Thanks to The Texas Darlings for hosting FMM this week and for allowing me to link up and participate! It's been ages since I really blogged for the sake of blogging, and I figured this was a good way to forge my re-entrance into the bloggy world! So thanks again. :)

You can find other new fun friends' blogs at: THIS LINK


This year has been WONDERFUL, and I am very thankful for my life right now, including my job, my husband, my family, and my friends.

Top Ten Things from 2010:

10. Spending holidays and birthdays with our crazy but sweet families. I am thankful for their support, and it is so fun to be around our TEN nieces and nephews! Even though Scott & Shawn aren't so young anymore...ok, so they're technically adults...*tear* They grow up so fast!

9. Snow for my birthday! Last time that happened, I lived in NYC! Crazy for it to snow in Texas (in MARCH, no less)!

8. Did I mention my husband is awesome? 5 years together and counting, 2 married years and counting, and he still makes me laugh at the most unexpected times.

7. My new job in 2nd grade. I am really loving the 2nd graders, and I LOVE my teammates. Lucky me.

6. Laughs shared with my friends. Makes life better, huh?

5. Pool time in the backyard this summer. Ahhh...spending time with our friends and family out back. Can't beat

4. Performing the title role in Miss Saigon. Never in a million years, would I ever get that chance again, and it was the role of a lifetime. It was the first dramatic role I had ever played, and it was HARD and emotionally difficult. There were nights when I would go home totally depressed because I was so deep into feeling her life and circumstances. But wow, what an amazing show and experience.

3. Surviving the 2009-2010 school year. I love my job, and I love my kids, and sometimes (like last year), you love your kids almost too much because of their special needs. It was a very hard, emotionally and physically draining year, and I felt like I grew a lot as a teacher and person. It was tough, but I made it through!

2. Our trip to St. Thomas, Virgin Islands! WOW. I can't even describe the beauty and serenity of that place. And I REALLY hope we can go back one day and stay in St. John (my favorite)!

1. Finding out that we are going to be parents! Wow. I just can't wait to meet this baby. It's surreal in so many ways and hard to believe that there is an actual HUMAN growing inside of me! We are so blessed.


Happy Monday!

I can do it! I can make it to the 2nd trimester in one piece!

Letters to Baby:


Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Dear Baby,

I am 7 weeks pregnant with you today. I can’t believe I still have to wait a whole week to see the doctor and get a sonogram. I am dying to see you and hear your little heartbeat. I just want to make sure you’re doing ok in there all by yourself!

My tummy is quite round for me to be just 7 weeks along. I have decided that something is up! Either you are actually BABIES, not baby, or perhaps I have been pregnant longer than we think. Either way, we are so excited about you, and we can’t wait to visit the doctor next week. I can’t believe when May comes around you will be joining our little family. Things will be so different, but I can’t wait to see all the wonderful things you will bring to our lives and our hearts.

You have definitely already done a number on my body. At first, the only thing that I noticed is that I was exhausted. I mean, so exhausted I didn’t feel like moving. I have spent a LOT of the last 6 weeks taking naps, resting on the couch, or reading in bed.

I’m still feeling pretty darn tired ALL the time, but it’s not QUITE as bad as when I first found out about you.

About a week or so ago, I started feeling pretty sick to my tummy. I feel hungry a lot, but nothing sounds good. I don’t actually want to eat anything. But my tummy hurts like it’s hungry. Very frustrating! I just ate some Cheez-Its, and they were YUMMY. Now Daddy is cooking some stir-fry with chicken, and I think it will be good, too.

Be good in there, love.


Sunday, October 31, 2010

Dear Baby,

Wow! Time has flied! I am almost 11 Weeks along now, and I am counting down the days until I enter the 2nd Trimester and (hopefully) start to feel better and more energized. I’m sure your Daddy is tired of waiting on me hand and foot, cooking, and cleaning up for me, but he sure has been sweet about it.

We finally got to see you on the ultrasound back at 8 weeks, and there was only ONE of you in there (thank goodness)! You measured EXACTLY 8 weeks, so you are just coming along quite nicely, just like you should. Way to be the best at growing; you are already a baby after your Mommy’s own heart, trying to be the best at everything. ☺

These days, I have been eating a LITTLE better, though my tummy sure still doesn’t want certain things. (A LOT of certain things, actually).

