Where's Mara?

Monday, July 27

While we were glad to have Clinton & Evelyn come visit us, Mara was happy to have her bed back. She insisted on putting all of her animals on her bed, and it was hard to see her in it.

Tuesday, July 28

Tonight, Mara wanted to watch the Tinkerbell movie. They were showing it on the Disney Channel, so she started watching it there. She needed to take a bath in the middle of it, and we picked back up where we left off on the DVD.

Wednesday, July 29

I'm finally moved completely into my cube, so I thought I would make that today's picture. It's kind of strange being back in a cube, but it's nice being back near the people I work with. It's nice that we're in a quiet part of the building too.

Thursday, July 30

Mara has a boat race at school tomorrow, so we assembled a boat out of a juice box thanks to a suggestion in one of the parenting/craft magazines we have. We should have tested the boat, though, because apparently it sank when it came time for the race. Mara was still happy about making the boat.

Friday, July 31

Mara and Lani love to take baths together and ask to do so every time they are together.

Additional picture

I had another picture from today that I thought deserved its own post. When I picked up Mara from school today, she was drawing a picture. It was of all three of us walking to a park. I asked her where the baby in my tummy was (in a whisper since we haven't told anyone at school yet), and she said it's hidden in the picture. Then, I pulled her papers out of her mailbox, and she had a drawing all folded up. When I opened it up, I found that she had already drawn a family picture including the baby.

Visit with friends

Clinton, Evelyn, and their kids (Declan, Kyann, and Gavin) came to stay with us for the weekend. We spent most of the weekend at home, and the kids had a lot of fun playing together. Gavin, who is now 18 months old, made friends with our cats and had a lot of fun playing with them.

6/7-week appointment

I went to the doctor today for my first appointment, and it looks like everything is fine so far. We got to see the little peanut ina sonogram. The sonogram put my due date as March 15, which is pretty close to my estimated due date of March 14, and that close enough for my doctor since it looks like everything is right on schedule. The baby's heart rate was 136. An old wives' tale says that boys have lower heart rates (around 130-140) while girls are higher (150-160). Mara's was higher, so maybe this one is a boy. :)

Today's picture is one of the pictures we got. I know it doesn't look too much like a baby yet, but it will get there.

I have been spotting ever so slightly, but there is a small pool of blood near the baby. It's only the size of a pinky nail and should resolve itself, but my doctor wants to make sure it does go away. That may mean I get to see the baby again at my next appointment on August 24, but we'll have to wait and see.

This may be too much information, but it looks like I ovulated from my right ovary this time, which is the same one that produced Mara and the opposite one that ended in both of my miscarriages.

Final swimming lesson

Monday, July 20

It's been cooler here the past couple of days (didn't even break 90 today), and apparently Mara thought it was downright cold since she insisted on putting on her hat and mittens.

Tuesday, July 21

We got to the aquatic center a little early, so Mara went out to play in the sprinklers some before her swimming lesson.

Wednesday, July 22

McDonald's has teeny Beanie Babies in their Happy Meals again in honor of the 30th birthday of the Happy Meal, so we went to McDonald's for dinner tonight and picked up these two Beanie Babies.

Thursday, July 23

Mara has really come a long way during her swimming lessons this time around. She swims briefly underwater and can actually do some swimming on her own now. I really look forward to taking her swimming again soon. After her lesson, we went over to Shari & David's house to have dinner with them, Sherri, Melissa & Wes, and their kids, and Mara had fund playing with the girls.

Summer activities

Monday, July 13

Mara started swimming lessons again today. She has a different teacher this time, but she seems to be doing pretty well.

Tuesday, July 14

Mara has really been interested in drawing recently, and tonight she was having fun drawing people on her MagnaDoodle.

Wednesday, July 15

It seems like it's a little late in the year, but our crepe myrtle has really been blooming this week.

Thursday, July 16

Doxy has found a new sleeping spot in our house – Mara's rocking chair. She also likes to sleep in Mara's booster seat at the table.

Friday, July 17

We finally got our new TV today. It's a little bigger than what we were planning to get, but we were able to find a really good deal. It's nice to be able to see what we're watching now. :)

Saturday, July 18

Mara went to her ballet lesson today, and afterward we took her to get her haircut. We didn't have much taken off – just a couple of inches so that it won't tangle as easily.

Sunday, July 19

Lori was in Music Makers this past week, and today they performed during the church service. It was a cute musical about Joseph that they learned in only a week.

Another hot Texas summer

Tuesday, July 7

Occasionally, Mara chooses to lay down and watch a show rather than read a book before bed, and today was one of those days.

Wednesday, July 8

It was another 100-plus degree day when I walked out the doors at work to go pick up Mara, but as I started heading toward her school, I saw some nasty clouds up ahead. A storm developed between my work and her school, and the storm had strong winds and hail.. Luckily, I wasn't caught in the storm, and it had already passed by the time I got to Mara's school.

Thursday, July 9

We met my dad at Cheddar's for dinner tonight. It had been a while since we had eaten at one, so we decided to try out the new one in Allen.

Friday, July 10

We finally broke down and bought a new TV last week. However, we went with a TV that wouldn't fit in our current entertainment center, so we had to buy a new one. John finished putting it together when we got home from dinner tonight.

