We have a singer

Ignore my singing voice and focus on the cuteness.

passed out

Last night was only the second time ever Kaitlyn has fallen asleep on the couch. I have fond memories of falling asleep on the couch with my mom or dad and being carried off to bed. Some times I would fake being asleep just so I could get carried to bed.
At any rate this was the first time I got to carry her to bed. I loved every single minuet of it. She snuggled up next to me right when I put her in my arms. I looked at her beautiful little face the entire walk to her bed. Yes I know I am a sap!
Here is Kaitlyn passed out on the couch:

The reason she was tuckered out enough to fall asleep on the couch is because she did not take a nap. She decided it would be better to play quietly in her room for two hours instead of sleeping. She does this about once a week now.

Rhino, Rayray, and Poo

I have been meaning to post this for a while but have been very busy with some large school projects and life in general. At any rate, this video is just too funny.

We had a poo incident today. I got a call from Gracie saying Kaitlyn had a poo stuck and it would not come out. She tried everything, massaging her tummy, Vaseline on the putter hole, bike petal her legs... I called the doctor and she said try a warm bath and if that did not work use a suppository. Luckily for us the warm bath worked. Poor baby, I am sure her butt did not feel good with a poo stuck part way out.
Now I am off to bleach the tub and her toys.... glad it is Friday!

Banana Slicer

If you are ever having a bad day I suggest you read the amazon reviews on the Hutzler Banana Slicer.
They are sure to brighten your day.  It would be awesome to publish a book of funny amazon reviews for useless products.
^^^ That actually is a great idea, I could become wealthy! Don't you dare steal my idea, I will sue you!!!!!!!

Beach

Today was the first time I took Kaitlyn to the beach. I know, why did I wait so long when I live so close to the beach?  The answer is, I have no idea what took me so long. It has been so long since I have been to our local beach that I almost forgot how to get there (drive down one street till I hit the beach) and almost forgot to bring quarters for the parking meeters.
Well we made it there just fine, I did not make any unnecessary turns resulting in us getting lost. I had a lot of stuff to carry so Kaitlyn walked (holding my hand) all the way to the spot we claimed as our own. We had to climb down a lot of stairs, I should have taken the ramp, but Kaitlyn did great.
Turns out Kaitlyn is a fish like me. She wanted to be in the water the entire time. We only ended up staying for one hour because I got tired, LOL. I had to hold her hands the entire time she was in the water because even the smallest wave seemed to knock her over. We were only ankle deep... Overall it was a great day.

I cannot wait to go again :)

Happy Birthday Kaitlyn

Today Kaitlyn turned two. She is such a cutie! Here are some pics from today - her birthday:
Early this morning right before leaving for work/daycare

After work/daycare playing with her new birthday present - I think she likes it.

My little baby is no longer a baby. sniffle sniffle

her likes:
TV show: Yo Gabba Gabba
Songs: Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and Wheels on the Bus, she sings along to them as best as she can and does hand motions to them as well. Very cute!
Colors: Purple and Yellow are still the only crayons she grabs to color with.
Drawing skills: She now does more rounded scribbles where as before it was just back and forth scribbles.
Toy: a stuffed monkey from Build a Bear that she named Pizza. Pizza is her best friend, he helps her clean up, rides in her rhino with her, eats bananas, she cooks pretend meals for him, and he loves to watch tv.
Skills: She loves to jump. She has a bounce house that she loves and a trampoline that she loves. Her new trick is to try to jump over something or from one spot to the next.
Games: I got you is her favorite game. Her and David play it together. It is hide and seek with some chasing involved.
Books: She still loves Potty by Leslie Patricelli and even reads along with me. She like Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you see? and The Foot Book by Dr. Seuss. Her good old favorites still get pulled out every once in a while: Sally Sheep, Dolly Duck, and Happy Hen.
She still loves shoes but is very particular with what she will wear. It takes her time to get into a new pair and she does not like to mix things up much, as in a different pair of shoes to match an outfit. Her pink glitter shoes are worn with everything.

2nd birthday party

Saturday was Kaitlyn's 2nd birthday party. It was a hot and muggy day so in addition to the jumpy I took the water table out. That was a great idea. All the kids loved it. Here are a few pics of the decorations:

The cupcakes I made:

And the birthday girl:

Kaitlyn had a blast with all her friends and cousins. I wish we could do a party once a month just for her to get to play with everybody.
Today is her actual birthday! I want to go to Disneyland!!!! Instead I am stuck at work and Kaitlyn is at daycare.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY PUMPKIN.

Cash Gifts

While I am not the only one to admit I absolutely love getting cash as a gift now that I am older; I do have to say the strings attached to it kind of suck. What I mean is when a dear family member gives you cash then tells you "this is so you and David can go out to dinner" or "Make sure you get yourself something special".  Why does there have to be a specific reason to give a person cash? Can't a cash gift be given and received without expectations on where it will be used? The absolute best part of all of this is when the giver calls the recipient and asks them if they used the cash for dinner or something special yet. I am not one to lie but I might have to start strengthening that skill. The guilt I feel when, lets say, my dad calls and asks about the dinner David and I were suppose to use my cash gift on. When I tell him we have not gone yet, the truth, and leave out the part where I actually used the cash to buy Kaitlyn something for her birthday. The disappointment in his voice says it all, "well make sure you guys get a chance to go out, some place special'.

Now let me explain why I love getting cash as a gift. Cash is amazing, it can become anything you want it to become; a nice dinner, new underwear, electricity, water... what ever you want within reason.

Here is what actually happens when I get cash, it goes directly in the money hole with the rest of the cash I have on hand. Once in the hole it is used to pay bills, buy gas, buy food, or what ever else happens to be needed at the time. Most of the time when I am given a cash gift there is nothing in particular that I want for myself. So why should I have to spend it on a nice dinner when I have a large credit card bill that I want to pay off? Why do I have to be obligated to spend it on something frivolous when there is something more important or needed at the time?

Here is my unsolicited advice to you:
**When giving cash as a gift never say this is for such and such. It makes the receiver feel crappy when they have to spend the cash on necessities. Never call the recipient and ask if they used the cash yet or what they used it on.
**When receiving cash as a gift always say that you used it for such and such when asked (if it was supposed to be use for something specific). Learn how to lie and say how nice such and such was then thank the person who gave you the wonderful gift and be done with it.

