Maternity Pictures - 3 Weeks to Go!

Gabe and I went to a wedding in Laguna Beach the last weekend in August, so we took the opportunity to use the beautiful scenery as a backdrop for some last minute maternity shots. I am 37 weeks pregnant here...only 3 weeks to go!

June and July??? Where Have They Gone To?

I am going to post in a sort of, backwards order here, but it does go chronologically...only backwards! I don't do this on purpose, its just that I am no good with blogs so far and I can't seem to figure out how to post forwards without a whole ton of effort, so here it goes!



The second week in July we had the opportunity to puppy-sit for a friend of mine. We got to have 11-week old Bailey live with us for about five days. He's part Beagle and the rest is unknown, but he is cute and pretty smart for a pup! He took to Gabe right away and Gabe got his doggy fix for a while. However cute and playful, Gabe's comments went from, "I wish we could have a dog like Bailey," to, "I think I'm good with not having a dog for a while, now," by the end of the week! Not that it wouldn't be fun, but Bailey was good training for this little baby girl to come - he's not yet potty trained, so we got to work on that, gets up at 4 a.m. ready to play, hogs the bed, and barks at everything he doesn't recognize! Cute, but a lot of work! So, we'll stick to baby girl for now...doggies will have to come later.

One of his favorite spots to sleep - hiding behind the pillows

Gabe and Bailey "at work"

Tuesday, July 6th, Hollywood! - We picked up an old friend of mine from Hungary and her new hubby on their way back from their honeymoon in Hawaii. Gabi and John David got married in Budapest, flew to Paris for 1 day, then onto Hawaii. On their way back, they stopped in LA for the day so we picked them up at 6 a.m., took them to a pancake breakfast, then onto Hollywood! The goal of the day was to see the Hollywood sign, but of course, the weather was so weird - drizzle and fog all morning long! We drove up to the Griffith Observatory hoping to get a glimpse of the sign since it is so close, but we could barely make out the observatory from the parking lot! Needless to say, we didn't see the sign. Next we headed down to the Avenue of the Stars and Grauman's Chinese theater to check out the stars and hand/footprints. They had a blast! Star-struck for sure, and neither of them had been to LA before. We also went to the Hollywood Wax Museum and Guinness Book of World Records Museum together (see the fun pictures below!). Around 1 p.m. we headed back towards the airport to drop them off, but not without one final attempt at getting a picture of the Hollywood sign...and finally, SUCCESS! We got it! The weather cleared up and Gabi and John David stopped traffic to get the best picture possible - from the middle of the street! It was a great, though fast, day and we all thoroughly enjoyed catching up with each other.

J.D. with Miami Vice (?)

Gabi with Charlie's Angels

Gabe with Ace Ventura, Pet Detective (Jim Carey)

All of us together at the entrance - picture perfect!

Monday, July 5th - Our 1st Anniversary! Gabe and I got 2 free tickets to Disneyland back in March for the Disney sponsored "Give a Day, Get a Day" community service project. Basically, we collected trash in a North Long Beach neighborhood for a few hours and we got free tickets to Disneyland - not bad considering tickets run about $76 a piece now! We decided to save them for our anniversary for some good, cheap fun. We had a great day and the weather was perfect! Granted, there were a number of rides we couldn't go on because of baby girl, but we had a great time anyways. We saw a hilarious music show at the Golden Horseshoe while we ate lunch, saw two parades, went on Peter Pan, Buzz Lightyear, visited Toon Town, did the Jungle Cruise (Gabe was laughing so hard he could hardly breathe because our "river guide" was stinkin' hilarious!) and just walked around a lot. It was a nice, easy-going day. We met my parents for dinner at the Rainforest Cafe in Downtown Disney. We had a lovely dinner and it was the perfect ending to a perfect day! Below are some pictures of our visit.

Rainforest Cafe with Mom and Dad

Dorky, yet required, just married Mickey ears pic!
(No, we didn't buy them, we just put them on for the pic!)

Gabe checkin' out Chip & Dale's tree house in Toon Town

"Billy Hill and the Hillbillies" musical revue at the Golden Horseshoe

Gabe and me (lookin' chubby!) in front of the saloon after lunch...must have been those chili-cheese fries!

June 25th, 2010 - Huntington Park College Ready Academy High School Graduation at the USC Galen Center. This was a great night! I was so excited for "my kiddos" but I am sure gonna miss them! The ceremony was beautifully done, as were the speeches. I have taught many of these now graduated seniors for the past two years. I am proud of them beyond words and can't wait to see where the Lord leads them over the coming years!

Marilyn Limon - my adopted munchkin! I will miss her smile, her antics, her drama, and her "focus mode" - everything about her, really! Seriously, I would adopt this girl if her parents would let me - I love her to death! She will be attending St. Lawrence University in NY in the fall.

