Happy New Year!!

Holy cow, well I have been busy since my last post, but everything is ok.  Middle of November my dad went to a doctor's appointment and they sent him straight to the hospital.  He has lymphedema in his leg and it was swollen and infected.  He was in the hospital for a week and then a nursing home for 3 weeks getting his leg better, but he also has alzheimer's, so his stay was very hard not understanding why he could not go home and forgetting we had visited.  He got to come home a week or two before Christmas.  He (his leg) is doing much better.  He has a nurse that comes to their house and physical therapy.  I understand they are just temporary though.  It is too bad.  I was hoping they would be there until my dad has to go to a nursing home because of the alzheimer's.  I think he is aware enough now to be ok at home.  He still talks to us and knows who we are.  He spent Thanksgiving in the nursing home.  I got up early, made Thanksgiving dinner, ate and then went to visit my dad.  It was all so rushed.  We had Christmas at my mom and dad's house.  I stayed with my dad the last day I had to work so my mom could go Christmas shopping.  It has been crazy.  I went and stayed with him today too so my mom could go visit a friend in the hospital. 
Josh and I start back to school on Monday the 4th and this has been the shortest break ever.  We did get our Christmas things put away and got our house cleaned up.  Things are a little busy and crazy, but that is just the way it has to be now.  I did take a day to get my hair cut and highlighted.  That is the picture I added in this post. 
If you think of us just say a prayer, it seems like we are always running...my parents and my family too.  Just pray God would help us through and bring us peace of what is to come.
Happy New Year, have a safe winter.  I will try to post again soon.

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!!!