26-31 weeks

Yeah, yeah... I suck at updating this blog. Maybe I'm not really meant to be a blogger? Part of me just wishes I could dictate to someone else and have them type all the memories I want to remember out, lol!

I'm going to try to do my best to update the past few weeks - but they've been BUSY!!!

*Week 26* - This week was pretty uneventful, but I did have a couple of particularly fun highlights! We had a "girls night" on Friday night (May 6) to see Something Borrowed. This has been one of my favorite books for several years now (I also love the sequel Something Blue) so I while I really wanted to see the movie I was a little nervous because you know that a movie modeled after a book is going to go one way or another: they're going to do a great job with it (like Harry Potter) or they're going to drive you crazy with deviations. To me, it was the latter. If I'd never read the book, I would have LOVED the movie, seriously loved it. Kate Hudson did a fantastic job, and overall it was super cute... just not if you've read the book. At least in my opinion. Afterwards we went to Coldstone, it was my moms first trip there. My baby loves ice cream, it's completely ridiculous how much he loves ice cream. He dances a little jig everytime I consume some. :)

Sunday marked my first official/unofficial Mothers Day. We went as a family to Pappasitos - we didn't want Nana to cook and we felt that all the mothers deserved a day off, and it was delicious and worth every penny. Especially the chocolate covered strawberries... but I digress. I got some flowers and a sweet card from my hubby, which I wasn't expecting since the baby is still in the oven... I don't really feel like a mom yet, so I felt blessed that he wanted to do something for me anyway. He treats me like a queen all the time, totally indulging my random whims and cravings (usually for something incredibly sweet and cold), which is something that I'd much rather get from him than just on one day in particular. :) Liam is super lucky to have the daddy he is going to have!!

*Week 27* - I had my glucose test on Wednesday... I wasn't really nervous about it at all, but it was a pain watching what I ate all day long. On top of things, we literally spent the last hour of the day in a duck and cover drill. This weather we've been having is completely crazy!! All these tornadoes all over the south for the past several weeks... that can't mean anything good for the summer months!! Luckily, I passed the glucose test with no problems... and I'm not anemic! Woo hoo for me, haha!! :)

We spent the weekend looking at houses in Burleson... and totally fell in love with a different house than what we'd originally wanted. Isn't life funny that way?? Haha! I have no idea what's been going on with my asthma, but I've had to do my inhaler every day since Thursday or Friday. I had to even do it walking around the house... walking up and down the stairs in the heat just about did me in, haha!! Now I guess we just have to see if we are in a place where we can buy this house right now or not... I'd rather not have to wait and move twice but God is in control of the situation, since we are obviously sooo not. We're doing what needs to be done here and I know God isn't going to let us live under a bridge, so we'll end up wherever we need to be I suppose.

Monday (May 16) had me leaving school early... AGAIN. I couldn't breathe at all! It was super scary! It felt like someone had a belt around my chest and was pulling it tighter and tighter... my inhaler was no relief at all, which couldn't be a good sign. When I called my OB, they wanted me to go to the ER and get a treatment and then go to L&D to be monitored and make sure that Liam was getting the oxygen he needed. I, of course, was seeing $ signs and more dr bills so I asked if it was possible to go see my regular doc instead to get the treatment. I made an appointment and was instructed that if anytime between the phone call and my doctor visit my breathing issues got worse, I had to go to the ER no exceptions. Thankfully, just being out of my classroom (which is probably infested with mold, mildew, and God knows what else...) helped and by the time I got to the doctor I was able to breathe and was getting 99% oxygen. Regardless, that was scary!! My biggest worry now that it's clearly a classroom issue, is having to do my inhaler every day. That can't be good for Liam because I know how it makes me feel... Here's hoping I can survive the next few weeks without more problems!! I just need to make it to summer break!!

I also found out Tuesday (after coming back to school) that Alisha (a 2nd grade teacher at school) turned in her resignation for next year. Now there's two jobs available at my school... considering I haven't heard from my principal about the 4th grade position I don't know if I should even bother going to talk to her about because I get the feeling she's ready for me to move on... but I won't know if I don't ask. I'm going to pray about it and see what I feel led to do... that's all I can do. I have my resume up on Crowley's website and I've applied to a couple of other positions, so we'll see what ends up happening. It's not like I have anything to lose at this point since I have a job regardless, it just might not be where I want to be.

