why being thirteen weeks pregnant rocks...

... I don't feel nauseous anymore, I don't feel drug-tired all day, and I don't feel like I have to eat every hour and a half... hallelujah!

only 11 more days of school...

it all makes sense now... =)

PLUS

PLUS

EQUALS

Yep - almost 11 weeks of above and I can now celebrate Mother's Day tomorrow!

no idea what to title this post...

I don't even know where to begin... Last month I went home to Seattle for Spring Break. My family always plans the funnest things to do and it's nice catching up with my three nieces and seeing how much they've grown.

Above: The most amazing mango frozen yogurt with pineapple, my niece's pants falling down as she hopped down the street, and of course the pedicure with my mom and sister Carrie.

Above: The most adorable two year old in the world.

Above: We always do too much antique shopping and drag the girls along - they were dying at this point.

Above and Below: Rock Art - don't we look exactly the same?!

Below: Then we took a train down to Portland for the weekend to shop.

Below: Okay, so now this stuff is from my birthday which was March 19th. We went to the Russian Tea Room for tea service a few days before my birthday (the same day we did the St. Patrick's Day stuff). Then on my actual birthday Ben made me an amazing breakfast in bed, a homemade german chocolate cake, and took me to see Mary Poppins.

Below: At school my parent's sent this balloon + cookie bouquet. Every year that I've taught they've sent something like flowers, balloons, carmel apples from Rocky Mountain, etc. Then my students went crazy and bought me a TON of gum (because I chew it all the dang time), two cakes, flowers, and balloons. So cute. It was a pretty dang fine birthday.

St. Patrick's Day

A few weekends ago Ben and I went downtown for the St. Patrick's Day festivities which is huge here. Last year we went to see the Chicago River dyed neon green and then tried unsuccessfully to head over to the parade (hundreds of thousands of people in our way). So this year we went directly to the parade and skipped the river dye job. 

These two pictures are from last year.

This guy was at the head of the parade.

The lovely Mayor Daley second from left.

This was rather frightening as it loomed over your head.

I could totally see Ben doing this...

because I'm bored and Ben's out of town...

1) Your Real Name: Jamie Alyse Curran

2) Witness Protection Name (mother and father's middle names): Ellen Wesley

3) Nascar Name (first name of your mother's dad; father's dad): Henry Walter

4) Star Wars Name (the first three letters of your last name, first two letters of your first name): Curja

5) Detective Name (favorite color, favorite animal): Purple Koala

6) Soap Opera Name (middle name, town where you were born): Alyse Richland

7) Superhero Name (second favorite color, fave drink, add 'the' to the beginning): The Yellow Peach Fresca

8) Fly Name (first two letters of your first name, last two letters of your last name): Jaan ... ?

9) Rock Star Name (current pet's name, current street name): Herman Beloit - we don't exactly have a pet yet but Herman will definitely be the name of the dog we get someday =)

10) Name on the Streets (fave ice cream flavor, fave cookie): Cookie Dough Nutter Butter

Man, I'm bored ... 

love this guy, even if he does look "special" in this picture... hehe