New Van

Well, it's official, we can be parents now since we are the owners of a minivan. :) It was not our first choice of vehicles, but a friend who owns a car lot gave us a deal we could not pass up. Actually, I find that the more I drive it, the more I like it. It's very comfortable and smooth and it will definitely be easy to get the baby in and out of. The middle seats are comfortable for adults to ride in and the back seats can easily be folded up or taken out to allow for extra cargo room. We are both really pleased with it.




Our car seat came in the mail yesterday, so the baby can now ride in the van too. We figured it would be good to get it sooner rather than later just in case Little Q decides to arrive early.

Baby Shower!

My wonderful partner teacher Patricia hosted a baby shower for me on Saturday with our work friends. She and her husband made quite the spread of food (the picture is only half of what they made) and we all had a nice time visiting with each other, laughing, and celebrating the fact that school is out.



The staff got together to get us a gift card to REI so that we can get the stroller we want, which we are really excited about. The other big gift I got was this book that Patricia made for me. She had our students write notes to me and to the baby. They also made drawings and gave name suggestions. Those have been fun to read and have provided many good laughs. She collected letters from our family members as well, all of which are very touching. Thank you to those of you who contributed! I had to wait to read your letters until I got home because I knew they would make me cry. :)

Community Mural

We had a special event at school this last week. Artist Tony Ortega from Denver visited us and helped our students paint a mural. He outlines the mural with things about the school and its community and then guides students in painting it. My 2nd graders were sad that they were not old enough to help, but the 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders sure enjoyed painting. It was fun to watch the process.

Monday morning

Monday afternoon

Tuesday afternoon

Wednesday

The finished product

My principal, partner teacher, and me

Pictures... Finally!

Today I finish week 28, so yes, pictures are way overdue!



I had a doctor's appointment on Tuesday for a regular checkup and to do my glucose tolerance test. I figured it would all go just fine, which it did, except for the glucose part. An hour after I drank the super sweet orange drink, my blood sugar was at 140, and they don't want it to be over 120. So, I had to take yesterday morning off and go do the longer test. I was worried about everything that having gestational diabetes would entail. Fortunately, during the test yesterday, my blood sugar went to 127 and then came right back down. We were so relieved!

In other baby news, we finished our 12 week birthing class last week. Today I got a call from our teacher saying that the first of our classmates are in the hopital having a baby today. We will be the last of the five couples to have our baby, so it will be fun to see how things go for everyone as we wait for our turn.

School will be out in three weeks, which is unbelievable. We have parent-teacher conferences next week, which will be long, but after that the days go by extremely quickly. Unfortunately, report cards are also due in three weeks, so I have to get to work on them. Yikes! It will be nice to have time to get things done around the house soon. I have lots of organizing and sewing to do. I'm definitely looking forward to sleeping in too!

Spring Snow

Last week we had a storm blow through and bring us snow a couple of mornings. I always love spring snow because it looks so cool on the blossoms and new leaves. These were the snow covered branches that greeted me in the school parking lot.

Kiss the Pig

Every couple of years, our school PTA does a fundraiser called "Kiss the Pig." For a week, students bring in change (no bills allowed) and put the coins in containers in each teacher's classroom. The two teachers whose students raise the most money have to kiss a pig. If the students raise over $1,500, the principal has to pucker up as well.

At the beginning of the week, we had an assembly and they brought in an ugly full grown pot-bellied pig. One of the fourth grade teachers in particular was really grossed out and didn't want to have to kiss that pig. Of course, she ended up getting lots of money and was in the lead until the very last day. She ended up taking second place because the kindergarten parents decided that they really wanted Pat, the kindergarten teacher (pictured on the right) to be the one to have to kiss the pig. Fortunately, the day of the final assembly, they brought a super cute piglet to do the actual kissing. Juan (on the left), had to kiss the pig because he was trying to get his students to put money in other teachers' containers instead of his.

All in all, we raised just over $1,530 to help pay for a water fountain for our playground. You can watch the video from our local paper here. It's pretty funny. You'll see the ladies putting on lipstick and the pig squealing when they tried to kiss it. Enjoy!

By the way, I was one of the winners when we did this two years ago, so I had the honor of kissing the piglet then. It wasn't bad at all, but I was happy not to have to do it this time. A couple of my students told me that they didn't want me to have to kiss the pig because they said my baby wouldn't like it.

Quotes and Questions

Thursday was the big day when I told my students that I'm pregnant. At least one of them had already found out several weeks ago (although I'm still not entirely sure which co-worker spilled the beans), but did an excellent job of keeping quiet. I showed them the ultrasound pictures, which they though were pretty cool. The first big question was whether or not I would bring the baby to school so that they could see it. They were trying to figure out if they would be in school in July. Then, of course they all had an opinion as to whether it would be a boy or a girl. Here are some other fun quotes:

"You don't look pregnant!" :) Thanks!

"How much weight have you gained?" I explained that I didn't know, but that I had a doctor's appointment soon and would find out then. Several students then proceeded to get out the bathroom scale we use for math so that I could weigh myself.

"Do you think it will hurt when your baby comes out?" I answered, "Yes, but it will be okay." The student then quickly went back to her friends to report what I had said.

As soon as I told them, a couple of girls ran right up to touch my belly and say hi to the baby. I have a feeling that it will get touched a lot as it starts to show more.

That afternoon I helped my partner teacher by teaching her class while she did some individual assessments with students. She told the class that I would be their guest teacher, to which they were quick to add that my baby and I would be their teachers.

By the end of the day, they had shared the news with anyone and everyone. My students from last year were asking me if it was really true that I was having a baby and parents were congratulating me. I'm sure there will be many more fun questions and comments to come.