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Just couldn't wait

Face profile (face on R), Sucking her thumb!

Hello everyone!  I know in the last post I said we were going to wait until Christmas to share the big boy vs. girl news, but we had the ultrasound yesterday and just couldn't hold it in.

Left foot!

The ultrasound went perfectly.  It was so amazing to see our little baby move and kick and suck her thumb.  Yes, we also found out that on top of having a healthy little peanut, we are having a girl!  It really was awe inspiring to be there and see it all.

A hand!

At first, she wasn't in the right position to get a good look at her face, so I had to flip on my side and get jabbed with the ultrasound doppler, but she finally moved!  She was such a squirmy little bugger- it was so neat to feel a kick and see it happen at the same time!

Right arm, you can see the radius, ulna, and a clenched fist

And, really, on top of it all, the best part was hearing from the doctor that it couldn't have been a more perfect ultrasound.  It just makes us that much more excited to meet our perfect baby girl.

Halfway there...

Amazingly enough, time has flown yet again, and since the last baby update, it has been another four weeks.  This past Saturday, I hit the 20 week mark of the pregnancy, which marks the half way point in our little babe's development!  Granted, we weren't aware for the first 4-5 weeks, but it still has just flown by.
 
As we inch closer to meeting our baby, Bryan and I keep getting more excited.  Sometimes I find myself daydreaming about hearing the first squeal or the car ride home from the hospital.  At home, I spend a lot of time visualizing and planning what needs to be done in the next 20 weeks.

Tree hunting in the snowy woods

Things are starting to become more tangible lately, too.  In the past month, I have begun to feel the baby move.  It was crazy the first time I realized what was going on.  I was standing at school, in the middle of class, and noticed this drumming (?) going on in my belly.  It lasted 10 seconds or so and then would go away for a little while.  Then, it would start up again.  After class, I went to my office and thought about it and asked my friend, Heather, about it.... I had always thought the movement would be more brief, but this was going on for ten seconds at a time!  Well, turns out I was wrong and I was feeling the baby!  It was so exciting.  Since then, I have started feeling stronger movements, especially after working out.  Last week, I did some prenatal yoga and afterwards was laying down, noticing some stronger kicks.  I put my hand on my belly and felt it from the outside, so I yelled at Bryan and he got to feel it too!  So exciting.

19 weeks, 6 days :)

I also feel like my belly is starting to grow daily.  It's still hard to see in pictures, but it's getting there.  I actually got some comments at school today.

Doctors appointments have been going well... my blood pressure went back to normal (yay!) and I got cleared to do some easy skiing over Christmas break (double yay!).  Next Tuesday is our next set of appointments... at 1:30 we have our ULTRASOUND!  Triple yay!  We are going to figure out the sex of the baby there, but are going to keep it mum until Christmas... keep your eye out here....  We will then take the results and head over to our doctor's to go over the results.  We just can't wait!

Our Christmas tree is up, halls are decked, snow checks in the mountain are happening daily, and the countdown to break has begun.  Happy Holidays to all!

Thanksgiving Trip

As many (most... all...) of you know, Bryan and I headed East to Charlotte for Thanksgiving.  We took the red eye after school and a doctor's appointment Wednesday evening.  The appointment (17 weeks) went well and we recorded the heart beat on Bryan's phone!  We arrived EARLY Thanksgiving morning and headed up to Linda and Bruce's.  By the time we had brought our bags in, it was time to head out the door to the Turkey Trot 5k!  A fantastic time was had by all... and yes, I ran most of the time!  Much slower, but Bryan kept me going.  The biggest bummer of it all was that there were no open bathrooms through the course and something was jabbing at my bladder every time I took another step!  But, we still finished strong- and then I ran a little more straight to the bathroom!

The trip was fantastic.  We got to catch up with everyone, spend time with our dear nephew Bryce, and had a long enough trip so that we were able to just spend some time relaxing and laughing with family.

