Seconds

Today I'm 23 Weeks and I had Marc take a picture of me this morning. You would think with this being my second pregnancy I would get use to these belly shots but I find them somewhat awkward, although necessary. So here's a pic...

Along with my second pregnancy I'm attempting (again) to be a green thumb! After an unsuccessful attempt at growing my own vegetables last year, I'm taking baby steps, one plant at a time. I have to say so far not so bad...I got a cherry tomato plant at Costco a few weeks ago and I'm proud to report we have life! Not to jinx it, but it has rained so much these last couple weeks, I think good old mother nature is on my side! I think I have about 7 tomato's in sprout.

I have my first full session of physical therapy tomorrow...keep your fingers crossed they can get my spine back to it's normal position...this is getting a little too painful!

22 Weeks...Tomorrow

If there is one thing I'm good at...it's eating Cadbury Mini Eggs, even when I'm not pregnant I love these things!

Anyway, being pregnant certainly has it's joys and hardships. I love the feeling of the baby kicking and moving, I love the fact that I crave vegetables and somewhat healthy food, I love the continuous growing belly and as of tonight I love water aerobics :) I headed to the gym for some low impact water aerobics, although very exhausted at the moment, I enjoyed the chance to move around and not feel the aches and pains. I'm sure tomorrow will bring a different story. I'm in search of a cure to my annoying sciatic pain, it gets worse and worse by the day (minute) and apparently, according to my Internet research, all that mopping and vacuuming I did on Sunday was probably not a good idea! So if there are any of the 1% of pregnant women out there who get sciatic pain and dying to share their relief tips, I'm all ears...if not I'll continue this venture on my own.

Back to the water aerobics, I have one small issue...my bathing suit! I'm cheap and don't want to buy a new one, so do I

1) continue wearing the "tankini" that is too big that I have to safety pin at the side on the top to keep from falling down, but that the bottom half (of the top) is continuously above my belly in the water anyway and have to keep tugging at it or

2) be THAT pregnant lady wearing a bikini?

Are these really my options...? Yikes!

Time Flys

I'm seven weeks into my student teaching and loving every minute of it...well except for the 5 year old tattle tailing, bad words, and the most recent boy who was walking with his hands in his pocket, got pushed, and landed on his face on the cement, busting 3 teeth, his nose and not to mention many facial bumps and bruises. Other than all that business, it's so fun. The days fly by and when a student comes up to you and says "you're beautiful" or "i like your shirt" it just makes you feel wonderful. They do such a great job driving you nuts but then know just the things to say to make you smile. I've started teaching all the lessons everyday and feel so blessed to have such a great mentor teacher, she is so prepared and has lesson plans for the whole year as well as a scheduled routine that the students know like the back of their hand. We have parent teacher conferences coming up in a week or two so it will be interesting meeting the parents and listening to all the Spanish conversation, hopefully I pick up on a little bit of it.

As far as my schooling, I have ONE class left and then I'm done with my Master's degree. I'm in the stages of contemplating furthering my education, but may hold off until a little later in the year. I think I'll stay focused on having a baby and finding a job first! I have one test left to take (for the second time) to get my teaching certificate which just happens to be the US and Arizona Constitution, two things that are so far out of my brain, I've had ALOT of studying to do. So keep your fingers crossed.

I'm 21 weeks pregnant (picture at 19 weeks) with baby girl #2 and already can't wait to meet her! She's moving a lot and right on schedule everyday, I usually feel her in the shower, a couple times throughout the day, in the car on the way home, and again between 8-9pm. She's active and I can't wait for Marc and Jaelyn to be able to feel her moving too. I've been feeling great (minus this sciatic pain) and slowly starting to get more and more energy back!

Jaelyn is constantly making us laugh (and pull our hair out). She is a toddler with a mind of her own and has no problem expressing her feelings no matter where we are! It's made for some interesting outings (sorry Mary Ellen)...She is very opinionated and we try to give her as many choices as we can because she is so proud with the results. She is such a big helper and loves to help mom in the kitchen...she's great at putting peperoni on bagel pizza's! The daycare loves her and can't stop telling us how great her vocabulary is, how much she talks, and how polite she is. Which makes us feel great because around the house we get alot of "NO's" and break downs :). She is good at entertaining herself and really loves being in her room, even in the morning when she wakes up, she doesn't come and get us, she just grabs books or toys and climbs back into her bed. Her hair is getting so long and is still curly, I love putting it in full pigtails, she looks so cute!

Marc is off and traveling with his golf teams and Jaelyn gets so excited when "daddy" comes home. He's headed back to school as well and is taking classes towards his Masters in Leadership and is doing a great job completing his assignments and we are so proud of how hard he is working!

While sorting through some photos I found this one of when I was about three and my first thought was "Jaelyn does look a little like me" (or so I like to think), maybe it's just the hair???

Today is the Day!

It's been so long since I've blogged, I really do need to get better at this. Since today is such a big day for me I thought it would be worth documenting! Today is my last day of working at the Arizona Women's Golf Association. For the last 22 months I've been taking classes towards my Masters in Elementary Education and today is the LAST day of my final class...YIPPEEEE! Which coincidentally falls on my last day of work, making today a somewhat significant day (well at least in my mind). I start student teaching in a Kindergarten classroom on January 7 at Griffith Elementary here in Phoenix, AZ. The entire class is ESL, which frightened me at first, but now I'm looking forward to the challenge. Tommorrow we head to Washington for 10 whole days of rest and relaxation, no school, no work...AHHH and to spend a much awaited Christmas with my family!

Halloween

I carved pumpkins with the neighbors last week and we went trick or treating last night with our little bumblebee! Her first two houses, she needed some encouragement and to be held, but once she got the hang of it, she was miss independent. Walking on her own, blatantly letting us know she did not want to be carried or go in the stroller with her powerful "NO" every time we asked. She carried her trick or treat basket the whole way around and was so excited when she got a sucker, holding it up and showing us. She kept her wings and antenna's on the whole night and was definitely the cutest bumblebee I've ever seen!

Shower Invitations

Today I hosted a shower for Jessica at our house. Marc and I have been busy at work all day, of course after the party was over and all the food was eaten and decorations dismantled I realized I'd forgotten to take pictures! I was so proud of my centerpiece including the brides custom made shoes on a cake tray, my homemade flower pen bouquet, and our arrangements of snacks! What I did remember to get a picture of was the invitation I sent out a few weeks ago...this is all I got :)

A play date with Bella!

Today we were going to head to the library for pajama story time with Bella, but when I called the library they thought Jaelyn might be a little too young. So we decided to meet at the park to play and feed the ducks. The girls were so excited to see each other they ran and chased each other, continually said "Hi Bella" and "Hi Jaelyn", slid down the slides, swung on the swings, and fed the ducks. Here are a few pictures from today's adventure.

Jaelyn's first Bella sighting


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