Today is Chase's first birthday! I can't believe he's a year old! Sweet baby is getting big!
So...the perfect (I hope) little job just landed in my lap. Anyone ever work 20%? I'm going to:) I worked 50% between Sydney and Mollie. And have really enjoyed working 0%!
Most of you know I'm still close to the people I worked with at Reedy Creek, the first and only school I've worked at, haha. It's in Cary, close to our old house, about 10 miles from here. Well, I guess it was last Thursday, the 16th when Phil and I were on our way to the football game. I got a call from my friend Daniele who teaches K there. She said they had lots of kids who need extra help. I had volunteered in her room some this year. She said the principal had a small amount of extra funds and would I be willing to come in some to help and actually get paid, haha. I said I could only work while the girls were in school, maybe a little more. I talked to my college student babysitter who happened to be at my house that night and she doesn't have Friday classes this semester or next. So I decided that I could work from 9:30-12 on M and W and longer on Friday b/c I would have a babysitter. But I didn't want to pay child care on M and W at all. All of this was just me and Daniele talking or me thinking in my head. I finally talked to my principal this past Friday, haha!
And then today.
So it was just too easy to say yes to working a little, doing what I like to do, and things I already know how to plan for. And if I don't go back to work for a year or 2 more it will be a little filler on my resume! That's also one good thing about it: it will just be this year. Very temporary. I already let them know about days I need to be out for special things at the girls' school and for our Disney trip, etc. I'm excited because I already know most of the teachers and I have known the principal for about 8 years and they all already know me!
One funny thing is that he reminded me that I need to go to HR and renew my application, haha. I never thought about that! So I'll try to do that this week. He (principal) is sending in some form tomorrow recommending me for employment again. I just hope they retake my badge pic. because my last one was horrible!
There is so much to do around here! We are very lucky. What to choose, what to choose...
The girls were worn out and both fell asleep on the way back home, before 12:30 even! Somehow they both stayed asleep at home. Phil came home around 3:15 and then we left to go to the NC State Fair! Last year they didn't do any rides there, but after our July Tweetsie Railroad trip we knew they would be much more into it this year. You really could spend a small fortune at the fair. We even bought advance tickets and while it helped a tad, I didn't buy near enough ride tickets. I wasn't anticipating having to ride with Mollie on kiddie rides because she wasn't yet 36" or whatever it was. I hate spinning around and round. Oh, let me add that Phil actually wantd to go on, but they would have none of that. Mommy! Mommy! The swings weren't so bad, really fun actually. Tea cups, not so much. I hate that. I am even afraid of the Ferris Wheel in my old age. The one at Tweetsie killed me, haha. But this one had seats more shaped like buckets with 2 seats facing each other. So we all went on together. To the tune of 4 tickets each which are $1 each so $16 for a freakin' Ferris Wheel ride!!! The tickets were $1 at the fair, but when you get advance ones they are $10 for 18. Much better deal. But I only bought one book of them. Not enough.
We did let them do one fishing game where they were guaranteed a prize, they had chicken on a stick for dinner with fries and lemonade. That actually was pretty cool because it was like 4 huge nuggets on a stick, fries and a drink for $7. Well they let us split it and gave us 2 small drinks for the girls. Definitely enough food for them. Eat at the church sponsored booths! They're nice and so much less Carnie-like! Then they wanted ice cream. By this time it is really getting very cold. Face painting was $5 each so we finally made them choose between ice cream or face painting. They chose ice cream. Phil and I ended up not even eating there because we were so busy with the girls and were getting cold.
It was REALLY fun though with them. Next year we know to allow a lot more time and buy a lot more advance tickets and bring a lot more cash, haha. They were SO happy and had so much fun...I can't wait to go to Disney in January!!
