2nd Graduate Class

2/3 of the way done!! Yeah!!

Hanging out on Grandma and Grandpa's Bed

Christmas Day at the Garys (my sis and her family)

Christmas #2 (December 24)

Christmas dress

All ready for church to start.

Columbus Zoo lights (December 23)

Grandkids looking at the fish.

Christmas #1 (December 22)

25 Weeks

Sarah grew a lot this week!!

(Christmas pictures to come soon.)

24 Weeks and some other cute pictures

This is me at 25 weeks with Bekah. Do keep in mind the angle of the photographer.

24 weeks today. Go to the doctor tomorrow morning. I feel quite a bit bigger than with Bekah.

My slipper socks that Bekah insisted on wearing.

Bekah sleeping about 15 minutes after I brought her home from playing with Anna, Abby, and Aaron on Sunday. She was exhausted!!!

I Am Still Alive

The day is over and I am still alive. Now I have 9 school days without seeing students. Yeah!!

Silence is Golden

All I have to say is, ONE MORE DAY!!!

What do 6th, 7th, and 8th graders want to do when they get to chorus after they've been taking finals in all their other classes? NOTHING BUT TALK!!

I have a sick headache. I'm going to go lay down now.

December 17th......

8 Days till Christmas, and it's currently 64 degrees outside.

Bobby is at work. He's been there since 1 pm. He left right after church. He probably won't be home till 10 pm. On a normal night, they have 90,000 packages go through. Today they're dealing with over 200,000.

Bekah is down the street playing with Anna, Abby, and Aaron so I can get some things done around the house. Thank you to Amanda and Jay for including Bekah in their family for a few hours today. It is greatly appreciated!!

I must get back to work and take advantage of this "Bekah-free" time. It doesn't happen very often. If I'm not at school teaching 200 children, I am at home entertaining a 2-year-old. I don't get much "Paula-time."

Suggestions?? and Top 100 Baby Names from BabyCenter.com

Anyone out there have any suggestions for keeping a 2 year old occupied from around 4 pm till 10 pm without watching too much TV? Keep in mind, I am 5 months pregnant, I teach middle school choir/general music FULL time to 180+ students at a Title I school which means meetings and paperwork, I am trying to work on a graduate class, my husband works M-F, 3;45 pm-11ish, and I am just plain tired!! Most nights I don't start school work (my own or the planning/grading of my MS students) until at least 10:30 PM. I am rarely in bed before midnight, but don't have to wake up till 7 am, unless Bekah gets up in the night or I have an early meeting. I am struggling to play with her and keep her occupied because I am soooo tired. She love Dora and Diego and will do other things while she watches, but she always wants it on. Please, any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!!
On a side note, in my e-mail from BabyCenter.com this week, it listed the top 100 baby names of 2006. Rebekah will probably never make it because of the spelling, but Sarah was #12 this year. I have added the top 20 for your enjoyment.

1 Emma
2 Madison
3 Ava
4 Emily
5 Isabella
6 Kaitlyn
7 Sophia
8 Olivia
9 Abigail
10Hailey
11 Hannah
12 Sarah
13 Madeline
14 Lily
15 Ella
16 Alyssa
17 Riley
18 Chloe
19 Lauren
20 Grace

Stuff

My concert went well. The 6th graders kind of lost it during the first song, but they recovered during their other two. The 7th had one shaky song, but the 8th grade did wonderfully. They would be even better if they would focus all the time. The only down part was that I had to take one of my 6th graders home afterwards cause her mom was taking a final exam. It took me 20 minutes to drive her home in the rain, dark, and winding roads. Then it took me 20 minutes to get back. I won't be doing that in March when I'm 8 1/2 months pregnant.
My students are driving me crazy. I never remember being this crazed in Ft. Wayne. And it's not just the pregnancy. I was pregnant there too and they never drove me crazy like this. They talk constantly, don't know how to be quiet during a test and are just out of control. 3 more days after 1:40 PM. I have my planning at the end of the day today, so I teach, teach, teach, and then can "relax" while I get ready for tomorrow.
Have a great day!!

4 More

Must I say anything else?

The Time Has Come

Christmas concert tonight. Last year, my Christmas concert got cancelled because we went home from school early because of some slush on the roads. I'm exhausted. My 8th graders had to take the risers down to the cafeteria today for the concert because the janitors at my school are lazy, so things were just crazy this afternoon. I am so thankful that tomorrow afternoon during normal chorus class time I will be working with our media specialist on curriculum ideas for my music theory classes. Better go. Have to decide which outfit I'm going to wear and get Bekah some dinner before my friend Jean comes over to watch her during the concert.
Say a prayer for strength if you read this before 7 pm, December 12th.
(Only 5 school days after tonight!!)

