Love at First Sight

Introducing the newest member of our family!

We got to see our sweet baby and hear his/her heartbeat for the first time yesterday! It was so amazing! It was a moment we will never forget. He/she was so peaceful for the first 20-30 seconds of the ultrasound, so we were able to get these two good photos...the rest of the time, he/she was putting on quite the show! Flipping, rolling over..you name it!

I'm still feeling great..my only complaint is that I have to go to the bathroom ALL.THE.TIME. But I guess if that's the worst of it, I really can't complain! And the doctor said everything looks great! We couldn't be happier! :)

Top Five Friday--American Idol Style!

Oh, how I love American Idol! This is a show that Derek & I both look forward to watching each week together. Here are my top 5 fave things about AI right now...

5. The absence of Paula Abdul. I always liked Paula, and she was always so positive with the contestants. But it was always so annoying to hear her & Simon bicker back and forth..I do not miss that at all!

4. Ellen. I heart Ellen. I must admit that even though I really like her, I wasn't pumped about her being on the show. But I really like the vibe she brings to the judges' panel. And I liked how she put it on her first night of the show...she may not be an expert on singing or songwriting, but she knows a thing or two about entertaining.

3. The Top 24. Derek enjoys watching all of the funny/embarrassing auditions at the beginning of each season, but I'm always just waiting for the Top 24! I'm so excited that it's finally been decided. Let the voting begin!

2. Voting via Texts. I'm so excited that this year Derek & I now have a great texting plan...so I plan to do a lot more voting during Season 9!

1. Andrew Garcia. He's my fave contestant right now!

Yes, I realize that some of you probably don't care about Idol nearly as much as I do (or at all for that matter). But if you do care, stop by Boo Mama's blog for another dose of Idol.

Who's your favorite contestant??

Back to the Grind...

Well after 12 glorious days at home, I suppose it was about time to get back to the grind. Today was my first back to school..just in time for a three-day week! :) Can't complain about that! Now I'm just wondering when the 3 feet of snow on our playground will melt so we can finally have outside recess again!!

I hope everyone had a nice, relaxing Valentine's weekend. Derek & I celebrated V-Day by going to Ruth's Chris for dinner on Sunday. It was SO yummy!! And what made it even better was that we had gift cards! :)

Not much else going on here....in baby news, I am officially 11 weeks along today! Still no real major pregnancy symptoms to note...I think I side-stepped the landmine of morning sickness, so I'm very thankful for that! I think my appetite has actually decreased a bit, and this is VERY hard to believe...but I think I'm losing my sweet tooth! GASP! I made brownies last week while I was at home with all the snow, and then I made a caramel pie for Derek on V-Day. I ate one piece of both, and that was it. It's not that it makes me sick or anything, I just don't have a desire for sweets. Soooo not me! Oh, and I got my doctor's appointment rescheduled for next Friday the 26th. So that's when we'll have our 1st ultrasound and hear the heartbeat for the 1st time..YAY!

Show Us Your Life: Favorite Valentine's Day Date/Memory!

Kelly over at Kelly's Korner hosts "Show Us Your Life" every Friday. It's like getting a little sneak peak into people's lives each week on their blog. Each week, Kelly has a new topic ranging from showing your house, to your tips on cleaning, and this week is Valentine's Day! I've never participated in this before, but when I saw this week's topic I immediately knew what I was going to write about!

Derek & I started dating in December of 2003, so our first Valentine's Day together was in 2004. I wasn't expecting a whole lot from Derek b/c he had really outdone himself for Christmas (I'd gotten a beautiful necklace, which I still wear today) and for my birthday in January (he'd bought me my very own star and named it in my honor!). Needless to say, I was quite surprised when I walked into my bedroom of my college apartment and saw this....

Hearts as far as my eyes could see....

Derek spent about ten hours cutting out hundreds of little red paper hearts and affixing them to clear fishing wire to hang from my ceiling...and others were laying on the floor of my room. Can you say labor of love?!?! And this little note was waiting for me....
Obviously, the answer was yes. :) And as if that wasn't enough, Derek also gave me a matching ring to the necklace he got me for Christmas. He sure knows how to make a girl feel loved!

