Where has March Gone??

I really don't have too much to post about or share...but I'd like to try and get some smaller blog posts done throughout the month instead of epic long 1-month posts.

There's not too many fun pictures to share because, well, we've been busy!  For the most part the majority of March has been either..

(1) Spending the day in the Elementary School
(2) Spending the night at the Cocoa Bean
(3) Spending the afternoons/evenings at Bluehost

...depending on who you're asking :)

Basically in the free time that I do have right now I'm either... sleeping...sleeping...resting... OR writing lesson plans, eating, and every once and a while...cleaning.

Like cleaning up after our sweet little puppy who, as it's been increasingly warm, has been shedding like it's nobodies business.  I seriously vacuum and/or sweep every day (often multiple times) and mop about every 3 days.  She is ridiculous! And that's even AFTER we've brushed her several times in the day!  We sure do love her, but boy, is she a mess! It's a good thing we're not allergic.

Sometimes I get out and do some fun things.  I was able to go with my good friend, Jennifer, to this concert:

It probably doesn't mean much to most of you, but I'm a big fan of Dallyn Vail Bayles and Sandra Turley is phenomenal as well.  

Some of you may recognize Dallyn as Hyrum from the Joseph Smith movie... I discovered who he was when he came and sang at Women's Conference last year and sang this little number from Les Miserables:

Both Dallyn and Sandra have performed in multiple Broadway shows.  

Both of them actually starred together in the China premiere of Les Miserables with Colm Wilkinson;

(Dallyn as Enjolras and Sandra as older Cosette)

and apparently that was the last time they performed together.  Cool, huh? 

ANYWAY, they had a concert in Orem where they sang a ton of Broadway songs and it was incredible. 

After the show we went to The Chocolate for some dessert.  It was a ton of fun and so good to be able to catch up and visit.  

Other than that it's been pretty much same old same old.  Sometimes I get pictures of myself from my fourth graders... and clearly, I'm really good looking!  Aside from the red thing atop my head, this was actually a fairly accurate drawing of my outfit for the day.  Side from the fact that it looks like I'm wearing Uggs and a mini skirt.  I can always count on those kids for a good laugh.  

This thing came today:  I'll put a picture up once it's assembled. If you don't know the story about the changing table debacle, here's a recap. The short story is... we ordered a crib/changing table combo as a deal from Target.  Great price!  They "canceled" our order for the changing table even though that was the "free gift" we got for buying the crib because it was backordered and then claimed there was no way to reorder it or refund us.  After a lot of chaos and long hours on the phone, they still didn't care.  We finally posted a comment on Target's Facebook where a social media correspondent replied to our post, apologized, gave us an email and reference number to take care of it and within the course of like 10 hours, the matter was resolved, the money was refunded so we could re-order it and we got the changing table within about 4 days.  Assuming it's the right table and it's not broken, we'll be good!

Oh, and it was St. Patrick's Day.  So I made some fun pancakes.  I have been LOVING pancakes recently.  I literally have 2 every day for breakfast.  (Well not these pancakes, just regular pancakes...though now I'm kind of on a egg/bagel breakfast sandwich kick.)

But cravings are a relatively new thing.  Even though I'm almost 29 weeks, cravings haven't really been a very big deal.  I was mostly convinced that it was just women being dramatic and using their pregnancy as an excuse to get the food they wanted.  My "cravings" were no different than my "normal cravings" where something sounded or looked really really good to me.

...That changed this week.  My mind was so bipolar with the food I wanted and it would fixate on one thing and just NEED it.  Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately in the long run) this generally happened when I was at home and Jimmie had the car at work so TOO BAD cravings... I rarely got what I needed.  Eventually after several hours, they would subside and I'd be dying for something else.  Someone posted a picture of a burrito on Instagram from Rancheritos.  I have never been there, nor have I ever tried this burrito.  But I almost walked the 14 blocks there and the 14 blocks home to get this little treat.  I decided to warm up a tortilla and put some cheese on it first.  It wasn't the same at all, but it made me come to my senses.  What was I thinking?  It doesn't even look good to me now. #psychobrain

And you know what I learned during one of these craving episodes?  You can't buy Girl Scout cookies online.  And their so called "Cookie finder" on their website and app that tells you where you can find a girl scout selling them...is a lie.  I know they're around Provo because people have told me they got them outside of Maceys, or at a school.  This app says the closest ones are in Wyoming! Lies.  I never could find the dumb girl scout cookies so I learned that Keebler sells knockoff Girl Scout cookies IN STORE.  Hallelujah! So I got some "Grasshopper" cookies (Thin Mints) and "Coconut Dreams" (Samoas) so that I'm prepared for the next craving attack.  The good news is...they taste just as good, they sell them all year round, AND they're cheaper.  So...take that Girl Scouts.  

 Don't worry, I go on healthy cravings too.  Like the other day, all I wanted was a fruit and yogurt parfait.  And yesterday it was a grapefruit.

