Beginning of the Christmas Season

Chip and I are approaching exams... they start tomorrow! I can't believe that an ENTIRE semester has gone by. This year has FLOWN by so fast. I'm taking it easy on my kids this semester for their exams. Being an exploratory class, I don't want to stress them with my exam AND I've worked their butts off this nine weeks with all the stuff they've done. They've really learned to meet my expectations and done a great job meeting deadlines, too. This week we're going to have fun after their exams watching Christmas classics like The Polar Express, It's A Wonderful Life, and Home Alone...

This past Friday we went to eat breakfast with Santa (at the CLC). Jo had no real interest in Santa when she had her photo taken, she was most interested in his beard. I'm pretty sure the photographer got NO good pictures of her with Santa, but we've got them for proof. One day she'll want to see her first photo with Santa...

Today I made some treats for us to enjoy. Between Jo, Chip, and myself, we've gone through 1 1/2 custard pies today!!! Jo LOVED custard pie and ate an entire piece herself. (It was a small piece.) I also made cocoons for our "team" Christmas party at work. I just realized that our faculty gathering is Tuesday. Still haven't worked out whether we'll be able to go or not. Chip tutors on Tuesdays at the family school in Starkville, so our schedules may not allow us to go.

Earlier today, when we were in the kitchen baking/cleaning, Jo was on the ground scooting around in the living room and when we looked around, she had made it all the way into the kitchen with us! Chip walked her back to her area with her toys, and she proceeded to scoot right back into the kitchen. She's getting around really well and starting to get up on her knees. It's so exciting. We've really got to baby proof. All the stuff on her level is safe, but we've got to get outlet covers and baby gates SOON!

Sooner than later, we'll be Christmasing with Chip's family and up in Tupelo with mine. And then, before we know it - it'll be 2010 and I'll be back at work!

Oh my.

Thanksgiving and a visit to Papa John's

This past weekend Chip had class in Tupelo for his administration thing. He normally rides with another guy, but it didn't work out this weekend. Jo and I accompanied him up to Tupelo. We visited with Papa John and Winnie Saturday - we went shopping for furniture!! Jo loves shopping!!!
She has a great time with regular household products (as all kids do). Anyway, we had a blast together and it was nice to spend a long day with my dad (and Jo's grandpa). She loves Papa John and Winnie!
Note in the picture below - the tshirt is an 18 month shirt and the overalls are 12 month... and the overalls are almost too small. She's an Amazon Baby. And quite a work out to carry around furniture stores - especially when you have to sit in every couch there.

Josephine really liked her cousin Stephanie's cheesecake. It was Key Lime cheesecake. She liked it, but that tang suprised her every time! This is the best photo I got. She was scooting around when we were feeding her.

Jo and her second cousin, Asher. Asher turned one about a week before Thanksgiving. They're about 4 months apart. They had a great time together. Jo was interested in EVERYTHING Asher did.

Jo and I - getting ready to go to family Thanksgiving. She discovered that the nuts can was a great drum! (We were in Meridian with Chip's family for Thanksgiving. His whole mom's side of the family gathered at the church to eat - it was wonderful!)

We did informal Christmas pics this year in front of our new tree. Jo was not all that excited to be in a dress just for pictures, but she was a good sport.

Family Christmas photo. Sorry we're not perfectly color coordinated! (It's not really our style...) For my siblings... this pic will be your Christmas present. Happy early Christmas! :)

Birthday

WAAAAHH!!! I'm getting old! My birthday's on Saturday. I'm not really thinking about it (quite honestly, I have too much on my mind... tryouts for our musical are Tuesday and Wednesday, we have a field trip to Meridian Monday, and I'm tutoring this afternoon...). Chip bought me two books for my birthday about the Kennedys. (I'm partially obsessed.) One book is about the male Kennedys through the generations and the other is Rose Kennedy's memoir. The latter is an original printing and he got it at a used book store here in town. I LOVE the smell of old books.



