Welcome Home...

...Mom! Yippee! I do love when my Mom and I live in the same state (even better when we live only a few minutes apart).

She arrived today with all her awesome garage sale purchases for the baby. We now have even more loads of adorable baby clothes. I need a lot more of those cute little baby hangers. :)

I think I've decided that we need to add a few squares of pink into our color block wall. And since Jon still has a little touching up to do, now would be a perfect time to add them. I just have to convince him that it is a good idea. Any suggestions??

Maternity-Go-Round

My mom and I were talking on the phone the other day and she asked me, "How do you look?" I thought for a moment and answered... "in a word, round."

Round is exactly how I look and feel right about now: face - round; upper arms - round; boobs, belly, butt - round; feet - Fred Flintstone clubs (okay, so that one doesn't exactly fit). Basically, I look like a Weeble. You know - "they wobble, but they don't fall down" - except that my weebleness is balanced on top of two rounded thighs and legs. :)

I have also lost all concern with my fashion sense. Since my feet and ankles have been hurting me when I wear cute shoes, I have recently switched to flats. Since I don't own any flats (and am either too cheap or too lazy to buy some - take your pick), I've taken to wearing my Sketcher sneakers with all outfits... and I mean all outfits (dress pants, capris, skirts, dresses). Complimentary color combinations are also not of concern. Today I wore grey capris with a green and brownish shirt and (you guessed it), my brown Sketchers. Admittedly not my best look.

Thank god for my maternity "uniform." On the weekend: this consists of my favorite Old Navy shorts (tan or camo) with a brown Old Navy tank top. After school: my favorite sweat pants and various Tshirts or tank tops. (Sadly, I forgot my sweats in the dryer yesterday so now they've shrunk to an unusual length - oh well.) Jon especially loves the after school look....not!

Anyway, here are some round photos for your viewing pleasure.





And here are a few of petrified Rio - so scared of being outside that she voluntarily got in the pool with Jon!

McFly

I think Rio is developing agoraphobia. I'm not being facetious, I'm actually worried about her. This is a dog who previously loved to be outside and scratched on the sliding glass door furiously and annoyingly all day long to be let out. Now you can barely force her outside to go to the bathroom.

It all started a few months ago when she got into some red ants. Obviously this could not have been fun. Since then she has gone back and forth with varying degrees of panic about being outside. She still likes to be outside if there are people with her (though one person sometimes is not enough), but never asks to go outside herself and often chooses to use her kitty litter rather than do her business out back.

This weekend her panic has even moved inside. At first I couldn't figure out what her problem was, but since she was sitting next to me and shaking like a leaf, I knew something was bothering her. I wondered if there was a distant storm that I couldn't yet hear (she has always hated thunder and lightning), but the rains never came. Finally, I figured it out...

There was a fly in the house - a leftover party guest from Saturday! She's too petrified to be in the living room or to sleep in her pillow by the front door (I mean this is where she lives all day when we're gone). Instead, she's taken to sleeping in our bedroom all day. Normally, she hates it in there. She barely sleeps there at night when we're home and never goes in there when we're not. It's breaking my heart!

We've killed the fly. We even showed her it was dead, but she's still sulking in the bedroom. I think there is one fly still around somewhere. Hopefully, we can get that bastard too.

In the meantime, especially if the Dog Whisperer is reading, any other suggestions??

Rain, Rain Go Away

Sorry no posting, busy... again.

The last couple of nights have been spent hanging out with our house guest in from MN. Thursday he took us out for Mexican as a thank you for letting him bunk with us (totally unnecessary, but delicious). Jon order some super-spicy food and was literally dripping with sweat throughout the meal. His hair was actually soaking wet by the time we left. I've never seen anything quite like it. Thankfully I was sitting next to him not across from him! We all agreed (in the event he ever finds himself single again) he should never order spicy food on a first date. :)

Last night, we enjoyed a Rock Band concert at the Froyds with some swawesome singing from Jess on a couple of tunes. Even Jon belted out a falsetto version of Roxanne that wasn't entirely painful to listen to. Little Rio attended and played with Annie, Scooter and Jazzy all night - which meant she actually let us sleep in until 8:00 today. Thank god! I've been exhausted all week for some reason.

