Grayson's Birthday

Yesterday Brooklynn went to her buddy Grayson's birthday party at Pump It Up.  Boy, did she have a good time.  I'm pretty sure she climb up the ladder to this slide and went down it about 30 times.  She was exhausted afterwards.  

Brooklynn was worn out by 6:15 last night when she told us she was ready for bed!

My Busy B

I've had a busy first week of school and my poor swollen ankles have paid the price.  It's going to be a long and uncomfortable last couple of weeks until Baby Farr gets here.  I went to the doc on Tuesday and had another ultrasound. Baby Farr is already 6lbs 3 ozs.  which is two weeks ahead of schedule.  Looks like I will get one more ultrasound the week of the 17th and then we will possibly schedule a c section, if he makes it that long without arriving sooner.  The doc did say, however,  that just because he is big doesn't mean that he will come early.  He said he has delivered full term babies that were 12 lbs.  Whoa, no thanks!

This weekend Nick went to Charlotte for his firm's retreat, so B and I got to spend all weekend together.  Yesterday we kept busy.  I had an early morning hair appointment, so Aunt Kaley was nice enough to get up early and keep B for me.  B had a blast!  Afterwards, I picked up B and we headed over to Pops for a visit and then to the library.  

B loves playing on the computer at the library.  She also filled up her library bag with about 10 books to check out.

Next, we went home for a short nap. Of course, B didn't nap she read her library books for about two hours.  Pops headed over to the house and we went to Mutt's for dinner.  B loves Mutt's because she gets ice cream after her meal.  

On the way home from Mutt's we stopped by GSP (the airport) for a little while.  B is fascinated with airplanes, so we thought it would be fun to sit outside at the observation area and let her watch a few planes land and take off.  

B was more interested in the fountains!

We waited and we waited until finally B had to go potty.  Of course as soon as we went inside an airplane landed.  We waited a little while longer before deciding it was a slow night and we headed home.  Brooklynn wasn't disappointed though.  She thought we were there to play in the fountains and ride the escalators, so she left a happy girl and had no idea she missed anything.  Pretty good entertainment for the cost of 1.00 parking and the 4 cents she threw in the fountain. 

We were sad to see that they had cut down so many of the beautiful old trees at GSP.  I guess they needed to make more room for parking.  Sad.

Pre-K?!? Here we come!

Monday was Brooklynn's first day of Pre-K.  I can't believe she is almost four years old.  Where has the time gone?  Her school has two buildings and because she is moving up, B also moved to the big kids building.  It seemed so weird yesterday morning dropping her off with older kids.  She was excited though as you can see from the pic above.  I had a cute little dress for her to wear on her first day, but B was only going to wear her new Clemson shirt that they gave out at Fan Appreciation Day.  I can't blame her though, I would rather wear a t-shirt too!  

Fan Appreciation Day

Today was Fan Appreciation Day at Death Valley.  Nick took Brooklynn to meet the Clemson Tigers. We went to Mr. Knickerbockers yesterday because she just had to have a purple shirt (she had outgrown last year's purple shirt but still wanted to wear it.)  She also picked out a new hat to match her daddy's.

Here are a few pics.

Rubbing Howard's Rock

 Brooklynn wanted to know when the game was going to start.  She had a pretty good seat on the hill.

Meeting a cheerleader but she seems more impressed with the pom poms.

 Marlee, Gram, and B

Marlee and B

  For someone who was so excited about meeting the Tiger, B sure does have a death grip on Nick! :)

I got a lot done while Nick and B were gone this afternoon.  I made these treat bags to hand out tomorrow during Meet the Teacher.  They go right along with my fish bulletin board outside my room! 

 "O-fish-ally in 4th grade"

Just as a side note, Brooklynn has discovered broccoli cheese soup.  She had two bowls this weekend.  She loves it!

Forty

Thinking about Dad today and wishing Mom was here to celebrate their 40th anniversary.

My Classroom

Well it's that time of year again.  I'm tired of sitting around and eager to start the school year, even if it is just for a few weeks until Baby Farr gets here.  Last week I worked really hard on getting my classroom together.  Not an easy task being so pregnant and having so many contractions.  I came home yesterday, looked down, and wondered whose feet those were because they certainly didn't look like mine.  They looked much better this morning though!

Here are some pics of my classroom.  I'm almost ready for Open House Monday afternoon. Sorry the pics are so blurry.  My phone lens must have been dirty.

 Bulletin board in the hall- that is a time machine if you are wondering.

My class listed on fish outside my door.  That is always such a HUGE wall to fill every month!

 These letters I made after seeing a Pinterest post.

Bucket Fillers- My class will decorate little buckets to place on each pocket.  We read a story at the beginning of the year about kindness and filling other people's happiness buckets.  All year long we write kind notes to others to fill their buckets.

My new reading chart I created yesterday.  We will see how it works out this year.

