Finally.... a weekend without a plans!!!

We've finally made it to a weekend without plans. I know it's our own fault that we're so busy but it is nice to not have a weekend that's booked solid.

Last night we had our Christmas program for school. My students did a really good job! Actually all of the kids did really good. Of course as soon as I got home I changed into my pajamas and went to sleep! Michael ended up going up to Carson's with Bubba and having a couple of beers.

My game plan for the day is to get all of my Christmas shopping done and get all of my presents wrapped! I'll be so glad when I know that I'm finished with all my shopping.

Lately I've kinda been in my head if that makes sense. I just keep thinking about how different our lives will be this time next year. I'm really excited about having this baby and I can't wait but part of me is worried about being a parent. We've always just been Michael and Jamie and I'm worried about being Michael, Jamie, and baby. I'm guessing that these are pretty normal concerns for expecting parents. I guess my mind has been running away with all of my thoughts. I don't know if it's Christmas that has me thinking or what. Well, I guess it doesn't matter what my concerns are because this baby is coming! :)

Anyway, I gonna get ready so that Michael and I can get our shopping done. I hope everyone has a good weekend!

Quiet Time for Jamie

It's a little past 5:30, which means that Michael is sound asleep. The cat woke up for a bit but now she's downstairs eating! Why am I telling you that, well that means it's quiet time for me. Yes, in a couple of minutes I will get up and start my hustle and bustle for the rest of the day but right now it's nice and quiet. :)

We've been really busy but doing well. Last weekend Michael and I flew to Nashville, TN. We then drove to Florence, AL to watch the Bearcats play in the Division II National Championship game. Our 'Cats pulled through and finally won a nation title. (For those of you who don't know they have played in the championship the lasts four years and lost so I guess this time 5th times a charm.) After the game we went back to Nashville and hung out with friends. It was sooooo nice flying and not driving this year. Michael and I decided to do this as our Christmas present to each other. So we don't have any presents under the tree for each but we don't need any.

I've been fighting a cold since the Saturday following Thanksgiving. The doctor gave me some antibiotics last week but I'm still sneezing and blowing my nose all the time, uggghhh! I'm hoping to be well before Christmas. Basically I've been sick since Halloween. I had the flu, yes H1N1, and then the cough that follows that, and then I felt good for about four or five days and I got this stinkin cold. Oh, well. Apparently this baby thinks I need to deal with sickness. :)

I am finally finished with all of my stuff for this round of grad classes. In the spring I'm only going to take one course. I won't be taking any in the summer with the baby coming and then I'll start back up in the fall. I'm hoping I can handle everything, new baby, grad classes, teaching, etc. We'll just have to see how I do.

Michael has been busy with all the snow we've gotten lately. Last week I only taught on Monday. Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday we didn't have school because of the amount of snow we got and the drifting. (Friday we had our flight to Nashville.) We didn't have school yesterday either because of the ice on the roads. So Michael has been busy with snow removal and putting down ice melt! It's really funny to me that on his hard days, I get to stay home! I was very productive on the snow days though so that made me happy!

Well, I better get up and get rounded around so I can make it to school on time. I hope everyone is doing well! :)

Snow Day

Well, I'm at home today because we're having a snow day. I wasn't actually supposed to teach today anyway. Today is a Holy Day and we can't actually have school. We were planning on having our faculty retreat this morning from 9 to 10:30 a.m. Instead I got a phone call at 5:40 saying that we weren't even having that because of the weather. Today we have a possibility of getting up to 12 inches of snow. They're thinking that we might top out at 10 inches instead of 12 inches. Either way, that means no school today and maybe not even tomorrow. All the weathermen are saying that we're going to have high winds and lots of drifts. If that's true I doubt we have school tomorrow either. If we don't have school tomorrow that means I'm only working one day this week instead of three.
I worked yesterday. I'm off today. If we don't have school tomorrow I'll be off again. Thursday is my Great Grandma Kate's funeral. Friday Michael and I are flying to Nashville and going to watch the Bearcats play in the National Championship. While I'm excited about my trip this weekend I'm still bummed about my great grandmother passing away. She was an AMAZING woman. She had three children (not including their spouses), 17 grandchildren, 42 great-grandchildren, and 36 great great grandchildren. That's a total of 95 grandchildren of some kind. I'm still amazed there's that many of us! It just doesn't seem like it until I really sit down and think about it. I'm excited about seeing my extended family that I don't see that frequently but I wish it were under different circumstances. I can say that I attended her 90th birthday party last year and it was wonderful to see her there with all of our family around. I'm so glad that Michael and I got to attend the party and that Michael got to meet her before she passed away!
Well, I need to finish my final for my class and get to work on my substitute lesson plans for Thursday and Friday.

Thanksgiving

Well, we survived Thanksgiving! I taught Monday and Tuesday of this week. Wednesday I headed to my mother's and we went shopping. We were looking for a glider. I'm having a hard time finding one that I like because they are all light colored wood. Anyone who's been in my house has seen that we have very dark woodwork. I really don't think that the light wood would look good in our house. Plus I'm pretty partial to dark wood. I don't really like the light wood. Anyway, we found some that I liked but they were way too expensive. I keep hoping we'll find something.

On Thursday mom, dad, grandma, grandpa, and I went to my Uncle Gary's for the day. I got to see my aunt, uncle, cousins, and another aunt. We had a really nice meal and played Pictonary before we had to go. I had to get back to the 'ville so I could have Thanksgiving with my in-laws. Michael and I went to his parents house around 6:30 and we ate around 7:15. I ended up falling asleep, imagine that! Everyone else ended up watching the football game.