Now I'm sitting here sipping my orange juice and trying to find the motivation to clean the house and get ready for our annual Memorial weekend pool party this afternoon. I'm just not feeling it - considering it looks like there is a 60+ chance of rain this afternoon. A part of me would like to postpone to Monday (the forecast looks nice and sunny then), but what are going to do besides pray that the rain breaks a little so we can have some outdoor fun, I guess.

Well, enough procrastinating. Rock on!

Surprise!

My team threw me a surprise baby shower today at work - it was a blast! (I had an inkling that they had something up their sleeve since they kept asking me about my parent conference schedule, but I wasn't sure, and I didn't know when.) They were very sneaky about it and called everyone to the media center for a staff meeting - which turned out to be for me! :)

They had balloons, an adorable cake, and the best part: I got loads of great gifts. Each grade plus the Specials team and the Office Staff chipped in to get me something. I made out with over $200 in gift cards, a super soft pink blanket, a plush blue dog, a goodnight book, a "Shhh! Baby Sleeping" door hanger (in the exact lime green and sky blue of the nursery) and a bunch of great clothes!

All the clothes were cute. I got 7 or 8 outfits ranging from onesies and sleepers to little dresses, but there were 2 from Baby Guess that were just to die for. They are both newborn sizes so I'm sure MBP will only wear them once for a picture, but I love them despite their impracticability. They're both sweat pant material. One is blue pants with a flared leg and flowered ruffle at the bottom. The flowered pattern matches the shirt and the little hat. The other is pink and it says Baby Guess across the butt with a little pink gingham ruffle accent. The jacket is a short sleeved hoodie again with the pink gingham accent and a little flowered shirt underneath. Oh my god! A-dor-able!!

My team bought me the activity gym from Target that was on my gift registry - it is so cute. It's in browns, blues, greens, and oranges and has a jungle theme. I wanted to set it up tonight! :)

I literally just finished writing all the thank yous, but it was worth it. Showers rock - better than birthdays and Christmas combined! Thank you everyone!! :)

Kickin' Back

With the hubby away, it's girls' night... so I'm kicking back on the couch watching the Finale of Dancing with the Stars and the baby is just kicking me. It's an interesting arrangement, but it works.

I'm pretty sure that she's kicking in Morse code to tell me that it is about time to make a Root Beer float. She's a demanding one. Let's hope all her requests are this easy to satisfy otherwise the next eighteen years or so are going to be rough!

Mac and PC

I felt like I was in one of those Mac/PC commercials today. I had both laptops up on the counter and was moving back and forth between mine (PC) and the school's (Mac) transferring pictures and creating my kids iDVD gift. All the slideshows are finished, now all I have to do is add some mu-zac. (Burning them takes a while too...)

It's been a hectic week and I don't think things will slow down until school is officially over, so sorry that I haven't been posting much and I haven't read any blogs all week. It's weird not knowing what you're all up to. (For instance, didn't know Jess was in Denver!) I'm hoping to get a little catch up time tomorrow.

I've worked like a slave all weekend. I spent Friday night doing laundry, grading papers, and getting the majority of my report cards done. This morning, I cleaned the house and this afternoon was computerrific as mentioned above. Tomorrow I'm hoping to get all my remaining chores out of the way in the morning and then vegging with my book on the couch. I'm still not even halfway through "The Host" as I've had no time to pick it up.

Okay, lam-o post over. Shannon, out.


Disturbing realization: once you run spell check and make changes etc, if you post from there (without going back and hitting "resume editing" first), it doesn't actually save any of those changes. I didn't recognize this until recently so if you've noticed a ton of spelling errors lately... now you know the reason! Doh!

