Busy, Busy Mommy

Well, I've been a whole crazy hectic week relatively headache free!! Thank goodness! This week was crazy and I was just praying that I would make it through without any crisis's. I had girl scouts on Monday, and we had trouble finding what I wanted for their craft, so we ended up doing something totally different. I want to work on their sewing badge next partially because one of the things they can do is sew together quilt squares and I thought it might be fun for the girls if they got to sew a quilt for the baby. Dean was so funny he told me I was just using them to get baby stuff and I replied "Yeah cuz that's just what I want a baby blanket made by 7 year olds!" But the girls are so excited all they talk about when they see me is the baby so I thought that might be something fun for them. I must say just because I'm talking about girl scout stuff - I can't wait till the cookies come in!!! It's a good thing I'm pregnant cuz I have a feeling I'm gonna be gaining some weight!!!! Hehehe, plus I can eat as many as I want and just blame it on cravings!! Oh yummy girl scout cookies!!!

Tuesday and Thursday this week I taught Joy School. Tuesday was an easy day, not much up and down, but Thursday was crazy. They had all these experiments to do. What floats/sinks, playing with colored water to make new colors, playing with magnets, and growing salt crystals!! I tried to take a picture of Alexandra's, but the picture is no where near as cool as it looks in real life.

The picture looks kinda like mold...but really in person it's all crystally and cool looking! If anyone is looking for a fun easy craft here is the recipe for it.

Crystal Gardens

You will need a shallow plastic or glass container for
each child. Thin disposable plastic drinking cups (but not styrofoam) work well
for this activity. Do not use aluminum. Combine the following ingredients:
2 Tbs ammonia

1/4 c. salt
1/4 c. bluing

1/4 c. water
(bluing can be bought in grocery store with laundry supplies, but not apparently Wal-Mart, I found some at King Soopers)

If your group has less than 8 children, use half this recipe.

Give each child a shallow container and one-fourth of a white paper towel. (We used whole ones cuz I was too lazy to cut up paper towels). He should crumple up his paper towel (not too tightly) and put it in his container. Put about one to two tablespoons of salt mixture over the paper towel and then if wanted put two or three drops of food coloring on top. Keep
the chemical mixture stirred up good as you use it.

In just a few minutes, salt crystal formation will begin to appear. The chemical
growth that occurs is made up of salt formations created when the liquid
evaporates. The crystals will continue to grow for several hours. The growth
can be continued if more of the chemical ingredients are added or if a little
ammonia is added about once a week.

Every morning when we get up I'm surprised by how much more it has grown. Alexandra has had fun watching it. I'm actually thinking about maybe doing it with the girls scouts too, they have a science-y badge they can earn.

I was really worried that with all the stuff this week it would make my bleeding worse, but so far so good. But I was also REALLY good and stayed down the rest of the time when I wasn't doing anything. I was also using it as a test week to see if I needed to give up on my extra stuff too. Luckily I don't teach Joy School for another 7 weeks, and I only have 2 more times to teach this year. But it is definitely more stressful on my body then girls scouts!

Then yesterday I had a doctors appointment which went really well. I'm only up 5 pounds total, which is amazing to me since I feel like I'm constantly eating (and not necessarily the best things) and I feel huge. Alexandra got to go with us and she got to hear the heartbeat which was great! She liked that the baby kept moving and the doctor would have to find it again. We also talked about my migraine and my doctor has put in prescriptions at the pharmacy so that if I get one again I can just fill them without any hassle (She would have let me fill them then, but I don't want to spend the money on prescriptions if by chance I won't need them - keeping my fingers crossed). She also filled out the forms so I now have temporary handicap tags for our cars. That way when I do go to the store or to Riley's school, I'm not having to walk forever. Especially since the bleeding definitely seems to vary depending on how much I do. My ultrasound is scheduled for February 20th and I was gonna take the girls with me, but I found out yesterday that they don't allow children in the ultrasound room......Riley was very upset. We are definitely going to try to find out what we are having, so hopefully the baby will cooperate. I've been able to feel the baby move little bits this past week too. We've been talking to the girls about how once the baby gets big enough they will be able to feel it move too and I told them about hiccups. So now they are so excited to see my belly bounce when the baby has hiccups!!

Riley lost another tooth yesterday. She kept wiggling it and at one point she would smile and wiggle it with her tongue and it looked like it was waving at me. She had me laughing so hard.

And here is just a picture of Alexandra, cuz she can't be left out when the camera comes out of it's case.

Yeah she's a cheese-ball!!