*Week 28* - The only real highlight of this week was that I braved going to see Karla about the 2nd grade job opportunity. She told me a few things that sounded a little "iffy" but I've decided that it's clear this is not where I'm meant to be, regardless of how much I want to be able to see my kids next year or not move my entire classroom. I haven't felt a huge amount of support (especially after this year with the kids in my room) so maybe it's best that I'm moving on and trying new things. At least I'll be in the same grade level and I'll only be responsible for ELAR and social studies... which is a blessing in itself. I've also been in contact with a couple of my new team members and they seem really excited for me to be coming to their school... I'm not there yet, but I'm warming up. It's just a lot to deal with at once. I have a lot of questions, but I'm not even sure where to begin with them because I have so many questions about so many other things as well... I'm feeling really overwhelmed and I'm sure it's not going to get any easier as we get closer to Liam's arrival and our moves!!!

My cousin Jillian graduated from high school on Saturday (May 22). There's only 1 out of the 4 left... which is so crazy to me! I don't feel old enough for them all to be graduating on me... The biggest downer though was sitting in a pew at Travis for 2 1/2 hours... that doesn't agree with pregnant me. My back was in pain, but the worst part was the swollen feet. Geez, they got HUGE!! After graduation, the reception, and dinner... we took mom and Tiffany up to Babies R' Us to see the nursery furniture we picked out the night before (we changed our minds and ended up saving ourselves quite a bit of money between the glider and nursery furniture... go us!) as well as the other big stuff: pack n' play, high chair, bouncer, swing, etc... The closer we get the more real it feels and I'm SO excited I can't hardly stand it, lol! It was just fun to be able to share with mom because we don't get moments like that all that often these days.

*Week 29* - I had my very first baby shower on Wednesday, May 25!! It was bittersweet because I'm leaving my school family to join a new one (although I'm still holding out for a miracle that I can work part time or something and take a break from teaching) but my team did an amazing job. Since Liam's nursery is now officially a "hodgepodge" of Disney rather than just Pooh or Lion King, they used this adorable baby safari theme (I'll do a picture post later). The napkins had blue monkeys that said "It's a boy!"... which is so fitting since monkey is Liam's nickname! :) Yes, I do get impressed that easily. We were so incredibly blessed with all the fun things we got for Liam and I can't wait to start organzing all of our things we've gotten for him so far. Thursday of this week, I discovered a "lump" pretty low down (and on my right side, of course...) and got a little panicked. We all our know where our minds go when we think "lump". It only was hurting when I stood up from sitting or laying for a long period of time, and as soon as I was up moving around it didn't hurt. So, my worry wart self weighed my options. Calling my doc on Friday morning could possibly mean yet another hospital visit - at least based on past precedence. If she didn't know what was it was, she'd ask for tests and yada yada, and considering it really wasn't bothering me that much, I decided I'd rather take a risk and not call. For all I knew it could have to do with my ureter/kidney issue, so I decided I'd take it as easy as I could, chug A LOT of water, and then call on Monday if it was still bothering me. I just wasn't feeling another hospital visit. I followed my plan over the weekend, and of course, the stupid lump was still there. I didn't break down and call until Tuesday morning but I ended up having to go in... no hospital visit this time though! I either have a hernia, or an infected lymph node. Hernia = surgery after Liam is born, infected lymph node = antibiotics if I start running a fever or am dealing with more pain. I'm not going to lie, whoever said that pregnancy is amazing and joyous and whatever else crap they say like that, clearly had NO complications whatsoever during the pregnancy. Don't get me wrong, I can't wait to meet Liam, but the whole incubation period is making me miserable. I'm over it. Yes, I'll probably end up doing this one more time, but it's going to take me a little while to get up the nerve!

This was the first Memorial Day weekend we haven't been at the river in ages, and my first taste of what my summer is going to be like. I'm just grateful that the river is low (because we'd be miserable if we could go...and we can't) and that Lauren's and Michael's job are keeping them busy enough that we wouldn't have the freedom to spend at the river like we usually could because otherwise I'd probably be in tears that I'm having to miss out on so many occasions that we're used to. And next summer will be so SO exciting, because we'll have our little river rat with us ready to go out on the boat and float in the river, and I can't WAIT!!! That's basically what's getting me through this summer...