Just Breathe

Part 1: My kiddos are driving me up the wall. Actually, they are climbing the walls... and the housekeeping equipment... and being dragged kicking and screaming from the room.

13 more days - just breathe!

Part 2: Since the run of antibiotics didn't seem to work, the doctor has taken a new approach to my cough. After listening to my chest, she said I'm wheezing and I may be experiencing a pregnancy-induced flare up of my asthma. I'm back on an inhaler for the first time in... a decade?

She mentioned, in front of Jon, that there's also a concern the baby might not be getting enough oxygen. Now he's waking me up in the middle of the night to tell me that I'm wheezing and breathing heavy. Or scolding me for coughing without spitting out my cough drop. (Though his worry over how he would give his pregnant wife the Heimlich maneuver was cute and probably very true!)

Breathe in, breathe out, that's my plan.

The Written Word...

...is the only explanation I have for three unrelated stories I am trying to tie together!

1) Mother's Day Part 2
Jon took me out to share his McDonald's fries. This perked me up a lot! Then we lounged in the pool for a while (the first time this Spring). It was glorious! And Rio brought me her card. This is what she wrote:

Mommy,
Happy Mom Day. I love lots. I can't wait for the baby. There will be someone else to give kisses too. Also, I will get to play with baby toys.
Love, Rio
I want Scooby Snacks again.

Then Jon made me dinner and we sat back and watched "Juno." I thought it was even funnier than the first time, but Jon thought it was just "eh." He later admitted it was full of funny one liners and entertaining, but that it lacked storyline. Suddenly everyone's a critic! :)

2) Beware the Volunteer
This is a work story, so I will give you the abridged version. Lisa, Karen and I are planning to do dinner tomorrow night and then take in the elementary school's production of "Annie Jr." A fun evening, right? Well, admin cornered me today and asked if we could volunteer to help. All it would entail was showing up 30 mins early and getting people to their seats, so fine, we said yes. Two emails later and suddenly we're supposed to show up at 4:45, help out with everything, and possibly not even see the show. Ah, sorry, not what I agreed to! The pregnant lady is not giving up her girls night out to stand around and work. Best part is, I was actually gutsy enough to change my response to "NO!"

3) Choking at Target
My death-rattling cough tends to kick in when I'm laughing. So today, when I read my husband's contribution to my grocery list while shopping at Target, I nearly choked to death and peed my pants. In amidst the requests for toilet paper, bread, and bananas were:
hookers
crack
Needless to say, he was very disappointed when I came home empty handed. I did buy some mini-frozen pizzas - maybe that will help fill the void...

Weepy Mother's Day

My hormones must be on overdrive today...

First, I woke up feeling a little sorry for myself. Jon had left early in the morning to dive master an open water test dive so there was no one here to celebrate Mother's Day with me. (Though Rio did give me extra kisses when she woke me up this morning.) Determined to make the best of it, I decided to make myself some delicious mini muffins for breakfast. Unfortunately, I think the temp and/or time was wrong on the box because I burnt them into mini hockey pucks instead. (No, I couldn't smell them burning, I can't smell anything remember?)

Looking at their charred little remains actually made me cry. Knowing this was silly, I indulged myself only a moment and then whipped up some banana nut waffles and bacon instead. Yum-o! Sadly, the kitchen looked a little like it does after Thanksgiving supper so I forced myself to wash all the dishes... which then led to vacuuming and laundry. Not my first choice for a relaxing Mother's Day.

Then I realized I wasn't really alone. After all, I had Rio and the baby to keep me company. So I decided to read them a few of my favorite childhood stories. Here in lies the reason for my round of crying number two. Not sure if the stories themselves are that sad, though they are quite touching, or if it is just the memory of my mother and grandmother reading them to me over and over, but I started crying a few pages into each of them! I think I am composed enough to tell you about them now.

