Work

Today was our last day with kids and boy was I ready! The last two days I have been in a super funk. The kind that is really hard to get yourself out of. A bunch of changes are coming my way next year and I am just not okay with any of them.

1. A ton of my friends are leaving me so this will be a big change. A total of 6 people are leaving this year and we had 4 leave last year.

2. We have added Library as a special. Now instead of seeing my kids roughly 60 times a year, I will see them about 35. In the times that we aren't teaching our specialty area we will be teaching Communication Arts. This will be in addition to the Math groups we worked with this year. So I will be teaching 8 totally different things a day and have 20-25 minutes to plan for them every day. Scary....and possibly not legal.....

3. We have added common assessments to our curriculum. While I do think this is a good thing, now that we are going to see our students less, it makes me worry how much time I will have to actually teach my specialty. I am thinking instead of doing about 20-30 projects a year, I will maybe get to do 10 at the most. Half the time, half the projects. I just hope Art is still fun and not all about tests.

I am ultimately worried about them phasing out specials all together. Already we are considered "Extra Adults" by our peers and administrators. That is one of the things that really irks us too. Extra, as if we are not needed. What happened to the "whole child"? So much of Art is about problem solving and analyzing which is very similar to math. Don't even get me started on comprehension!

With so much uncertainty about next year, I am really looking forward to my summer break. Even if I am doing summer school.

Baby Number 3?

Today has been one of those days! The kids at school are starting to get stir crazy and the teachers are starting to become impatient. I am guilty of it too.

When I get home it gets even crazier. My kids act like they haven't eaten all day and can't do anything until they've had some dinner. Caiden walks in the house and immediately goes to the refrigerator and gets out food.....like I'm not going to feed him. Lincoln will crawl into the kitchen and fuss until I put him in his chair with a snack.

Their meals are usually served in courses since they don't give me time to make it all at once. A typical night might be me heating up the stove to cook wheels (pasta noodles, the only kind Caiden will eat currently). While the water is heating up, I will stick a steamer bag with veggies in the microwave for about 5 minutes. While these things are heating up or cooking I usually give the boys something to snack on, maybe a cheese stick, cottage cheese, fruit or yogurt. All the while they are telling me they are hungry and asking for all the wrong things like candy, granola bars, goldfish crackers. It's lovely.

By the time I get them situated I try to find something fast to fix myself. Jay and I are still watching what we eat so it usually isn't hard to figure out what I am going to eat, it just takes awhile to prepare it. Oh how simple it would be if I could pop a frozen burrito in the microwave and call it good! Dinner was so much easier before I lost my metabolism!

With crazy nights like this happening quite often lately, it has made both Jay and I realize we are done having kids. Even with all the chaos we are a happy family and two kids just feels right. We have had several friends lately have their third child or are currently pregnant with their third baby and I just can't imagine! They are out numbered now! How do they get their kids up, fed and out the door in the morning? How do they fit in one car? What is it like to go places with that many bodies and bags? Now that there are three kids, can they find anyone to watch them while they go out and have a nice night together? How can they afford daycare for three kids? Do they hire people to clean their house and do their laundry?

I'm sure, as people do with one or two kids, you adjust. A system gets put in place and order is restored. You find ways to get to the grocery store, make dinner or fold the laundry. Our system is good here, even on crazy days. Our lives are blessed with the two beautiful children we have. One day, we may change our minds and decide to try for baby number three but for now we are happy and complete as a family of four.

Sunday, Sunday

Easter was great, this weekend was great but I have plans to upload my pictures to go along with those posts. For now- a bit of randomness.

My computer completely crashed causing me to lose every picture I have of my children, except the ones on here and facebook. I have been super sad about it but there isn't much I can do other than be smarter about where I store my pictures from now on. Lesson learned!

Lincoln has a million words!

Okay, not really. But this kid can communicate!

When we were at the farm yesterday he was even meowing like a cat and barking like a dog. He repeats almost everything. He is getting so big I can't even tell you how many words he really has.

He is not walking on his own yet but he LOVES walking with assistance.

This is a huge step because he didn't even like doing that a few weeks ago.

