More Christmas Pictures

We had our Hodson Christmas last night. Grace was in rare form and a big hit with all. She was very excited to open gifts. She dressed up in her dress up outfit Joe and I got her and played her guitar that she got from her Aunt Amy. She also looked stunning in a long sleeve pink colts shirt from Grandma and Grandpa. It was a great night. I am looking forward to flying home and spend some time with my family at the end of the week. My brother purchased his first home and I have yet to see it. My sister remodeled her kitchen and I haven't seen that yet either. I am really excited. I wish Joe was coming with me, but he and Eli are going to have a boys week. We are off to South Bend tomorrow to visit with Ryan and Sharon and the boys. We are also visiting some of Joe's family for the day and returning on Wednesday. The weather is going to be COLD and snowy. Eli has a date with the Doggie Daycare. I hope this finds everyone happy and healthy. Enjoy the Holidays!

Hodson Christmas Pictures

It's a Boy!

A Close Up

Thoughts Before the Big Visit

We head to the doctor's office in about an hour to see our little one on screen. I am really nervous. I just want everything to be okay. I am such a worrier that this scan has gotten me up early and here I am pondering my thoughts on my blog. It doesn't matter to me if this child is a girl or a boy, I just want a healthy baby. Most people out there think it is a girl. The chinese calendar says it is a boy. My class took a poll yesterday and all the girls think it is a girl and all the boys think it is a boy so no help there. Along with the ultrasound today, I will have a blood test to check for abnormalities such as Down Syndrome and Trisomy 18. I will also have a doctors appointment that is long overdue. Since my last appointment I have thrown up a lot and then once every two weeks, I had a child in my classroom with the Coxsacki Virus, I have blacked out, I had pink eye in both eyes, I have had a giant cold sore take over my nose and lip, and I have a mysterious rash on my tummy. It sounds awful (sometimes it is) but it is all worth it. I guess they really weren't kidding when they told me my immune system is not what is normally is during pregnancy. I am going to be relieved after this visit is over and hopefully really excited.

This Weekend

Joe and I decorated the house for Christmas! We haven't done this for three years due to a very feisty doggie. It is so relaxing the sit on the couch and look at a fully decorated Christmas Tree. Everyone is doing great. I am feeling okay. It seems that every two weeks my body decides to remind me that I don't have any control over my nausea, but other than that I feel great. I am in the middle of completing my portfolio for the State Department of Education for my permanent teaching license. IT SUCKS! There is so much that goes into it. I have spent hours already and probably have 5 or 6 more hours to invest to finish this thing. My goal was to finish it before December. Seeing as how December starts tomorrow, I am now trying to finish it by Friday. I hate the stress. Our Thanksgiving was lovely. We traveled to Noblesville with the Hodson's. Joe baked an apple pie from scratch that was very tasty. He also smoked an 11 pound turkey. I think that we will do this again. It was very good. I will post a picture of Joe after he carved the beast. Joe is turning 32 on the 8th! What an old man he is turning into. A few days later we will find out the gender of this baby. Any bets? So far most people think that it is a girl. I hope this finds you healthy and happy!
Kat

Week 17 Belly Pic

This is picture from last weekend, week 17! (I think I have grown since then)

Countdown

Pregnancy Tickers from WiddlyTinks.com

Baby Update

Hello to all. I want to say Congratulations to my friend Tawnya. She gave birth to her little girl, Alice Dawn Kline, this week. She is doing well and Alice is very cute!

I am now 16 weeks (as of Friday). I felt the baby kick once last week. I think I feel he/she move but as I am new to this pregnancy stuff I am not sure. I have finally stopped throwing up! Yeah! The last night I was sick was election night. I think the baby was really excited and wanted me to know it. Speaking of the election, I am really excited about how it turned out and that Indiana went blue for the first time since President Johnson ran. We have our big ultrasound scheduled for December 11. We hope to find out the sex of the baby at that time. The doctor has scheduled my c-section tentatively for Friday, April 24th.

I broke down and purchased some maternity clothes. I hate the thought of buying clothes that I can only wear for 5 more months but what are you going to do. I am trying to be creative with some of my outfits at work so that people don't realize that I am wearing the same pants two or three times a week.

