Day 43

Obviously I haven't kept up with my blog in the last few days:( I needed a break from the technology world so I haven't gotten on facebook or blogged since Monday. I just needed to take some time to pray in my spare time. Ok enough excuses huh?

Today I am thankful for:

• My dad driving me to Smithville so that I could spend the night with my grandmother and get my hair done the next day by my aunt. It has been a rough week, and I just needed to get away for a night! Thank you Lord for a peaceful place to get away to.
• Still being pregnant. I am going to post what all is going on for the simple fact that WE NEED YOU PRAYING! We went on Tuesday for a four and a half week ultrasound and evidently our gestational sac is forming like they would like for it to be. Please pray for us! We go back Tuesday and I would like nothing more than for them to tell us that everything looks "perfect" and that our baby is doing wonderful! I pray that we get to hear our little baby's heart beating away in there!
• Sundance last night. It is a restaurant in Smithville, and it was SO good!
• My husband taking me to Opry Mills to look around and to take me to a movie.
• Getting a kitchen table for $100. Our neighbors just got a new one and were selling their old one!
• Bentley turning ONE!
• A healthy baby!

Day 42

Today I am thankful for:

• Our doctor's nurse calling us at 8:08 this morning to let me know that our blood results are completely normal. I am going in for a four week ultrasound tomorrow at 12:30 so please pray for us! I am very anxious about the ultrasound! Thank you Lord for our strong Beta levels!
• My husband taking care of me tonight! My headaches have been TERRIBLE since Saturday morning. I don't know if it is from me cutting out the caffeine or the rising HCG levels, but it's bad. Rich was a trooper though. He made me soup while the KY game was on which is a BIG deal!!!
• Rich cleaning up the kitchen for me without me even having to ask. He has no idea how much this helps even though I tell him, but it allowed me time to just take a nap and try to sleep off the headache.
• Rich bringing me lunch at school today because I forgot mine (can you tell how thankful I am for my husband?).
• Being able to tell my students that I am pregnant! They all wanted to name the baby and was wondering where the baby was. I told them that the baby was in my belly and that they would get to see the baby grow bigger and bigger. They were SO excited! Everywhere we went for the rest of the day they would stop people and say, "OUR TEACHERS HAVING A BABY!"
• Getting to take a two hour nap after work!
• A healthy baby!

Day 41

Today I am thankful for:

• FINDING OUT THAT WE ARE PREGNANT!!! That's right, I am 4 and a half weeks right now! God has done a complete miracle in us, and we are giving Him all of the Glory for this! I will still thank God every day for a healthy baby at the end of my blog, but now I am actually pregnant! I did that before because I knew that having COMPLETE Faith was thanking God in advance for the things that you KNOW He is going to do. I knew He would bless us with a baby so I thanked Him for it every day for 40 days! Faith is knowing that God will take care of something even when it just doesn't seem like it's going to happen. Thank you Lord for the Miracle inside of my belly!
• Getting 7 FREE pair of maternity pants from one of our neighbors. I needed dress clothes for work (no I'm not out of my clothes yet, but I just didnt' want to have to spend a fortune on maternity clothes). She gave me TONS of pants, and my friend Megan is bringing me a whole tub of dresses and shirts!!! Thank you Lord for this blessing!
• A good report tomorrow! We get our blood test results back tomorrow so PLEASE pray for us. We are obviously very nervous with this pregnancy.
• Getting to go over to mom and dad's this afternoon for lunch! It was SO good!
• Poppyseed Chicken Casserole. It is such a great comfort food, and I was craving it!
• Getting to take a long walk with Rich and Bentley around the neighborhood.
• Getting to see the two little boys (5 and 7) that live behind us lead worship today in church. They were awesome!! It was such a blessing to see them and to see Clay and Trish worshiping. I'm so thankful that they are at our church now.
• A healthy baby!