Jessica Jara - sweet, smart, and wise beyond her years - another of my girlies I will miss a ton! She will be attending Bucknell University in PA on a full-ride scholarship in the fall.

Joshua Hernandez - HE'S GOING TO HARVARD!!!!
Our valedictorian and full-rider-and-then-some to Harvard...yes, THE Harvard! I will miss this boy's dedication, drive for excellence, search for truth and understanding and humble
perfectionism - he is the ideal student and he is going to do AWESOME at the big "H"!

Jeremy Aguirre - the boy with more creativity and raw talent in his pinky finger than I will ever have in my entire being! I have had the pleasure to teach and learn from him over the past two years. I will miss him dearly but cannot wait to see what happens to the art world...look out, MINUS is coming!

Our graduates to be waiting for their names to be called!

June 24th - The last day of classes at HPCRAHS. So, the SEN10RS (this is how they spell it, S-E-N-the number ten-R-S, to still spell out seniors, but include their graduation year '10) decided to pull their senior class prank. I have to say it was very creative! Not every classroom was "hit" but mine certainly was! Each classroom was themed with a combination of "Class of 2010" or "Class of X" as they like to say (as in Roman numerals) and something they specialized up for each teacher. My room, of course, was baby themed since they have all had the pleasure of experiencing pregnancy with me this year (even throwing up in class in front of all of them once!)

My classroom door - note the "X" all mapped out in diapers!

My desks were arranged in a giant "X" with butcher paper messages all over them, a Greek column atop a stack of Art History textbooks, and baby clothes strung among all the table legs. Perhaps you can see the large "Best of Luck with Baby Brent" sign in the back? Also, (and my favorite part!) they hung diapers from all the artwork attached to my ceiling - I'd say there were about 40 diapers floating over the heads of my students all day long!

Third week in June - I had about 10 students enter the annual Huntington Park Juried Youth Art Contest this year. This is great, considering last year I only had 2 students enter! We did an awesome job representing our school! My students took 1st, 2nd, and Honorable Mention in Painting, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd in Graphic Arts (mainly drawing), and Best of Show overall! I have to brag a bit, because we are the smallest public school in the city and we practically swept the entire competition! I am so proud of my kids and all their hard work!

Me with three of my kids' winning entries in painting

Surprise Baby Shower!

When I walked down the hallway to my classroom on Thursday, I thought it was strange that none of my students were waiting at the door for me. I walked in the door to a huge, "SURPRISE!!!" My 10th grade homeroom students surprised me with an early baby shower! I had no idea they had this all planned out, but they did a great job and they all worked together to make it happen so beautifully - something I am very proud of them for.

The precious baby girl cake, brought in by one of my boys, and a table full of gifts! My kiddos were so sweet and so generous!

Just some of the many wonderful gifts my students gave me - they truly spoiled me!

Here is a belly picture at 23 weeks, about 2 and a half weeks ago, and yes, it is bigger now! My belly button has officially "popped" and I feel like a whale! ...and to think I still have 3 months to go and to grow...oh my!

Memorial Day at Bolsa Chica Wetlands

Gabe and I drove down the road to the Bolsa Chica Wetlands Preserve on Memorial Day to take a nice long walk and see the local wildlife. It was breezy and relaxing and really just a pleasant way to spend our morning before heading to the beach to meet friends. Here are some pictures of our time and what we saw on our walk around the various inlets and marshy areas.

Mussels buried in the marsh


Pelicans roosting on the inlet shore


An Egret and his reflection on the hunt for fingerlings


Self-portrait...not so great of me, but its the only one we got of us


Beautiful color - a good part of what sustains the wetlands area


Crabby Bob - this little guy attacked a sea slug 5 times his size a
few seconds after we took this shot - crazy crab!


A Great Heron stakes out his fishing spot on the rocks

A 1lb. 5oz. Praise Report!

Gabe and I met with the neo-natologist this afternoon for our level 2 ultrasound to check out that cyst that showed up in our last ultrasound. AWESOME NEWS...not only did our little girl show no signs of the Trisomy disorders, but also no birth defects and the cyst has shrunk to half its original size! Praise the Lord!!! We are on cloud nine right now! We also had the doctor check one more time to make sure she was really, really, officially a girl and he said, "Oh yes! There's no mistaking that. She's definitely a girl." So that is also good/fun to know! He also went over all her anatomy and internal organs again and explained everything as he went, which was so nice because the regular ultrasound techs aren't allowed to really discuss much with you. She is healthy, about 1 pound 5 ounces, and a little on the petite side like her momma! I asked him about all the kicking I've been receiving in my, ahem, lower regions (I'm sorry if that is TMI) and told him I thought she had her feet wedged down near my cervix. We took a look and she had one foot exactly where I told him it was and the other one up by her head! ...and she seemed to be sleeping comfortably in that position which starts me thinking about gymnastics already! What a little monkey... The doctor gave us some more pictures of her, but they didn't print out very clearly, so I'm not going to post them (I can barely tell what I'm looking at). We just wanted to share our praise report and our news with you! Thank you all so much for praying for our growing family!

