My Little Monkey

Today, Colin and I went to visit Nanny at Walmart and scored some marked-down baby food! Yay, Nanny! Then we drove over to see Grandma at work too. We took Colin out on the grass outside FDLE, where it is all nice and soft, and Colin got to walk around for the first time barefoot in grass. It was so funny to see him lifting up his feet, not wanting his toes to touch it because it felt so funny! He got comfortable pretty quickly though and had his Grandma walking him all over the grassy area. I really think we are going to need to get a fence out back soon because this boy LOVES playing outside. Some kids point to the TV to entertain them or to toys, but never Colin, he always points to the door. I love that.

Colin also LOVES bananas. I am attaching some pictures of Colin eating a banana for breakfast. He was making his monkey face while chowing down and I thought he looked so funny! Ha. Enjoy!

Colin's Night Out

Last night was Colin's first time spending the night away from home without Mommy and Daddy. He spent the night at Grandma's house so that Keith and I could have a relaxing night. I had book club and Keith was looking forward to a night of video games and then hanging out with me later. I never thought that I'd be the kind of mom that would get all emotional and protective when my baby was away from me, but it was really really hard to let him go. When Keith first put him in my mom's car, he was happy and laughing at Keith, who was playing peek-a-boo with him, but as the car pulled away, his face looked so confused, like he was wondering why we weren't in the car with him. I almost wanted to stop mom and take him out of the car!

But, I let him go and went to book club. I actually had a really nice time and was happy when mom called me before she was going to put Colin to bed. I got to tell him goodnight and could hear him babbling and breathing into the phone. When I got home from book club, Keith and I went and got some dinner at Cabo's and had a nice time eating out, just the two of us. It didn't really hit me how much I missed him until we got home and I went into Colin's room and he wasn't there. I kept asking Keith things like: What if he can't go to sleep? What if he wakes up and has a bad dream? What if he gets scared? I missed rocking him to sleep and kissing him goodnight.

I had a really hard time sleeping last night too. Not only because of Colin being gone, but also because last night was my first night without having any pain medication from my back, which I had been on for nearly two months. I think I had developed a bit of an addiction. I was all jumpy and burning hot. I could not sleep all night.

I was so glad when I got to church and my mom pulled up. Colin was all smiles, and Grandma and Grandpa said that he had been such a good boy. In fact, he had slept so well that Grandpa had to go in and wake him up at 9:30 am. Wow! I guess Colin was more ready for sleepovers than Mommy!

No, You Calm Down!

I thought I'd just share a couple of pictures of Colin that I took when I was shopping with my friend,  Shannon. Yes, his shirt says,"No, You Calm Down!" What a boy! Hates shopping already.

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Haha. Ok, enough playing around. I've got tons of laundry to fold that is piling up on couches and tables and in baskets on the floor! If only I had a maid!  ;)

Rocking my baby

Yesterday and most of last night, I had two songs running through my head. One was "Lord Move, or Move Me" by FFH, and the other was "Nearer My God to Thee," an old hymn. I am still having such a struggle with contentment. I have a strong desire for change, sometimes in career, but mostly in location. I pray about it all the time, especially in reference moving and to Keith's job, that the Lord would open up some opportunity for him to work in ministry, but it seems like it is a pretty shut door at the moment. So I have been praying so much this week for God to draw near to me and to change my desires if they don't align with His.

Keith read a verse to me the other day. It was Colossians 3:23 "Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men," and he said that its possible that we have been looking at things the wrong way. He suggested that our desire to do "the Lord's work" and to be working in ministry somewhere, could actually be working for ourselves, our benefit, looking at our desires, instead of actually working for the Lord. It was a hard thing to hear, suggesting that I should look at the job and place I am at now as the place that God has put me to work at with all my heart and that He put me here, instead of at a ministry job, in order to please Him and accomplish His purpose. I suppose I really need an attitude check. Anyway, its hard.

So, last night, I rocked Colin to sleep. (Yes, I know, he is one year old and should be able to go down easily without being rocked, but I just enjoy it and there will be time for him to grow up and be a big boy later.) It is one of my favorite times to spend with him. He is usually calm and snuggly, and he is by no means a snuggly boy. I get to hold him, cuddle him, usually sing to him, and watch him fall asleep. I was doing this when suddenly it occured to me that this is a time I should also use to pray over him. I pray for him at other times, along with many other thinsg, but I thought this would be a perfect time to focus just on my little boy. So, I sang him some hymns (which I miss terribly) and prayed for him and his relationship with Jesus and his future life. It was a really sweet and special time with my son. I think every child needs time to be rocked and loved on by their parents. :)

Camping Is A No Go!

Colin got sick and threw up all over his bed, so I threw his bedding in the washing machine and him in the bathtub. I thought maybe it was just from his allergies and the amount of congestion he has had, so we packed up the car and started on the way to Disney. We only got 45 minutes down the road when he threw up again. So, being good parents, we turned the car around and came home.

