getting my feet wet

About a month ago I started looking on Craigslist pretty regularly for a job...some sort of teaching or tutoring.  I didn't want to teach full time, though, since Rebecca is still at home, so I knew I probably wouldn't find what I was looking for.  Part time teaching jobs are not very prevalent.  But a few weeks ago I found something that looked pretty ideal, and I applied.  They called me for an interview.  Then I got a second interview.  And Friday I found out that I got the job.

So starting September 3rd I'll be teaching one day a week.  Sounds perfect for this season of life....not a lot at all, but enough to get my feet wet and get my foot back in the teaching world.  It's homeschooled students, grades 2-5 (the plan is to have grades 1-6, but right now there aren't any first or sixth graders).  They come to "school" for a few subjects and are homeschooled in everything else. Second semester it will likely be two days a week.  They just don't have the location available for two days right now, so we'll see.  

Rebecca will be going to preschool the same day that I'm teaching.  It sounded perfect at first....she wouldn't miss out on much time with me because she'd be at preschool.  And it probably still is perfect, but it's just hitting me that I won't get to take her to her first day of preschool.  I won't get to meet her teacher, or talk to her at pick up to find out how she's doing.  I won't get to ever be involved in the classroom or other activities.  I guess working moms have had to deal with these things for years, but it's hard for me to swallow, since I've never been a working mom, have been home for so long and have been able to do all these things with her sister.  I also had been hoping to volunteer at Rachel's school while Rebecca was at preschool, since I can't right now, with Rebecca at home full time.  But I won't be able to do that either, since I'll be working that day.  It all makes me really sad.

But, in the long run, it all really is ideal.  Nothing will change much except for being gone on Tuesdays and having school work to do at home.  I'll still be a mostly stay at home mom.  Still there when Rachel gets on and off the bus.  It should work out great.  

And hopefully I'll enjoy it.  I AM excited about it, even though I'm sad about parts of it.  (And if I don't like it, well, then, in May I'll be done.  But hopefully I'll like it.)

clowns

Oh, these crazy clowns of mine....

bike rider

Rebecca loves to ride her bike!

first day jitters

We met her teacher yesterday, but she's nervous about having a new teacher and new kids in her class.  She's a little more excited than she was last night, though (at 8:00 AM she wanted to go to the bus stop, even though her bus doesn't come until 8:39!).  Hoping it'll be a great day and a great year!  Second grade, here she comes!

We modified what she was going to wear the first day because it's COLD this morning.  She was going to wear a cute little skirt outfit, but her legs would've been freezing.  She chose this new outfit from Grandma instead.

She wanted to show off her new backpack.  She's SO excited about it!

Rebecca wanted her picture taken, too.  Right before I took the picture she scooted over to be close to Rachel, put her arm around her, and posed with her arm up like this....

When we went back inside, she wanted me to take it again, so she did this pose.  Little stinker...

summer's last hurrah

Tomorrow is the first day of school.  I promised Rachel we'd go to the science museum this summer, so today was my last chance to keep my promise (I know, we should've gone weeks ago, but I kept putting it off).  So we spent the morning there.  The beauty of a membership is that we  can go for just a couple of hrs and not see everything because we can go back another time.  

The girls had fun, and it was a great morning.

Hard to believe that tomorrow morning I'll have a second grader!

Enjoy the pictures!

dear friends

Last week we made our now annual trip to visit my dearest friend, Allecia, and her two kiddos.  We meet at a park each summer that is about half way between us (when Rachel and her son Kaden were two, they moved to Indiana, so we've been meeting every summer since then at this park).  It was a great morning, though much, much too short with my dear friend.  The kids got along great and had lots of fun.

Playing on the splash pad

Hanging out

Deep conversation between Kaden and Rebecca....

Ice cream!

growing up

I found out the hard way this weekend that it was time that Rebecca graduated from her crib.  She went in bed for her nap on Friday during the garage sale, and we were outside manning the sale for an hour or so.  My mom went in to check the monitor and saw the lights going up, which meant she was making noise (our monitor is on it's last leg and doesn't make sound any more, so we rely on the lights to tell us when she's awake!).  She came out to tell me, so I went in to see what was wrong (it really was too early for her to be awake).  She was crying and crying, saying she had to go potty.  But she had already gone in her pants....  Who knows how long the poor girl had been standing there, first calling for me, then crying because she was all wet.  I felt awful that we hadn't heard her.  

