Right now, I'm reading Belly Laughs by Jenny McCarthy and it is hysterical! Describes exactly what I've been going through lately to a T and is laugh-out-loud funny. I highly recommend it to anyone who is pregnant or who has been pregnant. It is so good!

Best Clean-out-the-Fridge pasta ever.

Alfredo pasta sauce (leftover from homemade spinach alfredo pizza earlier in the week)
Grilled chicken (also leftover from crazy make-your-own pizza night)
Almost 1 pkg frozen chopped spinach (from pizza night)
1 large can mushrooms
1 pkg florentine fettucini noodles

Boil pasta according to pkg directions. In another pan, combine all other ingredients and warm through. Drain pasta and add sauce. Dinner ready in 15 minutes and fridge cleaned out too. Can't beat a deal like that! :)

Well, my favorite snotty-nosed little monsters have struck again and I'm home sick. No big deal really, just a cold and a low-grade fever. But I thought I'd better not return the favor and share it with my co-workers and the rest of the kids in my class. Here's hoping the baby gets Jason's good immune system. :)

Lord, have mercy! Just when I think I cannot stand another day of All Day Morning Sickness Marathon it suddenly goes away and leaves me feeling like a million bucks. Thank you, thank you, thank you! So to make up for all that healthy eating I've been doing lately, I had an ice cream sandwich for a snack today. Followed a few hours later by enough mexican food to leave me still full 3 or 4 hours after dinner. Boy am I going to have to eat healthy tomorrow to make up for all the junk I ate today! :) If I keep this up, I'll be "showing" way before I'm supposed to! Gotta not make a habit of it, I guess.

P.S. I think my husband is mortified that I admitted I had gas. Honey...you live with me. You know of which I speak. And my girlfriends read this and might know what I'm talking about. Or might need to know what I'm talking about when they have more babies. I think the part that embarasses him is that my grandma and dad and his sister also read this. Guess what else, J? Everybody gets it every once in a while. ;)

And for the record, the gas was way before the Mexican food, so that's not the reason. There. No more talking about gas, OK?

It seems that along with my ability to keep my breakfast (and lunch and dinner) down and my ability to sleep through the night without getting up to pee, this pregnancy seems also to have taken away my ability to blog. But I'll try now. I do have days where I feel great. I'm not always feeling gross and looking a lovely shade of green. But so far, those days have been very few and far between. But I am so thankful for those times when I'm feeling good. I try to remember that this is only temporary. I'll be glad when I feel better more often and when I actually look pregnant, instead of merely feeling fat. I'm still anxiously awaiting the big appt for my first prenatal checkup.

Note: Sorry if the following stuff is "too much info" for some, but I've gotta say it. Trust me, this stuff is way more embarrassing for me to admit than for you to read about. Here we go.

Things I didn't know about my first few pregnant weeks:
1. I had no idea my boobs would hurt so bad! Geez, I can't even hug my husband or accidentally roll over on my stomach in the middle of the night. Hopefully the soreness goes away with the morning sickness. Probably not but I can hope, can't I?
2. I also didn't know that EVERYTHING I eat would give me stomach cramps. Not like morning sickness queasiness. Nope, we're talking serious gas. Embarrassing? Yes. Painful? YES! One night, I went to bed early with a stomachache and Jason curled up next to me with his arm around me and he said he actually wondered if he could feel the baby moving because my stomach was doing some weird stuff. (Yes, he really does know it's WAY too early for that.) I really do not want to have to ask my dr. about this, but I think I just may explode if I don't. And probably any sense of modesty I have now will quickly disappear after getting up close and personal at every single visit.

Some of the kids in my class wanted me to get down in the floor and build with them today (which I normally do every day). Today, I wasn't feeling too hot so I said I couldn't do it this time. They asked why and I told them because I'm having a baby and it makes me feel yucky sometimes. They thought that was pretty cool. Later in the afternoon, one little boy looked up at me and said "Ms. Amy, will you read this book to me?" Of course, I said yes. Then as I sat down he got this serious look on his face and he said "I not sit on your lap because you're having a baby." Where he heard this, I don't know, but isn't that just the cutest thing for him to say? I just had to give him a great big hug for that one. Oh yeah. I made my first appt today. I go to the dr for my 1st prenatal check up April 2nd. I'll let you know what they say.

For quite some time now I've been trying to eat healthier and exercise to lose some weight. Well, it's not even really about the losing weight part, more that I just really wanted to feel healthier. It's a good thing I've been eating healthy for a while now because I just found out I'm pregnant! Yep...kinda like God said "Yeah, you go ahead and eat healthy, but I've got something else planned for you." :) We're pretty excited about it. I've suspected for a little while but finally took a test (okay really it was 3 tests) and they all were positive.

