Open House at Mother's Day Out.

Today was the Open House for Micah's mother's day out program at our church. I'm not sure if I am super excited or super sad about the fact he's going to "school" this fall. It just reminds me how fast the years are truly flying by! At the same time, Mr. C has graciously watched Micah on no sleep for the past full year. The no sleep got really bad back in February when he got his promotion. He changed from being a part-time worker keeping 4AM-9AM hours to being a full-time manager over operations working from midnight until 8AM. For four months, he watched Micah all day long while working all night long getting about three hours of sleep a day. Then I came home for the summer, and it was evident just how much Mr. C had sacrificed this year.

Although my hubby is a true trooper, I knew back last winter he'd need a break. (Despite his protests to the opposite the past six months.)  I stood in line and registered Micah for MDO at our church in February. Literally, I got the only spot open. Since last winter, Micah has dropped one of his naps (which was his daddy's crutch to make it all day), and I really think kids do best to be around other kids. This is just a personal opinion, of course, but I am a school teacher. So of course I think Micah should be exposed to other kids. (Although, I do see lots and lots of points of my homeschooling friends, too. I've even thought about homeschooling myself. So I guess we'll see.)

At any rate, our church's program is Biblically based, and it isn't stressful academics. I'm not one of "those moms" who thinks he needs to read independently at age three. I honestly don't want him to worry with "academics" at this point. I don't need him to be in the "best preschool" in the city. I think that stuff is kind of over the top. I want him to absorb the Bible and learn as much as we can teach him spiritually.  I try not to compare him to other kids his age. And I hope to think that as a teacher, I'll try to be a laid back mom. I want to be involved but not annoying to his teacher.

I don't really like to miss work, but at the same time...I wanted to enjoy Open House, meet Micah's teachers, see his "classroom" (which is really the Sunday school room next door), drop off his supplies, and reassure him things would be fine. Going to our church seemed like a good choice because Micah knows the building, we know people up there, and it is close to our home.  I was so surprised to see how shy he was today!! He hid behind me most of the time. About thirty minutes into the day, he warmed up and started playing independently with some toys.  I was also shocked to see our pastor's grandson and the pastor's wife in the room when I arrived. That made me feel a whole lot better. I mean, if it is good enough for the pastor's family...right? Our pastor's daughter-in-law apparently works and Mrs. Rhonda will drop off her grandson two days a week. Their grandson is about six weeks older than Micah. Our church is kind of big, though. Our pastor doesn't know us, but maybe one day we'll know him better now? Who knows? He might be friends with Micah growing up. Haha!

This is Micah's teacher Mrs. Tracy. I found this picture hilarious because she wasn't quite ready, and Micah was giving me his latest "cheese" face.

Still a little apprehensive, but otherwise doing well.

Super excited! Yeah for Mother's Day Out (for daddies, too)!

Micah and I outside his classroom.

 

 His name tag on the door. (I blurred out his last name. Thanks, Amanda, for giving me that tip!)

 

Here is the display outside of his classroom door with all the name tags and the class list. (I also blurred out the last names since I don't know any of the parents.)

 We also met his sweet assistant teacher Mrs. Linda, but I wasn't able to get a picture with her. I hope I didn't offend her!

He's going to have a fun little schedule:

9:00-9:30 Arrival

9:30-10:00 Craft

10:00-10:30 Playtime

10:30-11:00 Clean up and prepare for lunch

11:00 Lunch

11:30-12:00 Storytime or Music

12:00-1:30 Naptime

1:30-2:00 Prepare for dismissal

I love his class objectives (I'll take a picture of the list later):

1. Parent/Child separation

2. Group snack time at table, lunch time, and nap time

3. Learning to play in a group, as well as, by himself/herself

4. Learning to share

5. Participating in music time and story time

6. Exposure to colors, shapes, body parts, numbers, and alphabet

7. Establishing manners

8. Establishing a prayer routine

Can I just tell you how those "objectives" make me laugh--in a good way. (You should see my list of second grade objectives.) At the same time, I'm really proud to send him to a place that puts prayer on a list for objectives of a two year old. He'll also be participating in KinderMusik every Thursday. I think our church does a great job of reaching the world for Christ through something as small as a MDO program that is heavy on faith in Jesus.

At any rate, I wanted to record all this "stuff" because I know I won't remember one of these days. His childhood is already just flying by too fast! He officially starts "school" next Tuesday, and my principal (who is marvelous!) is letting me come in late so I can drop him off on his first day. (His school starts when my school starts, so I'll probably be about 30 minutes late.) After that, it is all up to Daddy! I'm feeling more like a mom now. I will have a lunch to pack next week! =)

Milestones fly by, don't they? I hope you are having a wonderful week! 

 

A busted lip, a broken car, and a birthday.

