Update

Wahoo! Today is the first Sunday I haven't worked since June. My side job finally ended. It was a great gig and I really like the girl I took care of, but it was too much. I've been working 6 days a week and have had my kids 7 out of the past 8 weeks of school, so I've been pacing myself and planning, but I'm pretty worn out. On Thursday after school, I kept feeling off and put in for a sick day, but then changed my mind. I went to school and still felt off. My Child Development classes had to take the fake babies home for the weekend, so I had to program and hand the babies out. After that, I put in for a sick day and headed home. The sickness never progressed. I still am not sure if my body was trying to get sick or just forcing some rest. 

Quarter 1 ends this week. I can't believe it! It's going fast. I like my classes and don't really have any challenging classes or students, which is nice! My kids are doing well in school. I really do love having them all of the time, it makes me tired, but it's a good tired. 

Corbin had his one and only mountain biking race yesterday. That sport is too expensive and hard for our family to participate in. Last year, he had a teammate who would drive his RV and take Corbin to a lot of the races. I just don't have the time, money, or energy to drive 2 hours and camp or stay in a hotel every weekend for a race. The race yesterday was at Bogus, that we can do! We figured it was still worth it since he enjoyed going to practice with his teammates, and it's great exercise, so even though he couldn't fully participate, it was still time well spent. 

Gabby went with her friend to Homecoming and had a great time. Friends are the best! We enjoyed watching some movies and eating apple crisp. I do love Fall!

Good work Piper!

Update

I was able to check off a big thing off my list this past week. Part of my job requirements is running the student organization FCCLA. It's a ton of extra work, and I don't like worrying about it. We do get paid an extra stipend at least. My boss made me the CTSO lead FCCLA teacher in the district with an extra stipend, so that's also good, but honestly, I would rather not do it and not get the stipend. Oh well, it's a job requirement, so I will do it. FCCLA costs a lot of money, and we have to have fundraisers to help with that. We have been making pretzels at lunch for the past month, and we sold them at the homecoming carnival. We sold all but 5 pretzels. I think we made over $100, so that's awesome! 

Corbin got 75/73 on his Anatomy and Physiology test. He is doing well in his classes and has several AP classes. Gabby also has several AP and honors classes and always has high A's in all of them. Piper is doing really well at Gem Prep. I think it's a combo of medication and a new school. Gem Prep is smaller, and I think that helps. She says the teachers are happy to be there, which I'm sure also helps. I'm just so happy she is doing well this year. Ryan is doing well at Gem Prep as well. He got a 99/100 on his math test. He is struggling in science a bit. I'm not sure if that's a Ryan thing or a teacher thing or both. He seems to be transitioning to middle school really well. He hasn't been overwhelmed by the workload or change, which is great. I think I need to check in more on what's going on in science.

The fit one half marathon was yesterday. I was still considering doing it last minute, and John even went and picked up my packet, but there's been a lot of extra life things happening, and it just was not a priority. I am happy I signed up for it. It did motivate me to get back into running shape. I ran 10 miles a month ago, and that's a lot!

Update

Things are same old. Busy! I'm very much looking forward to October when I will be done with my Sunday job. I woke up in the night Tuesday night with a bad headache and got up to go to work and felt way too terrible. I was super happy though because I already had emergency sub plans in my google classrooms, so I posted them and emailed the secretary and stayed home. By the end of the day, I already had new emergency sub plans loaded. I'm trying to be better about that. It can be really hard to worry about sub plans so you just go to work sick, but I've finally gotten organized enough to have back-up plans that don't really matter that can be done at any time. Brilliant, I know! 

I really tried to wait until October to put up my Halloween decorations but I couldn't wait. No regrets! I took Piper birthday shopping to Michaels on Friday night and we were there for over 2 hours. I really tried to have my patient pants on since we were on our special birthday shopping spree and she likes to take her time and look at everything 25 times. I had my stuff picked out and was ready to go in 10 minutes. Luckily, she finally made her decions and we got the heck out of there. Yesterday I was able to get a lot of meals prepped and made for the week so I'm happy about that. Alright, that's all.  

One of my co-workers I hardly know, brought me flowers from her garden Monday morning just to be nice. It made my day!

We had a movie night and Hutch made himself right at home.

My mom gave me perennial starters for my yard. They look pretty good! I think I need to move some stuff around a bit next year. It is fun to see the fall flowers blooming, whatever they are. (I did not get my mom's talent for gardening).

I got the sign and little ghost at Michaels Friday night. 

Gabby made cutest Halloween cookies.

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!