Trip to Texas

First of all we need to apologize to Trish & her family for not calling while we were in Texas. We're sorry guys!!! It was such a fast trip - we barely had any time!

Okay - now on to our trip. Last Friday we left KC at 9:00 pm to fly to Dallas. We were supposed to leave at 7:05 but didn't get off until 9 because of weather all day in Dallas. We got to Dallas around 10:40 and I knew we were meant to be there. How you ask?! As soon as we got off of the plane we saw the most beautiful site...the Dallas Cowboys store and a huge Cowboys helmet!! I knew we were supposed to be there! Then on the way to the Dill's we passed Kelly Blvd. and Marsh Lane. Are we supposed to move to Texas?!

We got to Sachse where Brent & Katie live around 11:30 that night. We stayed up with the Dills until about 1:45 or so Saturday morning looking at Miss Hattie and talking. It's so funny how things just fall in to place when we are together. This time it was only about 3 months in between visits so it wasn't too bad at all - in fact, it went so fast!! Katie's parents left Saturday morning so we didn't get to see them (they stayed at Sara's house). On Saturday we got up and did a little shopping at the garage sales in their subdivision. I got a bag of baby clothes, a mirror for the car for baby, a car seat & base for Courtney's car and a Boppy pillow and 3 covers. We looked at a changing table but knew we didn't have enough room in the suburban on the way home. We finally got to meet Sara & the famous Marina. It was so funny to finally meet them because we feel like we already know them. Sara even sounded the way I imagined!! Mom & Dad came over for a few hours and we had a nice visit and dinner. Then we got up Sunday morning and drove home at 9:30. It was such a fast trip!

Miss Hattie Jean is such a good girl! She slept most of the time unless she was eating. I just sat there watching Kate & Brent with her for a while because it was such a different site. It's strange to see someone with their first child! I'm sure people will be saying the same about us in about 8 weeks... Here are some pictures from our trip. We miss them of course already but we know we'll see them sometime this summer.

Special Easter Delivery...

Well, Kate finally went into labor on her own and had Miss Hattie today!!! I don't know a ton of details but I do know she was supposed to go to the hospital this afternoon if nothing had happened and they were going to make something happen. Last night she went into labor (finally!) and I got a text at 8 am today saying she was dilated to a 5. At about 12:30 we got a message saying they were going to do a c-section because Hattie's heart rate was up. She was pretty stressed by the whole ordeal! She must have been born around 1:00 or so this afternoon. I have a picture on my cell phone but I'm not going to post any until next weekend because we fly down there on Friday. I can't wait!! So I guess it was a Happy Easter after all!!

Almost Forgot!!

I almost forgot to mention this....if you haven't voted in our poll for what we should name our Baby you need to!! I think we're narrowing it down to our favorite 2 names which are William and Cael. When we tell people that everyone seems to love Cael! Let us know what you think!!! (I would like to add Liam to the mix but Courtney doesn't like it :(

Update

Well I had my glucose tolerance test on Thursday of this past week. I apparently passed and do not have gestational diabetes which is a good thing! I tested my blood sugar on the way home (no I wasn't driving :)) and my level was 48...that's LOW!! Even for me that's low! Apparently they aren't too concerned about my low levels - I'm SURE my levels were low with the 3 tests they did. I got there at 7:00 am and they tested my fasting blood sugar. My level was 84 which is completely normal. Then I drank 16 oz. of the nasty glucose solution (thank goodness it was on ice so it wasn't as bad) and sat for 3 hours. Every hour they drew a vial of blood. I had 3 tests in my right arm, 1 from my right hand (ouch!) and 1 try from my left arm. That one didn't work and the lady was fishing for it and that hurt. I'm a little bruised now but not too bad. I'm happy that my levels came back good so I don't have to change anything that I've been doing. I need to start exercising more which I plan to do starting Monday (I'm hoping to exercise 4 - 5 days a week instead of 3).

Nothing else too exciting has been happening. I spent my spring break buying new dressers for me and Courtney so the baby could have my dresser. That was Monday and I overdid it a little. I emptied all 3 of our drawers and moved them out of our room (a little too heavy to do at 30 weeks pregnant!), Tuesday I drove to Overland Park and got fabric to make the curtains for our boy's closet and had lunch with my Mom. That night I spent 4 1/2 hours at Courtney's first JV baseball game. They had a double header and won both of them! Their first game they won 8-3 and their second 16-8. They hit very well but could have fielded a bit better - how to you blow an 11-1 lead?! Wednesday I sewed curtains...until my machine shot craps! I was so mad!! I don't sew but somehow I was doing it and things were going great and then I killed the machine. Hopefully I can borrow a sewing machine from someone this week and finish the curtains. I can't wait to finish them. After I finish the sewing and ironing Courtney will spray paint the zig zags on them so they look like Charlie Brown's shirt - how cute will that be?! That is all thanks to Courtney's cousin Travis. I was going to get Snoopy fabric and he suggested the shirt looking idea. It will look so neat!! Thursday was spent at the hospital for my test and then sleeping for most of the afternoon. Yesterday Courtney had the day off so we got to spend the day together. My Mom and Dad came and delivered another matching dresser for the baby's room (it's in his closet unless we decide to turn it into a changing table). Then Allyn showed up too so we had dinner with him. Today we are heading to Lawerence to eat at The Mad Greek which is one of our favorite restaurants and tomorrow will be spent at Nic's birthday party. I can't believe he is 10 years old!!! Time flies!! Update on Kate - no baby yet!! Her due date came and went (Thursday) without any sign of baby Hattie. Maybe she's in labor right now....wouldn't that be great?! If not she will have Hattie by Monday because they're going to make sure of that starting tomorrow! We fly down there next Friday night. We will spend the day Saturday taking care of Mommy and Baby!! I have another appointment with my doctor on Tuesday so I'll keep you posted on what happens there...which will be nothing I'm sure.... Have a great week and Happy Easter tomorrow!!

7 months & counting....

