Amanda Martin- Wylie ISD- Cancelled

So...I show up to the conference yesterday morning, bright and early at 7:45 to try and figure out what I was supposed to do! I call the main office, they were like "hmm....maybe you should come over here." I miraculously maneuver my way to their building, and present myself. The very sweet people in there were like, "for some reason we have you down as cancelled." WHAT?! I was trying not to panic, because that would be ridiculous, but I HAD to be in this conference! So, after a few moments of waiting, a conversation with College Board, a few more moments of paperwork being filed...THEY LET ME IN! WHOO HOO!!!! So, I didn't allow myself to feel humiliated since it wasn't my fault...and because they let me in. (smile) A huge sigh of relief! I walked my ever growing self over a couple of blocks and made it to class right on time! Of course, I had no materials, no nametag, and no record of being on the attendance sheet. However, someone didn't show up, so I've been walking around all day yesterday and today wearing a nametag that says Brittney Duvall. I hope she's ok, but I am very thankful to have a spot!

Everything's going well in the land of pregnancy. I finally bought some pregnancy capris. They are definitely too loose but the squishing into my jeans just wasn't going to cut it for sitting in a conference all day long. So, now I have two options! My pregnancy capris or my oversized shorts. :) I'm going over to my friend Jennifer's tonight to pick up her stash of pregnancy clothes for the fall and winter. I'm so thankful!! I love having the greatest friends ever!

Tomorrow might possibly be humiliating.

Well tomorrow I am starting the "week of a beating." The week of a beating is the week that I have to drive from my house in Wylie all the way to TCU in Ft. Worth. For those of you who can't actually visualize that, our friends at mapquest say it is 60.68 miles and should take 1 hour and 14 minutes to get there. OH MY GOSH!! Are you serious? The week of a beating is from Monday thru Friday. I have to be there at 8:30 and it doesn't end until 4:30. Now, I promise to try to be positive. I'll hopefully use the time to sing my little heart out in the car or catch up with some prayer time...however, I will continue to call this the week of a beating. :)

Now, why might tomorrow possibly be humiliating? Let me tell you. The reason for the week of a beating is that I will be attending an AP Psychology conference. I am really happy to be at the conference considering I am the only AP Psych teacher at school and sometimes I feel like I am not smart enough to teach that class. So, this conference will be excellent to boost my confidence. HOWEVER... I put down the deposit for this conference like in May, but the conference has not been fully paid for since Wylie ISD doesn't get new money until July 1. The business operator at our school has been on vacation after that, and won't be at work until tomorrow. So, the conference still has not been completely paid for. I also have not received any schedule of anything from the conference. The leads to me thinking I might show up to TCU, I will not be registered, the course is full so I can't go in, and I will have to leave in shame, and out my $150 non-refundable deposit. I will let you know...

On to more happier news, Wes has been home all weekend so I have loved that! We went and saw Transformers and I loved it! haha...seriously! I thought it was great! And I made it to church on time today! What a great day :)

Summer luvin'

wow. It has been awhile since I've been here! Several things have happened, and I'll start with the most recent:

Today: I went to the doctor's office and on the way there I downed a whole small thing of gatorade so I would for sure have to pee! I can't always pee on command, even being pregnant, so I wanted some sort of guarantee! It worked :) Anyway, my appointment was short and sweet. My uterus is growing right on schedule, my baby's heartbeat is wonderful (and I LOVE hearing that by the way) and I was outta there! But, before I left, I scheduled my next appointment, and more importantly, my next sonogram! WHOO HOO!! I can't wait! Hopefully, if this little baby cooperates, I will be able to tell boy or girl on August 16! That just makes me so excited, I cannot even tell you! I totally respect the surprise thing, but I HAVE TO KNOW! haha... anyways, I am very ready for that day!

Yesterday: I had a Student Council pre-camp meeting with the kids. We go to StuCo workshop in two weeks and we needed to discuss some last minute things. The kids came up with their camp shirt. It will be a black t-shirt with light blue font that says on the front: WHS StuCO and on the back: Jump on it! They chose that so they could have "jump on it" as their theme song. hahaha... oh the joys of high school. Those kids crack me up!

