07.30.10- Day 209

Work started on Thursday...

Here are my thoughts:

• I like my job.
• I espeically like the beginning of the school year- all the organizing, the anticipation of new students, the possibilities of all the learning.
• I like my team of PT's/OT's.
• I am happy that I will be transitioning to part time, but it's hard to give up kiddos.
• I'm not sure how I'm going to transport equipment to all my schools with my preggo weightlifting restrictions.
• I still have SO much to learn.
• I am so excited to have a son and about the timing, but it's hard to think of all the plans for implementing programs, co-planning with teachers, getting things going for students and that I'll be leaving all that for 3 months to someone else who probably does things differently.
• I only have about 6-10 weeks left before I meet our son, which is really soon!
• I hope I make it at least 8 more so that I can get everything done before I go on maternity leave!

Glad it's the weekend, but honestly enjoying work now. Maybe it's because I had the summer off and only have 34 days of work before I start a whole new job :).

07.28.10- Day 207

Alan and I had a FABULOUS time in Northern California last weekend for our "babymoon." Bear with all the pics I posted. I just couldn't decide which ones to post!

The day after we arrived (we got to our cabin around 10 pm after driving up hwy 1 on the coast from San Francisco) we went to hike Tall Tree Grove and ran into Deitra and Ellie from JBU- random! Huge!

Pretty trees

On the beach

Lady Bird Johnson Grove- the trees are tall!

The next day we hiked the Damnation Creek Trail. We had the whole trail and beach to ourselves for the first couple hours! I felt like a stud for hiking it since it is a 1200 ft elevation drop/incline over 4.5 miles!

The hike led through beautiful redwoods down to the beach!

Since we were only 30 minutes from Oregon, we thought we'd take the chance to cross the state line!

Back to CA!

Jedediah Smith State Park- Stout Grove (where they filmed the ewok stuff in star wars)

We went looking for tide pools at low tide- we found a ton of star fish and anemones!

In front of the National Park sign

In order to get to Fern Canyon, we had to abandon our car (there were several places where the water covered the road). On the way we passed by this big elk herd.

Fern Canyon Sign- if you zoom in this pic you can see about 10 banana slugs crawling on the sign- gross!

Beautiful scenery!

Patrick's Point State Park- looking for seals

Found 1!!!!

Back in San Francisco for a few hours before our plane back to Denver...

Trying to take a pic of us with the Golden Gate Bridge at Fisherman's Wharf (a little too far away- you can see it a tiny bit in the background- hehe).

07.21.10- Day 200

Well... I'll likely be absent for a few days again because Alan and I are heading to California to see the Redwoods! We are so excited for our "babymoon." It may not be Europe like we planned, but it's a place both of us have wanted to visit for a long time!

On another note: I thought I would share that I will be working part time next year! It is amazing how God can change hearts and systems and make things possible that are considered impossible. I was told by everyone I work with: PT's, OT's, Sped teachers, etc. that no one was allowed to work part time at APS. In fact, many professionals have had to move to other districts in the past if they wanted to go part time. Well, Alan and I prayed about it and decided during the last week of school that I should go ahead and just ask my boss if there was any possibility of going part time. No harm in asking, right? My boss is new and it turned out that she wasn't sure if there was a possibility, but she said that she totally understood where I was coming from and that she would try to get me a part time position. To make a long story short, detail after detail fell into place and I will even get to keep my benefits!!! Thank you, Jesus, for your blessings to us! I just think having a few extra days a week with my son, but being able to continue to develop as a professional will be perfect!

30 weeks!

30 weeks
Alan thought I should take a pic with my tummy showing...

Pregnancy Highlights
How Far Along: 30 weeks
Size of Baby: 15.7 inches, 3 pounds- the size of a head of cabbage
Total Weight Gain: 21 pounds
Maternity Clothes: Of course- what's scary now is that I have to start thinking about nursing clothes- anybody have good suggestions?
Gender: active baby boy
Food Cravings: butterfingers, cheese, pad thai
What I miss: Sleeping on my stomach and jogging
Sleep: still sleeping well, I'm sleeping almost through the night every night
Symptoms: a little indigestion, a little thoracic/rib pain, a little tiredness
Best Moment of the Week: Getting the basics of the nursery set up! Thanks to Mom, Dad, and Alan for their help!
What I'm Looking Forward to: Our babymoon to the Redwood National Forrest this weekend! Last big trip as a family of 2!

