While Maggie and I were in Anacortes we got to see her buddies Thomas and Peyton. I hadn’t seen Thomas and Lara since the day that Thomas came home from the hospital, so it was a sweet reunion. Lara and I had almost exactly the same outfit on – black t-shirt, same jeans, and a zip up sweat shirt. New mom uniform? I think so.

Taking pictures of squirmy babies is really hard. They aren’t interested in posing and don’t even really know that they are next to each other.  Thomas looks so much like Lara with his cute little nose!

We stopped at Emily’s house and the cousins spent some time together on the couch. Peyton was really sleepy and kept toppling over on Maggie, when he woke up he tried to hold her hand.

Ahhhhhh…….

As you can see the first meeting left a little to be desired.

Maggie pooped and then proceeded to cry almost the whole time, while Thomas played it cool and stayed swaddled the entire time.

This massive sign was at the end of their driveway announcing Thomas’ arrival.

Maybe that is what threw Maggie into a crying fit; we didn’t post a 6 ft. sign announcing her debut.

Either way, we’re sure glad Thomas is here.

Congrats to Marc & Lara!!!

Guessing that Maggie would be born on April 20th weighing 8 pounds 3 ounces, Wren* wins the HBaby pool!!

 *Please contact HBHQ to collect your winnings.

My wonderful friends Christina, Tracy & Charlyn hosted a baby shower for me (and Maggie!) this past weekend and it was so great! It was a murder mystery shower and I had no clue that this was going on. When I arrived I was given my costume (an apron) and name (Candy Cane).

I love themed parties and I also love playing games – who can resist a murder mystery? I have the greatest friends because everyone was up for the game. I can’t believe that nobody spilled the beans, everybody knew weeks before I did. I had started to wonder why nobody would talk to me about the shower…now it all makes sense.

There were little touches of pink and brown sprinkled all through the house with a table of tasty treats to die for. I think I inhaled no fewer than 9 marshmallow bars and 6 pieces of chocolate. Tracy made her famous punch which was pink, rather than the traditional green. One activity was to make bracelets to wear until Maggie arrives, which we all did; however, mine popped off yesterday as I was carrying groceries. Perhaps Maggie is closer to arriving than I originally thought!

It was a fantastic day from start to finish with some of my very favorite people in attendance:

The crew from Hilltop: Charlyn, Christina, me, Trace, and Jenica.

Pregnant Friends: me, Lara, Erin, Cole

Anacortes Friends: Kara, Katrin, me, Lara, Erin, Nicole, and Jenni

Pre-posted picture….just kind of funny.

****Not pictured in a posed shot: Darcy, Chach & Deb****

Cupcakes made by a parent of one of my students. Cute and delicious!

A sweater knit by Susan, our splendid principal.

A diaper changing bag/pad made by Jenna, who teaches 3rd grade, and Kylene, our Music teacher.

A sweater knit by Jenna.

A little bunny blanket made by Kylene.

A knit hat made by John’s sister-in-law.

A sweater knit by Ceres, our Developmental Kindergarten teacher.

A scrapbook display made by a parent of a former Destination Imagination student.

A fleece blanket made by Debbie, an Instructional Assistant.

A diaper cake made by Angela, a kindergarten teacher.

A tag blanket made by Pam, another Instructional Assistant.

THE quilt  worked on by Ruthie, Karen, Cheryl, Jenna, Peggy, Martha, Karen, Annette, Pam, Kylene & Katie. I was mostly along for the ride on this one.

See, I work with creative and generous people. I held it together and didn’t cry over this outpouring of love until the shower was about 2 minutes from being over and John, our fantastic librarian, came up to me and handed me a gift card. He’d already given me the knit cap pictures above, but something about his matter-of-fact way of giving me a gift card put me over the top and my eyes started welling up with tears.  Of course it wasn’t the gift card that did it – it was everything.

Maggie is such a lucky girl already and knowing how many people are excited and thrilled to welcome her into this world amazes me.

While the Miller Men went to enjoy the Chilly Hilly, Darcy and I decided to get crafty and drown ourselves in Mod Podge. Both of us were in uncharted waters in terms of the steps needed to take to create the final product.

We were covering the letters of HBaby’s name and it wasn’t until we got to the final letter that we discovered the most efficient way to add the modge podge without impending disaster or bumpy, choppy edges.

By the time Barry and Brian made it home – after both completing the 33 mile Chilly Hilly(!) – we were ready to show them the completed project. I’m certain that Martha Stewart isn’t going to be calling anytime soon (Sorry, Darcy) but it was fun to do and I’m really excited about how the letters turned out.

