Feeling Thankful- Chatterbugs November Blog Hop

Feeling Thankful.  I just started my new job about three weeks ago.  I have been waiting for this blog hop to write about it, because I am just so thankful for this job right now.  I know you guys know I had prayed hard about it and some of you had prayed with me.  I wanted just the right job for me.  I feel like God was wanting me to take a break from the responsibilities of teaching in a classroom, but when this one position became available, I felt like it was right.  It is a paraprofessional job at the school I used to attend.  It is at the Elementary in a 3rd Grade classroom and I work with a student with autism.  My responsibility is just this one student.  I am able to put all of my focus on him and his well being in the classroom.  I really love working with autism.  It was where most of my training has been over the years.  Once I got started I found out that there were about 3 staff working there that I went to high school with, so that has also been fun, plus meeting new friends as well.  The best part about my job of course is the student I work with.  He is so funny and so smart.  I have figured out some things to make his class work better and we are having a blast.  He is in the regular classroom most of the day, so I also get to chat with the other kids.  It is truly the best fit for a job for me right now.  I love it and I am so happy.  The best part is...  once I got started, I really felt like I could close the chapter on my last job and move forward.   Before then, I was thinking about whether or not I had done the right thing.  This has been great and it is good for me to be working again.  I do love staying home, but I really do not need to be thinking about what used to be or what could have been.  Now, I can move forward and this job I am actually not tired at the end of the day.  I am not stressed out and I feel like the teachers value my work and input.  So there it is.  That is what I am thankful for.  There are actually a lot of things I am thankful for, but maybe I will spread those out in different posts over the month.  Thank-you for visiting!!  Have a GREAT November.

If you are doing the Chatterbug Feeling Thankful Blog Hop...the next blog is Jules.

I got the Job!!!

I had an interview Friday for the position I applied for last week and they called yesterday....I got the job!!!  It is a para-professioal job at the school where I attended K-12, so basically I will be with a student all day and go from class to class with them and make things better for the student as far as I may read some to them or whatever to make things easier for them.  I went to get my background check done yesterday, so the director is hopeful I will get to start next week.  The background check has to clear before I can start.  I never did go get any new clothes last week, so tomorrow after I drop Josh off at Sylvan that is what I will do, I will go to the mall and get some nice work clothes to wear.  My drive is exactly 20 minutes from my house to the Elementary School.  I am looking forward to it.  I really need to move on from my old job and staying home is kind of keeping me in a funk.  I think about how the kids are doing at the preschool and if I made the right decision.  I DID make the right decision.  I just need to stop thinking about it and this job will help me get past it.  It will be nice to have a little extra income also.

Today Josh has a follow up appointment with the orthodontist.  Tomorrow is tutoring.  I cleaned house this morning.  Have a nice week!

Chatterbugs Fall Blog Hop

I tried to take a picture of my entire house decorated for Fall...my house is not big at all, but the way it is built it is long across the front and I try to decorate the entire front of my house.  So, my picture of my entire house is not very good, you cannot see my decorations very good.  This picture is the very left side of my house.  There are purple mums on both sides of that door you see to the right in the picture.

To the right of the door and more in the middle of my house and under my picture window is this flower bed.  My roses are still alive, but this will be the last of them as it will be in the 40's overnight in a few days.  Just to the right of this is another door where I hang my wreath.  My mom made me this wreath last year and it still looks great this year.  It did not fade at all.

Then in the house I have some items decorated over our entertainment system cabinet and in another room on the top of a bookcase.

The first picture with the scarecrow, mums and pumpkins used to be in the yard in front of the wreath and the second flower bed and it looked really cute and pulled the decorations together.  I have two dogs though that try to eat the pumpkins and mums, so they got moved.  I do not like it as well, but it works.  I hope you have enjoyed my Fall tour.  The leaves should really be pretty soon too.  I will post some trees of the past years, once they turn it will really be pretty.  This tree is not actually in my yard, but the yard next to me.  I am standing in my driveway.

This tree is the very left side of my house.  We have trees all around us, they are really pretty.  We live out in the country too.

Ok, the next blog is Danna!!  Thank-you for dropping by.  Have fun!

Job Search update

Karl, Josh and I watched the lunar eclipse last night.  It was really something to see.  It had been cloudy all day, so I was glad when the clouds cleared out for the eclipse last night.  When it turned red, it was just so neat.  I suppose this happens, they said in 1982 it happened, but I sure do not remember.  I would have been 12, so my parents probably did not let me stay up to see it or it may have been cloudy. 

