A whole lot goin’ on!

So this past month that I’ve been back to work, things have been really busy on many different levels. As regards to work, I’ve stayed busy with good ol’ Adams keeping me there at least once or twice each week. There have been 25 work days so far and I’ve worked 20 of them (taking 3 of them off by choice.) I’ve secured at least a 7 week position teaching 5th grade at Adams, most likely starting in October. After this, I will have taught (or student taught) in every grade except for 3rd. I also recently went to a district level job interview at San Bernardino City Unified. It went really well. I didn’t even have to think about how to answer any of the questions. They just came naturally. He asked what my classroom management plan was, how I handle behavior problems, what’s one thing I’ve learned about myself, how I’d explain to a parent why there’s never any science homework, etc…He said my letters of rec were great, as well as my experience. Unfortunately, there’s only 3 vacancies at the time, two of which I’m not in consideration for. One is for a bilingual position, one the principal knows who he wants, and a third is not an official vacancy yet–but when it becomes official, he said he will send me out to that school to interview for it.

On the work front with my husband, he’s been home on worker’s comp for almost a month now. We only get 66% of his pay, which really makes us try to be frugal as much as possible. It’s trying him insane having to be at home for so long because he really wants to be doing something productive at work, but right now he can only work for about 2 hours at a time before he starts hurting. Right now, it’s up in the air as to when he’ll return, so I need to work as much as possible.

JJ and I have recently started attending a once a month playgroup. Our first meeting was a pool party. There were two little girls and two little boys. They played with some toys, then went swimming, then dried off and had a snack. It’s a really nice get together. The mommies are all from Gymboree and everyone is within a few months of each other. Next month’s theme is Music….JJ will love it!

On the medical front with JJ, we have found a doctor who is willing to work with his possible susceptibility to malignant hyperthermia. The doctor is at Children’s Hospital of LA which has extremely good ratings for the urology department. He was very friendly and I feel like I can trust him with my baby. They will be doing his orchiopexy laporoscopically (sp.) through his belly button. It’s generally an outpatient procedure, but because of his special needs re: anaesthesia, they’ll do it as an in patient procedure just as a precaution. Most likely, we’ll be getting it done in December while I’m off work so I’ll be able to be there to take care of him.

On a final extremely frustrating note, we’ve been having major issues with our car and mechanic. We took our car in ten days ago for a 90K mile service and a possible radiator leak. Our car kept overheating and it would go back to normal after we added coolant, but that would only last a couple days before we had to add more, but we never saw any on the street. Anyhow, $875 later we were told the car was fixed….and it was for 3 days. Then the overheating went from gradually to all at once–we took the car back immediately because the radiator was supposed to have a lifetime warranty. We were told that most likely we had blown a head gasket and it would be another $939 to fix?!? Excuse me…I don’t think so. We were also told that the guy who worked on our car had screwed up other people’s and the lead mechanic had to fix a lot of his crap. Well, we managed to haggle down the guy to about half price because of the major hassle. We were told the part had to be sent to a shop to be worked on which takes two days…I called back four days later and was told the part was still in the shop. I was absolutely fuming! Meanwhile, we’ve been having to have a rental car ($140 so far out the window…) while waiting for these idiots to get their job done…who knows how long it will take, but I’m getting awfully annoyed waiting for them and it’s inconviencing a lof of my family to have to drive me around everywhere. I’m going to be filing a complaint with the Better Business Bureau as soon as we get the car back and I am never taking my car there again!

Happy Easter!

Well JJ got to experience his first Easter this year. He had to wait almost a whole year for this event to happen. He did NOT have a good time with the Easter bunny…I’d have to say it was an overwhelming fear/sadness/anger that he felt toward him.

Easter day was great. JJ started off the day in Sunday school with a few of his buddies, then came home to relax for a little while before heading over to Aunt Linda’s for lunch. After a filling dinner of ham, meatballs, olives, deviled eggs and pasta salad, it was off to the front yard for an egg hunt. Grandma Taylor filled a few plastic eggs with coins and taped them shut; then, they “hid” them. It was so adorable to see JJ walking around holding his Easter basket. He would find an egg, pick it up, shake it and continue walking. When he found another egg, he would drop the first one and pick up the second one. Stay tuned to my myspace (www.myspace.com/ucirvine2001) for the video of him doing his hunt. He looked so cute in his my first Easter onesie and bib. Nana got him a soft little bunny rabbit for my first Easter as well.

He was so exhausted by the time we got home, he fell asleep. Seeing as how he only napped 20 minutes in the first 8 hours of his day, I’m sure this nap is going to be a long one…..now the only other milestone we’ll have in the next few weeks is his birthday! Go JJ!!

