BUMPS #4

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• John, (my brother who lives in Boston with his wife, Katie,) said when I saw him in October at a our cousin's wedding, "Woah, I never thought I'd see you fat!" He came home for Christmas break and could not stop staring at me. It was pretty cute, but so obvious and funny to me. When he called on my birthday, we were talking about how old I was and how YOUNG he is, (27). He said, "Wow, you get to be 35 and pack on the pounds!," I said, "I've gained less than 15 pounds!" and he said, "No way! It looks like you've gained 30!" ONLY baby brothers can get away with this type of abuse!
• Katie was funny too. She was amazed in October at how "hard, yet bouncy" my belly was. Over Christmas she asked how big the baby was. I told her about 2 pounds and she said, "What is all the other stuff?" Like, if that's all the baby weighs, why is your belly SO BIG! It made me laugh! I hope they have kids pretty soon.
• I was the one to say, "are you going to eat that?" and finished Brant's plate of food for the first time during dinner the other night!
• There was a mother with her 3 month old baby boy at Graham's gymnastics showcase. When I got there, I sat down and Lainey came over to sit on my lap. She pointed sideways to the lady and said in a funny, discreet voice, "Aunt Polly, you're going to have one of those guys soon." Apparently, she has told this other mother all about me too.
• And some memorable ones from my students...Isabella, first grader: "So will the doctor put you to sleep when he takes the baby out?" Me: "No, I'll be awake." Isabella: "Woah, that's gonna hurt WORSE than the FLU SHOT!"
• Madison, kindergartener: "When is your baby coming out?" Me: "In March." Her: "So, you'll go home in March and have the boy take you to the hospital?" Me: "Right."
• A sweet first grade girl wanted to read out loud to the baby after school today. It was her library book, and baby kicked several times, which she appreciated. She read Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel.

I am trying to read to him as much as possible. I do read aloud at work several times a day. I've only read about 8 books to him at home while sitting in the rocking chair. I also try to get Lacey in there to get used to our spending time in there. Charlie snoops around in his room too.
After work today I went to Graham's gymnastics showcase. He loves performing just as much as his sister does, but he hams it up some! Then we walked down and watched Lainey's dance class in the same shopping center building. So glad we live so close. Jen's blog:  http://tierd.wordpress.com/2013/01/17/gymnastics-showcase/
Brant has been putting our new flooring down every evening this week. It seems to be taking forever, but I really like it and he's doing a great job. He and I got home at about the same time today. He discovered a leaking something or other in the laundry room last night. He is working on that now. Ahh, home ownership. Makes me miss apartment life. I am very thankful and proud that my man can and will do these things!

67 days until my due date!

30 weeks today!

 

Doctor appointment went well Monday. We're up to bi-monthly appointments now!

Heart rate was 136/129ish. He told me what his guess of the position of the baby was and why, which was cool. Brant said tonight, "Woah, it seems like it's gotten so much bigger just in the past 2 weeks! That's a big boy! He's gonna help me with all these projects." : )