Day 40

Today I am thankful for:

• Doing this blog for 40 days!!! Wow, I can't believe I have actually kept this up. I can honestly say that I truly have began "looking" for the good things that happen in my day so that I will remember to put them on here.
• The dog park at Moss Wright. I enjoyed taking Bentley to the park with Rich.
• A lazy day. I did get some laundry done today, our kitchen cleaned, and our bedroom picked up. Other than taking a long walk in the park, we have just been piled up in the bed. It has been a great day!
• Our grill. I can't wait to have our filets, shrimp, and grilled lettuce tonight!
• Crunchy Raison Bran Cereal with a fresh cut up banana. I even ate it in the bed this morning!
• Staying up late last night by myself and getting to watch a bunch of my shows!
• A healthy baby!

Day39

Today I am thankful for:

• My doctor's office getting me in today.
• Rich getting to play golf. We are trying to not spend too much with the recession and all, but I'm so thankful that Rich got to get out and enjoy some golf in this beautiful weather. I look forward to the day that I can go shop and he can golf at least once a month.
• My friend Megan that lives across the street. She came racing over today to enjoy some time together and brought me some books to enjoy.
• My friends in general. I have the most supportive friends that anyone could ask for. I'm so thankful for the women that surround me.
• Getting a hair appointment set with m aunt for next Saturday. I'll get to spend the night with mawmaw too!
• Getting all of our tests finished today at school. We had a lot to do because we just finished up another unit.
• A healthy baby (or two).

Day 37 & 38

Today (and yesterday) I am thankful for:

• A prayer request being answered!!!! I'll go into details soon:)
• Getting to watch an awesome movie with Rich.
• American Idol/Danny and Anoop Dog not getting kicked off.
• Getting my living room, dining room, and kitchen cleaned!
• Rich grilling Cedar Plank Salmon, asparagus, and lettuce for me. YUMMY!
• God keeping money in our account so we are always fed and our bills are always paid. Thank you Lord for your financial blessings.
• Having a night with NOTHING to do but hang out with Rich and Bentley.
• Getting to sit with Megan at Wireless last night and hold Lilly.
• Our plants starting to bloom. They are beautiful!
• It being a beautiful day outside today.
• Movie day at Recess for 30 minutes. It gave me an extra 30 minutes to get my lesson plans finished for next week.
• Jeans day today! I had a FREE jeans pass for showing up to all of the PTO meetings. I love wearing jeans to work. Every Friday is "jeans day" for teachers so I will get to wear them again tomorrow!
• Getting my bulletin board switched from winter to spring!
• A healthy baby (or two).

Day 36

Today I am thankful for:

• Getting my letter to the county written requesting to go to part-time.
• Being able to go out to dinner tonight at Chop House with all of my friends from high school for Bethany's birthday. I can't wait for some girl time, and I really miss my friends!
• Getting everything finished for St. Patty's Day with my students. We had lime sherbert punch with green whip cream and green sprinkles for our drink, a green cookie, AND a leprauchan (sp?) came to our classroom while we were at lunch and dumped all of our chairs on the floor, sprinkled gold glitter everywhere, and threw our papers ALL OVER!
• St. Patrick's Day!!! I love this holiday!
• Outside Recess!
• Rich bringing me my punch bowl and spoon to work because I forgot it at home. Thanks Rich!
• A healthy baby.

Day 35

Today I am thankful for:

• Going on the "no eating out challenge" with Rich to see how much money we could save.
• Being able to completely stock up at the grocery store with everything that we will need for the next 7 days!
• Having enough time to take Bentley for a long walk.
• Getting my kitchen cleaned up and washing a load of laundry and enjoying the nice spring weather with my windows up throughout the house!
• Turkey meat tacos with low-carb wraps, fresh cilantro, lime, diced tomatoes, shredded lettuce, low-fat sour cream, salsa, and of course Mexican cheese!! It was a goooood, slightly healthy dinner.
• A new episode of Gossip Girl that we got to watch while we enjoyed our taco night.
• Going to the gym with Rich. I'm finally back in there!
• A healthy baby.