IOU

So a while back I received an IOU from my school program for $250 towards teaching supplies. It expires in May of 2013 I believe. There are no restrictions listed on the IOU. Well I contacted them asking if I could use the IOU towards the purchase of the IPad I am currently borrowing from them (they said they would sell them to us at a "used" price). The answer to my question was that I cannot use the IOU until I secure a teaching job and that it is only to be used for items to aid in teaching... WTF??? I already bought about $250 worth of stuff in anticipation of getting a teaching job. Now I am stuck footing that bill that I thought would be covered and I am sure by the time I do get a teaching job the IOU would be expired. What a crock of poo poo. And why the hell can I not use it towards the IPad if I turned in receipts to cover the $250? So I have to receive a check from them and write them out a check at the same time? That seems a little ass backwards to me.
Maybe he read my question wrong. Maybe he thought I would use the IOU without turning in receipts? - That cannot be because I clearly stated that I do have receipts already.
I should have re-worded my email I guess stating that in stead of the program paying me back for my receipts that the $250 owed to me be applied to the price of the IPad instead.
What ever, I cannot even use that damn IOU anyways. SUCKER!!!!!

Halloween

Here it is the end of September and I still have no clue what Kaitlyn will be for Halloween. Last year I had her costume already by this time. This year nothing really stands out as a cute costume for a 2 year old. I almost cannot wait till she can tell me what she wants to be.

Few ideas: Giraffe, Horse, Minnie Mouse.

It will probably be Minnie Mouse that wins. I already have a dress us costume that I got from Target that would work. It is not a nice Halloween costume but it would work. If my mom lived close by she could make a costume for Kaitlyn. She needs to hurry up and move closer!

CSET take 4

I took the Geo section of the CSET on Saturday. This time they offered it as a computer based test instead of paper. AWESOME. The testing location is closer to my house and you can pick what time you want to take the test.
Old way vs new way
1) OLD: Leave the house by 6:45 to 7am to make sure I rived at the testing location in time. Test starts at 8am but they want you there by 7:30 to check in. --- NEW: leave house 30 min before test time (my test time was 10:15am), arrive with plenty of time to go over notes before walking in.
2) OLD: Test ticket always listed "limited parking so get there early to secure a spot." I hate parking. It is one of those things that has to go perfectly for me or my day is ruined. If there is no designated parking and I have to find some place else to park I get stressed out. I don't know why this is but I have to deal with it every time I go anyplace new where parking could be an issue. --- NEW: "ample parking available"  AWESOME! There were so many parking spots I got to pick one that I liked best.  LOL.
3) OLD: Wait around outside till they let us in the testing room then sit through 1 hour of instructions, check in, and calculator checks. Store personal items in a pile at some location in the room away from us. --- NEW: Walk in, check in - 5 min tops, locker assigned to hold personal belongings. Walk over to testing room, calculator check, ear plugs issued, quick run down of rules, then walked to computer station and test begins. Total time combined 10 min  :).
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I absolutely love the new testing system. Everything was very smooth and quick. No lagging behind or driving forever to get there. They even supplied the #2 pencils and scratch paper pad. The only difference I see is with the new way you are only allotted 2 hours for each section of the test. The old way you could take up to 5 hours to complete what ever test or tests you were working on.  This was not a problem for me though. The computer keeps a list of the problems you completed, total number of problems on the test, at running timer telling you how much longer you have left, and a warning screen pops up when you have 30 min left. I ended up finishing the test right when the 30 min pop up happened.

How did I do?  Still don't know - the only thing I wish the new computer testing did was give you the score for your multiple choice questions.  I understand the constructed response need to be graded by a live person but at the very least it would ease my mind to know how many of the multiple choice I got correct. What would be even better is if it told you the multiple choice score and how many points you need on the constructed response to pass based on how well you did on the multiple choice. I bet in the future that will happen.

Leading up to the test I was having a very difficult time focusing on studying. I don't know why, normally when I sit down and start studying I focus so much that I loose track of time. I even took part of Friday off work in the hopes that I would be able to focus on studying. I managed to make it though my worksheets just once, I wanted to go over it at least twice, even better three times but I do think it was enough this time. When taking the test I jumped right to the constructed response section to get them out of the way. I am confident that I did two of them perfectly and another one of them possibly perfectly or pretty close to it. I absolutely did not know how to do the last one (there are a total of 4 constructed response). I wrote down what I did know about the problem and drew a graph... that is about it, maybe I will get 1/2 or 1 point with that but I am not concerned about it since I knew the other three problems.

I left the test center very confident that I passed this time. We shall see.

Why would you tell me that?

The other day I went out to lunch with a coworker of mine. A really nice lady to hang out with. I cannot remember how the conversation started but I said something about how I use to like the movie Train Spotting before I had my daughter. I saw it again after I had my daughter and did not remember there was a part where a baby dies in the movie. It was a big mistake for me to watch that part of the movie since now I cannot get that part out of my mind. It greatly affected me now that I have a child. Before having Kaitlyn I was able to see stuff like that and disconnect from what happened. Now days I am completely connected and for some reason I feel the pain as if I was the child's mother.
Notice I did not say what specifically happened in the movie, rather talked about how hard it hits me now when I see stuff like that.
Well, my lovely coworker decided to share an experience she had watching a video where a child died. She does not have a child of her own but she is very sensitive and loves children as deeply as a person can for not having one. Instead of focusing on how it affected her she went into great detail every aspect of the video. This also was not a movie, it is something that was caught on tape in real life. I did not say one word while she gave me graphic details of how the two year old little girl died. Horrific to say the least.
Now I cannot get that out of my head. It keeps coming back to haunt me just like Train Spotting does. I did not even watch the video and yet I still hurt for that little girl.

PSA: Please do not ever feel it is OK to tell somebody graphic details about something that is similar in any way to what they just said really upsets them.

That is all!