Well - we've made it to 7 months today! 29 weeks down - 11 (hopefully less) weeks to go! I can't believe we made it to 7 months pregnant already. This pregnancyhas really gone fast - I say his as I knock on wood. The nursery is finished except for a changing table (anybody have one they want to get rid of?!) and a baby. I am on Spring Break this coming week so I'm going to try to get some more things put in the nursery. We're going to put up shelves this weekend and possibly move the dresser in there so I can put more of our boy's clothes away. Kate is 9 months now and still no baby! We were going to go down next weekend but I think we're going to wait for 2 weeks. Hopefully Hattie will be here by then so we can meet her! Here are a few pictures from our last week: Miller & Winston longingly looking out the glass door wanting to go outside last weekend but they couldn't because it was muddy & snowing, Mom & Dad's new couch & loveseat (Joy - it's not too fluffy - very comfy!) and me & my belly in all our glory. Again - hating the puffy looking face but what can I do?! When you have to turn sideways and that pulls your puffy parts to the front for all to see!! I'll have an update next week about my glucose tolerance tests. My friend, Sam, is taking me to the hospital on Thursday at 7 am for my tests to start at 7:30. I should be done by 10:30 or 11:00 (yuck!) and it should go quickly because Sam's bringing her portable DVD player for us to watch something fun! Check back next week!

Last Week

Nothing much has been going on lately. Monday was nothing. Tuesday I had a pleasant surprise - no school!! It stormed Monday night and Tuesday morning and Ft. Leavenworth had no power. It was nice to be able to hang out at home and get some misc. stuff done. The worst part about it was that by the time I got the call I had already worked out, eaten breakfast, showered and was dressed. Oh well! I had a doctor's appointment with my glucose screening on Wednesday and was surprised by the results. I couldn't have sugar starting Monday night so I went from Monday night until Wednesday with no sugar. Wednesday morning I ate a very light breakfast (had to have my protein or I would feel like garbage!) and headed to the Dr. I had to drink 8 oz. of this nasty glucose solution. I got it down and kept it down (yahoo!) and then I had my appointment with Dr. Liu. He started talking about my weight which didn't surprise me but it did bother me. I've been worried that I was gaining too much this whole time but nothing was ever said. I was pretty bummed by this point already. About 30 minutes later they checked my iron level and blood sugar. Now if you know me you know I have hypoglycemia so my sugar level is usually low after drinking or eating something sugary. My iron level came back fine and I was bragging to my husband saying, "See Courty! I passed my test!" Which is when the nurse said, "Not your glucose test!" WHAT?!?! Passing is below 140 and mine was 146!!! Never have I gone high like that during a screening. Now I have to go on April 9th at 7:00 am to drink more glucose yucky stuff and then sit for 3 hours instead of 1 hour and have blood drawn every hour. For this one I have to fast after 10:00 pm which is no big deal - I'll just go to bed. Then I have to be at the office in KC at 7 am to check in and drink the crap at 7:30. I'll be home by 11:00 or so, depending on the results I would say. My friend, Sam, is going to take me so Courtney doesn't have to take off work. She'll take me home and I'll probably go to bed because that's what I do after blood sugar issues. We're supposed to leave that afternoon to go to Texas to see the Dills and their new addition....if she comes!! We now know she is over 8 lbs. but she's apparently not ready to come out yet! We'll see how things go before we make our final decision about going down there. We would LOVE to drive down there but we'll see how Kate feels and how things go with Hattie's birth. One more week of school and then SPRING BREAK!!! Finally! I didn't think it would ever get here! I'll keep you updated on how things go with my screening. If I fail again it means gestational diabetes but if I pass it means the first one was a fluke. We'll see!

Baby Shower, Birthing Class and a Nursery

We have had quite an eventful last few weeks. Today is the first Saturday in 5 weeks where we haven't had something to do so I thought it would be a good time to update! We are finished with wrestling of all kinds as you know but now baseball has started. Thank goodness we won't have games or tournaments on the weekends so we should be able to get other things done.

Last weekend was my first baby shower!! The shower was on Saturday but that's not when the excitement began... On Friday Courtney went to Minneapolis to help Dad out because they finally sold their house (yahoo!!). Mom came to stay with me that night so we could go pick Joy up at the airport on Saturday morning before driving to Minneapolis. We ate dinner, went shopping and watched a movie before heading to bed. I decided to take a bath and that's what I was doing at about 10:00 when the doorbell rang - twice - not your normal ring but a crazy ring. I put on my robe and Mom came out of her bedroom and we were yelling, "Who is it?" We could hear a woman talking frantically and I thought it was Amanda. I was nervous that something had happened to Jim at work so I flew down the stairs and opened the door. It wasn't Amanda. It was a woman and her daughter freaking out asking if we had dogs and if they could come in. After a few seconds we let them in because she started screaming that her boyfriend had just beaten her up! She was on the phone with 911 by this time and now her daughter was in the door hugging me. Now her boyfriend's pit bull was at our door! I called Jim because I was freaked out and didn't want to wait for the cops to come in case her boyfriend showed up. After an hour the cops had come and gone to arrest the boyfriend and the EMTs showed up to take them to the hospital to get checked out. I've never been so happy to get rid of company in my life! We were actually be able to get some sleep and then got up the next morning to go get Joy. While we were both showering the doorbell rang its crazy ring again!! By the time we could get to the door whoever was there was gone - thank goodness!

We drove the airport and got Joy about 11:00 and then drove to Minneapolis. We got there about 2:30 and the shower was to start at 4:00. By the time Joy & I got there there were lots of people there. There was a Peanuts sign on the door welcoming everyone to the party and then a big Snoopy with a sign saying, "Kisses for the baby!!" at the door into the cafeteria. So cute! The Snoopy & sign are going up on the wall in the nursery because it's too cute and my Grandma Butler made it! Inside were 2 tables put together filled with gifts for our boy. He is so spoiled already!! I don't have pictures from the shower because my camera was accidentally left in the car :( but my Mom videotaped it and I know other people took pictures. I will get them up later. Baby Boy got lots of cute clothes from newborn to 12 months, blankets, diapers, the stroller, monitors, frames, etc... We also played a game where we had to add coins to a HUGE piggy bank that Nicole decorated with Snoopy. My Dad and I counted the money afterwards and he had $28.00 in coins - I know he's up to over $30 now because I've added more change this week. We put everything in the back of Dad's suburban and it was packed! On Sunday we all drove to Leavenworth and unloaded everything. We ended up going through everything again to make sure it was all written down and to organize it into some boxes for storing. We ended up with 1 big box filled with clothes, 1 filled with diapers, etc. and lots of stuff had to go into the closet because it was already in boxes. Luckily my Dad was here to help Courtney get everything from our purple bedroom unloaded because Courtney was off for Spring Break this last week and he was going to work on the nursery!

