I really don't think anyone reads this anymore, since I haven't updated in an eternity. But just in case you happen to drop by, please stop by my brand-spankin' new site:


thisblessedlife.net

See you over there!

thatnewmusicwebsite.com

Fresh air

I have been looking forward to spring this year like no other year that I can remember. I think it's a combination of the fact that I'm excited to do some gardening in our yard for the first time, there's lots of exciting things coming up - going to Florida, baby showers, brother's graduation, hosting my first yard sale, parents and sister coming to visit, and oh yeah, a baby due in the summer - which means we have to have spring first! :)

I normally love all of my pink Valentine's decorations (I'm a teacher, and yes, I decorate our house for minor holidays and the seasons!), but I've already taken them down and put up the few spring decorations I have. A few ceramic eggs, a wire chicken, some cool bendy willow tree branches from last year, fresh new Target towels for the kitchen (on clearance for $1.48 total!) and a few other things. Looking at these fresh, springy things in my house is helping me to stay positive - it will come!!

Oh, kids!

Below are two literal conversations/comments with actual students of mine:

After telling my 5th grade class (a little late, about 16 weeks pregnant):

Maya: "Oh, good! 'Cause I was thinkin', 'wow, she used to be pretty skinny.' "

Kaylee, one of my first graders:

"You look pretty skinny today, Mrs. B------"

"Thank you, Kaylee."

"You don't really look that fat yet at all."

LOL!

19 days til I know whether to buy pink or blue! I can hardly wait!!!!!

Dinner Idea for You!

Since beef and I are on the outs right now (and we usually had some form of beef at least 2x a week), I've been forced to be more creative with mealtimes.  Pork is one meat that I've always been "afraid" of - my mom didn't cook with it a lot growing up, so I don't think I bought it until a few months ago when I decided that I could use pork tenderloins (I think that's what they're called) to cut up for stir-fry.  

I really wanted to try a pork roast, so I decided to buy one without giving any thought to the fact that I had no recipe for it!  I decided on a pork-shoulder-butt-roast.  It weighed a couple of pounds. I went on all-recipes.com and found a recipe for a 5-lb crockpot pork roast.  The ingredients were pork, salt and pepper, beef broth, BBQ sauce, and coffee.  However, after reading some comments, I learned that the coffee and beef broth weren't even necessary - which is good b/c I can't stand the smell or taste of coffee now, and I didn't have the beef broth in the house!  

Monday morning, I put my roast in the crockpot, sprinkled it with pepper, filled a small canning jar (!) with water, and dumped it in.  Then I sprinkled some onion soup mix around the water to give it a little flavor, and squeezed a few squirts of BBQ sauce on top.  I put it on low for 8 hrs.  

I came home from work, and it smelled heavenly!!  I squeezed a bunch more BBQ sauce on top, and let it cook for about 20 more minutes.  Then I pulled it out and shredded it, and added a few spoonfuls of the "broth" to the meat pile, just to flavor it some more.  Chris and I ate it on big buns with some extra BBQ sauce on top, with homemade pasta salad on the side.  

All I can say is that we were drooling!  This is definitely a keeper! :)

New finds

Some new internet goodies:

I just read this woman's posts back to August in one sitting - that's how much I enjoyed her writing: missalamode.blogspot.com

Interesting frugal site I found from Meredith's blog: frugalhomemakerplus.blogspot.com

Crystal Paine (of MoneySavingMom fame) has started a new blog dedicated to raising kids.

I've been lurking here for a while, actually: The Nester's sister, (I think her name is Emily?) writes beautifully about life and has great photos to boot.

They're being added to the blogroll - and a few other sides are being deleted because I don't ever read them anymore (ouch-hope that didn't sound prissy!).

Anyone else just dying for spring so you can go yard-saling again?!

My sister-in-law and I are having a yard sale on May 9th at my house and I can hardly wait!

Happy Martin Luther King Day!

Oh, do I love that man.  I mean, I love everything he did for civil rights in this country, and that he was committed to non-violence, and that he wanted a peaceful nation.  But right now I'm loving that man because I. don't. have. to. work. today.  

Which means....