Day 34

Today I am thankful for:

• A great service this morning and God giving Rich and I a message that was in His perfect timing.
• Rich still having a job. So many people are getting laid off, but Rich and I BOTH still have full-time jobs and our bills are paid!
• Our neighbors bringing over homemade chicken noodle soup since I have been so sick. They are precious! I'm so thankful for Clay and Trish and for having neighbors to borrow milk or sugar from!
• Both of our cars running and not having any issues with them. Sometimes I forget to thank God for all of the blessings that are right beneath my eyes. At any time a car could break down and cost us thousands of dollars. Thank you Lord for keeping our cars running.
• Getting to go out to eat this past weekend. I have to admit that I have completely taken forgranted being able to go out to eat whenever I want. With the economy and all, we have tried to cut WAY back on eating out so much. It has made me so thankful for the times that we do get to go out to eat!
• Watching TV. Thank you Lord for cable!
• A healthy baby!

Day 32 & 33

Today (and yesterday) I am thankful for:

• My husband singing "Love Song" by 311 to me last night at Talents. He is precious and even dedicated it to me when he finished at the end.
• Getting to go the the Wireless Karaoke night last night.
• A date night after Talents with Rich. We went out to O'Charleys because we had a gift card. It was wonderful except for the part where I got miserably sick on the way home. We were on all of the windy, country roads coming home from White House and I had a headache that hurt so bad that it made me natious.
• Not having any students yesterday! I love my students, but I got so much finished yesterday without them there.
• Getting to eat with Dad yesterday during my hour lunch break.
• Having an hour lunch break yesterday. I usually only have 25 minutes to cram in my food!
• Sleeping in this morning with Rich!
• Going out to Chili's with Rich today for lunch.
• Taking a LONG nap with Rich and Bentley today. I needed it so bad from being so sick. It was nice to have Rich join me!
• A husband that holds me when we sleep. He is so affectionate and always makes me feel so loved.
• My camera! I got so many great pictures last night.
• Getting to take a nap yesterday when I got home. I usually come straight home from work and clean and cook until Rich gets home. I have been so sick that I just came in yesterday, changing into my pajamas, and took a two hour nap before getting ready to go out last night!
• Getting to go work out today.
• A healthy baby!

Day 31

Today I am thankful for:

• Getting to go to the doctor today. That's right! Some people do not have health insurance and can't go to the doctor when they are sick. I am so thankful that I am able to walk into a doctors office when I do not feel good to get medicine that will help me (well, let's hope that it helps this time).
• The beautiful snow today. I love watching it snow. I even bundled up my students and let them do a "snow dance" outside of my classroom door in the snow for 60 seconds each. They were adorable! I told them that if they do a "snow dance" that it would snow more. Let me just say that they DANCED out there! I'm not gonna lie, I even did a little jig.
• Crockpots... need I say more? They make cooking so much easier and more time efficient. Our pork tenderloin smells so good. Mashed potatoes and peas are the sides. We are splurging a little bit with our diets:(
• Our new sleeping bag that we got aboout a month ago. I haven't felt good at all the past two days so when I got home today I got in the sleeping bag and watched lots of shows. It was wonderful.
• The SEC basketball tournament. It is giving us our "sports fix" for a little bit and mentally preparing us for March Madness baby! Rich and I always do brackets and make bets. I have won the last two years!
• Favor! I had a meeting with my principal on Tuesday to go over all of my evaluation paperwork and to sign everything. First of all I got great scores on everything and wonderful feedback. The only thing she said in any way that was a "way for me to improve" was to update my website for my classroom. I had SLACKED and had not updated it since Thanksgiving! I told her that I would do it Wednesday during my planning time and finished it yesterday. Today I got a note in my box along with the other 8 teachers that keep their webpages updated that we get two hours to just work in our classrooms tomorrow instead of having to sit through the technology inservice!! I'm so thankful that I updated my webpage yesterday!!! God's little way of taking care of me. Thank you Lord!
• A healthy baby (or two).

