Last week was a pretty good week. How could I beat 2 days without my 6th grade class?

Carter is also just growing up right before our eyes. On Friday, he rolled across the living room. He had yet to roll from his back to his stomach. That only happened once. I'm sure he will do it again. Yesterday morning, when we put him in his swing so we could get dressed, he decided he wanted to sit up.



Yes, it was rather early. You can tell because it was still dark outside. Carter wants us to be exhausted. He'll fall asleep in the car when we can't nap!

For the most part he has been a happy baby, but he did start waking up again early on Friday morning. I think I fed him at 4:20. He woke up early yesterday morning, and last night felt like we had just gotten home from the hospital. He woke up to eat at 2:00, 4:00, and 7:00. After he ate at 7:00, I couldn't get him back to sleep, so I brought him to the the couch. I think we both ended up falling asleep. He woke up, and I put him in his exersaucer. In an attempt to win an award for worst mother of the year, I went back to sleep while he played.

I started exercising again. On Monday, I survived the spinning class. It was humbling to be the first to have to sit back on my bike. I used the elliptical on Wednesday, and had my personal training session on Thursday. I thought I was just going to get set up on weights....no, no, no. I had a fitness test. How many squats can I do in a minute and a half holding a medicine ball, get a drink of water, oh, do it again. The squats weren't too bad. Then, came the push ups. Now, I know why I have always thought girl push ups were easy...my hands weren't in the right spot. I almost died on those. Then! Then, came the sit ups. HA! I used to be the sit up queen when we did our physical fitness tests in elementary school. Not anymore. I would be embarrassed to admit how many I got in a minute. Then, I had to do them again, but that time, he modified them for me. I did enjoy walking around he track doing arm exercises. I also enjoyed running around it and totally beating the time he set for me until I finished, and I immediately had to do sit ups again. This time, I couldn't get 1! Luckily, he modified them for this out of shape mom. Needless to say, I have been rather sore since Thursday. On Saturday, I went back for the trainer to show me how to use the weight machines, and I also signed up for 6 weeks of training sessions. I think I must enjoy the torture or really don't want to buy new pants for the winter.

We had a good weekend. I just hate it's over already. Since I've had Carter, time flies. It's also good because my weeks fly by. Unfortunately, I started morning duty on Friday. I did get the media center which is better than the gym or the cafeteria. I will have duty for the next two weeks. I am looking forward to Thursday and Friday when my 6th graders will be on a field study. woo-hoo!

This past week was ok. Thursday, I had to write up 2 6th graders. It was amazing to see the change in the class's behavior on Friday. I didn't have to correct anyone! Friday was a half day. We had a 7th grade teacher luncheon when the kids left. After, I went to get Carter because many of my coworkers were asking about him. None of my conferences showed up. I really wasn't expecting any to. Carter spent time being held by various coworkers and spitting up on each of them. I did learn how to maintain our magnet program's webpage. My friend and I have been updating it, but the district made their own version of it. We had one we could make changes to, and another (the one everyone looked at) that we couldn't update. It is much more complicated than using Frontpage, but at least we can make changes. I think some people have nothing better to do than sit around and email about webpages not having the information they want on them. Carter and I left school around 2:45, came home, and crashed.

Thursday night, Carter became restless around 4:00 am. He didn't really wake up, but was very noisy. I put him in bed with us, and he kicked me. When I got up, he stretched out and slept very peacefully. Little booger! The 4:00 am grunting recurred Friday night and last night. I'm hoping this isn't going to become a habit. The past two nights, I fed him just to get him back to sleep.

We had awesome weather yesterday. We started the day by going to Target to buy things for the three birthdays we have this week.

After, we went to the Columbia Greek Festival. I had heard wonderful things about it, especially the food. It was ok. We spent almost all the cash I had. (close to $40!) $10 of that was a super cute garden flag.

