more giveaways!

Momma Needs a Timeout is doing a giveaway! Check it out!

Also, there are a bunch of Christmas giveaways at 5 minutes for Mom! Check them out!

Oooh! A contest!

My friend Jen posted about this contest, and since you know I can't pass up the opportunity to:

a) draw attention to my blog

b) draw attention to others' blogs

and

c) possibly win something,

of course I'll participate.

MckMama is having a contest/giveaway on her blog! Check it out! Tell a friend! Click on the link (picture) below! She's got the cutest.kids.ever! :)

Two quick questions

Wow - look at me! Posts two days in a row! I can hardly believe it! As such, I've been staring at my blog page a lot more frequently than usual and I realized how much I hate the look of it...but seeing as how I'm cheap/poor (whichever you would like to call it), I don't really want to spring for a blog makeover just now...So that's where my questions come in...

1. What are some website out there with free blog layouts?

and

2. If I use those websites (which I tried once before), is there a way to cut & paste the HTML code in without losing all of my side links, pics, menus, etc? That was why I never put the changes into effect the last time I tried it...I was afraid of losing all of my stuff over there, never to find it again!

Help me if you can! :)

Being Thankful...

Lord knows I have so many things to be thankful for...I realize that I probably spend so much time on here griping about what I DON'T have that I must sound like an ungrateful little brat...but I really DO want to take the time to tell everyone how thankful I really am for all of the blessings I have...

My top 10 things to be thankful for this holiday season...
10. Internet friends - when life has got you down, you can trust your internet friends to pick you up. THANK YOU! You will never really understand how much your emails and blog comments of encouragement and sympathy really mean.
9. Our Health - aside from my broken, whacked out reproductive system, we are both very fortunate to have our health. We're alive, able to walk, breathe and work. What a blessing!
8. My kitty - since we have no children of our own, Faithy has filled the spot well for the past 5 or so years. She's quirky, fat, and scared of everything, but I love her to pieces!
7. Finding my earring yesterday - ok - I know - this one seems so strange, but it was totally a God thing, therefore I must write about it. On Tuesday evening, I put my hand up to my ear and realized that my three-stone-diamond earring was missing. I wear both of my pairs of earrings (the other being white gold hoops) non-stop. I don't even take them out to sleep in. They've been in my ears pretty much continuously for years. I don't even think I'm aware how often I put my hands up to my earlobes to make sure the earring backs are tight, etc., so when I realized the earring was missing, I was, in short, freaking out! I searched the entire house, inspecting every hair, dust bunny, or thread that caught my eye on the floor, but to no avail. G was very gracious about the whole ordeal, but I was so upset and emotional about it all (see item #2 on this list). I assumed the earring was gone for good. Yesterday, I went to work as usual & was talking to the first little girl who arrived at daycare when something caught on the floor caught my eye. Lo-and-behold! It was my earring...despite the fact that the area had been vacuumed the night before, the earring somehow remained, albeit somewhat worse for the wear. I took it to the jewelry store after work and got it straightened out & the back replaced, only to have G find the backing on the bathroom floor yesterday night. I had managed to go from our bathroom the whole way to work without the earring falling out! Wow! I don't think I could ever be that fortunate again!
6. Real life friends - Although it is so hard to keep in touch and keep up the kind of relationships that we used to have, I do cherish my real-life friends. We try to keep in touch via phone, facebook & occasional get-togethers (yay!), but it's kind of sad that I can honestly say that I don't have any friends here like the ones I made back home. I have a few people from G's work that I hang out with, but I know they don't know me in the same way as my "old friends" do...especially my high school & TAGG friends. So, if you're reading, I miss you terribly!
5. My job - Even though my current position (well, actually just the 3-year-old portion of it) frustrates.me.to.death, I know that I am very fortunate to be working, especially with our economy and many people being laid off, etc. My 4-year-olds are amazing & they make coming to work (at least 3 days a week) a true joy!
4. My family - G & I are both blessed with wonderful parents, brothers, sisters, grandparents, & extended families. Both sets of our parents have provided & continue to provide for us in so many ways. They are such blessings!
3. Our new home - With the economy being the way it is, we were so fortunate to be able to sell our old home (in a month!) and comfortably settle into our new home this year. It was a completely unexpected turn of events that started back in April, but we could not be happier to be in our own little dream home!
2. Gregg! - G is definitely the one person in this world who "gets me." Even though he rolls his eyes when I'm overly emotional (who me?) and frustrates me to all-get-out with his ridiculous coaching schedules (let's not open THAT can of worms! k?), I do know that he's always there for me and truly wants me to be happy (not that it's all about me or anything). He's so silly & has a quiet, cheesy sense of humor that puts me into hysterics sometimes...yep, I think I'll keep him!
1. God! - I've been kind of a wayfaring follower lately. Personal issues with our infertility (and finances related to infertility), my job, and our infertility (wait? did I already mention that?) have really not been good for our relationship. I know I'm just lost right now & eventually, I'll find my way back to Him...but the wonderful part is that God knows where I'm at even when I'm lost...that little light is flickering in there somewhere & eventually, I'll have the strength to make it burn again...but for now, He's holding onto me by a thread & for that, I'm thankful.

