Survival and Limitations

So, one of my least favorite and at the same time much anticipated times of year has arrived: The End of Another School Year. I love the end of the year because it means I am that many days (6) closer to relaxing in the pool with a book of choice (though, sadly, this year will not be spent with Amanda across the pool from me). I loathe this time of year because it means cleaning up my classroom and trying to make sense of everything so next fall it will be easy to get the room ready again. So, we're there again. At least this year it is just normal packing up and not packing up the whole room to move to a new state.

This is where limitations come in. The kids and I were sorting through some books (by some, I mean about 200) yesterday. I know I'm not supposed to lift or move heavy objects. And I swear I didn't think the 2 boxes I moved from the counter to the table were heavy. But I guess I was wrong. Almost immediately my hips started hurting, along with my lower back and various other parts. Thank goodness for kids who are eager to help their pregnant teacher! They really can be sweethearts sometime. I spent a lot of quality time with the heating pad last night, and went to bed early to get ready for survival.

Today was our field trip to Old World Wisconsin. Overall, it went very well. I had plenty of opportunities to sit down and rest my back and feet. The only major problem was the lack of bathrooms. There were 2 very clean port-a-potties at our picnic site. Other than that, nothing. So I had to be very careful about my water intake. The bus ride home did a number on my already tender back, so I think I'll be jumping in the hot tub in a while. Some highlights from the day include:

Meeting Teddy and Bear, the oxen who work one of the farms in the German Settlement, and seeing my students lose a tug of war against them.

Watching my kids use hand tools from the 1800s to drill holes in boards, and a couple of other jobs but I wasn't listening. I know, I'm a bad teacher.

Learning how to turn flax into the fibers needed to make linen.

Last, but certainly not least, a baby update. We met with the doctor again today, and will go back in 3 weeks. Everything looks good, I'm up another 3 pounds and my blood pressure is normal. The baby's heart rate is in the 140 range, again, good. As the doctor felt around, she thought that maybe the baby had turned, or at least partially turned. Yeah! We'll know for sure in about 3 weeks when we do another ultrasound. She did have a chance to talk to an OB about the rotation process. If we need to go that route, and it works, we would then schedule an induction to prevent the baby tuning back the way we don't want him/her.  As I mentioned above, I'm having some lower back pain, but that is easily fixed with the heating pad. Matt is spending more time sleeping in the guest room because of my super annoying snoring. I have been experiencing Braxton Hicks contractions, where my belly gets really tight but there isn't any pain involved. It just feels like I have rock-hard abs (sorry to disappoint those of you out there who thought I really did!).

A couple of last things and I'll let you get back to life:

My aunt Nancy has become a mom later in life than most! She adopted a super cute puppy named Mick. Maybe they will both come visit when the baby is here.

    

Huge thanks to Josh, Teri, Marilyn and Frank for the baby bathtub that arrived this week and the swing (which matches the bouncy chair). I just can't wait to put a baby in both!

I'll leave you with a couple of pictures of Flop. He's just so darn cute!