Liana's Bat-Mitzvah

We were invited to my Bosses daughter, Liana's, Bat-Mitzvah this weekend. I have never been to one before so I wanted to go check it out.
The Temple was beautiful, the ceremony was long. David even wore a kippah during the ceremony since my boss told him he had to in order to enter the temple (this was a lie but I will keep my lips closed). Liana did excellent. Through out the ceremony they sing passages from the Torah. Here is the short short version: There was an hour long per-ceremony before the "good stuff" took place. This is the main part of the ceremony: they opened the ark in which the Torah scrolls are kept, took one out and placed it on Liana's shoulder, she made a pass around the temple holding it, then sang some passages, then put the scrolls back.
There was a luncheon held afterwords that we had to miss so we could pick Kaitlyn up. I am kinda bummed about that but after a 2 1/2 hour ceremony I was ready to get out of there anyways.
Later that night was the after party. A dinner cruse/party. It was a blast. I need to get some of the pictures from David so I can post them. I only have a few goofy ones on my phone. The theme was casting party, there were mock movie posters up around the boat staring Liana and fun flower centerpieces that looked like popcorn and movie film. As we walked onto the boat we were handed some funny sunglasses:

Later in the night was black light party and dancing, we were given glow necklaces, finger lights, white gloves, and some flashing sunglasses.

Overall it was a very fun party and I was so worried about being cold... It was so freaking hot since the boat was enclosed in glass! I was drenched in sweat by the end of the night.
Here are some other pics from the night:

job burn out

Have I ever mentioned how much I HATE my job? This is not the field for me. When I decided to go the accounting rout I figured I would be playing with numbers all day instead I am the go to person for every stupid little thing that comes up. Insurance too high? Ask Christina to get a quote worked out. Such and such is getting married? Have Christina order them a gift even though she has no idea who they are. Light bulb out in the mans bathroom? Call Christina to get it fixed. You were not paid overtime? Go talk to Christina. Toilet is clogged, better tell Christina! All general office complaints come to me, heck I even order the office supplies.
Last time I checked the accountant does not handle any of this shit. That is the job of the office manager. I am in no means an office manager. I have NO employees under me and I make way less than any other "manager" in the company, I am talking HALF as much. Not that I feel I need to make more to do all this shit, I just don't want to do it period.
Give somebody else a raise and change their title to office manager so I can sit back and play with my numbers please.
I hope I like teaching, I know there is a lot of prep work I am fine with that.

I guess it does not help that I had a crappy start to my day.

Bla start to the day

Well today started out crappy. My neck and back have been bothering me for over a week now and this morning was no different there... I got out of bed went strait to the bath room to brush my teeth and wash my face. Kaitlyn decided that she was going to pound on her bedroom door the entire time I did these two things. (David is trying to sleep in the room two feet away... sorry about that). Once I rushed through those things I opened the bedroom door to see my cutie pie smiling at me. I asked her why she banged on the door instead of opening it as she ran by me to get the IPad. IPad is her obsession! I know she can open the door, just last night she opened the bathroom door while David was in there. She randomly opens the bathroom door all the time. Her bedroom door is exactly the same as the bathroom one.
Next, I go in the kitchen to let the dogs out and Kaitlyn runs to the fridge wanting to feed the dogs. I told her it was not time yet, lets get dressed first then we will feed the dogs. She started crying... I walked away and went to get dressed. I cannot handle tantrums that early in the morning. Soon enough she came in the bedroom looking for me once she figured out that nobody was listening to her cry.
It was time for Kaitlyn to get dressed. I let her pick her top today, she got a kick out of that. Then when I put her up on the changing table to get her dressed the crying started again. I was getting frustrated and asked her why she was crying. This was met with more crying so I thought I would tell her how cute she was and give her a kiss. The kiss only led to even more crying. I hurried up to get her dressed. Once she was dressed I sat on her bed for a second. She walked up to me crying and snuggled while crying for about 5 min.
I have no idea what the problem was. I swear she cried from the moment she woke up till we walked out the door. And by that time I was highly irritable and ready to snap.
I park my car in the garage, it fits, but there is a ton of random stuff all around it... One item in particular drives me insane, the damn car jack. It is in my way, it is in Kaitlyn's way. Every single time we are trying to get in the car she trips over it, I knock the handle down, I kick it... One day I moved it out of the way. It was wonderful! I could freely walk around the car and not trip on anything, not have a handle in my way. That lasted for about two days then magically it reappeared in the same damn spot again. URG!!!!
Remember I was highly irritated already this morning. Well that damn car jack was in my way again. While trying to maneuver getting my purse, snacks, backpack, and diaper bag in the car with Kaitlyn standing in my way every move I made the damn car jack got in my way again. This time the handle had me stuck with my back pack and diaper bag between the car door and Kaitlyn. The car door semi closed onto Kaitlyn's head in the process of me getting unstuck, luckily it did not hurt her and she did not even cry. Seriously that car jack is going to get picked up and launched into the street one day (sorry David). Why does it have to be right there? WHY??????

Just another weekend

I feel like so much got done this weekend and at the same time feel like there was something else I needed to get done.
Our little dog Jack was due for his rabies shot. I did not want to drive all the way down to his vet so I decided to check out the vet that is walking distance from our house. They are open 7 days a week and have a vaccination clinic every weekend. Turns out I really like the place and Jack did too so we are switching vet offices. Jack is getting up there in age so he was not able to walk the entire way - well he could have but I walk fast and his little legs could not keep up. SO he hitched a ride:

Kaitlyn got her first pair of ugly crocks, but these ones are semi cute with mickey mouse on them AND they are pink! Now if only I could get her to keep them on outside.

After two years of hand washing the tray to Kaitlyn's high chair I finally figured out how to fit it in the dishwasher. Since I figured this out on Friday night it has been washed in there about 4 times. LOL  Amazing!!!! Wish I would have figured this out two years ago.

Kaitlyn and I were both sick this weekend so we hung around the house. I organized my school stuff, tossed old paperwork out and filed things that I need to keep while Kaitlyn learned to play the piano and snuggled her dogs.

I also got to tie up a few loose ends for her birthday party next month. Guest list is almost finalized and the invites are done. Now if only I could figure out what to do about this Helium shortage. I have at least 60 balloons that I wanted to get inflated. I will be happy if only the Mylar ones get done. I can string up the others I guess - even though I paid top dollar for helium quality. BOO!