The Selfish Giant by Oscar Wilde (publication: late 1800s/early 1900s) A fairy tale about a Selfish Giant who won't allow the children to play in his beautiful garden. Building a wall around it to keep them out, he also banishes the seasons, the flowers, and the birds. They only return when a little boy sneaks into the garden to play. Realizing how selfish he has been, the Giant embraces the child and tears down the wall. Although many children play in the garden over the years, the special little boy (the one the giant loved best) never returns. Many years later when they giant is old and dying, he sees the little boy in his garden again. The little boy's hands and feet are wounded and the giant wants to take his great axe to whoever would hurt the boy so. The child tells him they are wounds of love and that he has only returned to thank the Giant for letting him play in his garden that day and to take the Giant home with him to his garden of Paradise.

Angel Child by Val Teal (publication: 1946)
An angel baby gets his wings wet playing in the clouds and falls to earth where he's discovered by two little children, Peter and Patty. They decide to give the angel baby to Peter's mother who wants a baby of her own. They love him and play with him all day, finally letting him swing on the swings. With each push, he goes higher and higher, and wings get drier and drier, until finally he flies away. The children are quite sad, but in the fall Pater's mother has a baby and it looks just like the angel child... though they don't see his wings when they check.

My favorite:
Geraldine Belinda by Marguerite Henry (publication: 1942)
Geraldine Belinda Marybel Scott has 25 pennies to spend. Trying to be sophisticated, she makes a list, puts on her best dress and muff, and heads to the novelty store. She buys ribbon, a red drum, a cook stove, a sink and a piece of candy. On the way home, she sees her friends playing but doesn't want to share her purchases with them. She runs past them with her nose in the air, never noticing that all her purchases are falling out along the way. At home, she realizes her treasures are lost and starts to cry (too embarrassed to go back and look for them in front of the friends she snubbed). But when the doorbell rings, it's her friends bringing her all the things she lost.

"They all did come in - and what fun they had! First, Geraldine divided the stick of candy into five little pieces. Then she shared all her toys, even the ones she liked best. What fun she had!
Geraldine Belinda Marybel Scott never forgot that day. And when she really grew up, and had children of her own, she often said to them:
Don't put on airs when you have pennies to spend - for you never can tell how the story will end."

Okay, I think I can get on with my day now. Happy Mother's Day to all!

P.S.
Another favorite of mine is "The Littlest Angel" by Charles Tazewell (1957), but I'll save the retelling of this story for the Christmas season.

Glowing

So I got one of those "glowing" comments today. It seemed sincere, but then again I had just walked inside from the 90 degree heat and 100% humidity oven that was South Florida today. :) I can see that humidity is going to be a problem. My fingers and feet are already swollen and the true summer hasn't even begun.

Since I am tired and have little of interest to say, I thought I would post some pics instead.

My friends in junior high used to call me Shamu. It was my anti-nickname since I was so skinny my ribs stuck out more than my boobs. I'm thinking now it would have a different connotation...


Me and my first baby, Rio!

Bliss

I'm not sure if it's due to my pregnancy hormones, my cough/cold, or my handful of challenging students, but I haven't felt much like my usual happy-self lately. I've been doing my best to mask my crankiness for the past month, but I'm not sure I've always been successful. (Sorry to those nearest and dearest to me if I've been a pain in the butt!) You'll be happy to know that I experienced one of those deliciously delightful days today and I'm still enjoying the bliss of it tonight! Here is how it all happened:

- Good music in the am: I am such a music fan. I would love to have a soundtrack for my life playing in the background like it is in the movies. For some reason, I haven't been listening to my MP3 player in the morning. Today it was blasting (much to Jon's annoyance at 5:45 am)!

- Challenging students absent: Anyone who is a teacher knows that your "challenging students" (read: mean, annoying, bratty) are never absent. They are either the healthiest children on the planet or, more likely, their parents don't want to spend the day with them either! So like the postal service they are there day in, day out, rain, snow, sleet, flu, temper tantrum etc. By these standards then, today was a miracle: BOTH of my little stinkers were absent.

