Five foods

Five Foods... this should be fun! 

5. Cotton Candy Ice Cream

This ice cream is not only delicious, it is also medication. I have been on a cotton candy ice cream kick for the last month or so, and one day, I had a horrible headache. I took tylenol, I rested, I drank water, I drank caffeine, I turned off all the lights, nothing. Head throbbed. When I had my nightly bowl of this wonder, the head ache immediately disappeared! Meijer, the wonder ice cream! 

4. Greek Salad

I haven't had this in a while because feta is a pregnancy no-no, but I will admit, I had two of them since getting pregnant. I always get this sans olives and onions, but, the picture doesn't show beets and banana peppers. I can't perfect this salad at home for some reason. Maybe because I never have all the ingredients? lol 

3.  Panera bread. 

It's so exciting to go to Panera since Derek passionately hates it. Apparently it is not enough food for his growing body. But I looooove it. I could eat it everyday. I always get a turkey sandwich on asiago bread with broccoli cheddar soup. 

2. Arabic Food

I love me some garlic. We go all out when we eat arabic. It started in high school when I'd go with my girlfriends. We would easily take on two bowls of garlic with out meal. Who cares if we stink for days after? Now I have recruited Derek to be in on the fun. I get the same variation of foods each time I go. A chicken shawarma sandwich, fattoush salad, rice with almonds, grilled veggies, and of course, the bread and garlic. I don't get all of these, but the sandwich and bread are a consistent part of the meal, the rest are my choices for sides. Yum! 

1. Sweet Potato Fries

Not just any sweet potato fries, but the ones from The Barrel Room in San Diego. I'm not even surprised that they had a picture of these delicious fantasies on google. I dream of these and I am salivating as I stare at them. Anyway, we went to this restaurant while we were waiting for our friend to be done at the emergency room on vacation. (long story) I thought I was going to starve that night because the menu is mainly burgers and I was burgered out at that point.... not to mention the RABBIT SAUSAGE and mac and cheese dinner that was a specialty at this particular restaurant. (SICK!) I opted for sides. I ordered a side salad and sweet potato fries. Hands down, this was the best meal of the entire trip. 

This was a tricky game for a pregnant lady to play today. Needless to say, I am now starving and have very particular ideas on what I'd like to eat. If it weren't Black Friday and I know most places I could go to get these things will be jam packed with holiday shoppers, I would be in my car right now...or on a plane on my way to San Diego. The grilled cheese I had planned for lunch just doesn't sound so appealing anymore. Ah, well. I'll use my imagination. 

6 places

I just realized I never completed the "10 days of you" blogging from way back in August. I ended with 7 wants, and now I have to do 6 places. So I'll continue! I'm not sure exactly what this one means, so I'm going to make it my own. 

Places I want to go back to: 

6.  My wedding. I would love to go back to that place. It was honestly the funnest day of my life. Here is a video example of the fun. I don't know how to post just the video up since it's not mine, it's my cousin's. (I have to explain that the tradition in my family is that the men roll up their pant legs during shout. You look like a fool if you don't roll your pant legs up. I love my family.)

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=736618259165 

5. Mine and Derek's first date. I just want to be a fly on the wall and feel like I felt on that day. I don't want to go back and stay there, because I love where we are now, but I'd love to see us then. It's hard to believe that was 7 years ago! ...this picture is our 1 year anniversary of dating.

4. My house where I grew up. I don't just mean visiting the house because it's only 5 minutes from where I live, but I'd love to go back and live a day in the life of me as a 7 year old on Lucy Street with the crew of kids my brother and I hung out with. We had the best street, there were so many kids and we were always outside playing. It was awesome!

Places I've Been. 

3. San Diego. I would love to go here once a month if I could! I've been there twice now. Once for our honeymoon and once this past summer for a vacation with friends. It's so beautiful and just means relaxation to me. Palm trees equal vacation. I don't know that I'd want to live there, because where can you vacation that it looks different from where you live? (Of course you could vacation in the northeast, but who wants to vacation in the snow?) Maybe we will retire there someday. 

