Happy Birthday Dolores!

We drove up to Dallas a few weekends ago to celebrate Travis' grandmother's 80th birthday. It was a wonderful celebration, and we were delighted that we could be there! It was so wonderful to spend some time with his family and to see the twins who have grown so much! It was also wonderful to get out of Del Rio; it's the first time I've left the city since November!!

Happy Birthday, Dolores!!

Travis modeling one of the baby presents that Diane gave us...a cute little hoodie towel!!

We went to the Dallas Arboretum to see all the flowers blooming. It was absolutely beautiful! We also had the chance to go to the mall (yay!) and some other choice locations, like Pappadeux and Yogurtville. (I've lived in Del Rio too long, and I miss all those options out there!!)

The flowers were so pretty!! I couldn't resist taking a few pictures....

Travis' solution for my concern about taking pictures of just flowers....

It was a beautiful day, and it was really fun to walk around and hang out with Travis. He's been busy at work, and I hadn't had any quality time with him for a while!! :-)

The twins are walking and babbling like pros, and they were thrilled about getting into everything! Notice all the supervision so they wouldn't get in the water!!

Hanging out with my grandparents in Rockwall - we had a fabulous lunch and then ice cream for dessert in this amazing shopping center right on the lake. It was so good to see them!

And, the twins. Boy, have they gotten busy! They are all over the place, all the time! They are about 18 months old now and are the cutest little people! It was really a joy to see them again!

They love to hang out in our dog crates...

We were thrilled to see how patient Rio was with the babies! She is just naturally patient and loving to the kids. She has also learned that having little people around means extra food crumbs everywhere. She was happy to clean up after the twins and to lick the crumbs off their faces too! Percy behaved just fine, but he needs a little more exposure to the babies before he is truly comfortable...guess he will get his experience soon!!

Carson loved playing in the dog's water, too. We had to keep refilling the bowl over and over again!!

It was a great weekend, and it was so hard to leave Dallas!! I really didn't want to leave, but luckily, I have a wonderful, amazing husband who I love with all my heart, so I was happy to go home with him. We are looking forward to seeing everyone again soon!!

Spring Break Update...

As promised, I worked really hard over spring break, and I am really proud of everything I got done! It was a pretty productive week and weekend, and I feel like I am ready to tackle the rest of the school year...

Here's everything that happened:

-I finished reading a 400 page textbook, 6 articles, and another 200 page textbook, and finished the 30-page reading journal I have to turn in on April 15th

-I wrote three essays for the online Pre-Cal class

-I wrote an 11-page article review after searching for HOURS for a article that fit the guidelines the instructor gave us

-I finished Geometry lesson plans for the next week and a half and planned out the rest of the year

-I finished Pre-Cal lesson plans for the next two weeks, prepared the next couple of weeks of lesson plans (but didn't finish them) and planned out the rest of the year

-I revised and submitted the last paper for my History of Math class

-I graded the Geometry quizzes and Pre-Cal quizzes I gave last Friday and updated all the grades online

- I watched a LOT of Law and Order, Without a Trace, Gilmore Girls, The Office, cheesy, sappy movies on TMC, remodeling/designing shows on HGTV, and baby shows on TLC :-)

So, for my masters classes, I am finished with two of them (Pre-Cal and History of Math) except for the final exams and am 1 big project away from finishing the Reading class!!!

For my classroom, I have both classes planned for the rest of the year and lesson plans through next week. The rest of the lesson plans for the year won't be bad at all, and we are only about eleven weeks away from the end of the year. Whoo hoo!!

For the baby, not much has happened yet, but I still have time for that. One thing at a time over here...

