What a week!

I haven't posted in almost a week, but I have a good reason... We've been having a cat crisis, and it has totally wiped me out. On Thursday, I was petting Jack and noticed something black and moving in his fur -- fleas!

I, of course, panicked as I didn't want my house to be infested with fleas, so Tony and I went to the pet store immediately after researching the best way to rid a cat of fleas. We gave him some medicine and then a bath in shampoo that was supposed to kill fleas. He hated the bath, but it had to be done. We figured he would be better in the morning.

Turns out that he hated the bath so much that he just hid all day on Friday while I was at school. So, when I got home, we were able to coax him out from under the bed only to realize that he was acting super weird...twitching and running around like something was chasing him. So, back to the internet we went for information only to find out that some cats can be poisoned by certain flea shampoos. The one we used had the specific ingredients, so I started freaking out. People on the internet suggested going to emergency vet care immediately to help your pet and other suggested giving a second type of bath with different soap. We opted for the second bath, which Jack was not happy with.

So, afterwards, he hid out again for all of Saturday and wouldn't eat. I had to take his food to him underneath the bed, but he didn't really eat too much at all. We left him until Sunday just to see what would happen. He stayed hidden. Finally Sunday night we were able to coax him out after Tony got back from youth group. We sat with him for awhile and got him to eat a little, but then he lost interest. As it was very late, I decided I needed to go to bed.

This morning, he was still out in the living room, staring out the window with an empty food bowl. That means that he ate it all over night. Today he seems better, although he is still cleaning himself like crazy. I can't figure out if he thinks he still has fleas or if his skin is still irritated by the first shampoo. Regardless, I'm hoping that my life can be consumed by something other than worrying about fleas and then worrying about whether I hurt my cat trying to get rid of the fleas!

Tomorrow's the Big Day

So, tomorrow I meet 2 of my three classes of students for this school year. I think I am finally ready for them: copies done, paperwork ready, SmartBoard files created and saved... I'm going to try to head to bed early since I need to get up incredibly early tomorrow morning.

One questions remains...do I tell my students I'm expecting a baby or leave them in suspense for awhile? ;)

Day 1 of School...and a Doctor's Appointment

I have successfully completed the first day back to school! It was absolutely crazy with what seemed like less than 5 minutes of down time outside of meetings. I ended up spending the evening tonight working on problems that are used in the Advanced Algebra class that I'm going to start teaching this year for the first time. I was super nervous about that class going into this morning just because it's pretty non-traditional in nature, especially during the first week. After meeting with one of the current teachers today, though, I have a better idea of what to expect and the work I did tonight actually working through the problems I'm going to expect my students to do was very helpful. Tomorrow is another day of meetings and freshman orientation, and then Wednesday is the first real day of school for all students. Ready or not...here they come! :)

In other news today, I also had a doctor's appointment. It looks like everything with me and the baby is looking great. My doctor said I'm on track to gain about 25 pounds total, which is at the lower end of where they wanted me to be, so that's good news. (This is good news to me since I got in trouble for gaining too much weight from weeks 20-25 last time I had an appointment.) Also, my blood pressure is staying low and baby's heartbeat is right where it should be. We got a little tap dance from her today as she decided to kick the monitor while the doctor was listening to her heartbeat. It's still amazing to me that there's a little person growing and getting ready for the world in there. Tony and I are super excited to meet her in a few more months. I start going for appointments every 2 weeks now, so with those happening more frequently and with me being back at school, I have a feeling that baby Dixon will be here before we know it!

New Adventures!

Today marked the last day of summer vacation for me as I head back to work tomorrow morning bright and early. It also marked the first day of my third trimester. It seems like this pregnancy has flown by, and now that I'm heading back to work, I'm sure the time before baby Dixon makes her big debut will fly by as well.

Given that I foresee our lives changing pretty substantially over the next few months/years, I thought it might be fun to jump on the bandwagon and start up a blog to keep a record of the million little moments that I know I will want to treasure (but will forget unless documented thanks to my less than stellar memory!). Hopefully I'll be able to consistently update as I really have enjoyed reading the blogs of others as a way to stay connected.

I'm going to keep this short as I should be sleeping already given that I have to get up so much earlier than I'm used to tomorrow morning. Check back for more later. :)