So I got her out, washed her up, changed her clothes and the sheets, took her "Pinky" down to get washed (this is what she started calling her special pink blanket a couple of weeks ago....her Pinky), and calmed her down.  Poor little thing.  

So, needless to say, it was time to let her get out of bed to go potty when necessary.  We hadn't done it earlier because she slept so well in the crib and I didn't want to mess with a good thing.  And she doesn't normally wake up and have to go.  But it was time.

So here's my girl in her "new" bed (really just the same bed with the front taken off to make it a toddler bed).  Sniff, sniff!  She's not a baby anymore.

Don't you love all of her finery?  She put that on this morning.  Rachel is rubbing off on her and she's playing dress up a little more these days.  She said she put it on "so I could be PWETTY!"

So there's my PWETTY girl.  Growing up way too fast.

recovery

I'm recovering from the garage sale.  I don't know how many hours I spent getting ready for this.  I made over $300, which is more than I thought I'd make, but if I divided that by how many hours I spent, it would be depressing!  So I'm glad I don't know how many hours I spent!   

Rachel had her lemonade and cookie stand, which she was excited about, but her excitement fizzled quickly, and she spent the majority of the last two days playing with the neighbors, instead of manning her stand.  We had to keep calling her back for her customers!  But she made $34, so she was excited.

It was pretty slow yesterday morning, which was frustrating, because Friday morning is usually the busiest times.   And this morning it rained for the first couple of hours, which really cut down on our customers, and I had a pretty dismal outlook about the rest of the day, but then I had one woman come looking for the exact size clothes I was selling and she bought a ton of stuff, so that brightened my day.  Then the rain stopped and we were able to move everything back outside, and the rest of the day was pretty steady business, so it all worked out.  Rebecca loved being outside all day, interacting with everyone, and helping Rachel now and then with her lemonade stand.

My mom came down to help me out during the sale, and she also took the girls and me to the state fair one evening.  We took Rachel when she was about two, but that was the last time I had gone.  The girls had a great time.

camp

Rachel's been at Girl Scout day camp this week.  She's really enjoying it, though she misses me being there (I was a leader there with her last year...all I can say is that I'm VERY happy not to be there this year.  This is where I wrote about it last year).  

http://worldofweed.blogspot.com/2012/07/the-good-bad-and-ugly.html

Today is cooking day.  They take their lunch all week, except for one day when they vote on what to cook over the fire.  Their unit voted on spaghetti, garlic bread, and s'more cones (chocolate chips and marshmallows in an ice cream cone).  We'll see how she liked it.  I offered to send a lunch for her in case she didn't like it....she's my ultra-picky little eater...but she said no, that she'd eat it!  I hope she did!

Update: She liked it!  The garlic bread was "better than yours, Mom, because we made it on the FIRE!  The spaghetti was "great, but I didn't eat the meat" and she "LOOOOOOVED" her dessert.  

our little ham

I've been working in the basement to get things ready for a garage sale next weekend.  Today I went through some boxes of toys that had been Rachel but Rebecca wasn't quite ready for yet.  One of the things I took out to let her play with was a toy Cinderella piano.  She didn't care so much about the piano, but the attached MICROPHONE!

Oh my.....her eyes lit up.  She couldn't wait to try it, once she found out it would magnify her voice.

She keeps telling me that she wants to be a rock star when she grows up.  Given her obsession with guitars and now this microphone, I'm not surprised....

popcorn pops

A month or so ago I won tickets....again!  It was for a Popcorn Pops concert, which is an outdoor kids/family concert that the symphony puts on in the summer downtown.  Unfortunately the concert was the same night we were headed up to drop the girls off with my parents on our way to Mackinac Island. I saw that my friend, Sara, had entered to win tickets too (you enter on Facebook, and I had seen her post there) so I gave the tickets to her.  

