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Happy 2nd Birthday, Riley!

Looking at this picture makes me want to cry...I can't believe this was a year ago! He has grown so much.
He has made me laugh, cry, stress myself out, and realize how incredibly good God is. Two years ago Riley was in NICU with an oxygen hood, IVs, and tons of monitors. Now you would never know he had gone through any of that.

I still think he is the most handsome little guy on the planet, and I am so proud that he is my son.
We love you Riley!

I'll try to add some pictures of our 2-year-old soon.

His birthday party is Saturday at Wee Flip. I am getting really excited about the party and seeing lots of friends and family!! They take pictures at the party, and since I'm clearly no good at taking pictures, hopefully they will get some good ones!

Saturday, April 7th

Riley and I went to look for a few things before the baseball game Saturday, and the store we went to was collecting for March of Dimes. (I have a lot of respect for the March of Dimes because Riley was born early and we experienced just a couple of weeks of the things some families deal with for a long time with premature babies.) Riley gave them a donation, and they gave him a prize!

Then we went to the game...

where Riley kept everybody busy and got a little batting practice.
{BIG THANKS TO ALL HIS COACHES!}

Then he made himself comfortable and got a little sun.

Then he crashed.

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Spring Break Recap

• On the Friday before Spring Break I got two wisdom teeth out. My entire face was swollen. Up to my eye. My jaw is still a little swollen, but I can deal with it now. The doctor told me he usually gives his patients steroids to help the recovery, but they wouldn't give them to me because it would make my blood sugar go crazy high. (After about a week of swelling I was almost willing to have blood sugar issues.)
• The day before my wisdom teeth removal, my blood sugar dropped really low at school. I had a class of 2nd graders with me. It was not fun. Luckily a lot of them were in my class last year so they kind of knew what was going on. They went and found someone to help and then the nurse, our coach, another teacher, and our secretary helped me. It was very scary, but I am so thankful that there were people who were willing to stop what they were doing to help me.
• We took Riley to the zoo during Spring Break. It is a lot of fun now that he is actually interested in looking at the animals. I am excited about going more this summer
  
• We had a surprise retirement party for my dad last weekend. There were probably around 70 people there, and it was a lot of fun!
• I am going to try to get some pictures of the zoo and the party added later.
  

I Can Do This

I've been working on National Board certification this year. (My school's feeder pattern got a grant, so I decided that I should go ahead and try it now since there's no way I would ever want to pay so much money to do it. We did a program called Take One last year, so I have my score from one entry banked and I didn't have to do that one again this year.) I haven't talked about it because, well, it's hard. And when I'm not working on it I don't even want to think about it. But now it seems like that's all I've been thinking about. I wanted to get it finished before Spring Break, but it looks like that's not gonna happen. I am done with the bulk of it, though, so I'm down to the re-reading, editing, and packing. I've got several people reading my work for me, and I'm so thankful that they have taken the time to help me.

The box has to be mailed by March 31st. I was aiming for March 16th, but I'll be happy if I get it sent by the 20th. I think that's manageable. I'm sure I'll stress myself out with the packing because the instructions are so particular and each entry has so many different parts and pieces of evidence and cover sheets and contextual information in addition to the papers. I'm getting excited about being finished, so I have been somewhat motivated here lately.

The motivation may also be coming from the fact that I'm having my wisdom teeth removed on Friday. {Not excited. Terrified.}
They said I can't have anything to eat or drink after midnight, and my appointment isn't until 10:00 Friday morning. This girl likes to eat, so I will probably be eating and drinking a Diet Dr. Pepper around 11:00 Thursday night. Yeah I know that's totally unhealthy, but let's be honest: this girl likes to sleep, too, so that's probably what I'll really be doing.

My mom is coming to stay with us Thursday night and through the weekend so she can help with Riley. He may or may not be more spoiled than he already is when gets here! :)

The next few days have me just a little stressed. But I can do this. Right?

Put Me In, Coach!

I'm ready to play!

After another fun afternoon at the baseball field making friends and throwing the ball and splashing in every puddle and putting on a show between games, Riley was worn out!

I gave him a bath right after we got home, so when I got his milk he took it and had a seat!

I guess being almost 2 wears a boy out!