What's your comfort level?

See that new ticker up there ^? It freaks Mike out. Does it freak you out? Please tell me because I don't want to freak you guys out. I think it's pretty dang nifty, but I'll move it to the bottom of the page if it'll make you more comfortable. :) And BTW, have any of you wondered how they get those detailed pictures of the babies at each stage? I have. But I'm afraid to look it up because I have a feeling I don't really want to know.

School cuts again?!

Alright, so I don't know if I mentioned this before, but my school's budget (well, ALL schools in Clark Counties budgets) were cut by 70% at the beginng of this year. That means that our previous budget of $100,000 we ran on last year is only $30,000 this year. This includes all of our paper supplies, copier maintentence, toner for printers and copiers, pencils, erasers, etc... Understandably, we have been freaking out over how we're going to make it through the year. Well, it was annouced today that they are cutting the budget by an additional 12%. WHAT!? How the heck do they expect us to run a school of almost 700 on $26,400. That equals out to about $37/kid for an entire year. I truly do not understand how they expect a school to run on this. And I don't know where we can make more cuts from out budget. We're already down to brass tacks. I guess my kids will be writing with pencil stubs, broken crayons, and worn out markers by the end of the year. Heck, at this rate, I'll be lucky if they aren't using them by the middle of the year. ::sigh::

Grant

I heard back from the grant people today. I was not one of the recipients this year :( Oh well, I knew it was a long shot. I'm glad that I tried though. They hope to have money to award next year, so I'll just apply again. We'll see what happens.

Ah, a sigh of relief

Ok, the nurse ACTUALLY called back today and didn't keep me waiting! Thank you very much! :)

My numbers are looking really good. HCG is up to 1560 and progesterone is staying about the same place at 16.7. It made me feel sooo much better today and I was able to stay calm and collected today even though I was falling over from the feeling that I haven't slept in days. Nevermind the fact that I have been falling asleep between eight and nine every night. HA.

So, I have an ultrasound set up for October 28th (I'll be 8w4d) and my first appointment with the doctor on November 4th (I'll be 9w4d). So yaaay, things to look forward to!

Now that everything's been someone settled at least for a few weeks, the pregnancy talk should slow down some. I'll start posting my random junk again soon. :)

Choices

I feel that I am making a choice every day to allow myself to embrace or keep my distance (figuratively of course) from this pregnancy. Some days are better than others. Last time it took about 9 weeks to really wrap my head around the whole thing. We lost the baby at 10 weeks. So my brain says that as soon as I really start accepting that I *should* have a baby next summer, the dream will be shattered soon after.

In an attempt to stop this vicious cycle, I am going to try to live by these affirmation statements. I pulled them from one of my boards a long time ago and have had them saved on my computer since then.

1. "Today I am pregnant and I love my baby."

2. "I am pregnant until someone tells me otherwise."

3. "My past does not dictate my future. A previous miscarriage does not mean I will have another miscarriage."

4. "There is nothing I can do to prevent a miscarriage from happening. Worrying yourself sick doesn't prevent a miscarriage. And if (God forbid) it were to happen again, I know I will survive."

That last one is the hardest. It really easy to say that worrying doesn't help anything, but I'm a natural worrier, and it's really hard to try to be calm during all of this.

But, I did get my second set of beta results yesterday. HCG went from 81 to 400. Progesterone went from 16.4 to 16.2. That HCG number makes me happy. That progesterone number is kinda scary. The doctor isn't concerned about it though so I guess I'll try not to be worried either. I went in for yet another blood draw yesterday. The nurse said she would keep an eye out for my results and get back to me on Monday. I'm not holding my breath. I'll be lucky to hear from them by Tuesday. Either way, let's hope those numbers continue to climb.

So, in an attempt to follow the second mantra up there, I went searching for a pregnancy ticker. There are some really cute ones out there! So, now I need help choosing one. Here are the top four contenders:

Choice #1.


Choice #2.


Choice #3.


Choice #4.


Which is your favorite?

It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood

Sing along now everyone. :)

My day started out with this:


It came up really quick, too. So that made me feel better.


The drive to work produced this BEAUTIFUL sunrise. (Don't worry, I wasn't driving)

At school my kids were great. We even got to start our Air and Weather science unit. Here's a pic I took of the kids experimenting.

Notice the blue circled feather. The kids were having a blast trying to keep them up in the air. Also, I have highlighted the kid in the corner. He was AMAZED that he could blow a cotton ball across his desk with a straw. :D

The sun was setting as we drove home. Again, it was beautiful. I took this one out the car window.

And I made Mike pull the car over so we could get this one at the end of our street.

Aaaaaand, I heard back from the nurse. On Friday (3w6d pg), my HCG was 81 and my progesterone was 16.4. I *think* those are decent numbers for early pregnancy. She had me come in for another blood test today to check that the numbers are doubling correctly. (Yes, I know it's supposed t be a 48 hour test, but again, my office is stupid.) I can just tell you that I will be happy if the numbers are around 300 from this one. And I hope my progesterone goes up.

So, all in all, it was a very good day. And now I'm off to have sweet potato fries and a BLT with avocado. Yuuuuuuuuummmmmmmmmmmm!

Oh the things I do to stay amused

Is it wrong that I have spent the last few hours watching Tony Award videos on YouTube? Well, even if it is, I don't wanna know. Because I have a great time and get very distracted while I'm in Broadwayland. :) And since I don't know how many of you are into Broadway, I will share a few of my other amusing finds.

I enjoy this one as I LOVE the song (it was at my wedding) and this guy is just entertaining. (Oh yeah, don't forget to pause the music player on the blog.)



And who doesn't love The Muppets? Anyone? Bueller? Bueller?