Pink or Blue? Part II

BLUE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Pink or Blue?

We typically do not find out the gender of our babies while I am pregnant. However, this time it will be different!

We will be finding out!

That's because I want to have a yard sale and try to simlify my life as much as possible before this baby arrives. You see, I have saved boxes of boys' and girls' clothing. And I don't want to come home from the hospital after the baby arrives and have to go through a bunch of boxes to find something for the baby to wear. And since we know that this will be our last newborn, we can get rid of all the other clothing that we won't need for the baby.

So that's why. And it seems like a good enough reason to me.

It's Time to Celebrate!

Today is Buffalo Wings's birthday!

Happy birthday my wonderful husband and to my kids' wonderful dad! We love you so much! Hope it is a wonderful, happy day for you! We'll do our best to make sure that it is!

Happy Birthday!

Skippyjon Jones

As you can see, it is a VERY good book!

Bad Few Days

I started feeling bad again on Monday night. I missed a meeting at church. I had taken the kids to my friend's house in the very early afternoon. My friend and I did some scrapbooking while the kids played. It was a fine day until . . . just before we got ready to leave, I started feeling puky. I was trying so hard to hold it together while I packed everything up and loaded up the kids. By the time I started the van, I was dry-heaving.

I've been having lots of headaches, feeling puky, and feeling in-general just not good, and also very tired and run-down.

I had to cancel a sub job that I had already lined up for Tuesday and I rejected one that called me early this morning. I am going to try my best to make it to the job I have lined up for tomorrow.

I guess my body misses my old friend, Zofran. Buffalo Wings just got me a refill.

On the plus side, my sciatica has magically disappeared! It has not bothered me for days. I am so thankful.

On another plus side, I found the strength to vacuum the floors today. I've never been so thankful for the strength to vacuum.

I don't know why this is a difficult pregnancy. I mean, I am not having difficulties - as in, no high blood pressure, no diabetes, the baby looks great and is thriving - but I just feel pretty bad most of the time. I felt really good with my last pregnancy. I guess they really are all different, and you can't predict your next pregnancy due to your previous one.

I am praising God for the little life that is growing inside me. I am humbled every time I think about it. We are blessed, and I do not take that for granted. I do not take any of my children for granted. I do not take my husband for granted. I've been crying today because I feel so guilty for not being able to go to work, take care of the house, take care of the things that moms and wives should be taking care of . . . but BW was so comforting, as always, and told me not to worry. He took care of me. He cooked supper. He never, ever complains. He is a dear and wonderful man. I'm so glad he's my hubby and the father of our beautiful kids.

I am also praising God because I know that so many are praying for me, all over the world. Talk about humbling. What a blessing is the Family of God. I love all of you so much and am praying for you too. The blessing of my brothers and sisters in Christ, who love God and who love me, is something that absolutely moves me to tears and moves me beyond words. Thank you for praying.

Much love to all of you.

Aren't They Cute?

We sure think so!!!!!!

Helpful Little Nugget

This morning, as I was brushing Chicken Nugget's hair, she was telling me how sorry she was that I wasn't feeling well today. (I've been kind-of under the weather since last night.)

Chicken Nugget said, "I wish I didn't have to go to school and I could stay here and help you all day."

I said, "Awww . . . you're such a sweet girl. But that's not your job. Your job is to be a third grader at school. Besides, you'd be so bored here all day without your friends and stuff."

"Mmm-mmm," she shook her head, "No I wouldn't, as long as we had cable."

Hooray! Huzzah!

I'm shouting praises because I did not take even one Zofran yesterday! Yay! Halleluiah! And I was able to eat quite a full helping of lunch. I haven't felt full in quite a long time. It felt great! I know that so many have been lifting me up in prayer during this temporary trial. Thank you so much. And thank you to my wonderful hubby, who has taken double duty on taking care of the kids and the housework when I've been too puky to do so. I love you, Buffalo Wings! You rock!

Now I have a new inconvenience due to the pregnancy! I know, I know, I'm full of complaints. Sorry. But it is sciatica (I think I spelled that right), and it is very painful. I have suffered from it in minimal ways during past pregnancies, but this time it is even painful at night when I should be sleeping. This condition, unlike morning sickness (or all-day sickness!), will not decrease as the pregnancy goes further along. It will stay the same or get worse. So please pray for me as I take care of house, kids, hubby, along with work, school, church, etc. There are times when walking across the room is excruciatingly painful. And last night was the first time I've ever been kept awake from it. However, as with the nausea, this too shall pass. Poor Chicken Nugget was helping me around the house this morning, saying she wished that baby would come out so I'd feel better.