While I was working all week Courtney spent every day working on our boy's nursery! It turned out so nice!! He did have a few setbacks but nothing too major. All we are missing now is a changing table, a dresser, a mattress, some decorating things and...oh yeah! A BABY!!! This could make the next 3 months go 1 of 2 ways: 1 - it could go fast because it's not that much time until he arrives; or 2 - it could go soooo slow because the nursery is done and now I'll have to see it every day! I hope it goes quickly! We are anxious for him to arrive!!

We also started our birthing classes this week! We will go to the hospital every Wednesday for the next 6 weeks from 7:15-9:15 to learn everything we ever wanted to know about pregnancy and giving birth. It wasn't too bad but I am hoping it gets better. All we did were introductions, watched a video of a comedian talking about his first child being born, took a break and then our husband's gave us massages and we left. Next week we're supposed to bring pillows and a blanket so maybe we'll get a massage and then take a nap!! All the husband's, of course, tried to act like they were being forced to be there. Whatever!!! I told mine he didn't have to go and he made the choice for himself. We'll see what happens this week - probably a yucky video that I don't want to watch!!

Let's see...what else happened?! Oh yeah - we got a NICE convertible crib for free!! One of the aides at my school had a crib from when her daughters were born that she wanted to get rid of so we took it. We actually got it thinking we'd keep it until we got the one we registered for or until we bought one. Well, it's nice enough we won't need to get another one! I am so happy! She has saved us lots of time, money and headaches!!

Here are a few pictures from our last week. Enjoy!

A busy last several weeks.

Last weekend we made the long drive to Hays for State Wrestling. We had a good time with pretty good results. When you think that the last time a wrestler from PRHS placed was 10 years ago and the last champ we had was even longer than that - taking 3 and placing 1 is pretty good! Our 171 pounder got beat out Friday night, our 160 pounder made it to Saturday and lost his 2nd match in the round before placing. He lost by 1 point - heartbreaking! Our 215 pounder lost in semi-finals but took the long road back and got 3rd place. He deserved it. He's a good kid, he's a senior, he needed to place. So, in case you were wondering, our son will not have the middle name Jedi! Now will that stop the wrestlers or my husband from calling him that? I doubt it! He is destined to be called Jedi, even if it's not his name! This weekend we were in Cedar Rapids, Iowa to watch the Luther College wrestlers at the Division III National Championships. Our boy Allyn was wrestling and so was his cousin, Jason. They both lost in their first round on Friday am but won in the next that afternoon. Friday night Jason won to move on to Saturday and Allyn lost. Correction - Allyn got jipped! His match went in to overtime and the other guy ended up winning 4-3. The problem: he only earned 1 of those 4 points when Allyn cut him so he got an escape. The other 3 points were penalty points against Allyn which weren't exactly warranted. One of them probably was for locked hands but the other 2 were stalling on Allyn when they were both standing up doing the exact same thing. It was a really disappointing way for him to end his wrestling career. Had he won that match he would have been an All American and he wanted that really bad. We feel terrible for him but there's nothing we can do about it. It's just something he'll have to live with. We still don't think he did too shabby though - top 10 in the Nation's not bad!!! We stuck around for the first round on Saturday morning which Jason lost but he then came back and got 7th place. After watching that round Saturday we left and met some of Katie & Brent's friends that live in Cedar Rapids. We felt like we already knew them because we've heard so much about them. We met for lunch and had a really nice time. They all met in college in South Dakota and now Greg & Misty live in Cedar Rapids with their 2 kids. Those kids are so adorable and well behaved!! They are really nice people and hopefully we can see them again sometime. Can you believe Kate is due in like 4 weeks?! I think she'll go a little early which would be fine with me! That way we could meet Hattie when we travel to TX in April. If she's not here by then we might not go - we don't want to stress Kate out at all. I'll be 7 months along by then which also doesn't seem possible. Things are going well with the pregnancy so far. I feel him kicking every day which is fun. Courtney has felt him a few times but it's still not always strong enough. I'm pretty sure the boy will be a wrestler too - he kicks alot when we're watching wrestling matches! Here are a few pictures from our weekend. Have a great week and tune in next week sometime for pictures of my baby shower. My shower is next Saturday (the 14th) in Minneapolis. I can't wait! Courtney's going to Mpls. on Friday to help my dad out with a few things because my parents sold their house (finally!!). Mom is coming to spend the night here Friday night so we can pick up Joy at the airport Saturday morning and then we'll drive to Minneapolis. After next weekend our lives should slow down a little...just in time for baseball games! Wow is this school year zooming by!

22 Weeks 5 days...3 1/2 months to go!!

Here is my belly in all it's glory! People have been asking what I look like now so here it is. I realize after looking at these pictures...I am gaining weight in my face. I did not want to gain weight there but oh well! I suppose that's better than in my butt :)! I think for 5 1/2 months along I look pretty darn good! We need to subtract 1 from my list of pregnant buddies because Anne had her baby Monday! Wyatt Matthew Silvers was born at 12:36 pm. He weighed 7 lbs 10 oz and I'm not sure how long he was. We subtracted one but need to add a new person to the list! Our friends John & Mary (John is a Po Pimp from ESU) are expecting in September!! I don't know if it's because I'm pregnant too but it seems to me that there are pregnant women EVERYWHERE!!! Don't laugh to much at how I look!

What's New?!

