24 Weeks = 6 MONTHS!!!

Holy cannoli, I am 6 MONTHS PREGNANT you guys!! I am having a really hard time believe that in 16 short weeks we will have a son or a daughter FOR-EV-ER (said in Sandlot voice).

Here are my stats:

Week 24:

Pregnancy Stats:

How Far Along: 24 weeks 1 day

Size of baby: Papaya

Total Weight Gain: I am starting to regret tracking my weight gain on here, but as of yesterday I was 142 lbs. Yes that's a 4 in the middle of that number. I am feeling super duper huge right now and I know it's only going to get worse. This weekend I had a mini-meltdown because I couldn't fit into any of my clothes and I hadn't done laundry in about 2 weeks so I didn't have any of my cute maternity clothes clean so I had to wear some of my "fat" shorts that didn't match to the Astros game. Poor Casey... he had to deal with a lot of Sarah meltdowns this weekend.

Gender: Had our anatomy scan last Thursday and I was SO scared that the tech was accidentally going to reveal the gender. I honestly didn't look at the monitor very much because I was so scared of accidentally finding out and Casey not being there. Apparently he was scared of the same thing because as soon as he got home from work he said "You accidentally found out the gender didn't you?" He had a feeling all day about it - luckily I did NOT find out the gender. C and I are still both feeling "girl". Our family on the other hand - are almost all convinced it's a boy. We shall see!

Movement: YES! So extreme now that it's making my belly move around! I love it!!

Sleep: Good except for Riley insisting on being right up against me. It's hard to get up to pee at night when you have a 60 lb dog pinning you under the comforter.

What I miss: Eating sandwiches all the time. Also with family being in town I am missing having wine with everyone.

Cravings: Nachos... just not the fajita kind at the ballpark that are covered in tomatoes and onions. Casey went to get me nachos and instead of coming back with the delicious/terrible for you ones covered in chili and cheese, he brought back some fancy steak nachos that were covered in tomatoes and raw onions. Apparently my hormones were in full drive because I started... CRYING. Yes crying. About nachos. Like a little kid that didn't get their way. I literally could not fight back the tears - I was inconsolable. I've never been so upset over something so ridiculous in my life. Of course we were with Casey's family and my dad so I was UBER-embarassed. I slunk away to a trashcan to cry and try to pick out each tiny little shredded onion and tomato to no avail. Luckily I got over it pretty quickly.

Symptoms: Same as last week, just my hips and back a little. Feeling good otherwise.

Maternity Clothes: :( I am officially, completely in "no regular clothing" land. I can't fit my big ol' booty into any of my regular clothes anymore and that makes me sad.


Best Moment this week: Three best moments:

1. I was snuggling with C yesterday morning and he had his hand on the belly and the baby kicked him really hard. He was super excited!
2. Dr. D said at my appointment that this is a great week because the baby has a much better chance of surviving now that I am 24 weeks!
3. I registered at the hospital! Can you believe it? This is really going down!! We're going to have a baby, a REAL one, in a hospital! ANDDDDD - we get to take her/him home!!! WHAAAT??? I guess it's REALLY sinking in now..

Labor Day Weekend

This weekend Aunt Lorie and Uncle Ed came in from New York and my dad came down from Longview and we.....

1. Went golfing...


Well actually my dad and I only went to the driving range, but everyone else played 18 holes. We sat this one out because the heat makes it really difficult for my dad to breathe. If you didn't know this, my sweet Daddy had one of his lungs removed in 2005 due to lung cancer. He has now been cancer free for 6 years, but the effects of only having half of the breathing capacity that you and I have remain. Instead of golfing, Daddy and I hit up Ikea for a shelfing unit for the baby's room. Pictures of that to come. :)

2. We went to an Astros game....

The Astros lost, but we still had a good time. That is unless you count my "Nacho Meltdown" (see 24 week update coming soon).

3. We ate at our favorite local Mexican restaurant Hacienda Isabel...

Casey's dad and my dad goofing around after dinner

C & me after dinner. That is both a real baby AND a food baby. :)

4. We had a good ol' fashioned backyard barbeque on Labor Day....

My in-laws dog Evo. She's almost 16 years old!

Our Zac hanging out on the porch. I love those sweet eyes!

Casey and his dad hanging out

C & I enjoying the beautiful weather

THANK GOD for the beautiful weather this weekend. It has cooled off quite a bit here in Houston and this weekend it didn't really get above 95 which was AMAZING compared to the 110 degrees we've been used to. It was a nice taste of fall weather and we're hoping that it sticks around.

I Sprung Forward

I must have sprung forward and forgot about my blog! Okay a quick recap...

March - Honeymoon... awesome... still working on blog entry.

April - Wowza.. what a month! Here are the highlights...

