Daddy's Hospital Survival Kit

I saw this cute idea on Pinterest a while back:

Right away, I knew I had to do that for Eric too.  He's been so sweet and patient with me throughout this pregnancy, and he deserves a little "Pampering" too!  I started looking for some of his favorite snacks and candies.  I skipped the magazines, because we'll have my kindle and our phones.  I also wanted to find a few comfortable new things for him wear while at the hospital.  I put it all together last night (in case something didn't fit and I needed to take it back), and waited for him to come home.

Here's what I came up with:

I had it ready and sitting on the island for when he came home from work.  I wrote a little note inside the card telling him how much I appreciate him and so on.  He's a pretty special guy. :)

 Here's everything I included in his little kit:

1.  FEED for Target Short Sleeve Shirt  - This is one of the softest T-Shirts I've found, and HE LOVED it.  I'm gonna go back today and get him the Gray one.
2.  Mossimo by Target Short Sleeve Shirt - He has a couple of these, and they are very soft.  Love them.
3. POLO V-Neck T-Shirt - I found this at Dillards, and thought it was so super soft, but this one is going back.  It's HUGE, and not attractive on at all.  Oh Well...
4. Polo Super Soft Comfy Pants - These are so soft, and he loves the Polo sweatpants.  These are just lightweight cotton, so they are perfect for lounging around in.  They were a keeper.
5. Soft Comfy Shorts from Dillards - These are just a basic Dillards brand soft cotton shorts.  These are keepers too.  
6. Bag of quarters for the Vending Machine - I got him snacks, but who know how long we'll be there.  Quarters will definitely come in handy!
7. Builders Bars - These are his favorite flavor.
8. Sour Punch Straws - Anything Sour, and he's happy!
9. Two Gatorades - These will come in handy.
10. Starbucks VIA Refreshers Valencia - This is his new favorite Starbucks drink, and I was excited to find this.  I really wanted to find a cool "Daddy" cup to go with them, but couldn't find one I liked.
11. Chapstick - He loves his chapstick.
12.  Lindt HELLO chocolate bars - He's never had these before, and neither have I, but I found them at Target, and they look so yummy (I may actually be the one eating these!).  I bought Strawberry Cheesecake, Cookies and Creme, and Caramel Brownie.  They also have a Nougat Crunch flavor, but it must be very popular, because they were all out.
13. More Sour punch Straws
14. Sour Patch Kids - His Favorite Sour Candy

He's all set for the hospital!  Daddy's Hospital Kit is getting packed in my bag this week so it'll be ready when the time comes!

Week 35 Update, and a Children's Book Themed Shower

I am so bad about blogging on time, but better late than never, I guess.  First things first, here is my week 35 update.  No chalkboard picture this time, but I've got something better - a preggo sisters-in-law picture!

Week: 35
Stretch marks? Nope.
Wedding rings on or off? Still off...my fingers look so chubby!!  I can't even wear my watches now!  My wrists have always been so tiny that I could put my touch my thumb to my pinkie wrapped around my wrists and still have a little room.  Now I can't even touch them!
Best moment this week:
Eric and I took a full day child birthing class two Saturdays ago.  We feel so much more prepared now.  Eric knows how to time my contractions, and exactly when and where to take me when the time comes!  He also learned quite a bit about different coping positions to help me with pain, and how to rub my back to help - he was quite the class clown during all the breathing...I'm sure he'll take it much more seriously when the time comes!
I checked two big things off the list this week - Newborn Photography, and Pediatrician!  It feels so good to check things off!

We also had an awesome shower from Southeast two Sundays ago.  Eric and I are truly blessed to be a part of such a loving congregation.  Sweet Allison did an awesome job coordinating the shower!  The theme was just perfect!  She did a fantastic job getting things together and making it look amazing!  She went with them children's book theme - so me!  I LOVED IT, and my wonderful hostesses all did such a great job decorating.  Here are a few pictures from the shower:

 

Food Table 1

Food Table 2

Here's Mama Rue signing in and putting her address on an envelope.

I love all of the books and book characters - thanks to Stacie VanLoenen for providing them!

Such a pretty cake!

I love this banner that Allison put together!  She is so talented!

All my wonderful hostesses!

So much Love

Holly, Megan, Me, and my Mom

Book themed food!  Cookies for If you Give a Mouse a Cookie, and Blueberry Muffins for Blueberries for Sal.

Meatballs for Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs, and Ham Sandwiches for Green Eggs and Ham

Lemonade for Lemonade for Sale, and fruit for The Very Hungry Caterpillar

A Veggie Tray for The Tale of Peter Rabbit

And look!  The Fruit Tray was made to look like The Very Hungry Caterpillar!  How creative!!

Me and my "helpers".  Jordan helped by handing me presents, and pulling out tissue paper, and Megan wrote down all my gifts for me!

