Happy Valley

After a summer of searching, Jared found a job! He'll be doing the new grad residency at IHC in Provo. That means at the end of August we will be leaving the Ute Nation for Cougar Central. We are excited but a little worried about all the BYU fans. As long as Jared can make it through football season I'm sure it will be fine. Really though, everything has fallen in to place once again. I always worry and stress about the future but we are always blessed and things just work out. We are close enough that I can still have the baby here. We are going to be close to family so Grandma can help me with Baby M. (which is a blessing because I have no idea what I'm doing.) And we were also able to find an apartment already.

Now the only thing we are waiting for is the baby. He/She is taking her/his sweet time in coming though. My due date is technically Tuesday so I guess I need to be more patient. But any day would be fine with me! I'm huge and hot and ready to see this little person who's been kicking me for the last few months. (I mean that in a very affectionate way...I don't mind the kicking.) Even though I'm nine months pregnant it still doesn't seem real that a human is going to come out of me any day. I don't feel ready to be a mom. I'm not sure anyone ever really feels ready though. But we are both super excited and getting anxious to finally know if it's a boy or girl! Here are some pictures of my belly at about 37 weeks. This was the weekend my mom threw me a shower. I really appreciate everyone who has been so generous to us! We seriously have had everything we need for the baby given to us. So thanks everybody and especially mom for your hard work on cupcakes and shower planning. Next post--baby pictures (hopefully)!

Summer Update

I am a different person since June 9th. I was able to get my classroom cleaned out with Jared's help and I'm officially retired! We've been keeping pretty busy since then. Since I finished teaching I have an amazing amount of energy. I've cleaned out our whole apartment, been walking, swimming, camping, cooking, and practicing hypnobirthing. I thought the summer would be miserable but it's been awesome so far. Until this week when I unfortunately got a sinus infection. So this week has been a lot of laying on the couch in front of the air conditioner, blowing my nose, and watching movies. It doesn't seem fair that you can be pregnant and sick at the same time! But I'm starting to feel better so we can hopefully have a fun 4th of July with Jared's family. Jared has spent the summer looking for a job. He passed his boards and is officially an RN, but even nursing jobs are hard to come by right now because of the economy. We are just having faith that it will work out and having fun together while we both have the summer off. He has a few interviews coming up and we may be moving pretty soon depending on what happens. My stomach keeps stretching bigger and bigger and Baby M. is moving like crazy. Only 4 1/2 weeks left. I can't believe how fast it's gone! We are really excited. So that's about it for us. I'll try to post a pregnant picture soon because I know you're all dying to see my belly. Happy 4th of July!

It was a big day...

Today marked the first day of my last full week of school. Also, I had two students in my class suspended for smoking weed. 10 year olds. Awesome. And Jared and I started our hypnobirthing class tonight. I really liked it. If you don't have any positive comments about un-medicated childbirth, I am requesting that you keep them to yourself. Thank you.

CRTs

All year I have labored diligently in preparing my students for one test. One test that defines my success as a teacher. One test that ranks a child on the scale of intelligence. One test on which the fate of the universe rests (or if not the universe then at least our school's "no child left behind" status.) The CRTs. And today, we finished! My whole class is done. I thought I would be flooded with relief. I thought I would be happy. But for some reason I don't feel the exuberance that I expected. I'm not sure why. Oh wait...maybe it's because as I watched my students answering the questions on their computers I saw things like this.

Problem: 3 x 7 x 0 x 2 =
Answer: 42
My Thoughts: ARE YOU SERIOUS? YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU MULTIPLY SOMETHING BY ZERO?????

Problem: What is the area of a square that has sides of 24 inches?
Answer: 24 square inches
My Thoughts: ARE YOU SERIOUS? WE REVIEWED AREA SEVEN THOUSAND TIMES!!!!!!!!!!!

And my favorite was seeing kids who didn't even bother to work the problems out at all. I mean, it's on a computer right so it's probably some kind of game where you select random answers and see how fast you can finish. Yeah right [Billy]! I bet you finished those 70 problems in ten minutes!! (Name changed to protect the guilty...)

I'm so grateful that "the man" decided this test is the perfect indicator of how successful teachers are. Well at least they can't fire me for the horrible scores that are going to be attached to my permanent record. Only thirteen more days left until retirement...

Integers

I am not feeling particularly grateful for anything today. My students are out of control, my belly is itchy, I have to pee every five minutes, and I'm so tired that I was ready for bed two hours ago. (Current time: 8:09 PM) But, despite all of the things I have to whine about, I realized today that I have a lot to be grateful for. So instead of my usual pessimistic post, I am going to tell about all the great things in my life right now. First, I am married to the greatest person in the world. He listens to me whine, lets me buy pet rats, cooks dinner, does dishes, does laundry, and rubs my back any time I need him to. Second, we get to have a baby! Even though being pregnant isn't as awesome as I thought, I am so excited and grateful that this baby is going to come into our family. I'm grateful that I have a stable job. I am also grateful that I only have 6 weeks until I get to retire so I can hang out with the little person in my belly full time. I'm grateful that Jared is graduating and willing to work hard to support our family. I'm grateful that both Jared and I have amazing families. They love us, feed us delicious food, and give us good advice. Our kids are definitely going to be spoiled in the grandparent department. I'm excited that my little brother comes home from his mission in three days! I'm grateful that I have the gospel and am sealed to my family forever. I'm grateful for good friends who are so positive and help me remember to be grateful for what I have. Wow, that's a lot of gratitude. But the crazy thing is that it doesn't even scratch the surface of the blessings in my life. Writing it all down makes the itchy belly, shrinking bladder, and rotten fifth graders seem pretty insignificant. And to end this post...here is a picture of my big fat belly (that I am very grateful for.)

Baby Madeo

No we didn't find out if it's a boy or girl. Everyone seems to be very concerned about this...except for us. But, good news: It has 2 arms, 2 legs, a heart, kidneys, a brain, a spine and bones, an umbilical cord, 10 toes, 10 fingers, and it was moving around like crazy. So no we do not know if it has ovaries or a penis. But I'm pretty excited to know about the other stuff it has! Only 19 1/2 more weeks till we get to meet him/her!

I will never eat pizza again.

My first experience with heart burn...what a blessing. Now I understand why there are so many Tums commercials. My husband got out of bed to go purchase some while I sit at home and feel sorry for my esophagus. That's love.