Student work wall and vocabulary chart

I'm proud of my word wall this year.  I backed it in paper for the first time which was quite a task.  Luckily Kristy helped me out.  I love it though because it adds so much color to the front of my room.

  Fourth grade will have state PASS tests in math, reading, social studies, science, AND now writing for the first time since I've been teaching in SC.  That's more subjects tested than any other elementary grade. Ugh. I created a writing corner to help us this year.

I'm almost done with my room.  One more big bulletin board to put up.  I just ran out of gas on Friday and didn't get it up before I left.  

B loves Aunt Kaley

First of all I just want to say how thankful I am to have this girl in my life.  She has been such a blessing throughout mom's illness.  She was at Mom and Dad's house every night helping with meals and cleaning even though she was in the middle of tons of summer school classes.   She also has helped me out so many times since Mom's illness when I needed a babysitter.  The favor will definitely be returned one day when Blake and Kaley have little ones! Brooklynn has really developed an awesome relationship with her Aunt KK this summer.   We are so lucky she is part of our family.

Yesterday was one of those days.  B's school had a staff development day.  Mom kept B on this day last year, but luckily Kaley was willing to step in so that I didn't have to take my second day of school  off.

They had lots of fun  . . .

They went to the zoo along with the much loved Cleveland Park playground

And then the pool

You can really tell how curly B's hair is getting in the pic.  

Thanks, Aunt KK! You are the best!

Cancer

I guess I should just start this post by directing you to this link:

Life with the Morgans

Nick, Grant, and John all lived together at Clemson. How weird that John and I both lose our moms to cancer within several weeks of one another.  

Nick and I went to the visitation tonight.  It broke my heart when I turned the corner and saw John.  I completely knew every emotion he was feeling at that point.  At Mom's visitation I remember one person coming through the line, and I can't even remember who it was, I just remember her saying that she lost her mom when she was 30 years old to cancer, and she was also seven months pregnant at the time.  She was just one of the handful of people who truly understood how I was feeling.  Her words were encouraging.  I hope that John had a few of those people come through his mom's line tonight.  

A Little Preparation

Aunt Stephanie and Uncle Dave came for a visit this weekend and brought along a little surprise for B, a new baby doll!  This isn't your ordinary baby doll.  Little did we know when we took it out of the box that this baby doll drinks water from a bottle and then actually wets a diaper.  It even starts crying when it needs a diaper change.  This cracked Brooklynn up.  She has already changed her baby's diaper, who she named Pickles, several times tonight.  I don't think she has realized yet that the more water she gives him the more diaper changes Pickles needs.  Good preparation?  I think so.

Thanks Aunt Stephanie and Dave!

Yummy!

There's nothing better than Rabun County Silver Queen corn this time of year.  This pic was taken earlier in the week at Mom and Dad's house.  I'm not sure who likes corn on the cob better, B or Dad.  Brooklynn had two more ears of corn tonight for dinner.  

Baby Update:  I went to the doctor on Friday and it looks like Baby Farr is back to being big for 32 weeks.  The good news is that I get another ultrasound!  They want to get his exact measurements and then they will decide if they should change my due date.  I would love an earlier due date.  All these Braxton Hicks contractions are going to be hard to deal with once school starts and I have a classroom of 25 kids.

Switcharoos

I've been working the past month or so at getting rid of Brooklynn's old clothes.  There is a huge consignment sale twice a year in Greenville called Switcharoos.  I consigned about 65 items and today was the first day that I could go to the sale.  I got up early this morning ready to go but little did I know what I was getting into.  This place was HUGE!  I got Hayden and B tons of clothes for fall and winter.  I even got Hayden some trucks for Christmas.  I stayed about two hours before I started getting tired.  A big thanks to Nick's mom who bought B and Hayden all sorts of much needed clothes.  Pics to come!

As of last night I had only sold 5 of the items I consigned for a grand total of 12.68. Ha!  I'll be lucky to sell half of my stuff.  There is just so much!!

New Friends

Today I kept B out of school because she had a play date with some new friends, Ellie and Owen.  Their mom, Julie and I were good friends growing up.  Julie and her family lived on our street and her brother, Mike, is still good friends with Blake as are her parents with Mom and Dad.

Brooklynn had never met Julie's kids before but had a blast at their house.  Her favorite part was playing on the trampoline. B told Nick as soon as he got home tonight that she wanted a trampoline for her birthday.

B was mad at me as we left Julie's house today.  She fussed at me half way home and told me I was mean for making her leave and she was still talking about Ellie tonight at bath time.  I know a little girl that is going to sleep good tonight!

Back to School

Today was my first day back at school.  Actually it was the first day that teachers could get in their rooms. I don't have to go back until next week.  I'm glad to be back but sad at the same time because so many of my good friends left my school at the end of last year.  Someone told me we are getting around 22-23 new teachers and staff members.  That's a lot of new people!