We haven't even made it to a pumpkin farm, haven't been to the Farmer's Market to get our big carving pumpkin yet (hopefully Sunday), and are going to miss Boo at the Zoo. I have just learned that we can't do everything and there's always next year. I didn't get to do all this crap when I was little, haha.I just counted up on the calendar that in the six and a half weeks of our lives between Dec. 2 and Jan. 17 we have:
Dec. 2nd- Mollie's 3rd birthday
Dec. 19th-Phil's birthday, not 3rd:)
Dec. 25th- Christmas!! my favorite holiday
Jan. 16th- Sydney's 5th birthday
Jan. 17th- leave for a week at Disney World
Can we say busy, crazy and expensive!???? And most of all FUN!!
Saturday the most absolutely nothing we've had in a long time! I didn't take off my pj's and shower until 2:30. By then Sydney had had on at least a dozen outfits. Phil showered at 4:30 when we were getting ready to go to Nancy's for dinner (I invited ourselves over). The girls hopped right in the bath with Chase and for about an hour Sydney was convinced she was spending the night. Until it came time to put the sheets on the bed and she said she thought she'd try another time:)
Chase got his first hair cut and it looks FREAKIN ADORABLE!!! I wish I had a picture. I forgot my camera.
Sunday I hosted a Southern Living at Home party and we had a few friends over (some who came for the party and then husbands joined and some who are football companions for Phil) for some dogs and brats. It was lots of fun. I got to hold baby Emmy for a long time and and Sydney and Mollie got to play with cousin Chloe and baby Brennan who is 3.5 but they still call him baby Brennan:)
Mollie did actually manage to eat a bite of her hot dog with her fork crown before someone caught her. I don't want to squash the extremely intelligent concept of a fork crown so I struggled with making her stop. But I did. What would it be next? The Mr. Potato hat for a spoon?
We have been pretty busy lately (maybe I always am and this time was also tired!) and I just haven't gotten to blog much!
Quick recap of our activities. Last Friday morning Mollie was invited to a princess tea party at her friend Eliza's house. She and her mom LeAnne are so much fun! Sydney spent the morning at her BFF Matthew's house and had a great time. They're so cute together and way dramatic about how much they like each other. It will be interesting to see how that continues over time.
Friday evening we drove to Elkin, NC to Phil's mom's house. It's about 2.5 hours away. Phil and I left Sat. morning for our wine trip with 3 other couples. Last year we explored our way around the Yadkin Valley wine country area and decided it would be fun to do it with more people (and a limo and a hotel room). So it was our anniversary trip and the girls stayed with their Nana who was so happy to have them. She was really tired when we got back Sunday though! It was the first time they had stayed there without us. But luckily arriving on Friday and not going to bed until 9:50 and waking up at 5:45am the next morning wore them out so they slept well the next day/night!
Monday morning I dropped the girls off and went to help my friend Dawn at the pediatrician with her twins for their 4 month appointment. It was fun. I love doing things like that. I should volunteer at Apex. Ped. for multiples visits, haha. Always get to hold a baby! And of course they were perfect!
I had signed up for a class through the NC Museum of History for teacher renewal credit back in August. The session was 6 weeks, started the first of Sept. and ended on Oct. 15th. It was 5 assignments and guess when I started? Monday afternoon;) Phil was gone Monday night so I had some time to work then and then every spare moment on Tuesday and Wed. and got it done with no problem.
Wednesday night Phil was gone again and my friend LeAnne's husband had a meeting so we went back over there and trashed her playroom for the 2nd time in a week! This time Sydney got to come and she and Eliza really enjoyed playing together! It's nice that the age difference doesn't mean much for any of them at this point. We did have a few locking door incidents and have been struggling with some "truth" issues lately with Sydney, but we had a great time playing and eating until bed time. LeAnne, the banana bread lasted about 12 hours. Maybe. :)
That brings us to yesterday. We had a home football game against Fl. St. last night at 7:30. Phil and I actually didn't have anyone riding with us for the first time in a while, maybe ever, so we took the convertible! It was so much fun riding to the game and through the traffic with the top down! Traffice was awful after the game though and we didn't get home until 12:30. Considering our babysitter came over at 4:30 she made a killing off of our pleasure!
