Still Here, But Incredibly Busy

Wow. I can't believe more than a whole month has passed since I last blogged. Actually I can. Life has been INSANE lately.

I have officially adjusted to the transition of being the sole teacher responsible for all English and Literature instruction for nearly 130 students. I have worked out a schedule that seems to be working well for everyone. We set aside Mondays and most of our class time on Tuesdays focusing on spelling, grammar, or writing, and then the rest of the week we focus on literature. The kids seem to enjoy and appreciate the structure and knowing what to expect. I appreciate the structure and that it keeps me in check with making sure I cover what is necessary for the year.

I guess a big stressor has been the fact that these kids are now having English/Literature instruction for 2.5 hours less each week, and I still have to try to cover the same amount of information. I know that I am only one person and it would be horribly unrealistic of my principal to expect me to do more than I am, but I just can't help but feel the pressure to work like a machine to get things done. I think the other thing is that at my old school I got used to teaching 2-hour block periods, and now my classes are only 50-minutes long and I always feel like I never got everything accomplished I set out to do.

The biggest issue I have had to deal with since the transition would most definitely have to do with the literature grades. Our literature teacher left somewhat abruptly (in my opinion considering I had only a couple days notice) and she didn't necessarily communicate much to me before she left. The worst part was that she had left some grades either not graded, or students had not turned the assignments in. I had absolutely NO way of knowing what the situation was regarding some of those grades. Not only was there confusion regarding some of the grades, but this teacher hadn't even set up the grade book at this point! I had to go in and enter all the grades for all assignments for every student, and that definitely took quite a chunk of time for me to do!

The wost part of the whole situation came two weeks ago when the quarter finished and I had parent/teacher conferences. I had SEVERAL parents come to me yelling at me and demanding that I change the grades from this other teacher. They didn't even care to listen to my side of the story that I had no idea what the situation was regarding those missing and/or ungraded assignments and that all I did was type in the grades. I had nothing to do with their previous assignments and I can't just slap a grade on an assignment when I had no idea what the assignment was and no clue what the parameters were regarding how the teacher was grading the assignment. I was not the least bit responsible for any sort of issue regarding those grades, but they didn't care to hear it. It was ridiculous. And horrible. I didn't deserve to be talked to like that. I didn't do anything to deserve that, and that is what upset me so much. I went home that night and cried my eyes out. It was horrible.

I ended up meeting with my principal regarding this issue and we came up with a plan. I told her that I didn't care what the end result was; just that parents needed to know that grades will not be questioned or changed next quarter, and that I had NOTHING TO DO WITH THIS SITUATION! We sat down and wrote a letter to the middle school parents regarding the issue and I made sure I would be completely absolved from any connection to the grades from the previous teacher. After a couple attempts at various solutions, we felt it was best to excuse students from the assignments that were questionable. Personally, I feel that all 1st quarter grades are a joke. Kids got excused for assignments they didn't turn in and kids got excused for assignments that didn't get graded by their other teacher, but I had no way of knowing the difference between the two.

I've spent the past two weeks dealing with that issue. I'm just glad to be at a point to put it behind me. It's been ridiculous.

Here's what else has happened in the past month:

Meghan lost her first toothWe got a new kitten, Chloe. She is absolutely precious, and the girls love playing with her.

Audrey with Chloe on the way home after we got her.

Meghan adores Chloe and rarely puts her down

What can I say??? These girls are just too cute!

Meghan was very excited about her Dorothy costume.

She laughed so hard when she saw herself with the wig on.

Of course, Audrey wanted to be a princess.

Not just any princess, but Cinderella.

We had our first ultrasound at the beginning of this month, and baby looks quite healthy and right on schedule! A nice profile picture of head, arm, and possibly thumb sucking.

...and here HE is! Couldn't quite miss that one!

We are all very excited about the news and the girls are definitely excited to be having a little brother. We are going to name him Robert Bradley in honor of his two grandfathers. Robert after Jason's dad who died just two months before we got married, and Bradley, of course, after my dad who is, thankfully, still with us. I'm feeling Robbie move more and more each day. Considering this is THE only thing I remotely like about being pregnant, I am quite happy to be feeling him move around. I just hope and pray he continues to grow and stay healthy and be the blessing we all know he will be.

Dodging a Bullet

I dodged a huge bullet this week. Not a real one, of course.

Four teachers from my school will no longer have a job after the end of this month. My heart breaks for my co-workers who are stuck in a horrible situation, and not knowing what is going to happen in the future. It was just about a year ago where I was in a similar position where I was having to look for another teaching job in the middle of the school year. It's hard.

Unfortunately, our school has been struggling with enrollment since school has started, and since we are short at least 70 students, we can't afford to keep four of our teachers. That's what can suck about working at a charter school. Our ability to sustain ourselves is quite different than in a regular public school. Right now, as much as I don't exactly want ridiculously full classrooms, I am praying for some sort of miracle.

