Nursery Time

Sometimes there are people in the world that think they are doing you a favor, and are really not. They actually just made your life harder. This happened to me this week when our landlord decided to be "nice" and put in new carpet. Unfortunately, he put in HOT PINK carpet in the baby's room. He insisted on the color because "it was his wife's favorite color"...and also because "it is my gift to your little baby girl." What do you say to this 94 year old man who thinks he's being kind. Little does he know that I LOATHE pink. Nothing in my nursery is pink. Sad day. Thankfully, I have a husband who can help me laugh about it, and a friend who takes me to Bed Bath and Beyond an hour later to find an area rug to cover it. I have a good life.

This is the pink carpet, next to the kitchen floor. Lime green and hot pink. Heather so kindly put it as a beautiful watermelon collection.



My friends Heather and Camille helped me put a lovely wall decal up.





It's a bird theme, if you haven't noticed. My baby girl is a Crane...a bird...get it? Yes?



At my baby shower in Cali, my little cousin, Audrey, made me a beautiful blanket for her Young Women's project. Brought tears to my eyes when I found it and saw that there were little patches of pink to tie my nursery together with my new, awesome carpet. I love you Auds. You can also see the area rug I bought to cover most of the carpet.



This was Diego and Alec's cradle and I think it is just perfect. I love it. Thanks Mole and Mer for letting me borrow it. I hope your boys didn't throw up and fart in it too much. My baby girl won't do that kind of stuff.

And So it Begins...

Welcome to my 6th Grade class. Here they are. They are the ones that keep me up at night, that make me smile, that help me realize that I do have a calling in life, and who give me gray hairs. I'm really excited about this year's class. If you've read past blogs about my last years class, you'll know this one is heaven sent.

Kids say the darndest things...here's mine for the day:
While teaching about Ancient Greece the students were shouting out different gods and goddesses they knew. One kid yelled out "Hercules." Then another kid yelled out, "No, dummy, he's a Demi-God." Another kid: "What's a demi-god?" Another kid: "That means he had sex with a god."

What do I say to that?

Crane Family Reunion

This year the Crane family reunion was at Bear Lake. Very memorable. Jeff has a very great family, a big family...very different from mine. 15 nieces and nephews, and all of them were there! And three on the way...mine, Brookes, and Maddie. Love having preggo woman to help me.

So I look gigantic here (I blame it on the position of the camera)...but whatever, the kids look cute and so does my Jeffrey.



Jeff looks up to his older bros. He's the youngest...sorry, Bret, I don't know where you were in this picture. Maybe I took it at like 1 in the morn and you were sleeping? Matt is in the middle, and Mike on the right.



People love playing with Photobooth on my mac. Can't you tell?



Emily is my sis-in-law who lives in VA. 3 hours away from my sis Candice. We love their 4 kids and its so great of them to make the trip every summer! Miss you guys already.



Jeffrey's older and wiser sisters. Traci on the left, and Kelli on the right. Someone thought Kelli and I were actual sisters. We look exactly alike, right? I don't know what that person was thinking...she's way cuter than me.



Toothless smiles are the best. If they don't grow in, Chad, don't fix it. Logan is getting so handsome, he's the one on the left and he's almost 13. Kelli, I hope you show this to him so he can be embarrassed that his fav Mexican aunt thinks he's handsome.



Everyone wants to be cute and fat, like me.



Blake is the only person in Jeff's fam that looks remotely hispanic. I think that's why I love him a lot. That, and he is an exceptionally happy child.



Thank you to the Cranes for another memorable experience. Next year Baby Crane will be the center of attention. I hope.

I love to Shower.

My mother and her entourage are absolutely amazing. My family threw me a beautiful baby shower while I was in San Diego a few weeks ago. It made me very excited to have a girl. I don't know how she thinks of this stuff, so creative. I had a few high school friends, many of my church role models that I grew up with, and of course, family. I was just missing three of my sisters (Sarah, who had to work, Candice, who lives across the country, and Melody, who ended up in the hospital). Thank you to everyone who was involved in the details, and in making me so happy. I love you all.

The theme of the shower was "Birds and the Bees" and it also turned in to "Crane Hatching" since they go together. Creative, huh? Love it.



My sister, Candice, made me this damask print diaper bag that I LOVE. It's lime green inside.




The number one thing I've been craving is fresh fruit. So, as an appetizer/dessert we had fresh fruit (fresh mangoes, strawberries, pineapples, etc), sweet cream, yogurt and granola. It's currently my fav breakfast. The main dish was Sis. Lopez amazing teriyaki chicken and meat.



My mom took my invite, tweaked it and blew it up. Also, added Baby Crane's sonogram picture in it.



She also MADE this sign. I wish you could see the detail in it.









It's kind of fun being preggo (minus the getting bigger, can't sleep, and getting leg cramps) because everyone wants to shower me with presents!!

Baby Baby Baby

Most people fear making wrong decisions as a parent, or have financial fears when starting a family, or fear of the baby growing up so fast. Not me. All I fear is labor, and it is time that I face my fear. As many of you know...I am pregnant. Sorry I have not posted it on the blog yet. To make up for it, here are some of my ultra sound pics. It's a girl and I love her already. I think she looks just like me.

In this picture, she is actually facing the camera, so you get a front view.



One of my favorite things, besides the butt, are the feet! Baby feet are so cute and don't smell and are so soft.



This is the easiest picture to see her. Her head looks the same size as her tummy, doesn't it? She is so pretty and we already have arranged marriages lined up for her.



They are not the best pictures, I had to scan them, and those pictures are so small. But, it's better than nothing. Her beauty just can't be captured in photography yet. Love you all.

El Fin

I am finished. Done. Complete. Terminada. I couldn't be happier. Teaching 6th grade is tough, rewarding, but tough. On days like these, I remember that teaching definitely has it's ups. One of my students, Miguel, came up to me after school to say goodbye. He started getting choked up, and with tears rolling down his face said, "I've never had a teacher who's done so much for me and who has believed in me so much. Thanks." It's not good having the pregnancy hormones, because I lost it.

On the last day of school we have a dance festival where each grade level performs for the parents. Here are our 6th graders performing. Although I am bias, I have to say that they were the best...

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They were good huh?

Fun Run 5K

Every year our school does a 5K race with the community. I personally don't think the words "fun" and "run" should go together. There were 483 runners, including kids, parents, staff and community members. My students look forward to it every year, because they all want to beat me. A couple of them did this year...they are way too fast. That day I let them know I was 4 months pregnant and that they let an older pregnant woman beat them. Suckers. I got first place for adult woman.

The gunshot fires and this is what it looks like. Scary for the photographer huh?



A few boys would sprint, then walk, and as soon as I caught up, they'd sprint again. They just would not let me pass them. At least I kept them going...



After I finish the race, I always go back and chase my students who are walking to the finish line. This is my student Christian. He came in 475...so boy did I chase him at the end.



6th grade boys, growing, going through puberty...some of them will be so good looking in the future.



At the end they were smiling...during the race, not so many smiles.



The other 6th grade teacher and I think these two should marry because their babies would be gorgeous!! He is handsome and she has very green/blue eyes.



5 more school days and counting...