Once upon a time...I had a Baby Shower.

So with all the craziness that comes along with having a baby I completely forgot to blog about my baby showers.  Sadly, I only have pictures from one with my family, but I had one with my friends, at work, and Shem had a shower for the baby at his work too.  We truly felt so blessed and Asher got a lot of clothes, a swing, books, stuffed animals and money. 

 We made Asher a picture scrapbook of all of his family too look at while "baby showering" at my MIL's house. (4/16/2011

Normally I'm quite perfectionistic when it comes to photos, but sometimes you just have to document the event and not worry about composition, color, exposure, or anything else.

Progress! I think he's going to come early. :)

I had a doctors appointment this morning.  Just as a side note 9:45 am is sooo early for an appointment when you're on spring break.  I should have known better, but when I made it I was still waking up at 5:30am for work.

I wasn't excited for this appointment this morning because I was anticipating seeing the Japanese midwife who last time told me I was "fat", and I just felt like I didn't connect with her.  I also knew she'd have something to say about my weight and I never look forward to that part of these visits.  Next week I plan to jump off the scale before it fully registers my true weight...it's off anyway compared to my scale at home since I'm fully clothed at the doctors office. :)

Anyway, so I was happy when a different midwife walked in and I asked her a couple of questions then she got to checking me out and taking the baby's heart beat.  His little heart is beating at 153 bpm and his bum is right up in my ribs (hence the lovely rib pain I have all over now).  He's in the anterior position too, which is good.  I don't think he'll move either since the little squirt doesn't have any place to go in my not-so-big-torso. :)  She also thinks he could weigh 7-7.5 lbs!!!  That's so big!  I wonder how good she is at guessing these things?  I'm hoping she's off, but regardless he needs to come out and I feel very confident that my body will cooperate...it knows what it needs to do and I wasn't given these hips for nothing! :)

She also checked me out and to my delight, and excitement, I'm effaced 60% and dilated to 1.5cm!  My due date is still 4 weeks away!  I'm thinking that he will come early, but like the midwife said he could come a day early or a week early...we just don't know.  Lately I have been feeling different pains in my lower pelvic area and it makes sense since she said my cervix is really squishy compared to most women.  He's going to slip right out in my mind!  I'm practicing visualizing how my body and baby are going to work together to get him out quickly and efficiently.  I'm feeling really excited and confident about the whole birthing process...everything is going to go as well as it possibly could when things get rolling.

In other news, Shem has been working in the yard and making a huge muddy mess. I've decided that my floor is going to be muddy for a while and have been a trooper since I haven't complained about it either.  I only got a little upset when he put his muddy ax and oil bottle on my J.CREW bag and my leather purse.  They weren't even on the floor and he still thought that was the best place for them...oh well...at least he is still mindful of my patience.  Sometimes I wonder about what kinds of gooey treasures I'm going to find when Asher gets older considering the likelihood of him being a bit ADD. :)

Moving on.  Here are some pictures of my yard in its current state.  Enjoy.

 Oh, this is one of me about 4 weeks ago.  I was playing with the new lens.

 View from the patio looking south.  This is where the shed is going to go.  The doors will open up facing the house.

 The higher and drier ground.

The pond.  We hope to make it go away forever.  We detest the pond.

Quitter

Shem is a quitter....and I love that he is!  We were both having a stressful week, my first in a long time, and Shem...well, he pretty much always has a stressful and busy week, but everything changed on Thursday when Shem came to talk to me.  I was just waking up from a nap (I've been utterly exhausted this week!) and he jumped into bed beside me and asked me what I thought about him quitting National Boards.  About 15 seconds into the conversation he said that he thought we'd only loose $600 of the $2,500 we had already paid and at that moment I instantly felt happy.  He felt happy too even before we made our final decision.  A couple hundred of bucks down the drain in exchange for having a husband again is so worth it to me!