Friday was a really nice morning. Michael and I got to back to the doctor's for our 12 week appointment. This appointment was a lot more exciting compared to our last appointment. Last time the baby was just a circle with a flickering light (the heart). This time it actually looked like a baby. The baby was waving at us and then did a somersault while we were watching him or her. We got a couple of ultra sound pictures of the baby. Of course it's hard to tell what you're seeing unless someone explains it to you. The doctor said everything looks good and that the baby is big. She said that at our next appointment we'll get to hear the heartbeat. Our next appointment is two days before Christmas and I can't think of a better Christmas gift! After our appointment we came home and watched the Maryville Spoofhounds play in the State Championship game. I'm proud to say that they won. After that I napped for the rest of the afternoon. Michael and I just kind of hung out Friday evening.

Saturday I had an eye appointment and then we headed up to the Elk's Lodge so that we could watch the Bearcats play in their quarterfinal game. They ended up blocking the point after with six seconds left and beat Central Washington 21 to 20! It was a GREAT game. After the game Michael went and hung out with some friends and I rested at home.

Today Michael and I headed to my mom and dad's for another "Thanksgiving" meal. We got to eat lunch with my parents, sister, and brother-in-law. It was nice to just hang out at her house for a while.

I will admit that it was a chaotic couple of days but it was really fun! I also have something to look forward to next weekend, a Bearcat football game. We found out late last night that the Bearcat Semifinal game will be in Maryville on Saturday night at 7:30. If the Bearcats win this game they will be headed to the National Championship Game for a fifth year in a row. It also means that the field goal posts will be taken down, which is my favorite part of the semifinal game. As you can tell I am REALLY hoping that we win the game this Saturday.

Well, I hope that appeases everyone's curiosities of what we've been up to. Sorry I've been a slacker and I haven't been updating as much lately.

Pregnant + H1N1 = Sick Momma

Unfortunately, I have H1N1. Add that to being pregnant and I'm one icky girl. I went to the doctor on Monday and they tested me and I came back positive for the flu. I knew it was bad when my doctor walked in with a mask on her face. She told me I'm not allowed back at school until I'm fever free and feeling good for two straight days. Yesterday I ran a fever all day. The earliest I can be back to school is Thursday. Since I knew I'd be gone the majority of the week I went ahead and wrote lesson plans for the entire week so that I wouldn't have to worry about my sub plans each day. I went into school last night with a mask on and gloves. Before we left Michael sprayed down the whole entire room with Lysol disinfectant spray and Clorox wiped down a lot of surfaces so I wouldn't get anyone else sick. I'm really hoping that I haven't gotten anyone else sick. I'm doing my best to stay away from people. I'm not going to my night class tomorrow night so that I won't get anyone there sick. Really the only place I've been is my room and we wiped down EVERYTHING that I touched and the things that I didn't touch!
Anyway, I am going to go back to sleep. That seems to be all that I do anymore!

Busy as can be

We'll we've officially been through part of the busiest weekend that we will have for a while. It started Thursday when Michael's sister, Rebecca and her family came down from Des Moines. I thought they were coming on Friday and they were here on Thursday, which was a pleasant surprise. So we got to hang out with them a little bit on Thursday.
Friday night we celebrated my father-in-law's birthday, a week early since Becca's family was here. Saturday was homecoming for NWMSU. So we tailgated and then went to the game, which went into overtime!!! Thank goodness NW won! :) Saturday evening we went to the Elk's Lodge so that everyone could just hang out. The boys ended up playing several games of pool. I think that they all had a good time. Today, we'll go over sometime to Michael's parents house to say goodbye to Becca's family and I have to work on getting everything ready for school conferences. I'm exhausted from all of the excited from the weekend. Hopefully today will go well and I'll get everything finished and then have the afternoon or evening to just rest! Hope everyone else had a great weekend!

First Doctor's Appointment

Friday was my first "real" doctor's appointment with my regular doctor!!!
Before I tell you about that I need to tell you why my husband wasn't able to make it to my appointment. About a month and a half ago or two months ago Michael's friends asked him to go on a fishing trip down south. I had to talk Michael into going. This trip was scheduled for the weekend following Michael's maintenance conference in Springfield. So Michael was scheduled to be gone Tuesday through Sunday! Of course this is all before I knew that I was pregnant and got my first doctor's appointment scheduled from the Friday that he was going to be gone.
Since Michael was gone my mom offered to come to my appointment. At first I said no but after a highly emotional week (can't help it because of my hormones) I decided that I wanted her to come. So Friday mom and I went in and we got to see the baby's heartbeat. My doctor said that the baby was developing exactly like it should. I was soooo excited to hear that the baby was developing correctly. I was so relieved to hear that. I was so worried that she was going to say that something was wrong with the baby. They also gave me my official due date - June 10, 2010. My mom totally called Michael to aggravate him that she got to see the heartbeat and he hadn't. :)
We go back on October 30th for another appointment. After that we should be going once a month! I'm just sooo excited that everything is going well!

More pregnancy information...

I'm sure everyone wants some more information about my pregnancy so I thought I'd put it on here. Like I said my hCG on Wednesday (Sept. 30th) was 58 and Friday (10/2) it was 168. I went in Monday to get more blood work done. They went ahead and did the full blood panel for pregnancy. I got my results on Tuesday for my hCG... it almost quadrupled! As of Monday my hCG was 647. I'm amazed at how high it is. I'm so glad it's going up like it should! Also, I continue to have several symptoms. I am nauseous, dizzy sometimes, a little bit of heartburn, dry heaving, horrible headache (hormonal), and so much more. Hopefully these symptoms keep up because that will mean the baby is developing well. Ohhhh and I'm TOTALLY exhausted! I'm so ready for bed by 8:30 anymore!
Well, I'm going to grade some papers before I fall asleep!

