I'm Going to be an Aunt!!!!!!!!!!!!

That’s right. Our brother-and sister-in-law Jason and Emily are pregnant!!! Woo-hoo! I don’t think I could be more excited! Can you feel me grinning through these words?! Jason and Emily are two of the most caring, generous, loving people I know. They will be such wonderful parents to Baby Tenner. Already they are such wonderful Aunt and Uncle to Abby. I seriously think Abby loves being around Emily more than she does me sometimes! And who can blame her? Auntie Em rocks!

Due date is March 4 (Yes, they held out a full trimester to tell everyone. And this was quite a difficult task for ol’ Chatty Cathy here.) I have to give a huge shout out to Baxter (that is what I call Emily—long story) for putting up with my Mega Long Words of Advice. Poor thing has had to listen to earfuls of suggestions from me. Sorry, Baxter!

Baby T will be mulit-talented, I’m sure. Taking after its parents, it should be musical, artistic, bilingual, a lover of all things carbonated, and an expert at Guitar Hero!

Matt and I couldn’t be happier. Well, the grandparents are pretty darn excited about grandbaby number two!! They’ve already bought numerous “gender friendly” outfits. Congrats, you two!! You’re already more than 1/3 of the way there!


Freaky Fertility Facts:
When Matt was born, Rick (Matt’s dad) was 28 years, 10 months old.
When Abby was born, Matt was 28 years, 10 months old.
When Baby Tenner will be born, Jason will be 28 years, 10 months old.

Matt and his brother Jason were born 1 year and 10 months apart.
Emily and her brother John were born 1 year and 10 months apart.
Abby and Cousin Tenner will be 1 year and 10 months apart.

How strange is that??


The happy parents

A Short time in Longview

We postponed our trip to Longview to Saturday morning. Luckily Abby was feeling better by then. Woo-hoo! We needed our "Grandparent Fix" and they needed their "Abby...oh, and I guess her parents too-fix." Ha. Anyway, it was a busy 28 hours, but we had a great time.

Here are the four doting grandparents with Abby. They don't look like they can spoil a little girl, right?!
My Top 6 Pics From The Past Few Days:

1. Abby has been attempting to climb onto the coffee table. She can do it, unfortunately. And our little girl loves to test the limits. I love this pic. Notice Matt's "NO" finger. Abby's reaction is hilarious. It's like she's thinking, "Whatever, Dad!! Would I do anything wrong??"

2. She loves to cuddle soft objects. I caught her snuggling with this little bear the other day. Too precious.
3. Abby's number one man. She LOVES her Dada.
3. Abby also loves her grandparents, including her Nana. Here they are sharing a kiss. I'm loving the fact that we can ask Abby for a kiss, and she'll give us one!
4. Just ol' Mom. :)
5. I 100% blame BFF Ellie for this one. I tell you what, that Ellie is a bad influence!!! :)
6. The Three Beggars.

This coming Friday night, Abby will experience her first high school football game. My ol' alma mater, Longview, plays Allen, which is quite convenient for us, considering we live 5 minutes from the stadium! Perhaps Abby will be mezmerized upon her first glimpse of the majorettes and want to proudly follow in her mother's footsteps. HA! My guess is she'll be pretty antsy by that point, and we may already be back home!

Happy week everyone!

Sick

Abby's been sick. No fun. Really, really high fever. Just plain not feeling well. We were just at the pediatrician's office on Wednesday for her 15 month immunizations. So, less than 48 hours later, we were back again with a fever of over 104. Talk about feeling miserable. Luckily, she was feeling better this evening, as she got more Motrin in her. Thank goodness for medicine! Here's hoping she is back to her normal, perky self SOON.

Perspective:

Yesterday


In November

Abby's Gone Hollywood...and other things

Gotta love the chunky legs!
Things Abby loves:

Watching her Dada mow. She thinks it's fun to play "Dodge" with the lawnmower!
Making a mess. She is pretty good at this.
Checking things out. She notices the most mundane things. What's that??
Smiling
Abby actually isn't the biggest fan of having her picture taken, which kind of stinks considering her mama loves to snap, snap, snap away. I had to include this picture of the dress her Grammie and Pops got her for her birthday. It was perfect for church on Sunday!

