New Addition

Little H was born on Friday, December 22 at 7:35 pm (a Capricorn by one day!). She weighed 10 lbs., 8 oz. and was 21 inches long. My ob/gyn sent me to Labor & Delivery at the hospital Friday morning after my last regular check-up because she didn't like the results of the non-stress test they did in the office that morning. After much back and forth, my c-section that was scheduled for Tuesday the 26th was moved to Friday night.

The surgery wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be. Mark was there the whole time and was even able to cut the cord again. My parents and Big H were waiting just outside. The only bad part of the whole hospital stay was being stuck there Christmas Eve.

But we all came home Christmas morning and moved the Christmas celebration from my parents' house to ours instead. It wasn't exactly what we had planned, but everyone is healthy and happy and we were still able to celebrate Christmas at home.

2006 Reading List

Unless I read a book while I'm in the hospital, I think I'm done for 2006. I don't think I'll be squeezing in any more reading in the next three weeks, so I might as well post this now. Here is my 2006 reading list. Much smaller than I had hoped - I didn't even average a book a week this year, which is rare for me. I read more young adult fiction than I have in a long time, which was a nice change of pace, and discovered new authors Megan McCafferty and Sarah Dessen. I categorized the list this year by genre (CF - crime fiction, M - mystery, F - fiction, SF - southern fiction, not scifi, YA - young adult) and by where I get my books. As you can see, most of my reading material comes from the library. I rarely buy new books. Past lists can be found here, here and here.

1. Last Lullaby by Denise Hamilton (CF) (bookcloseouts)
2. Cross Bones by Kathy Reichs (CF) (library)
3. The Mermaid Chair by Sue Monk Kidd (F) (library)
4. Buried Diamonds by April Henry (M) (bookcloseouts)
5. Crosscut by Meg Gardiner (CF) (bookcloseouts)
6. The Rosary Girls by Richard Montanari (CF) (library)
7. Sloppy Firsts by Megan McCafferty (YA) (library)
8. Butcher’s Hill by Laura Lippman (M) (library)
9. Close Range: Wyoming Stories by Annie Proulx (short stories) (library)
10. Second Helpings by Megan McCafferty (YA) (library)
11. Forests of the Night by James W. Hall (CF) (library)
12. Peace Like a River by Leif Enger (F) (library book sale)
13. Trace by Patricia Cornwell (CF) (library)
14. Predator by Patricia Cornwell (CF) (library)
15. Blue Ridge by T.R. Pearson (F) (bookcloseouts)
16. Starting from Square Two by Caren Lissner (chick lit) (library)
17. Keeping the Moon by Sarah Dessen (YA) (library)
18. Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld (F) (library)
19. Cage’s Bend by Carter Coleman (F) (library)
20. Someone Like You by Sarah Dessen (YA) (library)
21. This Lullaby by Sarah Dessen (YA) (library)
22. The Last Girls by Lee Smith (SF) (library)
23. A Bad Boy Can Be Good for a Girl (YA) (library)
24. Crusader’s Cross by James Lee Burke (CF) (library)
25. That Summer by Sarah Dessen (YA) (bookcloseouts)
26. Cold Mountain (historical/SF) (borrowed from a friend)
27. The Skin Gods by Richard Montanari (CF) (library)
28. Dreamland by Sarah Dessen (YA) (bookcloseouts)
29. Stone Garden by Molly Moynahan (F) (bookcloseouts)
30. Charmed Thirds by Megan McCafferty (chick lit) (library)
31. Exile by Denise Mina (CF) (library)
32. The Cheer Leader by Jill McCorkle (SF) (bookcloseouts)
33. Death Dance by Linda Fairstein (CF) (library)
34. Between, Georgia by Joshilyn Jackson (SF) (library)
35. Legacy of Masks by Sallie Bissell (CF) (library)
36. The Twelfth Card by Jeffrey Deaver (CF) (library)
37. The Delta Belles by Penelope J. Stokes (SF) (library)
38. The River House by Margaret Leroy (F) (library)
39. Break No Bones by Kathy Reichs (CF) (library)
40. The Same Sweet Girls by Cassandra King (SF) (library)
41. Cold Sassy Tree by Olive Ann Burns (SF) (library book sale) (English class)
42. The Contender by Robert Lipsyte (YA) (English class)
43. The Book of Joe by Jonathan Tropper (F) (bookcloseouts)
44. Baker Towers by Jennifer Haigh (F) (bookcloseouts)
45. A Rip in Heaven by Jeanine Cummins (true crime) (bookcloseouts)
46. The True and Outstanding Adventures of the Hunt Sisters by Elisabeth Robinson (F) (bookcloseouts)
47. Katie.com by Kathryn Tarbox (YA) (bookcloseouts)

A Christmas Miracle!