Amazing Grace, Music and 29 weeks

Amazing Grace still makes me cry every time! The meaning of the words, the feeling of the music. I just love it. My dad always said, "I want you to sing Amazing Grace at my funeral," and we did. I told Brant the morning of his funeral I don't know how I'm going to make it through the song. Incredibly, God got me through it and I sang every word, all the verses, loud and clear that day. Amazing for sure. We sang it in church today and Brant looked at me at the beginning and squeezed my hand. By the end of the first line, I was crying! Had to mouth the rest of the words or squeak them out quietly.
I don't think of myself as one of those people who has SUCH a strong connection to music, but perhaps that thinking needs to change. Mom and I went to see the Les Miserable movie the other day. That music just overtakes me. I first saw Les Mis while I was student teaching in London. It was incredible and the best there! Afterward, my friend Kristina (whom I've written about in the blog,)  and I walked through the London tube system, down many elevators into the deep tube stations singing:
"Will you join in our crusade,
Who will be strong and stand with me?
Somewhere beyond the barricade
Is there a world you long to see?
Do you hear the people sing?
Say, do you hear the distant drums?
It is the future that they bring
When tomorrow comes!"
I have seen Les Mis two more times on stage, then on screen. I realize that when I first saw it on stage, I didn't "get" all the story and it was much more about the music "getting" me.
It got me on screen too. Mom and I cried many times during the movie. I just LOVE all the stories there too now that I "get" it!!!
I'm reminded also of a time our friend, Ryan, was moving my car real quick. I had Les Mis BLARING. He came in and said, "Woah, what's that you're listening to? That is trippy. I like it!" Funny. Another funny one: After college, just after my student teaching in London, I moved back home and played my Les Mis CDs a lot. John said, "gah, do you have to listen to that again? All the songs start off the same way, 'dun, dun, dun, dun...dun dun, dun, dun, dun.'"
After church today, we walked out to see the new prayer garden and columbarium. It's a beautiful place to sit, relax, read and also have your loved ones remains put into a wall you can visit. : ) It is special because we are having some of Dad's ashes placed there. Mom will have a place there too. It is also special because the sign was paid for by the funds and giving in Dad's name/memory after he passed away.

Sign says, "The Fellowship Prayer Garden"

After church, we went to eat out with Mom (mmm...Papagallos,) then to Sears to buy a new vacuum cleaner. (Sounds like the movie Old School-"Busy day- Home Depot and Bed Bath and Beyond if we have time!") Brant went on a last minute fishing expedition with two of his friends who live close by. One of them heads up the fishing club at my alma mater, the high school where he works. He's looking for good spots for his kids to fish. The three of them have decided they need to go to the coast to fish next weekend. Sounds fun!

The floor is coming along. Slowly, but surely!

 

I sent this to Mom one day this week to show her how big my bump was that day. It looks fake! Weird.

29 week bump

Birthday #35!

Wonderful Birthday Celebrations!

Mom is the most incredible cook and truly enjoys it, which makes it even more fun. Her pizza stone broke a couple of years ago and I enjoy her authentic Italian style pizzas so much, I gave her a nice, new one for Christmas. She had the fabulous idea of having us over to celebrate my birthday and make pizzas together Saturday night. We all made pizzas and ate on each other's pizzas. She also made an incredible minestrone soup. We ate little by little, which ends up being much more than you would ever eat at once. The dessert was the most amazing, moist carrot cake with cream cheese frosting. All from scratch, of course. So, so good. Jen and I were miserable because we ate WAY too much. I actually asked if it could hurt the baby if I eat too much. I felt like my stomach was going to bust. Oh so good!!!!!! AND we got to take the left overs home! We also had a nice mini-visit with Brant's parents who stayed with us after a wedding in Boerne!

My sweet faculty and students had happy birthdays coming in all day long. Cards, letters, drawings, flowers, even a gift for baby! One dual language class came in and sang Happy Birthday in Spanish, then Las Mananacitas, (the Mexican Birthday Song I had never heard- so sweet!) then Happy Birthday in English. My high school special ed/Life Skills kids that work in the library twice a week sang Happy Birthday to me. Even my library guru processor called from central office and sang for me. Everyone is just so kind and thoughtful. I do feel very special.

Brant got me the simple wedding band I wanted for my birthday. I wanted something I could wear all the time that would not scratch baby and that I could wear to the river and places I where I worry about wearing the real deal. Alice was going to come over for a visit, but it is extremely cold and rainy outside, (so many wrecks on the way to work, it took me 1 hr. 25 min. to get there today,) so I told her to stay home and stay dry. Just got off the phone with John and got to talk to many friends today. My girls, Jenni and Alice, have been finalizing the baby shower. We're staying in tonight and munching on my favorite creations-good cheeses, shrimp and gyoza! It's whatever I want, right? Hee hee! (As my Dad would write!) Brant just kicked me out of the kitchen...nice! I like it!

