Done and Done

My long term sub job is over! Hallelujah and can I get an amen? I did it, I did it, I did it. This last week was mostly just half days. On Monday the school was in a pinch and asked if I could sub two extra classes for the health teacher so I did. I also had to teach all day on Friday. One of the other PE teachers was taking a day off and they couldn't find a sub for him so I did it. I really had to gear myself up to do it. I am not going to sub again until January. I need a break! I'm so excited to be done. Overall it was a good experience. I learned a lot and had some fun too. It was definitely exhausting and draining as well. I'm glad I did it and I'm glad it's done. One of the other PE teachers offered me a coaching job in March. It's kind of hilarious. I'm not good at basketball but I decided to give it a try. I will be coaching one of the 7th grade girl teams. The time commitment doesn't seem too terrible and the pay is a lot better than subbing so we will see how that goes. Hopefully it will be fun and if not it will be over in 6 weeks and I can do hard things.

Only working the half days was SO nice. I actually felt like making cookies which was a miracle in itself because I haven't been up to doing anything extra. Unfortunately I added too much flour or something. I got round biscuits. I've only been making these cookies since I was 8 years old. Ha. 

On Wednesday was the kids school Christmas concert. It was cute. I didn't take any pictures because they are so far away I didn't really see the point. They divide the concert up between the younger grades and the older grades to help manage the crowds and traffic. Unfortunately when you have kids in upper and lower grades it can make for a long night. Scott ended up just taking the kids home and I stayed and waited for Corbin's portion. Scott came back and picked us up. Oy! 

On Friday night we got together with friends and had a sock exchange. We weren't able to got to dinner because of our sitter but we were able to go out for a bit. I ended up winning some amazingly plush slippers. They remind me of something from the Grinch movie, they are super over the top and awesome. Ha. On Saturday night I had some friends over to watch a cheesy Christmas movie with me. I have a love hate relationship with those movies. They are so terrible but they are fun to watch with people. Today I had a favorite things brunch with some friends as well. Tonight we had the Linquists over to decorate sugar cookies and have dinner with us. We did it last year too. It was super fun! Now I need to go over my VIPKid lessons and go to bed. Luckily I will be done working  by 6:00 am. Peace!

Our friends have a little yorkie and Gabby loves her!

Special daddy breakfast. Scott would get up early on Friday mornings while I was working to make me a special breakfast. Yum! 

My failed biscuit cookies.

My amazing slippers (that my girls have taken over already).

Rolling out cookie dough.

Gingerbread house.

Decorating station.

My Christmas tree forest. 

Dance Recital

Well I had another busy week. I ended up subbing the whole week! I'm so over it. This week I will hopefully only be doing half days in the morning. That should fly by and after that I hope I am done! Fingers crossed! We worked out the long term subbing situation though so I should be getting long term sub pay which is awesome. 

The girls had their dance recital on Friday night. They did so good! Gabby is a performer and she goes all out with her moves and her facial expressions. Piper did really well. I was super impressed that she was able to keep up with the older girls. The dance was a lot more difficult than anything she did at her last dance studio. She did great! 

On Saturday night I got together with some friends. We were going to have a baking night but we decided we were too tired for such nonsense so we just talked and watched a movie instead. Today I got some Christmas shopping done. I need to get geared up for another work week. 

We seem to be all clear from any lice. Fingers crossed we didn't miss any eggs or nits! 

Ryan quote: "Mom, can we get in the car and zoom and get chips?" Ha. He is a beast, he straight up stuck his tongue out to me yesterday. I don't think any of my other kids have ever done that! I tried to not give him any reaction and left the room to tell Scott. Ha. The little beast! 

Ryan was trying to give Piper a piggy back ride. It didn't work so well. 

A big box can be so entertaining. 

Piper was giving Corbin a back rub. Ha. 

I was so tired on Thursday and I had a headache. I locked myself in the bathroom and laid down on the cement floor for 10 minutes during my lunch break and tried to take a power nap. That was a new low. Ha. Luckily I survived and felt okay on Friday.

Cute little dancers.

Gabby got molding clay from the dollar store and made over 50 creations. I honestly have no room for the amount of stuff she manages to create and accumulate. It is pretty fun to watch though.

I decorated my VIPkid classroom for Christmas. Don't worry you can't see the string on the camera. 

Lice! Lice! Lice!

