I have to find entertainment somewhere.....

I am currently sitting in the waiting room of the Lab Diagnostics center at the Opelika Medical Arts Center waiting to have my blood taken again. I failed my initial glucose screening, so I have had to return to take a three hour glucose test which is much worse than the first one. I had to fast starting after dinner last night - which basically means I haven't had my first OR second breakfasts, and I'm about to gnaw my own arm off. Luckily, they allowed me to take my anti-nausea meds, and I don't think I'm in danger of getting sick. Some people get sick after drinking the glucose beverage they give you, and if you do then the entire test is null and void - come back another day. So far, knock on wood, it looks like I'm going to make it through this first time. And hopefully, I'm here for nothing and my test will come back normal.

In addition to having wi-fi in here, which is helping me survivie the wait, the television is on Fox news. I don't know why they would pick something as specific as Fox news for a public waiting room, but based on the age range of the people around me, that might be why (lots of older folks who love the conservative right - sorry Mom and Dad, but you know you like Fox news, too.). Right now, they are having a heated debate about the new Britney Spears song called If You Seek Amy. It basically means something terribly dirty that some of us had to figure out for ourselves, and if you can't - just say it really slowly or really quickly. It spells something dirty. The people in this waiting room are gaping at the television with their mouths hanging wide open. And it's up for debate as to what is shocking them - is it the content of the song? Can they even understand what the commentators are trying to say about it? Or is it just the general appearance of Britney Spears on the tv screen, wearing a ridiculous outfit with a top hat and humping everything in sight? Or are they shocked at how horrible her music is, because they are intermittently playing her songs as they go through this argument? Either way, I think Brit-Brit exposure is severely detrimental to our senior community. They just cannot fathom it. The blood pressure in this room is rising, and the medical personnel needs to be aware of that. Personally, I am thoroughly enjoying this entire show. Ugh - they've moved on to the peanut butter scare. Yawn......

Teacher Mamas

Last year I had the great privilege of working with three wonderful ladies on our own little language arts team. All four of us worked with all of the other teams in the 6th grade, and we all taught language arts. It was idyllic for us - we planned together, we taught the same things, we were totally in sync with our work. The other teams didn't like it so much, but we loved it - mostly because we all love each other so much. Well, Brooke has left us for Birmingham to be closer to family and home, but Jenny and Shealy and I are still at Drake just plugging along even though we have been separated on to different teams. And miraculously, all four of us became pregnant in the last year. Brooke delivered her sweet Will last week, Jenny is about 7 weeks away from having baby Ryan Lily, Shealy is 10 weeks away expecting Kathleen "Kate" Elizabeth, and I am 12 weeks away from little miss Nealy. We do miss Brooke dearly, but we are thrilled to keep in close contact with her through email and blogs. And all three of us who are still at DMS showed up, big bellies and all, for the school dance last night. I think you can tell we were having fun throwing our big ole selves around the dance floor.

New Truck

Well, Joe has loved and loved his little Toyota truck, but it was time to bid it farewell. Our little family is growing, and he needed a new car that would fit two car seats. He really enjoyed having Jacks up, close, and personal in the two-seater, and they had a lot of fun together, but growth happens. Joe was so lucky to sell the red truck earlier this week to a cheerful and willing buyer, and the sale enabled us to be able to get a new truck. It isn't that we're all that partial to trucks, but you find that once you've had a truck for a while, you can't really imagine living without one. You think that you can always borrow one from a friend if you need to, but people are not always as generous in reality as they are in theory. Sad, but true. :)

So, after months and months of research and searching, Joe came upon this lovely 2002 Dodge truck for sale at the right price (after plenty of negotiating) just down the road in Lagrange. I don't want to say where we got it, because we didn't have the greatest experience. Needless to say, no matter how prepared you are, no matter how much work and research you've done, and no matter how nice and lovely you think your salesman is, no car dealer will ever make this process easy. It is very hard to understand how they are all so happy and cheerful all the time when they make a living at making people's lives absolutely miserable. What really blows me away is that car dealers are somewhat desperate to sell cars at this point in time, but still, nothing can be easy. They just manage to take all the joy out of buying a car. So, while we should be thrilled and excited about our new car purchase, we are still getting over the manipulation and low-blow tactics that were inflicted upon us. No 7 month pregnant woman should EVER be made to sit around a car dealership for three plus hours -that should be a rule.

One more thing to add - this is a TRUCK! Joe has even found himself in some new, secret truck-club where other truck drivers wave to him and regard him as one of their own. This thing is full sized and LOUD. The previous owner added some duel such-n-such that makes it really go vroom, vroom! So, when we come over with the new truck, you'll hear us pulling up the driveway. Let us know if you need help hauling something - we promise to be good truck friends!

100th Post!!!

Well, it has been a few weeks since my last post. This new year is off and running, and I have barely had a chance to breathe. School is working our booties off, and we have all been stricken with some sort of crud since new years. Jacks was diagnosed with the croup earlier this week, and he was given antibiotics and a round of prednisone to treat it. I will definitely think twice before I willingly give my child steroids again - he was completely crazy. We had a bi-polar child for a couple of days. He was rip roaring mad one minute and high as a kite the next. I could have handled a few difficult nights if it was just coughing and cuddling, but it was screaming and writhing and wailing and hollering. Not fun. Needless to say, we are most relieved that he seems to be back to his normal self as of this morning, and we still have a few days until we have to return to work. (thank you MLK!!!)
As for baby news, there is nothing all that exciting to report. Nealy's crib bedding arrived, and I found some perfect fabric for her rocking chair. But, the room still needs to be cleaned out before I can put any of it together. I'm getting very anxious to get a lot of it done, but my abilities to actually move furniture and such is extremely limited these days. I'm so hoping it will be done before little Nealy decides to join us. She is regularly kicking and jumping to let us all know she's in there and doing well. Jacks is still not so into talking about her, but he is aware of where the baby is (he'll pat my tummy and "regard" her), and he knows he is going to have a sister named Nealy. As for being happy about it, I'm pretty sure he's not. At all.
For my hundredth post, I should be talking about our super wonderful major purchase of a new (to us) Dodge truck, but we need to take some pictures and such. So, I'll save that for a couple of more days. For now, you get to enjoy pictures of Jacks and his new big boy hair cut!! Of all of the hair cuts that Jacks has had in his life, we have been very careful to preserve his baby curls. I have had a lot of difficulty parting with them. So, as a result, he has always had a pretty shaggy hair cut that most people are especially fond of. But, today, the lady who cut his hair was pretty ruthless. I told her to please try to keep some of the curls, but she was clearly working as fast as she could (she has apparently worked with toddlers before). She did a lovely job, but all of a sudden, my precious little baby looks like a grown up boy! (excuse his mouth full of food): He is smiling this big because Joe thought it would be a good idea to give him a few tablespoons of cream soda. Jacks absolutely loved it, and he drank from his little shot glass with his pinky pointing out like a perfect gentleman at tea time.
That is pretty much all for now. I hope everyone is staying warm on this frigid cold weekend. If it's going to be this cold, we could at least get a little snow! As it is, it's just too dismal and dreary to consider going outside. Yuck!