September 03
sigh...
my parents are not here....
stupid gas prices and the threat of no gas prevented them from coming down. i was so looking forward to them being here! oh well, they will come down after we move. it'll be cooler then anyway.
can i just take a minute to talk about the whole gas situation? we heard about this on wednesday. possible gas shortage in NC... gas stations closing because they have no more gas...PEOPLE WENT INSANE!!!! after school on thursday parents were in the parking lot showing how many 5 gallon gas containers they had spent the day filling. like this is going to help the problem. while i am extremely sorry for all those people on the gulf coast, god knows they have lost EVERYTHING!!!!, this is a wake up call. there is no way that we should be this dependant on gas. i am not saying that i am not totally guilty of using too many plastic products or running out to the grocery store on a whim or whatever, but i also don't drive the biggest gas guzzler i can find and then complain about having to spend 75 dollars to fill my tank!!! jerry and i carpool. we have one car and we can survive nicely on one tank of gas a week. this drives me nuts!!! then the EPA has given Bush free reign for he next how many ever months to use gas that is not up to par?!?!
it bothers me that there has been more press locally on gas than on ways to help the victims of hurricane katrina. they probably don't give a!@#$ about gas prices right now! THEY LOST EVERYTHING!!!!! grrrrrrr
and one more thing.... has anyone bothered to notice that we are just now half way through hurricane season and we are already on "m" for named storms? is anyone wondering why hurricane alley was 2 degrees warmer than normal three months early? does anyone realize what it takes to raise a body of water two degree?!?!?!
SIGH....
okay, that is enough ranting! but feel free to post a response!
September 07
It's Almost Time!!!
let's hope little ruckus (what were calling the baby until we find out....)
will cooperate with us at the doctor's office today!!! as a treat after we find out...and of course call our folks to let them know...we are going to go register!!! WAHOO!! we have decided to register at babies r' us, target, and (evil) walmart. jerry and i both have issues with registering at walmart, but some of our families have no choice but to shop there as it is all there is. so we decided it was what needed to be done. if IKEA had a registry we would register there. they have the cutest stuff that isn't outlandishly priced.
anyway, i'll update this page later today so people who check this regularly will know what we're having!!
It's a boy!!!!!!!!!!!
and not a shy one either. our Internet at home is down, so tomorrow i will put up our ultrasound pics!!!!
we are very excited!!!!!!!!!!!
WAHOOOO!!!!!!!
September 08
our baby
words cannot describe how awesome it is to see your baby moving around and seemingly posing for the camera! i could;d hardly sleep last night for all the excitement of yesterday. we are so grateful that our baby is healthy! we aren't sure if we are just having a very long baby or if we are farther along than we thought.
i have had nightmares during this pregnancy that we give birth to a three foot long baby! EEEKKK!!!
anyway, it's reassuring to see the baby and fall in love with him over and over again! now that the morning sickness is gone, i am a much happier pregnant woman!!
thanks for all the e-mails and congrats!!!!!
September 13
hurricanes!
i guess since we rarely get snow days, it's only fair that we get hurricane days right? school was canceled for today and my guess is that it will be canceled tomorrow, though that's not official yet. it's really windy and that's about it now. jerry and i decided last year that we wouldn't leave unless it was a cat3 or higher. as this one is maybe going to be a cat 1 we aren't worried. we have water and ice and canned food, so even if the electric fails we're set.
jerry will work today and probably tomorrow, so i am here to get some more packing done and work on lesson plans for school (after all i am giving a science test on thursday.) of course, this storm has canceled one of my doctor's appointments this week and i am betting it will cancel the other one by the end of the day. sigh...
oh well, i must admit, it was nice to not have to wake up ar 6:30 this morning. i guess i should figure out the day...
September 15
windy
I have another day from school off. While Ophelia has FINALLY left us, there is lots of clean up to do and still people without power. We luckily never lost power. However, the stupid local channels (mainly all we get) ran constant coverage. In my opinion, I can look out the window and see that there is a hurricane, I don't =need live updates from crazy people standing out in it. Anyway, we had a "friends"-a- thon. So at lest we were entertained. The pics I took are from yesterday and today. I obviously couldn't go outside yesterday, but I did go out this morning. Since we are about 10 miles from the coast we were really lucky damage wise. We'll go out this evening to check out our new house to make sure it's all good.
