9 weeks!

Okay, so I had a friend who kept everyone updated on her pregnancy by weeks and it was really neat to read, so I thought that I just might do the same. I am now officially 9 weeks along and these past 2 days have been great! Raun has been so good and he gets up to fix me breakfast before I have to get out of bed. Then I take my vitamin (which helps with nausea) and I put on these sea bands and I'm okay. The sea bands are incredibly awesome! Somehow they apply pressure to your pressure points and it makes the nausea go away. They work not only for morning sickness, but for motions sickness and other things that make you want to run for the bathroom! It has worked wonders. I'm in the awkward stage now where I haven't gained weight, but things are expanding so it's not as comfortable to wear my normal clothes, but I don't have a big enough belly for maternity clothes. As much as I hate to gain weight, I'd rather gain it than loose it so that my clothes would actually fit! We did buy one pair of maternity pants two weekends ago, but I have about an inch to grow into.

I've still been able to exercise. I'm finding that I'm incredibly hungry now. I usually have to stop the tredmill after about 30 minutes and eat some peanut butter and crackers, then I'm good to go for another 30 minutes. My doctor told me that I could still do some minor weights, as long as it didn't risk falling on the baby, so I have been toning up my legs and will hopefully hit some arms tonight. Since labor is technically a marathon, I feel that the better in shape I am before and during, then the better off I am.

Everyone's been asking about food cravings: I haven't craved anything bad, yet. I've been craving fruits, vegetables, and yes, pickles (or anything kind of sour). I do love my mashed potatoes, though. I hope that this stays with me. I worked really hard before I got pregnant to eat healthy and be at a healthy weight so I'm hoping this will benefit me during the pregnancy. I'm okay with gaining a healthy amount of weight as long as I'm eating healthy!

We went to a family reunion/50th anniversary party for Raun's great aunt or cousin (I can't remember which) this weekend, but my keen sense of smell helped out a lot. Papa, I didn't even have to look at the table to know what was on it. I could smell the little weenies and the chips and dip as soon as I entered the door. This sense of smell kills Raun because now when he eats certain foods, he is required to leave me or I leave him or else it could end in a bathroom run!

Work was great today. My boys for the most part behaved. I still have the attitudes and the cussing and the fights, but slowly they are growing to respect me. It's so funny to watch the boys cuss me out and say they're not participating and then they walk right by me, refusing to look me in the eye out of embarrassment and sit in the drum circle. It takes all I have not to laugh!

Well....that's all for now. I've gotta clean before Raun gets home!

Last week's snow day!

We went to church on Wednesday night and while I was teaching my choir kids, it began snowing. Good thing we were having our pizza party because I would have lost them all to the window! By the time orchestra rehearsal let out, this is what we saw. By morning, the roads had all cleared and it was so cold that I wasn't able to get outside for a good picture. Schools were out, which was great!

We missed the ice on Tuesday of this week, but I most certainly hit it in Knoxville. They had over 250 wrecks between 8:00 and 10:00 a.m. Many rescue workers had gotten in wrecks, as well. Even the salt truck turned over! I don't think that I went over 20 mph because of the black ice. A lot of the teachers couldn't make it in, so I got paid to read all morning. How awesome is that! Then after lunch, we got the boys. They really didn't want to come to the school floor and let us know. We had so many fights and aggressive behaviors that by the last session, I quit 30 minutes into it and told them to sit down and don't talk. Of course, the other ones got restrained, but a select few felt like following directions that day. Needless to say, those 2 hours felt like an entire day! I'm not so sure I want to go back on Tuesday! I did have one boy almost beat another boy up for being disrespectful to me and cussing at me. In a way it was kinda sweet, but I had to talk with him about showing respect to others and optional ways to handle the situation. Never a dull moment at my facilities, that's for sure!

I've been feeling okay this past week. I still can't cook or anything, but the nausea vitamin that my doctor gave me seems to be working. I'm so glad because there's nothing worse than spending weeks not holding things down! We're working on finishing the basement out and we enlisted the help of Dad to help put up the walls and to build three walls for the bathroom and the laundry room. It'll look really good when it's finished!

We're going to a family reunion on Raun's side of the family on Sunday. It's been a while since I've been to a family reunion, so it'll be fun. I hope the smells don't send me running, though! I'll make sure to take my vitamin that day and possible invest in the sea band before then! It'll be fun to meet all of his family, though.

2008!

Wow! I can't believe we're already into 2008....a whole new chapter in our lives....another year full of unpredicted changes. Things have been good here. I've been battling a sinus issue, which has been lots of fun and then passed it to Raun, and he so graciously passed it back to me. I think that's a little unfair, if you ask me!

Work is going well...getting used to seeing all of my kiddos since I've been off for 2 weeks. It's good to be back in some sort of routine, though.

I wanted to post some pictures of New Year's Eve and New Year's Day. Enjoy! I'll post Christmas a little bit later.

Love you guys!