Pregnancy Highlights

Hey friends! I never mean to take such long blogging breaks, but that's what teaching kindergarten and being pregnant will do to ya! But I hear some of you still read this thing (Kinsey, I'm looking at you!) so I thought I'd stop by with a pregnancy update.

How Far Along: 23 Weeks today!
Size of baby: More than 11 inches, and over 1 pound! He is the size of a mango!
Maternity Clothes: Yes! My pants DO NOT fit anymore, ha!
Gender: Boy! Turner Keith Clements

 

Movement: This is my most favorite part. I feel him all the time now! I feel him the most when I'm sitting down, usually in the evening. Tonight, I swear I saw my stomach move a little.  Bryan has been able to feel him a few times too, which is SO fun!
Sleep: I'm sleeping very well. Just this past weekend I'm pretty sure I got 12 hours of sleep each night!

Symptoms: Lots of heartburn, so Turner may have a head full of hair! Other than that just tired.
Cravings: Not a whole lot. Chocolate shakes is the only thing I can think of.
Best Moment this week: Registering for our showers and taking a tour of the hospital. Things are starting to feel real!
What I am looking forward to: Starting to get his room ready. We've already ordered the glider, I ordered a few things from Pottery Barn Kids today, and furniture is next. Now I just have to decide on bedding!

 

 

 

 

Summatime

Since the last time you heard from me I've completed another year of teaching Kindergarten, turned 27, celebrated 5 years of marriage, and spent a few days in Mexico. This summer has been a busy one, so I've been enjoying the weeks that I have downtime. And by enjoying, I mean doing absolutely NOTHING. And it's wonderful.

Making : banana bread 
Cooking : corn succotash (my favorite summer side! inspired by The Cheesecake Factory)
Drinking : lots and lots of ice water in my mason jar tumblers
Reading: The One and Only by Emily Giffin on my new kindle!
Wanting: a pool in my backyard
Looking: tan from my days spent by the pool in Mexico
Playing: Sorry and Old Maid with The Rodgers fam!
Wasting: time (always)
Wishing: it wasn't already the end of June!
Enjoying: the asiago cheese bagel from Panera, we may have bought 1/2 dozen for breakfast at the house
Waiting: impatiently for July 4th to see my fam
Liking: being able to reach my daily Matt Lauer quota with The Today Show every morning
Wondering: if I’ll ever be able to turn my school brain back on
Loving: my lunch dates with Bryan
Hoping: that this summer will stay mild, and not be too brutal
Needing: to be better at cleaning my house
Smelling: burgers on the grill, the smell of summer!
Wearing: my new diamond earrings my sweet husband surprised me with for our 5 year anniversary!
Noticing: how bored I am at home all summer without sweet Kelty boy ;(
Knowing: my Mimi may be the only person that still reads this blog. Love you Mimi!!
Thinking: about fun things to do when my nieces come stay with me for a week at the end of July!
Feeling: pretty darn lazy
Opening: junk mail. We get so much junk mail

Be back soon with more summer updates!

Our Sweet Kelty Boy

It's with a very heavy heart that I write this. We lost our first baby yesterday, May 2nd 2014. Bryan and I got home from work around the same time, and our garage door has been messing up. It wouldn't close and Bryan was trying to fix it. Kelty was in the garage with him and he spotted someone across the street. The friendly dog that he is, he ran to say hi. Bryan yelled for him to stop but he didn't listen. And just as he got to the street a car was passing. The sweet guy tried to stop but it was too late. Kelty ran up to the front door so we thought he was fine, until we looked at his stomach. It was blood red, you could tell he was bleeding from the inside.

Thankfully our vet is only 2 blocks away so we made the short drive. They started him on an IV to help with the shock. He was so brave! Didn't make a sound, and I know he was in so much pain. They took him back for x-rays and said they would call when they knew more. The phone call from the vet brought bad news.  His diaphragm was ruptured and all his organs were up by his heart, not where they were supposed to be. Sweet boy had a tire mark that went across his back so we knew the results would not be good. Through tears we made the tough call to put him down. I cannot say enough great things about our vet. They were so helpful and very compassionate. They gave us some time with him. We talked to him, took off his collar, and told him how much he was loved. We told him he could go find Heidi (Bryan's childhood dog that died a few months ago). We told him he was our baby and we were sad he wouldn't get to meet our future kids. They gave him a tranquilizer that put him to sleep and we stepped out of the room. Our sweet vet assured us that he would in fact be euthanized. Thanks to crazy people, and a story that was recently in the news, it makes me sad that he had to assure us. As soon as we were both in the car we lost it. It was crazy. How could this have happened. The day started out normal and all within a few hours our beloved dog was now dead. It was a crazy turn of events.