Might as well put this on here...

I figured I should go ahead and put the good news on the blog considering that a lot of friends and family already know. Michael and I are going to be parents (hopefully, if all goes well). I am pregnant. It is still really early on in the pregnancy. We're really hoping that everything turns out okay with this one. We would like to ask for prayers for a healthy baby and a full term pregnancy. My hcg level last Wednesday was 58 and by Friday it was 168. The numbers are supposed to double, if not triple, within 48 hours. From 58 to 168 is a rise of 2.89. So we're taking this as a good sign. I have also had some other symptoms: heartburn, nausea, and throwing up. Unfortunately, I threw up in the La Bonita parking lot last Friday evening in front of some old St. Greg's students. I had to explain that I was pregnant because I didn't want them to think I was drunk coming out of La Bo's.
I'll keep everyone updated as we get more information.
Hopefully "Baby Casteel" is going to be strong and healthy!

Insane Life

My insane life has been just that, insane. I figured out the other day that I simply don't have an evening off until next Tuesday. Of course I haven't had an evening off since last week sometime. The worse part is that I can't even remember what day it was! I am sooo ready just to come home after school and hang out with my husband rather than running to class! I guess that's what I get for taking two classes at the same time! :)
We'll I'm going to grade some papers. I just wanted to write a small update! Hope every one's doing well.

Easy Sunday

Well, after writing my blog on Friday evening we received two phone calls. One saying that one of my friends was put into the hospital and another one from Michael's friend saying that his daughter was in the hospital. Michael and I sat down and relayed the information about our friends and discussed how ironic it was that we got two phone calls that people we knew were in the hospital. Normally you only get one of those calls a year or something like that! Fortunately both of them will be okay.
Then we got another call on Saturday morning. One of Michael's friends called and said that his father in law passed away that morning. It was sooo sad. His friend and wife we planning on going to the Arrowhead game and I was looking forward to hanging out with them, since I haven't seen anyone lately because of the start of both schools (the class I teach and my grad classes). Unfortunately that just wasn't in the plan for that day. Since they weren't able to come to the game we ended driving the big cooker to the game and bringing everything with us. So it made our day a little more busy. I would have rather had our friends with us and I just hope that they are able to grieve and start to find peace soon.
We went to the game and had a great time. The 'Cats played really well and ended up winning. I got to see some friends that I haven't seen in a while which was nice. I think that Michael had a good time too. We had quite a few people join us for the BBQ and everyone seemed to really like it.
Today has kind of been an easy day. Not a lot of running around. I woke up bright and early - not sure why???? Michael and I went to church. After church we went through the drive thru for lunch and watched the Chiefs game. We both ended up falling asleep for a bit. I guess we both needed a little nap after our crazy Saturday. :)
I have just finished one assignment and I have one more to do. I'm hoping to finish before the True Blood Season Finale starts. Then after the show is over I'm going to finish my grading. Hopefully that catches me up with everything!
I'm kind of enjoying the fact that I don't have anywhere I have to be today and can just work on my school stuff without any interruptions. I can't imagine how hard it must be to get your Master's and have children. I'm so darn busy and that's without children. I just hope I get everything done and finish quickly so that I won't be crazy busy! :)

Busy and Exciting Weekend!

I'm pretty excited about our busy and exciting weekend.
This evening we took it kind of easy because we know that this weekend we're going to be on the run. We went to La Bonita for supper tonight. I have just been hanging out catching up with some of my friends.
Tomorrow we're headed to Kansas City and Arrowhead. The NWMSU Bearcats are going to be playing against the Pitt State Gorillas. The boys (Michael and his friends) are going to do to some BBQ. They're even pulling the big cooker. So we'll be in KC all day.
Sunday I have to help with Communion and then I plan on doing my homework for all of my classes. Sunday evening is date night for Michael and I. We are going to watch the season finale of True Blood. We're pretty excited about watching the the show. It's our normal Sunday night that we've had ALL summer long.
We'll I better head to bed. Hope everyone enjoys their weekend!!

Three day weekend :)

Well, I'm happy to say that I don't have school tomorrow. :) I'm pretty sure that my kids are even more excited than I am. hehehe
Anyway, yesterday, we went to my mother's house and hung out with her. We got to see my mom and dad and my mom's friend Gayle. We had a really nice lunch with them and my grandparents. We hung out for a couple of hours and then headed back because Michael was on call! Then we went to church and over to Michael's friend's house. We had a lot of fun.
Today Michael was in a small golf tournament with his friends. He has been gone ALL day. So I've been at home, alone. I did finish reading a book. I was planning on cleaning today but I haven't felt very good all day. I even took a small nap this afternoon. I just feel icky. I'm not sure why. I hope I'm not getting whatever the hell is going around my school.
Well, I give another update hopefully sometime this week.

A much needed get away weekend!