Las Manacitas Lyrics and Translation:

Spanish original

English translation

Estas son las mañanitas que cantaba el rey David. Hoy por ser día de tu santo, te las cantamos a ti. Despierta mi bien, despierta, mira que ya amaneció ya los pajarillos cantan la luna ya se metió. Qué linda está la mañana en que vengo a saludarte venimos todos con gusto y placer a felicitarte. El día en que tu naciste nacieron todas las flores y en la pila del bautismo cantaron los ruiseñores Ya viene amaneciendo, ya la luz del día nos dio. Levántate de mañana mira que ya amaneció.

These are the songs that King David sang. Today because it is the day of your saint, we sing them to you. Wake up my dear, wake up, see that the day has dawned the birds sing, the moon has set. How lovely is the morning in which I come to greet you we all come with joy and pleasure to congratulate you. The day you were born all the flowers bloomed and in the baptismal font sang the nightingales. The dawn has come, the light of the day is given to us. Get up with the morning and see that it has dawned.

* Often replaced with the name of the person who is being celebrated

We got the crib Friday night and Brant put it together this weekend with a little help from Lacey!

LOVE, LOVE, LOVE that dog!

Year 35 is looking good!

So thankful!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! & Week 28!

2013 is going to be great. I had my week 28 check up and gestational diabetes test on New Years Eve. I'll get results later in the week. It's always great to hear his little heart beat! We celebrated the coming of the new year with friends and worked on projects around the house!
Happy New Year!

Our living room as of New Years Day

Decided to get a changing table at a resale shop and paint it red! Was going to just use the top of dresser because this seems like such a wasted piece of furniture. We couldn't figure out the best way to keep it from being slippery with the changing pad on top and without hurting the antique dresser. This will be safer!



Painting some other things red to coordinate! It's a bright red that is in the curtains and crib skirt.

Sock monkey design we're using

28 week belly shots!

It's still amazing! I can see my stomach moving around now. Brant got to see it while sitting in church on Christmas Eve. Holding my book or Kindle on my stomach while reading in bed at night is a very bumpy, active time!

 

Missing my Dad

We've been so busy! Brant's been ripping out carpet and baseboards getting ready for our new flooring and I've been painting baby furniture. I came in from the garage for lunch and he was fixing the vacuum cleaner. I told him how proud my Dad would be of us. We can do it! It reminds me of the day before Dad died, we had just moved into our house, I hooked up the washer and dryer, syphoned out the hot tub and figured out how to clean it and fix it up on my own. I wrote him an email about how he taught me to do things for myself and how lucky I am to have him as a father. He promptly wrote me back saying I made his day.
While I was in the garage painting, I listened to country radio, my favorite. I heard Dad's relatively new favorites, "People are Crazy," and "Some Beach." Then I heard a new one. Brant and I heard it in the car the other day. I loved it. Today it first made me think about having a beer with Dad. Then about actually having a beer with Jesus and how Jesus would be such a great person to have a beer with. Then the part about "What's on the other side? Is mom and daddy alright" just made me cry and cry. So, I was out there painting and crying, crying and painting. Brant came out to get something and said, "Look at us, improving our home!" and I even couldn't talk to him at all! I've just been missing my Dad so much.

Our email exchange the day before he past away:

 

I do have the best Dad ever! I definitely realize this when there is nobody home to hook up the washer and dryer. Well, why couldn't I? "You can do it!" is always in my head because of my FABULOUS Dad.
Just today, (after having to use pliers on some pipes,) I syphoned my water out of my new hot tub to try to vacuum out the calcium deposits instead of just draining it. I learned how to syphon when I was 15. I put diesel in the lawnmower and quickly learned! All because of Dear ole Dad! : )
Now I am waiting for my tub to empty so I can do some more handy work the man taught me!
P
p.s.Thank goodness for the toolbox in my trunk thanks to him!

Pol ... Thank you ... You Made My DAY!  Love, Dad

Email to the family from Dad regarding country music on 8/28/09:

Howdy,

 As you know I have been going to the river every Tuesday trying to save half of the trees I planted in 2000 .. the other half I have given up on!  This drought is terrible when you see 300 year old oaks dying and turning brown ... maybe it will rain today since we got a little shower yesterday of 1/4 inch!