National Board Certification is not cake walk.  It's so time consuming and complicated and it really takes a lot of patience to think about your teaching and then re-think what you're doing and then change what you're doing so that you can submit a video segment and a paper that represent how you were able to "have a learning discussion" in class.  It's intense and it has been recommended that anyone doing this certification shouldn't be involved in anything else.  This was not the case with Shem.  At the beginning of the year he was: working with scouts at church which took up Tuesday evenings, the secretary and treasurer of our HOA board, going to some physics class on Thursday nights at the U of W, managing 2 or 3 clubs at school, teaching 4 IB/AP physics classes and 1 regular class, and we found out we were having a baby so, since I was sick a lot, he helped around the house too.  He quit a few things, but it just wasn't enough, so he quit National Boards. :)

Now I have a happy Shem and he's more excited than ever to have a baby because he can actually focus on having a baby.  He's planning on building our shed over spring break and then we can work on the baby's room and get things more organized around our house.  I can't tell you how awesome it is to not have to do everything around the house anymore and put up with a stressed out and crabby Shemmy...he's my dream dude now since I've just convinced him that Chipotle is the best option for dinner tonight. :)  Last weekend he snapped at me when I wanted to go out and eat, but only because the stress monster had taken over his normally sweet and kind demeanour.  He works so hard for our family and I love him so much for that.

Hooray for husbands that work hard, but hip hip hooray for husbands who know when to quit!  I'm ready to be spoiled now with all of those good pregnancy things husbands do for their wives...a massage sounds excellent right about now. :)

New Lens!

I'm not the best at keeping up with my photography blog, but go show me some love over there and I'll love you forever. :)  Seriously I will.  Things are going to move forward in some big ways over there after this baby is born beginning this summer, and I'm excited about the possibilities!

Here is a peak at what my new 24-70mm f/2.8 of amazingness has done for me.  It was raining at the blueberry farm, so we stayed on the porch to take some pictures.

I'm so excited about this lens that it makes me wanna dance!

And I guess I'll stick my tongue out because, well, it makes me happy too!

Oh the wonderment, the awe, the beauty!  Hey, what is she looking at?  Oh, it must be that beautiful new (and pricey) lens.  It's like owning a Coach purse it's so amazing. :)

Shem turned 30 today!

Shem and his twin, Quinae, both turned 30 today.  They are the youngest and that means that everyone on Shem's side of the family are in their thirties...except me. :)  Weird thoughts.

I'm not sure how he feels about being 30, but I don't think he's had time to let it sink in with how busy he has been lately.  He is a man that works so hard and is almost always focused on a project for work.  This past week (our week off) he has accomplished the following:

• Balanced finances for HOA (which was a nightmare since they were so off and many things didn't make any sense at all).
• Folded laundry
• He has done the dishes almost every night this week except for maybe two nights
• He wrote some papers for his National Boards (which need to be done by March if I remember correctly).
• Balanced our finances for January and started February.
• Worked on some church calling stuff and went to Scouts on Tuesday night.
• Made dinner almost every night which included two or three new recipes one of which was this amazing veggie wrap.
• He did the Costco and Winco shopping
• I'm sure he has done some lesson planning for whatever unit he is teaching at work
• He bought and learned to play a new board game: Small World (I like it a lot too.  It's a good game).  Oh, and buying it meant driving up to Lynnwood to get it.
• He talked on the phone with me for a good 30 minutes on Monday night when I was visiting my brother in Portland.  He missed me. :)
• On Wednesday and Thursday he took extra special care of me as I stayed in bed most of those days.  I pulled my groin/ligaments (don't ask me how, because I have no idea what I did.  I was probably getting in or out of my car or just sweeping/mopping my house...dumb, but whatever.  I've never been in so much pain in my life.  I've cried a couple of times because it's so painful to walk.) 
• heating my rice pack
• bringing me food to eat (that he cooked)
• running to the store for me
• going to the doctors with me on Friday
• helping me up the stairs
• he's done so much for me this week
• We also had some guys over working on our leak, and he took time to talk to them (not like he had a choice...the guy is just so talkative!)
• He cleaned up the house for his game night party on Friday.  Sad, I know that I decided to throw him a party and he had to do all of the prep work.  But it was worth it!  We had so much fun and I can't wait to have more parties here!
• On Saturday he continued to take care of me and mostly played with his Buckyballs from Corom all day long.  Literally all day long.
• Wednesday we went out as well to the game store to play Small World.  That was the day that I couldn't walk out of the store and I cried because I was in so much pain.

