Happy Halloween

It's Pumpkin time!

We had our annual pumpkin carving extravaganza last week. Our first was back in high school and was one of our first dates. These are our two pumps.This year we had the Laramie crowd over.

It was a lot of fun. You wouldn't believe how difficult it is to take a picture so that the pumpkins are glowing and so you can see peoples faces...this was our best attempt. We kind of all turned into jack-o-lanterns ourselves.

The Giant Turtle

Meet one of my earliest Childhood memories!

THE Giant Turtle

I was surprised when we went down to do some interviews in Nebraska with the amount of detail I remembered about my early childhood home in Village Green. I knew exactly where the "big hill" was but I have to admit, I was a little disappointed to discover the reality of my memories...

Not so Giant now are you?

Other than the disappointment of not seeing a seven foot tall giant concrete turtle the trip was a success. We save a bit of money staying with friends (thanks Davis') and at the "Economy Lodge" (what a dump...never stay there).

Interviews went well and I think I could be happy at either school. (He did so well on his interviews. We loved both schools and had a great time in Nebraska).

Baby Update and Naked Neighbor

Baby Update:
At almost 30 weeks, I'm feeling pretty good. I've already gained the desired amount of weight I wanted to so that's a bummer with still 10 weeks left, but my husband still thinks I'm beautiful so I'll live. My exercise instructor broke her foot a few weeks ago so I'm missing my fit for 2 class and the benefits of going each week. The hub has been very good at taking me on walks but I already bought some Halloween candy. I could not resist. My class is wonderful and they always ask about my "baby belly". One of my students from last year likes to poke and poke and poke. He thinks it is quite neat that a fat belly is so hard. Here's me looking tired but healthy. This was at 28 weeks so I'm a little bigger already. Who would have thought that maternity clothes could be too small!?! I should have listened to my wise mother who told me to buy the next size up even though it was too big at the time.

Here is the hub trying unsuccessfully to be as cool as me...This morning the baby was kicking at his face as he was talking to her. It was pretty funny.

Naked Neighbor

The greatly anticipated story of naked neighbor. Everyone says it sounds like a Seinfeld episode. Sorry to disappoint people but it is not that entertaining. So, here it is...One night while in the kitchen, I glimpsed out of the window and saw our neighbor brushing his teeth (fully clothed). The previous neighbors left the blinds closed all the time so I never thought of not looking or closing our curtains. I thought to myself, I hope he closes those before he is caught in his birthday suit. Well, no such luck. A few nights later, the hub and I were in the kitchen. I looked over his shoulder and saw the same neighbor brushing his teeth. To my dismay, this time there was a visible male organ! I screamed and ran to the other side of the kitchen, out of sight from the window. The hub turned, looked, and started laughing. He closed the curtain and it has been closed ever since (except to take the picture during the day). The bad part is the neighbor's blinds are still open. The funniest part is that the hub has a class with him! Oh, the joys of life.

Muffin

Before... After... (It looks worse that it really is)

So at the end of the summer Hoss turned me on to a new way to spend my money (which he doesn't have). Building RC airplanes. This is yet again another hobby that my bro-inLaw has gotten me into. Hoss had recently built and RC park Jet. I watched him fly it for about 45 seconds and I was hooked. (it would have been longer but a gust of wind pushed it to the ground breaking the fuselage into a bagillion pieces {actually just two}). He had some extra foam, so I downloaded some plans from RCPowers and made my first RC airplane. It took awhile (mostly because I didn't have anything of my own and had to wait for parts) but at the end of August Muffin was finished. I impulsively flew her right away the day happened to be very windy... about 15 seconds later Muffin, was dead... she did a nose dive at Mach 0.0197 and was left with a smashed front end.

I didn't think to take a picture of my pain... any way I fixed her up nicely a few days later. Unfortunately for her I plugged my motor into the binding pin slot on my transmitter... it naturally did not work so I started flipping switches and turning my controller on and off. I some how sent a signal through the binding pin slot and the plan took off full tilt in the kitchen, smashing into the fridge. I had to re-build her again.

Finally yesterday she was once again ready to fly.

