Quick Takes (16)

 

--- 1 ---

I am officially done for the term!  I finished everything up yesterday, so I don't technically have to go into work for 3 weeks.  I will probably go in though and get my classwork ready for January.  Plus, I'm still going to be doing some tutoring next week for a former student of mine, but it's still a nice feeling to have everything taken care of.

--- 2 ---

As a teacher, it's so frustrating when students don't perform to the level I know they are capable of.  I had one girl with a C or C- in a Speaking course.  She wasn't doing the greatest, but she was on track to pass the class and move on to the next level.  She decided, for whatever reason, not to show up and give her final exam speech, and ended up with an F in the course.  That is so frustrating for me!

--- 3 ---

Back here I showed you some of the beautiful winter views we have.  Many remarked that I live in a painting.  Well, let me know what you think about this "painting."  It's the same view as the beautiful snow-capped mountain picture, except you can hardly make out any mountains in this picture.  Why is that?  It's not rain, snow, or fog...so what is it?

Inversion!  One of the downfalls of living in a mountain valley is that the dirty air (from cars, factories, and cows) gets stuck in the bowl shape, and because it's so cold, all the gunk sinks to the valley floor.  We need a big storm to come in and blow it all out before we have clean air and blue skies again.  So the reason you can't see the mountains is because of the dirty air...gross, huh?

So far no storms are in sight, so we're stuck with the gunk for awhile longer.  It looks like we're stuck with more "red" air days (as opposed to yellow or green air days).

--- 4 ---

I received the most thoughtful gift in the mail yesterday from a dear, sweet reader of my blog.  She doesn't have a blog herself, but we've developed this neat email friendship.  I have a post all on its own I'll do about her gift because it's another one of those cool God moments.  Thank you, D.!

--- 5 ---

Now that I'm done with classes, I can finally start working on our Christmas cards!  Yikes...I'm running out of time.  We usually send a letter each year enclosed in a card, so I have some work to do this weekend.  And we also have to get all our gifts wrapped and sent off for our families, since we're staying in town for Christmas.  Lots-o-work this weekend.

--- 6 ---

And finally...the news you've all been wondering about.  Our ultrasound went fabulously today!  Baby is perfectly healthy and everything that was checked out or measured look great.  Baby is measuring 19 weeks 5 days, so just a few days ahead of where I think I am.  I drank some orange juice before the appointment since I'd heard that helps to have Baby active, but it did no good for us.

Baby did not want his/her picture taken and this was the best facial shot we could get...look at those chubby cheeks!  I just noticed that Baby's eye is open in the picture...freaky looking!  Baby was sleeping for most of the appointment and the u/s tech would try to jiggle my belly around to get the baby to move positions, so he could measure different things.  Even all that jiggling (and he did it a lot) hardly got baby to budge.  We have a little stinker or a sleeper on our hands!

--- 7 ---

Thanks for your prayers these past several weeks throughout this pregnancy.  DH and I were talking on the drive home, and I still can't believe I'm pregnant.  I'm still waiting for the ball to drop and for something to go wrong.  I can't help it.  But amazingly, things continue to go just perfectly.  DH calls it a "textbook perfect pregnancy," which is so true and yet so strange to me.  IF me. PCOS-plagued me.  Pregnancy loss me.  Food sensitivity me.  And then something going right or normal with my body?  It doesn't seem to go together in my mind.  It all just seems like a dream to me, and I'm still having a hard time accepting this gift.  It's so full of grace and so undeserved.  I will never know why me or why now, so I've just been trying to say, "Thank you, Lord, for this gift."

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