Boy or Girl?

The results are in, but we want to know what you think before we spill the beans. So VOTE in the poll asap! (If you already know, you are not allowed to vote, okey dokey smokey?)
Pretty cute if I do say so myself. :)

Another year gone...

Okay, so I haven't blogged in a long time, and I am WAY overdue for a post, but we are still in Austin and left our camera cord in Baltimore, so I can't post any pictures and therefore will wait to write updates on the holiday fun, and instead, I will fill out this survey about 2008 that I saw on Hannah's blog. Ha!

1. What did you do in 2008 that you’d never done before?

Graduated from college, got married, went on a cruise, moved to Maryland, visited New York City, got a paid job teaching High School.

2. Did you keep your new year’s resolutions, and will you make more for next year?

Don't remember what they were. But maybe it was to get married, and in that case, yes. I didn't make any official "resolutions" for 2009, but I have some goals.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?

YES! Main ones would have to be Crystal and MARIA who made me an aunt for the first time.

4. Did anyone close to you die?

My Grandma Haynie.

5. What countries did you visit?

Umm, this was a bit of a slow year for international travel, but I did go to Mexico twice.

6. What would you like to have in 2009 that you lacked in 2008?

Maybe a baby. And a house/mortgage.

7. What dates from 2008 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?

May 23rd, I married my best friend.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?

Is getting married an achievement? Or a major event? Hmmm...perhaps graduating from college.

9. What was your biggest failure?

Jon beat me at rummikub.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?

In my case I believe pregnancy qualifies as illness. And I bruised my big toe. But that was nothing compared to the 2005 bout with appendicitis.

11. What was the best thing you bought?

Maybe my paprika red 2003 Hyundai Elantra. Or the Sparkling Cinnamon Yankee Candle.

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?

Jon for cleaning the house, fending for himself for dinner, washing the dishes, doing the laundry, and standing by me (literally) while I repeatedly lost my breakfast/lunch/dinner. And my mom and Maria for talking to me on the phone for hours and hours.

13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?

My students'.

14. Where did most of your money go?

Silver Spring Station Luxury Apartments.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?

Getting pregnant.

16. What song will always remind you of 2008?

No Air by Jordin Sparks.

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
a) happier or sadder? happier
b) thinner or fatter? Fatter, but with a really good excuse.
c) richer or poorer? Richer. But that may not last.

18. What do you wish you’d done more of? Sewing, scrapbooking, reading.

19. What do you wish you’d done less of? Vomiting.

20. How did you spend Christmas?

In Utah with my whole fam and my honey.

21. Did you fall in love in 2008? Why yes, I did.

22. What was your favorite TV program? Jon and Kate + 8

23. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year?

I can't think of anyone I hate.

24. What was the best book you read?

Maybe the Fitzwilliam Darcy series. I also finished re-reading the Anne of Green Gables series this year. Love, love, love.

25. What was your greatest musical discovery?

Um, I don't know. Sorry.

26. What did you want and get? Boots.

27. What did you want and not get? A pony. Just kidding.

28. What was your favorite film of this year? Maybe Get Smart.

29. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?

Threw up, went to half of a conference for first year teachers, threw up again, sat around the house, then ate take-out PF Changs with Jon and opened presents. I turned 27.

30. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?

If I were teaching AP Spanish instead of Spanish 2.

31. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2008?

Layers are good.

32. What kept you sane? Jon for sure.

33. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most? I'm kind of sick of celebrities and public figures, though I have always admired Stacy and Clinton.

34. What political issue stirred you the most? Proposition 8.

35. Who did you miss? My family. So much.

36. Who was the best new person you met? Michelle and Ralph, my office mates, are seriously awesome.

37. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2008.

Pregnancy stinks, but apparently the end justifies the means, or something like that.

38. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year. "I believe I can fly. Whew! I believe I can touch the sky..." j/k. I have no idea. This year has been so crazy that it's basically impossible to summarize. But it has probably been the most exciting year of my life. Go 2008!

That's all folks! Happy 2009!

