Baby Shower Mania and Other Photos

Yeah, I know I just posted, but I figured it will be blog update day!  I’m not great at updating, but I’ll catch you up with this post.  Plus, I finally put my pictures on the computer, so I have a bunch to share!  Beware, this will be a really long post! 

First off, baby showers!  I have to say a huge thank you to everyone who has thrown me a baby shower over the past couple months!  You have all been so thoughtful and great and I appreciate your love and friendship so much! 

My first shower was a surprise shower that the kids at school threw me (thanks Susan and Sherry for helping them pull it off!).  They were so cute about it and surprised me one afternoon with presents, cupcakes, and balloons.  They were all so excited about it and that made it even more fun.  They stocked me up of cute outfits, bibs galore, and bottles and pacifiers.  I don’t have digital photos from this shower, so imagine it in your head :)

My second shower was that same day after school with the faculty and staff.  Thank you to Pam, Lori, and Shirley for putting this all together.  This was especially fun because it was a double shower with Kay (it was nice to share the spotlight!).  Thank you to everyone who was so generous and helped me stock up on all the essentials I will need.  It was also super fun to have ice cream as our refreshments because it was SUPER hot that day.  I don’t have photos from this shower either, but I promise, it was super cute.

My next shower was in Atlanta and was thrown by my mom and 2 of my sisters, Linzee and Andee.  If you know anything about my family, you know they love to entertain, and they did not let down.  The invitation said their would be lots of desserts with a side of lunch, but there was lots of lunch and lots of desserts, so I totally pigged out!  Here are some photos from this great shower.  Thanks to everyone who came and helped me ensure that this little girl will be very well dressed!

Me opening gifts

The dessert table…yes, that is chocolate cheesecake, chocolate cake, banana cream pies, chocolate and candy dipped frozen bananas, cookies, and chocolate mousse cups, and candies.  All homemade, except the candies.

The beautiful towel cake, made in the colors of the baby room…yes, my baby girl’s room is blue!  They even made one of the towels a cute little hooded towel!

The diaper wreath with cute little baby goodies on it.  That little pair of shoes is the only pair I have for this girl.  Do babies need shoes?  I couldn’t figure out if I needed to go out and buy baby shoes or not.  But these ones are definitely sassy!  I love them.

The next shower was more of a party for pregnant women.  You see, 4 of my close girlfriends from MSA (group for wives of medical students) are all preggers right now and we’re all due in the next couple months.  Well, actually, Hannah and Kristin already had their babies on July 1st, so technically, we’re not all pregnant anymore!  Anyway, the fantastic Jessica wanted to throw us a shower, but we felt a 5 person baby shower might get a little crazy, so she hosted a “breakfast for dinner baby party” for us.  We ate lots of good food and exchanged names so we just got a gift for one person instead of bringing 4 gifts to our own party!  It was so fun to sit around and talk pregnancy stuff and baby stuff (not that we need a party to do that because we do it all the time…Jessica will know everything about being pregnant by the time they decide to have kids!).  Anyway, here’s our pregnant ladies picture from the party.

Me (due end of July), Hannah…had baby Ellie last week, Lindsay (due in October, Jessica (our wonderful hostess), Paige (due in August), and Kristin…had baby Avery last week!

And my last shower, hosted by my dear friends Amanda and Tracie, was here in Augusta with friends from church.  This was also great because Rob’s mom was able to come down for the day to come to this shower.  Its great having them live closer now!  Amanda was amazing with this shower because she couldn’t have had more going on that week.  About a week before the shower, Tracie had to have unexpected back surgery, so Amanda had to put all the last minute things together on her own.  She also had her daughter in and out of the hospital for surgery that week as well.  With all that going on, she was still able to throw a beautiful shower.  Here are the photos from the shower.

The delicious food!  I especially loved all the fresh fruit! 

Me and my mother-in-law, Sherie

Opening gifts

 

The super cute diaper cake Amanda made.  This thing was LOADED with cute little goodies like rattles, pacifiers, spoons, toys, and of course, diapers!  It is lined with darling little blankets.

