Random Pictures

Here she is with her first, decent ponytail. It took a lot of hairspray and only lasted about 5 minutes.

We went to the outlet mall the other day and it was REALLY cold. Samantha still insisted on playing in the play area. She loves the lizard; it reminds her of "Choo Choo Train" (Her toy lizard that got destroyed. She really wanted a new one for Christmas, but we couldn't find one anywhere.)

"Why?"

Samantha has reached the "why" stage. For everything anyone says she asks, "why?" She is also getting very exciting about the baby in the belly. She tells me that she is going to rock the baby in a rocking chair and push "her" in her pink doll stroller. I am very grateful she is willing to help, but she says that all she wants is a sister. I hope if she ends up having a brother she'll be okay with that too. We'll hopefully find out in two weeks if Sammy is going to have a brother or a sister.

Meanwhile, I am still nauseous (mostly just in the morning). I have found a cure though, but I'm not sure how safe it is. My OB says it's okay, but I'm still questioning it. I take two regular dramamines at night (not every night though) and I wake up rested and feeling good. I'm still popping Zofran almost every morning. Hopefully all of this will finally subside in the coming weeks.

I really wish I could eat cereal. It has a lot of vitamins and it sounds so good, but I immediately feel sick after eating it. It doesn't help that I still can't tolerate prenatal vitamins. I'll take Sammy's gummy vitamins occasionally.

Oh and the best news of all....It has been snowing all day, something we normally don't see here in El Paso, but it has been great! I hope enough accumulates throughout the night to cancel school. That would be awesome. I know I just had a few days off for Thanksgiving, but I can use all the days off I can get. Sleep is a valueable commodity.

It's been a while

I think all of my posts should have this title. I'm horrible at updating this thing. Anyway, here are some pictures from Halloween. She loved trick or treating, but I think she enjoyed passing out candy more. Sam came up with the idea of a cat, but Sammy desperately wanted to be Sleeping Beauty. Last minute, I found a costume at the Disney Store and took it home and got her ready for trick or treating. The costume made her miserable and she ended up in the comfortable cat costume after all.











































































































Playing tea party with Makenna at Thanksgiving.

All settled in with a porcupine

We just moved into our new apartment last weekend. It's so weird having our own place again...it's nice. Sam went out and bought Samantha a new dresser. It's really cute and girly, but it smells like hamster pee. We might be returning it. My Grandma got her a new bed set at Target and the lamp to match (I'll take pictures later.) My mom got her the matching sheets. That little girl is soooo spoiled. She sleeps on a twin bed now and it's sad. She's growing up so fast.

She grabs my cheeks so that I turn to face her and she gets really close and this is the conversation:
Sammy: "You know what mommy?"
Mommy: "What?"
Sammy: " I bought present for you..."
Mommy: " What did you get me?"
Sammy: " A porcupine"
(We have this conversation at least 10 times a day)

Pledge of Allegiance

I know it's been a while since I've posted anything, but I have been very excited about Sammy being able to say the entire pledge of allegiance... all by herself. They say it at school every morning.


I got my first paycheck today!! We also got an apartment that we're moving into on the 7th. We were really wanting to buy a house, but then we realized that we'd have to turn around and sell it in 2 1/2 years, because we want to leave El Paso. We really don't know where we want to end up. I think we want to be somewhere close to El Paso (within a day's drive), but we'll see.

The apartment is only two bedroom, so that means we'll be moving again in about 7 months because we're going to need a 3rd bedroom.... for Sammy's little brother or sister. That's right, "Ms. I'm never having another kid" is having another baby. My due date is May 6th and it's going to be another lovely c section. I'm terrified and I keep having horrible nightmares about it. I just have to keep believing that everything is going to be okay.

I've been feeling really bad lately...nausea, headaches, exhaustion. There's another teacher at school who's expecting her baby a week after me. It's really funny because the other day we both felt terrible and we sat in the teacher's lounge and shared a bag of lays chips.

First Day

Lots of first days for us here.

Sam started his first day of nursing school and he thinks he's going to be pretty stressed. He got offered a job as a shift manager at Starbucks, but he doesn't think he's going to take it because school might ge the better of him these next couple of years.

Samantha started daycare on Monday. She's really, really excited. She tells us all about her day when we pick her up. I'm really impressed by all that she is learning. She tries her hardedst to speak im full sentences, but it sounds a little like caveman speak still.

