I'm Back!

I'm back to try and start writing more.  This year I'm taking one picture, hopefully a good one, a week.  These are from prompts on this website:  http://www.audreyannphoto.com/blog/.  So far I'm two for two!

Week 1:  Take a picture on the road that leads to your house. 

Week 2:  Take a picture of your family doing a daily activity.  Although I don't really cook dinner, I do make Chicken Roll Ups at least once a month.  The kids were SO excited we were having Chicken Roll Ups, because we they could help.  It is the simple things.  Sam even created a song, which I wish I had taped.

Life Lately

“It’s a baby tiger!  Cheer, cheer.”  The sizzle of chicken in a hot pan.  The occasional bark of the dog.  “Mommy, its Christmas.  Not real Christmas, fake Christmas.”  Sounds of dinner.

It has been weeks since I’ve made dinner at home.  Stress.  It has gobbled me whole and has yet to release me.  I spend most of my “free” time grading, thinking about what I should be grading or feeling guilty that I’m not grading.  The next two weeks will be full of grading.  The end of trimester coupled with spring conferences have mixed to create the perfect storm, one that I wish I could just sleep through. 

Back to dinner.  Sam and Emily happily played while I cooked.  It was Christmas.  Then it was Papa’s birthday.  Then the dollhouse people were on a trip in a late 80s wood grain paneled minivan, scaling high mountains of silver stainless steel.  (The dolls from a more recent time had hitched a ride on the back of a GIANT green John Deere tractor.)  Their imaginations at work.  It was awesome to listen to their stories, much of which I was trying to remember.

Days like today remind me of how grateful and blessed I am to have a soundtrack of three year olds to listen to while I cook.  Our nanny took the kids to visit a new baby of one of her friend’s daughters.  The mom is so young Emily couldn’t understand who the baby’s mommy was.  The baby was unplanned and unwanted, but hopefully loved.  The mom said she wasn’t due until May, yet he was born on Valentine’s day and over 8 pounds.  We are lucky because we were able to have our two chatterboxes.  I didn’t have to wait for the ultimate gift from a stranger or face heartbreak from a failed foster-adopt.   Some days I forget how lucky we are.

4th of July--a little late

Paul had surgery to remove a bone tumor in his ankle on July 3rd, so he had to spend them 4th mostly in bed.  Sam, Emily, Nana and I got up and headed up to Fort Collins for the 1st Annual Forth of July Parade.  We found a great spot in the shade, in front of flowers and COVERED in ants.  I spent most of the parade shaking off imaginary ants.  It was pretty small but still fun.  It started with police officers, retired, active, on bikes, in cars and even their SWAT vehicle.  The kids got a ton of candy that they can't eat and a couple of coloring books and tooth brushes!  

 

Sam was so funny with his candy.  Nana showed him his pockets and he very carefully placed each piece in his pockey.  They sure were full when we got into the car.  We stopped at Starbucks for a snack before heading home to check on Daddy and try to catch the neighborhood parade.

 

We had everyone set up outside and ready for the parade to go by our house on the sidewalk.  I went out front to look for Papa and when I did I saw the parade go by down the street!  The information said it would go down the sidewalk and turn on Crowley Cir. and go back to the pool.  Well, I had the wrong part of Crowley.  Darn it!  I quickly grabbed the kids and we walked down to watch some of the second loop.

 

Papa and Nana went and got lunch for all of us.  Then Sam and Emily watched "Daddy's Movie", aka Pee Wee while I got dinner going.  Then we all took a nap!

I had invited Papa and Nana over for dinner before we headed to the fireworks.  I put the kids in their swim suits and we filled up the water table too.  I attempted to make fancy Jello, but it didn't work out.  The kids were excited about it though. 

The weather was nice so we ate outside.

We headed to Cattail Creek Golf Course before dark.  I dropped everyone off then headed to park in front of the Dreweck's house.  Their neighbor's back to the golf course and they let them walk through their yard.  So I cut through too.  The course was packed.  I didn't expect so many people to be there.  As it got darker I gave Sam and Emily their light sticks and we ate some M&Ms until the show started.  Emily wasn't sure she liked it.  (Note the green M&M in her hand.  I didn't realize she had it and she kept it until we made it back to the car.  I definitely melted in her hand.)

Paul was a trooper and he made his way back to the car in the dark, on rocks and up a hill.  We might have overdone it but we were glad he came with us.

 

When we got home the kids were ready for bed but it was still pretty loud out. Emily was still unsure of the noise so I put her in our bed to sleep.  She fell asleep pretty quickly.

 

Sam would note, "Is no fireworks," as we drove by the golf course for at least 2 weeks after the 4th.  He has a great memory.

