Busy busy busy!!

Warning:  This is a very long post!  But there is some exciting information at the end, so if you're patient and read, you will be rewarded!  Of course, you can skip all my blabber if you want... I won't be offended... but if you read it all I'll know you truly love me! ;)

So, if you are friends with me on Facebook, or otherwise talk to me regularly, you know that my return to school after the holiday was quite dreaded, and the first day back was a long one.  The first day back to school is always rough after any break.. and it gets progressively harder based on the length of the break, so Christmas break is always the worst!  You  never seem quite prepared for classes... you know the kids are going to act like it's the first day of school again, and of course the loss of the ability to sleep in is never welcome either.  This return from Christmas break was made that much harder as I was met with not only my fullest day of classes (I don't get any planning periods on Tuesdays), but also the obstacle of trying to get my News Team (as mentioned in an earlier post) up and running.

I was SO nervous about the morning announcements, I can't even explain it!  I spent all of Monday prepping things (backgrounds, cut-outs to show weather, temperature.... scenes for the moment of silence and the anthem) that I hardly got anything planned for my classes on Tuesday! I came home from school and worked until I went to bed!  Then Tuesday morning I was so nervous I couldn't even eat!  Thankfully we had decided to start on Wednesday, but Tuesday morning was our last chance to practice, and I was so nervous that the kids would have forgotten everything!!

The practice went so well that I was able to sleep easy last night knowing things would go fine today... and they did!  Minus a glitch involving a frozen exercise DVD (the school is supposed to do some brief exercises every morning) everything went fine, and hopefully it will only get better from here!

All this worry and running around has left hardly any time for me to worry or think about baby, which is good in some ways, and bad in others.  I have a tendency to over-worry about things (gee, really!?) so having something else to think about can be a good thing, but I don't really think it's better for me to get so busy and worried that I'm not taking care of myself.  I kept thinking all Tuesday how horrible I was for not eating breakfast!  Would I wake up and decide I was too busy to feed my child?  Of course not!  So why should it be any different for me right now not to feed myself?  I kept thinking I would get 5 minutes to eat something, but all my classes were bright and early, and I never even got so much as 30 seconds of free time before lunch!  I did manage to eat most of a banana (over the course of 50 minutes, while teaching!), but I still felt horrible!

But thanks to my wonderful husband, who has done so many things for me this week already, I am now able to put my feet up and take a few moments to breathe and refocus.

I do have exciting news though!  I finally got the call from my doctor telling me when my appointment is for the "anatomy screening".  This is the appointment where they do an ultrasound to make sure the baby is growing properly, but it's also the appointment where we get to find out if we're having a boy or a girl!  AND it's only one week away!  Well, one week and one day, but close enough!  I'm super excited!!

I am very curious as to what you all *think* we are going to have.  I think it would be fun to see what you think before making the actual announcement.  So, you will see on the right side of the blog there is now a "vote" feature where you can guess whether we'll have a boy or a girl.  And, besides my mom and sister, I sometimes think no one is reading the blog (no one leaves comments!), so this is a way that you can anonymously contribute to the blog and let me know that people are reading!

To help you in your decision, if you don't already know what you think, I will review some popular old wives' tales:
I am craving salty snacks instead of sweet (and yes, admittedly, pickles!). That means boy.
A ring dangled over my belly swings in a circle instead of back and forth, which means girl.
The Chinese Gender chart predicts a girl.
My face seems to be clearing up since the pregnancy (no more pimples!). That means boy.
I didn't really have morning sickness, which means boy.
Urine (lovely, I know) has been dark, not neon... that means girl.

Hmm.... I'm curious to see what you think!  You're welcome to make your vote and also to post your vote in a comment if you want me to know what you said! (You do not have to log in to leave a comment, you can choose to post anonymously then sign your name).

Also, as promised this week, new belly pic!  Week 16 means things should be starting to pop out, and I think they are!  I've had several teachers (who still apparently didn't know) brave enough to ask me this week.  They said they'd wondered for a while, but it is now getting obvious that I'm not just putting on weight.

6 weeks

8 weeks

12 weeks

16 weeks

It's really funny because each time I don't think the picture is going to show much change, but then I am surprised!  Floodling is doing lots of growing, and so am I!  I wonder how much longer I'll fit in this pink shirt!