And then, this weekend, Travis and I worked on the house and our own personal needs. We made a quick trip to San Antonio on Saturday to shop and hang out with my parents, and we bought a few essentials - new shoes for both of us and stretchy pants for me!! :-)

Then, today, Travis scrubbed the shower, mowed the lawn, and FIXED THE SINK!! We are tired of waiting for the insurance company, and it looks like it will be another few weeks (maybe even months) before they take our claim seriously, so Travis just went and bought a new faucet and figured out how to install it. It works perfectly and isn't leaking anymore. We are thrilled to have a functioning sink back! And, I feel good because the house is finally starting to be clean again!! I finished some work, cleaned the bathrooms, washed all the dishes, and cleaned up the kitchen. And then we found a giftcard for Chili's that we didn't know we had, so we had a free dinner too. :-)

So it was a good, productive spring break here at the Daniels' household!

And, Happy (late) St. Patrick's Day to everyone! I bought cards to send out, but I totally forgot to mail them... I'll just save them for next year!! :-)

Spring Break 2011

Well, spring break is finally here, but it won't be much of a break for me! This is a self-imposed work week, but I have decided I want to finish all three of my online master's classes for this semester in this next week. I also want to get the majority of the lesson plans for the next few weeks completed, because I want to be able to do other things on the weekends for the rest of the school year, like play on the lake! I also need (NEED) to get out of Del Rio and do some serious baby shopping...I haven't left this town since November!! (Did I mention that my house is also a disaster?? No child should live here right now...) I have several trips, days off, and fun activities planned, but all of them are happening in April, May, and June! So I figured I would sacrifice spring break in order to have weekends free for the rest of the school year.

So, I wanted to put it in writing and make it official: lots of work over spring break, lots of free weekends later. (Keep me honest, family!! Help me keep the motivation all week, and then make sure I take that time off later!) I'm already finished with one of my classes (History of Math), and I have finished half of both of the other classes. For my Pre-Calculus refresher class, I have two essays, four quizzes, and a final left to do. For the Reading class, I have 14 chapters and 6 articles of reading to complete, a major paper, a couple of discussion board posts, and a major presentation/powerpoint to complete...this one will be a challenge. For the lesson plans for my high school classes, I have already finished Geometry and Pre-Cal up through the week after spring break (yay!!), so I will be working on the next few weeks after that.

I'm motivated. I'm anxious to finish this master's degree and the rest of the school year.

Bring it on. :-)

Charity Auction and More Baby Presents

This past Saturday, we attended a charity auction that the Officer's Spouses Club (OSC) organized in order to raise money for scholarships for students to go to college. I joined the OSC last August, am currently serving as the Corresponding Secretary on the board, and spent a lot of time helping to put things together for the auction. It turned out to be a huge success, and we raised almost $12,000! We will be giving the money to the deserving students in April at our scholarship banquet. I have really enjoyed being a part of this group and am excited to be doing something as wonderful as helping a kid go to college!!

The auction itself was really fun. The western theme gave us both a chance to wear our cowboy boots! I was working for most of the auction, so I didn't get a chance to take any pictures (sorry!!). We had a dessert auction, and the cake I made ended up selling for $30!! There was also a silent auction, live auction, and raffle of gifts that we had solicited from members of the community. There were several great items, and I was in charge of putting all the item descriptions together for the programs. It was quite a task and took up most of one of my weekends, but it was really fun to get to see all the items beforehand!

Only one item stood out to me - a basket full of baby gifts! There are several ladies in our flight who are pregnant, and a bidding war ensued for the basket once it came up during the live auction. Travis persisted and kept his paddle in the air, and we ended up winning (um....buying) the basket!

It was totally worth it... Everything in the basket is super cute!! Of course, it is all getting tucked away in a closet for another seven months, but it's still exciting!! Here's what was inside:

A cute diaper bag, made out of a flight suit (the uniform Travis wears to work everyday). The lining on the inside is all different patterns of red, white, and blue. The patch on the left is the patch for the base here, and the patch on the right says "My Dad's in the Military".

Next, several bibs (red, white, and blue, of course!), a little red onsie that says "I'm Made in America", and two white shirts, one with a USA airplane on it, and another that says "I'm Proud...My Daddy is in the Air Force".

