Grocery revelations

1. The grocery store is busier than I anticipated at 5:00 on a Sunday night. Every aisle had a bottle neck of some sort, plus a guy named Steve, whose job it was to pull empty boxes off the shelf an put them in his cart. Steve likes to keep his cart in the middle of the aisle, and does not believe that customers have the right of way.

2. Maybe the voracious pregnant lady shouldn't do the food shopping for a while. Though, now that I think about it, it was probably the amazing Kraft Mac 'n' Cheese sale that blew the budget.

3. It is fun having Relia help put away the groceries. She is enthusiastic about every single thing she pulls out of the bags. You like soup? I like soup! Look, Apple soup! (fruit cocktail). There's apple pine! (pineapple)

4. I think I am finally a convert to reusable grocery bags. I have had a stack of nice ones from Lunds for almost a year, even some cool produce bags from Heidi (thanks Heidi!). BUT I keep forgetting them. I either leave them at home, or if they are in my car, I forget them in the car. Today I remembered them. Holy buckets batman, these things kick butt! They hold so much more than the store bags. I may have found my personal incentive for using them: fewer trips from the car to the house.

As requested

A new header!

They're here! They're here!

The W2s are here! and I don't have to screw around with business income.
I've already plugged in almost all of the numbers and despite my reduction in withholdings, we are still getting a significant refund!

It feels so good to not dread tax time again!

Yes, I am thrilled to be doing my taxes on a Friday night. I'm a total dork.

Gridded response

These things are insane. I had never seen one in my life until my 5th grade students opened the state test last spring. Nobody warned me. So I am confident that all that one question tested, was my 5th graders' abilities to decipher the concept of which bubble to fill in. I wasn't allowed to guide them in any way, and I was faithful to that, as wrong as I thought it was.

So if the answer to the question was $5.12, my students had to figure out that they had to fill in the dollar sign, and put the decimal point in as its own column.

The most confusing thing is that there are almost always more spaces than are needed, which is disconcerting for those of us that are used to traditional ABCD bubble test, and makes us question our own judgement. Should we put the answer to the left, or to the right? Does it matter? I don't think so, but I'm not 100% sure.

I'm told that these have been in use for over 10 years, and are used on the GED and the SAT. Well then, we should certainly use them with 10 & 11 year olds!

My suspicion, is that they need to have something kids can't just guess at. They are in the process of eliminating all of the written questions because they cost too darn much to grade. So I guess this is a compromise for now.

So for the next few weeks we are spending about ½ an hour a week on State test prep. That is, teaching students how to take a bubble test. And this one...sigh. Well, at least this year they will have seen the format ahead of time. Next year everything will be on the computer -a whole new set of issues we get to face.

Today is not Wednesday.

Nor is it February 3rd.

Why can't I keep this in my head? I have a lot of extra things happening in the next two weeks (meetings, classes, appointments, hospital tour) that I need to keep straight, and I just so badly don't want to miss them or screw them up, that I am a day, or a week ahead of myself.

The upside is, I am also a day ahead on some projects too.

Shopping

I think everyone was emotionally exhausted after last night's game. Even those of us that really don't care that much. I felt so "off". I couldn't get myself going and I was irritated at that. It was a common theme among both adults and children at work. Something I never expected.

I managed to get my groove back around 10am (3 hours into my work day) and was feeling pretty good by the time I picked up Relia from daycare. So I decided we would go look at all that was cool in baby stuff right now. We hit Rabies 'Я' Us and another chi-chi baby store and oh I fell in love with some of the adorable bedding. In fact, it has made me feel really itchy to make something beautiful. I have to stop worrying about messing up and just try something.
Anything.

Relia was adorable in the stores. She asked "What's that?" about 400 times. Then, at the chi-chi baby store we explored all the high end strollers. I would really like to find our "forever" double stroller. I think a Sit 'n' Stand could work well for us, and Relia certainly enjoyed climbing into each and every one of them. As usual though, some people swear by them, and others hate 'em. I need to find a stroller rental place so we can try one out for a week. There must be one somewhere in this bustling metropolis. (Or I should just probably consult with SIL, Rachel, our resident stroller expert.) But, if I'm to capitalize on my mad Craigslist skills, then I need to figure out what we want soon.

