Back to Work

This past week I went back to work. My first official day back was Tuesday, but I went in for part of Monday so I could talk with my sub & ease the transition a little. I am so glad that I decided to go in a day early because I felt completely overwhelmed. I walked into a classroom of 26 kids (when I left I had 17), a new schedule, and a new subject to teach. This was on top of the out-of-the-loop feeling I had from missing 6 weeks of meetings, staff developments, and the day to day happenings of the school. I kind of floated through the day with a dull headache while trying to remember how to talk to grown ups & carry on adult conversations. When I left on Monday I realized my grand plans of jumping in full steam ahead needed to be scrapped. Once I realized that, my stress level dropped quite a bit. I spent the evening brainstorming how I would handle the next day & decided that I would have to treat it like the first day of school all over again. Good call. When I walked in Tuesday I was ready. It felt right & good to be back. I had a wonderful day & it went by so fast I barely had time to wonder about Jack. It didn't hurt that I knew he was safe and sound with Daddy! The rest of the week flew by & I already feel like I'm back in the groove. It's going to take a little while to get caught up on all the miscellaneous stuff I need to do, but I'm not stressing about it. Some how it always gets done! Plenty of people have asked if I cried through the week, but honestly, I didn't. There were definitely times when I missed Jack, but I knew he was safe & happy with John or Nana (my mom) or Grandma (John's mom) depending on the day. I'm glad to be back to work & I feel blessed to have a job I enjoy that challenges me, and gives me the chance to make a difference in the lives of other people's precious babies each day. I also think going back to work is making me value my time with Jack even more. I look forward to coming home every day & snuggling with him. Even the late night or early morning feedings aren't so bad because now I see them as another chance to spend time with my little guy.

I've been meaning to post...

Well, lots of stuff. So today you get the shoulda-coulda-woulda of posts: 1. Vanity

• I never knew how much I loved my feet until they left me & got replaced with trunks. I mean, as a girl, no matter how insecure you are with your body, you can always put on a pair of great shoes & feel fabulous. I love to go shoe shopping even though I don't even buy anything most of the time. It's like dress-up for grownups! Anyway, it's no fun right now & I'm down to 1 pair of flip-flops & my tennis shoes that still fit my swollen sausage feet! Oh yeah, and the days I wear my tennis shoes, I have to wake John up to put them on for me!

2. Start of School

• It's been great! The first 2 days were rough & I was wondering if my body was going to cooperate, but we've been blessed with cooler temps & that has helped a LOT. Just getting out of the 100 degree weather everyday made a huge difference.
• I love the newest group of 5th graders! I already have tons of stories of their funny comments, stories, questions, etc. They crack me up!
• Anxious - if you know me, you know my students are 'My Kids' & it's really really weird facing the fact that I'm about to turn them over to someone for so long. My goal is to finish off the lesson plans this weekend...we shall see...
• I love my co-workers! I have the best work family & they have kept me laughing even on the days when late pregnancy has not been kind (i.e. days when tired, whiny, always burning up Katie shows up at work). I'm so thankful for the support, genuine care, & hilarity they provide on a daily basis.

Jack is Almost Here!!

• Surreal. We're about to have a new little person here with us & my mind refuses to wrap around that.
• People keep asking if I'm miserable & there are some rough days, but I would classify them more as uncomfortable than miserable. I'm still feeling pretty good considering I'm 8 & a half months now. I haven't really had anything to complain about with this pregnancy because everything has gone so smoothly & for that I truly thank God!
• Since my due date is a little more than 2 weeks away, I go to the doctor every week. Everything is normal & he seems to be happy where he is. We just scheduled a sonogram for next week to check Jack out. I think they want to get a better idea of how big he is, etc. since there's been no sign of any action so far. I already told my doctor (and pretty much everyone else) I just know he's going to be late. I could be wrong, but that's my feeling about it!
• Maternity pics - My friend Dori took some AMAZING pics of John & me & my tummy. I put them on Facebook and added some to the slideshow at the top of the blog. She is so gifted & I love the pics! You can check out her work here!
• We've pretty much got everything ready for Jack & I've been working on packing for the hospital & getting things ready for my maternity leave. John is simply amazing & has been keeping the house clean, getting the laundry done, and helping me out while trying to get ahead on his work stuff too. I am completely spoiled by this man (and couldn't be more thankful!)

I think that should catch me up for now - yay for long weekends!

First 2 days

I'm officially back to work! I feel something like that old cell phone you replaced because it wouldn't hold a charge anymore. Even though I rest as much as possible, I just run out of energy much faster than normal. Other than that, things are going well! Yesterday was full of meetings & I'm thankful for my loving & patient school family who put up with this big ol' preggie lady (& my sarcasm). I'm hoping I didn't scare any of the new staff members who don't know me yet... It was a good day, but I'm pretty sure our motto this year will say something about "The family that sweats together..." I'd like to send a special thank you to August in Texas for providing the insane temperatures! Needless to say, when I got home I was pretty wiped, BUT Lucy was having some sort of allergic reaction, so I had to take her to the vet. Apparently something triggered her immune system & she is now on the doggie version of cortisone & prescription strength benedryl. Side effects: increase in thirst & increase in urination. Um...yeah...so, John & I are having to schedule her pee breaks (i.e. one of us letting her out) throughout the day. Oh well, good thing we love her so much! Today we had the chance to work in our classrooms all day. My wonderful mom spent the whole day helping me out & John came for the afternoon to help move big stuff, staple things that are too high for me to reach, & set up my work station for me. It was amazing how much we got done & it made me feel ready for the new year. There's no way I could have done even half of that without them - I am SO grateful for their help! Other than that, I'm trying to keep my feet up tonight because my ankles are angry about this whole work thing. They are GIANT & just plain freakish looking. I started to take a picture, but had second thoughts - I hope you're not TOO disappointed.