I've been dreading this day, but I figured it was inevitable. What I failed to imagine in the scenario that one of my children got lice is that I would get it too. It makes perfect sense considering my girls use my hair brush all the time. Naturally I am blaming the infestation on them. Ha. I assume they got it at school. My head has been itching for weeks but I didn't really think about lice. I've never had lice before and never seen it in real life. Growing up nobody in my family ever got it that I know of. Gabby had been complaining about an itchy scalp as well. She had me check for lice but I didn't see anything (I obviously didn't know what to look for because she was infested with it). I got some massive texts while I was at work on Friday that the girls had lice. Scott saw one move while he was doing Piper's hair. Gross! He then quickly spotted one on Gabby's head as well. Without really thinking he sent them to school. He quickly called the school and told them he thought the girls had lice. The nurse talked to him for awhile about how to get rid of them. They didn't send the girls home which surprised me. I just waited out my work day as well. I figure I'd had lice for awhile now not knowing so what was a few more hours. As soon as I got home I was on lice detail and have been ever since. Scott had already done several loads of laundry and was picking nits and bugs from Piper's hair. SO GROSS! I went ahead and did a treatment on all the kids to be safe. The girls and I have been through many rounds of treatments (I'm doing a lot more than they tell you to). Scott has spent hours upon hours picking out bugs, nits, and eggs. The nits are so small. I cannot even believe it. No wonder I didn't spot anything. The full size bugs are very small as well. So far every time Scott picks through our hair he is still finding eggs and nits albeit less and less every time. Poor Gabby had SO MANY!!! We chopped her hair right off. There was no way we could deal with long curly hair with that many lice happening. She's been a good sport about it. Her hair does look cute short. She is supposed to have her hair up in a high pony for her dance recital on Friday. Oh well. She also missed a birthday party as well which was a bummer. We will still be going back to school and work tomorrow. The nurse said the bugs are what spreads not the nits. We will keep doing treatments and combing out the nits one by one. I have been doing laundry all weekend straight. I really hope we can get rid of everything and that nothing comes back. My sister has been fighting lice for months. Just a few nits at a time I think but still, be gone! 

My sub job was supposed to be finished at Thanksgiving break but I've still been working everyday. The teacher is finding that returning to work as a PE teacher and recovering from an ACL surgery is not turning out to be so easy. The teacher came in on Monday and Tuesday and was there for half the day to ease her way back in and I still did everything. On Wednesday she tried half a day by herself and had me join her in the afternoon. She was planning on working by herself on Thursday and Friday but ended up getting sick so I worked both days. She wants me to come tomorrow for sure. I'm not sure about the rest of the week. The kicker is that if I work for 20 days I get long term sub pay. After tomorrow I will be on day 19! I told her and I'm hoping she will just throw me a bone and let me work on Tuesday regardless just to earn that extra pay. We'll see. It may not work out anyway because I only worked a half day on Wednesday. The job was originally supposed to be 13 days so I wasn't really worried about long term sub pay because that wasn't in the picture. Now that I'm so close I will be a little frustrated if I don't get it.We will see what happens. I'm hoping for a little Christmas miracle. Who knows I may end up working all week again. Teaching middle school PE without being very mobile would be very difficult. I'm ready to be done with that job. Working 10 hour days is intense. It has been a pretty good gig though. It's been fun mostly. I will miss the students when I leave (not all of them). Ha.

Scott hasn't noticed any difference with using the c-pap machine. The difference I've noticed is that I can't hear him breathing at all and the machine is super quiet. It's been pretty good for my sleep quality. Ha.

Oh the horror!

Treatments!

Seriously, how is he so cute?

Before

After

True love!

Cute curls!

My friend who lives all the way in Tennessee ordered us in dinner. That was sooo thoughtful of her. If I know anyone is dealing with lice I am taking them dinner!

Much Needed Thanksgiving Break

Thanksgiving break has been marvelous! I'm not quite ready to return to a busy full schedule. Reality calls I suppose. We've had a great time watching movies and eating popcorn and whatever else we've wanted. I took the kids to Despicable Me 3 at the dollar movie theater. The kids watched it over the summer but I hadn't seen it yet. I loved it. I loved the 80's villain and all of his 80's songs and dance moves. Ha. On Wednesday we got packed up and headed to my parent's house for Thanksgiving. We made it in time for yummy soup and pie night. Hart's family was also there. We watched a couple of movies that night. On Thanksgiving my mom had everything done early as usual. We ate and then we headed up and watched my dad burn down the branches that he and my brother and nephew had been cutting down for a couple of days. After that we went and hiked around Rocky Canyon for a bit. The weather was really nice. It was sunny and warm (for Arco in November) and no wind. It was a great way to break up the day. We later just ate more and played games and watched movies. On Friday morning we headed home.