The shower was wonderful, and I am so thankful for such an amazing church family!

Week 35 update continued:

Miss Anything? Just being comfortable...BUT about a week after I posted my rant post about my Sciatica, I woke up and it had magically disappeared!  I have felt SOOOO much better since then.  Food Cravings: Nope.  
Movement:  I love watching him do flips in there!  My belly does the wave several times a day.  His kicks aren't so much kicks anymore. They are more like a sliding motion - like he straightens his leg out and moves it down the inside of my belly.  It always takes me by surprise, and kinda tickles.  I can't help but laugh out loud when he does it!
Belly Button in or out? I don't know how it could pop out any more!
Happy or Moody most of the time?  Happy - now that Summer School is over, and i can just relax at home.  I am getting restless - very anxious for him to be here.  Just trying to relax and nap as much as I can - WHILE I can! 
Looking forward to: Being Full Term in two weeks!

Week 31...

Week: 31

Stretch marks? Nope.

Wedding rings on or off? Off.  Been off the past few weeks.  My whole body is swelling, and it's so annoying.  I haven't been able to wear any shoes other than flip-flops, and since we aren't allowed to wear those at school, I only have one pair - who knew.  I've been wearing them to school every day (Thankful my principals are awesome and don't make me squeeze into my too tight shoes).
I honestly think this has been one of the worst parts of this .  My feet ALWAYS hurt.  I broke down crying one night (I used to never cry, now I do quite a lot)  while Eric rubbed my feet because I was so tired of them hurting.  As I'm typing, I've had to reposition several times to put my feet up because they started swelling and hurting.  
Best moment this week:  Well, since I haven't posted in almost 6 weeks, we'll do top 5 best moments lately:

1. Seeing Aiden at our 28 week appointment.  My placenta was low at week 20, so they scheduled another ultra sound for week 28 to make sure it moved.  I was awesome getting to see him, and the technician did a 3D image for us.  We got to see some of his features - his sweet little chubby cheeks!

2. Getting the crib in the room.  Holly and Ismael helped us pick it up, and then Eric and Ismael put it together.

3.  Getting Shelves put in the closet for added storage.  Eric and Ismael built them.  They did a great job.

4.  Getting the dresser.  We went back and forth on what we would do for the dresser, and finally decided to go with the dresser that matched the crib.  

5. Putting the shelves up for Aiden's books.  We bought picture ledges from Ikea.  Saw the idea on Pinterest.  Pictures of all these room additions coming soon.

Miss Anything? Oh gosh, I'm so over being pregnant at this point.  I really miss being able to run though.  I had been trying to walk for exercise every night, and one evening just decided to try and jog.  It felt really foreign, but good too (I only went like maybe 20 yards...I was a little cautious).  However, since then, my Sciatic Nerve has been KILLING me.  Now I know what the waddle is all about.  I have to take Tylenol every morning and afternoon for walking to even be bearable.  That, plus my feet being swollen has really been hard.

Food Cravings: Nothing new.  

Movement:  Moving a lot! It makes me forget about how miserable I am!

Belly Button in or out? Oh it's definitely out.  All the way.  You can see it a little in the picture.

Happy or Moody most of the time?  Moody.  It's super hot, which makes swelling worse, and not to mention SLEEP!

I feel HUGE and it doesn't help when some people comment on how big I am and I get these comments:

"Are you sure you're not having twins?"  

"Wow!  You're HUGE for seven months!"

"I can't believe those are maternity jeans!  I didn't wear maternity jeans until I was seven months pregnant!"

"I can't believe you're not due until August!  You're so big!"

Honestly, the things that come out of some people's mouths.  I have done a really good job holding my tongue. 

Now with my Sciatic nerve problems, all I wanna do is lay on an ice pack when I get home.  I am teaching summer school, but it's only 12 half days.  I can do this!  :)

Ok, enough venting.  I am just so ready for this baby to be here, so I can love on him - and feel normal again!  It does make me feel good that my doctor told me I was measuring only a week ahead, and didn't even look that big.  I laughed out loud, and then had to tell her that she's the first person to tell me that!  It also makes me feel good when some people are the opposite of the above, and comment on how good I look pregnant.  If you are one of those people, THANK YOU!  It makes my day.  I think every pregnant woman needs to hear that.

Eric has been so wonderful with my moody self.  He even cleaned the shower for me the other day!  He's so sweet.

Looking forward to: Summer school being over so I can just sit with my feet up in the air conditioning all day while I wait for Aiden's arrival.

Frazier Shower

I am so blessed to be a part of such a wonderful school family.  I have thoroughly enjoyed the past five years working at Frazier Elementary.  I have thought several times about how nice it would be to work at one of the schools in my neighborhood, but I just can't even think about leaving Frazier.

