Scaredy Cat

Our house is full of scaredy cats - ourselves! Since we have been married, I have always thought it to be a funny prank to sneak up and scare Ryan. (I used to do this with my grandma when I was little - I don't know why it is so funny to me...) A lot of times I will hide behind a door or hallway and wait for Ryan to walk by and do the 'BOO!' yell. Sometimes it works and sometimes Ryan just looks at me like I am an idiot. Either way, I get the biggest kick out of it. (Grow up, Sarah!)

Payback sure is rough, especially when it comes from Ryan. One time he came home from work while I was vacuuming the bedroom. All of a sudden I saw a person standing in the room with me and I dropped to the floor and curled up in the fetal position. I guess we all know what I would do if I was ever seriously attacked. Sigh.

If that wasn't bad enough - The other night, Ryan came home late from work. He was on a training rotation and was not expected to come home for a few days. I had already jumped into bed (way early) and planned on getting LOTS of sleep. I was almost asleep when I heard a little noise. I thought I was just being paranoid and I closed my eyes again. Well, then I saw a light turn on! I thought, 'well - somebody is in my house - but I can't move or speak - great!' If you know me, I am blind as a bat, so when Ryan walked into the room all I could see was his outline and I just say, "Honey, is that you?" LOL! Who asks that?!?

Prank or accident, Ryan and I can be total scaredy cats. I hit the floor in a ball or freeze and Ryan jumps. If we are like this on our normal days, I can only imagine how we will be on Halloween this year! :)

Kids Say the Darndest Things

As we have all experienced at some point or another - kids say the darndest things! They really have no filter. Many of you know that it is my occupation to work with kids (aka - emotional teenagers. lol), so I hear the 'darndest things' all the time. However, recently, the topic has been about me!

Since I am at a new school, I was planning on waiting a little while before revealing my pregnancy. I wanted to form my own work ethic first before I shared my life changing news with 135 kids. Well, they are more observant than  I gave them credit for! After only 3 days of school, a student quietly asked me if I was pregnant. I was shocked - deer in headlights! What do I say?!?! I played it off a little while so that I could get my words in order. Finally, today, I felt that it was best to lay it all out on the table. Here are some of the darndest things I heard - Ryan and I got a good laugh out of them.

"Mrs. Larsen, can I read to your kid?!" (Well, if it will get you to read..why not?!)
"I am probably gonna be that kid who wants to rub your belly." (yeah...I think NOT!)
"What, are you like 1 month along?" (bless your heart!!!)
"Can we bet money on if it's a girl or a boy?" (no response...)
"I mean, you aren't large - just like medium big..."  (If you think I'm big now...you just wait, kid)
"You are going to be so cute!!!" (I sure do love my cheerleader girls!)

Back to School

Our family is headed back to school...in about every way possible. I just started back to teaching here in Louisiana. They start the school year much earlier than NC, but they also get a few more days off during the year. There are lots of changes I need to get used to with the new school system, but the basic job of teaching is the same - and I love that! I already have wonderful coworkers and students. This new school will be a great experience for me.

Ryan is going back to school too! He is in the process of getting his paperwork set up to take some college classes while still in the Army. The paper work is taking a little while because it's the Army, but it is in the works. Hopefully he will be jumping into some courses VERY soon.

14 weeks

Well, we (really I ) are at the 14 week mark in the pregnancy. About the only exciting thing about this week is that I am finally in the second trimester. Other than that we still have a really strong heartbeat for the baby and I just keep getting more and more misshapen. Haha. The exciting part for me was that I gained 2-4 pounds! :) My doctor has promised me that the next two visits will be a little more exciting...so, here are the upcoming events:

Week 18 - Screening done for potential disorders (more bloodwork)

Week 20 - Anatomy Ultrasound 

Date Night

When Ryan and I were engaged, we got ALL kinds of marriage advice. One of the suggestions that we liked the most and promised that we would do was to have a weekly date night. Most couples that gave us this advice have their date nights on Friday. However, the Army doesn't always allow us to have those Friday nights. Even though the Army is always a struggle, we have proudly had a date night at some point every week. Sometimes we just stay at home and cook dinner together. Sometimes we will have a group date. And sometimes we will go all out and do it old school style - flowers and all.

This past Friday (yesterday), Ryan spoiled me with a fancy date night! First of all, he was home at 4:00 - and as any Army Wife knows, that is almost a miracle in itself! He walked in the door and had beautiful flowers, a teddy bear, and an Army Wife lanyard keychain. Then he told me that I had to go get ready because we were going out to eat. It has been a while since we treated ourselves to going out to eat, so we went to Texas Roadhouse and got ourselves a nice steak! Yummy!!!

Amongst all the chaos in our lives with working, pregnancy, and everything else, it makes me happy to see that once a week we put a pause on life and just enjoy being newlyweds. :) PS- I have the best husband!!

Babies, Babies, and more Babies

First of all, let me give a big shout out to our friends the Lyons! Yesterday, Brittney shared the wonderful news that they are expecting their first baby!! I have experienced so much joy in the past 3 months as I have seen/heard/read about my baby's growth. Pregnancy is truly a miracle and I am so happy that the Lyons get to experience that joy too.

I guess you could say that reality has hit me hard. I am constantly amazed at the ever growing belly I have. I have been in awe at the heartbeat and the ultrasound pictures...but now that I am entering my second trimester, I am starting to think a little more realistically. For example, the ideas of healthy diets, prenatal exercises, and birthing methods are running through my mind. I am hoping this is a normal progression in thought - I really have no idea. Luckily I have some wonderful ladies in my life who are exposing me to the right material and knowledge that I need to have about all of these topics. (Side note - I wonder what Ryan is thinking about when it comes to all of this....)    :)

I read a friend (well friend of a friend's) birthing story. I figured that I might as well get used to all the details of the birthing process. No need to be shy now! It was honestly a touching story. Half way through I was not sure if I had tears of joy or tears of fear, but at the end you can really see how magical childbirth is. I can only imagine the experience that Ryan and I will have with our own! It's a weird thing - I am scared to death of some of the things I know I will have to go through, but knowing the outcome somehow makes that fear subside. I only hope that I can keep that in mind around 9 months when I am feeling the most pain I have ever felt in my entire life.

I know that I will have lots of work and preparation to do over the next 6 months, for myself, the baby, and our little family. Thank goodness for all of our friends and family who are supporting us and guiding us as Ryan and I enjoy this adventure!

Life is a Race

As I have mentioned before, there isn't much to do in Leesville, LA. However, there are a few things that have intrigued us - one of them being the 171 Speedway. This is just down the road from us and we have seen LOTS of trucks parked there every Saturday night, so we figured we would try it out (with Bryan and Michelle joining us, of course!).

 I think we fit the profile just fine...Ok, maybe not, but we had our big truck! When we first got there all we saw was a large cloud of dust. Apparently they had been working on the track and we were told it wasn't always like that. I'm not sure that we could see for the first 15 minutes while the different divisions of cars did their heat laps.

Eventually it got so bad that the speedway owner people decided to wet the track to prevent all the dust. It took forever, but it really helped! We were actually able to see the races for the rest of the night! We all had a great time pulling for our individual cars during each race. We got to laugh, cry (dust in our eyes), and enjoy the redneck Louisiana racing! We might just have to try it again another Saturday night!