Michael has been AMAZING lately. He has been extremely helpful. I have been extremely stressed out with the start of school. (This isn't odd... if you ask other people who teach they will tell you that the beginning of the year is over-whelming!) So I guess I must have been looking pretty haggard because my husband suggested that we head to Omaha to go to the Henry Doorly Zoo. He sent me a text which I got at the end of my day on Friday. I called him and suggested we go to Omaha on Friday and spend the night in a hotel so we could check out the Old Market. He agreed, which shocked me and some of my friends. For any of you that know Michael you know that he is extremely aware that we have our first house payment this coming week. He has been pretty concerned with how this will affect our lives. So you can imagine my surprise when he agreed to pay money for a hotel!
So I came home and packed my bag. I also started checking out hotels near the zoo. I found a couple and we decided that we would just drive to Omaha and find a hotel. We got on the road around 5:15 and made it to Omaha around 7. We drove around looking for a hotel near the zoo and the Old Market. We finally decided on the Comfort Inn that is less than a 1/2 mile away from the Zoo. After checking in we headed to the Old Market to eat. I had talked to my mom and sister earlier in the day to let them know that we were going to Omaha. They went together last summer and told me about this ice cream place near Spaghetti Works. We wandered around for a while and then found Spaghetti Works. We had just sat down and had ordered our drinks when I saw RON HOWARD! Yes, that's right I saw Opie! I quickly whispered to Michael and he looked. He agrees that it was Ron Howard. I just wanted some confirmation that I wasn't crazy and seeing things. He was walking pretty quickly with his head down with a small group of about five people. About a minute later, while Michael and I were talking about if it was really him or not, a group of girls walked by and were talking about him. So we knew we weren't crazy. After that I had to call my mom and let her know! Then we had our WONDERFUL dinner. I had manicotti and Michael had Shrimp Scampi. Then went for a walk and found the ice cream place, Ted and Wally's. They make homemade ice cream that is to die for! It was soooo creamy! After another little stroll we headed back to the hotel.
This morning we got up and headed to the zoo at around 8:30. We were there until right around 4 pm. It has to be the best zoo I have ever been too. Granted I haven't been to a lot of zoo's (Kansas City, St. Louis, and Minneapolis). I got to see orangutans, gorillas, various types of bears, birds, cats (tigers, lions, pumas, leopards, etc.) and soooo much more. The only thing that I really didn't appreciate were the snakes. They just give me the willies! We also got to see several babies. We saw a baby sea lion, gorilla, and aardvark. I felt soooo bad for the baby gorilla. He fell and broke his arm a couple of weeks ago so they had to separate him from his mother. He is being cared for during the day by a zoo keeper. At night he gets to hang out with the other gorillas for a while. The mom was sitting on the other side of the fence trying to see her baby. She looked so sad.
We rode the train and the little ski lift thing. They were both a nice break from walking. My feet were definitely hurting by the end of the day but it was totally worth it.
After the zoo we decided we needed to eat something before we came home... that's where our trip had a detour. Neither of us know our way around Omaha so we were kind of guessing where to go. We literally drove for and hour in various loop around the Omaha area before we finally found an Outback Steakhouse in Bellevue, Nebraska! It was worth it thought. The food was delicious!
We're home now safe and sound. We did see some deer on the side of the road when were headed back but we got lucky because none of them decided to jump in front of our car. :)
Tomorrow is the All School Mass at church. All of my students come to Mass and sit up front with me. It's a really nice way for us to start the school year together especially since there families are in the backs of the church. It really makes it feel more like a community rather than just a job.
I better get to bed. I'm pretty beat! I'll try to update periodically.

Getting into the swing again...

I'm trying to get back into the swing of school. So far I have been at school everyday by 7:00 am. This is a major improvement over last year. Last year I would make it a couple of days and then I wouldn't get to 7:15/7:20 and we're supposed to be there at 7:15. I am hoping that I'm able to keep this up. I'm not sure because it's not fun getting up at 5:30 every morning but I'm gonna try.
So far the house ROCKS. I soooo happy that we found it and have made it our own. I just feel like this is the right place for us to be. It truly feels like a home. I'm just hoping for some pitter pattering of some baby feet soon so that we can have a family here. That would just make this house complete... to have our family here. We're going to continue to hope that we get lucky and get pregnant. We're also going to keep saying lots of prayers!
I better go to get ready for school.
Have a great TUESDAY!

Day Two

Day Two down...
I got up early so that I could make it to school for our first meeting. Got a lot of information to help me get organized. I also got some stuff done in my room. My goal is to finish my room tomorrow. It will help a lot if I can finish tomorrow so Thursday I can relax before Open House! :) I am going to make myself a To Do List to hopefully help me get a little more organized!
Well, I better go so that I can work on some more stuff for school.
:)
Hope everyone has a great evening!

Day One

Well, I'll be at school in about an hour... I am AMAZED that it is already time for me to be back in school. I tried to enjoy my last weekend before the chaos that is the first week back to school. Next Tuesday we actually start but today all of the teachers are heading back! This week I have to get my room in order, no small feat, before Open House on Tuesday! I'm amazed that it's already that time of year. The positive side is that this time last year I was living in an apartment and now... we're in a house! It's a great feeling to be in your own home. I can't even explain how much different I feel about this house versus the old apartment. We'll I need to go and get ready for school. More updates to come later.

Getting ready to head back to the daily grind...