Christmas Meme

I was tagged by my bloggy friend Melissa in a fun little internet meme. I am to list three things on my holiday wish list. I am going to play!!!

Here are my wishes - however lofty and unattainable they may be!

1. A Penn State sweatshirt. I've dropped hints about this one to Gregg, so hopefully this will be under the tree on Christmas morning (the black one with pink PSU).

2. This is more of my wish-list gift than anything else since I KNOW this won't be waiting for me under the tree on Christmas morning... a Canon Rebel digital camera.

3. A baby - I know, I know...no one could really get me this for Christmas, but if you are infertile yourself or you are close to someone who is, you know how difficult the holidays can be for infertile couples. Each holiday that passes by (especially ones so family & child centered as Christmas) is just another reminder that yet another year has passed by and we STILL don't have a baby. So please show some extra love and compassion this time of year to family members and friends who cannot have children or have lost their children. This will be our fourth Christmas since we started trying for a baby & each one gets more emotional and more difficult to deal with.

Now it's your turn...help me continue the fun. Let me know if you play along!

I am tagging:
Megan
Hafsa
Terri
Kara

busy busy busy

This house has sure been keeping us busy, let me tell you! G & I decided that we did more in this house in two days this weekend than we did in four years at the other house (minus painting, of course!)! We hung curtains, paintings, pictures and mirrors. We unpacked tons of boxes and have enough of the garage cleared out to park a car in there. We hope to have the other side cleared out by the weekend so that both cars will fit! We dismantled all of the boxes that we have unpacked (probably about 50+) and took them back over to G's parents' barn for when his sister moves in a little over a month (wedding bells are ringing soon!).

So why don't you come on in and let me give you a (picture) tour!!!??

First, you walk in the foyer (oh look at the dirty floors! My parents are coming this weekend and I refuse to sweep or mop until the last minute since we're constantly moving stuff through there)...


















To the left of the foyer is G's messy office--oops did I really say that?? Ok, yes, I did - but I hate cords, wires and such just HANGING there - we need a solution to that ASAP!


















To the right of the foyer as you walk in is the dining room! You can see the lovely painting made by G's late grandmother, which we received from his grandfather as a wedding gift. We have to wait a year to paint because of nail pops, but when we get the chance, this room will be a nice, pale blue with blue and brown curtains.




































Next, we come to the living room. We got curtains for this room, but we have to wait for them to be hemmed since I couldn't find the right length. As per the advice of a co-worker of G's, we are going to paint the far-wall (opposite the sofa, where the TV is) a maroony-red color (which will stretch over to the breakfast nook) and then the rest of the walls either a pale, pale gold or a pale beige.



































Now comes the breakfast nook area - sorry this picture is so horribly blurry. I don't know why it did that.


















And now, the kitchen. It's a bit messy here (sorry), but you get the idea. It's definitely one of my favorite places in the house. In fact, I cooked some great meals (meatloaf and chicken parm) here over the weekend!



































Now, let's go upstairs, ok? Here is half of our lovely staircase!
























Here is my messy crafting room (as you can see, I just started setting this up late last night).


















