Baby Shower

This weekend has been really fun. My friends Emily and Kelsey threw me a baby shower on Saturday. It was SO fun. It just made me feel so grateful. Grateful for all the people who are in my life, grateful that they would want to drive so far to come, grateful that they would be so generous with gifts and really loving to help us out. I am so thankful to have Emily and Kelsey who put in so much work. It was awesome. You guys are the best.

I didn't get a group picture, but I chose a select few (mostly because I can't look at some of the ones I am in, so sorry if you are not in these:) Allie and Mara, I can't find the pic we took. If you have one on your camera will you send it to me? Thanks.

One more shower to go. I am having one with my church friends Nov. 6th. Man, I love baby showers. Can't wait!

Look at this diaper cake!! Emily made it. So amazing. I can't take it apart I love it too much.

The wonderful food. Seriously it was sooo good.

My sister-in-law made this blanket. Unbelievable. She is so talented. I have the best sisters-in-law.

Megan, Angie, and me

Kels and Alexis

I just love this picture. I don't know what Emily and I are looking at. It looks very important though.

Debbie, Kyla, Lori (my sis)

My niece Joy

This is part of the nursery. Check out the name. If you didn't know we are naming her Melanie. Emily made the letters. I just picked out the paper and she did the rest.

Lovin' It

Well it's official, I am 80 years old. That's right I have started water aerobics, and I am by FAR the youngest person there. My joints hurt so much that this really helps, and you can get a good workout. I still do the eliptical, stair stepper, and walk on the other days I don't have water aerobics. I have such an urge to work out really hard. When I first got pregnant I was kind of excited to not work out so hard, but now I really miss being able to push myself. It seems like it's going to be forever before I can run again. I guess I should just live it up now.

Other than that life is fabulous. I have enjoyed this first week and a half off. I have been doing lots of crafts for Christmas presents, scrapbooking, sleeping, reading, and cooking. It's AWESOME. I will never have this kind of opportunity again so I am trying to enjoy every minute of it.

Retired!

The day has come. I am retired after 3.25 years. Ok I realize I can't call it retirement, but I just like it ok. Right now I am thrilled I have to be honest. I think it will start to sink in soon. It's really strange though, because it's almost like my identity has been being a teacher. My conversations are often around teaching. Now I am just hangin out until the babe comes. I have to say though that I don't know how teachers or anyone else works up until they have a baby. Teaching is so demanding with your body, your energy, and sanity that I definitely think it's a good thing to stop before I am unhappy and way too uncomfortable being there. I have loved these past few months. My class was fabulous. So it's good to go out on a good note. My work threw me a baby shower which was sooo nice. Kelsey headed it up and she did a great job!

Here is my wonderful team, Miranda, Kelsey, Me and Katie. Can't wait for our weekly lunches at my house!

I just had to show off Kelsey's skills. She made roses out of little baby socks. So cute, and useful.

My principal ordered Jason's deli for breakfast. It was so good.

I got some sweet stuff. I really can't believe how generous everyone was. Thanks to everyone!

Kelsey, me and Alexis. I am not a huge fan of this pic of me, but these days it's slim pickins for pictures I actually like of myself

Update

Things are going well in the Foster home. I just wanted to share the talents of my amazing sister-in-law Laura. She made this blanket for me and it is hanging over the crib. She also made a nursing cover which I love. And I added a few belly shots to show the progression. Somehow we lost the 16 week picture.

12 weeks

20 weeks

25 weeks

It's A...

Girl!! So much for mother's intuition. I thought for sure it was a boy. It was so fun to be totally surprised.

Here she is on the outside

Can you tell from the front?

Here she is on the inside.

I Love Garage Sales

Yesterday we went on a hunt for baby things at garage sales in Highlands Ranch. There were sooooo many sales. We had to go home because we ran out of room in our car. Here are some of our findings.

Jogging stroller- $30

32 books- $ 7

2 baby einstein movies- $.50

Changing pad (don't worry I will disinfect it)- $.75

Bread Machine (used once)- $10

Filing things- $3

toy- $.25

And check out these beauties. When we were leaving a guy living next to someone having a garage sale put these out on the sidewalk with a FREE sign. They are workin great!

A Change in Plans

So very quickly my schedule for the fall has changed. I had told my principal a few weeks ago about not coming back next year. I just figured she would say, "Ok, good luck with everything." But no she said, "well, why don't you just teach the first quarter and then we can have a sub teach the rest of the year." By the way the first quarter is two months. That totally threw me off. I had completely checked out of teaching. I even pretty much packed up my entire room. I know you might be thinking that it doesn't sound fair to the kids. I have been struggling with that. Although, kids adjust easier than you think. They will probably forget all about me. And that is just fine.

I just figured it would be better to be busy for a few months and earn some more money than to be at home alone. Six months would be a long time to not work.

We have a family reunion the entire first week of teacher meetings before school starts. So I told her I wouldn't be there, and then I figured she would say oh, well then never mind. But she said, "oh no problem I totally understand". NICE! Teacher meetings are the worst anyway. So I would show up the first day of school; a little crazy. THEN I thought, oh no she thinks I am coming back the next year. So I asked her if she thought that, and she said, "Oh no I figured you were planning on staying home with your kids for a while."

So it's pretty much a sweet deal. I am trying to check back in for a few months. I now need to go to my classroom and organize things again.