The worst thing we had to encounter was the rain blowing into our laundry room. There is no weather stripping around the door, so we had to constantly change out soaked towels. At least it was something to do. There were times I thought about the snowstorms I have been through and the biggest difference is at least you can get out an walk around in the snow...not so much in a hurricane. Oh well.
Jerry went back to work today and as the wind continues to die down I will go out an start cleaning up the debris in our yard. It was such a long storm, but we haven't had rain in quite a while so at least our moat is draining faster than normal.
I've also added pics that were e-mailed to me from my aunt of Katrina coming in. They are incredible and nothing compared to the small "rain storm" we had yesterday. I hope that recovery down on the coast continues successfully.
September 20
GRRRR
since our cabinets haven't made it here yet, our closing date has been moved back until the end on october. at least we still hadn't given our 30 days yet, because we would've been up a creek for sure! so now we are simply surround by boxes and waiting. oh well!
a co-worker at the library got me hooked on to democracy means you web site. it's hilarious and has great stickers and stuff!! it's only for those readers out there that are at least leaning to the left, but anyone can check it out of course!
that's all the news for now. i have a check up tomorrow, but that's really not that exciting...oh well!
September 22
almost friday
so i chopped 5 inches off my hair today. amazingly i can still pull it back in a pony tail. i think my hair was the longest it's been in years, but i couldn't get a brush through it and it was really hot! now at least it's shorter and a bit more manageable.
the hair lady was going on and on about her new grandson, which was sweet. she then mentioned that she was hesitant to let her 16 year son get married to the mother of their baby until a DNA test was done. first of all WHAT? 16 years old and married....WOW!!! and secondly (not to mention what really bothered me) was that she didn't want her son to marry the girl because of love, but only marry her if the child was his. no wonder 50% of marriages fail. i'm very lucky that i have such a wonderful adoring man, who will be an excellent father! we suit each other very well. he's mellow where i can be high strung, he's ground when i can be flighty, and most of all he loves me no matter what!
ANYWAY...since our house is in limbo and nothing has really changed there for a while, we are hanging out in a mountain of boxes...WE SHOULD MAKE A FORT! that would be fun...
on another note, the poor gulf coast just can't win and we still have another 2 months of hurricane season. i was wondering what they would do if the got to "z" and there were still hurricanes? it's all nerve wracking and i don't even live down there. i'm glad the evacuations seem to be going well, but can one really not learn from katrina how bad things can get? also, i forget, but isn't our president from texas?
i only pray (yes some of us democrats do that on occasion too!) that the damage isn't as severe.
tomorrow is a library day and that makes me happy. not that i don't like teaching, but i do enjoy working at the library...it's almost like a play day. i feel like i am constantly laughing and joking...even if on occasion the crazy person calls and yells at me about how smelly her books were (what are you going to do? it's a library....) this week at school though has been good. i gave my first science test and the kids did well for the most part...at least no on e failed. they were so cute during the test in too. they seemed so proud, as they should be.
okay, that's all for now...i'm a bit sleepy....
September 24
baby news
we went to see a doctor at women's health specialties yesterday. they wanted to do another ultrasound. the reason for this is there was some concern about the baby's kidneys. the baby is perfect. the kidneys are showing a little dialtion, but his bladder is full and the right amount of blood is circulating into his kidneys. this is all precautionary and will have no affect on when and how the baby is born. i personally think (though i am no doctor) that the baby needs to pee and all will be well, or that he is just really long and his kidneys are reflecting his height. either way we are not worried and we got to look at our little ruckus jones (our in utero name) on TV, plus got some more pics. the ultrasound tech and the doctor there were both really nice. we are going back one more time in 11 weeks for another ultrasound where they will be able to tell us more. probably a pediatric urologist will meet with us and check out the baby after he is born. not a biggie!
