Update

Oof! Things are good but busy and tiring. It's too much so I'm figuring out ways to cut back. I was worried about working my caretaker jobs on Sundays but I decided to give it a go and it's a no go. I gave my notice last week. I'm giving them the month of September to figure something else out because working 6 days a week is too much. My one day "off" is my one day to go grocery shopping, meal prep, clean, do laundry. You get it, too much! Even though I can grade and lesson plan over at Shelly's while getting paid, having the obligation to be somewhere for 6-8 hours when I could be doing that at home is just not worth it. I still might work occasional shifts here and there and maybe I'll work there again next summer, we will see. 

Over the summer I was feeling kind of lame and blah so I decided I wanted a project of sorts so I decided to train for a half marathon. It served me really well over the summer to have a goal and it helped motivate me to get back into good shape after having Shahar but now that school has started it is not serving me at all. I do not have the time nor the energy to train. I skipped the last two weekends of long runs. I haven't officially dropped out yet, I still may go and participate just for the heck of it and I may not. I'm done with the training though. Peace out! We will see if I decide to walk/jog it or sleep in instead.

Kids are doing good. Nothing new to say there. Piper continues to feel good about Gem Prep and about school in general which is HUGE! I'm so happy. I think her meds are helping a lot. She missed two days of school because she was sick and she was able to catch up fairly quickly. That is a big deal! Yay!

Well, that's all. I can't wait for October when I'll be done with my extra job. The end. I am also extra ready to put up my Halloween decorations and I've already made pumpkin cookies and pumpkin pancakes. The end the end.

Ryan's design of the village from the Neolithic Era.

Piper's 14! Crazy!

It was my friend Shelly's (not the girl I work for) 40th birthday. We had a special celebration for her. We booked a hotel and had a fun time downtown. 

 

Update

We are all still adjusting to the back to school routine. It's a lot and the days are full. Corbin and Gabby both have multiple AP courses that should keep them on their toes. Piper and Ryan seem to be adjusting to Gem Prep. Piper likes it better than Lowell Scott, which is huge since she's hated the last 2 years of school, and that's been really hard. I got her ADHD tested over the summer and she tested positive for it. We are in the trial stage of figuring out the right meds and dosage but already there seems to be improvements. She has been able to finish her work IN CLASS which is huge. She couldn't focus before and didn't finish her work at school and then she would be stressed and overwhelmed by homework. I really hope we can find the right thing because there's been too many tears and stressful days and nights.

I have 3 awesome TA's and I put them to work every day. They are helping me make my slideshows from last year cuter and all kinds of things. We have back-to-school night tomorrow night and one of my TA's used canva to make the poster I will have up on the projector. They are doing open house style and parents can just pop in and meet the teacher and ask questions. I'm super excited for this change of format, where in the past we had 15 minutes for every class period of the day to talk to the parents. I always took like 5 minutes and it was awkward. I'm guessing my room will be pretty dead and I can just get some work done. Parents aren't too concerned about how their kids will do in my classes. I did go over the top and make cookies to hand out. it seemed like a good touch from the culinary teacher.  

My gums are still hurting and I got another bill in mail. The surgery is twice as expensive as they told me it was going to be. I will be double checking and making some phone calls on that. I don't go back in until September so I won't know next steps yet. I wonder if my gum swelling will be down by then...

Back to Schooly Ooly

 
The school year has begun! It's nuts. It's such a huge transition to go from nothing to everything overnight. I think my kids and I are all in shell shock. It's fine, it's fine, everything is fine. Piper and Ryan are going to a new school so there's been a learning curve there. I'm sure that learning curve will last for a bit. Their school seems intense. Ryan's 6th grade online orientation about threw me right over the edge. I hope I'm smart enough to help them. Could I download Ryan's assignment? No. Am I a teacher that has to deal with my fair share of technology? Yes. Ryan barfed on the first day and had to get sent home. I think he was just nervous starting a new school because he definitely wasn't sick. I had to call my brother Hart to go pick him up. Over the past few years their dad has been 5 minutes from their schools and works from home and it was pretty easy for him to do stuff like that. Now that he has moved to Nampa I won't have that convenience anymore. It will be an adjustment for sure and I will need more help. It takes a village!

Gabby and Corbin are still going to Centennial and didn't have too much change to deal with. Figuring out the commute from Nampa will be a challenge but they have another week with me to adjust to school before we have to figure that out. 

My classes seem pretty good. My bar last year was just not get fired so I'm trying to raise the bar a little this year and I'm very underwater. I'm sure I'll go back to just don't get fired soon enough. Well, that's all we are exhausted and not adjusted to our new normal yet. Wish us luck!  

Piper, 8th Grade Gem Prep!

Corbin, Senior at Centennial!

Ryan, 6th grade Gem Prep!

Gabby, 10th grade Centennial!

Cute Charly

John is in a band (bass guitar) with his college buddies and they had a gig of sorts yesterday. They played 18 songs. That's so many songs to memorize! They did good!

Gum Graft Fail?

My last two weeks of summer break were not awesome with my gum graft recovery. I took pain killers every 3 hours for 6 days and then I got over that and just quit cold turkey. I was still in pain but bearable enough. The worst part was the stitches irritated my mouth and made canker sores all over the inside of my cheek and that hurt the most of all. I finally got the stiches out and that helped my canker sore situation a lot. My gums are still puffed up and I will need to be careful for the next month still. My graft in the front of my mouth was successful but the giant graft on the side was not. I'm still unclear how sucessful or unsuccesful it was. The doctor was pretty unclear about it. I have a follow up appointment in 4 weeks and then maybe he will have a better idea how well the graft took and next steps. I'm pretty depresssed about it because it was an awful experience and it sounds like I will have to do something again, I'm not sure when. I'll know more in 4 weeks. Boo!  