"Oh, sweetie," I told her, "Thank you. But it will all be worth it. We'll get a sweet little baby and a new member of the family!"

I'd endure it a thousand times over just for this little bundle that's coming our way.

Love you all and thank you for the prayers!

Long Overdue Post; Long, LONG Overdue Pictures

When I was in high school, my friend Boss introduced me to the idea of "having ants." It's sort of like having ants in your pants, which is one way to say that you feel anxious or distracted. But this kind of ants, as Boss explained to me, is the kind that makes you want to do anything, anything, but study. She said that having ants will even make you want to clean your room or volunteer to landscape your yard or do everyone else's household chores, so long as you don't have to sit down and study.

Well, I suppose that in a way I've been having ants. I have a ton of homework to do for my teacher training, and I have a ton of laundry to do so that my family can stop running around in their underwear. I'd really rather do the housework than the studying, I admit. So what am I doing instead? Sitting down to write a long overdue blog, of course!

When Noodle gets out of the bath at night, she likes to sit with her towel around her and unwind for awhile before tackling the arduous task of getting dressed. One night, the task just seemed so arduous, that she fell asleep just thinking about it.

Here is Chicken Nugget playing soccer. This was in October. Yeah, I'm way past due on posting pictues.

Yep, that's Halloween. The holiday before Thanksgiving. And the holiday long before Christmas. But here you have it - Banana is an Arkansas Razorbacks football player, and the girls are bats. We improvised for Noodle, who insisted on being a bat just like her sister. Chicken Nugget has a real bat costume. All I could find for Noodle was a cape and black pants and a white shirt. But with a little makeup and glitter, she was thrilled. Now she'll strip down to her underwear and wear that "bat cape" around the house all day. Halloween every day, I tell ya.

This was also in October, when my parents came for a visit. This is at the Wetlands Center in Baytown. I love going there. Noodle loves looking at this statue in the butterfly garden.

Daddy and Banana pose. Sort of. Aren't they adorable?

I almost didn't include this one, seeing as my double chins could be a third character in this photo. However, Buffalo Wings caught this cute scene one night and couldn't resist the photo op. I was reading my Bible one night when Noodle wandered into my bedroom. She ran and got her little brown Bible, jumped into bed, and started quietly reading right along with me.

Another Tasty Names Family Update

There's been lots and lots going on, as usual!

First, let me just tell you about my subbing experiences. For the most part, they've been fun. In our town, we have two high schools. There is the one where Buffalo Wings teaches, and then there's . . . the other one. The other one is scary. I love kids. I love working with the kids. But when I start to fear the kids, that's when I call it quits. And having a police officer summoned to a class in which I am subbing (more than once, by the way), helps me make that decision to call it quits. So I don't go to the other one anymore. I stick to BW's school. And I like it. I could discuss with you the many reasons for the differences at each school, but I'll save that for another post.

My favorite sub position so far has been for the tennis coach. She teaches computers and coaches tennis. Enough said.

I've also enjoyed my days at elementary school. It's kind of like a break for me. The kids are so cute and sweet in second grade! But as much as I like those days, I never regret my decision to become certified in 8-12 English, and not in elementary education. I just feel that I am really called to work with teenagers. I love those guys!

Speaking of my certification, it's all going well. So far, the work is not too difficult. I spoke to a friend of mine about it, about how I was a little scared that I wasn't finding the work to be as difficult as I thought it should be. My friend is an administrator at a school, and taught English for several years before that. She said, "I think that people who just naturally have the gift to educate will find the work to be easier." That was encouragement to me, because I have been apprehensive throughout the entire process. (Am I making the right decision? Will I make a good teacher? Etc.)

Having BW to help me is great, too, and does make the work less challenging. Since he is a teacher and has gone through all the education classes before, it's all familiar to him and he is of great help whenever I need to ask questions. I like that, because the class is all online. I need some kind of interaction. BW is the best!

