On the way to work I forgot a book I needed to make copies of, so I turned around to get it. On the way back to the house I took the turn into our neighborhood a little too fast and mad a 180 on our icy street. I was glad I did that instead of getting stuck in the snow bank on the side of the road. As I was turning around to once again face the direction I wanted, I saw the neighbor’s dog run out super excited. The dog followed me all the way back to our front step as I got my book from Tim. Luckily the dog is friendly ’cause it’s huge, and I am not fond of big dogs.

I was so super stressed because of this dog. To start off, when I got headed in the right direction again towards our house this dog ran in to the side of the car. And I couldn’t go fast enough on our road to stay infront of him because it was pretty much like driving on an ice skating rink, it’s so slick. If I got any speed I knew I’d be sliding around like crazy if I had to put on the breaks. I would slow down to let the dog hopefully stop trying to run infront of the car, but as soon as I stopped the dog stopped running and waited to see where I’d go next.

If trying to get back home didn’t stress me out enough, it took at least 5 minutes to drive like a quarter mile to the end of our street on to the main road. As soon as I started moving this dog would run up ahead and infront of the car. So I’d try to slowly put on the breaks to avoid sliding. Some how I avoided hitting the dog again, or he hitting me, whatever happened. This happened about 10 times all the way down the road. As soon as I’d get traction he was back infront of the car, and then I’d have to stop, hope the dog would move out of the way and then try to get traction again to move a couple more feet before the dog was back in front. I really want to know what the person was thinking who was driving behind me trying to get out of our neighborhood too. Oh, and honking at him did nothing but make him sit there looking around wondering where the noise was coming from.

And this would explain why I never want a dog of my own. (Sorry Mom and Dad for ever asking for one when I was younger!) By the time I was near the end of the road I started thinking, “Maybe it would be better if I just hit the dog and he couldn’t run infront of the car any more and I could be on my way to work.” But slowly I inched my way and made it on to the main road (which the dog followed). When he moved to the side of the road I gunned it in first and drove away before he could follow any further. So it took me 5 minutes to drive down our street, and another 5 to go 3.5 miles to the church. That’s ridiculous!

Hannah had her 4 month check-up today! She is 25 inches tall now and weighs 14 pounds and 9 ounces. Hannah is in the 75-85 percentile for her height, weight and head circumference, which was 16 and 3/4. She checked out great and did much better with her shots than last time. Hannah didn’t even notice that she got the first one, and then cried for the 2nd, but it wasn’t a screaming fit like she had for her 2 month appointment.

While we were waiting to go in for Hannah’s check-up the tv playing in the waiting room had some trashy news show that updates people on all the Hollywood gossip. Today they were talking about Tiger Woods and whatever is going on in his life. I first heard that something is going on with him from someone in our church last week, and it annoyed me that someone was talking to me about it, because it is not my business, nor theirs. And so today when this show came on and was talking about all the drama I really felt like I needed to change it, but there were 2 men sitting there looking at the screen off and on, so I wasn’t sure if they were interested in the show or not. After sitting there for a couple more minutes fighting with the thought that I really shouldn’t be listening to the garbage, and really neither should anyone else because it’s just gossip. It wasn’t uplifting in any way. I asked the men around me if they were watching and if they minded if I changed the channel. Luckily they weren’t interested in it, and it sparked a quick conversation about unnecessary gossip, which all gossip is unnecessary. It caught a few people’s eyes that I got up and changed the channel vocalizing why I didn’t want to watch it. It’s been a while since I have boldly stood up about my morals, and I was hesitant to do so, but am glad I did.