Pictures!

Just thought I would let everyone know that John has a ton of pictures on Photobucket. Here is the link and all you do is pick the categories on the side to see the pics.

http://s248.photobucket.com/albums/gg181/jfj3rd/

It’s been awhile!

So I’ve been so so busy lately. I just realized that it’s been darn near two weeks since the last time I posted. I’m finally on Christmas break from school and it’s definitely a much needed break. I’m loving being able to be home with the baby again. It’s really nice. I’ve been out of work for 5 days now and haven’t yet had time to be bored.

We did Christmas with my dad Sunday. We met with my mom, stepdad, brother, sister-in-law, niece and of course John and JJ. We had the breakfast buffet at the Marriott and it was delicious. They do made to order omelettes which I think are the best. Plus they have the best fresh fruit. It was yummy. JJ got a few nice toys, a stocking, and some munchies. His grandma and great-grandma sent him some gifts too. He got a stocking, bib, and baby’s first Christmas hat.  The landlords even got the baby some gifts–one is an ornament and the other is yet to be unwrapped.

JJ is starting to feed himself now. He eats cut-up bananas, pieces of itty bitty pasta, and the best gift of all–strawberry apple puffs. He loves those! He’s even getting a tooth. I’ve been feeling it in his mouth (bottom center) for darn near two weeks now.  It hasn’t quite popped through though. He’s handling it pretty well though.

Well, tomorrow is Christmas and we’ll be celebrating with family. I’ll give you more updates later!

More and more pictures!

So stinkin’ busy…no time for NOTHIN!

Okay, so my title is a little hick-ish if that’s even a word. I used to be a devoted blogger, blogging a little each day. Now, I rarely have time for stuff like that. Heck, I rarely have time for much of anything these days. My days begin at 5 am—well okay, okay. You got me. They really begin at about 5:40 a.m. by the time I really drag my butt out of bed. I’m out the door by 7:15 and return home between 4:15 and 5:30. Most days, I’m not even in bed until 10:30 p.m. Feel sorry for me yet? Ha! I know what most of you moms are thinking. That’s what being a mom is all about. You think you get to sleep? Give it up. That was over the minute you gave birth.

Anyways, we took a trip up to Tahoe, Chico and Sacramento last week. Boy were we busy?!? The baby and I flew in Tuesday to meet John who had been up there since the previous Friday. Our first stop was out to Chico so JJ could meet his grandpa, auntie, and great-grandparents for the first time. We did a lot of visiting. JJ also got to visit his 2 year old cousin Aubree while we were up there. He took his first ever bath in big tub and boy did he like it. Too bad we don’t have a big tub for him to take a bath in here. The sink just isn’t the same. (We know this because we also tried a sink bath while up in Chico.) We spent Thanksgiving with JJ’s great aunt and family. Loads of people came. JJ got to try turkey for the first time and he loved it. (Well it was turkey and sweet potatoes and it went over way better than the plain turkey we had earlier this week.)

After Thanksgiving, we decided to skip the sales. (Too dang cold for a mama and baby to be out before the sun comes up.) We drove out to Sacramento to watch John’s brother get married. Never thought that would happen! (Just kidding, Steven.) Anyhow, we’re all glad he’s making such positive changes in his life. He’s a much different person than he was a few years ago when I first met John. I’m excited for he and his new wife who are expecting a little girl early next year.

We decided to head on out to Tahoe to spend our last day of vacation with friends and family. We visited with Steve, Sissy, and the girls which John was super excited about. We also got to spend a little bit of time with JJ’s grandma and Nana. Everyone seems to be doing decently.

On a completely different note, I just found out that I won’t be getting a contract from Adams. As long as a leave of absence is filed and not a letter of resignation, then the position must be filled by a long-term sub and not a newly hired teacher. Sucks for me….but what do you expect with all the budget cuts? Why would they want to fork out the extra money for benefits and salary? But, I’m getting lots of professional development courses out of the way and if I stay here all year, then I will have my first year done for clearing my credential. That takes a little stress off as I’ll have 3 years to get my last year of clearing done. I can’t wait. As soon as I get my clear credential, we’ll start trying for baby #2. Plus my resume will be amped up with all the extra work I’m putting into this.

A little math for you: A full year teaching at a sub salary–approximately 21,000. Lowest starting teacher salary–approximately 47,000. Per my principal, the state of California would have to cut 160,000 teaching jobs or close every school in California for 25 days to be able to meet the budgetary demands the state is thinking of putting on California. Get real! Sheesh.