Some of my friends have Kindles and they're obsessed, but I still like to carry the book around with me and dog ear my pages. It's just not the same on the Kindle. The nice thing about those things is that books are significantly cheaper. Sometimes I'm just not about the technology.



In JOSEPHINE news, she cut her first tooth! I found it last Saturday. Since then, she's been drooling on EVERYTHING. She's so cute when she smiles and that one tooth sticks out! She's also starting to turn circles when you put her on her belly. She can turn circles and creep backwards. I'm sure she'll be crawling soon.



We will be traveling to Tupelo for my birthday this weekend. We're celebrating with a party on Friday at my mom's. Saturday morning Chip and I are going to Ballard Park to watch our girls comptete in a soccer tournament. We also plan to go to the Flea Market. Chip and I are getting a new TV for ourselves for Christmas, so we're going to try and find a good deal. Perhaps we'll be buying that the day after Thanksgiving, but we're going to look anyway. Saturday night is the Alabama game and, thankfully, we're not going to be in town. I promise - Starkville is NOT build for an extra 90 - 100 thousand people. I hope we win. I hate Alabama. Hate is not a strong enough word for how Chip feels about Alabama. I'll pull for Bama when they're playing Ole Miss... Chip won't watch the game.



Well... it's time for children again. I'll post some updated pictures that we have of Josephine soon.

We're using digital photography to create stop-motion music videos in class. I never assign a project without having done it myself. I think that's a good rule of thumb as a teacher. I've never given a test I haven't taken and I've never asked kids to do something I can't do... so here's my music video. It took about a day and a half, and I worked on it during the day (so you may see some students in the background). They're doing such an awesome job, but the cameras we have use AA batteries and we're burning through those faster than 7th graders lose pencils!

Hope this works... I'm at school and it may take the rest of the day for this to upload!

Here's Jo's "friendly" fall costume. I didn't know what First Baptist's daycare was referring to as "friendly" and a Baptist friend of mine told me as long as she didn't go as a witch or a devil, she was fine. Pumpkin, apparently, is friendly. Here's Jo sitting in her costume. We're probably going to put her in some black sweatpants and a long sleeved black shirt that she has. And she won't wear the bib... but, you get the idea. This is just such a funny picture!

This picture reminds me of "fat guy in a little coat." Wonder why?

This was the day of the Georgia Tech game. Jo had on an MSU shirt, but you can't see it because of the bib. She was rooting - hard! Oh well.

She and Daddy did try to listen to the game to make sure they weren't missing anything! I think this is so cute. It looks like she's listening intently, but, really, she's just trying to reach for the mp3 player.

She tries to stand, but falls over most of the time! I think this picture is sweet though.

My birthday's in two and a half weeks. Chip's getting ready for that now. Wonder what he'll get me...

And since my birthday's coming up, we all know Christmas is right around the corner. Seems like we're frantically making plans. We have over 8 weeks. If I can teach the Civil War and Reconstruction in 8 weeks, I think our family can plan a Christmas get together! :) Looking forward to seeing everyone... for my birthday AND for Christmas!

Octibbidy.

These past few weeks have gone by VERY quickly. Chip and I both have a head cold (mine's spreading into my chest) and poor Jo was the only one who felt well this past weekend. But she's going through a growth spurt, so she's up a couple times at night to eat.

She's started eating real food at daycare. Yesterday I sent her with sweet peas and I told Mrs. Susan good luck. I think sweet peas are DISGUSTING! Jo ate all of them. She's SO Chip's baby.

We've had such a busy week at school. Yesterday, today, and tomorrow in the morning we've been doing MCT2 style testing. It's thrown our schedule off, which has been challenging, but we've got to do what we've got to do. The school district hired a new PEAK teacher and they gave her my PEAK class and gave me some VIVA art kids. It's been hard to lose my kids, but I can only do so much.