And finally, the master bedroom, closet & bathroom! In the first picture, at the foot of the bed, you can see the beautiful hope chest that my grandparents made us for a wedding gift. My mom made us the quilt on the bed as a wedding gift! Don't we just have such crafty family members?? I think that gene skipped over me :(

And I don't know what's going on with the crazy shadows on the wall in the 2nd bathroom pic! I tried to re-take the pic 4 times and it still turned out that way! Sorry!























































































I spared showing you the pics of the other two bathrooms, the basement, the garage, and the 2 guest bedrooms They kind of all start looking the same, right? Maybe I'll post pics once we get the beds all set up, etc! I hope you enjoyed the tour of our home! Hopefully many of you can come visit soon!

moving...ugh

Moving is stressful...please bear with me...I am promising a blog post next week and maybe some pictures! Thanks for hanging in there!

Oh yeah, and for a fertility update, let's just say that even after 3 years, that nasty hope-bug bit me once again. AF was a week late (I've never had a cycle longer than 31 days) and I had had some mid-cycle spotting, so I decided to test the other day...BFN - what did I expect anyway? How silly of me! :( Still waiting on AF - CD37 - I am terrified that she's on her way out for good and I'm slipping into early menopause - please pray!

(almost) Wordless Wednesday

I'll try to update more later this week, but for now...here's what you get!

Our Home Sweet Home!


















And the new homeowners with their keys (terrible pic of me, sorry!)!

A few more house pics...

...from our quick visit yesterday. Would it be too much to do red in the kitchen? I really really want a red room...and all of my kitchen stuff is apples...

House & other odds & ends

Things have continued to be busy around here. G had a day off of school this week, so we took the opportunity to go to the furniture store and buy stuff...lots of stuff...probably too much stuff in this crazy economy, but they were giving us free financing until 2013, so we figured we couldn't pass up the opportunity. After we bought the furniture, we went to the insurance agent's place and signed paperwork to get our homeowner's insurance all lined up. We have to make lots of calls this week to get our electric in order, as well as the cable. We're still not sure yet what will happen with our internet situation, since we've heard that they don't offer DSL in the area...that's going to be a real bummer if we have to go back to dial-up since we don't want to pay for cable internet (too much $$$). We're probably going to go out some night this week to pick up paint swatches and try to figure out what we want to do there. I have general ideas of what colors I want everywhere. Just nothing concrete. I want a pale green-blue in our bathroom, the same gold we had in our old bedroom for our new one, light gray in G's office, a tan in the living room/breakfast nook, a nice red in the kitchen (if we can pull it off) and a light blue in the dining room. I just have a hard time picking the actual shade.

And now, some pictures...I will be adding more actual pics of the house as soon as G uploads them.

Here are the pieces to our dining room set. We bought the table/chairs & the side-board. G's mom & dad might be getting the china cabinet for us for our Christmas present.

Wow! It's been a while!

Sorry I've left you stranded again to read the same blog entry over and over (haha, yeah, like I'm sure any of you did that!)...work has been keeping me busy and exhausted! My 4 year olds continue to be awesome and amazing! And 5/6 of my 3 year olds make it easy to get up for work each day, too...One child (and his parent), however, have still been making my life crazy. Remember this parent that I introduced you to on Meet the Teacher Night? Well, let me tell you the newest adventures in preschooling and why she has single-handedly convinced me (not that I needed much convincing) that some people just should NOT have children...

On Tuesday, paperwork went home about our class field trip to the pumpkin patch. Most of the parents choose to attend with their child(ren) and it's a great bonding time and learning experience. There are three options listed on the permission slip concerning transportation to the field trip. The first option is to meet us at the preschool parking lot at 8:50AM & we'll all form a caravan to make the short trek to the pumpkin patch. The second option is to meet us at the pumpkin patch at 9:25. And the third and final option on the permission slip is for those parents who work and would like their children to be able to go, but need to render some form of transportation for getting them to and from the pumpkin patch (most of the moms are SAHMs, but some do go to a babysitter after preschool who also watches other children).