Fair Weather

Tonight we went to the Larimer County Fair.  The clouds seemed to build at about 1 pm, but it never did rain.  The sun was even coming back out as we headed east at 4:30.  Sam and Emily woke up a little early from their nap and Sam was not in a great mood when we left the house.  I was a little worried the evening might not go well.

As we walked into the fairgrounds immediately decided, "I need to play!"  Nana tried to hold him off by showing him the Splash Dogs.  That worked for awhile, but the boy was determined to play.  So we headed to the inflatable slides, bounce house and play area.  Luckily, there was a small area for little people and it was free!

They both got into the bouncy house, at different times.  Emily did great!  She made her way to the top of the slide more than once and squealed when she slid down.  Sam did a pretty good job until he got pushed around by a couple of bigger kids, then he was done.  After some convincing that the other slides were too big for them we moved on to something else.


TRACTORS!  Sam is still in love with any kind of construction machinery and there were a whole lot of tractors that he could sit in.  So we did.

Sam was just disappointed that they didn't move.  Emily wasn't too interested in sitting on any of the tractors or machinery, but she did just to humor us.

 

Next, it was time to fish. 

We didn't put any bait on but it was fun to watch the fish right there in the tank.  Sam seemed to know what he was doing and unfortunately kept winding up the line. 

 

We then headed toward the food.  I knew we needed funnel cake and cotton candy, but I didn't really care what I ate first.  Sam, Emily and I all got corn dogs and I was the only one who ate the corn part.  I'll need to remember that for next time.  We shared nachos with Papa and Nana.  Then I took the kids over to the wildlife show, but they weren't really interested.  I think we must have been to far away for them to really see what was going on.  When we got back to the table we finished up some funnel cake.

We ran into the Smiths who we saw earlier.  They had just been in to see the animals and Sam heard that they got to pet them.  So... he NEEDED to pet the animals.  Well, we didn't really pet them but we did look at them.  As Sam and Emily walked by one of the sheep it started bleating.  I wish I had a video camera because both kids really jumped.  It was pretty funny.  We saw sheep, alpaca, llama, pigs, goats, chickens, ducks and a couple of rabbits.  Sam said his favorite animal was the ducks.  I think Emily like the rooster.  Papa liked the chicken with the baby chicks sitting on her back.  Once we finished touring the animals we watched mama cows and their babies being judged and some cowboys on their horses.  Emily waved to all the cowboys and some waved back.  Silly girl.

 

 

Then it was time for... more tractors!  Sam got onto more machinery while Nana, Emily and I watched some barnyard races.  First we watched pigs race.  Then it was time for some goats to race.  Emily really loved it. 

It was barely getting dark so we headed toward the carnival rides.

Getting a little sleepy.

Checking out the Ferris Wheel.





 

We checked to see how tall they were before we got too far, just to see.  Sam wanted to ride on most of the rides, which he was, of course, not tall enough for yet.  We checked out the Ferris Wheel, tall enough with a parent.  We watched some people play carnival games.  Then we walked by a train ride.  They were tall enough, but I couldn't justify paying $4 for them to ride a train when the one at the park is 75 cents and a much better ride.  Then we saw some cars.  They both wanted to ride, and they were tall enough!

 

It was one of the best $4 I've spent.  They ended up sitting together in a car, which was probably good.  Sam got in first, then Emily.  Sam made sure to get out and let her inside.  The attendant had to make sure that they had their seat belts on.  The ride started rather suddenly but after the initial startle, they had huge grins the whole time.  They loved it.  Emily drove and smiled and waved.  Sam tried to push all the buttons, just to see what they would do. 

They both did such a great job.  When did I get such big kids?

 

It was finally time for our cotton candy.  Sam and Emily told the worker we needed COTTON CANDY with such enthusiasm.  They really haven't ever had it before.  (Just once at a graduation party a couple of years ago.  They didn't like it.)  Emily got to carry the bag and Sam was so sad that he didn't get his own.  He didn't want to share! 

 

We found a great people watching bench and ate our cotton candy.  Sam made the funniest faces the first four or so tastes.  I'm not sure he liked the texture.  Emily loved it. 

 

On our way out of the fair Papa was having the kids "hide" and scare us.  They thought it was hilarious!  It was great until Emily was running to hide inside and slid on the floor.  But she recovered when she got to hide and jump out again. 

 

What a great night.  The weather was almost perfect.  The kids were super excited and entertained.  We had great company.

Summer- Week One

So far this summer has been packed, literally, with activities and to-do lists.  I'm not really ready for that yet.  We started summer last Friday with a furlough day (we were NOT allowed to work) and helping my mom celebrate her birthday.  We had planned on a picnic but the wind forced us to Nordy's, darn.  We stuffed ourselves silly with BBQ and then topped it off with some dessert.