We spent today calling most of our family and telling them the good news. Forgive me if I didn't get to call you yet. When I wasn't on the phone, I was pretty busy sleeping (I am SO tired!) and eating and trying real hard not to throw up. I'm pretty much sick all day long off and on, but it's better if I eat pretty often. That seems to be the only way to keep from getting sick. I haven't been to the dr yet, but I'm calling to make an appt on Monday. I'll be sure and post when I find out when I have an appt.

Well, I didn't do so hot in poker. Not awful, but I didn't win any money. It was good practice. They took pity on me and didn't make me "fushel" (shuffle) because of my finger. That was kinda nice. :) The finger is getting much better. I have to do some crazy finger exercises to work on helping me bend it better but it is much improved.
The weather was nice for a few days but now it's SNOWING! We've got 3 inches already and they're calling for up to 5 more before it's over. YUCK! No way in heck am I shoveling. :) I did get to come home from work at 1 today instead of having to stay until we closed. Yay for snow days! And my class is cancelled for tomorrow too. Woohoo!
That's about it for me. Just enjoying blogging from my bed. I love my laptop! Now I think it's naptime.

Work was interesting yesterday. My co-teacher was off and we had a new substitute come in. Yesterday was her first day in my room and her first day of work for our center. Yesterday was also the most chaotic day I can remember in my class (with the exception of "Christmas Party 2006", which will not mention because after that day, I was VERY close to swearing off holiday parties forever).

Why was it so crazy yesterday? It was show and tell day. We are trying to phase out show and tell. Why? Because show and tell Fridays have somehow turned into free for all Fridays where all the kids want to do all day is play with their fantastically annoying toys they bring for show and tell. And you know what? Show and tell may work with older kids. It might actually be fun and entertaining and do-able with kids older than 3. But have you ever actually witnessed the attention span of a 3 year old? Let me tell you...it is not long. And to expect them to be able to sit with their very favorite toy in their lap and wait their turn to show it to their friends and pay attention to whomever is talking is utterly ridiculous. But, enough of me on my soapbox.

Basically, yesterday was crazy and in the middle of it all, I had to try to train our new sub. She's a sweet girl and very enthusiastic about her job. She's great with the kids and it was really nice to have her there. I am betting she'll be offered a full time job in the very near future because 2 people quit at work yesterday. I'm not going to comment on why (because I really don't know for sure and it would be total speculation and gossip on my part and I'm not going to go there) but I am really hoping we can find some good people to work. People who will actually stay longer than a few months and will show up when they're supposed to be there and not be calling in all the time, leaving those of us who are always at work to scramble to pick up the slack.

It's finally feeling like spring here! Woohoo! It's about time! Well, I know it's technically not spring yet, but this winter sure has felt like it's gone on long enough. Today it's 60 and we're sitting on the couch with the door open airing out the house. It's nice.
Quick update on the broken finger...it still hurts. :) I went to the dr this week and they said it's safe to take the splint off and leave it off. I can't bend my finger without a LOT of pain, so I have to have occupational therapy. Isn't that ridiculous?! Therapy for my finger. Makes me sound like a big wuss. But it's still very swollen and stiff and purple and it pops in the middle joint when I try to bend it. It feels weird and I'm really curious to see what they have me do to fix it.
Tonight is poker night. Let's hope I'm on my game tonight. I want to win!

Tonight we played rummy (I lost...big time!), listened to music (Keith Whitley, Chris LeDoux) and had a fun time. Now we're hanging out on the couch watching the Fine Living channel and trying to figure out where we should go for our long weekend. Baltimore, D.C, Atlantic City, or NYC. We're trying to keep the cost down so these are all places we can drive to within a few hours. What do you think? Where should we go?

Professional Development Day was fun. I went to 4 lectures. 2 were really interesting and 2 were just so-so. It was held at George Mason University in the student union and it did make me pretty homesick for OSU because their campus was pretty similar. While I was in classes, Jtook the metro into DC and went to the air and space museum. I was glad he had a good day. After I got finished at GMU, he picked me up and we went to PF Chang's for dinner. The food was great, but the service wasn't too hot. Oh well...at least we had a fun time. After dinner, we stopped at FairOaks Mall for about an hour and then we drove home. It was a pretty good day.

I've got an all day conference in DC tomorrow at George Mason University. I'm really looking forward to it. The only thing I'm not looking forward to is leaving my house at 5:30 or 6 am tomorrow morning just to make sure I get there on time. Good thing J's driving! I'll be sure to post some time on Sunday and let you know how it goes.