After a month of trying to get a cute picture of Kaitlyn for her birthday invite I had to settle for this half smiling picture. Oh well... It is still cute. Got them made here.
Did I mention I cleaned of the planter window thing in the kitchen? I guess I need to get sick more often so I can keep organized. Now if only my check book would balance itself.

little bits

School starts up again on Monday. For some reason I am so not looking forward to it. I want to be done already. I know this semester is going to be easier than the last but I am still stressing about it for some reason. Once it starts up I will be fine and adjust. I think it is the fear of the unknown that is getting me right now.

Kaitlyn has been skipping naps when she is home on the weekend lately. I don't get it, she looks tired when I put her down but then she just talks and plays in her room for a couple hours. I need her to continue taking naps for at least the next year. I need that time to do homework. She is also fighting bedtime a lot lately. Hopefully it is a faze that will pass soon.

Work has settled down a little bit. I have a bank audit coming up the first week of September and after that I can finally pack the 2011 files away and have my office back ... till January when I pack up the 2012 files LOL.

I have gotten over the not having a teaching job right now part of my life, this has helped me with my current job. I have relaxed a bit and am less high strung. I think not being in school for the past week and a half has helped that as well.

Kaitlyn's toenails are impossible to cut now days. She will not let me even touch her little toes. I am getting frustrated over that entire thing! What happened to make her freak out about getting her toenails cut? It has  been a slow progression that I had been trying to nip in the butt from the beginning but nothing helped. Distractions are not working anymore, not even the IPad or IPhone. I just tried to cut them while she was sleeping as a last resort but that was a total failure as well. Maybe not a total failure since I did manage to cut all the nails on one of her feet except that damn little pinky toe before she woke up. Then she was screaming because I left the room...  Boy I give up on that one. I am just going to let them grow I guess.

Another foot issue, last week Kaitlyn had something sticking out of her heal. I tried to pull it out but she would not let me. I felt so bad holding her foot down but at the same time I could not get a grip on the thing with the tweezers while holding her foot down. I tried tape to lift it out, I tried a hot bath... nothing worked. I ended up putting neosporin on it and a band-aid when she went to bed so I could think about what my next move would be. I scoured the internet for a solution. Then I figured I would just try to pull it out after she had been asleep for a while. It worked! I pulled out a cactus needle a little longer than a quarter of an inch long. It was strait in her heal, not sideways at all. I don't know how she walked around with that thing in there. At any rate that whole incident was very traumatic for me. I was in panic mode. Luckily it came to a happy ending.

Planing for the big 2nd birthday party has been underway. I figure I should do as much as I can before school starts back up. One less stress to deal with. I am pretty happy with the way things are coming together. It is Minnie Mouse theme this year or as Kaitlyn likes to call her "MaaMaa". I am skipping the fancy plates, cups and stuff. Sticking with plain white plates, clear utensils, some clear pink cups that are left over from my baby shower, pink with white dot napkins (but only one small pack, once they are gone plain white costoco napkins will be used), I got three bunches of Minnie Mouse Mylar balloons and a pack of pink with white dot rubber balloons.  One road block is that there is a helium shortage right now so filling up the mass amounts of balloons I bought might become a problem. We will see. I have found some ideas for using them without helium but it is such a waist because helium quality balloons are so dang expensive! This year we will have cupcakes with mouse ears instead of a big cake. It will also be a smaller affair, I cut the guest list way down. No neighbors this year (except for little Alex across the street and his mom and dad). No old time friends that we have not seen since Kaitlyn's last birthday. Just family and some of our close friends that have kiddos about the same age as our kiddo.

I got my paperwork proving I passed the Algebra CSET in the mail the other day. I think I should frame it.

Tomorrow is my birthday, I will be 35. That is all I have to say about that.

I think that is just about everything that has happened in the past few weeks. Besides me being exhausted and not wanting to do anything at all...

Slip n Slide

So much fun!!!!

No words needed:

She kept going back for more.

Happy Day

Passed the Algebra CSET!!!!!!!!!!  Woo Hoo!!!!! I am so excited.
Geo I got a 213 - not bad considering I need a 220 to pass.

Good news, and more good news, I have two weeks off to study for the Geo section before Fall classes start. Bonus - I only have to study for one test this time! I am scheduled to take the Geo test on September 15th.

Time flies

Where has the time gone? The past couple weeks have been crazy for me. Between the work inventory issue; then preparing final projects for school... Wow! I feel like I can finally catch my breath for a min.
Things I need to do:
Register for my fall classes that start on Aug 27 - financial aid already awarded and excepted!
Use my spa gift card
Get my teeth fixed
print my resume on pretty paper and pass it out to the schools I am interested in
balance my check book
plant flowers in the front yard
get the final details in place for Kaitlyn's second birthday party
Things I want to do:
quit my job
visit my mom - but now I cannot - tickets are way too expensive and the timing just sucks with work right now.
Trash the paci ceremony - no I have not done it yet, yes I could just throw them away but I want pictures to document it happening for our family year book.
Get started on ideas for the family year book and organize what I have already.
Make these to give out at Christmas:
Tiny Polaroid Magnets
Make these to put the magnets in:
Matchbox

All of the above = I have exactly 3 weekends to accomplish it in. Ya - not going to happen.

Kaitlyn went with David to the boat races in LB this weekend. From what I hear she enjoyed it. I was at school...

This semester should be a little easier compared to summer session. I will only have two actual classes, one of which is online so I will only need to go to class one night a week. I also opted to take the Saturday class during summer instead of this semester. Now I am happy I did. At the time I thought what the heck was I thinking!

Ok back to work!

Ah Work...

This is a little snap shot of the kind of things I deal with every single day.
Background: I never lie about payments to vendors. That is the one thing I pride myself on to make sure at the very least there is trust in our professional relationship. This is an email conversation that occurred yesterday:

Vendor:

Christina,

 Can you please confirm check is going out today via Fed Ex overnight-  B (my boss) said he signed the check.

C

********

Me:

He did not sign the check. He had to leave early. It will be going out tomorrow.

