It's been a long time a-comin'!

I'm gonna be honest, I haven't had the desire to blog lately. Quite frankly, between my job, taking care of my active toddler and barely attempting to keep our small house clean, blogging has seemed like one more thing I had to do versus something I wanted to do. To write about my life lately would end up making me more tired than I already am...who wants THAT?? Not me, for sure.

So I'm not going to write about everything that has been going on lately. I'll just try to focus on the exciting stuff...err, well, the semi-exciting stuff that constitutes my life at this point.

I had my 13 week appointment last week and got to hear the baby's heart beat. It was a huge relief! Since moving into the 2nd trimester and not having the nausea to constantly remind me of the pregnancy, it had started to feel like I wasn't pregnant anymore. Hearing the heart beat is always a calming affirmation that there really is a baby growing inside there! It did take her about a full minute to find the heart beat which worried me a little bit but she found it finally and it was loud and strong at 150 bpm. I confirmed with her that I will be scheduled for a c-section about a week before my due date. That puts me somewhere around April 23rd! That's the 3rd week of April so I will be going on maternity leave the week before that, which means I'll only work 1 week in April! Woo hoo!!

A week from tomorrow (Tuesday, November 9th) I'm scheduled for an ultra sound to make sure the baby is healthy enough for my flight to Boston on Thanksgiving AND to try to find out the gender. I am so excited about possibly finding out so soon! I wasn't expecting to find out till probably after Thanksgiving. We are hoping for a boy but I will be perfectly happy with a girl too! We have names chosen (I think). Boy will be Julian Bryce - the name we chose for a boy when I was pregnant with Brooklyn - and Layla Paige. I love both of those names and can't wait to get to use them!

I mapped out the rest of my school year last night to see just how many weeks of school I have left in the school year and what my longest stretches of work would be. At this point, things are looking great! I have three weeks till Thanksgiving break. After coming back from that, I will have 3 weeks until we go on our 2 week Christmas break. Then I come back for 10 weeks (with a couple of 3 & 4 day weekends sprinkled in there) until Spring break during the 3 week of March. After that, I come back for 2 weeks and then I'm off on maternity leave! It doesn't sound so bad when I map it out like that! Now I just have to get my long-term sub situation set up and make sure my disability is all good to go and I'll be all set. Phew!

I'm very much looking forward to my Thanksgiving break in Massachusetts with my sister and her family! We are so excited to see her two girls and Brooklyn playing together. It will be the first time for them to get together and play since she was 3 months old and only sat and slobbered everywhere. We are planning a trip into Boston with one of Mike's friends who is a tour guide of Boston and has offered to take us through the city. Waylon will love that since he loves history and has never been to Boston. We will probably take the T-train in, which will be a fun time as well. Other then that, we plan on spending lots of time hanging out at home and enjoying Thanksgiving meal at Melissa's in-laws, eating yummy food and hopefully playing their annual poker game. I do intend on taking Waylon up to Nashua where I lived for almost 4 years and showing him our old house and my old stomping grounds. I hope it isn't too boring for him!

Waylon has been approved to have Tuesdays off from now on. He is really getting burnt out working the 80 hours a week he's been working. He doesn't get to hardly see Brooklyn or me or his dad who is very sick and dying. He has no time for himself and it's really starting to get to him. He told all this to his boss today and was given Tuesdays off. I'm so looking forward to getting to see him more and knowing that he's getting some rest and being able to see his daughter more. Neither of us want this work situation to be permanent but we do want to get out of debt as quickly as possible so that we have financial freedom as well as job freedom. This job allows us to achieve all of this and we are making some major headway. This has been a great motivator for us and it has felt so good to pay of several debts.

I think this is enough information for one post. I hope it's as positive as I wanted it to be. My goal is to focus on as much of the positive as possible because focusing on the negative is not mentally or physically healthy and I don't think God is pleased by it either.

Have a happy Thanksgiving celebration month! I for one, am thrilled to be pasted Halloween and onto the important holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas. My favorite time of the year!