So imagine my surprise when she won tickets to the second concert, couldn't use them, and asked if we wanted them!  "Turnabout is fair play," she told me.  

The concert was last night.  It was supposed to be humid and 91 degrees, and we talked about not going, because we were afraid of being miserable.  I hadn't told the girls about it, so they wouldn't know they were missing it, but we didn't want the tickets to  go  to waste, so we decided to try it, knowing we could always leave if we were miserable.

A storm came through in the afternoon, which cooled things off a little bit, which helped.  It was still pretty hot, but not as bad as we had anticipated.

Before the concert they have inflatables, carousel rides, a youth orchestra concert, and other kids activities (a parachute, crafts, places to try playing different instruments, face painting, corn hole, big building materials, etc).  So we got there early, enjoyed those, and then had a picnic as the concert began.

The girls had a great time and we were glad we went, despite the heat.

princesses

This week is VBS, and both girls are having a great time.  Today was dress like a princess day.  Although Rachel isn't quite as into princesses and playing dress up as she used to be, she still dresses up more days than not at some point during the day.  So she couldn't WAIT to wear her princess dress to VBS today.

Rebecca is suddenly really into purple, so she was excited when we found a purple dress up dress in our collection that fit her.  She didn't want a crown to wear, she wanted to wear the purple hat. 

Yesterday Rebecca was pretty nervous about going--except for grandma's house, the nursery at church, or an occasional friend's house, she hasn't been left anywhere before.  But she knew two of the other kids in her class, and had a great time yesterday, so she was really excited to go back today.

And I'm enjoying mornings to myself!  What a treat!  It's too far away for me to drive home, so I've been running errands, enjoying a kid-free trip to browse around Target, and things like that.  Heaven!

And this is a picture from a few weeks ago, waiting to watch the fireworks on July 4th.  It was Rebecca's first fireworks (except for when she was about 6 weeks old and we took her and laid her on a blanket, and she was oblivious to the fireworks).  She loved them, and for several nights afterwards whenever she got her PJs on, she asked if it was time to go to the fireworks again (because we took her in her PJs, so she'd be able to get right in bed when we got home).

And just to update those who care, we have our truck back, but now our van is in the shop, and I'm enjoying being able to drive my dad's car until we get the van back.  Our new AC is wonderful and I've never been more thankful for it, as it's been in the 90s for days.  This week is infinitely better than the last few have been. 

when it rains, it pours....

I haven't written a whole lot lately because I haven't felt much like being cheery.  Sometimes life is just hard and you can't fake your way through, trying to write happy blog posts.  The last few weeks have kind of felt that way, so I haven't written.

When we got home from our trip, we opened our windows to air out the house, then it got hot, so we turned on our air conditioning to cool it off.  Only it didn't cool off.  It just kept running and running without really changing temperature.  We knew we needed to have it looked at, but we weren't anticipating the news that it was past the point of no return and we needed to replace the entire system....AC, furnace, heat pump....the works.  

Before we left on our trip our antilock brake light on my van came on.  The squeal we'd been experiencing for awhile was getting worse, and my husband thought they were related.  We ended up not taking the van on our trip.  We knew we needed to take that in to get fixed, but I needed the car for a couple of days first, after we got back, so we were going to wait until then, and then take it in.  Also that day we got home from our trip I drove it to the grocery to restock the cupboards.  I turned on the AC in the van, and it wouldn't cool off.   One more repair needed.....

Then my husband was driving home from work a couple of days later and his transmission went out.  He was able to drive it straight to the shop safely, and it's been there ever since, receiving a very  expensive fix.  He's been driving my van for two weeks and I've been without a car.  Stuck at home in a house with no AC for a week, before we finally got that replaced last weekend, so at least we can be stuck at home in a cool house.

Thankfully, on Monday, my dad was able to come rescue the girls and me, so I had a car to take Rachel to dacne class, and then he drove us up to their house for a few days so I wouldn't be trapped for another week at home with no car.  We came back yesterday.  

Next week is VBS for the girls and we still have no truck, and after that my van still has to go in, so I have no way of getting them to VBS each morning.  Thank goodness my parents are going to save the day again and let me use their car until we get ours back so I can take them.

