Belly Pics

So I haven't been really good about taking any belly pics. However, today I decided we should probably take some since my belly is growing so much!! Here are all the pics we've taken so far.

Here we are at 5 weeks! Gosh... I didn't realize I was that thin!

Somewhere between 12 and 15 weeks. I can't remember for sure. But you can definitely see the thickening of the waist. **Side note: ignore the stupid face I'm making.**

So here we are now at 20 weeks. Baby J is growing and some am I!!

A little wiggle worm!

I am attempting to post a video we got from our dr appointment last week of Baby J wiggling around. :) I know he's moving because I saw him moving like CRAZY last Friday. At one point he turned 180 degrees. However... I haven't felt him move. I'm beginning to think, I just really don't know what I am supposed to feel. Or maybe... I am just that visual of a person that I need to see him move to know that he is really moving. Who knows!! :)





The next video is one of Baby J sucking his thumb (that's what it looks like he's doing anyway). But you can also see his heart beating. WOW!! Also the black circle is his stomach!! It's so amazing what technology can capture these days. :)

DONE!!

Things I can do now that my research paper is complete:

• Catch up on my missed Grey's Anatomy
• Christmas cards
• Finish Christmas shopping
• READ for enjoyment :)
  
• Have Monday nights off (no more class-til January anyways)
• Stop stressing about my research paper and portfolio
  

I'm sure there's more, but that's what comes to my mind right now!! :)

Reinforcement and Motivation

Sadly, today John is working a 24 hour shift. :( However, since he is gone, I have no excuse for not working on my school work. Now, you may say, "Kari... you are blogging right now and NOT working on your school work." This is definitely TRUE!! BUT... since I got up this morning I have been working on school work. I told myself when I finished my portfolio which is due tomorrow, that I can blog. **Katrina- I'm bribing and motivating myself with internet instead of food this time. :)** Using reinforcement strategies so I can do the things I really want to do!! :)

So here I am... portfolio is finished, so I am getting to update you guys on the BIG day we had on Friday. As most of you know, we were had an ultrasound scheduled for Friday for our baby's anatomy scan. Not only would they look at the development of all of the baby, they would also tell us the gender, which we were VERY excited to find out. Since I am in there by myself at first, I chose not to look at the screen until John was able to be in there with me. I wanted to share that moment together. And WOW... what they can see these days using technology is ABSOLUTELY AMAZING!! Neither one of us could stop smiling. Thankfully, our little baby decided to cooperate today and did give us a little show! :)

From the poll we had on our blog, 54% thought it would be a boy while, 45% thought it would be a girl. Thanks to EVERYONE who voted in our poll. I loved watching the poll! It made me giggle to think that most of the time it stayed 50/50 since ultimately those are the odds! Thanks again!

I am leaving you with a picture of our baby! I'll let the picture doing the talking! :)

John's favorite picture because you can see his entire spine! So incredible!

I will post more pictures and video of our little baby boy wiggling around!

Now off to work on my paper!
Next bribe: Finish paper, then I get to catch up on the Grey's Anatomy episodes I have missed. :)

Favorite 5

My friend Katrina "tagged" me to post my 5 favorite things...so please enjoy! SIDE NOTE: This has been kind of hard for me... because I have SO many favorites!

My favorite 5 in no particular order.

#1 My family (John-obvi and my sister HOLLY JO!!)

#2 Blue Bell Ice Cream (Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough) However since I've gotten preggers I haven't had ANY. It's weird... I haven't craved it. Probably better for the baby and for me. :P

#3 Children (honestly working with children is very rewarding and really makes my heart happy)

#4 Dance parties (I love making up dances with my sister... and by dances I don't mean choreographed dances... just awesome dance moves! John tends to ignore me most of the time. FYI the dance parties and making up of dance moves haven't stopped since I've gotten pregnant. I have a feeling our baby will be a dancer too!! :) Either that is will get as motion sick as I do.)

#5 Reading (ok.... so since forever and as long as I can remember, I have always LOVED to read. It's just one of those things, I can do at any time. When my masters program is over, I know I will be able to read LOTS more. Since I started my masters, I only read for pleasure during the breaks(otherwise NO school work is done), so you know I can't wait for Christmas break!!) I can finally start reading the Twilight series. YES I am THAT far behind!

I tag:
Cristina
Nicole
Emily
Paige
Ana

Thanksgiving Break!

