Elementary Schools are Dirty Little Places

Yuck. 
I had no idea how many diseases go on in elementary schools. 
I had no idea how easily these disgusting illnesses travel.

I cannot tell you how many instances of LICE we've had this year.  All in one day, we sent home 25 kids and 3 teachers and cancelled the school dance for that evening due to a lice outbreak.  On Friday, 2nd grade was infested again.

In 1st grade on Friday, 11 kids got sent home for having SCABIES.  Do you know what that is?  They are mites, that bore under your skin, lay eggs, and hatch more baby bugs that live underneath your skin.  After the 11th child got sent home, I excused myself for the day and also went home.  I didn't ask; I just left.  That's one of the pros of a) not having a classroom, b) being pregnant.

NASTY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And highly contagious....

Going for a stroll...

I assembled the stroller and car seat:

I put it by the front door, to keep it out of the way for now.  DAILY, Ryan goes over and walks the stroller around our living room a few times.  IT IS SO CUTE AND ENDEARING <3

Easter

Ryan and I went to church on Easter.  It was then that we realized the last time we went to church, it was Easter.  Last year, Ryan's co-worker Matt invited us to his church.  It was a non-denominational church, housed in the Cherokee County Services building in Canton.  This Easter Ryan's coworker, Jason, invited us to his church.  He plays the guitar in the band and sings.  This was also a non-denominational church, but permanently housed in an old cotton mill.

We took this picture afterward:

As you can see, I AM BIG.  And now, I am very uncomfortable.  Everything hurts.  It hurts to walk, to breathe, to sit still, to get off the couch, to get out of bed, to do anything.  This has been going on for about 3 days now, and I am not looking forward to 5.5 more weeks of this.  My last day of school will be Wednesday, May 2nd.  This will give me an exact 4 weeks off of maternity leave.  My due date is Wednesday, May 16th.

We are still not 100% ready for baby to come, but we are getting closer each day.  We had the carpets cleaned, and the upholstered couch, too.  My new favorite places to shop are consignment stores.  Onesies for $1!!!  A brand new bumbo with tray for $30!  One mom's trash is this soon-to-be mom's treasure!

Should you be touching me?

Most people have been very respectful of not touching my belly.  Some people ask for permission, and I look at them with puppy dog eyes and say "I don't really like that..."  and they promptly retract their hand before it makes contact with my stomach.

One person who does NOT ask permission is the dry-cleaner.  Once a week I take in Ryan's dirty work shirts and pick up his clean ones, and for the past 3 weeks, this woman has leaned her entire upper half of her body into my car in order to rub on my belly.  She asks the same thing each week while rubbing it, "How is baby?"  

"He's good," I say. 

"Next week?" she inquires about his due date.

"No, no, no, 6 more weeks."

She finally gets her upper torso out of my car and I start to drive away.  And then she asks the final question, "Boy?"

"Yeah" I say out the window as I'm already 5 feet away.

This encounter has happened 3 weeks in a row.  Same exact scenario.  I thought the allure of rubbing my belly would wear off but apparently the woman has no recollection of me.  Short of making Ryan do the dry cleaning from now on, I think I will be experiencing deja vu for the next 6 weeks.

Getting ready for baby

SNAKES!

Is there such thing as snake season?  Yesterday when Ryan and I were out in our back yard, I saw a snake about 2.5 feet long.  This is the second snake I have seen in this neighborhood in the past 10 days.  I do NOT like it!  I'm scared to go outside of my own house now!  Today I was taking out the trash and a little gecko slithered out of no where and scared the bejeezers out of me.  I'm a prisoner in my own home...

UNCLE MICHAEL came to visit unexpectedly.  I suppose I will not be caught off guard in the future...this is the second year in a row that he has come down to go to the Master's in Augusta.  Only this time he gave us 2 days notice.  While he was here we got a package in the mail from him and Kelly.  They sent us a baby swing!  I wanted to assemble it while he was here so he could see how much I appreciate it, and how cool it is.  Here is the finished product:

Another thing I have been busy working on, is trying things I find on PINTEREST.  We had a potluck at school the other day, and I made fruit shish-kabobs; a slice of kiwi in the center, a blackberry on each side of that, a raspberry on each end of those, and then a strawberry on the each end of the skewer.  It was a lot more work than just making fruit salad and throwing everything in a bowl, but well worth the time since they were fun to eat!

At my Lia Sophia party a couple weeks ago, I tried an appetizer recipe i found on Pinterest.  The website said to make mini french dips, buy a can of croissants, roll them up with roast beef and cheese, bake them in the oven, and then have us jus sauce to dip.  I tweaked it slightly and rolled up salami and provolone instead.  Delish!

My latest creation resulted from my Lia Sophia party.  I earned a ton of free jewelry and have been looking for a way to organize the jewelry I already have, for years.  I've tried jewelry boxes, necklace hangers, fishing lure boxes, etc.  I wasn't satisfied with any of it.  On Pinterest I found something to try... I went to Walmart and bought a bulletin board, some push pins, and some fabric.  I simply wrapped the fabric around the entire bulletin board, and used a staple gun to secure the fabric on the back.  Then I put a bunch of push pins in, hung my jewelry from it, and viola:

Breast feeding

Ryan and I attended "Breast Feeding Couples" on Saturday morning. 

When you walked in, you needed to sign in and grab a baby.  I, of course, being the champion of equal rights that I am, grabbed the black baby doll out of the entire pile of white babies. 

I thought my husband was going to have a heart attack.  "Courtney!  You can't take that doll!"  "YES, I can!"  "No you can't.  Are you serious right how?  What if a black couple comes in and they want the black baby?" 

Being that I do not have to explain myself or defend my actions, I promptly  turned around with the black baby and chose our seats.  It was SO funny how upset Ryan was =)  He really needs to loosen up a little....

Things we learned in the class:

1. The husband is in charge of waste management.
2. When needing to remove the child from the breast, you must stick your finger in his mouth and fish hook him off.
3. The cradle hold, the cross-cradle hold, and the football hold.
4. Babies don't cry - they sing!  And only healthy babies are able to sing, so you should be grateful each time your baby sings!

At the end of class, the instructor made the husbands demonstrate the various breast feeding techniques.  Here is Ryan practicing both the cradle hold and cross-cradle hold at the same time.  He's so cute! =)