Christmas 2008

What a crazy week we've had. My sister-in-law and her 4 kids came on Saturday the 20th, and left Christmas afternoon. They were pretty good, but the kids got bored pretty quick, and I don't have things to occupy an 11 and 7 year old. Oh-well.

I had fever from Sunday until Wednesday. And it didn't help that I was up until 2 every night and awake by 8. I am feeling better now though.

We went to my grandma's house on Wednesday, left cookies out for Santa before going to church and then opened presents after church. Blake was way too spoiled there! We drove home and a cranky Blake put out his cookie for Santa at home and went to bed. Kristina and I stayed up until about 3 getting the tree stocked and ready for 7 excited kids on Christmas morning.

All in all it was a great time, and Blake was the greatest! Christmas morning he went to the cookie plate and said, "MAMA!!! SANTA CAME AND ATE ALL THE COOKIES!!!"

I am off until January 5. I love being home, but also miss my kiddos at school!

Here are some pics of the week.

Blake made Christmas cookies


All of Great Grandma C's great grand kids


Santa came on the firetruck


The little cousins take a bath together


On the way to Great Nana's house


Cookies for Santa at Great Nana's house


Cookies for Santa at home. He was not very interested.


4 of the 7 kids were waiting.


Blake and Gabryel waiting patiently


Our living room!
Blake at 5:30 on Christmas night!

Advent Calendar

I have wanted to get an Advent Calendar for Blake, but didn't want a cheap-o one, so I googled "advent calendar" and came across a blog that is very crafty. I found what I thought was an easy, quick calendar. I bought the materials and got started yesterday while Blake napped. I worked on it for almost 6 hours last night, and have been working on it an hour today. I am more than half way finished, but still have about 8 pockets left to do. I HAVE to have it finished by tomorrow. It will be done, and I will post pictures.

Thanksgiving was nice. We went to my grandma's in Killeen, and I forgot the camera. Poki took some family pictures, and we'll see if I get them before Blake turns 5. I still don't have all of our wedding pictures.


***Here is the finished project! I only need the buttons.

2 months is too long?

I guess if I said not much has happened in the last 2 months I would be telling a story. School is going great, Blake is great, things at home are fine. Our washer is on the fritz. First, it would not run cold water, and then it stopped spinning. Joe replaced the part to make the water run, and now we are "helping" the washer spin. When it gets to the spin cycle, we start spinning it and eventually the pulley takes over. It's not fun. But it beats going to the washateria. We will probably get a new washer in the next 2 months or so, but we can't get one right now.

Trick or treating was so much fun on Friday. Joe and I agree that there was something missing, so we have begun to have a bit of baby fever again. Maybe we will start trying again in the spring.

We have been inconsistently putting Blake in underwear on the weekends. Friday night in the tub, he jumped up and said he had to pee. I put him on the toilet, and he peed. So, yesterday, I put him in underwear all day! He was dry from 8:45-2:30, had a poop accident, then napped, and was dry from 5 until 9. He actually peed on the potty last night too! This morning after breakfast, I put him on the toilet and told him to go pee-pee, and he did it! I am so excited! He is growing up so fast!!!

Blake has been dressing himself, putting socks and trying to put shoes on. He asked to go in the backyard jsut a few minutes ago, so I told him he needed to get dressed and he came out in shorts, a shirt, socks and shoes in hand. He is trying to get the shoe on now. He has just started, within the month or so, being really interested in dressing himself. He is very serious about it now!

First 2 weeks

Well, the first 2 weeks of school are over. I only cried one day, which Joe lovingly said, "don't show them weakness". Long story short, after 2 days of tantrums, a parent walked in and freaked out at what he saw. He wanted to pull his daughter from my class. We had a meeting and my administrators and I talked to him and explained why he saw what he saw, and how I was just as freaked out as he was at that particular moment. Anyway, he ended up keeping her in my class, and things are slowly falling into place. I now know why we start school the week before Labor day.....so the teachers have a mini=vaca so they come back to work. Otherwise, no first year teacher would ever come back!