The musical is getting underway. We're having an interest meeting next Thursday. I can't believe it's here already!!! OH MY GOSH!!! Life is going to FLY by the next few months. I know it.

Thursday night we're having birthday parties for all of our "Octibbidy" birthdays. It'll be fun to take Jo up to Tupelo and show her off. Papa John's seen her most recently -but she's trying to sit up now and Chip's been putting her on her belly and watching her try to scoot around. What a mess! I gave her applesauce yesterday - she HATED it. Chip thought she was going to throw up. Poor thing.

Well... I just felt like I should update the blog... it's been a little while. I'm still alive!!!

Jo's First MSU Game

Well, I guess we picked a good game for Jo to go to. It was the LSU game and, although we didn't win, it was a really good football game - not like the usual clobbering that we receive from LSU. Here she is with Papa John. Winnie and Papa John got to pass her around a little bit during the game. She was quite entertained with Winnie's phone and her glasses case. She had a wonderful time watching people and was in a really good mood - despite all of the rain that morning. We were soaked... she was pretty dry.

She just hung out. We got a lot of compliments from people sitting around us about how good she was. She was wonderful. She loves being outside and LOVES being around people.

I was worried about what we'd do when naptime came around. Chip tried to get her to nap in his lap, but Jo wouldn't take it. I held her and kept the pacifier in and she went right to sleep. That child slept through touchdowns and interceptions. Even with the crowd yelling, cheering, and ringing their cowbells. She slept through most of the 2nd quarter and she woke up right before half time.

She was a trooper that day. She went to the game, sat through the weather, napped through the cheers, and then went to Old Venice and let us eat a nice dinner. We are so lucky! (I promise, she's not that patient at home...)

Well. One nine weeks will be over next week. It seems like school just started and we're already 1/4 of the way through. Amazing.

MSU, sitting, and more...

One of my friends at school brought me her son's seat because he's walking now. We're trying it out on Jo to see how she likes it. She likes it ok, but she's just not convinced. To be honest, she does pretty well sitting and playing by herself. She'll tump over every once in a while, but she can sit by herself some!Chip was feeding the baby the other night and she fell asleep. Sweet things. I love it when babies fall asleep on you!

She's had a cold here the last few days, but it really hasn't affected her too much. She's so funny!

This was Chip the other day holding his two babies. Jo's trying to hide her face and Stella's trying to lick it. They love each other. Up until now, Stella's been pretty much the winner - getting her licks in when she wants. Now, Jo's learned how to reach out, grab, and PULL Stella's ears. Stella does not like that at all!

Jo in her MSU outfit. She wore it to our first football game vs. Jackson State. It was a "Maroon Out." They had MSU day at daycare too - this was also her outfit. She has other MSU stuff, but none of it fits yet. And she's also got a maroon bow - but I think we'll have to wait a while longer until some hair comes in. She's finally lost all her newborn hair.

That's our chunky baby! She's getting SO big and she's eating veggies and fruits now. She prefers veggies, but I've tried to get her to like bananas and peaches. No go. She really really liked sweet potatoes. Mmmm Mmm.

Wallpaper

I made a new wallpaper for my desktop background. I'm attaching it to this post. If you click on it, you can see the new collage of baby Jo. I have brand new pictures of the baby in her MSU outfit, but I haven't uploaded them to my computer yet. I'll have to remember to do it this week.

We had a wonderful week this week. It was quite full. Chip took Wednesday off to meet a plumber at our house to fix a leak (it was an easy fix, thank goodness). Friday we met some friends from work after school and hung out and for dinner Chip's best friend (who lives in Kansas) met us at the Grill with his girlfriend, Aimee, and her daughter, Makaiya. We had a wonderful Friday night.

Saturday we got up early (even earlier than the baby) and woke her up to go eat breakfast at City Bagel. We stopped by the farmer's market that they've started and looked around, but I was not in the mood to spend any more money - so we came home empty handed. It's a kind of neat thing for a Saturday morning though.