- Cough reduction: I think my cough is getting slightly better (at least during daytime hours). I haven't yakked or peed while coughing in 2 days. Added bonus: I have partial breathability in BOTH my nostrils and can taste some strong flavored foods again. This came in perfect time since our Teacher Appreciation luncheon was today and I thoroughly enjoyed gobbling up some Mexican cuisine. Muy deliciouso!

- Baby bump: No not my growing belly (I don't think I can get by calling it a baby bump anymore... maybe a baby mountain), but baby movement! I have finally felt the baby move and it is very exciting. Well, the movement itself isn't very exciting, but the idea of the movement is. It's a pretty small sensation right now. If you've ever farted under water (I haven't, of course, but this is what people tell me), you know how a little bubble of air can escape and plop to the surface. This is what it feels like - a little bubble of air coming to the surface of my tummy and plop! Jon even managed to get his hand in the right spot at the right time and felt it too. I'm just glad to know that with all this coughing, MBP is still strong and kickin.

- Printer bound: I am trapped upstairs printing and binding 20 copies of my annual Mother's Day cookbook parent gift. On the surface this doesn't sound fun, but I have a minute or two between each set and what else am I going to do with this time besides blog and read! I am 55 pages into "The Host" and it is quite intriguing.

Ahhhh, what a blissful day! :)

Finally!

I have been in book limbo for the past month. Besides my book club book, which I finished weeks ago, I had no new reading material. What?! Looking back, I'm not sure how I survived.

(Well technically, I had a couple of new baby books but I wasn't all that enthused to read them. I'm saving them for summer... kind of like a last-minute baby crash course. I am so laid back about becoming a parent - who am I? I've done more research when picking out an MP3 player. It's not that I think I know it all, quite the contrary, I'm just not obsessing about it. I know! Really, what happened to me? Pregnancy must make me calm.)

The two books I have been anxiously awaiting came out today! Thank you Borders! I'm starting with Stephenie Meyer's "The Host" (I have such high hopes for this one that I'm worried I'll be disappointed). The other I would like to save for when my mom is down (maybe I can read it in the car on the drive to MN): Jen Lancaster's "Such a Pretty Fat: Or Why Pie is Not the Answer?" Thanks to Jess for turning me on to her other books - her snarkiness is laugh out loud funny!

So I am super giddy to have these two beautiful books in front of me, but torn because I have Bunko tonight and probably won't even have time to crack the binding. :(

At least I'll have something to do those nights when I'm lying awake coughing!

House Arrest

So rest was the supposed key to finally getting over my yuckiness, so I put myself on house arrest this weekend. I haven't left the house since I came home from work on Friday afternoon. Seriously - I didn't even venture out as far as the mailbox!

Friday night was TV catch up night (Grey's, Earl, Office etc).
Saturday was... I don't remember. I think I moved from the bed to the couch and then at some point back to the bed.
Today, I managed a few hours of productivity (surface cleaned the house, paid bills, did some school work) followed by a nap and now more couch time.

Miraculously, I feel... craptastic! No change whatsoever. I give up.

Good news: 23 days and counting for work. I can hold out for that long. :)

