It's Summer Time

Well, here it is, it's summer time. I should be able to write once a week. Key word: should.
This has so far been a really busy, and quite stressful, summer vacation. I mean, look, it's June 27th and this is the first time I've posted in the old blog. I am going to try and make a commitment for once a week, but, it probably won't happen.
It looks like when I left you I was feeling pretty down in the dumps about money. Well, our money stresses haven't really changed all that much, but, I am a lot happier. Let me tell you why. Yes, this is going to be a positive post, this is what I keep telling myself.

 Baby

Well, most of you know already, but if you haven't heard, I am pregnant again. I'm 24 weeks (At least this is what the doctor said yesterday, to be perfectly honest I've been so busy these past couple of weeks that I have lost track myself. It sounds crazy that I would forget such an important thing, but I totally have.). It's another boy and I am so very much okay with that. I love little boys and I'm not sure if I'd know what to do with a little girl.

The little guy is due October 14th, and you know, I haven't even given three thoughts to preparing for his arrival. I probably will near the end of the summer, but I am so tired about stressing about things, and I really don't want to stress anymore. I'm just too tired and I want to enjoy being pregnant as much as humanly possible. So, if you want to know how you can help me out, here is the first time I've made a list of things I think I'll need. At least it's a boy, so I can reuse Charlie's clothes and toys.

1. I need a new diaper bag. My current one is disgusting and I wouldn't dream of putting a bottle anywhere near that thing.

2. Our changing table needs a new mattress pad or cover. Charlie has ripped the current one to shreds.

3. Diapers, duh.

4. A new crib mattress or a mattress for a toddler bed. Currently the crib mattress is in Charlie's car bed. It mostly fits.

5. Breast milk storage bags (I went through untold numbers of these with Charlie). Oh, the sanitizing wipes are incredibly useful, too. You can find them in the same area.

6. A list of the very basic things I need to have out of storage and ready for when baby comes home. I can't even think straight enough to get this into my mind.

Really, we don't need all that much. We just need to find what we already have. I need to get Jay down to find all of our baby stuff.

So, I guess, even though I am trying to be positive, I should say that this has been the main cause of my money worries. I found out we were pregnant just before we found out about the tax problem (see last post). So, I'm a bit panicked. Mostly because I am not sure what were going to have to pay. I've called insurance companies, I've talked to the doctor. They try really hard to make sense, but they don't. They spit out all kinds of numbers, but they can't just give me one solid number that I'm going to have to pay. And, hey, we have no savings right now. Things keep coming at us from out of no where. So, yeah, I'm a little scared. Yes, I know part of our problem is our spending on things we don't necessarily need, but part of it stems from us actually needing something, but then wanting to put some good money into it so we know it will last and we get what we want in the first place instead of needing to spend more down the line. Example: Refrigerator, we bought an expensive one when it broke. Camera, Jay just bought me a super nice camera. I've been talking about getting one and my last camera just went useless on me, so he got a nice one. Now, I have it and can stop wasting money on cameras that give me sort of what I want for half of the price Jay paid for this new one. I know what you're thinking, judge me if you want. Why, if she is worried about money would she let her husband buy that kind of camera? Well, hey, you know? It's been quite a long time since Brooke has let Jay spend some money on her and after the year we've been having, I needed some money spent on me. Got it?! Sounds pitiful, right? Well I don't care. I stick my tongue out at you. :P

Wow, sorry. Long money rant. Back to positive. So, if anyone has any kind of good estimate of total dollars this baby will cost, I'd like to hear it. We are insured. My deductible is $750 and our maximum out of pocket is $1500. But there's that for me and then there's that for the baby as well. And I know it sounds like it should be easy to figure out form there. But, my mind is not letting me make that leap, it just won't. I've fretted over it for many hours now...

Anyway, baby. He has no name yet. It's Jay's turn to name the baby, but you know Jay. He's not good with decisions. So, we'll see. It doesn't help that I have vetoed a few of them that I wouldn't be able to stand. Other than that, things look mostly good. Baby is healthy. He kicks awfully hard, though.

Carrie

I am SOOOO excited because my Aunt Carrie is coming to live with us for a while. She moved to Colorado a few years ago, and to be frank, that just sucked. I love Carrie. We hang out a lot and we connect really well. She's my Hastings and her daughter is my Bob (Poirot reference, watch and read Poirot). 

Well, she's moving back to Salt Lake and this house is going to be a lot less empty very very soon. I am soooo excited. Even though there will be a teenager in the house ;). 

Missing Brandy

Well, it happened. My best friend and twin sister, Brandy, moved away. To California. Way too far away. I guess her husband, left, too. ;) It's been tough not having her to go to for a hug in these stressful months. Jay and I have been worried about them, almost constantly, but they seem to be making it on there own. I'm proud of them, but I miss my sister immeasurably. The house has just been incredibly lonely. I know can always call Brandy, but our schedules haven't been coinciding very well, at all. It's been a little tough. Though my goal is to call at least once a week. It'll get better.

