Just because...

It's been awhile.

I have been working 2 days a week on a new program for our school... Educators out there... PBIS? I'm a little stressed about work, but not really because of the new school year. I am NOT excited to start again, and that stresses me out. I know that boredom is a common problem in teaching... this is my 8th year doing EXACTLY the same thing. I am going to have to spice this up somehow!

Grant is doing pretty good in his new bed. We do have to check on him more because he has a tendancy to get out to play... then fall asleep somewhere else. Once we found him basically standing, but leaning on an ottoman for his rocker! If we don't catch his strange places, we get VERY short naps!




Brianna is getting excited about Kindergarten but is still cautious. We found out her teacher's name and next weekend we will get to go see the classroom. We meet the teacher for an "interview" on the 28th and she starts class on Sept. 3. I just know the time will FLY!



Adam ran his second triathalon this morning and everything went very well. We will have to wait to see if he beat his brother again but I'm just glad that he's happy with his performance. He's decided to keep training through the off season and try and do a longer triathalon next year. I am so proud of him! From couch potato to triathalete in 8 months!

I'm sure it will be a while again now... school next week.
And lets face it... I'm not good about updating anyway!
:-D

Monumental Day

Tonight, my baby is sleeping in his big-boy bed for the first time! (Hopefully pictures soon)

And my crib, which has cradled my 2 children for the last 5 years is in many pieces in the hall. Where it will end up is still a battle....

I vote for the basement.
Adam votes for the curb.

It's looking more and more like he's going to win the big argument.
And I'm going to be really sad for a while.

Assvice central!

Also known as... how to give advice about something you (thankfully) know nothing about!

Saturday, after enjoying a lovely evening with my mom, dad, and sister, I received a frantic phone call from a friend. She wasn't even making sense at first. She babbled about not knowing who to talk to and she thought of me and she couldn't tell her mom...

I finally got her to just tell me!

That evening she'd found out her husband of almost 5 years had been cheating on her. She found some inappropriate text messages and photos on his phone. Turns out he'd been fooling around in some form or another (including everything) with a co-worker for almost 6 months.

She kicked him out of course, and is desperate to figure out what to do. They have 2 little girls (2 and 9 mo). He of course had to give a lame-ass reason... their sex life at home just wasn't hot anymore, it was like a job.

HELLO. TOGETHER 12 YEARS. MARRIED 5. 2 KIDS. JOBS. WORK. LIFE. DUH!

So anyway...
What do I say to that? I found myself saying stupid things like;
"Take it one day at a time."
"Write down what your feeling to get it off your chest."
"Try and sleep, you need to stay healthy."

Well, really, I just listen a lot but...What the heck should I say?
Can anyone help me here?

And to think, last week I was going to complain about my husband. Thank God for my boring little issues!

plans change

I was going to post tonight about feeling sad, and having no one to talk to, but then I was skimming my "usual blogs" and following some links and I found this.

I never read this blog on a regular basis before tonight, but now I've read some of the archives, and cried a lot.

I still feel sad, and maybe sometime I'll feel like talking about it.
But I also feel SO DAMN LUCKY to have my children and my husband and my health.
So life's not perfect... I'll get over it.

Best Laid Plans...

Yeah.... so I said I was going to post more often this summer since I am home and have a much faster Internet connection... clearly, that was a pipe dream!

Updates since the last post:

1. Cleaned house like a mad fool for a week to prepare for Brianna's 5th Birthday party.
2. Successfully coordinated 2 birthday parties for Brianna. One for kids at a local bouncy place and one for family and close friends at our home. ALL IN THE SAME AFTERNOON!
3. Took a whopping 1 day off.
4. Attended major birthday party for cute niece who is actually one day older than Brianna.
5. Cleaned house some more... did some working out... threw surprise birthday party for mother-in-law (with help from all her kids, I just hosted), and had not one but 2 "girls nights" in the same week.
6. Took hideous wall paper down from Grant's room... which people... seriously, there should be a law! If you put up hideous wall paper, you must remove said paper PRIOR to new ownership! We spent large portions of 4 days on this and we still have to repair, prime, and paint!
7. Decided not to go for new job as assistant principal. The timing and situation just don't seem right. I'm taking it as a sign...
8. Prepared for big vacation of the summer!

When all is said and done, June FLEW BY! I can absolutely NOT believe that it is July. We leave on the big vac-a tomorrow. First time the kids will see Disney World, I am very excited, they think they are excited but really just don't know what to expect.

Maybe I'll get around to an update when we get back... Ya'll are used to waiting for me, right?
:-)

There has been a request from the peanut gallery...

to hear details about this little job interview (?) which I threw into my last post.

We found out on Wednesday that one of our assistant principals in our building is leaving for a principal job elsewhere. While I would very much like to move to administration, I had settled myself for another year of teaching and taken on some projects I would like to finish... maybe...