I have to say that it is slow moving trying to get my room ready being 32 weeks pregnant.  Luckily, Kristy stopped by to help me even though she won't be at CCE this year.  I'm sad she won't be on my hallway this year or even at my school for that matter.  But, thanks to Kristy and Sonny I was able to get my furniture moved around.  I just had to take a pic of Sonny because he walked around all day with this hat on!!

This was about all I got finished today.  My word wall is almost complete.  I just need to hang up the letters and it will be ready to go.  That still leaves a ton left to do, but at least this looks cute.

Memorials for Mom

Many of you have asked if the memorial you sent to the National Pancreatic Cancer Foundation was received. Honestly at this point, I don't know.  I contacted them a few days after Mom passed away and they said they would send me a complete list in early September, so I can't send thank you notes until I receive that list.  Until then, they do post names on their website.  Mom's name is finally up with a list of those who sent in memorials.  I know that this IS NOT a complete list because it is not updated regularly and some have sent in memorials that aren't listed yet.  I'm not sure how often it is updated, maybe at the end of every month.

They also have Mom's name spelled incorrectly.  I'm trying to get that fixed. I've already emailed the lady so much at this point about getting the names for thank you notes that she must be tired of hearing from me.  I figured I would wait a week or two before trying to tackle getting Mom's name spelled correctly.  

Memorials Click Here

If you scroll down you will see Mom's name listed under July.  

This picture was taken in May at the Reedy River Rubber Duck Race

Run 2 Overcome

Yesterday I volunteered at the Run 2 Overcome with a couple of girls from work.  This race was to help raise money for the Julie Valentine Center and over 700 runners participated!  Kristy, my volunteer buddy, and I had to get up extra early, 4:45 to be exact,  to be at Cleveland Park at 6 am.  We were in charge of checking in the 10k runners for the 7:30 race.  After we finished that we also checked in the 5k runners and then we were responsible for pulling the bib tags at the end of the 10k race as the runners came through the finish line.  The bib tags are help tell the race coordinators who finished in which place.

 We had a great time and this has been one of my favorite volunteer activities yet.  After running so many 5k races it was fun to be on the other side of the table.  I have to say though, I was absolutely exhausted the rest of the afternoon.  It was worth it though!

Here are all the runners beginning the race and this was just the 5k!

My New Year's Resolution was to volunteer 50 hours in 2012.  I don't think I am going to hit that this year.  I guess I have a good excuse after the summer we've had.  Having a baby in the fall makes it a little more difficult as well.  I'm still working towards it though!

Fun Friday

Yesterday I kept Brooklynn home from school for some much needed mommy- daughter time!  

First, I took B to the dentist.  You must be thinking that going to the dentist doesn't sound like fun.  Brooklynn, however, LOVES the dentist.  She was so excited to go.  I was a little nervous though because Mom has always taken her while I've been at work, but I was pleasantly surprised at B's good behavior.  She let them clean her teeth and even let them do her very first x-rays.  She loved every minute of it.  

Waiting patiently for the dentist.

Ready for an xray.  Cheese!

Next we headed over to Uncle Blake and Kaley's house for some pool time.  I've avoided the pool this summer not being a fan of the maternity bathing suit.  Brooklynn and Aunt KK headed out and had a blast.  

Next we went to the library.  B was excited and of course she talked about Mimi the whole time because they went to the library together every Thursday.  She picked out some books and played on the computer. Afterwards, we headed over to visit Pops and to show him all of her library picks.

"Reading" Cat in the Hat on the computer.

I picked out this book, but  B hasn't let me read it to her yet.  She just isn't interested.  

Just as a side note:  A good friend, Jessica, has just started a new blog.  She and her husband, Grant, have recently moved to Waco where he is beginning a new job teaching at Baylor.  Jessica and I lived together in college at Lander, and Nick and Grant lived together at Clemson.  Jessica's family was  so sweet at Mom's visitation and made me feel so comforted and loved.  Her mom is a breast cancer survivor and they have been friends of Mom and Dad's since we were little girls.

  You can read Jessica's new blog from my blog roll, "Life with the Morgans."

Bubbles!

Brooklynn has spent a lot of time this week outside playing with her new bubble machine that Aunt Stephanie gave her at the baby shower a few weeks ago.

Man does this thing put out some bubbles!  I can't believe I've spent all this time blowing bubbles when this thing exists. B likes to get her bug net out and try to catch the bubbles.

Just an update on the baby.  I went to the doctor last Friday for a check up and baby Farr is no longer ahead of schedule.  I actually lost a some weight over the last few weeks, but the doc said not to worry bc he is still growing and is right where he should be in size.  I've also been having tons of Braxton Hicks contractions over the past several weeks.  He said that the stress of Mom's illness alone would be the cause for so many and to just take it easy.  Hopefully baby Hayden will stay put for a little while longer!