I'm not saying I told you so, but...

We have a sweet baby girl on the way! We are so excited and she just keeps growing more and more and loves wiggling around in my tummy. Her favorite thing to do is snuggle up in a tight ball on my right side. It makes me feel really tight, slightly uncomfortable, and results in me walking around school with a limp, but I like picturing her all cozy and curled up :) gives me lots of hope that she will be a snuggly baby (My #1 fear is that I will have a child that will not want to cuddle. Forget wayward teenage years, crime, drugs & alcohol abuse, etc. If my baby won't cuddle, I don't think I'll be able to handle that.)

Really big ant hill
(see foot for point of reference)

The house is coming along and I'm realizing how much I cannot do and will not be able to do :( Garrett is stuck with most of the bending over/backbreaking/stinky chemicals work and I'm left to piddle around and do little things here and there. Our yard has officially turned into a jungle complete with the biggest anthill I have seen as we turn our attention to revitalizing the inside. Don't worry poor, neglected backyard, you will have your glory day in the hot sun ;)

Our plan is to have the biggest projects for the interior of our home done within the next month. I'm so excited to see what it'll look like come the end of June.

I took the time the other day to set up some very important countdowns on my phone. The closest one is THE END OF SCHOOL! I cannot tell you how excited I am for 17 days, 21 hours, and 34 minutes from now when I will be done with school. After carefully reflecting upon this past year, I have come to the conclusion that deciding to teach in an inner city school right after getting married and moving to a completely unfamiliar land was probably not the best idea for us and my emotional and mental sanity. Sometimes you bite off more than you can chew. To say it has been rough at times would likely be an understatement. However, to also say that I have not learned MUCH and grown TONS would also be a lie. I have learned some hard lessons about life, education in this country, and myself and on June 6th I will be very glad to put this experience behind me and say I am officially done learning from that particular trial by fire...

The next countdown occurs 38 days from now and that involves our cousin Ben and I driving from Texas to Tennessee whereupon I will cry sweet tears of joy and hug my sweet sisters and my parents for an extended period of time... I'm so excited to have some sister time and see some of those people who are closest to my heart. Just thinking about it makes me smile :) I'm not sure how many times a week (or day, depending on the day) I honestly say out loud, "I miss my family" or "I miss my sisters." Any hope of family maybe moving closer to us just gets me giddy.

The third countdown from now (in 65 days) is Utah! We get to go to Utah for a MacKay family reunion and we are so excited! We get to go visit a beautiful part of Utah and spend a nice weekend with mom and dad and everyone. It will be so nice to get to see even more family before life gets crazy with our new baby girl!

Say goodbye to nasty, stinky,
dog-pee-ridden carpet!

The last one of course is for the arrival of that little girl, set for 126 days from now, but she's the only one on this countdown that gets to move that day around a bit if she so chooses. Then we will be blessed with seeing our family again!!!




This summer is going to be hot and uncomfortable, but filled with so many fun projects and most importantly family time! I can't wait for it to get started.

We have two sad looking magnolia trees in our backyard, but they have managed to give us a couple of beautiful blooms! House is smelling less of dog pee and more of spring :) Thank you magnolias!