Since John and I have been together, we have spent every Thanksgiving break at the deer lease. Just like the other breaks, this one is no different. John should be getting home any minute. Once he's here, we will load up the car and head to Ozona, TX. I love being at the deer lease. While we are "roughing it", it's so nice to get away and just be outdoors for a few days. Here's a couple of pictures from years at the deer lease!

My First Buck


My husband, the bow hunter.



I love him! :)

HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYONE!!

Time at the Farm

John and I had a really nice weekend. Besides hanging out at the gun range, practicing my rifle skills and my lack of pistol shooting skills, we watched the Tech game (OUCH!) and went to the farm to do some goose hunting.

Here are few pictures from our weekend at the farm.

Shooting Time

Keith went along with us... or rather, I went along with the guys.

Ready to go.

Calling it quits. Picking up the decoys.

We saw LOTS of geese, however they were all out of range. It was a nice day and I am glad we went. No shots were fired, so that means no guns needed to be cleaned. While we didn't get anything, I am very glad we got to go. :)

BABY UPDATE
As far as the baby goes, as you can see on our little baby ticker on the blog, I am just over 17 weeks along. According to the books I have read and ladies I work with, I should be able to feel the baby move any day. However, I have a feeling it will be a while before I feel anything. Everyone says it either feels like "a gas bubble", "tickling feeling", "butterflies", "a fish", etc... I haven't felt ANYTHING like that. So time will tell! I'm thinking that our baby is just so comfortable and relaxed, it doesn't want to move. Wait... does that mean our baby is lazy?!?!?!? :P

We go back to the doctor, December 5th to find out the sex of the baby. We are SUPER excited about it. Hopefully the baby will cooperate and let us see when we go! I will keep you all updated!

God bless!

Relaxing Weekend

I am taking a break from my research paper especially since John isn't here right now to keep me on task. :)

John has been gone since Thursday. Since he had 4 days off, he decided to take his first trip down to the deer lease since the season opened. I wasn't able to go because I would have had to take 2 days off of work. NOT POSSIBLE!! I am not so sure my principal would have liked that one bit. I have been able to keep in touch with him while he's there, but mainly through texts and while he's on the stand. He saw lots of deer and even a possible shooter, but was not able to get a good shot on that one. We will be heading back during Thanksgiving break together in hopes that we both come home with a buck.

Since John was out of town this weekend, my favorite sister/family member/bestie/etc., HOLLY JO, came to see me. I always love hanging out with my sister. There is no one who understands/gets/puts up with me like she does. She's pretty darn awesome! While she was here, we did a little bit of shopping. Not much. She got herself an early birthday present from John and me. She is going snowboarding for the first time with her boo, so she needed pants and gloves for her trip. Besides that, we did a little bit of Christmas shopping for some of our family members and then I got myself a little bit of something. :)

One of the girls I work with who is also pregnant told me about her belly band that she wears. Well she told me that she just LOVES it. Since I am in that inbetween stage where I don't need maternity clothes yet, but my regular pants are getting a bit snug in the waste, I decided to invest in the belly band. I will be trying it out this week for work!

Ladies: Has anyone else tried it before? Did you like it? Hate it? Did I waste my money?

I'm leaving you all with a few pictures of my sister and me. These were taken I believe almost two years ago, but they give a true picture of what goes on when the two of us get together. P.S. she's going to hate me for posting these. :)

I believe these were taken in the Amarillo airport during one of our Christmas breaks.

How else do we entertain ourselves? Obviously just making faces and taking pictures of them.

Sad as it may seem, there are like 20 of these pictures.

Wedding Fun

For the past two weekends, John and I have been two weddings! We love our friends and family, but poor planning for them since deer season just began in November. :) However, it is so much fun to see family and friends! The first wedding in Austin, I forgot my camera. I was not happy at all. However, for the wedding we went to yesterday, I made sure to grab it before we headed out the door. Here are a few pictures from Friday and Saturday!

Rehearsal dinner: me, Kuohai, Meredith, Jim, and John



I was getting really tired.



Dan, John, and Dave



Jeannie and Joseph (my in-laws) LOVE THEM!! :)

Now enough procrastinating for the day. Back to my school work I go.

Election Day and Baby Update

It's finally here! ELECTION DAY!! I've been waiting for this day for a while now... mainly to get rid of the ridiculous mudslinging campaign ads. Am I the only one who gets annoyed with them?!?!? Honestly, those ads do not make me swing my vote either way. They are just a great restroom break, grabbing a snack, or dog feeding time during my favorite shows. Not only will I be happy to see the ads go away, but also the ridiculous prerecorded phone messages being left on the answering machine. I mean seriously... John Cornyn(U.S. Senator), you are becoming a stalker!!

