Southern Devils!!!

Little did I know, that when we moved to Georgia, we would be facing creatures the likes of Southern Devils!!!!
I went out one morning to find the little sucker on our left hanging out right next to my car door. About an inch long, I thought it was dead. Todd later learned that these guys actually 'play dead.' When I returned home it was gone so who knows what really happened.


Southeastern US scorpions are often called 'Southern Devils.' Everyone keeps telling me, don't worry, they aren't dangerous, there sting just feels like a wasp sting. But I'm wonder, have these people ever been stung by a wasp!?!?!? No feel good! And with our lovely Blue having free reign of the house, it made me a little nervous to have a scorpion right outside our house!

AND THEN...



Here is the next friend that showed up. As you can see, I found this southern devil right next to Blue's food bowl!!!! I can guarantee that it's a different one because it was smaller. Todd took control and got rid of the little guy. Poor Blue was subjected to a full body scan to make sure she hadn't been stung and she seems fine.

I contacted our landlord and he said he would check with the Homeowners' Associations to see when they last sprayed for bugs/scorpions. I forgot about it and didn't realize that I never heard back from him with the results!

I forgot, that is, until this past week when Todd woke up and found a scorpion in our house AGAIN, this time next to the sofa (no photo, sorry)!!!! And of course my baby Blue was playing with it! It seemed to be dead but maybe that's cause it was under duress. So, once again, Todd was the hero and got rid of the scorpion! He checked Blue over and see seems to be fine.

So that's 3 scorpions in the course of about a month and I'm not cool with that! Todd followed up with our landlord and it seems he forgot about our little issue and doesn't have an answer for us about de-scorpioning so he's supposed to get back to us on that.

When we planned our move to Georgia I didn't know we were actually moving to Texas!!!! (I can't tell you how many armadillos I've seen sleeping on the side of the road!

It's a Girl!!!!!

Wordless Wednesday...

Pictures from party!

Baby Girl!!!

So I know most of you have already heard (no thanks to me being a slacker with my post)....but....we're having a little GIRL!!!!!! I'm sorry I haven't posted before now. We had our fabulous gender party on Thursday night. I was so physically, and especially emotionally drained afterward that I was in no shape to post a blog or pictures. (I'm at work now so you'll have to wait a little longer for the pictures.) And then I thought I was getting sick on Friday so I went to bed early instead of going out to celebrate my wonderful husband's birthday. And then I spent 14 hours on Saturday with my lovely volleyball team kicking butt at the Play for a Cure Volleyball tournament which raises money for the Susan G Komen Foundation.

So after all of that, I'm finally getting around to posting! Our party was absolutely fabulous! We had all of our friends wear either pink or blue, depending on what they thought the gender would be and then the winners got to have their picture taken with me! (just me cause Todd was wearing blue!) I can't even describe the excitement and anxiety as we waited for everyone to arrive! It was so hard not to cut the cake as soon as it was in front of me. But the wait was worth it!!! Todd and I cut the cake and were tickled pink when we saw the inside was pink!

Now Todd is dreading our next trip to the baby store! I plan on showing lots of restraint but all of those little girl clothes are just so darn cute! We'll register whenever we have a free Saturday (those are few and far between).

Now comes the struggle of picking out a name that our daughter will have to live with for the rest of her life! Who knew it would be so hard! But our biggest struggle was going to be agreeing on a boy's name so at least that task is not in front of us quite yet.

Our plan is to follow the trend laid out by my sister, Katherine. We plan to keep the name a secret until she is actually born. I know it's going to be a struggle but I have a feeling I'm going to be able to keep quiet! (Just don't ask me what her name will be!)

Check back often because I hope to post pictures soon!!!!

Darndest things....

7th grader on Friday:

(Her) "I'm not really a people person."
(Me) "You're talking to me..."
(Her: matter of factly) "But you're life is almost over; you're an adult. Mine's just started; I'm a preteen."

Same girl:

(Her) "What's your husband's name?"
(Me) "Mr Duncan."
(Her) "What's his first name?"
(Me) "Todd."
(Her) "Todd Duncan......that sounds like a cereal box."
(I think she must have been thinking of Duncan Hines)

Needless to say....it was an interesting conversation...

A Poem About Me

Don't worry...info about this evening will come after the party happens....but I wanted to share a poem I wrote. The kids in one of my class had a poem template and they asked me to write one about myself. The underlined parts are what I added to the existing template. I thought I would share:

A Poem About Me

by Emily Duncan

I am curious.