 

I used to listen to KTSA 550 AM until my fav DJ left and now I listen to Y100 Country while out at the river.

 

Wow, look what I have been missing ... Here are my favs ...

 

1.  Some Beach
2.  Tequila Makes Her Clothes Fall Off
3.  People are Crazy and Beer is Good
4.  The Worst 15 minutes of my life
5.  Big Green Tractor
6.  I still Love Bologna on White Bread Now and Then

 

My fav is #1 ... Some BEACH ... like last week at Wilford Hall Medical Center I was waiting for a parking slot and had my blinker on while a fellow was backing out and all of the sudden a little ole lady whipped into it ... I just waved and laughed.  Then that same day I went to the Class 6 Store and reached up for my favorite wine and a lady beat me to the last two bottles ... All I could do was say ... Some Beach, Somewhere there is a big umbrella casting shade over a chair - On Some Beach Somewhere!

 

I love rereading his emails because you can hear his voice so strongly!

I added him to our Dia de los Muertos display at school this year. I think he would have gotten a kick out of being on the table with all the others and the colorful décor, flowers, etc! He worked right down the street from my school for 20+ years! He was part of their community!

 

Thomas Rhett Akins - If I Could Have A Beer With Jesus Lyrics  
If I could have a beer with Jesus
Heaven knows I’d sip it nice and slow
I’d try to pick a place that ain’t too crowded
Or gladly go wherever he wants to go

You can bet I’d order up a couple tall ones
Tell the waitress put ‘em on my tab
I’d be sure to let him do the talkin’
Careful when I got the chance to ask

How’d you turn the other cheek
To save a sorry soul like me
Do you hear the prayers I send
What happens when life ends
And when you think you’re comin’ back again
I’d tell everyone, but no one would believe it
If I could have a beer with Jesus

If I could have a beer with Jesus
I’d put my whole paycheck in that jukebox
Fill it up with nothing but the good stuff
Sit somewhere we couldn’t see a clock

Ask him how’d you turn the other cheek
To save a sorry soul like me
Have you been there from the start
How’d you change a sinner’s heart
And is heaven really just beyond the stars
I’d tell everyone, but no one would believe it
If I could have a beer with Jesus

He can probably only stay, for just a couple rounds
But I hope and pray he’s stayin’ till we shut the whole place down

Ask him how’d you turn the other cheek
To save a sorry soul like me
What’s on the other side?
Is mom and daddy alright?
And if it ain’t no trouble tell them I said hi
I’d tell everyone but no one would believe it
If I could have a beer with Jesus
I’d tell everyone but no one would believe it
If I could have a beer with Jesus

[Thanks to Kendra Singleton for lyrics]

Holiday Road Trip

Mom, Jen, the kids, Katie, John and I drove up for a quick visit with Dad's side, then with Mom's side. It was a very quick trip. Our baby daddies had to stay home and work. We stopped in Waco to see Dad's recently placed gravestone. We also saw the Baylor bears, which were very active! We went to SuEllen's family party in Dallas, where we had a great visit with Dad's side. Then to Trophy Club, to Grammi's for a visit with Mom's side. Grammi is doing so well. 83 and running around, looking better than ever!

I loved this billboard on I35 at Baylor. "Building Leaders...and Heisman Trophy winners."
With RGIII with his great big smile.

Had to make a few purchases at the Baylor Book Store!
 

'Tis the Season to be Pregnant

 My favorite pregnancy pictures of the season:



At the Drechsel's Christmas Party

Even baby got a disguise!

Robert Earl Keen's Merry Christmas from the Fam-O-ly concert was this year's annual Christmas on the town date night!

Christmas Eve

Pregnant Cousins! Due exactly 1 month apart!



Mom/Gigi and her THREE grandchildren!
Ha!

  

Enjoying quiet nights at home, just us!
 



Our little, growing family, minus Charlie

What a very merry Christmas!