Not really, but this is the first time Big H has sat on Santa's lap. I didn't think she would do it and we didn't really talk about it, but she walked right up to get her present and sat down to have her picture taken. This was at my work's children's Christmas party on Saturday, so maybe it wasn't as overwhelming as going to the mall.

Three Down, Four to Go

Class #3 is over. We handed in our final projects last week - the unit lesson plan on Cold Sassy Tree - so really all we had to do for the final class was pick them up and discuss them as a group a little bit. I got a 30/30 on the unit plan (and should have an A in the class). Only five people in the class received a perfect score, so that made me feel good, especially since some people in the class do this every day for a living.

I'm undecided about the spring semester. Classes don't start until the last week in January, so if I would take one night class, it would be while I'm on leave except for the last two weeks, which wouldn't be that bad. But we'll have to wait and see what kind of baby we have. If she's colicky like Hayley was, taking a class might not be possible. I know I don't want to take another two night a week summer class. That was just too much. Another possibility would be to take a condensed summer class. They offer a few that are a week long from 9-4pm, Monday-Friday and it's still worth the whole three credits. I might use a week's vacation and take one so I don't have to wait until next fall to take another class.

There's still time to decide. You can register right up until the last minute as long as there is still space in the class. I don't have to decide right now.

Thanksgiving Weekend

I love having four days off in a row! There should be more long weekends like this. I took a nap every day, even after sleeping until 8am on Saturday. Thanksgiving Day was fun and relaxing. Big H and I watched the parade together and then all three of us went to my parents' house for dinner. It wasn't too hectic or crazy and all the kids played well together.

On Friday, Big H's BFF came over for a little while in the morning to play since both of her parents had to work. Then I had a doctor's appointment at 11am and Big H went with me. She's been asking to go to the "baby doctor" all along, so I think it was a fun visit for her and she asked a lot of questions. In the afternoon, we wrapped presents. Big H was in charge of the tape, but she only lasted through three or four presents, then she lost interest. But I did accomplish my goal and wrap everything that I have so far.

Saturday and Sunday, we just stuck close to home and enjoyed the unseasonably warm weather. Big H played outside with Daddy, freeing me up to get a few more things done in the house, like putting all of the fall decorations away.

Tonight was dance class. We had to put down a deposit on the costumes for the recital that isn't until June. At least there's just one costume and not two separate ones for ballet and tap. I think they're dancing to a song from "Beauty and the Beast," so the costumes will be some sort of princess costume.

Next weekend is the second-to-last class for school and our final projects are due (the lesson unit plan on Cold Sassy Tree), so that will keep me busy this week. After class, I'm planning on stopping at a few places on the way home to finish up my shopping without dragging Big H along. I'm almost finished!

Christmas Shopping

Well, I didn't meet my unofficial goal of having all of my Christmas shopping done by Halloween, but I did check quite a few people off my list. I made a toy layaway for Big H back on October 11 and ordered a few other things for her from catalogs. I'm just waiting for the boxes to arrive. I need to get her one more toy from Walmart, but it was all the way up on the top shelf and, of course, there was no one around to help me with it. Of the 12 other kids we buy for, all but three are done and I atleast have one thing each for them. For the nieces and nephews we don't see very often, everyone is getting a board game this year. I also have presents for my dad, who is one of the hardest people on my list to buy for. I placed a catalog order today that takes care of the aunts, sisters-in-law and my younger sister. My next goal is to do all of my wrapping Thanksgiving weekend. I shouldn't have to go shopping by then!

Happy Halloween

Have a "wonder"ful Halloween everyone!

Big H, age 4, 2006




















And me, age 5, 1977

Inspiration

A great article from the Washington Post Magazine that could help inspire and motivate high school students.