So tomorrow, my "regular" life starts again. I am going to go into my class and work to get everything ready for this school year. I am excited to put my new stuff into my class and start working on my classroom. I hope that everything turns out the way I envision it. I don't know if it will or not but I'm going to hope for it.
Michael and I had date night again tonight. It has become our Sunday ritual on Sunday nights to eat supper together and then watch True Blood on HBO. We LOVE it. It is so action packed and funny. It's rare that we find a show that both of us like. It's a really nice way to spend an evening together!
Today, before date night, Michael and I rode around with Flem and Beanie. We went on a Sunday drive. You need to know that this wasn't a normal thing for me in my family growing up. We didn't just randomly drive around without a purpose, at least not very often. However, Michael's family frequently did this growing up. This is a major difference between our families. It isn't a big one it just shows a way that we were brought up differently. Back to my story, we ended up being in three different states in one day Kansas, Missouri, and Nebraska. We ate at a restaurant that overlooks the Missouri River. It was really nice to eat and watch people boat and jet ski. Then we did some more driving. It was nice to go for a little drive. I actually enjoyed it quite a bit. I try to make sure that I am willing to go on these little trips. I know how important it is to Michael to be able to do this.
Well, I need to go so I can get up early (earlier anyway) to get to school.
Hope everyone is doing well!

Where did the summer go?

Seriously? Where did the summer go? In a matter of two months Michael and I have had some major life events. I started my Master's classes. I took two this summer and ended up with an A in both of them. This is going to be a major focus in my life for the next two years. I am going to be taking two classes each semester. Hopefully I'll be able to be a teacher and a student at the same time without losing my sanity. :)
Another major life event is buying a house, boxing up all of our stuff, and moving! It is literally amazing how much stuff we have. We have a great group of friends and family who helped us move our stuff from our apartment to the house in an hour and a half! I can't believe it! We also got landscaping done all the way around the house! It looks like a totally different house. Within two weekends we had painted all of the bedrooms, kitchen, dining room, living room, hallway, and two bathrooms. We also painted the family room in the basement. We accomplished so much and there's no way we could have done it without some major help from family and friends.
In the middle of the summer we discovered that we were pregnant but unfortunately we miscarried. I was really struggleing with the emotions of losing a baby after trying so had to have one. All of those emotions were changed by my remarkable doctor. I went in to talk to her after I figured out that I was having a miscarriage. She walked in and acknowledged that I was feel sad and down about what happened. Just the acknowledgement helped. She came in and said I know that this is sad but this helps us know why you've been having problems getting pregnant. I was shocked that she knew what was wrong. She told me I wasn't making progesterone. That's the hormone that helps the baby to grow. She told me most likely I've had other miscarriages but just didn't know it because my hcg level wouldn't be high enough to have a positive pregnancy test. She then gave me a piece of paper laying out the game plan. The fact that she knew what was wrong and what we needed to do made me feel so much relief. She's an awesome doctor and I feel extremely blessed that I've found her. I actually recommended her to some friends and they really like her. I just hope she sticks around long enough so that she can be my doctor for a long time! Sorry for the downer but I really do feel better because I'm educated about what's going on!
As you can tell we have had a truly chaotic summer but a good one. I get a week off and then I start school meetings. I'm going to try to enjoy this weekend and finish unpacking the house. Next week I will start on my classroom. I'm just amazed that it all came soooo quickly

Birthday Celebration

Well, yesterday was Michael's birthday. I ended up working all day on my classwork. I got up and worked from 9 am to noon and then I went for my health screening. After that Michael and I ran for a quick lunch. After lunch I worked from about 1:15 to 5:30 and then we rode with Michael's parents over to Parnell to the K and T to eat supper. I actually finished my reading while we drove over. After we finished supper we stopped by Michael's co-workers and I picked out two new kittens for us. I'm pretty excited about getting them. Afterwards we went to Michael's parents how and while everyone else was eating cake I took a quiz and worked on a threaded discussion. I am really starting to resent this class. It seems like it is taking away almost all of my life time, my summer. I hate that I had to do all that on Michael's birthday. Even when we got home I had to write a paper! Today and tomorrow I have to read two chapters and take two quizzes! I have to do all of that and work a funeral dinner and go to a church supper tomorrow night! Then on Friday I have to take a midterm that is supposed to take between two and five hours!
Sorry, I just really need to complain today and get it all off of my chest!
Anyway, I better go and get to work!
Bye!

Good times except for class

I am actually doing rather well. Michael and I relaxed on Friday night and on Saturday I worked on my class a little bit. Saturday evening we ate Pagilia's and then went to the bar with Bubba! It was really good to see him. I got the lucky job of driving the two boys home since I stayed sober for them. :) I was exhausted when we finally made it home after one in the morning! We got up on Sunday and went to church and after I went to my mom's. She had roast, mashed potatoes, home made noodles, and rolls. It was AWESOME! After we were done we went shopping for a bedspread. I actually found one I liked and will look nice in our new bedroom. There's a picture at the bottom of this post! Of course the bed in the picture isn't my bed! Anyway, I headed back so that I could watch the season premiere of True Blood. We LOVE that show. It was GREAT too!

Today I watched some kiddos early for one of my friends. I came home and ate lunch and then took a nap. (I couldn't get to sleep until after two o'clock - so I was in dire need of a nap.) After Michael got home we went and looked at refrigerators at Sears. We found one we liked but we weren't sure if it would fit in the spot in our kitchen. We ended up going and getting the garage door opener for the house and measuring the spot and going back to Sears. We ended up buying the fridge and got one heck of a deal! I am pretty excited because I really like the fridge! There's a picture of it at the bottom of the post too.

Tomorrow is Michael's birthday so I ended up making him a special meal because tomorrow he wanted to go to Parnell and eat with his parents. So I ended up making breakfast for supper. We had eggs, bacon, toast, and hash browns! It was really good!

I've done enough procrastinating ... guess it's time to do my school work. I'll probably be working all night long but oh well! At least I'll be done in two weeks!