I have been liking salad, yogurt, jello, pudding, chocolate, milk, orange juice, cereal, strawberries, apple sauce, and donuts. I can’t get enough donuts; I am trying to quit going to the donut shop in the mornings on the way to work, LOL! I also have been drinking a Carnation Instant Breakfast (milk chocolate flavor) every single morning. Mommy has NEVER liked to eat breakfast, because her IBS has always made it an unpleasant experience. So I do eat something small, but not until I get to school and after having my Carnation.

I am still sleeping a LOT and taking lots of naps after work and even on weekends. Today I felt extra awful and laid in bed for 6 hours! ☹ Hopefully I have successfully warded off the cold that was trying to attack me.

Aunt Sadie & Uncle Trey have already given us LOTS of goodies for you; you are going to have SO many people loving on you and giving you gifts all the time; that’s pretty obvious already! You have already gotten gifts from both Grandmas, too!

We are all VERY excited to meet you. So keep on growing and getting stronger, and preferably don’t grow MY nose, because it’s not my favorite. ☺

We love you, sweet pea!

Yep. So for the few people on earth that don't know, Clint & I are expecting our first baby in May.

We are SO excited and feel very blessed that this pregnancy fit right into our anal retentive time table for me to have the baby at the end of the school year so I could be home with baby all summer before going back to work. :) Hee. Don't you just love it when things work out the way you plan? It's such a rarity, I must say I was really surprised when I saw that "pregnant" on the digital test. I am praying that things go along well and both baby and I stay healthy.

Another reason I'm so excited is because one of my dearest friends, Jennifer (who I also teach with), is due 3 and 1/2 weeks before me! It's so nice to have a good friend to talk to, complain to, and compare stories/pains with!

I am a little over 10 weeks along now, so I am really hoping that some of this nausea and other accompanying pains will start to diminish soon. :( I keep reminding myself that it could be SO much worse, and I am thankful to be where I am, but that doesn't make me feel much better when I'm lying awake at 3 am, feeling awful. :( Here's hoping I get back to my normal self soon!

OK, I'm going to post a few belly shots, and please forgive me for the horrible quality, as I was too lazy to use a real camera/get my husband to take the shots/etc.

I plan to start using a real camera from now on! It's amazing how you can feel so horrible that it doesn't seem like a priority to take a decent picture of yourself that will be used to document an amazing time of your life...hmm. Yeah. Well anyway.




7 Weeks


































9 Weeks


So am I the only one who is too lazy to scan the sonogram picture so I can upload it to the internet? I must be. I'm sure I am the only one who's too lazy to do that. See, we don't have a scanner at home. And the scanner at school is like, way far away from my classroom. And like, did I mention I feel awful? Hmm. So anyway. Yeah.


YAY BABY!!!

So exciting. And scary.

Yep, that's me!

Sorry for the hiatus. Things have been quite busy and crazy around here since school started at the end of August. I have accomplished absolutely nothing other than working. I bought the paint to redo my kitchen cabinets, and it's sitting in my garage. I keep telling myself I'm going to call the handyman guy and get a quote, but it never happens!

I have really been enjoying teaching 2nd grade. It's a nice change in several ways--they are VERY sweet and absolutely LOVE Mrs. Cockrell. I'm also enjoying the new curriculum. It's definitely a change, but I'm getting used to it. :) I sure do have some doozies in my class this year, but mostly they are fabulous and super sweet.

Already got what, 7 weeks down? Only...hmm...how many weeks of school are there? Nevermind, it's too soon to start the countdown; I'll go crazy!

I wish I had something good to write about. No such luck...hopefully soon, though! ;)


Back soon!

you can ask anyone who knows me well: i don't get bored. i just don't. i could sit at home for hours, reading, watching t.v., looking through magazines, reading blogs, surfing the internet; i just don't get bored. ever.

I decided to keep the original recipe cards from family members and simply dropped them into a sheet protector that sits in the front of my recipe binder. I love the vintage recipe cards and beautiful handwriting! We just don't write in cursive like the older generations did. I call my own handwriting "prinsive," a random combination of print and cursive letters. It seems that's what most people use these days. Oh well, it's unique if nothing else. :)