07.20.10- Day 199

Here's some pictures from last week when we had visitors. Unfortunately, my camera wasn't used for any of the pics with Megs, so I'll have to get them from someone else.

Here Alan and I are at the Dorks and Dips party. Yes, I think we both did pretty well- very dorky. Eric and Nicole in their dorky outfits.

Alan added to his dorkiness by actually competing in a necklace winning game by trying to get people to say the word, "no." He probably could have won the competition, but he got tired of wearing the necklaces towards the end of the night and gave them to JB, who promptly lost them to someone else :).

We went to Garden of the Gods on Tuesday with Mom, Dad, Ella, and Aunt Ann. It was very HOT, but also beautiful!

PS- #1: Amazingly I my black shirt makes me not really look pregnant. #2: I'm starting to get anxious about the whole childbirth/taking care of baby thing. #3: I can't believe that summer is almost over- I start work in a week and a couple days!

07.18.10- Day 197

Updates on the nursery:
Fresh paint and new curtains (after 2 days of hard painting work- 3 coats of Kilz and 2 coats of paint- the cork was finally covered. Yes, two of the walls in the office used to be covered in cork wall paper. Crazy people of the 60's-70's.) Couldn't have done it without the help of mom and dad! THANKS a TON!

Alan put the crib and changing table together!

I helped a little.

The crib complete with rocket bedding!

The changing table.

View from the door of the crib and dresser.

I picked out the colors and mom painted the dresser. Isn't it cute!? It matches the bedding so well! What is really cool is that my mom bought this dresser for $15 to go in my baby room before I was born! It used to be yellow then :). I think it's so fun that my baby gets to have the same dresser I did. It is the perfect size for baby clothes!

The dresser and bookshelf. The only big thing we still need is a rocking chair/glider. I am also planning on making some wall hangings for the room too!

Getting the room ready is making me more excited for baby to come (and makes it feel more real)! He now will have a cozy place to live.

Still here

Hi! I just realized that I haven't posted in over 2 weeks! I have been super busy with several visitors here in Denver. My good friend Megan McKenney came to visit on the 8th and the day before she left my parents, aunt, and cousin came to visit! My parents left for Arkansas yesterday morning. It has been a wonderful, but crazy couple of weeks. I'm so blessed to have had so many visitors! There are lots of pictures and things to catch everyone up on, so I hope to post with those later today or tomorrow!

07.06.10- Day 185

28 weeks!

Pregnancy Highlights
How Far Along: 28 weeks
Size of Baby: 15 inches, 2.5 pounds- the size of a head of a butternut squash
Total Weight Gain: 19 pounds
Maternity Clothes: Only a few non-maternity things left in my closet :)
Gender: active baby boy
Food Cravings: sweets, mac and cheese, hummus
What I miss: being able to run errands all day without having to slow down
Sleep: sleeping fine- mostly just wake up because the sun rises at 5:30 a.m.!
Symptoms: indigestion, rapid heart rate with static sitting or standing (accompanied by feeling like I'm going to pass out), teary-ness (for no reason)
Best Moment of the Week: laying on the couch with my husband with his hands on my tummy, as we both feel the baby move
What I'm Looking Forward to: Getting the nursery painted- thanks for the suggestions! I purchased VOC free primer, so hopefully a first coat of paint will go up soon!

07.05.10- Day 184

Happy Independence Day!
Alan and I celebrated by going to church, then to a wedding of a good family friend. It was a lovely time, even though it started raining about half way through. Luckily, there was a tent to keep us all dry! We even got a ton of rain at our house! It has rained the last 2 years on the 4th, but it doesn't stop any of the firework shows. As we drove down from the mountains to the city, we could see fireworks all over the city through the rain. Sad day- July 5th. The culprit of the sad day... Nigel Bear Hunt. We knew we had a woosie dog- we've known since a couple 4th of July's ago when he chewed through two metal dog gates when he was left alone while fireworks were going off in our neighborhood. The last two years, we've tried to shelter him from the sounds (we were lucky that this year there was a storm because we were half expecting our couches to be scattered fluff across our living room or something, since we were gone to the wedding!)

This is what happened this morning when I left Nigel outside in the backyard for 30 minutes...

Notice the bloody marks on the siding. Needless to say, I was VERY upset at our dog, especially before I realized that it was because he was scared of the fireworks going off in our neighborhood. We found from Home Depot that we'll have to special order the piece needed to replace the ruined one from a siding company. Oh joy. Sometimes that dog drives me crazy. I got my revenge though. I shaved him and gave him a bath today. Happy 5th of July!