Well, my MacBook was fried. Tim and I had a joint hand in doing it. Tim was handing Hannah over to me to feed, and while laying her on the pillow in my lap she started rolling off and we both went to catch her, and in the process my water cup got knocked over and into the keyboard in my MacBook. Hopefully Apple will start making them waterproof, that would be nice! We don’t have the money to buy another one, we got mine for free from the money Tim made on the referral website he does. So now we’re attempting to be a one computer family. Tim has his MacBook for church, so that helps if we both want/need to be on the computer at the same time, like now. We went down to visit Tim’s brother and family this weekend and went to a mall near Minneapolis to take my MacBook and get the Apple store people to look at it. We didn’t know you have to set an appointment, so we left my MacBook there to get looked at and they called Tim yesterday letting him know it’d cost about $700 to fix it, but for just a couple hundred more we could get a brand new one. We still need to go pick it up, probably this next weekend, and I’m not sure what we’ll do with it, maybe sell it for the parts? I don’t know. I guess we just will have to learn how to share a computer. This will probably be good practice for when Tim’s car dies. We’ve talked about trying to see how we can get by with just one car, and I think we’re in the ideal town to do it because our town is so small. It’ll be more inconvenient, but doable.

I have been pretty good at updating pictures of Hannah on Facebook, but for those of you not on Facebook, I will be updating our online photo album, so you can click on the photo link at the top of my blog and see the pictures. Check back soon for pictures!

Over a year ago the discount store in town got a lot of fabric in and I let my landlord know because we had talked about putting new curtains in the house. She went ahead and bought some fabric for new curtains in the living room and in the office, which will now soon be the nursery. I got the fabric from our landlord about a month ago to start working on the curtains, and started working yesterday. In the picture the curtain I made is the red one, and those are different boats you see on it. I’m not sure if it’ll go with the nursery bedding we have for Baby Schmoyer, but at least if we have a boy, he wont have pink curtains. I like the bright red better anyways.

A few months ago I was given a sewing machine for free that someone was going to just throw out because they haven’t used it in years. Luckily my friend Amanda thought of me and asked if I wanted it. Of course I did! I’ve been wanting a sewing machine of my own for a while now. So yesterday I got the fabric cut for the curtains in the office/soon to be nursery, and today I got the sewing machine working. I figured it wouldn’t be smart to start in the living room because I have never made curtains before and the ones in the living room will been seen by others a whole lot more.

I did some research on curtains last month, but didn’t find any help on how to make the curtains I need to go on the runners we have. We’ve got the kind of curtains that you see at a hotel, that you just pull the cord on the side and they all move together. I really wasn’t wanting to put the extra time in to make the pleats like these store bought curtains have, but after a few trial and errors I found out that it’s actually easier to put the pins in the curtains if I have the pleats. I was hoping I could’ve just made simple curtains with the fabric loops to hang it from, but that would’ve cost extra money to change out the hardware.

So far I have 1 of the 4 panels done for the curtains in the office. I started getting pretty frustrated with trying to figure out how they would hang best on the runners, but wanted to get one panel knocked out today before going to bed so I know what to do when I get to work on the rest. Hopefully I’ll be pretty skilled at making these curtains by the time I have to tackle the living room. I may have to take a break between the two rooms though if I get stressed out again like I did tonight. This project was supposed to help the pregnancy go by faster, but when it comes to projects I like to just get them done as soon as I start. So that strategy isn’t working out too well so far.

Yesterday was wonderful, and tiring. Tim and I relaxed for the evening on the couch watching tv, well at least he did. I ended up falling asleep. Today I was planning on relaxing and doing some work around the house, but ended up getting a call from a school practically begging for me to come in for the afternoon. For the most part the day was good. But the very end of the day tough.

I had a student rip another student’s homework for no reason at all (the other student wasn’t even in the room) and assumed that the other student would just keep the ripped page. Instead I used natural consequences for his actions and had him keep the ripped homework and gave the other student the whole page. The student who ripped the homework did not like that idea at all, but didn’t have a choice. The natural consequence didn’t go over well, and I had to get another teacher in on it. But it was nice to be backed up with the natural consequence.