In addition to all of this, the girls had well visits at the doctor last week, and as a result, Rebecca needs a physical therapy evaluation for her ongoing intoeing issue and Rachel had to go off dairy to see if she is lactose intolerant, as a result she's losing weight, which her tiny little body can't afford (she's already in the 5th %ile for weight), and I'm really concerned about her.  The girl doesn't eat anything.  She may need further testing if her digestion issues continue.   Today I finally let her have milk again, after a week and a half of no dairy at all, so we'll see how her digestive system handles it.  And to top it all off, she has started sleepwalking almost every night, and Rebecca is having lots of accidents after almost none for months.  Ugh.

And in addition to my own trials, a good friend of mine is going through even harder trials...really hard stuff...and I've been doing a lot of listening and being with her (which help make mine seem like nothing....I even feel guilty writing this and being at all annoyed with my own stuff because its really nothing compared with what's going on in her world).  

But that's what's going on and why I haven't written.  Hopefully I'll feel more cheerful soon.  Thankfully things could be lots worse and none of it is life or death.  It's just all a lot to take at once.

happy 4th!

mackinac island

We're home!  It was a great trip and such a nice break from reality.  The girls had fun and were good for Grandma and Grandpa, and though we missed them lots, we enjoyed a little time away from them, too. 

So here are some pictures from our trip....

We drove up to Mackinaw City, at the northern tip of Michigan, from Grandma and Grandpa's house on Saturday.  It's about a five hour trip.  We listened to "The Hunger Games" to pass the time.  (We didn't get to finish it, so now I have to get the book out of the library so I can find out what happens!)

When we arrived in Mackinaw City, it was super foggy.  You could barely see the huge Mackinaw Bridge (it's five miles across to the Upper Peninsula).  It slowly cleared throughout the afternoon, but you can tell that it was still foggy.

We visited a couple of lighthouses in Mackinaw City.  We went up in this one.

The next morning we woke to even more fog.  You couldn't see the bridge at all.  We got on the ferry and couldn't see a thing!

It was SO cold and windy.  I put my jacket on and had to hold on or I would've lost my hood.

"Taxis" lined up, waiting to take people off the ferries to wherever they needed to go.

Our hotel--The Inn on Mackinac

Looking down Main Street

We walked to the Grand Hotel.  I was so excited to get my first glimpse.  I've wanted to see it ever since I was in junior high school and watched the movie, "Somewhere In Time" with my friend, Andrea.  I've loved that movie ever since. 

We walked all around the hotel.

Then we had an elegant lunch in the huge dining room.

Next we walked around in the gardens on the property.

It would've been nicer if we had had better weather with a better view, but it was still lots of fun to see it.

Next we went to Fort Mackinac.  My husband enjoyed this part.

They fired muskets and cannons.

Views from the fort

We walked almost 11 miles that day!  (I had my pedometer on.)  I was exhausted!!!  Every time I walked by lilacs I had to stop and smell them.  I love them, and they're all over the island.

The next day was beautiful.  In the morning we took a carriage tour.  We stopped at Arch Rock.

We saw this street cleaner along the way!

After our tour we rented bikes and biked all the way around the island--8.3 miles.  It was beautiful.  I had a horrible headache that day, so I didn't enjoy it quite as much as I otherwise would have, but it was still fun.  Along the way we saw Arch Rock again, but this time from below.

My husband decided to climb this rock.

After riding bikes and shopping for souvenirs and fudge (can't forget fudge....there are 17 fudge shops on Mackinac Island!!), we got on the ferry and went back to Mackinaw City.  This time we were able to see as we were leaving.

Goodbye, Mackinac Island!

When we got back to the mainland my husband wanted to take more pictures of the bridge, since you could actually see it this time.

The next morning we drove over the bridge into the Upper Peninsula, because my husband really wanted to say he's now been to the UP!  While there, we went to this really cheesy tourist trap, called Castle Rock.  The guide book said it was worth it for the view, though.

It was pretty.

Here's my crazy husband.

Then we drove back across the bridge and drove back to Grandma and Grandpa's house, where we were greeted by two very happy little girls and lots of hugs and kisses.