And this is where things get very strange...the twins' mom called the daycare on Wednesday and spoke with my director saying that she didn't know how to fill out our permission slip because even though she was planning on attending the field trip with her kids, she would also need transportation for them to get to the pumpkin patch. My director was very confused by this and asked for clarification...the mom then explained that she was planning on dropping the boys off at preschool at 8:50 (with their car seats) and expecting someone else (ME) to drive them to the pumpkin patch for her & she would meet us there with her two other kids! She pretty much came right out and told our director that she wanted some time away from the twins... :(

THEN, she went on to say that her husband would also be going along on the field trip, along with their other 2 children (5 and almost 2), but she wanted to make sure that someone else would be there to take the twins off of her hands because "we have 4 kids and it's really chaotic with all of them at once!" Um honey - hello! First of all, I deal with 6-8 of them everyday with no aide. Secondly, it was YOUR CHOICE to have 4 kids...if you don't want to be responsible for them, then keep your legs closed! And thirdly, why can't your husband stay home with two of the kids so that you can come on the trip with the twins? If you're not going to all be spending time as one big cohesive unit, then what is the point of everyone going on the trip "together"? AAAAHHHHH - it's times like these that being infertile really sucks...I always wanted to have 4 kids, but at least mine would be my priority and be taken care of BY ME and not SOMEONE ELSE.

So, on Thursday, the mom approached me personally (all of this up until now was just hearsay from my director and the conversation that they had had on the phone) after preschool and asked me personally if I would be able to provide assistance with the twins on the day of the field trip. I explained to her (once again in my most professional teacher voice) that my job on that day is to facilitate the parents and keep the whole crew of kids wrangled (help kids on and off the hayride, help kids pick and carry pumpkins, help with snack, keep an eye on kids going through the hay maze)...due to the fact that I have 3 girls who are all watched by the same babysitter, it was very doubtful that I would be able to give her boys my full attention (nevermind the fact that all of the moms of my girls who go to the same babysitter are actually planning on coming on the field trip - she certainly doesn't need to know that). Then she replied, "Well, it's really just M that I need the help with." And of course, in my head, I'm thinking, yes, I know that you can't handle your own child, and apparently she thinks that I can handle her own child better than she can or she would give me the good ones and strap M into a stroller and be done with it (who, by the way will be turning 4 in less than 3 weeks!). I told my director (and she agreed) that if I need to make him hold onto a leash and lead him around like a dog all morning, then that's what I will do. It's obvious to me now that Mom is in denial of her own inadequacies with her children...or she just doesn't care and doesn't want to have to deal with him any more than she absolutely has to.

So, needless to say, Tuesdays and Thursdays are becoming more and more stressful with each passing day. Oh yeah, and did I mention that the MOM and her mom stopped in for an impromptu observation on Tuesday morning? I know I'm probably being paranoid (with good reason), but it just felt like they wanted to come in and see if anything I was doing in the room was the cause of M's poor behaviors...of course I graciously welcomed them in, knowing full well that I have nothing to hide and that I am using best teaching practices and appropriate activities in my preschool classroom. I've been observed by a panel of 7 or more administrators at a time while I've been teaching...she doesn't scare me one bit!

Ok, so now that I got that off of my chest, let's end on a happy note...some more pics of the house! We have our pre-settlement walk-through a week from Wednesday and closing two weeks from tomorrow!! I cannot believe it is here!!

The hardwood in the foyer & dining room


The front of house getting ready to get stoned...(whoa, dude!) ;)


And here are two pics of the kitchen! The space on the left is where the stove & microwave will go and the space on the right is where our refrigerator will go.

A better shot of the flooring! Not sure who the lady in the picture is (the builder's coordinator sent us the pics). I think it must be one of the kitchen vendor people.

This is why we do what we do...

This is a letter I received in my email today from one of last year's preschoolers...this IS why I get up each day...

(Dictated by Devon and typed by her mommy word for word.)

Hello Mrs. S,

I love you. I am having a good time in kindergarten and my teacher, Mrs. R, wants to know how I got to be so smart. I told her you helped me last year. She goes to my church just like you do. My bus ride is good but my bus driver screams a little. We do lots of fun things and next year we are going to have recess which means playing outside on the playground. And next year we are going to go into first grade. I hope the kids in your classroom are good to you.

Love,

Devon

Need your ideas, please!