2. Aunt Carol's condo in Florida. The warm pavement of the driveway under our fresh, non-calloused feet that are used to cold winter and socks, oh it's calling to me. We did 2 family spring breaks there, it was in Fort Meyers, right by the beach. I had one great spring break with Mandy and my family there. Driving there was so fun because we would watch the temperature rise from the 20s to the 80s. Driving home was awful because it went from the 80s to the 20s, but the fun part was making fun of Ohio (of course that meant we had to drive through Ohio and we hated that!). Derek also went there with us for Senior year spring break in high school. 

A Place I Can't Wait to Go. 

1. My baby's birth. I can't wait for the excitement and fear that place will hold. I want to know where I'll go into labor and who will be in the waiting room while we wait for our precious arrival. I can't wait to see Derek's face when he meets his son or daughter. I can't wait to see my dad holding my baby. I can't wait to see my mom fall in love with another grandchild. I can't wait to see Derek's parents lay their eyes on their first grandchild. I can't wait to be in that place when my brother becomes an uncle and my sister-in-law becomes an aunt. Most of all, I can't wait to be in the place where I'm first a mommy. That place. That will be the best place. 

A well behaved fetus

I'm officially 20 weeks and 1 day... over halfway there, right?! 

We had our ultrasound today and Gunther behaved perfectly. The ultrasound tech kept saying, "Wow, this baby is giving me perfect shots and doing just what he or she needs to do for measurements." She even took an extra picture for herself of his/her aorta. Way to go, baby! 

Here are our newest pictures of baby Shupe. 

 

I can NOT wait to hold this little bean in our arms and know if I have a son or a daughter. I know I could have found out today, but then we wouldn't hear, "It's a boy!" or "It's a girl!" When he or she arrives. I can't wait for the best surprise of my life. 

we have a kicker!

I didn't have work today, so when Derek left for work, I watched the news in bed for a little while. As I laid there, I suddenly felt a small jab in my stomach, but just accounted it to gas since Derek and I were joking about kicks this morning. I didn't think anything would happen like an hour after our conversation. Well, about 10 seconds later, the same thing in the same spot! Then again a few seconds later! 

Ahhh! We've got a kicker, ladies and gentlemen! I want more, I feel like an addict now. I seriously didn't move from that position for 10 minutes hoping that I'd be kicked again, but no such luck. Hopefully that isn't the baby's choice time for kicking because I'm always at work by then. 

getting fatter and fatter everyday

Derek and I registered today and, wow, did it make everything seem so much more real. These things are for a baby that we are going to keep forever... and we made it! And it's growing in me! 

I can't wait to be a mommy. Only 140+ days until my nightly belly time on the floor feeling my bump will become time holding my little one in my arms. :o) 

I have to put some memories down so I don't forget them. 

These are quotes from my students who will be making me laugh everyday until this baby comes. They are all bilingual, and for some reason much more immature and naive than the monolingual students in the rest of the school: 

Mohammed: "Mrs. Shupe, you're getting fatter and fatter everyday!" 

Gamelah: "Oh my gosh! Tell her no offense!" 

Mohammed: "Oh, no offense!" 

...LOL 

When I wore my skeleton shirt with a baby skeleton on it shown below: 

Student: (I can't remember who, dangit!)"Umm, Mrs. Shupe, I thought someone told me that the baby has that string going to it's belly so it doesn't choke on the food you eat. How come your baby (the one on my shirt) doesn't have one of those strings?" 

Me: "Well, it's a just a shirt. This isn't my real baby." 

Student: "ohhhh." 

...hilarious comment, not to mention the fact that the baby has a string so it doesn't choke on my food. I'll have to address that someday! 

Once again, a quote about the shirt. As I walked by a fellow teacher's class, she says, "Hey everyone, look at Mrs. Shupe's Halloween shirt!" 

