SO annoying

Every once in a while this type of conversation will come up in the teacher's lounge, and I just find it to be very irritating. Here is how it went today:

Coworker: Life expectancies used to be shorter, so when you got married you didn't have to stay together as long. These days you sometimes have to stick it out for 40-50 years. Who wants to do that?

Me: I do.

Coworker: Well, you may plan on doing it, but you never really know what is going to happen.

Me: I still want to.

Coworker: You just never know.

Me: I know that I want to stay together and I am very happy.

Coworker: Good for you.

Me: Thank you.

I am not saying this to in anyway judge those who have been divorced. It is not my place. Everyone has their own stories, lives, and trials. It just drives me crazy when other people try to tell me how my life is going to turn out!

My growing stomach

My sister asked me for a belly shot, so I thought I would just go ahead and post it on my blog. This week my stomach really started to bulge and I actually look pregnant, not just a little pudgy. Although I know there will come a day when I want my belly to just stop growing, I am taking the time to really enjoy being excited about my pregnant belly at the moment.

8 weeks

15 weeks

17 1/2 weeks (to be precise!)

baby movements

Yesterday afternoon I laid down to take a nap and I felt the baby move for the first time! At first I thought, "Was that really the baby?" Then I felt it two more times and was convinced! It was so amazing to feel the first little flutters of our precious baby's movements. It is still hard to grasp the idea that I have an actual baby growing inside me. God works on wonderful ways! Today at school, while I was teaching, I could feel the baby move sporadically throughout the day. On the way home in the car, I coughed and then felt two quick movements like the baby was saying "Stop that, Mom!" What a wonder!

Halloween Party 2009

On Halloween, we had our annual small group costume party. We had a small crowd this year, but we still have a GREAT time! It is always so fun to see the costume people come up with!

Here were some Longhorn cookies I made. No, they aren't "Halloween" themed, but they are orange and the Longhorns football team is scary good this year!

Spider rolls that Alli made

The Chamblees as "The Flinestones"

Bam-Bam and Pebbles

I have a "bun in the oven" and Mark is the chef

Closer look at the oven

Garrett and Amy are the people on the Snuggie commercial

I don't know why this is sideways, but Mallory was enjoying Mark's apron.

Jake playing with the oven. He kept opening the door and giggling :)

Happy Halloween, everyone!

Happy Halloween!

My brother and me, circa 1982

I want to wish everyone a safe, wonderful, joyous, and memorable Halloween!

I knew it!

Yesterday I finally told my students that I was going to have a baby. They were so excited for me. They started clapping and cheering! A lot of my students said, "I knew it!" When I asked how they knew, they said (with some embarrassment) "You're stomach is getting bigger!" One of my boys said he was going to ask me, but then didn't. When asked why he didn't he said, "I saw on a carmex commercial that you should never ask a woman if she is pregnant!" One of my little boys shouted out, "Everyone, stop cheering. This means she is going to leave us." That was very sweet to hear that he didn't want me to leave, but I assured them that the baby isn't due until April. So, everyone officially knows now. In about three weeks we will find out the sex out our little baby and we are so excited!

I think I want to kiss you now!

This week I have been feeling particularly fat. I don't look pregnant yet, I just look like I have "let myself go". Well, today I was leaning against a wall in the hallway overseeing the kids packing up their backpacks. A parent who volunteers often at our school came walking down the hallway. She looked at me, looked at my stomach, smiled and patted my belly. I know that she volunteers in the office a lot, so I thought that maybe she had heard about my pregnancy. I leaned in and asked her if she had heard. She said (and I quote), "No, but you don't have an ounce of fat on your body." It was very nice to hear that compliment and I was excited that someone saw me and thought I was pregnant and not just fat! Thank you, Susan!

craving

Everyone keeps asking me if I have had any cravings yet. I have always said that I didn't really feel like I had. Well, the other day, I'm pretty sure I had my first "real craving". I was sitting in a meeting with my principal, assistant principal, counselor, and 4th grade team. For some reason, the thought of peanuts popped into my head. As soon as it was there, I couldn't get rid of it. I was literally sitting there not listening to anyone talking and trying to figure out how I could get some peanuts! I have been wanting salty things since the beginning of my pregnancy, but at that moment I wanted peanuts REAL bad! That was in the morning and I had to wait until after school to go to the store. But, when I got home to my couch, I had a very good time enjoying eating my peanuts!

Our little lemon

I am now at 14 weeks, which means that I am officially in my second trimester! According to babycenter.com, our baby is now about the size of a lemon. I can't believe how fast it came, and yet how day-to-day is seems to be going too slowly. The thing that I really enjoyed the most about my first trimester was Mark and I being able to tell all of our family and friends that we were expecting! I will not miss the nausea. It seems to have pretty much disappeared. I am still a bit of a "picky" eater, but no longer suffering from morning sickness. The things I am looking forward to in my second trimester are: finally "looking pregnant" (one of these days that might happen), finding out the sex of our baby, and starting to plan for things like the nursery.

This past Saturday, while my mom was in town, I finally got to do something I am been thinking about and dreaming about doing for a long time - I got to buy maternity clothes! While I am not in immediate need of them, I am looking forward to getting to use them. It was so fun to put on the fake belly and try on clothes. I took a picture of myself on my phone and send it to Mark as a preview for the future. No, sorry, I'm not going to post that on my blog! It was very special to be able to share that shopping experience with my mother.

Praise God!

