Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas everyone! This is our Christmas card this year. Things have been very busy here at the Hertel household. I've been busy grading essays and final exams and Trey's been busy with his job search. For those of you who don't already know, Trey's company decided to discontinue his product, which meant he needed to find employment elsewhere. He has several good leads and an interview or two scheduled for the first of the year. Please keep us in your prayers. We are truly praying that God will open the right door for Trey.

We're hoping to get the nursery painted and decorated over Christmas break. I know that by Spring Break I'll be lacking the energy to do so, so I've made it my project for Christmas. We've settled on pink and brown as our colors.





"Stella," as we've been calling her (her real name will be disclosed once she's born), has been making her presence known on a regular basis. She's kicking on schedule: 4am, 9-10am, 3-4pm, and 8-9pm. She is quite an active baby! Trey and I went for a 3D/4D ultrasound last week. It was really neat to see what she's doing when I feel all of the movement. She's breech and folded in a V. Her toes were touching her forehead. She was very bull-headed, she covered her face with her arms and hands when we were were trying to get pictures of her face, and covering her "junk" with her feet when we were trying to make sure she was a girl. AHHH! We did get a few cute pictures.

My other project for Christmas break is reading. I am starting a book club with my students next semester. They will have the opportunity to choose from 7 books. Our wonderful librarians helped me choose the books, but I hadn't read any of them! So far I've read two. I'm very excited about this project. The students will be creating a billboard or a "movie trailer" type of commercial to advertise their books.

Trey and I will be joined the Hertel family Christmas Eve morning for brunch. Our Christmas Eve service started at 4:30 up north, so rather than driving down south and back up again, we watched Charlie Wilson's War and then headed to the Christmas Eve service at church. It was such a great movie! Our church service was wonderful! "Stella" really enjoyed the music. This child is going to be a rocker like her daddy! She LOVES music! We went to my parents for brunch on Christmas day. It was so great having Mom's famous sticky rolls! MMMM!! After brunch, Trey and my dad went on a motorcycle ride while my mom and I discussed nursery plans and I took a nap. It was a very relaxing day!

We'll be pretty busy the next couple of days. Omah will be down on the 28th and we're looking forward to spending time with her. Our friend Carlos from Indiana will be spending the new year with us. Angie, Scott, and Noah will be down on the 3rd-7th. It will be great to see them again! Noah has become quite the talker (I wonder where he gets that?).

That's all for now. I'll post pictures when I can. Until then, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

5 months

I'm 23 weeks and boy is it starting to show! I'm having people stop me and ask if I'm having twins, people ask how far along I am and looking shocked when I tell them, you name it, people are just RUDE! Yes, I know I'm pregnant, and I look rather large at this point, but really people, do you have to kick a pregnant lady when she's down?

All in all this has been an easy pregnancy. The first three months were the hardest. Now I'm just trying to stay off of my feet as much as I can during the day (which is tough being a teacher and all) so I can get my shoes off of my feet at night. The swelling has started! :) Trey's been super supportive, encouraging, helpful, and understanding. He'll make a great dad!

It's a Girl!

IT'S GOING TO BE A GIRL!!

I am now 5 months along and the ultrasound has pretty much confirmed what Trey and I had been thinking; it's a girl!

I've made it through my first six weeks of school!

It's been a difficult six weeks, but I made it! My students are doing better than I expected academically. We've developed a great relationship. I have a few "mother hens" and a few overprotective gentlemen who are making sure I'm not on my feet too much, not moving furniture, and that I'm getting enough to eat and avoiding unnecessary stress. They're such great kids!

Trey's been gone for the past two weeks or so. I miss the days when he flew to a city and flew back. He's been doing mostly driving with his new company. My mom was nice enough to go to my doctor appointments with me this month. The baby waved to us during the ultrasound. We were also excited to see the nose and lips in the side profile. We heard the heartbeat and I found it funny that it sounded almost exactly like an audio tape I tried to make a few years ago. I was trying to record Trey's snoring, but the recording mostly just picked up the sound of the ceiling fan.

I'm feeling much better now. The nausea has ceased and my energy level magically increased last weekend. Unfortunately, my belly decided to appear as well. I swear, I went to bed Saturday night perfectly normal and woke up Sunday morning with a sizeable bump. I can no longer wear my regular clothes. Trey will be surprised when he sees me this Wednesday!