I feel like I still have a lot to learn with classroom discipline, but was glad I was able to use part of the Love and Logic philosphy today. Yesterday went so well teaching all day, and then today in a different classroom for only the afternoon didn’t. I felt much more drained walking out of the school today than I did yesterday. It’s so hit or miss with subbing. Some days I get classes that are very well behaved, and some days I don’t. And some days I get the class that should’ve been rowdy, but is perfect, and surprises the rest of the school. There’s only 11 more days of school left and I’m not eager to get subbing jobs this late in the school year ’cause students are ready for the summer and behaviors aren’t the best. But on the other hand I feel guilty if I pass up a chance to work and make money.

While living in Texas, Fall was my favorite season because I always enjoyed it when the long hot summer was coming to an end. Now with living in Minnesota, Spring is my favorite season because after such a long cold winter I am ready for a little warmth.

Tim and I went down to see our neice, Addison Kate last weekend and everything only an hour and a half away from us was in full bloom Spring. It looked like a whole other part of the country ’cause we hadn’t had anything start to bloom in our town. Today though, I got to see blossoms on trees, and that made me very happy! Yesterday actually got up to the 80s which was nice and hot after our winter. Tim and I got to watch 2 softball games in the sun. We knew girls on both teams from our youth group, so we didn’t cheer for anyone, but sat back and enjoyed watching the girls play. Today was another gorgeous day. After subbing all day Tim had dinner planned and then we went on a walk. It was so nice outside and I was so excited about our blossoms on the trees that I grabbed our pruning shears and went to work on our four apple trees. Half way through Tim ended up joining me after he realized I was missing from the house. It was so nice to be outside and feel productive. I noticed the plum bushes on our rental property need some work too, so maybe I’ll tackle that tomorrow. I really wanted to get our apple trees done though because last year we didn’t make out too well on the apples, only one tree did okay, and the rest weren’t worth picking except to keep the bees away.

God has really blessed us with gorgeous weather lately. It was supposed to thunderstorm yesterday during the softball game, then they backed it up to storming today, which didn’t happen again. Now the forcast says tomorrow will get the storms. We’ll see what happens.

I have come to realize how much I really dislike garage sales. For the past couple weeks I have looked at our local newspaper to see when and where garage sales are and what kind of stuff people are selling. I would love to find a great deal on a crib and bassinet, so figured dealing with garage sales would be worth it. But now I’m starting to change my mind. I have gone to a few in the past couple weeks, but only come home frustrated feeling like I’m wasting my time.

Here’s why I don’t like garage sales in no certain order:

1. I think I am spoiled by freecycle.org and craigslist where I can ask questions about items, get pictures, and know what I am getting before I have to leave my house to get it, and I know what price I will be paying ahead of time too.

2. I like to sleep in on the weekends, and trying to wake up to get to a sale is a struggle.

3. I showed up 5 minutes after a garage sale supposedly opened, and what I was looking for was already sold, and I’m left wondering if it was a piece of junk, or if it would’ve been worth it to stake out their house early in the morning to be the first one there.

4. I don’t like driving around looking for a deal, I feel like it’s a waste of time and waste of gas money.

5. If I don’t need something I’m not going to buy it, even if it’s a great deal I’m not saving money by buying unnecessary items. And for some reason I feel awkward walking away from a garage sale empty handed, although I started to get use to it.

6. I don’t like showing up to a place to find out the item I would’ve potentially been interested in is completely dirty, not the color/style I want, and I don’t know what kind of home it’s been in. No one has a nice smelling garage to make me think it’s coming from a great place.

7. I am turned off by someone having so many things in their house that they can fill an entire garage of junk that has been sitting around collecting dust. I don’t like clutter, which is probably why I like freecycle so much. I get excited when I have something in the house that I can give away!

