At 4:35 am on December 31st, Nora Leigh Taylor came into the world. She was much earlier than expected but she's doing well in the hospital and will hopefully be coming home in a few weeks. She's a beautiful, strong little girl with lots of thick dark hair and the sweetest face I've ever seen :-) There's just too much stuff to type here, so for more info, go to the Baby Blog that Eric created at www.ericnerinbaby.blogspot.com

Today was a good Halloween, even if it did start out with a trick instead of a treat- this morning I went into the bathroom to brush my teeth and when I cam out, the cat was on my kitchen table with a pile of cat vomit in front of her. Why she had do do it on the table where I prepare and eat food, I don't know, but needless to say, large amounts of Lysol were involved. The rest of my day went much better though, I got to see lots of kids at school in their cute Halloween costumes and I got to have a fun afternoon with the fourth graders making doughnut hole "eyeballs".

So, for those of you who don't keep up with Eric's Baby Blog, the big news of the moment is that we had another ultrasound and we found out.... it's a girl! We're naming her Nora, but we don't have a middle name yet. Everyone is very excited. We already have some adorable pink outfits thanks to my Mom, Aunt Paula, and Lauryn :-) Eric bought some cute pink onesies, pink socks, and little pink clothes hangers :-) I think someone should get her a soccer ball, judging by the way she's been kicking! (Oof, there she goes!)

Anyway, it's time for me to vegetate for a bit, so I'm off!

It's Monday, and thanks to Columbus Day, I get paid for staying home:-) Although if you believe Google, it's thanks to Paddington Bear's 50th birthday. Although, I actually like that reason better, come to think of it. Paddington never spread deadly disease to an entire culture of people. (At least, not that I know of.)

Work is going well- very busy and time consuming, but I love it :-) It's nice to know that at least part of the reason that I'm so busy is because the SPED teachers feel they can rely on me enough to give me responsibility.

In baby news, everything is going well- still no update on whether or not we'll have another ultrasound but we should find out later this week when I have a doctor's appointment. The baby has been EXTREMELY active the last few days- rolling around, shifting position, and I think I felt a kick yesterday! I don't think it will be much longer before other people will be able to feel the movements.

I've gotten cold number 2 of the school year already, but it's not nearly as bad as the first one- this one is mostly just head and chest congestion with sneezing and coughing. No fever, chills or aches this time. It does make me very tired though, and on that note, I think I'll take a little cat nap now!

We had the baby's second ultrasound today and everything looks good measurement-wise. We got some cute pictures of the facial profile and one of an arm and hand to take home. We were really hoping to find out the baby's sex, but he or she had the legs crossed and the ultrasound tech couldn't get hem to move! So as of now, we don't know. But since they couldn't get very good pictures of the all of the heart and spine angles due to the baby's position, they may have us come back in 4 weeks or so for another ultrasound. I'll have to call my insurance company to see if they'll pay for it since it's a medical issue, not just to find out the sex. The tech said she could tell us what she thought it was, but we declined since she really wasn't sure. I guess we'll just have to continue referring to the baby as "it" for awhile longer!

Being pregnant makes me a little more tired than usual. Being pregnant and working full time makes me a bit more tired. But factor in having a MASSIVE cold and I'm completely exhausted! I think Friday was the worst of it, but I think I still need this weekend to recuperate. Work is pretty hectic- my schedule has changed four times already, plus I have to do tons more lesson planning than I did last year. But even with the extra work, I still really enjoy it :-)

Also on the topic of pregnancy, I need new clothes. Almost all of my pants and bras are getting too tight and I could probably use new shirts and undies as well. I'm hoping make a trip soon and see what I can get on clearance since I refuse to pay full price for stuff I'll only wear for a few months. So, yes, I am beginning to get a visible baby belly, and yes, people are beginning to touch it. I saw a maternity t-shirt online once that said "Touch my belly, lose a hand", and I'm starting to contemplate buying it!

Now for some Project Runway!

Apparently it's been 12 weeks since I posted anything. And of course, it's been the busiest 12 weeks I've had in quite some time, so there's a lot to talk about. Ready?

