Weekend Recap: Sunday Funday with Hailey's First Grade Class!

For the past three weeks I have been getting "save the date" notices from school about a Sunday class picnic and history tour at Chatham Manor. Number one, I thought it was odd they were doing something on a Sunday at 11:30 am. Number two, I had no clue what a Chatham Manor was. And lastly, when were we going to receive anything more then a save the date notice. Well finally a letter came home this past Thursday giving some small information. Meet at 11:30 at Chatham Manor and bring your family and a picnic lunch. It should last until 2pm and then we are invited to join her for ice cream at this place called Carl's.

To be honest I had no clue what to expect. And since I had nothing for a picnic at the house, I ended up packing some drinks and stopping at WaWa on the way there. The place was amazing! It was absolutely beautiful. We went to a shady spot with benches and ate our lunches and then we began the tour around this huge house. Where we live is heavy in history of the Civil war so this is a house where a lot happened. Now I don't remember all of the information, but it was pretty amazing. We went around the house then got to go inside and tour the little museum part of it. The kids have been learning about this house and a Mr. Lacey who used to own it so they were all amazed. After we finished that we all loaded up in our cars and headed to the "Sunken Road" trail where there were all sorts of battles and then hiked up the hill to the huge Union cemetery. We looked around a little bit and was amazed at the amount of people who had no headstones but just a number marker. These are people who they couldn't account for, This cemetery was HUGE and the dates were all in the 1800's. Afterwards we went to Carl's Ice Cream which I have heard so much about. It's a little outdoor shop that's also a piece of history. It was pretty good! I def would return there! We also showed that we were not from this county by saying we had never been there. Apparently it's a huge deal in these parts!

So the trip was pretty amazing! The more I thought about it, I thought it was pretty cool that Hailey had a teacher who actually loves teaching enough to show them firsthand what they had been learning about in school! Our school budgets have been severely cut so this was a way she could still provide her students a chance to see and learn without bringing in the school and money. She used her own time to make sure they understood what they were learning. I think that's pretty amazing of her. It was a great time and the weather was beautiful. It was a pretty awesome family Sunday!

Part of the Chatham Manor

Shhhh! You don't see Kenny because he may have called out of work so he could join us!

 

This is a crazy tree! It's one of the originals and it has to be supported by these beams to keep it standing!

The supports!

This is what they made their bridges out of so they could cross the water. They were like little pontoon boats

This is the Rappahannock River and across is old town Fredericksburg.

Class picture!

Another one! These are the only kids who came out of 23 total.

These were the gardens at Chatham Manor! They were beautiful!

This was off the Sunken Road trail. Mrs. Scheff is telling the kids about the house that used to be there and that the women who stayed there used to provide water to the soldiers during the war.

This was an original house from the war. There are bullet holes all inside it!

Apparently there are a lot of historical pictures looking up this hill at the house and there are soldiers that have been bandaged up from being wounded hanging out  on that big porch.

This is one tiny view of the cemetery.

 

After we finished with our class activities, I decided it would be an awesome time to go pick some strawberries. Usually we go at the end of the season so this is still pretty early since the berries were pushed back from the harsh weather we had. This is the same place we went last year and I made sure to grab our bucket before leaving the house. We all agreed that we will have to go back in a couple weeks because the berries just weren't ready. They were all very small and it was had to find ones that hadn't rotted from the crazy rains for last week. None of the ones we were able to find were more then one bite and they weren't that sweet either. So I def think a redo is in order in a few weeks! Despite the berries, we did have a pretty fun time!

 

 

 

This place makes fresh honey so this was a bee display that they had that you could look at! Pretty neat!

What I am Loving Wednesday!

So I thought since it was Wednesday I could celebrate all the things I have been loving this week/ past couple weeks!


1. I am loving that my Mother's day was spent with Hailey! She started off the morning by giving me a card and presents that she picked out with Kenny the other day! She also made me a coupon book at school and a book of why she loves me! We then had a girls day all afternoon! We finished the evening by planting the last of my flowers that were wilting and begging me to plant them!

 

My Mother's Day gifts! A rug for in front of the kitchen sink and a K Cup Drawer!

 

Movies with Hailey to see Bears!

 

 

Hailey's first Pedicure!

 

 

Matching toes that Hailey picked for us!

 

 

2. I am loving special moments shared with best friends!

 

 

 

Michele's wedding!

 

 

 

Benefit event and being there to support the bestie's family!

 

 

 

My baby shower!

 

Flowers from Meagan's visit while I was in the hospital!

 

 

3. I am loving this man. We still argue and fight, but these last few weeks he has been nothing short of amazing to me! Between putting up with my hysterical crying, to doing an amazing job around the house including painting rooms and redoing the deck, to working with my friends on my shower and surprise birthday plans! He even has been going to my appointments with me even though I know he hates sitting there the whole time!

 

I'm learning to deal with his over usage of his phone. He's become a girl the past few months!

My wedding date!

 

4. I am loving big girl beds and the start of the baby room!

 

 

 

*More to come once both rooms are finished!*

 

 

5. I am loving special Birthday surprises!

 

 

My gifts from Kenny and Hailey! (flowers, couch cover and fitbit)

 

 

Surprise visit from my #BFFLs!