I had my first shower today - thrown by my team of support folks.  They did such a good job putting it all together, and I am so blessed to have such sweet friends.  Here are a few pictures from today.

First off, check out these awesome invites that my sweet friends Katie and Charity made!  So cute!

They did a great job decorating Mine and Charity's HUGE open office - open concept classrooms can be difficult to make look pretty.  They did a great job.

They had people bring in baby pictures ahead of time, and everyone tried to guess who was who as they came in.  It was tough!!

Isn't this cake awesome?!  One of our parents made it and the cupcakes, and the cake was AMAZING.

 LOVE the balloons!

 I love this little idea to have them write a note on a diaper.  They were pretty hilarious.

The shower was all day - come and go, so teams came in and ate and hung out during their lunch.  We were allowed to wear jeans for teacher appreciation week, and sports shirts today for the shower.  Here's our Kinder team, all sitting down eating, while trying to figure out the baby photos.

I got some much needed gifts and LOTS of gift cards.  Aiden is blessed.

Look at these super cute little outfits my team got me to display!  You can't see it very well, but there are some super cute personalized Texans items up there Charity ordered from Etsy.  I LOVE them!  She knows me too well!

This is one of my favorite activities that people worked on as they came and went.  I LOVE this, and had to post several of my favorites:

Maria was one of two who addressed the wish to me and not the baby, and I love it.  :)

 Erica, one of the four Frazier preggos, and a sweet friend.  

 Sweet Allison, one of our ABLE teachers, and one of my support teammates, who helped to set up the shower and make it look amazing.  I don't think he'll have a choice in whether or not he loves the Texans, and I sure do hope he loves to read too!

 Sweet, sweet, sweet Sarah, who I team taught with every year except this year.  She's golden.

 Of course, my sweet friend, and partner in crime this year, Charity.  She worked so hard on all the details of the shower to make it PERFECT.  She made these little cards, and they look amazing.  I will miss being PF with her next year, but I am excited for her to be back in First Grade doing what she is so talented at - teaching.

 And my other sweet friend Katie, our Resource teacher who worked along with Charity to make the shower amazing.  She has been such an encouragement to me this year, not to mention a complete goofball.  I have loved our little lunch group, and all three of us (Katie, Charity and me) being in the same pod.

My Principal, Wendy.  She has done a great job leading our school, and has always made sure we have what we need. 

And here's my little foursome - My lunch bunch, and wonderful friends.  They are pretty special.

Susan Blue, our Counselor; Me; Katie Belus, our Resource Teacher; Charity Boone, our Math Coach.

Goodness I'm HUGE.  UGH!  It doesn't help that I squeeeezed into a non-maternity Astros shirt.  Nevertheless, the shower was very special, and I am very blessed.  I can't wait for Aiden to meet all of the wonderful Frazier folks.  THANKS FRAZIER FAMILY!!

Week 25

I've gotten way behind on my chalkboard pics.  I really haven't liked having pictures taken of me as I've gotten bigger, so it hasn't been at the top of my to-do list, BUT I know I will regret not having the pictures to look back on.  So...here I am - week 25:

Week: 25

Stretch marks? So far, so good.

Wedding rings on or off? On

Best moment this week:  We painted the room, or I should say Eric painted the room.  I felt so bad I couldn't help him, but I made sure to replinish his water and paintbrushes as needed.  We really wanted to paint stripes, but our walls have this annoying texture that makes it next to impossible to paint straight lines, even with tape, so we settled for one wall navy, and the others light blue. Here are a few pictures:

Picking out paint colors at Home Depot

Eric did such a good job.

Brinkley was as curious as ever.

Touch-ups

Don't Fall!

Finished!

Eric worked all day painting, and I LOVE the end result.  He did a very good job.

Miss Anything? Everything normal...my body, being able to go running, margaritas, A full night's sleep...the list goes on.

Food Cravings: I'm addicted to watermelon.  I have it twice during the day - my morning snack, and afternoon snack, and then I always have a bowl after dinner - and share with Brinkley. 

Movement:  I am feeling him move all the time, and it is the coolest feeling ever!  I am even starting to see my tummy twitch sometimes when he moves.  I try to get Eric to feel when he starts to move, and he always seems to stop right when Eric puts his hand there.  He has been able to feel a few times, though.

Belly Button in or out? It's starting to pop out.  So weird.

Happy or Moody most of the time?  Pretty Happy.

Looking forward to: Getting the room put together. Here's what we've gotten so far:

Ordered the crib bedding from Etsy.

Got our glider and matching ottoman.  Navy Pinstripe!

Ordered these four prints from Etsy.  They will hang above the crib.  This was part of our gift from Eric's parents.

Picked out our crib, but haven't bought it just yet.  We will soon.  This will be our gift from my parents. 

We got our stroller/car seat.  This was our gift from Eric's parents.