my little bean!

So I went in for the ultra-sound today at noon. I wasn't as nervous as I thought I would be because I had some other "pressing" issues on my mind...like the fact that I had just drank 25 ounces of water in less than an hour (they asked me to drink 32 and I just couldn't make it) and I had to pee like a racehorse!! That's all I could think about! I was squirming around in my seat trying to find a position that didn't put as much pressure on my bladder but that was to no avail. When I finally got in to see the ultra sound tech, it wasn't any better - he was pressing down so hard with the little ultra sound thing that I thought I would just pee right on him! lol. But he said everything looks the way it should. Baby Perrymam (my little bean) is just a tiny little thing inside a dark spot that could be seen on the ultra sound. I have pictures to show of course and I'm so proud of my little "dark spot" on the screen! lol Here he/she is!!





My baby is that dark round circle - everything around it is my uterus and the big dark area right above it is my very full bladder!








Here is a picture at a different distance. What a perfect little embryonic sac! lol. You can't even see the embryo because it's so early. They said I'll have another ultra-sound done in a couple of months and I'm really looking forward to that one because there will be a lot more to see!

After the doctor's office we went to lunch with my parents, did some laundry over there, went to Walmart for a few items then came home where I crashed. I was exhausted! I think the stress and worry I was feeling last night coupled with just the physical tiredness you get with pregnancy all came down on me at once. All I wanted was my bed...and Rowf curled up next to me. It was perfect.

Now I'm going to actually cook dinner, something I haven't done in probably well over a month, or more. I'm using the recipe of a friend from work and I'm really excited about it. We're having baked Salmon with baja chipotle marinade, parmesan couscous and a vegetable...haven't decided which, probably something canned. Now that cheerleading has slowed down I feel like I may have the desire to cook more and I need some extra healthy meals to consume!

well, for now, that's all I'm going to write. I think the fish is done thawing so I'm going to go check on that. Thanks for all the prayers, I really do appreciate them. I thank God who was watching over me and is always in control no matter how out of control I feel. We always lose sight of what He has done for us and what He will do for us when we put our faith in Him.

Good night!

Stephanie

Short...

I went to my doctor today. I don't even want to talk about it right now b/c I'm so frustrated with them. They did not make a good first impression at all. Tomorrow I have to go back to have an ultrasound but I don't know what time yet - I have to call at 9am. It's a long story that I don't have the stamina to re-tell right now. I will be in a better mood tomorrow after the ultrasound and a chance to talk to the doctor herself and not a medical assistant or whatever it was that I dealt with today. I don't think she thought through her voicemail that she left on my phone which left me stressed and worried all night. I've been praying constantly for God to take the worry out of me and for me to put my trust in him that everything is going to be just fine tomorrow. It's not very easy when you're dealing with incompetent people. I haven't decided yet if I'm going to go in to work tomorrow or not. I may be worthless with worry until I get to go in to the doctor. We'll see...I'll definitely update you tomorrow, hopefully with very positive, good news.

Steph

Yes, I'm pregnant

As you can see at the top of my new page, I am pregnant...5 weeks to be exact. My old blog site would not allow me to post a baby ticker that shows the progress of my baby so I switched sites. I'm still trying to figure out how to import blogs onto here though so that might take some time. Waylon and I are very excited about this new bundle of joy that will be joining us in just 9 months. I could not believe it when I saw the two lines on the pregnancy test! We had only been trying for about a month and a half! It's such a surreal feeling when you find out for the first time as I'm sure the experienced moms out there already know. I started freaking out! Of course, I found out while Waylon was at work so Rowf was the only one there to celebrate with me. He was a good companion though as he gets excited about anything. I will be posting more later but right now I'm going to rest from blogging a bit as I have been working on this all morning trying to figure out how to import my old blog and have not been able to yet. Thank you for reading and I look forward to keeping a regular blog on here!

love,
Steph

the longest week of my life...