And just for fun...here's a picture of us from our 1st Valentine's Day together six years ago! :)
Happy Valentine's Day, Everyone!

Cabin Fever

Today was supposed to be our doctor's appointment where we had our 1st ultrasound & where we would hear the baby's heartbeat for the first time...Derek & I were so looking forward to today! Not to mention, I was excited about just getting out of the house! (Cabin fever has started to set in a bit for me!) Unfortunately, the base where I go to for my OBGYN appointments was shut down today due to the weather...so we'll have to reschedule. :(

Fortunately, Derek got off work pretty early today, so we decided to go to dinner & a movie this evening. I was so happy to just get out of the house!!!
I'm a big fan of Nicholas Sparks books! Although I usually enjoy the movies, I don't think they hold a candle to the books. But I REALLY liked this movie! It was really good...and I don't think Derek minded it too much either. :) This was the first thing he said when we walked out of the movie: "Did you notice his rank was on backwards in that one scene?" :)

And I'm also excited b/c I was able to get squeezed in for a hair appointment tomorrow on short notice! I'm typically not this excited for hair appointments...but it's something else to get me out of the house for a bit! I'm certainly not complaining about having days off (b/c I have loved every minute of this snow week!), but it's just been a big change of pace for me. I'm used to spending my days with 25 energetic 5 & 6 year-olds...now it's just me by myself each day. I typically attack Derek when he walks in from work each day b/c that's the first human contact I've had all day! Hence my excitement for a hair appointment! Ha! :)

Check back in tomorrow...I've got a fun Valentine's Day post for you! :)

Enjoying my Snow WEEK!

That's right..I didn't say "snow day"...I said SNOW WEEK! It all started with a snow day on Friday the 5th...and I haven't been back to work since! After receiving close to 30 inches of snow in some areas, schools were canceled Friday, Monday, & Tuesday. Then last night/this morning, another blizzard arrived in our area. It's not bringing quite as much snow with it, but the winds are intense! There have been reports of winds up to 60mph...craziness! Due to the current blizzard, my school district just closed schools for the rest of the week. Then we have President's Day off, so I won't be teaching again until Tuesday! I'm just so very thankful that my school district has 16 extra days built into our calendar, so we won't have to make any of these days up..phew! So I'm enjoying my impromptu winter vacay!

The airports have really taken a hit with all this winter weather as well, so we were worried my mom wouldn't be able to get out on Sunday evening as planned. But it turned out that her flight was one of only 3 Delta flights that flew out of Dulles that day! We hated that she had to endure the crazy snow storm with us, but we really enjoyed her visit. She even brought Baby Smith his/her very first gift! :)
My parents vacationed in Hawaii last month (Hawaii is sounding pretty good to us right about now!) and brought this little number back for the newest member of our family. A little ironic story for you to enjoy...when my parents first went to Hawaii 26 years ago, my mom was pregnant with her first-born..me! Fast forward to their trip in 2010, and I am pregnant with our first child. So it was very fitting that this is our sweet baby's first gift! Thanks again, Mom & Dad!

Now the countdown to American Idol is on! I was really worried about how it would be with Ellen on the show last night, but Derek & I both enjoyed the comic relief. Any other American Idol fans out there?? I wonder what everyone else thinks of the new cast of judges. :)

Thanks for checking in!

I wonder how Al Gore feels about global warming now...

A snowy hello!

I just wanted to let everyone know that we are alive and well here in Centreville. We went to bed last night with about 7 inches and woke up with around 16 inches. My snow gauge is 20 inches tall and we lost sight of it at around 3pm. The Weather Channel reported that our official total was 26 inches! There are several reports of roof collapses, such as one of the hangars at Dulles airport collapsed, a church, and even a barn made the news. So far our roof is holding up well.