 

~~~ At this point I had already left for the day so I did not get to see the email emails that followed till this morning.~~~

*********

Vendor:

Christina,

 I am sure K (her boss) is not lying- he said B signed the check … Let me call him.

*********

My Boss B: 

 When I spoke to Ken I was already on my way to the airport.
B-)

*********

My Boss B:

So C you are sure that K is not lying, but you are implying that Christina is lying about something that Christina knows for sure and K can only guess?
How insulting is that???
B-(

*********

I cannot believe that C would even say that. Thank goodness I did not see the emails till this morning, that would have ruined my day for sure. And my boss ROCKS!  

Slap in your face C!

Anniversary

I am officially a crapy wife. I forgot that yesterday was our anniversary! Isn't it normally the husbands that forget stuff like that? David got me flowers and a gift card to Macy's to buy school clothes. :)

On another note, it has been one week since the paci incident. I think I am ready to toss them in the trash. Tonight I will hold my paci tossing ceremony to make it official. I will post pictures later tonight.

Did I mention that I had an interview at a local high school yesterday for a teaching position? I feel the interview went well. I originally wanted to teach middle school but after meeting with the administrators of this high school I am excited to get a chance to work there. It is a very small school with about 25 teachers in total. They don't have EL students at the moment which would relieve some pressure off of me. I will keep you posted on what happens. If I do get a call back from them the next step would be to present a sample lesson to them.

Paci update

Well I have stuck to it. Paci's are gone for good now. Kaitlyn is still not that happy about it and has been crying the last two nights when I put her to bed but I am not exactly sure if it is because of the lack of paci's. I think it might be that she wants to stay up and hang out with me. The first two nights after the initial night she did ask for them but it was not that big of a deal when I said "I don't know what happened to them, I'm sorry, no more pones." (she calls them pone) She just looked at me like I was crazy then went to bed without a fight.
This weekend I got her a pillow too. It does not even faze her that she has it. She has been sleeping completely on top of it as if it were a bed topper. LOL.

Job interview

Wish me luck. I got a call today during lunch for a job interview at a charter high school close to where I work right now. Tomorrow at 2pm! I am very excited about this. I was hoping to get a job at a middle school but I heard great stories about this school so I am willing to give high school a shot if they want me. The principal seemed willing to work with the applicants as far as placing them in subject mater they are comfortable with.
I am very comfortable with Algebra, am willing to do Geo BUT it is not my favorite subject at all.
I will keep you posted.

Taught first lesson yesterday

It was my turn at the lab school to teach a lesson. My partner and I were assigned "percent equation". It was nice to have a partner to help with this. He forwarded me a power point, I adjusted it to my style and I forwarded him the written lesson plan based on my changes. We each taught one period by ourselves. I was lucky to get 2nd period, the rowdy group of kids.
I set up my computer and tested the smart board to make sure everything was working. When the students came in I had them working on a warm up. After the warm up I pulled out the class rules and reminded them that I expected them to follow all the class rules that were set in place when the lead teacher was teaching. Then off I went. I love the smart board - when it works. I should have used the lead teachers computer because a few slides in something went crazy. Every time I would use the markers on the smart board the text from my slide would disappear. So I had to copy all the problems on the whiteboard to work them out. Not that big of a deal but not what I wanted.
Once I went over a few problems with the students I had them take out their personal whiteboards to do some practice. I set up rules and went over them before we started a one minute free write on them (to get it out of their system). When we got into actually using the whiteboards for problems I set a time limit to keep them focused.
At any rate....
I would say my classroom management was amazing, not one kid misbehaved.
What worked:
The use of a kitchen timer to set a sense of urgency and keep the kids on task.
Going over the ways a % can be written.
Relating the word "Part" to is and "Whole" to of.
Telling the students what exactly to copy into their notes.
Having students box the question and under line the key facts in word problems. This made it easier to put their answer into a sentence.
What did not work:
The smart board - but that was a technical issue.
Showing the students how the previous equation turned into the new equation - this just confused them even more.
My time management. I barely made it through my lesson and did not have enough time for class work to really see who understood what we went over.
Using the seating chart to try to call on students. That chart confused the hell out of me for some reason. 
What I would do different:
Spend less time going over examples together. I think they got the idea after the first two.
Set clear steps for them to follow to get the answer to the problem.
1. Box the question and under line the key facts
2. Find the Percent, Part, Whole
3. Change the percent to a decimal
4. Plug into the formula
5. Solve
    a. multiply
    b. isolate variable
6. If percent is the answer change from a decimal to a percent
7. Write your answer in a sentence.
My questions:
How do I help that one student who did nothing in class. I told him to at least write the question down if he did not know how to do it and to make sure to copy all the notes but he still did not even do that for the most part. I even asked the person sitting next to him to help him out with one of the problems. I don't have any specifics on him as in if he is EL or has and IEP, yes I should have those but I only attend the lab school every other day and was not their when this was gone over with everybody.....

No Paci?!

Yesterday David washed Kaitlyn's bedding and forgot to put her paci's back in bed. When Pam came home with Kaitlyn and put her to bed she could not find the paci's. The end result, first night ever - no paci. I got home right after Kaitlyn was put to bed so I did not want to go in her room. If I did go in there she would have never gone back to sleep. I just waited to see what would happen with the video monitor in hand. To my surprise she did great! She did not ask for them at all; she did look for them but went right to sleep with out them.
After she was asleep I went in her room, picked up all the paci's and put them in a Ziploc bag. For now I am hiding them in the kitchen just in case this was a fluke. I am ready for her to be done with paci's but at the same time I am not. My plan was to wait till she had all her teeth, we still have 8 to go.
At any rate, I am going to keep going with this to see how she does. Fingers crossed!

a moment in time

David when he was Kaitlyn's age - he is the kid with the bottle in his mouth:

 And here is Kaitlyn:

LOL they look like twins!

And just because she was so stinking cute even though she was whining....
this morning:

Yesterday before leaving for Gracie's house she was watching the 4th of July video and saw she had the ribbon hair clip in her hair. She ran in her room and was pointing to the bin I keep the hair clips in saying - nawan, I am thinking this means I want. I asked her if she wanted the hair clip and she said yes. It was the first time she has ever wanted her hair put up. So cute!

