It's Just a Little Cold

It's just a little cold. no biggie, right?
Last week, starting about Tuesday night, I started feeling just a bit under the weather. Nothing serious that a good night's sleep couldn't fix. But I'm student teaching and hopelessly devoted to being the best student teacher i can be-- so I stayed up late working on lesson plans.

Wednesday came. I began a bad cough, so Brad insisted I go to the doctor. Dr says it's just a minor respiratory virus that kids have been getting but that adults can usually shake off pretty easy. I may just feel yucky a little while because I'm pregnant, and have asthma, and Utah has the worst air quality in the country. I was home by 3pm when Brad practically had to force me to eat lunch, then fell asleep until 8pm. I even skipped Brad's last hockey game of the season! I was back asleep by 10:30pm. All lesson planning was thrown out the window and I picked some movies for the kids to watch at school the next day. I at least put thought into what movies I would show; none of that watching Aladin in US Gov!

Thursday came with a vengence. I was coughing and exhausted, but went to school anyway because it was a short day and I figured I could make it till 12:30pm. US Gov watched "A More Perfect Union," Psychology watched "A Beautiful Mind," and my revolutions class started reading "The Communist Manifesto." After getting home, I promptly fell asleep until 8-ish. I woke up with some energy, so I spent an hour washing dishes that I had neglected the past couple of days, then collapsed on the floor of the kitchen in tears, realizing that I hadn't eaten since 8:30am. I was starving my poor, unborn baby. I am a horrible mother to a child that isn't even born yet! Gotta love those pregnancy hormones! And I couldn't even think of something I wanted to eat or had the energy to cook. Brad got home from class about 10:45pm, found his emotionally wrecked wife, and took me out to get hamburgers. I promptly collapsed into bed by 12:30am.

Friday morning, I woke up miserable, coughing, tired, and having difficulty breathing. But I still got ready for school. When I woke up Brad to take me to class, he refused to let me go. Instead, he calls the school director and my mentor teacher and tells them I'm too sick to go in. He agrees to take in the movies, but I have to stay home. I fight about it until the last second, insisting I could still go and just show movies like I did Thursday, but that ends when I have an asthma attack, start coughing uncontrollably, and can't breath. I go back to bed and wake up at 10-ish; Brad called his aunt June and she calls in a bunch of prescriptions for me-- a new inhaler, an asthma controller, cough syrup, and a short round of antibiotics (just in case); and Brad drives to Park City to borrow a humidifier from her to help me breath easier. While he's gone, I go back to sleep on the couch-- dozing in and out of consciousness for the rest of the day while watching "The 10th Kingdom."

Saturday and Sunday was much the same thing-- lots of sleep, except Sunday I stayed up til 12:30am because I realized that I have classes again in the morning and haven't planned ANYTHING! This Monday morning, I wake up after a horrible night's sleep and again, can't stop coughing. But I somehow convince Brad that my coughing isn't as bad as last week and I can do it. He drives me to school, but insists that he walk me inside-- I still can't stop coughing and I'm about to fall asleep while walking up the stairs to my classes. My mentor and the school director tell me to leave my lesson plans with them and they'll find someone to cover my classes for the day. When I get back home, I sleep from 9am-2pm. Brad makes me lunch, and now I'm sitting here, still coughing, planning more lessons and hoping I can get back to teaching tomorrow.

Parent-teacher conferences are this week-- gotta get ready! Just a little cold can be a big deal.

On Teaching and Being Preggers

So, I'm fully in the midst of student teaching, and beginning my third trimester of being pregnant. What a roller coaster I am on! Those in the teaching world have called my situation "baptism by fire"-- I started teaching my very own classes on day 1 of student teaching. Somethings have gone really well-- somethings that I thought would be problems aren't which makes me really happy. But on the flip side, there are things happening that I never would have imagined.

I stay up till midnight planning and wake up at 5:30am to do some more planning before classes start at 8:30am. I have 1st period US Government, 2nd period Financial Literacy (co-taught with my mentor teacher), 3rd period US Government, 4th period Psychology, 5th period revolutions through History, and prep period during 6th and 7th (for now anyway. I'll prolly be teaching another section of US gov next term). It's a full day. And being pregnant complicates matters-- like the fact that I need to eat small snacks throughout the day, but don't have time. Yesterday, I didn't bring any extra snacks other than my lunch-- and after school I had a student teacher meeting. No extra food, no time to pick something up, and no refreshments at the meeting. Needless to say, I was terribly nauseous by 5pm and the meeting didn't get out till close to 6pm. Driving home, I almost passed out, but luckily a friend called me and kept me conscious for the drive home until I could grab the quickest and easiest thing to eat. After picking up my dear husband from class at 8:15pm, I went home and quickly fell asleep. I didn't get any planning done for my classes the next day, so I woke up at 5am to prep for all of my classes.