The New School Year

The school year started off a bit shaky for me this year. I received a summons to report for jury duty on the first day of school. Nice! Luckily, when I called in to confirm my duty time, I was released from duty. The second day of school was Trey's grandmother's funeral service. We lost Grandma Dot, but she's now reunited with Grandpa in Heaven. I had a substitute for the first two days of school, so the first week was a little crazy, but since then I've gotten to know my students and am enjoying all of my classes. I'm teaching six periods of American Lit. Whew! We'll be starting the Puritans this week and The Crucible next week.

Trey and I also want to tell everyone that we're expecting our first child in April. We're very excited! I have two weeks left in my first trimester and I'm ready for trimester number 2! This nausea and lack of energy is for the birds! The pregnancy is going fine. I'm considering myself very fortunate that I haven't had any morning sickness.

Back to School!

Well, the time has finally arrived. I've been moving into my new classroom and attending new teacher trainings for the past couple of days. I'll be in planning sessions and meetings next week, and the kiddos arrive on the 27th. Where did the summer go?

Trey arrived at 4:30 this morning from his trip to the Sturgis Bike Rally. He's pretty worn out! I'm sure he'll need a day or two to catch up on his sleep and get back into the swing of things.

Noah and Angie's Visit

My sister and Noah came down for a visit last Thursday and left today. We had a great time! My parents and I took them to Sea World on Friday. Noah was a bit indifferent with Shamu, but loved the animal rescue show; they had ducks, puppies, cats, a kangaroo, a pig, and much more.
On Saturday, my mom and I surprised Angie with tickets to see Little Big Town and Martina McBride. We made it a girl's night, and Dad watched Noah. We had a great time! I'll post the pictures once Trey sends them to me (he's on the road with the camera).
On Sunday we went to church and then brunch at the Iron Cactus. Trey and I took the dogs out to Mom and Dad's and went for a ride on the motorcycle. When we got back from our ride, we had dinner, and Dad decided to try and start his motorcycle (it hadn't been started in 3 years). He got it running and he and Trey went for another ride.
Yesterday, they came over after Noah's nap and we went to the pool and to the park. Noah really enjoyed the swing. Angie and I had dinner, just the two of us, and we had a good time catching up. I was so proud of her, she had her first taste of sushi with me! She was very brave!

"You're my boy, Blue!"

Trey bought a motorcycle when we got home from California. He's always wanted to own a motorcycle, but I never heard him voice a desire until he went to Daytona Bike Week last year. We found a great bike here in Austin, a blue Honda VTX 1300S.

It's great! He's been riding as much as possible, hoping to get comfortable so I can ride with him. The weather down here has been horrible, nothing but rain. I finally got to ride with him today. I borrowed my mom's old helmet and off we went. We were going to get gas and drive out to our property, but I quickly realized that I wanted a helmet that covered my ears and eyes. It was a little scary riding on the back for the first time with my eyes closed. I was not a big fan. We skipped the gas station and settled for driving around Sunset Canyon. I'll go on a longer trip once I get the proper gear. It was a fun ride nonetheless.

Venice Beach

Trey and I went to Venice Beach yesterday. Wow! I thought Austin had a large number of "interesting" people! I have never felt so out of place in my life. At least in Austin I feel like I'm one of the "normal" ones. We had a great time watching the people and some of the creative acts. We stopped for lunch at a little cafe, I think it was called the Candle Cafe, and met some new friends. Mark had just finished teaching second grade for the year and was enjoying the beginning of his summer vacation. His friend Duane seemed to be sitting back and enjoying the entertainment. Our short lunch turned into a three hour lunch, but we had a great time and had some great laughs.

Today we went to Saddleback Church, Rick Warren's church. We heard him give an excellent sermon and really enjoyed the laid back feel of the church. Personally, I missed the familiar songs from our home church, but I was moved to tears by the Saddleback choir and special vocalists. There was some tremendous talent up there on that stage!

Here we go again!

I'm going to try this again. Hopefully, and I do mean hopefully, I can keep it up enough so the information does not get lost.



Trey's still busy working for ATC. He's been on the road more in the last six months than he ever has. I'm lucky if I get to see him 10 days during the month. He is enjoying creating the product and overseeing the production, but he's wearing a lot of hats right now, so he's pretty worn out.



I finished my first year of teaching at AYW, the charter school here in Austin. I am happy that I survived! I learned quite a bit from my experiences there and know now that if I can teach there, I can teach anywhere! I resigned at the end of the year and accepted a job with Lehman High School in Kyle, TX, teaching English III. I am very excited about this move!



Trey and I are currently on a business trip in California. Since I have the summer off, I am enjoying accompanying Trey on his longer trips. We'll be out here for two weeks. My parents are being great and watching the dogs and checking Shadow here and there. What would our dogs do without grandparents?