11 Weeks!

Remember when I posted two weeks ago about how I was going to post weekly updates?


Remember how I used the word, "attempt" in the sentence?


I know myself well. :)


How far along: 11 weeks, 0 day.

How big is baby: thebump.com says about the size of a lime, which blows my mind a little. People keep telling me that I'll be more shocked when it's the size of a watermelon.

Total weight gain: None so far. :) I feel kind of like a rockstar.

Sleep: I still get tired early, and I wake up early every morning because I'm about to burst.

Maternity Clothes: I'm not wearing any yet, although I did buy two adorable maternity maxi dresses yesterday.

Morning Sickness: It' pretty much gone at this point. :)

Food cravings : Macaroni and Cheese, and Jack-in-the-Box curly fries with buttermilk ranch.

Food aversions: I have to be in the mood to eat meat these days, especially barbeque.

Challenges: I'm still having trouble/frustrations with not being able to help kids lift heavy things at work. I'm just so used to helping!

Movement: Too early.

Boy or Girl?: Again, too early to know.

What I’m looking forward to: Finding out the gender.

What I miss: Sleeping in.

Next appt: Two weeks.


Not much is changing with me that I can feel, anyway. I just think about the future and the baby constantly. I've had some mood swings, but even those aren't quite as bad lately.



The other day, one of my classes did something that really frustrated me, and a girl who tends to be somewhat disrespectful says, "Are you having a mood swing, or are you really mad at us?"


I'm not going to pretend like her assuming that I was going absolutely crazy didn't make me a little mad, but I told her that it wasn't a mood swing, it was that their choice of actions was beneath my expectations. I have, admittedly, felt like I was having an out-of-body experience when I find myself getting frustrated/annoyed over something that wouldn't typically be too bothersome to me, but even then, my 'mood swings' are really just my mind feels like it's going to explode. I have yet to turn into The Hulk.


Maybe turning into The Hulk would be the trick to getting some of these students whipped into shape. ;)

Oh, food.

It's crazy how being pregnant affects food in so many ways.

I had always heard of cravings and things tasting different or not liking favored foods at much, but it's just different than I expected, I guess.

For example, I usually eat Lean Cuisines for lunch---they're easy to take to work, they cook quickly, and they don't taste too bad. I recently tried a new one, Angel Hair Pomodoro, and I thought it was amazing. I brought another one to work over a week ago, and I just can't bring myself to eat it. It's still in the freezer. Every time I look at it, I'm disgusted---like a little kid would to brussel sprouts.

On Sunday after church, we decided to eat at Spring Creek BBQ with Travis' family and we decided to share the sausage/brisket plate. I was thankful that the side-dishes have unlimited refills, because the meat wasn't appetizing, but the macaroni and cheese was perfect to me.

I'm even having trouble getting excited about peanut butter and jelly, which happens to be one of my all-time favorite things to eat. I always say it's the perfect sandwich, because it's just so delicious and fool-proof. I'm finding it quite unfortunate that there's a growing distance between me and my old friend, the pb&j.

I'm also growing increasingly indecisive about choosing what I want to eat, which is frustrating when you're married to a person who is indecisive. Here's how pretty much every conversation regarding planning a meal goes in our house these days:

Me: Hey, what do you want for dinner tonight?
Him: I don't know...food?
Me: Oh, ok. I hadn't thought of that. But really, I don't know what I want, but I know we need to figure it out.
Him: Well, I don't know, that's the thing.
Me: Ok, we'll have that. That sounds delicious.

We always eventually figure it out, but this conversation continues in different varieties for what always feels like an extensive period of time many times a day. It's hard for me to figure out what I want sometimes, so I just need him to decide for me. :) I just need a live-in chef who can make us both whatever we want whenever we want. Interested? I'll pay you $1 a day. I'll go ahead an wait by the phone. ;)

Weekly Update

I have this plan, but we'll see if I actually remember to stick to it.

I'm going to attempt to post weekly updates about how I'm feeling and things like that, kind of like a survey a là MySpace bulletins. I've stolen this survey from my fellow blogger, Salt.

How far along: 8 weeks, 6 days

How big is baby: According to the books, about the size of a jellybean. My ultrasound measurement for Baby Hazzard was 1.5cm

Total weight gain: None so far. :)

Sleep: I tend to get tired early, I've gone to bed as early as 8pm in recent weeks, but I'm beginning to adjust. It's 7:58pm now, and I'm not even yawning.

Maternity Clothes: Nope.

Morning Sickness: Occasionally, mostly just if I get hungry, or if I'm having a food aversion. Those tend to make me instantly nauseous.

Food cravings : No major cravings as of yet, although I have had some. Last week, nothing was going to stop me from ordering a Pizza Hut pepperoni pan pizza...and I never get those!