NOTE: planning 3 lessons in 3 hours for 3 different classes is a recipe for disaster. Luckily, my BYU professor came to visit me yesterday so I didn't need to be on my best for her review-- but still, my kids deserve better. This weekend is all about planning the best lessons ever. For my kids, and also for my Teacher Work Sample.

I have also started knocking things over with my ever expanding baby belly. Wish me luck!

Drum Roll Please!

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A GIRL!!!!!!!

"I Like to Move It, Move It!"

The beloved song of king Julian from Madagascar is now baby Neeley's theme song. I had my 16 weeks appointment on Monday and the nurse couldn't find baby's heartbeat because baby was moving too much and hiding. BUT-- we could hear non-stop baby kicking noises...

Our little baby likes to move it, movie it!

Our Healthy and Busy Baby

This weekend was pretty stressful for me. Brad and I had a terrifying scares this weekend about baby, so we had an appointment on monday to make sure everything was ok. They checked for the heartbeat and the midwife found it no problem! it was beating at 150 bpm (alot slower than the last couple times... 179, 170, 165) and we could even hear him/her kicking away and having fun doing whatever babies do in the womb. But my midwife sent me to get an ultrasound just to make sure eveything was ok.
Baby is doing fantastic and our fears were for naught. Guess brad and I are just super-worried first time parents. Baby measured in at an even 50th%ile for his/her age really likes to move. Since I was 15 weeks, I asked the ultrasu0nd tech if they could tell if it was a boy or girl yet and they said they could try to check, but usually they can't tell until at least 17 weeks. Baby finally stopped moving long enough for them to get a clear image, but he or she was bashful and had his/her legs crossed. We moved it around a bit, and then we get a nice big baby foot where baby seemed to be kicking the ultrasound telling it to, "go away! stop trying to look at me while I'm not decent!."

Result: the two ultrsound techs couldn't tell, so we're gonna have to be patient and wait a few more weeks before we know if baby is a he or she. what's you're vote?

Thump...Thump...Thump

We got to hear little Baby Neeley's heartbeat on Monday last week!!! It was really fast, 165 beats per minute, and sounded like marching/drumming. Little Baby is getting big and strong as Marie begins week 13 of pregnancy, also the beginning of the second trimester! I've been told that's the best time in pregnancy and am defiantly looking forward to not feeling sick!

Family has been asking for pictures of a pregnant belly, but they don't exist yet. Brad and I will take a picture and see if anyone can see the beginnings of a baby bump? Brad says he can, but I just feel fat. Thanks little baby!Marie at 5 weeks 6days preggers (soon after we found out, we took a "beginning of pregnancy" photo for future comparison). I was always so proud of my flat tummy...


Marie is 13 weeks and 1 day preggers here. Look like a baby bump, or a fat lady attempting to look like she has a baby bump?

Baby Blob's First Picture!

We got to see our baby for the first time on Friday afternoon. Crazy stuff! There really is this little, vaguely person-shaped blob growing in my tummy. And he/she has a really REALLY big head. Aunt Sam says it's cuz baby will be really smart, or really full of him/herself. Mommy and Daddy agree that it's because baby is going to take after Daddy and just have a big noggin. Mommy isn't looking forward to that in 7 months.

Baby blob is just barely and inch big, and his/her head makes up about 1/3 to 1/2 the size of his/her entire body at this point. The heartbeat was an amazing 170 beats per minute (but sadly we didn't get to hear it this time). The ultrasound was fun to have, more so for brad than me. I had to drink two large bottle of water before my appointment and wasn't allowed to use the bathroom. The entire time I'm looking at our baby on the screen, in my head I'm thinking, "I really have to pee. I need to pee. If she pushes that thing into my stomach any harder, I might not be able to hold it!" Whereas, Brad is smiling like a little kid at the movies and staring at the screen in amazement thinking, "Woah, I made that! That's so cool!" But no matter how blobby our baby is right now, we are so excited to see him/her and to finally see that he/she is really in there-- growing and making Mommy feel fat and have to use the bathroom alot.