Saturday around lunch we went up to campus to walk around and show baby Jo the tailgating scene. It was SO HUMID though. I did not enjoy it, but she had a good time. I think the heat took a lot out of her because she slept almost the rest of the day. We got to see the Jackson State band on our way back to the car - she was not too impressed. I think she was on "sensory overload." We came home and watched the game on the TV - thank goodness MSU won. Chip's parents came over after the game and we ate pizza together. We were really glad to see them and thankful they got to come over.

Don't know what the rest of the weekend has in store, but we're having a relaxing 3 day weekend. I'm telling you, I could go teach on Monday. Normally by this time in the year I'm worn out and I need that extra day, but this year is going so well I'm sad when the weekend rolls around.

Jo's started to reach for stuff now. I gave her my rings the other day and she reached out to grab them... and then tried to stick them in her mouth! She's most interested in the remote and will almost fight you for it when you're trying to change the channel. She's getting SO BIG and she's so much fun! We're having a great time.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, Baby Jo!

Mom wanted to see some more pics of the baby... here she is!!!

I think this was last Saturday morning. Jo and I and Stella were all too comfy on the couch and Chip had to capture it on camera. Excuse the glasses, pjs, and bed head.

We took this picture today. If I look tired, it's because I am! School is wonderful, but it's exhausting. And today I went to WalMart and Kroger after school. Ugh.

It's baby Jo's 5th month birthday. I am having such a great time with her. She's becoming so much more fun to be around. She loves day care and is still adjusting somewhat, but she's doing so well. This is the beginning of her 4th week in day care. They do art projects with them and schedule activities. Some days her activities are Bible stories, others are music-based, and sometimes their activities are "bubbles." Here's my first art project from my daughter. I'm laminating it tomorrow at school and putting it up by my desk. Definitely a future artist... I can tell! (Just kidding...)

She's started to eat baby food now. We started her on bananas and she gags when she eats them. I moved her to peaches when she finished her round of bananas and she gagged on those too. I'm with her. Baby food is nasty. I think the only thing that is excited is Stella. She gets to clean up!

I took a short video the other day of Jo laughing. Chip can really get her going, but if I take a really long video, I'm sitting here for hours trying to get it to upload. Anyway... here's the baby...

Lovely Baby

Jo with Mommy... she's so sweet!

I still say that Jo looks like her daddy... and this is why! Aren't they so cute together???

Ahhhh ha ha ha ha!!!!!!!!!!! She's recently started squealing with delight. It's hilarious. This isn't the best example, but I'm quickly learning that as soon as a child does something worth capturing on video, they'll stop doing is as soon as you get the camera. :)

Pictures!

I love this. I put Jo down on the floor this morning and Stella laid down next to her... at first I was upset that she was in the picture, but when she rolled onto her back and turned towards Jo - it was just too cute!

She's rolling over all the time now and I was trying to get a good picture of her on her tummy (see below) but I only got one before she was on her back. She does NOT like to be on her tummy!!

You can kind of see her leaning to roll over in this picture. Oh well... it's still cute!

I love this picture of her. Her smiles are so frequent now and she'll smile for almost anything.

A cute picture with Nana. I took this picture a few weeks ago when we went up to Tupelo so Chip could play in a golf tourney with Dad. Jo got to spend a lot of time with Nana!

Picture of us at the dinner at TCC. Can you tell Chip forgot sunscreen?

Dad and Winnie. She does not like her picture to be taken, but I like this photo. I think it's cute!

I love my dad and this night it was his 55th birthday! I think he looks much younger than 55... We had a wonderful time that night. There was dinner and dancing... and it was really nice to have an adult night out with my husband and to hang out with my dad.

School!

All three of us started school this week. Josephine is still adjusting, but her reports have gotten consistently better and she got all smiley faces Friday!