• I got to sleep in til 8 in my deliciously comfy, warm bed with my fluffy "down" comforter
  
• I got to make myself an egg sandwich (workday morning breakfasts are always something boring and fast, like PB toast)
  
• I got all of my lesson planning for this week done before 9:15
  
• I get to start a batch of banana-chocolate-chip muffins at 9:45 in the morning
  
• I get to go hang out with a good friend today and watch only one of the greatest movies of all time: Anne of Green Gables
  

I mean really, what more could a girl want? Okay, maybe a mani-pedi and a full body massage, but I'll take it. ;)  

Whether you're working or relaxing today, or somewhere in between, have a great Monday!  

P.S.  I do this all the time, and forgive me, but Sandy has such incredible giveaways that I can't help myself.  I'm linking to her amazing, fantastic, full-of-gorgeous-pictures-and-ideas-blog so I can get entered in her giveaway twice.  Maybe this time........

Ugh.

Bad vomiting today. Again.

Sunday night, I made enchiladas for dinner (I've made these a bunch of times - we love them). We sat down to eat, and Chris took a bite before me and made a face. lol I took a bite and soon realized they were GROSS. Like, totally bitter and disgusting. We narrowed it down to the wrap tasting bad, because the cheesy meat inside tasted totally normal. We threw what was on our plates and what was left in the pan out. I am usually super cautious about expiration dates, etc., but I did look on the wrap bag and realize that the wraps had expired on Dec. 27th. I just figured, okay, not horrible, because it's not like they were moldy or anything - I threw those away, too.

Well.

Monday morning, I was getting ready for school, and just as I was about to go downstairs to make breakfast, I knew it was coming. I'll spare you the disgusting details, but suffice it to say that it was very, very violent puking. It was horrible and I wanted to die. Unforunately, call-offs have to be made by 6 am and it was about 6:40 at this time. I felt "better" after I puked and Chris reminded me that if I got to school and couldn't make it through the day, to just come home. I didn't feel that great, and had an upset stomach, but somehow I made it through the day. No more puking, however!

I knew it would be weird to start puking at exactly 12 w, so I chalked it up to food poisoning. However, Chris didn't get sick at all, which I thought was weird.

I didn't throw up or feel sick on Tues, Wed, or Thurs.

Last night, I made taco salad (also with ground beef). Well, surprise, surprise! I woke up, got ready, and realized with dread that it was going to happen again. And this time it was waaay worse. Ugh. It was about 6:30, but I didn't care - there was no way I was going through this again. Besides, this time it felt like I could puke again at any time. I called my principals, and went back to bed. My stomach did get upset, but I slept for a few hours and when I woke up I had some saltines and a little cold water. I feel better now.

So, my question is, is it the beef or what? Chris thinks it is the Mexican spices in both foods, because our beef is from Chris's uncle's cows and we've never had a problem with his meat before. Also, the beef last night came directly from the freezer and I defrosted it in the micro. I would think that he's right, but I'm so depressed because I love Mexican food! He thinks maybe it's just too strong for my stomach to handle during pregnancy. I'm not sure what I think.

Anyone care to put in their two cents?

To me, pregnancy is 8 months of try-not-to-get-hysterical-because-something-might-be-wrong. I mean, until the baby starts moving in a couple of months, I have idea if it's healthy/alive/safe until I see it on the ultrasound machine. God has been very good to me, and I have been able to see this baby 3 times already (I'm only 11 w 5 d today). I know most women only get to see their baby at their 20 w ultrasound, so I'm very grateful that I've had this opportunity. Still, the last time I saw the baby was in the 8th week, so for 3 weeks I'e silently wondered if everything was okay.

I try to stay very positive - a) because I know God's looking out for me, and b) because stress is really bad for the baby. However, when we pulled up to the testing center on Friday, I felt so sick to my stomach. But my fears were soon put to rest! We had a super nice ultrasound technician, who confirmed that my baby has two hemispheres in its brain, two legs, two arms, and a nice strong heartbeat of 169 bpm (yes, I know you will all think I'm having a girl! lol).

Chris and I were getting the biggest kick out of our baby - it was literally doing sommersaults in the womb! The technician was begging it out loud to stay put! I was trying SO hard not to laugh, but it definitely didn't help that Chris was laughing right next to me. At one point she finally said, "So, your child's now doing leg lifts!" haha It was THE cutest thing! Our baby was laying on its back, with both of its knees slightly bent, lifting its legs up in the air in sync. Like it was watching an exercise dvd! The poor lady was having a terrible time getting measurements.

She turned to get a different instrument, and of course, our child completely falls asleep. Um, narcolepsy? :) For the second measurment, she needed it to be awake, so she starts jiggling my belly with the probe and begging it to wake up.