I forgot to turn off the prop before she hit the ground, so I think that is the reason why it broke again. Don't worry she is already fixed up again!

So the wife is making fun of me because my airplane is a girl. She says boats are girls planes aren't.

Back to the Grind

School started on the same day for both of us and we are both pretty busy. The hub is taking many classes to get a head start for next semester when he gets to play Mr. mom for a few months. He now has four interviews for dental school. We are really excited about that. So far we have Louisville, Arizona, Creighton, and Lincoln on the list. Lots of traveling coming up. On the first day of school I found out that I could not teach preschool in the same classroom as kindergarten. At first I was very stressed out about this, shed some tears and had a fit in the Principal's office. They wanted me teaching kindergarten 3/4 of the time and preschool 1/4 of the time in another classroom all together. Not happening! So, finally we are hiring for the preschool job and my job is all of a sudden a lot simpler. Now I am only teaching kindergarten and have 7 kids! I know, its incredible. Rose thinks that I will never be able to teach in a regular size classroom. She is probably right. Here are some pictures of the classroom for all my teacher friends.

Stay tuned for future posts:

Belly Update

Naked Neighbor

RC airplane flight take 2

Boy or Girl?

Boy oh boy...

Its a girl!!!

The pictures are in and we are officially having a girl! We are so excited to finally know what our baby is. In an instant it became more real than I ever thought possible. Our little 14 1/2 cm and 11 oz baby is a girl. She is perfectly normal from what they can tell. She wasn't posing for the camera so the pictures are a little strange but the hub has put together a great video. Also, here's a picture of my growing belly between 20 and 21 weeks.

Opry-Land

What is Opry I'm not sure, and what it has to do with country music is also unknown. But apparently its a big deal to those in Tennessee. Last week the wife and I went to Nashville, TN to some teacher reading deal (National Reading First Conference). We stayed at the "gayest lord" or Gaylord Opryland Resort and Convention Center. It was pretty much a giant bird cage with many overly expensive restaurants. This picture was from inside one of the giant gardens. Honestly, this place was pretty impressive and huge. Notice, the glass ceiling in the background. This was 56 acres of fake rain forests and "Disneyland" like town squares (without the pirates). We never could have afforded this place on our own. Thanks school district!

While we were there while the wife was in meetings all day, I hung out in the giant bird cage and even escaped a few times and saw the Dark Knight at the IMAX theatre. If you have the chance and choice, go IMAX. We also went to a neat seafood restaurant in a giant aquarium. This lady was actually petting this fish (it was like a dog, following her around and rolling on its side). After we ate, we fed a pool of stingrays. The wife got a little more than she expected with this one...

We even went to the Grand Ole Opry one night. Check out our pirated video of some of the talent we saw. Among the 8 artists during the night we got to see Keith Anderson, Rodney Atkins, and Trace Adkins (no relation). The hub really liked the buckaroo song from Rodney Atkins. He'll get his own buckaroo or buckaroo'a' in a few months!

One night we rode on the biggest showboat in the world. I spit on the paddle wheel! We bought tickets for just the outer deck but halfway through the ride it started raining and so they invited us in to see the show. We got to see Tina Turner, Elvis, and Elton John up close and personal as there was an empty table in the front. Those are the smoke stacks in the back. Overall we had a really good time in Opryland. No pictures of this one, but on the plane ride home the wife got really sick and had to throw up in the barf bag. Those things work pretty good. Nice and roomy. I wanted to take a picture but she wouldn't have it. Poor Sweetie. (Yeah, poor sweetie). If anyone knows was opry means let us know! I thought it might be a kind of cheese but we did see any cheese in opryland.

The wife's Reading First soap box: For those of you out there interested in education (have children or will ever have children) we are encountering a critical point in reading instruction. Congress has already cut 60% of funding and will not renew the No Child Left Behind bill this year. I have been teaching in a reading first school and have seen the positive and remarkable difference this has made in the lives of so many of our students. Without this money, millions of our young children will be left without this great reading instruction. Write to your state officials telling them you support the Reading First initiative. If you have any questions let me know.