- Emily's Wedding: Emily's wedding was absolutely wonderful. Everything looked gorgeous, especially the bride :-) It was like the dress was made just for her. I did a reading for the ceremony, which I was able to get through with out crying too much. The reception was lots of fun and I got much more time to eat than I did at my reception! Anyway, the whole thing was lovely and I'm so happy for Emmy and Jeremy.

- Mom's 50th B-Day: Mom turned 50 this year so my sisters and I wanted to do something nice for her, so together we planned a surprise party at Ruby Tuesday's and we actually managed to keep it a secret until John and I walked into the restaurant with her. It was really nice- lots of friends and family there, Libby's boyfriend's Dad made a really pretty and yummy cake, and I made a scrapbook with lots of pictures I got from various people. It was a fun time and I think Mom enjoyed it.

- Grandma: My Grandma came down with pneumonia this summer and had to brought to the ER where she was treated and sent to the hospital for a week and then a rehab center for a week. It was pretty scary when it happened, but she's better now and back at home.

- My Employment Situation: I mentioned a few entries ago that my position at Bucksport was eliminated and I wasn't being asked back the next year due to major budget cuts. I job searched all summer and got nothing, so I was getting rather worried. But around late July I got a call from the Special Ed Director at Bucksport asking me to come back to the school. Apparently they assessed the SPED needs and realized that they had to find the money because the need is just so huge. Of course I said yes, so now I'm back at school and loving it!

- The BIGGEST News of the Summer: Eric and I are going to a Mommy and Daddy!! Yep, I'm pregnant! I found out towards the end of June but I've been pretty slow in telling people- I had to wait to tell family since I didn't want to take the attention away from Emily before her wedding. Needless to say both of our families are thrilled :-) I waited to tell (most) friends until after my family knew since I felt that family should be first. I waited to tell Bucksport people until school started because I didn't want it to affect me getting my job back, (I know, paranoid much, Erin?), so I think this is the last venue in which to let people know!
        As to how far along I am or when the due date is, there is some confusion right now. The due date has 2 possibilities right now, one being January 26th, the other February 20th. I have my second ultrasound scheduled at the end of the month and that should clarify the issue, as well as telling if it's a boy or a girl. For more info, check out the Baby Blog that Eric created: http://ericnerinbaby.blogspot.com . We're registered at Target and WalMart- I had lots of fun picking out baby stuff! As far as names go, we've settled on Quinn for a boy and We're still debating girl names. My two favorites are Nora and Kenley. Our spare room has been emptied and is ready to start being converted into a nursery. I think our next task is to get me some maternity clothes- all my pants and skirts are getting rather tight! I'm loving being pregnant, even with no coffee and no allergy meds! As long as I get enough sleep time, I'm good to go :-) And yes, Mom and Emily, I promise to do better at keeping everyone updated via LiveJournal!

I promised Eric a movie marathon and cuddle time, so that's it for now :-)

It looks like this. (In "Gold Smooth")

I needed shoes for Emily's wedding. The criteria? 1) "Champagne/Soft Gold colored 2) Formal sandal 3) High heels, but not so high/skinny that I can't walk 4) Not hideous 5) Not insanely expensive. The result? After scouring what felt like a bazillion stores as well as internet sites, I FINALLY found The Shoes. I'm super excited!

A ton of other crap going on, but I can deal. Especially now that I have The Shoes ;-)

Question: What exactly is it that leads people to believe that it's acceptable in any way to drive with your vehicle straddling the yellow line? Seriously, I want to know. Because it seems to be a common practice in the Bangor/Bucksport area and it's pissing me the hell off!

I haven't been very motivated to post lately. Lots of stuff has been going on though. Work was going great, then I found out they've cut my position (and 8 or 9 others as well) due to budget cutbacks. It was a seniority thing, last hired = first fired. So it wasn't anything I did wrong. Still sucks though. Like, a lot. I have no idea what I'll do next year, but I'll put my resume out there in as many places as possible. I'm gonna miss that school so much- I loved the staff and the kids and the whole atmosphere.

Eric and I have signed on a realtor to help us look for houses, but she's taking a vacation this coming week so I don't think anything will happen for awhile.

