The Raterink Grandpas

Little Stinker's Grandpa Raterink and Great Grandpa Raterink painted his bedroom this week. Great Grandpa Raterink spent most of the day painting and then Grandpa Raterink helped the last few hours.

The room looks great! Thank you so much grandpas!

Snow Day #6

Wow! The snow is something else again today, and it sounds like it's going to keep coming. This is snow day #6 for West Ottawa and Holland Christian here in the Holland area. I'm sure I'll hear soon, but I wouldn't be surprised if we have to now add time back into the remaining school year schedule. I wonder how many years it has been since local schools have had this many days off due to bad weather.

While this weather gives me a day off, it is a totally different scenario for Jon. Not only does he need to make the tough lakeshore commute to Grand Haven, but also the driveway has been giving Jon some stress lately. First, there's lots of snow. Second, there's lots of ice underneath due to all that rain. Third, we regularly have significant drifting in the driveway. He's having difficulty getting traction even though our tractor has chains and is weighted in the back. We've got two hills in the driveway, and it isn't a short driveway either. If you know Jon, you know he doesn't get frustrated easily, but this is testing his easy-going personality. I feel so bad for him that he has to start his day that way especially when I'm still in my pajamas looking at a day off. On these big snow days, he's out there snowblowing for almost an hour starting at 6:30 am. On the flip-side, our tractor is for sure paying for itself this year, and on a lot of days Jon really enjoys snowblowing. Thanks for all of your hard work Jon! I can't imagine what our plowing bill would've been this season.

If you live in West Michigan, you can probably feel his pain if you're doing your own driveway or if you're paying to have it plowed. Our grandparents in condo complexes are definitely the lucky ones.

Pregnancy 101

Lots of you have been asking about my pregnancy. Thanks so much for your questions, concerns, and prayers. I am just about 25 weeks along. I'm feeling great. I'm definitely showing. Last week at church, someone congratulated us on our pregnancy by taking a look at my tummy. I guess it's pretty obvious now.

The kids at school have started to say what I call memorable comments, well they always say memorable things, but now they're about me and our little guy. I have done my best to smile and address the fact that these comments aren't exactly appropriate to be making towards a teacher or to anyone for that matter. Here are a few examples from the last couple weeks:

"Does your back hurt Mrs. Walcott?"

"Yes, I guess it does a little bit."

"Is that due to your pregnancy?"

"I think so Adam," I said.

"Well, you should be thankful it's not vericose veins."

---------------------------------------------------

"I can REALLY tell from the side that you are pregnant!"

"Yeah Mike, I can't really hide it anymore."

"Well, you are gonna have to work really hard to get rid of that [weight]."

----------------------------------------------------------

"Mrs. Walcott, tell me about your exercise routine."

(I ponder the question.)

"Jimmy, are you calling me fat?"

-----------------------------------------------------------

"Would it be weird if I came and visited you in the hospital?"

"Yes. You may not come."

"But I'll know when you're there becuase my mom works there."

"It would be weird. You may not come."

"What if I just show up?"

Being a high school teacher definitely adds an interesting layer to my pregnancy experience :)

Move In & Out Day

Today we are moving the office out of the second bedroom upstairs to make way for the nursery for our "Little Stinker." Then the two new bedrooms downstairs are finished and ready to move in, so we'll be setting up our new office down there and our spare bedroom.

We have a little bit of painting to do in the nursery that we hope to do in the coming weeks with some help from Grandpa Raterink - we're thinking bright apple green. It's downstairs in a bathroom already, and we both really like it, so we're bringing it upstairs. A fun and distinctive color for our little guy - purposeful as my friend Jo put it. We're only painting two walls, so don't freak out those of you that prefer the pastels. I think it will be quite cool. This week we also plan to do some work on the inside of the closet: adding some shelves and changing the hanging set-up. Nursery furniture won't arrive until March, so we have some time.

The rest of my family arrives home today, so we are looking forward to seeing all of them. My sister and her husband get home today from their Hawaii Honeymoon, and my parents were gone too in the Florida Keys. We're looking forward to hearing about both their trips. They certainly will return to a winter wonderland here. I've had three snow days in the last two weeks.

Have a great weekend! Around here it's a perfect one for outdoor winter activities. Too bad most of them are off limits for me. I know Jon would really like to be snowboarding or snowmobiling.