Another weekend has zoomed by way, way too fast. I enjoyed every minute of it with my little man (and some with the husband when he wasn't asleep).

 On Friday night, we had some crazy awesome weather. I guess I should have taken Micah for a run, but he kept asking to go out in the back yard. The previous owners of our house installed a swing set, so it is nice to finally use it after living here eight years! Haha!

He & I enjoyed a night of sliding and chasing the dogs.

I took this cute picture right before disaster struck in the form of a busted lip. Poor little guy ran away from his mama, tried to climb the ladder by himself, and then tripped and hit the ladder instead.

That night was a long night with frequent trips to his room to give him Tylenol.

 The night ended with an early morning wake up call around 5AM. It was a long morning for the poor, swollen lipped fella.

 We decided to get out of the house for a bit. So we went to a consignment sale in Germantown, and then we checked out a new store in Cordova called Bargain Hunt. This store sales overstocked merchandise from Amazon, and it is really, really cheap. It has everything if you don't mind hunting a bit. I got a shirt for $0.70! Haha! Actually, I got seven shirts for $20 if that tells you anything. I also got some rain boots for $9, myriads of Micah's Christmas presents and birthday presents for dirt cheap, too. They have everything! Baby stuff, camping gear, electronics, shoes, furniture. It is all new, and if you don't like it...you can return it. If Amazon sells it, they have it. Go try it out. (For my Memphis friends: it is at the corner of Trinity and G'town Pkwy right across from the huge Wal-mart behind the Baptist Minor Med.)

While on our shopping trip, we also decided to try out the new Home Goods store that just opened up. I am some kind of excited to go to Home Goods! Except, wait a while to go. We could barely find a place to park, and I could hardly walk through the store. It was a madhouse! Although, I did score what I went to get which was this child size recliner that matches Mr. C's recliner. 

I'm not a big fan of junking up our living room with toys, and I did not want any character related furniture. This, however, cracked me up! I mean it is just like my husband's man chair. Since Micah keeps shoving me off the couch (I am not even kidding), I thought he'd like his own "rock rock" chair.

I bought it for his birthday or Christmas, but then we got out of the car...and he climbed right into it.

So I took a picture of him sitting in a recliner in the middle of our driveway. I asked him to say, "Cheese!" So that is what he is saying in the picture making a "cheese" face. I laughed and laughed at this shot.

 The he decided to be a bit more normal and just sit there for me. =)

One thing I'm loving about this age is his increasing ability to play alone and pretend while he's playing. It's fascinating to just watch! He spent an hour pretending he was eating dinner, feeding "Mr. Bear" (his fave stuffed animal) using Dixie cups and the dog's water bowl. (Freshly out of the dishwasher, so it was safe and sanitized.)

I think he must have been eating steak or something. Apparently, it was a wonderful meal.

 He also cracked me up getting situated in his new chair with Mr. Bear, his Dixie cup, and Copper's water bowl. I mean, why buy them toys, right?

 Here's my receipt from Bargain Hunt. Look at how much those shirts cost--$0.70, $4.19, and $4.99. Think thrift store prices, but I bought Ralph Lauren & Nautica for brand new!

 On Sunday, we went to church and then down to Mississippi to celebrate Mr. C's birthday (which is Wednesday) with his family. Only our truck broke down going down there and coming back. So we sat in the middle of nowhere in Mississippi waiting for a ride from his parents with a baby who had no nap all day.

 It was a lovely time had by all. We got home (finally!) at nine o'clock. Pretty sure my papers didn't get graded, and my lessons plans aren't written.

Thankfully, this happened on a Sunday since Mr. C is off on Mondays. Hopefully, since we dropped the car off tonight at the shop, it will be fixed by tomorrow afternoon. We started seriously discussing tonight the probability that we will be car shopping soon. Every time we put it off, something like this happens. I drive a '99, and my husband drives a '98. We like to be good stewards of our money, and drive cars until they die.

Unfortunately, we're starting to believe that one of the cars is dying at 250k miles. 

At any rate, it would be nice to have at least one reliable car to drive outside of the city of Memphis. We're starting to both feel a little unsafe driving our cars long distances. I can't lie, though. I'm ready to have a four door vehicle instead of my Honda coupe. I just really, really don't want to spend the money!

Well, that's about all of our weekend. Have a great week!

Soon it will be September.

When I was little, my dad used to tell me that I needed "an attitude adjustment" about various things in life. There were times where my "attitude adjustment" would come in the form of a spanking or perhaps the threat of a spanking. I tend to be an overly dramatic person mixed with a worrying personality. So let's just say that a lot of times I have to stop, mentally talk to myself, and give myself "an attitude adjustment" like my Daddy used to do for me. =)

This school year? Well, I think I need one of those attitude adjustments.

I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed.

