19 Weeks *updated

Your baby weighs about 8 1/2 ounces, and measures 6 inches, head to bottom — about the size of a large heirloom tomato. The hair on her scalp is sprouting. This is a crucial time for sensory development: Your baby's brain is designating specialized areas for smell, taste, hearing, vision, and touch. Some research suggests that she may be able to hear your voice now, so don't be shy about reading aloud, taking to her, or singing a happy tune if the mood strikes you.
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I guess that since the baby can hear me now, I should really cut back on the f-bombs. Damn.

Every day this past week I have forgotten to call to schedule another ultrasound. This week! I promise!

I have a sub for my maternity leave! I was very happy to get final confirmation that I actually have someone. AND she's available for all the days this fall that I have to be gone for meetings, conferences, or appointments! Hooray! She came in for part of the morning the other day and just jumped right into what we were doing and started getting to know the kids. Every day I think of something else that I should write down that is just something very routine to me, but that in every class is a little bit different. I'll get started on that one of these days... I'm also hoping that it gets to the point that when I have her come in, I can leave minimal plans instead of the very detailed, 5 typed pages of plans I normally have to leave when I'm gone. If there's a day, late in my 3rd trimester that I wake up and just feel like I can't go to school - I'd love to just be able to call her and know that everything would be taken care of. I've been very spoiled with having the same sub pretty much every day that I was gone last year. During my whole "I think I'm dying" episode with my first ulcer last fall, she was able to do that for me for 2 days. It was fantastic. Non-teachers have no idea how long it takes to get ready to be gone for a day - sometimes I have decided not to go to a training or conference just because I didn't want to spend the hours getting ready to be gone. I have also gone to school many times more sickly than I should have over the years because sometimes it's just easier to go for the day than get ready to be gone. It's like you have to plan to be sick. When T wakes up and feels like crap and doesn't go to work, he just has to call sometime that morning and tell his supervisor he won't be in that day. I believe the word I'm looking for is jealousy. Anyway, I'm very happy to have had a decision made and we can move forward making my transition out as smooth as possible!

In other news, I think we have finally decided to ditch our landline. Hallelujah!! I've been talking the last couple weeks with the ver.izon rep for my school district and I think we've finally got it all worked out as to what plan, what phones, etc. The biggest news is that we will be getting a broadband usb card. I borrowed one from my school a few weeks ago to see how it would work at our house - and I was blown away! Yes, I've gotten accustomed to our S-L-O-W dial-up out here in BFE, but that still doesn't mean that I like it. The broadband was much much faster. I'm figuring that we're going to be posting baby pics and sending pics quite a bit in the near future, so an upgrade really needed to happen. Yes, I would be able to send from school, however, I'm sure people would love to get pics of the baby after he/she is 6 weeks old, when I get back to school! I know some of you out there would have a fit! With no landline, that also leaves us able to throw away our current phone system - which sucks my butt. We have a corded phone, and 3 cordless - all the same system. The phone we use the most, in the living room, still works fine. However, the other 2 cordless, since they're not used as often, the buttons have stopped working! All of them - you can't even answer it! We bought this system a few weeks after we got married - which was 3 years ago. Phones should work properly for longer than that! I will be thrilled to death to watch those things go into the trash. I may even post a pic of that momentous event! I bet you can't wait.

All for now - my plans for tomorrow include putting out some of my fall decorations in the house. I love doing that!! Next weekend we're gone up north for a weekend away, and I like to get that stuff out before October. Fun times at my house. :) Have a great week everyone!

**Sunday night update: I can't believe that I forgot to mention all the work that my parents and I did on Saturday! I had a brilliant idea a couple weeks ago to have my mom and I make pasties - yes, those tasty UP treats. My grandparents grew up in the UP and we've made them many times with them. However, now, when my grandma comes to visit, our time seems so short and pasties take quite an effort. This was our first attempt on our own. Of course, my grandma insisted that we also make our own pie crust for it. That was very very hard. A few things went not quite as smoothly as I remembered, but we'll be better next time. We only had to call Grandma twice. In the end, who was the one who could roll out the best crusts? Of course, my dad, the chef. He should have been there the whole time, but he was busy this weekend WINNING the club championship at the golf course!! :)

Later Saturday, we had a spectacular time watching MSU spank the crap out of Notre Dame. :) And who was that team who lost to ND last week?!? hahaha... MSU football is fun again!! I don't have to keep saying, "Only __ more months until basketball starts" after one embarrassing loss after another.

And in a strange turn of events, you know how earlier I blogged about when T has to call in sick? Out of nowhere, he got a crazy nasty cold! T is a very busy guy - not one who likes to just sit around. I call him my worker bee. :) And who am I? Of course, the queen! :) HA! Anyway, he spent a lot of the day napping, sneezing, blowing snot, and coughing. Very not like him. How he got this I have no idea - I'm the one who spends every day with snotty dirty kids. He works with, apparently, a bunch of snotty dirty adults. So who knows, maybe tomorrow morning will be one of those times he just has to call in and stay home.

Have I talked about how excited I am about TV? I think I already did in another post, but I will reiterate how incredibly happy I am for new tv to get going!! Also, if you missed the Emmy's on Sunday night - go to youtube and search for Josh Groban's performance. It was absolutely hysterical!! Very not "Josh-like" - he did snippets from memorable tv theme songs. Including the South Park theme song - WITH all the characters' voices. It was awesome!! He also rapped the theme from Fresh Prince of Bel Air. Too funny!