Tomorrow, I will be starting a new activity in my four-year-old class, which will be ongoing throughout the year. Because I have a more advanced group this year, with one reader and a couple others who are almost ready, I wanted to do something to challenge them and also help them get to know each other better. Therefore, we will be adding the "Question of the Day" to our morning routine. I have a prepared chart with a 'yes' column and a 'no' column. I also have an area at the top, which is where I will clip on a new question each day. The children will each have a clothespin with their name on it, with which to answer the question (by clipping it onto the correct column).

So, here's where I need your help...I need to come up with a bunch of yes/no questions to ask the kids. Any and every idea is appreciated...
My first two that I have ready for this week are...
Do you like preschool? (I really hope they say yes or I'm in trouble)
Do you like fall weather?

So let me know what you've got! :)


***AAAAHHH! I Just noticed! This is my 100th post! Yippeeee!***

More house pics!

Gregg is away today (Eagles vs. Steelers game), so I thought there was no better time than now to update everyone on the house! We're locked into a settlement date of October 20th! That is now officially less than a month away! Last week, we snuck in during the evening (shhhhh! don't tell anyone!) to get some pics now that the drywalling is done! I can't believe how much bigger it looks now with the drywall in, than it did before when it was just the 2x6s and plywood on the floor.

The garage


















Looking from the kitchen into the living room


















The dining room...I already have our furniture all picked out for this room! :)


















Another shot of the living room


















The guest bathroom tub/shower
























The laundry room (upstairs) - I love this green shade of drywall they've been using - I think it must have something to do with being the kind for damper rooms - anyone out there know?! :)


















The office


















Master bedroom...don't you love the pile of builder's garbage right where our bed will be?


















The stairwell
























And my lovely corner tub (and after posting this, I realize that it looks like it's a sink, not a tub! I was going to stand in it for comparison, but DH wouldn't let me)

What parents see vs. reality

Parent interaction & feedback has been my Catch 22 all throughout my years (this will be #7!!) working in some capacity as a teacher. Meet-the-teacher Night, parent conferences and class programs rank right up there for me under root canals and gynecological exams on the painful/uncomfortable scale...ok, so I never really had a root canal, but I'm speaking on behalf of all of those unfortunate souls there who have had one; I'm guessing they're not exactly a walk in the park. You just never know what they're going to say...you work SO hard trying to build their child up and with one fell swoop, they come and break you down. HARD.

On the other hand, of course, parent interaction gives you a great opportunity to hear some excellent feedback and to give some feedback of your own. Graduation night last year was one prime example of that. My students' parents rallied together to present me with a $100 Target Gift Card as a year-end gift! It was so thoughtful! But even more meaningful were the kind words that so many of the parents had to say...my favorite was, "I don't know what you did with our son, but he's like a new man since having you - he's made such a complete turn around and we are just so thankful for all of the wonderful things you did this year for him. I know that he's really ready for kindergarten now." And I have the opportunity to give parents reassurance and feedback, as well.

But, there comes a time, (and a kid) where it's tough to come up with something positive and constructive to tell a parent. After all, these are their babies whom can often do no wrong. Parents don't always want to hear the painful truth (even if it is tactfully disguised and encoded in our most diplomatic, constructivist jargon). In honor of this time-honored truth, I give you two versions of my weekly newsletter...

The newsletter to the parents:
This week in preschool...
*We learned about the letter Bb, read story called Bubble Bear, listened to a Bb song and brainstormed a list of Bb words.
*We colored our Bb page blue, black and brown.
*We explored our world using our five senses: taste, touch, sight, hearing, and smell.
*We learned about the number zero, watched a quick movie about the number zero, and practiced making zeroes on a coloring page.
*We worked hard each day to become better listeners and better friends.
*We had Physical Activity time with silly songs and stretches.