Saturday, July 11

After being off for the Fourth of July last week, Mara resumed her ballet lessons today. She's really starting to get the various positions down. Afterward, she attended a birthday party for one of the girls in her class.

Sunday, July 12

We attended yet another birthday party today. This time, it was for Kristy, who I used to work with at TSG, and her son Ryan who turned 3 today. Mara had a lot of fun playing with the parachute and running around on the track at the party.

It's about time

I mentioned a while back that my department at work was going through some restructuring. I had a feeling I knew what the end result would be and people had even hinted at it, and today I was finally given the news.

First of all, I am now going to be working in the Information Development Department (a fancy name for communications/documentation). On top of that, I will no longer be manager of the department. Instead, I will be "Senior Content Developer." And actually, I'm pretty happy with this move. I was never truly a manager because I still had to do too much of my old job as writer since we were always understaffed. And when I really thought about it, what I really enjoyed doing was writing, and that's what I'm going to get back to doing full time. It will also be nice not to have to mess with all of the junk you have to put up with being a manager. The downside is that I will have to give up my office even though the people who will be taking it over are only contract workers who are managing our department temporarily. That's OK, though. It just means that I'll be closer to my coworkers. The nice thing is that even though I'm no longer technically a manager, my pay stays the same and I even stay on the managers' bonus plan for this year at least.

Going back to timing, though, it looks like everything is working out considering that I just found out I was pregnant last weekend. I did wonder how well it would work if I was a manager and took 12 weeks off for maternity leave. Now, I don't have to worry about that. I discovered with my two pregnancies last year that the timing of either one of them actually wouldn't be too great just because of what was going on at work. But now, it seems like it's finally a good time. I just pray that we'll get to meet this baby in March 2010.

So, I guess I'm actually pretty happy with this change. It will probably take some getting used to again, but I don't think it will be too long since I'm basically already doing that job now.

Exhausted

I have just been so exhausted this week. It seems like I just crash every night after dinner, and I haven't been able to get anything done around the house. Then, I'm still tired when I wake up. I was this way with Mara though. I know I didn't feel this pregnant back in October, and my pregnancy last February was the complete opposite of the one with Mara. So, I'm thinking this pregnancy may be a keeper finally.

No morning sickness so far. It would be nice if I could enjoy another pregnancy without it. Now if I can just make it to the 6-week mark without any spotting...

Family pictures

Working on our family picture the other day made me want to go back to the end of last year and Photoshop/update the pictures we took of the Harrel and Haley families around Christmas.

Here's the Harrels taken on Christmas Day 2008. (Yes, Mara's holding the remote to take the picture.)

And here's the last picture we took Thanksgiving 2006. It was the last one my mother was in.

Mara didn't want to cooperate, but here is a picture of the Haleys on January 2009.

We'll have to try to get a better picture sometime this year. :)

200th post

It's hard to believe that I'm now at the 200-post mark less than a year after I reached 100. It's nice to look back and see what we've done over the last year or so – especially since I've been documenting every day of 2009 with Project 365.

Speaking of Project 365, for today's picture, we got the family picture we missed out on yesterday. It's been a while since we've gotten a family picture, so it's nice to finally get one.

Happy Fourth of July!

We had a busy but good Independence Day.

Mara wore her red, white, and blue outfit yet again today as we celebrated America's birthday.

We started the day with the Kids Workshop at Home Depot. John was off, so he actually got to participate for once. My dad and Diane also joined us so they could watch Mara build a picnic caddy.

After lunch and running home to put some food in the fridge, we went to Firewheel Towne Center for the kids workshop there. It was the first time we had been to the outdoor mall. The workshop wasn't quite like we envisioned, but I think that's because it was so hot outside and all of the activities were scheduled for outside. Mara did get a neat goody bag for joining the club that included a backpack, shirt, kid-sized kitchen utensils, and a glow-in-the-dark necklace. She also got to experience her first taste of cotton candy.

On the way back to the car, we stopped in at Build-a-Bear Workshop and Aunt Diannie help Mara create a unicorn, which she has been carrying around every since she made it.

Shari, David, and Allie joined us at our house for dinner. It was nice to be able to sit around and relax with everyone.

We ended the night by attending the Plano fireworks display. As we got in the car, Mara had a friend come land on her leg – a little praying mantis. Once we got in the car, it took us a while to get to the park because the police kept closing off the direction we were trying to head. We finally got to the church parking lot and walked around the building just as the fireworks were starting. We were too sure how Mara would react even though she was very excited to be there. She thought the fireworks were a little loud and spent the whole show on Diane's lap as we took pictures.

John and I didn't get to watch the finale because the camera bumped my left eye, and my contact popped out. :( We looked all over, but it was a lost cause because we were in the grass. It's the first time I've lost a contact, but the worst part is that it will take about two weeks to get new ones once I actually get into the doctor and get them ordered. At least I still have a pair of old ones that I can try to wear. I guess we'll see how that goes tomorrow.

The one picture we didn't get today that I really wanted was a picture of the three of us. Losing my contact kind of threw things off track. Maybe we'll get a picture of all of us sometime this week.