Lots to Catch Up On!

The biggest news of the year...

Yep! That's our little pumpkin right there! Baby's ETA is October 25th! Maybe I should back up....

In February, I began feeling kind of weird...just not feeling good and I dropped 3 Rt. 44 Diet Cherry Cokes (made with real cherry syrup) from Sonic on 3 different days - totally not me! A few days later I was feeling fine again, but still felt...well...just off! So I decided to take a test on a Friday morning when I couldn't go back to sleep - and sure enough - it was positive! I wish I could say that I told William in some sort of cute way, but...nope...didn't happen like that! LOL! I pretty much woke him up by me screaming his name and then just plainly saying "I'm pregnant!" Normally, he wakes up pretty quick, but he didn't this time. He seemed a little groggy and then it finally hit him and he was completely excited! There was lots of hugging and crying (...not him - me!) When I realized I wasn't going to be able to sleep anymore, I got up and got ready for work and continued about my day.

We decided we wanted to tell my parents first, but since we live apart...it had to be creative. So while William was out of town - I did a little shopping and found this number...

When William got back in town, we invited his parents over for dinner and called mine on Skype. We were making dinner in the kitchen talking to them and I told them I got a new outfit this weekend and wanted to show it to them so I held the shirt up to the screen and mom asked if this was a hint. We both just smiled and they started screaming! They were sooo excited! I started crying seeing how happy they were. It was just an awesome moment! When William's parents got there, we let mine go and told them we'd call them later!

We started eating dinner with them and I told them the same thing about the outfit. I brought it out and Gwynn started screaming and crying she was so excited. Kirby was thrilled as well to have another grand baby coming in the family! It was just a nice day to be able to tell them all!

After dinner, I sent my brother a picture of his birthday card (because his birthday was that coming week). On the outside it said, "If every kid had an uncle like you..." with "The world would be a better place!" on the inside. And I signed it - Your future niece or nephew. He immediately called and said that was the best birthday present!

We slowly let a few other people know over the next weeks and everyone was ecstatic!

Alrighty...now that I've written a novel...I'll come back later and tell you more about the rest of my first trimester - which wasn't that bad, but still...not fun! :-)

2011

so many things happened in 2011, but I figured I would try to narrow 2011 down to 11 major things that happened.

11 things in 2011

11. I started a blog and tried to be consistent in keeping it up.

10.  I have the most amazing class. Our personalities fit well together and they are just a blast to be around.

9. I got to serve as the Interim Children's Director at our church. I met so many amazing people and was able to serve Christ and them in ways that I couldn't have even imagined.

8.  We cleaned our house so that we can rent or sell it in 2012...then we'll get to move out to the land.

7. While the Aggie football season didn't pan out like expected, the tailgating was awesome! It seemed that with each and every single tailgate, they just kept getting better. 

6. I read The Hunger Games trilogy on my Nook in less than a week...and I cannot WAIT until the first movie comes out in March of this year! ...May the odds be ever in your favor.

5. I made new friends with the S's and have felt like I am one of the family with them. They are absolutely amazing and I enjoy spending time with them.

4. The in-laws moved down to the land. It's nice having family so close which is great. It'll be nice to live on the land with them and enjoy our future family growing up close to relatives.

3. I got to see my family more in 2011 than any other year that I've been down here. I am so thankful for Skype and trips to be able to see them. I hope that I will get to see them all more and more as the years go on.

2. I taught swim lessons for the first time since after college and absolutely loved working for the private training group that I worked for. I would like to do the same thing this next summer...except be in better shape when I lead swim lessons for them.

1. W and I celebrated 4 years of marriage. We've had our highs and we've definitely had our lows, but the Lord, His love and our love for each other carried us through everything. I cannot wait to see what He's got in store for us in our future. 

...well...that's it! I can't wait to see what 2012 has for us! 

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3rd Grade Self Contained

Things are pretty insane teaching EVERYTHING in a third grade classroom - at least in my opinion. Everyone else in my grade level and above are departmentalized - I imagine that is a TON easier than what I am doing, however, I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE every minute of it! My student teacher is even gaining valuable experience teaching all subjects. (I know I student taught in a 3rd grade self-contained room, but I can't remember it being this nutzo!)

My kids - are pretty stinkin' awesome!! I'm loving getting to work with them and challenge them in ways they never thought possible.

I would LOVE to insert some of the documents I've created by posting them in google docs to post here...I'm just not too sure how that works. Maybe one of these days...

stay tuned for some exciting stuff coming this year...

Funny thought of the Day

One of my kids didn't want me to play this today (even though he was singing the entire thing)...

Student: I don’t like Mr. Morton. he didn’t get his woman.

Me: Yes he did...at the very end Mr. Morton married Pearl.

Student: Mr. Morton got a family?

Me: Yes - he sure does.

Student: AWESOME! Mr. Morton got a woman. Mr. Morton got a woman.

soooo funny - I was literally trying not to fall off of my WittFitt stability ball....

<3 these kiddos

This school year has been rocking like cRaZy and I'm loving every minute!

I'll blog more this weekend, but I wanted to share one quick thing!

During our science experiment this week, the students were testing the durability of paper towels. They put a tbsp of water on it and then had to add pennies to see how many it would hold. At one point, the kids decided that if they cupped their hands - the pennies wouldn't fall off.

One of my kiddos looked up and said, "Mrs. Shelton - our hands are like pens and the pennies are the sheep! We can't let them get out!"

I just can't get enough of these guys and it is a totally 

blessing to be their teacher this year!