Just Call Her Garfield

Abby is obsessed with lasagna. This is all very obvious once you view the pictures below. :)

Luckily she cleans up well. :)

Good Ol' Olympics

I don't know about you, but I love the Olympics. I mean I love, love, love them. I've been staying up way too late at night just so I can watch what's going on. Gymnastics, swimming, track and field. I eat it up. I would feel un-American if I didn't watch. Isn't that silly? Oh well. It's about time something decent is on the TV during the summer, right? Abby wore red, white, and blue in honor of the Olympics today. Perhaps she'll be a future medalist. Should she take after her mother, she could score a silver or bronze in Baton Twirling. Lung Capacity would definitely earn her a gold medal. As would Chattiness, Page Turning, and Stealing of Remote Controls. Now, if she takes after her father, she could win a gold medal for Texas Tech Trivia, should that become an Olympic Sport. Hmmm. We'll see.


Red, White, and Blue Babe

I was going through old pictures on the computer yesterday and came across a picture taken one year ago this past week. My, what a difference a year makes, doesn't it? OK, I have to go. Swimming's about to start. Thanks goodness for the Pause Button. Later, dudes.

BFFs

Here are pics from Abby and BFF Ellie's get together Friday evening.

We are getting ever so close to the PERFECT picture of the two of them. It's pretty darn difficult to have two one year olds look at a camera and smile at the exact same time!
No, this is not posed. How funny is this?
And they're off!
Abby went to kiss Ellie, and Ellie immediately put her thumb in her mouth and started stroking Abby's hair. :)
Cutie Patootie Ellie

Remembering Mamaw

Yesterday was my Mamaw's birthday. She would have been 96. A couple of years ago, I asked my students to write a personal essay for college. I told them that I would do the assignment as well. I delved deep into the writing. They all thought I was crazy with my 8 or 9 drafts, red marks all over my own paper, re-writing, editing, but, the truth is, I loved it. As I thought about my Mamaw today, I decided it would be only fitting to share my thoughts on her. Enjoy.



Written Spring 2006:
As I sit here at my desk in my classroom, I look at the picture near my desk, a constant reminder of why I’m here, how I got here, and why I’ve chosen this path in my life. It comes in handy especially on the toughest of days. All it takes is one glance, a quick look, and a smile sweeps across my face, a simple reminder to keep my head up and continue doing what I love to do—teach. After all, she is the reason I entered the teaching profession in the first place. The woman in the picture is my grandmother sitting at her old, wooden desk in her high school classroom. Wearing a pearl necklace and matching earrings, with a blackboard as her backdrop, she sits prim and proper, a smile on her face, looking exactly as I remember her at 91 years of age, right up to her death two years ago. She always looked like it was the best day of her life, even if it was one of the most difficult. That was my grandmother’s way, though.

My grandmother, Mamaw, is the woman and teacher I strive to be one day. Successful, caring, and compassionate, dedicated to her profession for 37 years, her students adored her, and I hope to make the same grand impression on my students as she did on hers.

My desire to become a teacher was fueled by her, along with my mother who is also a well-respected, talented teacher. While most little girls play dress up with their dolls, in my younger years, I played school with mine. This way I could be just like my mom and Mamaw. I would sit all of my Cabbage Patch Dolls and stuffed animals onto the couch in the living room and begin to “teach” them. This is when I felt most comfortable, discovering my niche, teaching and helping someone, or at the time—something—else. Who knows what I taught them, what was going through my childish, innocent mind, but I’m certain I tried to emulate the instructions of my favorite first and second grade teachers, Mrs. Goerner and Mrs. Turner. That is so typical of me, wanting to be just like my beloved teachers, including my mother and grandmother.

Through kindergarten to twelfth grade, I loved school, many thanks to my mom and grandmother being teachers, who instilled in me the importance of an education. Looking back to my days of just playing teacher to actually being one now, I wouldn’t be where I am today without the guidance of my Mamaw who taught me how to put others before myself and to show people—especially my students—just how important they really are.

Now that I have matured from the days of teaching fake, stuffed “students” in my childhood to having actual teenagers sitting in front of me, each day I try my hardest to display attributes inherited from the women who came before me. Because of them, I recognize my students depend on me—not strictly for knowledge, but as someone they can trust, look up to, and appreciate. In fact, taped on my podium that sits in the front of my classroom is a laminated sign that reads “People don’t care how much you know until they know you care.” This is a favorite quote of my grandmother’s. Not only her philosophy for teaching, but also for life, this maxim was proven to me on the evening of her visitation, the day before her funeral.

Among the mix of relatives, church friends, and people from the community, some of Mamaw’s former students arrived to show their respects to “Miss Whitton,” a woman they had grown to love. Most sported gray hair, one or two came by way of wheelchair or a walker, but all shared a common bond: each was touched by my grandmother in a special way. The oldest former student who came was 89 years old, Mamaw being just two years older than he was. They gathered and shared stories of my grandmother, about their days in a clapboard schoolhouse in the small community of Rocky Hill, where my grandmother taught during the Great Depression. Others knew Mamaw from her days teaching English and Journalism at Lufkin High School. They laughed, and they cried. These students showed up that evening because of the love and compassion my grandmother showed them, and 75 years later, they hadn’t forgotten it. Words can’t express what my family and I felt, realizing what an impact this wonderful woman had made, leaving my mother and me some big shoes to fill.

