It's a BOY!

My sister, Lisa, FINALLY had her baby- Brady Michael Hayes was born on December 19th at 3:16am. He was 7 pounds, 12 ounces and 20.5 inches long. Of course he is the cutest little boy ever!! Lisa went to the hospital Thursday evening and my mom went up there around 10pm. She called me at 2am and I jumped in the car and headed out to the hospital. May I just mention that Desert Banner might want to get some more comfy chairs in their waiting room... not so comfy at 3am. About 3:45 Shaun came to find mom and I so that we could meet Brady! Everyone is super excited and Lisa is doing well. We are expecting her to be discharged on Sunday.

13 Weeks 5 days

Phew- I'm glad the weekend is over- we were so busy!
On Saturday we had a baby shower for Lisa- it was so much fun to see her open all of her gifts, especially when she got duplicates of things (score for Lori!). We had a wonderful celebration and had the opportunity to spend time with lots of family and friends. My mom helped a lot by picking up food & drinks as well as helping pay for various decorations and such. My sister's friend Cara was also a big help- she helped me decorate & picked up cupcakes- yum.
Lisa got a really cute puppy dog blanket from my mom- as soon as she opened it I asked "do I get one of those?" I didn't mean "do I get one right now?", but my mom couldn't wait to give the cute little puppy to me... so I promptly laid down on the sofa and snuggled with it once all the party guests left.
Although the party was great, I am glad it is over- I was exhausted by the time I got home on Saturday. I could barely keep my eyes open once I got home.
Mom thinks it is great to take pictures of Lisa & my bellies.


My throat started to hurt late Saturday night and I woke up today, Sunday, with an even worse sore throat. I'm sure I'm getting a sinus infection, which I always love. Despite my attempts to stay healthy and take allergy meds, I couldn't hold this off. I have usually had at least one sinus infection by this time in the school year, so I should feel lucky... but usually I tend to be sick all the way from Thanksgiving to Christmas. Lovely... and I don't even know what medications I can take at this point- I'll have to consult my book. :)

12 Weeks

Finally- a milestone! I am officially 12 weeks today... although a coworker just informed me that your first trimester doesn't technically end until you are 13 weeks and 2 days. Go figure- she had to burst my bubble. I'm still not feeling great, but I am feeling much better than I was just a few short weeks ago. I made Josh take some belly pictures so you could see that I have been eating WAY too much, but alas, our camera is not cooperating. I will attempt to convince it to work, but I can't promise anything. We might have to take 12 weeks & 2 day pictures! I even made Josh pose for some 12 week photos- I didn't want him to feel left out! And of course the dogs had to be in the picture (well, Dutchess was a little wild so she is kind of all over the place).
My sister had her "work" baby shower on Sunday (the 2nd), so my mom and I went to celebrate this her. I made a really cute diaper cake that everyone loved- I was proud. :) Of course I'd post pictures of it if my camera was cooperating!!
I'll update again when I have pictures- sorry for being boring!

Edit 11/11: My mom emailed me a picture of the diaper cake I made. Someday when my camera is working I will upload more pictures. :)

Maternity Pants

Oh man... I was hoping to stay away from the maternity clothes for just a bit longer... but... I just can't seem to stop eating!! So yes, that means that I'm pregnant. 11 weeks today. Due date: May 19, 2009... which is REALLY far away considering I am not appreciating this pregnancy thing right now. My mom said she loved being pregnant--- I think she was on crack. My sister doesn't love being pregnant, but she wasn't sick either... me on the other hand... I was in bed for 2 straight weeks, I've been nauseous, tired, had horrible headaches, and just the overall "blah" feeling. Who ever thought pregnancy was kind of fun? Here's a picture of our first ultrasound. I know it looks like a head and body, but don't be fooled- the circle thing towards the bottom is just the yolk sak that the baby was feeding off of at the time (7 weeks) (gross). Baby had a good heart rate of 136 beats per minute and should be increasing now. We have an appointment on Thursday for my monthly check up, but we won't have another ultrasound until 18 weeks. My sister will have her baby before we find out the sex of this baby. It is just a bizarre feeling knowing that something is growing inside of you... just weird.

On a seperate note, Josh went hunting with my dad, brother-in-law and others over the weekend. They were hunting elk. Actually, my dad and his friends were hunting elk, Josh, Shaun, and John were just there for fun and to see how much alcohol they could drink. They had a good time, although the first day Josh managed to cut himself with a utility knife. It was a pretty deep cut and wouldn't stop bleeding for a while- he went to the doctor today and they said he should have gotten stitches when it happened, but now it has started to heal itself so there is no point. He did get a splint on it so he doesn't have to strain so much to keep it straight. It's right around his knuckle so it hurts quite a bit. I got in trouble for laughing at his splint... it's not that I was laughing at the fact that he was hurt, the splint is just kind of funny looking. But note to self: don't laugh at splints. I'll try to remember.

