all figured out... almost

i decided it would be best to NOT participate in my classroom's field trip to Worlds of Fun today considering strong smells and overexertion still cause me great discomfort. luke is there and got put with all the students who don't do any rides, so he's not having the most fun ever. at least he didn't have to pay for his ticket. he wants to go back soon, so he can actually do some of the fun things that there are supposedly worlds of. i am back at the school with a student who couldn't go on the trip because his foster parents told him he had to participate in the fundraiser if he wanted to go (parents had the option of having their students do the fundraiser or they could just pay for the ticket). we've been in the classroom next door, so i could kind of help out, but now we're taking a little break.

i have a job interview tomorrow at Vangent to do customer support for student financial aid inbound calls. that will be just for the summer and since my sister works in HR there, she got someone to call me just the day after i submitted the application. this summer job (assuming my interview is successful) will be a great help to us this summer, so yay for that.

yesterday, we also received a loan that will make it possible for us to work out our 1 car situation. since luke will be driving to and from JCCC all summer (the shuttle doesn't run in the summers), we have to figure out transportation. the old eagle summit just will not make it with all that highway driving, i'm afraid. also, luke is going to be making another phone call, but should be starting a paper route for the LJWorld here soon. all of those things will put us through the summer until i can go back to work at the high school... then from there we'll figure out what we have to do with Luke in school full-time during the fall (especially when it comes baby time in November). By then we'll know exactly how much of a student loan/grants Luke will be receiving for the fall and spring semesters.

these are not interesting or exciting things to write about, but they are things that have been up in the air for us for quite a while, so yesterday was a very good and accomplishing day (everything was settled kind of all at once after school yesterday).

break's over, but that's kind of what's going on with us right now. i'm just waiting out this last week before my 1st trimester is over, then maybe i will slowly start to feel better each day. that's the hope. and school's out for summer next thursday (wednesday and thursday we get out at 12:00pm), so then i'll start that job on June 2nd (if i get it, which i really am assuming i'll get...you only have to have a high school diploma to be qualified for it --- i know, i'm getting a lot out of this degree of mine).

yay for the fact that it's 1pm already.

the junior buhlers

what's new with the outcalt crew?

i really like this one :) enjoy, kate, seth, and lillie!

yes, more.... and even more to come!

here's the latest!

believe it or not i have gathered laundry today and cleaned the living room. so, i can say confidently that i'm not JUST doing this :P

yesterday was an excellent-feeling day... that is until i got home from the choir concert. i realized when i got there that i had forgotten to eat dinner, then had to stay there for about 3 hours .. FOODLESS. people who know me would say this could be a big problem even if i didn't have a baby feeding off of me. well it was. i was so hungry that on the way home i stopped at mcdonalds (against my better judgement) and ordered a burger. i ate it in the car on the way home, hoping it would save me from the horrible nausea i knew would follow.

big. mistake.

i am home AGAIN today because i have still not been able to just purge this undying nausea... caused mcdonalds and my own carelessness. if i move too much, it (the nausea) gives me a not-so gentle reminder to not try doing that again, so here i am in front of the computer only slightly moving my fingers and right arm, wasting hours. i even made a blog banner for a friend's blog, though she didn't even ask for it. i'm really that bored. i like how it turned out though:

i have a really strange obsession with editing pictures and creating these little things, so if anyone wants a banner, let me know.

i'm bored.

heartbeat, luke's knees

At first I heard a couple of loud sporadic ticks and got really confused. It sounded too loud and strange to be what we were looking for, but then again I wasn't really that sure what it would sound like. She made funny concentrating faces until she finally focused in on a quiet, constant thudding of our little baby's heartbeat. The pulse rate was about 170, she said, exactly as it should be. Luke says it sounded like a man's heartbeat. I didn't cry, but felt a a simple overwhelming joy that such a tiny little rapid heartbeat belonged to a beautiful spirit who has been waiting to come to the earth to gain a body and to be our child.

:) yay.

On another note, Luke had gone to the doctor last week, where they told him he ought to have *both of his knees* X-rayed. They said he might have to have surgery or might have arthritis. He called yesterday about the results and as I got in the car after work, he said "so, I have to have surgery." Then he talked about how he has a bone spurt that needs to be cut out and blah blah blah blaahhh blah blah blah blahblahblabla my husband is a liar!!!!!! He's fine and just wanted to see my reaction. What a dork (but I love him...).

I'm going to the Free State choir concert tonight and am getting paid to support a student "just in case" (she has never needed the support so far). It should be nice.

Oh yeah, and happy 7 month anniversary to Lucas and me yesterday. We celebrated by eating free chipotle for Cinco de Mayo because we work for the school district. It was sweet.

Happy May Day!

www.barnabybright.com

My friend Becky Bliss is in a band with her husband Nathan (who took her last name, how awesome is that...) called Barnaby Bright. They write really beautiful music and every once in a while I will get on their website and just let their songs stream until I have to start them over again. Take a look. Becky is a great girl and I feel she is very deserving of all the success she will achieve through this. Right now she and Nathan are working for NBC and recently wrote the theme song for the new season of Nashville Star, so that's her singing if you see it air.

I am home today because I haven't been able to hold anything down (so much for that one great chipotle day).

So, Luke and I started to watch a movie last night around 9 (after watching the American Idol results show, which was a little surprising... Jason Castro, your time is far spent) and I was so exhausted tired by about 9:45. I felt so bad because this has happened a lot lately every time we try to watch a movie (even if it's earlier in the evening, I end up feeling like I need a nap). If anyone knows Luke, you know that he LOVES to watch movies, so he's resorted to just watching them when I'm asleep. Sorry, Luke! Life changes so quickly, doesn't it..

yay for good music and saltines.

chipotle triumph

I just finished an entire burrito bol from Chipotle. Usually I would feel very large and gluttonous for doing so, but ah the joys of pregnancies are finally beginning to bud. Just about a week ago I got one and could only eat about a third of it, so I'm just glad that I'm beginning to finally have an appetite again. Granted, it took me the course of about 45 minutes to finish it, but I did it. For my starting BMI, I'm really only supposed to gain about 20 pounds in my pregnancy, but I lost about 10 pounds in the beginning weeks, just from not being able to eat or hold things down, so I'm just glad to be able to eat a good meal for once.

I enjoyed Stake Conference today. I enjoy hearing President and Sister Hacking (the mission president and his wife) speak. They will be released soon, but I am grateful for the great examples they are of missionary work and striving to live the full gospel in their lives. I really am grateful for the opportunities I have to gain strength from others and reassess my own. I've been really exhausted the past week. I mean, really I have been since I got pregnant, but this week I have felt especially weak. I think though, I let that fact overwhelm me more than it should. The more I lay around, the worse I feel. That doesn't mean I should go go go, but I do feel physically better when I am able to get some things done during the day. I am at about 9 and 1/2 weeks, so hopefully soon I will not be feeling as nauseous and be able to slowly start eating a little more. That has been the hardest thing for me so far. I am insanely hungry, eat about an apple's size of food, then I'm STUFFED. Of course then about an hour and a half to two hours later I'm STARVING again. I don't mention this to complain, but more to look forward to the weeks where I don't feel that quite as much.


More to come soon.