The "BIG Reveal"!

So as most of y’all know, yesterday we had our ultrasound to hopefully discover the gender of the lil’ one that has taken residency in my womb. Like I mentioned before, neither Chris nor I had a strong preference of the gender, but we just were really looking forward to knowing.

Wednesday night I baked cupcakes and hollowed out the middles. I had whipped cream ready in the fridge and blue and pink dye waiting on the counter. As soon as our appointment was over, we’d run home fill our cupcakes with pink or blue cool whip, ice them and then head to our ‘rents to reveal the gender of their third grandchild! First to Chris’ parents’, then drop Chris off at work, then to my parents’, I’d wait there until Zac got off give him a cupcake, and then hopefully stop by Grandma & Grandpa Cow’s for a few minutes before getting back to our house for Girls’ Night for the gender reveal and the Creamery. It was all planned out.

One little hiccup occurred: we had no idea whether to fill the cupcakes with pink or blue filling!

I didn’t even want to make the rounds, but as I mumbled “What do we do about all the cupcakes?!” Chris said, “We still do it.” *sigh* This wasn’t part of the plan. So instead our family and friends got to bite into green filled cupcakes.

Boy?! Wait that's green? Yep, we don't know what's in me!

Note that it was not by lack of effort that we were not able to tell the gender! Jodi poked, prodded, and shook my belly like it was her job! ;) Our child was not budging! I’ve heard of babies being cross legged hiding their business, but this child of ours had its knees locked together. Not of glimpse of light could’ve been seen between its thighs. As a result 45 minutes later, he may be a he or she may be a she.

Despite not really caring the result of yesterday’s appointment, I’d be a liar if I said I wasn’t bummed. Chris and I drove separately as we were both coming from work, so we obviously had to drive separately home. I got into my car, pulled my new zebra shades down over my eyes, and pulled out. Just as a single tear fell down my cheek, Thisis the Stuff by Francsesca Battstelli. Now this song’s beat is mildly annoying, but it’s so true for my life. It speaks about how there are small things that don’t really matter that test your patience and such and because of all of that, we forget our many blessings. So true. It definitely wasn’t the song I wanted to hear at that moment, but nevertheless it was a good reminder.

So I guess we'll move on, not knowing if our first child will be a boy or a girl, and having a gender nuetral shower, and getting a huge surprise come August! Honestly, yesterday I was extremely bummed about not knowing, simply because I had the expectation of knowing, but now I think I *may* be able to last another 19 weeks before finding out!

Here's a little glimpes of the stubborn and in control modest lil one! I'm sure [s]he be perfect! : )

Face shot, with it's nubby right arm.

A Couple More Days...

So in just a couple days... well in 1 day and 17 hours, but who's counting... Chris and I have our ultrasound in which we will hopefully find out if we'll be welcoming a bundle of blue or pretty in pink come fair time! Neither of us have strong feelings one way or another, so we're excited just to know!

At first we were thinking girl because Chris had baby girl dreams whereas I hadn't had any gender specific dreams. Additionally at my first appointment when we could hear its lil heartbeat, the heart rate was higher. So without any super strong feelings, we were thinking "Girl!"

Then I had my next appointment. Its heartrate was at the other end of the spectrum [and I even had a sweet tea and a snicker's cream egg before that appointment!]. So that threw that theory to the wind. But really got us thinking maybe-blue was my friend BFer's unique wive's tale. Now as a preggo lady, I've done plenty of online reading and heard lots of crazy wive's tales... peeing in cabbage water, peeing in Drano, ring on a string, baby daddy weight gain... but she had one I had never heard of. She brought her lil' bundle of joy over during my Spring Break and as we caught up she told me to look on the inside of my ankles and determine which was puffier. Swollen on right meant girl, more swollen on left meant boy. It was accurate for her and her friend that told her about it. So by the end of the day I asked every pregnant lady I knew who already knew the gender of their babe and guess what!? 6 for 6 accuracy! So if Thursday makes 7 for 7, we'll be welcoming blue!

So we shall see, and those closest to us shall see as well when they bite in to a cupcake with either pink or blue filling to reveal if there's pink or blue "in me"! We shall see! :)

What I am really excited to see, is our baby again whether he's a he or she's a she because last time the bean looked like this:

Dangling monster darling! : )

Look for an update at the end of the week!