Ozzy's Baby

Years ago, FP gave me this Ugly Doll™
After we got our darling Ozzie, he adopted it as his own. He spends time kneading it, and carries it around the house. Even up and down stairs. I've tried for a long time to capture this love on video, but he has managed to stop as soon as I pull out the camera...until one day:

Adjustments

There is of course, a lot of talk in our house about the new baby "brother or sister". (after spending so much time on the brother or sister concept, the exclusion of a sister has not solidified yet for Relia) She is very interested, and even said to FP, I want the baby to be here right now.

This leads to one of the differences of being pregnant with our second child. When we were expecting Rellia, I would take all the things we acquired, gifts, clothes, things I got for super cheap, and set them up in her room so I could admire them and dream about our future child using them.

Last weekend I picked up a bunch of boy clothes (not that we need them since all of our 0-3 month stuff is yellow or green) and a fuzzy new boppy (for 99 cents!). Relia adopted all of these things as her own. She wanted to put on the clothes, and sleep on the boppy. I don't blame her, up 'til now everything baby-ish that has come into our house has been hers. So we are trying to emphasize that certain things are for the baby and certain things are "big girl" things.

But is there any way you can truly prepare an only child for the complete upset of the order of her universe?

Someone suggested imagining your spouse came to you and told you that they wanted to add another wife/husband to your family. They would explain that they still love you just as much, but they love this person too, and know that you will love them too. How would you respond?

--
In cute photo news:
Lately, she has a thing for blankets. She totes them to various locations around the house. Doles them out to the people she thinks need them. She handed me a doll and a blanket and I instinctively wrapped up the doll and held it in my arms. Relia wanted to try and I showed her how we swaddle the baby. She then wanted to be swaddled.

You feel better

When we had our ultrasound of Baby XY back at the beginning of December, we wound up bringing Relia along. She was very interested in the equipment and kept poor FP quite busy throughout the scan. Apparently she was paying some attention to the process because about a week later she began attending to my belly in a new way:



And yes, that is Grandma Erna's chainsaw she is using.

Take that Sprint!Or, the benefits of living in a large city

The reason companies do rebates is that there is a large percentage of customers that can be lured in by the promise of a rebate, but will not follow through with the requirements to actually get their money back. That was almost me. Tonight, I noticed the form tacked to our bulletin board, read it and kicked myself for the fact that it had to be postmarked by today.

But -We live less than 15 minutes from a 24 hour post office. How many people can say that? (about 350 thousand here in the Cities, but still...) So after Googleing and making a full, circuitous tour of the airport roads in the dark and rain, we found the post office, walked in, they stamped it for us, and we left victorious.

This is what passes for excitement in my life.

My goodness

Do you see that? -------->
Right over there?

Does it really say what I think it says?
That we have less than 100 days left?
How is that possible?

As I've been getting ready for the start of the second half of the year (today was the last day of the first half), I've been realizing how freakin' close I am to actually having this baby. 14-16 weeks. Possibly less. There is so much to do just related to work.

I need to find a sub and figure out what that sub will be doing since they probably won't be able to coach teachers on our math curriculum. I need to get everyone up to speed on where they are supposed to be at each check point in the year. We have about 8 more lessons to teach than there are days left, and that doesn't take into account our myriad of testing days or any FUN whatsoever.

Honestly, I wish I could just keep doing my job. I don't WANT to leave. That is a pretty awesome feeling.

Another cold

I have been sick far less than last year, but it still sucks. Thankfully today is a teacher work day, so I think I'll go in for a couple of hours to finish what absolutely has to be done, then go home for some couch time.

I LOVE my netipot

I may be time to cut back on the home improvement shows

FP was up taking a nap yesterday afternoon.

Relia: Where's Daddy?
Me: He's taking a nap.
Relia: In his bedroom?
Me: Yep.
Relia Daddy sleep in his master bedroom?
Me: (smiling) Yes.
Relia: I sleep in my master bedroom.

Baby Bowler

My brother had a birthday party this afternoon at Memory Lanes.

It did not start out well for me. I knocked down one pin on the first frame and 6 on the second. I blamed it on the baby.


Turns out this kid was wrongly accused. Check out the last row. I'm not sure I've ever seen so many Xs. I should bowl pregnant more often.

Finally, finished the buffet

Tonight I put on the last of the drawer/cabinet pulls.
After six months of fits and starts, $25 worth of paint (After doing two chairs, I still have plenty more), and $40 in hardware, we have what I think is a gorgeous buffet.