I applied for a job on Friday.  It is a paraprofessional job at the school district where I went to school.  I have looked at several para jobs, but I have just not been able to pull the trigger and actually apply.  This one felt right.  It is for elementary special education.  I had also found a part time job at a Vet clinic that I would have loved, but maybe I should just focus on this right now and see what happens.  I did not apply for that job, but I love animals. 

Josh has Sylvan tonight and I think I will go over to the mall and try to find some dress pants to wear to interviews just in case.  I absolutely hate shopping for clothes.  I will keep you posted, but that is where I stand on my job search.

Fall decorations and Friendship Pie

I was able to get the yard decorated for Fall last week.  The front of my house is long, so my decorations are scattered along the whole front of my house, but here is a picture of one side.  There is another mum on the other side of the door and then there is another flower bed I have decorated on the other side of that.  I also took my mom and she was able to get some mums also and we picked up some groceries. 

I met my friends Malinda and Natalie on Tuesday night.  We had all worked at the preschool at one time together.  That is how we started the "Friendship Pie" tradition.  Natalie was talking about how we needed Friendship Pie.  I was like what are you talking about??  She talks fast.  She had not said Friendship Pie, but French Silk Pie.  We had one the next day and it turned into a tradition since then.  Every time one of us has a birthday we get French silk Pie...now known as Friendship Pie.  We met at 7:30PM so Natalie could get her kids to bed and then we visited until after 9PM, we had a great time.  She also bought me some eye liner for my birthday.  Natalie is really into make-up and she is young.  She got me some Urban Decay eye liner and I LOVE it.  It does not run or smear.  I really like that. 

I am not sure what is going on this week.  My mom is planning a shopping trip on Thursday with her friend, so I may go stay with my dad.  He is still ok alone for short times with his alzheimer's, but sometimes he forgets to eat.  So I may just go make sure he eats and visit with him and then pick up Josh when school is over.  I need to clean house today.  Have a nice week!!

getting ready for Fall

My birthday was last Wednesday.  I always enjoy the facebook messages so much.  I hear from people I usually do not hear from on my birthday.  I had several phone calls, texts and messages on facebook to make it a lovely day.  Then at noon, I hear a honk in my driveway.  It was my mom and dad.  They brought me a pie...I am not a huge fan of cake.  They also got me a Clarisonic Mia 2 for my birthday that I have been enjoying.
It is supposed to clean deep down in your pores.  I love it.  It makes my face feel really soft.  I had to take Josh to Sylvan that night, so when I got home Karl was home and bought me flowers and a really cool card that you had to "blow out the candles" and when you do, it plays the "happy birthday to you" song.  It was cool.

I am never home on September 11th usually, but I was this year and I read the postings on facebook.  It is funny, I cannot remember what I did some of the days last week, but I remember everything that happened that entire day of 9/11/2001.

I got one of our flower beds cleaned out and had Karl clean the other one...(it had poison ivy in it and I am severely allergic).  Anyway, I have started decorating my yard for Fall.  I still need to pick up my Mums and pumpkins and I am going to get a bale of straw this year and put out a scarecrow.  I have not done that in several years because the straw is a pain after the season is over.  I have a certain store I look for my Mums at.  Last week they did not have them yet, so I am going to look tonight.  The picture is at the store where I get them last week that is what they had.  My mom wants some too, so once I find them, we will plan an outing to get them.  I hope that happens this week. 

The city just drove by cutting tree limbs for the winter.  They cut them out of the power lines so when we get ice and snow the power does not go out because of trees.  So, that looks nice too.  Have a great week!!!

bathroom and birthday

Karl has been working on our bathroom.  He worked on taking the wallpaper down last week and over the Labor Day weekend he was able to paint and he put up some back splash behind the sink.  Here is a picture on the right of the bathroom I took last summer when I had just changed the decorations.  It is not awful, but wanted to get rid of the wall paper.  Then on the left is a picture after the paint.  The paint is gray.  Then there is a picture of the new sink and the back splash Karl is working on over on the right.  It is not done, but you will get the idea.  We will just stick with these decorations for now since I just re-decorated, but there are so many possibilities with gray.

I got up this morning to take Josh to school and my car would not start again.  This happened on the first day of school too.  My father-in-law just came over to look at it and there was a wire loose on the battery, so he tightened it up and the car started right up.  Thank-goodness it was an easy fix.

