growing

week 14

(Please excuse the indention...I guess that skirt was getting a bit snug!)

week 15

I continue to feel well! It's hard to believe I'm 16 weeks pregnant!!!! Itty Bitty is about 4.5 inches long and about 3.5 ounces....about the size of an avocado:) Too bad s/he didn't seem to like that guacamole I ate Friday night! Mexican food isn't settling very well lately....in a couple of years, I'll have to teach him/her just how yummy it is:)

We go back to the doctor for another check-up on Thursday. Keith and I are getting excited to feel our sweet baby move before too long and to find out if we have a son or daughter!!

We had more snow last week, so I only worked for three days. It's looking like this will be my first five-day work-week since before Christmas! I hope I can handle it;)

reflections from a snowed in teacher...

Last week, we got LOTS of snow and ice in Hohenwald, and it was BEAUTIFUL! We were out of school for four days!! With the weekend between those days and church being cancelled as well, I was at home for SIX days in a row!! CRAZY! I didn't go farther than the porch for six days...I'm thinking that's a personal record;) Several people were getting on facebook talking about cabin fever and such, but I could not relate. I enjoyed being at home. It was a nice break from the routine. Actually, I've had lots of breaks from the routine recently, we had another smaller snow a couple of weeks ago and were out of school for a couple of days, and we had MLK Day off, so I haven't worked a five-day-work-week since sometime in December:) The reality check after President's Day and before Spring Break may hit us hard around here!

I had a pretty good balance of relaxation and productivity while I was home, with a bit more relaxation, of course;) One of the things I worked on was going through all of my first-grade stuff. I had about 30 boxes of first-grade stuff in storage...yikes! That's way too much. I could have gone though more of it before we moved, but there was not a lot of time for that, other people were helping me pack, and I had no idea what grade I'd be teaching when we got here. There were about 10 boxes of files and five boxes of children's books. Once some of the snow melted and we could safely drive the couple of miles to get it, Keith braved the elements and got the files and books for me to sort through. I may teach little ones again someday, but it seems silly to store 30 boxes of stuff until that day may or may not come. It was a tedious job, but I sorted files to keep, recycle, and give away, and I sorted books to keep and books to give away. I still have a big stack of boxes in the corner of the living room. Hopefully they will leave soon:)

As I worked I had time to reflect on the differences in teaching first grade as compared to sixth. There is plenty to miss about the little ones. I miss teaching fundamentals, such as putting sounds together to read and write words and putting those words together to read and write sentences. I miss teaching the basic number sense in math and working with the five senses and changing seasons in science. But perhaps more than anything, I miss all of the celebrations in elementary school. We had at least one per month:)

September: Johnny Appleseed's birthday

October: Halloween

November: Thanksgiving

December: Christmas

January: Martin Luther King

February: Groundhog Day, Valentine's Day, President's Day

March: Dr. Seuss's birthday, Easter

April: April Fool's Day

May: Mother's Day

As I sorted, it was fun to think about the books and activities I will use as a mother of my own children. Keith laughed at me when I declared I was going to do "units" with Itty Bitty:) It made me even more excited to be a mama!!

Even though there is plenty to miss about teaching first grade, and I have mourned those days from time to time throughout the school year, I am enjoying teaching sixth-graders. The challenges are different. Sometimes I struggle with seeing the relevance of the things I teach, and it is more difficult to build relationships with my students when I have 150 for an hour a day instead of 22 for six hours. But, as the year has progressed, I have convinced a few students that proper English is important, and the depth of my relationships with them has increased.

Sixth-graders are at a hard age. They're stuck right between childhood and teenage years, and sometimes they struggle with their identity, playing with legos one minute and writing love notes the next. I have had fun hearing their stories and talking them through some of the struggles of growing up. So, I think I'm finally beginning to deal with my own identity struggle of feeling like an elementary teacher in a middle school world. I will always remember first grade fondly...I have to remind myself that there were real challenges there too...tiring ones;) But, for now, I'm embracing the middle school world, and I'm thankful for the opportunity for a new experience.

My sixth-graders have been sweet and encouraging about my pregnancy. Almost everyday I come home telling Keith something sweet or funny that one of them has told me. Pretty much everyday since I told them the news, someone has asked me if it's a boy or girl. They cannot seem to remember that I've told them 25 times already that I won't know until March. I guess it's not unlike telling them the difference in an adjective and adverb 125 times! Several of them have offered advice on a name for the baby, including plenty who have requested I name my child after them. A couple of the little girls have already touched my belly and talked to the baby. A few have asked me when I'm going to get fat. One little boy pointed out to the class that I was finally beginning to show on Friday, and when a couple of them didn't understand what he meant, he quickly explained that I was getting fat:) They've had fun asking me how big the baby is, and it's been neat explaining that even though the baby is teeny tiny, he or she already has a heart, brain, arms, legs, and even fingernails. They like to warn me of things I'll have to deal with when I become a parent like kids not wanting to eat vegetables and begging for their own cell phone. Some of the boys told me that if it's a boy, I have to buy him a cool game system, but not to worry about buying any games, because they'll let him borrow their games:) I'm glad I get to share this journey with such sweet kids, and I'm thankful to have a job that I enjoy!

itty bitty is growing!!

We had our 12 week appointment on Thursday to check-up and hear the heart beat, but when the doctor tried to hear the heart beat with the heart monitor, he couldn't find it. I got really nervous, but he was really sweet and said they like to hide when they're this little, so we'd just do an ultra sound instead. I was still pretty nervous, but Keith and the doctor were both very calm. I am so thankful for our doctor. He is calm, confident, friendly, and encouraging!!