I know it was the right decision, but man, it made me depressed not to be able to get out of town this weekend. I was really looking forward camping and relaxing. I was also excited about seeing Colin and Josiah enjoy Animal Kingdom.

Oh well, it must have been good that we came home because Colin, although snotty, seemed much better today. :)

Camping Weekend!

I am so excited that today is Friday and that my school week has come to an end. This weekend we are going camping at Fort Wilderness and going to Disney with Amber and Julian and Josiah. I am most excited about the camping part. I love camping and I really want Colin to grow up loving it too. I have the most wonderful memories of my parents taking my sisters, brother, and I camping all over the US. I loved making smores around the campfire and the smell of mom making breakfast in the morning.

I had a really busy week. Its funny because I had totally planned to just chill this week because the week before had been packed with family activity due to Keith's niece's wedding. Instead, I was busy every night with Glee parties, baseball games, and shopping. It was all fun, but I am so worn out. I am actually looking forward to four hours in the car just to chill.


Want to know a secret? Ok, here it is...I love traveling but I HATE packing. I can never decide what to take. I am always unhappy with my choices. Plus, I always forget something or am out of something and have to stop at a store to get it. I put off packing as long as I can. I wait till the last minute to shove things in a bag or suitcase. Its ridiculous.

Oh well, I am finally packed and relaxing on my couch watching How I Met Your Mother. I found it on OnDemand and really liked it. I never realized that it was that funny! :)

Hope everyone out there in blog land has a nice and relaxing weekend!

Poo Poo and Other Things

So, I think Monday was my first real indoctrination to mommy-dome. Keith had picked Colin and I up from work and, instead of going home, Colin and I had some errands to run and then were just going to hang out in the car until Keith got off work. We ran the errands with no problems and got quickly back to Keith's office. I took Colin out of his car seat and had him sitting on my lap, playing with the steering wheel and all the buttons, while we waited. He loves to pretend he is driving the car (don't worry, the car was off)!

All of a sudden, I notice that there is a wet feeling on my pants. Great, I think to myself, Colin has peed through his diaper and gotten me all wet. Nope, it wasn't pee at all, it was runny, stinky, brown poop! On top of that, I had no diaper bag with me, meaning, I had no diapers I could change him into, no change of clothes, nothing. I checked the clock and we only had about 15 minutes left to wait, so I decided that I could just deal with it, ignore the smell, and then change him quickly when we got home, but he would have to stand up until then because I didn't want any more stinky, smelly poopoo on my leg.

Does anyone know how hard it is to keep a one year old standing? Well, now I do! Colin almost refused to stand up, instead he was bouncing up and down on my legs, each time with a little squish squish and more wetness on my legs. I have never thought that I would be able to handle this sort of thing. Smells have always effected me and could literally have me gagging. Somehow, I don't know what gave me the strength, I was able to stand the poopy kid on my lap without throwing up. But, not for long. After a few successive squishes, I said forget it, I will chance getting the kid out of the car and re-injuring my back to run into Publix for some diapers and wipes. Although this is one of the grossest things I have ever had to endure, I am proud to say that I can stand having my son poop on me because I am a MOM! And I think I am a pretty darn good mom too!

On another note, last night was the return of Glee, one of my favorite TV shows of the moment. I was very excited for the first episode of the season and had a great time hanging out with Keith, Duncan, Ashley and Erin at our Glee Party! We stopped by Lucy & Leo's Cupcakery to survey their cupcakes. Erin, Ashley, and I are bakers and have gotten pretty close to professional in our cupcake skills and we had to see what the Cupcakery had to offer. You know, compare ours to theirs. We got a variety, so that we could be sure to make fair judgments. The flavors we purchased were: Chocolate Espresso, Red Velvet, Coconut, and Banana Peanut Butter. After taste testing, the red velvet was a general winner, but how can you go wrong with red velvet? The chocolate espresso also got a high rating with a good mixture of chocolate to coffee flavor, a light chocolaty icing, and a nice crunch of espresso bean. However, the coconut was disappointing. The cake was just vanilla with no coconut, pretty dry and crumbly, and little flavor. The icing was good, but again, just vanilla with some coconut sprinkled on top. I have to say that my coconut cupcakes seriously demolish theirs in taste tests. The banana peanut butter also received a less than excellent rating. While the peanut butter icing was good, the cake was again dry and did not have enough banana flavor. I totally think that Ashley, Erin and I could demolish the Cupcakery if we ever decided to open our own shop!

Then we went to Circa Sushi for some sushi and some Thai food. The wait service was very good and the waitress was very helpful, attentive, and sweet. The sushi was also good. Duncan and Ashley especially seemed to enjoy theirs. As far as the Thai food though, I've had better. The Pad Thai lacked that peanutty good flavor and was a bit heavy on the onions. It also felt extremely greasy. But, the pork dumplings were excellent and the spring rolls that Erin ordered looked really good too.

