Getting bigger...

It's official... you can tell that I am pregnant. My students are no longer wondering if I just started to eat too much and are now asking about the baby.

But here I am 5 1/2 months along and still growing. I cannot seem to stop eating... or sleeping. I keep on waiting for the stage where all your energy comes back, but I am still waiting. We are working on collecting all sorts of things for the baby. I never imagined that babies required so MANY things. I started panicking last week when the weekly email told me only 112 days to go and all we have are some clothes and a crib. But now we have a changing table (and more clothes). Now we just have to finish the bookcases to put in the office / nursery and then put everything together. Hopefully it will all be in place by the time that she gets here!

SOO COLD

So I know that at one point in time I had mentioned that I missed this freezing weather, but I am now dreaming off warmer climates. I cleary did not think of early mornings and having the car take so long to heat up... or had forgotten that when it is snot freezing weather, it actually hurts to breath...

Memories of Scotland

I am slowly but surely going through our photos and other momentos to make our scrapbook(s) of Europe. We were going through everything and I found this photo. It always made me laugh...

In Guatemala

Another teacher (Ann) and I arrived safe and sound in Guatemala. We were picked up in Guatemala City by the hostel we are staying at, which was wonderful. You can really see how poor the country is in by driving through Guatemala City, but we are staying in Antigua. The city is beautiful and surrounded by rolling hills and volcanoes. It is incredibly old and the entire city is protected against development, which is spectacular. We met two other teachers that we work with here. They were studying Spanish at one of the schools here. SO last night we were able to have dinner with their host family, and then go to a party at their school. Lots of free booze and salsa dancing, but Ann and I were so tired after our early start we didn't last very long. Today we explored more of the city, and went to some markets. We found one that was purely for the Guatemalans. We got some dirty looks becuase we clearly didn't belong there, but it was really interesting to see all the food vendors. And I didn't even yak at the meat vendors. ALthough the smell was more than gag worthy. Tonight we are being picked up and brought to the place where we will be working for the week. The principal of the school is having us all over for dinner and then putting us up in his hotel. It should be an adventure!

Ballonfest

Every June Howell has a big hot air ballon festival. This year it is June 27-29. You can check out what there is to see here. Mom and dad are coming over on Saturday... let us know if you want to come over too!! (Friday, Saturday, or Sunday)

A new addition to our family

I am way behind in posting this... we got a new addition to our family in December. He is incredibly sweet and cute, and we fell in love with his picture on the Internet. He goes everywhere with us, so some of you may have meet him already at mom and dad's. Heis INCREDIBLY spoiled. He even has his own kiddie chair on the porch (it's Dora the Explorer). He was getting upset because he didn't have anywhere to sit when Mike and I were both out there, so we found a chair on sale and now he has his own place to sit... Crazy, I know... but we don't have kids... or a house

I made it!!

I know that it has been forever, but I am finally done with my first year teaching. I didn't loose my sanity (too many times), hit anyone, etc. The firewall did go out once when we were doing presentations... therefore one hour (7th graders) did get a glimpse ofa nudey webpage. HUGE OPPS. But I blocked the screen automatically and they were more excited about the fact that it actually popped up in school versus what they actually might haven seen. And to the best of my knowledge, there were not any angry parent phone calls. So, after 9 months I am still employed, and they seem to like me. I hear that the first year is the hardest, so next year I am hoping that I can stay up later than 8:30pm every night (that is really as late as I was able to stay up most nights). And I will now be able to update more often!

SOOO Disappointed

So... with the Writer's Guild striking there will now be re-runs of The Daily Show and The Colbert Report. I feel like I have been cheated. All this time and I thought that THEY actually came up with their material.

Opps...

Well, after a silent 2 1/2 months, all I can say is opps...

So...

• Prague was AMAZING. Slightly creepy and overwhelming at first as we were taking the train through the Czech Republic, but it was better once we hit Prague. The city was incredibly beautiful, but it was the only place that we had been to in which neither of us knew any bit of the language. Little scary. But the trip was wonderful.
• Leaving Germany was great. Scotland was sad, but by the time we moved to Germany we were ready to be home.
• In the first two weeks of being home, I had 5 interviews (in 2 school districts) and 2 job offers. I am now one of the two new Spanish teachers in the district, and I really like it. I teach 5th, 7th and 8th graders. Those awkward early teenage years...
• In those first 2 weeks, we also moved to Howell. Its a bit of a commute for Mike, but at least he doesn't have to make it every day. AND next semester he doesn't have class, so it will be cut down even more. WOO HOO!! And the commute for me is great. Only 15-20 minutes.
• It has been great being back home and seeing (most) everyone!! I will try to keep this more up to date from now on...

Down to one hand finger counting now

That´s right... only four more days until we start the long trek back to Michigan. So... this is more than likely the last time that you will hear from us until we get home. We are heading to Prague this weekend with a couple of friends. Its dirt cheap to get to from Bavaria, so we might as well go. We are really excited, and I am sure that we will have tons of pictures to show you all. We have most of our pictures uploaded onto our Flickr account now. I think that there are over 6,000 pictures of the last 11 months... and Germany is not all on there. Thank goodness for digital cameras! :)