Then I went to study for a counseling theories test which is on Saturday (yikes!) at Julie's house. ...so much to study...so little time...

and then I went to Dallas to see Meredith and we went to see Evening. I loved that movie! But, I pretty much like all movies~

Last week Wes was home all week (YAY!!!). I love that week! It comes once a summer usually and I get so spoiled by seeing him everyday! It's even better because I don't have to work in the summer so it's whatever we want to time all the time! LOVE IT! Last weekend we went to Abilene for Hannah's wedding and had SO much fun! Here are some pics from the weekend:

Wes' mom, Carol, got two new kittens! They were so cute!! The striped one is Tater Tots and the solid grey one is Buddy! P R E C I O U S!!





The girls showing that I am indeed pregnant



Mere, Rach, and me...we couldn't get the dang sparklers to light after the wedding so we did this instead :)



Rachel and I in the church before the wedding



Me and Meredith after the wedding

Off to Abilene....I love that town!

Today Wes and I are traveling to Abilene for Meredith's sister, Hannah's, wedding. We all went to school at Hardin-Simmons University there and loved every single minute of it! I love Abilene because so much happened there. We all learned to make new friends, pay bills, live off of like $5.00 a day, find our faith on our own, and that friends can be your family too. We LOVED it! So, I always like going back there because my lovely amazing beautiful friend Rachel lives there and because when we all go back, we get to pretend we're in college again, for just a little while.

Happy wedding day Hannah!

I don't have many HSU pics on the computer since it has been awhile... haha..

A blast from the past...

Me and Rachel



Friends from HSU: Christa, Rach, me, Dana, Missie, and Mere

What a happy 4th of July that was :)

Well, a bunch of friends got together for a cookout at my parents house (THANK YOU MOM AND DAD!!) and then went to see some fireworks. I will say that we had to park illegally, some people were rude to us, we tried to leave early, got caught in the traffic in front of Kohls for what seemed like actualy eternity, had to cut like 8 cars off to get out of there because we were caught between two lanes and we were in our own, finally made it out to the "country" to pop our own fireworks, were ready to go home and the boys made a "grand finale" that was a total dud (sorry guys...), Wes left his cell phone in Liz's car so she had to come back and give it to us, I got a terrible headache, and then we went home. ALL of that to say though...IT WAS SO MUCH FUN!! Really! We had a great time!! Here are some pics of Scott, Jace, Wes, Steve, Joe, Jourdan, Amanda, Linde, Liz, and me:

Somebody give me an AMEN!

I would like to thank all of you for your emotional support throughout this first trimester. haha... sorry for the emotional breakdowns and repeated blogs about how tired I was. But I have good news, and I have bad news...

GOOD NEWS: I am out of the first trimester!! Yee-haw! (how Texan of me) So, although I don't have the rush of energy I was expecting on my first day out of this period, I do feel much better. But I also could possibly be missing the rush of energy due to the fact that I caught some nasty mean stomach bug that wiped me out of commission for awhile. I couldn't even go to my friend's wedding! Her wedding!!! I hate missing close friend's weddings! But, back to the good news, I am out of the first trimester!

BAD NEWS: you will have to continue to endure the emotional breakdowns. For some reason, I am like 10 million times more emotional now. I mean, literally, as I am typing these words, tears are streaming down my face. Why? I don't know! Possibly because I just read a very honest blog on Simri's page. Possibly because I miss my freaking husband and can't wait to see him tomorrow. Possibly because now everything makes me cry. I have NO idea! And if it was just the pretty teary cry, it wouldn't be so bad. But this is the mascara running, red-faced, stomach in knots because you are sobbing type of cry. geez... and I guess I just feel the safest around Wes, so when he's home it gets much worse. haha...poor thing. (sigh...) This is out of control.

Well there you have it. That is where I am. But I am SO glad to be done with that frist trimester (smile)

Losing a mother

Today I found out that my friend Kayla's mother died on Sunday in a motorcycle accident. I know SO many people now who live every day without their mom. Some are younger, some are older, but they all live every day with out their mother. I know this is something that almost everyone will go through at some point in their lives...but I literally thought my heart would stop beating when my grandmother died, so this... I cannot even fathom. I think God gives us some sort of special kind of angels during times like that. The kind that buffer you a little more than usual to the harshness of the world. Anyway, to think of all of that, and to think that I'm going to be a mom...technically I guess I am a mom. It's just a totally different perspective...maybe a little deeper perspective.

God please be with Kayla and her sweet family during this time. And to all the rest of those who have lost their mothers too.