Not much is new in the Marsh household. Courtney's been very busy latey with wrestling but that will be over next weekend. This past weekend we had the league tournament which we lost by only 6 points!!! Courtney was pretty upset. We had 2 wrestlers not wrestle: 1 was not feeling well, the other has ring worm but apparently hasn't been treating it which is why it's not gone yet. If either of them woul have come out and wrestled we would have won and been league champs in wrestling. Oh well! This weekend is Regionals in Burlington and then next weekend is State at Hays. I guess we'll know after next weekend what the middle name of our baby boy will be. In case you don't know that story - I made a deal with Courtney's wrestlers. The deal is if we end up with a State champ we will give the baby the middle name Jedi. I know, I know, crazy. Courtney apparently loves that name so his wrestlers love it also. They've been trying to get me talked in to naming our baby Jedi, especially since they know it's a boy. I refused to name it that but then decided we'd make a deal. If anything it's giving them some motivation to wrestle well...we'll see how well next week I guess! The last state champ from PRHS was in the 80's and he is now our head coach. I have a feeling I'm pretty safe but we'll see. A deal is a deal and if someone wins at least our son will have a fun story to tell about his unique middle name, right?! The other deal is if we have 4 state champs the wrestlers get to name the baby - period. I'm pretty certain I'm safe on that bet. Luckily my husband didn't make a deal for this past weekend. He wanted to make a deal that if they got 2nd as a team he would let them shave his head. Thank goodness he never told them the deal! Now if he comes home from practice tonight and he's bald - I'm gonna be pissed! So we'll head back from Hays hopefully next Sunday (Saturday if they don't do too well) and then Courtney starts baseball practice Monday. The weekend after that (first weekend in March) we will hopefully be heading to Cedar Rapids, Iowa to watch Allyn Plattner (our boy from Sabetha) in the College National Wrestling. That will be so exciting!! The weekend after that is our baby shower in Minneapolis which is being thrown by Sharon, Nicole, and my Grandma Butler. Joy will be home that weekend from DC so I want to have it while she's here. She misses a lot being gone and she'll probably miss his birth so I want to her to at least be here for a shower. The weekend after that we have the opera in KC with Clamurro. Whew! We'll be done with things on the weekends after that and instead we'll just have anywhere from 2-4 baseball games a week. Luckily none of them are too far away so I won't have to drive too far. I have a feeling baseball season is going to make the last part of this pregnancy go fast. Baseball lasts from March through the end of May when school will be out. That will mean only 3 weeks until our due date.

I can't believe I'm 5 1/2 months already! I have started being able to feel him move. I think I've been feeling him for a few weeks now but I'm 100% certain I'm feeling him now. I have felt him on the outside only a few times and that just started yesterday. I have to push and can only feel him once or twice a day - Courtney still can't yet. I think once he touches my belly he stops moving. Hopefully that will work to my benefit when I can feel him constantly in the middle of the night! I look forward to sticking my belly in his back to wake him up with the kicking. Maybe then he can touch the belly and make his son calm down.

Yesterday we went shopping in Shawnee Mission and spent way too much money! I decided that I wanted to go buy a backpack for Miller to hopefully help him calm down on walks. Confused? I've seen on The Dog Whisperer that some dogs are naturally working dogs and if they are crazy you can buy a doggie backpack with pockets, put stuff in the pockets (water bottles, etc.), put it on their back and they'll think they're working so they'll chill out. Whenever we put the leash on Miller he goes psycho! I want him to calm down (without needing 30 minutes before a walk to calm down) so I can walk him in the spring and summer and with the baby. I thought maybe he's a working dog so maybe he'll calm down. We went to Wal-Mart, Target, PetSmart, Penneys, etc. and made a whole day of it. We started out to go buy a backpack and spend maybe $50...ha! We spent alot more and had lots more stuff on the way home. I'll try to get a picture of our "working dog" this week to post. I'll probably take a belly picture this week, too, so be checking back for that.

Hope everyone has a great week - be sure to check back in a 2 weeks to see if we know the middle name of our boy!

Another Dr. Appointment....

I had my monthly Dr. appointment today. I had my appointment at 3:30 so I left school at 3:00 to make it on time and so I could get out of the parking lot before a ton of parents arrived. I took 1 step out of my back classroom door and BAM! I slipped on black ice right onto my belly. Oh no, Kelly can't fall on her butt or any other part of her body - it had to be the baby belly. I fell so hard that the thick insulated cup I had in my hand busted when it hit the ground. I don't know how I ended up not smacking my face on the ground. I'm glad I didn't because that would have hurt worse! Of course a bunch of parents saw and so did some paras. One para that saw knows I'm pregnant and came running over....almost falling on the ice herself. I'm glad she saw because she was able to run in and tell someone to put some ice melt down. I would feel AWFUL if one of my kiddos or parents fell and got hurt. I tried to call Courtney but his phone doesn't work in Easton so I called my mom. She called Courtney at school and he rushed to the Doctor's office. I walked into the office and told the receptionist what happened - while crying of course. Her reply?! "The Doctor will be with you in a few minutes. Do you have your payment for this month?" WHAT?!?! I'm thinking I may have just killed my unborn child and you're worried about $89?!?! I apparently overreacted - he's pretty protected in there. We listened to the heartbeat and the Dr. said she would order a sonogram if I wanted one. She didn't seem worried at all so I decided I didn't need one. His heartrate was up a little bit from 2 weeks ago but that's because I was flipping out. I was just worried because you hear the stories of a woman falling and having a miscarriage. Luckily everything is fine and he seems to be fine. I just have to watch it tonight and I'm sure I'll be sore as hell tomorrow. Anyway - there's my drama for the day!! Hope everyone else is having a better week!

Almost halfway there!

I will be 19 weeks on Saturday which puts me 1 week from halfway done. I can't wait for 2 weeks from now because I want to be over halfway and be on the down hill slope! I finally had some "belly shots" done tonight. Today was Anne's baby shower so I got a picture of the 2 pregnant ladies. She is due in about 5 weeks or so but I think she'll go within 3. I also found out this week that our friend, Angelia, from Sabetha is due June 18th (I'm due the 19th), AND Fabiana is pregnant and due in May with a little girl! It is baby fever!! Here are some belly pictures - in the one where I'm "showing skin" you can see my belly band. Oh yes, those are my "normal" gray pants!! Yahoo!!

Reunited And It Feels So Good....