Hi Family,

My appointment yesterday went pretty well! My CNM said my blood tests came back great and that my whatever-their-called numbers that give you your risk of genetic problems like Downs, etc. were really low, so that is a good thing! She also said that every other thing from the big ultrasound I had a few weeks ago came back perfect, which most likely rules out any type of Trisomy disorders.

I will still go see the specialist on June 1st. He wants me to wait until then so that the baby is more developed and he will be able to see more as far as any possible deformities (if there are any) go. My CNM said she would be really surprised if anything other than a perfectly normal baby showed up. She also said that we will be able to find out for sure if we are in deed having a girl or not. She said Dr. Marshall is the best of the best and has the best of the best equipment and that I am actually really lucky that I get to go see him because he does amazing work. So, I guess that's a good thing. There's just a bit of irony with the whole "he's amazing, but you only get to see him if there is a problem with your baby"! Ha, ha, funny how that works.

I also talked to her about birthing options and mentioned that I'd like to try to go all natural (which I'm sure most women say BEFORE they go into labor!). She said that was a good goal, but did mention that I am pretty small and we really need to wait and see just how big this baby is going to be before we commit to a natural birth. She said cesarean may have to be considered if I go full term with a normal sized baby, which is fine by me too (I kinda figured that might be a possibility).

So, other than that, we are doing good! I'm, of course, staying super busy with school and grad class, etc. but I can see the light at the end of the tunnel...only 7 more weeks of school! Yay! Then I should be able to focus a bit more on getting ready for baby and getting the house in order, etc. I am hoping to work a bit this summer on an AP Art History video project for a company in Korea, so you can pray for my demo lesson to go well so that I actually book the job. It would pay about $3000 out the door, which would be a nice little cushion for maternity leave, since my school doesn't offer any compensation whatsoever. Also, please keep Gabe in your prayers. He is trying so hard to be a provider for our family but is really struggling in this economy. Please pray that God will provide for us and that he will be able to earn enough to allow me to stay home with the baby in September. We don't need a big salary - just enough for us to live simply - but benefits are the biggie because we will definitely need health insurance.

That's the update for now! We'll keep you all informed as we learn more. Thank you for praying!

Beth, Gabe, and baby Brent

The Scary Phone Call

Dear Family and Friends,

I just wanted to write and ask you all to pray for Gabe and me and the baby. I got a message yesterday afternoon from my doctor saying that I needed to schedule an appointment with a specialist because of the results of my last ultrasound. I talked to my doctor's nurse this morning to schedule my appointment with the neonatologist. I will be going in for a level 2 ultrasound on June 1st with Dr. Marshall, the specialist.

I asked the nurse if she could tell me why I was referred to see the neonatologist and she told me that my 2nd trimester ultrasound revealed a choriod plexus cyst and they want to take a closer look and do some more testing to rule out anything serious. I told her thank you for the information and promptly went to research just what in the heck a choriod plexus cyst is!

As it turns out, it could resolve itself and end up being nothing to worry about, or, in the case that my other tests on June 1st return questionable results, it could be an indication of a chromosomal abnormality (like Downs Syndrome or Trisomy 18). As far as I know from my blood tests so far, my markers for chomosomal abnormalities have been low (which is good!), so hopefully this means the chances of them finding anything more scary than this are also low.

I believe they will offer me an amniocentesis (an invasive procedure which carries a risk of miscarriage, but can identify the exact chromosomal problem 95% of the time), which I will decline. Like I said, I really do not expect them to find anything further, but if they do, an amnio is not going to fix the problem and will only lead to further possible complications. If our baby is going to have Downs or Trisomy, then our baby is going to have Downs or Trisomy. She will be a gift from God, regardless, and I don't feel the need to run further risk by poking her with a big long needle.

So, if I could ask you all to keep us in your prayers, I would be truly grateful. June 1st is a long way off and sometimes I get anxious about things like this because I am so impatient. I do have a regular appointment with my Nurse/Midwife tomorrow, so I will see if I can get anymore information or just some reassurance. Thank you all for praying for us - I feel so blessed to have you all surrounding us in love and prayers! You all are so special to us and we are blessed to have you all in our lives!

Beth, Gabe, and baby Brent