*Week 30* - I found out at my random appointment (I've had A LOT of these during this pregnancy!) last week that my due date has now been moved up to August 10! Our little man has been consistently measuring a week ahead and according to our past ultrasounds my new day to start a new week is Wednesday, not Sunday! Talk about throwing a person off their routine... ;) This was only a 4-day week at school this week (with kids, I had to work Memorial Day thanks to all that snow back in Feb!) but it has been cram-packed full of activities. The kids have had lots of stuff going on, and we've started packing up our home. I'm not overly emotional about it, mostly because I've already had those moments and I know there's no choice in the matter. I think I'm more stressed than anything and more worried about where I'm going to be finishing off my pregnancy and where we will be bringing Liam home.

This was a very difficult week in my pregnancy, I'll be very honest. Ending school and knowing I won't be seeing my kids next year, packing up the place we've called home for 5 years now (on our 5 year anniversary no less...), and having to be very limited in my place in any of that packing. Lauren came to stay with us on Wednesday (the beginning of my week 30!) to help us (namely ME) out. There are no words on this planet to describe how blessed and how thankful I am (and we are) for how much she helped during this transition... I seriously don't know anyone else that was willing to step in and literally go from packing up my classroom, moving boxes (alone since I couldn't help), come home and put ice on my ridiculously swollen feet, offer to grab a heating pad for my back, start packing up my house, and then get up and do it all over again the next day... without ever being asked to do a thing. I'm not even going to lie about how guilty I felt about her doing so incredibly much, but at the same time I couldn't have done it... I have no idea how either of these moves would have been possible without her help. I know Lauren doesn't read this blog, but I wanted to have this here for when I look back on this part of my life and I can tell Liam about how much his aunt Lauren rocked and took care of his momma while we moved! :)

Wednesday was the day we were supposed to find out if we'd qualify to buy a house - we've been working on my credit and dealing with some things so we were supposed to find out yay or nay. Well, it turned out to be to nay until August. (That's when a big "negative" will fall off and my credit will jump tremendously... which is yay for then, not so much for now...) This was the first BIG sign that God has a plan much bigger than we realized. So that was hard to digest, but we just kept moving forward because we still had to be out by June 7. Our back up plan was to move to a rent house in Crowley we'd looked at previously (and couldn't stand for several reasons) because I need AC in this ridiculous Texas summer heat! Well, the guy that had the house on the market decided he didn't want to rent after all, so we found out Thursday that THAT plan had now fallen through. We were back at looking at living in the camper, which had me freaking out for several reasons... I'm sure you can imagine. Friday, we were offered a rent house in Flower Mound from one of Michael's friends from work. We'd both been in the house and from what we could remember, it was nice and obviously beggars can't be choosers so we jumped on the opportunity because we could start moving in over the weekend. 3 out of 4 options fell through in 3 days time. Talk about an emotional roller coaster... Plus, Friday was our last day of school. I never told the kids that I wouldn't be returning next year, mostly because I was being selfish and I just couldn't handle it. I already had several crying, more than usual (including a very unexpected boy!) and I just couldn't handle more than what was already on my plate. I just kept reminding them and myself that I'd be bringing Liam up to visit them in the fall and that this wasn't goodbye. One of my parents blessed us with a bouncer, and another is making us something for around his arrival. God was very good to us this year, regardless of how tough things have been otherwise. Everything really does happen for a reason. We finished moving my classroom (until next week) at 10 pm on Friday night.

Saturday had a late start due to an errand that ran late and visiting with my mom, both things that definitely had to happen. I found out Mom is starting a new job (which I am SO excited about!) in a few weeks, and that she met with my dad to move forward in her life. She also told him he's going to be a grandfather... however, he doesn't know that it's a boy. I'm currently trying to figure out how I want to broach that subject because it's very important to me that my dad has the opportunity to be in Liam's life. I've had a lot of time for self-reflection over the past week while I've been packing and I never realized how much of a daddy's girl I truly was. That's neither here nor there and I'm happy to expound in another post, but my main point is that I really want to Dad to know that I want him to know Liam if HE wants to know Liam. We will see where God leads that situation since a door has now been opened... We visited the new house Saturday night to get a feel for where things could go, and basically stumbled upon an ugly discovery: the people that lived here before were your worst nightmare as far as renters went. There had been a leak from the dishwasher that they "didn't notice" and there's mold under the cabinets from the dishwasher, under the sink, and on some of the carpet in the living room. They're trying to work on dealing with insurance, but for now it really sucks. The master shower was also pretty nasty and Michael has coated it about 6 times with bleach... yuck!!! We definitely will have our work cut out for us. Sunday was another FULL day of packing. :(