Not only do I feel bad for my co-workers who are left searching for jobs, but this severely affects our school. I'm thinking about all the kids who have had all this time to get used to their teacher and just get into a routine, and now they are going to be moved into a different classroom with a different teacher and new classmates. That can be a hard adjustment for some kids. We are also losing our Art teacher. That really sucks. I am a huge supporter of the Arts in schools, and I feel bad for the kids who thrive in those environments because we all are suffering.

This change affects me quit a bit, too. One of our 7th grade teachers is being let go. Not only do I adore her, but she is also the one who teaches Literature. Since she will no longer be teaching that, it is up to me to do not only her job, but mine as well! Whew! I definitely lost some sleep worrying about that one last night! I know I've taught the literature before with this curriculum (which I'm not worried about one bit), but having to teach that IN ADDITION TO all the spelling, grammar, and writing that needs to be taught is pretty overwhelming for me right now.

I have at least figured out that my primary role will soon be teaching all the literature for the middle school. Although I am quite sad and disappointed about losing the opportunity of working with an amazing woman and educator, I am excited that I get to teach these stories again. I LOVED teaching the literature. These books are amazing and I have been feeling a little sad not being able to teach them again. It looks like I am going to have to lean upon the help of my team of middle school teachers to help out with teaching the spelling, grammar, and writing.

I don't know, maybe I'm experiencing a little bit of survivor's guilt. It very well could have been me who was told they wouldn't have a job to go to after the end of this month. Just as easily as I am able to teach the literature, the other teacher is just as able to teach what I do. It's rough. It'll be hard keeping track of another set of stuff I have to do with two separate grade books for each subject, and so on. I was just starting to feel like I was getting the hang of things. Now these kids are losing a teacher, and now we get an entirely different schedule!

I know I'll survive this. It's just a lot to take in right now. I need to remind myself that God never puts us through more than we can handle. He is in control and He knows what He is doing. I'll be fine. I just need to get used to the idea first.

On a side note....things with the pregnancy are going along just smoothly. I no longer depend on my anti-nausea pills, and I seem to have more of my energy back. I am still SUPER sensitive to certain smells or just thinking of nastiness. I seem more sensitive to these sorts of things than I was with the other two pregnancies. I'm really looking forward to when I can start feeling the baby move. That has always been my favorite part about being pregnant. We find out the gender of the baby during the second week of October! I can't wait to see the little one for our first ultrasound!

School Has Started Already?

School started last Thursday. Need I say more?

Even the beginning of last week is a blur. I took Meghan shopping to get her uniforms for school, I had back to school night for my students, and then I got to do it all over again the next night as a parent for Meghan. That is definitely going to be an adjustment. I have found it's not as easy to stay after school and get some things done since I have Meghan with me and she can't keep herself busy as easily as I hoped.

Meghan is adjusting to our new school schedule pretty well. What was really nice to find out is that I have the same lunch period as Meghan. I get to go into the lunch room every day and visit with her for a short time. I actually ate lunch with her on her first day of school. I still can't believe she is already in Kindergarten. I took a picture of her on the first day of school:

Audrey, on the other hand, is another issue. Poor girl. She is used to going to the same daycare as Meghan and she is definitely showing signs of missing her big sister. On the first day of school, she had Jason call me three different times on my way to work because she wanted to say "goodbye" and to be reminded that I still love her. I was so impressed with Jason, though. He decided to take it upon himself and make it a routine that every week he takes Audrey on a little date. That is so precious! My girls are so lucky to have such an amazing dad. This is exactly what Audrey needs right now. Especially with the baby coming in February.

Speaking of the baby, all seems to be going well. I got to hear the baby's heartbeat recently, and my doctor said it seems to be healthy. I won't be having my first ultrasound for another month or so which is when we find out the gender of the baby. I did express my concerns to my doctor about all my nauseousness. I don't necessarily know if it is as severe or more severe as my other pregnancies, but I think that my greater struggle is that the more tired I am, the more nauseous I feel. Even with more than 8 hours of sleep a night, I am still feeling nauseous. I told my doctor that I was concerned about my ability to perform my job at that capacity I need to even with having to deal with nauseousness. She totally made my day when she sent me out with a prescription for anti-nausea medication. I have been on it for over a week now, and it has made a HUGE difference. I still have to be careful with getting enough sleep, but it has definitely helped out with my ability to survive the day.

10 1/2 Week Update

The other day, I started a new post to my blog until my computer decided to turn itself off in the middle of my blogging. I was too tired to fight it, so I decided to finish it later. Later then turned into several days, and now it has been nearly a week since I last tried to blog.