Here are some pics from our trip:

Go Vandy!  This game was awesome (Vanderbilt vs. Wake Forest), but got ridiculously COLD.

The crew after the Turkey Trot 5k.  Wearing our festivus shirts, obviously!

Uncle Bryan with Bryce.  Think we took the same-ish picture at the Beach when he was only 4 months old!

A little too much pepper got into the Bloody Mary Mix... Bryan and Matt had to fix it!

An Amazing Four Months

Hello all!  It has been awhile since an update, and I think it is because I knew this update would be so exciting and fantastic (aka long).  I have been crafting it in my head for the past four months.

On August 27th, Bryan and I found out that our family would be growing!  I took a pregnancy test and saw the second little pink line show up....  Needless to say we were so blown away!  We were incredibly excited and anxious all at the same time (with a million other emotions thrown in there, too).  From early on in our relationship, I knew we would hit this point in our lives someday and it had arrived.  We were going to have a baby!

The next day, we called our parents and siblings.  We had surprised them all.....  It was so fun to begin sharing our fantastic news.

The next week, Sarah (also pregnant at the time!), Bryan and I ran the labor day half marathon.  It was Bryan's first half marathon and Sarah's and my fourth.  We made it and I felt so amazing afterwards!  Even more amazing: the chocolate shake after.  Mmmmm.

School then began and life got crazy.  On September 24th, our little babe was confirmed by an ultrasound and a due date was set: April 27th!

That weekend, we began calling relatives and in such an amazing twist of fate, Sarah and Devin were calling relatives on the exact same day at the exact same time.  They are due just a few days later than we are.  I am so excited that we get to share this with them and feel blessed to be in this special position.

The first trimester went by in such a breeze.  School was busy, Bryan was busy, and life flew by.  For the most part, I felt really pretty good.  Yes, I was exhausted most of the time, but had only a few moments of "morning sickness".  Not enough to count at all, though!  We also bought our first baby item: a new camera!  Yay!  We still haven't taken the time to learn all the bells and whistles, but we are excited to have something to capture all the amazing moments headed our way.

We also had a blast telling all of our friends and co-workers.  It's so fun that the cat is out of the bag!  I love sharing it and receiving all the support and wisdom....  We are so lucky to be as supported as we are.  I am so thankful for that.

And now, week 17 begins today.  The start of month #5.  It is just unbelievable and time has just flown by.  I spend my weekends sorting through all the stuff we have accumulated in our house for the past 4 1/2 years in hopes of getting prepared to turn the office/storage room into a nursery soon.  Quite the project, but definitely necessary in our darling little house with minimal storage.  My energy is back with a vengeance (some naps are still necessary), so I have found myself working around the house and working out a lot more in the past week.  It feels so good!  I even went for a run after school the other evening.  What that did for my mental health much outweighed the physical benefits (which were still huge, I'm sure)

Good(ish) posture

Bad Posture

So, the big question: Am I showing yet??  Maybe, maybe not.  My pants are definitely getting tighter, but most are still fitting.  Everyday I wake up and feel my belly and think: Maybe I'll start showing today!  It definitely feels hard, but when I stand up sometimes it disappears.  If I have bad posture, I can look pregnant, but I think that is the case for most people :-)

So yes.  A lot has happened in four months.  What started as one cell 17 weeks ago is now 5 inches long (ish) and weighs 5 ounces.  What started as shock, nerves and jittery excitement is now pure elation and comfort.  What was our family of Bryan, Bruno and I is nearly half way towards becoming one little person larger.  And we couldn't be happier.

Winding down

I have written and re-written this sentence four times now.  I can't say it.  So I won't.

I put it this way to my friend (the other teacher in the ASA program) the other day: "I'm really excited for the year ahead, but not quite ready to get back to school."  It's true.  And luckily, she agreed.