I went to Ricia's mother's wedding this past weekend- it was... interesting. It was really stressful for Ricia, so that sucked. I hope she can get the whole experience behind her soon. I did get to meet her super-cool ex-sister-in-law and her little boy Christopher though. They were fun :-) Plus Ricia's Gram gave me a gorgeous hippie shirt so that was nice. Also, I got to spend a couple of nights at my Mom's house so I got some time with her and Libby. I got to see Grandma too, but not for as long as I would have liked. I need to call her later this week so we can get together another time.

Eric and I are cleaning today and I HATE IT. The dust is making me sneeze my brains out, plus cleaning just sucks because it's cleaning. Oh well, it has to be done, I suppose.

I'm currently on April vacation, but this week is pretty busy. I did the wedding thing, then Thursday I'm making dinner with Ricia and Aimee for Sara and her family so we can see the new baby :-) Friday I have a naughty toy party at Richelle's house which should be really fun. I can't drink though, since I have to drive back to Bangor that night so I can be up in the morning to head down to South Paris to be at Mike and Alicia's housewarming party. I'm excited to see the twins- I haven't seen them since Christmas!

My Autism class is almost done- one more class and that's it! I've completed all of my assignments and I got a total of 83 out of 85 points for those. The other 15 are for attendance and participation and since I haven't missed a class and I've always given feedback in class, I see no reason why I shouldn't get all 15 points. So, cool.

My class is going great- I've gotten A+'s on both of my projects so far, both with nice comments. ITV is a very neat way of taking a class- I love that I can eat dinner, knit, or whatever during the lecture, plus since it's live and attendance is taken I have to go. It's the perfect mix of structure and freedom for me.

Eric and I are officially house hunting- we've only looked at one house so far and it's pretty doubtful that we'll decide on it. It's too old, too big and needs too much work. But we're still hopeful- we have a bunch that we're going to schedule viewings for. The mortgage process is slow and painful, but it's a necessary evil if we want a house, so we can put up with it.

This week was February vacation at the school, so I've been doing a lot of stuff around the house: cooking, cleaning, laundry, gathering stuff for the yard sale that we're planning for this summer, spending quality time with the cat, and lots of crafty type things. I got to spend one day with my Dad and one with my Mom which was good, but the ONE night I planned on spending with friends in Bucksport was tonight and we've been hit with a frickin' blizzard, so it's not happening. POOP. In any case, I'll be happy when school starts again- I miss my co-workers and the kids. I also miss getting paid.

I'm looking forward to Emily's wedding in July. I can't wait to see her!! My bridesmaid dress has been ordered, so we'll see how that works out for me.

Eric should be switching to full time DAYS soon, so that will be nice for both of us. Working both days and nights sucks- it will be nice to have a similar schedule for the first time since we've been together.

Ooh! Ooh! The writers' strike is over so new SNL's start back up this Saturday, kicking off with a show hosted by none other than Tina Fey, who I totally want to be just like. (That should fulfill my geekiness quota for this entry.)

Anyway, I suspect that Eric wants the computer and I've run out of things to say, so...... yeah.

A week or so ago, I enrolled in an ITV class through EMCC called Working With Children With Autism. I'm very excited- the professor is great, the material is fascinating, it's a pretty easy work load, and best of all the Bucksport School is paying for it! I know this class will be a huge asset in my job which is actually the best thing about it. I only found out about the class the day before it started, so I had to do some fancy footwork to get myself in, but I managed it!

The past couple of weeks have been interesting- just last night I went on my first clothes shopping trip for a picky 7 year old and I had my first Orange Julius, courtesy of Ricia :-) I locked my keys in my car for the second time this school year, and I just started going through the mountains of wedding stuff. Oh, also, the cat has learned the fine arts of temper tantrum-throwing and pouting. Awesome.

Oh, I suppose I should get going on the endless piles of laundry I have to do. Oh joy. Oh bliss.

"McLovin, please dial 100, McLovin, dial 100."

I hope no one was reprimanded for that. It was pretty funny.

No school today either! Which is good because I still feel like crap and I wouldn't have called in anyway. It's kind of ingrained at this point- at the furniture store I could rarely call in since Christina was the only other person in the store that could work the cash register. At the daycare I could NEVER call in since we had no subs and no one to cover if I was sick. I was stuck at work one day with a fever of 103 and Jessy's reaction was "Try not to breathe on the babies." Yeah, good times. Anyway, having subs available, not to mention PAID sick days is still pretty new to me.