Countdown...

Jon and I have definitely been counting down this season. But maybe not so much to Christmas day as to, well, today. Right after work we're headed to the airport to fly to Utah, and we are SO excited to spend time with family and friends (and not to go back to work for two weeks). Here is a list of some of the exciting events that await us...
1. Attending the temple with family as Diana goes through for the first time.
2. Diana's bridal shower (I'm looking forward to this. Jon is looking forward to relaxing while I'm there.)
3. Snowboarding. (Jon is especially looking forward to this. I am looking forward to hanging out with the girls. Skiing/snowboarding is frowned upon during pregnancy. :( )
4. Seeing Crystal and Steven and Brent for the one day we will be in Utah at the same time.
5. Hanging out with Kirsti.
6. Hugging and kissing Brooklyn. I can't believe she is already six months old!
7. Celebrating my dad's 50th birthday! He's a good man!
8. Eating at Zupas, Kneaders, El Azteca, etc.
9. Seeing cousins and extended family.
10. Christmas Eve and Christmas morning with the ENTIRE Haynie family!
11. Diana and Jonny's wedding!
12. Flying to Austin, TX to see Jon's family.
13. Cycling.
14. Celebrating New Years with the whole Leininger fam!
15. Eating Dad Doug's cookies...mmmmm...

I could go on, but I don't want to make anyone jealous. ;) I just have to get through work today, and we're off! With the snow coming down hard in SLC, though, we are hoping we in deed make it there sometime tonight. Wish us luck!

Is it bad...

for the teacher to be more excited for Christmas break than the students? Or just normal?

You know what stinks?

When everyone tells you you should stop throwing up by 13 weeks, and you don't think there's any way you can make it that long, but then you finally do, and instead of feeling better, 16 weeks rolls around and you are still throwing up! Roar!
I'm sure you all wanted to know that. Have a nice day.

Fabulous Five?

You like me! You really like me! I have been awarded the Fabulous Blog award!! Thanks Kirsti. ;) Apparently there are rules to this thing, so here goes...

The rules of this award are:
1. You have to pass it on to 5 other fabulous blogs in a post.
2. You have to list 5 of your fabulous addictions in the post.
3. You must copy and paste the rules and the instructions below in the post.

Instructions: On your post of receiving this award, make sure you include the person that gave you the award and link it back to them. When you post your five winners, make sure you link them as well. To add the award to your post, simply right-click, save image, then "add image" it in your post as a picture so your winners can save it as well. To add it to your sidebar, add the "picture" gadget. Also, don't forget to let your winners know they won an award from you by emailing them or leaving a comment on their blog. (Blah, blah, blah...)

Five (Fabulous?) Addictions
1. Chapstick (anyone who really know me knows this already.)
2. Spanish (Hello! See blog title.)
3. Travel (I've sorta gone cold turkey lately, and it's really getting to me...but don't worry, I'll be back in an airport in two weeks. Too bad my destination isn't exactly exotic.)
4. Eggnog (This addiction comes and goes with the seasons, and I've already expounded on it in a previous post, so I'll stop here.)
5. Jon (I keep waiting to get sick of him, but it never seems to happen...every day I start to get excited waiting for him to come home.)


And now to pass on the award...(dun, dun, dun)

1. Maria (Okay, so she doesn't actually blog that much, but most of her posts include pictures of my niece Brooklyn, which makes this one of my favorite blogs to read. And maybe if I give her this award she will be motivated to blog a little more often.)
2. Stephanie (Steph is not only one of my oldest and bestest friends, but she is also one of the best bloggers I know. Always entertaining, always honest, and always up-to-date.)
3. Ashley (One of my favorite mission companions, and now, one of the cutest and most down-to-earth moms out there...at least, that's what I gather from her blog.)
4. Hannah (She's also guilty of occasional blog neglect...aren't we all?...but every post is side-splittingly funny. Fitting for my funniest cousin...now no one get offended out there...if you want to go up against Hannah for the title, I'd be happy to arrange a stand-up show-down. And I'm betting on Hannah.)
5. Vanessa (One of my favorite friends. If you visit her blog, you'll see why. Always interesting and always "educational". Love it. )

Thanksgiving!

