All about Baby, Again

My life is all about the baby now, especially since I'm done with teaching.  Be forewarned that 90% of the posts for the next several months are all going to be about a sweet little girl. :)

This past Monday at my doctor's appointment I was told that I might start feeling more pelvic pressure pretty soon, even to the point where it might feel like if I take too big of a stride the baby will fall out between my legs.  Haha!  Nice image, huh?  I figure that would be easier than actual labor and delivery, so bring it on!  Seriously though, the doctor did say that after my next appointment at 34 weeks if I went into labor they would do nothing to stop it.  What?!  I don't anticipate delivering that early, but knowing that nothing would be done to stop it kind of puts the pressure on Eric and me to make sure things are ready.

Speaking of getting things ready, all this week we've been working on getting Maddie's room put together.  We still have work to do, but here's a teaser:

Last night Stacey and Wes came into town with their not-so-little-anymore baby Makenzie.  She's such a sweet, happy little girl!  We enjoyed spending our short time together and this morning Stacey took some maternity pictures for us.  I'm excited to see how they turn out!

So what's on schedule for today?  Eric and I are about to leave to go see Toy Story 3 in 3D.  I'm pretty excited, even though the last time we went to see one of the Toy Story movies we were the only two non-parents in the theater.  This evening we'll be going to a Round Rock Express baseball game with the family.  I'm not a big fan of baseball, but I do like Dell Diamond.  Hopefully we'll get some seats in the shade and maybe I'll even get to eat a funnel cake.

Weird Dreams

Right before school starts every year I start having bizarre dreams in which I'm NEVER prepared for the first day.  Well since I don't have school to worry about this year, my mind has apparently decided that I should dream about every possible birth outcome!

The first dream I had was lovely; I delivered a healthy, beautiful baby girl and Eric was in LOVE.

In the next dream I delivered a baby BOY.  I don't think he'd like the pink room we painted last night.

My most recent delivery dream resulted in not just one baby girl, but twin girls!  At one point I was holding Maddie and Eric was holding her no-name twin and the babies waved at each other.  Haha!

With two months left to go, I don't even want to imagine any other possibilities!

Feeling Behind

I'm behind in updating, so bullets it is:

• Everything from the hotel rant got worked out. Money has been refunded and we even received a credit of two free nights at any Hyatt in the nation. I'm thinking we might take advantage of those nights sometime after the baby is born. You know, a weekend getaway to catch up on sleep. :)

• The baby shower at school was fabulous! My fourth grade team pulled together a beautiful shower and Eric and I felt totally spoiled by the gifts we received. Maddie's closet is filling up!

• We attempted the 3D/4D ultrasound again. This time our baby girl was more cooperative, although she did start the session off by covering her face with her hands. The tech sent us home with a DVD of the session along with a CD of about 100 pictures. I am kind of disappointed with the image quality, but it was neat to see her moving in real time.

• I turned in my school keys on Friday. I thought that I'd be extremely happy to do it, but instead I left the building feeling like I've lost my identity. I may not have enjoyed teaching, but I knew who I was--Mrs. T, 4th grade math and science teacher. Now I'm left with a weird, empty feeling.

• It is crazy to see the elephant on the ticker at the top of the page getting closer and closer to the end. There are days when I see its movement as exciting and other days when I'm like, "Can someone slow that thing down?!" I know we still have a couple of months and I know we'll have everything ready by the time she gets here, but it's hard to imagine that our little family of two (plus Lucy) is about to become a family of three!

Who Stole the Cookies from the Cookie Jar?

Not me, I paid for mine!  I totally didn't realize that my school cafeteria account could be refunded, so what did I do?  I bought 14 cookies!  You should have seen the looks I got walking back to class with my arms loaded with individually bagged chocolate chip cookies.

Private Post

I wish there was an option for a single private post, as opposed to having to create a private blog.  If you know the secret, let me in on it.

Hotel Rant

Eric and I enjoyed seeing Sarah and Chuck last weekend at the Rangers game.  Although the Rangers ultimately lost, they had two home runs so I got to see fireworks.  That makes me happy.  After the game we went to The Cheesecake Factory.  That makes me happy too.

What doesn't make me happy?  Our hotel, which we made reservations at, did not have a room for Eric and me.  Apparently hotels purposely overbook, just like airlines, assuming that not all guests will show up.  Guess what?  Everyone showed up!  The manager of the hotel sent Eric and I over to another hotel, promising us that we would not be charged for our stay there and we would be reimbursed for our original reservation.  It has been a week and my credit card is still showing a charge for the original reservation and now Eric's credit card is showing a $180 charge for the alternate hotel.  I've emailed the assistant general manager and will take this to their corporate headquarters if needed, but really!  Have they never heard of customer service?  :(

The Scores Are In

The dreaded day (for me) finally came--TAKS scores arrived. There's a couple of things you have to know to understand why I was scared to see these scores:

1. Only 50% of the students passed their 3rd grade math TAKS test last year. Doesn't really bode well for fourth grade, does it?
2. This was my first year to teach math and on most days I felt like I was just winging it.

As I looked through the list to see who had passed and who had failed, I was shocked to see that some students who I knew were destined to fail had actually passed. It turns out that 73% of my students passed their 4th grade math TAKS test! Now I know 73% doesn't sound fabulous, but considering the fact that only half of them passed their 3rd grade test last year, I think it's great!

The students aren't aware that their scores have come in, but I can't wait to see the surprised look on some of their faces when they find out how they did. :)

If you want to read about the awesome scores Eric's students had, hop on over to his blog.