Christmas Every Day

Although I was on the verge of walking into the hospital and checking myself in; I was encouraged not to do so. Apparently you have to actually be in labor before you can check yourself in. Isn't that their job? I grew the baby; don't they have something in that room that can get things moving?

All my thinking, and walking, and eating paid off in nothing but a good night’s rest. No baby. Such is my luck I suppose. But on the upside - now every morning feels like Christmas morning. Maybe today? Today just might be the day something starts up, or tonight will be the night I can't sleep. But alas, we still wait.

So much for my Think System, and my Prego Pizza, shampooing my carpets which included moving the furniture from each room in my house, and my 60 minutes of curb walking which left my calves almost to sore to move off the couch. Guess we're at the last resort - let him come when he's ready. We're aiming for before the 10th. :)

Prof. Harold Hill + Skipolini's

Well friends, here we are - on the eve of Labor Day. I must admit that I've been a little hesitant to focus all of my efforts on Prof. Harold Hill's Think System - so I've rallied up a few other friends to get this labor into action.  Enter Skip. We went for the "Legendary Labor Inducing Prego Pizza" at Skipolini's Pizza today. We've heard both stories of it working and not - so I'm hoping on one of the former.

We are beyond set and ready to go. Let's just throw out a scale example: say doctor's put women on on a scale of 1 to ... 10 for example; and you have to be to 10 in order to be "ready".  I'm at a 1 as of yesterday - so although my Think System is taking off to a rocky slow start; I am not giving up hope yet. With a little help from Skip's - this is bound to be it.

And just for kicks - a snipit of our darling nursery that is just waiting for a little boy. Don't know how we got into the elephant theme but it just sort of went that direction and we embrased it.

And so my blog reading audience - Think with me will you. Because, honestly, Professor Hill couldn't possibly be a con artist right? The boys? 76 Trombones? The uniforms. It's happening - and its happening in the next 30 hours.

You can quote me on that. And blogger won't check my spelling so I apologize if you're questioning my educational background.

School's out Forever

Do you know that song? By Alice Cooper? Yeah, me neither. But I do know that one line - School's out forever! And yes friends, I can finally say it is finally out forever for me. (Well, for the unforeseeable future anyway.) With my new job starting just a mere weeks from now, I am leaving the school district! Being an educator by trade, school never really has been over completely; always getting ready for summer school or the next school year. Usually with only a week or 2 off as "summer break" in between. I'm not complaining, that was the huge perk of teaching. But now with baby on the way, I'm walking away from school forever. And it is weird but cool at the same time. (prepare for walk down memory lane)

* starting out at Springville Jr. - had no idea how to be a teacher and yet for some unknown reason they gave me 100+ students in 6 classes to teach American history and geography to everyday. I am pretty sure it is safe to say those kids learned nothing their 8th grade history year. My bad.

* I had a Remarkable experience at La Sierra. Taught several subjects there but the foundation of my job was in World History. A side portion of the Freshmen Seminar subjects Study Skills and Strengths, and 2 glorious years of yearbook. Loved Loved Loved working there.

* Room 3008-the portable by the pool. Which made the months of Aug-Oct and Apr-June really amazing when the polo/swimming kids would congregate outside my window waiting to get into the pool for 6th period practice. In their swim gear. And that's it. Cuz boys in speedos and girls in suits is not distracting at all!

* Principal Robert Cunard and VP Craig Schiflett. Remarkable leaders, supportive mentors, and just great men.

* Class of 2010 Advisor. Wow did I complain about that job clear up until the stipend showed up in my paycheck in June. every year! And those poor kids. We never won anything. The homecoming parade float was pathetic every year. Because I made the kids do it. I can't blame myself entirely as we had no parent support (which the other classes did) and we just sort of put a bunch of cardboard on the float and counted it as done. Sorry kids.

* Kenny P., Sean C., Jenny C., - all time favorite students. Great kids all around. Still rooting for them in their lives that they make good choices and become good people. I had them every year of the HS life. Crazy right? Freshmen Seminar, Sophomore World History, Junior/Senior TA and/or Yearbook. We had too much fun.

