Happy Thanksgiving!!

WOW! I can't believe that it is Thanksgiving already! This year is flying by. I can't believe how much can change in a year! I have so much to be thankful for this year. Not only do I have the best husband in the world, but a wonderful family that helps us all the time, friends that will do anything for us, and a wonderful little baby growing inside me. I'm not sure how I got so blessed! This year we are going to my parent's house for Thanksgiving, and we will be enjoying a wonderful meal with our family!

As for the baby, he is doing great. My mom got to feel him kick for the first time. It was so neat! I am starting to get those weird aches and pains that come with pregnancy. In fact, I had a pretty nasty pain in my back, called my dr, and the nurse yelled at me for not drinking enough water. Ok, I admit that I am not drinking all the water I should, but I really have been trying hard the last few days. I am still yet to meet my 14 - 8oz glasses in a day, but I have definitely been drinking more than I was. Our next dr's appointment is Dec 7 and we get another ultrasound!! I can't wait to see him again and see how much he has grown! I am feeling kicks all the time, enough to see my belly jump! I can't wait to meet this strong little guy!

In the work realm, I wish I had better news. Since before school started, our district and the union have not come to an agreement with our contract. Well, our contract expired Aug 31, so they extended it through Nov 30. In that time, there has been no progress made to settle. The district is offering us 1.5% or about that which is way below the cost of living and the union wanted 2.7%. We had a fact finder come in and recommended a 2.45%. Teachers agreed, but the school board didn't. It is looking more and more like we might strike on Dec 1. What is even worse is the district has raised insurance premiums, which means the insurance that didn't cost me a thing this year will be costing me $100 a month starting Jan 1st!! (We decided to drop my insurance from the district and just put me on Benjamin's) The increase for insurance for a full family is going up a whopping $650 a month!!! That is huge! It is a huge mess here, lots of angry teachers, and stress galore! I am really hoping things can be settled before we strike, but I do think that it is a really possibility. Looks like December may be a tight month for us. I guess I can look at it as an early Christmas vacation, but sometimes it is hard to be positive. I'll keep you all posted on what happens.

Well, Happy Thanksgiving Everyone! I wish we could all be together! Just remember, we are thinking of you all!!

He's a kicker!!

Hi everyone! I haven't posted in the last couple of weeks because there really hasn't been a change since then. So far, things are still going well. This little baby is a real kicker! I am starting to feel it pretty strong and now from the outside. In fact, Ben got to feel his first kick Monday morning! It was really neat. I had a doctor's appointment today, and things went pretty well. He did say my uterus is measuring a little big, so he thought I may have a fibroid. However, at my last ultrasound, the technician didn't see anything, so the Dr didn't seem too concerned. We have an ultrasound scheduled for Dec 7 to make sure things are ok. I guess I shouldn't be worried, and a good thing is that I wouldn't be getting another ultrasound so soon if things weren't measuring big. At least this gets us another look at our boy!

As for our trip to Chicago, it was a blast! We got to play lots of pinball and really enjoyed ourselves. We participate in 2 tournaments at the pinball convention. One was called the "Zen" tournament, and that was my favorite. For that one, I had a flipper and Ben had a flipper. We made it to the semi-finals, but the guys who beat us ended up winning the entire tournament, so some how that made our elimination not so bad. We also participated in the "Pinbrawl", which was kinda like a league. We got teamed up with a couple other guys and our team name was "Straight Down the Middle". We lived up to our name! hehehe We played against another team of 4. We played 3 games, and unfortunately we lost the very first round. It still was fun, and an experience that I won't forget! We did take a break off pinball one day and took the train downtown to the Art Institute. It was really neat, but I wasn't able to make it through the huge museum. I guess being pregnant really cuts down on a woman's endurance. I think one of the best parts of the trip was the airplane ride home. It was a full flight, so an upgrade to first class was really cheap, and we did it! It was our first time in first class, and let me tell you, it was totally amazing!! We got drinks before we took off, warmed mixed nuts, a fancy meal, and a fresh backed cookie! We figured once the baby comes, we probably won't be able to splurge a little, so we went for it! Yea for us! It was a nice little getaway, and we really enjoyed our last vacation as just the 2 of us! Here is a picture of us at Stern Pinball where we got to have a tour!



Click here to go to the Stern Pinball website.