All in all, it was hilarious - if you know Chris, this baby is definitely taking after its goofy daddy.

I just laid there, taking it all in, thanking God for keeping my baby healthy and unquestionably alive.


Oh, and p.s. - we will know the gender on March 2nd! I can hardly wait!!!! :)

Helloooo.....my how life has changed since my last post!

Hello girls! (And the one guy who I know reads this blog - but I'm not sure if you're still around. :)

It's so funny to me to read over the last two posts and see my comment about being "bloated" and how the weight wasn't coming off as fast as expected while I dieted. It was only a day later (Nov. 17th) that I got my BFP (Big Fat Positive pregnancy test, in bump language), and that "pms-y bloating" has yet to leave my body! It's a pretty ridiculous thing to watch my belly "grow" every day, sometime around noon or later, then shrink every night when I sleep. I am definitely not showing for real yet - just bloaty! lol

As of today I am 11 weeks and 1 day pregnant. I am thrilled to be having a baby - now I just can't wait for my little peanut to get here! I have had two ultrasounds, one at 7w1d and the other at 8w3d (the latter one is my Facebook pic), and I will have one on Friday when I have my 12-week "Sequential Screening."

This is a non-invasive blood test and ultrasound to show a rough estimate of my odds of having a child with birth defects and/or Downs Syndrome. Chris and I went back and forth over having this test, because it can frequently give you false negatives or positives, but after talking to a friend we decided to go ahead with it. This friend had a problem with her baby's placenta that had to carefully monitored that was only identified by this kind of careful test. And anyway, it's another ultrasound picture of the baby - otherwise I'd have to wait til around 20 weeks, I think!

Well, that's enough baby talk for now - I'm sure at least some of you got tired of checking to see when I'd update again, so who knows when you'll actually be back to check this blog! :)

craaaazy week

sorry about the lack of posts again! this has been an insane week at school. we have a wonderful chorus parents organization, and apparently every year they host a K-7 variety show and a 8-12 variety show to raise money. i guess in the past it has brought in thousands of dollars for us. this is great except that it requires a lot of outside-school commitment. there is an audition night, a dress rehearsal night, and a show night for each variety show (6 nights total). we had the two audition nights last week, and this week was the two dress rehearsals and the K-7 show last night.

i left my house at 6:45 yesterday, and didn't get home 'til after 10 p.m.

so yes, i was a little tired after a week like that!

however, i slept in this morning, and i've been relaxing on the couch for the last couple of hours with my decaf tea.

i heart saturdays.

So....just kidding!

After I just wrote a whole post about the diet, I have decided not to continue "Flat Belly" and to continue with "Eat Great, Lose Weight" (Suzanne Somers).

I did lose FOUR POUNDS (even with pms-y bloating!) and I am now currently at my college weight!!!! YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY!!

Which translated means that I have 9 pounds to go to reach my goal weight - not super-skinny, and not even what I weighed on my wedding day - but a weight that I feel is reasonable and healthy for my body and stage of life.

I'm so freakin' excited! :) Something about nine pounds just sounds so much nicer than ten pounds to me.

I decided not to stay with "Flat Belly" because it required constant measuring and weighing, and that is really just no way to live, in my opinion.

So, I started EGLW today, and I'll give it a try until Thanksgiving. I've already decided/know that I will eat a normal (although moderate!) Thanksgiving meal, because there's really no point in trying to be that self-controlled. And when you have a mom like mine, you just can't pass up food like that!

Anyway, I'm realistically prepared to gain a pound or so as my body re-adjusts to new foods and a new pattern, but if by next week at Thanksgiving I'm one pound less than where I am today, I will consider that a success :).

Here's to feeling healthy and thinner! :)

"Flat Belly" low-down

Since some of you asked, the "Flat Belly Diet" is for just that - eliminating belly fat. It's from the people at Prevention magazine. In a nutshell, you jumpstart the diet by a 4-day super strict diet that is supposed to banish bloat (and subsequently make you lose weight), and then you follow a pretty healthy diet afterwards. After the 4 days, you have to have a monounsaturated fat with every meal, which is either olives, olive oil, nuts, or dark chocolate. They based their research on people from Mediterranean cultures who apparently eat all of those foods and have low belly fat.

