This woman I used to know

I used to know a woman whose job did not make her very happy. In fact, her job kind of made her miserable. She was irritable, didn't like answering questions, and hated to be interrupted. To tell the truth, she could be a bit of a b-i-t-c-h. The woman I am talking about was me. While I was working in the hotel industry, I was unhappy.

I have been working for OSU Extension for two years now and I have loved (almost) every minute of it.... until recently. June 30, 2010 marks the end of an era for Lincoln County Extension, and July 1, 2010 will forever be known as "Black Thursday."

For those of you who don't know, our office heirarchy is as follows:
County Director/Ag Educator
FCS Educator and 4-H Educator
Senior Secretary
Party Time Secretary

Our part-time secretary retired this February after 10 years in our office. Our Senior Secretary and our County Director will both be retiring on June 30. I will be the interim director starting July 1. That's why it will be "Black Thursday."

We have a new secretary in our office and she is busy learning her very large job. She is doing great, and I know she will be a pro in no time. But every time she asks me a question and I do not know the answer, I feel a little like my old hotel manager self. While she is busy learning her new job, I am busy getting ready to learn my new job. That's scary for me. I do not feel ready for my new responsibilities. I cope with this by becoming a micro-manager, and micro-managers are not typically very friendly. I thought that I had said good-bye to Micro-manager Jessica long ago, but she's back and I don't know how I feel about this.

Don't get me wrong, she has some good points too. She's a hard worker, and she can do tasks pretty quickly. She's organized, but she is easily irritated if those around her do not match her organization.

I guess she's just really picky and finicky.

If you are caught in her path over the next few months, please forgive her. She means well. She wants to do her job well. She just sometimes gets caught up in it and forgets to be happy.

Let's hope that her visit is short.

I reserve the right to change the name....

This is something I have been saying since we decided that we wanted to have a baby. We have tossed names around like Sophi, Luke, Landon, and Cooper. I was dead-set on Lucas/Luke for a while, and then when it came closer, I wasn't so sure. Today, I gave up my right to change the name. Today we had our "big ultrasound." Any of you who are reading this have already read about the results on Facebook, I am sure, but I will announce it officially on my blog now: IT'S A GIRL!

This is our little butterbean at 8 weeks, 4 days gestation:

Here is the scroll of pictures from today's ultrasound at 18 weeks, 6 days gestation:

And this is Amelia Dean:

A little about how we came up with the name, and why I gave up my right to change my mind. When Katie and I were very small, our family lived in Sulphur. Both of our parents worked, so we had a babysitter who kept us everyday. Her name is Clydean Holland. She is one of the most special people I have ever known. She contracted polio as a young girl and has been in a wheelchair for as long as I can remember. My mom tells me stories of Clydean walking with crutches, but I cannot remember this. Anywho, my mom's mom passed away before I was born and Clydean has been the closest thing to a maternal grandmother that I have had. Even after we moved to Marietta when I was four, she kept us whenever my parents went out of town. Now that we are grown, she has always been interested in how we are doing and we love to visit her in Sulphur whenever possible. Her grandson Derrick is 3 years younger than I am and has always been like family. I love this woman and I want to honor her by naming my daughter after her. I hope that my own daughter will be as strong and loving as Clydean has always been. I called Clydean tonight and told her that we are naming the baby after her. She cried and said that nobody has ever named a little child after her before. It was a very sweet conversation in which she went into old stories about Katie and me, and the crazy things we said and did as toddlers.

Changing the subject one last time, for one last picture: My husbee is a photographer. I have been asking him for days to take a pic of my belly so I can post it on Facebook or my blog. This has not happened, so I took it upon myself to get a little shot of the belly in my full-length mirror. This is what I got. I don't know the first thing about setting up a good photo, so please do not judge me!

First One

I know I am about ten years behind, but I have finally decided to start a blog. It seems that it is "the thing" that all the cool moms are doing. I want to be a cool mom, so here I am.

If you haven't heard, Zach and I are expecting our first baby sometime mid-November and we are super excited about it. I have my big ultrasound next Wednesday, and plan to post all the pictures that blogger will allow :) Hopefully, once we know the sex of this little miracle, we can finally decide on a name. We have tossed around some ideas, and we have a few favorites, but no definite boy name yet. I am 99.99% sure that if the baby is a girl, her name will be Amelia Dean Riggin. If the baby is a boy, we have considered Landon, Lucas (Luke), and Grady for first names and Robert, William or Foster for middle names. Feel free to comment on name choices.

I would appreciate any tips from my experienced mommy bloggers. I love all the cute banners on some of the other blogs, but I don't know how to do it!

I hope you'll keep coming back. I also hope that I am faithful to keep this blog updated. We'll see how it goes the next few months.