PS…don’t look at my ankles in these last photos…that was the first day I got majorly swollen ankles!  I have no idea why.  It was so sudden that we went to the grocery store to check my blood pressure to make sure nothing was wrong.  All is okay though, just the normal swollen pregnant woman feet.  I am spending much more time with my feet up now, though.  Also, exercising helps a lot too along with sleeping on my side (so hard for me to do!).  I hate my fat feet!

Now for the other random pictures…I told you it would be a long post!

Pregnant women picking strawberries…don’t ask me how we used to be able to squat down and pick them.  This was a couple months ago, so I can’t even imagine getting up and down that much right now.  I would probably go into labor….

Appreciation cakes we made with the girls at church.  The flowers are oreos with frosting for petals and candy leaves.  The ladybugs are my favorite part…red m&m’s with dots of frosting.  This is the sample cake Tracie and I decorated.  Here are some pictures of the girls and their cakes.

Cleaning House

So right now we are in the process of moving the office stuff to the guest room and turning the old guest room into the baby room.  We have painted the baby room and hung beadboard, so naturally, we have had a huge mess in the house for the past week and a half.  The baby room is coming along beautifully (I promise to post pictures soon, I just want to have it all done before I take the photos), but the rest of the house is suffering miserably.  So I have a goal to clean up today in hopes that I can actually have room to move around again.  I also need to finish sewing a few things for the room and I have to make some room to even get to my sewing stuff!  And of course, that will make another huge mess.  But here is my cleaning problem…I always start with the easy stuff (today, it was the dishes).  The problem with starting with the easy stuff is that even though it is easy, I have still spent a whole bunch of time cleaning and then I never get to the hard stuff (cleaning and organizing the new office!).  Wish me luck, because if I don’t get a clean house soon, I’m going to go crazy!  I hate having a messy house almost as much as I hate cleaning.

How to Keep Your Sanity

As I get closer to this baby coming, I'm starting to get nervous about a few things (naturally!).  One thing that has been on my mind lately has been the major change it is going to be to be a stay-at-home mom.  I have worked full-time for the past 6 years, and went to school full-time for my whole life before that, so this will definitely be a big change for me.  I guess it being summer and my job already being over, I can see how easy it might be to let yourself get a little lost.  I've always had to work hard to stay busy during summer vacation so I don't get bored out of my mind.  Luckily, Rob has had many summer breaks right along with me and we've been able to do some amazing traveling and spend a lot of our free time together.  Unfortunately, this summer has been pretty busy for him so far (can't wait for his week off next week...and Congratulations to Rob for finishing his 3rd year of med school this week!  One more to go, baby!).  So I have had to entertain myself during the days.  As you can see from my previous post, I am keeping myself busy with things for this baby.  I have also kept myself busy cleaning the house, running errands and doing other "house-wife" type stuff.  The problem is, that I really don't find any joy in this "house-wife" type stuff.  So here is my big worry for when the baby comes....

How can I keep my sanity while taking care of this baby (the fun part) and keeping up with the house chores? 

I don't want to become one of those people who's entire being and life revolves around being a mom.  Don't get me wrong here...I know how important it is to be a mom and I'm very excited about that.  And I also know that I will love being a mom.  I just don't want to lose who I am as a person in the process.  I know I have good qualities to offer the world other than just motherhood.  Even before this baby comes I am trying to make sure I keep myself going, because I'm noticing how easy it is to use excuses, ie "I'm pregnant, so its okay if I sit around and do nothing, my body needs the rest."  This is what I have come up with so far to keep my sanity:

1.  Work out...I really hate doing this, but at least it keeps me active and moving.  I know it helps mentally too, so I'm trying really hard to stick with it.

2.  Shower, do my hair and makeup everyday.  Even if I don't plan on leaving the house.  I always feel better if I know I look and smell better.

3.  Plan out things to do each day that I will look forward to.  Today's plan was to go grocery shopping.  Sounds kinds dull, but it got me out of the house, so I went with it enthusiastically.

4.  Have non-baby projects to work on.  Right now my non-baby project is working on making a cookbook that I have been trying to do for years now.  The only problem is that the book-making software I'm using right now is not working so great, so it's causing quite a bit of frustration.  Other things I plan to work on are organizing Rob's photography, finally making Rob's web site, learning how to take photos with the studio equipment myself, and digitizing old photos (I see a pattern here....)

