Why you need baby wipes in the rainforest...

Today was our big day for a field trip. We were scheduled to take 78 first graders to a place in Kansas City. It rained last night and they called this morning to cancel on us. How do you tell first graders for the 2nd time in a year that their field trip is cancelled? (Pumpkin patch was rained out and the Walmart field trip wasn't much.) Anyway, to make a long story short, we decided to take the kids to the zoo.

We were in the rainforest and I told my kids before we entered that I didn't want to hear one word about the smell. They did great on that. However, we were looking at the otters and one of my little girls came up to me and said, "Mrs. Koller, I think a bird dooceed on my head." (Forgive me for not knowing how to spell dooceed.) Sure enough, a bird had pooped all over her head. Thank goodness she had her sweatshirt hood up. Luckily, I had grabbed a package of baby wipes to take with us...just in case they were needed.

So, the moral behind the story is that even in a rainforest, you should have baby wipes along.

13 Days to Go...

until we find out if we're having a boy or a girl. I couldn't talk them into doing a sonogram yesterday, so the doctor said we could do it in two weeks or wait until our next appointment. Of course I chose a two week appointment. Once I do know, I will want to go on a shopping spree or two. I really want to know if I should be buying camo or camo with lace. I have bought a couple outfits and have made sure it was okay to return if we need to. I couldn't pass up good deals. I found Caterpillar onesies at Vanderbilts for $5. So I bought a pink one and an orange one. I also bought the most adorable deer outifit for our baby this winter. I figured it would make a nice jeeping outfit. I was telling my aunt this, and she just looked at me. Then I realized that she had already bought the same outfit. Ooops, at least they're different sizes. She told me I'm not allowed to buy anything else. :(

I had my final evaluation for the year at school. Good news, I still have a job next year teaching first grade! On a side note about school, I do not think first graders should have to take assessments. I mean, seriously, you can't judge how much they know by what they mark down on paper. They're first graders after all. They still make their letters backwards half of the time. And, for those poor kiddos who can't read very well, they don't have much hope on a test that they have to read passages and read the questions they have to answer. We have practiced, and practiced, and practiced for these tests. Today I gave another practice assessment and I wanted to scream. The highest kids in my reading group bombed most of the questions. Oh well, it's not the end of the world. Only like 30 days left until summer!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Walmart Kid

So, I was in Walmart today (which I was not excited about). I was walking down an aisle and there were two women and a bunch of kids with them. There was a little boy about 3 and a girl about 5. The little girl asked her mom if she could have some gum. Mom said no. Then the girl proceeded to tell her mom that her brother had some, and she wanted some also. The little boy looked at his mom and said, "What, I found it on the water fountain."

You do not know how hard I had to contain myself from bursting out laughing. Surprisingly, the mom didn't get as mad as I would have. Can I say, "GROSSS!!!!"

Spring Break is almost over :(

I came to the realization today that Spring Break is almost over, and it's so disappointing. I really have enjoyed not having to work this week, and it just makes me wish it were summer already. It's going to be hard looking forward to going to work these last 40 something days we have left. Anyway, enough about work, I don't want to talk about it now.

I went to the dentist to get fillings (the first ones in my life) on Tuesday. Since they were the first ones I've ever had, I had no clue how much it would cost. My insurance pays half, but my bill was still $627!!!!!!!!!! Good thing we got our taxes figured that night and we'll be getting some money back. I was planning on taking the dogs to the vet over break, but the dentist bill made me think otherwise.

I have been able to get quite a bit of cleaning done this week. We are having our supper club over on April 4, so I wanted to get a head start. I started dusting, but then I figured out I would probably have to do it again before everyone comes over...so I'll just wait. Anyway, the dust and I are getting along fine right now :). (Now, my house doesn't get that dusty, so don't think we're living with giant dust bunnies or anything.)

Alan has been wanting to get busy with his latest jeep project, but the company he ordered some of his parts from is being super slow. We finally got one package of parts from UPS yesterday, but the others haven't showed up. You would think they would send the packages all together...it makes sense to me. One trip to a house instead of 2, maybe that's why the economy is in the hole...companies aren't thinking ahead about expenses.

Quick Update

So, it's bed time and I really am tired. However, I remembered I never posted again after our 2nd baby appointment. I think we were there a whole 15 minutes from the time we walked in until we left. The results...I've gained a pound in the last month and we heard the baby's heartbeat. I really thought I had gained more than that, but that's fine by me. It just seems like it with the pants getting snug.

I got a lot of cleaning done yesterday, as I had a lot of energy that I've been missing. I thought I should make the best of it. I have an inservice tomorrow, then school for the rest of the week. Then it's SPRING BREAK!!!!!! I am looking forward to getting my students' scrapbooks started so I can gradually do the last of them toward the end of the school year. I've been waiting for 4 weeks now for paper to go on sale at Hobby Lobby. I thought for sure it would be on sale this week, as it usually runs on a 3-4 week rotation. I guess I will wait until next week. I checked Michael's and Jo-Ann's, but they didn't have anything in their sales ads this week either. And, none of the stores have their usual 40% off coupon. What a bummer. I bought one package of paper last week with a coupon, so I can at least get started. The good news is that Walgreens has their pictures on sale for 10 cents, so I ordered about 350!