The pregnancy is going . . . well . . . um, it's going. First trimester blues have set it. By that I mean, I wish I could eat. Just eat. Just say, hey, I'm hungry! We have peanut butter and bread! I'll have a peanut butter sandwich! But, no. Things don't work that way with me in the first trimester. I have to walk on egg shells around my food. I don't want to make it mad, or it will show itself again. So I'm picking and choosing the food wisely and taking my Zofran around the clock and so far, I've only thrown up a few times. Poor BW is picking up the slack and really pulling double duty on my hardest days. He's so great. I'm so glad I found him out there in Iowa!

The kids are doing great and are very excited about Christmas! My parents, brother, brother's girlfriend, and my nephew will all be coming down here from Arkansas. Noodle has been singing this song, something she wrote all by herself:
"Oh, please, Santa, come to our house! Oh, please, Christmas, come to our town!"
Yes, it's cute. For about the first forty times. But she gets louder and louder and louder, because, she says, she wants to make sure Santa can hear her.

Banana is really into football these days. He loves to throw his Nerf football all around, spike it, say "touchdown!" and run his football all over the house and then fall down on the floor with it. It is really cute.

Chicken Nugget is still doing great in school. She had benchmarks last week, as they get ready for the big standardized test coming up soon. She blew the top off all her tests! This week is full of Christmas activities at school. Today, they brought in a snow machine and all the kids had a "snow day" during PE. It is crazy! To live in a place where, if the kids want to see snow, it has to be fake and brought in by a machine! But they love it, you know.

I'm still teaching first and second grade Sunday School at church and am still in the choir. I've been able to participate a lot more since I quit my retail job (YAY! NO MORE RETAIL FOR ME!). We also got a new pastor at church, which we are all very excited about. I'm looking forward to all that this year will hold for our church. We've faced many challenges, but God is so good and faithful and He is still working in our community, state, country, and world. I'm constantly amazed by His grace and goodness.

That's about it for now. Wishing you all a Very Merry Christmas! And sending much love from the Tasty Names family to yours -
God's richest blessings on you all!

Our Tiny Baby

Eleven Weeks and Puky Days Pregnant

Ugh.

I've been holding off on this post. I don't want to complain. But is it complaining if you simply state facts?

I feel nauseated. Not all the time, but most of the time. My doctor gave me some pills to help with the nausea, and they help. But they don't take it completely away. And right now, I am really, really nauseated. And I'm trying to convince myself that I really do not have to throw up. I'm doing everything I can to keep myself from throwing up. That's because I am afraid that if I start throwing up, I will not stop until 15-20 weeks of pregnancy. And that's too many weeks away for me to think of that as a viable option.

When I was pregnant with each girl, I had terrible, terrible nausea and throwing up. I threw up daily. I threw up water. I thought my tiny babies were going to die. I lost weight. My doctors would reassure and try very hard to help me. After about the 15th or so week, it all subsided. And my desire for children was so great that I still wanted to go through it again. So after I found out I was pregnant with #3, the fear set in, after the initial joy. Will I throw up for 15-20 weeks again? Will this be awful and horrible, again? But it wasn't. There was just a bit of nausea and no throwing up, and it passed fairly quickly.

I hear that when you are pregnant with a girl, you have more nausea because there are more "girl" hormones in your body - yours and your baby's. I don't know. But having experienced more nausea with the girls than I did with Banana, I am wondering if this baby is not another girl. That would make sense to me. I want to name her Annie.

Anyway, we have decided not to have any more of our own children. We want more children, of course. Very much so. But I just don't know if I can put my body through this again. And the more children to take care of during pregnancy, the harder everything else seems. So we will adopt. There are so many children who need a loving home, and we'd have a great family to welcome a couple more kids into.

So, I'm not trying to complain. Just saying that this bit of pregnancy is rough, with nausea and extreme fatigue. It's like I'm hungry, but so afraid to eat. But I also know from experience that when this stage passes, there will be no food that I will fear! Food will taste wonderful again, and I'll eat with abandon. Wild abandon.

Blue Like Jazz

I just finished this book a week ago. I loved it. Lots of my friends have read it. I kept thinking, "They read it. They love it. I should read it." But I hesitated, because it seemed trendy. I thought that maybe it was too trendy and too deep and that I probably wouldn't understand it. But it wasn't. It was edgy and raw and wonderful. I felt like I was sitting across from Donal Miller, maybe at Starbucks, sipping a white chocolate mocha and having a conversation with the man. It wasn't even like I was reading. Man, what a good book. Have ya'll read it? What do you think?

Another Quotable Quote

I can't help it, ya'll. My kids crack me up. I know ya'll are probably ready for some pictures or something a bit more substantial to read or look at on my blog, but sharing funny quotations from my kids is hilarious - at least to me!