Anyhow, there’s been a lot going on, but I’m running out of time and energy to write anymore. Hope you enjoyed the latest installment of MY LIFE!

Pictures from our recent trip to NorCal

Life is Busy!!!

So life has been really busy lately with my new kindergarten position. I’ve been so busy trying to keep things together at home, work, and with the baby that I haven’t had much time to blog lately. Well, this weekend was a 4 day  weekend, so I’ve finally found some time to catch up and put some new pictures up. We recently went up to Tahoe because we found out that John’s grandma was in the hospital with an infection and that her cancer has moved up into brain. Our visit was nice, but incredibly busy. The baby was not all that cooperative the second night. He woke up 5 times that night. But we woke up to snow. Not very much, but it was there. It sure was cold. We got a lot of visiting in. It was the first time we had been up there in 6 months.

Halloween was fun. JJ dressed up as a lion and boy was he cute. He didn’t really care for the hat all that much, but I just left it loose and he was okay with it. We had some friends come over from church. They have a 4 and 5 year old and just found out their new little addition will be a girl. JJ’s new little playmate will be born in March.

Being a teacher is HARD work! I’ve been subbing and or student teaching for the past 5 years, but I tell you my notions about what a teacher does during the day were so wrong! I thought for sure as a half day kindergarten teacher I would have plenty of time during the day to get things done. NOT the case. I stay from about 7:30 to 3:30 or 3:45 each day and until about 4:30-5:30 on Fridays. I’ve gone to a few trainings already, administered math and language arts benchmark assessments and will be doing report cards and parent teacher conferences in the next 2 weeks. All of this within my first month of being there! That’s why I’ve been so overwhelmed. I can’t wait til Thanksgiving break and after things should be back to normal.

As for the baby, he has now tried oatmeal, bananas, carrots, and sweet potatoes. He likes all of them for the most part, but won’t eat carrots mixed with cereal. He keeps his mouth wide open during feedings. Just like his mommy and daddy, he loves to eat! Also, he had his 6 month appointment a couple of weeks ago. He was 15 lbs 14 oz and 26 1/4 inches. What a big boy!

Anyhow, here’s some pictures of our recent adventures. Enjoy!

A fairly uneventful 2 months

So with all the medical drama we’ve had in JJ’s first few months, I’m happy to say that we haven’t been to the doctor in almost 6 weeks! Well, not counting the specialist appointment last month. We’ve had no issues requiring us to go see the doctor or have tests run or go to the hospital. Granted, little man has been congested for a couple of weeks and he had a bad diaper rash for about a week, but nothing requiring medical intervention thank God! He’s been doing so well and learning so many new things. He can now pretty much sit on his own. He can also get up on all fours and rock back and forth. Occassionally, he will move his legs in this position, but hasn’t quite figured out how to move his arms. He also gets up on his hands and toes and sticks his little booty up in the air. It’s quite cute. He’s quite the hit at parties. All the ladies love him and want to take him home. Today at Olive Garden, every time a waitress passed by our table, she would smile at him, talk to him, or play with his feet. He’s such a ladies man and getting cuter every day. Here’s a picture of him taken yesterday.

Miscellaneous Updates

So this is like a hodgepodge post since it’s been almost a week since I last posted. I didn’t get any of the jobs that I interviewed for, but I do have applications in right now with Alvord and also with Colton School district. In the meantime, I’m going to be doing a long term sub position in Kindergarten at Adams. It should be very eventful with me having to do report cards and parent conferences within the first month of being there. It will last until at least Christmas break, though many of the teachers there have said the lady I will be subbing for has no plans to return. So, it could turn into a full time position for me–however, they may keep the job secured for her until the end of the school year which means I would have to do the whole year on sub pay. Or it could open up earlier and I would be first pick for it unless there are some district teachers who are already on contract that don’t have positions. In that case, it would go to them which would suck. Either way, I’ll get good experience and I may get a letter of recommendation from a principal which would make my resume look way better.

This is baby shower season. I have been to three baby showers this summer; Between these 3 showers, a donation, and my soon-to-be new niece, I’ve finally gotten down to getting rid of most of my surplus stuff. I’m glad I was able to do that because otherwise I wouldn’t have been able to give it back because of no reciepts and Target’s stupid return policy. JJ was given a Bumbo chair yesterday and he loves hanging out in it.

Bible study has also started back up again. It’s a good thing because John and I needed to get back to fellowshipping. We’re meeting in a new place this year, but not much else has changed. The food is still great, the company is wonderful and everyone loves the baby.