Well that's enough rambling about nothing you care about. Sorry.

Enjoy the beautiful Spring weather that is arriving!

Catching Up on Life

Well, it's been awhile since I've posted anything, so I thought I'd better let everyone know what's happening in our lives. (And I'm trying the whole avoidance process because I should be figuring out the rest of my lesson plans for the week.)

First of all, we went from having 5 vehicles to 3. We sold the jeep Alan had when we met, he proposed, and we drove away in from the wedding. He's working on another jeep, so he needed parts money... and we really didn't need three jeeps sitting around. We also sold my Taurus I'd had since high school. I got a Pontiac G6, which was quite the upgrade from the Taurus. I LOVE the heated seats...and to think I didn't even want leather!

I have found that I have been feeling a little better within the last week or so. I'm still tired all of the time, but at least I don't wake up feeling yucky every morning. I am also finding that my pants are not quite fitting, and I'm trying to get as much use out of them as possible before wearing my maternity clothes. I wore maternity pants for the first time last Friday night to my uncle's wedding, but that's not because my others were too small. I just didn't have any other clean pants that I could wear to a wedding. We have our second appointment this Thursday, so hopefully I will have more news to share after the appointment. I will be 14 weeks on Tuesday.

My grandma is having one of her knees replaced tomorrow morning at 8:00. It was supposed to be on Tuesday, but they had a cancellation and were able to get her in earlier. She is joining the "new parts club." I pray that everything will go well for her.

I counted the days of school left in the year, and it's a scary 49 1/2 for the kids! I don't know where the year has went. We have 2 weeks until Spring break...which I can't wait for. Tomorrow we are having a pajama day to celebrate Dr. Seuss' birthday. We are making green eggs and ham and watching Horton Hears a Who.

Oh, if anyone is interested, come to McDonald's on 21st and Belle Tuesday evening. We are having McTeacher night...and yes, I will be working part of the night. It'll be my first time in food service, scary.

I can finally post

As you've noticed, it's been awhile since I've last posted. Nothing has seemed exciting...except the one thing I couldn't tell. Well, I have officially told the people at work and my class, so now I can post. I'm PREGNANT!!! I was afraid the rumor would get out if anyone else at work found out, so I asked everyone to keep tight lips on Facebook. Our families and church family have known for about 2 weeks, so I was impressed that they were able to keep it a secret, too.

Anyway, I told my principal yesterday. She seemed excited, but I would love to know her true feelings, especially since my due date is about 2 weeks after school starts in August. Perfect timing, huh? I made a sign and hung it up in the lounge to let all of the other teachers know. The first grade team has known for a couple of weeks. I had one of the other teachers trace my silouhette on black butcher paper (thanks Heather!) and I glued it to blue paper. Then I cut out the letters for the sign (I so should have just written with glue and glittered it) that said "Twinkle, twinkle little star. How I wonder what you are. We hoped and prayed it would happen someday. Oh, I'm pregnant by the way!" Most of the teachers were pretty quick to catch on with who it was. Don't drink the water in the first grade hallway (that's 2/5 that are pregnant, and the third in the school).

I had to wait until after lunch to tell my class because I was being observed this morning and there wasn't time. I made cookies and decorated them to look kind of like pacifiers. I told the kids that I had a mystery for them to solve. I told them that their cookies were the first clue and they had to leave them alone once I put them on their desks. I asked them if they had any guesses what the cookies might be. Some of the answers they gave me were, "A smiley face, a pig's nose, and a door knocker." I then told them to pick up the cookies and put them by their mouths and to look at their neighbors. I told them it was something you put in your mouth. Finally one girl said it looked like a binky. I asked them why they thought I would give them a pacifier. They said because I think they are babies. I told them that the pacifiers were for me, and asked why I might need a pacifier. They said because I'm a teacher and because I am a baby. Then one kid (of all kids, this shocked me, the kid who rarely pays attention and was horrible during my observation) said "YOU'RE HAVING A BABY!" I was shocked that he got it, and I told them yes I was having a baby. Then all of the questions and chatter started, and my lessons after that were pretty much nonexistent.

This is kind of long, but hey, it's been awhile!

We told our parents a couple of weeks ago when Alan's parents came up for the weekend. Now keep in mind that we have known since December 28. We kept trying to get them to come up, but things kept coming up. We invited my parents over for lunch also, and for dessert I got a Dairy Queen ice cream cake out of the freezer. I had made a little paper carseat for one of Alan's toy jeeps and had put it on the cake. The cake said "Baby on Board!" I set it down in front of our parents, and stood there waiting for their reactions. Then I stood there some more, and some more and finally Alan's mom figured it out and said, "Really?" They were all excited, and I think totally shocked. They hadn't expected this (we did a good job of hiding the fact that we were trying to get pregnant). We spent the rest of the weekend telling our families and friends at church.

We had our first appointment last Friday (that's why I waited so long to tell people at work). When they tried to find the heartbeat, they couldn't. So they sent us in for a sonogram. There was our baby kicking and punching and you could see the heart beating. We told the doctor and nurses to keep an eye out for there being more than one in there (twins run in my family). So far, only one, unless they are playing hide-and-go-seek.

Wow this is really long. Thanks for reading it all. I'll keep you updated.