Toddler bed Week 1

I am pleasantly surprised at how well the toddler bed transition went. The hardest part for her is nap time. I would say on the worst day I had to put her back in bed 4 times but it keeps getting better. At night she maybe gets out of bed once but it is always to go get a book to read then she stays in her bed till she falls asleep. This weekend I even decided to ditch the sleep sack since it was falling apart and shedding everywhere. She has done remarkably well with just a blanket. I tucked it in at the foot area and partially up the side by the wall. The past couple nights she has not moved around the crib as much as she use too and staid covered the entire night.
My little baby is growing up. I call her my little big girl.
Next step = pillow.

 The blanket on her bed was made with all of her old receiving blankets she used as a baby.  My mom and grandma made it and it came out beautiful!

Great News

This morning about 40 min ago I talked to Gracie, she advised me that she only has one treatment left and her MRI already came back clear! NO MORE CANCER!!!!! This made my morning. She is still going to have a mastectomy after her body recovers from the treatments.
Words cannot describe the joy I feel.

First night in toddler bed

Success!
Kaitlyn staid in bed all night long. She got up in the morning and got out of bed only to pick up her seahorse because it fell out of bed. Climbed back in bed and waited for me to come get her.
When she was first put to bed she seemed a little nervous or scared because the crib railing was not there. She laid perfectly still for about 30 min before rolling over and going to bed.
I am hoping every night goes this smoothly.

That is the picture of her when she was still awake.

5 more weeks

5 more weeks of summer school hell. I cannot wait for summer school to be over with! I miss Kaitlyn. I have been relatively OK with everything up to now. I am past the half way point, the end is near.
I absolutely hate Tuesdays... This is a mandatory class which we did not pay for and will not get credit for.  It is suppose to be a lesson planning class but we have yet to make a lesson plan. And even after we do make a lesson plan the chance that we will use it in our actual class is highly unlikely. Another downer to it is that 3 of our assignments in our other classes rely on the lesson plans from this stupid non existent class... I am so tempted to not show up but the director of the program might kick me out for not attending. SO LAME. As a class we have voiced our concerns with him multiple times with no resulting outcome. Oh well - 5 more weeks of this crap!
Now if only I can find a teaching job. That would be one less stress and at the same time add 100 more stresses  LOL!  I so cannot take my current job anymore. I am so miserable.

On another note, we converted Kaitlyn's bed to a toddler bed today. This should be interesting:

Too bad I will not be home to experience the first night of putting her to bed in toddler bed. I hope it goes smoothly.

Pony tail # 1

First real pony tail:

I have a better picture on our real camera, this is just a snap shot from my phone.
She was playing dress up and rocking out with a guitar. LOL.

Ok here is the pic from the good camera:

4th of July 2012

We had a great forth of July this year. Kaitlyn and I met up with Christina, Katherine, and Joe at the RPV annual 4th celebration at 11am. We walked around, visited the petting zoo, ate the best pizza I ever had, and rocked out to some patriotic music. Over all it was a great time even though we did not do much while we were there and only stayed a short time.
We arrived at 11am to make sure we could get a parking space. Little did I know we would be parking in soft dirt. For the car that was not a problem, it was a problem for strollers... I parked and put Kaitlyn in her stroller and had to pull her backwards (like you do at the beach) to get her around. Not that bad if the parking was really close to the park but it was not. Luckily a nice gentleman helped me about halfway there. He picked up the front of the stroller and I carried the back. Right when we made it to firm ground I saw Christina pull up so Kaitlin and I waited for her and watched the helicopters take off. Poor Christina has a double stroller that she had to drag backwards through that soft dirt and she parked even farther away than I did.
We all made it out of the parking lot and headed over to the booths. There was not really a whole lot to look at. We cruzed over to the kiddy area first. They had a couple rides, two huge slides, a bounce house and a blow up obstacle course thing. Nothing that our small kids could participate in by themselves so we headed over to the petting zoo.
The petting zoo was a nice size and was filled with animals, all of which were just as tall or taller than our kids. Right when we got inside I saw a little girl get trampled by a huge sheep. This really freaked me out so I ended up keeping Kaitlyn right by my side. Kaitlyn was not interested in the goats that kept coming up to her and sticking their nose right in her face (freaked me out too). I ended up spotting some pigs and bunnies that we could check out. I got Kaitlyn to pet the pigs and bunnies after some coaching. She was much happier being held by me looking down at the animals. I don't blame her!
After the petting zoo we headed over to the food tents and ended up getting some pizza. Rosemary, red grape, prosciutto pizza to be exact. It was the best pizza I had ever eaten. Kaitlyn was not interested in eating, she just wanted to dance:

I wish we would have remembered the name of that pizza place, I would love to go to their actual location for dinner every now and again.
By the time we were done eating and dancing it was already way past nap time so we decided to call it a day. BUT right as we were getting ready to leave we spotted this famous lady and had to take a picture with her:

Kaitlyn was amazed at how tall she was and was a little turned off by her at first but by the time we were leaving she gave lady liberty a high five.
After that we left to fight the parking lot dirt again so we could go home and take a nap.
:)

Runny nose

Kaitlyn woke up Saturday with a runny nose but seemed fine other wise. We had our usual day of playing out side and such. I took her temperature at a certain moment and it was only 99 degrees, such a slight temp could have been caused by her running round so much. I did not think anything of it but remembered to take it again on Sunday morning.
Sunday morning she still had the runny nose and no fever at all. She played normal but did not want to spend as much time outside as we usually do. We hung out and watched cartoons for an hour on my bed instead.
Monday she woke up with the runny nose still and again no fever. I figured it would be OK for her to go to Gracie's house because she has not had a fever. I dropped her off and explained that she had the runny nose and no fever so she should be fine.
I got a call about an hour later saying I needed to pick Kaitlyn up because she was sick. David went down and picked her up she had no fever just the runny nose. The rest of the day she was fine and we noticed that the runny nose was a lot better than it had been.
Remember I told you that Gracie has cancer?  Well I know this is why she sent Kaitlyn home. It would be bad for her to catch a cold during treatment. I understand this 100% and I do feel for her. However, I count on her to watch and care for Kaitlyn every day I am at work, this is what I pay her to do. She is a great daycare provider and I could not imagine sending Kaitlyn any other place. I do think Kaitlyn should be sent home if she has a fever, is vomiting, has persistent diarrhea, or is not acting like herself. In no way do I agree with sending her home due to a runny nose. I do not feel I should pay for these days since it was Gracie's discretion to send Kaitlyn home, she was not sent home for a valid reason other than to protect Gracie's health (which again I do understand).