The worst part was the neighbor that had hit him came back by to check on Kelty and we had to tell him the news. Him and his wife cried with us as we told them he didn't make it. They felt so bad, and I kept apologizing saying it was not his fault. It was really our fault. He shouldn't have been in the street. I apologized for ruining their night, and they apologized so many times. In the midst of sadness I am thankful that there is still good, caring people in the world.

Today has been very rough. Little things have set us off all day. Neither one of us slept well, fighting with the what if's and if we made the right decision. We will not be the same. The evidence of our sweet pup is in every room in the house. From the gobs of white hair on our dark wood floors, the multitude of toys strewn across the floor, to the water bowls on the back porch. He is here. As we picked up all his stuff we are missing everything about him today. His snuggles, following Bryan around the house, being right by our side as we ate hoping for a tiny morsel. Even the things that used to annoy us. There was no one to bark when the planes flew above our backyard, or when the mail main brought the mail. The hardest part is that when we returned home from being out, there was no happy face and wagging tail to greet us. Our house feels quite empty. He was a great dog and for the 5 years we were his parents, we loved him well. He slept with us, traveled with us, and we couldn't imagine life without him. As we face it now, it's tough. He really was a special member of our little family and will be missed.

Kelty loved water, walks, peanut butter, playing with his cousin dogs, being Bryan's shadow, being the man of the house when Bryan was gone, and loving unconditionally. We love you so much sweet boy and know that you will never be replaced in our hearts. We just know that God is in the good days and the bad days. He uses both to accomplish his will. We just pray for grace and plead for God to comfort our broken hearts. We appreciate all the sweet words, calls, and texts to check on us today. They mean more than you know and we are thankful to have people to walk through this sad time with us. His picture still sits in the frame with the words "Best Dog Ever" written on it and now his collar lays on top. Night, night Kelty boy, we love you soo much!

Manic Monday

Hey friends! Thanks for hanging around, even though I only blog every few months, ha!  I just skipped right over October and now it's November. How on earth did that happen? School is EXHAUSTING with a capital E! I have 23 littles and they sure keep me busy, busy. But I still absolutely love kindergarten. It is by far the very best age. So when I'm not running around getting ready for school I've been getting our little casa ready for Christmas. Here is a tiny glimpse into our lives lately...

I might have already put our tree up...but I have a very good excuse. We are having Christmas with Bryan's family at our house this year on December 15. So I told myself it was ok to get ready for it early. :) I love how my tree turned out! After a few years of collecting ornaments, I bought some ribbon in Canton to make a tree topper and I now feel my tree is complete! YAY!

We also got a fire pit for the backyard and had a little marshmallow roasting date!

And my studly husband put the lights up! Our house is so high and I was a little worried, but he did it! (With the help from his brother, thanks Nathan!)

And speaking of my handsome hubby, he's been traveling a bunch lately and as you can see someone has missed his dad! I love these boys. 

Now it's time to count down the days until we get out for Thanksgiving break. It's 4 to be exact! Thanks for reading!

Aggie Tailgating

We spent this last Saturday in College Station for the A&M vs. Alabama game. We wanted to go, because last year we went to the game in Alabama. It was such a fun experience, so we wanted to make sure to be at the game this year too. We didn't actually have tickets, so we called up some of our friends and planned to tailgate!

Throwback! Here we are last year in Tuscaloosa. We went with our friends Eli and Laura.

ESPN's College Gameday was in College Station this weekend, which was another reason we wanted to go. We got up at 3 AM {crazy, I know} and made the drive. We got there pretty early, unloaded our stuff to where we were going to tailgate then headed to game day!

I found Kirk Herbstreit!

My friend Traci, who we tailgated with actually got to touch the REAL Kirk Herbstreit, and I was super jealous!

I felt a tad old, being around all the college students. Even though it wasn't THAT long ago that I graduated from college, right? It was fun to see the whole production behind the show, and read all the funny signs.

I also got to see Samantha (Steele) Ponder who is one of the sideline reporters. I saw her in a golf cart going from the stadium back over to the stage for game day. She is super cute, and married to the Viking's QB Christian Ponder. I just know we would be friends if we knew each other in real life, ha!

Then we headed back to our tailgate to eat! We cooked some burgers, and hung out while making lots of new (Bama) friends! Barrett (Eli and Laura's son) was such a trooper! He is such a laid back baby, and we loved getting to spend the whole day with him. He took a few naps right outside in the chairs!

Funny story: Laura was actually pregnant with him at last years game. They just hadn't told anyone yet. So this was Barrett's 2nd game!

College Game Day bus, The Moore Family, Barrett in his A&M gear, me and Kirk!

Our other friends Chris and Traci, came up from Houston to tailgate with us too! It was SO much fun to spend the day with some of our best friends. We miss them all so much since we've moved so it was great to hang out. And I know Bryan loved getting to watch the game with his buddies.