Food aversions: Yes, yes, yes. On three separate occasions this week, the idea of eating the Lean Cuisine I brought to work that day become repulsive by lunch, so I get something else.

Challenges: I'm having a hard time not helping the kids with the physical aspects of my job, such as moving large set pieces and such.

Movement: Way too early to feel the baby moving.

Boy or Girl?: Again, too early to know. Travis wants a boy, and I just want a healthy baby.

What I’m looking forward to: Less nausea.

What I miss: Delicious White Chocolate Mochas from Starbucks.

Next appt: Four weeks :)

I told my students this week about the baby, and they're excited for me. They're typical high school students---full of questions. Every day they ask me questions like, "How's the morning sickness?" and "What kind of cravings do you get."

It's kind of nice that they're getting to see a more personal side of me, and realize that I'm a normal person. I'm always trying to explain that to them, maybe they're a little closer to believing me now. :)

First Comes Love, Then Comes Marriage, Then...

Comes baby!

Ultrasound - February 8, 2012 - 8 weeks

So, I have vowed to my friends on Facebook and Twitter that I would not and will not be that parent that once they have a baby-in-utero, they only update about being pregnant and the events after.

However, some people want to know those details, (because I guess it can be interesting) so I'll just update my blog with that kind of stuff, considering this blog is about me, and it's my blog so I can do whatever I want. :)

How We Found Out
Most women discover their pregnancy by typical symptoms (being late, fatigue, nausea, etc.), but I am not most women. If I'm going to find out I'm pregnant, I apparently choose a much different route.

On the evening of January 17, it was business as usual. I got home from work, ate dinner with Travis, watched Teen Mom 2 and then took a shower before bed. As I was taking on the physically-demanding task of rinsing my hair, my heart started racing and pounding. It freaked me out a little, so I decided to breathe slow and finish showering. When I got out a few minutes later, it was still racing, so I counted my beats per minute...it was so fast I could barely keep count but it was somewhere around 130-140bpm. I felt like this was definitely something to be alarmed about, but I didn't want to be crazy, so I decided to lay down so I could just be still. I figured sleep makes your heart rate slow down naturally, so it'd calm down.30-45 minutes later it was still going, so I told Travis that I was concerned, and I felt like I should go to the emergency clinic by our apartment.

Of course, by the time I got there, I felt like I was delusional, because it had finally slowed down, but I wanted to get checked out anyway. They checked me in and hooked me to a heart monitor within a few minutes (I love that place!), and began doing blood work and took a urine sample. I joked with them that if they were looking for a positive pregnancy test, they weren't going to find it. I definitely wasn't pregnant.

A little while later, the doctor came in, and this is how the conversation went:

Doctor: Mrs. Hazzard, we got your test results back. Now everything came back normal except for one...
Me: (inner-monologue) Oh my gosh. I need a heart transplant. Or I'm dying. This isn't good. 

Doctor: ...you're pregnant!

Me: WHAT? Are you serious? No way! For real? You're sure? Oh my gosh. Are you serious? I'm pregnant? No way!

Doctor: (after recovering from laughter) Yes ma'am, your tests came out positive for pregnancy. The good news is that all of your vitals are normal now and it was probably just a surge of hormones.

Travis and I were both so shocked. We were both pretty quiet, trying to absorb this new information. The worst part was that they told us around midnight, which meant that I was expected to go home, go to sleep, and wake up for work the next morning.

I should've asked for a doctor's note to excuse me from work.

Not Feeling Real
Aside from being more tired than usual, some nausea, and the occasional mood swing, overall, I haven't felt too different. We told our families, but it still wasn't feeling real. In the last two weeks or so, I kept thinking, "what if they mis-read my lab results? What if I'm not pregnant? I would be so devastated."

It was bothering me so much I even took a home pregnancy test.

It came out positive. :)

But I will say, now that I have seen (and cried over) the baby and the heartbeat, it feels real. I am soooo excited!

It isn't my intention to only update about baby-related information, but at least people have the option to read this instead of extensive Facebook updating. :)

Whoa, it's already time for the holidays?

I am apparently unable to manage this blog anymore. I always have intentions of posting, and then I get home from work, and I'm just like, "Update my blog or watch the newest episode of Beavis and Butthead?" You can guess which one wins out.

Speaking of the return of Beavis and Butthead, I am thrilled that it has returned and it is just as funny as I remember, if not funnier. The premiere still has me giggling when I think about it.

Work has been crazy-busy...last time I posted, I think we were about to have auditions. We had auditions and since then I directed my first show! It was Murder in the Knife Room by Jonathan Rand (check out www.playscripts.com to read it) and it was really cute and well received by the audience. :) I was quite proud of myself. However, two months later, I'm glad it's over. I so enjoyed the process and being with the kids and everything, but I am glad to have my life back.