We're still in transition about starting school and the numbers of students that we have are changing daily (as they do the first days of school). On Wednesday (before students arrived) I taught 7 classes of Viva Drama. When I got to school on Thursday (1st day back for students) I was teaching a class of Viva Art, 5 classes of Viva Drama, and one class of Peak (intellectually gifted). Quite different. I think that the Peak class is going to be the most challenging class to plan for, but the most rewarding class to have. I really am enjoying all my kids. They're such neat kids and I'm trying to adjust to being the teacher where the kids don't want to leave. Teaching history - they're not to enthused about the subject matter, but in Viva they LOVE having the freedom they're given.

Chip is having a pretty good year too. He says he likes his kids more this year, but it's taking its toll on him because the first two days of school he missed his planning period (meetings). Teaching/being on your feet all day straight is exhausting.

We're still trying to get on our own schedule here at home. Seeing what works best for us to get ourselves ready and Josephine ready to go to daycare. I have to drop off Jo at 7:30 and get to school at 7:30 also. Impossible. I'm just a few minutes late to my classroom, but class doesn't start until 7:45. Luckily, my next door neighbor in my building teaches Viva Art (my 1st period class) so we teach it together (well, I facilitate). All my students report to her room. It helps a whole lot with my schedule and dropping the baby off.

My first project for my Peak class is for them to get to know themselves. We're doing a lot of assessments of self (brain dominance, multiple intelligences, sensory perception, etc.) and they're going to create a presentation of themselves. Our first unit is going to be a psychology unit and discuss their development. I think they'll really find this interesting. Still thinking about what our next three units will be, but they all want to do something where we build something. I'll have to research that. In Viva Drama, we're going to do a presentation on the history of Theatre (they can take any direction they want) and we're going to begin this nine weeks with monologues/character development. The one thing I've heard a lot of from these kids is that they want to do a lot more acting. We played Charades on Friday. Where in a regular classroom can you play Charades as part of your curriculum?? I LOVE my new job. Challenging, but incredibly rewarding!! :)

Sleeping

Sorry... I know I've posted a lot lately - but there's a lot going on!!

Just wanted to add this picture of Josephine asleep in my new classroom. Attached to the back of the classroom is a storage closet and Chip and I had to move some last minute things over and I had to put the room together, so while he was moving and I was cleaning/straightening up Jo took a nap. I'm sure she's going to use this against us one day and tell us we were bad parents, but she slept really well and it's a very quiet storage room!! She actually slept really well there - she took a 2 1/2 hour nap.

Also, just to let everyone know - Josephine is sleeping through the night. She goes to bed around 9 and wakes up around 6. That's about how I sleep when school's going on! :)

Traveling

Chip had to go to Jackson yesterday to get his defibrillator checked so Jo and I went along for the ride. Chip loved the fact that she was sleeping with her hands on her knees. She's getting to be quite the little road warrior. After going to Jackson, we took her up to school to help pass out schedules to incoming 7th graders. We're training her to be a workoholic early. :)

I'm going to go up to school today and take pictures of my new classroom. Will post later!

School is a few days away!

Seems like the summer has flown by, but actually it's been a long time since we let our kids go in May. Today was the first day that I could get into my new room at school because they've been waxing the floors in the Viva building. We're not able to get into our school after school hours - if you're there before they lock the doors, you can stay, but you can't get in after the principals leave. Chip has been doing hours up at school for his administration license, so this morning he moved a lot of my school stuff from my old room to my new room.

This afternoon after Jo got up from her morning nap, we went to school to my new room so I could start arranging it how I wanted. Let me explain to everyone how new classrooms go: you don't have anything you need, you have too much of stuff you don't want, it's dusty and nasty, nothing is in the order that you want, and everything's been pushed up against a wall so they can clean over the summer. And we have to get all this into a somewhat attractive, functional classroom before students come in August 6th. And decorate. Yuck. I'm a very organized person and even more organized when it comes to my classroom because - well - I have to be. It's very hard to swap classrooms and start all over again.