Another reason I am happy it's election day is because Cy-Fair ISD let it's employees have the day off! (Technically we have already worked this day during off-contract time, but that's besides the point.) No complaints there... well except for the fact that I have only worked on my portfolio for one of my classes all stinking day long. But at least I have been productive today. I have my friend Tracy to thank for that! We hung out at her school today, so we wouldn't be as distracted by TV, family, internet (everything is blocked at school). The only bad thing is... we distracted each other. We looked at them as brain breaks rather than as distractions though. :)

Click here for a little Election video!

Update on the baby and his/her momma:
Baby Suchecki(or JL as we call him/her right now) is obviously growing. I refuse to believe it's me just getting fat... even though that's how I feel. I don't like the feeling that my pants don't quite fit the right now anymore. I'm not big enough for maternity pants yet, but not quite small enough to stay in my regular pants. ANNOYING!! However, I do have a pair of scrub pants that I LOVE!!! Too bad I can't wear those to work everyday! Besides just getting bigger, according to one of the books I am reading, JL will start to grow toenails within the next three days. Pretty cool!

As far as momma goes, I am feeling better. The morning sickness went away a couple of weeks ago. THANK THE LORD!!! I do have some weird food aversions... I hear that's normal too! Besides that, I am just a little stopped up right now. But once again, one of the books I'm reading says that is normal too since my "mucous membranes swell". Interesting!! I just hope this goes away soon too! :)

Anyways... I will update again soon!

Procrastination

I am the WORST when it comes to procrastinating!! I am getting worse as I get older. Not a good thing!! As mentioned in the previous post, I am working on my masters and I am REALLY ready for it to be over. This semester we begin working on our research paper. That's pretty much the only thing we get graded on this semester. We write the first half of our paper this semester and then finish the second half in the spring. So our rough drafts are due in three weeks. Have I started writing the paper??!?!!? NO!!! I just cannot get motivated in anyway. I have done pretty much all of the "research" part. Now I really just need to start writing! I am getting printing out my articles right now though... so that's a step in the right direction... right!!??!?

If anyone out there has any motivation tips... PLEASE pass it on my way!
Enjoy your Sunday!

I'm trying here...

So after searching/wasting time on the internet and FINALLY asking questions, I was able to figure out how to change the background of our blog. Thanks Katrina!! :) I will have to search through more backgrounds later to find another one that I like. There's so many things to learn on here. I have seen blogs with pictures in the banner/header thingy. Can anyone tell me how you do that?!?!? John has been working nonstop and is out of town at the deer lease right now. In other words, he has NO idea what I have written or what this things looks like. At least he knows it exists! :)

Speaking of John... I am not sure who all knows, but John is finishing up EMT school through the Houston Fire Academy. He started fire school last April and finished I believe in September. (All the months are running together now). He is officially a certified Fire Fighter. Now he is finishing up the second part of the fire academy which as I said before EMT school. He is finishing up his rotations/clinicals in different hospitals and ambulance shifts. He will be taking his EMT state exam this month and then graduating in January. He is loving what he is doing and I am extremely proud of him!

As for me, I am still teaching and working on my masters in Educational Leadership through Stephen F. Austin. Go Lumberjacks!! I am SOOOOOO ready for my masters program to be over. The excitement I had when I started the program over a year ago is long gone. I want my time back!! However, from what I hear... with Baby Suchecki coming along, my time will no longer exist come May or April whenever he/she decides to come!

Well off to finish watching Wheel of Fortune and eat a low calorie/low sugar ice cream bar!

Our Blogging Adventure

First and foremost, neither of us are the blogging type. Maybe that's because neither of us has really tried it. One of the last electives I had to take when I was at A&M was on online English course. One of the expectations for the course was to keep track of a blog using current events. Since it was mandatory for me to do it, I did not really think blogging was for me. However, now that John and I have news to share with friends and family, I am a little more excited about the whole blogging experience. So who knows, we may realize we are more of the blogging type than we thought.

With that little spill out of the way, we would like to let all of our friends and family know that we are expecting our first child in May. As of now our due date has been set for May 2nd. We are extremely excited for this baby to come and nervous at the same time. We have so much learn. Many friends and family members have given us books to read. Those have been extremely helpful. It is absolutely amazing everything there is to know. It is NEVER ENDING!! But that's ok! We are not supposed to know it all now!

For now, I am going to attempt to post our baby's first picture (ultrasound) for you all to see!
Thank you for letting us share!
God bless you all!