As I stood there at the funeral home that hot July evening, and as I sit here now at my desk—a desk I have longed to have since I was a little girl—I am so very appreciative of my grandmother and the path she laid for me, the love for English and goodness she instilled into my mom, which was passed on to me. Yes, as I sit here at my desk, I look at her at her desk, almost as if I am looking into a mirror, a reflection of the woman I have just begun to emulate, and the amazing teacher I hope to one day become.

Not Much

I realized that this blog's URL address is "The Three Tenners," and the blog is really only about one of us. Oh well. Nothing too exciting is going on with Matt or me at the moment, so that's why everything is focused on Abby! I think some 24-hour stomach bug may have been going around. Abby had it several days ago, and then I got sick yesterday. Plus I've known a handful of people who have been hit with it too. Any of you been struck by this bug too? That's about all I know. Pretty lame, right?

Have I mentioned that each new "phase" of Abby's is my new favorite? I love that I can tell her something, and lots of the time, she actually understands me! Woo-hoo!


I watered the flowers the other afternoon, and Abby decided to pick up the watering jug and do it herself.

Sinks are WAY fun!

My dad's cousin's wife (did you follow that?!) made this Raggedy Ann doll for Abby. She MADE it. With her own two hands. Unbelievable! Thank you, Carol!!
Cutie pie
Abby has learned to dial on my phone. Scary. Let's hope my text messaging bill isn't sky high this month!
Stay cool, everyone!

Random Ramblings

1. We painted our living room and kitchen on Friday. Thank you to the grandparents for coming over and helping! We knocked it all out in no time flat. Isn't it amazing what transformation takes place when there's some color on the walls? My goodness. I am not a fan of white. I will not miss those sad, plain walls! Now it's time to find the perfect curtains!

2. Mom, my mother-in-law Evelyn, my sister-in-law Emily, and her mom Nancy had a girls' day out on Saturday. Lunch and then on to see Jersey Boys at Fair Park. What a phenomenal musical! I highly recommend it. Be warned though: if the "F" word bothers you, then this isn't the play for you! While there are giant signs upon entering, warning audience members about the "authentic, profane Jersey vocabulary," I must admit that I cringed each time the "F" word was said. Not because it bothered me, but because my mom, Mrs.-I-Think-"Butt"-Is-A-Bad-Word sat next to me, and it was like watching a tampon commercial with your dad sitting next to you. A little bit awkward, I must say. But my mom teaches college students, plus she lived through the 70s, and she saw Forrest Gump, so I'm pretty sure she's heard the words before. :) Love you, Mom! Seriously though, Jersey Boys was outstanding!!


3. It's hot outside. You know it's hot when the car AC is on full blast while you're running errands, and it never once gets turned down. Even when you get home, it's still blowing at top speed and you're still sweating!


4. Abby is getting smarter by the day (which is more than I can say for her mother--I swear I think this heat is making me dumber. Seems like I'm averaging two or three 'Jessica Simpson' moments a day.) So I've got these pictures of the grandparents that I've given to Abby. She holds them, points to a grandparent, and says "Who's that?" I answer her. Grammie, Pops, Nana or Papa. She just loves pictures of her grandparents. So, I thought I'd quiz her this weekend when they were in town. So, we're all standing around, and I asked her, "Abby, where's Grammie?" She looks at Grammie. I said, "Abby, where's Nana." She looks at Nana. I said, "Where's Pops?" She looks at Pops. I said. "Where's Papa?" You guessed it, she looked at Papa! I swear I didn't think I could be any prouder! I'm just so amazed at how quickly children pick up on things! Absolutely unbelieveble. And to her credit, to prove it was not just a fluke, she did it correctly every time we asked her! Yea, Roo!

5. I'm reading Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum novels. If you're looking for something that's a.) a pretty quick read and b.) rib-hurting hilarious, then try her novels. I'm going to finish the third one soon. I can't read them fast enough it seems!


6. Abby and BFF Ellie are playing so well together now. For a while they've somewhat ignored the other one until they have the toy that the other one wants, and then it's every gal for herself. But last week, they shared and played so well together. Yea for BFFs!



7. College football season is quickly approaching. Thank God!

That's about all I know. I'll finish this post with my new favorite photo of Abby. Stay cool, everyone! :)