I don't want to complain because I know that isn't really right. I have a great job, and I work at a wonderful school. Blessings abound all around me, but it is something about the month of August. August always puts me in a funk because honestly...I'm working 50+ hours this time of year with little family time, little rest time, little me time, little husband time, and little quiet time. I haven't ran in three weeks. I'm tired. I feel overworked, underpaid. I'm exhausted. I don't see my baby boy as much as I want to. I haven't seen my husband in like two weeks because of our crazy schedule. I haven't been to church on a Wednesday night in three weeks because I'm working late some other night of the week (registration, PTA meeting, curriculum night, etc) so I don't feel like getting out yet another night. I've eaten lots of fast food because it is just easy. I'm overwhelmed by the amount of children in my class with their various special needs. I really want to just have a good cry.

I almost did cry when I walked into my house tonight after a long day (faculty meeting at 7:30 until the parents left curriculum night at 7:30) to find my sweet husband sitting on the couch waiting for me to come home. Now for most of you, that's not unusual for your husband to sit up and wait on you. However, when it is 8:15, and he has to be up at 11:00pm to go to work because he works all night long...staying up 3 hours past his bedtime so he could "actually see you for at least thirty minutes and talk"...I really did have my cry tonight. I had my "I don't know how I can handle this and this and this and that and that and this" blubber to my favorite man on Earth.

I know I need to get some things lined back up.

#1 Quiet time. Yup, I need to have one. I'm being transparent, but it has fallen by the wayside big time.
#2 Work out time. Yup, I have been "working out" so long that my body feels like it needs it now. It has become my "me" time, and I need it.
#3 Relax time. There has been no relaxing for three weekends or plus straight. I'm always gluing, cutting, laminating, printing, sorting, organizing, or filing after Micah is in bed. I need a break!

Anyway, I'm not going to try to complain even though I probably already did just that. I'm trying to focus my attitude back on what is right, what is noble, and what is pure. These are the things I need to think of. In the end, this life is temporary. No one will remember the cute laminated owls that I worked on for two hours. They simply won't. So I need to let go, let God, and calm down!

Ok, attitude adjustment done.

Thanks for listening to me vent. Even if I know that nobody really reads this but like 20 people. Ha!

Have a good rest of your week.

Well, August is in full swing. I mean, I am some kind of busy. I've got mixed emotions about being back at work. At some points in my life, I love my career & interactions with adults or the outside world. Getting out of the house is much more productive for me.

However, it's when I'm trying to squeeze one workout in a week (yes! a week! it's bad!), that I miss my free time from not working. Our schedules make it hard to juggle working out. I'm going to try my best to get back on the wagon this week. Oh, in the midst of parent night, too.

 More often than not, since school has started, I end up feeling like Micah here.

It's a really, really bad picture taken in complete darkness of his room one night after I returned to work.

 I guess I'm not the only worn out by the early mornings, long days, and late nights.

One morning, I spent fifteen to twenty minutes looking for my glasses. I found them in a diaper pail along with every other belonging known to man. This (gross) picture demonstrates how active Micah is these days. I tell people he hides stuff from us all the time. Here ya go. Proof.  I also found our lost bottle of ibruprofen, some nails, an entire case of wipes, a toothbrush, and an unused wrapped tampon.

Niiiiiiiice.

The past two weeks, Micah has gone from having a slight cough and running nose to complete snotty messes, green boogers, wheezing, and not sleeping at night.

Since I try to keep my days off to a minimum, I took Micah to the doctor on Saturday morning. Thank you, iPad, for being a faithful companion to entertain our child. Also, thank you to Peek-a-boo Barn apps.

Micah is quite the daredevil these days. He climbs on everything, can get into anything, and is just a complete mess that keeps a boy mom on her toes.

Exhibit A.

This happened in five seconds flat. I, of course, stopped to document it on camera.

 Not long after singing the praises of the iPad, I was pulling my child out of the cabinet where the doctors keep the paper towels.

He got stuck, and he got scared. 

I, of course, documented it all on camera.

Micah, none of your childhood adventures will be forgotten, my poor boy.

My sister & I had planned to head out to a small down near our parents' house to get some cupcakes with the boys on Saturday. In the end, neither of us felt like driving thirty minutes away. Instead, I ran to McD's for some pancakes and brought them over to Keren's house. 

We let the boys play all kinds of games and get into trouble while the construction crew finished the insulation on their expandable room upstairs.

Eventually, it was time to go home so Uncle Jase, Aunt Keren, and Ebin could eat some lunch. Micah took his nap, and I was lazy as can be. Finally, Daddy woke up and it cooled off outside. We headed for Shelby Farms Park to get in a family run.

Ahem.

Our "run" turned into a walk when Micah started screaming to get down out of his stroller. We kept trying to run, but it just didn't work out. I guess we shouldn't take a toddler out at bedtime and expect stellar behavior. 