5.  Read a book.  I just started this book called The Book Thief.  I haven't really gotten into it very far yet, but it seems like it will be interesting.  I'll let you know how it was when I finish it. 

But I still want some more ideas for staying sane.  I think it will be a lot harder once this little one gets here, so I want to have a plan now.  So here is where I open it up to all you stay-at-home moms for help!  What do you do to keep your sanity?  How do you make sure you still have time and energy for yourself and your hubby? 

A New Hobby for the Summer

I have a problem every summer of getting bored while not working, but this summer will be different.  With the baby coming, I really only have to "entertain" myself for the next 2 months, and then I'll have plenty to keep me busy.  But until then, I have vowed to stay busy and active, both for my sanity and mine and the baby's health.  Of course, I will still take time to rest.  But I definitely don't need to rest all day long (which I'm sure will be a tempting thing as I get bigger and bigger).  So far today, I spent my day cleaning, grocery shopping, working out and sewing!  I finished a dress I started last week and made another one from start to finish in 1 hr. 30 min!  This is definitely a new record, considering that the first one I made took me an ENTIRE day!  I am having a blast sewing little dresses for the baby.  Thanks to my mom for teaching me how to sew when I was growing up and thanks to my BYU sewing class for the extra sewing knowledge.  With that said, I am not a sewing expert by any means, but these dresses have turned out pretty cute!  So here they are...just waiting for the baby to get here to wear them!

This is the first dress I made a couple weeks ago! 

I made this tutu for baby photography purposes!  Actually, I didn't do any sewing at all on this! 

This dress is actually purple, even though it looks blue here.  I used the same pattern as the first dress, but added the sash and bow myself!  This was the one I finished today.

This sweet little dress might actually be small enough to fit my baby this summer!  This is the one that took 1 hr. and 30 minutes.  I think I will make another with this pattern and I'm sure it will take even less time now that I know what I'm doing.  It was easy to make and I found the pattern online for free! (http://madebyrae.blogspot.com/2008/04/free-itty-bitty-baby-dress-pattern.html )  I love how it turned out!

My only problem now is that I ran out of fabric for my dresses, so I'll probably be making another trip to Joann's this week!  Luckily, these dresses are so small, the fabric is not too pricey!  I'm thinking that if I keep this sewing thing up, I can eventually make my own patterns and sell some of those dresses/tutus!  It's just one of my many ideas to make up for not going back to work in the fall!

Furious!

I just need a few minutes to vent, so here it comes!

I am so furious at parents who tell their kids that its okay to punch someone in the face at school if the other kid starts something with you.  Schools have rules for a reason and I don't care what your mom told you, you punch a kid at school, you have to suffer the consequences.  Then it makes me even more furious when the mom says "well, the other kid got what they deserved."  Frankly, both kids are going to get what they deserve, but what about the rest of us?  Did I deserve to have to take 20 minutes out of my lesson to break up/sort out this fight, another 10 minutes writing the whole incident up, plus another 25 minutes after school on the phone explaining the situation to the parents?  Did the other 20 kids in the room deserve to miss out on the fun lesson I planned because we ran out of time because I had to spend the previously mentioned time dealing with 2 kids who chose not to control themselves?  These kids have been searching for a reason to fight each other for weeks now. I just don't understand the glamour of a fight.  Why do they want to do it so bad?  But it makes me even more angry that they probably won't get in any trouble at home because their parents told them it was okay.  They are taught its okay now, and when they get older and the fights escalate to something bigger, do we, as law abiding tax payers, deserve to fork over the bill when they end up in jail?  After this whole incident a student asked me what I would do if someone punched me in the face.  Why would someone ever punch me in the face????   I'd like to think that no one has ever had any reason to punch me in the face!  These kids and parents need to stop focusing on what to do in a fight and start focusing on how not to get in a fight in the first place!  And this concludes my venting session.  On the positive side, I'll probably have a great workout this afternoon now.  I always do when I need to blow off steam!