Jo was great while we were up at school playing on her mat and talking to her frog and then it was nap time, so I sent her and her father home for her nap. When she woke up, she came back up to school and Chip and I moved stuff around in the classroom. I ought to take pictures of it and post them, but I have to tell you I have a TON of stuff in there. I have 4 risers which Chip and I have made into a stage, 5 tables, a teacher desk, a student desk, a student computer, a teacher computer, a bookshelf, refrigerator, sink/cabinets, TV and VCR on a cart, and two massive storage rooms - one was empty (now my things are in there) and one full of musical supplies. Anyway, there's a lot. I'm quite lucky to have so much and I'm trying to take everything from my classroom to this new one.

For those of you who aren't teachers, I'm just going to tell you - when you first get a job in a school you will have NOTHING you want in your classroom because whoever was there before took anything worth taking with them when they moved to a new classroom and in between their move and your moving in, other teachers came and took whatever wasn't worth taking. You start with NOTHING. I've been very lucky to have Chip there before me and some really great teachers who have given me extra things they haven't needed. I'm trying to remember what it was like, so I'm leaving a chair, desk, computer desk, a laptop, projector, and SmartBoard. Lucky person to get my room!! (Chip asked who I thought was going to come in and steal the projector and SmartBoard from the new person...)

If you have anything in your home that you're thinking is useless and you really don't want - take it to your local school and drop it off. I promise some school teacher will want it. I don't really care what the item is - some school teacher will want it. I had a broken fan that I didn't want in my classroom anymore because, well, it was BROKEN - I took it down to the teacher's lounge and in literally 20 minutes, it was gone. His first year teaching, Chip had some ugly lamps in his apartment that he'd had from college, we took them up to school to clear some stuff out and those went too. Some teacher has ugly house lamps in their classroom. Whether they're using them or not, we don't know, but we didn't have to find a home for them - which was great.

One man's trash is another man's treasure.

Vacation Pics/Home

Jo... all tuckered out from her vacation to the beach. She slept most of the way home, although not enough for her liking... I don't think she got very good sleep in her carseat.

We had to get a family pic of the beach in the backround before we left. So fun!

The second night there we stayed in and the big group went out to eat. Don't we look geeky with our glasses??

Josephine's one and only trip down to the beach. It was really too hot and she had no idea why we were going down to the beach. We got some cute pics though.

Now that Jo has pretty good head control, we've tried putting her in her exersaucer and letting her go. She really really likes it. She unintentionally rotates around in the toy and there are always new things for her to see and touch. She's just started grabbing stuff now and you should see the look on her face when she grabs something that makes noise. She's quite interested and it's very entertaining for us. (Not to mention liberating... although we love holding her, she's got to have somewhere to go when we have things we need two hands for.) She's not quite large enough for the toy, so we've shoved some blankets around her mid section so she doesn't bobble around so much. She's so cute!

Beach and Shopping

We've had a lazy few days hanging out at the beach. The place we're staying is amazing. It's a 6 bedroom, 5 1/2 bath home directly on the beach. Plenty big enough for the family, although we do fill it completely!

I'm not much for the beach, but I've gotten out there a few times in the past few days to throw the frisbee and lay out. I prefer the pool much more. We played categories with Chip's nieces and nephews and his brother in law the other day, then we all decided to go to the shallow end and play Marco Polo. We had a blast. Did I mention that Chip's neices and nephews are all his age or older?

Last night we went to Foley to eat at Lambert's. I've never been there before, but I've now experienced the "throwed rolls." Chip's nephew Delaney was questioning the grammatical correctness of the restaurant, but it just wouldn't be the same if it were correct. I completely filled up and had enough to eat today as well. Even Chip couldn't finish his meal (granted he ate 2 or 3 rolls and a ton of fried okra before the meal came and he did order a POUND of hamburger steak).