April 1 - I played a really funny/mean April Fool's joke on my class. Okay I know what you're thinking "Why on Earth would she play a mean joke on Kindergartners???" In all fairness, my little friends were pulling pranks on me all day so they totally deserved it! So here's what I did.. I sat them down and told them that today was my last day as their teacher because Mr. Casey (that's what my kiddos call him) had been transferred and we had to move. They all started looking really sad so I yelled "APRIL FOOLS!!" They cracked up and started going "AHHHH YOU GOT US!!", "MRS. PAGE!! THAT WAS A BAD JOKE!!!", and of course the few saying "I KNEW YOU WERE JOKING, I KNEW IT WASN'T A FOR REAL JOKE!"

April 2 - 1st Annual Willbern Elementary Carnival! Casey and I volunteered to help at the Chick Fil A booth (gotta be near the yummy food!) and I loved getting to see all my kiddos from last year and their parents. What a fun day! I even rode a ride with my former student and HUGS buddy Raven! Here is a pic of me and my sweet Raven:


April 8 - Casey had an interview for the supervisor training program and got it! He will be possibly interviewing for jobs in Houston, Austin, Denver, Salt Lake City, Tennessee, and Seattle so keep him in your prayers.

Amy and I also went to Opening Day at Minute Maid to see the Astros play the Mariners. Amy is such a sweet friend and is my favorite friend to watch baseball with because she's so knowledgeable. Here are some pictures!




April 9 - Melissa and Zach came through town so we had dinner at Pappasito's with them and then hung out for a while at our house. I always love hanging out with Melissa because we have so much in common. We've been great friends since high school and I love that she found such a wonderful guy to call her husband.


April 10 - Megan's Bridal Shower! I co-hosted a bridal shower for my beautiful friend Megan! She wanted a Garden Party theme so I tried to give them best garden party shower I could. It turned out sooooooooo cute and we had a blast.


April 16 - Marathon Woman! I ran my first half marathon in Bastrop, Texas. What an amazing experience. Originally I was supposed to run it with my friend Jennifer, but she had to cancel at the last minute. I was really really scared to do this by myself, but I just made a goal of finishing in 3 hours 30 minutes (the max) so that I could say "YES I HAVE finished a half marathon!" instead of "One time I attempted a half marathon.. it was awful". Well boy did I surprise myself! I didn't train nearly as much as I wanted to, so when I got to the race I had really only ran 5 miles straight.. no more. When the race started I just went! I RAN the first 10 miles! No walking! I was so proud of myself! The last 3.1 were a different story. I hurt SO bad! I walked most of the last 3 which is why my time wasn't as good as it could have been. I finished in 2h49m which is almost an hour faster that I had hoped for - whoo hoo! Here are my results if you want to see.. and here is a picture!
I would definitely recommend doing the Zooma race to any women especially if you want to have a fun girls' weekend! I can't wait to do it next year!

April 19 - HAIRCUT! I have been waiting 5 years to cut my hair short and I finally did it! Here is my new look...


April 22 - Riley's Birthday & Megan and Todd get married! For those of you who don't know, April 22nd is our beloved Riley's birthday and he turned 6 this year! Oh how time flies.. I miss our sweet little baby puppy, but he is such a great dog and always makes us laugh. On Saturday my dad, Casey, and I took Riley & Zac to Petsmart so Riley could pick out some toys and see the "hammies" (hamsters, fish, guinea pigs, birds.. anything in a small cage or tank). He is obsessed...


Friday evening Adriane and I went to our beautiful former coworker Megan's wedding. It was the sweetest little country wedding with a few personalized touches during the ceremony. It was great to see Meg so happy. Here are some pics.




April 24th - Easter! My dad came in town to spend Easter weekend with us and it was a very nice relaxing weekend.

We dyed eggs ...


Went to church....


and hung out with the family...

We also got some fun surprises from the "Easter bunny", but more on that later. Hopefully I won't forget about my little blog anymore!

Oh Astros...

Well I went to my first Astros game of the season last night with my friend Amy and I hate to be negative, but it does not look like it's going to be a very pretty season for my boys. Having said that, last night was a lot of fun!

Amy and I met up before the game to try out a new restaurant near the ball park called Irma's Southwestern Grill and it was actually pretty good. We were thinking it was going to be this cool hole in the wall kind of place, but it was kind of fancy! The only drawback - they didn't have menus! I thought this was very weird, but I knew I wanted to order the shrimp tacos anyway, so I guess it wasn't too bad. The tacos were good and we of course ate waaaaaaaaay too much chips and queso. My favorite - YUM! After eating we strolled over to Minute Maid where.....

