SIcky Bears

It's been an eventful week full of some highs and some lows. On a high note I got my teacher's license reinstated. I've been anxiously awaiting for that to come in the mail. Hopefully that will help me get a teaching job. I was very excited about that! Another high is I finished sewing on apron that's been haunting me for a few months. I really don't sew anymore and my sewing machine doesn't work so it's extra annoying to try to sew. A friend is trying to do a fundraiser for diabetes and I told her I'd donate an apron. Luckily my friend Rachel let me come and hang with her for a few hours and get it done! I LOVE crossing things off my list. 

We've had some sick kids. I thought we were going to get off easy this winter but it's just hitting us late. I got a call from the school late Wednesday that Ryan wasn't feeling well. By the time I got to school he had thrown up. He rested that night and stayed home from school. I thought he was better and sent him to school on Friday. When he walked in the door he was covered in a rash. He has hand food and mouth disease! Poor buddy! Gabby has been fighting a cold and her cough was so bad she missed school Thursday and Friday. I missed work Thursday and Scott missed work on Friday. I may have to miss work all week this coming week. I really don't like not doing my job but I'm grateful I have a job that I can take time off and still get paid. Perks of working full time. So we will see how long it takes for him to get better. His sores are very big and bad right now. He's handing it like a champ. He's been a happy camper and is even happy he's gotten some special treats (pudding and popsicles).

I decided to get rid of all of my online teaching stuff. I'm just ready to fully move on. I put it all up for grabs on a local VIPKID facebook page and I got rid of all of it! It made me very happy to have all of my collected stuff go to good use. Plus I love to purge. This week if I have extra time and energy, because I won't be working, I hope I will be motivated to do some spring cleaning. I love getting rid of junk!

I helped out kiddos plant some seeds. They mostly could only help with the pea seeds. Some of the seeds were so small. I'm very nervous they won't grow. I do not have my mom's green thumb.

Teaching license. Woot! 

His sores are bigger and darker now. 

Check out all of my stuff! 

So much stuff!

My apron. I wish I was keeping it. 

Ryan took a nap late Wednesday. Poor guy. 

Gabby's B-day

Last week at work was pretty good. Every day is a different sort of adventure. We never know which kid is going to try to split every time we leave the classroom. Rodolfo has been especially difficult. Hannah (the main teacher) will be gone to training most of next week so I'm a little nervous about that. We will just call it an adventure.

Gabby's b-day was Thursday. I made her favorite dinner the night before because I had a mandatory meeting on her b-day. I also made her cake that day and put up her decorations. She also wanted to make her class cookies to hand out on her birthday so Wednesday was a little crazy town. On her actual birthday I was able to go into work late and make her a birthday breakfast.

Most of Scott's family came up for the 3 day weekend to celebrate Gabby's b-day. They rented an airbnb in Eagle. Friday night we came to the house and had Valentine fondue for dinner and the Valentine Rascal came and delivered SO many presents. It was pretty crazy loud. The kids were ecstatic. The kids spent the night and Scott and I went home and slept in on Saturday. We met up with everyone at Five Guys for lunch and then we went to a little kid craft at a store. The rest of the afternoon people chilled out either at our house or the Eagle house. I was in charge of dinner that night so everyone came over and we had sweet pork burritos/salads for dinner. Today some of us went swimming with the kids at the Y. The water was warm. I loved that. I HATE cold pool water. We've been lounging around since then. It's Gordon's birthday so we will have roast and brownie sundaes tonight per his request. I think tomorrow we will hit Pojos.

I finished my photo wall! Yay! If I had ordered these canvas pictures from a company it would have cost $600! Instead I bought plain canvas from a craft store, painted the sides, ordered pics from Costco and mod podged them on. It cost me about $60 I think. I think it turned out great! I'm happy.

Painted the sides black.

Tried to figure out placement on the wall.

Placed them up. I used command strips and some of them kept falling down but they've been staying on for days now so fingers crossed there! 

I didn't count the how many pics each kid had and the kids pointed out immediately how many they were each in. Of course! Oh well. It wasn't even. Oh well! It was hard enough to pick the pictures out in the first place. I did pretty good I think. 

Birthday breakfast

Gabby wanted a ukulele. 

Gabby put all the candles on her cake. I guess she's 16. But really she is 10.

Gabby's Valentine envelope "a dragon destroying a city!"

The Valentine Rascal strikes! 

 

Scott is such a dork. He grabbed the rats to play with while he was getting ready for bed the other night. Ha.

Update

There's not much to blog about. Piper had a school assignment with Frank the hippo. We needed to do some activities with Frank. I took Piper with me to get frozen yogurt on national frozen yogurt day (thanks for that heads up Nicole). She learned some lessons on frozen yogurt mix ins...she added conversation hearts, nerds, Swedish fish, sour gummy worms, and peanut butter cups to her cake batter fro yo. Wowza! She was like "I don't think I'm going to get nerds again."

I completed 4 weeks of working full time. I started to feel it big time on Friday. I was super tired and had zero patience. I've been really tired today so I've been trying to take it easy so I can gear up for another week. Hopefully I will be recharged for next week.

I've almost finished my photo wall. I've ordered the pics! Choosing 15 pictures was SO hard. I searched through 12 years of blog photos. There are so many cute pics. I'm excited and nervous to see how it will turn out.

Piper in her element. 

Frank joined us for a movie night.

Frank and frozen yogurt.

Piper's 2020 assignment. 

This killed me! Ha.

So cute! I love that she wanted to be famous, rich and very very nice. Ha.

Gabby's cute drawing.

Bathroom Makeover Take 2

I officially started my new job. I had an informal interview with the vice principal. She didn't really ask me interview questions, we just discussed logistics and things. She knows that I'm looking for a teaching job and that I will leave this job if I am offered one. I'm actually enjoying the job itself better than I thought I would. It's different doing it when it's my actual job verses just filling in. It's also different forming relationships with the other paras and teachers in the room. Every day is an adventure. I never know what student is going to have a melt down when. Every time we go on an outing getting all the kids back to the classroom can be hit and miss. It can keep it interesting!

I learned I will get paid days off and I think I'll be paid in the summer. Sweet! I'm done by 2:30 so I have plenty of time for some down time and also time for dinner and homework and all the things. I've also been able to stay up "late" with Scott and watch a show on a work night and still get 8 hours of sleep. It's amazing! 

Gabby participated in the talent show on Thursday night. They did a great job. It's especially cute because they did it pretty much on their own. Gabby did most of the choreography as well. I helped a little. 

This weekend we were able to put up the frame in our master bathroom. It looks so good! I'm so happy about it. I think I've figure out what I want to do with my photo wall in the kitchen. Now I just need to pick the pictures. It's going to be so hard to pick! 

We are currently watching the superbowl at the Miller's house. I'm blogging. I'm here for the snacks. I mean go 9ers! 

I made this bulletin board at school.

Piper's persuasive message assignment. Pretty good! Ha.

Go Patriots! 

Gabby and Audelia

Scott worked some magic with this frame.

Before

After

Gabby's Dance

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!