It is storming now.  They say we will have a few fronts move trough and then it will cool off again to the 70's for highs later this week.  I cleaned house and decorated for Fall yesterday.  I am going to let the ground get wet from the rain and then I will go put my fall decorations in the ground.  I tried the other day, but the ground was so hard.  So, our dirt has rocks in it and it is hard to do anything with.  My Grandparents had black dirt to work with.  I actually asked them if they had black dirt brought in because I thought everyone had bad dirt like us, but no.  Anyway, I will get that stuff put out later today or tomorrow and then I plan to start looking for mums and pumpkins.  I am so excited.  I love fall, but hate to see summer over.  We drained the pool over the weekend too.  So sad.

I am taking Josh to get his hair cut after school and my friend Malinda and I are doing some Essential Oils classes this week.  Wednesday we have Sylvan.  My birthday is Wednesday too.  Busy week.  Have a great one!

another project

Last week I mostly just tried to clean up the house and cook.  I am trying to pick little projects to clean, things I have put off cleaning because they are too cluttered and not in the view of any guests that might visit.  Today I cleaned out the end table that I sit by.  There was so much junk in there.  I need to attack my bathroom sink (underneath) and drawers next.  That is for another day though.  My friend Natalie came by for a visit today too.  She used to work with me at the preschool and quit last year because she had her second child.  She is such a sweet friend.  She brought me some stairs for my dogs to use...particularly Mandy.  Mandy is not able to jump up on the bed anymore, so hopefully I can get her to use them.  I have been lifting her up on the bed every night.
Well, Karl has started another project.  Remember, we changed the sink in the main bathroom.  I posted a picture last time I think.  Anyway, he is taking down the wallpaper and it is actually coming off better than we thought it would.  I always dread wallpaper because it is hard to get off.  We are thinking of painting the bathroom a light gray color and maybe some back splash around the sink. 
Tammy asked if I had considered taking a Paraprofessional job....a paraprofessional is a new word for teacher's aide in case you might not know.  They work their tails off and for not much money.  My answer is yes.  I have just not pulled the trigger yet and applied.  I really would love to do something part time...even a para position part time.  I just haven't seen anything part time, or the hours are crazy.  I really think the only way back into a school district is to work as a para or substitute.  I am not really interested in subbing, I would actually rather be a para, so I know what I am doing each day.  That way the administrators get to see your work and they are more likely to hire you as a teacher when the time comes.  Pray for me.  I am just having trouble taking that next step and I am not sure if I am just being stubborn, or afraid...or if it is just not the right time or the right position.
Have a great week!!

sinks, chairs and football oh my!

Last week was the first time I have wanted to actually deep clean my house since I left my job.  I have just been so upset.  I was able to do the floors, dust and clean the bathrooms.  While I was cleaning in Josh's bathroom, I noticed it smelled like mold.  I cleaned everything out and had Karl look at it.  Well, there was a leak and he said who knows how long it had been leaking.  This is an advantage to being home...you actually have time to notice these things.  Anyway, he replaced our sink and sink cabinet and we are thinking of taking the wallpaper down and painting.  Just making it a project.  Here is the sink.  It is not the best picture in the world, but it is a small bathroom and it was hard to take a picture of it.  So I spent Monday and Tuesday cleaning.  Karl installed the sink over a couple of days in the evening.  I really wish I had before and after pictures.  The other sink was so ugly.
Thursday I met my friends Britni and Malinda for breakfast.  We had so much fun visiting.  I worked with Malinda last year...she also left the preschool as they were going to move both of us too far away.  Britni was one of our parents, but I can say she is a wonderful friend.  It was fun, I think we should meet like once a month and have breakfast if we can.  Well, after breakfast I went to visit my mom and dad's.  I was really tired, so I did not have any energy to help her clean her house, but we did make plans to go chair shopping the next day for my dad.  His chair was broken and he had been sitting sideways.  We found him this chair.  Karl and I picked it up Saturday morning and took it down and got him all set up.  Friday night my Kansas City Chiefs were playing football on tv.  I know it is just pre-season, but I love to watch them and they won...after that the St. Louis Cardinals were on, but their game was not good. They lost to the Padres.  I went to bed early.  Saturday night was awful.  We had lasagne and I have acid reflux, so my stomach was cramping bad.  It was awful.  No more lasagne for me.  It was a long night of pain.  It stopped around 4:30AM and then it started storming ouside.  I slept in a little on Sunday and today after I dropped Josh off at school I came home and went back to bed.  Now I need to clean house and tonight is a Sylvan night for Josh.  He gets tutoring for math.  Here is a picture of me before my Chiefs game in case you missed it on facebook.  It is actually a current picture.  Many of the pictures I use on facebook are getting old.