It was retro night! Minute Maid and we celebrated 45 years of the Astros. Everything was retro themed (1965) last night and it was so cute! The jumbo tron was in black and white, the t-shirt girls and guys were wearing astronaut outfits and 60's "spacey" looking stewardess outfits - it was really.... cute! I guess that's the only word I can think of for it!

Here are some pics from the night!





Even though my Astros lost (yet again) it was still great to be back at Minute Maid welcoming back my favorite sport.

Oh the life of a stay at home "mom"

So this week I get to pretend to be a "Trophy Wife", minus the "wife" part of course, stay at home "mom" (to two cute dogs), or just a plain ol' bum. Whatever you want to call it, as of last Thursday I was unemployed and really feeling the anxiety that comes along with it. As I left TWYLA with a tear in my eye, I got a moment of clarity when I realized that everything was going to be okay. Yeah, Casey and I might be living paycheck to paycheck (his paycheck) and eating Ramen Noodles every night for dinner, but at least we have each other and we're happy. We'll make it and we'll be fine and in 10 years this will just be another blip on the radar and we'll laugh about how "poor" we were. As far as me being a "Trophy Wife", by that I mean since I don't have a job I get to stay home and concentrate on making things run smoothly at home. Whenever I think of women that do this I always think about the women I see who drop their kids off at daycare and spend the rest of the day working out, letting their housekeepers clean their house, and then of course shopping. Unfortunately I won't be doing any shopping and I will be the housekeeper. Today I am cleaning the house, working on assignments, and running errands. I have been up since 5am and I can't believe that it's already 1:00. Time flies even faster when you're not at work. I thought the day would drag on but I've been busy since I woke up and haven't even come close to accomplishing everything I need to do today. There's always tomorrow though!

This weekend my dad came in to celebrate his birthday and spend some time with Casey and I. We had a packed weekend and had a blast. For those of you who don't know, I have the best father in the entire universe and I do mean that literally. I have been my dad's sidekick since day one and would be totally lost without him. On Friday I had substitute training for Conroe ISD and then met Daddy at the house so we could go get some lunch. We went to Guadalajara in The Woodlands for lunch and had some delicious fajitas. After that we went up to the mall to walk around and chat. I got a call from my new boss at Ann Taylor Loft so we also dropped by there to talk to her. I start on Wednesday- yay! Friday night we had plans to go to the Astros game but traffic was insane due to a bad storm coming in so we decided to go on Sunday instead. We went out to eat at Outback and then went home and fell asleep on the couches watching Monty Python - not a bad a little Friday!

On Saturday morning we got up and I made breakfast tacos (with low carb tortillas) for Daddy and I and then as we were getting ready to head out to Galveston, Casey got a call from his sister Katie. She needed a ride from IAH to Galveston because she was flying in from New York to go on a cruise with some friends and her flight was delayed almost 3 hours. So Daddy and I headed out to Galveston by ourselves. As soon as we got to Galveston we were starving so we went to grab a light lunch at The Strand. I have never been to the Strand so I had no idea what there was to do or eat down there. We asked a lady who was working a parking lot booth and she recommended some steak and seafood place or a place called Fisherman's Wharf. We decided to go to Fisherman's Wharf because it sounded like a nice, family owned, unique kind of place. We were wrong. It ended up being a super expensive Landry's owned restaurant, but the food was good so all was well in the end. After eating lunch Daddy and I went down to the Strand to do some shopping and we had plans to go to the Railroad Museum but they were closed - LAME! I was really surprised at how many stores didn't re-open after the storm and I was SUPER impressed at how high the water got in the Strand. You could see water lines that were 5-8 feet above my head- insanity. I guess I had forgotten really how bad Ike was last year, but after that I'm praying for no repeats of last year! At around 2:30 Casey finally rolled into Galveston and we went to Stewart beach for an hour or so. I didn't realize it but my dad had not been to a beach since he was 20 years old- is that not the craziest thing you've ever heard? When I was a kid I was usually with my mom during the summers so we went to the beaches in South Carolina, so Daddy and I never went to the beach together. Weird! After the beach we went to Casey's for dinner and I'll have to be honest - whatever they changed post-hurricane, the food was NOT good. I was very sad because that's where we always go! Here are some pics from our Galveston trip:






On Sunday we slept in a bit and then went to the Astros game against the Diamondbacks. We ended up getting club tickets which was nice because I haven't sat there in forever and it was nice and cool which Daddy liked. Unfortunately the pitcher that started was AWFUL and got us way behind so we ended up not being able to catch up enough to win the game, but it was a decent game to watch. Here are some pics from the game:




This week I have a lot going on despite being underemployed. I have my first day at Ann Taylor Loft on Wednesday as well as an interview at Stepping Stones Preschool on Wednesday morning. Not sure if I am going to take a full time position right now because that kind of defeats the purpose of me subbing to get a full time teaching job, but we'll see how things go. TTFN!