This morning during early worship at church, we had an amazing THREE baptisms! Those getting baptized ranged in age from about 10 to 70. It was a miraculous and wonderful thing to watch. I tend to cry during baptisms anyways, but these three really touched my heart today. It brought back to me what this life is really all about. Loving God, telling others about Jesus, and saving souls is the true "meaning of life". I am so blessed to have seen three more souls saved and lives committed to Jesus. I know the angels in Heaven are rejoicing today!

Baby Fowler

I went to my obgyn this afternoon for a check-up and all is well! I have lost 4 lbs. since my last check-up at 7 weeks. They weren't concerned about the weight loss because they said it is pretty normal in the first trimester is you have been having nausea. I got to hear the heartbeat again. The doctor felt around on my stomach for a few seconds and then put the doppler instrument on my stomach and I could immediately hear that little baby! Baby Fowler was cooperating nicely because she said she usually has to search around for a minute. The heartrate was 166. Other than that, everything is going well. I am 12 weeks tomorrow and starting to see a light at the end of the morning sickness tunnel. I am still wearing my regular clothes for now, although some of them are fitting more snuggly at the waistband. Thank you to my sister, Allison, Miranda, and Amy D. for letting me borrow maternity clothes. I am looking forward to getting to use them!

Thanks for the info!

Student: There's a fly by you.

Me: That's okay.

Student: Make sure it doesn't land on your head and lay eggs.

Me: (laughing)

Student: It can really happen!

Teaching is entertaining!

the little facts

There are a lot of random things about pregnancy that I want to share and that I don't want to forget. So, this post is just about all the little things.

Most asked question: Will you find out the sex of the baby?
Answer: YES!
2nd most asked question: Will you tell the name?
Answer: YES!
Food aversions thus far: anything Italian (except pizza), apple juice, chocolate syrup
Food cravings thus far: pop-tarts, anything salty
My new quirks: I take my shower at night now before I go to bed so I don't have to deal with showering and morning sickness at the same time, and I put my make-up on sitting on the floor in my bathroom using my full length mirror. I simply don't feel like standing up for that long in the morning.
I haven't yet: cried at a commercial featuring a baby, but I have cried at plenty of other things
I am surprise by: the fact that I have lost weight due to several weeks of not being able to eat much. And still, while I'm not actually "showing" my stomach is definitely rounder than normal.
Dreams I've had: For those of you who don't know, I am a very vivid dreamer. I haven't dreamed yet about whether we are having a boy or girl, but I have dreamed that I could feel the baby move. I very much look forward to the day when that actually happens!

On a side note, I just want to say "thank you" to whoever invited my pill I take for nausea. I would very much like to give you a big hug!

My sweet husband

I just wanted to brag on how wonderful my husband is. He is not a "big romantic gesture" type of guy, but then again, that isn't really the kind of girl I am either. It is the sweet little things that he does that tells me he loves me and makes me appreciate how blessed I am. For example, spending an hour cleaning the kitchen after we had some friends over or offering to go buy me something I was craving at 10:00 pm. Don't worry, I didn't actually make him go! However, this week he surprised me and just made me smile! To understand the sweet gesture, you have to know the back story:
This time last year when all of the new TV shows were starting I wanted to try out two of them - Fringe and Privileged. After about three weeks it became apparent that I was not going to be able to keep up with both of them. I had to choose! So, I chose Privileged. Well, a few weeks later I realized that show was stupid and I had made the wrong choice. Then, like two weeks after that the show got canceled. By that time I was already too far behind on Fringe because it is the type of show that builds upon itself. So, for a year I have been talking about how I regret that decision and how I chose the wrong show. Silly, I know. It is just a TV show.
Back to the sweet gesture: On Tuesday night about 7:00 Mark grabs his keys and says he is going to "run an errand". I thought that was a little unusual because Mark doesn't typically "run errands." Thirty minutes later he comes home and walks into the living room with something behind his back. He tells me he bought me a present. He pulls out the Fringe first complete season on DVD! I asked him what prompted this thoughtful gesture and he said he saw a commercial on TV that the DVD set was coming out that day and he just thought I would like it! I think just buying me something because he thinks I will like it is awfully sweet! So, guess what I have been watching for the last three evenings . . .

Not much to report

Well, sorry about the slow blogging, but I feel that I don't have much to report. My days have been pretty routine and uninteresting. It's not that I live a boring life. I have a wonderful husband, great family, great friends, and I love my job. I just haven't found much to be "newsworthy" in the past two weeks since our big announcement. My days have consisted of going to work, coming home, being a couch potato, and going to bed at about 8:30. The number one question I get is "How are you feeling?" For the most part, I feel pretty great. I have had some morning sickness, but I feel that it could be much worse than it is. My wonderful friend, Allison, gave me something called "preggy pops". They are little all-natural hard candies to help ease morning sickness. I keep them in my nightstand and when my alarm goes off I pop one in my mouth before I get out of bed. These have been quite successful on most days. I would say the 3 major changes in my life at the moment, in no particular order, are 1) I have to go to the bathroom alot, 2) I am hungry every hour all day long, 3) I want to go to bed when I get home from school. I have to make myself stay up until the sun starts going down! I would say today has probably been the best day in sometime. While I still feel like I want to hit the pillow right now (it is 6:15 pm), I have had the most "normal" day. I felt great this morning, had a normal breakfast, went to the gym after school, and am cooking dinner as I am typing. This is first time I have cooked dinner in 3 weeks. Well, I guess that was a lot of typing for "not much to say". Please continue to keep the baby and us in your prayers, and I will keep you updated on the latest happenings!