I don't know for sure if I will be pursuing the job but I might... or not... or I might....

My gut feeling is they will want someone from outside the district for this job. Besides the fact that this is the AP in charge of my husbands team so if I were seriously being considered, it would force some systematic changes at the school.

Or maybe I'm just rationalizing because I am scared. It would definitely be easier to stay with what I know and not rock the boat right now.

Or maybe rocking the boat is exactly what I need. When I didn't get that silly voted-on thing last week, a close friend told me it was because something better was in store for me. Is this it?

Lets just say I've started the application... but who knows....

FINALLY!!

School is out!

The students went home.
The classroom is all packed up.
The grades are final.
The files are backed-up.
I e-mailed myself all my favorite links from work.

Nothing ahead of me for 8 weeks but sun and summer.
Well, Except:

Unpacking
Working on committee work (14 half days, paid)
Painting
2 small needy children
A job interview?!?

I can't wait!!!

once again, just a nerd

So, last week some time I think I mentioned that I was running in an election at work for a new position. Maybe? I don't remember now and am too lazy to go back and check.

ANYWAY- I really wanted this new position because I already do a lot of the work, and I really care about the job, and it's more money. (It's one of those things I'd do on TOP of what I already do, not a new job). Unfortunately, our higher-ups felt that the staff should choose the person...

SO- an election! In which I had to submit lots of information about myself, in which I actually gave a "brief biography" when asked for it! My competitor, gave her whole stinkin' resume, so needless appeared more qualified than me! I didn't get it.

I feel like the prom queen runner up... just not quite good enough.

As a teacher...

And as a human being who cares about the world around us...

I find this to be amazing, and distressing!
What must they have thought? Just by simple picture taking, how much did we disorder their lives?

WOW!

Parenting Dilema

In the course of parenting, there are dilemma's to deal with and decisions to be made everyday. It can be tough but it is important to make the right decision for the future of the children.

Grant loves Dinosaurs.
He pronounces them DinoROARs.

I love it! I think it's cute and funny and it makes me giggle.
I call them DinoROARs too!

Will he be scarred for life? Will he be a teenager and still calling them DinoROARs? Like the friend of a friend who called butterflies "flutterby's" until she was 18!?!

Do I really care? ... Nah, too cute to care!

I hope my mom doesn't read this

No... it's not about THAT!

Can someone tell me when your biological clock STOPS ticking?
I was just sitting here in my (empty) classroom crying over how cute a friends new baby is... and wishing SO hard that I could have another beautiful baby.

I have 2 beautiful, wonderful (if rambunctious) children. God has blessed me more than I deserve. And I can list 20 very practical reasons why I probably shouldn't have a 3rd baby.
(Whining) BUT I WANT ONE!

This week it was announced that the Duggars are having #18. That's right, 18!!
I only want 3.

I'm willing to make some sacrifices. I'm willing to puke for 12 straight weeks and have back pain and be up all night for the next 6 months and eat nothing but pasta for a year. Whatever it takes to feel butterfly kicks and watch first smiles and hear first words again.

Adam is having none of it. And I can't fully say I blame him. 2 kids is a lot of work! It takes both of us to deal if they both decide to be horrible at the same time. But as Brianna grows, that is happening less and less. She is as reasonable and logical as any 5 year old I've ever seen. 90% of the time, she "gets it". And as Grant grows, he becomes more reasonable, for a 2 year old. I keep trying to convince Adam that by the time we have the baby, Grant will be 3 1/2! That is a huge change from now at 2 1/2! It won't be like this forever!

GOD, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.

Which is this?!?

When the obvious hits me over the head!

Today at work, I am applying for an additional leadership position for next school year. It is a position which is voted on by the school; someone to be like a lead-teacher in certain areas. While I have no doubt that I am qualified, I need my application to make that clear to the rest of the staff.

One of the questions asks me to select an "Area of Growth" for next year... ie... what is my weakness, or at what do I suck!? They give us the following list to choose from:

Group facilitation
Long range planning
oral communication
written communication
compromise
recognizing alternatives
decision-making
taking initiative
preparing an agenda
Attention to detail
task prioritization and delegation
sharing ideas in a positive manner
showing genuine interest in individuals
fostering organizational change
working toward consensus

I had to e-mail some coworkers who know me well to see what they think my weakness is.
AND THEN IT OCCURRED TO ME... If I can't even decide on my own weakness, then decision making must be the one to pick!

DUH!

This morning I took pictures...

Just because Brianna looked cute and Grant was mostly smiley... and it had been awhile!


He is asking for "Uppy!"

And the other 6 dwarfs hid under the beds!

I am GRUMPY.