On Saturday we got up and did a little garage sale-ing but we didn't find much, but we did get to stop and talk to some of our old neighbors.  Papa and Nana took the kids so Paul could help me move some of the stuff out of my room at school.  Everyone napped and I continued to pack.  That evening we went to a retirement party up towards the Poudre Canyon.  The kids had their first try at golf and I watched an amazing sunset.

Sunday meant more cleaning of my room, then a crab boil with Jayna and Custer.  Emily really loved the shrimp, she ate most of mine!

On Monday I had yet another interview for that new job.  A second interview, and I STILL haven't heard from the principal.  Grrr.

Bright and early Tuesday morning I got on a bus with about 40 other 4th and 5th grade teachers.  We rode that bus for more than 9 hours on our way to Durango.  Once we got there we experienced something we have never experienced before... a catered reception complete with drinks!  Thank you Bill and Melinda Gates.  :-)  We then all headed to town for dinner together.  Luckily there was a bus that came back late (10 pm) so we could experience more of town.  We spent some time on a roof top bar.  It is great to spend time outside of school with co-workers.

Teachers of the trail roundabout.

Wednesday we spent all day in a class about the LDC, Literacy Design Collaborative.  Not a great class but a good resource.  We then headed back to town for dinner.  We thought it was a good idea to walk, so we did, with no real leader in the group.  We had to stop at one point to decide which way to go.  Pretty funny... We did finally make it to dinner at Steamworks Brewery, which has a really good quinoa burger.  We then headed down to the river to cool off our feet. 

After that we went to a bar and played Fact or Crap, drank some, took silly pictures, decided to take a cab home, drank a little more, and had a great time with friends.

After a morning class taught by an amazing teacher about technology integration, we headed home on Thursday on a bus with no air conditioning.  Mike is in the way of the great view from our stopped spot on the side of the road, where our bus needed to cool down.  We finally made it back at 10:45 pm.

On Friday I went to the orthopedic doctor about my knee.  This is what it looked like a couple of weeks ago.  The bump on the right side of my knee mysteriously disappeared a few days after I made the appointment.  I don't think the doctor really understood why I was there.  He gave me the same advice I got on my last appointment... take advil, don't carry stuff up and down the stairs.  I had to explain why I made the appointment in the first place, this huge bump.  He then said it could be a cyst from a meniscus injury.  Oh well, we will see if it happens a third time.

 

On Saturday we had a garage sale.  We didn't sell much but it was enough to make it worthwhile.  We sold our patio furniture that blows away in the wind and one of our infant car seats.  Mom, Sam, Emily and I also went to a few other neighborhood garage sales.  Sam got a box of cars for a dollar.  He LOVES them!

 

Sunday we went and looked for a balance bike for Emily and patio furniture for us.  We didn't get either one.  We snuck in a trip to the pool too.  The kids LOVE swimming.

Brave

I have always loved this quote:

 but when I really get down to it I am most comfortable in the familiar.  I like my usual routine.  So much so that my kids have a pretty clear cut routine that gets followed, most days.  I don't scare myself often enough.  Lately I have been feeling really comfortable at work.  Too much so.  I'm really comfortable with my principal, my co-workers and my place in my building.  This is my 9th year teaching the same grade, at the same school.  The only difference is the kids and I had a new teaching partner this year.  I've started to feel like I need a push.

 

So I took a jump.  I decided to apply for a position in a different building.  A building with clientele much different than ours.  We have almost 65% of our families that qualify for free and reduced, this school has 11%.  I have had a number of friends and co-workers that have left my building in the last few years for a different school, but this isn't it.  We just moved into the attendance area of my friends' school and I really want my kids to go there but I don't want to work where my kids go to school.  (This is for a different post.)  If I was going to jump ship, it was going to be onto my own life boat.

 

And I'm scared.  My heart pounded as I submitted my name, at the final hour, I cried when I told my principal.  I'm scared I won't be good enough.  I'm scared I won't live up to expectations.  Expectations that I KNOW will make me a better teacher.  I'm scared I won't be able to handle the parents. 

 

But I'm not stressed about NOT getting the job.  I know I can stay where I am comfortable.  Where I know I am valued.  Where I have great co-workers and students that have challenged me.  I know I will continue to work on my behavior management.  (We have a VERY rough group coming up.)

 

I am still waiting on an answer.  I interviewed over two weeks ago and I was told I'd know by the following Friday.  Well, it has been more than a week past that Friday.  The waiting is hard.  I've only told my teaching partner, a close friend and my principal.  I feel in limbo and I'd like to find out so I can move on. 

 

I've been listening to this song a lot lately:
http://youtu.be/McdMwOV0y6c

I can't get the video to embed.