I'm sure you all know by now that they say belly fat is the worst kind to have - but even seemingly skinny people can have a different kind of belly fat underneath the skin's surface. I'm sure I have both kinds. lol

Anyways, this is my fourth and last day of the anti-bloat phase, and I've lost about 3 pounds so far, which is actually really great considering that I'm also hormonally bloated right now from pms! haha (And normally I gain 4ish pounds at this time of the month, so hopefully when I'm not extra-bloated I'll really be down around 5 pounds.)

My mom bought the book and the cookbook, which is the only way I'd ever heard about it.

I think I might try this until Thanksgiving, and see how it works. My friend Brigette told me about the Suzanne Somers diet, and since my mom said it was also working really well for John and James C., I might try that between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

We'll see! I'll just be happy when today is over.....I'm dying for a cup of coffee!!!!!!!!!!

Flat Belly? Growling belly's more like it....

i am currently on the 'no-bloat' phase of the flat belly diet.

and i am STARVING, people.

thank GOD (and i really do mean that) that this only lasts four days, and this is day two.

two.more.days.

i think i can, i think i can....

Drama, Drama, Drama

A few random thoughts from my big ol' comfy armchair in my living room. That's right, people! Living room is moved in! I am SOOOOOOO pumped to have this room basically put together - now my house really, really feels like home again. I am a definite picture person, and it was so soothing to have all of my photos and frames out again yesterday. Plus, it was kinda like an early Christmas to unwrap all of my things again - I forgot I had some stuff!

This afternoon, I spent two hours searching for my keys. It was a nightmare. Not so much because of my personal keys, but because I have about 6 keys on my ring that belong to school. And one of those happens to be a master key to the high school. I was bawling like a baby, but I couldn't help myself, because all I could imagine was that I'd get fired or at the very least, fined a huge amount of money to re-key all the locks. Do you know how many doors are in an average high school building?! Anyway, praise the LORD, they were found in a box in the garage that we had already looked in twice. How we missed them the first two times, I have no idea, but I was a wreck.

I don't know if its the fact that my home feels homey again or because of all of the economic problems in the country (or a mixture of both), but I'm going to start getting into the CVS thing again. Kathy has been inspiring me to get my butt in gear again, and there are a LOT of great deals this week.

I'm going to make myself some decaf with my Vanilla Caramel creamer and cut me some coupons ;).

Thanksgiving is only 18 days away!!!!!!!!!!!!



P.S. I posted a video link on my Facebook site (99 balloons) - I found it from myheartismyhome.blogspot.com and seriously, seriously....you need to watch it.

ahhh....

just spent an amazing weekend with chris and 8 other couples at a couples' retreat up at spruce lake resort.  all of the couples were from our church, and we spent the time laughing and eating a ton, and just getting to know our spouses better.  it was such a nice change of pace from the monotony of going to work, making dinner, working on the house, and going to bed!  i loved it and i hope we can go back next year.  

just finished typing up the rest of the week's lesson plans (ugh) and now i get to help chris do the living room floor (lucky me!).  our ceiling was finally installed on thursday night, the walls have been painted, so all that's left is the floor.  then we can finally bring our sofas and chair in from the garage and have a place to relax at night that is not the dining room table or the bed.  i think i just might die of happiness when that happens.  

off to work!  

Randomness

Aren't you just loving fall this year?! We've been drinking a lot of cold apple cider this year, but on Saturday I was at this cute little shop and they had hot apple cider with oranges as part of a big fall sale. It was blissful. lol

The older I get, the more I appreciate Thanksgiving as a holiday - in fact, it's now my official favorite. Of course I appreciate Christmas more in the sense that it's symbolizes Christ's incarnation (and all of the wonder and mystery and grace and promise that involves), but if we're strictly speaking holidays, Thanksgiving now tops my list.

Why? Well, it suddenly dawned on me last night that for the past 6+ years, Thanksgiving has represented the first time after many months that all of my immediate family is together again. The food, the parade, the fall colors, spending quality time with everyone, the knowledge of Christmas still coming....it all combines to make it just the best day/weekend of the year! I think every year that I get older, I appreciate my life more. Especially after this year, with all of its unexpected heartache - my family really is so special and I cherish them all so dearly.

Anyway, if I had the motivation to load pictures right now, I would show you my fall decorations, because they're super cute and classy if I do say so myself.

But I currently have over 500 photos on my camera. Would you want to upload them and sort through all 500?

I didn't think so. ;)


Time for Curves! I'm slowly losing weight again and have a definite goal I'd like to reach before I reach the holiday season!

Embrace the loveliness of today!

Wow.