I wonder where the future will take my family.

I hear my cat purring.

I see my loving friends.

I want a healthy baby.

I am curious.

I pretend to be silly.

I feel happy.

I touch my growing belly.

I worry about the health of my family.

I cry when people disappoint me.

I am curious.

I understand my husband loves me.

I say life is good.

I dream about raising my children.

I try to make people feel special.

I hope for a life full of travel.

I am curious.

If any of you are interested in writing your own version of the 'Poem About Me' I would love to see what you write.

I thought she said Wednesdays would be Wordless...

.....so I lied!!! Today is too exciting a day to not post!

First off, Happy Birthday to the most wonderful husband in the world!!!!! (of course I'm talking about my husband, Todd) Today he turns the big 2-7. Hopefully he won't actually read this blog cause I think he's still telling people he's 25! Most of Todd's day was taken up with school work and class but I think he still had a pretty good day. He came home this evening and we had his favorite dinner....I mean brinner....don't you know, breakfast for dinner....brinner!!!! Eggs and bacon and pancakes....it was delicious!

Todd hasn't opened all of his presents yet but I will go ahead and tell you about one he already knows about. Todd is going to be taking piano lessons this year! Of all the years I've known him, he's always had a keyboard in his apartment but because life always got in the way, he never had the time to practice or play. Well know we're going to make piano a part of our life!!!! As mom said, now he just needs to work on perfecting the lullaby genre!!!

I would say that the best part of his day today (and mine) was this afternoon! We had our 'big' ultrasound!!! Unfortunately, Todd was not able to go to the last appointment so he hasn't seen our baby in about 3 months (other than in the form of my growing belly)!!! But today we got to see (almost) it all! Baby didn't have as much room to dance around as last month but that didn't stop him/her from waving those arms! S/he looked like s/he was trying to hide from the paparazzi!! We got to see all the arms and hands and toes and eyes and ears and nostrils and lips and belly and stomach and heart chambers and teeth buds and anything else you could think of! Every time our technician would measure a different section, she always used the adjective 'perfect'!!! I'm already proud of our child and s/he hasn't even entered his/her first spelling bee!

Once Aly (our fabulous technician) finished showing us the belly, she turned off our tv screen and we weren't allowed to look anymore. Because Aly is so awesome, she continued talking us through most of the ultrasound. We got to hear her describe the femurs and feet and count toes and look at kidneys and bladder. Then she got quiet as she learned the secret information. We also got to hear the heartbeat (140) which was awesome cause the baby had the hiccups!

So, Aly has called the bakery and everything is all set to pick up our cake tomorrow evening for our Gender Party! I'm hoping to record the cutting of the cake and post it tomorrow night. We were planning on webcasting the party but we've been having computer issues. Instead, I am going to record the cake-cutting on my camera and then post it on Facebook and my blog tomorrow night. And tomorrow I will post pictures from our ultrasound.

So, now that you've read my novel (hopefully you're still with me!)...I am going to sign off. Hopefully you will all be back to visit tomorrow evening or Friday. Feel free to post comments so I know that you're there!!! Can't wait to talk more about my son or daughter soon!!!! :-D

Giveaway!!!

I know many of you already read my sister's blog. It is absolutely FABULOUS! If you don't already read it, or even if you do, please make sure you check out one of her more recent posts. As many of you know, I have an extremely creative sister! Her blog shows many of her recent endeavers, including cooking, sewing, reupholstering, etc... She has now decided to try a giveaway!

I am a little hesitant to tell you about this giveaway because the more of you that respond, the less chance I have to win!!!! However, I would love to see your posts on her blog and read about everyone's most memorable or favorite birthday.

Now, I'm not going to tell you what you win in this giveaway...you're just going to have to check it out yourself!

So, please check out this link and I look forward to reading your comments.

Wordless Wednesdays....on a Sunday?

So my sister, Katherine, had a really good idea. I have seen people post pictures for Wordless Wednesdays but I never thought of actually doing it myself. She had a good point that with the occasional frequency of my dailyduncan posts, I could use all the help I could get posting out there.....so while this post isn't exactly wordless, it will be the beginning of more pictures!

I found this parking spot in the Kohl's parking lot this morning:

You wanted pictures?!?!

I know I've been a slacker and several people have asked me when profile belly bump pictures are going to be posted. I finally took one and then forgot to post it! So here it is, 16 weeks pregnant (over 2 weeks ago!)...as you can see, my butt seems to be the thing that's growing the most....

