Enjoying My Time Off

I'm half way through my first whole week of summer break and I'm loving it!  I love the extra time I'm spending with my kids and not having to be in such a rush in the morning to get to work.  We went to the mall playground on Monday and did chalk and rode bikes in the afternoon.  Tuesday we went to the park and to Target.  I forgot to take Kaitlyn to karate in my haste to get the kids to the park, oops!  This morning we did Play-doh outside, but our afternoon plans of swimming were ruined by rain, so we drew pictures instead.  Tomorrow I think we'll go to the beach, and I'm not sure what we are going to do on Friday.  I'd like to get the kids to Sea World or Busch Gardens sometime next week and I think they will absolutely love that.  I also need to take them to the new (ok, so it's not that new) children's museum in Tampa. 

I'm also cooking a lot more fresh foods from scratch because I am not dog tired from waking up so early in the morning to get to work by 6:30.  I'm pretty much following my menu planning which is saving us money.  I don't have to worry about 30 minutes meals because I have all the time in the world right now to take my time.  Needless to say the hubs is also loving summer break. 

I'm able to work out twice a day, so hopefully that will help out with the weight loss roller coaster that I've been on for the past year.  I run in the morning and do the 30 Day Shred at night.  I can already see a huge increase in my stamina, so hopefully I'm on the right track. 

I finally got my job assignment for next year.  It wasn't my first, or second, choice, but I think it will work out ok.  It's definitely going to be a huge change for me so I really don't want to put too much thought into it right now because it gives me tons of anxiety. 

I love summer.

Summer Reading

I love reading but rarely have time to for it during the school year if it's not science or education related.  I've always loved reading and would have at least 20 pizza certificates every school year thanks to the Book-It program.  If it's a good book, I can usually finish it within a few days.  If it's bad, I'll finish the book because once I start one I have to read it to the end, it just takes me longer. 

I just finished 'Water for Elephants' yesterday and loved it.  Sara Gruen did a great job of creating such fantastic imagery that I could literally picture the circus and all the performances as I was reading about them.  I'm pretty excited to watch the movie to see how true to the book they stay, although they rarely do due to time constraints.

I finished the 'Hunger Games' trilogy a while back and am taking my sister to see the movie.  I really love how Suzanne Collins descried the scenery of the arena in vivid detail and you could really picture yourself as a person living in the Capitol watching the games live. 

These two books alone has reignited my passion for reading, but I am at a loss for what to read next.  I'm really not interested in the 'Fifty Shades of Grey' trilogy even though it's the hottest book on the market right now.  A lot of women are saying it's badly written "Mom porn" and I'd just reread the "Twilight" series if I wanted to read badly written books.  I'm kind of interested in the 'Divergent' series right now but am not really willing to pay $9 for an electronic version of the books.  I'll wait till those come down in price.  I tried to read the 'Girl with the Dragon Tatoo' but it's so slow in the beginning I'm having a hard time getting through it.  My sister is reading the 'Game of Thrones' series so I'm thinking of snatching those up from her and getting in to those.  She has a few other books that I'm want to read so I'll have to raid her bookshelf.

Still Unknown

Remember when I wrote this post and I was pretty confident that I would soon find out what I would be doing next year?  Yeah, I still don't know.  I do know what I will not be doing next year and it's a little maddening.  I know that I will not be at my current school as either a coach or a teacher.  I knew that I wouldn't be returning as a coach, but I thought I had the option of going back as a teacher.  I figured that since they needed two teachers, an IB and a regular Biology teacher, that I would be able to slip in as the second biology teacher.  We, because of a unit shortage, they will be combining the IB and regular Biology positions...major suckage for me.  I think that they also filled the positions at my old school, although I haven't really checked on that one yet. 

There was a second option that I was really interested in as a math/science support position for the area superintendents.  I thought that I would be given some thought as I had experience in both math and science this year, but again I was wrong.  Those positions were filled last week and I'm really bummed to say the least. 

A third option is to be the K-12 Science Instructional Staff Developer for the district.  I don't know what exactly I would be doing and no idea who one of my supervisors would be.  (They are interviewing for those positions some time next week.)  Not knowing the exact job description or who will be my supervisor makes me kind of nervous for this particular position.

