Corbin's Band Concert

Last week was my first week without teaching online! It felt really good. Even though lately I've only been teaching 1 hour a day it's still one less thing for me to think about. Plus I can sleep in an extra hour. I love that I'm not teaching online or coaching anymore. It feels good to just do one job. Speaking of, I think I've decided to just go ahead and take the job I've been subbing for. It's not something I could do long term but I think I can do it for a few months. I mostly have to manage my boredom. I like being busy. I'd rather scrub toilets than sit and do nothing but I've gotten more used to it. I talked to the teacher and asked if they would hire me knowing that I'm looking for a teaching job and will quit if I find one. She said they would be happy to have me as long as they could. It's not official yet, I need to do a formal interview tomorrow. Since I'm only doing 1 job I want to do it full time and I don't know if I would have the discipline to sub everyday. It's too easy to just cancel or not take a job. Doing this para job will commit me to working 5 days a week like I want to. Plus the devil you know is better than the unknown. Subbing can be very stressful. I never know what I'm going to get and I hate figuring out the lesson plans and I ALWAYS have to improvise because the plans aren't good enough. It would be great if this job would get me a teaching job at Centennial. I would love to work at the same school as my kids. I'm getting ahead of myself. Anyway, so para job here I come.

Corbin had a band concert on Thursday night. I like the style of this teacher she only does one grade at a time and it's short and sweet. It's great! I'm so impressed with someone who can teach 6th graders how to play in a band. 

I've been staining my frame for my bathroom mirror. It's almost done. 

Scott has been working hard in the shed. He added window frames, door frames, baseboards, and blinds. He needs to hook up the Ethernet cord to the TV and put down the baseboards by the TV and he's done. I will need to paint the baseboards. I can't paint the door until the weather is a bit better. But basically we are done! We LOVE it!

That's about all the happenings around here. I'm nervous to start working full time but I'm glad I get to warm up to full time with a job where I have zero responsibilities outside of work. It will help me establish a routine and get used to the rigorous schedule before I add teaching where I'll also be dealing with lesson plans, grading, students, parents and all the things! 

Piper and Ryan can't quite handle band concerts.

Click to see Corbin's concert: video

Bathroom Makeover

Back when Scott and I decided not to try to move to a bigger house for a lot of reasons we decided we would get a shed and I decided I would re-do most of the house. Bit by bit I've been doing that. I took a break in December because...Christmas. Next on my list was the bathrooms. I wasn't sure when I would get the gumption but then I realized it was a 3 day weekend so what the heck! Originally I was only planning on doing the main bath but I blew through that and painted the master bathroom as well. On the main bathroom I painted the walls, painted the back splash tile, got a new shower curtain, waiting on a new shower rod, spray painted picture frames, spray painted the rusty vent, spray painted the hardware, got some new glass fixtures for light fixture, and got some shelves and decor. I am in love! In the master I am hoping to figure out how to frame our mirror. I want a new light fixture. I am currently spray painting the hardware. I also want a new sink, not sure if that one will happen. Next on my list is to figure out some sort of photo gallery for my dining kitchen area. We will see when I get the vision and motivation for that.

I made it through the first week of my 3 week sub job. It's at Centennial High School which is really close so that is nice. What I also love is the special ed kids get on the bus about 20 minutes before school is out so I split as fast as I can and I don't have to try to leave the parking lot at the same time as hundreds of teenagers. It's the best!  I'm working in the extended resource room. I'm mainly working with a couple of students. One boy I work with is non verbal. He's pretty mellow though so that's nice. The other kid can be more challenging although he can communicate some. The first two days were LONG! It's just a really boring job. I'm trying to manage my boredom the whole time. Wednesday was better. I kind of got more used to the slow rhythm of the day. Thursday and Friday were half days and I as done by 10:30. Praise be! Two more weeks! Ha.

I finished teaching my last week of online classes on Friday! So glad to be done! I'm not sure if this will be a permanent break or not but I'm for sure not teaching again until day light savings in March where I will get more money for the sacrifice of the early hour.