I forgot his shoes, so we just let him roam barefoot.

 He was quite content running around the hills and walking trails by the lake yelling, "Duck! Duck!"

 Sometimes, my heart just melts when I look at him.

 I realize how fast time is flying, and I just want to cry.

 He loves to sing songs now, and our favorites are fun Bible tunes with lots of hand motions and dancing.

He's pretty much the cutest thing ever.

We love you, Micah. You amaze us every day.

 Sometimes the best moments in life happen when you don't plan them.

I wanted a run.

I got a sunset photo shoot with a wiggly toddler instead.

I wouldn't trade that for anything.

 Some people say to stop and smell the roses. Well, we stopped to smell the cattails, and I think either way is a win.

I'm so very thankful for the tiny blessings in my life even if my two miles was spent walking. It's nice to capture moments like these that will stay in my heart forever.

And Sunday? Well, Sunday started out with a toddler who had a low grade fever. I called our preschool coordinator to let her know that we wouldn't be at church this morning for nursery.

I spent the day resting, watching Micah, and writing lesson plans.

Welcome back. School is definitely now officially in session.

Have a great week!

It's that time of year again!

 So here was my view on Monday after a weekend spent with the family celebrating my nephew's birthday & a Sunday full of church. I was so sad Sunday because one of our staff members is leaving to take a church in Ohio, and we LOVE that family. So sad!

Yes. That is my healthy lunch, my computer, and my classroom. I'm back at school once again set to begin a new year.

I'm very nervous about this year.

#1 I have a student teacher. It's been interesting, and I'll leave it at that lest she stumble upon my blog.

#2 I'm getting a special student in my classroom that has special needs and includes a full time teacher's assistant.

That's three adults in one room, y'all.

And about twenty or so kids.

I'm kind of the "boss" of all that is going on in there, so I'm getting quite anxious.

My principal & I already had a chat about my student teacher, and I had to contact the local university from which she is getting her degree. Hopefully, they will straighten some things out with her and we can move on.

 So in all of my work "fun" this week, Mr. C made me breakfast in bed on Tuesday! How sweet is that? Tuesday was our registration day, and I had the late shift. I didn't have to be at work until noon, and it was my last official day to sleep in. What a sweetie I have!

 My French toast was gone in about 5 minutes. To be healthy, he made it with whole wheat bread, eggs, and cinnamon instead of sugar. The syrup was the bad kind, but everything in moderation, right?

 This morning, I had some extra time with little man because my car broke down right after my sister-in-law's dog snapped at Micah. Let's just say, it was an interesting morning.

 So without a car, I texted my hubs & called my sister. Arrangements were made to get me to work, but I just tried to enjoy the extra thirty minutes with Micah as I waited for my ride. I'm really wanting a new car pronto. I'm kind of over all the car issues lately, but again. I have a car.

 After work today, I came home to enjoy some quality time with little man. We did not make it to Chick-fil-a today. Our plans today included Chick-fil-a, but unfortunately broken cars and long days of inservice and a CFA that is being remodeled messed with our plans.

 Plus Daddy made spaghetti.

 Spaghetti is good.

 And Mommy has social studies lesson plans and a newsletter to do tonight as well as somehow try to fit in a two mile run. Therefore, no CFA, but we are there in spirit!!

 After the messy dinner, Micah needed a bath. I just have to say that I am starting to really love our nighttime routines. I'm working with Micah on praying before we eat, and it is the cutest thing. I need to get it on video. 

Me: God is great.

Micah: God blah blah blah blah. BIG SMILE.

Me: God is good.

Micah: God blah blah blah blah. BIG SMILE. Ay-me?

Me: Not amen yet. Hold on. Let us thank Him for our food. Amen.

Micah: Ay-me!!

 Of course, as soon as I decide to go get the "nice" camera to take pictures of Micah in the bath, I realize the memory card is full. So back to the iPhone it is.

 After his bath time, we start reading our books. He has several Bible books he loves, and he loves his colors book. Then sometimes I get out the iPad, and we play on the animal flashcards and sounds app.

 Finally, I start taking him to his room where he sits in my lap. We read from his "Bible" as much as he will let me. We point out the animals. We sing songs like "Zaccheus" and "The B-I-B-L-E" to each other.

 Then we say our prayers together, and he attempts to pray. He always gets the "ay-me" in at the end, though!

It's so hard to be back at work (in some ways), but in other ways I'm so thankful for all the time I have in the evenings. I try to cram it full of vocabulary, reading stories, singing Bible songs, teaching prayer, and sharing Scripture. 

We've had a great week, and I know that we'll be back in the swing of things very soon despite all of our crazy setbacks this week. The Lord has given us so much, so we'll try to laugh about the rest and focus on the best.