....sing it people! The Dills made it safely to and from Kansas last weekend. We had a great time with them. Brent had to work last Friday so they didn't leave TX until after 4:00. That was fine because Courtney had a 2 day tournament that started Friday. I went and then got home around 10:00 or so. I stayed up with the dogs until the Dill clan got here around 2:00 am. Courtney was in bed but he got up to say hello. The dogs went crazy!!! They played like they've never been apart! I suppose I shouldn't be surprised - so did the humans! I stayed up with them until about 3:00 and then went to bed. We got up Saturday morning and went to Horton for the 2nd leg of the tournament. Brent, Kate, & I had a blast going to Downtown Horton. We found a little pharmacy where Kate decided I should register there because the stuff was...um....lovely(?). We headed to the High School and I missed the turn so I went to the next place I could and it took us by a "historic marker" (we didn't pay attention to what it was). Katie and I of course had to have our picture taken. When we got to the High school we saw their huge bear statue which we also had to have our picture taken with. You remember how we are, right?! Courtney's boys did pretty good. We got home, ate dinner, and watched a movie...kind of. Katie didn't make it through much of the movie and I made it completely through until the last 20 minutes or so. The dogs loved laying with us sleeping. We got up Sunday and Kate and I went shopping. We decided to eat at Cheeseburger in Paradise and I ordered such a pregnant woman thing - fried pickles!! So yummy! We went to Target and then headed to Motherhood. I felt like we belonged there! We quickly found the sales & clearance rack. They had some adorable clothes but I didn't want to spend THAT much money on clothes I'll wear for the next 6 months or so. (You don't expect me to be back looking all svelt right away do you?) I found a few shirts, a dress, and a pair of capris and was trying them on and then it happened. Katie became my personal shopper!! She grabbed all the tank tops in my size she could find on sale and brought them to me. I found their "pregnant belly pillow" and put it on to make sure I could wear the shirts when I'm huge. Brilliant! And yes they all fit and I bought every single one!! My husband didn't seem too angry that I spent so much money. He was upset that I didn't buy many pants because that's what I've been complaining about but I solved that problem...I bought a belly band! Confused? It's basically a tube top for your pregnant belly. I can wear my "normal" pants without buttoning them and put the belly band around the top and it holds them up. I LOVE IT!!!! Sunday night we met my parents at Hooters (Courtney's idea) for dinner and again I ate fried pickles. They left Monday morning and I was sad but I know I'll see them in like 11 weeks. Hopefully Hattie will be born by then or even while we're there. We'll see! Here are some pics from our visit.

We're Having A.....

BOY!!! I am shocked!! I would have bet money that it was a girl - and I would have lost! We went to our sonogram today and she asked if we wanted to find out. We couldn't decide so she decided to do the measuring first. We looked at everything and let me tell you, this boy moved the entire time!! At one point she said, "Are you going to sleep?" and about that time I coughed. Well that made him move. Then he slapped himself in the face which made me laugh and made him move. Then he slapped his knees. He weighs 7 oz., about the size of my fist, and already he's a ham!! He is Courtney's son!! It came time to decide if we were going to find out and I asked Courtney what he wanted to do. I looked at him and he pulled a quarter out of his pocket...we flipped for it!! Heads we find out, tails we don't. The sonographer laughed because she had never seen anything like that before. As you can guess it was heads. Then she told us that when she first touched my belly she had to move the machine because he was showing us what he was and she didn't want us to see it. So when we decided to find out she moved the machine and he rolled over and spread wide. She looked at Courtney and said, "Well Coach, what is it?" His eyes got HUGE and he said, "That's a boy!!" SHOCKED!!! I'm thrilled, of course, because we saw that he has everything he needs: we saw his heart, bladdder, kidneys, 2 legs, 2 arms, all his fingers and toes. But I can't help but feel a little twing of disappointment because I LOVE our girl names we had picked out. Boy names on the other hand - no clue!! We have a few names that we like but none of them are really making us that excited. Good thing we've got 5 months to decide. We'll probably wait until he's born to see what he looks like. I am officially 17 weeks and 5 days which puts me due on June 19th. The interesting part of my dates are I found out I was pregnant on my Grandma Johnson's birthday (October 10th) and I'm due on my Great Grandpa Bortz's birthday (June 19). Here are a few more pictures of our boy!



That's a big foot!!
















Look at my baby boy's face!! So cute! (Still a little alien like but cute!!)
















I told you he was a ham - he's smiling!! :)

Exciting week!!

Just a quick update on our exciting week. Tomorrow we will finally get to see our baby!! I am scheduled for my first sonogram tomorrow afternoon and we can't wait! I will be posting pictures tomorrow evening so be sure to check back. We still haven't decided yet if we will find out. We're hoping it's obvious either way - but we'll just have to wait and see. My mom & dad are coming tomorrow night for dinner so they can "meet" their grandchild :). And then Friday there's more excitement!! THE DILLS ARE COMING!!! It's been 8 long months since we last saw the Dills and we are so excited to see them...especially with Katie pregnant! That should make for some fun pictures of the 2 of us. We've got pictures together at our best in Puerto Rico at the 5K and now we'll have them at our most pregnant! (Well, at least our most pregnant when we're around each other!) Be looking next week for news about their trip. Be sure to come back tomorrow night to see if you can figure out what we're having!!

2009 - The Year of The Deer

First of all - Happy 2009 everyone!! I hope your 2009 is as fabulous as I'm sure ours will be. How can it be anything but fabulous when there are 6 little babies that I know that will be born?! I'm really excited for the first of those bundles to be born in 4-6 weeks to my friend Anne. The is #5 for her so all should go smoothly, right?! I know the baby's name but have been told it's a secret. Man - 2008 was the year for Kelly to learn to keep secrets!! After that will be Hattie Jean in Texas - I can't wait to see her kicking in a few weeks!! Next in line will be our new neice Madison Renae in May (Courtney's step sister Becca is the Mom) and then pulling up the rear will be Gretchen's baby, Angelia's baby, and our baby all in June. Whew! This year is going to go so fast!!

Okay - so a few days ago Courtney was at wrestling practice and I had taken up post on our couch downstairs in the family room. I was watching TV and out of the corner of my eye I saw something moving by our deck. I got up to see what it was and it was a deer! I quickly went to grab my camera. Where did my camera go? SOMEONE in our house (not me I can assure you that!) seems to think a nice camera should be put away in it's case instead of laying on the entertainment center. Crazy!! Anyway - I find my camer and snap a quick picture before it goes away.