Corbin was sick on Wednesday and stayed home alone. He started an oven mitt on fire while he was making some ramen noodles. I'm glad he didn't burn the house down! So that was an adventure.  He felt good enough to go to school the next day. He had his finals last week. He did well. Gabby and her friend Audelia tried out for the talent show and made it. I will be excited to see their dance. Gabby did most of the choreography herself. Piper and Ryan are great. They get themselves off to school on time by themselves because Gabby likes to leave earlier than they do. They are responsible little people.

Whoops! 

Before

After

School's Back in Session

The kids went back to school on Monday. It was a pretty slow easy week for me. I had my online classes and subbed once. I will be starting a 3 week sub job starting tomorrow. I hope it's not terrible. The long jobs are appealing to me though because even though they could be tedious, boring, or hard you know what to expect everyday. I think that's the hardest part of subbing is not knowing what to expect. Waking up early again last week confirmed that I am pretty burned out of the early mornings. I've decided to take a possible permanent break. I will be for sure not working again until daylight savings in March when at least I will get more money for waking up early. My last class is Friday. Can't wait!

We woke up to snow this morning and it snowed for hours. It was beautiful. It definitely set the tone for a lazy day for me today. I've been watching Anne of Green Gables, my favorite!

We love watching movies in the shed! 

The girls have been playing school after school. So funny and cute.

My friend Lisa came over and watched a movie with me one night. So fun! 

Beautiful winter day! 

Winter Break

Winter break is almost over. It flew by. We drove home from Utah on Monday. It was a fun short visit. My favorite part of that trip was playing card games and watching some shows with Scott. For New Years Eve we went over to the Miller's house. We had intended to play games but the kids were having too much fun playing upstairs and we just ended up mostly stuffing our faces and chatting. We did squeeze a game of Heads Up in. We didn't really do anything special on New Years Day. I took down the Christmas decorations. 

We bought a GIANT TV for the shed. Scott figured out how to hang it up along with a sound bar that he is very pleased with. I think we will go watch a show in there later tonight. Can't wait!

I took a 2 week break from online teaching. It's been so nice. That's the longest break I've taken since I started almost 3 years ago. Waking up early tomorrow is going to be rough! 

The kids have mostly been total vegetables playing roblox and whatever else. There's been some crafting here and there and some play dates as well. They have been loving the break. We've also watched a lot of movies. I love that my kids are getting old enough to start watching good movies with us. It's so fun. 

Our rats were delivered on Monday night. Gabby was so excited after the initial disappointment that one of the rats was not one she had picked out. She quickly got over it. Two days later we woke up to only having one rat in the cage. How fun to discover the holes in the cage were big enough for them to escape! Somehow it wasn't as worrisome for a pet rat to be loose in the house verses a non pet rat. I didn't have a chance to buy a non lethal rat trap before little Phoebe came out from under the couch. I yelled for Gabby and she came in and was able to get her easily. She just crawled into Gabby's hand. Phew! We put some rocks in the cage to block the holes and so far the rats have stayed contained. Fingers Crossed! I really don't mind them except for the smell. I have a sensitive nose and we cleaned out the cage YESTERDAY and it smells today. Yuck. 

I love when Ryan puts his blanket on his head! Ha.

Checking out the new rats in their cage.

Gabby loves her rats!

Piper dressed up as a zombie cheerleader on New Years Eve! I love how she posed for the picture! Ha.

Gabby made this map of Idaho for school. We didn't want to keep it so we took a picture so we can always remember it.

I love seeing Ryan's drawings. So funny. This is showing step by step movements of this guy through a maze? Who knows? Ha.

The kids ringing in the New Year (with New York City at 10:00, ha). 

Piper hair cut. She LOVES it.

Hope it's not too early to decorate for Chinese New Year because I did! Also it's the year of the rat. Perfect! Ha.

Gabby haircut, she LOVES it. 

I made new pillows for the shed and bought a rug. This rug might be too small. I might get a different one. I love it though so I'm torn. 

Check out that TV. It's so nice! I'm keeping the Christmas tree up for a bit in there. It's too cute.