Here is what it looked like when I bought it six months ago. Mouseover to see what I'd hoped the buffet would kinda look like:

Why did you bother asking

If you weren't going to listen to the answer?

I've said this to my students on more a few occasions.

I'm going to admit, that before I even got a chance to read Micha and Holly's responses to my DSLR question, I went off and got a cannon. I shot film with a cannon, years ago, and still have a couple of lenses I can play with. I have a lot to learn/relearn (and I can't wait!), but I am already so happy just playing around.







I am excited about the idea of renting lenses from West though, Holly. Thanks!

All the cool people with the DSLRs

What do you have? What do you like about yours? I'm thinking I'll go exploring this weekend and try to get a clearer picture (ha ha) of what I want to buy. I know I want a wide angle lens of some sort because I use my makeshift one on our point and shoot constantly.

Orangies (Clementines, really)

These things are like gold. Relia would eat them night and day and night if we let her.


She can peel them by herself. She MUST peel them by herself. Then she comes up to me and says "Take off the baby star please"

Wha?



She notices EVERYTHING.

Later, unbidden, she brings me a segment and says "Yes you may have some"

The final shot

of the season.
It has taken 6 appointments to get Relia her full set of flu shots. Yesterday was the last one, her second H1N1. Which FP and I both forgot about. Ugh. So I go online and see that there are 2 appointments left in the evening. I take one of them, we have a little PBJ and head to the Dr.

Relia is very excited. She tells me that she needs her doctor card, -the expired insurance card I have been letting her play with the last couple of weeks. She tells me she will see her friend. I am thrilled that she has such a positive view of this place.

When we arrive, Relia immediately tells the receptionist that she doesn't have an ouchie. She tells everyone she sees that she is ouchie free. I realize that by this, she means: "I don't have an ouchie, and I'd like to keep it that way, thank you very much"

She didn't get upset until we get back to the shot room. Then she got nervous and started telling us that she doesn't want an ouchie. Of course you don't honey. But she really handled it well, no crying or wailing, just a small whimper or two, and picked out a Barbie sticker after the worst was over.

Did I mention

I passed my glucose tolerance test?

((Snoopy's happy dance))

I was a little worried that I wouldn't, because it felt so much different than last time. With Relia I was felt like I was gonna pass out. This time, I just felt a little hyper. Of course, last time they told me not to eat, and this time my CNM said I just shouldn't eat any carbs, so I was able to have a couple of eggs.

Oh What a night

After picking up Relia from daycare, I decided to stop at Cub to pick up some "essentials" after leisurely wandering through the store, we get back to the car only to discover that my rear tire is flat. Completely flat. (Relia says it is "sleeping") So, being 24 weeks pregnant, sporting a toddler, and kinda cold, what do I do? Attempt to change it myself of course! (smacking forehead). When all lug nuts failed to budge, I called my father.

For the second time in a week I called him to help me with a simple car problem. I have triple A. Why do I still need to call my dad? He drove over and had the same luck with the nuts that I did, so I called AAA and they said it could be up to an hour. Hmmmm. How am I going to entertain my daughter? We have exhausted the interest of both the grocery store and the car. (BTW, be very careful turning on your radio after your toddler has had free reign in the car.) Fortunately my mom called and offered to take come get her. (the car seat won't attach to dad's truck).

Relia leaves with mom and I wait for the truck. The AAA guy arrives in half an hour, looks at it and decides that he can just pump it up so I can drive the half block to my regular tire guys. I had already debated just driving on the flat over there. By the time they got the tire fixed -it was the seal, just like last time I had a flat. I was done, so very done. I picked up Relia and some fast food and we made it home by 7. 2 and a half hours later than we should have been.

Once again, I am so very lucky that my parents are close by, this evening could have been so much harder without them.

Regrets

I have decided that I regret finding out that baby XY is a boy. FP agrees.I guess it feels just a little anticlimactic, to find out and not have a baby in my arms. It's not a huge regret. It is nice to be able to hit the good sales at the thrift stores, but if there are ever any more, I'm pretty sure will be waiting. People who have done it both ways had told us that they preferred not knowing, but we had to go and find out for ourselves.