Are you guys still out there?! :) I know it has been ages, but believe me, I've had good reason. I know you're all waiting for pictures of the house, and I hope to have those up on Facebook by Sunday night. So much has been happening in my life recently that it seems a little crazy to try to compress it into a blog entry! It's not that I haven't wanted to be blogging - it's that there's TOO much to talk about and I've been overwhelmed about where to begin.

So.

I'm going to start small.

First thing I wanted to mention: I don't know if any of you are still into the CVS thing (I know you're trying, Kathy! Whoo hoo!), but I have a good idea for you if you want to get into the the extra-care bucks thing but didn't want to cough up initial dough. For the month of October, CVS is offering 5 ECB for $15 purchase of assorted Starbucks products. I don't know about all of you, but there are TONS of people on my Christmas list who are coffee/Starbucks fanatics. This is a great way to get some shopping done early, and then have 5 left to spend at the store. With those 5 ECB, you could pick up some cute fall decorations that are on clearance right now or you could roll it over to buy something else that will give ECB.


Second thing I wanted to mention: One of my all-time favorite blogs, 4 Reluctant Entertainers, is doing another giveaway. I'm mentioning her here because she will put my name in twice in the drawing and she gives away the most amazing gift baskets! I have entered quite a few of her giveaways but haven't one yet. However, this one is a fall giveaway and since I am a fall fanatic (ask my husband), I would LOOOOOVE to win it! If you've never checked out her website, well...you're crazy. It's awesome. So go! Hurry! :)

That's all for now. Valspar's "Churchhill Hotel Maple" is calling my name (we're going to paint the living room tonight! Gooood times.....)

Hellooooooooooooooooo bloggy world!

I have been meaning to update for a while but my life has been whirling out of control (yet in a good way, lol).  We officially got our house on Aug. 15th, and have spent every day since then working on it! Chris and I like to joke that in 3 weeks we have brought the value of our house down about $30,000.  haha  This is because that a lot of people in our area (I'm not trying to be mean, but socioeconomically it is a little lower here) would have just moved right in to this house, paneling and smelly carpet and office-tiled ceilings and all.  We just had a big vision for this place, and so a ton of stuff has been ripped out and thrown out and changed around.  

We actually moved in on Saturday night.....it's really more like camping out, because we have two functioning bathrooms and our bedroom is liveable but we don't have any appliances.  No fridge, no oven, no washer, no dryer! Oh, the things that get pushed out of your mind when you're a first-time homeowner working night and day on renovating your house! lol  We went in Saturday to buy our fridge, thinking they could probably deliver on Saturday.  Oh, no - it's definitely back-ordered til Friday! It's okay, you can laugh...we laughed at ourselves and our stupidity! haha

So we are living out of a cooler, a microwave, and a toaster.  Did I mention we haven't moved our kitchen table in yet?  So we eat on the floor.  And did I mention our kitchen is completely being overhauled?  So we can't currently use the sink.  So we use paper and plastic for everything.  (Yes, I do feel a tiny bit guilty about that).  

So, besides living in chaos right now, we've both also been working full time.  I also got a cold for four days over Labor Day weekend, which really added to the fun! hahaha 

Honestly, yes, it is a little overwhelming, but each day we see progress and thankfully we have a large house with a garage to store most of our things.  As soon as the kitchen is put together (hopefully by the weekend), life will be a little less weird.  

So............THAT'S why I haven't been posting! 

Pictures will come after my kitchen is fixed! :) Stay tuned!  

And I currently have 3 gray hairs in my head....so maybe pray for me! lol :)

I am a happy homeowner! :) We closed at 3:00 today, and let me tell you, I think Chris would have driven home on two wheels were I not in the car - that's how pumped he is (and me too). We worked on the house as soon as we got back, took a quick dinner break, and then went back until about 9;30.

Our house was fully carpeted (except the kitchen and bathrooms), and there were hardwood floors underneath (Chris and I love wood floors, so to us, it's just stupid to cover up all that beauty!). We spent most of tonight ripping up the carpets throughout the house, and it's pretty ridiculous that now the house looks about 200% worse! hahaha Things just have to get worse-looking before they can get better, unfortunately.


I'm not sure how much I'll be on in the next two weeks....I might have time and I might not, between the house and school starting. I will definitely be posting pictures, so keep checking back! I love blogging and I promise, I will be back.

Have a great weekend, everyone!



P.S. Did you all see Michael Phelps's crazy win tonight?! I seriously got goosebumps. :)