We were excited to get to see him/her again, and when he found the baby and the heartbeat right away, I was very relieved and thankful. The heartbeat was 166 at 8 weeks and 160 this time! Keith says Itty Bitty just was just being sneaky and hiding from the doctor so that mama and daddy could see him/her again:)

Here's picture #2!!!! Our sweet baby has grown soooooo much in the four weeks since the last picture....from about a half inch to about 3 inches!!!! Wow!!! Very cool!! S/he is looking like a real baby!!! I never could see much in these ultra sound pics until now....it's funny how easy it is for me to see the tiny little head, body, and arms now that it's my baby...it was even more clear live on the screen. It's difficult to get a clear freeze-frame shot.

The doctor says everything looks great!! Our tiny blessing is growing and changing everyday.

Belly pic #2 at 9 weeks...this is the first day I thought I was beginning to look preggers....it may have just been the horizontal stripes;)
Belly pic #3 at 12 weeks....this is one of the only pairs of pants in my closet that would zip this week. I was thankful that I saved some clothes from before I lost weight a couple of years ago. Keith was sweet and got them down from the attic for me the other day. I was much more comfy in my big pants!!

I am thankful to have felt really well throughout the first 12 weeks. I've heard lots of stories about how sick some people are. I felt queasy for the first several weeks, but that has pretty much stopped now. I have some minor back pain, but nothing too painful. I have been really tired!! I've always been a sleepy head, but pregnancy has taken it to a new level:) When I read about all the things happening in my body and see how much that sweet baby has grown, it is easy to see why I've been tired!!

I haven't had too many crazy cravings. For a while I wanted baked potatoes a lot. Lately, I've been drinking lots of milk and eating way too much peanut butter. I've also been eating lots of apples and bananas...so much so that Keith has been singing me the pre-school song, "I like to eat, eat, eat apples and bananas!" He doesn't sing the whole thing and change the vowel sounds though:( I liked all of these things before I was pregnant but didn't love them. I rarely drank milk or ate peanut butter, and now I have them both at least twice a day...funny!

our sweet baby

On Monday, December 28, we got to have our first ultrasound!!! It was absolutely amazing to see our tiny miracle and hear his or her heart beat!!!! WOW!!! It made us so thankful for God who creates life. Our baby is just about an inch long and already has so many vital organs and body parts. It really was an incredible experience that we will never forget!

My sweet doctor confirmed what we thought was the due date. Right now Baby Clark is scheduled to arrive on August 9, 2010....8-9-10....wouldn't that be a FUN birthday:)

sharing the big news

We debated about how best to share the good news with our parents and sisters. Since it was so close to Christmas and we would see everyone soon, we decided to wait until we could tell them in real life! Keith didn't think I could wait three whole weeks, and I did almost slip when talking to my mom and sister a couple of times...but I did it, and I'm so glad:)

The logical thing was to reveal it with an early Christmas gift, but what should it be??? So many of the things we saw were pink or blue, or they had a specific grandparent name.

We were excited when we found the book, The Gifts of Being Grand for our parents. Their delayed reaction was cute...."Does this mean what we think it means?!!"

For the sisters, we got picture frames with a note inside for Aunt Misty and Aunt Laura to reserve this frame from their future niece or nephew, scheduled to arrive August 2010.

All six of them were thrilled about the new addition to our family!

Telling our families our news was special and telling our friends has been too! Thank you all for being excited for us!! Your sweet hugs, phone calls, emails, kind thoughts on here, and comments on facebook have all made this experience one that we will always treasure!! We are thankful to be able to raise our little one along side such precious family and friends:)

itty bitty

We got our very special news on Tuesday, December 1. After seeing only one line month after month, we were so happy!!! We hugged and cried tears of joy. We celebrated with a quiet evening at home putting up our Christmas tree. We ordered a pregnancy book online and decided to keep our news to ourselves until we could tell our parents in real life.

The next day, we took Belly Pic #1, and I could not stop smiling all day!! I IMed Keith and said, "I just cannot believe there is an itty bitty teeny weeny baby inside me!!!" From then on, Itty Bitty stuck as our fetus name:)
The following Friday night, we celebrated with dinner at Olive Garden and went to Target to browse the baby section and buy our first onesies (a sweet little gender-neutral set that says, i love mommy, i love daddy, and i love hugs)!
Our hearts are heavy for all of the people out there who want a baby so much, but are struggling with infertility. We started trying a year and a half ago, and it felt like a such a long time to wait. It was difficult to see other people get pregnant so easily, especially those who didn't even want a baby. But, we know that a year and a half is nothing compared to the time so many couples pray for a baby. May we remember to be sensitive to the struggles of others as we celebrate our miracle, and may we never tell a young couple that it's about time they have a baby without any knowledge of their situation or the desires of their hearts. I love these thoughts by Josh Ross. May they be a reminder to all of us.

a very merry christmas

In early December, I got to go to a conference in Gatlinburg, so Keith came with me, and we had a blast! Gatlinburg is a super fun place to visit, especially at Christmastime! Everything was beautifully lit up and decorated. We spent the evenings bundled up, walking around town, sipping hot chocolate, chatting, and shopping. It was fabulous:)
Then, we celebrated our sixth anniversary at Chaffin's Barn, a neat dinner theater in Nashville. It was a Christmas comedy set in small town Texas:) We loved it.
Then, we got to travel to Texas and spend Christmas with my family! Yippee! We had the best time relaxing, talking, eating, and playing games together! Then, to top it off, we got a gorgeous snow on Christmas Eve!!!! It was neat, because instead of snowing during the night and melting the next day, it snowed all day, and stuck around for a couple of days, so we had a white Christmas and loved it!!
But, the best, most wonderfully amazing thing about Christmas was.............we got a positive pregnancy test!!!!! We could not be more excited and thankful!!! Our hearts are full!! We are in constant prayer for our itty bitty miracle, and we love him or her soooo very much already!!!!!