Day 29 & 30

Today I am thankful for:

• Long planning periods. I got an hour and 40 minutes yesterday and today to do basically nothing. I'm caught up for the next who knows how long so now my planning periods consist of relaxing and looking up recipes. Oh and doing budgets for Rich and I. Oh the life of a teacher! It is not this laid back in the fall though.
• Getting to take a long bath today.
• A healthy, easy dinner. I made grilled chicken salad. The chicken was left over from the other night when we grilled, and I just came home and cut it up, added some fresh bacon, egg, and homemade ranch and voila... dinner is served!
• Getting to go to church tonight. I had to miss last Wednesday, but got to go tonight.
• Keeping up with this blog for 30 days now. I have missed some days, but I have made it average out to 7 things that I am thankful for everyday! There is a good feeling you get when you keep a committment to yourself.
• Catching up on some shows after work. I only got to watch a few, but I'm glad that I got to lower our DVR percentage.
• DVR-I am so spoiled by it.
• Getting to watch American Idol yesterday and today and none of my favorites getting voted off. I seriously look forward to American Idol all day long. I know that is sick!
• Getting to see my dad yesterday and hanging out with him for a while.
• Splurges at Las Maracas. I broke my diet last night and ate some Mexican! It was wonderful and worth every bite. I grew up eating Mexican with my dad about once a week and sometimes twice. I had not had Mexican in two weeks. I was CRAVING it.
• The excitement of maybe not having school tomorrow or at least getting out early. We may not get anything, but there is still a wonderful excitement anytime they even forcast anything related to snow for us teachers!
• My hearing. My ears have been clogged up from being so sick and I'm so thankful that usually I can hear everything. I take it forgranted that I am able to listen to the people on TV or my husband talking to me.
• Going for a long walk with Rich and Bentley last night.
• A healthy baby!

Day 28

Today I am thankful for:

• My class being well-behaved. Let's just say that last week was not a good week for behavior in Mrs. Hall's class.
• Going for a long walk with Rich and Bentley
• Getting two loads of laundry finished, getting our kitchen clean, and getting everything from Walmart that we needed.
• Our weeping cherry tree starting to bloom.
• Spring. I love spring and fall. Fall is my favorite season, but spring comes in right behind it.
• Getting everything caught up at work. I file EVERYTHING (all the papers that two of my students do, a copy of everything that the class does so that I will have it for next year, anything from faculty meetings or evaluations, any letter I send to parents, etc) and had aquired quite a stack of stuff to file that I finally got finished today. It piled up when I was out with the surgery and all.
• A healthy baby.

Day 26 & 27

I know that this is kinda cheating, but I COMPLETELY forgot to do my thankfulness blog yesterday. I was too busy outside enjoying the beautiful weather! So I'm gonna combine day 26 and 27 and just make sure to include 14 things that I am thankful for.

Today I am thankful for:

• Getting up this morning and going to church. It really makes your entire week go better if you just get up and go. I had to miss the leadership meeting last Tuesday and service on Wednesday so I felt completely out of the loop. I'm so thankful that I got to go this morning.
• Feeling a thousand times better than I have felt in over a week. I'm still not completely in the clear. I still have a terrible cough, and my chest still burns like crazy when I cough, but I am so thankful that I can at least breathe!
• Sleeping in Saturday morning until 10! Ahh it was wonderful.
• Re-mulching our landscape yesterday. It looks SO good. I love our landscape right after it is freshly mulched.
• Taking Bentley all the way around our entire neighborhood on a walk yesterday with Rich. Wonderful bonding with the hubby and dog.
• Getting to eat at Red Lobster today with mawmaw, Aunt Gail, Mom, Dad, Rich, Justin, and Christy. I'm so glad that I got a chance to see mawmaw and Aunt Gail!
• Going to Centennial Park today for the entire afternoon. We didn't leave until 7:00. We took Bentley to the dog park there, then we walked the entire park. It was nice to get in our exercise for the day AND enjoy God's beauty. We had such a romantic walk by the big pond and by the parthenon. It was wonderful.
• Taco night! An easy/healthy dinner. I substitute lots of the items to make it healthy, but they are still awesome. I use turkey meat instead of ground beef and low-carb wraps instead of the other types of wraps. Rich loves taco night.
• Rich hanging the "H monogrammed shadow box" above our kitchen sink and a shelf that I picked up to go underneath it. I love it, and he did such a great job hanging all of it for me.
• Having a simple night and watching the last episode of LOST that we have (we have to mail it in to Netflix and get the next disc) and eating tacos on our living room floor together.
• Having a TV and dvd player in our room. We are about to crawl in our bed and watch the first episode of "How I Met Your Mother." We had planned on watching it earlier in the week, and I think I fell asleep.
• Having a husband that is BY FAR the spiritual leader in our home. He is constantly encouraging me to read the Word and sincerely LOVES going to church. I'm always trying to drag him out of there because he is always visiting and cutting up with his friends, but I'm so blessed to be married to such a Godly man. Not many women are this lucky, and I'm so thankful for him!
• Grilling out last night and sitting with Rich on the swing and listening to our ihome outside for a while. It was so peaceful out there, and I loved getting to just kick back and smell the awesome smell of charcoal burning while Rich made me an awesome meal.
• A healthy baby.