David ended up staying home today and possibly tomorrow so we agreed to keep Kaitlyn home with him.
We are both livid with this situation right now. It has been consuming me since I got the call to pick Kaitlyn up yesterday. I am at a loss on what to do. Let me rephrase that; there are many options we could consider but I am not happy about any of them.
1) we can find a new daycare provider - going with a center instead of in home to prevent this type of thing from happening again.
2) Kaitlyn will be 2 soon so we can find a preschool for her to attend that provides after hours care.
3) We can bring our concerns to Gracie.
All three have my head spinning. I am not ready for Kaitlyn to leave the person she has known and trusted since she was 2 1/2 months old. No center can give Kaitlyn what she is getting right now from Gracie. A lot of preschools require potty training before entrance, I don't know when we will get around to potty training since I am working full time, going to school full time, and have no time off to focus on this task. Lastly I do not want to talk to Gracie about this, she already feels bad and I don't want her to some how project her frustrations with me and David onto Kaitlyn. Not that I think it will happen but it is always a possibility.
In the end this is what will probably happen. I will let it slide this time, but if it happens again I will say something and request that we do not have to pay for times like this.
In the mean time I am going to try to check out some other options on Fridays when I get off work.

Fathers Day

Kaitlyn and I got David the coolest Fathers Day present ever. It is a 30 min flying lesson with and additional hour of flying time. Ya we rock!
Fathers Day was so much fun. It was suppose to be 80 degrees so I set up Kaitlyn's water table during her nap time so we could play with it when she woke up. She took a longer nap than usual, by the time we went outside it was already 3:30. She was decked out in her cute bikini that she got for her 1st birthday. I was a little bummed because it did not feel like 80 degrees with the sea breeze we get at that time of day but Kaitlyn did not seem to be bothered by it so I went ahead and let her get wet.
At about 4pm David came outside to water the veggie garden and the dry spots in the grass. He kept saying he wanted to squirt Kaitlyn with the hose I and kept telling him NO! Well out of the blue Kaitlyn ran up to him and jumped in front of the hose. LOL. For the next 20 min she chased David around trying to get sprayed by the hose. She had such a great time and BONUS, I had the video camera outside with me and got the entire thing on video. So glad I made myself drag out the camera and video camera. I will enjoy watching that video over and over again.

Fathers day

What do you get the guy who buys anything he wants?
on the other hand
What do you do for the guy who wants nothing?
Question number one is David, if he has not bought it already then it cost to much for me to afford. He already has a Kaitlyn mug. Not sure what else to get him.
Question number two is my dad. I know all he wants is for us to go up and visit him but that is a mission.
Any suggestions?

Signage at Chili's

Wow!  Just wow! Never expected a sign like that at a restaurant like Chili's. Where do I go to eat now?

I feel so bad

So this weekend we all went to Michele's 3rd birthday party. Kaitlyn was dressed so cute and I kind of did her hair but forgot to take a cute picture. The only picture I took was in the car on the way to the party:

You cannot even see how cut her hair is. Oh well, maybe next time I will remember to take pics.
She had a blast in the jump house. There were two little ones there, she wanted so badly to go in the one that all the older kids were in. David and I would not let her, she was only able to go in the smaller one with the little kids. I think the problem was that hardly any little kids would go in there with her. She wanted a jump buddy.
At any rate the party was fun and we went home with a live fish as a party favor. Kaitlyn is really into feeding the dog lately so I figured the fish would be one more animal for her to feed. David wanted to flush it right when we got home but I set it up in the living room. Kaitlyn points at it and says fish. She has a hard time getting the food in the bowl but we are working on it.

Sunday we hung out around the house and played outside. This is what I keep dwelling on and it is making me sad. The slide area of her swing set was getting covered in spider webs, I absolutely HATE spiders so it was freaking me out. I got a broom and cleaned all the spiderwebs up then got the bug spray and soaked the thing down. There were so many spiders coming out of the cracks, it was so nasty. I started getting all itchy just seeing them.
Well the job was done and I noticed that her snack cup was up at the top of the slide, gross! I grabbed it and tossed the cookies out on the side of the shed where we have a pile of crap accumulated. I figured Kaitlyn and the dogs could not get to them in there... Well a little while later I heard a bunch of noise coming from that pile of crap. I looked closely and saw this:

Looked a little closer and saw Jack on top of the pile of crap trying to get to the cookies I tossed out:

Stupid, dumb, clever, dog. Gosh I hate my dogs lately...
Kaitlyn saw that it was Jack and started trying to get to him to "save" him. I was in the middle of picking everything up so my hand were full. I ran over to her and with my one free hand grabbed hers to walk her away from the spiders den of crap. Instead of going with my lead she went limp so I basically dragged her out of there by one arm. She was screaming, of coarse.
Doesn't sound that bad right? Well the more I think about it the sadder I get. Her poor little arm. Imagine you getting yanked up by the arm and dragged out of some place. I am sure it would hurt. WTF was I thinking. Why didn't I throw everything down on the grass before I went to her? (well I can answer that one, normally she follows my lead, she has never done the limp move up to that point.)
I did not even think twice about it yesterday but today at work it is all I can think of and it is bringing me to tears.  :(
I promise I will try my hardest to never do that again unless there is life threatening danger involved. (FYI to me the spider den was life threatening danger but you know what I mean.)

Tested out my study plan

So far I have been able to stick with the study plan I came up with the other day. The only thing I don't like about it is it does not leave me enough time to study for the CSET. I need more hours for that one right now. But then again it has only been a few days. There might be times that I finished my home work in other classes so I could use that time for the CSET.
I am 100% up to date on my homework for all classes and turned in my challenge assignments for the computer class - so I don't have to take it.
For some reason I am so nervous that I will get behind on homework. I guess that is a good thing since I seem to be able to manage it so far.
Shame on me - I did some of it at work.....   But only while reports were running so I could not really do anything else at that time anyways.

Third times a charm?

Next round of the CSET will be taken on July 14th. I really need to figure out how I am going to effectively study this time around.
Little break down of how I did.
First time I did great on the Algebra multiple choice and bombed the constructed response. Geo bombed both sections.