This morning Sydney had school so Mollie and I went to Cary Town Center to take advantage of early voting. I'm so glad I did it. It took about 35 minutes, but she was a perfect angel. We had fun just goofing off at the mall after that since it was raining a little outside. We split a nugget meal at Chickfila and went to go meet Sydney at school. Sydney went home with a little girl in her class today for a play date which was pretty cool. But I had forgotten to write the teachers a note about it so we went to get her out of class and for me to just make sure she understood that she was going home with Ayden and that I would pick her up later. No problem there, she could have cared less about that! She was so excited!
That also means that while she is there and Mollie is napping it is totally quiet here...I think I actually just heard a bird chirp outside...
Tonight before dinner the girls and I went to Apex Community Park to walk around the trail around the lake. (bad idea, I won't do it again with 74 lb. of kid and 27lb. of stroller for 2 miles)
We did get plenty of glimpses of nature even though it took forever. We notice 2 beautiful swans on the side of the lake.
I am about to point them out and Sydney notices a jacket hanging from a tree close to the swans. I'm talking about the swans and Mollie is oohing and ahhing as Sydney keeps saying, "but Mommy someone left their jacket! See the jacket?" I am saying, "yes Sydney, but look at the beautiful swans" and trying to be all educational and observant and stuff.
We are completely passing each other with my swan talk and her jacket talk. So I finally said, "Sydney. Who cares about the jacket? Someone will come get it or maybe they left it. It is not yours so don't worry about it."
"Yes," she says, "but it would look really good with my blue outfit."
A box with 2 beautiful hand-made dresses! I didn't tell her who her fairy godmother is, but it's one of her teachers! Last winter Mollie had a brown corduroy long sleeve dress with small cupcakes embroidered on the top from Gymboree. Her teacher borrowed it to see if she could see how it was made. That was like last Jan! So she made Mollie a short sleeved one with 3 cupcakes and a summer dress. Sewing is one of her hobbies. It just was one of the sweetest things anyone has ever done for us and I was about to cry! She didn't want any attention of course for it because she didn't want anyone to know that she had done it as that could obviously cause some issues in the MMO, haha. I brought her some flowers at the end of the day after the other kids had left. She said that Mollie just holds a special place in her heart (she has 4 kids elementary to college age), sniff, sniff...
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Tonight we're going to go eat some Mexican food at Cancun Grill with the 2 little best things that have happened since we got married:)
This weekend we are doing our NC wine tour! Last year we did it by ourselves and had so much fun. This year we have 4 couples, a limo, a hotel and a Nana watching the grandbabies at her house in Elkin!
*for some reason the date is showing Oct.6 at the top, but it's the 7th!
Sydney is really loving school! She is so happy when I pick her up. She's starting to want to work more on "writing" things and I copied her a bunch of stationery pages that are all sizes so she can write letters to people. Holly, she wrote one to Dylan, but I'm not sure what happened to it!
I gave her a folder and wrote all these words in it that she wants to write a lot, like names of people, love, from, etc. She loves her file folder, haha. I remember loving office supplies when I was little. Especially post-it notes. I love watching her learn. She's pretty good at looking at beginning sounds and guessing what word it will be. It's cute. She can also count to 30. I'm not really bragging;) Just writing all this down so I can have a good record of it! And because I guess it's my blog so I can brag if I want to. I'm taking the time to focus on these things and not the sneaky pinching, kicking, making up words that rhyme with poop or boobies...you know, that stuff. Oh, and she is still so shy when she sees people sometimes! Yesterday we ran into her teacher from last year, Mrs. Medlin, in the bathroom at her school. She would not even speak to her! She hid behind me. Even Matthew gave her a hug and a few other kids. She was very interested to know how Sydney was doing and talked to her. Sydney finally gave her a little wave when we were leaving, it was funny. She was just so shocked to see her!