It's been a great summer (and it's not over yet, right?).  We have been so busy, but a great type of busy. From finally meeting our darling nephew Bryce to staying up too late watching the Olympics.  From bocce on (Sunset) beach to kayaking on (Lake) Kachess.

I wish I could say I went crazy and took a bunch of pictures to document the fun times that were had by all this summer.  I started out so well with pictures, but then kind of fell flat on my face!  Yikes.  But, a few gems still came around:

Bryce sleeping in Uncle Bryan's arms!

Early morning walk on the beach

Self Portrait at Seahawks Training Camp (Go Hawks!)

Post-hike and Kachess "swim" with some pretty amazing women (thanks for the pic, Aunt Mickey)!

As the peace and calm of the summer slowly begins to wind down, I am trying to bottle up this restorative energy so I can use it up in pieces over the next school year.

I really am excited for the school year ahead.  It will bring a lot of challenges and surprises, I'm sure, but it will be good to get in a groove teaching the same thing again (prior to this year, I taught 9 different classes to almost 500 students in 3 different schools over 2 years) and to meet my new crop of students.

However, I won't think about that too much yet because it is still (kind of, for a few days) summer vacation.

PS: Other summer pictures, some of which have been shared before, can be found here.

We had a beep

The beep came from the dryer.  It wasn't a predictable beep; it was just random enough to nearly drive us insane.  Almost literally insane.  We nearly left the house once to get away from it.  I think it even would bug Bruno.  Sometimes, we could get rid of the beep after really getting a good clean out of the lint filter; we stuck the vacuum hose in, took off plates of the dryer to vacuum deeper.  But then....

Beep.

Beep.  Beep.

For the past few years, it would go away for a few weeks, letting us think we had solved it somehow, but then...

Beep.

I don't know what we were planning on doing about this beep.  We argued about clean lint filters and reset the circut breaker.  Nothing ever put it away for good.  Last Friday, however, our lives changed forever.

I was laying in bed reading one of my favorite blogs (besides Kristen's and Erin's, of course), A Cup of Jo.  On fridays, she finds random/cool/funny/weird things across the internet and links to them for you to find the hidden treasures.  I rarely look at these links, but felt compelled to follow the link called: 17 genius tips to make your life easier.  Granted, right now, my life is pretty easy, but I thought, well, why not make it easier, right?

Things 1- 16 were interesting, but my heart nearly stopped at #17:

17. Info About Clothes Dryers
The heating unit went out on my dryer! The gentleman that fixes things around the house for us told us that he wanted to show us something and he went over to the dryer and pulled out the lint filter. It was clean. (I always clean the lint from the filter after every load clothes.) He told us that he wanted to show us something; he took the filter over to the sink, ran hot water over it. The lint filter is made of a mesh material – I’m sure you know what your dryer’s lint filter looks like.
WELL…the hot water just sat on top of the mesh! It didn’t go through it at all! He told us that dryer sheets cause a film over that mesh that’s what burns out the heating unit. You can’t SEE the film , but it’s there. It’s what is in the dryer sheets to make your clothes soft and static free – that nice fragrance too, you know how they can feel waxy when you take them out of the box, well this stuff builds up on your clothes and on your lint screen. This is also what causes dryer units to catch fire & potentially burn your house down with it! He said the best way to keep your dryer working for a very long time (& to keep your electric bill lower) is to take that filter out & wash it with hot soapy water & an old toothbrush (or other brush) at least every six months. He said that makes the life of the dryer at least twice as long!

I immediately jumped out of bed, ran to the lint filter and tested it.  Sure enough, our lint filter was totally plugged up and would not let a drop of water through.  I took a towel, some water, and some soap and scrubbed the filter- by the time I was done, it was difficult to rinse off the soap because the water was flowing through the filter!  It's amazing!  You really need to try it!  The best part of it all...

No.  More.  Beep.  (Yet.)

Summer So Far...