Second time I did great on the Algebra constructed response and some how bombed the multiple choice. How the heck does that even happen. I think I might have rushed through it. I actually got full points on two of the constructed response, partial points on one and no points on the last. Geo bombed both sections - but again I knew it would happen this time because I did not even really try, just took that section so my school program admin would see I was trying.
This time around I am going to slow down, I think I will start with the constructed response again then work on the multiple choice. That seemed to help me manage my time better.
I took two days off last time which really helped me master the algebra questions I was given to review. I would like to take at least three days of this time, better would be four. The problems I have with this are:
1) I don't have that much vacation time available right now. I think I have enough for one day off...
2) It is very hard for me to miss more than two days of work, the amount of catch up required from just two days is killer.
3) I already have to miss another two weeks (half days) of work for observation hours and with only one day available to use I will either have to take time off without pay or beg to have an advance on my vacation hours.
I am pretty sure my boss will grant me an advance on my vacation hours and I think he will be OK with the half days off as long as they are scheduled around my busy time. Maybe I can take half days to study for the test as well? The only problem with any of this is the test date. It is the Saturday after my busy time at work so it will be hard for me to take time off or even half days that week.
WOW - I need to come up with a plan quickly.
I could study every Sunday during Kaitlyn's nap, Saturdays are out because I am at school till about the time she wakes up. Nights I am saving to do homework for school.
If you come up with any ideas let me know.
Looks like for the next month I will have no free time or ME time. No naps, no decompressing after a long day.

Need to get with it

I really need to get back into taking pictures of Kaitlyn again. Especially since I am not around as much as I use to be with school and all. I am so thankful I took a million pictures of her when she was a newborn because I was in such a fog during that time that I don't remember much about it. Looking at those pictures reminds me of those times that I feel like I lost. Bonus the pictures only remind me of the good times, LOL.
So in conclusion I need to break out the camera every Friday night and snap away till Sunday night!
Please remind me if I forget.

Cinco De Mayo CSET Score

I cannot believe I did not pass Algebra again. I was so sure this time that I did. WTF!
I need a 220 to pass:
Algebra 217    OMFG!!!!!
Geo 180 - I was expecting this one but hoped that this next time around I only had to study for Geo.
I am so disappointed and now with school started it will be that much more harder to study for these tests.

School is in session

My first class was on Wednesday. It was a very long day and I only got to see Kaitlyn in the morning before work. Everything went very smoothly. Grandma picked her up from Gracie's, fed her, gave her a bath, then brought her home for bed. When I got home Kaitlyn was already asleep so  I worked on my homework right away since it was fresh in my mind. I got half way done and almost finished it up last night, just need to do a final read over to make sure it is what I want it to be then turn it in. Yesterday we had a "fun" day, we met outside, did a round of show and tell, then played soccer and basketball the rest of the night. Overall a great first week of school. I did miss Kaitlyn but will make it up this weekend since my homework will be turned in tonight. I am very excited to have school started but cannot wait to be done so I can have my nights back to vedge out in front of the TV and play with Kaitlyn. Yes I am lazy like that!

By the way the CSET scores will be released on Monday, keep your fingers crossed for me.

typical day at work

All I do all day long is answer questions that have no answer. I hate questions that I cannot answer. I hate making things up that I don't know for sure will happen. Here is a list of some of the questions I get asked multiple times every day:
Purchasing department
Are we on hold with ____?
Can you get po ___ released?
When will we pay ___?
How much credit do we have available with ____?
When will we be off hold with ____?
I need that credit app filled out right away.
Sales Department
How much is our total payroll every month?
Can you give me a break down of the freight for last month?
That report will not work for me can you please put the monthly amounts on one tab?
Can you forward me a copy of my last pay stub?
Can you forward me my W-2 for ___ year?
When will we be off hold with ____?
When are we going to pay _____.
But big boss told them we would pay ____ last week! (which he does quite frequently even though I say I don't think it is a good idea)
Boss
We need to pay ____, can you make it happen?
____ wants $100K wired to their account tomorrow. (this is my favorite, especially when we have a negative balance - which is just about every single day).
Can you analyze _________  and get it to me ASAP?
Why are we on hold with _____?
Get us off hold with ____ - top priority!

I get asked the same question at least four times in one day from four different people. First the vendor will call and ask about payment, then purchasing will ask when we are paying that vendor, then sales will ask when we will pay that vendor, then the boss asks if we can pay that vendor or tells me to make it happen. This happens multiple times in one day. Very unproductive and makes me want to pull my hair out of my head while screaming and kicking the walls.

I am stressed to my eyeballs!!

Let me answer all the questions right now at once. We will be off hold with __ when we pay them; we will pay them when we have funds to do so; we are on hold with every vendor until we pay them; our credit line is maxed out with ever vendor as well so pay down in advance is required to release our order, how can I wire somebody when our account is negative!

2am to 4am

What is it about the hours of 2am to 4am that makes Kaitlyn want to wake up and stay up? I am so tired! If you add all the sleep I got together it would total 5 hours which is not all that bad. The part that makes it bad is that it was broken up, 3 hours before 2am then another 2 hours after 4am.
I wish I knew what was making her do this. It seems to happen at least once a week. At least this time she was not wining. She was just up, talking and moving around.

Another great weekend

Saturday morning we walked down to the local park and played for a little while. Nice change of scenery.

Kaitlyn loves climbing up the the tallest slide all by herself then sliding down it. She did that about 20 times in a row, then headed over to the stroller to climb in and out of it about 20 times, then back to the slide a couple more times before we left. The walk to the park is exhausting. I swear it is uphill the entire way there. BUT it sure is nice on the way home going downhill.

Sunday was cleaning day, I got another part of the cleaning done that I started on last weekend. Finished Pledging the wood furniture, vacuumed, and cleaned the stove top. After her nap Kaitlyn and I played in the back yard for quite a long time. It was not really warm enough for it but I ended up filling the water table up so she could play around with it.

All she wanted to do was drink the water and ended up soaking wet. But she did not complain so I let her tromp around soaking wet till about 4pm when we went inside.

We were outside so long I was able to get a small amount of gardening done too.
Overall it was a great weekend if you remove the bouts of crying for 15 to 20 minuets strait over nothing in particular.