Baby Got Back

At least I know the baby is mine...!

What's in a name?

We now have a crib and a dresser in the baby's room! Jamie spent a long time putting it all together early this week and it looks great! All we need now is a rocker... and a baby. We did get to see the baby again tonight and it's amazing how fast it has grown. Jim said he's still pretty sure it's a girl, but determining gender is not really his forte so we'll wait patiently for the official sonogram in a few weeks. After dinner and an ultrasound (big night with the Burrow's) we all sat at Starbucks til way too late trying to come up with a name for Dr. Jim's medical clinic he is building. It was kind of fun tossing out all the crazy name ideas, but we didn't really get anywhere. The best we could come up with was "Preferred Family Care". So if you have any good ideas for clinic names, email Jim- he wants to hear suggestions!

"Baby Beulah"

I've started to feel the baby move!!! It was Sunday during church that it started. We had a special singing group at church and they sang all old time Southern Gospel style music. (The main singer of this group, Squire Parsons, is known for writing the song "Sweet Beulah Land".) Well, right in the middle of this hoedown gospel singing I started feeling a very faint kicking! I whispered to Jamie in the pew that I thought the baby must like this style of music because it was keeping the beat. (Or mabye the baby was kicking to say "make this crazy music stop!") Either way, it was pretty neat to finally start feeling the baby. It's been happening more since this weekend, but I can only feel it when I'm sitting really still and focusing on feeling it. And since school has started I haven't had time to sit still so only when I'm in bed at night can I really feel anything. I know soon I will feel the movements more strongly and get tired of the kicking, but for right now it's exciting!

We're still discussing baby name options (with some help from our friends, Mel and Gloria, here), but for now I'm calling the baby "Beulah" since that is obviously his/her favorite music!

"I love tickets."

This is how amazing my husband is. I've been working one or two nights a week at Banana Republic (for the employee discount) and occasionally Jamie comes up and eats dinner with me when I have a break. So, last weekend we were sitting down to eat in the food court and he said he had a present for me. I was pretty excited because last time he brought me a present at work, he gave me my new wedding bands.... I thought he would have trouble topping that. This time he handed me airline tickets to New York City and told me we are going to spend a week in NYC over Thanksgiving break!! I didn't know whether to cry or scream. Our friends, Jason and Samanthe, will be living in NYC and we are going to stay with them, go to the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, see Broadway shows, and shop and eat and... I can't wait. We will miss Thanksgiving with our families, but both our mom's said they understood. :) I've been to NYC twice, but Jamie has never been. It's going to be so wonderful. I can't wait to see what the next present is that Jamie brings me at work...

(This is last time I was in NYC- February of 2003.)

"So you're saying there's a chance...?"

Dr. Jim was so kind as to let us do another ultrasound! It's so exciting each time just knowing we're about to see the baby again. We had all just gone out for a big dinner so I was afraid we wouldn't be able to see the baby through all the food...! But the baby was kicking and moving much more now. We could see it turning around in my belly and doing slow summersaults. Jamie did some more ultrasounding again and he got some great images of the baby.


In this picture the baby had turned completely upside down and seemed to be having a great time in there!Jim was able to make a "guesstimation" about the gender based on some interesting images he pointed out to us. He said he felt about "%70 sure he was correct" and that's all the hope I needed to hear!!!! Pink might be my new favorite color...! (I think Jamie is still holding out for the "real" doctor's verdict at our 20 week sonogram.)

"I wish I were an Oscar Mayer Weiner..."

My niece, Emily, usually comes and spends some time with me in the summer or whenever she is up visiting her dad, my brother Eric. She is the cutest, sweetest, hyper, funny, and well behaved little gal! And since she has moved to Newport (near Jonesboro) she has picked up the craziest southern hick accent I've ever heard coming from a 11 year old. Anyways, she is a hoot and this morning we had our radio debut! We heard on KLRC 101.1 that they were having a talent show and anyone could call in and demonstrate talent for a chance to win a backpack full of back-to-school supplies. So I convinced her we needed to call in and sing! So we did. We called and sang the Oscar Mayer Weiner theme song. It was pretty hilarious. We sang less than amazing cuz we were trying hard not to laugh. But they did air it a few minutes later- my mom and Gloria both heard it! Unforunately we did NOT win the grand prize. (Some kid who could say words backwards beat us out.) But we had fun laughing at ourselves.

Bueller... Bueller... anyone?

I feel really blessed to be able to honestly say that I love my job. I truly do. Being a music teacher is definetly what God had in mind when he was designing my curly headed brain. I've had an awesome summer, but now it's time to go back to teacherland and I am really excited to see my students again. Teachers in Bentonville don't officially start until Monday, but I've been working in my classroom this past week- cleaning, decorating, organizing- all my favorite things! It's going to be a great year (my seventh year!) and I can't believe I only have to teach until February... such a strange thought. I'm hoping to find the perfect long-term substitute for my students (ahem, Miss Brown). I usually am not into cheesy quotes, but this has been one of my favorites for a long time...
"A teacher affects eternity; she can never tell where her influence stops."--Henry Brooks Adams

Front Porch Livin'

My final project in photography class was to find a photographer's work who I admired and try to mimic their style. So I found this great book of photography by Leslie Parr Sutton entitled "Ozark Elders". In the 1980's she traveled around the hills of the Ozarks and took photos and stories of interesting older folks she encountered. So, that's what I did for my project! My dad drove me around the backwoods of Kingston and Huntsville on Thursday and introduced me to several elders he knew (mostly through my brother Eric). I took people's pictures and listened to their stories- it was great! I really enjoyed the whole afternoon with my dad and it made me miss living on a dirt road when the big excitement was wondering if the creek would get too high to cross the low-water bridge. I took alot of photos but here are just a few of my favorites from the project.

Shopping For Two

So my belly really doesn't show this much yet, I just exaggerated this for a self-portrait assignment I had to do for photography class. I did get to have my first adventure in maternity clothes shopping yesterday though! My friend, Mel, went along with me for moral support. I'm so glad she did because I needed someone to witness me trying on the "fake bellies" in the fitting rooms. It was pretty hilarious, but I did find some cute clothes. I also bought a cool thing called a Bella Band and it allows you to wear your pants unbuttoned or unzipped and this tube-top like band fits around your lower belly and just looks like a black undershirt. All my clothes still fit but my dress pants are getting a little tough to button, so I'm hoping this Bella Band will allow me to wear my "teacher" clothes for awhile.