Looking back on what I had originally planned on posting, I just sit back and laugh at how inaccurate it is from where I stand today. All last week I was feeling good. I didn't have any struggles with nauseousness at all last week and I was feeling great. I was very encouraged at how I was feeling since I started back at work last Monday. The teachers at my school are given about 2 1/2 weeks of training and time to prepare their classrooms before school starts. At times I get annoyed just because it cuts so far into my summer, but since I am new to this school, it is nice having this extra time to prepare for the new school year. The downside to all this is that I have yet more time to worry about all the odds and ends of how I am going to structure my class and curriculum.

These past two days, however, I have not been quite so fortunate with the nauseousness. I am not very tolerant these days, and every day seems like a struggle. What makes it more difficult to deal with is that I have somewhere to be. I can't decide not to come in just because I am feeling nauseous and I am most definitely not contagious. The only thing that keeps me in perspective right now is when I remember one of my friends who just recently had a baby of her own. Poor girl, she struggled with nauseousness her ENTIRE pregnancy. She had it so bad that she wasn't just on anti-nausea medication, but if she missed one day of her medication, she was violently nauseous and sick the entire day.

Aside from the nauseousness, I am so tired. Actually, I have discovered that the more tired I am, the more nauseous I get. So, I try to get LOTS of sleep each night, but that doesn't really allow me much time to work at home on some school things that desperately need to get done. Many of these things get pushed to "later." Don't ask me when "later" will be because my days are completely filled with various seminars and I don't have much time to get more settled and organized with my class...which perpetuates my lack of productivity and exhaustion. I am very ready to get past this and to start feeling "normal." Whenever that will be.

Right now I try my best to take things one day at a time....or one moment at a time. It's not easy. Especially when I've felt pretty lousy all day, I end up bringing home two crabby girls who won't stop bickering and fighting, I have to try to fix yet one more dinner when I can't stand the smell, sight, or thought of food out of fear of throwing up, and all I want to do is sleep and blink my eyes and the house will magically be clean while my classroom will be perfectly ready for the new school year, and my family will be wonderfully tended to and everyone is perfectly happy and content with life. It will all happen as planned...later.

8 1/2 Week Update

Well, it's been a week since I announced the big news about the baby.

Obviously being so early in my pregnancy, there really isn't much that has changed in the past week. I go to my first prenatal appointment tomorrow morning. I am excited to meet my new midwife and to hopefully hear that little heartbeat. I decided to continue with a midwife because I had a midwife for both of my previous pregnancies, and I have nothing but positive things to say. I would recommend a midwife to anyone. They are fabulous. I know several other women who have had midwives and all have great things to say.

I am still struggling with morning sickness (or all day sickness as it happens for me this time around). I was reminded of that the other morning when I set my alarm because I had to be somewhere early the next morning. When the alarm went off, I jumped out of bed like I always do, and I headed straight for the shower. Big mistake. I can't jump out of bed like I used to. I have to ease into my morning. I guess it's a good thing I found out now and not once school was starting, or I'd be late for school. I was fighting nauseousness for the rest of the day.

I was telling Jason the other night that at times it doesn't seem as severe as it did with the other pregnancies, but it is so easy to forget sometimes. I have found that the similar tactics I used in the past to cope with nauseousness still seems to work. I am still confronted with overwhelmingly horrible smells that quickly send me to the other room just to keep from throwing up all over the place. There have also been quite a few nights where Jason is left to figure out dinner on his own because I can't even think about eating when it's time for dinner. Sometimes the thought of food just makes me sick. Really, if I wasn't at a point where it was necessary to eat for the sake of a healthy baby, this could be a great diet...not very nutritional, but I'd definitely lose weight if the thought of food didn't repulse me so much.

I really appreciate Jason's patience as I muddle through this. I am optimistic, though. I don't think I'm going to have to endure much more of this, either. I do consider myself lucky. I didn't start feeling any sort of nauseousness until I was about 6 weeks along. I better not be jinxing anything by being so optimistic.

The other thing is that I have been super TIRED lately. I remember the fatigue, but it seems so much worse when you are running after a couple of kids, too! Thankfully I have been able to take a good nap in the afternoons when the girls nap. That won't last long. I have teacher orientation that starts next week and it goes until school starts. Last Thursday and Friday I had to report to orientation for the new teachers to the school. I was SO tired afterwards! It really hit me on Friday. It hit me so hard that I was in bed by around 8:00 when we got the girls to bed, and then I didn't wake up until 7:30 the next morning! Boy, did I feel refreshed! These next couple weeks are going to be a bit bumpy when it comes to the early pregnancy fatigue, but it should get better once school starts. I'll be in my second trimester by then, and I'll be ready to start the new school year with a bang.