Monday was the last day that we had to get everything out of the house, and we finished getting it all out... at 3 am Tuesday morning. Michael and my grandfather were taking things to my grandparents garage for a few hours and I was blessed enough to have my mother rub my very exhausted, very tight back for awhile while I passed out on the floor waiting for the little things to get packed up. We filled up the entire back of my Durango, Michael's truck, Tiffany's Camero, and Mom's suburban on top of the several loads that went to my grandparents garage. There will be another trip to Fort Worth later this week to take about half the garage to our storage, and the other half home. At least we'll be almost done by then!! Tuesday (the last day of this week of pregnancy for me) was such a relaxing day... I had to sit around the house and wait for the DirecTV guy to do his thing (which literally took over half the day) and got to stay off my feet for the first time in almost a week... it was amazing. I did try to take on the challenge of unpacking the kitchen, but quit very quickly upon discovering how germ-a-phobic I apparently am?! I was wiping out the cabinets and kept freaking out because I was really feeling like I needed to be using something stronger than the Method cleaners I switched to when I found out I was pregnant. The people that lived here before us were disgusting on so many levels!!! So basically, my husband is going to have to clean, and then I'm putting down shelf liners before our kitchen accessories are allowed to touch anything in the kitchen. I hate hate having to rely on someone else to do this kind of stuff for me!!! I can't move boxes, I can't use strong cleaners... ugh!!! Another reason that I'm more than ready to be done with this pregnancy.

*Week 31* - I just started this week (Weds, June 8) so I'm only about halfway done with week 31. But it's been plenty eventful already. We had a dr appt on Weds morning (mom has been going with me because with all of the moving mess Michael can't take off) and discovered that Liam is STILL measuring a week ahead - so 32 weeks this week - and is still seemingly a super happy, healthy baby. Mom and I went to lunch and shopped a little bit, something we rarely get to do just the two of us... it was really nice!!! Our 4D sonogram was supposed to be Thursday, but we ended up having to cancel it because I had to get the remainder of my classroom out of Deer Creek and into Hargrave... and both schools closed at 5. Completely unbenounced to my husband and I. Boo. At least my school room is officially packed up and moved into either storage or my new classroom and that's one less thing to worry about!!!

Our internet just hooked up yesterday... thank goodness! I'm sitting here updating the blog waiting on the AC guy (we can't even sleep in the master bedroom because it's so hot... boooo) and the DirecTV people to come back out (they couldn't finish the job Tuesday) and I needed something to fill my time. I went out the Grapevine Mills yesterday to go scour maternity stores, and found some of the cutest onesies! I also discovered a Carters outlet which I cannot wait to go back and visit another day!! :) I bought some bathing suits since we now have a pool (the biggest plus of this rent house!!) so I can relieve some pain in a float while also getting my tan on and reading. Not the most fun shopping experience, in fact, it was downright depressing... but I just keep reminding myself that this is all baby and it will come right back off. Still not a fan. I'm at least being smart and staying off the scale...I don't want to know how much I gain at all. I know myself, I'll freak and I don't want to chance even tempting myself to be stupid about food intake or whatever due to weight gain. If I don't know, I worry a lot less about it.

I'll end with something a little profound: Michael and I shared our first apartment here in Grapevine 7 years ago. We had lived together before that, but that was our jumping off point to a much healthier relationship because I let go of some past demons (aka an ex-boyfriend) and it marked the beginning of what we have today. 5 years ago, we got married on Lake Grapevine in Southlake. Now, we are living in Flower Mound and will be bringing home our baby boy to this same area... I find it really amusing that we keep coming back to this area, and it's been completely unintentional. The only other place that we have that is that important to us as far as events go is South Padre Island (when I first discovered Michael loved me - my 21st birthday weekend, when Michael "officially" proposed when he could buy me a ring, and our honeymoon)... so it's pretty obvious to me that God has an amazing plan for us, and we've just got to roll with it. It's been hard, but it's clear to me that we are where we are supposed to be for now and we're incredibly thankful for a roof over our heads and a safe place to bring Liam home. :)

Stay tuned for a couple of picture posts to update the belly, our first shower, our new house, etc...

Things to look forward to: showers on the 18th and 25th, my 29th birthday on the 22nd, and *hopefully* a babymoon/anniversary trip July 4th weekend!!! :) We also have another shower in the middle of July, last I heard was July 14th... And then just counting down the days until we meet Liam!!!!