Enjoy the pictures!

Here's our new fridge!

Our new bedroom set!

Changes

I decided that it was time to jazz up the blog a little bit. I'll probably do this throughout the summer but it's because I have time during the summer. I'm lucky during the school year if I write once a month! I decided I had to try this background because it was titled Pookie and that's my nickname from Michael.
Today should be another long day! I still have a ton of pages to read in my textbook, not to mention I need to clean the house up because my parents might be coming to town this weekend! I am really struggling with reading this book because it isn't written in a people friendly manner. I feel like when they wrote the textbook that they just wanted to make everyone else feel stupid and them to feel really smart. I'm not stupid but jeez... this textbook is something else. Yesterday I finally just had to stop because I couldn't handle it anymore. I was kind of going stir crazy because all I had done was stuff for the class!
I did accomplish to walk three miles last night with my friends so that made me feel a little better!
I'm pretty excited today because I know I have one built in break! My friend, Carrie, is in town this week to help with one of the camps out at NW and she and I are going to eat lunch together. I'm also going to drive her by the new house! (I'll try to take some pictures of it at some point and put them on here!
We'll I better go! Lot's to do!

Uuggghhh

Well, I have decided that I'm never going to take an online course again! Don't get me wrong, I really think I am going to like the class and the knowledge I gain from it but seriously.... it is EXTREMELY time consuming. I spent almost the whole day yesterday working on the class in some way or another. I had to go to Wal-Mart to buy a printer and then I had to go back because the printer didn't come with a USB cord. I had to print off all of the note, hole punch them, organize them, and get them into a paper. I had to read through the syllabus. I think had to go through the directions for my journal review, read a story and respond to it.... Can you tell that it's time consuming???? Sorry, I just feel like complaining today, maybe I'll be in a better mood tomorrow!

Here are some pictures from the Vegas trip!

The whole family (minus Aunt Jill and Uncle Terry) in front of our Hummer Limo. We're headed to The Mirage.

Michael and I at Hoover Dam!

Michael and I with one of the members of the Blue Man Group. It was a GREAT show!

I'll put more on later but this at least gives you an idea of what a great time we had at Vegas!

Viva Las Vegas, Packing, and Class

Well, we have went to Vegas and back!

We left Thursday and met my parents in St. Joe. We rode with them to Kansas City so we could save some money on parking. We had a little bit of turbulence at the end of our flight into Vegas. We checked into the hotel and hung out for a while. We then left and rode in our first taxi. To say the least the cabbie was on some very good drugs. He was driving like a maniac. We finally made it to Mandalay Bay, where we were watching The Lion King. We got our tickets and then ate at the House of Blues. The show was absolutely AMAZING! The costumes were so impressive. Right as we got back to our hotel, The Mirage, the volcano was erupting. We watched that and decided that we wanted to watch the Bellagio fountains. We trekked all the way to the Bellagio and watched the show and it was wonderful!

Friday we got up and ate breakfast with the whole family. Afterwards we got on our bus and headed to Hoover Dam. We checked out the dam and did the tour and everything. We even got to go to the Lake Mead Overlook. It is a pretty amazing feet that they were able to do everything that they did without computers. Michael and I decided that we needed to take a nap so we wouldn't be exhausted for our show that night. After our nap we got ready for supper at The Palm. It was the most delicious meal that I have ever had. Michael's prime rib was $47! It really was worth every penny. After the meal Michael and I went to the Blue Man Group. THEY WERE AMAZING! It's hard to put into words exactly how much we BOTH enjoyed it. That's a pretty big deal when Michael will admit that he liked it.

Saturday morning we decided that we would go down to the pool (before all of the skinny people made it down to the pool). The pool was really nice but we got out pretty quickly because there were some dark clouds coming. It never did rain (imagine that!) but it was cooling off - especially for Vegas. The whole time that we were there it only got over 80 one day, I think! After swimming we cleaned up and went to check out more of the strip. We ended up eating at Jimmy Buffet's Margaritaville! It was a lot of fun. Then we went gambling at The Imperial Palace. They have what they call Dealer-tainers. Their blackjack dealers are celebrity impersonators. I decided I wanted to try Blackjack. Dolly Parton was my first dealer. After her I had Michael Jackson and Bette Midler. I had a blast and actually did pretty well. I ended up leaving with $66 of profit! We went back to the hotel and changed clothes for dinner and met the family and walked over to the Bellagio for their buffet. We were in line FOREVER but we finally got to eat! The desert at that meal was to die for! We decided to go downtown and watch the light show. It was a tribute to KISS. It was pretty amazing. I also found a cheap souvenir shirt! Then we rode the taxi back to the hotel and did a little gambling on the Wheel of Fortune Slot Machines! I was ready to crash so I went to bed. Michael made it home a little bit later.

I got up early on Sunday morning because I knew that I really wanted to play blackjack on more time before we left. Michael and I walked across the street to McDonald's and ate breakfast and then we headed to O'Shea's. It is a smaller casino and they had a $5 blackjack table so I decided to play. I started with $100 and I gave Michael $50 so that we wouldn't loose a ton of money. I ended up making some in the first couple hands so I gave Michael a total of $100 in chips so I was basically playing with the casino's money. I ended up walking away with $125 profit. Overall I ended up winning $191. I think that I lost around $60 so that made my profit for the week about $130. I was pretty excited that I was walking away from Vegas up and not down!

We went to the hotel to pack up and check out. We rode our hummer limo back to the airport. Our flight on the way back was uneventful and we even made it back 30 minutes early.