Caiden is getting down to the last few days of going to his daycare.

He has gone to the same lady since he was 8 weeks old. It will be hard for both of them but Lincoln will still go there so it's not like they are quitting each other cold turkey.

The plan is for Lincoln to go to daycare all summer since we have to pay for him whether he is there or not. Caiden will attend school on Mondays and Fridays as a way to transition him into full time preschool this year. Can you believe it? School already? I have already pulled up my calendar and scheduled several things for us to do together. Library visits, parks, zoos, Kaleidoscope, farms- just to name a few. I even signed us up to volunteer at church to do the summer lunch program.

Recently I was watching Caiden and Lincoln play and I told them to slow down (growing up). Caiden instantly got all pouty about it. I asked him later what was wrong and he told me he didn't want to slow down! My heart broke a little inside but just for a minute. It's nice to know he is striving for more in life.

Our deck is looking awesome! Jay built it last year and this year we plan on staining it and putting landscaping around it. The landscaping is almost done but we are still deciding on what color we want to stain it. Last year Caiden spilled a wax citronella candle on it so we aren't sure what/how to stain with the wax being in the wood. More to come on this later.

Lincoln had his 1 year pictures done last weekend. We used our good friend Rebecca and of course we are in love with how the pictures turned out. It had rained ALL week and it wasn't looking good. The day of the shoot there was rain in the morning but not in the afternoon so we decided to try it anyway. I'm so glad we did! As soon as we pulled into the park the sun came out and it was absolutely beautiful. It was slightly damp but not bad considering the week long rain we had. Here is the link to the slide show.

http://www.rpetersphotography.com/slideshow/Lincoln2011

Jay and I have been on a cleanse for the last 5 days. We are trying to get our beach bods ready for our vacation this summer. It is the 24 day challenge that starts with a 10 day cleanse which is pretty hard. We are super limited to what we can eat and are getting used to a new schedule of when to eat. So far so good! Jay, of course, has been losing double the weight that I am but that seems pretty typical. We are hoping to also establish better eating habits and become more active in the process.

That being said....

I got a new dress! It wasn't on sale. It wasn't previously worn. I didn't have a gift card.

It was NEW!

I couldn't tell you the last time I did that. I only spent $27.99 but still, that is more than I have spent on clothes in awhile. I'm sure I will wear it to every event I have planned this summer- ha!

Have a great week everyone!

Mr. Mailman

Yesterday when we got home from work there was a Disney Movie Club envelope in our mail. You know the ones I'm talking about. They have stickers in them you can put on your movies that say "The __________Family" and they have all the Disney characters on them. It is a great way to try to get families to join their movie club although it hasn't worked on us yet......

Anyway, Caiden was so excited to find these stickers in the mail he was going to write a letter (with the help of his mama) and tell the mailman thank you. By the time he let me in on his little plan he had already made his picture and of course it included a few stickers from the mail. He let me sit at his desk while he told me what to write. I did some editing because it was really hard to write exactly what he wanted. He knew what he wanted to say it just wasn't coming out quite right. We worked for awhile and this is what we came up with. It really is a sweet letter.

Here is a picture of the letter and below is what he wrote.

I am happy to announce that when we came home today, there was a letter back from the mailman.

It read:

Thank You Caiden-

I appreciate that you enjoy what I bring for you. Not everyone does. Enjoy your stickers.

"Your mailman"

Kyle

New Dress A Day

Have you ever heard of this blog? People send her old dresses that are completely outdated and she turns them into trendy outfits you can wear again. So fun!

Well one of my friend's is obsessed with this idea so she gave us a challenge over spring break. It had to be something you could actually wear and it had to used in a different way than it was originally meant. You could alter it by cutting, sewing, adding or subtracting. Since my sewing machine is currently buried deep in one of the closets, I knew I had to keep it pretty easy.

I ended up finding a red silky nightgown, a super cool 70's belt and a little blue jacket. I had some rad before pictures to go with the after photos but they didn't get uploaded. My computer restarted in the middle of the upload so I am guessing they were lost somehow.

Either way, here are some shots of my awesome finds! The total for all three pieces was $6.48. I think it turned out pretty cute. I might even wear it out some time!