Joe is doing great. He has been so amazing the past few months. I am a very lucky lady to have him around. Eli still has allergies . We have changed his diet, the seasons have changed, and still no change in his allergies. We will keep working on him. We need to buy stock in Benedryl.

I am going to take pictures this weekend of my expanding tummy. I will post them later.

Kat

Pumpkin Patch

We just got back from the pumpkin patch. Joe, Andy, Grace, and I went to the pumpkin patch to pick out pumpkins. The event included a hay ride to the pumpkin patch and back. There was also events there for the little ones. Grace was very excited to ride a miniature pony. Andy and Grace also went through a corn maze. We had a lot of fun and I think that this will be something we will do again in the future. I really recommend it.

pants too small

I am starting to grow out of my pants. Today I had to get a safety pin to pin them. Joe says that I am showing. Well I thought I'd let you know, I am off to watch the final project runway.

Kat

Joe's New Toy

Well, we finally caved and purchased a car for Joe. The Sable doesn't have heat and after an awful winter last year I promised Joe that we would get him something with heat before the next winter. We went with a 2005 Ford Escape. It looks like a family car. There actually is room for the dog, baby, Joe and I. There is also space for Joe's music equipment. I will take a picture soon and post it so you can see Joe's new baby.
On the baby front, I haven't thrown up for 2 days! Maybe I am finally starting to feel better. I will be 12 weeks on Friday. They say that the second trimester is much easier. I hope they are right!

Letting the Cat out of the Bag

I am really excited to announce that Joe and I are expecting a baby in April. I am due on May 1st, but will have a scheduled c-section in April due to my previous surgery. We are both very excited. I have been feeling very tired and have picked up some morning sickness in the last week or so, but otherwise I am feeling great! I can't believe that there is a little baby inside me. We have been to the doctor three times now and have seen the little guy/gal on ultrasound twice now. We are planing on finding out the sex of the baby at our 20 week ultrasound in December. Here is our very first ultrasound picture. He/she looks like a seahorse. He doesn't have the tail anymore and looks like a normal little baby. I will keep everyone posted on the goings on of pregnant life.

Kat

The New School

The new school year has begun. I feel exhausted. I love having full day kindergarten. There is so much more time to make sure that I cover all the kindergarten standards. I have a decent class and they are already showing progress which is very neat to see. Joe just finished his big city wide sweep last Thursday. Once again he made the evening news. Eli is his cranky cool self. I am doing great. Not a whole lot going on right now. We are very excited for the football season. GO COLTS!

Kat

June

June has found Joe and I very busy. I have taken a lot of workshops and have been busy packing and moving and now unpacking my two rooms. Joe has been playing out a lot. I didn't get a chance to see him at all last weekend due to his gigs out of town. We are doing great, and we are celebrating our third anniversary tomorrow. I can't believe that it has been that long since our wedding. We are anticipating our vacations in July. First we will head to Idaho. Joe will be staying 6 days and I will be staying almost two weeks. We are going to go on a zip line adventure that lasts about three hours. After we get home, I will have a few more workshops and then we head to Portage Michigan with Joe's family. This will be our third summer that we join the O'Connors for the week. Eli is doing fine. We are bringing him to the vet yet again for a rash (takes after his mom). We are having our bathroom remodeled this weekend. Well, part of it this weekend. We didn't want to finance this project, so we are doing in in phases. Phase one is to redo the tiling and paint the ceiling and walls. We will also get the tub re-glazed. As our facet has been dripping recently, it will be a welcome change. We will do the floor and the vanity in Octoberish. I can't wait to finally take a bath in my own home. I will post pictures of the new bathroom soon. I hope this finds everyone healthy and happy.
Kat

Harcourt Closing

A link to a video of my school's closing. If you watch closely you can see my butt
dance with a couple of my kindergarteners. I am in a red and white shirt.

Harcourt Closing Link

I will really miss those kids. (But I am so glad for the summer!)

Kat

Kat Who?