We love our little blob!

While We Were Out...

Sorry, this blog post has been long since coming. We've been busy this summer and haven't had all that much time to post on here. Let me give you an overview.

We had Marie's brother Steve come out and stay with us for about 6 weeks. He slept in our living room on the couch and seemed to survive. We had a fun time with him and miss him but he had to return home for school about 2 weeks ago.

Marie found out that she is pregnant a few weeks ago. She is now in her 6th week I think. We are pretty sure it's a boy but won't know until early December. It is due the week that Marie graduates, April 19th or so. This provides tons of fun because she may not be able to walk at graduation, but her whole family is supposed to be out here to celebrate graduation and now they have even more motivation to get out here! We are very happy and excited. We weren't expecting a baby to come this soon as she just barely got off the pill. Marie hasn't had any morning sickness yet, but she gets nausea and just doesn't want to eat anything a lot of times. She also has developed a "super sniffer" as she calls it. It sometimes is good, but most of the time it overwhelms her and she feels sick again. I don't think the shock of being a father has quite hit me yet. I'm assuming that once she starts showing, it might hit me, otherwise, I'm sure holding the child will certainly knock me off my feet. ;-)

We also went camping recently with some friends at Diamond Fork Canyon. There are some hot springs there that have been made into primitive hot tubs. It smelled very strong of sulfur but we got used to it. We camped about 100 yards away from the parking lot and then had to hike 2 miles to the hot springs. We had an enjoyable time playing card games while at camp and eating good camp food. It's about a 30 minute drive from Provo. We thoroughly enjoyed the last free weekend before school started yesterday.

We've also been given the calling of Nursery Leaders in our church. We have had the calling for about a month or so now and take care of the 3 year olds. Our church has about 100 kids (literally!) and we got 12 in our class. Most of the time they are nice to each other but sometimes we look like heck after church because they wear us out. They are fun to be with and surprisingly smart for their age. We've been chastised a few times by one of the kids already for letting the kids run around. She says, "They shouldn't be running. This is Jesus's house!" However, whenever she is running and we quote her saying that to her, she just looks at us like, "You're crazy!" Kids!

Allergy Adventures

Just so you know, I have a tendency to put myself in situations where i hurt myself... a lot.

The most recent example: I dropped a fan on my leg and scrapped off a decent amout of skin to be moderatly painful and unpleasant.

The second most recent example: Brad and I have decided to participate in a allergy drug study. Tuesday morning we drove up to the study site for the first visit to determine is we were eligible to particpate. The qualification: you must be allergic to grass and or trees. They determine this by poking the skin with a needle and dropping a solution of different grass and tree pollens where they pricked you. Those of you who know me will already know that I am terribly allergic to grass-- so much so that i can't walk in it barefoot without getting hives, and mowing the lawn is almost a death sentance since it will make my nose and eyes swell to such lenghts as to render me blind and unable to breath. Well, it was obvious after only 5 minutes that I was allergic to the grass and tree pollen solutions by virtue of the swelling and gient red splotches on my arms. but that wasn't thje worst of it. oh no-- 6 hours later, half my forearm is red and swollen and tender and itchy beyond belief.

Thank you, Kaleigh, for the hydrocortizone cream! It quite possibly saved me from cutting off my arm to stop the itching.

It's now 3 days later and the swelling is gone but two beautiful greenish-yellow bruises now stand in place where i was pricked and received the grass solutions. At least i'm getting paid to torture myself! Just to satisfy my geekiness-- i'm practicing cognitve dissonance, reasoning my way into believeing that i'm getting paid enough to enjoy this! i wrote a paper on it for philosophy last year.

P.S. The board game Monopoly, Star Wars Edition, deserves a public apology from me. I recently must have offended it by saying it was not as good as the original Monopoly version, and since then it has spited me with the worst luck I have ever had in a Monopoly game and helped Brad kick my trash TWICE in less than a half hour each time. Anyone that has played me at Monopoly knows that I am the butt-kicker and am not accustomed to being the Kickee. SO for the record, to Monopolly Star Wars Edition, I am sorry and hope that you will forgive me let me return to my happy position at butt-kicker. Sincerly, Marie Neeley.