PS- Don't mind these horrible shots. I was doing this with a crabby 1 year old in tow. I don't like the shadows that make me look 2 sizes larger but it was the only place I could set up the camera to get the shots of myself,still keep an eye on him AND have him in a place where he couldn't pull the camera down....

Shot #1: Without the jacket

Shot #2: close up of the super cool belt

Shot #3: With the jacket

I also found a really cute pair of skinny jeans that I bought at Ditto. I really love that place. If you haven't heard of it, it is an upscale consignment store. They only take name brand items so your not shuffling through the racks trying to find something that isn't pilling. They also have really cool jewelry and sunglasses.

Jacket: Salvation Army Thrift Store $2.99

Shirt: Target $12.99

Jeans: Ditto $10.00

Shoes: Burlington Coat Factory $6.00 (I've had them for 6 years but I had to include the price because they were a steal!)

What a week!

This week is my spring break and I have been CRAZY busy. It's a good busy because it means that very long to-do list has finally gotten some attention. Here are just a few of the things I had on my list for this week:

-car inspection

-get chips in windshield fixed

-workout daily

-haircut

-Lincoln 1 year check up

-clean WHOLE house

-get Lincoln's 18 month clothes out/washed/put away

-clean inside/outside of my car

-upload/organize pictures from my camera (that have been there since January 1st-oops!)

-redo the boy's room and the playroom

-grocery shopping

-buy a thrift store item and re-purpose it (more on this later)

-get items ready for NFB pickup

-clean out flower beds

Really I could go on but I'm sure I have bored you already. I am proud to say I got almost every thing on my list checked off!

I am ashamed to admit that I did not workout once! Since I quit going to boot camp I have been feeling a little soft so I thought with this week I could get some workouts done at home. We are patiently waiting for a new gym opportunity to happen and then hopefully I can get back on track with my hubby in tow. As much as I LOVED boot camp, $75 a month was too pricey for me so hopefully this new endeavor will work.

On a happy note, I played outside with the boys yesterday from 5:00-7:30! We only came in for potty breaks-that's it. We raced each other, vacuumed my car, drove our fleet down the sidewalk, played ball, painted flower pots and threw "rocks" into the street.

Lincoln has been home with me since Wednesday- the boy is sick again! Can you believe it!? On top of getting a whopping 4 shots, and pushing in a few more teeth (he already has 12) he has some kind of cold that has turned his nose into a faucet.

He is also recovering from a pretty bad allergic reaction to a new kind of laundry detergent we tried. Since Wednesday afternoon I have pulled every item of clothing he owns, blankets, towels, sheets and washed them in a new free and clear detergent. He has a steroid cream that I have to rub over his rough spots that helps with the itching. The poor little guy is falling apart!

Because he has all this going on at the same time, he has stopped sleeping through the night. It has been rough but at least it happened on a week I was already off work! There's nothing worse than knowing your child is sick and not being able to help. In true Lincoln fashion, he has taken it all in stride. He has moments where he only wants to be held and moments where he just wants to cry, but overall, my little guy is showing us just how tough he is!

Such a crazy week but full of good things. I am truly blessed and I am reminded of that every day.

Hello Blogland!

Have you ever heard of people trying to blog every day for 30 days in a row? Well, I decided to try not to blog at all for 30 days. After Lincoln's incident with the hot chocolate, I figured out I need to slow down. I was trying to do too much. What a nice break! Don't get me wrong, I had plenty to blog about but instead I held on to my kids tight (when they weren't screaming/fighting/crying/eating) and soaked up every little thing they did.


To get you caught up:

• The party was a HUGE success. The boys had a blast, the pizza was delicious and every one of my party favors was devoured. In fact, I have had to stop myself from buying more pretzels and chocolate TWICE at the store because I want to make more!
  

(It looks so much better now!)

• They got super hero shirts for Valentine's Day
  

(and Jay got this one)

• Lincoln turned one. While he LOVED the attention and hammed it up, he did not like his cupcake. I got him the Birthday cupcake from Smallcakes and it came with a ton of sprinkles. I think the texture really freaked him out.