I was supposed to go into the hospital today, but they emailed me to tell me that I could stay home. I'm supposed to try to make the trek in the morning, but I don't think it'll take much for me to call in and tell them I won't be able to make it. Sarah's school was canceled on Friday, and one of the neighboring school districts has already canceled for Monday and Tuesday. I expect Sarah's district will probably do the same. Maybe Sarah will make it to school by the end of the week, but they are calling for another 4-6 inches Tuesday night. Mama Shu flew into town Thursday evening to see Sarah's Talent Show at the elementary school which was supposed to be on Friday night, but that too was canceled. Instead she witnessed the fourth largest snowstorm in Washington D.C. history, and she helped me shovel snow today. That lady sure can shovel!! I spent about four hours outside today looking for Sarah's car and making a path for my truck in the morning. Sarah played the pregnancy card and stayed inside by the fire. My back is going to be killing me tomorrow, but the Civic and the parking spot are in great shape. Tonight it's supposed to get down to about 7 degrees, so all the snow is going to turn into a big block of ice. I'm glad that all the work is done because I think it would be twice as hard tomorrow. Please note the "before" picture below.


Mama Shu is supposed to fly out tomorrow evening, but Dulles airport got 32.5 inches of snow! Southwest airlines canceled all of their flights for tomorrow out of Dulles, but we are still hopeful that Delta will be flying by tomorrow afternoon.

Check out the progression:

I guess that's the news for right now. Thanks for checking on us, and feel free to leave a comment about how much snow this is!!

SNOW.M.G.

Well, it looks like I spoke too soon about Mother Nature! :) We ended up getting 6 inches of snow Tuesday night & into Wednesday morning, so I enjoyed a nice snow day at home on Wednesday. My mom arrived on Thursday evening (YAY!) just in time to witness our 2nd snowpocalypse of the season. The reason my mom was flying in this weekend was to go to school with me today to meet my kiddos and then to see the Talent Show tonight...both of which did not happen! All the schools in the area were closed today in preparation of the big snow storm coming in...by the time it's all said and done on Saturday evening, we're supposed to have 20-30 inches!!! WHAT?! That is a crazy amount of snow..that's even more than what we got in the Blizzard of 2009!

But don't worry, we've already got Derek's handy-dandy snow gauge set up outside on our balcony. Here's Flat Stanley (courtesy of one of my cousins doing a project with the book in school) posing with the gauge pre-snowpocalypse.
Although I know my mom would have really enjoyed going to school today, we had a nice time together at home doing nothing.at.all. Just good quality bonding time. :) When Derek got home mid-afternoon, we trekked up to the movie theater (about a half-mile from our condo) to see Dear John...but they had just closed due to the weather! Ugh! So we stopped by the grocery store on our way back and picked up some fixins for dinner (what a mad house the grocery stores are...no bread left anywhere...you'd think we're still in GA!). So Derek & I are vegging out by the fireplace while my mom cooks up her famous meatloaf for us...life doesn't get any better than this!

It's been snowing here since about 10am, but it's just really starting to accumulate out there now. We've only got a few inches so far, but the brunt of the storm will be coming in overnight....so check back in tomorrow for more on Snowpocalypse 2010!

Really, Mother Nature?

Mother Nature and I are not on good terms. This weekend marked the THIRD time this winter that Mother Nature has brought us a significant snowfall on a SATURDAY. Doesn't she know that teachers need snow days?! The snow fell pretty steadily here on Saturday from about 10am to about 5pm making for a very pretty winter wonderland. We ended up getting about 6 inches in all.
We enjoyed our Saturday indoors doing nothing.at.all. (Read: I was in my PJ's all day until I showered around 7pm and then just put on clean PJ's.) We really enjoyed all of the relaxation...but we would have enjoyed it much more on a weekday!!! And of course they're already forecasting snow for next Saturday & Sunday, so it looks like my mom will see some winter weather while she's here!

But I am thankful for a teacher workday today. :) There's no better way to start the week off (well, a snow day would been better...but I'll take the workday!) as a teacher. I've got a few meetings lined up, but other than I'll get to spend the day in my room catching up, and I'll actually feel organized/calm on a Monday instead of totally overwhelmed like I normally do. And the best part of a teacher workday?! I don't have to scarf my PBJ or cafeteria lunch down in less than 10 minutes. I actually get to GO OUT TO LUNCH. What a treat! :)

Thanks for checking in, and happy Monday!