What a disappointment

I had an exciting weekend planned to go to Chicago and it all got ruined. Jeff left for Chicago Thursday morning for the Illinois School Board Convention. After school today, I was to ride the train up and meet him and spend the weekend shopping, site seeing, and eating out. I was thrilled. Yesterday, Ava had to come home sick from daycare with a stomach virus. Nana & Poppy saved the day and came up to take her back home with them for the weekend. However, I woke up this morning sick also. Unbelievable, I am quite certain I haven't called in sick for myself in 7 years and I am sick today. I am starting to feel a little better but not well enough to travel that far. So now it is a Friday night and I have no husband and no baby at home for the entire weekend. Jeff told me it is was so cold in Chicago I would be miserable anyway. Oh well - there is always next year. I am grateful though - being sick is not fun and I haven't had the opportunity to experience it in a while. I guess there is always a bright side - and think of the money I will save. Hope everyone else stays healthy.

Doctor Appointment

Today I had a doctor appointment. Everything looks good. I am almost 18 weeks. We got to schedule our sonogram. It is December 5th. We will then know if it is a boy or girl. I will definitely post as soon as we know.

Nothing new

Sorry no posts in a long time. I have had really nothing new to report because I have been doing cheerleading stuff a lot the past 2 weeks. We started having practice everyday after school 2 weeks ago. It has been going really well. I have a great bunch of girls - talent wise and work ethic. This weekend we had a choreographer come down from Chicago to teach us a competition routine that he made up. We used to do it ourselves but it wasn't ever as good. Last year was the first year we hired a choreographer and we got 11th at state so we are trying it again. I'm definitely in the wrong end of the business though because this 21 year old male cheerleader made more money in one weekend than I do coaching all year. He was well worth it though and hopefully we are on our way to state again this year.

Ava is doing good. She has been getting a lot of daddy time since I am at practice all the time. She goes to practice sometimes but is a pretty big distraction to the girls. She loves watching them though.

I've Been Tagged

I have been tagged by Angie at Our Wonderful Crazy Life.

So here are the rules...

1. Post the rules on your blog.
2. Write 6 random things about yourself.
3. Tag 6 people at the end of your blog.
4. If you are tagged, just do it, and pass the tag along!

1. I think being a teacher is the greatest job in the entire world - and not because we get our summers off. That is an added bonus though. Getting to know at least 100 students every year in my classroom is an amazing opportunity. And then seeing some of them every year to go on to major in a Biology related field is so rewarding.

2. If I couldn't be a teacher anymore I would work in a genetics lab. Since there is not a lot of those in Oblong that would require moving away and I am currently not interested in doing that.

3. When I am not working I am so lazy. I try to make excuses to myself about being busy but that really has nothing to do with it. When I am at home I want to play with Ava and just sit around after she goes to bed.

4. When I started teaching I was "ask" to coach cheerleading. I didn't want to and knew nothing about it. Now I love it and know far more than any adult should. I look at "my girls" who I have seen graduate, cheer in college, get married, have families, etc and think how I would have never got to know them so well had I not been their coach. It takes a ton of my time but 99% of the time it is worth it.

5. I don't really talk on the phone very much - except to Martha. Everyday on the way to school and sometimes on the way home we talk on the phone. And yes I do know she put that on her blog but it is definitely something about me too.

6. Jeff & I want to have a bunch of kids. The verdict on how many is yet to come. I am holding out to see how 2 goes. I think it would be so much fun to have a big family.

I am supposed to pass this on to 6 people but the only person that I know that has a blog that hasn't been tagged is Amy G.
Sara B you have been tagged several times so we expect to see a response.

Character Counts Fish Fry

Saturday night was a fundraiser fish fry at the grade school for the character counts program. It was catered by County Rhodes - Yum Yum. You got to love all you can eat events when you are pregnant. It is one of the few times in my life I don't have too much guilt about the amount of fat I am consuming. They also had a carnival for the kids. The Kirts' family and Grandma & Grandpa Buerster attended with us.

They had a version of build of bear which was a hit with the kids.

Here Alli is playing Plinko. Ava is just watching. Holding Ava is Jane Attaway - one of the unit office secretaries.

Daddy and Ava doing the cookie walk.

Ava with her game tickets.

If you looked at the Halloween post you may be noticing a trend. Somehow Ava keeps conning her cousins into pushing her in the doll strollers. She is entirely too big for this but is loving sitting in it lately.

Cheerleader in the making

The other night a commercial came on where people were dancing. Ava was loving it. Being the dedicated cheer coach, I have quite a few cheer competitions on DVR so Jeff turned one on for her. She cheered and danced for at least 5 minutes. The video doesn't even do it justice for how cute it was. You could tell she really thought she was doing some of the same things as the girls on TV. I can't decide if all this cheerleading now is going to make her love it or hate it later in life. Either way is fine but it sure is cute when she is 1.

Trick or Treat

We had a good Halloween. Dressing up as Minnie Mouse started on Wednesday at the daycare. They went to several local businesses. Friday we got out of school early for parent teacher conferences so Ava and I along with Martha's crew headed over to Mom & Dad's house. We met up with Amy and Brent's family there. Martha and I took the kids to a few places around Wendelin and then the kids thought it was time to quit. Trick or treating can be exhausting.

Here is our little Minnie Mouse.

Memal Patchett made her this beautiful costume.

She liked it once she got it on okay but she did not want to put it on.

Diana Smith had to get down her girl's Mickey & Minnie

so Ava could get her picture taken with them.

Here is the entire crew.

We have a cat, 2 princesses, a Minnie Mouse (who didn't want her picture taken) & a dog.

After we took costumes off, Ava thought she needed pushed around in the doll stroller.

Emma was upto the task.

This is quite a group around Grandma's kitchen table.