October Break

Can you believe my students already finished their first quarter of school? People can't believe that I am 1/4 of the way through the year already- most schools are just starting! I've been on October break for the past week and a half and still have the rest of this week off- thank heavens! I've accomplished absolutely nothing while on break. The first week I was in bed about 90% of the time. I got out of bed exactly three times: 1. doctors appointment; 2. friend's wedding; 3. pick up friends from airport. Pretty exciting, eh?
I've been involved in a book club here in Maricopa for the past 18 months or so, and I'm so lucky that they have exposed me to so many different types of books. I could have done without the mushy love stories (I think I was the only one who did not appreciate these), but I have really enjoyed some of the memoirs we've been reading. I just finished "One Mississippi" and we will be discussing the book next week- it was not at all what I was expecting, but I really enjoyed it. I try to read a couple of different books throughout the month in addition to our book club selection. Sometimes I'm really good about finishing our books, and other times, I am not... thankfully the girls that I read with are very forgiving and still allow me to hang out if I haven't finished the book! :) There have been several times when someone ELSE doesn't even START the book! phew! I am so lucky to have found this group of ladies -
That's all for now....

Off to North Dakota (you betcha!)

Sadly, Josh's grandfather passed away on Monday, August 11th. We knew this was coming, however, we were expecting to still have a few weeks with him! Although this was a very sad time, it was nice to get the family all together so that I could get to know them better.
We packed up and headed out to North Dakota on Tuesday afternoon. Just keep in mind that we found this news out on Monday, and left on Tuesday.... meaning I had to make lesson plans for Tuesday-Friday by Monday afternoon... have all the copying done, and make sure to convince my students to behave with a sub for 4 days. hahahahaha.... you can imagine how late I was at school.
Anyway, we headed out of Phoenix on Tuesday, switched planes in Minneapolis, and then landed in Grand Forks late Tuesday evening. Josh's parents picked us up from the airport and thankfully his Aunt Dee had packed us dinner for the ride home... I was starving by the time our second plane landed.
We hung around with family on Wednesday and picked up cousin Kristi from the airport in Grand Forks... and we went shopping at Target! We had the viewing and funeral on Thursday. I've never been to a military funeral, but it was amazing. The dedication that soldiers have to their families and their country is moving. Josh's Uncle Brad and cousin Steven lead the procession to the cemetary on their motorcycles which made Josh even MORE jealous of them! Now I'm hearing all about how Josh really needs a bike and how much money it would save us since they get really good gas mileage. (I think he forgets to factor in the actual COST of the BIKE!). ugh.

Kristi & Tanya

Josh & Aunt Verna

Lori & Aunt Verna

Friday we said good bye to most of the family that had come into town and then hung around the house and gave Hannah, the dog, a bath!
On Saturday we wrote thank you notes to all of those who came to the funeral and/or sent condolences. We headed out to the farm in Auburn to see the house and the progress that Josh and his dad had made on the trees. We had dinner with Aunt Patty at Marketplace and then headed home to get a couple of hours of sleep before leaving at 3am to get to the airport to head home. Josh and I caught a 5am flight out of Grand Forks and landed in Phoenix just before 10am. It was so nice to be home early and have the rest of the day to do laundry, unpack, and play with the dogs.
My mom was nice enough to come down on Friday and stay with our dogs for the weekend. They were on their own during the week though and believe it or not, they were really good! (Ok, except for the part where Duke peed on Tamara when she came to feed them... whooops!). Tamara came over once a day to make sure the dogs had food and water, but other than that, they were in charge!
So... now it is Tuesday and we are attempting to catch up on our sleep, laundry, and my school work. Unless you are a teacher or are the spouse/child of a teacher, you have no idea what a classroom looks like after 4 days of a substitute and 130 8th grade students! Yikes!

Hannah

School Starts Tomorrow

It's Sunday, July 27th... and school starts tomorrow. I've been back at work since Tuesday so I am excited to meet my new students. In addition to teaching 4 classes of science, I am also teaching one section of AVID- an elective class. I'm really excited about that group of kids- it will be a lot of extra work, but I think it will be fun.
I love the energy and excitement that revolves around the first day of school... and I love buying new school supplies! Ok, I like buying new clothes too, but I just can't resist walking past an aisle of colorful markers, crayons, and lined paper. Josh thinks I'm ridiculous, of course, but I think secretly he likes shopping with me! :)
I guess that is all that is new around here. Josh and I did some yard work today (ok, Josh did most of it... but I did help a little!) and then we laid in the pool for a while. It was actually really relaxing until my skin started to burn off. Oops.

Early One Sunday Morning...

Well, here it is 12:10am and I am still awake. Josh and I just got back from a co-worker's house where we enjoyed a wonderful BBQ! It is nice to get together with people that Josh works with, especially because they see a whole different side of him at work. Unfortunately, the dogs weren't able to join us on this adventure, so they were locked in their cages this evening. All of our clocks are blinking so apparently the power went out... I'm glad the dogs weren't running free because they probably would have freaked out. I don't think I left anything on, but I'm sure they could feel it or something.

Duke is now laying on the couch next to me and Dutchess is attempting to finish her breakfast/dinner.

Nothing else exciting around here.... I guess I will post some random pictures. :)

2007 Family Pictures

As a Christmas present for our families, Lisa and I decided to have family pictures taken. We had the great idea of taking the dogs with us!











Shaun was a great sport, considering his major hangover and Josh even smiled in the pictures!

The dogs were great too, except when Duke did not want to be photographed....

New at this...

There are so many family and friends out there with these cool blogs, I thought I'd start one for Josh and I. We of course have to document the lives of our wonderful pups, Duke & Dutchess!! Check back often for fun updates and randomness.