Oh, also, at 6:00just after finding out that there was no school at, I heard the plow in the driveway, so Eric and I got up, got dressed, went outside, cleaned a foot of snow off our cars, moved them, waited for the plow to finish, moved the cars back, and came inside. I was up for another hour or so, but I went back to bed. After kicking the cat out of the bedroom for stealing my watch and hiding under the bed while chewing on it, I finally fell back to sleep. About 5 minutes later, Eric wakes me up, hands me the phone and tells me it's Ricia and she needs to tell me something. I take the phone and ask what's going on. (I'm only half awake at this point.) Ricia tells me to get up, school is back on and I have to be there in an hour and a half. I really believed her for a minute. It turns out I'm super gullible when I first wake up. I'm SO kicking her ass tomorrow morning! Okay, now it's back to reading on the couch for Erin!

No school today! I slept in, got up and showered and put on some clean PJ's since I'm not planning on going anywhere today. Aside from the fact that it's been snowing steadily for about 8 hours, I seem to be coming down with a cold. At least I didn't have to use up one of my sick days or go to work sick. Plus I've spent pretty much all day on the couch reading- I just finished reading The Stupidest Angel by Christopher Moore cover to cover. Awesome book, by the way. Awesome author, really. Anyway, I think I might put in a movie and see if we have any hot chocolate. I'm all about snuggling up with a blanket and a hot drink right now!

Yep, that's my name now. (Well, it will be once we get our copy of the marriage certificate and officially change it.) Eric and I had the wedding and it was wonderful. Everything went perfectly, other than the DJ getting our first dance song wrong. We got tons of compliments and everyone seemed to have a great time. Our honeymoon was very laid back and relaxing, exactly what we wanted. Once I get the pictures, I'll try to get an online album going :-) Now I have thank you notes to write, a wedding scrapbook to work on and a sister's wedding to help with! And yet, I still think I'll be less busy than I was when I was planning the wedding!

I know I haven't posted anything of substance in quite awhile so I'll make an attempt to do so now.

Basically, my life has consisted of 2 things of late: work and wedding. I haven't posted about work since there's a mountain of confidentiality issues that I don't care to mess with. However, I will say that I love the job, I love (most of) the people I work with, I love the kids and I love having health insurance! We actually had a meeting today for ed techs in which confidentiality was mentioned, among lots of other stuff I already knew. It was fairly boring and I had to get up early and drive into Bucksport for just that meeting that lasted maybe 2 hours, but I got paid, there were some issues that were brought to light and/or cleared up, plus they set out candy and Play Doh at all the tables so I got a decent sugar rush and I made a bowlful of Play Doh fruit. I had one woman tell me I should sculpt and another tell me I should teach art. Pretty amusing.

As far as wedding stuff goes, there's about a month left until the event, and I'm trying not to freak out. I still feel like there's a lot to do and I need more time. I was once told by a professor when I told her that I wasn't ready to perform my monologue that "Erin, you'll never be ready". By which she meant that I'll always feel that I'm not ready and want more time to prepare. Not surprisingly, she was right. In any case, I'm getting things done pretty steadily and I know I'll be fine. *deep cleansing breath*

So now..........3 day weekend! Paid holiday! Yay!

Driving home from work I frequently get stuck behind school buses, dump trucks, and other slow moving/frequently stopping vehicles. Today was a new extreme though. I got stuck cruising at about 3 miles an hour behind A RASCAL. You know those little motorized carts for old people? Yeah, that. Wow.

My first week at Bucksport is over, and I feel right at home there. Even though all we did was paperwork, meetings, and more paperwork I still loved it. I can't wait for Tuesday when the kids come back! As of right now I have AM bus duty at the kindergarten school and 3rd grade lunch duty. I'm going to try to switch to get recess duties since lots of people don't like outside duties, especially when it gets cold, but I love recess! I'm also scheduled to be a one on one with a boy in 3rd grade all day, but it may change to half a day with him and half a day elsewhere. I met with the teacher today and she seems really nice and I've heard good things about her from the other ed techs. I'm so happy to be working there, I don't even mind getting up insanely early! And I LOVE working with the other ed techs- they're SO awesome! I feel like I've been working there forever (in a good way). It's gonna be a good year :-)