Tonight is baseball night and I am very excited about going to see FSU play Jacksonville and relaxing with a hot dog and a coke. I love baseball and the calm atmosphere. :)

Wednesday Blues

I am crabby today and don't feel like doing any school stuff. I assigned 5 detentions and took a cell phone in 2nd period alone. Now I should be grading and planning, but just don't feel like even being here. Do you ever have those days and then just sit at your desk and stare? Ugh. I think it is because I am so tired. I am still not sleeping well because my hip and back ache a bit at the end of the days.

Another reason I think I might feel crabby today is because I went to bed last night upset. Its the beginning of the month, which, of course, means it is also time to pay bills. Money stuff always gets me down. I dream of being independently wealthy and being able to spend long days at home taking care of my house and children. I dream being a perfect wife with time to cook and clean and make everything perfect for my husband, greeting him at the door in a cute dress in the evenings with dinner ready on the table. Instead, I work a 40 hour-a-week job and the house work is thrown to the side and dinner is rarely ready before 8 pm. We scrimp by on both of our pay checks and barely make ends meet getting everything paid.

In the back of my mind, I know I should be grateful to God for providing us good jobs, especially mine, which is close to home, has good hours (I get out at 2:45 pm every day) and that Colin's day care is right at my work. I know I should spend each day, and especially each pay period, thanking God for providing exactly what we need to make ends meet, that our needs and often our wants are continually taken care of. But, somehow, I keep finding that I am an ungrateful and selfish human. I want things that are out of my grasp and I get down and sometimes angry when I can touch those dreams. I guess I really need to pray more about being content.

I actually had my students write about this today. We are starting The Great Gatsby and I had my students journal about things that they desired, goals that they wanted to achieve, and things that they just plain wanted that were out of reach. They, surprisingly, didn't complain too much about writing this and had a lot to write. Most wrote over the half page minimum and most didn't want to share what they wrote. I was glad I picked something inspiring. Its not often that I can find things that really get 11th graders to want to write.

Well, I've been slowly writing this all day and it is now my second planning period and the end of the day. I suppose I should actually churn out some work before heading home.

Back to Work - The Final Stretch

Well, I am back to work after a nice week off for Spring Break. It was SOOO hard to get up this morning at 6 am, when I had just gotten used to getting up around 9:30 am. Spring Break is such a tease. It makes you think, "Wow! I made it through another year of teaching and it's finally summer! Wait, no...AARGH...its Sunday night and I have to go back to work the next day!" Horrible.

Other people get jealous of my spring break time off, people who aren't teachers, and I have heard many comments the past week about how nice it must be to have such a slack job with so much time off. I find these comments extrememly offensive! I think every working adult should have to spend one week at my job, teaching in a high school, feeling the pressure and stresses that teachers face, and then they will have a little hint towards understanding the need for breaks. Most people do not understand that teaching goes WAY beyond a 40 hour week job. Not only do we have to deal with all our "monsters" in the classroom, but we also have to continually be planning new and exciting and engaging and relevant ways to get our little monsters to learn our material, be learning and updating our teaching strategies and methods and classroom management skills, not to mention the grading. There is NO way that teachers can get all their grading done during a 40 hour work week, especially English teachers. We spend COUNTLESS hours slaving over papers, handouts, and projects to make sure that your children get fair grades, graduate high school, and become model citizens. I earn my spring break and summer every year. Just try to take them away. You'd have a massive uprising of teachers on your hands if you tried that little trick. Not to mention massive numbers of teachers having mental breakdowns from the stress and strain of this demanding job. I don't just earn it, deserve my spring break and summer.

Anyway, on to my day. I was really really really dreading it. I stayed in bed five minutes longer than I should have. I lingered in the shower. I played with Colin on the changing table just a few minutes more. But, eventually, I had to get in the car and come to school. AND, the biggest surprise was that I had a great day today. It was really nice being greeted by my students telling me that they missed me SO much and to never leave them with a sub again! (I'm sure that feeling will wear off!) It was nice to be asked how I was recovering from my surgery and to hear their concern. It was nice to talk with coworkers and to sit at my desk and plan. It was even nice to enjoy the sunshine during my lunch duty! I never ever thought that I would feel this way. I never thought that I'd enjoy being at work, so today was one of those nice exceptions and I had a fabulous first day back!

The only down side, of course there is a down side, is that I had to leave my sweet baby boy in daycare again today. I was worried about how he would do after being home with me for almost two whole weeks. I went and checked on him three times during the course of my day, but he was fine. He's a trooper and had fun playing, ate great, gave them two big diaper jobs to deal with, and even took two good naps! He never naps at school! Yay! Great day all around for both me and the boy!