Sunning & Swelling

Sunning & Swelling…. That sums up my trip to the beach last week with friends. It was definitely a lot more difficult than I had expected, sitting in the sun all day… growing a baby. My typical beach schedule of beach by 10:00, sandwich at noon, beach ‘til dinnertime needed serious revision this year. Even with a few Bubba Kegs of water and plenty of snacks, I grew tired very quickly. Not to mention what the heat and salty air did to my poor fingers and toes… Wimpy, I know.

Being there with our friends and their young children gave me a glimpse at what our future beach trips will be like. I believe our days of packing a cooler and setting up camp for the day in the sand are behind us. We will now be towing beach toys, bottles, baby sunscreen, extra diapers, etc. along with us, and our beach time will be significantly less.

Despite these changes, I honestly believe our best beach memories await us. Watching the love- even through some rough patches- among these parents and their children made me rather emotional on multiple occasions. We’re blessed to have some great parenting role models around us.

Jamie and I couldn’t be more excited to have a little one of our own to bring along for the beach fun next year, even though our “routines” will never be the same. Growing up, I guess… 

Just for fun, here's a picture of one of my nephews on the beach last week. Oh, to sleep like that...

Pregnant and Slightly Crazy

It’s been a while! The end of the school year always makes life hectic around our house, and this year even more so as we are expecting our first baby. Even at three and half months pregnant, it still is a little strange to get used to saying that.

 A baby- another human we will be responsible for… feeding, changing, bathing, getting ready for school or daycare. Not to mention all the financial responsibilities. Yikes. Imagine my deer-in-headlights face as I’m brainstorming these things even now.

Please don’t get me wrong. I’m thrilled to be having a baby! My husband is beyond excited. I’m just in awe of the huge responsibility we’ve signed up for.

Since we announced our pregnancy, we’ve been blessed with genuine excitement and support from our families and friends. Even people we barely know are eager to offer advice or share their own pregnancy stories – something I’ve been warned gets more interesting as the baby starts to “show”.

It’s no secret that I am frequently a selfish person and pretty self-conscious, especially about my weight. Pregnancy has forced me to step back from my usual frame of mind; I’ve had to think about the health of this baby rather than what I want or how I want to look. It’s a tough balancing act, especially in our society. Mix in with that all of the crazy pregnancy hormones I’ve had, and you can imagine my fragile state of mind. My poor husband!

I’ve been quite the basket case for the past few months, and I’m sure the remainder of the pregnancy will be an adventure for me and my loved ones. I apologize in advanced for hormonal outbursts, either in the form of tears or anger. You can also expect some blogs about my emotions, the baby’s growth, and some of the interesting encounters I have with others offering their own personal commentary.

It’ll be a journey in itself, but it will all be worth it when this baby is here!

End of the Year Laughs

Blogging has been on hiatus over the past several weeks as the school year gets begins to wind down. I thought today I’d share a few of the hilarious things my students have said to me lately. Yes, I keep a pen and paper near at all times to record these for future laughs.  These are keeping me sane as all the kiddos are beyond ready for school to be out.

I’m pretty sure these each came from a different child, so this is a glimpse into the wonderful world of my kindergarten classroom… Enjoy!

1.     Student: “Me and my brother are going to be in a wedding in June. I get to dress up like a cowgirl.”

Me:  “Oh really? That will be so much fun.”

Student: “Yea, and my brother gets to be the ring BARRIER.”

2.     Student: “Mrs. Garland, we’ve been outside too long for recess today. I’m getting STUN-burnt.”

Me: Shaking my head.

3.     Student: “I had to go to the doctor yesterday cause I’m having surgery this summer.”

Me: “Oh no. What kind of surgery? Are you nervous about it.”

Student: “No, I’m not scared or anything. I’ll be asleep when they cut me. And when they’re all done, they will put SNITCHES in it.”

4.     Student: (Sniffs my arm. I know, right??) “Mrs. Garland, you smell like the Easter Bunny.”

Me: “Not sure what that means, but thanks I think. Is that good?”

Student: “Yea, you know, like jelly beans and chocolate.”

5.     At the police department for a field trip, and the K-9 Unit is doing a demonstration when….

Student: “Is that dog a werewolf?”

Officer: “No, she’s just a German Shepherd.”

Me: Shaking my head.

6.     Again, at the police department for a field trip, and the officer is describing the tools he uses for his job.

Officer: “This is our gun… This is a taser…. This is a flashlight…. These are handcuffs.”

Student: “My mama’s got a pair of those”

Officer: “Does she now?”

Me: Doing that silent laugh that hurts because something was too inappropriately funny, shaking my head, and wishing sometimes I had a video camera to record these priceless moments.

We’ve almost made it to summer, people. I will miss these children next year, but I know they will share some great wisdom with their first grade teachers.

Spring Whistling

From our back porch in early March

I’ve been brainstorming ways to start this, so I searched for a quote about spring. My intentions were to blog about the beauty of spring and the promise of new life, sappy stuff I will get to eventually, but I wanted to share my wise crack first. Insert sly grin here.

 “Spring is when you feel like whistling even with a shoe full of slush.”  ~Doug Larson

So true, right? In springtime, we all are filled with fresh air, bright eyes, and a hope for new things as the seasons change. We see life outside again. The past few weeks have definitely been whistling weather, even though I’ve had my share of slushy shoes.

Our only blooming azalea

I am always an early victim of spring fever, but as I get, ah-ahem, older, my reasons are maturing. As a student, I definitely understood spring fever to mean summer is quickly approaching, a defense for slacking off in my schoolwork. Spring was simply a route we all walked through just to get to summer—hot & sunny days at the pool, beach trips, shorts & tank tops, late nights, etc.