I was so thankful at 3:48pm today -- you can't even imagine. That's the time my last class period of the day lets out and it means I'm done till 8:30am Monday morning. I don't know if it's the fact that it was holloween week or what but the kids were crazy this week...and I'm not over-reacting about this at all! Today, for the first time in my teaching career, I saw one of my female students go completely nuts. I mean, she lost it, and to make it worse, it was at an administrator. I felt bad because it was about me - I wrote her up yesterday for refusing to do her work in class - but the administrator took it all in stride because she's used to being cussed at. See...that's so not me. I would not have sat there taking it with a smile on my face like she did. Anyways...let's just say that wasn't the only thing that made me want this week to be over with. Next week can only be better...I keep telling myself that.
and so I look forward to tomorrow...
Tomorrow I get to go to a spa with the "girls" and get a massage, facial, and pedicure!!! How cool is that?!?! I'm sooooo looking forward to the relaxation and special treatment. I never get pampered like this so I'm really counting on it bringing me lots of relief. That's at five. Earlier in the morning I have a coffee-Mary Kay - baby gift-giving - date with a friend I haven't seen in a very long time. I'm really looking forward to that. It will be a day for me to do some stuff I enjoy, with nothing demanding or requiring my attention. Hard to imagine...I know.
I don't know who all is with me on this but I'm SUPER psyched that Halloween is over and we are moving on to Thanksgiving and Christmas!!! This is my absolute FAVORITE time of year and I'm really looking forward to our first holidays as a married couple together. I really want to start some personal family traditions for the holidays that we can pass on to our kids and our grandkids. I'm not creative though so that might be a challenge and something tells me Waylon won't be a huge help in that department...Any ideas from my readers? I'm open to suggestions. ;-) I love the crisp air, the smell of holiday candles, fire-place smoke in the air outside, shivering in the car early in the mornings when I first get in (and therefore making me look even MORE forward to the coffee I will stop and get on my way to work) and all the other little things that become part of your life this time around. I love Christmas music and really want to find some great Christmas CDs to have playing my apartment at all times during December. I love setting the mood for Christmas. I'm also having my very first "dinner party" - only two of the guests don't even know about it yet. I should probably get on that. I'm going all out for it too...little Christmas gifts for everyone, decorations, cooking, baking...the whole nine yards. It's going to be so fun!
November is also my month for my Mary Kay "Holiday Open House" where I will be opening up my home as a gift shop for all my clients to come and do some personalized shopping with free refreshments, free gift-wrapping and free delivery AND at the same time, being able to avoid the crowds as it is by appointment only with no more than two people at a time so I can give them the best service and so they can relax without worrying that someone is waiting for them. I'll be having that on November 29th and hopefully be having all my clients show up to that. I will be putting a lot of effort into the decorations and hopefully my apartment will look like a winter-wonderland that day!
Another MK project going on in my unit this Christmas is our adopt-a-grandparent program. We pick a retirement home and go out getting businesses or groups of people or even just individual clients to sponsor a grandparent for $20. We give them a nicely wrapped gift with a little card on it saying who it's from, we deliver it to them, and we have banners that also will show everyone who provided a gift. If any of my readers are interested in this, please let me know and I can give you more details. It's a very self-less thing to do this Christmas for a small amount of money that will be making several people's day. For some, sadly, this will be the only gift they receive this Christmas. I hate to think about that.
I'm excited to see what this holiday season will be bringing. We do know that we will be going to Waco to spend Thanksgiving with Waylon's side of the family. I'm looking forward to that because it is always a good time with them. Hopefully Waylon can get more than just Thanksgiving off from his work...otherwise it will be a very short trip. I'll have the whole week off which will be nice. I need a break from school. I really feel like I'm getting burnt out. Next week is our last football game so I am going to be getting a little release from my crazy schedule, which will rock.
Well folks, I've now yawned about 7 times which tells me I've got to hit the sack. Check out the updates made to my page about books I've read and am reading. I'll have a little info on the Twilight series I just finished.
hasta luego,
Stephanie

It's like I'm living in a new home...kinda

So it's been a while since I did this, however, I still wanted to post the changes I made in my apartment. Now I know it's not going to be anything super wonderful or cute-sie oreven impressive. Remember who we're talking about here...me. I'm not an artistic person when it comes to decorating and organizing. I have to say though, I'm very proud of the purchases I made and I feel like it has made a huge difference in how I feel about being in my apartment. Just he little splashes of color and actually having decorations on the wall makes a HUGE difference!! I'm just posting a few pictures to wet your palet. There will be more to come in the future. So...without further a-doo (I know that's nolt how you really spell it so stop thinking I'm an idiot already!) here are my before and after pics!!!
Before: After:







Before: (living room with shirtless husband included) After: (clothed husband - upgrade!!) ;-)







Before: (Mary Kay "office") After:









So there are a few pictures to show you first of all, how messy I was, and secondly what I did with what I had. I was pretty proud of myself. Waylon always happened to be in the living room when I took the pictures in there so you will have to excuse his shirtless condition. He doesn't really always go around shirtless. Pantless, yes, but shirtless no. haha. jk!
I've also taken some of the tips from my book on organization that I got from Barnes & Noble so I will be taking some pictures of those. Right now I have several hundred cheerleading pictures that I need to give to the varsity sponsor so I don't have a lot of room on my camera, plus it takes forever to upload b/c it has to go through EVERY SINGLE picture on my camera. This has really kept me from wanting to take pictures because then when I want to upload them, I have to go through the other 250! Anyways, I am going to post a couple of really cool pictures I took at some of our games so you can see how talented my squad is. I'll actually leave you with a picture of the two stunt groups showing off their amazing "scorpion" stunt. I love this picture because it looks so cool and it shows my girls off well. Here you go!!