One Quick Update

So today I told myself that I had to be productive when it came to getting ready to go back to school on Monday. I mean I had told myself all week that it was spring break and so I should just enjoy it which meant I didn't do a single productive thing when it comes to school.

Well after a not so restful night's sleep, I was waken by the doorbell. Crap! I knew Joie was supposed to drop off some pics, but my sleepy head forgot. Whoops! Anyways, thanks to a messy bedroom, I could quickly put on a pair a jeans and sweatshirt off the floor and answer the door before they left. I'm glad I did!Not only did I get some adorable 9 month pics of Stu, but Sondra also had to use the potty, so I potential prevented a wet accident! : )

After they left I got to work! Within a couple-ish hours, I pretty much had 2 weeks of lesson plans and powerpoints ready for my Geometry students. Ahh. It feels so good to not have to think worry about those for several days!

Lesson plans complete, laundry from a week ago finally folded [I left the putting away task to Mister!], compost taken out, trash and recycling taken out, coats and shoes put away. Sounds successfully productive enough for me!

Now just to find a project to use the white fabric! Perhaps something for Sondra! Or perhaps something else! We shall see. : )

Spring-ish Winter Break

Last Friday at 1:30pm officially began my spring break. I was looking forward to it for a couple of reasons and obviously all my students were looking forward to it, so I embraced it with open arms. Leading up to the week, I had an unwritten to do list of what I wanted to accomplish:

1. Move the tv to the living room.

2. Organize the bedroom that the tv was in so it can start to become nursery-ish.

3. Put the crib together.

4. Organize the mounds of things in the garage by putting them into the new pantry area.

5. Do our state and local taxes. [I've had federal done since early February, but there's little motivation when we owe money! : ) ]

*Note: There is nothing listed about lesson plans or grading which is likely why I haven't done either and it's already Friday! Yikes!

By Saturday night, Chris and I had kicked butt and marked off the first 3 things on my to-do list. And now that it's Friday, I've got to re-motivate myself to get those last two done, and especially the little asterisk!

Here's the crib all put together! : )

So you ask what have I done with the last five days of not working on my to-dos?! Well I have been doing other enjoyable things that I will enlighten you on now.

MONDAY: Busy, busy, busy. Monday morning I woke up with a plan of going from one thing to another for the majority of the day. I had a meeting in the morning then a dentist appointment just before noon, then a doctor's appointment at 1:50. Spin [I thought] was at 5:30 and then TFC at 7. Well I was a bit nervous about my morning schedule as I was afraid the offices would be running behind and I was would be in a mad rush from one place to another. Thankfully that wasn't the case--actually the exact opposite was the case. I had a decent amount of time to kill between everything that morning. So I did what anyone would do, go from drugstore to drugstore and rack up some freebies!

Dentist Appt: I had a pinhole cavity that needed filled--I swear they just make things up in order to get more of our money-- so I get called back, and the assistant puts the topical numbing stuff on my gums. The dentist comes back with a needle and numbs my mouth. Not 3 minutes later--which it usually takes longer than that for the dentist to return--he's back with drill in hand and begins drilling. Did he check to see if everything was numb yet?! Of course not! Reminded me of the country song "Some Beach!" I grunted because it hurt--usually I try to tough it out but this hurt! And as he put the drill down he commented that he didn't give me much anaesthetic because he wasn't going to be doing much drilling. Gee thanks for the warning! To my surprise he was done with drilling and within 20 minutes of sitting in the dentist chair, I was back in my car with an hour and an half before my doctor's appointment.