I know it sounds crazy, but I am REALLY excited for school to start. I know there will be quite the adjustment period, but I am so excited to be at a school where all the teachers there seem to be just as excited about what they do as I am. I feel so excited about the administration, too. After all I had been through at my old school with the administration there, I am excited to be working for people who not just say they are on my side, but I actually believe it. The proof is in how many teachers stayed over the summer and how many positive things they all have to say about the school and the staff there.

I was wrestling with when I should share with the administration about my pregnancy. Some people said that I should wait until my first trimester is over, but I felt that doing so seemed like I would be hiding something which I have no reason to hide. After feeling things out, I felt it was in my best interest to be straightforward and tell them sooner rather than later. I told both the principal and the assistant principal and each of them were thrilled. They were very happy for me and they were pleased that I had shared this information with them. I told them that I am an open and honest person and that I felt that it was important for me to tell them now because I felt that it would be hypocritical of me to keep it a secret any longer. I know that through my actions, they saw that I expect open and honest communication from my students without fear of any sort of backlash. I walked away from that conversation feeling quite relieved and definitely a huge weight had been lifted off my shoulders.

God has definitely taken care of things. Looking back to where I had been a year ago, there is NO WAY I could have predicted all this to have happened. God had blessed us so much, and I am so grateful as He continues to lavish blessings upon us.

In Case You Were Wondering...

Yup. It happened.We are expecting our new little one at the end of February. For the first few weeks, I was feeling fine and nothing out of the ordinary. For a short time there, I was starting to feel a bit guilty and was wishing for just a slight tinge of morning sickness just so I would be absolutely certain it was true. (Like the positive pregnancy test wasn't enough or something.) Stupid me. What was I thinking? I had it so good before, and now I am just nauseous all day. The worst part? This is just the beginning of it. Thankfully it hasn't progressed to much more than nauseousness, but it still sucks. Now here I am sitting and wishing for those days before where I felt absolutely nothing at all. The good part? I should *hopefully* be done with all the nauseousness by the time school starts. Unless I am one of those unfortunate ones who have to deal with the constant urge to vomit their entire pregnancy. Kinda makes teaching a bit more challenging.

Considering this will be my third baby, I guess you can say I am a veteran to all the pregnancy ailments. Not really. It is so true that EVERY pregnancy is SO different. I just hope and pray that this one goes just as smoothly as my other two. Just like my other pregnancies, I can't stand the taste of crackers. So my food of choice to combat the nauseousness is: It's light enough to keep me from making a fast run to the bathroom, but enough to make my stomach think it's had something to eat to keep from making me take yet another quick run to the bathroom. The heartburn has already set in, so it's my normal routine to just pop a couple tums as I'm getting into bed each night.

The girls are pretty excited. They are thrilled to be welcoming a little brother or sister this winter. We'll see how quickly the novelty will wear off once the baby arrives.

The funniest part was how my parents found out about the baby. We were all camping over the Independence Day holiday weekend. One of the days we were out there, I was stranded in my sister's RV with my mom because of the rain. We were in there playing cards while Meghan, Audrey, and my nephew were playing to pass the time. While we were in the middle of a card game, my mom overheard my girls telling their cousin about the exciting news.

Audrey: "We're going to have a little brother or sister!"

Meghan: "Yeah! Our mommy has a baby in her tummy!"

My mom then looked at me in utter shock and disbelief and desperately looking for answers. I didn't know how to respond to that, so I just laughed. My uproarious laughter then caused my sister, who is deaf, to be very confused and absolutely frantic and desperately wanting to know what was so funny. My mother then told my sister what she heard and then I had two sets of eyes staring me down and intent on finding out the truth. While still laughing, I just shook my head, "yes." They were quite excited. Seriously, who wouldn't be excited?

Considering we hadn't quite figured out how we wanted to tell the grandparents about the baby, I think that turned out well....and quite memorable.

Wasting No Time

We have wasted no time getting settled into our new house. These past few weeks have been full of lots to do and much fun to be had.

We have installed a new microwave:

This was actually quite easy considering we had done this before, and we were able to use the holes that were already on the wall!

We bought a new table for our kitchen since the other one is being used in the dining room:

We have eaten JUMBO marshmallows that are bigger than any I have ever seen before:
We have read plenty of stories and have had lots of fun reading stories to others:
We got to spend some great time with cousin David on several occasions:

We've gotten some much-need cuddle time while watching "Veggietales":

Daddy got to ride with us in the back seat of the van:

And Jason is in the midst of quite a great task of putting together our new desk in our den.

When he's done...sometime within the next several hours, it should look something like this:

Considering I only have about two and a half more weeks left of my summer, we've had a great time. Other than having the unfortunate experience of having broken a tooth recently that requires me to get a bridge to repair the problem, life is good. We are going camping over the holiday weekend with my parents and my sister, so that should be full of great memories.

Until next time...