I guess that I'm kind of preparing myself to go back in to the classroom.  It's not my top choice, but it's one that I'm definitely ok with.  I really feel like I have a bigger impact on teaching and learning in my current position.  If I can change the practice of a few teachers, it's involves many more students than I could have impacted as a classroom teacher. 

The thing that scares me the most about not knowing at this point is that today is my last day of working this school year.  I really wanted to know before this school year was over, but alas that will not be happening.

I'm a big boy now

He's not potty trained, but he's quickly becoming a big boy.  We converted his crib into a day bed about a month ago and he's doing great.  At first, he was having a hard time with the whole bed time routine and he cried every night for about two weeks when it was time for bed.  He even started to fight me on bath time for awhile there.  For the past week or so, he's been a complete dream going to bed.  I'll usually try to give him an early bath so that he can get in his pj's and just play or watch a show.  When it's closer to the time I want him to go to his room I'll tell him that he has 10 more minutes to play, or I'll tell him he can finish whatever show he is watching and then it's time for bed.  He'll say 'otay momma' and finish up whatever it is he's doing.  When time is up, I'll ask him what time it is and he'll whisper 'it's nigh, nigh time' and happily grab his blanket and go running to his room; sometimes he even waits for me and will hold my hand all the way down the hall to his room.  He then hops in to bed, I turn on his music, cover him up, read a book if he's in the mood, give him kisses and cuddles and leave.  No fussing or fighting, he just goes to sleep.  Sometimes I'll hear him talking or singing, but usually he falls right to sleep.  He doesn't even get out of his crib in the morning when he wakes up.  He can do it himself, he's just such a good boy that he waits for us to come and get him.  I think he knows that he can't get out of his room anyway so might as well stay in bed.  This is nice because I'm not worried about a jail break in the morning on weekends and can lay in bed a few extra minutes and get my bearings. 

This summer I am determined to start working on potty training.  I need to go out and get some training underwear.  I think I'm going to try to skip the pull ups with him so that he'll get the feeling of being wet and hopefully will not like it.  I also need to come up with a reward system.  I know M&M's will get the best results, but I don't want him to have all that chocolate.  I think a sticker chart will help out, especially if I get Kaitlyn in on it.  He knows what to do, sit on the potty, hold his winky down to keep from getting pee all over the place, he just needs the consistency of doing it all the time.  I don't know if I want to start at the beginning of summer or wait till closer to the time I go back.  We have a lot of stuff going on in July and I don't want his to regress with all the commotion going on.  I guess I could try start next week having him sit at home before bath, bed and in the morning when he gets up and see how he responds.  I don't want to push him, but I also would like to have him trained before going back to school.  I hate to put all that work on the teachers at school.  We'll see how it all goes.

Getting Back to Healthy

That's where I am today.  After roughly three weeks of not eating right and no exercise, I'm turning over a new leaf...again.  I really need to change my bad habits, not only for myself, but for my kids.  I don't worry about Tyler because that boy will choose a veggie over sweats any day of the week and twice on Sunday.  He's always on the go and never sits still for one minute of the day, not even in his sleep.  Kaitlyn, on the other hand, will eat junk food until she bursts at the seems and is perfectly content watching Disney Princess movies all day long.  I don't want her to struggle with her weight as she gets older and I don't want her to have food issues either.  Those are problems I just don't want her to have.  I want her to learn how to nourish her body and not to ask for seconds when her stomach and brain haven't even processed her first helping.  I want to fill her plate with veggies, not just a few pieces to try and then exclaim 'YUCK' while gagging and trying to swallow.  Before I can ask those things of her, I need to show her how it's done through me.

I'm not a junk food junkie by any means.  I'm probably the only person in the world who loves Brussels sprouts and lima beans.  It's just easier when you are a busy mother who works outside the home to grab for the pre-packaged items to give your kids and yourself instead of washing and cutting up fruits and veggies.  I know there are pre-packaged fruit and veggie items out there, but they cost a fortune and I just cannot justify spending money on those items especially since they have added preservatives in them as well.  I should make better decisions about what goes in to mine and my children's mouths, but I'm just lazy like that.  It also doesn't help that the husband is a junk food junkie and is typically the one who does the grocery shopping even though I give him specific instructions on what to buy and what not to buy. 