* Speaking of Yearbook. My life calling. Started my passion in digital scrapbooking. We had so much darn fun in that class it should have been a crime. The Real Game of Life, Sims, food runs, class parties. It was a grand ol' wild time and I loved it.

* Room 101A. Nobody could find it which was nice overall but a headache the first day of school. Perfect location, close to parking, and RIGHT next to the copy room and teacher restroom. Bonus.

* Round out my teaching days with some long term jobs and then my "roving" gig here. Oh blessed school. There are so many lost kids who just have no direction. I will most certainly miss the ladies that I worked with in the house offices. And my cakewalk job that paid me for reading a book and an occasional class babysitting. But I will not miss the lack of dress standards or language that flood every public campus in the nation. Both of which motivate me to try and build up the shield for my kids when their turn comes.

I have loved my life as a teacher. I count myself blessed that I could work in a job that I love so early in my life. I know that so many adults do not ever find themselves feeling content in their line of work so I was blessed to be happy after I survived the 1st year. I will miss the students, the stories, and the good memories! But I am really more excited about my new job and know that there too will I excel!

Happy Summer.

My Husband, the Pilot

Not to start this post off about me, but, I will.  I totally ROCKED at the birthday thing this year. Most years I struggle with what to gift and do to make Mark's day special. But thanks to Pinterest and a little help from a friend, I Nailed the spouse thing solid.

That morning I was sure to decorate the kitchen table appropriatly for Mark's birthday celebration. We did it on Monday because we both had work off being Memorial day and my mom was still in town so it worked out great to get to enjoy the decor all day. I had the most darling banner that I made complete with 8 photos charting his life. It was really cute but did not photograph well so use your imagination.

 And THANK YOU to Pinterest for the absolutely darling Mickey cookies. If you know Mark, he loves all things Disney so the cookies were totally appropriate for the non-Mickey themed party. And totally delicious!

 I was so excited to give him his gift this year, because I knew he would never even have dreamed what I had put together for him. Perfect face I was hoping for! What did I get him?

 A private flying lesson with a friend we know from church. Three cheers for Super Wife - and a Happy Birthday to Mark too since that really is the person we are celebrating.

 Our friend Matt was kind enough to join Mark on flying day - being my current state of things, I wasn't really invited. Doug gave them the complete tutorial of the aircraft and how all things were going to work once in the air.

 I went mostly just to see what it was all like, and so dutifully stood in on a photo.

And then they were off. Mark said after about 5 minutes in the air, Doug turned the controls over to him and he flew the rest of the 90 minutes! He took them all over the bay area - with the highlight being over San Francisco. I'll spare you all the pictures because apparently Blogspot is not interested in more than 9 pictures for said post so - there you go.

 The Golden Gate Bridge. On a beautiful day.

{Insert photo here of Half Moon Bay, Mt. Diablo, Bay Area Metropolitan centers, Old Military bunker space, Delta...darn you blogger}

Casa de Morrell. Present Day.

 We'd like to say that by the end Mark was more comfortable in control, but he says that when Doug finally took the control back to land, Mark's fingers were painfully stiff from gripping the yoke. {Insert picture here of Mark's pained hand face photo - shake fist at blogspot}

 A once in a lifetime experience for a once in a lifetime guy! I could continue this post with 31 things I love about him, or 31 memorable moments, or 31 inappropriate topics, but suffice it to say that I love my man 31 times over. Happy Birthday Mark.

Fairly Fun

Alright already, enough about Damon Bradley. We have indeed been up to other things as well. :) First, we took a bit of a risk and ventured to the other side of the tracks to attend the County Fair. A rather spontaneous trip, but with my cousin Eric and Michele visiting, we couldn't just do lunch and have them leave, so we ventured over. (As a side note, we are super bummed that just as we start to become friends again, and really get to know our long lost cousin, he moves Michele to Denver and we'll never see them again. Huge bummer.)

So off to the fair we went. And we really did have a fun time. Mark was nostalgic in the Agriculture museum when we hit the old tractor that his grandpa use to have. Many a childhood pictures are with him on a tractor just like this one, so that was a very welcomed trip down memory lane.

