No good titles come to mind.

I started a blog for my classroom.  I started it on August 24th.  Until now, no one has been told about this secret blog.  This blog can be found  here.  Feel free to check it out and make nice comments for the kids to (eventually) read.  Right now it just has some stuff from last year, but hopefully I'll hold up my end of the deal (really the only person that has an "end" of the deal to hold up) and continue posting art from students this year.  

AHhhh...I can finally talk freely about being prego.  Never before has debilitating fatigue, constipation, moodiness,the almost constant feeling of a full bladder,  queasiness, and heartburn ever been so enjoyable. Honestly, these have been my happy reminders of the great things going on inside me.  In fact, this past week I started feeling fine, which equals the feeling of not being pregnant, so seeing another ultrasound picture of our baby that currently resembles a little frog, was very reassuring.

I'm 29 now.  I was thinking today that I'd love to try and do some memorable things in these last months of being a twenty-something.  Please give me suggestions.  So far I have:

-Make another person.

-Cook a good roast, or something that sounds equally impossible to me.

-Travel somewhere internationally that I've never been (in a sense this could be easy considering the international travel I've done includes: Mexico and Texas.)

And so far, that's what I've come up with.  Granted, I've not given it much thought.  Instead I thought I'd first ask for other people to think of things.  My doctor says I can't do any activity above 10,000 feet--so no mountain climbing suggestions.  Plus I did some of this in my 5th or 6th week not knowing I shouldn't.  Maybe completing your list will become my goal. Unless no one comments, then this will all be a failure.  If you're private (Sonya) and want to secretly tell me a suggestion, email me: brookemduffy@yahoo.com or send me a message on facebook--Brooke Knipp.  I'm serious.  Add some memories I wouldn't have thought of to my life this next year, please.

Alright, WE'RE back...

SURPRISE!!!  (to some of you...)  Meet Baby.  Baby is moving along at 8 weeks now.  We could not be any more excited than we already are.  8 weeks means a suggested due date of April 10th.  

When we were in Iowa for that week over the summer, I felt really queasy the whole time and blamed the Iowa humidity.  Once we got back to CO I kept feeling queasy and finally took a test (unbeknownst to Gabe) the day before my birthday.  I did so just to prove to myself that I wasn't pregnant--the month before we had had a disappointing negative test when all symptoms pointed to prego.  So I didn't want to get my hopes up, I strictly wanted to dash them before they grew at all.  But when I looked at the test, obviously it was positive.  I surprised Gabe that morning before he'd even gotten out of bed or put on his glasses.  The man really can't see without them, so he had no idea what I was holding in front of his face at first.

So now I've got a little babe the size of a kidney bean, with all of its organs already developed. This week and next we'll be working on fingers and toes (no more webbed pads for us), and I think eyelids.  So that's the huge news from our home!  

We are planning on finding out if we're having a boy or a girl--we should know the middle of November.  And we won't be telling you the names we've picked--and they've been picked. Sorry, you'll just have to be surprised and act like you like it once the baby is born! :)

This is the most miraculous thing I've ever been a part of.  I can't believe it doesn't take 3 years for a couple of cells to grow into an actual human being.  When I look online and in the books at how much is happening with the bun (in the oven) every week --I am amazed every time.  I'm just sittin' on the couch watching Friends, eating more cheese and all the while our baby is busy becoming complete--growing a spleen, fingernails, ears, a BRAIN.  If you ever forget how amazing God is, think about that.  I know I do.  

Also, I started back to school with kids this past week.  It was actually fantastic.  I really felt peaceful about everything.  My classes seem to be great and I really feel like I've got a much better handle on the whole middle school thing now with one year under my belt.  

So that's all for now.  We've waited to make a public announcement until all family was told. So hopefully I'll be back to blogging more often now that the word is out.  School and babies have been holding a monopoly on most of my thoughts, so I haven't been able to blog in awhile.  But now you know!

Stray-ayyynge.

So yesterday I went to Banks'.  It's a teacher supply store in...not a great area of town.  I traveled up and down the many aisles turning my nose up at most of the young-kid-friendly merchandise to clutter a classroom.  Middle schoolers don't appreciate a sign telling them to have a sunshiny day and that they're special in every way.  Great for little kids, not for the grown up middle schoolers of today.  I still spent $130 when it was all said and done, however.

The strange part of this story happened once I stepped out of the store.  I could barely hear myself think as I walked to my car, due to the foul rap "song" that was BLARING out the windows of the mini-van parked two spots away from me.  I won't go into detail, let's just say that the lyrics were not what you would call "honoring" to women.  I began loading my $130 of goods into my car all the while snarling to myself about how horrific the lyrics were.  So of course I had to send an ever so slightly disapproving look to the young man in the passenger seat of the mini-van as I got into my car.  As I did this, I happened to notice two car seats in the middle and back row seats of the mini-van!  AND they had children in them!  I slam my car door mumbling to myself all sorts of indignant admonishments.  Then to top it all off, the frail grandmotherly school teacher that had been behind me in line exited the store.  I held the brake long enough to make sure some woman-hater didn't knock her over for kicks, when SHE GOT INTO THE DRIVER'S SEAT OF THE MINI-VAN!!!  

I don't even know what to say.

Happy Birthday, Kristi!

H A P P Y    B I R T H D A Y,   K R I S T I ! ! ! !  We hope you 

have a wonderful day and can't wait to celebrate with you in a 

couple days...

TOO MANY to choose from!

Over my birthday while we were down in the Springs, and then yesterday also, I got to take a zillion pictures of beautiful Janae for her senior pics.  We ended up with SO many great ones, these are just a fraction of my favorites.  The first one isn't for real, it was toward the end of our "session"  and Janae had to focus to look this 'over it'.  A split second after the camera snapped she lost her straight/attitude face and started laughing.  But I ended up liking it, so, without further ado...

Need to fix the color on this one a little:

birthday asparagus

Despite Chrissie's political objections regarding Ted Turner opening a Montana-themed restaurant, we chose to meet at Ted's Montana Grill (is that even the correct name?) last night for my belated birthday celebration.   Here is a picture of Chrissie, Amanda and I:

Here is a picture of Mark, Eric, and Gabe.  Eric made this face while the flash was going off and I didn't discover it until looking back through the pictures.  I think Gabe is chewing, that or he just looks funny in this picture.

Then Sean and Lexi arrived. We were team white shirt:

Gabe and I got to the restaurant about 45 minutes early to reserve a table and then went across the street where I ate a cheeseburger and onion rings.  I was too hungry to wait.  When we met up with everyone at Ted's, we ordered a couple of appetizers to share and later on I decided that a side of asparagus (on the menu) was just what I wanted.  This is exactly as it was when the waitress delivered it to our table:
These fancy restaurants are all about the presentation.

Thanks to those of you that were able to make it.  We had a great time and hope you did, too. Lots of laughing, as usual.  We missed those of you that couldn't make it, but there will be another birthday or something to celebrate soon, I'm sure.

It's 6:44 in the morning and I've been awake for over an hour.  Strange.