Day 25

Today I am thankful for:

• My treat day! I am giving myself one meal a week to "treat" myself to on this diet. I chose to go to Chef's Market on my way home from running lots of errands and got their hot chicken salad, steamed veggies, and PASTA!! I loved it, but couldn't eat as much of it as I had hoped to be able to eat.
• Getting a pair of jeans altered (they were a little long, but perfect everywhere else). Christy GAVE me a pair of Guess jeans that I loved a while ago, and I finally had a chance to take them to get them altered. I have needed a pair of jeans for a while and I'm so thankful that I didn't have to buy them! Thank you Christy!
• Getting all of my errands ran and making it home by 4:15! I had to run to Hendersonville, get the jeans tried on for my alteration girl, go to two banks, and ran by Chef's Market!
• Having a chance to take Bentley on a walk.
• This past week at work finally being OVER! It has been the worst week so far since I started first grade.
• 70 degree weather. Enough said.
• A healthy baby.

Day 24

Today I am thankful for:

• Feeling a little bit better today. I am still by all means not in the clear, but there are parts of the day that I can at least half way breathe through my nose. My stomach is not taking so well to the meds though. Lets just say that the small amounts of food (I have no appetite) that I am eating are not staying in for long.
• Getting to go to Kroger today after work. I stocked up so that I could rest this weekend and not have to move. I got lots of stuff that Rich can grill for me so that I won't even have to cook! I know this is my OCD kicking in, but everytime I go to the grocery store, I clean out my fridge. Today we had no room in our freezer so I cleaned it out too. Since I keep things cleaned out almost on a weekly basis, it only took me about 10 minutes.
• Getting two batches of brownies made for my first graders! Let me explain. I would have NEVER been cooking feeling the way I feel had it not have been a mandatory thing! At the beginning of the year, you could hear my class coming from a mile away. I would make them pull cards left and right and for whatever reason they were TERRIBLE in the hallway. I had to think of something because it was SO embarrasing! They were angels in the classroom, but I think they just got so excited when they knew they were getting to go outside or to lunch that they just feel apart. So we started a "compliment party" reward system. Everytime they got a compliment, I would add a letter to the board for whatever type of party we were having. So for brownies they had to get 8 compliments! Within a week of the school year starting, they looked like they were marching in the military. They all walked with their hands behind their backs, mouths closed, eyes towards the front, etc. We have a party about once a month for this so it's kinda a lot of cooking, but it is SO worth it. They get compliments all the time. Well they got their last letter last Friday, and I promised them that if they got it before the end of February that I would add icecream, hot fudge, whip cream, and cherries to the party. We always do the party the following Friday so this is why I had to make two batches of brownies flu and all.
• A home-cooked meal. Since I've been sick since last Friday night, I haven't really cooked at all. I decided since I had to do the brownies that I might as well do dinner. We had salad (with home-made ranch, boiled egg, and I even fried up bacon), whole wheat no egg yolk pasta with my meat sauce ( I made it from turkey meat though because we are trying to loose weight). It was GOOD! I got sick half way through eating though and couldn't finish mine. I'm just thankful that I was able to cook something for my hubby!
• American Idol allowing there to be a Top 13 instead of Top 12. Anoop Dog is in!!! It was precious to see him so excited. He isn't the best singer in the world, but for some reason my heart goes out to him.
• Having a year to the gym PAID FOR! We asked for it for Christmas from our folks so we can go to the gym anytime we want between now and January 1, 1010! I haven't been as much as I would like, but Rich is there now. I'm glad that he is getting some time to listen to the ipod I got him and have some time for himself working out.
• A healthy baby.

