Help! Technical Difficulties

Does anyone know or can anyone help me with replying to comments on my blog?? I can not for the life of me figure out how to reply to someone specifically. Or do I just post a new comment under the comments already there??

Also--why will Blogger not allow me to post any of my own pictures but I can upload a picture if it has a URL? I am finding these things to be very frustrating everytime I try to write a new post and upload a picture or reply to a comment.

Oh and one more question --why can I easily comment on some people's blogs but on others it keeps making me re-sign in and then won't let me post under my name anyway????

Blogger is giving me gray hair I swear! Any advice or help would be much appreciated!!!

Much luv!
Laura

Today is My Baby Shower

Today is my baby shower that my lovely Sister-In-Law is throwing for me. I can not say enough good things about her or what she means to me! She has been my best friend for sixteen plus years and I love her to death!! She is the sweetest, kindest, most loving person I have ever known and she is always doing something sweet for me. Like throwing me a baby shower.

Which can't be easy. Without getting into details now(I will definitely post about it later and in greater detail) about a year ago a significant portion of my relatives and I had a falling out over family issues that apparently had been bubbling over in many people's minds for a long time. It got ugly. It was not pleasant and my family with whom I thought I was so close to cut off all ties from each other for over a year. Needless to say baby steps have been taken to try to repair the damage and hurts on both sides. But it is still a bit awkward and tense.

Which makes me a bit nervous for today. I don't know what will happen or who will actually be there. It may in fact just be me, my sister-in-law, my step-daughter, and my one aunt. Sad but true. As for my own mother-she is an alcoholic whom I have seen or spoken to since I was fifteen so I know she won't be there!!! But the whole thing makes me a bit sad since this is supposed to be such a joyous time but it is bittersweet knowing that I just don't have all my girls in my family around me anymore.

But I am going to try and be positive and not let the pessimism and sadness overide which should be a joyous day no matter who shows up to celebrate my Lil Sweet Pea. The people who do are the ones who matter the most and really no amount of sadness or regret will instantly repair those relationships so I just have to keep moving forward and focus on the joy of my Sweet Pea.

So I am going to smile brightly and just enjoy the happiness of the day and those who are there to celebrate with me! I'll post later and let you know how it went! But in the meantime...Happy Baby Shower Day to me and the Lil Sweet Pea!!!

Much luv!
Laura

Sleep...It's What I Dream Of

 I have been getting up at 1 a.m. to go to the bathroom for quite some time now throughout my pregnancy and it was fine. I would get up, go to the bathroom, climb back into bed and be blissfully asleep again within a minute. Which was necessary considering I get up at 4a.m. to get ready for work. Because I am a restless sleeper to begin with--I toss and turn alot normally so I need to sleep and everything was working out fine with this little bathroom schedule. No problems there for the longest time. It became routine and I was used to it.

Until last week.

One night last week, I get up at 1 a.m. go to the bathroom, climb back into bed and am ready to re-enter dreamland when BAM! Nothing happens. I lie there wide awake listening to the a/c hum and trying to make myself sleep. I lay there and lay there. I open my eyes and look at the clock --2 a.m. uh-oh I have to get up in two hours, this will never do!! I lay there some more and by about 3:15 a.m. I believe I fall asleep only to have the hubby wake me up at 4 a.m.. I drag ass at work that day. But I figure it was a fluke and since I am so tired I will definitely sleep fine tonight.

No such luck. Up again at 1 a.m. for the potty run...wide awake until 3 a.m.. This is not good. This will not do! This happens all of last week and into this week.  I am not a happy camper. I take my sleep very seriously and while I know that when the Lil Sweet Pea arrives sleep will be compromised I also know I will not have to get up everyday and make the hour and a half commute down to work and teach thirty second graders on very little sleep. I will at least be home and most likely still in my PJs!

I still have two weeks of regular school to go and four weeks of summer session left to teach so I need to do something so I can get some semblance of a good night's sleep. So I go to THE BOOK. You know the one-- What To Expect When You're Expecting by Heidi Murkoff. The one I have dog eared pages upon pages in over the past six months. The one my husband keeps threatening to take away from me because he says it makes me "neurotic". (So I may just get a teensy bit anxious and down-right panicky at times if I or my body seem to be doing something not according to "THE BOOK" is that neurotic??? -- I seem to drive the Hubby crazy..) Anyways so to the book because yet again last night there I am twiddling my thumbs in the darkness wide awake and frustrated....

Here is what THE BOOK said " Don't just lie there. When sleep's eluding you-and you've run out of sheep to count-get up and do something relaxing (read, watch TV until you feel sleepy." Which would be great advice except for one small problem. By the time I get sleepy enough to go back to sleep it is time for me to get up for work!!!! Ahhh...

I also did not find this gem from THE BOOK  helpful either " Don't lose sleep over losing sleep. Stressing about your lack of shut-eye will only make it harder to grab any. In fact, sometimes just letting go of that "will I ever fall asleep? worry is all it takes to drop off to dreamland." Ummm not helpful to me either. I just may be handing THE BOOK over to the Hubby....