I started work last week. I'm really glad we go back a week before we have students. It helps ease me into the schedule and get ready. I'm pretty preemtively tired and stressed thinking about the next few weeks. It will take me a bit to get used to doing ALL the things again. It's a lot. Oof.  

Hart's climbing gym opened up a ropes course. We were invited. I just watched, I did not feel like participating with my mouth sitaution. It was so miserable. 

John loves his Hutchy so much!

I tried to get a picture of my canker sores. It's hard to tell. It hurt!

Blood and stitches. My mouth looked like the corpse bride for the most part.

Shelly loves to play my game Barbie Queen of the Prom when I go to her house. Her cat Ginger likes to get involved as well. She's super helpful!

Update

It was another great week. We finally went to Roaring Springs, that place is a racket but a summer must. I was so happy to not be pregnant this year. I unfortunately had to end my summer with a surgery. I needed 2 gum grafts. Boo. I needed one 20 years ago and it was super awful and I've been dreading it since January when I found out I needed to get one that turned into two. The procedure itself was MUCH better. They gave me some anxiety pills and laughy gas and I was just peachy. It went so fast, it was great. The recovery not so much. It's to be expected to not be my super best self. I have two areas of stiches and a retainer covering the roof of my mouth where they cut the tissue for the graft. I have been on top of my pain meds taking them on schedule but I woke up to pain and a bottom mouthful of coagulated blood. It was very gross and unsettling. I thought the graft came out and I was chewing on it but I was just chewing on thick blood. I didn't sleep great the rest of the night waiting for morning to check in with my surgeon. He let me know that there must have been some disruption during my sleep but that the stiches looked good. Fingers crossed I won't wake up to a blood nightmare again tonight. I hate eating just soft foods and feel like I'm starving to death. I will survive. I have my first work meeting this Friday and then work begins the following Wednesday. It's a bummer to end my summer in recovery but at least I was able to take care of it before work starts. I really hope it can heal quickly and nicely. I'm trying hard to follow post op instructions. 

We watched Coraline, Piper is pulling her I'm tormented face.

Seriously? Cuteness alert!

It's cute when they play together.

I love that Ryan loves to cook. I helped him make some homemade whole wheat pancakes, don't worry that stack is not just for him. LOL

Pineapple Dolewhip!

Cutest

Hutch and Charly do pretty well together.

Yum!

Atomic Days

 
Another week gone in a flash! We went to Atomic Days for the Beal reunion this past weekend. Corbin went a day early with Gabe which made the drive a little more roomy for the other kiddos. John came with us. This was our first trip together with my kids so that was interesting. They were typical preteen/teens and listened to their airpods on the drive and John and I just chatted. We did the usual festivities which mostly consist of gathering on a camping chair and chatting and eating. John was a good sport and my family all liked him. We had breakfast in the park and then watched the parade. It was extra long (for Arco) this year. The kids had a great time getting candy and that is always fun to watch. I should have taken more pictures, oh well! Keaton and his family came all the way from North Dakota. All siblings were there except for Lance. It's a lot, even with a lot of missing people, it keeps getting bigger and bigger! Everyone but Keaton left on Saturday so we decided to leave Saturday night as well since we were planning to leave early for me to get back to work today anyway. It was short but sweet! I get my kids again this week, yay! We will see if we do anything fun.

We met for Mary's birthday!

Charly turned 3! She's so so so cute. We love her to death.

Dad, all brother siblings minus Lance, and Corbin, Benett, and Spencer.

Update

This summer is flying by. With scheduling rearrangements I haven't had my kids for 2 weeks and it feels like forever, it went by fast though so that's good. I only have 3 more weeks before I go back to work so I'm going to try to fit in some summer festivities with my kids. The summer goes way too fast. For the 4th John and I crashed my cousin's BBQ we didn't stay for the fireworks so we could get back to Hutch and also because I had to get up at 3:00 in the morning to go to the airport. I went to Florida for the FCCLA National Conference. I'm trying to figure out FCCLA more. It's a part of my job that I don't like worrying about. It's a lot of extra work and stress but I'm trying my best to wrap my brain around it so I don't hate it for the next 20 years. It was nice to go somewhere and have little vacation time along with work. I went to SeaWorld by myself just to practice doing things alone. It was not great but I was glad I did it. A work colleague was at the same hotel as me and it was nice to have someone to go to dinner with and hang a bit with. We went to some outlet malls one night and that was fun to check out. We tried a few local restaurants and I had some really good fish tacos. It was nice to have chill pool time and it was great to have my own hotel room.

Cute buddy.

I'm trying to get better at standing up on the paddle board. I was pregnant last summer so I couldn't do that.

My paddle boarding buddy Shelly.

John, Hutch, and I went paddle boarding.

My trees are growing nicely. I'm glad I haven't killed them!

Heidi trying to nap with our very long delays. We were supposed to get into Boise at 5:40 pm on the 10th and got it at 1:30 am on the 11th. Not a fav!

Out to dinner.

The sky was so pretty at the outlet malls.

The one ride I was able to go on only once. It was fun though.

My room buddies for the Early Childhood Competition. It was helpful to be involved in that. I will be creating an assignment in my classroom around it.

4th of July.

Cute buddy.