1001 Books You Must Read

Some English teacher I'm supposed to be. I've only read 31 of the books (or 3%) on this list from the book "1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die: A Comprehensive Reference Source, Chronicling the History of the Novel." And I haven't read any of the books from the 2000s. I'm not sure what that says about me.

Smooth Ride

Here's a shot of Big H riding her bike on our glorious new blacktopped road!

Dentist

Big H made her first trip to the dentist yesterday. I originally tried to schedule her to go with me the last few times I've gone down to Aunt J's office, but it never worked out and we needed to go, so I found a local dentist instead. Big H did an amazing job for her first trip there. She wasn't scared and cooperated with the hygentist through the entire cleaning and fluoride treatment. The hygientist was great, too. She explained everything she was doing and really took her time with Big H. The only bad part of the trip is that the damage to her weird front tooth is a cavity. The dentist thinks it will probably fall out sometime in the next year, especially if she bites into something hard like an apple, because it is very weak, but he recommended filling it anyway to make it stronger. The silver lining is that I think she finally understands she can't drink chocolate milk in the middle of the night any more. We had broken her of this habit and then M. was weak and started giving it to her again. Last night, I didn't hear a peep out of her. He also is going to recommend an oral surgeon to have the piece of skin that connects the lip to the gum cut (Hayley's comes all the way down in between her front teeth, which I think contributed to the cavity and her "perceived" speech problem), which I'll probably wait and do sometime while I'm on maternity leave.

M. had an appointment at the same time as Big H. He hadn't been to the dentist in a very long time (as someone who goes religiously every six months, I'm too embarrassed to say how long) and it showed in his appointment results. Needless to say, M. will be making a few more trips to the dentist between now and the end of the year.

Book Choice

I finished Cold Sassy Tree a few days ago (I think it took me three weeks to read, very unusual for me, but I'm hardly doing any reading at night because I'm too tired) and I'm glad this is the book I chose for class. In class on Saturday, we had to go around the room and say which book we chose. Three people picked The Giver and two chose To Kill a Mockingbird. No one else selected Cold Sassy Tree and everyone else chose a different book, so we should have lots of different lesson plans at the end. We were given some time in class to start on a couple of the elements of the final lesson plan project. The class continues to go well - everything is new to me, so I'm learning something new every week. And we continue to get out between 10:30 and 10:45, which is great.

Sleep

After only four hours of sleep Monday night, this was me trying to take a nap Tuesday after work from 5:30-6:15:

• After riding her bike for about 5 minutes, Big H comes into the room and wakes me up. Great babysitting, Dad.
• Our next door neighbors are mowing their lawn and they are completely inept about it. It is like this every time they mow. For some reason, they turn the mower on and off about every 10 minutes. And of course, our bedroom wall is the wall that faces their yard.
• The phone rings and the machine picks it up.
• Big H comes in and wakes me up again.
• M. decides to start the race car. And then he asks me why I'm up and cooking dinner when he comes in the house a few minutes later.

So at 9pm, after we put Big H to bed, I'm ready to collapse. But this is the moment the farmer who owns the field behind us decides to cut down the soybean crop. Who starts culling a field at 9 o'clock at night when it's pitch dark out? So I turn on the air conditioner to drown out any other background noise and finally fell asleep at 9:30.

Absence

Okay, so August and September were a wash. No excuses, really. This pregnancy has knocked me out in a way I wasn't expecting. I am supremely tired all the time. I've become an expert at finding a place to nap in the afternoons at work. Otherwise, the pregancy is going very smoothly. I'm currently in my third trimester and almost 28 weeks. Now that October is here, it hit me that this baby will be arriving before we know it. With the expectations of upcoming holidays and finishing my Saturday class, the time is flying. I can barely even read anymore, which upsets me to no end. I hardly make it through one or two chapters and my eyes droop and I'm out like a light. And keep in mind I do a lot of my reading while eating lunch at my desk at work!

I hope to go back and post-date some entries - our big family vacation in August, my ultrasound photos (it's a girl, by the way), etc., and if I do, I'll enter a new post with a link. Plus, there's always plenty going on - Big H started ballet and tap a few weeks ago, all of the fun fall craft shows are coming up and more. So, I'm sorry for the absence and I'll try to do better. Pinky swear.

You Know You Live in a Small Town...

...when you get way too excited about the fact that the township is paving your street.

