The Next Step

Sometimes I feel like a crazy person. I know, you're probably wondering what I am talking about. Many of you know that I haven't been totally happy in my job for the past couple of years. I love teaching children, but there is a lot of other crap going on that makes it pretty stressful. I have been trying to figure out how to change my career without really changing everything. Then one day it hit me. I love teaching reading and working with kids to improve their reading skills. I decided to go back to grad school to become a reading specialist. That's where the crazy part comes in. I just got accepted into the master's program for literacy leadership. Now I have to figure out how to juggle my school schedule with my everything else that is going on in my life. I keep wondering if this is the right time to do this, but I don't think there will ever be a perfect time. So, right now, I'm saying a lot of prayers that I can manage everything that will be on my plate for the next few years. I know that in the end it will be worth it.

The Sickness Continues

Apparently, when we get sick in this house, we do it right. Not only do the people get sick, but the dog does too. We finally have 4 healthy people living in our house and today, Daisy started acting weird. She was shaking all day and kind of slinking around. Then, she started hiding in really weird spots in our house. I found her on top of the grocery bags first. Then later, I found her laying on a blanket in Alexander's room and that is a place that she never goes. Nathan and I decided that she probably needed to see a doctor. So, I took her to the emergency vet because, of course, we always get super sick on Sunday. They did all sorts of tests to the tune of $613.00! The diagnosis ended up being that we think she ate too much of the kids' food. Her stomach is too full and she is dehydrated. Now she is on special food and 4 different prescriptions. Hopefully she feels better soon because she looks super sick right now. When will life be a little less crazy!

Mom's Club Woes

I haven't written anything about me in a very long time, so I decided to share some of my feelings tonight. My feelings tonight are about joining a mom's club. I would like to be a member of some sort of club. I'm not great at making friends and I would like to have friends who would like to get together for play dates with the kids and me. I can't really afford babysitters, so I do most things during the day with my kids. I also want the kids to play with other kids. Right now, we don't do anything with other kids because the kids in our neighborhood are all older than mine. They spend a lot of time in our house or doing errands with us. It is pretty boring for them and for me. There is a local mom's club that I could join, but I am hesitant to try it. A lot of the parents from my school are members and I feel like I would be walking in as the teacher instead of just another mom. It might be a strange situation. I would like to belong to a group of working mothers who go through the same issues that I go through everyday. I'd especially like a group of moms who are teachers because then we could plan a lot of playdate activities in the summer. These are my thoughts for tonight. If anyone else feels this way, please let me know. It would be nice to know that I am not alone in my feelings!

Julia's First Year Photo Book

I just finished the photo book for Julia's first year. I'm sharing it here for anyone who wants to see lots of pictures of my kids.

Photo Book

Click here to view this photo book larger

Shutterfly allows you to customize your photo book just the way you want.

First Birthday Party

We had Julia's first birthday party last week.  We decided to make it a Minnie Mouse themed party, since she loves Minnie Mouse.  Our families came to visit.  We got to see Grammy, Pup-Pup, Grandma, Pap-Pap, Uncle Joe, Aunt Molly, Aunt Karen, and Grandma Farm.  We also had some friends at the party too.  We didn't play any games or do any special activities.  Julia had cake and opened her presents.  She loved the cake!  She also figured out how to open her presents by herself.  The party was simple, but it was a lot of fun.  I can't believe my baby is already one.

Now for the pictures of the first birthday bash!

All dressed up for the party!

I love Minnie Mouse!

I love my brother!

Special cake.

Mommy took my clothes off.  What is going on?

This looks interesting.

What is this?

I'm not sure...

The other kids were not interested.

Somebody decided that I needed a hat too.

I tasted the cake.

It was good.

I really like it!

I'm digging in.

I'm going to keep going.

So good!

More please!

Daisy would like some too!

I opened this one all by myself!  Thanks B family!

More presents.

I love my Minnie Mouse bank.

This care is nice, but I like Minnie better.

Happy Birthday Julia!

Happy first birthday Julia!  It is so hard to remember what it was like without you in our lives.  You are the sweetest little girl who loves to laugh and smile.  You are tough and you put up with your crazy big brother really well.  You love the dog and her name, Daisy, was your first word.  You love to eat anything, especially macaroni and cheese.  You easily eat as much as a 5 year old child.  You still won't walk, even though I know that you are ready.  You want to crawl and hold onto things as you walk.  I think that you are afraid to let go.  You are super sensitive too and will cry if we tell you no to something.  Right now, you are wearing 18 month clothes, but I think that you are either losing weight or maintaining at the moment.  You are still nursing once every night, but that is stopping tonight.  It makes me very sad, but I know that you have to grow up.  You still won't drink anything but water out of a cup, so we will see what the doctor has to say about that.   We had a big birthday party for you this past weekend.  I'll post about that on a different date. We really love you and can't believe that you are already a year old.  Time really does fly.

Pirate Party

Alexander turns 4 on Wednesday. I can't believe how fast the time has gone by.  This weekend, we had his birthday party.  It was a lot of fun.  He is really into Jake and the Neverland Pirates, so we had a pirate themed birthday party.  The kids got to make real pirate hats and pirate flags for their pretend pirate ships.  My son, however, thought that he was really going on a pirate ship.  I guess, I didn't make that clear to him.  Oops!

Then, after we finished our crafts, we had a special Jake cake.  It was extra special, because it was the first birthday cake that Alexander was able to eat from a real bakery.  He was very excited.  He didn't actually eat the cake though.  I think he only ate the icing.  Oh well, it was his birthday.

Then the kids played together for a little bit.  They may have had more fun driving the cars, firetrucks, and garbage trucks around than doing the crafts.

Lastly, we opened presents.  His friends were very generous and he got a lot of special presents.  It really was a great day.  Thank you to everyone who came to celebrate with us!

Four Years Old

Four years ago today, I gave birth to the most precious beautiful little boy.  I still remember every detail of that wonderful day.  We were truly blessed with the greatest gift when Alexander was born.

Now he is four years old and it is really hard to believe.  Where did the time go?  He is already a big boy.  He has the most wonderful vocabulary and loves to find out what words mean.  He isn't afraid to ask questions and is very friendly with everyone.  He is also a really big flirt.  Now, believe me, he isn't perfect and he can be quite the stinker at times, but he is my little boy and I love him so much.

Right now, he knows most of his letters and can write them.  He is working on learning his numbers.  He always wants to work on his school work and he has an awesome memory for facts.  I wish that I could remember things the way that he can.  He is ready to go to preschool next year.

This year was a big challenge for Alexander.  He became a big brother 8 days after his third birthday.  He has really tried hard to be a good big brother and we work on it every day.  He truly loves Julia and wants her to be happy most of the time.  Sharing things with her has been difficult, but we are working on it.

This year, he also was able to drink milk and eat eggs for the first time.  He isn't too sure about the dairy products, but he always tries something before saying that he doesn't like it.  He has been a real trooper with the eggs too and now he loves poached eggs on toast.

All in all, three was a very exciting year, but I am really looking forward to what the age of four will bring.  Keep on growing and stay healthy little boy.  Know that Daddy and I love you more than anything!