Hopefully this only a little phase my Lil Sweet Pea is putting me through and soon I will be able to sleep more normally again. In the meantime--its the crack of dawn and I have gotten the laundry done and all the dishes cleaned so I may be sleepless in Podville but at least I'm productive!! LOL

If anyone has any tips or advice on sleep I'd love to hear them!! Thanks so much!!

Much luv!!
Laura

**Not my bedroom by the way--I just thought it was appropriate!**

The "I Hate The Heat" Rant

It is the first day of June and we are in our third day of the summer seasons first heat wave. Can I just tell you something? Make a confession of sorts here? I do not like the summer.I may be a teacher who gets summers off (except this year when in a fit of insanity apparently I signed up to teach summer school)But do I enjoy the summer??? Nooo! Not one bit!I dislike summer with a fiery passion! 

Do you want to know why?? Well since you twisted my arm I will tell you! Here goes....

I am not like the other Italians in my family, namely my father and brother, who adore, look forward to and bask in the hot weather days. Both of them can be outside for hours on end in the heat and they never, EVER break a sweat! (How is that possible, I ask you?????!!!)They don't even need to be in a pool or anything...they will just hang out in the yard ...IN THE SUN! They are those very fortunate people who just tan naturally. They can be outside for an hour and they will have beautiful, warm, golden tans. They never burn, they never turn red, they never peel. They got all the good Italian genes! Siiiiigggh...

I, on the other hand did not get blessed by the Italian genes that  give a spectacular tan. Noooo, I may have inheirted the dark eyes, the dark hair, and the attitude of my Italian ancestors but unfortunately I also inheirted the pale white alabaster skin of my Irish ancestors.I spend an hour in the sun with SPF 145 and I still wind up red, splotchy, and burnt to a crisp! I do not tan. I merely burn and then spend weeks peeling. This is not attractive or fun.

 I do not glisten sexily in the sun...I SWEAT. I sweat buckets and this is also not attractive or fun. I have been referred to on several occasions as "SWEATY BETTY" by my darling brother. This is not amusing. Also my curls take on a life of their own in the summer heat ...they grow bigger and fuzzier and kinkier. My brother who thinks he is a comedian has asked me on several times in summers past if I needed "Afro Sheen". Again dear brother I am not amused. I am just hawt and sweaty and verging on miserable in the summer heat. I am never amused.

 Actually nothing about summer amuses me. Except ice cream and air conditioning! They always make me smile in the heat.

So now let's take my intense dislike for all things summer and heat related and amplify it to about a thousand percent because now I am pregnant on top of all the other stuff! I am wilted right now. My make-up has melted off my face, my curls have frizzed and knotted up so much I can no longer get my fingers through them, my feet are swollen, my hands puffy. I am sweaty. And not the sexy sweaty either. I am a wilted, melted, pregnant mess here  at the end of the day. I have all summer to go before the lil sweet pea's arrival. How will I survive???? EEK! I am worried that I will melt into a big puddle and never make it to the lil ones arrival.  Summer hasn't even officially arrived yet and I am stressed and hot and uggggg!

But things are improving...I am in the a/c now, feet are free from work shoes, out of my work clothes and in something cool and comfy.So its not all bad now. Now if I just figure out a way to hibernate in the a/c until September!! LOL

Much luv!
Laura

Welcome to Podville!

So here I am writing my very first post! This is all so very exciting for me. I am hoping to use this blog as my own little place on the web to share my dreams,hopes, and anxieties as we await the arrival of the lil Sweet Pea and hopefully you will all share in this journey with me! I am so excited to embrace all the changes that are about to take place and yet I am also scared too!!

So since this is my first post I thought I would make it a sort of introductory glimpse into my life!

I am a 30 something mama-to-be who is currently a second grade teacher at a small private school. I have been teaching for ten years at the elementary level and prior to that I taught three and four year olds in a child care. As you can probablly guess I adore children!

I married my best friend in 2007 and although we have had our shares of ups and downs these past few years we made it through and are now enjoying a really great relationship strengthened even more by the bond of our Lil Sweet Pea! Hubby has two daughters from previous relationships the oldest who lives with us is eighteen and about to graduate from high school and will then if all goes well this summer she will be heading off to boot camp for the Air Force. The younger daughter is fifteen and currently lives with her grandmother upstate (long story there for another post!)but comes down for the summer and splits time between us and her biological mother. Hubby is a great father to both girls and I know he will be an absolutely wonderful father to our lil one.

And of course we have our little fur babies who bring us much joy and laughter. We have beagle/toy fox terrier named Peanut.  He has the highly tuned senses of the beagle and yet he can not control it because of his hyperactivity from his toy fox terrier side which of course leads to endless hours of entertainment for us!! The kitties are also a source of much laughter and angst for us! Trouble is our older fat cat whose name is totally appropriate for a cat that has absolutely no grace or idea that he is a wide load. And then there is Bella who I believe may be the first dwarf cat in PA. She has not grown at all ...she still looks like a kitten but boy oh boy does she like to talk (and yell at us when we don't give her treats fast enough! )

So that is a glimpse at my little family residing in Podville! Hope you stop by again soon!

Much Luv!!!
Laura