This is what works

I'm a teacher.  I'm a licensed kindergarten through eighth grade teacher.  I have taught.  I have worked as a substitute teacher, I have worked in an after school care program, I have taught toddlers, infants and preschoolers.  

I am currently teacher toddlers.  I LOVE what I do.  I go to work every morning and help mold the lives of 20 children under three years old.  I see them learn and grow and they teach me things every day.  The only reason I ever second-guess what I'm doing is in the fact that I attended four and a half years of college to get a degree that I am not technically using.  Sure, my very first childcare center experience came during those four and a half years, and I learned a lot during that time.  But I paid--actually, am still paying for--a degree that allows me to teach bigger kids.  I worry that the longer I stay out of the elementary classroom, the less chance there is that I will ever go back.  Things change very quickly in the education field.  I have only been out of the classroom since last June, and I'm sure I am already completely out of the loop of the latest strategies and testing and terminology.  

On the other hand, I'm happy.  Like I said, I really do love what I'm doing.  I'm not going to get rich doing it, but I enjoy it.  I enjoy being with the kids, I enjoy the people that I work with, and I enjoy the fact that my job is flexible.  I was able to take last Friday off to help my mom work at the flower shop before Mother's Day.  I'm off this Friday to have a garage sale.  I went with Kayden to eat lunch at "the kindergarten school" today.  I will take days off to be with my kids, I will take time off for appointments, I may even take a mental health day here and there, and it's ok.  

For now, this is what works for us.  Only time will tell what the future holds for us, but for now this is what works. 

15???????????

My baby sister is 15 today.  

15.  

Seriously?  

Where did the curly-haired 2 year old go? 

Oh yes, she turned into a 5 foot 8 inch basketball playing teenager.

Don't worry.  She isn't driving.  

Yet. 

So, "Happy Birthday Amazih".  

Thank you for being my extra hand with my boys when I need it. 

Love You!

Family Weekend

We had our family weekend at Arrowwood Resort this past weekend.  We went with my entire family, and my dad's brother's family.  We had 9 kids 10 years old and under, 8 of which were boys!  The kids had a blast. They went swimming, Kayden went sledding, and decorated cookies, they napped, they ate, the watched movies, they had lots of juice boxes, and in general, had a great weekend.  It was a HUGE help to have my sister, Amazih and her friend Morgan there.  They helped with all of the kids.  I did take pictures (although not as many as I would have liked to), and I'll post them later. 

We all had a great time, and hopefully we'll do something like this again in the future. 

Last night we also went out to dinner at Fuji Steakhouse with some high school friends.  It was so fun to get together since we do that kind of stuff so rarely now that we have kids, and jobs, and in general, such busy lives.  We definitely need to make time for that kind of stuff more often.  

The week ahead doesn't overly busy so far.  Amazih does have three basketball games, but they are all kind of far away, so we'll be there in spirit, while we listen on the radio at home. Wednesday night we plan to go out to dinner with my family for the January/February birthdays.  My mom, my sister and Amy (Eric's girlfriend) all have birthdays within two weeks of each other, so we try to just get together once for all three. 

Randoms...

A few random things to share today:

**Last night we took Kayden to Amazih's game in Melrose (the town where I teach).  Tyler and Tyson stayed home with Rhonda.  It was fun to go to the game and see lots of my students outside of the classroom.  Plus, as a bonus, Amazih's team won ;)

**Tyler and Tyson are both on drops for their pink eye, I'm watching Kayden's right eye, as it's looking a little reddish, and NOW, Tyson has a nasty cough.  Really????  I just hope everyone is healthy by this weekend because....

**We are headed to Arrowwood Resort in Alexandria. We are going with my family, and my dad's brother's family.  It should be lots of fun.  There will be 9 kids (not including Amazih and her friend Morgan), eight of which are boys!  They have a big water park, which will be something new for my boys, so I'm really excited to see how much they like it.  AND, hopefully we are able to wear them out in the pool so they'll sleep really well ;)

**Kayden had his first "Show and Tell" at school on Monday night.  He chose to take his Pillow Pet.  I kinda wish I could have seen him share....

**Tyson is moving around faster every day!  He has also been waking up at night, so I'm wondering if he's working another tooth???  We'll see!

Father's Day Weekend

Every year we spend Father's Day weekend with the Frericks family. We head out to a farm near Freeport and we set up campers and tents and then we have one big meal where most of the family members get together. There are LOTS of great-grandkids so the kids have lots of fun playing, and since our camper is there, they can take their normal naps, etc. It's always a fun, relaxing weekend. This year, we even did a hay ride to Mike's aunt and uncle's farm where Kayden was able to see lots of cows and even touch a few big ones and let the calves suck on his fingers---needless to say, he was in heaven!
Late Sunday afternoon we headed to my parent's to celebrate Father's Day with my dad and my grandpa. We grilled supper there, and the boys got to play outside. We decided to give them a bath before we left "grammy's", since it was getting close to bedtime anyway. So, they boys were bathed and in their pj's and we headed home in time to get everyone to bed at a decent time after a long, eventful weekend.
Tyson had his 2 month check up this morning. So, we took Kayden and Tyler to daycare and Tyson and I headed to the clinic. He is a whopping 12 pounds 9 ounces (71%)and 24 inches long(86%), and his head is in the 66th percentile, which is a change from his "large-headed" big brothers=) The doctor said everything looked good, and before we left we scheduled Tysons 4 month appointment and Tyler's 15 month appointment for the same day, which got me a few funny looks from the appointment scheduling girl ;)