Easter Weekend

Easter weekend was a whirlwind of activity on my side of the family. On Saturday my niece turned 2. Her mom threw her the cutest Mickey Mouse party. On Sunday was Easter and my sister Meghan's missionary farewell. She is going to make a fabulous missionary. Monday night she was set apart. Tuesday we took her up to the airport. She is going to the Rio de Janeiro North mission and goes straight to the MTC in Sao Paulo. I can't believe she is old enough to go! It seems like yesterday she was 2 years old carrying around her silkie calling me sissy. How time flies. She is a beautiful young woman and will be such an amazing missionary. I'll miss her tons! Here are pictures from Monday night after her setting apart.

The whole Summerhays clan minus Austin

All the Summerhays girls

Shannon and Mallory

Mallory in the nightgown Austin and I gave her for her birthday So cute!

Me and my 4 month baby bump

Alyson and Claire

Here are photos from the airport.

Caleb, Robert, Eliza, Sister Summerhays, Me, Austin, Shannon, Alyson, Claire, Jon

Growling at Austin for taking my picture

Meg with Mom and Dad

April Fool's Day

This day of foolishness and pranks holds no specific significance for me. However, to a first grader it is another holiday almost as good as Christmas. It is so, because they get to think they are funny and try to trick anyone and everyone. I got to school this morning and had at least 3 students with broken arms, one with a hurt wrist, and a myriad of others with ticks up their sleeves. With this kind of stuff going on, it is any wonder we accomplished anything today. We came back from Library to find our chairs had been taken. I'm so mean and made my kids kneel for about an hour. I knew where our chairs were but tried to be a little bit nice and let them enjoy the prank. Once the chairs returned things calmed down.
The one thing I absolutely hate about this day however, is those who think they can say something mean, but because they put "April Fool's" after it, it makes it ok. One of my students at the end of the day came up to me and said, "Mrs. Cowley, you are the worst teacher in the world." I was a bit shocked and then the words "April Fool's" came out of his mouth. And he was all grins. Well I commented that saying mean and hurtful things even on April Fool's wasn't nice. I know he was just trying to be funny, but I didn't appreciate it. Kinda wrecked the rest of my day.

It's Gone!

The morning sickness is gone! Hallelujah!! Hitting the 12 week mark did the trick. I am back to feeling good again. I can eat breakfast and not get sick. It is truly a blessing. I now feel like I can make it through the last 6 months of this journey. It's good to feel almost normal again. I'm happy and so is Austin! :)

Babysitting

Friday night we had the opportunity to babysit Austin's sister's youngest son, Bryton. Austin volunteered us to babysit so Whitney could take the other two boys to the Draper Temple Open House. What were we going to do with a 2 1/2 year old in our small apartment? How were we going to keep him entertained? Austin suggested we take him to Boondocks but that would be too much money. My mind started working and I remembered a place in Pleasant Grove called Kangaroo Zoo that is full of blow up slides and toys that kids can play on. I knew Bryton would love it and it was only $5 to get him in. Since Aust and I were just spectators, we got in free. After dinner at Costco (gotta love their pizza), we set out for fun. Bryton had a blast. He is such a cutie. On some of the slides he wouldn't go himself, so I being the only adult in our group under 150 lbs. I had to "play" sometimes as well. It was a good way to pass the time! I was pretty proud of myself in thinking of this fun idea!

Here is Bryton showing no fear as he climbs and goes down the tallest slide all by himself! This kid has no fear!
Here are some other pics of the fun!

Morning Sickness

This morning was like any normal morning with morning sickness at home before I left for work. I was still feeling kinda squeamish as I drove to school, so I popped a Mike-n-Ike in my mouth to suck on. Those have been really helping me lately. Bad idea. First of all it was a lemon one. I should have picked cherry. Instead of helping it made it worse. I had the urge to get sick and tried my best to suppress it. Didn't work. I had to quickly pull over, get out of the car and throw up on the side of the road. To make things worse, my friend's mom saw me pulled over on the side of the road. A little embarrassing. I hope I never have to do that again! I'll be glad when the sickness ends.

We're Expecting!!

Our family of 2 is going to be expanding to 3! Our baby will be due Sept. 25th. It all started at Christmas when Austin told me I could have my baby and quit taking my birth control. It was a wonderful Christmas present. We didn't expect to get pregnant so fast! Austin says he could have used a little more time. :) We found out about our little one Jan. 18th. Thinking by that time I was only about 3 weeks along, I scheduled a doctors appointment and marveled at the miracle. On Tuesday Feb. 24th we went to the doctor and discovered that I am farther along that we had expected; about a week and a half farther. So as of today I am 10 weeks. I can't believe it. At about week 6 the sickness set in. I was hoping to be one of the lucky ones to just breeze through with nothing to worry about. I was so wrong. I'm hoping to be on the way out of the sickness stage. I want to eat normally again and actually enjoy it! Austin has been a sweetheart through all my sickness and throwing up. He laughs at me when I get an impulse craving. Like last night, when I went to Wal-Mart and smelled the fries at the McDonalds. I called him and asked if he wanted any. He was at school putting in grades and so I'd have to bring it to him. Small sacrifice for for what I wanted! He is wonderful and I'm blessed to have him in my life!
We were fortunate enough to have an ultrasound at our appointment. It was exciting to see the baby and the little heartbeat.

We Have Internet

We now have internet! Yeah! I'm so excited to be able to blog now. I have wanted to for awhile, but the thought of having to stay at school to use the internet wasn't appealing. Our wonderful landlords agreed to let us hook up a wireless router to their modem so we could easily (for about half the price) access the internet. We should have done it a long time ago. I'm surprised I was able to last a year without it. No more going to my parents to use the internet, especially early in the morning on days I'm sick to email my sub plans to school. The convenience of technology is wonderful! I look forward to keeping this blog updated and letting everyone get a glimpse into the Cowley way of life!