Charlie

My little boy is growing up very fast. He seems pretty intelligent to me, though I might just be biased. He's getting very good at letting me know what he wants and his vocabulary has just gone nuts. He's got most of his colors down, he counted to 18 today, and he's working on his ABCs. He skips a lot of letters right now. I think we'll have to add singing the ABCs together as part of the nightly routine or something to try and help him out with it. He's so cute. Stubborn as all get out. He WILL NOT learn something if he does not want to. Which, is why he is not potty trained. Sigh.

I love him so much. Charlie is getting quite the personality. Sweet yet independent. He loves to help me with chores, but there's not much he can do without making a bigger mess. We'll work on it. 

Still blonde, still has blue eyes, and still the cutest kid in the state. You probably will never change my mind.

School

School ended. It seemed to drag near the end, but we made it. It was a good 2nd year. I'll miss a lot of those kids.

I got a nice long list of things I have to do this summer for school, but I don't plan on working too long. I have meetings and conferences and much planning to do to prepare for next year, though.

Next year is going to be insane. Aside from having a newborn in October, I will be teaching AP Biology next year, and I get to put together the entire curriculum map and lesson plans myself. Nobody in my school has taught it since the course was changed. I did hear some comforting news, though. Apparently, the biology test is the hardest AP test to pass. Joy. No, I really am excited. I'd like to get started on some lesson planning, but I think I will wait until I go to the conference in July. That will help me get a good start. I did receive some materials from a teacher at Skyline High School. It seemed like that would be fairly helpful. It's just a little stressful, thinking about all the things I have to do to get this course ready. I can't wait for more motivated students!

I also am going to be the PLC leader next year. So, I get to go to some training for that this summer as well. It seems like it should be rather straight forward, but with my department, nothing is easy. I also get to be in charge of all of the data collection for my department. To be perfectly honest, that's the part about being the PLC leader that scares me the most. It's going to take away one whole prep period, and you know. Grading AP biology, trying plan an AP biology curriculum, AND do all of my regular other biology class stuff in one prep period is a little daunting. Remember, newborn at home.

So, I'm hoping to not have to do too much at home this year, but I'm planning on it. Hoping to have a lot of help from Jay and even Carrie with Charlie. Newborns are easy (ha ha ha ha ha ha, I know), it's my poor, sweet little Charlie that I worry about.

Summer

So, like I said, it's going to be a busy summer. I am trying to focus on Charlie this summer, though. He needs me. Soon, he'll have to learn to share me.

We bought him a little swimming pool this week. He seems to really like it, even though it's cold. I'm still trying to decide about swimming lessons. I'd have to swim with him, but my schedule might not allow me to go to every lesson.

Other than that, I'm just trying to make sure we aren't watching TV all data every day. We've been to the park, to the store, and we've played in the pool. I'm already running out of cheap ideas. ;)

Yellowstone

Yellowstone, the vacation I have been looking forward to for 6 months. It was so beautiful. We had never been in June before last week. Boy, did we learn that June has a set of challenges in Yellowstone.

1st thing, my camera started to bug out on my just before Yellowstone. The black spot of doom had come back. I was aware of that from the start and I was just planning on editing it out, because I can do that. But, when we got to Yellowstone, I discovered that it was much worse than that. My camera was having focusing issues. I could only zoom to a certain point when the camera would refuse to focus. Ugh. Also, my pictures are all fairly low quality because high quality pictures take up too much space on my sd card. I took some great pictures, beautiful. But, you can hardly tell.

Hey, did you know how freezing Yellowstone is in June? I do now. We lived by the fire. We were rained on and snowed on. It was beautiful, if a little trying at times. Most of the time we were there, we were wet. Still, it was a great, new experience.

Jeep broke down. Grrr. Big towing bill that will "hopefully" be reimbursed. The battery died! And if we had tried to fix it, out warranty might have been voided, so, big towing bill. Plus, we didn't actually figure out that it was the battery... even with all of the experienced mechanics we had with us! Luckily the battery was covered under the warranty. :D

Like I said, I loved Yellowstone in June, though. There were so many baby animals and we saw over 19 bears. It was great! And, the views. Trust me, stormy skies over the Yellowstone landscape are UNBEATABLE. So, so pretty. I already want to go back to Yellowstone. Please? Someone take me?

New Toy

I told you my camera died. Well, Jay kinda took matters into his own hands and bought me a nice new camera yesterday. I nice, expensive camera. So, expect some awesome pictures coming, once I figure out how to use it. :D
Oh, here's some Yellowstone pics with my dying camera.