Well that deer does not in fact go away it decides it needs to "do some business" in my yard. While it's "going" another deer walks up to greet it. I snap another picture - not realizing deer #1 is still going #2. I will not post that picture because I know this is a family blog. I did end up getting several pictures of the deer duo and then began to wonder why my dogs were so calm. I turned off the camera and looked down at Miller & Winston to ask them why they weren't freaking out.


That is about the time M & W started to get a little agitated but weren't going completely nuts. I look back up and see that 6 more deer have joined the first 2. Holy cow!!! There are 8 deer in my yard?!?! I go to snap a picture as all 8 are nicely together in a huddle but a camera won't snap a picture when it isn't turned on!! By the time I get it turned on and zoomed in the boys are going nuts and calling all the other dogs in the neighborhood to join them. I was able to snap a picture of 5 of the deer together while the other 3 had begun to run. There are 2 behind the tree and 3 together.


I then tried to get all 8 in the photo as they jumped over the fence into our neighbors yard but that darn first deer was so fast! I was only able to get 7 of them. Then I needed to get the dogs outside so they would shut up but I couldn't until the deer were completely gone or you'd see this pregnant lady chasing Miller over a fence and through the woods!! I don't think that would be a pretty sight - you?


So that's our exciting events of the past week. Be sure to check in after the 14th for sonogram pictures of our baby. I will post those pics as long as you all promise not to stalk the baby. Those are my hubby's words - not mine. Oh - and you have to promise to not give us any grief if we decide not to find out the sex.

Wanna play catch (up)?!

I know, I know, it's been forever. I still have a week off of school for Winter Break so I will get this thing caught up.

School
What a crazy year so far! We can't believe the school year is half over already! Courtney has been busy coaching wrestling and is at practice right now. This coming weekend is our last free weekend until March because he has a tournament every Saturday (& some Fridays too!). State wrestling is the last weekend in February and then baseball practice starts the following Monday. We will have 3 weeks of just practice with no games and then it begins...2, 3, & sometimes 4 games a week! There are a few weeks that I'll be watching baseball every night Monday - Thursday!! Good thing I bought a stadium seat because my butt is going to be tired!!

Pregnancy
I think I am at 16 weeks as of Tuesday the 30th. I will know for sure on January 14 when I finally have a sonogram!! I am so excited! We heard the heartbeat again today and it was 152 bpm. Apparently the earlier in your pregnancy the higher the heartrate so it dropping from 160 to 152 is a fine and dandy thing. How were we to know - this is our first rodeo! I'm dealing with my weight gain which has not been too bad so far. I know it will get worse! Clothes are beginning to get tight and I'm down to 1 pair of "normal" jeans that I can wear...sort of. They were tight today when I put them on but I'm attributing that to the fact that they just came out of the dryer. That's my story and I'm sticking to it! I did however buy a tub full of maternity clothes off of craigslist that I'm excited about. They aren't the cutest but the number of pants alone is worth the money they cost! I have a feeling maternity clothes are going to be so comfy I may never want to go back to "normal" clothes.

Aside from all of that I can't think of anything too interesting to tell. Our lives are pretty boring right now, I know. We did have a fabulous Christmas with all of our family. Joy was even here for a week! Hopefully she'll come back in April and I'll have a baby shower then. Hope everyone has a great New Year!!

160 BPM....what a beautiful sound!

In case you haven't figured it out - Courtney & I are expecting!!!! We just had a doctor's appointment this afternoon and heard the heartbeat for the first time! The doctor told me we might not be able to hear it and if we didn't we would have a sonogram. He put the jelly stuff on and then the machine and there it was - loud and right away! 160 beats per minute!!! I couldn't believe how clear it was. the look on my husband's face was priceless. He was so interested and happy. That made me cry a little. He was leaning forward to hear it better and smiling. It's real to me now that I am carrying a little life inside of me. Wow! We won't see the baby for another 2 months because they don't do sonograms until at least 17 weeks. I'm going in every 4 weeks so in 8 weeks I will see it. I will be about 19 weeks then. Due to the heartbeat the doctor has bumped me from 10 weeks to 11 weeks. Yahoo!!! Only 1 more week in the first trimester!! Kate thinks I'm having a boy (she's having a GIRL by the way!!) because of the heartbeat. We'll see. The strange part is that by the time I see the first sonogram I could find out the sex. We're not sure if we want to know yet or not. Anyway - so far so good. I seem to be having a good pregnancy (knock on wood). I feel like now I can breathe a little easier and really bond with my baby after hearing it's heartbeat. I've been afraid to become connected in case something was wrong but the Dr. said I should feel good about it now. Now I will relax and enjoy being pregnant!! Mark your calendars to come see our new bundle of joy in June (I'm shooting for Father's Day - June 21).

My husband is the star of the front page - a controversial star but a star nonetheless

Spanish teacher brings Puerto Rican experiences

Easton, Kan. -
Courtney Marsh said he realized that he should teach professionally while instructing a little girl from the Republic of Guinea about five years ago.

As a student at Emporia State University in Emporia, Kan., Marsh volunteered several days a week to teach the girl at the Butcher Elementary School on campus. The girl spoke French but no English — Marsh is fluent in both French and Spanish.

“She learned so fast, to see her transform from this scared little immigrant girl who’d only been in the country a few days to a fully capable kid,” Marsh said.

Marsh, 29, is the new Spanish teacher at Pleasant Ridge High School. He previously taught for two years in Puerto Rico.

Marsh received a bachelor of science degree in education with fields in Spanish and French. He also received an endorsement in English as a second language.

His wife, Kelly, teaches kindergarten at MacArthur Elementary School on Fort Leavenworth. The couple taught on Fort Leavenworth two years prior to teaching in Puerto Rico. Courtney Marsh also has teaching experience in Sabetha, Kan.

Marsh and his wife attended an international recruitment fair at the University of Northern Iowa. They received three job offers in Armenia, Guatemala and Puerto Rico. The couple ruled out Armenia pretty fast because of geography, he said.

“We had a really tough choice between Guatemala and Puerto Rico,” Marsh said.

For the Guatemala job, two American women interviewed Marsh. He said he asked them, “Do you feel safe when you go out?”.