 

 

 

From Kaley! (jewelry holder!)

 

 

From Michele and Heather (cute coffee cup and tickets to the benefit!)

Surprise present from my Mom! (3 Alex and Ani bracelets all with meanings behind them!)

 

Plus all the cards, messages, and texts I received on my birthday!

 

 

So this is what I am loving this Wednesday! How about you?!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



10 Things on Tuesday!

 

 

1. It's Tuesday and I really wish it was at least Wednesday already! I am just so tired and it's getting harder and harder for me to wake up, roll (usually two attempts) out of bed and get going. This baby is draining me of the little bit of energy I had!!!!

 

2. I spent my lunch break looking at college saving plans/ grow up plans / investment plans for the girls. I am not going to push or force them to pursue college, but definitely support them in any choice they make. If they choose college then I want some money to be there, but if not then I still want them to be able to get that money and use towards something else like a down payment on a house or car. I get confused reading through all the different options, requirements, and fees. I printed out a couple different things and requested information in the mail.........then I remembered that I barely have enough money to pay bills each week and this is before a baby who will require diapers and formula comes along. So I guess that will be a no go for now! At least I can tell them I looked into it when they were little!

 

3. Kenny told me a little girl came up to him the other day while he was picking Hailey up from aftercare and asked how old I was and said that Hailey had told them it was my birthday and I turned 27. Kenny said that was how old I was and the little girl responded with "wow". I just laughed and wondered what the "wow" was for. Yesterday I went to pick Hailey up and the same little girl came up to me and said "Mrs. Gass, Hailey told us all that you just turned 27". And I said "yup, I turned 27 last week." and again she responded with "wow" and so I asked "is that old?" and she responded with "no it's young, my Mom's birthday was last Friday and she turned 47 and she said Hailey must have said the wrong number when she told us how old you were". Ha! Young mommy for the win!

 

4. I got my free Starbucks drink for my birthday today. I figured I couldn't go wrong with a Venti Mocha Frappachino. Wrong! It tasted like shit! Free is suppose to taste amazing! What happen?!?

 

5. I got $150 for my birthday and may have spent all but like $13 of it so far! Ebates got me with their special 15% cashback offer on Sephora. This is an unheard of deal! So I bought a good amount of things from there that I have been eyeing forever (like the Origin's charcoal mask and Origin's citrus energizing facial moisturizer!). Urban Decay conned me into making a purchase off their site because I got a free eyeliner of my choice as my birthday gift! That's a $20 savings and their 24/7 eyeliner is my favorite! I have never actually had a full sized one either. I have always had travel sized ones that I use down until they are about an inch big and can not be sharpened anymore. And finally Victoria Secret had a special deal on shipping so I got some new underwear shipped to me for free! I have been in desperate need of new panties and so this was my perfect chance! On the good news is I will be getting back $12.75 from my ebates purchases and $1.28 on my cashback Visa! Woot!

 

6. I did get a $50 Amazon giftcard that I am saving! Not sure exactly what I am going to want with that yet! Hmmmm decisions decisions, but since this is my last bit of money I think I am going to sit on it for right now!

 

7. My birthday was so/so. I worked the entire day, but the night was nice with Kenny and Hailey. I was pretty bummed that I had worked and it just didn't feel like my Birthday. We did go out to dinner and Kenny did take Hailey shopping so that was nice! Hailey was kind of in a grumpy mood though and snapped at me several times. I came home to a bill the insurance didn't pay on and a collections notice for something else so that was a bummer. So my birthday kind of stunk overall. BUT that changed on Friday when I was surprised with a snapchat of three of my best friends outside my house! They drove all the way over to see me and celebrate with me! I had no clue! The husbands (minus one) and kids were with them, they came with pizza, balloons, gifts and cake! It was a huge surprise and I cried when I saw the picture of them outside of my house! It really meant a lot to me that they organized this and did it! It was a very nice surprise and def helped make my 27th Birthday pretty awesome!

 

8. I swear every time I open the mail I have some crazy bill or a collections notice for something the insurance hasn't paid. I wish they would figure out how to bill around here and stop billing our local BlueCross BlueShield and use the one I actually have! I can't help it that we work in DC and have CareFirst instead of Anthem! I also don't understand why I give them my insurance cards to make copies of?! I mean come on! I am sick and tired of making phone calls to the insurance company and then to these doctors! Ugh! Every week I make at least 4 calls to somewhere to get things straightened! It really irks me!

 

9. I mentioned back in November and then again in April about University of Maryland messing up my account and sending me to collections for money that was paid to them! Well my collections account is still open, I am still in the offset program for $835.00, and I am still dealing with that. I sent an email today to any department that I could think of saying that it had to be corrected ASAP because I will be seeking legal help to clear my name. It was a long nasty email, but I am sorry this is effecting my credit and my background checks for federal jobs! This is ridiculous and I am tired of playing games. It should have never happened and then should have been resolved in November when all the documentation had been provided. It should have never gotten to this point that I was sent to state collections and it should have been resolved back in April when I was told it would be taken care of! I did get a phone call within an hour and they are currently "working on it" and will keep me posted. About damn time!