Here goes:

Banana and I are doing some good, hard cuddling on the couch. Smooching even.

I said, "I love you, Banana."

He said, "I have boogers."

Ahead of Schedule

I had an ultrasound yesterday, and the baby already looks exactly like the one pictured above in my lilypie ticker! Not really. But similar. Anyway, I thought I was only about 8 or 9 weeks pregnant, but it turns out that I really am 10 weeks pregnant! It's always good to be a little bit ahead of schedule, especially in things like pregnancy.

We're hoping to find a scanner soon so ya'll can take a peek at the little teddy-bear looking baby also! I'm totally past the jellybean phase. The teddy-bear looking baby was moving a lot yesterday!

Yay! We're having a baby!

Love all of you.

I'm a great big ol' meanie mommy . . .

Scene: The bathtub, tonight.
Lots of screaming was going on. I was frazzled.
I said, "Ya'll are about to get in some big trouble. Who wants to get in trouble first?"
You always ask the "who wants to get in trouble first" question, because you know that no one wants to get in trouble at all, and usually it will stop any further naughtiness. Not tonight.

Noodle and Banana both stopped and looked at me. No naughtiness for a couple of seconds.

Noodle: "I don't want to get in trouble."
She shook her head. All was silent for a couple more minutes.
Then she pointed to Banana and said, "Banana gets in trouble."

Banana, looking up at me with his wide, innocent eyes:"I get in trouble."

Noodle: "I don't get in trouble."

Banana:"I in trouble."

Noodle:"Banana is in trouble, I'm not. I'm not in trouble."

Banana:"I in trouble. I NOT in trouble!"

Noodle:"I'm not in trouble! Nobody is in trouble!"

Lots of giggling. I started laughing. What are you going to do?

Due Date

July 4th, as far as we can tell. Next month, when we have an ultrasound, that may change. But as of now, we're looking for a baby to arrive on the Fourth of July!

More Goals

As per this post, and specifically goal #30, I have made some new goals:

31. Go to Hawaii.*

32. Start a charter school.

33. Complete my family history (I'll be starting it soon).

34. See goal #30.


*this goal was inspired by this post from my friend Boss.

"Miss" covers a multitutde of suffixes . . .

Is it Miss, Ms., or Mrs? Why, yes, it is!

Of our many lovely and traditional idiosyncrasies Down South, one of my favorites has to be our use of the English language. We're always "fixin' tuh" go somewhere; perhaps it's down to the branch (or perhaps crick) to do some fishin'. We can add syllables to words that have only one. We always wonder what "y'all" are doing. We love our Nee-Naws and Pee-Paws. We couldn't pronounce a short e sound to save our lives. And our drawl makes all those words sound as drippingly sweet as a buttermilk biscuit slathered in local honey.

But one "thang" I cannot figure out is how we got to calling all the Mrs.es in our lives, Miss! I grew up doing it. Mrs. Smith was called "Miss Smith." Never in my wildest pronuciation would I have called anyone "Missus." That would sound awkard, almost foolish! No one I knew did that. Not my mom or her mom, and I never, ever heard anyone call my mother "Missus." Nope, "Miss" was for everybody, despite the suffix. I never really thought it was strange.

Until I moved to other parts of the country. On the West Coast and in the Midwest, my Miss-calling was very out-of-place, and I got surprisingly used to calling every married woman "Missus;" at least, those with whom I was not on a first-name basis. I taught my children to say, "Missus." After all, that is how "Mrs." is pronounced!

Well, now I've been back Down South for three years, and I still say, "Missus" for all those Mrs.es that I know. And I'm bit taken aback when I am substitute teaching in a class for Mrs. Barnes, and I pronounce the "Mrs." in the correct manner, and I hear snickering. But I have to think back to a time when I found that pronunciation foreign as well. And there's not a Mrs. in the South that doesn't mind being called "Miss," so, I'll just have to get back into the groove of the Southern way of addressing all women.

So, Ms., Mrs., or Miss? Yes, you are! And so am I. As long as we're in the South, that is!

Overheard

Noodle, to Chicken Nugget:
"Banana's my brother and you're my sister and I'm your sister!"

Chicken Nugget:
"Yeah, and we love each other!"

Noodle:
"Mmmm-hmmm!"

Chicken Nugget:
"Can we hug?"