In my more adult perspective, spring is a miracle, not just a stepping-stone. The beautiful changes- color in the grass, birds in the sky, and blooms (especially our gorgeous irises) everywhere- are reminders of God’s love and greatness. These are the reasons for my spring fever, wanting to be outside more than inside, this year.

I’m using my newfound spring energy to help shed some of the pounds I picked up during winter “hibernation.” After all, summer will be here before we know it. That’s just how the calendar works. And it’ll be time for those hot days at the pool, beach trips, shorts & tank tops, late nights, etc.  

Pinning

Hahaha. I’m sure someone, somewhere has already made this reference to Charlie Sheen’s epic interview, but it made me feel clever.

The past few weeks, as part of my resolution to learn to sew, I’ve spent countless hours #pinning. Looking at Pinterest for ideas and sewing tutorials, and then attempting to complete the projects. Of course that means I’ve also spent money on craft supplies and I’ve neglected my housework, but that’s okay. At least I made something.

So far, I’ve been fairly successful, minus today’s “Thing One & Thing Two” cupcakes, so I thought I’d share three things I’ve learned from DIY/Crafts on Pinterest.

1.     Before you login, have a general idea of what you’re looking for. If you don’t, you’ll end up looking at things you don’t really need. For example, last week, I wanted ideas for magazine storage. I ended up finding a great “vintage” wine crate idea, which led to another vintage framed-scrapbook-art idea. Which of course led to the scrapbook tree idea… You see what I mean?

2.     Set a time limit for yourself. I am clearly the queen of wasting time & being easily distracted. In the past two weeks, I’m sure my total hours of pinning exceeded 24 hours. Sad, I know. 

3.     Be realistic with your expectations. If you’ve never made homemade cupcakes or homemade icing before, expect a learning experience…and be prepared for multiple attempts. In my learning experience this week, I was attempting to make these fabulous cupcakes I found for my school celebration of Dr. Seuss’s birthday. The cupcakes, as in the “cake” part, turned out great. The icing, not so much. It was supposed to be bright blue and piped to look like tall, wild, Thing-One-Ish hair. Let’s just say it was a failed attempt. The icing was delicious, but it looked like blue soup. At 5:00 this morning, I was pinning again to find ways to thicken icing. All attempts to revive my icing were in vain. In the end, the kids loved the treat, but I was super-disappointed in my baking skills.

New goal: spread the projects out over several weekends rather than cramming everything into one three-day weekend. This weekend, my time pinning will be more limited as I plan to finish a book I started months ago. See my pic below for my scrapbook tree & wine bottle vase I finished last weekend. I say it's an improvement to our kitchen space.

If you need an invite to Pinterest, let me know. I’m happy to spread the mania.

Right Here at Home

Have you SEEN outside today? Gorgeous. I’m in love with this weather. If this is winter, I’ll take it.

Anyway, I wanted to write today about the realization I had this past week. In my search of kind things to blog about, I remembered all of the small things my husband has done for me lately. He will probably be mortified that I’m blogging about him, but he deserves a moment -however brief & embarrassing- in the spotlight.

He’ll love this more, too, because he continues to ensure me that keeping a blog is totally dorky (I know, hurtful) and that it is unlikely many people actually read it (gasp).

So, in this very public and highly read (hehehe) media, I would like to commend him for his unselfish kindness… at home with me, with his family, and in his daily routine at school. Living with me is not always an easy task. I’m terribly loud and very clumsy. I struggle to be a good listener. I love sleeping late, playing on my computer (or phone or iPad or other technology format), sewing until late hours of the night, hogging the remote, and filling up the DVR with Chelsea Handler. 

You get the picture- I’m slightly self-centered.

But, through it all, he is forever patient and kind. We are not typically “Valentine’s-ish” people, but I was surprised this year with a rose. For two weekends in a row, he has sneaked out of bed in the morning, taken care of our fur-babies, and let me sleep until after 10:00. Two of those days, when I finally crawled out of bed after 12+ hours of sleep, he had a biscuit waiting for me. He has sat through numerous new sit-coms that I know are not his favorite. And he continues to support me through my serious budgeting flaws (I’d love to say they’re minor math mistakes, but that’s simply not true).  

I’ve always known my husband’s a great guy, and he continues to make me proud everyday in his hard work, family support, and *youthful* sense of humor. I can only hope his kindness and level-headedness will somehow rub off on me.

My search for kindness in the world this week was quite simple and fairly short. My husband. Right here at home all along. 

Keeping Calm

I really started this year out with a bang on my blog, or at least I thought so. The past few weeks have been unbelievably hectic, especially considering Jamie isn’t even coaching this year. I thought we might have some down time, but I was mistaken. I realized that no matter how much we “give up”, we will always find a way to fill that extra time.

But, the point this week isn’t to vent about my busy life. I actually have a big celebration/actualization to discuss.

I was quite shocked a few months ago when my principal asked me if I would host a student teacher. It was one of those “Who, me? Are you sure you mean me? The girl with only a few years under my belt… still figuring this out myself…Right here… ME?” I gladly accepted, but still question my qualifications, if you will.

Best. Decision. EVER.

I have had the past four weeks to get to know an amazing young lady who happens to be extremely gifted in the classroom. She is so excited to come to school everyday… and it shows in her teaching. Her enthusiasm and fresh hope has encouraged me to take a better look at how I approach my students everyday.

Rather than focusing so much on every little detail, I’ve been more goal-oriented. Rather than repeating myself (5,000 times everyday- at least) to the point of frustration, I’ve been challenged to find another way to achieve our objectives. Rather than losing my patience, I’ve been more focused on keeping calm.

Little things may, and they most likely will, come up everyday. But when we get creative, we can still find a way to achieve our goal.

 Keep calm, stay focused on the goal. My mantra for now.