I am thinking since people do not post much at their blogs anymore I will post once a week.  I do not have that much going on anyway.   Have a great week!

Remember me?

I started writing a post last week when Josh started school, but I kept getting phone calls, so I will try again.  It was not a great summer.  If you do not know from facebook, I was reassigned an hour from my house to work this year, so I resigned.  It was a curvy drive and I just had a bad feeling about it.  I spent the summer looking for jobs, but never found one.  I was not told until the last week of school.  It was all of the teachers.  Everyone got moved.  I was just moved a long way away.  It is a coop with 17 school districts in 3 counties, so they can move you wherever they want.  Three people quit.  I was very sad, so did not do a lot this summer, I cried a lot.  I will miss my kids, but honestly, I will not miss working for the coop.  I had a few friends there I will keep in touch with, but many of the people are just drama, so I will not miss that.  I will say this.  I have applied for some jobs I thought I had a really good chance at and did not get them, so I am thinking God is wanting something else for me.  I am staying home for now.  I would be open to a part time job.  I just feel like I am needing to help my mom and dad.  My dad's alzheimer's is getting worse and my mom is having a hard time with him.  This also frees me up to take Josh to and from tutoring without being exhausted.  Karl is working really long hours and has not been with us in several weeks to tutoring.  So with all of this on me as responsibility, I am ok with staying home for now.  Karl said we will be fine if I stay home.  I would still ask for prayers for guidance and wisdom in this though because I just want to do God's will.
Josh started school, and so far not too many complaints, he is still going early, so that is a good sign.  I took a picture, but he did not want his picture taken, so it isn't very good.

We did get to go to Oklahoma this summer.  Even that was not as fun, but it is always nice to get away and I got to spend time with my mom and dad. This picture is at our hotel and Josh and my dad listening to music.  This year we stayed in a suite at the motel and it was super nice.
Karl put new flooring in our kitchen over the weekend and it looks awesome.

I have been cleaning house today, something else I did not get to do very good when I was working.  It smells amazing in here.  I am starting to look forward to fall.  I spotted several candles for fall when I was cleaning.
Oh and I already decorated for fall here at my blog because when I came to check it, it was still decorated for Spring.  I just thought I would get ahead of the game.  I will try to post here and there.  I doubt I have much going on.  I am planning on having breakfast with friends on Thursday and then planning to go to my mom and dad's.  Have a nice week!!  Here is one last picture of Josh on his birthday.  We went to Olive Garden and shopping with my mom and dad.

Braces are off!!

I hope you all had a wonderful Easter!!  I was sick with a cold, so I spent a lot of time resting.
Josh got his braces off today.  I am going to share some before and after pictures.

This is Josh on the first day of school 6th grade year.  You will probably have to click the picture, but his teeth were so messed up.  They were really crooked and he had a cross bite. 

This picture is of Josh, maybe last week or so with his braces on.  Then posted below is today with his braces off.  He has to wear a clear retainer for 4 weeks, then he gets a metal retainer for 6 weeks, then he gets a different retainer for nighttime that he will probably have to always wear at least to sleep in.  Anyway, I think he is happy to have them off.  Have a great week!

Easter Blog Hop

Just like at Christmas I am going to show you some 

of my Easter decorations and they are not my "prettiest", but they are my favorite made by my Granie who has passed away now.

These were always displayed at her house when she was living at Easter and she passed them on to me.  I love their retro look and she wrote her name on the bottom of everything she painted when she did ceramics.  I love them.  I have many things she made.

On Easter we always go to church.  This year they are having a service on Saturday, so we will attend that service so we can be freed up more on Sunday.

I still make Easter baskets for Josh and I get something small for the dogs.  I also like to put dog treats in plastic Easter Eggs and let the dogs have an egg hunt.  Here is a picture of Meisha  on one of their hunts.  She enjoys this the most.  My other two dogs think I am crazy.  Meisha at least goes along with me...hahahaha. They must touch the egg with their nose to show me they have "found" the egg.  Happy Easter!!!