And then, of course, a myriad of blankets, toys, books and other necessities...most of them airplane oriented! :-)

I'm looking forward to being done with my master's classes and with school so that I can start focusing on putting together a nursery. For now, this stuff is just sitting in a closet in the guest room, waiting patiently for September! :-)

First Baby Present!!

We told our neighbors across the street the good news last weekend, and they came home the next day with a present for us! It's our first official gift for the baby...how exciting!! :-)

Dishes

Our sink decided to leak, and we now have a ruined kitchen cabinet, sink, and wood floors in our kitchen and living room. It is a complete mess, and the wood floors are warped and ruined. We have had someone come out and give us a bid, and we sent the bid immediately to our insurance company. That was two weeks ago, and we are STILL waiting for them to approve the cost so we can move forward with the repairs. I'm really hoping they get back to us soon, because I would love to get this done over my spring break! But, it is not looking good...

In the meantime, we are spending too much money eating out. It is really hard to cook anything in the kitchen when you can't use the kitchen sink! When we do cook at home, the dishes pile up because we can't easily clean them and put them away. When we do want to rinse anything, we make trips to the bathroom with a giant bowl, fill it with water, and pour it into stuff in the sink. It's really starting to get old (and smelly).

Tonight, we finally had enough and did the dishes...19th century style (minus the whole running water in the house thing...) At least we didn't have to fetch water from the well! :-)

We took the dishes outside and rinsed them in the spigot outside the house...

Then we took them inside to the bathtub and washed them with soap and warm water...

It was quite a chore, but at least now everything is clean!! :-)

End of the First Trimester

We had our second doctor's appointment today, and everything looks great!! I met the doctor, and he seems really nice. And today's appointment actually turned out more exciting than I thought because they decided to do another sonogram!! The only reason it happened was a guy from San Antonio was there training all the doctors how to use the new machine, so they were having the doctor's practice on all their patients today! So, I was shocked, but getting the sonogram helped make up for the TWO hour wait I had to endure because of this...it was totally worth the wait.

The doctor was "practicing" so he kept the baby on the screen for a long time. It has grown so much!! They determined we are 13 weeks and 3 days along. It's about three inches long now, with a heartbeat of 180 bpm, and you can see its sweet face, hands, feet, and even an ear!! And that baby was moving... Arms were flailing, legs were kicking, head was turning back and forth for the entire duration of the sonogram. The only time it stopped moving was the few milliseconds before it made a huge somersault!! It flipped itself completely over and then started all the wiggling again! I can't feel a thing yet, though, so it was really great to see it all happening on the screen. I was amazed that this little person is inside of me, and it was really exciting to see how much fun it is having in there. :-)

And, because the doctor was "practicing" his sonogram techniques, he actually took a 4D sonogram picture of the baby. It was pretty cool!! Here's the picture we got to take home:

Travis thinks it looks just like him. I'm inclined to agree. :-)

We have our next appointment in a month, and that's when we'll find out the sex of the baby (as long as it holds still long enough for us to see)!!

As for me, I'm feeling much better - the nausea isn't as persistant as before and only happens now and then. Now, I am just really tired all the time, and I can feel the emotional roller coaster that I am riding constantly (poor Travis!!). My students, honestly, get the brunt of my bad days and the best parts of my good days; I try really hard to be nice to them, but when I'm not feeling good, my patience runs a little thin!! You can see a little bump in my stomach (not much, but definitely noticeable if you are looking), and I can feel everything stretching (sometimes that hurts!!). I crave chocolate milk ALL the time and have finished off about four gallons of milk in the last month! I am also devouring strawberries like crazy, and this week's food of choice has been Lucky Charms (random, right!?!?). Travis is really excited about all the changes he is seeing and is extremely patient with me, regardless of my mood. He's been to the store more than once for more strawberries and milk, and he's always happy to take care of anything that I need. I couldn't ask for a better husband, and we are both looking forward to whatever comes next! :-)