Now on to my first day...from hell. The school is a huge mess. A parent had to go to Costco and get us a huge case of toilet paper and she installed it herself. The receptionist was a little late, so I was asked by the principal to answer to phones. I got yelled at and chewed out by outraged parents who demanded a refund fro the uniforms becuase they were going to pull their kids out. We did lose about a dozen students in the last two days, but maybe it's for the better. Our classes are CROWDED! I have a huge classroom, so that's nice, but I have 30 kids per class and not enough desks for them all. I have a nice chair, but no desk. I am teaching out of a cardboard box. My 6th graders are awesome, 7th are okay, and the 8th graders lok at me liek I'm from another planet. They have no books yet. I'm going crazy. Oh and I only have 10 minutes to woof down lunch and one conference period. So far this job is terribly ridiculous, but I'm going to try my best to stick it out and do what I can with what little I have.

I know I haven't posted pictures in a while, but I will try to soon. I'm just trying to find time to get everything done. I wish I was still in college.

New Job!

I got a new job at a charter school here in El Paso. I'll be teaching 6th, 7th, and 8th grade Social Studies. I think it's going to be very overwhelming for me as a first year teacher, but I guess it'll be good experience. I'm also the department head for Social Studies (I guess I kind of have to be due the fact that I'm the only middle school social studies teacher).

I've already started with inservice and I'll have actual students on the 24th. It has been hard this past week because (1) I haven't worked in a looong time, (2) I haven't been without Sammy for more than a few hours and I have to leave her for eight hours a day (Sam has a lot of fun with her though).

We are also trying to buy a house right now to take advantage of the first time home buyers tax credit, but I don't want to rush into anything. We did find a really cute house, new construction, but our bubble kinda burst today when we saw a HUGE crack in the garage and it could be a foundation problem, so we are being cautios.

We are having a swim party for Sammy with his mom and aunt and the kids at a pool. Then tomorrow we are going to eat with my mom, dad, and grandparents. I feel bad that I didn't plan anything spectacular for her birthday. We've just been so busy and time got the best of us.

I think that's all for now. I have a bunch of cute pictures, but I'm extrememly tired and lazy at the moment so I'll get them up later.

Lots of pictures

This was taken at a rest stop shop thing on the way out to Tucson.

Sam buried her feet at the Album park playground.

Car ride with Spiderman. I asked her where they were going and she said, "Albuquerque Zoo."

These are just a bunch of random pictures that I have been meaning to post, but haven't had the time. This one above was taken today at our hotel. My camera takes crappy, pixelated photos apparently.

This was outside of our hotel room. We had seen a lizard earlier in the day and she was on a mission to find him again.

I love this little face.

This is her up-to-no-good face.

This one was taken a few weeks ago at her cousin's swim meet.

She is so cute....

Sammy and I have been veerrryyyy bored here in Tucson. In the video I ask her to sing her theme song..."Super Girl, here to save the world!" Sam taught it to her and she loves to say it whenever she gets the chance.

Tucson

We got to Tucson yesterday night. It was super stressful because we got here kinda late, ran to the grocery store for juice and diapers and Sammy snacks, then we checked into the hotel and apparently kids aren't allowed at that particular hotel on base and there were no family units left, so they put us up in a hotel off base. It turned out good because we're staying at a nice place and the pool is right outside of our door. So guess what we did as soon as Sam got off of work?

For the most part she liked to hang out on the steps.

I had a lot of fun swimming with her. She learned how to float on her back...with our help and she can hold her nose and breath and get dunked for a second.

playing in the curtains

She wanted Sam to take a picture of Rafael...her doll...named after her cousin,

Welcome home from Tucson

Dada brought her a present from Tucson. A crown and clip-on earrings. She likes to wear them and pretend she's a princess. I think she's goign through a Disney Princess phase.

I had her pumpin' a bit of iron while he was gone.

Bathing Sydney and ABCs for Aunt Kim

Samantha wanted to help bathe Sydney and blow dry her. Since I had the camera out...which is rare, I decided to get her to sing the ABCs and her other conglomerate of songs. If you notice at the end of ABCs she says "Now I said my ABCs...what you want?" She came out with this ending on her own and I think it's pretty cute.

We got her to sing them especially for Aunt Kim. We love you!

A Day (more like half hour) at the museum

Sam and I decided to take Samantha to the museum yesterday. It's this science museum downtown that Sam and I both remembered being A LOT cooler back in the day. They had a dinosaur exhibit with moving and roaring dinosaurs that scared Samantha at first, but she kept asking to go back and see them. There were some cool things, but all in all it was pretty crappy.



This was in some weird kaliedescope thing. (Basically 3 mirrors)






I LOVE this face.
















Here she is playing with a steering wheel thing.







I don't know what happened to the post layout...I'll try to fix it next time.

Some Pictures

Here are a couple pictures from her potty training adventures. I am proud to say that my little girl has been using the potty everyday! She always tells me when she has to go and we even went ou tto eat yesterday and she had to pee so I took her to a public restroom (cringe) and she went! Yay! Go Sammy!

I think Lacy was trying out new hairstyles on Samantha.