My friend Karen's mom died on Friday night. She was in the hospital and wasn't going to recover so they pulled the plug. She doesn't have any family in town so she ended up coming over here so she wouldn't be alone. She stayed the night and left after breakfast. It was sad. Death is sad.

On Saturday we got together with all of our friends and had a pie night. It was fun and delicious. My pie was kind of a pinterest fail but it did taste good so that's all that matters. All week I've been having a Call the Midwife marathon session. I just finished season 6. That might be my favorite show ever. So good! Well I need to go make Sunday dinner and then go to bed. Ha. 4:15 am wake up call again. Oh the horror!

Scott got his c-pap machine. It is so quiet! It's amazing. I can't hear him breathing anymore either. It's crazy. It's pretty uncomfortable for him at this point and he's not sleeping well yet. He looks like Hannibal Lecter in it, It's kind of terrifying. Ha.

Gabby with her friend Mika. She had to have three play dates during the break. Oy!

My mom's dinner. SOOO GOOD! Jory the sweet potatoes this year and they were amazing!

Some of us eating dinner. My dad and Hart and Braden were getting washed up. They were late! Ha.

Kid table.

Farm work

Gabby just latched onto my dad this last trip. It was pretty cute. She kept doing his errands with him. Precious.

Hiking up Rocky Canyon

I would like to know the story behind the naming of this. Ha. 

I was trying to watch a show and I got bombarded. 

As soon as we got back from Thanksgiving Gabby busted this out. 

My peanut butter chocolate pie. Ha. There was too much filling and then I couldn't  get the whip cream to spread. The pie hardened but it quickly turned to soup when it was being served. It did taste good at least.

I've ordered three shirts from China on a website called Wish. They sell cheap stuff that is pretty hit and miss and then you have to wait 2 months for it to come in the mail. In the picture this shirt is navy and cream and the elbow patched are actual yon the elbows. Oh well, it's still pretty cute. 

Piper's First Lost Tooth

Piper has been waiting to lose a tooth forever! It finally happened. She was so excited. The tooth fairy came and brought her a dollar. It was very exciting.

I made it through the week okay. Working 10 hour days is a lot. I am very excited for Thanksgiving break. I have to come back after the break and I'm going to be there with the teacher. It will be a little awkward. It's like student teaching all over again. Ugh. The teacher isn't sure if she will be okay to teach or not so we will both be there. She got knee surgery and she won't really know how she will be feeling. In my mind I'm kind of planning to have to teach another week but also be ready to go home at anytime as well. 

Scott had a sleep study done last week. He's always had trouble with falling asleep in inappropriate times like driving, school, and work. His therapist encouraged him to see if there was something physically wrong. He was supposed  to be there from 7:00 pm until the following day at 5:30 pm. They ended up sending him home in the morning because he  showed signs of sleep apnea (even though his only risk factor he has is being male). His night time sleep patterns also indicated possible narcolepsy. They have to deal with the sleep apnea first to see if that helps and if it doesn't they will look further into the possible narcolepsy. He might be getting a c-pap machine. I DO NOT know how I will handle that! Ha. I'm guessing not very well. Anyway it will be interesting to see what happens with all of this.  

On Friday night we went to a Japanese grill with some friends. It was so yummy! We haven't eaten in a place like that for years. Yum. I busted out the Christmas decorations yesterday. I always think I'm going to wait until after Thanksgiving but I never make it. We have been watching Christmas movies and eating popcorn all weekend. That's the best!

First Lost Tooth!

Gabby's been busily crafting as usual. 

Scott made a delicious steak stir fry situation. So yummy!

My friend Rachel took me out to lunch for my birthday. Afterwards we checked out the crafts at the Wintery Market. I LOVE spending time with her.

I found this tree at the Idaho Youth Ranch a couple of weeks ago. I'm still working on the decorations. 

I put our old tree in the kids' room. They decorated it and put all of their ornaments on it.