 

Ps: I don't have money for said "legal help", but they don't need to know that! ;-)

 

10. Emily was such a lazy butt this past Friday at the doctors. First off she is so far down there they couldn't even see her face while doing the sonogram but they could check all her organs and everything they needed to. Secondly she had one hand on her face and the other was straight back and she was holding onto her foot. Crazy girl! And lastly she failed her NST because the whole purpose is to watch how her heart rate reacts to her movements, but girlfriend didn't want to move for the entire 30 minutes we were hooked up. They used a buzzer twice on her which made her jump, but she fell right back to sleep. They said that they would let this fail slide this one time and next time to eat beforehand, bring a snack, and hope it wakes her up because if not we will spend the day in the hospital being monitored. Believe me I do not want to deal with anymore doctors or bills! So that better not be the case!!!!!

 

 

WW: Baby Sprinkles!

 

As promised here are some pictures from both my sprinkles!

 

Baby Sprinkle #1 (Apr. 27)

 

We were suppose to ignore the fact my mom misspelled Emily's name. haha!

Lot's of gifts!

And diapers thank goodness!

 

Baby Sprinkle #2 (May 3rd)

 

Busy making play-doh babies!

Break the water game- whoever could break the water and get the baby out first won.

Kaley decided to break the baby out fastest by using her teeth! Ha!

As you can see, I love baby clothes!!!!

Diaper cake and diaper raffles!

All the babies before judging!

 

PS: The baby in the center in the crib won!

10 Things on Tuesday!

 

1. It's the first Tuesday in May! May already seems to be shaping up better then April which is a good sign! I'm starting to get really excited and looking forward to different things! Whoop Whoop!

 

2. We have moved mountains when it comes to getting our house organized. Now don't get me wrong, we are not yet done and still have a lot to do, but we seriously have come a long way!!!! The basement is finally set up and ready for use! I couldn't be happier with it! It's a really nice space we have now! Also the baby has a room with furniture. I just need to go through the boxes of baby things and put them away and then I can start bringing in all the new stuff. I am super happy with my house at this point! Now if I can just finish Hailey's room and tackle my room!

3. I had a doctors appointment today and things are looking good. We are going to have to wait on guidance from the cardiologist and the perinatology as we get closer. She said that we most likely will induce at 39 weeks and she recommends an early epidural to keep my calm and to better regulate my heart, but she said we will start planning all of that in the next couple weeks. It's getting very close!

4. On Thursday at my perinatology visit, baby girl was 5lbs 1 oz! She also has hair! It's so funny because you can kind of see it waving when she moved around. We switched it over to 3D/4D and real time and I got to see her sucking on her little hands. Girlfriend always has her hands at her face or in her mouth! I actually picked Hailey up early to go to my appointment since it was later in the day. She liked seeing the baby. Because of the heart issues I am having, we now have moved from every 4 weeks to weekly scans on the baby and non stress tests on the baby. He said it's always good to be precautionary.

5. We had to have a talk with Hailey because she's made some comments lately that were not just sassy, but could be hurtful to others, even if she didn't mean them to be. We went over the whole "if you have nothing nice to say, don't say anything at all". She made a few comments this past weekend around others that I felt were pretty rude, so we talked about them. I know she's only 6, but she acts like she's a teenager. I want to nip some of this sarcasm in the butt!

6. We went to AC Moore tonight to get a yellow shirt for Hailey's class' field day. While we were in there I picked up wooden letters to paint and hang in Emily's room like Hailey has. I am crossing my fingers they turn out okay when I get around to doing them!

7. My job has no maternity leave and though I have been saving forever, I still won't have enough to get me through the time period I am going to be out. I  have been very thankful that I have been allowed to telework for most of my appointments and believe me they are really adding up as we are getting closer. Well after I sent a request to telework for today, my boss came and asked how many more times will I need to telework. She said that someone has placed a complaint that I am allowed to telework as often as I do and so she would approve this request, but it's up in the air for the rest until she can talk with my other boss and come to a decision. Well thanks asshole who complained, I hope you enjoy doing my work since if I have to use leave, then I am not going to be able to do it all myself! I would love to know who it was who said something. I telework because I send a request and ask to telework. I have the work to do and the equipment and ability to work from home and clearly produce results that I am productive during my time teleworking. Not my fault if others don't ask or have trouble turning on a laptop!

8. Okay, wooosaaaa! Besides for the little bump in the road, I have been in a really good mood lately and have had a pretty positive attitude. It also helps that our grass is green, my flowers are growing, and the weather has been pretty awesome lately!

9. Hailey got a little upset when she asked me when Mother's day is. I wish Kenny would just take her out and let her pick something out. He doesn't get how important that is to kids and especially Hailey. I mean it doesn't have to be anything expensive, but you know something small that she has made or picked out special to give to me.

10. I guess I will add that my Birthday is this week and I am getting pretty excited. I have no plans or anything like that, but I still can't help but get really excited for birthdays, especially my own!

Hope everyone had a happy Tuesday!!!!!