So Saturday we took one of the biggest grocery trips ever and STOCKED UP on food.  Now I can make whatever I need and have some diversity in our meals.  [We were to that point where you really should have gone shopping about 2 weeks ago and have been putting it off.  But when you run out of toilet paper...you don't have many options left :) ]

On a different note... baby has been busy busy busy! He never stops.  It's pretty cool to visibly be able to see movement now.  My belly is big enough now that I use it as a table sometimes.  I sat my bottle of juice on my tummy while I was sitting on the couch and he kicked it off!  The good news is, the lid was on so it didn't spill all over my computer.  But lesson learned--baby does not like me sitting things on top of him :) Especially if it's a sugary drink that I just drank that makes him do back flips.

Eh, okay.  Not too much else to report!  We are doing well here, Jim is loving his new job.  Little Jimmie did well at our last doctors appointment and as the doctor said, "You have a very happy and energetic baby".   Well, I really should be writing lesson plans since I have work tonight!  We have a sub tomorrow (aka I'm teaching all of the lessons for the day) AND a new girl.  CRAZY! But this is our last full week of practicum and it has flown by!  April is coming quickly, and June will be here before we know it!!

The Past Month...

I realize that I haven't posted since the beginning of last month.  Where did February go?!

We have been VERY busy over here (Translation: I warn you--This is a pretty long post). To get a feel of our current available time to just "relax"...Jimmie and I just celebrated Valentine's Day this last Friday.  We're only 2-3 weeks late on that one! :)  School this semester is the busiest and most difficult that I've had so far, but we're making it! I'm getting lots of hours at work, which I'm grateful for, but it definitely cuts down on free time to blog! Basically any free time that I've been getting recently has gone towards sleep.  So apologies on taking so long to get some of these things up!

Here are some pictures of things going on around here in the last month or so.  Most of this will be baby related because even though there's a bunch of things going on, baby stuff's really the only picture worthy things :)

Baby Crafting

Actually made these baby booties in January a little after the giraffe, 

but I never got to post them!

 Most people paint or buy letters to hang above baby's crib.

But to save money, I found a way to make my own...and here's how:

(1) Find a font you like online/download it

(2) Type name & print in size you'd like

(3) Trace each letter onto cardboard & cut using Exacto knife

(4) Paint the letter edges a dark color to hide the cardboard appearance from a side view 

(5) Apply fun-looking paper with spray glue to the letters to decorate

(I used scrapbook paper that I had lying around)

Pretty cool, huh? The coloring is off in the picture.  

All of the letters are actually shades of green and yellow.

 Sketched and painted some animal silhouettes for the walls.  

We chose a rhino, giraffe, and elephant.

This literally took maybe 30-min to an hour to complete.  Super easy!

We did not "craft" this crib, we're not that handy :) 

But our crib did come in the mail and we put it together!

We're still waiting for the changing table that's backordered, but it matches the crib.

We've started to get things in place.  

We scored a mobile, dust ruffle, and crib bumper (not shown)

Matted and hung the wall art & hung the lettering.

Now we just need the mattress :)

 We scored BIG TIME on clothes. A close friend let us in on some information about an event for BYU students.  My friend and I took a Saturday morning and went.

Basically, there were all kinds of things donated and everything's free.  Everything's cleaned, sorted, and organized so you can easily just take what you need. I brought a big black trash bag and got lots of cute clothes ranging from newborn all the way to 18 months.  We got rompers, sleepers, jammies, onesies, bibs, etc.  It was fantastic! Obviously there were some lower quality or dingy looking items that we passed over, but there were so many things that looked like they've never been worn!

What a blessing! Between this and the things from Janelle, we have a whole dresser full of clothes and haven't bought a single thing!

 Jim and I spent a morning talking about how to dress a baby and practicing some things.  This was the end result.  Ha!  Poor little guy.

 In case you're wondering what our baby looks like, apparently this is him :)

Haha! At least according to one of my apps.  They construct the picture based on physical traits of both Mom and Dad that you enter. I found it amusing.  We'll see how closely this matches in about 13 weeks.

Here are some baby bump shots:

I probably should have taken one today since I'm 26 weeks 3 days today.  

I must have gotten significantly bigger in the last week because within the last week I've had 4 strangers that I've encountered (at school, work, etc) ask how far along I am.  So apparently I look noticeably pregnant now!

I'm feeling good though.  More and more uncomfortable as it becomes more difficult to bend over and I'm getting more tired, but the nausea (though still taking medicine at times) has been easier on me.  And I certainly can't complain because I've read so many posts of heartburn and other annoying things to deal with and I've had none of that.  Aside from being a little tired and feeling a little uncomfortable, I've been very blessed to have a healthy and low-key pregnancy so far.

Little man seems to be rather hyperactive and it's a rare time when he is NOT practicing karate or gymnastics inside of me.  It's pretty fun and surreal to be able to look down at your stomach and see little jumps and bumps moving all around.  

I'll be 27 weeks on Thursday!  There's a lot of debate as to where your third trimester actually begins... opinions range anywhere between 25-28 weeks.  I consider it to be 27 weeks, so as of Thursday, we're in the homestretch!

And we hit this mark a few days ago...

So, we're in double digits now!