Fun gifts from the cast, crew, friends and husband. :)

Our Thanksgiving vacation has been amazing, so much so that I am pretty much refusing to believe that it's coming to an end. We started it off by going to the Texas Renaissance Festival with friends, (if you haven't been, you should go next year.) visiting with friends we haven't seen in a while, staying in a fun and fancy hotel on Market Street in The Woodlands for some much needed R&R, Thanksgiving Day festivities, Black Friday shopping, (we were quite successful this year!) and more time with friends and family. I only have 3 weeks left of work between now and Christmas, but man, it's been nice to relax. When I wasn't working, I would get bored, and I hated not having money---but man, I could totally be a housewife if we could afford for me to not work. I liked having that kind of freedom when I wasn't working. Maybe one day Travis will find a super awesome job working for Bill Gates or something so I can just do whatever I want to all day...

It could happen.

We've started the process of decorating for Christmas, but our house was a disaster since we've both been really busy lately, so it's going slow because we're cleaning as we go...or stopping to check Facebook/Twitter, or in Travis' case, ESPN a little too often. ;) But for now, here's a very crappy-quality picture I snapped of our tree, but it isn't finished yet. :)

We got a bigger tree this year

But that little one from before wasn't too bad (last year's picture)

I hope you have enjoyed the beginning of the holiday season with your loved one as I have. :) Be blessed this holiday season!

One week down, one million to go.

School is officially back in session and already, it has been quite a week.

Overall, my classes so far are really good. I have a couple of rowdy classes, but hopefully once they get into the groove of things it'll subside. Hopefully is the keyword in that last sentence.

I think and hope it's going to be a really good year. I feel far more prepared this time around and so far, the things are going better in many aspects. I feel more confident, and I think that helps. :)

This year, our department will be putting together two fall shows. Usually it's one fall show, a musical in January, One-Act in the spring and a student-focused-something in May. Last year we did a showcase, sometimes we'll do a student-directed show.

Since we're doing two fall shows, the other theatre teacher and myself will each be directing a show. She has chosen to do Frankenstein and I will be doing a parody play called Murder in the Knife Room. I've not read the version of Frankenstein that she is going with, but my play is light-hearted and funny. I chose it because it has a LOT of roles and the hope is that it'll work well as a recruitment show. We really want to grow our department, so I think that a show with many roles that aren't overwhelming in size will draw in some new faces. I'm hoping that both will be well-received by our audiences. Frankenstein will run in October, just in time for Halloween, and my play will run in November.

In other news, my life is still pretty boring. Maybe I'll have some good stories to share later. :)

The Pantry Chronicles

As my summer is coming to a close, I've mostly filled my final days of freedom with ignoring the chores at my house, watching television and sleeping 'til noon. Not to worry, I have found some things to be a contribution to society in the last couple of weeks.

My grandparents decided to take out their carpet and put down Pergo laminate flooring in their house for health reasons. It looks amazing, but that's not what I'm writing about. Since it was for health reasons, my mom and brother have devoted a lot, (and I mean a lot) of time giving the house a deep cleaning...probably a deeper cleaning than what the house has seen in many years. Yesterday I decided to lend a helping hand and ended up cleaning out their pantry.

My grandfather, (aka Poppaw) has a deep love for Sam's Club. Sam's is the equivalent to Costco, for those who may not know. Anyway, with this love for buying in bulk, his pantry is full. Poppaw is also a laid back guy that doesn't pay much attention to small details.

For ONE SHELF of the pantry, I filled an entire grocery bag with expired products. It's not like they're hoarders, but they're old and just don't pay attention, I guess. I told my mom I was going to create the Pantry Chronicles to have record of the insanely old foods. Luckily, nothing was gross. It was like, old canned goods, tea, cake mix, etc. It wasn't moldy bread or anything unidentifiable.

Things I found?

16 cans of Rotel, all expired.
1 bottle of Apple Cider Vinegar from a store that our city hasn't had in years and expired around 1998.
Cake Mix that expired in 2006
Popcorn that expired in 2006
At least 20 packages of assorted mixes and seasonings, all fresh.
Countless cans of soups that were all at least a year expired
1 tin of nutmeg, expiring in 1988.

That's right. I said 1988.

A portable television & charger, circa 1980.
3 giant recipe collections, all appearing to be from the 80's and untouched.
A box of greetings cards that were intended for soldiers commemorating, (that's a weird use of that word) the 3rd anniversary of the war in Iraq.
An endless supply of paper goods, (plates, napkins, plasticware, etc)

Did I mention this was all on only 2 shelves? And I didn't actually finish the second one. I'm going back tomorrow, so we'll see what else I can find.

Maybe I'll find a secret stash of cash?

I guess I'd have to give that back.