so i have put up some of the pics we got yesterday as our house has nothing new! SIGH! our new neighbor saw us yesterday when we went over and said that no one had been working over there for about a week. it's very frustrating as i can see things that can be done while they are waiting for the cabinets to arrive...i still don't understand why they couldn't just go down to Lowe's and buy the dang things...but whatever. i'm sure they have their reasons, and will probably ask us if we want to cancel our contract as they can get a heck of a lot more money for our house than what we are paying for it...but no way man! we are moving into that house come hell or high water....ooooo bad remark....sorry.
well little ruckus is hungry and kicking at me for some food....enjoy looking at him in utero...it was a miracle he stayed still long enough for these pics to be made, we were there for almost an hour doing the head to toe check because he was such a wiggle worm...it is kinda cool to see him move on the screen and be able to feel him move at the same time....
September 28
is it fall yet?
i am not normally one to be hot, but the whole pregnant thing is making it so. i am so glad that i am not farther along than i am. my kids have been complaining that the room is too cold, i sleep with no covers, and today i even turned the sir on....granted i had been working outside and i was hotter than normal, but i haven't turned it off yet.
let's see....oh yeah, jerry (the hubby) started a web page (finally). it's a work in progress as are all of these. my mom and dad are coming down for a visit on monday. i know they wanted to come after the house was done, but who knows when that will be. we met with our birth class instructor last night. it was nice to meet face to face. we are going with the bradley method...natural childbirth without the use of drugs. so far i'm doing well, i need to exercise more...but this is nothing new. 
currently my excuse is work. these kids (as great as they are) can really wear me out. so by the time i get home after school i am exhausted, my feet are killing me, and i just want to sit down and do nothing. wednesdays are a bit different, but i am usually doing housework or yard work, which counts in my opinion. but i do need to do more. if i could sleep more than 4 hours at night, i would probably have more energy. i keep having awful nightmares and then i can't go back to sleep. of course the little one wakes me in the morning to eat....getting prepared for the actual birth i guess. anyway, i am confident that everything will be fine.
that's about it. nothing's happening at the house...sigh... but what are you going to do? i am excited that the temp for this weekend is supposed to be cooler. we can hopefully finish cleaning up the yard and then of course clean the house for my parent's arrival. that would be good....so that's all....
But since the turkey was okay, I'll try some more today. Sigh...who knew I was going to have to eat all this stuff. Though I guess I am growing another human being. Still I look at some of these pregnancy diets and I can't imagine eating as much food as they say you should eat. It's a bit stressful, so I have stopped looking at those. I take a multi-vitamin and a calcium supplement and I eat six small meals a day. I have stayed away from sugars (for the most part) and eat low fat foods. I feel like I'm at least on the right track.
one of jerry's co-worker's can't believe that we are going the cloth route. but not only is it better for the environment, but it's better for the baby's bottom as well. the baby is way less likely to have diaper rash and the cloth is much softer than disposable diapers. this is not to say we will never use disposable diapers. long trips and outings we will use disposable, and of course we will not force anyone taking care of our little one to use the cloth ones...but i really believe they are just as easy. also on our outing we found lots of stuff that baby's really don't need. i mean really how much stimuli do babies need these days. we were looking a bouncy seat, and we couldn't find one that didn't have lights and music and attachments all over it. no wonder kids are AD/HD these days. i think that they have enough stimulus with the environment around them. i can't imagine being an uneducated parent. all these gadgets that companies make you feel like you have to have or your baby will surely parish...or worse fall behind the curve....
WHATEVER!
Our little baby was just kicking away at the placenta. The tech poked at my tummy a bit and the baby turned around and looked up at us. It was AMAZING!!!!!! We then went to the OB for just a check up. I have gained 10.5 pounds thus far and am healthy. We got to hear the baby's heart beat at this appointment. It's still going strong at 155 beat/min. We go back on Sept. 7th to find out the sex and have an "official" ultrasound. Very exciting indeed!
It's really nice that we will be working close to the same schedule. Tomorrow he is working only half a day. So while he's at work, I am going to meet a friend for coffee. And then we'll have the rest of the afternoon together. 
It is very exciting to walk through the house and have walls!!! I feel like our house is really coming along. However, I am a bit concerned about the ditches in our yard for the water and sewage lines to go in. At least we have documentation in case something happens.