Monday I got up early and logged on to my on-line class. I did some classwork and then went for a walk with a friend. Michael and I ate lunch together and then my same friend, Amy, came over and helped me to start packing boxes for our move. I got a total of seven packed. Michael is so far behind at work that he didn't make it home until almost seven o'clock! He went to the store, since I was still packing stuff (which is taking longer because I'm getting rid of stuff), and we finally ate supper at 9:00.

This morning I got up and started to work on school stuff and decided that there's just too much information for this class to flip back and forth on the computer so I went and bought a printer so I could get organized. I am going to continue to work on school stuff this afternoon. I have to clean the house and do laundry sometime today too! Uuuggghhh.... so much to do - at least it's summer!

We'll I better go! I'll try to get some pictures up soon!

Leavin' in the AM

I'll be headed to Vegas in the morning!!!! We will be going to The Lion King tomorrow at 8 pm. Friday and Saturday we have a big supper planned for all of the family. I can't hardly wait to actually get to Vegas! I'll try and post pics when we get back from our trip.
Michael and I signed our papers for our mortgage. I'm pretty excited about the whole house thing! It'll be WONDERFUL as soon as we actually get to get into the house. I'll try to get some pics up of our new house too!
Well I better go so I can get packed.... I'll write when I get back!

Class done - Preparing for the Trip

This morning was WONDERFUL! I got to sleep in. I knew that I wouldn't really get to sleep in for a while since we'll be headed on our trip on Thursday. I wanted to take advantage this morning! I was sleeping extremely soundly and then the cat, Callie, jumped on my head and laid down on the pillows above my head. I started to pet her and then looked at the clock and it was 9:30!!!! I don't know the last time that I actually slept that long. I was amazed. Normally during the summer I wake up when Michael gets up but I just slept right through him juggling stuff around this morning.
A friend called me to see if I wanted to go with her and her kids to go get golf balls out of the pond at the country club. I was game so I headed over to her house. We ran around the golf course and found about 14 golf balls. Afterwards we went and ate at Applebee's for lunch. We both had some coupons so that helped out our bill A LOT!
Mid-afternoon I finally made it to school. I got all of my students' portfolios organized and turned in. I also finished cleaning up my desk so that it's ready to be moved out of the classroom. Every year they have to remove everything from our rooms so that they can rewax the floor. I'm just glad that I have everything ready to go so that they can wax the floor and they aren't waiting on me! :-)
I'm pretty excited about tomorrow... I am going to get stuff packed and ready to go for our trip. We leave on Thursday morning and we will be in Vegas until Sunday. After we get back I am planning on starting to pack things up around the house. I will also start my first Master's class on Monday right after we get back!
Well, I better get to bed!
Good night!

Summer!!

So, my summer has semi-official started. I had my last day of school on May 22nd. Then I spent Memorial Day weekend with my family and friends. We went to the Great American BBQ in Bonner Springs. The boys accomplished to get second place in the World Brisket Contest. As for the rest.... they were disappointed! Michael and I got back on Sunday and he had to put some rub on more meat! On Monday he cooked the pork for the St. Greg's Golf Tournament! While he was working on that I went to school to finish up grade cards. Monday we also looked at a house. It belongs to a family friend so we just called him to see if he would let us in. Michael's parents came with us. I completely loved the house. Michael liked it a lot too. It was built in 1971 and needs some updates but the structure itself is in great shape. We decided that we would like to go with our Realtor the next day and my parents to look at the house.
Tuesday morning we meet for some end of the year information. I had planned on cleaning and boxing up my classroom but I got a call from a friend that her babysitter was sick and she was in a bind. I ended up spending my afternoon watching two ADORABLE little boys from noon to about 4:15. I was pretty amped up by this point to go back and look at the house. My parents came up to look at the house with us. They liked the house too! We talked to the Realtor and decided that we wanted to put an offer on the house.
On Wednesday I had my catechatical class for school all day but in the middle of the day I snuck away and went to sign the papers to make the offer on the house! Thursday I had the same class all day. I was really nervous about the house but I was pretty hopeful. Friday morning, while I was at the St. Greg's Golf Tournament helping out a friend, Michael called and asked me if I wanted to buy a house! We were able to come to an agreement and we signed the papers on Friday mid-morning. I am still in shock that we are actually going to have a house of our own. One that needs a little TLC but a house of our own. To say the least I am totally STOKED!!!! We're supposed to close on July 15, but I'm hoping somehow we will be able to close sooner. We talk to the Mortgage guy tomorrow!!!
Michael and I will be homeowners!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :)
This past weekend I had a friend come and stay with us. It was really nice. We relaxed and watched movies and just talked. Today I went to my classroom and I am almost compeltely finished with everything. I really only have a couple things to do tomorrow... That's why I said my summer has semi-started. After tomorrow I am completely free for my summer, except for my summer classes ;)
This Thursday my family is going to Las Vegas. When I say family I mean extended family on one side of the family. My aunts, uncles, cousins, sibling, parents, etc. We will all be heading out on Thursday and we won't be back until Sunday. I am pretty excited about this little vacation and I know Michael is even more excited than me! So even though my school year has ended our life is still pretty crazy!!!!

Ash Wednesday - The Beginning of My 40 Days Without Facebook!