It's a "up on the wrong side of the bed" and "don't even look at me like that" kind of a day.
I don't know why... The morning was crazy but no more so than usual.
The kids were sleepy and cranky but not much more than normal.
My co-worker is annoying but it's the same way she always is.

I just need a break.
I need Adam to go somewhere by himself and leave me alone for a few hours, or a day.
I need NOT to be reminded that there are 9000 boxes still to unpack.
I need to find a new babysitter.
I need a quiet day at work where I can surf the Internet and ignore my paperwork in peace.
I want a new purse. (I don't know how that will really help, and it might make Adam kill me, but I just know it's the answer to some of my stress!)
I want to finish my book without dirty looks from my husband or screaming children.
I want a massage! for a week!

If you see me coming today people, you'd better be able to provide something from the second list... or just run the hell away!

15 excuses for why I don't blog

1. Packing up old house
2. Cleaning new house
3. Crying about old house
4. Saying good bye to WORLDS BEST neighbors
5. Unpacking at new house
6. Helping 2 kid under 5 understand "new house" vs. "old house"
7. Drying tears of said kids
8. Crying some more
9. Taking multiple days off school to prepare for and move
10. Cleaning old house
11. I do sometimes work at work
12. Making 90 bazillion phone calls to cancel old services and set up new services
13. Sleeping a whopping 4 hours per night
14. New committee/team at work which needs lots of attention
15. Stressing about combining numbers 1-14

And 5 reasons why I hope to get better about it...
1. New house has upgraded Internet! (Dial-up house is dust!)
2. New house computer is right off family room so I don't have to isolate myself to use it.
3. Got new camera with phone for mommy's day so will have pictures to post!
4. Summer is coming and work is slowing down.
5. I miss my blog buddies!!!!!

During the silence...

Yes, I am well aware that long silences are more the norm for me and you probably weren't wondering what was going on but anyway...

Here is what has happened since the last post.

-Student didn't just leave for month, she left until August! More work, less accountability for me.
- Went to wonderful workshop with group that has now become implementation team for new initiative. Fun and challenging! I love it.
- Settled repairs on new house.
- CLOSED ON NEW HOUSE!!!!! WAHOOO!!!!!
- Assessed empty new house and noticed all the flaws we didn't see before. Started having flashbacks of the movie "Money Pit" but am trying not to stress.
- Took today off work to wait around new house for locksmith and carpet cleaners.
- Thanked God for neighbors unsecured wireless connection which I am borrowing.

Happy Friday Everyone!

S.T.R.E.S.S

I read somewhere recently that moving is the 2nd most stressful thing an adult can go through, second only to divorce.

STRESS.....

I have SO much to do this week before we close next week and my over-involved self volunteered for a workshop on Thursday and Friday so I will be totally out of touch for most of those 2 days and then I found out today that one of my students is leaving for Europe this weekend and will be gone A MONTH visiting a dying family member and I have to give her enough work to do to keep caught up for A MONTH and did I mention I won't be able to do anything productive on Thursday or Friday?!?

Rejuvinated... sort of.

Wednesday I decided that I think I felt a little spring fever coming on and that I (cough, cough) would need to take Thursday off to "recover". IE- I called in sick to work on Thursday so I could enjoy one entirely wonderful day to myself!

Now... I think I cursed myself...

I mean, my day was lovely. I got some much needed things done for the move, and I read for 3 consecutive hours without interruption or screaming in the background, I took myself to breakfast at Panera and played on the computer, thank you free wi-fi!

However, now I am sick. I mean actually might go to the doctor later sick. My left sinus feels like a rock and now my ears ache and I generally feel like I'm moving underwater. To top that... I am dizzy on and off if I try and look down and read. I look a little strange reading/grading papers with the paper held directly out from my face!

Oh Well, It was worth it!

Lessons from Elementary School

Boy and Girl, Sittin' in a tree.
K-I-S-S-I-N-G!
First comes love,
Then comes MARRIAGE,
THEN comes a baby in the baby carriage!

Someone, and someone else, and someone else, and someone else forgot to listen though!

Engaged, not engaged, Tomato, Tom(ah)to....It's just too much!
Am I officially old now?

But I might need it!

Adam wants me to start packing. Actually, he would even do the packing if I just tell him what to box up. (He's a GREAT guy!)

FYI- we can start moving things into the new house in just under 3 weeks. We have to be completely out of our current house in about 5 weeks.

I JUST DON'T KNOW WHAT TO PACK! What can I live with out for 5 whole weeks (more like 8-10 by the time I actually unpack it again)? We packed up a bunch of mommy's kitchen toys... We packed up some kids toys (6 days ago and no one noticed yet... sad huh?). I could probably pack up linens or something.

I'm just convinced that whatever I pack, I will need it the next day. Yes- I know I haven't used in in months or years, but tomorrow I WILL! but only if I pack it today.