She just fell asleep like this...so precious.

I've been really lazy about updating the blog, but it's hard when Samantha always wants me to show her pictures and video every time I get on the computer. Sam is watching Samantha for me for a few hours so I can just have some time to myself. It's great. Here are just a few recent pictures.

Job hunting and potty training

We are finally all moved in to Sam's Mom's house. I've been spending a lot of my time job hunting and trying to get our health insurance in line. I guess I took for granted how much the Air Force took care of us as far as housing and healthcare. Oh, I have some good news. I went to apply for an 8th grade U.S. History position and the principal spoke to me, kinda interviewed me and invited me back later this week for a second interview with the asst. principal and the department. I am so excited!!!! I have been waiting for the phone to ring so I know the specific time and day of the interview. It would be so nice to get a job...Sam and I could finally buy a house...WOW! I know I have really high hopes, I just can't help it. I'll keep everyone posted as to how it all turns out.

I almost forgot! More exciting news! Samantha has been going to the potty while we are at home. I put her in big girl undies when we're just hanging around the house and she tells me when she needs to go and I take her to her potty. She gets a little scared, but the she gets used to it and she is so proud of herself. She tells me "Mommy so happy!" I am.

Just some random stuff

During a Wendy's Chicken Nugget Adventure

Sam and I acting like goofballs.

Mommy and Sammy

Doesn't she look intellectual?

This weekend has been crazy. We are moving, once again, to Sam's mom's house. It's nice because we'll finally have our own room and Samantha will have her own room too. I've been sharing a room with Samantha for over a year and I need my space. It has been 100 degrees here and I was in a hot garage trying to organize our stuff while Sam was loading everything and moving. It's going to be soooo nice when I finally find a job and we can get our own place. I think we might rent for the two years we are in El Paso because Sam wants to go back into the Air Force as an officer so that means we'll be moving AGAIN. We really want to buy a house, but I'm scared that we'll have problems when we try to sell in two years. Well that's all for now. I have to get back to the endless pile of laundry. It reminds me of chinese food. You know you eat and eat and eat and then your full, but it look like you barely ate anything off your plate? Laundry = Chinese food.

Sammy Kay's Weekend

Sammy and I just bummed around the house all weekend. Sam was off doing his National Guard weekend in Tucson. I am about to go insane. Samantha is driving me nuts and all I heard out of her all weekend is "Parker, Hokey Pokey." Anytime anyone gets on a computer she asks to watch the video of Ashley and Parker doing the Hokey Pokey. And she banged up her forehead pretty good when she ran right into the front door.



I love to ask her where Daddy went. She says "Tucson" and it's so cute. It's been hard for me to get pictures and video of her lately because anytime she sees a camera she wants to do it.

No More Bottles!!!

I cannot be any prouder of my little Samantha pants! I have been trying to potty train Samantha lately and I realized it would be crazy to have a potty trained baby who still takes a bottle. So two days ago I decided to do away with the bottle and I'm sticking to my guns this time. I asked Sammy if she wanted to give them away and she said she wanted to give them to the Easter Bunny. She went into a cabinet where we keep grocery bags and got one out and started filling it with bottles. Then she went to the front door to leave them outside for the Easter Bunny. It was my idea to finally be rid of the yucky bottles, but it was her idea to leave them for the Easter Bunny. It was so cute.

I was worried about how naps and bedtime would go, but it has been great. At nap time she just falls asleep when she's tired and at nighttime I just turn off the lights and she eventually falls asleep (in my bed, then I move her to her crib, but I eventually want to get to her falling asleep all on her own...someday.) She also sleeps all night long! Before she was waking up for a bottle twice a night. It was getting ridiculous.

I'm so proud of her...she's growing up!

Samantha's First Haircut

I finally agreed to get rid of Samantha's rat tail/mullet. My mom trimmed all of her hair and cut off all of the frizzies so now her hair looks much better. I kept a lock of her hair and put it in a bag. So sad.

Trying out my new camera

Sam got me a new camera for graduation so I decided to take some random pictures. We had this old kodak thing that took horrible pictures so I relied on my cell phone and bumming off people for pictures.

Here she is showing off her new dress that Ama T bought her.

Us all trying to squeeze into a picture

Samantha trying to escape

Sammy and Dada

I did it!

I can officially call myself a college graduate. It was a long, very long, tough road, but I made it! Thanks to everyone in my life for giving me the support and encouragement I needed to make it through these last couple of years. I definitely could not have done it without the help in taking care of Samantha. So, to everyone that took care of her when I had class, had to study, or just needed a break, I thank you.

I had a wonderful graduation party following the ceremony and friends and family came to visit. I was so happy to see everyone. My Aunt Melissa took some great pictures...as always :)