Human Growth and Development

So don't we all remember that notorious day in elementary school when they give you the human growth and development talk?  Well, my fourth grade girls got that talk from the counselors the other day, and I just had to post a few of the comments that came with it!  The girls all left the class for the afternoon to have their "lesson" and the boys stayed in the classroom with me (they don't have to go through the torture until the 5th grade).  Naturally, the boys wanted to know why all the girls got to leave for the afternoon.  I told them that they were having a special health lesson.  This quickly dispelled the jealousy of the boys not getting to go.  A few boys caught on and made comments like "Oh, I know what they're doing.  It's so gross!" and "We don't have to have that nasty lesson, do we?"  But then there were the boys who had no clue what was going on.  Here is one of the responses from one such boy...

"Are the girls sticking each other with needles?"

You can imagine my confusion to this and I asked him why he would think that.  He answered, "well you said it was about health and its gross and needles are the only gross thing about health."  I assured the poor kid that there were no needles involved and told him he could ask his mom if he had any other health questions.

Well that was the response from the boys.  Here is one from one of the girls (after being told that they would be leaving the room for this lesson)...

"I know know all about this.  I know a boy's balls are filled with juices and he squeezes them out into a girl and she gets pregnant."  No joking.  That's what she said!

Along the same lines, but on a different day, I overheard a boy and girl in my class arguing about how my baby would be born.  The boy insisted that the Dr. would have to cut the baby out of my stomach.  The girl told him no, that's not how it happens and tried to leave it at that.  Well, being a stubborn 10 year old boy, he went on "well if they don't cut it out of her, how will they get it out of her?  She's not going to throw up the baby!"  After that comment he saw me close by and asked very loudly "How are babies born?"  And that's when I pretended not the hear and started a new lesson as quickly as possible, praying that he would not ask his question again.  Luckily, he knew not to interrupt once I started the lesson so it got left at that.  But just in case, I had my response ready "Ask your mom."

We're Having a Girl

We had our ultrasound yesterday and "it" has now been labeled "her."  Actually, I kept calling her a "him" before we knew, mostly because I think that's just the default when you don't know what to call something.  Rob and I are both excited, but now that its sinking in, I'm also getting a little scared/nervous.  I mean, I remember being a teenage girl...It is a little scary knowing that I will be responsible for one of those.  But I am completely excited about all the fun shopping I get to do now!  The kids in my class are super excited for me too.  They spent most of the day today trying to come up with a name for my baby.  Here are the student's top choices:

Haley Jr.

Princess

Naming the child after them

I think I'll keep looking for other names :)  We have a few names in mind, but haven't settled on anything yet.  Here is some that I have been thinking of, but like I said, it could all change.

Reagan

Raelynn...possibly a little too southern sounding

Consuela Raspberry (j/k  this is the name I always wanted to name my child when I was little :)

Allison (Allie)...Rob's not really on board with this one, though

Rosemary...I like old fashioned names, but this may be too old...I like it though

Any comments or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!  I just don't want something that is too popular. 

And on a side note, Rob and I probably shouldn't watch the news anymore.  It leads to too much yelling at the TV, grumbling about the government, and puts thoughts into my head about moving to other countries just to avoid the bad becoming worse.  How have we let our government take so many liberties in changing their roles?  Now I am no constitution expert, but I'm pretty sure that the founding fathers did not intend for our government to bail out banks and control car companies!  And then they encourage Americans to go out and buy new cars (which no one can afford because we are in an economic crisis!) by backing warranties and giving tax breaks (which really isn't enough to make a brand new car affordable, not that I want them to give more, I don't think they should get involved at all).  Didn't we get into this mess partly because banks were encouraging Americans to buy things they couldn't afford?  Since when was buying something you can't afford a good financial decision???  Plus, who wants to buy crappy American-made cars anyway?  Then you have the union workers who work these assembly lines and whatnot and they are getting paid more than I do for doing a way easier job.  (Yeah, I know its a little hypocritical of me to complain about that since the NEA fights for my salary, but I am proud to say that I am NOT a member of the NEA!  I don't believe in it).  For those of you who are still reading at this point, thanks for letting me get on my little soap box and vent. 

Oh, and one last note on the pregnancy.  I have now developed a new symptom that I HATE....leg cramps!!!  I've only had them twice now, but both times I have woken up to the most excruciating pain and had to use a great deal of self-restraint not to wake the neighborhood with my screams.  I had one this morning, and it is now 10:30 at night and my leg is still tight and uncomfortable.  Anyone else experience this or know a good remedy?