Today we had a lazy day and after lunch someone suggested we all go to Foley to shop. I LOVE shopping and we decided to take Jo as well. We loaded her up in the car with her stroller and spent the majority of the afternoon shopping. She was so good! She had a cat nap while we walked, but she stayed up and was so happy. It was really fun. I could have stayed longer, but we pretty much spent the amount of money I had budgeted. I felt like a kid at the arcade who had run out of tokens. :( We got several nice shirts and two pair of pants at the outlet. You know you're frugal when you go and look for the CLEARANCE rack at the OUTLET mall. (Frugal or cheap... either one.)

Although it's been fun to be on vacation, I am kind of ready to get back and get home. I wouldn't be so ready, but I'm just thinking about all the stuff I've got to move out of my room at school!! Unfortunately, no one will do that for me. I've got to get the ball rolling or I'll be teaching in the hallway come August 6th.

Jo has grown by leaps and bounds and come a long way from what she was. She's really becoming so much more interactive. Also, she's sleeping in her crib every night and it doesn't take anything to put her down anymore. We just put her down on her side, put the pacifier in her mouth and turn on her sound machine and she is OUT. Thank goodness they get easier. :)

Beach!

We're at the beach! The picture below is us leaving (getting ready). You can't tell in the picture, but I'm so nervous about taking the baby on a 5+ hour drive. It was fine though, she was so great. We stopped at a park in Meridian on the way down to feed Jo, let Stella out, and eat lunch. It was really pleasant. We got to Foley and everything was fine - then we hit vacation traffic and it took us about an hour and a half to get from Foley to the beach house.



Here's Josephine at the beach. She was completely unimpressed. Poor thing did not nap very much on the way down, but she caught up for it last night!

The house we're staying at is directly on the beach... if you look hard enough you can see the gulf in the background.

The biggest fan of the beach so far has been STELLA. She did not know what to think of the sand at first, and when she finally figured it out she RAN and RAN and RAN and RAN. Her tongue was hanging out the side of her mouth. The waves caught her by suprise, but she figured those out. She DID NOT want to be wet.

Where has summer gone?

I was just talking to ateacher friend of mine the other day. We did the math. 2 1/2 more weeks until work starts. Where has this summer gone??? I guess I know. I taught summer school, Chip took summer school, and now he's busy getting in some intern hours up at AMS. I'm being transferred from history to gifted (Viva Drama). Very exciting, but now I have to move all of my stuff. I kept a lot of my kids' projects because I wanted to show any future classes what I want when we repeat projects and things. Now that I'm not teaching history next year (or for a while, hopefully) I'm weeding out what I should take with me and what's garbage now. Some things I'm willing over to future teachers and those who have been there, and a lot I'm taking with me in case I ever teach history again (which is quite possible). I think Chip and Jo spent an hour with me in my classroom yesterday. I just organized what I wanted to take out to the Viva building, but haven't actually moved anything yet. It wouldn't be so bad moving if my classroom were down the hall or downstairs or in the next building, but my new classroom is out near the football field (past the gym and across the gravel parking lot...). Moving will keep me busy for the next few weeks.

We're about to go on vacation to the beach. I'm really excited about going on vacation, but I'm also terrified about how the baby's going to travel. Really, her longest trip so far has been to Tupelo. We're traveling down to Meridian first and staying the night, then going to the beach. From Meridian, it's about a 4 hour drive. Hopefully she won't notice...

On a really positive note, Jo's been sleeping in her crib for the past 2 nights. I just got her down for her nap in her crib a few minutes ago. Because she's had such a bad time with acid reflux, she's been sleeping in her bouncer since she was about 2 weeks old. Now that she's on medicine that helps control it, she's doing much better and we're able to put her flat to sleep.

I'll post some pictures I've taken since we've been back in town, but I have to go get the camera and load them onto the computer first!

Lincoln

We're finally back in town and just when we wanted to catch up with our friends... they're out of town! We had a lazy Saturday and Sunday and we've had an eventful Monday so far.