 We then stopped by the Bee exhibit where they were handing out samples of local honey. Another interesting experience. Bees from one area made honey that tasted totally different from the next county over. It was interesting to taste the bits of lavender or eucalyptus in the honey. A great stop until the gentleman began talking about a lady who rubbed honey based cream on her boobs and then nursed her baby and her baby got really sick.  That's where we draw the line, when strange gentleman begin to give the pregnant lady boob advise.

 So we hustled through the art and home decor exhibits, taking specific notice of the "unique" photographs and vegetable sculptures. Our favorite was the quilt sewed with the picture of a zebra on it. Mark observes "if you were to make a quilt of a zebra, which end of the zebra would you choose to highlight?" Sure enough, the quilt had only the back end of the zebra. I give the artist credit, faces can be hard. Legs and a butt with a tail prove less difficult.

Our big hit was the livestock, which we always of course love. Not sure how they choose to judge each of the animals, but it was fun to compare the blue ribbon winner with the lowly 3rd place. Mark became quite the animal whisperer as we found that most of the animals responded to his movements and allowed him to pet them. The rest of us were not so lucky so we just looked on.

 And to prove that even pigs find love-our token snugly piggies. Ah for cute.

Its been so fun to be around Eric and Michele while they've been close. And only wish circumstances allowed them to stay in the area, but wish them the best of luck and love, and a "boring" life in their new home.

Total Eclipse of the Heart

Not being much of a science fan, I was happy when I happened to sub in the astronomy class on Friday before the Solar Eclipse. So-on Sunday the 24th, I drug my coorporative husband out to the front yard, set up some folding chairs, put the ottor pops in the cooler with some beverages, and we waited for the big event to happen. I was a little surprised to be notified that you can't look directly at the sun to see the eclipse, but was surprised to see the difference as the moon covered the sun more and more. My first solar eclipse of the heart was before the eclipse had really started. 

 And here we are at almost full eclipse of the heart. See how much more fuzzy my shadow is!

 Luckily Mark remembered the last solar eclipse and seeing it through the tiny hole in a piece of paper. It made for an interesting view as we watched the circle get smaller and smaller.

 And we did expose the camera to some serious solar light as we tried to capture a smidgen of the eclipse. Fail. But the sun pictures did turn out pretty cool. To the left of the sun you can sort of see a small piece of the eclipse reflection. Sort of.

Looking directly at it with your bare eyes is not recommended. Nor successful.

So now we can say that we saw the eclipse and have at least practiced so when the next one happens, we'll have all the tools necessary to be knowledgeable parents.

Morrelly Belly

Since I've known Mark, there has always been a joke about the infamous "Morrelly Belly". Something that all Morrell's struggle with, that shows up when it is least wanted, and doesn't go much of anywhere but out. I was under the impression that this was not something that I would catch, being that I had more Wright in me than Morrell. 

Our favorite picture of Mark's Morrelly Belly.

Well, I was wrong. Now I have quite a bit of Morrell in me and it is sticking right out!

So here we are, at just about 36 weeks. Moving right into the last month and feeling pretty good about it. As Mark says so perfectly, we feel that on a scale of 1-10 we are about an 8 in our feeling prepared to be parents. Which puts us at about a 3 in reality right?

All in all we are just feeling really great. The baby is in the right position, he has made a comfy ottoman out of my ribs which he is thinking was pretty resourceful of him; as he uses it often. My energy levels leave something more to be desired-making me not so great company after about an hour. Our nursery is done and I must stay it is ADORABLE. One bonus to having a baby this "late" in life is that we have the resources for a darling nursery where many of my friends have told me they didn't. So that's been fun. I may or may not have already started the Baby's first scrapbook. I'm that addicted. And have created unrealistic dreams of mommy school, schedules, get in shape plans, and the future of my perfectly behaved little boy. I may be preparing myself for an eye opening experience come his arrival, but for now, just let me live in my dream world.

I am currently invoking the Think System (from the film The Music Man) to have this baby on June 29th. I figure if those boys can play the song "76 Trombones" on the Think System, I can have a baby. So-any additional Think System support is greatly appreciated. Not that I am unhappy being pregnant or things are too hard or anything, I am just so excited to have him in my arms and not on my bladder.

Here's to 4 more weeks!