Brooke made me do it

I have no idea what relevance this has to anything, but I have been tagged and must follow through. Thanks to Brooke for this random idea:

Pick up the nearest book with at least 123 pages. Find page 123. Find the first five sentences. Post the next three sentences. Tag five people.

"In the Gospels, Jesus is always surrounded by the poor, by the marginalized. And, adversely, He is often opposed by the powerful. Not all the powerful, but those who oppose Him are almost always the people who are ahead in the lifeboat."
--Searching for God Knows What by Donald Miller

There is obviously more to this interesting section, but I have fulfilled my duty. I'm not one to tag others, so feel free to do this on your blog if you so desire.

On a more personal note, work is not as completely horrible as it was last week, but I still wouldn't mind taking a long vacation sometime soon. Thanks to all for the prayers... and keep them coming! :)

Crazy life: Update

Casey went to the doctor: he has the "true" flu and an ear infection.

My boss found out that her grandbaby-to-be has spina bifida.

My coworker's mother-in-law passed away early this morning.

I still have not started working on the paperwork that I need for my conferences tomorrow because I was doing conferences for the new girl all day.

I like Kim's advice--chocolate milk it is... and maybe some double stuffed oreos. :)

One woman vs. Four Counties

I normally try to use this blog to update about life, but I need to take a moment to VENT. My job has been steadily getting harder over the past few weeks due to circumstances that no one can control, but today was the last straw! I am now the only person doing my job for FOUR COUNTIES. There used to be five of us--now it's just me. We started the year one person short because one girl quit right before the school year started--we never replaced her. Awesome. We hired a new girl at the beginning of the semester to replace one that moved in December, but there has been an issue with her teaching license so I have to go to all of her conferences with her. Plus, she still has no clue what she's doing so I do most of her paperwork for her. One of the other girls had intense leg surgery a few weeks ago and is still trying to recover. It was down to two of us until the end of last week. My final friend is now spending all of her time at the ICU with her mother-in-law who is not doing well at all.
Please take note: I cannot be angry with any of these people because none of this is their fault. However, it doesn't make me any more capable to do the job of five people all by myself!!! Oh, and my boss isn't around to help because her son and his girlfriend are expecting a baby, but they found out last week the baby has water on the brain. So she's going with them to their doctor appointments.... fantastic. That leaves me to do all of the legal paperwork and every conference for White, Woodruff, Lonoke, and Prarie counties. No problem.
Oh, yeah--and Casey's been running fever since Saturday night. Cheers.

First tummy pic!

I finally got Casey to take a picture of my tummy now that I'm 12 weeks along. Oh, and I asked the doctor--I'm not growing at an abnormally huge rate, and we only heard one heartbeat so I'm probably not having twins. :) Here's the first of many pictures to come (we hope!):

Everything checked out ok at the appointment today. It took a while to find the heartbeat (yes, I freaked out a little), but we finally got to hear it. When I asked Casey if he could hear it, his response was,"Is it the pulsing thing?" ..... Yes, dear. The pulsing thing. That would be our baby. :) I still haven't gained any more weight, but he said that's fine. I'm finally able to eat without feeling sick, so I'll probably be eating more very soon. We go back on Feb. 27 for the first ultrasound to see if it's a girl or a boy!! I can't believe how fast it's all going!

Poor little shingles...

I'm sitting in my house praying that the wind doesn't knock a tree through the window. I got to leave work early today because the wind is blowing so hard, several power lines are down--we can't work without power! Luckily, we still have power in our house (for now), but several shingles have gone missing, and one of the metal whirly birds (I'm sure that's not their real name) went flying off the roof. Apparently Mrs. Mary Brown found it in one of the neighbors' yards and brought it back to us. She's so sweet. :) Right now I'm just hoping we make it through the night without losing power!

My doctor's appointment is tomorrow morning, so I'm sure I'll give a better update after that. We're supposed to hear the heartbeat--yay!!! I did go shopping with Mom in Memphis a couple of weeks ago, and I am already wearing maternity pants. "But Rachel, you're just now hitting the 3 month mark!" Oh, I know. Believe me, I know. I still haven't gained much weight--I guess the doctor will tell me how much tomorrow. All this to say, tomorrow's update will be better. Stay tuned. :)

Time for the "fat pants"

Well, I believe Casey said it best when he described today's appointment as "anticlimactic." Apparently, the main purpose of today was to answer basic health questions, get my weight, and draw about 5 vials of blood for various testing. We only met with the nurse (who is wonderful, by the way), so no ultrasound or heartbeat today. She did give us a ton of info on local classes to look into--including prenatal yoga! We go back on January 30th for a follow up with the doctor, and that one is supposed to be more in depth.

In other baby news, I have officially outgrown most of my pants. I have a special rubber band that has allowed me to continue wearing some of my pants, but I fear that our time together won't last much longer. I've only gained a couple of pounds, but it looks like I'm going to have to break down and go shopping this weekend... if I can make it that long. It's so crazy how everything just shifts around like that! Casey's official job is now to remind me that I'm not just getting fat... I'm having a baby. I'm hoping that finding clothes that fit better and aren't so tight will help me with that mindset. :)

Mini update

I know I was supposed to have an amazing update after the holidays, but I just haven't had the time or energy. Plus, we didn't have a working camera so I feel like I have no good pictures to share. I plan on getting copies from the moms and sisters, but in the mean time, I'll share a few that Candy posted on Facebook. :) We started our travels in Ohio and ended in Memphis, but I don't have any Curtis family pictures yet. Here are some moments from the Lancaster Christmas extravaganza:

Here are the manly men standing proudly by their fire. I LOVE having a fire when it's cold outside!
And this is after a terrible match of ping pong (2nd annual family tournament). This is Casey's way of apologizing for making me play. :)
And (my favorite of the bunch) here is the CUTE duckie robe Casey's parents got for Baby Cochran.
We've been back at work since the 3rd, so I think we've finally gotten back into a routine. We're really looking forward to a weekend of REST! I've discovered that travel and morning sickness are not a great combination. My first appointment with my OBGYN is this Monday, and I'm so excited! Ok, maybe a little nervous, too. I'm somewhere around week 10, so the first trimester should be ending soon. Hopefully, this nausea will go with it! :)