We have had a fantastic Thanksgiving weekend, and are more than a little sad that it's over. I can't even describe how difficult it was to get out of bed this morning and go to work. To top it all off, I have parent-teacher conferences tonight...every teacher's favorite night of the year! My parents and siblings were all together for the holiday in Utah, and though I miss them lots, I didn't feel sad being the only one far away thanks to great east coast family we got to spend our time with.

The festivities started nearly a week ago. On Tuesday night Jon and I drove to Virginia to meet up with Lauren who had caught a ride up from SVU with Lisa and Bill who were coming up from West Virginia (thanks guys!) . It was fun to get to chat with them for a little bit, though the visit was definitely too brief. We drove the hour and a half back to good ol' Nottingham, MD and crashed (for the night, not the car). Wednesday Jon and I both had to work, so Lauren had the house to herself for a bit. I got off by 1 pm, and Jon took a half day, so we spent the afternoon making pies, glorious pies, and the in the evening picked Chris up from the bus station (he rode down from NYC). It was so fun to have them with us! We had a spaghetti dinner, made a couple more pies, and went to bed early.
Thursday morning, we packed our bags and pies, hopped in the car, and headed back down to Virginia to spend the holiday with Jon's uncle and aunt, Brad and Joy. The traffic was surprisingly light, and we made good time. We spent the morning hanging out, watching Elf, tossing around footballs and frisbes, and Jon, Chris and Lauren even joined Brad in the back yard for some archery lessons. We had a fabulous meal together, and finished a few pounds heavier than we started. After a brief trip to Doug (cousin)'s in-laws for visiting and a visit from Santa Clause, we headed back to Brad and Joy's for pie and football (hook 'em horns!) I must confess that while football is definitely growing on me now that I somewhat understand the rules, I was exhausted, and fell asleep before half-time, at which point, Jon dragged me downstairs to bed. I was very grateful.
Friday morning Doug and Pam, along with little (adorable) Hannah, came over for breakfast, and we had a great time eating more food and chatting. Then we packed our bags, and followed Brad to the shooting range for some "skeet" (which I gather to mean shooting clay pidgeons with shotguns. News flash: I always imagined that "clay pidgeons" looked like pidgeons. If you're like me, I have news for you. They don't. They look more like tiny ceramic frisbes). I was a little bit hesitant about the whole activity. Let's just say I'm not really a "gun person". However, I was pleasently surprised! We ended up having a blast! And with Uncle Brad's expert advise, I met my goal of hitting one "bird" (frisbe). Chris and Jon tore it up, and Lauren turned out to be quite a natural herself. From the range, we got back in the car and headed toward MD, but not without a stop or two before getting there. Thanks Brad and Joy, for the awesome Thanksgiving!!

All that shooting made us hungry, so we stopped at a place that came highly recommended on our GPS (aka it was only 1.4 miles away) for some "New York" style pizza. Chris, our resident New Yorker wasn't overly impressed, but the rest of us thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. Post-pizza we headed to our next stop: Ticonderoga Farms, to purchase a Christmas tree! We will be in Utah for Christmas and Texas for New Years, but we wanted to put up a tree of our own anyway, and thought the experience of cutting our own was too good to pass up. The particular place we went had more than just trees...it also had slides, and a hayride. I'll let the pictures tell the rest of the story.

We made it home without losing our tree from the roof of the car, and threw together a quick stir-fry for dinner. After re-fueling, we decorated the tree and the house, and we are now ready for Christmas. :)

We spent the rest of the weekend lounging, watching movies, shopping, eating, going to church, and eating some more. Sunday night came all too soon. Chris headed back to NYC this morning, and Lauren is taking off tonight with a guy from our ward who also goes to SVU. It will be lonely around here without them. (Note: visitors are always welcome!)

Now it's back to the grindstone for three more weeks, and then....Christmas Break!! I can NOT wait!