It's been a while so here is an update on the Hodson Household. Eli turned two on Monday. He picked out some great peanut butter woofers for his birthday from the dog bakery. He doesn't act any more grown up, but he actually didn't try to eat the last stranger that came into our house so things are looking up.
Joe just got back from a trip to Nashville Tenn. to play music in front of some big wigs. He really enjoyed the experience. He is playing with three different bands at the moment and is keeping himself busy. The mini 500 marathon is this weekend, and he is supposed to play at that. His job is going well, he even made it on the news a little while back. I am a very proud wifey.
I found out that I will be teaching kindergarten again next year (awesome). I will be at Spring Mill Elementary, in A.M/P.M. kindergarten, and in one school (even more awesome. The sad part is that I am going to have to pack and move two rooms into one over the summer. I am getting anxious for the end of school and the beginning of summer break. I have a lot of classes and seminars that I will be taking over the summer. I am, however, taking time to visit Idaho for two weeks in July and Michigan for a couple of days. We probably won't be doing much else as far as traveling this year. We are anticipating a very long trip next year to Africa! We are in the beginning stages of looking at remodeling our bathroom over the summer. We have gotten a quote from someone to do it, but we might just decide to do it ourselves.
We are anticipating our Primary Election on Tuesday. It is funny that for a state who nobody thought mattered, we are getting a lot of attention right now. I am getting at least one ad in the mail everyday for either Obama or Clinton. I am so excited to vote! I can't wait until November.

That's all for now.
Kat

Easter Photos

Grace Weekend

More D.C. Pic's

Our D.C. Trip

We are back from Washington D.C. We had a great time visiting Joe's cousin Ryan, his wife Sharon, and their kids Aidan and Zane. Zane is 9 weeks old, and we hadn't met him yet. We were visiting during the annual Cherry Blossom Festival. There were cherry blossom trees everywhere downtown blooming. It was very pretty. I had never been to D.C before, so I really appreciated all the history that I was able to see in such a short amount of time. Joe fell in love with the Metro and wants to move to a city with one. I was able to see the Hope Diamond, the original Kermit the Frog, Lincoln's Hat, and many more artifacts. We met up with Joe's Aunt Connie and Uncle John and cousin J.J. for the Holocaust Museum and a private tour through the Capital Building from the Chief of Staff of Congressman Israel from New York, Jack. It was awesome. We walked around Arlington Cemetery. We visited most of the memorials and monuments, and we saw the White House. There is so much to do in D.C that there is still more to see the next time we visit. I want to visit Mt.Vernon and go to the Archive's. We had wonderful dinners with Ryan and Sharon, and we had a lot of laughs and hugs from the two kids. It was a perfect trip. Thank you for the hospitality Ryan and Sharon, and we look forward to visiting again if you will have us. Here are some pictures from D.C. and our Easter the weekend before.

The Tickle Monster

Andy and Emily must roll around on the floor with Grace, because the other night I was just sitting there minding my own business when Grace tackled me. She then proceeded to tickle me and she actually told me, "Your not the boss of me!" I think she picked that up from daycare. She is definitely in her terrible twos. She is a fun little girl. You can't help but to smile when she is around.

Gerry

We lost a wonderful man this week. Gerry Wagner passed away surrounded by his family early Sunday morning. He was a part of my extended familly here in Indiana. I will miss him greatly. He was a great father to Gretchen and Emily, and a wonderful grandfather to Shelby and Grace. He was also a great friend to Joe and I. Please keep Sherri, Emily, Andy, and Gretchen in your thoughts and prayers.

Tough Week

It has been a rough week, but finally a bit of good news. Check out Brainy Girl's blog for a bit of good news!

A Brand New Year

Family and Friends,
I have not been a very good blogger so far this year. I am going to try my best to update my blog more often. Joe and I had a wonderful time in Boise over Christmas. We had a great time playing games and sledding and all the fun things we do when we are at the cabin. The new year started off with some great news that may include some traveling for Joe and I. I will explain more when I get the okay from the other parties involved.
We are still in mourning over the Colts lost last weekend. Thank you for not calling me on that terrible day. My heart was broken and I wouldn't have been able to hold it together. We will have to wait until next year to talk about it.
School is going well. I found out that I will know my new placement two weeks after spring break, so about mid-April. I am hoping that I will remain in kindergarten. I am not looking forward to packing up two rooms and unpacking it all into one room. I may try to recruit help in the summer.
Joe and Eli are doing well. Eli doesn't like the winter because he doesn't get out as much as he is used to. He is also shedding right now which is awful. Joe is playing music with a bunch of different people. He is going to play in Bloomington on Friday.
We hope this finds everyone healthy and happy.
Kat