Well, it has been quite the summer so far!  When school ended, it took me quite some time to get used to all the time off.  It did not help that it was cloudy and rainy either....  I did get a little good relaxing in and was able to help Grandpa celebrate his 84th (!) with a fun round of golf with the family.

The summer so far has also been filled with many exciting visitors in our neck of the woods.  Linda and Bruce came in from Charlotte and helped to celebrate my birthday and the 4th of July.  We had a fantastic trip that truly felt like I was kick-starting "vacation mode."  So awesome.  Kristen and Megan came up from Phoenix and they, too, helped the celebrations.  SO wonderful to have everyone around and we miss them already.

On my birthday, a crew met up for the Mariner's game and drinks afterwards- what a great way to celebrate... gulp!... 29.

The 4th was fantastic with ultra competitive games of polish horseshoes and whiffle ball and chasing Grace and Ryan around.

On the 5th, Linda, Bruce, Bryan and I headed up for a day of utter fun and relaxation at Mom and Dad's.  It was so great to have the whole crew together and enjoy the fresh mountain air.

On the 6th, we took the ferry to Bainbridge to eat dinner at a great little restaurant, Hitchcock.  It was awesome weather for a ferry ride, although it did get a little cool in the breeze on the way home!  Linda and Bruce had to head home the next day, but it was such a fantastic trip and we are really looking forward to an extended beach vacation in NC later this week!

That weekend, we went to a Sounders game and enjoyed free hotdogs and fish and chips at the Owl and Thistle pre-game with Mom, Dad, Kristen, Megan, and some of Megan's friends.  We were so happy that the Sounders won (finally)!  Unfortunately, though, they only scored 2 goals, so Bryan didn't get a free haircut (they needed 3).

On Sunday I was able to make it back up to the mountains and spent a day lounging with Mom, Dad, Kristen and Megan.  We played S***head (card game in which I never lost and became the s***head, oh yeah....) and chilled in the sun.  It was just what the doctor ordered.

Woah, am I still going?  This was just last weekend!  This past week was also filled with fun- more golf with Grandpa, running with Bryan, golf & kayaking & eating a TON with Mom and Dad (seriously, it was a vacation day in all sense of the word), and West Seattle Summerfest with Devin and Sarah!  Sarah had such a great time last year, that this year she brought Dev along.  We had a great time and soaked up the sun!

The summer (so far) in pictures can be found here!

More fun to come as on Thursday we are headed back to Sunset Beach, NC!  AND WE GET TO MEET BRYCE!  Yay.

I hope all of you are having as fantastic of a summer as we are!

Watch this!!!!!

Watch "Sesame Street: Share It Maybe" on YouTube

4 years!

Oh my goodness... 4 years ago and we were walking down the aisle! 4 years later and I'm still getting the same flowers from Snoqualmie. What a man! :)

The new monstrosity

So my thumb is healing properly, but slowly. Cast from before has turned into a removable cast that I'm supposed to leave on most of the time. Next wednesday, I go to hand physical therapist that well get me a training-wheel sort of cast that still protects but is a little smaller and more manageable. Needless to say, I want very happy with the doctor today when he put me back in thus thing. Positive notes: still no surgery required and I can take it off to shower! But that's it. Boo.

Not much new...

Well, not much new to report here.... unless, of course you care about my hygine!  Only two more morning showers left with the cast on!  I go to the doc Thursday after school to get this big hunk of blue off (switched colors after the 3 week x rays).  Please don't say: "Boy, that went quickly!" because... it didn't.

We had quite the teaser of good weather last week, only to be followed by the return of winter today!  Mom and Dad might even get to freezing tonight.  Yikes!  As a teacher, I feel as if it is my duty to look forward to summer vacation, so in that light, here are some highlights that made me smile and dream of sun, and I hope they do for you, too:

(A few from last summer and a few from our honeymoon because I'm getting nostalgic... 4 years coming up next week!!!)