Isn't that so cool looking?! They are so good. I'm impressed every day that I watch them perform.
Anyhoo...I'm pretty tired and need to get some sleep. Waylon is long gone to dream land and I think I will go join him. I stayed up to watch the most recent episode of Grey's Anatomy and to post this blog (don't you feel special??) Today was a long day. I went in to my old job (where Waylon currently works) to do a drop-off catering. It ended up being kind of a pain-in-the-rear b/c on my way back I got stuck in ridiculous traffic on 635 for a really bad wreck that looked like it included at least 5 cars if not more. We went from 4 lanes down to 1 and in DFW traffic, that's a bummer. Took me an extra forty minutes to get back from that catering than it normally would.
I leave you with this question:
why do drive-thru ATM's have braile on the panels where the keypads are? Take some time to think through what I'm asking...let me know if you come up with an answer...
good night from your decorating guru,
Stephanie

Update

I just wanted to post an update about Waylon's dad, my father-in-law. For those who didn't know, this past Sunday evening he was in a bad motorcycle accident and was taken to the hospital in San Antonio and was in the Sever Trauma ICU. He broke several bones in his face and his collar bone and had bleeding in his brain as well as swelling in the brain. We got the call halfway through the day on Monday and Waylon and I left as soon as the school got a substitute in there for me. When we got down there, the doctors were not giving him a very good prognosis. They were saying it didn't look good and weren't giving him good chances of survival. Well, I'm happy to report that by Wednesday when I left to come home, the bleeding and swelling in the brain were gone, he was able to open his eyes that were previously swollen shut, he could hear us and follow commands and he was moving his legs quite a bit on his own. He was still on a ventilator so he is unable to speak yet and wasn't conscious for long periods at a time but he did know we were there and made huge improvments. He has basically cleared the "critical" zone as far as the doctors not knowing if he will pull through - it should be moving forward from here on out. While they haven't given us details, we do know just from the extent of his injuries that it will be a long recovery. His family has been great about going down and seeing him and Mitzi, his wife has been by his side at every visiting hour time slot. Waylon stayed one day after I left and I know it was hard for him to leave his father but we did have to get back home and work. :( It was a tough week but God was at work and so many of our friends and family were praying. We are so thankful to all who lifted Don and his family up in prayers. We are also thankful to the Lord for once again showing how loving He is and that He is watching over us and listening to our prayers.
Keep praying for his continual recovery and thanks again to all who remember him in your prayers!
Stephanie

Preview...

I am beginning to finally get to the point where I will be designating specific time during the week, probably just one day a week, to organizing and decorating my apartment. I feel like we might be finally finding our "groove" here in our schedules and as crazy as they may be, I'm going to start scheduling my time to include some organization and decorating time. It needs it and if I want to have company more often and be able to feel proud of my home, I need to do something with it other than just keeping it tidy.
I'll start with my office/den because that's what needs to most organization. I have all my Mary Kay stuff in there and that definitely needs to be better organized. I also want to set up a system for keeping better track of my bills and making sure they get paid on time. I've been late a couple of times lately with paying bills simply because I forgot and didn't have the bill in a place where I would see it and remember to pay it. I also need to start filing things away after I pay them. I'll have to get some office organizers to help me in this but I think it will be money well spent that will keep me more sane and on track. I read today online that in your office you should have a nice decoration or something pleasing to look at within 90 degrees either way of your computer screen to give your eyes something pleasant to rest on when they need a break from staring at the computer. Right now all we have is a poster Waylon wanted that has lots of guitar chords. It's a cool poster but it's not pretty or "pleasant to look at" really. I need to find a nice decoration or maybe hang some prints of Waylon and I on that wall. I think I also need a desk calendar with big boxes to write stuff in for important dates. I want to start keeping track of all my family and friends' birthdays, but I need somewhere visible that I would see regularly to keep that on. I want to start sending out Birthday cards for birthdays and anniversaries. Anyone who knows me, knows this will be a HUGE accomplishment as I have NEVER been good with cards!
The next room that needs decorating would be my living room. There are a couple of things on the wall but nothing really exciting. We even have a really cool long picture frame hanging over our TV...with no pictures in it! I hung it up there to get it out of the way, not thinking it would take me this long to put pictures in it. I want to give it a more "cozy" feel and I also want to decorate it for the upcoming fall seasons. I LOVE those decorations!!
The third room will be our "dining room" which doesn't have a lot to work with but I want to find either a nice big picture or wall art to hang over where our table sits, OR a set of several wall arts that go together that would look cute in an arrangement.
Third would be our bedroom. This will be last only because it's the room people see the least so it would just be for our own viewing, but it still needs to be decorated. We need some drapes to hang on our window, more wall decorations and just a little "something extra" to make it not so drab. We will be living here for a while since we're trying to get completely out of debt before getting into a house so I want to feel as at home as possible and make it as pleasant as I can to be in. I'm not a super artsy person to start with so I'm going to call on some friends who are really good at this stuff to help me out.
As I make progress, I will be posting pictures up of what I've done with each room; thus the title of my blog today: Preview. I'll probably take a before and after picture so you can see the difference too. It will be fun! You can also evaluate what I've done and give me suggestions if you see something that looks awkward - I will try to not take offense!! lol. jk, I WON'T because I know I'm not good at doing this so any suggestions are going to be welcomed.
So, here's to a new "beginning" in my apartment! Pray for me and keep those ideas coming!! Any money saving tips for organizing or decorating would be greatly appreciated!!!
Thanks for reading my blog!
Stephanie