We've got a doctors appointment next week and we've got our glucose/diabetes test during that appointment.  So that should be... fun!  I'm fully anticipating failing the first test and then passing the second, just as my Mom and sister have.  However, it'd be much nicer to just pass the first test all together and not have to undergo the 3 hour test.  We shall see!

We also were able to get a table from Craig's List a few days before we moved.  So we've had it for a while now, but I don't think I ever posted a photo on here.  I probably posted one on FB though :)

And there's this little girl...

 Look at those eyes. Maybe I'm biased, but I think she's about the prettiest pup there is!

 Nala has been doing fantastic with her training!! 

We had our second meeting with our trainer, mid-February, and started working on some other great things.  She has learned "place" very well.  Basically when we say this it has her go to her designated spot (her mini trampoline, in her case) and stay there until we tell her to come.  It's to be used for when someone comes to the door, when we have guests, when we're eating dinner, etc.  Any time we need her out of the way or to not freak out over something, she goes to her place.  AND she listens! That's the amazing part.  I had my visiting teachers come over the other day and they were amazed.  She placed when they knocked on the door and just sat there and watched as they came in, visited, and left.  

The trainer said she is one of the smartest dogs that he has ever seen.  And he's been doing this for a while! The hard thing..she's almost too smart.  It's very easy for her to outsmart us or kinda catch us in a loophole if we're not perfect with her training.  So far so good though! She's been just a little angel!


In other news...

Jimmie got a new job!  He starts his first day of training tomorrow.  He'll be working at Bluehost, which is a web hosting company, as a retention specialist.  It's only a few miles away in Provo and he is very excited about the possibilities at this job!  Computer type stuff is what he really likes anyway, so this will be a great way to get his foot in the door, learn new things, and get a bit of a feel for the computer world.  It'll be very nice because it's not only significantly closer and saving us a lot in gas money, but his start pay is also a raise from what he was making before.  We're excited for the opportunities here!

I'm still working at the Cocoa Bean and will continue to until about mid-April when the semester ends. I've been lucky enough to have a lot of hours and I also just got a raise as well.  Being as it's a physical job, I can feel it becoming more difficult as time wears on.  Obviously, if it were to become to much I would stop, but we're not close to that point yet :) I think that stopping in April will be just about perfect for what my schedule and my body can handle.  It has been a wonderful job and if given the opportunity and it's in the cards, I would love to work there again some day.  Obviously, not any time soon though.

On a random note, I had to share this for my family...

Recognize it?  For those who don't know, this little baby is an EXACT replica of a couch we had growing up in my family.  It's a great little piece of furniture.  So the story is, I went to D.I. to buy some maternity slacks for practicum, and saw this!  The best part is? It's not a couch...it's a love seat! It is literally a mini-replica of our couch.  I would have checked out how much it was selling for and possibly bought it if there as not a woman standing there and guarding it with her life! Apparently, she really wanted it as well.  But how funny is that!? What are the odds.  It made my day.

I also started practicum this week!

 First day of school shot! This practicum I'll be teaching 4th grade at Franklin Elementary.

Conveniently, it's about a block and half away from our apartment.

A little different than having to drive the 45 min that I had to last practicum!

No this isn't a computer lab.  It's our classroom! It is a Title I school, but in grades 3-6 they have some kind of program that makes it so they all have computers in their classroom! We have 28 students and 18 computers.  They literally share a computer between 2 students as their desk. 

We also have the capability to have every student use an iPad if I wanted and we have a Promethean board.  Holy Technology!  It will be fun to figure out how to integrate the technology and the Common Core that the students need to be learning. 

 The fourth graders are very different from the first graders. 

I've already got a whole page of funny quotes they've said!

The other day I did a "Get to Know You" lesson to introduce myself to the class.  

After I'd finished I did a little Q&A session for any other things they wanted to know about me.

We had the standard questions of... 

"What's your favorite color?"

Me: Green

"What's your favorite food"

Me: Probably pizza

(The whole class cheers!)

...and then

"What are your parents' first names?"

Me: Uh... Jill and Steve... next question?

Haha! So glad we cleared that up.  That'd definitely be my first question to get to know someone.  The things that 4th graders feel they need to know.  It will be an interesting month.
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And for those of you who don't know, I found out some news a few weeks ago that will make the upcoming weeks even busier, but life much easier in the long run.  Originally, the way the year was going to play out would be to finish my last semester of classes mid-April, end work at the end of April,  have a month or so to prep for baby, organize, and relax, have baby in June and then do my Student Teaching this Fall semester from end of August-December.

However, now I'm going to be able to start my Student Teaching immediately after this semester of classes ends.  (Literally though, they want me to start my first day of Student Teaching the day after my last final and work up until the baby comes).  This way I'll be able to get about 6-7 weeks of my Student Teaching completed before baby arrives and only have about 6-7 weeks to finish up in the Fall.  This will be so much nicer in so many ways!! It will be hard to push through these next few months as I'll be busy, busy, busy and probably increasingly tired and uncomfortable.  But it will be SO worth it.  So we're very glad that the education department was able to work with me on this one. And of course, once I finish up my student teaching, I'm done with school all together!

We're so looking forward to meeting this little guy and to finishing up with school.  All of these hard, crazy, busy times will all be worth it in the end :)