Don't get me wrong, our street is paved, but in typical Pennsylvania fashion- some strange mix of rocks and concrete that is one step above a gravel road. Today it is being paved with real live blacktop! The reason I'm so excited is that we live on a cul-de-sac with only one other house, so there is no traffic. But the court area is usually so full of rocks, stones and debris, that it's hard for Big H to ride her scooter or her bike out there. So now it should be the perfect place to learn how to ride a bike and play basketball. It makes our location ten times better than it already was.

#3

The fall semester started on Saturday with class #3 in the program - the methods class for teaching English. I'm there from 8:30am-11:15am (meaning I leave the house at 7:30am and should be home by noon; we actually got out at 10:45am for the first class). Solely based on the first class and the syllabus, I think this is going to be a great class, on par with class #1. Since this is the methods class, everyone is teaching or will be teaching middle school or high school English. There are only 12 people in the class, with a mixture of already teaching and not teaching. Quite a few are first year teachers who just started teaching a couple of weeks ago when the new school year began. I'm not the oldest person in the class, probably somewhere in the middle. One of the first activities we had to do was "share in pairs" with a partner to talk about our best and worst experiences in school. For the best, I talked about my sixth grade class, which was 1983-84. The girl I was sharing with was born in 1983. There's also a girl from class #1 in this class, so there was one familiar face.

As a class, we'll be reading The Contender by Robert Lipsyte (which I've never read) and creating an entire unit on it. Then, on our own, we have to read one book from a predetermined list and we will be creating similar unit lessons for that book as the main project in the class. I can't decide if I should play it safe and choose a novel I've already read, such as To Kill a Mockingbird or The Great Gatsby, or stretch myself and pick a book I haven't read yet so I will get more out of the class and check off another book on my reading list. I'm leaning toward Olive Ann Burns' Cold Sassy Tree, which I have a used copy of that I found at the library book sale but haven't had time to read yet. I'd like to read a book I already have a copy of, so other potential titles include Lois Lowery's The Giver, Steinbeck's The Red Pony (which I only read once in sixth or seventh grade) and a couple of others I can't think of off the top of my head. Any suggestions? Everyone in the class has to make copies of the final lessons/unit to give to the rest of the class and I'm guessing very few would choose Cold Sassy Tree and half the class could end up choosing To Kill a Mockingbird.

PS - One thing on my list of useless things to worry about: the desks and chairs in the classroom. For class #1, we sat in all-in-one desk chairs. I was afraid that if we had them again, my ever-expanding belly wouldn't fit in the chair and I'd have to sit sideways the whole time. Luckily, we're seated at tables with very comfy adjustable, padded desk chairs.

Finally!

The day I've been waiting for, the last day of class. Last night was it and now I have a nice break until after Labor Day. I was almost weak when it came time to do the evaluation, but I stuck to my guns. Tuesday night's class was exactly the way all of the other classes should have been - the instructor taught for awhile and then we had lab time to work on projects that were due. If only the rest of the class had been that way, it would have been a much better class, even at the beginner level. Now I'm just waiting for my final grade, which should be available online sometime next week.

Mark Your Calendars

The season premiere of Grey's Anatomy is Thursday, Sept. 21 at 9pm (which is much better for me, personally, than Sundays at 10pm).

Fame is Fleeting...

...when you're an Oscar-nominated child star who drives a '95 Saturn.

Unbearable

That's the only word I can use to describe my second summer class. As good as the first one was, the second one is bad. First, I'm stuck in the beginner's class because of some bad advice from my advisor (the beginner and advanced classes are both held at the same time and are supposed to swap students on the first night regardless of which one you registered for, but both classes were so overbooked that there wasn't room to switch). And is some ways, it's even a pre-beginner's class. I knew I was in trouble on the first night when the instructor asked, "How do we maximize a window in Explorer?" And then a girl sitting behind me asked the instructor to define the word "telecommunications." Huh?

This week, we spent two hours on Tuesday and another hour last night on Word. Word! Even though the project due next Tuesday has to be in PowerPoint. But that's typical of the class as a whole. It's very unorganized and the syllabus is completely confusing in the way that it's written. What's more frustrating is that the people who don't know what they're doing don't listen and end up asking questions that the instructor just answered.

My mantra right now is, "Four more sessions, four more sessions." But the sad thing is that I'm paying for this class.