Her student: "Ummm, I know! You ate a dog!!?" 

Sumieh: "I'm not trying to say you're getting fat, because you're supposed to get fat right? But the baby is making you fatter. Like your belly is getting fatter all the time. But it's the baby, so I'm not calling you fat. It's good that you're getting a big belly, right?" 

Me: "Yes, Sumieh, the baby keeps growing in my belly and it's going to get even bigger!" 

...this one always talks WAY too much for one sentence haha. 

I couldn't have any other job that would make me happy both professionally and emotionally. 

I told my students

"Are you pregnant Mrs. Shupe? Because someone said you're pregnant." This is what I was asked while we were at library last Friday and I didn't know how to answer because I didn't want that to be the way I announced it. So I said, "Wouldn't I tell you something like that?!"Another girl walks over and says, "You look like maybe you're pregnant." I got a nervous feeling in my stomach and decided, 4th graders aren't as naive as I must have thought.. especially considering most of my students have a pregnant mother or a new baby in their homes. 

I decided then and there, I would tell them the following Monday. Originally I was going to wear the previously mentioned shirt with the skeleton and baby skeleton to announce the news to my kiddos. Well, that wouldn't fly because it would be a week before Halloween and no one is wearing skeleton shirts on random days in October. 

So I decided I would introduce the game "Hang Man" to my students. To my delight, they knew the game (some didn't last year and being that they're mostly newcomers to the country, you never know what games they may or may not know.) So I put up the following: 

___ ____ ___       _____ ____ _____ _____ ____    

____ ____       ______ ____ _____ _____ _____ _____

____     _____ _____ _____ _____

They're guessing and finally they had something like Mrs Shupe is    ___a___ing    a    ___a___y. 

I start hearing whispers, "Is she having a baby?"   "Do you think she's having a baby?"  "I think Mrs. Shupe is having a baby." Then they solved it! 

They bursted with questions! What is it!? are you really having a baby?! What's it's name?! Can we name it? When is it coming?! 

And my three favorite questions: 

3. "Aren't you supposed to be big and fat?" (Love this kid forever for making me feel good lol) 

2. "So can we really have a class baby?" 

and the number 1 question that still makes me giggle now....

1. "Does Mr. Shupe know?" 

LOL!!! ... He does. 

They're super cute and are asking me questions about the baby already and giving me name suggestions as well as suggesting a name suggestion jar that they can add to whenever they think of names. There has also been a request that Mr. Shupe please come in and let them know when the baby comes so they can find out if it's a boy or girl. 

Oh and my nerves were settled when the only controversial question that was asked was, "How did you know you were pregnant? Like, how did you actually know a baby is in there?" A simple, "The doctor told me," solved that one and the questions were done! Thank God! 

...Now I'm off to my most visited place, the bathroom. At least I made it through typing this whole thing out!

just an update

I feel weird to admit that at this point in my life, I love going to the doctor's office! I hate the fact that Derek can't get off work to join me at all of the appointments, but the fact that he was there to hear the first heartbeat and see the first ultrasound at 8 weeks makes me happy. The 16 week appointment was wonderful. I was in and out in about 30 minutes. The heartbeat was in the 150s and the doctor said he could hear the baby moving and kicking. I don't now exactly what that sounds like, but since I was hearing the same thing as him, I must have heard him/her kicking, too! 

I can't wait until November 10. It's the 20 week appointment which includes and ultrasound! Yay! Derek is also getting off work to come to that one. I can't wait to see that little bean again. This time he/she probably won't look as much like a derby car like last time. 

My dad bought me the Halloween shirt I wanted. It has a skeleton torso and in the belly area, there's a baby skeleton. It's too funny! I love my daddio, he still spoils me. I'm so lucky to have such a great family... including Derek's family. I know not everyone is so lucky to have wonderful in-laws, but mine are fantastic! This baby will be so loved!