Mollie can count to 20 and knows all of her letters and the sounds that they make. I really didn't give her a quiz, I just have noticed, haha. She's been able to do it for a while. The letters, the counting has gotten better in the last few months. She can write her name sometimes and other times she gets confused about her M, makes a W, and the whole thing falls apart! But she spells her name, Sydney's name, Mommy, and sometimes Daddy. She writes Gramma Gaaaammm or some assortment like that. She really likes school also and it's so great that she has the same teachers from last year. She is NOT good about going potty at school. Not that she has accidents, but she does her leaking thing and when they take her to the bathroom she won't usually go. On Monday she told Ms. Caroline she had to go for the first time and they were so proud of her. Mollie really enjoys driving her sister crazy. Looking right at her, grabbing something of hers, and running. Speaking of running, her running has really improved. She is so, so cute! She used to have trouble getting her chubby legs off the ground:) But now she really runs with more of a gait and her legs are getting longer and slimmer. She has really gotten tall this summer. I put on a pair of 2T jeans the other day that were high waters! So of her 24 pair of pants, really some are 2's that will not fit that much longer, and the rest are 3's. And some 3's will still be a little long. I love how in the Fall you see a bunch of kids with new clothes on that are too big.
Today we're off to another noon football game. Hopefully the girls will hang in there okay like they did last time. The weather is going to be beautiful! I bought their tailgating Pringles so we should be good until game time;) Isn't it fun to have a snack that you're only allowed to have in certain situations? I never buy crap like Pringles (because I would eat the whole can).
The number of pants I just counted while putting Fall clothes in Mollie's armoire...that's not counting a few pair that go with outfits in her closet. Or the other things like shirts, dresses, etc.
;-)
Like my new header picture? My Adobe trial that I keep trying...and trying...and trying...ran out;) I was impatient about waiting for Phil to reinstall something for me so I found this site called www.picnik.com. It's a free photo editor! I thought it was really cool just for simple stuff I like to do.
Today I went to visit my friend Daniele's classroom at my old school. The girls were at preschool. She taught next to me for my 5 years in Kindergarten. We started together as first year teachers and are still good friends. Anyway, I've been meaning to go hang out there more and really haven't. So I made today the day. And holy crap I kind of can't believe I used to do that. She is super woman. Really, one of the best teachers I've ever met. Her class is adorable, but after hanging out in suberbia for so long and in the preschool and the families I am surrounded by on a daily basis, well, it was humbling. (I'm not sure if that was a sentence, sorry). A lot of statistics are based on free and reduced lunch populations so that's what I'll use to base it on. That school is over 40%. This percentage is what they base Title 1 funds on which is a federally funded reading program. My reading job I had was just like Title 1, but funded through the county. There have a large ESL population also (English as a Second Language). It has always been this way, I just forgot. I forgot how you could have kids who speak NO English in the same room with these 2 little girls who are going to the library alone to take Accelerated Reader tests because they are so brilliant. Don't get me wrong, I loved it. And I loved the ESL kids. K is the best place to have them. They learn so fast! My 2nd year teaching I had 22 kids, a part time assistant, 8 ESL students and one white girl!
I swear some of the kids in her class this year are at a developmentally 3 year old level. So I think I'm going to go in most Wednesdays and volunteer during her literacy time so I can help with assessment or center while she does reading groups, etc. It will be fun. They were all so sweet!
A lot of schools around here, as in our end of Wake Co., are not Title 1 schools and probably have less than 30 or even 20% F&R. BUT, I said, I'm glad I taught here before anywhere else becuase it would be hard to have a job in this setting after being in a school with more parental involvement, higher level learners, etc. It would be hard to go back. And I really prefer to have a class of needy than a class of needy parents who are breathing down your neck all the time! Definitely made me miss it. Not that I think I could dedicate myself to working full time with little kids again all day AT ALL, but it helps me feel like I'm staying in the education loop.
Okay, my Mom has an apartment starting tomorrow. She's been living here since mid-June. She's very excited and the girls are a little confused about her moving out. But she'll be very close by! My Dad is coming up again this weekend to check it out and to celebrate his birthday on Sunday.
Our October is shaping up to be super busy! I think we already have something planed every weekend through the end of the month. Chase will be 1 on the 27th! I can't believe it!
