Good-bye, July!

Can't even believe that today is the last day of July! How did that happen? That means that school starts for the kids next Friday and move-in day for Keri Lynn is the Thursday after that.

We finally told Keri Lynn that we changed our minds about her going to college. We have the perfect solution for her! She can still learn all there is to know about early childhood education by staying home and helping take care of the baby! It's PERFECT! We don't have to say good-bye or miss her or anything! She only laughs and shakes her head and thinks all matter of silly things about her parents. It's getting to be that I can hardly stand the thought of her going away, but this is what we've been working for all these years -- to send her off into the world as equipped as possible to meet all of life's challenges. We are so proud of her!

Everything is all squared away for Keri Lynn for school. She has her school card that gets her everywhere she needs to go on campus, her parking permit for a car she doesn't have yet (we're planning on using it when we come for visits for now), her textbooks are pre-ordered, she's made contact with her roommate. It's all kind of exciting!

I've started getting to bed a little earlier and getting up a little earlier so that my body won't be in complete shock when school starts. It's still going to be painful for the first month!

I've been working like a dog to get all of my paperwork and stuff done for acceptance into University of West Georgia. I had been dragging my feet on this, thinking that I could just tell the schools that were interested in hiring me that I was in the process of applying, so I wouldn't necessarily have to start classes in the fall. Well, as it turns out, schools can't hire me in a provisional teaching position if I'm not officially enrolled in a school to get certification. So now I'm scrambling to get the rest of the last items checked off the check list. Official transcripts -- check! Immunization report -- still working on that. Where DID I put that pesky immunization record? And I KNOW I haven't had a Tetanus shot in the last 10 years, and CAN I get a Tetanus shot while pregnant? Still making calls to figure that out. All these little details take time to iron out and now I'm feeling foolish that I didn't get more of it done over the summer. But then again I was not feeling at all well through June or July. Thank goodness I'm starting to come out of the first trimester when the nausea starts to go away!

Still, I'm applying at all the counties near our county in hopes of snagging an interview. The plan is to get through the interview process without saying anything about the pregnancy until the end when it's time (hopefully!) to sign papers. Then, I plan to say, "So in the interest of full disclosure and because I want you to know that I am trustworthy, I have a little glitch . . . " And then proceed to tell them about the baby. Then it will be up to them to determine how desperate they are to place me as a special education teacher! Such fun!

I will be having the amniocenteses done in two weeks. This is the big test that I've been waiting on pins and needles for. It will tell us a ton of information, from the sex of the baby, to any genetic problems (like Down Syndrome -- I have a 3% chance of having another baby with Down Syndrome) to whether or not the baby is sensitive to the Kell antibody. If the baby is not affected by it, then that will eliminate all of the usual fun tests that I went through for the last three pregnancies. That is an amazing and absolutely new test that wasn't available before! Whoo-hoo!

My blood pressure remains relatively stable. My feet swell sometimes as the day progresses, but we are in the hottest part of summer. I keep cranking up the air conditioning when no one is looking. And I adore going to the OB because they keep the offices like meat lockers for all of the hormonally challenged ladies coming through.