Katie Update

Football season is officially here and the Tigers are 2-0. WooHoo! This is my last week of my Practicum and I start officially Student Teaching over the next 2 weeks. I will be teaching under the most awesome Language Arts teacher and I am so excited. If all goes well, I will have only 9 days to complete in January and will be finished with my Student Teaching before the baby comes. I am doing a "mini-lesson" this Thursday on the African Slave Trade for 20% of my grade, so wish me luck! The Social Studies teacher I'm working with now is awesome, so I hope I can live up to the challenge :-)
In pregnancy news: I officially grew out of my pants this week and in a last ditch effort decided to try the Belly Band. I felt like a weirdo with my pants unbuttoned all day, but it seemed to do the trick and my shirt covered it. It was really tight around my belly and that started to bother me through the day so I guess I'm going to have to break down and buy maternity pants. I look down at my belly every night and tell Jason that I don't think I can get any bigger and despite this it seems to grow every day. I've only felt him kick once and to be honest I wasn't sure even then. He's always moving around when we're at the doctor, but I can't feel it yet. Other than that I'm exhausted and achy most of the time, but it's still a pleasure to know he's growing in there and will be here with us in just 5 months! We have decided to name him Shuler, which was Jason's mother Donna's maiden name. We're still working on a middle name for him. I should tell you that my husband wants to name him Morocco (Rocco) and everyone at his office thinks this is great fun so I'm a little worried we are going to end up with some version of this as a nickname - although it has to be better than the one his Aunt Manda likes to use: Nubs. I'm pretty sure Jason is kidding, but it's mostly hard to tell with him. Koozie seems very attracted to my belly lately so I'm convinced she knows something is in there. We leave TLC on the TV every day so she can hear babies and hopefully get used to the sound - my luck is that this will make no difference but it's worth a shot. I will put up some more pictures when we go to the doctor next week. We'll be having a level 2 ultrasound to look for genetic defects and things like that so keep us in your prayers and God willing we will find a healthy little boy and have lots of pictures to share. I can't believe we're halfway through already! It's been an adventure!

Oh and I've had requests to share any cravings I have and I have just gotten a healthy appetite back in the past week, so... Last night I had a killer craving for steak, which may not sound strange but I haven't wanted meat at all in the past 5 months and never craved steak before in my life so it was a little strange for me. Jason laughed as I devoured half a steak, a baked potato, and two rolls. This is a very large meal for me - I usually take four bites of something and have to save the rest. Yesterday I bought a box of nerds, a pack of sour skittles, and a back of gummy life savers at the gas station on my way to class - this is also a very weird craving for me. I've never done that before. The cashier laughed at me.