Water, Werewolves & Weight Gain

1) Water
So I knew I needed a third story about water yesterday - I just posted too soon. Last night, after a relaxing evening of reading, I made an unfortunate discovery as I got ready for bed. ("Unfortunate discovery" being the preferable term, rather than "bad news" which made Jon and the boys think more along the lines of death and dismemberment. To me, that would be "sad news" but whatever, back to the unfortunate discovery.) I picked up my pajamas from the floor of my closet and realized they were soaking wet. I was momentarily confused and grossed out thinking that I somehow sweat through them the night before (yes, I know this would have been an impressive amount of sweat, but pregnancy brain makes me not so smart!)... but then I remembered I hadn't worn them. I loathe pajamas and have only recently started wearing them because I goop myself up with stretch mark cream every night. Wednesday night I didn't put any lotion on since I knew there was a good possibility I wouldn't be showering in the freezing cold water the next day. With that thought process out of the way, it didn't take long for my brain to catch up and process the fact that when the water tank leaked, it ran underneath our bathroom and into my closet! One bit of luck, it was stopped from running any further into my closet or my bedroom by the huge pile of jeans I had put on the floor... since I can't squeeze my pregnant self into them anymore (see weight gain below). Who knew denim was such a good sponge? There were six or seven pairs of pants completely soaked through. Disgusting, but I'm trying to look for the tiniest of silver linings here. Jeans were washed, closet is being fan dried, but I am at a loss as to what to do about the bathroom. Obviously, there is or was water underneath our tile as well. How does one dry that??

2) Werewolves
I don't really have much to say about werewolves except that I like things in groups of three (3 is my favorite number) so I was looking for another W. Since I was reading about werewolves in "New Moon" last night, I figured that would suffice. I know there is a huge legion of Jacob Black haters out there (I just had a long discussion about this with a couple of girl scouts at our mystery night last weekend), but I like him and the inevitable vampire-werewolf-human love triangle that resulted. If you haven't read "Twilight, New Moon & Eclipse," you have no idea what I'm talking about and I advise you to run out and buy them right now. NOW! What are you doing still reading this stupid post!

3) Weight Gain
I am feeling particularly ginormous these days. With 20 weeks of pregnancy behind me and 20 weeks left to go, I'm getting a bit panicked about my end weight gain. I've already gained 15 pounds! (Worst yet, I don't even have the Dairy Queen or Cold Stone cups to justify it! I'm really not eating that much. My diet is the same as it was before, if healthier, when I had no trouble maintaining. The only difference is adding in a little cereal and fruit for breakfast - a meal I always skipped.) I know weight gain is normal, yada yada, but I'm trying to not get so big that they have to use a crane to get me into the hospital bed. Plus, two more pounds and I'm at the heaviest weight I've ever been. That's a little daunting! It feels like I may never wear those water-soaked jeans again... :(

Maybe I should go for a walk? Nah, I have too many good shows taped. I guess I'll just watch TV instead. :)

Hot, Hot, Hot

Today was the return of hot water:

1) The new hot water heater was installed and I am so looking forward to a nice shower in the morning (especially since the last day I really washed with soap was Tuesday - ewww!)

2) Talking on the phone while trying to drain boiling water into the sink... not such a wise idea. Boiling hot water splashed on my arm - ouch! - and not just a little drop. Amazingly, it doesn't look like it's going to blister.

If only I could have gotten into "hot water" at work then this would have been a really interesting post, but alas, I am a good employee so that kind of thing doesn't happen to me! :)

Comment catch up:
The hot water heater didn't explode. I guess "sprung a leak" would be a better explanation. Big leak apparently considering the mini river in the garage.

The pink stuff behind the baby fish is actually a feather (like for the fish's tail). I guess it didn't quite show up that way in the picture!

Goodbye:
I must run. I finished rereading "Twilight" yesterday and am in the mood to reread "New Moon" tonight. I think I'm in a Stephanie Meyer mood since I know her new book, "The Host," (unrelated to the Edward and Bella series) comes out on Tuesday!

Sick Day

Yesterday I took a much needed sick day. It went something like this:

- sleep
- soup
- watched "The Parent Trap"
- sleep
- hot water heater burst and flooded the garage

Pretty much what you would expect for a sick day! Poor Jon, that was the last thing he wanted to deal with when he got home.

And let me tell you, that was one COLD shower this morning. I pretty much only washed my hair. I apologize to everyone around me if I smell, but I just couldn't take it.

Here's hoping this is the last of our major appliances to die this year.
Off to work...