I know that I don't have to convince anyone of how amazing my Shem is, but he truly is!  He works so hard and is so willing to do so many different kinds of work.  He is a great blessing and a help to me and to many other people that he works with.  I hope they all know how special he is because he is one amazing guy.

Speaking of amazing, he's decided to kind of grow a beard until he is finished with National Boards.  I've always loved his facial hair and I especially love it when he has a nice layer of scruff on his face.  To be frank, it makes him look sexy...like front of GQ magazine sexy if he were to pose like a model sexy.  I'll be sure to snap a shot of him in his glory when I get my new lens. :)

So, how was your Valentine's Day?

I must say that Valentine's Day is one of my favorite holidays despite the fact that I really have no need to make a big deal out of it.  My students, as predicted, on a Monday were "totally off their rockers", so we wrote cheesy Valentine's with pick-up lines in Spanish.  Some examples are:  Me haces sudar = you make me sweat, De todos los peces en el mar, eres mi favorito = of all the fish in the sea, you are my favorite, and Eres mi mundo = you are my world.

Yeah, we had fun.  One of my classes decided to pay for not one, but two Sing-a-grams for me.  It was pretty much the most embarrassing moment of my teaching career, but I honestly loved it!  I was in tears...literally from laughing so much.

Later in the day Shem and I ate left-over fish tacos from Sunday...Yum.  And then he took me out to get some ice cream.  He's so sweet to me.  Today he emailed me to tell me that his favorite time of day is when he gets to eat his celery with peanut butter and then he said he loved me. :)  He NEVER emails me during work!  In fact he doesn't check his email that often and if you know him you know that he doesn't.  So, it means a lot to me when he takes a second to email me.

I feel like I still owe Shem a good Valentine, so one is in the works.  It should be pretty cool...I hope.

Here is a little video of me in my class.

Enjoy!

Here is a link to the second video.  I can't seem to upload it the way I want to.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xaznd1sdRcI&feature=email

Take note of the look of horror on my face in the second one.  One of my student's asked me how I felt afterward and I said something like: "Completely violated."  They loved  the fact that I felt that way. :)

The Lover's Day.

I'm excited for Valentine's Day.  Seeing a bunch of hormonal high school kids running around and planning what they are going to do for their boyfriends and girlfriends is always a lot of fun.  I make my kids write Valentine's cards in Spanish and sometimes I even get one from them.  Shem and I will probably just stay home and cook some dinner.  I really have no need to go all out for a seemingly national romantic holiday...my Mr. Thompson knows that I love him everyday. :) 

Shem already bought me some beautiful Gerber Daisies and I think they are just perfect.  I took some pictures of them today while the sun was shinning, so I'll post one.  I don't know what it is about getting flowers, but it always makes me feel feminine and loved.  To have my man go out and pick out something pretty for me is always a lot of fun for me.  Maybe my kids will pick out flowers for me someday when they are older?  That would be awesome!  I'm sure if Shem is training our boys to be kind and sweet like him they will think all sorts of crazy thoughtful things to do for me...or not if they are ADD and just plain forget. :)

Back to reality.  My weight gaining drama.  I have gained a lot of weight these past two months and I've been instructed to slow it down or it could cause some problems for baby and I.  It's hard to imagine how I've gained 17 lbs in just 2 months, but I have.  I eat a lot of salad and fruits and hardly any junk, but whatever.  Friday night I gained a pound in my sleep...that was depressing.  Last night I lost 6/10 of a pound, so that made me feel better.

Running was good last Wednesday except for the cramps in my calves.  I bought a new kind of Magnesium and some Emergen-C to help with the leg cramps, so hopefully that will help.  Tomorrow I plan to tackle Mr. Tready if it's raining with some weights and we'll see how I feel.  If things so bad I'll just do some yoga. :)