I got to school on Tuesday, and decided that I was completely changing my schedule. BAD idea! We quickly found out that we needed to go back to the way we did it the first week and it was fine. One of the kids had the stomach bug on Wednesday and came on Thursday, but left early. He was out today. I feel really bad, but today was super easy! It's amazing how one kid can completely change the dynamics of a classroom.

We moved Blake back to the daycare he was in earlier this year. We tried a corporate daycare thinking it would be fine, but it didn't work out. We both felt like we were imposing on the teacher when we would drop off or pick up, and Blake got bitten for the 2nd time in the 3 weeks, and we were not notified. Both times he was bit, he had huge bruises in the shape of teeth. Not cool. I know kids bite, but they need to at least let us know. So, he is at the Kid Ranch here in Kyle, and has not cried 1 morning, and quickly fell back into the routine. He is completely back to his normal, silly self. I love this place!

Last week, I was in bed every night by 8, and this week I have been staying up a little later (9:00). It's really hard to get up at 5 every morning. I am not necessarily a late riser, but I don't like to get up before 6:30 or 7. Lucky for me (and my students), I have a 40 minute drive to help wake me up!

Cleaning

I am giving house the final "once over" before I go back to work. I feel like I just did this...oh-yeah, I did...about a week ago! It is so frustrating! I just finished Blake's playroom. He doesn't really play in there except when friends are over. A week ago Sunday, his cousin came to play and they DESTROYED it! Blake is good about keeping stuff organized, but R does not know how to play with stuff. He just dumps. Here they are just hanging out on my bed watching a movie. It is re-organized now, and I am about to tackle the other disaster areas. I am not very good at staying on track. As long as it gets done, right?

Tomorrow is my last class for a few weeks, and I go back to work on Monday. I am really excited, except my classroom is a mess too. I met with the previous teacher this week, and she was clearing out all her stuff, so by my first official day in the room, I will know what I have.

First Day Back

Today was my first day back in the "work" routine. I rolled out of bed at 6, and was ready to leave by 6:50 or so. This included getting Blake dressed and a light morning snack before we left. We were on the road at 7:02. I dropped Blake off at daycare, and went to my conference. At 7:40, I called a collegue that was coming also, and asked if I was at the right spot, because, NOONE was there. She said, "are you there already? I am not even out of bed yet!" What??? Our conference wasn't scheduled to start until 9. OOPS!!! So, I went to Chic-Fil-A and got breakfast, and spent an hour in the car just chillin'.

The conference was great, except we were sitting on kid sized chairs. If you have not done that for 4 hours, you should try it. I have gotten so much free stuff, that it totally makes up for the fee to get in! I am glad I was able to go.

I got my official offer from HR today. I go tomorrow and sign my contract! I am hoping to have access to my room on Wednesday!

I called at lunch to check on Blake, and she said he was doing great! I got there to pick him up, and he was happily walking throughout the room stopping every few seconds to check something out. The teachers said that he did WONDERFUL, and that he is a good listner, helper, and clean-up helper. I'm so proud of my big boy!!!

Finally!

So, this afternoon, I just called principal from interview 5 and left a voicemail asking what the status was. I explained that I had not heard from HR and that there is a workshop that I would like to attend on Monday, but won't pay for it if I don't know 100% that I got the job, and that I need to make daycare arrangements. That was at 1.

At 4:30, right in the middle of Oprah I might add, the phone rang. It was the principal. She said that she is glad that I called her because she was certain that HR had contacted me already. She said that I am definately the one she wants, and will get on the ball and make sure HR calls by the end of the week. I told her about the workshop and asked if the district was able to pay for it, or if I needed to pay out of pocket, and she said she would pay for it! I can't believe it! I got a job, and got the principal to pay for a $250 workshop!!!

Joe is out of town on a business trip, so Blake and I celebrated by going to the city pool! I know, we're wild! He scared the crap out of me. He got out of the pool, and I was right behind him. I looked away for about .003 seconds, and heard a splash, and he jumped in! I quickly got in and pulled him up and he thought it was HILARIOUS!!! The next 10 times, I was in the pool, and he jumped in with out any coercing at all! Now we really have to be careful around water!

Blake will start daycare on Monday, and I will have 3 days next week to get our house in order before the real chaos starts! Yay! I am so excited!!!