The Tree is Finally Up

Yesterday we finally went and got our tree. It was a lot of fun. Bekah was running through the rows of trees, saying, Whoa, whoa, and stopping and hugging all the little trees. We brought it home, put on the lights and then gave up on the decorating. After Bekah finally went to bed at 11 PM, Bobby and I folded and stuffed most of our Christmas cards till almost 1 am. (We still got up and made it to Sunday school by 9 am)

Today I put the ribbon on and most of the ornaments. Bobby helped a bit after he got up from his nap. Does anyone else find it weird that he's taking a nap while the 5 months pregnant woman decorates the Christmas tree?

Pictures from the fun below.

All bundled up in my new hat from Old Navy.

Wandering amongst the trees.


Pre-lights and still a bit crooked.

Lights only.

All finished!!

Active Daughter

I was kind of hoping that daughter number 2 might not be quite as active as daugther 1. Well, the last few days, Sarah Catherine has been kicking me constantly, just like her sister, Rebekah Janae did in the womb, and sometimes still does when climbing around on my lap. I don't think I have enough energy to deal with both of them if Sarah is as BUSY as Bekah.
On a side note, for the last few days, I have been asking Bekah, "What's your sister's name?" And without hesitation, she replies, "Sarah!!" with a huge smile on her face. I think she's going to be a great big sister and friend to Sarah. Hopefully she'll be over the "mines!!!" stage by the time Sarah's old enough to want to take her toys. (She adds an S to the end of words when making them plural, it's so cute!)
One more day this week, 5 next week, then 2. I hope I can make it. The kids have been crazy this week. One good/pleasant thing was when I took my 8th graders to sing to their teachers and the principals during their planning. They sang Carol of the Bells accappella 3 times. They did an AMAZING job. I was so proud of them.

New Windows

The new windows are in, as of yesterday!! Boy does it make a difference. I no longer feel a draft while sitting on the love seat in the living room, and as I sit at the kitchen table typing this, again, no draft.

The new windows even have screens, so in the summer/spring, we will be able to open them and get a breeze. The little things in life are so exciting. (our really old windows didn't have screens)

Graduate Class #1 (Motivating Today's Learners)

5 minutes ago I found my graded graduate class material lying on the kitchen table. Bobby neglected to tell me that it came today. He does have an excuse though. The Christmas season has arrived, which means that he leaves for work earlier. Today he had to drop Bekah off at school to me at 3:35. This is 10 minutes after the last bell. We said hi/bye and gave each other a quick kiss. Not much time to tell me about my class coming back. Anyways, I was happy to see that I had gotten an A on the class. Out of a possible 930 points, I got 916. All that hard work was worth it!!

Bekah's 2 Year Appointment (almost 2 months after her b-day)

Today was the first available appointment around her birthday (2 months later)

Statistics- 36 inches tall (90th percentile)

30 lbs. (75th percentile)

This is the most Bekah has grown since she was born. In the last 8 months, she grew 4 inches, and gained 6 1/2 pounds. She is such a big girl. She has almost doubled her birth heighth of 19.25 inches, and weighs more than 5x her birth weight of 5 lbs. 14 oz.

She is in 2T shirts because she is so long waisted (like her maternal grandma, my mom), but in 24 months pants (rolled up or with a belt). She can wear 2T pants, but they're usually huge. I have to buy her 2T dresses though because of her long waist once again.

Bekah and I had a fun day yesterday together. Bobby had to work from 1-7 (got home around 8 and left right after church to go to work), so we had a lot of time together. We played outside, built towers with dominos, read books, colored, cleaned up toys, played with her new nativity set, and generally had a good time. There was only a little bit of Dora and Sesame Street in there along with a bath.

Here are a few pictures from the weekend.

Bekah and Mommy sleeping after another 4 am wake-up call. Daddy got up at 7:30 am to go to a church men's breakfast. (He slept in Bekah's bed for the last 1 1/2 hours because she wouldn't go back to sleep.)

Jammin' with Dad.

It's cold outside, but we're still gonna play.

The neighbor's outdoor cat that love's chasing Bekah around.

Another Week Down, 12 More Days to Go

Another week of school is over. It's pretty sad that we're (teachers at my school) counting down again right after we come back from a 5 days weekend. It's been a busy/crazy/long week.


I came home to find new windows sitting in my kitchen. Our landlord has been promising them for over a year and they are much needed, but I dislike that they're in my house taking up room until he puts them in. We're having company tomorrow night and my kitchen is filled by windows. Oh well!!

Bekah is currently watching Minnesota Cuke (Veggie Tales). I have included a picture of her for your enjoyment. Have a great, relaxing weekend!!