It seems I forgot week 17 existed and skipped straight to week 18...this was Saturday night when Todd took me to Outback to celebrate being done with my first week of school!...

I found my first, ever elusive, Expectant Mother parking spot! Target used to be full of these but they seem to have gone by the wayside. Todd and I found this one at Best Buy. Now normally, at this point in my pregnancy, I wouldn't take up one of these spots. There are plenty of women way more pregnant out there that need to park closer than I do. But since it was 15 minutes before the store closed, I took full advantage!

Darndest Things

Most of my day is spent in a middle school. That being said, there are a lot of similarities and a lot of differences between the middle school, and the experiences that I've had in the high school and elementary school settings. I'm not going to get into all the similarities and differences but I hope to catalogue some of my experiences here, some of the 'darndest things' that the kids say, and some of the interesting people I meet. Most of the blogs pertaining to this may only be a sentence or 2 but I'd like to give you a glimpse into the caliber of students I come across:

Last week, in science class, a 7th grade girl asked her teacher, "Are we going to digest frogs this year?"

Today, I talked to a (different) 7th grade girl whose goal for the year is to read The Complete Works of William Shakespeare.

On an unrelated note: Today I am 18 weeks pregnant!!!!

Waddling

I like to think that I'm a pretty tolerant person. I don't tend to get easily insulted and most things just roll off my back. Even in pregnancy, I've only had one episode of manic crying which was the result of me hurting myself and laughing so hysterically that I was sobbing. That one really confused Todd. Otherwise mood swings have really been absent. All of that being said, there is one thing out there that really gets my goat! 3 times this past week people have commented on the way I walk. The first comment was made by a friend; I'm not sure if that makes it better or worse! But he told me that I waddle. Now whether or not I waddle is not my point of contention. I very well may, though I like to think that I'm not at that point. Anyway, the next was a man at work who told me I waddle. I don't even know that guy's name!!! Despite the fact that penguins are one of my favorite animals, I do not aspire to be a waddler. Then, today at work, a woman told me that I am 'getting that pregnant walk.' I do admit that this sounds much better and I probably wouldn't have been as sensitive to it if I dind't have waddling on my mind.

So it seems that the point of this blog was to get the waddling off my chest (and hopefully out of my feet!) Warning to all, feel free to comment on my belly all you want. But please, let's not mention the waddling! :-D

Misnomer?

Alright, so I know we've named our blog thedailyduncan and that's not exactly what's happening. This is a message that I got on facebook from a friend:

P.S. The blog says daily, but by my observations, it appears to be closer to weekly. I understand Daily Duncan sounds better than the Weekly Duncan but lets be honest with your audience.

Now I know excuses are just that, but here are mine:
Volleyball has started! While I'm very excited to be coaching at a new school, Athens Academy, we have started full force. It's a different experience than I've had in the past. My past 2 seasons, I've been the head JV coach. This year I am the assistant varisty coach. While this job comes with less responsibility, all in all it's more of a commitment. When I signed up for the job I didn't realize that 9 out of 13 of the next Saturdays will be taken with volleyball. That being said, I love the other coaches and I love my players! I have already, and will continue to, learn a lot from my new head coach (she played on scholarship at UGA!). Ok, excuse #1: check.

Excuse #2: Job #2 (really it's job #1 but for the purposes of this blog, it's listed as #2). Summer is over, teacher workdays are now over. Our students come back to school tomorrow! While it will be nice to get my hands moving again, I was enjoying a carefree summer (once summer school ended!). I have trouble with the fact that teacher workdays started in July (you NC people don't know how lucky you are!!) I just found out that this year I will be at 2 different schools. Despite the fact that I only wanted to be at the elementary school, I am coming to see the positives of traveling to the middle school as well. Each day that I've visited the middle school, I have come to appreciate this move more and more. The people at BHL Middle School really are quality and I think I'm going to have a great time there!

So, my current schedule from now until the end of October will look like:
7:40-9 Cleveland Road Elem
9-3:40 BHL Middle
4-6:30 Athens Academy Volleyball
and then let's go ahead and add on a 24/7 pregnancy!!

As taxing as my new schedule may feel, I think the rewards of the day will outweigh any negatives! Though I'll report back on that as the semester/season progresses!

On a super happy note: We have our pink vs blue appointment in 2 weeks!!!!!!