The newsletter the teacher wishes she could write:
This week in preschool...
*Your child's teacher came up with a list of adjectives starting with Bb to describe the children's behavior. They are as follows: bad, brutal, belligerent, bitter, base and blasphemous. Several other children could be described as: benevolent, blissful and beautiful, but not yours. We're working on that.
*Most of the children colored their Bb pages blue, black and brown. Your child instead decided to color his arms, hands and table blue, black, and brown...pretty much anything but the Bb page.
*Your child explored our classroom using many of his five senses. He tasted his friends' snack without permission, touched the teacher's pointer and broke it, heard the teacher send him to time out, and saw his friends playing outside from the comfort of the picnic table while spending time in aforementioned time out. He also smelled the sweet scent of freedom when his teacher finally sent him to play after 4 minutes of torturous imprisonment.
*Your child's teacher reviewed the number zero by pointing out that she had ZERO desire to come to work several days this week, due to sleep deprivation and disgust at a certain child's belligerent behavior.
*Your child's teacher wanted to help the children work harder on being better listeners, and planned thusly by implementing activities designed to hone your child's listening skills. The only problem was that your child was finished with the activity before Mrs. S had even finished giving the directions. When asked why she had chosen to work ahead, "Wellllll...it was reaalllly easyyy and I wanted to do it THIS wayyyy." (In case you were wondering "THIS wayyyy" was not "MY wayyy" and landed your child in time out).
*Mrs. S got lots of physical activity by chasing your child around the classroom and play yard when he refused to sit at circle time and line up after play time was over. Someone give me a weekend!

Preschool-ism...

From time to time, my kids will just say something that makes me laugh...today was the first of the year! My little 3-year-old, Noah (who cried on the first day, but his mom said was SO excited to get out of bed and come to school today) excitedly said, "Hey Mrs. S, guess what? I brought Fin Gewtons for my snack today!" (for the preschool illiterate, that is 3-year-old speak for fig newtons!) Too, too cute!

And a few house pics...just for fun :)

This is our living room & the back door



The steps leading up to the 2nd floor & down to the basement - they will be hardwood with a carpet runner :)



This is the dining room


This is the master bath with my AWESOME corner tub under the sky light above!!! (can you tell I'm excited about that part?)



This is one of the spare bedrooms

Firsts...

First, let me start off this post of "firsts" by saying that I am SO sorry to have abandoned you all for a while. I really haven't fallen off the face of the earth...in my own defense, if you know any other teachers, you know that we're all MIA right around this time of year. Not the best of excuses, I know, but thanks for bearing with me.

I have been absolutely swamped and overwhelmed by work. My new work schedule has me up at 5:15 every morning and if you know me, you know I'm NOT a morning person, so that aspect has been painful, to say the least. I work before-school daycare from 6:30-8:30, then I teach from 9-11:30, then I have prep until 12:30, which also includes a few daycare responsibilities, such as setting up the nap room.

I successfully managed to get a week of "firsts" under my belt. I had my first, first day with the 3 year olds (since I didn't start off teaching 3s last year, I never had them on the first day) and it was interesting to say the least. Do you happen to recall the blog post about the boy whose mom wanted me to give him M&Ms for successful trips to the potty because he's "just starting to get the hang of it"? Well, guess what? 10 minutes after we got back from our group bathroom break on Tuesday, the kid pooped his pants! Oh yes he did. Not only that, but earlier in the day, I discovered that he didn't know how to drink out of a real cup, when he repeatedly spilled apple juice all down his front. So when we took the group trip to the bathroom, I used his spare change of clothes to change him...which meant that of course I didn't have any other clothes to put him in when he had his second accident. Luckily for me, his twin brother (who is potty trained and who does know how to drink out of a cup, mind you) had his change of clothes in his backpack as well, so we used those. THEN, on Thursday, we went accident free, but he now decides that he's going to be a demon-child and make me chase him around the classroom just for kicks and giggles. After the second time, I marched him (along with my whole class) down to talk to my director...and that talk sunk in and worked for about 2 minutes and then he was up to his old tricks. I have to keep telling myself that tomorrow will be a better day (and that I only have the 3s, two days a week).

I also had my first two days with the 4 year olds and they are amazing! I have two or three of them who are already reading & I just love them to pieces. Today was a bit of a crazy day because we didn't have time to do all of the things that I wanted to get to (due to having gym class), but the kids were flexible and did a good job! There is just SUCH a difference between the threes and the fours & I really can't get over it! I think I would teach fours full-time if I could!

And as my final "first" of the week - we had our first glimpse of the inside of our new home! They took us on a walk-through last Friday. It's the point after the electricians are in, before they drywall, when we meet with the builders and start getting a feel for the layout of everything. It was awesome to see and we really can't wait to be in! I'll leave you with a few pics & I'll upload more later!

This pic gives you an idea of the siding color (tan) - where you see insulation is where the stone will be :)