I’ve joined the Quilt Club at my school, but don’t go thinking that I’m a quilter or anything fancy like that.

I wish.

Instead I’ve joined some other wonderful ladies and bullied my way into this club that has existed for years convincing them to make me HBaby a quilt. I’ve already got the fabric, remember?

This is Pam and Karen. Pam is kind of like a Mob Boss – head of the Quilt Club – most people ask her what she thinks and she decides if something needs to get done.

I’ve been trying to  convince her to give orders with a Tony Soprano-like accent, but she isn’t really into the idea. I’ll keep working on it.

Anyhow here are some of the characters in the Quilt Club besides Mob Boss Pam:

Karen is a steady member of the Quilt Club – except I don’t think she’d be able to pull off the role of Mob Boss. She laughs too much, which I love about her.

She teaches the Kinders and you have to be able to laugh when you teach kindergarten! Always laughing….that is Karen.

This is Cheryl and she doesn’t like getting her picture taken, but I poked my fat camera towards her and caught her in the act. She teaches big kids – 5th and 6th grade – and tends to stop by Quilt Club to see what needs to get done. Apparently Cheryl once made outdoor gear, but has since hung up her sewing needle, now she irons, pins and does stuff that doesn’t involve sewing.

This is Kylene and she teaches Music and knows every single kid in the school by name. Kylene’s classroom is always warm and on days when I’m freezing I want to go hunker down in her room and listen to her teach. Kylene is very industrious: sewing, knitting, quilting, and even making cheese.

I’m not kidding about the cheese part. The woman can make cheese!

This is Kylene and Ruthie. Ruthie calls me Sunshine every time I walk into the office. She is one of our Office Managers and would give you the shirt off her back if you asked for it. She also loves the Yankees more than the Mariners – shocking, I know.

This is Annette and there is a rumor floating around that she is more of a perfectionist when it comes to quilting than anyone else in Quilt Club. I have yet to see that side of Annette.

Annette teaches Kindergarten as well and she also subs in my room sometimes. When Annette is in my room, I know that business will be taken care of an there is no need to worry.

This is part of the quilt waiting to be put together. Pink and Brown. Delightful color combination, right?

This is another part of the quilt waiting for the order from Mob Boss Pam to continue on. Who says you can’t have a cowboy quilt for a girl?

Certainly not me, you know how I feel about cowboys.

Oh, and this is me when I was a wee one with one of my first quilts.

Just think this masterpiece, made by all these wonderful women, will be loved by sweet little HBaby in just a few short months!

When I see most people for the first time after telling them that I’m pregnant they embrace me with a hug and congratulate Barry and me.  A few people have rubbed my belly and, as I’ve mentioned before, many of my students are at the exact height where tapping on it seems to be a great way to get my attention.

On the eve of Thanksgiving Kara and Ryan stopped by my parents house after they finished their meal and were heading home for the evening. I hadn’t seen Kara in a couple months and she was smiling huge as she bolted towards me. Before I knew it, she gave me a quick hug and was down on her knees cupping my belly yelling in a ultra high-pitched voice, “Hi, Chica!!! Hi Chica!!!”

It was classic. Barry and I can’t quite get the right tone and are wishing that we had an audio clip to play because we’re pretty sure that little Chica loved the recognition from Kara.

I got to spend the day with Lara yesterday and it was wonderful. I greeted her on my front step and we belly bumped and then instantly started cracking up. We went to a used baby gear sale, a local consignment shop for babies and a fancy-schmancy local boutique for babies. We looked at tons of gear, but neither of us made any life changing purchases. I turned down the cutest pair of cowboy boots, mostly because they were gender specific and I have yet to find out what I’m having.  Sniffle, sniffle.

When we went to Australia Lara gave us a mixed CD and we listened to it countless times. When we loaded it on our iPod we just named the songs “Lara,” since they didn’t register on the computer. To this day, I love many of the songs but have no clue as to who the artist is or what the real name of song is.

Yesterday, after our belly bump, Lara pulled out of her purse another mixed CD for us to blast at HBHQ. Last night Barry and I  burned through it and many of the songs we sang along to, but some are new to our ears. Again, I am excited to listen to this mix made specifically for us and maybe, just maybe, I’ll ask Lara for the details of who we’re listening to this time. I’m just glad that Lara thought of us again because we love our old mix dearly.