Friday I noticed that Lincoln had a sore on one of his ears, but I wasn't so concerned with it because - he's a dog and they get sores. Chip noticed it again Sunday and that it was swollen and Lincoln wouldn't let us touch it. We scheduled a vet appointment for this morning. Turns out that flies have been eating his ears. I've never even heard of that. Also, and more importantly, he showed up positive for heartworm. We caught it early though and he'll start getting treatment as soon as we get back from the beach. We have to keep him inside and calm for 30 days after his first treatement and 30 days after his second treatment. I'm not sure our vet has met Lincoln... that will be a feat. Wow - what a full house. Chip, Stella, Josephine, Lincoln, and myself!

Poor dog. He's so sweet. He got so many compliments when he was at the vet from the vet techs about what a sweet and good dog he was. He may not know many commands, but he's got a good heart (even with the worms). We're doing whatever we need in order to keep him healthy and on this earth as long as possible.

The last week at Nana's

We've been at my mom's for the past two weeks and this week is our final week in Tupelo. I've been saying that I'd get down to see my grandparents, my dad, and my brother and his family since I've been here. Now that it's our last week, I really have to make good on those promises! I expect that the next few nights will be quite busy for us. I'd really like to have spent more time with my family this week, but unfortunately, it's the weeks before July 4th and those are always the busiest with the company, so we've been hanging out at home.

It's been fun (mostly) being at home with the baby. She's gotten herself on a pretty good schedule. Although, sometimes she strays from that and it makes it really hard on me to get anything done (a shower is always celebrated when I can enjoy it during her naps). She's getting SO big. We've been giving her a little cereal in her bottles and have attempted to feed her cereal from a spoon. She's just not sure what to think of that. I've got some pictures of her first cereal feeding, but I can't post those right now.

I just realized that we'll get back to Starkville for about two weeks, then go to the beach, then it'll be almost time for school to start! We really were busy this summer. It's been a very productive summer for the both of us though. I taught summer school and Chip is taking school and we've both gotten to spend our fair share of time with the baby! We've promised each other that these next few weeks Chip will go play golf and I'll go to the pool and we'll swap off with the baby. We've got to enjoy this summer vacation while we have it!

Congrats to my brother-in-law Joe for finishing his Doctorate at LSU. I know they're thrilled. And also, please remember my niece Annie and her family while she goes up to Nashville next week for a check up. Praying all goes well!!

1st Week at Nana's

Getting ready to go to Nana's...
Chip left on Sunday night and took Lincoln with him, so he left Stella's breakfast in her bowl on the kitchen table for Monday morning. That poor dog sat at the table forever waiting on her breakfast... she didn't know. She's cute though.
This past weekend we put Jo in her boppies to help her sit without our assistance. She kind of looks like the Godfather reclining in her chair or something. That baby belly kind of adds to the effect too.

At Nana's on Tuesday afternoon we put Jo on her belly for tummy time. She really doesn't like tummy time, but she's getting more interested in it. Today she pushed up (see the picture at the end) and pushed herself over. She rolled over! I thought it was an accident, so I put her back on her belly and she rolled over again! I put her on her belly a third time and she got really upset... as I said, she doesn't like tummy time and she had just gotten to the point where she could see everyone - she did NOT want to be on her belly again. I was ruining her plans. So sorry Jo. It's not the first time your mom's going to annoy you and get in the way of your plans, I promise.

Here she is rolling over...

And you can see how much she enjoys tummy time. She's telling us about it here. She says this is a horrible idea.

We are in Tupelo for the next few weeks because Chip is taking classes in Fulton to become an administrator. He'll take classes at ICC, then take two classes over the next year, complete an internship at AMS, and take his administrator's test in order to get his license. Then he can be a principal! I can't decide which I'd least like to do: be a principal or teach math to 7th graders. He's a saint.