Kevin isn't a big fan, but I told him that being the only female in the house, I needed something girly! I really wanted this one,

but they were out of H's.

After buying the flag, we wandered around to buy food. We bought a plate of pastries, a gyro each, and a Greek salad to split. We ate outside and did our fair share of people watching.

When we got home, Carter and I went for a walk.


Don't you like the coolness of the foot propped up?

Today was less eventful. After a frustrating trip to Wal-mart, ( I don't know why I punish myself) we came home, and Carter passed out for a good 3 hours. During his nap, I went to the post office to mail packages and cards. When I got home, I decided to make some pacifier holders for him and figure out how to use my snap putter onner. I would share a picture of one, but that isn't possible right now. One is connected to a sleeping Carter, and in typical Natalie fashion, I can't find the other. Anyway, I just used ribbon, two snaps, and a suspender clip. I can change which one is connected to the clip. They aren't fancy. I was considering finding some cute buttons to attach to the clips. We'll see. I've been meaning to make these since early August and just got to it today because the 2 from Target no longer stayed on. Anyway, I woke Carter up banging the snap with a rubber mallet. Kevin swears he was sleeping too, but I thought he was awake. Instead, here is a picture of a burp cloth I made using a cloth diaper when I first had the idea for the pacifier project:

I have more fabric and ribbon. That one is rather messy, but I just don't have long periods of uninterrupted time to work on them.

After Carter woke up, I fed him, and we headed out for our 2nd set of errands. We joined the Jewish Community Center. Yes, I know we aren't Jewish, but they have a great work out facility. A former student actually showed us around. I even signed up for the 3rd level spinning class tomorrow night. Anyone want to volunteer to come scrape me up off the floor after? Kevin's coworker who usually attends the class is at the beach, and I get winded just walking. I am determined to get back into shape. I don't think I have been in this bad of shape since 9th grade! I also want to fit back into my old clothes, so I don't have to keep buying new stuff in larger sizes.

After , we went to Target to buy what Wal-mart didn't have and to Ulta because shampoo was on sale.

We ended the night with Shrimp and Grits. I have started eating milk products again but have to take Lactaid, or I get sick. I have been SO hungry for Shrimp and Grits and enjoyed every bite. For not being from South Carolina, I do make mean Shrimp and Grits!

This is my first blog using my new computer

Of course, it had to be blue. I had bought my desktop for grad school. It did a great job and got me through grad school and my National Boards. I think I exhausted it. It was starting to take hours to open documents. Yes, seriously, hours if it did so at all.

We have had an uneventful week. (those are always good!) It flew by! I sent home the first interims of the year and actually didn't have too many parents to call.

Yesterday, we took Carter to have his first hair cut. I scheduled it at a kids' salon. It went well. I just wanted to trim the sides that curl up and take some off the top where it's really thick. He was really good, but wanted to move around to see everything that was going on.


Today, we took Carter to have pictures taken. I've been trying to take him once a month. We went to Portrait Innovations. I love that place! We started with pictures of Carter in his white outfit I bought for his baptism and his shoes with him name on them. I didn't think I wanted pictures in this outfit, but they turned out SO well!




We quickly changed him into his "big boy" outfit. (This place doesn't charge for multiple outfits!) Carter was such a ham. He was smiling in almost every picture. The photographer couldn't believe how happy he was. I had brought back up outfits due to his history of spitting up, but he made it thought the whole sitting. As soon as we were done, he spit up all over Kevin and got fussy.




They give a cd-rom of all the pictures they took. Our pictures were ready in 20 minutes, so we did a little shopping at at Bath and Body works to buy Wallflowers. We found this great new scent:


After, we went to Yankee Candle Company to buy a new Fall Festival candle since ours from last year is almost gone. When we got home, I noticed we already had an unused one. I love fall and am enjoying all the fun accessories that go with it. I hope I have time to decorate for the fall this year. I really want to get a nice fall wreath to put over the fireplace.