Obviously I’m not an expert at shopping garage sales. I know a lot of people who put time and effort into it, I would just rather sit on the computer, find a deal, and know where to get it and for what price, and not have to drive from place to place hoping to find what I’m looking for. Plus I don’t think I want to start my day off by stressing myself out trying to find something at a garage sale. I’d rather enjoy my Saturday, so this is possibly my last day of doing that…hopefully!

Marcia, my co-teacher for confirmation had a dining room set to give away and offered it to Tim and I. I have been wanting a new table and chairs for a while now since all we had was a small table (even with the leaf in) and 4 chairs. Whenever we had company over we’d either not even sit at the table, or crowd around. Our new table is bigger without leaves than our old one with it’s leaf. And our new table has 2 leaves that go with it! I am super excited about it. The table is gorgeous, and the chairs will be after some loving. I need to reupholster the seats and paint the mesh backs that have gotten a little discolored. They’re still better than our old ones that were falling apart, and I came across some fabric that I like when shopping for fabric for the glider I reupholstered. So I’ll have some fun shopping for the fabric.

There is also a matching tall hutch that goes with the table and chairs, but Tim and I don’t have any place to put it in our dining room/den/kitchen area. And we don’t have storage to put it in until we’re in a house where we can use it. I’m bummed that we couldn’t take it, and I think Marcia’s husband was bummed too. He was looking around to see where it could go.

I am very excited to see God continue to bless us in ways that we forget about. I started wanting a new table and chairs about a year and a half ago when we had family over for the holidays for the first time. While showing my side of the family around town we went into a thrift store that had a really nice dining room set, but we didn’t have the money for it. A few months later I went back in to see if it was still around, and it wasn’t, so I soon gave up on the idea of getting a new table of chairs.

Next Monday will be our first time to use the dining set with company when my Dad and Grandparents come up to visit after my cousin’s wedding. I’m excited that we’ll already get to use it! If you click on the picture you can see the set better. The table has a really pretty diamond pattern in the wood.

I have been really bored lately. We don’t have nice weather anymore, that only lasted about a week, and we’re covered in snow again. Yesterday the blizzard hit and school was canceled, but Tim had a few guys over from the youth group, and that added something fun to the day. I’ve mainly been bored ’cause I didn’t get many subbing jobs in March, which is why I had time to make 2 quilts and reupholster a glider, which really didn’t take long, because usually when I start a project I don’t stop until it’s done.

I’m assuming that March was pretty slow with subbing jobs because the first week was Spring Break, and I expected teachers to be back in the classroom and not taking off soon after. I did however work almost every Thursday and Friday in March and a random day here and there. Which is good news for next year when the baby is here… I am planning on subbing only on Fridays when Tim has the day off, and it’s good to know that even during a slow month of subbing it shouldn’t be hard to get a subbing job.

With being bored I started watching TLC again, lots of baby stories, stories of families with 10-18 kids (yikes!), and shows on finances and any other specials I’ve been able to catch. I have also spent more time online than I would like, but have done research on different baby stuff, looking at my registries, and reading my emails I get from Jackie Kendall with being on her mailing list. I really like the book, Lady in Waiting that she wrote, and want to get her newest book, Free Yourself to Love. I like what Jackie Kendall has to say, challenging me and inspiring me at the same time.

Hopefully this month subbing will pick up. I didn’t sub today because I had an eye appointment, and I’m okay with not subbing today with the snow day yesterday. I’d rather the teachers get their classes back on track than me. The more days I have without subbing or something keeping me constantly busy the more impatient I get with not getting to see Baby Schmoyer until August. The picture for this post was my attempt to go to my eye apt. The plowers for the township we live in plowed our whole neighborhood except for our part of the road, I had to call to get it cleared.

We finally made it to above freezing! The news doesn’t cover our town specifically, but for the Minneapolis area (about 2 hours southeast of us) they usually stay 5-10 degrees warmer and they hi 50 degrees for the first time since the first week in November. We have yet to hit 50, and I’m guessing we weren’t in the 50s when November started. It will be a fabulous day when we get that warm!