“They kind of danced around the issue,” Marsh said. “They wouldn’t come out and tell me ‘Yes.’ I wasn’t going to jeopardize my wife’s or my safety for a job.”

The decision between Guatemala and Puerto Rico was a difficult one, but Marsh’s wife had a great idea, he said. They knew they wanted family members to visit them, so they checked airline ticket prices for the two locations.

“It was almost three times as much for Guatemala, so we knew no one would ever come see us,” Marsh said. “We chose Puerto Rico.”

In Puerto Rico, Marsh learned a significant amount of Spanish and honed his skills, he said.

“I learned what it was like to be the minority, which was a pretty powerful and pretty moving experience,” he said. “You walk into a restaurant and a grocery store, and you get looked at and people say things.”

Several cultural artworks hang on the walls in Marsh’s classroom, including a photograph of Ernesto “Che” Guevara and “Three Musicians” by Pablo Picasso. Marsh tries to incorporate arts and history in his teaching — the works of art are good conversation pieces, he said.

His favorite Spanish proverb is “En boca cerrada, no entran moscas,” which means “Flies don’t enter a closed mouth.”

As a hands-on teacher, Marsh incorporates cultural quizzes, crossword puzzles, vocabulary quizzes and map making in all of his classes.

“Keep your expectations reasonable,” Marsh said as advice to those who learn another language. “It’s going to require a lot of work if you’re going to succeed. It’s not going to happen overnight.”

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This article was written about Courtney and is on the front page of the Leavenworth Times this week. It's an okay article - the writer wasn't very good - and it took FOREVER for her to finish. She no longer works at the paper by the way. Anyway! I say it was "controversial". If you read the article it talks about posters that Courtney has in his classroom because he teaches everything about the hispanic culture. There was also a picture in the article of him that showed a Mexican flag in the background. He has a Mexican flag, a Spanish flag, and of course a U.S. flag. If he had a Puerto Rican flag he'd hang that up too (hint, hint Puerto Rican friends!!!!). Anyway - when the article first showed up on the internet there was a comment section. What started out as a nice, harmless, informative article about Courtney and his experiences blew up. Two men started leaving comments about how Courtney is un-American, he's a marxist revolutionary, and his heroes are murderers, etc., etc. They deleted the comment section because it got out of hand. Well Courtney started looking under other articles and their comment sections and sure enough the men moved to a different article to bash him. They started talking about how they should report him to the board of education and his principal because he is incorporating his own politics into his teaching - blah, blah, blah! Well Kelly got pissed. I called the editor of the paper yesterday!!! I basically told him that what they were writing was bashing my husband and they were trying to take something innocent and give him a bad name and I wanted to know what he was going to do about it. I got him to "screen" any comments from these two men and I even got their real names! Ha! After my phone call Courtney stopped in to meet him. In the end nothing really is going to happen but we feel better that their comments were removed and they will not be able to write anything about him unless they re-register under different e-mail addresses. I don't understand how some people can be so ignorant and have nothing better to do with their time then read these articles, pick something little out of them and try to cause problems. Oh well! If you want to read the article online and see the picture you can go to: http://www.leavenworthtimes.com/news/x466653797/Spanish-teacher-brings-Puerto-Rican-experiences.

I'm not sure how long it will be up there but it's there as of today. What a week!!

The Last Week

Nothing too exciting has been going on. Last Tuesday I went out with 2 of my Kindergarten teacher friends to a cooking class on post. It was an authentic Mexican food "class" put on by one of my students' parents. We had tomales, mole, and salsa verde. Sssoooo good! Courtney had PT conferences until 8:00 Tuesday and Wednesday so I went out with the girls. We had a lot of fun. Then the rest of the week was pretty boring aside from dropping a large chunk of change on the pups at the vet on Thursday. Winston has a yeast infection in his ear, Miller has colitis (enlarged colon - ew! This caused him to do nasty stuff IN HIS KENNEL IN MY HOUSE!!), they both needed shots, and they both got their heartworm meds. Winston is now on ear drops and Miller in on pills. We brought them home and they're falling apart!! Friday we went to the PRHS football game again, Saturday was spent cleaning, and Sunday was spent watching football. Don't ask me about the Cowboys...I don't want to talk about it. :( I am so happy that I can finally annouce this.....MY KATIE IS PREGNANT!!!!!! We've known for a while now and we are so excited for her!! She & Brent will make great parents. I am already planning on going down there for part of my Spring Break in April after the baby arrives. She is due the first part of April. Yes, we're trying to catch up to them but it just hasn't worked...yet. One day! Have a great week everyone!

The Weekend

We had a pretty uneventful weekend. Friday night we went to the first home Pleasant Ridge High School football game. Courtney has several students that play and asked if we were going. We left at the beginning of the 4th quarter because they were ahead 35-0. They have some good runners on their team. I think we're going to go again this Friday. Saturday morning we got up and Courtney worked on his truck. If we're not having drama with one of our vehicles we're bored! I did some school stuff to prepare for my Smart Board....that's another exciting story!! Then we went to a High School soccer game. PRHS doesn't have a team so the boys that want to play go to Immaculata to play. We'll just say the boys from PRHS make up half of the Immac team. We stayed until halftime and then left because, well, we don't know anything about soccer and their was no scoreboard so we had no clue what was happening or the score. I'm sure we'll go to another game because we'll probably take Nicolas - who is quite the soccer player himself! After that I went to my school to play with my new toy...so fun! I got a SMART board installed in my room on Saturday. If you don't know what that is you are missing out!! It's a big screen connected to a CPU and a projector. I can scan in pages, pictures, etc. and project them onto my screen. Then the kids can "write" on them, draw on them, whatever I tell them to do. It really will make things so nice because I can put anything on the screen and everyone in the room can see it. Since it's hooked to a CPU I can get on the Internet and get video clips for different themes and lessons. The kids were really excited about it. I will try to get some pictures of my classroom up this week - I've been waiting because I wanted to get that darn board!! I was supposed to have it a week ago but I got cancelled so that's why it's taken so long for pictures. Be looking for them soon!! Let's see - oh yes, yesterda was spent at the Lyric Opera in KC. We saw La Boheme with Dr. Clamurro. He got us season tickets this year as a welcome home gift because we were too poor to buy them ourselves. We honestly weren't in the mood to go yesterday but it ended up being a really great opera. After that we drove to The Legends and ate at Stix which is a sushi restaurant. It was pretty good but the service was terrible. We might go back some day... Of course last night was spent watching the Cowboys win 27-16 against the Packers!!!! I don't mind saying my 'boys are looking good this year - could it be the year to end the "curse" in the playoffs?!?! We'll see! This coming weekend I think we're staying close to home - Courtney might be teaching "Saturday School" at PRHS and then the 'Skins play the 'Boys on Sunday - I hope we get the game. Don't worry, it won't get too bloody here!! I hope you all have a great week and I promise, one day, this BLOG will get more interesting!!

