all my single ladies...

remember that saturday night live? LOVED it! :) speaking of justin... he was on ellen the other day, and i got so excited because it's about time for a new album from that boy, but no such luck... he was on promoting his movie. i really hope he releases an album soon cause i can only listen to sexy back so many times. :)

anyways, that is so not what this post was supposed to be about. my hubby left me this morning for ten days! that's about how long it took me to get used to being away from him and calm down this summer... so basically i will be a mess until he gets back. it's not so bad during the day because i only get to see him for a couple hours at night anyways, but those couple hours are going to be lonely... not to mention sleeping by myself. it's really hard especially now that i'm pregnant. Laela has started kicking me a lot at night, and i get really restless because i can't find a comfortable position without crushing her... so basically i'm never comfortable. usually all it takes is JJ reaching over and rubbing my belly to calm her down and my back to calm me down. i foresee very little sleep in my immediate future.

so i am a single lady for the next ten days, so anyone that would like to distract me is welcome too. it just hit me this morning about 9:30 and i got very sad. we might get on each other's nerves sometimes when we are always together, but it's miserable when we are apart. he was so adorable last night. he made sure that all the laundry was done, all the dishes were done and put away, and he purified and filled up all our water jugs so hopefully i won't have to.

i love my hubby and can't wait for him to get back!

school day blues

so i have decided that the stretch from labor day to fall break is probably the longest, hardest stretch of the school year. at least in arizona we have fall break, which is seriously a week long God send, because it used to be the stretch between labor day and thanksgiving that was unbearable... at least now it's broken up with a week off. anyways, this is the stretch where the days are long, the kids are squirrley, at least five kids in each class forgot their homework and want to tell you a five minute story about why, and i'm just tired. the freshness and excitement have worn off, and i'm TIRED!

don't get me wrong, i L-O-V-E my job, and the students. it makes those blues go away when you walk down the hall and you hear a chorus of "¡hola señora barksdale!" followed by a very loud, lone voice that says with such fervor, "i love you señora barksdale." oh gosh, let me tell you how much fun i am having especially with kindergarten! at first they were the bane of my existence because it is seriously like herding kittens...

...but i LOVE them now! it is seriously SO much fun. we are learning a new song right now called the "body cha cha." we sing it like three times in a row because they love it so much. after every time, there is this one little girl, cutest thing ever with bright blue eyes and long blond hair, and not much taller than 2 feet who says, "that is too much fun!"

so my job is really fun, but i definitely look forward to the weekend and days off. laela has popped out and she is getting bigger, so of course my tummy feels heavier, and by the end of the day my hips are aching. plus, i am feeling so overwhelmed with getting ready for her arrival. not only do we have to save enough money for me to stay home for a couple months (i don't have paid maternity leave), we need to buy stuff for her, and still pay our bills. we are doing well right now... thank you tithing... so i'm not too worried. it's stressful though, and on top of that i have to have my entire curriculum mapped out for the time i am gone. bleh!

so that's life right now... stressed to the max, but SO excited for this little one to make her way into the world. if only the mosquito bite on the back of my ankle would stop itching... :)

blast from the past

ok, so i L-O-V-E facebook right now. i met this little lady my freshman year of college... sofia. i am absolutely not kidding you when i seriously thought about naming the baby sofia because of her.... she doesn't know this yet, so this will be news to her too. what is awesome about this story is that sofia and i probably haven't spoken for about seven years or so. she met joe our sophomore year and they were married junior year... then i went off on my mission and we lost touch. thank heavens for facebook because she friended me just yesterday, and we've pretty much caught up. i mean obviously we left out some details, but i still feel like we are as good of friends as we ever were.

we were interesting BYU coeds... not your typical run of the mill mormon girls, and we had a large group of girlfriends that were the same. we were a little rough around the edges, but good girls (for the most part) :) but oh, did we have some fun! all my pictures of us are in south carolina in a bin, and oh how i wish i had some to put up because they are hilarious, but that's for another place and time.

i just wanted to share my exciting news, because... well... i'm so excited about it! sofia taught me that it was ok to be a little different... that it was ok to stand out from the crowd... that being a little different in shape, in size, in color, in beliefs, in attitude, etc. was what made us beautiful and worth something special. she taught me to love myself no matter what... and my favorite thing about sofia... she taught me to always tell someone "bless you" when they sneeze! haha, and no i am not kidding. whether they were someone we knew or a complete stranger across the quad on campus, sofia would always bless someone when they sneezed. it always elicited a "thank you" and a smile. example... JJ and I were at the diamond backs game on Monday night. a teenage boy sitting a row up and about six seats down sneezed. i looked back and said, "bless you." he, a little surprised, smiled and said, "thank you." i then proceeded to tell JJ about my old friend sofia that always used to do that... little did i know that when i got home that night i would find a friend request from none other than sofia.

our Father in Heaven works in mysterious ways, and i can only believe that He brought her back into my life to teach me something else... whether it comes from something good or bad remains to be seen, but i know that she will always help me see the silver lining, because that is sofia... always happy to be alive.

love you girl! :)