I know it seems silly but this year I decided to give up Facebook. I am also giving up some other stuff and attempting to accomplish other things during Lent but this is the most interesting thing I came up with for Lent.
I LOVE to get on facebook and catch up with old friends and see pictures of what they are doing in their life, however, I realize that I spend entirely too much time on this particular website. So I've given it up so that I can use my time more wisely. Maybe with my extra time that I save I will be able to do good for others.
As for my other Lenten promises... I am limiting my TV watching time (again to use my time more wisely). Basically I am going to allow myself to watch the news (to stay updated on the weather!) and that's it. The only exception will be on Thursday night because I love Gray's Anatomy and Private Practice. I am also going to make sure that I tell my husband something nice (or that I am thankful to him for) each day.
I am aware that most of these seem simple but I hope it gives me some more me time and some time to focus on the more important things like family, friends, and faith.
I better go... I'm going to clean my desk off (my classes Lenten promise is: We will keep our desk clean- which I guess includes me!) and then I am going to go workout... which I haven't done in three weeks so I am kind of looking forward to this!
Hope everyone has a great day and we only have two more before the weekend!!!!!!!!!!!

Feeling Pretty Good

I must say that I am feeling pretty good about this whole accreditation visit. We (the teachers) had our interview yesterday after school and the team sounded very impressed my school and it's atmosphere. The big word that they used yesterday was family. Everyone that had came in prior to us (parents, principal, students, and support staff) said that they felt they were a part of a family. I have to admit that's how I feel about my work and I am blessed to have it that way. We all getting along really well. Of course we have squabbles like families do but when push comes to shove if I needed something I believe I could call any one on my staff and ask for help and they would be there. I have to say it's nice living in the that kind of environment when accreditation rolls around because everyone gets stressed. We have helped each other through this process and I am thankful for everyone there. I haven't ever worked at any other school but frankly I don't want to. I like that I can pray in school and when something upsets my kids we can pray to God about it. That is a great feeling and after some of the things that have happened in the last three years of my teaching I can't imagine NOT being able to pray and rely on our faith to deal with some things. I don't know how I go this job because I came in with NO experience-straight from college and they still wanted me. That's taking a big risk on someone new and without any experience to rely on. I guess God was pushing me that way... between Michael being Alumni at the school and finding out where I could get the application to me turning down another job because I just had a feeling about the one I'm in. God wanted me there so that's where I'm staying. I never felt so certain about any decision in my life (besides my marriage to my husband). It makes it easier for me to get up and face the day knowing I have support from my teachers and principal.
Enough of the why I love my job business... I have to go get ready for work.
I hope everyone has a great Friday and enjoys the BEAUTIFUL weekend!

Stressed Out #2 (aka BEYOND FRUSTRATED)

I don't even know what to say besides that I am beyond frustrated. It is currently 3:30 in the afternoon and the temperature is 62 (yes... that's right it is 62 degrees on January 30) and I am stuck inside working on my stupid curriculum mapping. I know that this is a necessity for the accreditation process but I just feel that it is busy work to keep me from enjoying the weather or my husband (he's at home relaxing-This is one of the first weekends we haven't had anything planned and I'm stuck at school). I crave to be outside but I'm afraid if I give in I'll never finish and then I'll feel like I have let down the school and my boss - which would be AWFUL!
The other reason I'm frustrated is that I only worked out once this week (Monday) and I can say that I really do miss it. I finally thought I would get a chance earlier this week and I started feeling yucky. I still don't feel very good. I love that I haven't been sick all year and the now A WEEK BEFORE ACCREDITATION my body decided to give in and feel like crap.
I know I gripping and moaning and complaining but I need to get it out of my system. Maybe if I do it now I won't take it out on other people. I am so ready for all of this to be over. Basically at this point I am really looking forward to Valentine's Day because that will mean all this is over and I will get to spend the weekend with my husband. I really don't care what we do I just want it to be US and NO ONE ELSE! I feel like I've barely seen him and when I do he is doing something for me (really it is for the school but same difference). I feel terrible but he believes in this school and says he doesn't mind. I am pretty thankful for the fact that he doesn't mind helping me. I know I take my frustration out on him and most the time he really could care less... So to say that I'm lucky is an understatement at this particular time. He's been pretty wonderful over the last week or so.
Well... I need to get back to work on curriculum mapping (my own form of personal torture!). Hope everyone enjoys the beautiful weather and enjoys the Super Bowl tomorrow!
Jamie

Stressed Out!!!

To say that I am stressed out right now certainly is an understatement! I am currently amazed by the fact that I am still somewhat sane. I have been sooo busy that I am losing track of what I have done in the several days. I have to look at my calendar to remember what I have been up to.

The next two weeks are going to be extremely stressful. This week is Catholic Schools Week. Which means that we are going to be busy everyday with extra stuff to do (make things for parents, going to the movie, doing something for the community, etc.) This cuts down majorly on my teaching time but we'll make it through. The thing that I am the most stressed out about is next week.... We have our Accreditation Teams coming on Thursday and Friday. They will come into our classrooms and observe us teach. At the end of the day on Thursday they will interview all of the teachers. Friday they will go to Mass with us and let us know how we have done on our accredidation. I am so ready for the next two weeks to be over it isn't even funny. I am hoping to find some enjoyment in the next two weeks just so that I can make it through.

With everything that I have to do in the next two weeks I don't know how much working out I'll be able to do. I had been doing sooo good since I started on January 2nd. At this point I don't even know when I am going to find time in the next couple of weeks. I am started to get a little disappointed because of the fact that I have only lost eight pounds and I have worked out 16 days since the 2nd. I know that I've missed quite a few but I just thought I would be getting better results. Right now I feel extremely disappointed with it and frustrated.... I want more results but I feel like giving up. We'll see what happens.