We ended up watching the game inside (air conditioning PLEASE) the student center. We didn't even miss not being in the actual stadium because the atmosphere around was so much fun. Even though we didn't win, Bama's fans are so gracious that I don't mind losing to them at all!

{Made this wreath last weekend to make sure the whole neighborhood knew who we were rooting for!}

The guys are already planning our next tailgating adventure (complete with generators, TV's, etc), and we are hoping to make this a tradition!!

When Bryan and I started dating I didn't know much about college football. I grew up watching the Cowboys and didn't go to a college where football was a big deal. But I have to say it's been so fun to learn about all the traditions and be an Aggie Football fan. And ever since our move to the SEC I now LOVE college football, and can't get enough!! And with all the Johnny Football business it sure is fun to be an Aggie fan right now! (don't tell my brother!) ;)

We are headed to the game vs. Arkansas in a few weeks. I can't wait!!

My Kinder Classroom 2013

It's back to school time! I've never been so excited to go back to school! I LOVE how my classroom turned out this year. This is my 3rd year teaching. My 1st year, I was hired on a Friday, and school started on Tuesday! EEEK! I was just happy to have stuff up on the wall that year. Last year, I didn't know if I was in Kinder or 2nd until the week before school started, so I didn't have much time to plan. This year however, I knew I was teaching Kinder back in May so I had the whole summer!! WooHoo!

I've spent the last 2 weekends up at school getting it ready for my little Kinders. I had some pretty great helpers too! My mom came up last weekend, and this is what my room looked like when we first got there.

One of the very first things we did was my word wall! I am in love with it! I think my favorite part is the pennant banner.

This weekend my mother-in-law came to help and we made curtains. I had lots of fabric I needed to use up.

Here is my Calendar station

Clip chart from A Cupcake for the Teacher

Reading corner complete with quilt and reading buddies!

My desk area

My classroom is shaped very interestingly, so it's tricky to find the perfect set up. Since we test soooo much in Kinder, I know I wanted my small group table close to me and easily accessible. I hope I found the perfect set up this year!

Writing board
I made the pennant, and the curtain to hide the shelves

My front door. The wall hanging on the bottom is made from chalkboard fabric! So cool! Easy to write on and erases right off. It will be nice to change it throughout the year for important events, holidays, birthdays, etc.

That concludes my classroom tour for 2013. 

This totally sums up my feelings about decorating my classroom!

I've also been working on my front door design. Here is a little sneak peek, and I'll be sure to post pictures of the finished product.

Lastly, I met up with some amazing teacher bloggers today at the North Texas Blogger meet up! We had lunch in Southlake, and spent a few hours chatting about all things teaching/blogging. It was tons of fun, and everyone was so sweet! Here is all of us, there was a great turnout. Thanks to Cassie and Colleen for setting it up. They even sent us home with some amazing goodies!

Tomorrow is my last official day of summer {but will be spent doing classroom things, of course} and then teacher in-service starts up on Tuesday. I'm ready for a new school year!!

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Mid-Summer Update

June has come and gone, so that means it's already July. How did that happen??

We had a great 4th of July! It was a fun day with just the two of us. 

Fort Worth has a new bike sharing program, where you can get a bike from one station, ride it somewhere and then dock it at another. It's a really cool concept! There is a station close to our house so on the 4th we walked to the closest station and picked up some bikes. We rode them down to the movie tavern to see Monsters University. Such a cute movie!

We rode the bikes back to the station after the movie, and walked back to our house. On the menu for lunch was ribs, grilled corn, baked beans, and fruit. It was delicious! Bryan had fun smoking the ribs. It was the first time we've done that and it was a success. That night we took the bikes down to the Trinity River where they shot off the city fireworks. It was perfect because we got to bypass all the traffic coming home. We zipped past everyone on our bikes!!

I have to share this recent discovery. I've never really been a fan of Greek yogurt until now. These are amazing, and taste exactly like a Key Lime pie. I've already eaten all the ones I bought at the store. Need to go back and stock up on more!

I've been spending the summer organizing the house and making sure everything has a place. This past weekend I organized my accessories in my closet. My earring holder is made out of a frame and screen. The necklace holder is just a piece of wood with colorful knobs. And I used command hooks to hang my hats. I love going in my closet and picking out outfits because it's so much easier to see everything!

I added a few burlap pennants to the window in our living room.

And I used the same burlap to make a magnet board for my new craft room/office. That room is coming together really well! It needs a few finishing touches and then I'll be sure to share pictures.

So we've had a lot of DIY projects going on around here. I'm sure Bryan is ready for me to go back to work so he won't have to do any more projects, ha!

I blogged about our 2nd day in Germany, so be sure to scroll down and check that out. My goal for this week is to finish blogging the trip, so be sure to check back for that.

Happy Monday!