Doc Appt: I arrived to the office about 15 minutes early because I was out of ideas to kill time, so I read a few pages of a new book and watched some Soaps while trying to understand the unfolding drama. I got called back a few minutes before my scheduled appointment time and when through the usual routine...Weight... Pee in a Cup... Nurse asks if I have any new symptoms or questions? Nope... Fetal Heart rate...144...[Don't get me wrong, that part is cool, but it wasn't as climatic as the first time and this nurse wasn't as bubbly/fun.]...Doc will be in a minute. Okay... Couple minutes of Soaps...Doc come in and asks if I have any new symptoms or questions? Nope... She feels around my stomach/uterus..."Everything looks good, and girls will schedule you for your ultrasound and upcoming appointments on your way out!"... The end. After scheduling appointments through the end of May, I was out the door. It was 2:10! I was in and out after only 20 minutes. Do I see the "necessity" of these appointments? Of course, but it seems like such a waste of time. Part of me was wishing I had a high risk pregnancy so that they'd at least be more interesting, but of course that's the senseless part of me and I'm thankful for a healthy-as-far-as-we-know pregnancy!

Spin was cancelled and then off to TFC. So my "crazy busy Monday" turned out to be pretty slow.

TUESDAY: A few weeks ago, Chris had planned a mini-getaway for my Spring Break. He kept it all a secret, except that he told me we were going to a Bed & Breakfast. [Well he thought we were going to a Bed & Breakfast, but after communicating with the owner he discovered that they actually didn't serve breakfast so we were going to a... Bed. : ) ] So we headed out later than planned thanks to sleeping in on Tuesday for Eastern Ohio for a mini-trip to Holmes County. The drive was nice and when we got there we went to a Cheese Factory. We bought 4 different kinds of cheese--who knew they made salami cheese!? With a cracker, it's just like eating a slice of cheese with a slice of salami on a cracker! Yum! Then we were off to a couple little markets/shoppes. They had tons of crafty things there, which we didn't buy but rather examined the things we liked closely so we can make them ourselves. By this time, we were able to check into our Bed & Breakfast so we headed there. It was a cozy lil' country decorated room that once we figured out the lock system we were all set! Shortly after getting there, an Amish neighbor lady came to door with peanut butter cookies for us. [These weren't just single pb cookies, but soft, delicious pb cookies that are made into "sandwiches" with  a pb frosting holding them together!] Chris answered the door and took the cookie jar with him. At first she piled 2 on there. Then she commented about it being a balancing act as she piled 2 more on! Thinking she was done, Chris thanked her, just have her put another two pb sandwiched on there! Holy moly! Who needs breakfast when you have the equivalent of a dozen homemade, fresh pb cookies!!

After coming up with a game plan for the rest of the evening--1/2 hour snooze, supper, jacuzzi, movie, bed-- we were set for the evening. We decided to go to Chalet in the Valley for supper because I read that they had cheese fondue! We ordered just that when we got there [which is all I was going to eat!] and when it came out it was huge and delicious!!

We ate most of this--which we later discovered was a pound of cheese! No bathroom breaks on our way home. ; )

Although we had all the cheese with yummy bread and Chris was barely able to eat half his meal, there was still a little room for dessert! We decided on a Matterhorn--layered baked meringue, pineapple, and ice cream covered in whipped cream--and to get it to-go. Now this dessert was huge as in 8 inches tall huge, so we gave the workers a bit of a challenge of making this to-go. Nevertheless they did it! And it was a-mazing!

Matterhorn Dessert

After supper it was time to roll ourselves back to our Bed & Breakfast to enjoy the jacuzzi. Note to self: Never let Chris put the bubbles in the tub for our future children. They made just get lost in the bubbles! He put an entire bottle of bubbles in the tub which ended up being a ton!!

The remnants of the bubble jaccuzzi--after all the water had been let out!

We watched Five People You'll Meet in Heaven [the book's better] and then drifted off to sleep!

WEDNESDAY: We got up, ate some pb cookies for breakfast, and headed to a Chocolate Factory before heading home from our adventure. After a decent drive home considering we hit rain, baby hail, and snow, we had a couple of hours before Chris had to go to work for the night. So since I knew I'd be on my own for the evening, I decided to embark on a couple new projects. Chris and I had been talking about the cost of baby bedding sets [which we had been saving our Swagbucks for so in reality it'd be "free"] and how you pay close to $100 for a fitted crib sheet and crib skirt and everything else is a safety hazard to actually use. So after a little surfing the web, I found some tutorials on making fitted crib sheets. With a plan in mind, I headed out to Hobby Lobby to buy the supplies. I picked out a light green fabric and some elastic as well as some remnant pieces. I knew what I'd use the green fabric and elastic for, but I now needed to come up with an idea for my remnants. Before I headed home, I stopped by Wally World to see if they had any fabric remnants I wanted which much to my surprise they didn't because they no longer really carried fabric. Then I was off to Walgreens to see if they had gotten in any money-making toothpaste and some Snicker Easter Eggs when I got a text from my Momma "I see you." She happened to be across the street waiting for my brother so they could eat some Lock Sixteen. So of course I joined them. : )