Day 23

Today I am thankful for:

- Being able to sign into my blog at school!!! No, I am not going to do my blog while the students are in here. I do it during my lunch break! For some reason I do not have the option to add bullets though. Dashes will have to do.

- Loosing 3 pounds since Sunday!!! I guess eating healthy since then has made a difference. Only 12 more to go!

- A lunch break at work. It may only be 25 minutes, but it is 25 minutes that I get to sit and relax.

- Feeling a little better today after getting in a dose of the Zpack.

- New shoes to wear to work today.

- Getting to go to Wireless tonight.

- A healthy baby!

Day 22

Today I am thankful for:

• A great boss that came to my room today to check on me because she heard that I was sick. She allowed me to not have to use ANY of my sick time and just leave during my planning time to run to the doctor.
• Not having to do anything after work but sleep. I am doing everything I can to not have to take off of a day of work, but I am SO SICK right now.
• Having enough money to pay for $85 worth of prescriptions. Apparently they do not have the cough medicine in a generic yet. I am now on an inhalor (to help me breathe because of the fluid in my lungs), cough medicine, and a Z pack. I'm pretty much on the verge of pnemonia so please pray. On a side note, I realize that there are tons of mispelled words in this blog. The cough medicine has made me a little "out of it."
• Rich making it to the leadership meeting tonight at church so that I would not have to go. I'm glad that he could fill me in on everything.
• Finding an incredible book that I LOVE reading. It is "If You Were God Would You Choose You." Shelayne is having a women's bible study on it, and I can't make it on Tuesdays because of our PTO meetings. I ordered the book anyways just in case I would be able to make it a few times. I am SO thankful that I ordered it. I read the first chapter last night and couldn't wait to get home to read a little more. I have missed reading for me vs college or first graders.
• Eating healthy for TWO DAYS in a row. I usually will eat healthy one day and really bad the next. Hopefully I'm on a roll though because I would really like to loose these 15 lbs.
• A healthy baby.

Day 21

Today I am thankful for:

• Dr. Seuss' Birthday!
• News Channel 5 coming to our school.
• Medicine. I am so thankful to live in a time when we can go to the doctor and get medicine to help us feel better. I can't imagine not having medicine to help me right now.
• Health insurance. One of the many things that we take forgranted every day. This is one of those things that you don't really realize what you have until it is gone. I'm thankful that I can go to a doctor tomorrow and hopefully get medicine that I can afford because of our health insurance and start feeling better. All of this for (at the most) $20. That is something to be thankful for!
• Being able to stretch out on the coach in our new sleeping bag and watch TV until I fell asleep today. I'm so thankful that I got to take a two hour nap!
• A husband that babies me, spoils me, and takes care of every little need and want that I have when I am sick. He doesn't just get me movies to watch and feed me. He lays in bed with me, makes sure I take my medicines, gets me dinner, and actually watches the movies with me so that I don't have to be stuck by myself all night.
• A healthy baby.

Day Twenty

Today I am thankful for:

• Feeling a little better than I felt yesterday. Friday I had a sore throat, but by yesterday it was in my chest and I was achy all over. Today I felt a little better, but not much. I'm just thankful I didn't have to go to work today. It gave me another day let the medicine do its thing.
• Rich taking me out to see "Slumdog Millionaire." It was one of the best movies that I have seen. I really don't like just laying in bed all of the time, and I was depressed that I had spent the entire weekend basically in bed. So, my sweet husband took me out to a movie!
• Movie theatre popcorn with endless butter. We always go to the movie theatre in Gallatin because you get to put as much butter as you want on the popcorn, and it's free refills on drinks! Ahhh... so good!
• My home. I love it so much. It is so cozy, and there is no where that I would rather be than right here at home with Bentley and Rich!
• My mom getting a new car. Wow, it is NICE! I'm thankful that I got to see mom for a little bit tonight too.
• Our laptop. It is brand new and was FREE. It is really Rich's company's laptop, but he gets to bring it home every night so that I can use it. His boss is VERY cool and allows him to download itunes, etc to it. What a blessing!
• A healthy baby.