Anyway, we went to get the pictures, and all 180,000 were ready. (Ok, it did feel like that many when I was cutting them.) We went to Bi-Lo to buy the groceries Wal-Mart didn't have. After, I noticed a few of the pictures were messed up, so we went back to Portrait Innovations. They reprinted them immediately, gave me extras, and profusely apologized. That is far better than the experience I had with Olan Mills. I would have gotten the pictures in 3 weeks, they would have been damaged, and I would have had to wait another 3 weeks to get the reorder. After that, they wouldn't have even apologized and would have treated me like dirt for filing a complaint!

Carter did start a new trick tonight. He can suck on his toes! He is starting to play with toys too. He loves the little plastic links. He can hold on to them, chew on them, and shake them.

I hope you enjoyed the pictures. There are a few others on flickr. Hopefully this week will fly by as quickly as last week did.

Last week was not as bad as I thought it would be. It was busy! Kevin had to take Carter to the doctor on Tuesday for a cold. He weighed 18 lbs 11 oz! She told Kevin we could start giving Carter juice and water, so he has started getting pear juice.

Friday night, we took Carter with us to eat hibachi. He enjoyed watching everything. At the end of dinner, I was holding him, and he spit up all over me. I didn't know half the restaurant was watching until they all started laughing at the same time. On the way home, he got fussy, so we pulled over to make a bottle. Carter didn't want the bottle (later, I found out Kevin only put half the formula in for the amount of water I had.) We stopped at Bi-Lo to buy juice and bottle water. Kevin went in, and I stayed in the very scary parking lot. I could see Kevin wandering around the store, so I went in to help him. After, we were cleaning out his milk bottle and feeding him juice in the parking lot....the things we do!

Saturday and Sunday were nice and quiet. We have been enjoying just relaxing during our weekends.

Yesterday, we did get a call from Bank of America fraud services. Apparently, someone had tried to use our credit card at a Wal-Mart twice and a gas station in Columbus, OH on Saturday. Thank goodness it was declined at both places. We canceled the card immediately. The person from the bank told us that our information was probably taken and loaded onto another card. This morning at work, I went to tell my friend what had happened, and she stopped me. The same thing happened to her. Someone used her debit card at two different Wal-Marts and a few gas stations in Columbus, OH on Saturday. They were able to get her money. I hate this happened to someone else, but we were able to narrow down where someone got our information. We figured its one of two restaurants we went to together. Now, we are having everyone else we were with check their credit card info. I think I will start using cash when we go out to dinner and never let my card out of my sight.

Anyway, there are new pictures and videos on flicker. Carter has been a lot of fun and in a great mood despite his cold. We are enjoying him so much!

Carter's first game... too bad it was a disappointment

We have had a quiet weekend. No one in our house has felt well for awhile, so we rested..... a lot. We also stay tuned to CNN as much as possible to watch footage from Louisiana. My parents evacuated, but we were still worried about Lafayette.

Carter has been congested with a cough. I've been running the humidifier at night and cleaning out his nose as much as he will let me. He slept like a champ on Friday night. He woke up around 7:15. He napped a lot except for today and was in a surprisingly good mood. I need to upload the video I tried to get of him laughing. He also rolled over today. I'll admit I am a bad mom and rarely give Carter tummy time. I would do more, but he spits up SO much. He rolled over twice today. He can also sit unassisted for a few seconds. He tries to sit up when he in on his back. I hate that he is growing up, but it is also tons of fun to celebrate these little events.

I'm dreading this week. It's only 4 days, but those always seem very tough. We have our first extended Tuesday tomorrow, I have a dentist appointment on Wednesday, and we have open house on Thursday. All of this while anticipating Hurricane Hannah. I want to be prepared, but I also don't want to look like an idiot. I think we will purchase a generator this week. Kevin has been considering one since he built a generator panel into our house. Even if we don't need it now, we may need in during the winter.