunday night to tell her I needed a sub she agreed that I should not come in because one of the other teachers was pregnant and she didn't want her to get sick! Kim, I'm sooo glad you did not catch this, considering we were both on that stuffy bus for a day long field trip and [surprisingly] all of our classes caught the flu! :)

The Results Are In

Now it's really sinking in. Aside from the fact that I've felt like crap this whole past week--nauseous and weak-- it wasn't really "official" until I got the call from my doctor today. The blood test they did last week came back positive! Now it's not just in my head anymore. My boobs really are growing for a reason and it's not just Derek's imagination. :)

Surprise!