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!!!

Teacher conference and Spring Break

I thought I would pop in and say hello.  There is really not a lot going on here with me, but I haven't posted in a long time.  I got to go to a teacher conference at Lake of the Ozarks...we stayed at a resort called Tan-tar-a.  Here is a photo of what it looks like and as gorgeous as it is up there, I did not have time to get any pictures.  I grabbed this picture from their facebook page.

We were either in conferences all day or as we left, we were in a hurry to leave as my co-worker's daughter was sick.  The conference was ok.  The first day was all day 8:30AM-5:30PM and we ate at the resort for lunch.  We did get out at night, but it was too dark for pictures.  My conferences on day 1 were not very good.  My co-worker got into a good one and the same lady was doing another conference later that day, so I traded my ticket so I could see her.  It was a good conference.  Here is a picture of my room.  If you look at the

right of the picture by the curtains there is a door..that went into my roommate's room...we had our own rooms.  It was amazing.  I had a king sized bed.  That is my stuff on the bed.  I was getting ready for bed.  Day 2 of the conference was much better.  If you are a teacher in Early Childhood it was a DREAM.  Dr. Jean was there.  She has many CD's of music and I have two of her CD's that I use at circle time at the preschool.  She sings a song called Tooty Ta.  We got to do it with her at the conference.  I had so much fun.  Then the second conference day 2 was also with Dr. Jean.  The last conference we missed so we could get back home to my co-worker's daughter.  It was called the Conference of the Young Years.  It was fun overall just to get away.
I have been on Spring Break this past week and Josh and I went to see Cinderella.  It was very good.  We went to the orthodontist on Tuesday and guess what?  They came out and told me he could get his braces off at his next visit!!  That will be April 6th.  The day after Easter.  He is so excited and so am I.  It hurts him and he has had them on 4 years.  It would have been 5 in June.  I will be sure to do a post on before and after pictures.  We went to visit my mom and dad yesterday and on my way home I could not take my eyes off of the sunset.  I had to stop and take a picture.  I will leave you with that.

 

hello!!

It is such a nice day.  I feel so lazy when it is cold and cloudy.  Well today it is sunny and 73º and just perfect.

Last time I wrote I was getting ready to test some kids and I was really nervous about it.  Well, it went just fine and there was nothing to be nervous about.  The kids were great and did not resist being tested.  Still glad that it is over.  My process coordinator is back, so not sure if I will be sent out to do anymore testing or not.
We ended up having a snow day last Thursday and a teacher work day on Friday.  We were able to finish the lesson plans for the rest of the year.  I have never done that before.  It feels good.  We also cleaned my office a couple of weeks ago, it was a disaster.  The whole preschool looks nice now.
Josh continues to do well at Sylvan...he has scored 2 grade levels above where he was when he first started the other night.  I am proud of him.  He is still behind though, so we press on.  He is not far off grade level now though.
There is not much going on but work and taking Josh back and forth to Sylvan.  I do take Josh to the orthodontist on Monday.  UGH.  He has been in braces forever...not even kidding.  This is year 4.  Well, I better go.  Have a great weekend!!