Iosepa Weekend Adventure

Memorial Day weekend we went to a place called Iosepa, near Tooele, UT. We had been invited several times to come to this place and camp out with some Polynesian families from my mission in the Utah Provo Mission, but I had never been able to get camping gear or the time to go in the past. We borrowed my Aunt June's camping equipment for the Southern Utah adventure and decided to keep it a bit longer so we could go on this campout.


Here's the basic background of the place. The people who settled here were mostly all of Polynesian decent, mostly from Hawaii. Anyways, they built a small city there and for several years, it was one of the best kept cities in Utah. They named the city Iosepa (Yo sepp a) which is Hawaii for "Joseph." The people endured several trials with the elements and such and then they left to Hawaii to help build the La'ie Temple in Hawaii. If you want more info than that, here's a little more history: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iosepa.


We arrived Friday evening and met up with the Peck family, a family that I was able to help prepare their daughter for baptism. I used to play racquetball with them after my mission also. Anyways, we get there and it's this place in the middle of nowhere. Just farm land and cows. At the actual site, there was a pavilion and cemetery for the settlers of Iosepa that the children would clean up and decorate with flower leis every year. We set up our tent next to the Pecks' camper and just hung out for the night, making new acquaintances and renewing old ones. My wife had not been around many Polynesians before and felt completely as if she were surrounded by family right away, even though she had never met any of these people.

Saturday was the main festivities day. We volunteered to help out and ended up stationed at a booth were the kids could give up "Iosepa bucks" to buy things such as coloring books, candy leis, kukui nut bracelets and some kind of fuzzy leis. We also collected money for a few surrounding booths. At one, you could make flower headbands or wristbands. At another, you could make Ipus (something with gourds, I never did find out). At another, you could make your own bookmark with a piece of special wood and sandpaper. Most made them into surfboard shapes. I got creative and made an example of a wavy bookmark and put them together for a surfboard on the waves! It was lots of fun.

In the evening, the Imu was opened up. For those that don't know about Imus, it is a traditional way of Polynesian cooking, basically a huge steam cooker, but it's a hole the ground. It is started in the early morning and usually is ready to be buried after 3 hours. The hole is a couple feet deep, and rocks are placed in the fire to be the main heat source because they retain heat better than coals. We used steel girders because it works better. I was able to help bury and unearth the Imu. The favorite dish is kalua pork, basically cooking whole pigs to the point where the meat falls off the bone and is very tender and juicy. Ours was just slabs of the pig already cut up and wrapped in foil. If you want more details about the Imu, go here: http://www.primitiveways.com/Imu1.html.


The dinner included the kalua pork, chop suey, taro (kind of like a potato, but very dense), macaroni salad, a cole slaw dish that had crab in it, another kind of cole slaw with raw fish and peppers in it (it's actually one of my favorites), steamed rice, teriaki style chicken, and tons of other stuff that I can't really remember right now. It was DeLiCious! Marie loved it too. Polynesian food is one of our favorite kinds of food. There are a few restaurants out here that specialize in it, and Marie and I go to them when we feel a bit rich (not too often).

It rained pretty hard that evening and we found a pool of water in our tent. Luckily we had some towels and were able to soak it up and it didn't damage anything. I tried to adjust our tent fly so it would block the rain but it was so windy that rain was still coming in the tent. We decided to just leave it to the Lord and prayed that we wouldn't have any more rain in the tent somehow. Right after we said "Amen", Brother Peck shouted at our tent "Anybody home?" He was just checking on us and making sure we were doing alright. We mentioned we were a bit wet and couldn't seem to figure out how to keep the rain out and a few minutes later he was putting a tarp over our tent. Isn't it nice when God answers your prayers quickly through his servants? The rest of the evening was spent trying to sleep and drown out the loud music from the dance the youth were having under the pavilion all night.

Sunday morning, it was still raining but we had Sunday services under the pavilion. It was just a big testimony meeting with the Utah Polynesian Choir singing several hymns in the various Polynesian languages (Samoan, Tongan, Hawaiian, Tahitian, etc...). It was a great service and afterwards was another authentic Polynesian meal and then Marie and I took off since we had to get back to Provo and wanted to dry out our tent.

All in all, it was a great experience that neither of us will forget and we plan on doing it again next year. Marie loves the Polynesian people and we would like to visit the Islands someday to scout them out for possible retirement. :-)