So I have decided to get back on it and really take some stock in what I'm eating and that I'm exercising regularly.  I logged in to My Fitness Pal today, after a two week hiatus, and entered in my breakfast.  I will start the 30 Day Shred tonight and suffer on my all day field trip to Sea World tomorrow with every step I take around that theme park.  I will spend Sunday washing fruits and veggies and cutting them up and placing them into individual servings that the kids and I can easily grab out of the fridge when we want a snack.  I will go back to packing my lunches for work and cooking dinner instead of grabbing fast food.  Kaitlyn will learn to eat a new veggie each week, just like when she was a baby...one at a time until she learns to at least tolerate them and not complain. 

This summer I have absolutely no excuse to not get my family eating right and exercising.  I'm not working this summer and I'll have the kids with me all day.  My plan is to run in the morning before Jerry goes to work.  Get the kids outside as much as we can stand, and then make it a swim day if we can't stand the heat.  Fix healthy lunches and snacks thoughout the day.  Fix a healthy dinner with at least one veggie or add a salad to meals like spaghetti or lasagna.  Continue with the 30 Day Shred to build muscle and tone.  Get to bed at the same time I do during the school year so I'm not tempted to turn my alarm clock off in the morning and skip my run. 

I need to do this for me AND my family.  I will be successful this time and change my life.

End in Sight

It's almost here.  The end of all state testing, the end of the year, waiting to see what I'll be doing next year, it's all coming to an end and I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel.  It's been a rough month with everything going full tilt at work and the disasters that happened at home.  I can finally start to breath and relax a little which means I can finally sleep.  I no longer need a whole pot of coffee to get through the day and then fall on the couch too exhausted to even fix my family dinner.  I can now focus on my plans for summer, which is CRAZY busy BTW, and stop freaking out every 5 minutes that the other shoe is going to drop any time now. 
It feels so nice not stressing out over every minor detail of whatever is going on.  I'm getting do all the fun things that I love about working in a high school.  Prom, graduation, spring football, senior activities, field trip that can finally happen because state testing is over, field day, labs that we now have time for because we are done with the curriculum, etc.  Teachers seem to also let loose this time of year as well, except for senior teachers who are trying to hunt down those seniors who seem to think they've already graduated and need that last credit to be able to walk across that stage.  Real learning happens right now when students are able to explore the subjects they are studying and grapple with difficult material with no pressures of an End of Course Exam looming over their heads.  Its a time to celebrate that WE'VE MADE IT THROUGH ANOTHER YEAR!  (Teachers included in that sentiment.)  Now is the time to kiss our seniors goodbye and remember when they were crazy freshmen who couldn't sit still even if you duct taped their butts to a chair...I have never done that, only wished I could.  It's time to say goodbye to colleagues who are retiring and give them a congratulatory pat on the back for being able to last so long in education.  It's also time to say goodbye to new friends that were made this year because people are being transferred or are seeking opportunities elsewhere.  Time to pack up rooms and throw out all the lessons that you and your students worked so hard on throughout the year hoping that you will not find a petrified science project in one of your lab tables.  Time to watch another group of students walk across the stage, shake hands with their principal, and then throw that diploma up in the air and scream "I did it!"
Oh yes, the end is in sight indeed.

Knee Deep In Shit

Literally.  We are so screwed right now and I'm afraid we have a major issue.  Now the master shower is not even draining even though we haven't been using either one of the toilets all day.  (I think Kaitlyn used and flushed the main toilet once, but we have been going to my parent's house if we need to go.)  We are going to call a certain Rooter company to come out tomorrow and hopefully it's not a major issue and they can fix it with relative ease.  I'm hoping that it's just our septic needing to be pumped, but of course it's never the easy fix with us.

To make matters worse, my car is acting up again.  It has something to do with the cooling and it's affecting the a/c as well.  It's happened before and we had to pay through the nose to fix, which just pisses me off.  If it was just the a/c and it wasn't already 90 degrees, I wouldn't worry about it until the kids are out of daycare.  Last time we had to replace the battery, a motor, and a switch and the fluid was almost black.  Hoping it's not a big deal and it's just a switch, but again, it's never the easy or cheap fix for us.

The absolute icing on the cake is that my vacuum is clogging and the junk on our floor is not going in to the tank, it's just getting stuck in the hose.  If we weren't having so many other issues, I'd just go out and buy a Dyson and be done, but right now I cannot justify $300+ on a vacuum when all I need to do is clean out the hoses.

They say bad things come in threes, so hopefully this is it for us.  I don't know if I can take anymore shit.