Hi. My name is Kelly Marsh and I am a Dallas Cowboys addict.

I've been telling people for years that I was born into Cowboys football. I don't think people realy believed me. Now maybe they will. It all started with a man, Charles Johnson, my Grandpa who would watch (through his closed eyelids) every Cowboys game on TV. My Aunt Sandi lived in Dallas so my Dad, Grandpa, and a few rowdy friends would fly down to Dallas for games. (Maybe once or twice but hey that's more than I've been to!) They were cool too because they would fly themselves in their plane. I've seen pictures of the games...or at least pictures of the Cowboys cheerleaders. I don't hate on those ladies - I always wanted to be one but it's a little thing called I'm short and I don't live in Texas. Anyway! When I was growing up we would go to Grandpa's house on Sundays and watch the games. I learned early on not to change the channel even if Grandpa was snoring because he WAS watching. If the channel was changed....bad news. I remember getting a pink shirt with a picture (cartoon picture) of a Cowboys cheerleader and I loved it. I also received a Cowboys jacket with my name on it. A few weeks ago while looking through family pictures I discovered it. A picture from the day I received the beautiful jacket. Oh so lovely! You can't tell from the pictures that it was a Cowboys jacket because you can't see the star but I know it and so does everyone else that was there. There is even a picture of my sister getting her personalized Cowboys jacket so even if she won't admit it her blood run blue also. And then this past week I received something in the mail more beautiful than words can describe. Perhaps the most beautiful shirt in all the world. My beloved friends, the Dills, in Texas really do love me!! And I think they are becoming Cowboys fans, too (right?!?!).






This picture was taken when my Dad and some others flew down to Dallas for a Cowboys game. My Dad and Grandpa owned the plane and my Dad had a license to fly. No wonder why he drives so fast!








Here I am putting on my new Cowboys jacket with my name on it and beside the man who is the reason for my blue blood and my tattoo.









Could it be the most beautiful shirt ever to be made?!? I believe it is!! Thank you Pickles!!!!!

Updates...

So I haven't been real good about keping up my BLOG lately. I apologize. You must understand that our lives are much different than they were a year ago - lots of differences between weekends at the beach and weekends at...home. Let's see - where to begin -

School is going great! Courtney & I are both enjoying where we teach, the kids, the subjects, everything. I am actually enjoying Kindergarten so much more than I thought I would. The days go so fast with these little ones. They are already starting to surprise me with what they can do after being in school for 21 days (we count every day). Courtney was a lucky one last week and got not a 2 day weekend but a 4 day weekend. Sure, sure, sure, blame it on a broken water main if it makes you feel better. So last Monday he had no school and it was a cold and rainy day. We had the Bridges clan over for dinner and karaoke that night - so fun! Nicolas, as it turns out, and quite a singer!! I went first, then Nic, then Anna, then Amanda, Nic and Anna lots more, Jim, Amanda, me, Nic and Anna, etc. During all of the singing Courtney got the call about no school on Tuesday. Life is rough! Last week it rained basically every day. I had a "Freedom Walk" at school on Thursday and then our "National Anthem Project" that afternoon so Thursday was a nothing day. Friday was a rough day because it rained and rained and rained. Yesterday it was still raining - seriously we had rain pretty much non stop for 48 hours. I had to take pictures because we had a river running through our backyard. It was interesting - especially when all 3 dogs decided to run through it. Yesterday we got up early and headed to Lenexa to help mom and dad move to their new apartment in Overland Park. The new one is so much nicer. Even the outside of the apartments are nicer. We ended up not leaving until almost 8:00 last night to come home...in the rain. Other than that we haven't been up to too much. Today is being spent cleaning, doing lesson plans, and watching football. My Cowboys rocked last Sunday and I'm sure will do the same tomorrow on Monday Night Football!! It will be quite a change seeing MNF at a decent hour here in Kansas. I can't wait! Here are some pics of our river. Have a great week everyone!!








The white speck in the middle is Winston's toy floating down "the river". Don't worry - it floated out of the river and is drying safely in our now soggy yard!

Labor Day Weekend...

...was spent in Wichita with my parents, Aunts and Uncle, cousins, and 3 Great Aunts. I spent Friday night in Lenexa with my parents so my hubby would get to sleep in on Saturday morning. I made the mistake of letting my husband have a choice about whether or not he would go to Wichita - of course he picked to stay home. Anyway - bright and early on Saturday we headed to Wichita. We got there and started going through pictures from my Grandma's house. Mind you the pictures have been sitting in my parent's house in Minneapolis since my Grandma's death in 2002. A little while later my 3 Great Aunts and cousin came and helped us go through pictures. My job in all of this was to scan any pictures people wanted copies of into my computer and then transfer them to a jump drive. My scanner hasn't worked that hard in a long time!! Sunday my Uncle and Aunt and 3 cousns from Larned came and we had lunch and looked through more pictures. By the time we got home Sunday night I was exhausted!! It was fun though to spend time with my family. It's been 2 years since I last saw my Aunts from Oklahoma and probably a year or a year and half for the relatives from Larned. Yesterday we did, well, nothing!!! Today it was back to school for another 4 day week...gotta love those! Hopefully this weekend we will head to Boone, Iowa to watch Dave Hardesty in the finals at the IMCA Nationals. Here's a picture of my family from the weekend:

Aunt Sandi, Great Aunt Billye, Dad, Sharon Arlene, Great Aunt Irene, Great Aunt Vera, Mom, and me