David's Side Job

If you know David, you know that he lllooovvveeesss basketball. He loves playing, he loves watching it, he loves Fantasy basketball. He loves everything about it.
This semester, he's been able to be apart of coaching basketball - which is something he has never done before. I think it's a really cool opportunity for him! He gets to teach something he loves and also build good relationships with a lot of the students at NCA. These pictures are from their last game- which unfortunately they lost. They came a long way though!

Coaching on the sidelines



Time out huddle



NCA is the blue team. They're blocking out!



Playing defense.

Baby's Room

My photography skills are definitely not the best, but here are some pictures of the baby's room! Again, this probably means little to most of you, but thinking of things to blog about is hard sometimes! I think about the baby a lot, so that's what you get - blogs about the baby!



This is the crib and curtains! Don't I have the best friends in the world?!?! They threw a shower for us when we were home for Christmas and got me all this super cute bedding! I love them!!



This is the changing table. I still need to get a changing pad, but am way excited to have this! We found it a grocery store here - of all places! It was the cheapest one I could find. (Some random things here are really expensive!)



And this is our rocking chair and storage unit! Hopefully it will work for keeping stuff in! On the rocking chair is a fun blanket my mom made for the baby!! She's the best!

38 weeks

I am at 38 weeks now! I really can hardly believe it! In less than 2 weeks ( if all goes according to plan), we'll have a baby! I know I've said it before, but it is so surreal!! We are excited to meet our little one!

So, I'm basically hearing girl from most everyone. We go back and forth - sometimes I picture having our little girl and other times I refer to my belly as "Little Guy". We'd be happy with either! :) It's funny because the Nicaraguans tend to think we're having a girl too. They tell me I'm very "hermosa", which means beautiful, but also big! And if you get hermosa, then you are definitely having a girl! We'll see!

[Side note: I had one of the cleaning ladies at our school say to me (all in Spanish), "You are very hermosa! You used to be delgada (skinny), but now you are hermosa (big and beautiful!!) They definitely don't beat around the bush!!]

Randomness

It's been a while, so here's a little update of what the Nicaragua Russells have been up to.
Last week was Semana Santa (Holy Week), so we had the week off - basically the equivalent to Spring Break. We started our time off by heading to the beach! It was wonderful!! We were able to rest and relax! We also were able to watch some of the March Madness Final Four games! You don't realize how much that meant to us! We love NCAA basketball and love watching March Madness. I'm not going to lie - this is the second year that I have won my bracket. I'm good - isn't that right Jeremy??




(not the greatest pic, but just so you can see our faces!)

When we got back, we jumped right into getting the baby room set up! One fun thing we got was ceiling fans! Pretty consistently, it has been about 90 degrees in our house! Clearly that's a little toasty, so in order to help not catch on fire, we got fans! Hopefully it will keep the baby's room cooler!!


(the cute curtains are from Michelle H.!!)

Speaking of the baby! I have a little over 2 weeks til my due date!!! I went to the doctor on Monday and all is well! I got to meet with our pediatrician and he is very, very cool as well (and speaks fairly good English!)! It is amazing to me to think that we will have a baby soon! I know our lives will change drastically! I go back and forth on being nervous/scared about the labor and delivery process. It's a big deal to have a baby, especially here in Nicaragua! So, I would love all and any prayers to have a calm, trusting heart. (And also I'm praying for a quick, not so, so, so painful delivery - I don't know if that's a selfish prayer, but I'm still praying for it!)

One last thing, just because I'm curious! What do think BOY or GIRL??? Leave a comment!

My Last Day

Friday was my last day of teaching for a while. It's a weird feeling knowing that I won't be going back to work after our Spring Break. On one hand, I'm a little sad. I have grown to love teaching and to love the kids here at NCA. I have taught for the past 6 years of my life and actually been in school for the past 23 years! So it will be odd to be at home so much. On the other hand, I'm really excited to be able to stay at home with our baby! I don't know what it will look like and what all I will do, but I feel thankful to have the time off to be able to grow with and learn about and love our baby!
(I know all those moms out there are saying, "Oh, I know what you'll be doing! Not sleeping and changing diapers!!" :)
So what am I doing right now, you ask? I am setting up the baby's room! (We had done very little prior to now!) Which will be so cute! I'm also resting a bit and watching my huge, ginormous ankles not be so stinkin swollen! It's glorious to be able to see your ankle bone! I guess when I'm not standing all day, chasing 7 year olds, my body gets a chance to rest!