Bumpy Bumpy Bumpy

I can't believe it has already started- the photographical neglect of the second child. I haven't taken any belly pictures of baby XY until now.

Salivating for February

LOSTs final season, just because I am so anxious for this whole ordeal to be done.


&

Survivor Heroes vs. Villains
I have mixed feelings about these all star games because it changes my experience when I have expectations of certain people.

I am looking forward to seeing:
"Coach" -delusional
Boston Rob -cocky
Cirie -coat-tailer...TWICE
Rupert -all around nice guy
Stephenie -tough chick who was in a tough place the first time around. Nothing special the second time
''Sugar'' -Got lucky to be sent to exile about 300 times.
James -Had the sense to "go to Barnes & Noble to find a book". Did not have the sense to use TWO idols
Parvati -FP and I still make fun of her gigantic eyes every time somone makes a fake idol "that isn't the idol" "What do you mean, how do you know?" "Because, it's a stick"
Russell -EEEEE-vil, & clever
Tom -prudent fireman
Randy -Annoying annoying annoying.

I recognize these faces, but they don't have any special lure for me:
Courtney Yates,
Amanda Kimmel,
Colby Donaldson,
Tyson Apostol,
James ''J.T'' Thomas Jr.,
Danielle DiLorenzo,
Sandra Diaz
Candice Woodcock,
Jerri Manthey

External validation

What a powerful thing.
One thing I am working on at work is giving specific feedback. For some reason this is difficult for me, especially in the classroom. It may be because I get overwhelmed keeping track of 25 little minds and all they are accomplishing, but it is such a powerful thing to have your efforts noticed in a way that is beyond just saying "good job".

One joke is that you know you are with a teacher when you hear them say to the server at a restaurant, "I like the way you keep my water glass filled." It sounds stupid, such a teacher thing to say, and would be an insult if that server felt that keeping customers properly hydrated was an easy thing to do. But if I knew they struggled with such a task, that praise could mean a lot.

Yesterday, right before I left for the day, I stopped by my Assistant Principal's office to ask a quick question, and she chose to mention that she felt I was really blossoming in my position, and that I had made great improvements to our math program. She said a few more specific things too. This had me walking on air for the rest of the evening. She knows I tend to doubt myself and don't recognize my successes as readily as my failures. She showed that she cares about me by paying attention to the work I have been doing.

I need to remember this. Not only for myself and my own confidence, but for the students and teachers I am working with. I need to be familiar with their goals and struggles so I can give appropriate feedback. Sometimes, amid my own insecurities and struggles, I really lose that.

Also

If I share my struggles with people who care about me, I am giving them an opportunity to notice when I am making progress toward them. So thank you to all the bloggers out there who are sharing your struggles with us. You are giving us a wonderful opportunity to show how much we care about you. Sometimes, some of us (me) have a hard time finding good ways to express that

Our little personal trainer

"Run with me. You'll feel better."

Whew

For some reason I had the idea that I could ease into this week of work. No such luck. it has been Go! Go! Go! I already feel behind. Just getting back to the routine of going to work and then being mom for the rest of the evening is a small struggle. To top it off, I have paper cuts on 2 of my finger tips and they hurt so much every time I write or type.

On the other hand, Relia has been so amazingly sweet & cute the last couple of days. I think she is happy to be back in our routine.

When my parents took down their tree, and I took down ours, She commented that now "Christmas is outside". She has started spontaneously saying that "I love it" and that things are beautiful: "My bedroom is beautiful" "Those babies are beautiful"

Aw Man,

I have to get up tomorrow.
AND
I have to be somewhere.

Isn't that sad? ;o)

Things looking up.

They weren't looking that bad before, but now I'm excited about upcoming stuff

• I finally got a haircut this week. (3 weeks short of a year since my last one)
• I just booked a mini photo session with Jessica, who took our pictures this time last year
  
• I found a couple of pairs of GAP maternity jeans at a consignment store and I L-O-V-E them. They still fall down, but they fall down comfortably
• I just handed off my pro video camera to my brother in hopes he can sell it on eBay -If he can, then I can get a couple of new toys (camera 1 & camera 2)
• The holidays were kind of a mental hump in this pregnancy. April now seems just around the corner. Ask me if I'm still feeling this in mid-March, I'm sure I'll deny I ever said it ;)
• At the risk of jinxing things, potty training is going really well.