Project time! I decided that I would make a little pillow, and stuffed elephant, and a crib sheet out of my Hobby Lobby goodies! My game plan was first pillow, then sheet, and lastly elephant because I thought that would be the order from easiest to hardest. I forgot that I wanted to wash the sheet material first, so that became project numero tres. I busted out the sewing machine and not too much longer I was stuffing my pillow. Project Uno: Check. Then I found a pattern I wanted to use for the elephant. While I struggled a bit with the ears, the body was oddly easier and not too too much longer that project was done was well. The crib fabric was washed and dried so I was ready to start the fitted crib sheet. I laid it all out and began cutting when Chris got home. I showed him my first two projects then quickly got back to my mission of easily creating a crib sheet for half the cost of buying one at the store! As Chris went to bed, I continued to work on my sheet. Not too much longer, I broke my sewing needle on my last stitch of the sheet and I was complete! Wahoo!! It felt quite accomplishing! And for less than $4!



Crib sheet, pillow [it has the dot pattern on the back side], and lil' elephant!



The best part of it all--the sheet actually fit! : )

THURSDAY: BFer and her lil one came to visit for lunch on Thursday, so in the morning I had to do some picking up in the living room so Emma didn't get ahold of any fabric scraps! Then we spent awhile catching up which was quite enjoyable! We talked about babies, coupons, houses, life, and one interesting wives tale! Britney had a classmate tell her when she was pregnant with Emma that if you look on the inside of your feet, right under your ankle bone that whichever one is puffier is an indication of baby's gender. It was accurate for her and her classmate when they were pregnant, so she had me check my ankles! I had never heard of this before so I asked all the pregnant people I could think of who already know what they are having to check their ankles and it's 6 for 6 on accuracy, so in 13 days we'll see if it's accurate for me!

After BFer and Emma-bug headed home, I was going to head back to Hobby Lobby to get some more crib fabric when another friend text to ask if I was up for heading to OfficeMax. Well our trip to OfficeMax ended up being a trip there and then to the mall and then to Hobby Lobby and then to Big Bs and then to Super Wal-Mart and then back to my house. I was particularly excited about two parts of this run around: Hobby Lobby and the mall. At Hobby Lobby I got enough teal fabric to make 2 more fitted crib sheets as well as two super soft remnant pieces. As we picked up the pink minky fabric we noticed that it read "Type of Fabric: Dirty". So I wondered just how dirty is dirty! I asked the interesting lady working that section if she could open it up. I am glad that she did because not only did we discover that the dirtiness was confined to a small area and it appeared that it was easily washout, we also discovered that it was not a full yard like the label suggested. So after remeasuring the fabric and getting a discount for the dirt of course, it came out to be quite the deal!

Thursday's Goodies 

As we continued to chat and go from place to place I realized that I missed my spin class--I blame it on the lack of schedule this week! Crap! Today's spin is going to kick my butt as it has been since a week ago Monday! Yikes! Anyways I came up with the idea to go to The Melting Pot as Dani has never been and they have a special on Thursday nights! So without much convincing, we were tearing through my closet looking for ways to easily transform ourselves from hot messes to hot presentable without Dani having to run home! Not too much longer we were on our way to delicious food dipping goodness! Yum! Yum!

And now that brings us to today, which other than this post and washing/drying my additional crib fabric, I have not accomplished a single thing! On today's to-do list:

1. Lesson plans for the rest of my current geometry unit.

2. Make 2 more crib sheets.

3. Find a project to use the white fabric for! : )

We'll see how this goes, and if you are still reading this...Wow! Thanks!

Until next time! [Which will likely be sooner rather than later as I haven't blogged much because most of the things that I have wanted to blog about has centered around baby things and I haven't wanted that information to be on the internet before this past week!]